BurmaNet News, March 11, 2004

[Editor]

March 11, 2004 Issue # 2437

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: NLD Women demand SPDC to release political prisoners
RFA: Two journalists released at the end of their sentences

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: KNU Base Attacked

BUSINESS / MONEY
The New Standard: Two U.S. Banks SWIFT to Skirt Burma Sanctions

REGIONAL
Narinjara: Burma will Accept its Citizens Jailed in Bangladesh
Shan: Dam on China's Salween goes for it

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Human rights in Myanmar deteriorate: UN expert
USCB: Powell suggests US to keep ban on Myanmar imports
AP: UNHCR gets permission to visit eastern Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
BBC Monitor: 2003 "One of bloodiest years" for journalists - International
Press Institute
Shan: He traverses the country in 34 days
Irrawaddy: See You in the Press Room



INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

March 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD Women demand SPDC to release political prisoners

More than 800 women members of Pegu Division National League for Democracy
(NLD) on 5 March sent a letter to General Khin Nyunt, the ‘Prime Minister’
of Burma’s military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners including Nobel
laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and those who were detained in connection
with 30 May Dipeyin assault.

According to the elected representative of Min Hla Township, Daw Hla Hla
Moe, the letter contains four demands including the immediate releases of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD Chairman U Aung Shwe, the Vice-Chairman U Tin Oo
and Secretary U Lwin, and those who were arrested in connection with
Dipeyin incident and the remaining political prisoners who are currently
detained in prisons throughout Burma.

The women also demanded the reopening of all NLD offices which were forced
to close down after Dipeyin incident. The letter was also sent to the
chairman of SPDC General Than Shwe and the women vow to continue their
demands peacefully with the people of Burma.
 ________________________

March 10, Reporters Sans Frontières
Two journalists released at the end of their sentences. Journalist Win Tin
will spend his 74th birthday at Insein prison

Two journalists and writers Kyaw San (pen name Cho Seint) and Aung Zin Min
have been released after seven years and three months in prison, both of
them in a very weakened state. They were due for release in December 2003,
but for unknown reasons served an extra three months.

Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières) and the Burma Media
Association (BMA) noted their release on 1 March but strongly regretted
that these two journalists had to serve their entire sentence for having
simply expressed their opinions.

The two organisations repeated their demand for the release of 13
journalists who are still behind bars, in particular Win Tin who will
spend his 74th birthday in prison on 12 March.

Despite his fragile state of health, the Burmese authorities have shown no
compassion towards Win Tin, journalist and member of the National League
for Democracy, who will spend his birthday at Insein Jail after already
spending 14 years in prison, the international press freedom organisations
said.

Five prisoners of opinion, including Kyaw San (Cho Seint) and Aung Zin
Min, were released on 1 March 2004, on the eve of the arrival in Burma of
the UN Secretary General¹s special envoy Ismail Razali.

The two journalists have been able to return to their families. Aung Zin
Min lives in Rangoon and Cho Seint has gone to his sister¹s home in
Taungoo, north of Rangoon.

Members of the military secret services (MIS) arrested both of them during
student demonstrations in 1996. They were sentenced to seven years in
prison under Article 5 (j) of the 1950 emergency law for having written in
support of the demonstrations in articles carried by opposition
publications

Kyaw San, a poet and journalist with the private cultural magazine
Style-thit (New Style), had been detained in the Tharrawaddy prison (100
kilometres in the north of Rangoon). During his questioning, which took
place during the beginning of the year 1997, Kyaw San was tortured. He was
beaten on the head and is partially deaf as a result of this. This period
of questioning, which lasted several weeks, weakened him physically and
psychologically. He is the grandson of Thakin Kotaw Hmime, one of the
fathers of independence with general Aung San. His family has been
deprived of resources since 1962 by the military junta. Since 1997, he has
received few outside visits and assistance. "Two visits in two years,"
according to one of former cellmate. He doesn't get the medicine he needs
to treat the diarrhoea and stomach problems he suffers from; his family is
very poor. According to one of his former cellmates, he never lost his
fighting spirit, and participated, in June 1998, in a hunger strike to
obtain more water and the opening of cell doors during the day. The
prisoners obtained their demands.

