BurmaNet News, March 9, 2004

Tue Mar 9 14:00:25 EST 2004

March 9, 2004 Issue # 2435

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar agrees to allow independent mediator on forced labor: ILO
Xinhua: Myanmar continues to remain free of bird flu

GUNS
Irrawaddy: Serbian Engineers Refurbishing Burma Airforce Planes
DVB: Burma army to buy old Chinese weapons
DVB: Ukrainian weapons arrive in Burma

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: FAO to upgrade Myanmar's dairy products

REGIONAL
The Star: HIV infecting women faster than men in some parts of Asia

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Activist group accuses EU of bolstering Myanmar dictatorship
Illawarra Mercury: Disadvantaged Women Under The Spotlight

OPINION / OTHER
Kao Wao: Violence mounts against Mon women in rural areas

STATEMENT
BCN: European Burma Network: “Dublin Recommendations” to the European Union
USCB: Statement by the President: International Women's Day

MEDIA RELEASE
Burma Campaign UK: EU bolstering Burmese regime

POSTING
RFA: Seeking burmese language stringer/reporter based on the West Coast of
the United States

INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

March 9, Agence France Presse
Myanmar agrees to allow independent mediator on forced labor: ILO

Myanmar has agreed to allow an independent mediator to assist victims of
forced labour after talks with the International Labour Organisation, an
official said Tuesday.

The breakthrough came after a four-day visit to Myanmar by the ILO
Director General's special advisor Francis Maupin which wrapped up Monday,
the organisation's Yangon-based spokesman Richard Horsey told AFP.

"The meeting with Prime Minister Khin Nyunt went very well," Horsey said.
"We got what we needed. He is committed to this and believes it is
important for the country."

"The talks could pave the way for an independent official to receive
complaints from forced labour victims and work to remedy them within
Myanmar's domestic legal system."

Horsey said the agreement was subject to final approval at the ILO's
general assembly to be held later this month.

If the initiative is approved the "facilitator" will hear complaints from
alleged victims of forced labour and work with Myanmar's judiciary to end
the practice, which is officially outlawed still reportedly widespread.

Horsey said forced labour was still a major concern in remote parts of
Myanmar, but that the military government had already acted on a number of
cases raised by the ILO.

"We go to them with cases such as two children, one 14 and one 15, who had
been drafted in to the army and something does get done," he said.

An initial round of talks on the issue held in Yangon early last year were
abandoned after a May 30 attack on pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's
entourage, which triggered a crackdown on her party.

Forced labour in Myanmar has long been a focus of the ILO and the issue
topped the agenda at the organisation's annual general assembly last yea
__________________________

March 9, Xinhua
Myanmar continues to remain free of bird flu

Myanmar continues to remain free of bird flu with chicken prices in Yangon
getting a sharp recovery from a dramatic drop for over two months which
resulted from fear over the influenza.

Especially the broiler chicken price has jumped up back by about 60
percent recently from 315 kyats (0.37 US dollar) to 515 kyats (0.61
dollar) per kilogram, the  Myanmar Times quoted the poultry market sources
as saying in this week's issue.

As part of its measures to help farmers recover from their business, the
government is providing loans to them, the report said.

According to the report, since the government formed an inspection
committee in January, it has checked about 8.5 million chickens at nearly
8,000 poultry farms across the country as part of its measures in
prevention against the possible outbreak of the bird flu.

Other measures include inspection of day-old chicken suppliers since
February to ensure that chickens on sale are healthy for public
consumption.

It is reported that there are 63 million chickens in Myanmar, of which 50
million are bred outdoor in rural areas.

GUNS
_____________________________________

March 9, Irrawaddy
Serbian Engineers Refurbishing Burma Airforce Planes - by Bruce Hawke

Around 30 Serbian engineers are currently in Burma upgrading the Burma
Airforce’s SOKO G-4 trainer/ground attack aircraft, according to a Serbian
source.

The Serbia & Montenegro Embassy in Rangoon claimed to be unaware of
Serbian aircraft engineers working in Burma, but did not specifically deny
that they were in the country, when The Irrawaddy contacted the mission’s
Charge d’Affaires by telephone on Tuesday.

