BurmaNet News, May 14, 2004

[Editor]

May 14, 2004, Issue # 2476

 ‘ "The NLD has come to the conclusion that it will not benefit the nation
by participating in the national convention. Therefore it has been
decided that the NLD will not attend the convention," party chairman Aung
Shwe said, reading a prepared statement to stunned diplomats and
applauding supporters.’
- Aung Shwe, NLD Party Chairman, quoted in Agence France Presse, May 14, 2004


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD boycotts Myanmar convention
Irrawaddy: Ethnic Parties Boycott National Convention
Irrawaddy: Khin Nyunt Unhappy About Ceasefire Groups’ Demands
AFP: Myanmar ex-reporter imprisoned ahead of convention: media monitor
San Francisco Chronicle: Burma confronts taboo, educates villagers about
HIV prevention

BUSINESS
Globe and Mail: Myanmar mired in a deforestation crisis
Xinhua: South Korea to help upgrade ASEAN highway's Myanmar section

INTERNATIONAL
Chicago Tribune: Torture survivors relive the horrors

OPINION/OTHER
New Nation: Constructive engagement with pariah state

STATEMENT
NLD: Statement


INSIDE BURMA
_____________________________________

May 14, Agence France Presse
Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD boycotts Myanmar convention

Yangon: Myanmar's main opposition party said Friday it would boycott next
week's constitutional convention because the ruling military failed to
release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and ignored key demands.

In its dramatic announcement, the National League for Democracy (NLD) said
it would not be in the country's interest if it attended the forum, which
the junta has billed as the first part of its "roadmap to democracy."

"The NLD has come to the conclusion that it will not benefit the nation by
participating in the national convention. Therefore it has been decided
that the NLD will not attend the convention," party chairman Aung Shwe
said, reading a prepared statement to stunned diplomats and applauding
supporters.

Analysts have warned that the convention due to begin Monday would lose
all credibility if the NLD, which won a landslide election victory in 1990
that was never recognised by the junta, did not attend.

Myanmar presently does not have a constitution. The forum was aimed at
drafting a new one with input from various elements including opposition
groups.

Aung Shwe said the decision to skip the forum hinged on the military
junta's refusal to release Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and its
failure to adopt reforms to the convention format recently proposed by the
NLD.

"On the matter of releasing Aung San Suu Kyi and (detained vice chairman)
Tin Oo, and the reopening of the (NLD) offices, they said they had no
plans to do so at the moment," Aung Shwe said.

Party secretary U Lwin admitted the decision was a near U-turn from late
last month, when the NLD was almost certain of attending as it appeared
the authorities would react favourably to the party's proposals, which
included a call for free and open discussions.

It also demanded the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and party vice chairman
Tin Oo, who were both detained nearly a year ago after a May 30 clash
between opposition supporters and a junta-backed mob in northern Myanmar.

"The authorities did not agree to (those) conditions," it said.

It also demanded that the 104 principles and six objectives of the
original convention launched in 1993, which included a clause requiring
the military to maintain a role in any future political scenario, be
shifted to mere "suggestions".

But as weeks passed, there was no response from authorities on the proposals.

"The (waiting) time is up, and since we did not get a positive response to
our suggestions we made our decision not to attend," U Lwin told a packed
briefing at the NLD's Yangon headquarters.

The boycott threatened to trigger a mass walkout, with several ethnic
groups and small political parties believed to be making their attendance
conditional on the NLD's participation.

"We will not attend also," said chairman Khun Tun Oo of the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), the second largest winning
party in the 1990 elections and one of the most prominent opposition
groupings.

Khun Tun Oo also represents the United Nationalities Alliance of parties
of nine non-Burman ethnic nationalities, but he stressed it was not clear
if those groups would attend.

U Lwin said he had met with Aung San Suu Kyi at her home Friday, and that
she had told him that junta officials had advised her she would not be
given her freedom anytime soon.

The junta had ordered all participants in the convention to register by
May 14.

Diplomats and observers were stunned to learn of the NLD's pullout.

"It's been a blow. I expected everything but this and it's making
everything collapse," a shocked source close to Myanmar's reconciliation
process told AFP.

"I'm extremely surprised because I thought it would be another scenario,"
the source said, adding that the NLD boycott had robbed the convention of
credibility.

