BurmaNet News, July 13, 2004

[Editor]

July 13, 2004, Issue # 2515

"The Bangkok process is dead
Burma's road map to democracy is at a dead
end, Asian and European foreign ministers mutter disappointment and do
absolutely nothing of substance, and poor Mr Razali climbs out of the
trench once more."
- BCUK’s John Jackson in a letter to UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan, July 12, 2004


INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: Myanmar's population hits 53 mln
Tempo: Indonesian Ambassador to Myanmar admits his office was bugged
ABCNEWS.com: Condom campaign

BUSINESS
UPI: China signs 11 agreements with Myanmar
People Online via GNW: Vietnam-Myanmar trade to soar 60% this year

REGIONAL
AFP: Indonesia summons Myanmar envoy over suspected embassy bugging
AP: Annan calls for faster reform in Myanmar, Thai spokesman says
People’s Daily: Chinese premier, Myanmar PM hold talks

INTERNATIONAL
BBC via Kyodo: EU to send special envoy to seek solution to Asia over
Burma spat

PRESS RELEASE
Burma Campaign UK: Razali & Burma Abandoned by United Nations


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

July 13, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar's population hits 53 mln

Yangon: Myanmar's population has hit 53 million with men  accounting for
26 million and women 27 million, state-run newspaper The New Light of
Myanmar reported Tuesday.

Myanmar holds a favorable population density ratio of only 78 persons per
square kilometer, a report released on the occasion of the World
Population Day was quoted as saying.

As Myanmar has an abundance of arable land, a huge potential for increased
agricultural production remains to be tapped, the report stressed, adding
that the country's full food security contributes to regional and
international food demand.

Meanwhile, a rural development plan has been integrated into the national
development plan to uplift the socio-economic life of the rural populace
that constitutes over 70 percent of the population, it said.

Moreover, thanks to the efforts of the government, the gap between
different regions of the country and between urban and rural areas has
narrowed significantly, it added.

With regard to the education sector, the report said Myanmar enjoys a very
high adult literacy rate which stands at 92.2 percent of the population.

Thanks to the launching of the mass activities to get all the
school-going-age children in school, the primary school enrollment attains
high rate of 95 percent, the report said.

As for higher education, the country now has 156 universities and colleges
compared with 32 in 1988 when the government took office, it said,
claiming that Myanmar women enjoy full equality in educational
opportunities.

Regarding healthcare, it said that conventional maternal and child
healthcare has been given special priority ever since the national
healthcare system was established.

Recognizing that the reproductive health is a crucial component in human
resources development, Myanmar's national health policy places high
priority on strategies that seek to encourage, strengthen and intensify
actions for improving reproductive health, the report said.

Myanmar has pledged full commitment to the international Conference on
Population and Development program of action, determining to continue to
play an active role in population-related program while enhancing its
collaboration and cooperation with all nations and the UN agencies as well
as local and international non-governmental organizations.

______________________________________

July 13, Tempo Interactive
Indonesian Ambassador to Myanmar admits his office was bugged

Jakarta: The Indonesian Ambassador for Myanmar, Wyoso Projowarsito, has
admitted that his office at the Indonesian Embassy for Myanmar in Yangoon
was bugged.

“My phone line and that of Col. Yayat Hidayat, the Embassy’s defense
attaché, were bugged,” Wyoso told the Tempo News Room by phone on Monday
(12/07).

He claimed that he did not know how long the Embassy’s office had been
bugged.

Previously, there was a report regarding how the Indonesian Embassy in
Canberra, Australia, had been bugged.

These tapping incidents at Indonesian Embassies have forced the House of
Representatives (DPR) Commission of Defense and Foreign Affairs to demand
Indonesian foreign minister Noer Hassan Wirajuda immediately take action
in securing all Indonesian embassies and representative offices abroad.

Wyoso admitted that he was shocked at the finding of bugging equipment at
his office.

“I assumed that we had a very close diplomatic relationship with Myanmar,”
he stated.