Aung Zin Min was a state employee (accountant) and a writer with
Style-thit magazine. Aung Zin Min had been transferred to Thayet prison in
2001. The military tribunal had accused Aung Zin Min of belonging to the
banned Burmese Communist Party. According to the journalist's family, he
was never a militant of this party, and "he hates communists".

The two organisations stressed that they oppose any lifting of political
or economic sanctions against the Burmese government until all political
prisoners are released and press censorship ends.

Vincent Brossel, Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières : asia at rsf.org, www.rsf.org


ON THE BORDER
_____________________________________

March 11, Irrawaddy
KNU Base Attacked - by Kyaw Zwa Moe

The Burma Army opened fire on a key ethnic Karen military stronghold along
the Thai-Burma border last night, said senior Karen officials today. The
two sides reached a tentative ceasefire agreement in January.

"They fired eight times with 81mm mortars on our military base between
8:00pm and 9:00pm last night," said Col Ner Dah Mya, commander of the 201
Battalion of the KNU. The 201 Battalion is a special force based at Vallay
Kee, about 30 miles south of Mywaddy, a Burmese border town.

Ner Dah Mya, son of the vice chairman of the KNU, Gen Bo Mya, confirmed
that nobody was injured and that the base was not damaged. He also added
that Karen troops did not return fire.

The KNU is conducting Burma’s longest-running ethnic insurgency, fighting
for autonomy from Rangoon for 55 years. Last December the KNU began
ceasefire negotiations with the junta. Meetings between Burma’s military
junta and Karen leaders are continuing in order to finalize a detailed
formal agreement.

Ner Dah Mya said that the pro-junta KNU splinter group, the Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army, or DKBA, is also preparing its troops to attack KNU
positions in its Seventh Brigade area, north of Myawaddy. However, this
report was denied by a member of the DKBA operating in the area when
contacted by The Irrawaddy by phone this morning.

Col Soe Soe, the KNU’s liaison officer, said that he had informed Lt-Col
Thein Han, the junta’s military intelligence officer, directly about the
incident. Thein Han responded by saying the junta would investigate the
attack and take action against the military officials concerned. The junta
has yet to officially report the attack.

The KNU also attacked a Burma Army outpost on February 23, hours before
negotiations were due to begin between the two sides in Moulmein, Mon
State. The attack destroyed an arsenal and injured three Burmese soldiers.

The general secretary said the talks would continue unless attacks were
made on other major KNU positions by the junta. The KNU has scheduled the
next round of talks on the peace process at the end of March, or early
April.


BUSINESS / MONEY
_____________________________________

March 8, The New Standard
Two U.S. Banks SWIFT to Skirt Burma Sanctions - Jeff Shaw

Burmese exile Aung Din fought for democracy in his home country, a nation
of 50 million that has been ruled for more than 15 years by a military
dictatorship. As vice chair of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions,
a group declared illegal by the junta, Din
helped organized democratic opposition -- until he was arrested on April
23, 1989. He spent four years in prison doing hard labor at the hands of
the regime.

To bring freedom to Burma and its people, Din and others believe, the
world community must isolate the military government diplomatically and
economically. But now, an international consortium of financial
institutions -- including two prominent American banks -- has begun doing
business with banks in Burma, contrary to the wishes of pro-democracy
activists and in possible defiance of a new US law.

The Belgium-based conglomerate SWIFT has offered four Burmese banks
membership in its comprehensive financial network, a move which observers
say will dramatically increase Burma's ability to trade internationally.
This action may be illegal under US law, activists contend, and will
certainly solidify the junta's hold on power. Foreign trade of this nature
offers the totalitarian regime an "economic lifeline," says Din, who left
his homeland in 1995 and is now policy director of the US Campaign for
Burma.