Myanmar neighbour Thailand quickly expressed regret over the decision and
urged all parties to be more flexible.

"We regret the NLD announcement that they will not attend the national
convention as we considered the convention a symbol of national
reconciliation which all parties should support," Thai foreign ministry
spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said.

One senior Western diplomat said the NLD decision would reduce the
convention to an exercise in futility.

"Without the free and full participation of the NLD and proper
representation of the ethnics, it is not a democratic process, and they
have made their choice," the diplomat told AFP.

The NLD walked out of the original convention in 1995, claiming the forum
was being used as a "rubber stamp" for the regime's policies.

_____________________________________

May 14, Irrawaddy
Ethnic Parties Boycott National Convention - Naw Seng

The United Nationalities Alliance, or UNA, which comprises eight
ethnic-based political parties that ran in the 1990 election, decided late
Friday afternoon that its members will not to join the National
Convention. The group’s announcement came shortly after the leading
opposition party, the National League for Democracy, or NLD, said it
wouldn’t attend.

The UNA, formed in 2001, held a days-long meeting this week to decide
whether to send delegates to the assembly (which is tasked with drawing up
a new constitution). The biggest party in the organization is the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy, or SNLD, which won 23 seats in the
1990 general election, making it the second-largest vote-getter, after the
NLD.

“We will not attend the National Convention because we know our demands
will not be fulfilled,” said Khun Tun Oo, chairman of the SNLD and a
leading member of the UNA.

He said that the demands of the UNA, NLD and the ceasefire groups are
similar. All the groups call for objectives and articles to be amended
because they do not accord with a democratic system.

Khun Tun Oo believes that the National Convention could bring about
political resolution under the right circumstances. “But we can’t accept
the restrictions,” he said. “This convention is bound by conditions which
mean that it can not solve the country’s problems.”

He thinks that the government will continue with the National Convention
under its current rules.

_____________________________________

May 14, Irrawaddy
Khin Nyunt Unhappy About Ceasefire Groups’ Demands - Naw Seng

Gen Khin Nyunt, the Prime Minister of Burma and architect of the country’s
road map for political reform, is reportedly unhappy with a joint demand
from six ethnic ceasefire groups that one objective and some articles of
the constitutional blueprint be amended.

“I feel upset with the ceasefire groups’ intention that the military be
given almost no role in the country’s politics,” said Gen Khin Nyunt on
Thursday, as quoted by Dr Tu Ja, a vice chairman of from Kachin
Independence Organization, or KIO. Dr Tu Ja is a delegate to the National
Convention, which is to reopen on May 17 to draw up a new constitution.

“The military wants to play a political role along with other [political
groups],” said Gen Khin Nyunt, who spoke at a meeting with representatives
from 15 ceasefire groups at Zeyarthiri Hall, in Rangoon.

Six ethnic ceasefire groups—KIO, New Mon State Party or NMSP, Shan State
National Army or SSNA, Palaung State Liberation Army or PLSO, Shan State
Army or SSA and Kayan New Land Party or KNLP—released a joint statement on
Tuesday that called for discussions on the amendment or withdrawal of one
objective and a number of articles from the constitutional blueprint.

The statement demanded an opportunity to amend the “sixth objective” of
the National Convention: “Participation by the Defense Services in
national political leadership in the future state.”

It also called for discussion and amendment of some of the 104
articles—intended to make up the body of Burma’s forthcoming
constitution—which the six ethnic ceasefire groups say are not in
accordance with a democratic system.

The statement additionally demanded the rescinding of Law No 5/96, or the
“Law Protecting the Peaceful and Systematic Transfer of State
Responsibility and the Successful Performance of the Functions of the
National Convention against Disturbances and Oppositions.” The groups
claimed that it was drafted to protect the decisions made at the previous
National Convention, which started in 1993 and was adjourned in 1996.

On Tuesday, Brig-Gen Than Tun, a senior staffer at the Office of the Chief
of Military Intelligence, met delegates from 15 ceasefire groups at
Tatmadaw Guesthouse No 1 in Rangoon where he said there will be
opportunities to discuss the 104 articles at the National Convention.