The Myanmar government has denied having bugged the Indonesian Embassy in
Myanmar.

“We are not involved in nor did we plan this bugging,” said the Myanmar
Embassy’s charge d’affaires in Jakarta, Aung Bakyu.

He added that the Myanmar Ambassador for Indonesia, Kyaw Myint, was yet to
be summoned by the Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs.

Bakyu stated that the Myanmar deputy foreign minister, Ukhin Maung Win,
was scheduled to meet with Indonesian Ambassador to Myanmar Wyoso
Projowarsito.

This meeting, Bakyu said, was aimed at explaining that the Myanmar
government had not been involved in the bugging.

______________________________________

July 12, ABCNEWS.com
Condom campaign - Leela Jacinto

Promoting safe sex in an isolated, conservative society

Rangoon: Grinning sweetly beneath his oversized pith helmet, he stares out
of billboards, posters and sports magazines, urging people in a
conservative land once shrouded behind the Bamboo Curtain to use a condom.

The mascot for a subsidized condom distribution program in Burma, this
congenial chameleon is at the forefront of the fight against AIDS in a
country that until recently refused to acknowledge the presence of the
killer disease.

Drawn from a popular Burmese folk tale, the chameleon is the pictorial
promoter of Aphaw ("Trusted Friend" in Burmese), a condom distributed by
Population Services International, a U.S.-based nongovernmental
organization.

He's also the product of an extraordinary partnership between an American
husband and his Burmese wife, the fruit of a romance that has transcended
international borders, overcome antithetical political systems, and
harnessed the matchmaking power of the Internet.

In 2001, when Khin Khin Kyawt, president of a leading Burmese marketing
agency, first met John Handley, a Richmond, Va.-based engineer, during a
trip to the United States, the Burmese military junta was barely coming to
terms with the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the Southeast Asian nation.

Infections on the Rise

Isolated under the "Burmese Way of Socialism," a paranoid national policy
that kept the country hermetically sealed for decades, Burma — also known
as Myanmar — has been ruled by one of the world's most reviled military
juntas for more than four decades.

Out of touch and largely ostracized by the international community, the
junta spent the 1990s dismissing global concerns about an AIDS epidemic as
"imperialist ploys" and maintained that the "impeccable morals" of the
Burmese would insulate the nation from the disease.

But Burma is sandwiched between Thailand, Laos, China and India —
countries where the number of HIV infections has been on the rise — and
"high-risk" transient populations frequently cross the borders. A lethal
mix of geography, poverty, low awareness, poor health care, political
tyranny and a history of diplomatic ostracism have combined to put Burma
on the brink of a massive HIV/AIDS crisis today, experts say.

Across the mountains, jungles and refugee camps along the Thai-Burma
border, in the Thai capital of Bangkok today, tens of thousands of
delegates from across the world are attending the International AIDS
Conference.

They are meeting as a UNAIDS report released last week warned that
international efforts need to be focused on Asia, where an estimated 7.4
million people are HIV-positive and about 1.1 million people became newly
infected last year alone.

While Burmese infection rates tend to vary depending on the sources, the
government estimates that about 180,000 people out of a total population
of about 52 million are HIV-positive. UNAIDS, however, puts the figure
anywhere between 170,000 to 620,000.

"It's a serious epidemic, and there are many challenges to be overcome,"
said Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS' country coordinator for Burma. "But we need to
respond quickly."

Waking Up to a Crisis

>From a state of dogged denial, the Burmese military junta has had to wake
up to the crisis threatening this sleepy, largely agrarian nation, where
time appears to have stood still in many of the villages, hamlets,
monasteries and teashops dotting the countryside.

It's a challenge Handley, 38, and Kyawt, 48, have pitched their creative,
cross-cultural might to try to address.

In July 2002, when PSI approached the couple to design an ad campaign for
a subsidized condom that would sell at the equivalent of about 2 cents,
they seized the opportunity to come up with a message that would appeal to
— and yet not disturb the sensibilities of — the Burmese public.

