BurmaNet News: Sept 25, 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

Sept 25, 2002 Issue # 2334

INSIDE BURMA
BBC: Burma warned over Suu Kyi
Reuters: Myanmar's Suu Kyi to Leave Hospital Soon
Taipei Times: Annan sends envoy to seek Suu Kyi's immediate release

DRUGS
AFP: Mekong-region countries warn of rapid spread of new-generation drugs

REGIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Asia Times: Myanmar and stonewalled democracy
Mizzima: Amid Pressure, Suu Kyi's Operation May be Way Out for Junta

OPINION/OTHER
HRW: Burmese Protesters Should Be Released
Irrawaddy: The Junta’s Colorful Apologist



__________________ INSIDE BURMA ___________________

BBC, Sept 25
Burma warned over Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in detention since May
An Indonesian envoy to Burma has called the detention of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi "increasingly counterproductive".  Ali Alatas said
the ruling military junta had given him no indication of when the
pro-democracy leader would be freed, which could affect next month's
regional summit in Bali.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since 30 May, following violent clashes
between her supporters and a government-backed mob. She is currently
recuperating from an operation at a private hospital in the Burmese
capital Rangoon.

Despite international outrage and Western sanctions, Burma has still not
announced any definite plans for her release.

Mr Alatas, a former Indonesian foreign minister, said that although he had
hoped to meet Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit, he was prevented because
of "the circumstances concerning her health".

The 58-year-old opposition leader's condition remains difficult to verify,
but her personal doctor Tin Myo Win said on Tuesday that she was making a
rapid recovery.

Asean summit: During his four-day trip, Mr Alatas met Burma's top leader,
General Than Shwe, and the new prime minister General Khin Nyunt.

He gave them letters conveying Indonesian concerns over Aung San Suu Kyi's
continued detention.

Indonesia holds the rotating presidency of Asean (the 10-nation
Association of Southeast Asian Nations), which includes Burma.

As host to the forthcoming Asean summit beginning on 7 October, Indonesia
is anxious that Aung San Suu Kyi's detention does not dominate the agenda.

"We would like to believe that it is in the interest of Asean and (Burma)
that no extraneous issue such as the problem of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would
mar the deliberations of Asean," Mr Alatas said.

Asean called for the early release of Aung San Suu Kyi after its June
meeting in Phnom Penh, in a move that was seen as a departure from the
group's long-standing policy of non-interference in members' internal
affairs.

Asean groups Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam


Agence France Presse: Sept 25
Thai FM to spend day in Myanmar in talks with junta PM

Bangkok: Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai left Thursday for a
day of talks in Myanmar with the junta's prime minister over the country's
shift to democracy, a ministry spokesman said.

The trip comes a day after the departure of Indonesian envoy Ali Alatas,
who spent two days in Myanmar urging the release of detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi but failed to elicit any timeframe.

"The minister will hold a meeting with Prime Minister Khin Nyunt to ask
him about the progress of Thailand's proposed and Myanmar's own roadmap
(to democracy)," Sihasak Phuangketkeow told AFP.

Surakiart was also to pass on what Thailand could do to help smooth the
way towards national reconciliation.

Intense international pressure for a shift to democracy has accompanied
criticism over Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention. Khin Nyunt
responded last month with a seven-point "roadmap" for change including
free and fair elections, just days after Thailand presented its own plan
to Myanmar's Foreign Minister Win Aung in a bid to reduce the pressure on
its neighbour.

Surakiart's trip has been kept secret until now to keep pressure off
Myanmar, he added.

"We did not publicly announce this trip because Thailand does not want to
put Myanmar in an awkward position," he said.

Both Indonesia and Thailand are members of the 10-nation Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has been criticised for admitting
Myanmar as a member in 1997.