_____________________________________

May 14, Agence France Presse
Myanmar ex-reporter imprisoned ahead of convention: media monitor

Yangon: A former Myanmar reporter has been jailed for 15 years and a
student activist given a 22-year sentence days before the ruling military
junta holds a constitutional convention, a rights group said Friday.

The Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders, RSF)
and the Burma Media Association called on Prime Minister General Khin
Nyunt to release Ne Min, accused of sending information to foreign-based
media outlets.

"His arrest and sentence only add to the pressure on Burmese journalists
who are doing their best to provide news for foreign media," RSF and the
BMA said in a statement.

Ne Min, a lawyer aged around 55, had worked for Britain's BBC in the 1980s
and had previously spent eight years in prison for "spreading false
rumours", it said. He was rearrested in February and sentenced May 7 at a
special court within Insein prison.

A National League for Democracy party source familiar with the trial
confirmed Ne Min's 15-year sentence to AFP Friday.

Four other people were also given long prison sentences, the statement
said, including Nyan Htun Linn, a student activist and former office
manager of a Thai-based news website, who was sentenced to 22 years for
distributing a statement criticising the procedures of the upcoming
convention.

It did not identify the other three sentenced people.

The statement also slammed Yangon for moving to block media coverage of
the constitutional convention which is due to open Monday as the first
step in the junta's "roadmap to democracy".

The government has also subjected local reporters to "intimidation,
imposed advance censorship and secured the convention centre."

Restrictions have also been imposed on the 1,000 or so delegates expected
to attend the forum, RSF said.

_____________________________________

May 14, The San Francisco Chronicle
Burma confronts taboo, educates villagers about HIV prevention- Vanessa Hua

Epidemic forces junta to back public events, low-cost condoms

Wayagyaung, Burma: In late afternoon, the Love Boat docked at this small
delta village, bringing the promise of adventure and romance.

Yet the bright green, 90-foot ship was not on a frivolous voyage. Instead,
the Love Boat sought to educate villagers about the lethal disease that is
sweeping their country of 42 million people.

"AIDS is not a nuclear atomic bomb," said Yarzar Nay Win, a popular
Burmese actor in a video shown by Population Services International, a
nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C. "The moment you go wild, use
protection for your health. Let me remind you, the best thing is to
control your mind."

Bringing along a screen and audio-visual gear, the Love Boat showed
several hundred villagers videos and a movies featuring a promiscuous
boatman and a karaoke "entertainment girl," all with elements of melodrama
and slapstick comedy.

Such public events would have been unthinkable in recent years. As late as
November 2000, police were still confiscating condoms to use as evidence
of prostitution. Until 2002, the military junta that rules this nation
made AIDS a taboo subject.

But the junta changed after AIDS gained a major foothold in Burma because
of poor health care and striking ignorance about reproduction. Life
expectancy is just 55 years, compared with 63 in the rest of Asia.

By mid-2002, 177,279 people were living with HIV in Burma, according to
government records, a figure that falls far short of a 1999 study by Johns
Hopkins University, which suggested that at least 687,000 Burmese, or
almost 3.5 percent of the country's adult population, were infected with
the AIDS virus. That study included pregnant women, soldiers, sex workers,
gay men and blood donors, but it excluded the nation's estimated 1.4
million drug users.

Fearing that transient populations such as migrant workers, truck drivers
and boatmen could spread the disease to the general population, the
government relented, allowing local and international health organizations
to become more active in the fight to contain the virus.

Workers from Population Services International instruct pedicab drivers
and migrant workers how to use condoms, train university students to
become health educators in rural villages and show Buddhist monks how to
use their religion's precepts to discourage people from using drugs or
having premarital sex. In November, Burma held its first exhibition on HIV
and AIDS prevention in Rangoon, the capital.

The group also has produced -- after long negotiations with the government
-- the first national TV soap opera called "Happy Travelers," which
featured a character infected with the virus. Early this year, Population
Services International began filming a second soap opera about life and
love in the age of HIV.

Because 70 percent of Burma's population lives in the countryside and many
people lack television sets, the U.S. group decided to bring the films to
them via three Love Boats, and one car dubbed the Love Bug. The boats can
seat up to 300 to 400 villagers for onboard showings during the rainy
season and sets up outside in dry weather.