Burma’s twelve Yugoslavian-built G-4s, powered by Rolls Royce Viper
turbojet engines, have been grounded since the mid- to late-1990s, due to
a shortage of spare parts.

Assuming that the refurbishment of the aircraft is in progress, it would
be a problematic exercise. British government sanctions prevent Rolls
Royce from exporting aircraft engine parts to Burma’s military and any
intermediary would be breaching contract in selling parts on to Rangoon.

According to Australian military scholar Andrew Selth, the Burma Airforce
ordered 20 SOKO G-4 Super Galeb trainer/ground attack craft from
Yugoslavia in 1990 in a barter deal involving timber.

Six were delivered in 1991. Another six planes arrived in 1992. The
aircraft saw service against the Karen National Union insurgent army and
other anti-Rangoon rebel groups on the Thai-Burma border. If used for
combat, the G-4 is normally armed with a 23mm canon. It also has four
underwing points for missiles or bombs.

The final eight aircraft ordered were never delivered due to the war in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. The SOKO G-4 was produced at a factory in Mostar, in
what is now Bosnia.

The Yugoslavian conflict was probably also responsible for the Burma
Airforce being unable to get parts for the planes, which caused them to be
grounded.

As a leading member of the defunct Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslavia has
historically had close diplomatic relations with Rangoon.

The most recent high-level contact between Burma and what is now Serbia &
Montenegro was in July 2000 when Burmese foreign minister Win Aung met
with his Serbian counterpart Zivadin Jovanovic in Belgrade.

Serbia maintains both an embassy and a Trade Promotion Office in Rangoon,
despite having closed its Bangkok embassy due to budget constraints.

According to Mr Selth, Burma’s first military purchase from Belgrade was
in the 1950s when it took delivery of four Y301 class river gunboats. It
later bought 25 Michao class river patrol craft in the 1960s.

In 1990, in addition to the G-4 aircraft order, Burma purchased three
PB-90m coastal patrol boats from Borodtechnika of Yugoslavia.
________________________

March 8, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma army to buy old Chinese weapons

A team of Chinese military weapon experts is reported to be attending the
Burma’s Revolution Day ceremony in Rangoon on 27 March.

Prior to the event, a team of Burmese defence staff is to be sent to
China. According to news from Burmese military circles, Burma army is
acquiring old Chinese weapons and military equipment as the People Army of
China is modernising and upgrading its weapons.

The military HQs in Rangoon has ordered the Northeast Military Command to
stop foreign tourists from visiting the area and place tight security
measures along the way where the weapons are to be transported from China.
__________________________

March 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Ukrainian weapons arrive in Burma

A Ukrainian flagship carrying weapons for Burma army arrived at Rangoon on
25 February, according to a port official who doesn’t want to be
identified.

The ship was eagerly awaited and welcomed by a team of officials headed by
the deputy – defence minister, General Aung Hlaing and director of air
defence forces, Colonel Aye Myint of the country’s junta, State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC).

Containers from the ships were then transferred and carried away by
approximately 20 unlit military trucks at 2am on the same day under the
supervision of the team.

According to U Htay Aung, an exiled Burmese army expert, most of the
latest arrivals are air defence weapons. Burma army has been buying
weapons from China, India and Ukraine and recently it bought a type of
anti-aircraft weapon system called 84 from Sweden.

BUSINESS / MONEY
_____________________________________

March 9, Xinhua
FAO to upgrade Myanmar's dairy products

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will provide
advanced technology to Myanmar to upgrade the country's dairy products,
official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

Under a new agreement signed between the FAO and the Myanmar Livestock
Breeding and Veterinary Department, the FAO will conduct a two-year
program of small-scale dairy technology transfer and training for Myanmar
producers which will be launched this year.

With a fund of 356,000 US dollars extended by the UN organization under
the technological cooperation program, it will provide Myanmar breeders
with such advanced techniques as the preservation of the quality of cattle
milk for long-term consumption and the manufacturing of value-added
milk-based products, the report said.

The program will introduce new lines of milk products as import-substitute
goods, the report added.

Meanwhile, the FAO will also provide Myanmar with technology for edible
oil production under another agreement reached with the Ministry of
Agriculture and Irrigation last September.