The grouping is to convene a summit next month in Bali, with hosts
Indonesia concerned it will be hijacked by discussions over the detention
of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was taken into custody nearly four months ago.
______________________________

Sept 25
Reuters: Myanmar's Suu Kyi to Leave Hospital Soon - Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will be
discharged from hospital in "a day or two," her doctor said on Thursday,
but it was unclear if she would go back into detention, to house arrest or
freedom.


Nor was it clear whether stepped up pressure from neighbors on Myanmar
military rulers to end Suu Kyi's nearly four-month isolation would have
any impact. A Thai envoy talked to them on Thursday, a day after an
Indonesian left empty-handed.

"I cannot definitely say the date she will be discharged, but it will be
in a day or two," Doctor Tin Myo Win told reporters at the private Yangon
hospital where Suu Kyi is recuperating after major surgery for
gynecological problems last week.

Asked where she would be taken to convalesce, Tin Myo Win said: "It's the
concern of the authorities, but I have told them I need to be in touch
with her for another one or two months and the authorities have agreed to
it."

There has been speculation the operation opens up a face-saving way for
the generals to allow Suu Kyi to return to her Yangon home to recover
under house arrest, as she has been for more than half of the last 14
years.

Thailand's foreign minister, who met top leader General Than Shwe and new
Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, was the second regional envoy to visit Yangon
ahead of an October 7-8 Southeast Asian summit that could be overshadowed
if she is still in detention.

ROAD MAP TO DEMOCRACY

Surakiart Sathirathai flew to Myanmar a day after Indonesian special envoy
Ali Alatas left without a promise from its military rulers to free the
58-year-old Nobel peace laureate.

Surakiart said he had discussed the generals' plans to move their country
toward democracy, which critics say is a military ruse to stay in power.

"The international community should support Myanmar's road map to
democratization," he said before returning to Bangkok.

There is concern next month's Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) summit could be embarrassed if the military kept the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize winner, whose plight has sparked international outrage and
Western sanctions, isolated.

The 10-member ASEAN, one of the few groups willing to have Myanmar as a
member, will meet on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Usually loathe to criticize the internal affairs of its members, the group
issued a sharp rebuke to Yangon after Suu Kyi was detained on May 30
following a bloody clash between her supporters and government backers.

SANCTIONS CALL

ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said on Wednesday the group's
credibility and image would take a knock if it did not express concern
over Myanmar's actions.

However, he did not expect a serious effort in Bali to expel Myanmar.

Exiled opposition groups are pressing ASEAN to take a tougher stand
similar to the stiffer sanctions imposed by the United States and European
Union (news - web sites) after Suu Kyi's arrest.

"They should know these generals are not easy to persuade. They should
stop investment and trade relations," said Zin Linn, spokesman for the
exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

Thailand, fearing an influx of economic refugees from Myanmar, opposes
sanctions and prefers a softer approach to its troublesome western
neighbor.

Bangkok said early this year key Western and Asian countries should meet
the Myanmar government to hammer out a road map for a democratic
transition in the former British colony, under some form of military rule
since 1962.

But Myanmar's leaders said home-grown solutions were best and Khin Nyunt
announced his own road map to democracy shortly after taking office last
month.
______________________________

Wednesday, Sep 24
Taipei Times: Annan sends envoy to seek Suu Kyi's immediate release
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending his top envoy to Myanmar at the
end of the month to discuss reviving the national reconciliation process.
The envoy is expected to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
seek her immediate release, a UN spokesman said.
Razali Ismail will travel to Myanmar from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, said Annan
spokesman Fred Eckhard.
His visit will take place as Suu Kyi, 58, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize, recuperates from what was described as a major three-hour
gynecological operation on Friday.
She was detained and held at an unknown location after a bloody
confrontation between her followers and supporters of the country's ruling
military junta on May 30 in northern Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a national election more
than a decade ago in Myanmar, also known as Burma, but the junta refused
to yield power.
Since 1990, Suu Kyi has been kept under various periods of house arrest.
Her latest detention halted reconciliation talks that she had begun with
the junta in October 2000.
Annan "remains concerned about the well-being of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
other NLD leaders and reiterates his call that they should be released
without further delay," Eckhard said. Daw is an honorific title.
Annan expects Razali to meet Suu Kyi, "find out her condition and work
with government officials towards her immediate and unconditional
release," the UN spokesman said.
The secretary-general also expects Razali "to discuss with Prime Minister
General Khin Nyunt and other government leaders ways in which to revive
the national reconciliation process, which came to a standstill after the
incident of May 30," Eckhard said.
Razali brokered the reconciliation talks and later secured Suu Kyi's
release in May last year from more than 18 months of house arrest.


