BurmaNet News, April 23, 2004

[Editor]

April 23, 2004 Issue # 2462

"They are looking at long-term disengagement," as opposed to leaving the
scene as soon as there's a new constitution and an election, says an Asian
diplomat. Adds the senior Burmese government official, "The military will
act as the backbone of democracy."
– “Burma: Another Shot,” Far Eastern Economic Review, cover date: April
29, 2004

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar backs out of international talks on reform plans
AP: Suu Kyi party losing hopes of her early release, says spokesman
Times (London): Rangoon to release Suu Kyi for talks

DRUGS
Irish Times: Armies and forests make moving heroin around Golden Triangle
easy
Xinhua: Thailand hosts regional meeting on drugs
Xinhua: China trains 30 more anti-drug police for Myanmar

BUSINESS
Xinhua: Myanmar to establish modern steel plants
Myanmar Times: US entrepreneur begins mobile coffee franchise

INTERNATIONAL
AP: U.N. Seeks to Stop Use of Child Soldiers

OPINION/ OTHER
FEER: Burma: Another Shot

PRESS RELEASE
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association ask judges for
mercy for sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe

INSIDE BURMA
_____________________________________

April 23, Agence France Presse
Myanmar backs out of international talks on reform plans

Bangkok: Myanmar has pulled out of planned international talks on
prospects for democracy in the military-run state, saying it needed to
focus instead on its upcoming national convention, Thailand said Friday.

"Myanmar has officially notified us that they cannot attend as their
foreign minister (Win Aung) is one of the key organisers of the national
convention and he is busy preparing for it," Thai foreign ministry
spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkaeow told AFP.

The second "Bangkok Process" meeting was due to take place April 29 and
30, less than three weeks before Myanmar launches its convention, the
first step in its self-proclaimed "road map to democracy", on May 17.

"Thailand and Myanmar will choose a new date, likely after May 17,"
Sihasak said.

Earlier this week a diplomat from one of the 17 countries slated to attend
the Bangkok meeting said the military government was opposed to the forum
going ahead so close to its planned constitutional convention, which is
aimed at drafting a new constitution.

The postponement was largely expected, with Thai officials on Monday
saying Myanmar had signalled it may withdraw from the talks.

The change of heart may have been caused by disagreements within the
leadership as to how to proceed during a delicate political time, with the
release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest believed
to be imminent, a Thai official said.

"We don't know what is happening in Myanmar, they didn't explain. We can
only guess that there are several leaders in Myanmar and their political
problems are very complicated," the official said at the time.

The junta's roadmap, announced last year by Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, was
billed as culminating in free elections to end four decades of military
rule, but no time frame had been presented for its conclusion.

The past week has been a major disappointment for those hoping Aung San
Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, would be given her liberty shortly after
the traditional Myanmar new year April 17.

Diplomats have expressed concern as well over the military regime ruling
out any change to the format of the constitutional convention, after the
democratic opposition said it would not attend unless reforms were made.
_____________________________________

April 23, Associated Press
Suu Kyi party losing hopes of her early release, says spokesman - Aye Aye Win

Yangon: Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party is losing hope that
the junta will release her soon from house arrest, her aide said Friday,
in an apparent setback to rekindled expectations of a political
reconciliation.

"It is easier to forecast the weather than to predict her release," U
Lwin, the spokesman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, told
The Associated Press. Asked if she would be released very soon, he said:
"I don't think so."

U Lwin, who was freed earlier this month along with party chairman Aung
Shwe from nearly one year of house arrest, did not give reasons for his
pessimism, except to say, "Conditions are changing all the time."

"When we were released I thought she would be released together with us
but it didn't happen," he said.

Suu Kyi's release had been widely expected ahead of a National Convention
that the junta has called on May 17 to help draft a new constitution, the
first step in its self-proclaimed road map to democracy.

Razali Ismail, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, is among those
who have predicted her release.

The junta has invited seven executive committee members of the NLD to the
National Convention but not Suu Kyi and party vice chairman Tin Oo, who
also remains under house arrest.

According to the invitation letters, delegates have to register "not
earlier than 13 May and not later than May 14" at a conference center in
Nyaung-Hna-Pin, more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Yangon where
the convention will be held.