Wayagyaung village -- with its bamboo, thatched and tin roof homes, and
oxen that pull wooden carts in its fields -- looks like an insolated
hamlet free of such modern menaces as AIDS. But its 1,200 residents are
vulnerable, health workers say.

Wooden long-tail boats that ply the nearby Ayeyarwaddy River trading goods
and services carry people who could potentially bring HIV to the village.

The AIDS videos were the biggest event in months, equaling attendance at
Buddhist festivals. Residents watched the films while seated on woven
plastic mats in a dusty clearing near the local monastery.

Under the crescent smile of the honey-colored moon, a young man twisted
balloons into animals for children, vendors hawked sticky rice and
barbecued pork, children danced to music pounding from speakers in front
of an ox shed, and their parents puffed on cheroots.

Khin Mar Cho, a 38-year-old housewife, said she didn't know anyone
infected with the virus but understood that AIDS was a threat to her
country.

"We now know about how deadly this disease is, and how we should use
protection," she said. "Married couples, single people have started using
condoms."

Along the main dock, posters on shop walls advertise Aphaw, or
"trustworthy friend," the subsidized condom wholesaled by Population
Services International. At retail, the condoms sell for 2 to 11 cents
each, depending on the markup -- affordable in a country where the annual
per capita income is just $300.

Despite making inroads in the fight against AIDS, Population Services
International and other foreign-funded health programs in Burma have
critics. They say such projects free the military junta from health
spending, allowing them to buy more arms and use the money on itself.

The junta's interest in AIDS, the same detractors say, is a ploy to bring
back international aid that slowed to a trickle after the military refused
to allow opposition leaders to take office after winning the 1990
parliamentary elections and suppressed protesters in a bloody crackdown in
1988.

"The regime's practices have deprived the Burmese people of health and
education services that most of the world takes for granted," said Debbie
Stothard, head of Alternative Asean Network of Burma, a regional human
rights group in Thailand. "Now, the military regime is trotting them out
and saying, 'Give us money.' "

In May, junta-backed thugs attacked hundreds of political opposition
members and placed pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi under house arrest after her speeches drew large crowds. In
response, the United States levied economic sanctions in July that banned
the import of Burmese products, froze assets of senior junta officials and
banned remittances to Burma.

Burma, which receives no bilateral or multilateral aid, is expected to
receive about $60 million from the United Nations and nongovernmental
organizations this year.

That's a "tremendously low" sum for a country of Burma's size, said
Charles Petrie, representative of the United Nations Development Program
in Burma. "The fact that the government may be underspending on health is
one issue that needs to be addressed," Petrie said. "But it shouldn't be
tied to the issue of helping people in extreme situations. It's a mistake
to put them together."

Back in Wayagyaung, villagers eagerly watched a music video featuring
Burmese singer Akyin Nart Thomas as she belted out a ballad called "Tender
Warm Hearted Care."

"Going to die soon. That's definitely sure. There's no chance of appeal,"
she sang. "The sun will set very soon ... Please encourage and take good
care while still living in this world."


BUSINESS
_____________________________________

May 13, Globe and Mail
Myanmar mired in a deforestation crisis - Geoffrey York

Pang Sang, Myanmar: The story is told in a glance at the border crossing
between China and Myanmar. On the Chinese side: rolling hills of green
forests. On the Myanmar side: denuded hills where the forests have been
crudely hacked down.

And on the streets of this border town, dozens of big Chinese trucks are
loaded with piles of pine logs and rough-hewn lumber from Myanmar. The
trucks are headed north to China, where the booming economy has created a
voracious appetite for the virgin forests of neighbouring countries.

The timber trade to China is so massive that it is provoking remorse even
among those who are doing the selling. "It's the biggest mistake we've
made," said Bao Youxiang, head of the United Wa State Army, a former
guerrilla army that has become a regional authority in northeastern
Myanmar.

"We've destroyed our environment," he said. "Because of a lack of income,
the local authorities were forced to sell this resource to China. It's the
only resource they had."

As its extraordinary economic boom gains momentum, China is now the
world's fastest-growing market for tropical timber. Its forest-product
imports soared by 75 per cent last year, reaching $11.2-billion (U.S.).
Its furniture factories are expanding by as much as 40 per cent a year.