According to official statistics, Myanmar imports 160,000 US dollars of
milk products annually.

REGIONAL
_____________________________________

March 9, The Star Online
HIV infecting women faster than men in some parts of Asia

Women in some areas of Asia are catching HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
at a faster rate than men, a U.N. agency says.

Women are particularly vulnerable to HIV due to insufficient access to
prevention services, inability to get men to practice safer sex and a lack
of HIV prevention methods they can use on their own, said ESCAP, the U.N.
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

They also lack adequate knowledge about AIDS, ESCAP said in a news release.

ESCAP helped organize a meeting on Women and AIDS in Bangkok on Monday to
mark International Women's Day.

In the Mekong River region - southern China, plus the countries of
Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam - 30 percent of infected
adults are women, but the numbers are rising, said ESCAP.

In Thailand, one of the countries worst affected by AIDS, 6.9 times as
many men as woman were infected with HIV in 1990, UNAIDS official Adriana
Gomez-Saguez told The Associated Press.

This meant that only 12.7 percent of HIV infections were found among women.

But by last year, the ratio of male to female infections had narrowed to
1.8 to 1, meaning the percentage of Thais with HIV who were women had
risen to 35.7 percent.

Gomez-Saguez said UNAIDS projects the ratio to narrow further to 1.5 to 1
by 2005, meaning that 40 out of every 100 Thais infected with HIV would be
women.

"The velocity of the infections in women is increasing in all the
countries of the Mekong region, including China,'' she said.

Reliable information about woman's health is difficult to gather in the
area, she said, but was able to cite Vietnam as another example, where
women made up 22.7 percent of the HIV-infected population in 1992, and are
projected to account for 27.8 percent this year.

"Globally, women account for half of the 40 million people living with
HIV/AIDS,'' said ESCAP.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, 58 percent of those living with HIV were women as
of end 2003.''

ESCAP noted that one country in the greater Asia-Pacific area, Papua New
Guinea, has an equal number of women and men HIV victims. - AP

INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

March 9, Agence France Presse
Activist group accuses EU of bolstering Myanmar dictatorship

Democracy activists on Tuesday accused the European Union of helping prop
up Myanmar's junta and said that economic sanctions must be tightened if
they are to have an impact on the military state.

A report by the London-based Burma Campaign UK assailed Europe's common
position on Myanmar for having "failed to include measures that would
seriously threaten the Burmese military regime."

Rather than use its economic weight to promote democracy, "the EU has
provided much of the investment that has buttressed Burma's dictatorship,"
it said, using the country's former name.

The activist group said that although the bloc positioned itself as a key
opponent of the ruling junta, in recent years EU foreign direct investment
in Myanmar had actually risen.

Total FDI to Myanmar since 1989 -- the year after a mass democracy
uprising was crushed -- was put at 6.6 billion dollars, while the
country's total exports topped 2.98 billion dollars in 2002.

Despite sanctions imposed by the EU, including a tightening last year
following the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, trade and
investment continue to provide "significant resources" to the regime, it
said.

And it said Europe had failed to fully implement existing restrictions
including the freezing of junta-connected bank accounts.

"It is clear that 15 years of constructive engagement, whereby businesses
and governments cooperated with the regime in the hope that reform would
result, have been a failure," the report said.

Despite the claims, Asian nations have in recent years been far more
active in Myanmar than their European counterparts, with China, India,
South Korea, Japan and Thailand all signing up to sizeable investments.

The report recommended bans on all European firms and citizens from
investing in Myanmar, on the import of goods and services from government
or military-owned enterprises, and on international financial transfers.

The boosted sanctions would have a "minimal impact" on most Myanmar
citizens, it said, as the bulk of the population trade and work in the
informal economy or in subsistence agriculture.

Burma Campaign UK also urges tourists not to visit the country, and last
year along with the British government hounded cigarette giant British
American Tobacco (BAT) into finally pulling out of Myanmar over human
rights concerns.

The European Commission in Bangkok declined to comment on the charges, as
did the Dutch embassy which is representing Ireland, the current EU
president.

Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won 1990
elections in a landslide but has never been allowed to rule.
__________________________

March 9, Illawarra Mercury (Australia)
Disadvantaged Women Under The Spotlight

A Series of fundraising breakfasts marking International Women's Day are
being held in NSW this week to draw attention to the plight of
disadvantaged women.

The United Nations Development Fund for Women held a fundraising breakfast
in Sydney yesterday morning for women in South Pacific nations.

Sex-slave trafficking on the Thai-Burma border will be the focus of the
week's biggest event, the International Women's Development Agency (IWDA)
breakfast to be held on Saturday at the Sydney Town Hall.

Funds raised will go towards preventative education programs.

The IWDA will then lead a march from Town Hall to Hyde Park where author
Anne Summers will address a rally.  International Women's Day celebrations
in NSW have doubled in size since last year, with more than 100 events
being held across the state this week.

NSW Women's Minister Sandra Nori said the number of activities proved
women were keen to make sure they had a voice.

"From Bathurst to Broken Hill there are over 100 events being held," Ms
Nori said.

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on March 8 and honours
women's contributions and achievements.  It was conceived in 1908 as a way
of campaigning for women's rights, including the right to vote and better
working conditions and wages.

Women make up 50.22 per cent of the NSW population.

OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

March 8, Kao Wao
Violence mounts against Mon women in rural areas
A special presentation to mark International Women’s Day - by Taramon and
Cham Toik

As Amnesty International launches its worldwide campaign to mobilize both
men and women to counter violence against women around the world, the
suppression of women in war-torn Mon state continues.

The Mon Women’s Organization (USA), the Mon Women’s Organization of Canada
and the Thailand Burma Border-based Women and Child Rights Project have
issued a statement to mark Mon Women’s Day which falls on March 2nd  (12th
day of 12th Mon lunar calendar) in 2004.   The Mon Women’s Day was
specially chosen to honour the birth date of Mon Queen Mi Sao Bu (Shin Saw
Pu), the only woman to be queen in her own right in the history of Burma. 
She ruled Hongsawaddy kingdom in the 15th century A.D.  During her rule,
the glory of the Monland was peaceful and prosperous.

The exiled Mon women’s organizations have called on the international
community to urge the Burmese regime to withdraw their military operations
in the ethnic regions of the country and all forms of human rights
violations, especially rape which is being used as a weapon of war against
the ethnic nationalities of Burma.

Like other offensives in Karen and Shan states, the Burma Army has added
rape to its arsenal of weapons against civilians in the rural Ye area. 
Amnesty International has reported that violence against women during
armed conflicts has reached epidemic proportions.  In the war-torn area of
southern Ye women have become the primary targets of armed combatants and
gang rape has been systematic and brutal.

During military offensive which started in mid December 2003, many women
have been sexually abused and raped.  According to refugees who recently
fled to the Thai Burma border, Mi Choma (age 19), daughter of Nai Kmao
Done and Mi Pu from Mi Tawhlar village, was raped by soldiers of Battalion
No. 28 while she was in custody at a detention center near her village.

Another girl Mi Aye (age 20) from Kaw Hlaing village was also raped by
soldiers of IB No. 586 after the girl and her father were arrested and
accused of having contact with the Mon guerrilla group.

Mi San Myint, a woman from Krane Kanya village, said women from six
villages were hand-picked for their good looks and forced to participate
in a beauty pageant at a military base where some were later raped.
Eighteen women who were forced to join in the show at the Army camp had to
join in a karaoke contest attended by military officials and village
headmen were obliged by the military to provide prizes to the
entertainers.

A village headman who fled to the border said the women were sexually
harassed and abused by the Burma Army. “After the party was finished and
villagers and some of the women had left, the prettiest women chosen by
the officers had to stay behind and were sexually abused,” said Nai Cuu,
the village headman from Krein KaNyar who fled to the border.  Nai Cuu
said the women were forced to drink Black Label whiskey mixed with Star
Cola juice even though they normally do not consume alcohol; the soldiers
got them drunk to ready them for sexual abuse.

