BurmaNet News, November 6-8, 2004

[Editor]

November 6 - 8, 2004, Issue # 2596


INSIDE BURMA
South China Morning Post: Hardline chief tightens grip with more sackings
DVB: Burmese intelligence officials sentenced to 22 years imprisonment
Xinhua: Myanmar leader assures turned-in armed groups of no policy change
Irrawaddy: Coup attempt might have prompted purge

ON THE BORDER
AP: Guerrilla group arrests Myanmar soldiers after scuffle
Xinhua: Up to 30 illegal Myanmar workers nabbed in Thailand
Reuters: Indian troops capture rebel stronghold in Manipur

BUSINESS
Independent Mon News Agency: New money transfer law likely to harm people
in Burma

REGIONAL
Reuters: Asia takes aim at growing child sex trafficking
S.H.A.N.: Czech foreign minister counsels dissidents to be pragmatic

INTERNATIONAL
Independent: Pariah or paradise? Burma gives tourists hard sell

OPINION / OTHER
Baltimore Sun: Rogue state

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 8, South China Morning Post
Hardline chief tightens grip with more sackings - Larry Jagan

Supporters of ousted PM are 'retired' as Yangon moves to change foreign
policy

Bangkok: Hardline leader Senior General Than Shwe has continued to tighten
his grip on power, sacking more supporters of former prime minister and
military chief Khin Nyunt and signalling a significant shift in the
country's policy towards the outside world.

Interior minister Colonel Tin Hlaing and labour minister U Tin Winn were
"permitted to retire" on Friday, according to weekend reports in the
state-run media.

Both ministers were the last of Khin Nyunt's supporters in the cabinet.
They were also the only remaining senior ministers who had close contacts
with diplomats and international organisations.

Four other ministers, the deputy ministers for agriculture
Brigadier-General Khin Maung, industry Brigadier-General Kyaw Win,
livestock breeding and fisheries Brigadier-General Aung Thein and science
and technology Nyi Hla Nge were also sacked.

They were also believed to have been close to Khin Nyunt, who was sacked
on October 19 and remains under house arrest.

Yesterday, state media accused Khin Nyunt of corruption, and said he was
ousted to prevent the disintegration of the country's military. Initially,
the junta said he had been "permitted to retire for health reasons".

But General Thura Shwe Mahn, the ruling council's third-ranked member,
said Khin Nyunt was involved in a major corruption scandal and had also
threatened the unity of the armed forces by launching an investigation of
regional commanders.

Thura Shwe Mahn said Khin Nyunt's actions "could have led to the
disintegration of the Tatmadaw [military] and posed extreme danger for the
country".

Since then, hundreds of military intelligence officers have been detained,
many of them also charged with corruption. A few have been allowed to
retire and others have fled - and are in hiding along the border and in
China and Thailand.

Many of the businesses that had been effectively run by military
intelligence have also been seized, including the country's sole private
internet company Bagan Cybertech, according to Myanmese business sources
in the capital.

Sources said Myanmar's new leaders had become concerned that Khin Nyunt
was steering the country on a course where it was becoming dependant on
China.

"China has constantly tried to endorse Khin Nyunt and strengthen his
position within the regime by providing financial and technical
assistance," a Japanese government official said.

The much younger Lieutenant-General Soe Win has taken over as prime
minister. Diplomats in Yangon believe he is a staunch Than Shwe ally.
Exiled opposition activists allege he was the chief architect behind the
violent attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage in
May last year.

The latest purges also signal a major shift in foreign policy. U Tin Winn
and Tin Hlaing often led Myanmar's negotiations with international
organisations such as the United Nations and the International Labour
Organisation and their removal has ended, at least temporarily, Yangon's
engagement with those bodies.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

_____________________________________

November 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese intelligence officials sentenced to 22 years imprisonment

It has been learned that Maj Moe Thu, commander of Military Intelligence
[MI] Battalion No 16 based in Mandalay, and MI personnel, arrested in
connection with former Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt, were all sentenced
to 22 years imprisonment yesterday.