In an effort to protect its endangered forests, China imposed a nationwide
ban on logging in 1998. But there is growing evidence that it has merely
exported this problem to other Asian countries, where the burgeoning
Chinese demand has fuelled a surge in excessive and illegal logging,
leading to the destruction of huge swathes of pristine old-growth forests.

China's timber imports from Indonesia, for example, are reported to be 200
times greater than the officially recorded amount. Its timber imports from
Russia soared by 70 per cent from 2001 to 2002, and environmentalists
believe at least 20 per cent of the imported lumber was illegally logged.
China also imports heavily from countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand,
Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

But it is Myanmar that may have suffered the heaviest damage to its
old-growth forests. Those forests, which covered 60 per cent of the
country as recently as 1960, now cover less than 30 per cent. And the
percentage is falling fast.

Until recently, Myanmar was one of the most thickly forested countries in
the world. Its vast ancient forests were among the richest and most
biodiverse in the world. It still contains more than 80 per cent of the
world's teak trees, along with many other rare hardwoods.

But when economic sanctions were imposed on Myanmar's military
dictatorship in the 1990s, the regime responded with a dramatic increase
in logging concessions and timber exports to bolster its revenue and
maintain its power. Today it has one of the world's highest rates of
deforestation.

More than 9 per cent of Myanmar's legal foreign earnings came from logging
in 2002, according to official data. But the actual amount of timber
revenue is believed to be more than twice the official figure, with huge
amounts of the logging trade illegal or unrecorded.

China's timber imports from Myanmar surged by 40 per cent last year,
according to the environmental watchdog Global Witness, which has
published a detailed report on the booming trade. More than 20,000 Chinese
labourers are working in the logging business in Myanmar, the report said.
In one border town alone, more than 100 private companies are involved in
logging or timber processing.

Western analysts in Myanmar say the timber trade is continuing to expand.
Satellite photos show that one of the last old-growth forests in
northeastern Myanmar is swarming with Chinese loggers. "Timber is
constantly being smuggled, despite everything," said a United Nations
official in Myanmar. "There's corruption on all sides."

In the Wa region in northeastern Myanmar, authorities concede that more
than 80 per cent of forests have been clear-cut by Chinese logging
companies. Wa officials claim that they imposed a ban on timber sales to
China two months ago. Yet a visit to Wa towns such as Pang Sang and Mong
Pawk reveals that the trade is still booming, with big piles of lumber,
many sawmills, and dozens of Chinese logging trucks on the streets. The
trucks are driven by Chinese migrant labourers, who say their business is
still strong.

Mr. Bao, the regional boss, says his officials have arrested more than 10
people for violating the ban on timber sales. But he acknowledges there
are loopholes in the ban. Trees can be cut down for approved business
projects, for example. "Maybe they used that as an excuse to cut down
lumber and sell it to China," he said.

Indeed, even as the ban was supposedly being imposed in the Wa territory,
Myanmar's forestry ministry was giving new logging concessions to the Wa
and other regional authorities on its northern and eastern borders.
According to local media reports, the Myanmar authorities are aiming to
double their earnings from timber exports.

The problem is compounded by the heavy involvement of Myanmar's drug lords
and military authorities in the timber business. Drug traffickers have
often invested in logging companies as a way of laundering their profits.
And the military regime has awarded valuable logging concessions to its
business cronies and political allies in exchange for their support. "The
local population has benefited little in economic terms, but the powerful
have enriched themselves," the Global Witness report said.

_____________________________________

May 14, Xinhua News Agency
South Korea to help upgrade ASEAN highway's Myanmar section

Yangon: South Korea will help Myanmar upgrade its sections of road which
constitutes part of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
highway, a local journal reported Friday

Under an aid program of the ASEAN3 (China, Japan and South Korea), the
Mawlamyine-Mudon-Thanbyuzayat highway in Myanmar will be upgraded to ASEAN
Class-3 one and such aid by South Korea is the first of its kind, the 7Day
News quoted the Ministry of Transport as saying.

Most roads in Myanmar are at below class-3 and it was urged to complete
expansion of them to the set class by 2004 which is two lanes with 10 feet
(about 3 meters) wide on each side country-wise.