U Lwin told reporters earlier that the party will decide by May 13 if it
will attend the convention. The announcement marks a shift in the position
of the NLD, which until now had insisted that a decision can be made only
after Suu Kyi and Tin Oo are released.

U Lwin said the government has so far failed to respond to the party's
request to allow other leaders to meet with Suu Kyi and Tin Oo to discuss
their participation in the convention.

"Even if the authorities cannot make arrangement for the meeting, we will
somehow get comments from them (Suu Kyi and Tin Oo) and we will give our
decision before May 13," U Lwin said without elaborating.

A similar convention was held in 1993 but it was suspended after the NLD
delegates walked out in November 1995, saying their views were being
ignored and the junta's opinions were being imposed.

Suu Kyi was detained after a May 30, 2003 clash between a pro-junta mob
and her supporters traveling with her in a convoy in northern Myanmar. Her
continued detention has provoked a rash of international criticism and
economic sanctions by the West.

The current group of generals came to power in 1988 after crushing a
pro-democracy uprising. It called elections in 1990 but refused to step
down after the NLD won.
_____________________________________

April 23, The Times (London)
Rangoon to release Suu Kyi for talks - Oliver August

Rangoon: Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader, is expected to be
released from house arrest within days to negotiate a new constitution
with the military Government.

Leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) as well as foreign
diplomats and analysts told The Times yesterday that her release was
imminent and outlined plans for her first day of freedom after 11 months
isolated in a lakeside villa on the outskirts of Rangoon.

"I'm expecting it (her release) to happen any day now," one foreign
observer said.

"The regime has shown growing flexibilty...there are signs of a thaw. They
even released a Reader's Digest article on Burma recently."

U Lwin, an NLD official who was released from house arrest last week,
said: "On the day she comes out she will speak to foreign diplomats in the
morning and come to the party headquarters after lunch." U Lwin and two
other NLD leaders met Daw Suu Kyi last week for the first time since mass
arrests last May in the aftermath of a violent clash during political
campaigning. "She is shipshape and in good spirits," he said.

Of the top party leaders, only Tin Oo, the vice-chairman, and Daw Suu Kyi,
who received the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, remain under house arrest. The
junta has eased restrictions on political activity before a May 17
constitutional convention, which is in part aimed at winning it wider
international legitimacy.

"The level of violence and fighting today has been lower than it has been
for a long time," one foreign diplomat said. "There has been a cycle of
people being arrested and released again, though the number of political
prisoners has remained relatively constant at 1,300."

Hundreds of NLD members marched through Rangoon last weekend but were
turned away when they approached Daw Suu Kyi's residence. Barbed wire
barriers block the road to her house but some traffic has been allowed
through in recent weeks.

The Government has also reopened the opposition party headquarters in the
capital.

Party workers have been holding meetings in the two-storey concrete
building and selling T-shirts bearing the face of Daw Suu Kyi and the
slogan "Freedom From Fear".

In a neon-lit backroom, her bodyguards were awaiting her return. Toe Lwin,
32, said: "The army is afraid of her. That's why it is taking so long to
release her."

He last saw Daw Suu Kyi when he flung himself across the windshield of her
parked car to fend off a violent mob.He now sports three 5-inch scars
across his skull.

The car's driver, Tun Myint, said that Daw Suu Kyi suffered a cut on her
neck from a glass splinter.

An opposition MP said that Daw Suu Kyi would not be able to leave Rangoon
after her release. She has been released from house arrest twice since the
military refused to recognise the result of a 1990 election in which the
NLD received 82 per cent of the vote.

DRUGS
_____________________________________

April 23, The Irish Times
Armies and forests make moving heroin around Golden Triangle easy - Rahul
Bedi

Aids and addiction are the effects of the drug trade on the region,
reports Rahul Bedi in Imphal

"Number Four" in India's north-eastern Manipur state is more than just a
numeral, even to school children.

It is the colloquial name for heroin, processed to the lethal fourth stage
of purification and one that has a debilitating hold thousands in this
region bordering Burma from where the narcotic originates.

Nearly 60 per cent of heroin sold on the streets worldwide, especially in
Europe and the US originates from the Golden Triangle in which Burma -
besides Laos and Thailand - is a major component.