"We spent so much time and energy to get economic sanctions passed in the
United States," said Din. "This totally undermines our democratic forces,
undermines the US sanctions, and undermines pressure from the
international community."

The four Burmese banks joining the SWIFT network will be able to transfer
funds abroad quickly and efficiently with other members.  American
financial giants J.P. Morgan-Chase and Citigroup are SWIFT members and
representatives from the two banks serve on SWIFT's 25-member board of
directors.

Burma's military government -- which refers to itself as the State Peace
and Development Council, and has re-named the nation "Myanmar" – is
considered by international human rights groups to be among the most
repressive in the world. Among other abuses, the regime uses forced labor
and has killed and imprisoned pro-democracy organizers.

After years of work, activists for Burmese democracy successfully
pressured the US Congress into passing comprehensive sanctions on the
Burmese dictatorship last August. The economic isolation strategy has been
working, they say: According to the US Campaign for Burma, the bipartisan
American sanctions prevent the regime from earning about $450 million per
year.

The group estimates that more than half of this income would be used to
fund military buildup. By contrast, less than two percent of the junta's
income is allocated to social spending such as education and health care.

"They use all this money for weapons, but they don't care about the
welfare of the people," said Din. "Until the sanctions passed, generals
and their cronies got richer and richer, while the people got poorer and
poorer."

SWIFT is an industry-owned cooperative group that provides the technology
for financial messaging services. The four Burmese banks joining the SWIFT
network will be able to transfer funds abroad quickly and efficiently with
other members. American financial giants J.P. Morgan-Chase and Citigroup
are SWIFT members and representatives from the two banks serve on SWIFT's
25-member board of directors.

Admission of the four banks was approved in November, 2003, just months
after the US sanctions took effect in August. A bank needs two-thirds of
SWIFT's directors to join, but the vote breakdown is confidential. 
Neither Citigroup nor J.P.Morgan-Chase returned calls seeking comment
about how their representatives voted.

Since the SWIFT organization serves over 7,500 financial institutions in
200 countries, this promises to dramatically increase prospects for
foreign financial transactions -- and, say human rights activists, to help
Burma expeditiously transfer the country's undesirable kyat currency into
euros, an easier currency to trade in.

Reached by telephone, a SWIFT spokesperson in Belgium said that no Burmese
or European Union laws prohibit this type of arrangement.

"SWIFT respects the laws of the countries in which it operates, and there
are no applicable laws that prevent SWIFT from doing business with these
institutions," he said.

That's just another reason, says Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for
Burma, that the sanctions campaign "must become more international." 
While the United States has tough laws against doing business with Burma
in place, the EU as yet does not.

"We hope the EU will follow suit by passing similar [sanctions] measures,"
adds Din, "but so far, the EU has failed."

European organizers have also expressed outrage at SWIFT's action. Mark
Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK told the Observer newspaper that his group
is "shocked that such an important financial institution is doing secret
deals with one of the most brutal regimes in the world," and that the
campaign believes "any US directors of SWIFT are in breach of US law and
could be prosecuted."

Burma activists in America are more circumspect on the legality issue,
saying only that they've asked the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign
Assets Control to investigate. Even if the letter of the law hasn't been
violated, though, both Woodrum and Din say its spirit has "definitely"
been compromised.

SWIFT, according to the spokesman, is "a totally apolitical organization"
that deals only with financial institutions in countries, not the
countries themselves. "SWIFT is sensitive to the position of the various
groups that are expressing concerns, but there's nothing we can do at this
time," he said.

Still, activists with the US Campaign for Burma say, actions like this one
threaten the economic isolation called for by Burma's
democratically-elected government. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy, which the military junta has
steadfastly denied power despite a landslide victory in the country's last
elections in 1990, consistently urges international sanctions against the
junta as a means of nonviolently bringing about a change in governance.
Capital flowing into the regime's coffers merely solidifies its hold on
power, say observers like Woodrum and Din, undermining prospects for
change.