______________________ DRUGS ________________________

Agence France Presse: Sept 25
Mekong-region countries warn of rapid spread of new-generation drugs -
DIDIER LAURAS

The governments of six Asian countries, including those from the region's
notorious drug-producing Golden Triangle, Thursday warned against the
rapid spread of new-generation drugs and called for greater cooperation to
fight their influence.

At a conference in the capital, the six Mekong sub-region nations adopted
the "Hanoi Resolution" under which they agreed to focus on curbing the
spread of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS).

Under the declaration, ministers from Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand and Vietnam vowed to "continue to devote special attention to
the... seriousness of illicit production, trafficking and consumption of
narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances especially ATS."

The nations "realize that the illicit drug situation in East Asia requires
immediate attention and calls for further strengthened joint, policy-level
efforts and result-oriented collaboration..."

The resolution, which comes a decade after regional leaders signed a
memorandum of understanding on the issue, was prepared at a two-day
seminar organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Talks focused on treatment for amphetamines addicts, the spread of
HIV/AIDS associated with intravenous drug use, as well as reducing opium
crops and countering drug-trafficking and drug-related crimes along the
Mekong river.

But regional cooperation appeared to be the key-word.

"Individual member states may have success when attention is focused
domestically, but this will be short-lived as long as all partner
countries do not make efforts in unison," said Sumru Noyan, director of
UNODC's division for operations.

"The partnership in East Asia is a pioneering effort in advancing a
far-reaching and lasting result towards the goal of a drug-free ASEAN and
China by 2015," he added.

Despite the declaration, "at practical field levels, lots of improvements
are still needed," a UN official told AFP. "But many parts of the
agreement actually focused on this aspect."

The nations also agreed on a three-year strategy to combat the drugs trade
which will cost about 216,000 US dollars, with UNODC providing about half
of the financing with the rest coming from participating countries.

South East Asia is home to the notorious Golden Triangle, one of the
world's most important suppliers of opium and heroin, made up of the
eastern part of Myanmar's Shan state and areas of northern Thailand and
northern Laos, bordering southwestern China.

A UNODC report released in June found opium cultivation in the region had
plummeted this year, falling 24 percent in Myanmar and 15 percent in Laos.

Experts however warned opium was not the only threat.

New products, notably psychotropic drugs and volatile substances, have
appeared to target different consumers and affect wider segments of
society, especially the young.

There has a been a drastic increase in the manufacture, trafficking and
abuse of ATS during the past six to seven years, the UNODC report said.

And while governments in the region have intensified policing, producers
and traffickers have developed new routes and production sites.

"About half of the world's population abusing ATS are in East and
Southeast Asia," Sumru Noyan said, adding that the largest seizures of
metamphetamines in recent years had taken place in Thailand and China.

Senior officials from the six countries will meet again in Thailand in 2004.


_____________ REGIONAL ______________

Mizzima: Sept 24
Amid Pressure, Suu Kyi's Operation May be Way Out for Junta- Larry Jagan

BANGKOK, Sep 24 (IPS) - International efforts are once again being stepped
up to secure the release of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
with Indonesia's special envoy Ali Alatas seeing her in Rangoon and U.N.
envoy on Burma Razali Ismail due to go there in a few days.