ASEAN designated four classes of highway --primary, class-1, class-2 and
class-3. The top class, which is primary with concrete roads, has four
lanes which provides control system.

Of Myanmar's 4,543-km highway, 147 km are of class-1, 1,032 km class-3 and
3,163 km below class-3. There remains 201 km involved in the incomplete
section of the ASEAN highway.

The ASEAN highway project comprises of 23 highways which stretches over
37,000 km. A meeting of ASEAN Transport Ministers held in Vietnam five
years ago agreed to upgrade all its highways to class-3 by 2004 and to
class-1 by 2020.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

May 14, Chicago Tribune
Torture survivors relive the horrors; Prison photos trigger relapse among
refugees from persecution - Oscar Avila

After seeing the photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the woman from El
Salvador called her therapist, convinced she was having a heart attack.

Now that the man from Guatemala has seen the photos, he can't sleep
without taking pills.

The man from Burma can sleep, but he is having that dream again, in which
he relives his own torture and considers killing himself to end the agony.

While the images of abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners provoke anger and
outrage in America, those who have survived torture feel a uniquely
intimate sense of hurt.

Matilde De La Sierra, who survived torture in Guatemala, was so sure that
the photos would upset her that she took pains to avoid all newspapers and
newscasts when she heard about the incidents.

Then last week, while distributing periodicals at the North Side
elementary school where she works, De La Sierra came across a picture of
an Iraqi man being led on a leash.

De La Sierra, 38, knew she should look away. She couldn't. After reading
the details of the allegations against U.S. troops, she sought refuge in
an empty office and wept.

Staff members at the Marjorie Kovler Center of Heartland Alliance, a
Rogers Park facility that treats torture survivors, said the barrage of
media coverage about the abuses in Iraq has required emotional triage
because many clients have suffered relapses of their own trauma.

The survivors come from countries where torture was a government strategy,
often claiming thousands of lives in unspeakable prisons. The abuses in
Iraq are not of that scope, but the images still offer reminders of their
own experiences.

"One of the most terrible effects of torture is that it never ends. It's
with you all your life," said Mario Gonzalez, the center's clinical
supervisor. "It's not like you can take a pill to erase all that from your
mind."

Htun Aung Gyaw, 50, said he was tortured for nearly five years when he was
imprisoned in Burma for helping organize student protests in support of
democracy. Gyaw recounted how guards beat him with bamboo sticks and
hanged him from the wall by his hands.

Gyaw, like the other torture survivors interviewed for this article,
received political asylum in the United States, meaning they presented
credible evidence to an immigration judge or asylum officer that they were
unable to return to their home countries because they had been persecuted
or feared persecution.

Gyaw was distraught that the U.S., which he and other activists held up as
a model, could allow even the abuses captured on camera.

"I felt really like I was slapped in the face," Gyaw said. "I always
wanted America to be morally super, not just a superpower."

Even though torture survivors logically understand that they aren't at
risk of torture in the United States, the allegations strike at their
sense of comfort, said Stevan Weine, director of the International Center
on Responses to Catastrophes at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"When you have the idea that America is your place of refuge, that America
is a safe place and a good place, then to see something that suggests
Americans are not always morally correct, that can be troubling," said
Weine, who has worked with torture survivors from the Balkans.

For other torture survivors, the images from Iraq revived their bitterness
that the United States helped prop up the regimes that tortured them.

Neris Gonzalez, 49, of El Salvador said she felt like she was being
tortured again when she saw the pictures from Iraq, which reminded her of
times when she was bound with a hood over her head and was attached to
wires that emitted agonizing electrical shocks.

Gonzalez said that, sadly, she isn't surprised to hear the allegations
because she knows U.S. military advisers provided assistance to the
Salvadoran regime that tortured her for organizing church programs.

"Can you imagine that 25 years after my torture, I'm seeing the same
images in Iraq?" Gonzalez said. "When I see that, my body trembles, but I
try to keep my mind strong so I can survive."

Sister Dianna Ortiz, director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors
Support Coalition International in Washington, plans to lobby members of
Congress and pressure the Bush administration to release all documents
related to Abu Ghraib.