"We only ask that the international community stay away from the military
junta," Din said. "Then, when the military junta recognizes that they have
no friends ... they will come to the dialogue table."


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

March 11, Narinjara
Burma will Accept its Citizens Jailed in Bangladesh

The Burmese Ambassador to Bangladesh promised that Burma will accept those
Burmese citizens from Bangladesh's jails.

He made that promise to the local Buddhist people and the regional
authority as part of a speech at a Buddhist celebration in the tribal town
Bandarban of Chittagong Hill Tracks of  Bangladesh.

The speech was delivered on the 5th of March.  There are many Burmese
citizens inside the Bangladeshi prisons, and despite the fact that many
have served their sentence, they are still not accepted by the Burmese
government.

In the prison of Cox's Bazar, the district bordering Burma, there were 289
prisoners waiting to go back to Burma.  An agreement between the two
countries saw 72 people sent home to Burma on February 28th.

"It is too early to say anything about the fate of the rest", says a local
Bangladeshi official.

Such promise from the Burmese Ambassador is encouraging news for those
Burmese in the Bangladeshi prisons, says the Bangladeshi language
newspaper, The Daily Jugantor.

While the Ambassador was attending the last year ceremony in Bandarban,
the Burmese prisoners staged a hunger strike against the long stay that
they had to endure. Currently, there are about 300 Burmese prisoners in
Bandarban and about 500 in the rest of the Bangladesh.

Some Burmese nationals have served their sentences, but they were not
accepted back by the Burmese government, they have to stay in the prisons
for 5 to 10 more years.

A Burmese jailer said that Bangladeshi prisons have the worst conditions
in the world; because there are too many convicts.  Burmese citizens'
inability to speak Bengali and their religious differences make prison
life harder.

The Burmese Ambassador made his promise at the ceremony inaugurating four
bronze Buddha's from Burma as part of the Dabaung full moon day festival.
__________________________

March 11, Shan
Dam on China's Salween goes for it

According to a translated report from China News Service, the Liuku dam,
the first on the mainstream Nu, as the Salween is known in the Middle
kingdom, is going to be built in the first half of 2004.

The news had come right out of the National People's Congress being held
in Beijing.

Ou Zhi-ming, Governor of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, told CNS on 9
March the Nujiang was no longer a pristine river, because trees under the
altitude of 1,500 meters along the valley had been almost logged.

He defended the dam project saying those located above, 2,000 meters and
the core part above 2,500 meters would remain a "buffer zone."

"The existing mode of development in Nujiang is 'conservational
development'," he insisted. "The rate of forest cover in the core part of
the Three Parallel Rivers is now increasing. Over 90% of biological
diversity is now being preserved."

Plans for a cascade of 13 dams on the Nu have already been moved forward
under the direction of China Huadian Corporation, a wholly State-owned
enterprise and roads are already being built to enable the construction of
the Liuku dam to commence, reports Watershed, a publication by
Bangkok-based environmental group, TERRA, in its November 2003 - March
2004 issue.

Activists in Thailand and Burma have since December been calling on
Beijing to consult downstream countries before going ahead with its plan.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

March 11, Agence France Presse
Human rights in Myanmar deteriorate: UN expert

A UN expert warned Thursday that Myanmar's already troubled human rights
landscape had deteriorated in 2003 and urged the military junta to lift
restrictions on freedom and release all political prisoners.

In a report on Myanmar, which is due to be submitted to the annual meeting
of the UN Human Rights Commission beginning next week, Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro noted that he was still highlighting the same issues that were
raised when he was appointed in 2000.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar said the attack on pro-democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi's entourage on May 30, 2003, and the ensuing crackdown on
her National League for Democracy (NLD) party "have been a setback for
human rights in Myanmar".

Earlier progress "although encouraging, was not sufficient", he added.

"In order to reverse the regression, all those who have been in detention
or under house arrest since May 30, 2003 should be immediately and
unconditionally released," Pinheiro said in the report.