Kyawt said the first AIDS awareness ads in Burma seemed designed to
frighten the public, not teach them. "We used to have billboards about
AIDS that had a skull-and-bones image, and the message was, 'If you have
AIDS, you will die' — it was very scary."

‘Male, Handsome and Very Clever’

The idea for an accessible campaign that would encourage a vastly
uninformed populace to use condoms initially occurred to Handley, who
recalled a story about an amiable pothinyo — Burmese for "chameleon" —
that Kyawt told him shortly after he moved to Burma.

The couple met when Handley answered an ad Kyawt posted on an Internet
dating site during a visit to Richmond. Soon, they married, and Handley
decided to wrap up his life in the United States and join his wife's
marketing agency in Rangoon.

Remembering a story about a pothinyo who nods his assent when asked if he
wants a girlfriend, Handley thought it might make a good condom mascot.

"We were trying to reach men who were already acting outside their
control," said Handley, referring to the target group of transient
traders, ferry workers and truck and taxi drivers who tend to frequent
brothels in border towns and port cities.

"We didn't want to preach, we wanted a friend — someone who's male,
handsome and very clever 
 pothinyo," he supplied with a flourish.

By all accounts, the couple's campaign has hit the mark. The Aphaw
pothinyo can be seen today on billboards at markets, docks and taxi stands
in several Burmese cities. It has won a number of Burmese advertising
awards, and the lovable lizard has even featured in editorial cartoons in
popular magazines.

Combating Myths About What Causes AIDS

In the seedy central Burmese town of Aung Ban, a transport junction along
the country's north-south highways, the importance of culturally sensitive
awareness campaigns — and the challenges — came under a spotlight.

Seated nervously in a sparse community center near the town's vegetable
market, Myo Kyaw, a 33-year-old betel nut vendor, recalled the long
painful months before his wife's death of AIDS last August.

Gaunt, weather-beaten and HIV-positive himself, Kyaw only learned of his
wife's illness a few months before her death, he whispered, as she lay
wasted, withered and beyond any hope of recovery.

Now a volunteer "peer educator" at the community center funded by the U.N.
Development Program, Kyaw is painfully aware of the killer virus. But he
paints a gloomy picture about awareness levels among the truck drivers and
traders he encounters at his betel nut shop.

Misconceptions such as HIV being transmitted via insect bites and even
haircuts abound, he said. And it's not always possible to get people to
change "100 percent," he maintained, "since they are, after all, men."

Overcoming Political Problems

After a slow start, the public health awareness situation on the ground is
rapidly improving. Last year, the Burmese government committed $3.2
million to the National AIDS Control Program to help fund community health
centers and condom distribution programs, said Dr. Min Thwe, NAP deputy
director.

And despite their disapproval of the ruling junta — especially after the
re-arrest of pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003
— Western countries are starting to fund HIV programs in Burma.

While many industrialized nations — including the United States, Japan and
the European Union — tightened economic sanctions against Burma following
the Nobel Peace Prize winner's arrest, the HIV situation has led the
international community, along with several private foundations, to
contribute about $48 million toward AIDS prevention and treatment programs
in Burma.

The move has drawn criticism from some pro-democracy Burmese exile groups
based in Thailand, who say the military is attracting international aid
while mismanaging the economy and spending the bulk of its resources on
defense.

But Charles Petrie, Burma's U.N. Development Program resident
representative, believes political considerations should not stand in the
way of critical health services.

"What's clear is that issues such as HIV/AIDS should transcend politics,"
he said. "They should not be held hostage to political processes."

Leela Jacinto visited Burma in January for these interviews.


BUSINESS
______________________________________

July 13, United Press International
China signs 11 agreements with Myanmar

Beijing: China and Myanmar signed 11 economic and technological agreements
Tuesday in Beijing, during a visit by Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin
Nyunt.