Sources close to family members said a special military tribunal, formed
under an urgent situation, passed the judgments citing corruption and
insubordination. The family members were informed only about the
22-year-sentence and were not allowed to meet with them. They also did not
know which jail they were sent to. The family members of the MI remarked
that this personal experience would make the MI personnel become more
considerate because they would likely know how the families of political
prisoners felt.

_____________________________________

November 7, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar leader assures turned-in armed groups of no policy change

Yangon: Myanmar leader Lieutenant-General Thein Sein has said there will
be no change in the attitude toward 17 former anti-government armed groups
that have returned to the legal fold, following the recent change of prime
minister.

Thein Sein, new first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), gave the assurance here on Saturday when meeting with ethnic
leader in northernmost Kachin State Special Region-1 U Za Khun Ting Ring,
state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday.

Thein Sein said "the government would continue to work together with the
groups in line with the national policies based on consolidation of
national solidarity and perpetuation of the union, " adding that the
government would continue to provide assistance to border areas and
national races development tasks.

Thein Sein, who is also chairman of the National Convention Convening
Commission, vowed that his government would continue to implement without
fail the seven-point political roadmap to democracy laid down in August
last year, stressing the importance to strive for the success of the
ongoing constitutional national convention, the first step of the roadmap,
with greater momentum.

At the meeting, U Za Khun Ting Ring pledged royalty to the government,
saying that his party, the New Democratic Army of Kachin (NDA-K), which
made ceasefire with the government in 1989, would continue to attend the
national convention until it concludes.

Myanmar's political roadmap was outlined as undergoing a national
referendum on the draft of the constitution through the national
convention, holding a general election to produce parliament
representatives and forming a new democratic government .

Accordingly, as the first step of the roadmap, the national convention was
resumed on May 17 this year but was adjourned again on July 9 after
discussions on detailed principles for power sharing in the sectors of
legislature, executive and judiciary. The convention was boycotted by the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

The government has declared that the national convention would be resumed
in the open season as originally scheduled.

_____________________________________

November 8, The Irrawaddy
Coup attempt might have prompted purge

Three Burmese state-run newspapers on Sunday published the full speech
made by Defense Services Chief of Staff Gen Thura Shwe Mann to a meeting
of Burmese businessmen on October 24. The address explained the
government’s justification for the October 18 palace coup that ousted
Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt, who concurrently headed the Office of the
Chief of Military Intelligence, or OCMI.

Shwe Mann, now widely regarded as the third most powerful man in the
country, said that the erstwhile PM and members of his family and staff
had been involved in corruption and posed a serious threat to the country
and its armed forces.

“He committed certain acts that were not legal and his family was involved
in bribery and corruption,” the media quoted Shwe Mann as telling the
meeting.

In his speech, the general hinted that his government will reveal some of
the serious threats that were posed to the state and the armed forces. He
repeatedly charged that Khin Nyunt, his family and staff were involved in
bribery and corruption and that he had to be removed to prevent the
disintegration of the armed forces. Shwe Mann hinted that the prime
minister had disobeyed orders.

“The top leadership felt urgency to take pre-emptive action,” said an
observer in Rangoon. “They felt that they had to contain him before it was
too late.”

There have been rumors circulating in Shan State that OCMI officers
stationed there planned to assassinate Lt-Gen Thein Sein, at that time
Secretary-2 of the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC, and
fellow SPDC member Lt-Gen Aung Htwe, Chief of the Bureau of Special
Operations 2 (which encompasses Shan and Karenni States) while they were
on an official visit in mid-October.

The unlikely plot involved the laying of 25 landmines at a golf course in
Tachilek that the two were scheduled to play at. There have been further
rumors that the Burma Army interdicted a cache of around 200 weapons held
secretly by OCMI in Rangoon. Neither rumor has yet been substantiated.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 8, Associated Press
Guerrilla group arrests Myanmar soldiers after scuffle

Mae Sot: A guerrilla group with close ties to Myanmar's recently ousted
prime minister detained about 20 government soldiers after a brawl near
the Thai border.

Members of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army rounded up the soldiers late
Sunday after they allegedly beat two DKBA officers in Myanmar's U Lay Hta
village, Thai border security officials said Monday.

It wasn't immediately known what sparked the conflict.