Ms Mi Kyi San, from Khaw Zar village, claimed that military officials
chose only the most attractive girls to sing for the karaoke party. They
were convinced to entertain the soldiers at an army camp.  Parents who
lied to officials that their daughters were not at home had to pay 25,000
kyats as the price of non-participation.  “The model show was held at the
military base because they wanted entertainment and later on these girls
were forced to have sex,” said San, who went to the border in hopes of
being able to migrate to Thailand.

One of the rape victims, Ms Mi Cho Myint, said that she was forced to take
off her clothes in front of military officials before she was raped.

Another young woman, Mi Yin Mon (not her real name), was wracked with
tears while she tried to speak to Kao Wao about sexual violence she had
endured. The attractive 18-year old from Krone Kanyar village was
reluctant to reveal what had happened to her, due to a cultural tradition
which inhibits women from speaking about such things. But her uncle, Nai
Gong Sakar, said she had been raped while soldiers were quartered at her
home.

Virginity is highly valued by the community and women feel embarrassed
when obliged to talk about sex.  Even though there are cases of rape,
local reporters are unable to do interviews about them due to the
tradition that such sexual matters are not on the public agenda. 
According to custom, men avoid marriage with a woman who is known to have
been raped.

Another girl, Ms Mi Htay Win, was also reluctant to tell about how she had
been raped. Her mother allowed her to migrate to Thailand in order to shut
out any gossip about the sexual abuse that her daughter had experienced.

During military operations, soldiers from the Burma Army usually stay at
the homes of villagers, often using such hospitality providers to serve as
human shields in order to avoid ambush by Mon guerrillas.  Villagers have
little choice when obliged by the Army to billet the military in their
homes.  In the so-called black areas, lives-stock belonging to the
villagers is taken and their daughters are sexually abused.

“The women in this area are very pretty but their life is miserable. 
Violence against women is used to dehumanize them or to persecute their
community.  Even Mon politicians and community leaders do not want get
involved with taking action on cases of sexual violence and choose to
ignore them,” said Mi Kun Sorn, a woman activist at the Thai Burma border.

However, a spokesperson from the New Mon State Party that has had a
cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military since 1995, said the NMSP
finds it difficult to gather evidence on violence against women while
seeking to document cases of torture and murder in which the Burma Army
has been involved.

The border-based Human Rights Foundation of Monland also faces
difficulties in documenting rape cases because the victims themselves want
to avoid talking about sexual issues. “Even women in this area don’t want
their stories publicized,” said Ms Khamom Htaw from the Women and
Children’s Rights Project.

Women also suffer more because their husbands and parents have been killed
or tortured by the Army.  During the recent offensives in southern Ye,
over ten people were killed including 26-year Nai Ablai, the secretary of
Waeng-Ta-mok village. “I really feel sorry for Ablai’s wife who had a
young boy to look after,” said Ms. Mya, a woman from the same village, who
fled to the border area.

Women’s issues were raised during a meeting of politicians and
nationalists on Mon National Day in Ye township.  A source in Mon State
reported that Mon community members and Buddhist monks have discussed how
to protect villagers and Mon women in particular.  But women activists
doubt their leaders will take effective action.   The Mon Women’s
Organization in Mon State is quite strong and very active in matters
concerning politics, health, education and community development in the
Mon community.  But women have not yet been elected to political
leadership roles in the mainstream Mon political party. That challenge is
still ahead for women in rural areas.

Kao Wao News Group, Email: kaowao at hotmail.com, kaowao at shaw.ca,
http://www.kaowao.org
_________________________

STATEMENT

March 8, Burma Centrum Nederland
European Burma Network: “Dublin Recommendations” to the European Union

Participants in the meeting of the European Burma Network (EBN) which took
place in Dublin (Ireland) on 6th March 2004, representing Burma support
groups from Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany,
France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, examined various issues concerning
European policy towards Burma, in particular the European Union’s Common
Position on Burma (CPB), which formally comes up for renewal in April
2004.

Participants agreed to promote with the EU, via their respective
Governments, Members of Parliament (MP’s) and Members of European
Parliament (MEP’s), the following objectives:

1.	The EU should urgently and formally include the following minimal
demands in its Common Position on Burma:

•	the SPDC must embark without further delay in a meaningful political
dialogue under conditions acceptable to all parties concerned, including
the National League for Democracy (NLD) and representatives of the ethnic
nationalities;

•	as a sign of goodwill,  the SPDC should immediately release from
detention Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the Executive Committees of
all political parties.