Freedom for Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders would allow them to participate
in the early stages of the transition process laid out by the military
rulers last year "and send a powerful signal that the SPDC (junta) is
genuinely serious about democratic transition," he added.

The NLD won a landslide 1990 election victory but was never allowed to rule.

Pinheiro indicated that he was more guarded than the rest of the
international community about the appointment of a new prime minister last
August and the junta's seven-point roadmap for change to civilian
government.

He said it "must be accompanied by real and tangible changes on the ground
towards a genuinely free, transparent and inclusive process, involving all
political parties, ethnic nationalities and elements of civil society".

"The most urgent and basic requirements today are the lifting of all
remaining restrictions on freedom of expression, movement, information,
assembly and association."

In the same vein, Pinheiro demanded "the repealing of the related
'security' legislation, and the opening ... of all political parties'
offices in the country".

The Brazilian official also warned that a combination of boosted
international sanctions in Myanmar and decades of "poor economic
management" were adding to the country's hardship and factory closures.

Women and girls, especially those who had left home villages to find work,
were "particularly vulnerable" to the risk of exploitation and falling
into smuggling networks, the report underlined.

The senior UN envoy for the country, Razali Ismail, revealed last week
that Suu Kyi was willing to work with Myanmar's prime minister, prompting
cautious optimism among foreign observers.

The International Labour Organisation said Tuesday that Myanmar had agreed
to allow an independent mediator to assist victims of forced labour,
thereby meeting one of Pinheiro's demands over the years.

His latest report was based on a fact-finding mission to Myanmar in
November 2003 and on information received up to mid-December.
_________________________

March 10, US Campaign for Burma
Powell suggests US to keep ban on Myanmar imports

(Reuters): U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested on Wednesday the
U.S. market would remain closed to imports from Myanmar, whose military
rulers
have detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for months.

"I have seen no improvement in the situation. Aung San Suu Kyi remains
unable to participate in public, political life in Burma and we will not
ignore that," Powell told lawmakers when asked if the U.S. sanctions
imposed last summer would stay.

"We will continue to apply pressure and you can be sure that I will be
looking at the sanctions issue very, very carefully with the same attitude
I looked at it last year," Powell added, saying Washington would keep
pressing for the freedom of Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Reflecting U.S. displeasure at continued military rule in Myanmar,
President George W. Bush on July 28 signed into law the Burmese Freedom
and Democracy Act barring imports from the country, which is also known by
its colonial name Burma.

Under the legislation, the import ban must be renewed each year and
expires after three years. The law requires the secretary of state to
report to Congress about the efficacy of the sanctions 90 days before
their renewal date in late July.

Myanmar has been ruled for more than four decades by the military, which
has repeatedly moved against Suu Kyi, holding her at an undisclosed
location from May to September last year and under house arrest since.

There were hints the standoff between the military and Suu Kyi's
opposition National League for Democracy may be ending when a U.N. envoy
who met both sides last week said Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was committed
to taking Myanmar to democracy and Suu Kyi was ready to work with him.

After a four-day visit to Yangon last week, U.N. envoy Razali Ismail also
said Suu Kyi and other NLD officials might be freed by April 16, Myanmar's
new year. He described that as an "informal deadline," but he did not say
where it had come from.


OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

March 11, BBC Monitor
2003 "One of bloodiest years" for journalists - International Press Institute

Text of press release by the Vienna-based International Press Institute on
10 March

Vienna, 10 March 2004: The International Press Institute's (IPI) World
Press Freedom Review 2003 highlights the extreme sacrifices made by
journalists reporting from the battlefront.

With 19 journalists killed in Iraq, 14 during the war, five in the
aftermath, and two missing presumed dead, 2003 was one of the bloodiest
years in recent times for war reporters. Whether reporting unilaterally or
embedded in military units, journalists paid a heavy price; many died as
the result of enemy fire, friendly fire, suicide attack, mistaken
identity, accident or sudden illness.