Nyunt is on a seven-day visit to China that began Sunday, hosted by
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The agreements concern trade, energy, mineral
exploration, telecommunications and other industrial fields, according to
Foreign Ministry officials.

Wen praised border cooperation in fighting drug trafficking, China Daily
reported Tuesday. He also said China would continue economic assistance to
Myanmar.

China's top law enforcement official, Luo Gan, returned Monday from a
5-day visit to Yunnan province, which borders Myanmar and Laos, two of the
three nations making up the Golden Triangle, infamous for narcotics
production and trafficking.

Luo stressed the province's role in China's war against drugs and urged
local people to be aware of the importance of the current anti-drug
campaign.

He also said work must be done to ensure housing, food, clothing and
children's education for victims of a major mudslide in the province last
week. Luo called upon officials to "help solve the problems of ordinary
people of various ethnic nationalities and rein in factors of instability
from the source."

______________________________________

July 13, People Online via Global News Wire
Vietnam-Myanmar trade to soar 60% this year

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Myanmar is expected to increase by more
than 60% this year thanks to growing demand, according to Vietnam's
Ministry of Trade (MoT).

Bilateral export and import turnover will reach $ 50 million this year,
compared to last year's $ 30.8 million, and triple the sum of 2002, it
said.

Vietnam's exports to Myanmar last year rose 186% to $ 13 million, while
its imports increased 360% to $ 18 million, according to MoT statistics.

The MoT has organized two Vietnamese trade fairs in Myanmar over the past
two years to familiarize Myanmar's customers with Vietnamese goods.

The MoT said it would invite around 45 Vietnamese producers to participate
in the third Vietnam Trade Fair, expected to take place in the capital
city of Yangon from October 21-24.

Vietnamese products such as Saigon cosmetics, electric lamps, plastic
products and processed foods are quickly penetrating the Myanmar market.

Meanwhile, gemstones and timber are the two major products imported to
Vietnam. Than Chau Gemstones Company reported it imports around five tons
of Myanmar jade a year, which is of higher quality than Vietnam's.

Myanmar's timber is also in great demand from Vietnamese timber-processing
companies. To satisfy the demand in that sector, the MoT has asked the
Myanmar government to create more favorable conditions for Vietnamese
enterprises to import wood.

Co-operation in the banking sector has also been recommended to facilitate
trade between the two countries.

Myanmar has also suggested that a highway be built through Laos to link
Myanmar with Vietnam's northern Tay Trang border gate. The Ministry of
Transport is currently working with the Lao Public Transport officials to
develop a plan.

Vietnam and Myanmar signed an agreement on trade last December during a
trip by the Vietnamese Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen to Myanmar.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

July 13, Agence France Presse
Indonesia summons Myanmar envoy over suspected embassy bugging

Jakarta: The Indonesian foreign ministry summoned Myanmar's ambassador on
Tuesday to express "deep concern" about the suspected bugging of its
embassy in Yangon, an official said.

"We have summoned him earlier this morning to the foreign ministry,"
ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told AFP

He said Indonesia expressed its "deep concern" that a fellow Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member would undertake such action, a
violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

Natalegawa said "strong indications" that the embassy was bugged arose
when technicians found the telephone line operating at only 29 watts, not
the standard 50 watts.

"The Myanmar side said it's not uncommon in Myanmar for telephone lines to
be of that low wattage," Natalegawa said.

Myanmar's ambassador Kyaw Myint said he will convey Indonesia's concerns
to his government.

Indonesian legislator Djoko Susilo has said Myanmar apparently wanted to
know the real position of Indonesia and other ASEAN members on the issue
of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Indonesia on June 30 hosted the annual meeting of the group's foreign
ministers.

Political developments in military-ruled Myanmar, an ASEAN member, were a
major topic of that meeting, with some countries seeking a tougher line
against the junta.

The ASEAN foreign ministers called in a communique for a smooth transition
to democracy but made no mention of Aung San Suu Kyi. The European Union
criticised the statement, saying it failed to call for concrete actions.