Alatas, former foreign minister of Indonesia, conveyed to Burma's top
generals the concerns of the Association of South-east Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the region's main diplomatic grouping, about Suu Kyi's continued
detention.  Indonesia is the ASEAN chair this year and host to the 9th
leaders' summit on Oct.7-8 in Bali island, where the Burma issue is
certain to come up.

Meantime, U.N. envoy Razali Ismail is to visit Rangoon on Sep. 30 and will
be trying once again to get the stalled dialogue process restarted.  After
handing over a letter of concern about Suu Kyi to Burmese officials and
meeting with top leader Gen Than Shwe, and Prime Minister Gen. Khin       
        Nyunt, Alatas told reporters in Rangoon that he was assured by
both leaders that ''they appreciate the content of the letter and they
would carefully consider the views and suggestions''.  Alatas did not meet
the opposition leader because of her recent gynaecological surgery, but
remains confident that Burma's military rulers do not intend to keep Suu
Kyi in detention indefinitely. He was not, however, given any time frame
for her release.

The detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is ''becoming increasingly
counterproductive," Alatas was quoted as saying on Wednesday.  The visits
by Alatas and Razali come at a time when ironically,
Suu Kyi's major operation in a private hospital in Rangoon may well
provide the generals with a way out of their predicament -- how to release
her without appearing to give in to external, especially western,
pressure.

"The operation went well and the patient is back to normal - physically,
mentally and spiritually," said Aung San Suu Kyi's physician Dr Tin Myo
Win, who attended the operation.  The opposition leader is still
recuperating in the hospital, but is expected to be discharged soon after
the final stitches are removed.

She has been incommunicado for nearly four months now, after she was taken
in under 'protective custody' following an attack by vigilantes suspected
to be with the Rangoon military government.  Earlier in September, Red
Cross representatives were allowed to see her and were able to dispel
fears that she was on hunger strike.  But the fact that Suu Kyi's medical
operation appears to have been successful will not lessen international
pressure on Rangoon to release her
immediately and unconditionally.

Diplomats in Rangoon believe the military regime will return the
opposition leader to her residence when she is discharged from hospital
and placed under house arrest. "The military authorities have a good
humanitarian reason to move her home now," said a Rangoon-based Asian
ambassador.  The operation has certainly given the generals an opportunity
to take a major face-saving measure that could help reduce pressure from
their Asian neighbours at least - especially at the ASEAN summit in Bali.

South-east Asian leaders are hoping to find a way of preventing the issue
of Aung San Suu Kyi's release and Burma's failure to introduce political
reform from dominating the summit.
"We are expecting a significant gesture from the regime in the next two
weeks leading up to the summit," a senior Bangkok-based diplomat who
regularly deals with Rangoon told IPS. "Placing her under house arrest and
resuming the constitutional process would reduce the ASEAN pressure on
Yangon (Rangoon), at least in the next few months."

"It is in the interest of ASEAN and (Burma) that no extraneous issue such
as the problem of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would mar the deliberations of
ASEAN," as Alatas himself said.   By moving Suu Kyi home, after Alatas'
visit to Rangoon, the generals would also give ASEAN some credit for quiet
diplomacy and avoid its move being linked to U.S. pressure or Razali's
visit to Rangoon.

But apart from seeing Suu Kyi released, foreign governments -- even ASEAN
-- will want to see some progress in the reconciliation process in the
near future.  The new prime minister, Gen Khin Nyunt, will have to prove
the government's sincerity about introducing political and economic reform
in the near future.

"General Khin Nyunt needs time to be able to press ahead with his plans
for change," said a Rangoon-based Asian diplomat. "He needs a honeymoon
period, free of overt pressure say three months or a hundred days."  He
has announced a seven-point road map to democracy that would involve
drawing up a new constitution and holding new elections. The government
set up a National Convention -- comprising more than 700 handpicked
representatives -- to draw up a new constitution more than 10 years ago.
The convention has not met since 1996 after Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the
National League for Democracy (NLD), walked out and accused the military  
             authorities of not allowing a free debate or discussion and
simply using it to rubberstamp decisions already made by the generals. Now
it seems the government is preparing to reconvene the National Convention.
A new steering committee has been named, partly because some of
the previous members had passed away, and assigned tasks.