The experience reinforced the media's need to confront safety issues,
while inviting the military to review their terms of engagement, their
lines of communication with the media in wartime, and the way in which the
deaths of journalists are investigated. It is significant that a number of
deaths in Iraq might have been avoided if combat soldiers had been given
the same information as their superiors regarding the whereabouts of
journalists.

Away from Iraq, a further 45 journalists in 19 countries lost their lives
in 2003. The most dangerous region was Asia where 19 journalists were
murdered: seven of them in the Philippines and three each in Nepal and
India. Elsewhere, in Bangladesh, violent assaults were perpetrated against
the media and improvements in Sri Lanka were endangered by political
intrigue. Moreover, the countries of Burma, China and Vietnam still
imprison and arrest Internet users for promoting democracy.

In the Americas, where 17 journalists were killed, Colombia, with nine
deaths, remains the most consistently dangerous country in the world to
practise journalism. Four journalists were also killed in Brazil and the
country is representative of much of the region where death threats,
stringent libel laws and official harassment all play a role in
suppressing the media. Cuba also passed harsh jail sentences on 28
journalists trying to report freely, making it the country with the most
imprisoned journalists in the world.

There were four journalists' deaths in Europe, three of them in Russia,
with the other found dead under suspicious circumstances in the Ukraine.
Throughout the region there are continuing battles between the media and
government. In other European countries, such as Azerbaijan, Belarus and
Spain, the media suffer violence and harassment.

Two journalists were killed in Africa, both in Cote d'Ivoire where the war
that supposedly finished in July 2003 still exerts an influence. Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Swaziland, Togo and Zimbabwe continue to suppress their media.

In the Middle East, excluding the war in Iraq, two journalists were killed
in the Palestinian Territories and one died as the result of interrogation
in Iran.

Although quieter than the previous year, in the Australasian and Oceanic
region officials still verbally attack the media.

Containing 184 reports on countries and territories across the globe, the
IPI World Press Freedom Review is an examination of the state of press
freedom in 2003.

For further information contact the IPI Secretariat: Tel: ++43 1 512 90
11, Fax: ++43 1 512 90 14, or e-mail: ipi at freemedia.at.
_________________________

March 11, Shan
He traverses the country in 34 days

A Shan who broke jail after being imprisoned on false charges in order to
cover up the rape and subsequent killing of his teenage daughter recently
told S.H.A.N. he has walked 600-miles across the country before reaching
the Thai border.

Tienkeow, 42, a KhÜn Shan from the now deserted Ban May village, Mong Inn
Tract, Kengtung township, who was introduced to S.H.A.N. by admiring
fellow migrants at the Piangfah displaced persons community, opposite
Chiangrai province, said in simple language that he had walked most of the
way from Meikhtila in the south where he was serving his term to Mandalay
in the north and then back to the south and across southern Shan State to
Piangfah from 26 November - 29 December 2003. "It was only in Mongtoom
(about 20 miles from the border) that I was given a lift," he maintained.

The former son of Hsarmkham and O-tip and former husband of Nang Tip, 38,
revealed that he had formerly served in the Mong Tai Army of warlord Khun
Sa from 1985 - 1996, the year Khun Sa surrendered and he was allowed to go
home to his wife and family in Mongkok, now a sub-township of Monghsat,
opposite Chiangrai.

One day, he only remembered it was during the transplanting season in
2001, he was informed by an excited neighbor, Nang Oh, 48, that his
daughter Nang Hawm, 14, who had gone fishing with her, had been taken by 6
Burmese soldiers at the Kok river. "When I got to the river, she was
already dead, her naked body covered in blood," he recounted. "With the
help of the neighbors, we buried her the same evening. The next evening,
soldiers from the Infantry Battalion #244 came to my house and arrested me
on charges of collaboration with the Shan State Army. They took me to
their outpost and tried to extract a confession by beating and
electrocuting me for two days and nights. I told them I was already
demobilized, but they refused to accept it."

On the third day, he was driven to Kengtung, where he was locked up a
police station. "Every week, I was escorted to the township court, where
they kept forcing me to declare that I was a member of the SSA. After
doing that for a year, I was sentenced to 28 year imprisonment with
labor."