Myanmar's government on Monday denied the bugging allegations.

______________________________________

July 13, Associated Press
Annan calls for faster reform in Myanmar, Thai spokesman says

Bangkok: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern Tuesday over
the slow pace of democratic reform in military-ruled Myanmar, particularly
the junta's failure to release detained opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, a Thai spokesman said.

Government Spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said Annan made the comments in
talks with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra at Bangkok's Government
House. Annan is visiting Thailand to attend the 15th International AIDS
Conference.

"The U.N. sees that the democratic development is too slow and should be
faster and clearer, especially the release of Aung San Suu Kyi," Jakrapob
told reporters. "Thailand as a neighboring country must find the right way
to help how to achieve this."

Jakrapob said Thai officials told Annan that Thailand planned to use "a
special method" to bring about rapid political progress in Myanmar, also
known as Burma. He did not elaborate.

A senior Thai official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Thai
plan includes an unofficial visit to Bangkok by Myanmar Prime Minister
Gen. Khin Nyunt in the near future to discuss political developments.

The meeting would focus on drafting guidelines for future talks with
Myanmar officials and international delegates in Thailand as part of the
Bangkok Process, a forum launched last year by Thaksin's government.

The guidelines would later be discussed with Myanmar's top leader, Senior
Gen. Than Shwe, the official said.

Twelve Asian and European delegates attended the first Bangkok Process
meeting in December last year and agreed that the resumption of aid to
Myanmar - choked off by Western sanctions - should be tied to political
reforms.

It was unclear when the new meeting would take place.

On Friday, Myanmar adjourned a constitution-drafting convention after
nearly two months of closed-door discussions. It was unclear when it would
resume.

The convention, which began May 17, has been billed by the junta as a
first step toward restoring democracy, but has been dismissed by the
opposition as a sham. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party
boycotted the convention because the government refuses to release her
from house arrest.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been in detention since May last year,
when the military cracked down on her party after a violent clash between
her followers and government supporters.

The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 general election but was not
allowed to take power by the junta, which seized control in 1988 after
brutally suppressing mass pro-democracy protests.

______________________________________

July 12, People's Daily Online
Chinese premier, Myanmar PM hold talks

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said that China is willing to deepen its
cooperation with Myanmar in all fields to comprehensively promote the
development of bilateral relations based on the principles of peaceful
co-existence.

During talks with visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt Monday in
Beijing, Wen said consolidating traditional friendship and deepening
mutually beneficial cooperation is the common aspiration of the two
peoples and a common goal of the two governments.

With China and Myanmar enjoying longstanding "paukphaw" (fraternal)
friendship, Wen said China is willing to expand co-operation in all
sectors.

Bilateral exchanges are necessary in today's world as the international
situation gets more complex and unstable, the premier said.

The premier promised China will provide economic assistance to Myanmar so
it can improve its capacity for self-development. He suggests the two
sides further expand their trade and select more cooperative projects.

Wen expressed his appreciation to Myanmar for its effective cooperation in
cracking down on drug trafficking, and hopes the two countries will set up
a cooperation mechanism on border administration to deal with
transnational crime.

Khin Nyunt agreed with the Chinese premier's proposals, and hopes both
countries can focus on cooperation in the fields of trade, energy,
industry, telecommunications, mining and agriculture.

Wen also stressed what occurs in Myanmar is internal affairs of Myanmar
and should be settled by the Myanmar Government and people. But he said
China hopes Myanmar can make efforts in speeding up political settlements
of existing disputes and move toward democratic progress so as to enhance
stability and peaceful development.

Nyunt said his government will continue to promote the road map for
democratic progress and to achieve national unity and political stability.

After their talks, the two leaders attended the signing ceremony of 11
documents on economic and technological co-operation.