Often using makeshift injections - a syringe needle attached to an ink
dropper - addicts across Manipur inject heroin bought in 1 mg packets for
around 100 Indian Rupees (E2) each. Others, unable to rig up even this
crude injecting kit, sniff heroin fumes by roasting the narcotic in
tinfoil.

A devastating corollary to the drug menace is the incidence of Aids, the
country's highest amongst Manipur's population of 2.1 million. The border
district of Chura Chandupur, 62 km south of the state capital Imphal
neighbouring Burma with around 4500 heroin users has been dubbed the
country's "Aids capital". Non-governmental organisations began a needle
exchange programme in 1999 but overwhelmed by the growing numbers of users
ended it two years later.

Activists said the age of initiation into heroin use in Manipur had
dropped to around 11 years after the drug first emerged in the area in the
mid 1980's. "We are fighting a losing battle against drug addiction," said
Irene Singh of the Association for the integrated development for women.

Estimates of heroin moved annually through the region vary between 80-100
kg with a local street value of a tens of thousands of Rupees that
multiplies to billions of dollars in the West. Seizures by the police
average between 8 and 10 kg. "For every 1 kg seized at least 10 to 15 kg
gets across," a senior Narcotics Bureau said.

The state government has exhibited token concern regarding the drug menace
by holding a handful of seminars to discuss the issue and sponsoring a
handful of de-addiction camps with a appallingly low rate of cure.

Manipur's contiguity to Burma's thickly forested areas, controlled by drug
lords with large "armies" makes it easy to move huge quantities of heroin
into the area en route to other parts of western and northern India.
Thereafter the heroin is sent overseas via air and sea routes.

Anti-narcotics officials claim that at least six drug refineries are
located along Burma's Chindwin trail with their nerve centre at Kaleymo,
all of which operate under the patronage of the Burmese army.

Kaleymo is developing as a major communications centre with roads from
India and China converging there. Narcotics officials said at least three
drug corridors from Kaleymo towards neighbouring Cox's Bazaar in
Bangladesh had also emerged as an alternate transit point for heroin
coming into India across jungle tracts and innumerable estuaries and
waterways impossible to police.

In its raw form of morphine the heroin originates from Thailand and Laos
before being shipped for chemical processing to Burma. Enormous drums of
Acetic Anhydride, the chemical used to refine heroin from morphine to the
fatal fourth level, are smuggled from India into Burma, giving the drug
its local nomenclature in the region.

Police said after Washington's recent drive against heroin manufacturers
in Burma, enterprising producers had shifted operations to mobile
laboratories that were not only capable of reasonably large quantities of
the drug but were almost impossible to detect via satellite.

Once the white power is ready couriers, including women familiar with the
forested terrain safely ferry the drug to India, facilitated by border
guards and the local police and protected by politicians. At times even
herds of cattle and goats, grazing freely around the lush border areas are
made to swallow heroin-filled condoms which are then recovered from their
excreta once they make the crossing.
_____________________________________

April 23, Xinhua News Agency
Thailand hosts regional meeting on drugs

Bangkok: Senior officials from Thailand, China, India, Laos and Myanmar
are gathering in the Thai eastern resort city of Pattaya for a regional
meeting on anti-drugs.

The three-day meeting, hosted by the Thai government, is aimed at seeking
for broader regional cooperation in the fight against drugs, according to
the Thai News Agency on Friday.

Addressing the opening session of the meeting on Thursday, Thai Justice
Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana stressed the need to increase regional
cooperation since East Asia and Southeast Asia had faced the dangers of
drug-related problems for years.

He said Thailand had planned to eliminate all opium poppy growing areas by
2008.

The delegates will also review progress of agreements reached at the
Chiang Rai Conference in 2003.

They will also discuss ways to increase the efficiency of regional
cooperation in drugs prevention and suppression.
_____________________________________

April 23, Xinhua News Agency
China trains 30 more anti-drug police for Myanmar

Kunming: Thirty policemen from Myanmar ended their month-long training on
anti-drug enforcement Thursday in Yunnan Province, southwest China.

Trained at the Yunnan Police College, the policemen from Myanmar were the
third such group trained in China as part of an anti-drug trafficking
program between the two countries.