Several survivors said the response from the U.S. government and public
will determine whether the abuses in Iraq were merely another blow to
human dignity or a chance to affirm the principles of justice.

De La Sierra said she was devastated to hear that some of the soldiers'
families and associates were trying to explain away their actions in the
prison.

"Stop it! How can you say that?" De La Sierra said, her voice breaking.
"This is not an excuse. Can't [the soldier] say, `No, I will not do this
to this person'?"

Anthony Ibeagha, a native of Nigeria who works with the torture
coalition's Chicago chapter, realizes that more photos and videos will be
jarring to torture survivors like himself.

Like Gonzalez, Ibeagha said he felt physical pain in the same places where
he had been tortured.

Upon seeing the images, "I felt stabbed again. It's all about pain, all
about memories. These are memories I had tried to run away from."

But Ibeagha has never shied away from painful truths. He said Nigerian
soldiers tortured him because of his Catholic faith and for criticizing
environmental damage caused by Shell Oil Co. and other firms.

"These pictures are the truth. We need to let people know that torture is
real," said Ibeagha, 36. "What is at stake is human life. Not just one
human life but our humanity as a people."


OPINION/OTHER
_____________________________________

May 12, New Nation
Constructive engagement with pariah state - Anand Kumar

Most countries of the world seem to be changing their strategy towards
Myanmar to bring democracy back there. When the military junta had
recaptured power there in 1988, the world had expressed its anguish by
treating it as a pariah state and by imposing sanctions. It was thought
these sanctions would force the military regime to relinquish power and
restore democracy. But that did not happen.

A number of experiences elsewhere in countries like North Korea, Cuba and
Iraq have shown that these sanctions do not cause a regime to fall. In
fact the dictators and the regimes held by them continue and sanctions
only end up causing suffering to the people. Sometimes, sanctions are also
imposed with the belief that it would provoke the disgruntled elements to
rise against the dictators. However, this has hardly happened in most of
the places.

In the case of Myanmar, most countries now find it difficult to treat it
as a pariah state for three reasons. First, she is strategically located.
It has long borders with India, China and Thailand. Burma acts as a
gateway for India to Southeast Asia. It is impossible for India to get
access to this prospering region through land route without crossing
Burma.

Burma is also important ior India trom the security point of view. It
affects India's internal as well as external security. A number of
insurgent groups operating in Northeastern India have established their
bases and training camps in Burma (Myanmar) . Without the support of Burma
India could not even dream of dealing with these groups. These groups
operate with immunity from the Burmese territory because of diffcult
terrain and dense forests. Earlier, they had no fear of crackdown by the
ruling military junta of Burma as India was not having a cordial relation
with it.

Recently, Myanmar has gained in importance for another reason to
international community. There has been new finds of massive oil and gas
reserves in the already very resource rich country. India's Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh Ltd and Gas Authority of India
Limited (GAIL) are collaborating with South Korean firms Daewoo and Korea
Gas Corporation (KOGAS) to drill for 47.3 trillion cubic feet of gas in
Burma's Arakan state. These new explorations would benefit energy starved
India, China and Thailand.

When the military junta had captured power in Burma in 1988 India had
voiced its concern and wanted immediate restoration of democracy. It also
followed the policy of boycott and sanctions and did not keep any relation
with the army ruled Burma. But this policy of India did not do any good.
India only lost all communication with Burma. Using this opportunity China
tried to increase its influence in a big way. It emerged as Yangon's
closest ally since the military coup and has also been the junta's main
weapons supplier. Along with China, Pakistan also tried to develop close
relations with Burma in military and economic fields.

The increasing influence of China and presence of Pakistan in a crucial
and strategically located country like Myanmar raised alarm bells in
India. It forced India to change tack and now Burma figured prominently in
its Look East Policy. India was also forced to look east as the SAARC was
not moving due to its rivalry with Pakistan. Besides Sri Lanka, It was not
able to sign any successful free trade agreement with either Bangladesh or
Pakistan. In a situation like this, Southeast Asian countries were a good
option where India could have traded through land routes. Moreover, these
countries were having a very successful experience under ASEAN. India also
tried to involve Burma through another trade grouping, BIMST-EC, which
recently successfully signed a free trade agreement.