Apart from several members who are attorneys or have a strong legal
background, many of the members are from military intelligence and close
to Khin Nyunt.  While they are likely to support the military intelligence
chief's views and accommodate Suu Kyi and her party, there remains
evidence that Rangoon is prepaying to bypass her anyway.

In the past few weeks, the regime has been organising pro-government
rallies supporting Khin Nyunt's road map to democracy. The United
Solidarity Development Association, a civilian organisation that the
military uses to mobilise support for government policy, has been
arranging these meetings.  In the past there was definitely a division
within the military top brass over how to deal with Aung San Suu Kyi, with
the intelligence chief favouring working with her. In recent weeks though,
there have been signs that these differences have disappeared.

"Khin Nyunt is pressing on with his plans and has decided he cannot deal
with the lady," said a source in Rangoon close to the intelligence chief.
___________________________________


Asia Times Online -Sep 24 2003
Myanmar and stonewalled democracy, By Richard S Ehrlich

BANGKOK - Many Myanmar nationals want US President George W Bush and the
United Nations to invade Myanmar with warplanes and troops to topple the
military regime, said Myanmar-based Ross Dunkley, the Australian chief
executive officer and managing editor of the government-censored Myanmar
Times.

"The business community is on the point of collapse" in Myanmar, prompting
desperation and despair after the US enforced economic sanctions to push
the junta into handing power to a democratically elected administration,
Dunkley said.

The Myanmar Times is the only English-language weekly allowed to be
published in Myanmar, known as Burma until the ruling junta officially
renamed the country in 1989.

Dunkley's life and work in the capital Yangon, also known as Rangoon, has
given him a unique, controversial perspective inside the repressive,
hermit nation.

"I live in Yangon and I catch a taxi to work every day. And I speak to a
lot of people randomly out on the street, and indiscriminately hear
opinions from people who don't know who I am and I don't know who they
are," the Australian publisher said.

"But one thing is pretty common. They all want George W Bush and the UN to
come into Myanmar with a whole lot of guns and airplanes and jets and to
solve the problem. They believe that's possible."

Dunkley made the remarks during a recent news conference and panel
discussion at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, billed as
"Prospects for Democracy in Burma".

Everyone on the panel agreed that the military regime in continental
Southeast Asia's geographically biggest nation was in terrible shape.

Dunkley said that despite strict laws against freedom of the press, he
taught his journalists and editors to perceive the real situation and
report news the best they can.

"I talk to them about ethics, about the law, about corruption and about
what a fucked-up government this is," the blunt Dunkley said, drawing a
burst of laughter from the audience of journalists, diplomats, business
people, activists and others.

Dunkley defended his joint venture that produced a newspaper bleached by
censorship and offering sanitized domestic and international news and
photos, and said it was better than no news at all.

He lashed out at a respected US-government-financed Myanmar intellectual,
Aung Zaw, who is based in Thailand as editor and director of The Irrawaddy
monthly magazine, which seeks an end to military rule in his homeland.
"I'm not in Chiang Mai [northern Thailand] like you, Aung Zaw, and I'm not
receiving US$250,000 a year from the US government," Dunkley said.

Aung Zaw, also on the panel, became livid at that remark and later
insisted Irrawaddy magazine was paid "only $100,000" last year from the
Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is funded
mostly by the US Congress through the State Department.

"We take the money," Aung Zaw replied. "They are not donors. They are a
funding agency, a financial institution who believe in what [we] do, who
believe in [our] values, who believe in [our] principles, who give [us]
money.