The figure brought to 85 the total number of Chinese-trained anti-drug
policemen from Myanmar.

Their training courses include China's police system, anti-drug
trafficking strategy, anti-drug trafficking legislation and drug tests.

Experienced anti-drug trafficking policemen and teachers at the college
shared their experience with those policemen.

China trained 25 anti-drug police from Myanmar in 2002, the first group,
and 30 more last year.

The Yunnan Police College has trained a total of 1,000 anti- drug
policemen since 1980s.

BUSINESS
_____________________________________

April 23 Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar to establish modern steel plants

Yangon: Myanmar has planned to establish modern steel plants in the
country's three industrial zones as part of its bid to develop the
industrial sector, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported
Friday.

Quoting the Myanmar Industrial Development Committee, the report said the
plants, equipped with advanced machines, will be set up in Mandalay,
Monywa and Ayethayar industrial zones and the establishment will signify a
turing point in the progress of the country's industrial development.

The move will be supported by the government and private entrepreneurs, it
said.

There is strong demand for building materials such as iron and steel bar
along with cement in Myanmar as it is extending its construction
undertakings.

In recent years, there emerged a state-owned steel mill in Myanmar's
Aunglan township, central Magway division, with a production capacity of
250,000 tons of iron rod per year.

According to official statistics, Myanmar consumes about 400, 000 tons of
iron and steel bar annually, most of which are imported from China and
Ukraine, while others from India, Indonesia and Russia.

Meanwhile, entrepreneurs in the country's 19 industrial zones are being
encouraged to set up import-substitute industries such as farm machinery
and car assembling industries in addition to manufacturing ones to meet
their respective requirements.

_____________________________________

April 18, Myanmar Times
US entrepreneur begins mobile coffee franchise - Maw Maw San

A private company based in upper Myanmar will begin selling coffee in
Yangon from mobile shops under a franchise system within a month, the
company director said this month.

Pyin Oo Lwin-based Golden Triangle Eco-Resources Ltd, which has sold
packaged roasted coffee since 1994, will launch the mobile coffee shops by
the end of April, said Mr Gregory Love, who also works as a consultant.

“The mobile shops will allow people who do not want to go into coffee
shops to enjoy coffee on the street,” said Mr Love.

The company sells two kinds of coffee – Misty Mountain and Café Fino –
which together have an 85 five per cent market share among hotels and
restaurants in Yangon, Mr Love said.

His main target market is middle class people.

He said his primary competitor is Premier coffee, which has been on the
market for about a year.

“But I believe there are enough consumers for both of us in the market,”
said Mr Love.

The mobile coffee shops work on a franchise system in which interested
entrepreneurs invest K1.1 million to set up a Golden Triangle Coffee and
Pastry Cart.

Once the business is launched, the investor turns over 20 per cent of all
profits to the company.

Golden Triangle will supply gas-powered coffee machines, pastry cases,
coffee thermoses, ice chests, sugar and milk containers, as well as
training and technical assistance to guarantee the success of the
investor’s business, Mr Love said.

“If a shop can sell from 200 to 500 cups of coffee and 65 bakery items a
day, it will be able to make a profit of more than K700,000 a month. This
is from only 200 client groups. If you can sell to 500 client groups, you
can make K1 million per month,” he said.

“I also plan to expand my business in other towns. If the product is of
good quality, Myanmar will not think about the money. They want to raise
their standard of living,” said Mr Love.

Ko Htay Myint, the marketing assistant manager from Premier coffee, said
that his company introduced stationary coffee booths in Yangon last year.

Premier has now 23 booths at universities and plazas that sell hot and ice
coffee.
He said the coffee booths were not mobile because they need electricity to
boil water.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

April 23, Associated Press
U.N. Seeks to Stop Use of Child Soldiers - Edith M. Lederer

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling for
tough measures to prevent the recruitment and use of child soldiers after
Chechnya and Northern Ireland were dropped from a list of "armed
conflicts" where youngsters are given weapons to fight.

The resolution had been held up for months, initially because Britain
objected to the inclusion of Northern Ireland paramilitary groups on a
list of armed groups called on to halt the practice, and then because
Russia objected to the inclusion of Chechen insurgency groups. Both
nations rejected the use of the term "armed conflicts" to refer to the
disputes.