The Myanmar soldiers' commander, Lt. Col. Thein Zaw, asked the DKBA
battalion commander to release the troops, but was rebuffed, the officials
said on condition of anonymity.

Further details weren't immediately available and there has been no
reaction from Myanmar's ruling junta.

The DKBA is aligned with Myanmar's ruling military, but relations between
the two sides have deteriorated since Gen. Khin Nyunt was sacked on Oct.
19 for alleged corruption. Authorities have placed him under house arrest.

Khin Nyunt, a relative moderate in Myanmar's ruling clique, engineered
numerous cease-fire agreements with ethnic rebel groups.

He was replaced by Lt. Gen. Soe Win - a moved Western analysts have
generally viewed as a shift to even more hardline policies in Myanmar,
which has been widely accused of human rights abuses and stifling
democracy.

Analysts along the Thai border believe the Myanmar army has recently tried
to crack down on the DKBA. Last week, DKBA troops scuffled with Myanmar
soldiers who were seizing unlicensed vehicles, many of which belonged to
the guerrillas.

Thai officials have tightened border security in the area to guard against
possible fighting between the two sides, a Thai army official said.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962. The
current group of generals has been in power since 1988 and has drawn
international condemnation for its human rights abuses and refusal to
allow democracy.

It held elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power when the
democratic opposition, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
won a landslide victory.

_____________________________________

November 7, Xinhua News Agency
Up to 30 illegal Myanmar workers nabbed in Thailand

Bangkok: Thai police arrested about 30 Myanmar nationals on Sunday who
were believed to have entered the country illegally with a plan to work at
a factory in Ratchaburi province, Thai News Agency reported.

The arrests were made at about 3:30 a.m. (2030 GMT, Saturday) after
highways police tried to stop a pickup car on a highway in the southern
province of Prachuap Khiri Khan but the driver did not stop the car and
drove past the checkpoint. Police then followed the car which drove
towards the common border between Thailand and Myanmar.

The driver then stopped and fled the scene, said the police, adding that
they found 13 Myanmar men, seven women and about 10 children hiding inside
the car.

Police said the illegal workers had crossed the Thai border of Ranong
province and were on their way to work at the factory in Ratchaburi.

The factory owner had allegedly paid the unidentified person who brought
the illegal workers into the country at 3,000 baht ( about 73 US dollars)
per head and many illegal workers had successfully entered the country in
the past.

_____________________________________

November 6, Reuters News
Indian troops capture rebel stronghold in Manipur

Guwahati: Indian troops have captured an important rebel stronghold in the
northeastern state of Manipur, close to the border with Myanmar, the army
said on Saturday.

Around 6,000 Indian troops have been deployed in a major military
operation against rebel-controlled regions of Manipur this week, with the
help of Myanmar which has closed its border to cut off escape routes.

The army said it had re-established control over Sajik Tampak, a stretch
of thick forested mountains where an estimated 2,000 rebels had set up
their camps.

"Sajik Tampak is no longer a 'liberated zone' because of the army
presence, but the area is yet to be completely cleared of rebels," Major
Santanu Dev Goswami, military spokesman in Imphal, the capital of Manipur,
told Reuters.

"Operations are going on every day to clear the remaining areas."

Civil government officials have reopened offices in small towns and
villages in the area, which had been out of bounds for several years. The
area lies in Chandel district, just 80 km (50 miles) south of Imphal.

The Indian army says it has attacked more than 100 rebel bases in Manipur
since Monday, killing more than 20 rebels and capturing 34.

Intelligence officials said many rebels remained trapped in the jungles
and forests, while others had deserted because they were running out of
food. Locals said the rebels were clearly feeling the pinch.

"Since the attack in Sajik Tampak started there has been a quantum
decrease in activities and movement of the underground cadres," said N.
Ibungo Choubi, editor of the Manipur Mail newspaper.

Myanmar's military ruler Senior General Than Shwe visited Delhi last month
and promised to cooperate in the battle against the rebels.

The camps belonged to the powerful United National Liberation Front
(UNLF), the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and other smaller armed groups,
which have been battling Indian rule in the state for three decades,
Goswami said.

The rebels accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral and forest
resources and neglecting its economy and welfare.