"It is all transparent and accountable. They believe [we] are pushing for
a free press, independent media. That's why they give [us] the money.
Nothing wrong with it," Aung Zaw said. "They never interfere. If they
interfere, I tell them, 'Get lost.' I would never allow them to come into
my office. I don't become a mouthpiece of anybody."

For the past 10 years, Irrawaddy magazine has been read by journalists,
scholars and others interested in politics, economics and culture in
Myanmar, which usually forbids independent investigation of events.

The military regime is responsible for some of the worst human-rights
violations in the world, according to London-based Amnesty International,
Washington-based Human Rights Watch, the US State Department and other
monitors.

Despite the frequently acrimonious tone to the debate, the remarks by the
Australian entrepreneur and the Myanmar intellectual provided a microcosm
of the optimism and difficulty faced by people grappling with Myanmar's
stonewall against democracy.

Critics of the latest US-led sanctions say Myanmar has already suffered a
closed economy for more than 40 years - because of its own xenophobic
"socialist" policies and various international boycotts.

Locking up Myanmar's businesses did not nudge the regime to embrace
democracy in the past, and does not appear to be successful now, they
said.

Sanctions also kept most Myanmar nationals too poor to challenge the
military, but modernization and investment could bring new ideas and
influences to help Myanmar evolve toward greater freedom, critics added.

The latest US sanctions made Myanmar's people "confused, worried and
completely disoriented", Dunkley said.

"Internally, there has been a run on the banks over the past six months,
which the international press has scarcely reported on, but which has had
a major impact on business," he said.

"There are no credit cards in the country anymore. There are no people
running loans or overdrafts. Financial instruments have gone out the
window.

"No one is really using the banking system anymore," Dunkley said. "Can
you imagine ... if you got your paycheck every week and couldn't put it
into the bank, couldn't use your credit card, you didn't know how to pay
your bills?"

Even the regime is being squeezed.

"The generals are hurting because the generals and their wives, who are
hoarding away hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars of FEC, Foreign
Exchange Certificates - which is so-called equivalent to $1 [each] - has
plunged to 40 percent or 50 percent of its value. They are in deep
trouble," he said.

"The business community is on the point of collapse. They are unable to
export anymore. And the government has put in rules and regulations that
you cannot import goods anymore.

"This is dragging the government down even further to the point where
something will crack," he predicted.

Dunkley said his four-year-old newspaper is read by 300,000 people each week.

"We have 49 percent foreign ownership and 51 percent Burmese ownership,
and no government money is in our organization.

"We employ 300 people and we support their families. And we sell
advertising on a commercial basis like everyone else and we don't make any
profit," the Australian added.

Dunkley said he received financial "support" from Japan's Sasakawa Peace
Foundation, a non-government organization, but did not elaborate.

"I wish that I was making a profit," Dunkley said. "I'm on the bones of my
ass.”



__________________ OPINION/OTHER ____________________

STATEMENTS

Human Rights Watch, Sept 24
Thailand: Burmese Protesters Should Be Released

(New York, September 25, 2003) -- The Thai government should immediately
release fifteen Burmese activists arrested on September 18 in front of the
Burmese embassy in Bangkok, Human Rights Watch said today.

Thai police arrested the dissidents, who are members of several Burmese
opposition groups, as they arrived at the embassy to stage a demonstration
marking the fifteenth anniversary of the 1988 coup that brought to power
Burma’s current military government, now known as the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC). The demonstrators were sent to Bangkok’s
Immigration Detention Center, where authorities are holding them on
immigration charges.

“Thai police arrested these demonstrators solely for attempting to express
their political opinions,” said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia
Division of Human Rights Watch. “Free speech is a universal human right
not reserved only for citizens.”

At least seven of the detainees have been registered as “persons of
concern” by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A
spokesperson for the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that those
holding UNHCR documents would be relocated to camps along the Thai-Burmese
border, while the rest would be deported.