The agreements are mostly concerned with trade, energy, mineral
exploration, telecommunications and other industrial fields, according to
Foreign Ministry officials.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________

July 13, BBC via Kyodo News Service
EU to send special envoy to seek solution to Asia over Burma spat

Brussels: The European Union said Monday it will send a special envoy soon
to Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries to seek resolution
of a row over Myanmar (Burma)'s proposed entry into the Asia-Europe
Meeting.

At a meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers named former Dutch Foreign
Minister Hans van den Broek as special envoy. He is to leave for Asia in
about two weeks.

The European Union said it has confirmed the importance of ASEM in
Asia-Europe relations and it will explore a solution to the stalemate over
Myanmar so the ASEM summit will go ahead in October as planned.

The row over Myanmar began when the European Union refused to allow
Myanmar into the ASEM, citing Myanmar's dismal human rights record, after
Asian members proposed Myanmar join the forum along with Laos and
Cambodia.

The continuing dispute led to cancellation of an ASEM finance ministers
meeting that had been scheduled for this month.


PRESS RELEASE
______________________________________

July 12, Burma Campaign UK
Razali & Burma Abandoned by United Nations

The Burma Campaign UK today accused governments and UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan of ignoring the crisis in Burma and using his special envoy as
a fig-leaf to cover the UN's failure.

In a strongly worded letter to Kofi Annan, Burma Campaign UK Director John
Jackson compares Mr T. S. Razali to "a lone first world war soldier,
pushed over the trench to be shot down by the generals every time, while
the UN and foreign ministers of Asia and Europe dine on the valiant effort
he's making."

After four years, a dozen visits to Burma, maybe as many refused entries
to the country, thousands of miles covered in international lobby efforts
- Razali has been unable to persuade the junta to negotiate a programme of
reform. His mediation has failed to achieve the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi, a substantive dialogue between her and the regime, any serious
reduction in the number of political prisoners, or any hint at democratic
reform within that country. The regime told Mr Razali that it would do all
of these things - it has now reneged on every single one.

"There is no doubt that the job is a poisoned chalice and I genuinely
believe Mr Razali has tried his best," says John Jackson. "But we have to
take a hard look at what's been achieved, and simply put his pleas and
efforts have been categorically rejected by the regime. His role remains
useful, however, to governments who hide behind his mandate and refrain
from taking any serious action themselves."

Kofi Annan has failed to respond to a recent call from the National League
for Democracy. U Lwin, the NLD Secretary has said: "The ball is now in the
court of the U.N. We'll have to see what (Secretary General) Kofi Annan
will do." He added that it was now time for the UN to implement its
resolutions rather than continue to have them ignored by the regime.

There have been glimpses of Mr Razali's frustration over the lethargy that
Asian and other governments have shown towards Burma. He has, over the
last year, said publicly that governments should do more. He has also said
that the generals in Rangoon would sit up and listen if the UN Security
Council took action. Though he uses diplomatic language he is basically
saying that the UN and the international community are failing the people
of Burma.

John Jackson's letter goes on to ask: "Given that the current strategy has
failed, what new strategy is being considered?"

"Just as the ANC during Apartheid called on the world community to impose
economic sanctions against South Africa, so too has the NLD with regard to
Burma. The NLD, which won 82% of the seats in the 1990 election, must not
be ignored by the UN simply because Burma's regional neighbours choose to
ignore the plight of her people. If the front line states during Apartheid
had ignored the ANC and the plight of the black population in South
Africa, the ANC's call for sanctions would have been no less legitimate or
powerful. I believe the case to be the same for Burma. There seems to be a
tragic logic that if the people of Burma are both oppressed by their
rulers and abandoned by neighbouring governments, they receive less
support from the United Nations."

"The Bangkok process is dead", says Jackson, "Burma's road map to
democracy is at a dead end, Asian and European foreign ministers mutter
disappointment and do absolutely nothing of substance, and poor Mr Razali
climbs out of the trench once more."

For more information contact John Jackson, Director of the Burma
Campaign UK, on 020 7324 4712.