The resolution adopted Thursday calls for armed groups in six civil wars
on the council's agenda - Afghanistan, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Congo,
Liberia and Somalia - to prepare "concrete time-bound action plans" within
three months in cooperation with U.N. experts to halt their recruitment
and use of child soldiers.

The Security Council said it would consider imposing "targeted and
graduated measures" such as an arms embargo or ban on military assistance
on armed groups that refuse to start a dialogue, adopt an action plan, and
implement it.

The resolution is based on Secretary-General Kofi Annan's report last
November which said children are being recruited and used as soldiers "on
a massive scale" around the world, with groups in 15 civil wars handing
weapons to youngsters.

Despite international efforts to ensure that children under the age of 18
do not take part in hostilities, the report named 22 new groups found to
be recruiting or using children as fighters, along with three dozen
previously identified groups.

In addition to the six civil wars on the Security Council's agenda, it
listed nine other "armed conflicts" not on the council's agenda where
parties recruit or use children - Chechnya, Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal,
Northern Ireland, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Uganda.

To satisfy British demands, a correction was issued on Feb. 20 stating
that the situation in Northern Ireland "is not an armed conflict within
the meaning of the Geneva Conventions." The same correction was issued
Monday at Russia's insistence, along with a change in the name of those
recruiting children to "Chechen illegal armed groups" - not "Chechen
insurgency groups."

The resolution adopted Thursday calls on "parties in other situations of
armed conflict" mentioned in Annan's report to halt the recruitment and
use of children immediately and expresses the council's intention "to
consider taking appropriate steps to further address this issue."

Since Chechnya and Northern Ireland are no longer considered "armed
conflicts," however, this would not apply to groups there - only to the
groups named in the report from Colombia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri
Lanka, Sudan and Uganda.

The resolution makes no general call for an end to the use of child
soldiers. It strongly condemns the recruitment and use of child soldiers
"by parties to armed conflict" and other abuses against youngsters caught
in fighting including abduction and sexual violence.

It asks Annan to develop a system to monitor and report on the recruitment
and use of child soldiers, and to propose measures to control cross-border
abductions, recruitment, and illicit trade in natural resources and
weapons, preferably within three months.


OPINION/ OTHER
___________________________________

April 29, Far Eastern Economic Review
Burma: Another Shot
The opposition is expected to rejoin talks on a new constitution, but big
obstacles remain - Barry Wain

Singapore: In late 1995, the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) walked out of a convention that had spent two years writing a new
constitution for Burma, calling the proceedings a sham; the gathering
adjourned soon after. Next month, after a gap of more than eight years,
the National Convention will resume its task, the first step in a process
that is supposed to lead to elections and the installation of a democratic
government.

Hundreds of delegates have been invited to assemble on May 17 at
Ngaung-hna-pin, a conference centre north of Rangoon, and pick up where
they left off. If all goes according to plan, their ranks will include
representatives of Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD, which the military barred from
taking parliamentary power in 1990.

If the NLD agrees to participate, as most Rangoon-based diplomats expect,
the party will have to swallow hard. Most of the terms the NLD objected to
in 1995 are still on the books, though some diplomats say the party and
the military could reach a private understanding in advance to try to
avoid another breakdown. As things stand, however, a long list of
non-negotiable "basic principles" adopted in 1993 as a basis for future
deliberations load the proposed constitution in favour of the current
rulers, and strict regulations limit debate on the draft.

Why should the National Convention work this time around? "Circumstances
have changed," says a senior government official. "Now the time is right
for national reconciliation."

The main difference is that the military's ruling State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) and Suu Kyi's NLD have fought each other almost
to a standstill. Although the United States and other Western governments
have tightened sanctions against Burma in support of the NLD, the military
shows no sign of relinquishing power. But the government is still denied
legitimacy and aid by much of the international community, and often finds
itself an embarrassment to fellow members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean).

Writing a constitution is the beginning of a "road map" to democratization
that military intelligence chief Gen. Khin Nyunt unveiled last August,
soon after taking over the post of prime minister. Asean has backed the
plan, despite its vagueness and doubts expressed by the U.S. and others.
The 10-member grouping is concerned that continued political uncertainty
in Burma could cause instability, making the rest of Southeast Asia less
attractive to foreign investors.