The protestors had planned to call for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and other Burmese political prisoners. The SPDC has held Aung San Suu Kyi,
the Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD), in custody since May 30. She and other NLD leaders were
arrested after members of the Union Solidarity Development Association, an
organization created by the Burmese government, attacked them in Depayin
in northern Burma.

As many as two million Burmese citizens reside in Thailand. Approximately
125,000 live in camps near the Burmese border, but the rest are classified
by Thailand as “illegal immigrants.” Thailand has not signed the 1951
Refugee Convention, and has no legal process to determine whether
immigrants face a well-founded fear of persecution in Burma, which would
entitle them under international law to protection as refugees.

Many Burmese citizens in Thailand are members of ethnic groups that face
severe human rights violations in Burma. Human Rights Watch and other
organizations have reported widespread abuses by the military,
particularly in border areas where non-Burman ethnic groups predominate.
Villages are often destroyed, and the residents forced to relocate. The
army regularly requires villagers to provide unpaid labor, such as in
building roads or working as porters for soldiers. Residents of Burma’s
seven ethnic states face the constant threat of arbitrary detention,
torture, rape and murder by the military.

___________________________________

ONLINE COMMENTARY

September 25,
Irrawaddy: The Junta’s Colorful Apologist , By Aung Zaw

"Ross, you are distorting. Can you move away from microphone?" BBC
correspondent Christopher Gunness told the Myanmar Times editor in chief,
Ross Dunkley, while testing sound levels before an interview.

There was a strange irony in Gunness’ request. When Dunkley launched the
Myanmar Times in 2000, it was touted as Burma’s first truly independent
news source. But the weekly newspaper has always had a credibility
problem, with many seeing it as nothing more than mouthpiece of the junta.

Polished and colorful, the Myanmar Times is just another cog in Burma’s
propaganda machine. After the attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi’s convoy in Depayin, it’s easy to see where the Myanmar Times stands.
Dunkley’s paper has maintained the official junta line that the clash was
between Suu Kyi and anti-Suu Kyi groups. News organizations outside Burma,
however, have widely reported that the attack was orchestrated by junta
officials and perpetrated by hired thugs.

When the Myanmar Times covered Prime Minister Khin Nyunt’s inaugural
speech, it lauded his "road map" as a "turning point in Mynamar political
history."

Distorting? Indeed, Gunness’ advice was fittingly accurate for Dunkley.
Over the past few years, the Myanmar Times has obediently followed the
government line, complete with its inconsistencies.

In a recent front-page story, the Myanmar Times said Burma did not want
foreign nations to meddle in its affairs and called on Southeast Asian
nations to stick to their policy of non-interference. But on the same
page, Dunkley’s paper quoted a government official asking Western nations
to support the National Convention and road map. The newspaper’s stable of
writers includes some of the junta’s biggest supporters. This month the
newspaper ran an article, "Our Own Road Map to Democracy," which Myanmar
Times staff say was penned by a junta official.

"The Myanmar Times has misinformed people," said a journalist in Rangoon
who covers Burma for a wire service. "A lot of the news has been
misleading." In terms of quality, the newspaper is leagues ahead of the
regime’s Stalinist New Light of Myanmar. But most journalists covering
Burma now say the Myanmar Times is part of the problem in Burma, and not
part of the solution.
The weekly newspaper is carefully screened by two senior government
officials, namely Tin Win and Brig-Gen Thein Swe. Tin Win is Burma’s labor
minister and chairman of the Myanmar Information Committee. He also served
as ambassador to Washington and Bangkok, Burma’s two most important
strategic posts.

Thein Swe was a member of the Air Force and Military Intelligence and was
posted as a military attache in Bangkok. He is a friend of Dunkley’s and
was hand-picked by Gen Khin Nyunt to look after the Myanmar Times. His
son, Sonny Swe, is the newspaper’s publisher. Tin Win and Thein Swe make
sure the newspaper adheres to strict editorial guidelines and discard
stories deemed inappropriate for the public. According to Dunkley, up to
15 stories are rejected every week.
But Dunkley isn’t complaining. In fact, he talked about having a good life
in "Golden Myanmar" where the generals like him. It’s a peculiar marriage
of convenience.