For 4 months, he along with other prisoners broke stones for road
construction. Later he was given the job of tending horses and mules
belonging to the prison. "Then the break I was waiting for came," he
related. "The warder took pity on me and substituted the heavy chains on
me with the lighter ones. A few days later, I escaped."

Eight days later, he arrived in Mandalay. "The people on the way, knowing
I had escaped from prison, were still ready to feed me when I asked for
food," he recalled. "And I was never stopped by officials on the way."

Learning there that he had headed in the wrong direction, he turned
southwards again, asked people for directions, for he knew not how to read
or write, and arrived in Taunggyi 15 days later. He marched on for another
11-days and at last was welcomed at the displaced persons village of
Piangfah, which was established in 1999, after local residents in southern
Monghsat township were ordered to move out to make way for the incoming Wa
resettlers from the north.

Tienkeow, apart from receiving rice and basic necessities from
humanitarian agencies, say he is earning some pocket money by collecting
and selling a kind of brush leaves from which are used for making brooms.

Piangfah, according to Shan Human Rights Foundation, has a population of
2,076 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Recent report from Burma Border Consortium, established in 1984 to provide
basic food and relief supplies to refugees from Burma, places the number
of people who have been displaced in the border states of Burma since 1996
at 1 million.
________________________

EDITORIAL

Feb 2004, Vol 12. No 2, Irrawaddy
See You in the Press Room

When Gen Khin Nyunt met Karen leader Gen Bo Mya recently, he advised him
not to read The Irrawaddy "because it only reports untruths and rumors."

While we take the Burmese prime minister’s vitriol as a backhanded
compliment (at least we make an impression on him), it was disappointing
to hear such a comment from a man regarded in some quarters as
reform-minded and "moderate." Particularly as he had told his Asean
counterparts that Burma is in-transit to democracy through his seven-point
road map, outlined last year.

If the government really is serious about democratic reform, it must come
to realize that a free press plays an essential role in nurturing and
sustaining the process. Currently Rangoon stifles the media. Local
reporters inside the country may be arrested any time for any perceived
slight against the regime.

Recently, Zaw Thet Htwe, editor of the First Eleven sports journal, was
handed a death sentence for treason after he published a report
questioning the use of a US $4 million FIFA grant to Burma’s soccer
league. The government implausibly claimed that its latest death-row
prisoner had planned to kill top regime leaders.

Rangoon’s attitude towards the foreign media suggests that it doesn’t
understand the role that the press plays in an open society. Burmese
officials have regularly complained to Rangoon diplomats that Thailand
doesn’t control its media’s Burma reporting properly. But although the
regime might not understand the press, it does recognize the power of
information.

At various times the government has hired American PR agencies to repair
soured relations with Washington. It also started a new newspaper, the
Myanmar Times. But the effort has been largely unsuccessful. Rangoon
remains tainted by accusations of gross human rights abuses and complicity
in drug trafficking. The Myanmar Times is seen for what it is—a regime
mouthpiece whose only distinguishing feature is that is better copy-edited
than the New Light of Myanmar.

Burma’s leaders have little courage to face a free media—PM Gen Khin Nyunt
has yet to host a press conference. At the Bali Summit he was flanked by
bodyguards to keep the hacks at bay. Burma routinely denies visas to
foreign journalists.

If reporters can’t get access, they will invariably assume that the regime
has something to hide and file negative reports by default. If the
international media’s Burma reporting really does suffer from a truth
deficit, the solution is to let the foreign press in and allow local
reporters work without fear of arrest.

If news organizations publish grossly inaccurate or slanderous stories,
sue them for libel. In the unlikely circumstance that Zaw Thet Htwe really
was planning to assassinate regime leaders, make the evidence public.

Finally, we suggest that Gen Khin Nyunt holds frequent press conferences.
That’s how a democratic society works.

Prime Minister, we look forward seeing you in the press room.
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