This change of policy towards Burma is not limited only to India. A number
of other prominent countries have now adopted a similar approach Burma's
next-door neighbour Thailand, which is also a prominent member of ASEAN,
is following a policy of 'constructive engagement' with it. To restore
democracy in Burma it has started Bangkok process.

Another Southeast Asian neighbour of Myanmar, Malaysia enjoys a close
relationship with it and has played a pivotal role in bringing the country
into ASEAN in 1997. Burma is likely to assume the chairmanship of ASEAN in
2006. To further boost the relationship with Burma, Malaysia recently
decided to set up a joint commission. Malaysia is the fourth largest
investor in Burma after United Kingdom, Singapore and Thailand. In 2002,
its total trade with Burma amounted to US$3 15.9 million with exports
amounting to US$239.2 million and import amounting to US$162.5 million.

Most recently, Ireland, the current president of the European Union, has
also established diplomatic relations with Burma h~ping that it will help
promote democracy in the Southeast Asian nation. Its Foreign Minister
Brian Cowen believes that this step of Ireland will help it to contribute
more directly in promoting the process of democratisation and national
reconciliation there. Among European Union countries, now only Luxembourg
does not maintain diplomatic relations with Burma.

The Japanese foreign policy towards Burma has also changed. Though the
country is still refraining from large-scale aid, it has decided to give
some new aid to Burma due to what it calls "signs of progress toward
democracy in the country".

Meanwhile, the Myanmar appears to have made some progress. It has been
able to reach a cease-fire agreement with the largest ethnic insurgent
group, the Karen National Union (KNU). This has put to halt a
five-decade-old conflict in the country. In August last year, Prime
Minister General Khin Nyunt announced plans to reconvene the national
convention to draw up the guidelines for a new Constitution, At that time
he also outlined his seven-stage "roadmap to multi-party : democracy". The
national convention is the first stage of this process. The military junta
also plans to lift restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy (NLD), which was effectively shut down in May, as part of
confidence-building measures. However. a section within the country still
believes that Junta is not serious in its effort to restore democracy. It
only wants to use the money from selling gas for buying arms and has no
intention to invest it in the betterment of local people. They believe
that only a democratically elected government has the mandate to trade
these resources. The pro-democracy advocates in Burma have formed an
anti-gas exports committee, a body of several exiled pro-democracy Burmese
groups. They have also threatened foreign companies with attack if they
continue with their effort.

The isolation of military regime in Myanmar (Burma) has not helped the
cause of restoration of democracy in Burma. It only succeeded in driving
it closer to North Korea and created a larger danger to local people and
the international community. Both the regimes were suspected to be trading
in nuclear technology and in arms and ammunition. On the other hand closer
integration of Burma with the world community seems to be showing better
result. In such a situation, the solution appears that interaction with
Burma should be maintained with a closer watch on the progress made
towards democracy so that the ruling junta does not once again halt the
process as was the case earlier.


STATEMENT
_____________________________________

May 14, National League for Democracy
Statement

Aspiring towards the construction of a democratic union of Burma, the
National League for Democracy wished to cooperate in the National
Convention organized by the SPDC. Therefore the NLD intimated to the
authorities the following minimal conditions that would enable the party
to participate in the National Convention.

(1)     The "six objectives" should be regarded merely as suggestions to
be considered in the drafting of the constitution.

(2)     The "104 principles" too should be regarded as suggestions to be
considered for the drafting of the constitution, not as binding
principles.

(3)     At the time when the NC was previously held, all political
parties, including the NLD, should be able to choose their own
representatives freely.

(4)     All NLD offices sealed since 30 May 2003 must be reopened and
party signboards restored where they have been forcibly removed.

(5)     U Tin U, vice-chairman of the NLD and General Secretary Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi must be released from detention.

(6)     There was agreement with the authorities with regard to point (3)
above, but with regard to the others

(7)     While it was indicated that in connection with point (1) and (2),
there may be discussions through syndicate meetings, there has been no
clear declaration of how the authorities intend to handle these issues.

 (8)    The authorities did not agree to conditions (4) and (5).

The NLD does not believe that under these circumstances it will be able to
benefit the nation by participating in the  National Convention. Therefore
it has been decided that the NLD will not attend the National Convention.


C E C
Yangon