A few years ago, Burma’s notoriously xenophobic regime realized it needed
a foreigner-friendly image. The Myanmar Times was the answer, and as
editor in chief and CEO, Dunkley was given significant resources and
freedom to get it up and running.  Heavy censorship and draconian press
laws leave local journalists with little room to report, but staffers on
the Myanmar Times have been given extra leeway. Inside the country, only
the Myanmar Times was allowed to report on sensitive political issues such
as the attack on Suu Kyi and her supporters, the heightened US sanctions
and last month’s reshuffle. Of course, the newspaper’s reportage followed
a pro-junta line and was closely scrutinized by Tin Win and Thein Swe.

Local journalists who don’t work for Dunkley have to be extra careful of
what they write. If they step out of line, a hefty punishment awaits.
Magazines can easily be shut down, and publishing licenses—which have to
be renewed annually—are regularly revoked.

Along with Tin Win and Thein Shwe, another of the junta’s most important
media watchers is Col Hla Min, a military intelligence officer who also
acts as the government’s official spokesman. Over the past few years, Hla
Min has been dealing directly with Rangoon’s international press corps.
Some foreign journalists on good terms with Hla Min say he gives them
"inside" information. But the trouble is, what the reporters get is
information screened and disseminated by the intelligence faction. Hla Min
feeds journalists the kind of scoops that lead to stories about future
"political development" and "secret dialogue with Suu Kyi" and paint Gen
Khin Nyunt as one of the government’s more moderate leaders. Burma is not
journalist-friendly. It’s difficult for foreign reporters to get entry
visas and in order to stay off the blacklist, some foreign journalists are
pragmatic and report exactly what Hla Min tells them.

The junta does have a handful of foreign media friends. Roger Mitton, of
the now-defunct Asiaweek magazine, and former Asia Times writer Stephen
Brookes are two names in the regime’s good books. But now Australian-born
Dunkley is the military’s favorite newsman. And it’s a role he is assured
of for as long as he continues to echo the official line, as he did last
Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

In his speech to an audience full of journalists, activists and diplomats,
Dunkley was brimming with optimism. He spoke of the recent cabinet
reshuffle and Khin Nyunt’s road map as steps in the right direction. He
called for sanctions to be lifted and for foreign aid to be reinstated.
He urged Burma observers to give the new Prime Minister a 100-day
"honeymoon period." Perhaps Dunkley, like the journalists who listen to
Hla Min, is doing public relations for Khin Nyunt’s intelligence faction.

Last Thursday, Dunkley told this correspondent how Khin Nyunt and the
junta’s number two, Maung Aye, were conspiring to oust military leader
Than Shwe. "They want to remove this bastard," Dunkley said. It’s gossip
that has been doing the rounds in Bangkok for some time, but now the
Australian editor is also spreading the rumor.  The question is who is
behind the new spin campaign. Is it Dunkley’s partner, Thein Shwe? The
Burmese government may have problems managing the country’s economy, but
the junta and the intelligence faction have proved themselves deft at
managing the news.
The Myanmar Times CEO did complain about business troubles in Burma. With
fresh sanctions and the banking crisis, Dunkley’s advertising revenue is
fast disappearing. The newspaper has a high cover price, too high for most
people in the country, and he admitted his paper has been unable to turn
over a profit.  Despite ongoing jeers and being dubbed a "disgraced
journalist" by members of the audience, Dunkley continued to call for
patience and understanding on Burma.

Gunness was absolutely right, Dunkley is distorting.

Aung Zaw was a panelist alongside Ross Dunkley at the Foreign
Correspondents Club in Bangkok last week. Before the session began, Aung
Zaw and Dunkley were interviewed by the BBC World Service’s East Asia
Today program.

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