While the road map sets no target date for an elected government,
diplomats say the SPDC accepts that it would be difficult for Burma to
assume the rotating chairmanship of Asean in two years, as scheduled, if
the current military regime remains unchanged. The SPDC realizes it must
hold a referendum on a new constitution, or do something else "of that
magnitude" by 2006, says one Asian diplomat.

Paving the way for the NLD's participation in the National Convention,
military authorities in recent weeks have allowed the party to reopen its
Rangoon headquarters and released central committee members detained after
Suu Kyi's motorcade was attacked in northern Burma last May. Although Suu
Kyi remains under house arrest, and the NLD has not decided if it will
rejoin the constitutional drafting process, the pressure equally is on the
SPDC to free her and on Suu Kyi to return to the convention. "We feel that
her role will be instrumental," says Ong Keng Yong, Asean's
secretary-general. "So if she adopted a positive attitude and moved
towards results rather than rhetoric, there would be a good outcome."

United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail signalled Suu Kyi's likely
cooperation after his latest visit to the country in early March. He said
Suu Kyi "indicated her willingness to work for a harmonized relationship
with Prime Minister Khin Nyunt's government in order to move the process
ahead."

But even if an inclusive National Convention begins as planned, don't
expect the SPDC to compromise on core military interests. "They are
looking at long-term disengagement," as opposed to leaving the scene as
soon as there's a new constitution and an election, says an Asian
diplomat. Adds the senior Burmese government official, "The military will
act as the backbone of democracy."


PRESS RELEASE
___________________________________

April 22, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association ask judges for
mercy for sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association appealed for
leniency for sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe to two supreme court judges
set to give their verdict on his appeal against a death sentence within a
few days.

Zaw Thet Htwe, editor in chief of the sports magazine First Eleven is one
of nine people who have been condemned to death for ³high treason².

The international press freedom organisation and the BMA said after
observing the trial in the lower court and studying the court records,
they were convinced the journalist had been sentenced to death without any
evidence or testimony proving he was implicated in an act of ³high
treason².

Both organisations urged the judges, Doctor Tin Aung Aye and U Tin Aye to
accept the innocence of the journalist and the other three defendants.
They said that Zaw Thet Htwe¹s only crime was to head a popular and
independent magazine.

The two supreme court judges sat on 6 April 2004 to take the statements of
lawyer U Naing Ngwe Ya defending Zaw Thet Htwe and the three others. The
defendants were also heard at a court within Insein prison where they are
being detained.

The lawyer, who protested the innocence of his clients, confirmed that
three of them had been condemned to death for sending reports to the
International Labour Organisation (ILO). He said, ³Nobody found explosives
and anti-government documents in their possession (Š) There was no act of
high treason and they should be released unconditionally.² The
journalist¹s wife and a colleague were able to attend the hearing.

The lower court trial record showed that Zaw Thet Htwe was convicted of
contacting Burmese exiles abroad who had themselves plotted against the
military junta. The journalist was only allowed to call one witness, his
wife, and no lawyer was present to defend him.

The Burma Lawyers' Council described the charges and the trial as being
tainted by irregularities. The charge was laid by a police officer when an
accusation of high treason should have been brought by the State. The
Military Secret Service (MIS) had carried out the interrogations, when it
had no competence to take confessions for a trial. The trial itself had
been held behind closed doors.

Amnesty International released a report in April 2004, describing Zaw Thet
Htwe as a ³prisoner of conscience" sentenced after a trial at which
neither the right to a defence nor the presumption of innocence had been
respected.

A military court sentenced the sports journalist and eight others to death
on 28 November 2003 under Article 122 (1) of the criminal code. They were
accused of "high treason" for attempting to kill leaders of the military
junta. The editor of First Eleven was accused of having sent reports to
opposition militants based abroad. He was tortured during interrogation by
the MIS.

The journalist¹s arrest is believed linked to the success of his sports
magazine, that specialises in football, and its independent editorial
line. It carried one article in particular on a donation of four million
dollars from the international community to promote football in Burma.
First Eleven questioned what use the money had been put to.