2.	The above demands should be tied to a specific timeframe, with clear
indicators of measurable progress.

3.	This timeframe should itself be tied to the calendar of meetings of
bodies or organizations in which the EU as a whole, or EU member states in
their individual capacity, meet their Asian counterparts, including
EU-ASEAN meetings and the ASEM.

4.	Particular attention to the above demands should be paid by EU member
states taking part in the so-called Bangkok Process, the second meeting of
which is tentatively scheduled to take place in June 2004.

5.	The EU should formally announce, as part of its Common Policy, that
failure by the SPDC to deliver tangible results on the demands above by
June 2004 would lead the Council of Ministers to automatically enact the
following measures in the Common Policy:

•	a comprehensive ban on investing in Burma by all European companies and
citizens;

•	a ban on the import into the EU of goods and services provided by
entities owned and/or operated by the Burmese military, military personnel
and/or their relatives;

•	a ban on the import into the EU of strategically important goods that
are a monopoly of the Burmese state, such as timber and gems;

•	a ban on international financial transfers and transactions to or from
Burma by citizens, official entities or companies from the EU;

•	a call by the EU on its Member States having seats on the UN Security
Council to place the situation in Burma on the Council’s agenda.

6. 	The Participants in the Dublin EBN meeting also call on their
respective governments to press the EU to adopt the same approach in all
international bodies where EU member states act in a coordinated fashion,
including the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Economic and Social
Council (ECOSOC), the General Assembly, and any other relevant bodies.

The National Coalition Government of Burma (NCGUB), the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and the Euro-Burma Office also
took part in the Dublin meeting and associate themselves with the present
Statement.

Dublin, 6th March 2004.
The European Burma Network:
Burma Campaign - Austria, Action Birmanie, Belgium, KWIA Birma Grup,
Belgium, Peace Brigades International, Belgium Christian Solidarity
Worldwide - Europe, Belgium, Danish Burma Committee, Finnish Burma
Committee, Fin-Mon Association, Finland, France Libertes Foundation,
Info-Birmanie, France, Burma Bureau, Germany, Committee for the
Restoration of Democracy in Burma, Germany, Burma Initiative - Asienhaus,
Germany, Society for the Protection of Threatened Peoples, Germany, Burma
Action - Ireland, Assistenza Birmania, Italy, CISL, Italy, Burma Center
Netherlands (BCN), Norwegian Burma Committee, Politicians for Democracy in
Burma Network, Norway, KNU Europe, Portugal, Association Suisse-Birmanie,
Burma Peace Foundation, Switzerland, Swedish Burma Committee, Birmania
Libre, Spain, Burma Campaign UK, 	Christian Solidarity Worldwide - UK,
Karen Action Group, UK.
_________________________

March 9, US Campaign for Burma
Statement by the President: International Women's Day

Today, in observance of International Women's Day, the United States
reaffirms the principle that freedom is the right of every woman and man,
and the future of every nation. The United States continues to work to
advance and support the dignity of all people, regardless of gender, race,
religion, or ethnic origin.

The best guarantor of the rights of women is freedom and democracy. Free
societies allow for free elections, free markets, free press, and free
labor unions. They guarantee religious liberty, protect property rights,
and educate their people. They protect their freedoms with the consistent
and impartial rule of law.

Over the past two years, the advent of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan
has freed millions of people from brutal tyranny. We celebrate that they
are now assuming the basic human rights too long denied them. Much remains
to be done to consolidate and protect these new rights, but the United
States and our international partners are determined to continue this
progress.

On this day, women like Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest
for her efforts to bring democracy to Burma, and Shirin Ebadi, who has
spent a lifetime championing human rights, receive recognition. The United
States pledges to promote democracy and human rights around the globe, and
to help those who struggle to see the same light of liberty now dawning on
the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040308-19.html
_________________________

MEDIA RELEASE

March 8, Burma Campaign UK
EU bolstering Burmese regime

A new report - The European Union and Burma: The Case for Targeted
Sanctions - published today by a coalition of European Burma groups, finds
that rather than using its economic muscle to promote democracy in Burma,
EU trade and investment is in fact playing a key role in
bolstering the regime.