Manipur has seen several popular demonstrations this year against a
controversial law that gives the army wider powers to arrest and kill
suspected rebels.

India's seven northeastern states, home to more than 200 ethnic and tribal
groups, have been racked by separatist and tribal insurgencies since
independence from Britain in 1947.

New Delhi says many of the rebel groups have bases on the other side of
porous borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar.

Last year, Bhutan did a military sweep to throw Indian rebels out of the
tiny Himalayan kingdom.

But India is less happy with the cooperation it is getting from
Bangladesh, concerns highlighted in the defence ministry's annual report
issued on Friday.

"Bangladesh has not been responsive to India's concerns regarding the
presence and activities of Indian insurgent groups from the northeast ...
on Bangladesh soil," the report said.

The report also complained that Dhaka had not responded to Indian concerns
about large-scale illegal migration, border crimes and the activities of
Pakistan's military intelligence agency within Bangladesh.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS

November 6, Independent Mon News Agency
New money transfer law likely to harm people in Burma

The Burma military government’s new law against illegal transfer of money
or goods or information is likely to kill people in Burma, says  U Xar Ni
Thwe, general secretary of the Southern Thailand-based Federation of Trade
Unions – Burma (FTUB).

The new law sections act No. 35 (Kha), declared Nov. 3 and signed by
Senior Gen. Than Shwe bars illegal transfer of money and other items, and
providing information for such activity. By the law, the government can
give people transferring money a three-year sentence.

“How do migrant workers in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore transfer money
to their family and have contact with their families?” said U  Zar Ni
Thwe. “If they cannot transfer money, people inside Burma will be starved
and all die. Most of them rely on money from family members working in
neighboribg countries as they have very little income for survival,”

“If the government through their economic business can make enough income
for people it is okay to amend the law. However, the military government
cannot reform it or work widely with the exchange. The real exchange rate
in Burma is one U.S. dollar to more than 900 Kyat. But the military
government exchange rate is 6 Kyat to one U.S. dollar, U  Zar Ni Thwe
added.

“However people cannot accept the government exchange rate. They cannot
pay eight baht to get one kyat as the government wants. The real exchange
is one baht to 22 kyat. This is why people transferred money in an illegal
way,” U Zar Ni Thwe explained.

After the government set up the new law, local military governments have
been trying to seize satellite phones used for transferring money. Many
local businessmen who transfer money are stopping work and hiding their
satellite and chordless phones.

“I have stopped transferring money in Hpa-an, Moulmein and Yem” said  Nai
Myit, (not his real name). a businessman based in Three Pagoda  Pass. I
told my workers to take the phones back.”

Many local businessmen transferring money in Southern Burma have been
stopped from doing their work and some businessmen’s phones were seized.

“Three satellite phones in Kwan-hlar village, Mudon Township, that  people
in the area relied on for contact with their families in neighboring
countries, were seized by local authorities,” Min Thit Swe reported.

“We face the problem now. I cannot contact my home. All phones in my
village are closed,” migrant worker Win Naing told IMNA.

Because of the economic crisis and civil war many Burmese people go to
neighboring countries to work to support their family in Burma. Everyday
hundreds of people flee Burma to neighboring countries to seek work.
According to Thailand Migrant news in July, more than 906,000 Burmese
migrants worked in Thailand.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 8, Reuters News
Asia takes aim at growing child sex trafficking - Karishma Vyas

Chiang Mai: In a small brothel in northern Thailand, six girls, their
bodies covered in bruises and cigarette burns inflicted by drunken
customers, cower inside dark, grimy rooms.

It is one of the more horrific memories of Ben Svasti's time on the front
line of the fight against child trafficking.

"One girl even had duct tape stuck across her mouth to stop her from
screaming," said Svasti of anti-trafficking group TRAFCORD, which helped
rescue the teenagers, most of whom had been smuggled across the border
from impoverished Myanmar.

Despite much-vaunted efforts to stamp out child trafficking in the region,
officials from the United Nations and 20 Asia-Pacific countries meeting in
Bangkok on Monday admit that far from going away, the problem is getting
worse.