As EU governments negotiate what action to take against the Burmese regime
in advance of a meeting of foreign ministers in April, the report finds
the EU has the ability to put significant pressure on the regime to
reform. Further, it finds it could do so without a significant impact on
the majority of ordinary Burmese people.

The report - endorsed by a coalition of Burma democracy groups across
Europe - also dispels the myth that trade and investment from Asian
neighbours would render EU sanctions ineffective. Britain ranks as the
second largest investor in Burma in the past decade, with $1.4 billion of
approved investment.  This compares to just $64 million by neighbouring
China, which is ranked 15th.

In a forward to the report Archbishop Desmond Tutu says: "In South Africa
when we called for international action, we were often scorned,
disregarded, or disappointed. To dismantle apartheid took not only
commitment faith and hard work, but also intense international pressure
and sanctions.

"In Burma, the regime has ravaged the country and the people to fund its
illegal rule.  Governments and international institutions must move past
symbolic gestures and cut the lifelines to Burma's military regime through
well-implemented sanctions."

Describing current EU sanctions - which are not even being fully
implemented - as symbolic and ineffective, the report calls on the EU to
immediately ban new investment in Burma, and to ban imports of gems and
timber, which are important sources of income for the regime.

John Jackson, Director of the Burma Campaign UK and one of the report's
authors, said "We have had fourteen years without a single democratic
reform in Burma. Atrocities continue every day. This can't be allowed to
continue. It is time for the EU to rethink its policy.

"The EU is seriously underestimating its own influence to bring change to
Burma. At the same time they are undermining attempts by the United States
to put real pressure on Burma's dictators.

"Ultimately the victims of this negligent policy are the people of Burma,
who are left to suffer under one of the most brutal dictatorships in the
world."

THE REPORT'S KEY FINDINGS INCLUDE:

 The EU's economic relationship with Burma is much larger than commonly
realised, with EU investment dwarfing that of neighbouring China.

 None of the current EU sanctions have had any significant impact on the
regime - for example the asset freeze has led to just £57 being frozen. EU
inaction is undermining US sanctions.

 An analysis of the Burmese economy reveals that the majority of Burmese
people work in the informal sector, and that the regime's support base is
an elite in the formal sector that relies on foreign trade and investment,
making them vulnerable to pressure.

 Military spending and foreign investment are closely linked.  In the
same week the regime received its first payment for gas due to be piped to
Thailand from gas fields operated by Total and UNOCAL, it made a $130m
down-payment on 10 MIG-29 jet fighters.

For more information and an advance copy of the report, contact Mark
Farmaner, Media Officer on 020 7324 4713, John Jackson, Director of the
Burma Campaign UK, on 020 7324 4712.

E-mail mark.farmaner at burmacampaign.org.uk , www.burmacampaign.org.uk

To join our campaign network and receive the latest updates and campaign
news from the Burma Campaign UK, send a blank e-mail to
burmacampaign-subscribe at topica.com
_________________________

POSTING

March 8, RFA
Burmese language stringer/reporter based on the West Coast of the United
States

The Burmese Service of Radio Free Asia is seeking to contract a
stringer/reporter based on the west coast of the United States,
(preferably in and around Los Angeles or San Francisco areas) to report
and send news feeds relating to the activities of the Burmese community in
that area.  Candidates must speak and write Burmese fluently.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or a post high school diploma from an accredited college
or university and/or equivalent experience in broadcasting and/or
journalism. All candidates must be eligible to work in the United States
and provide proof of eligibility.

A good working knowledge of the English language is a requirement. Must be
able to start work immediately. This is a contract position. No relocation
is available. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for
contractual agreement without regard to race, creed, color, sex or
national origin.

Please send letter of interest and resume to: The Burmese Service, Radio
Free Asia, P.O. Box 57023, Washington DC 20036 or fax to 202 721 7401 by
March 18, 2003, 5:30pm EST.

RFA is an equal opportunity employer committed to workforce diversity.