"The forces driving the trafficking and sexual exploitation of children
are stronger and more vigorous than in the past, despite changes in laws
and government policy," said Gopalan Balagopal of U.N. children's body
UNICEF.

"Children continue to be sexually exploited, particularly through the use
of the Internet, promotion of sex tourism and a lack of education about
HIV/AIDS which make some people believe sex with children can cure the
disease," he said.

It is impossible to estimate the number of children trafficked each year
across the world, although all estimates run into the hundreds of
thousands.

In Thailand, welfare groups say the total could be rising by as much as 20
per cent each year, earning the country the dubious reputation of being
southeast Asia's human trafficking hub.

Identified as a preferred transit point and destination for regional child
smuggling rings, Thailand now sits on a U.S. human trafficking 'watch
list'.

UPHILL STRUGGLE

Thai police complain they are fighting an uphill battle against an
increasingly sophisticated industry worth up to 100 billion baht ($2.45
billion) a year, according to Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Desperately poor young girls from Myanmar, Cambodia and China are lured
into Thailand with promises of lucrative jobs, only to end up in massage
parlours and karaoke bars where customers will pay as much as 30,000 baht
for virgins.

Others are flown as far as Australia, Japan, South Africa and the United
States to be kept as brothel sex slaves.

Given its long, porous borders and rampant police corruption, getting the
children into Thailand is easy.

Panupong Singhara, a police commissioner in the northern city of Chiang
Mai where the problem is most acute, said suspected traffickers have been
alerted to police raids and government officials and police implicated in
trafficking busts.

"Corruption is one of my biggest concerns," Panupong said. "If evidence is
found against any government official either from police or any other
agencies, the person will be immediately charged and prosecuted."

It is not only foreigners who get sucked into the dark world of child
prostitution in Thailand.

Near Chiang Mai's historic Tapae Gate, Kwan, a 14-year-old boy who fled an
abusive step-father two years ago, walks the streets until the early hours
looking for clients for sex.

"I know this is not the right thing to do but when I need money I have to
do it," Kwan told Reuters.

Svasti said it was time governments in the region paid more than just lip
service to the problem.

"Child trafficking and sexual exploitation is a form of slavery and it's
something that most people in the West feel is historical," said Svasti.
"But when it comes to slavery and sex slavery, it's very much alive."
($1=40.79 Baht).

_____________________________________

November 6, Shan Herald Agency for News
Czech foreign minister counsels dissidents to be pragmatic

Pragmatism, the art of treating things in a practical and realistic  way,
is the solution to Burma’s problems, the Czech Republic’s youthful Deputy
Foreign Minister Petr Kolar urged Burma exiled activists yesterday during
an informal dinner in Chiang Mai.
“During the interim period that followed the Velvet Revolution (that
overthrew the Czech Communist Government in 1989), one of the old
establishment became prime minister and another defense minister," he
recalled.

Kolar was speaking to an ad hoc group of Burma exiles, including Teddy
Buri, president of the Members of Parliament Union; Maung Maung, general
secretary of the National Council of Burma; and Aung Naing Oo, former
student activist and a researcher for the U.S.-based Burma  Fund, among
others.

Aung Naing Oo replied that Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest in 
Rangoon, is ready to deal with Burma's military rulers for a give-and-
take settlement, according to his most recent information. The dinner
lasted from 7 to 9 p.m.

The dissidents have plenty of reasons to care about the Czech Republic,
according to a report:
•   It went through an experience of authoritarian rule with
some similarities to Burma.
•   Former Czech opposition leader and president Vaclav Havel
is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a big supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi
•   The Czech Republic has been a member of the European Union since May 1
and a strong advocate of Burma’s pro-democracy movement.

Czech ambassador Jiri Sitler also advised the activists on the importance
of a transition plan. “The general public will stop praising long-term
activists and will want to know who has a plan for the country," he was
quoted as saying.

The Czech Republic was part of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1993, the other
part being Slovakia. The two parted, as friends, on New Year’s Day in
1993.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 8, The Independent
Pariah or paradise? Burma gives tourists hard sell - Rachel Stevenson

"Few places on earth remain untouched in their natural beauty and charm.
The ancient land of Burma is an exception to the rule," oozes the glossy
brochure from the tour company, Orient Express, which promises to show
travellers the best of "this fascinating, unspoilt" exotic Asian paradise,
a mysterious world of gilded pagodas, sacred temples and charming people.

This week, a delegation from the Burmese tourist board and a number of
Burmese travel companies are due in London to entice more tourists to
discover its beauty and experience its "colourful mixture of festivals,
costumes and cultures". But the visit from the Burmese tourism industry to
a global travel exhibition has angered human rights campaigners and
incurred the displeasure of the Government.

What the delegation will not mention is that, behind the idyllic beauty
and peaceful Buddhist monuments shown in the holiday brochures, lies one
of the most brutal military dictatorships in the world, responsible for
the rape, murder and torture of thousands of its people. Nor will it say
that the cash brought to the country by tourists helps to fund a regime
described by the United Nations as a "crime against humanity".

One of the Burmese tour groups that has taken a stand at the World Travel
Market in London"s Docklands this week, gushes: "What makes the
destination most enjoyable is the people, who have been described as the
most friendly, happy-faced and open-hearted." The UN paints a different
picture, describing the country as a "saga of untold misery and suffering,
oppression and exploitation".

In this "laid-back" country, playing a pro-democracy song can carry a
seven year prison sentence. More than 60 per cent of the "smiling faces"
live on less than 60p a day and only 19p per person is spent on health
care.

According to the UN, the military junta treats the population as an
"unlimited pool of unpaid forced labour and servants at their disposal".

Under sanctions from the US, and in the face of a failing economy, the
regime has been trying to establish a tourism industry. Holiday villages
are being hastily built to accommodate package tours, but reports suggest
forced labour is being used.

The brochures promise to take tourists to Burma"s "mysterious heart". But
they make no mention of another important site, the house of Aung San Suu
Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma, who has been denied power
for 15 years and is kept under house arrest? She has urged tourists to
stay away, saying their presence condones the regime.

The ruling junta is granted a passing reference by some tour operators.
Abercrombie & Kent, for example, says some travellers have "concerns about
the current political regime" there. But it believes "travel dollars mean
work for Burmese people".

Many hotels, however, are state owned, and campaigners believe relatives
or close friends of the military own much of the private tourism industry.
"Every tourist that visits funds the regime and helps to keep them in
power," said Anna Roberts, campaigns officer at the Burma Campaign UK.

As the US has banned Burma from carrying out financial exchanges in
dollars, Burma Campaign UK believes the hard cash exchanged at the
airport"s bureau de change helps the Government pay for its arms. It has
called on Jack Straw to ban the delegation from entering the country. The
Foreign Office wrote to the exhibition organiser, Reed Elsevier, to draw
attention to the human rights abuses in the region and the Government"s
view that tourists should not visit Burma.

A spokesman for Reed Elsevier said: "The individuals have permission to
come to Britain and the World Travel Market is a non-political event."

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 8, The Baltimore Sun
Rogue state

In relative terms, Gen. Khin Nyunt was the moderate face of the
illegitimate military junta suppressing democracy in long-suffering
Myanmar, as Burma's generals renamed their country. But his so-called road
map to democracy -- and his talk of reaching an accommodation with
arrested pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- proved not much more
than an illusion to deflect international pressure on the repressive
regime.

Nonetheless, Gen. Khin Nyunt's recent sacking as prime minister by the
junta's strongman, Gen. Than Shwe, is yet more bad news from Yangon. Even
more depressing was the decision of India, the world's largest democracy,
to go ahead with a planned state visit by Gen. Than Shewe on Oct. 29 in
the immediate wake of the purge. And that's been followed by Myanmar's
welcoming at a U.N.-sponsored meeting of six ministers from Mekong River
basin nations just last Friday and China's hosting of Gen. Khin Nyunt's
replacement last week at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations
investment conference.

The United States and, to a lesser degree, the European Union have
economic sanctions in place against Myanmar. But this rogue state survives
because of the continued tolerance of its neighbors. Having long seduced
Thai business interests, the regime now has China and India vying over it
for influence. We hope that someday we can expect better of China than
support for Myanmar's generals, but in the meantime we certainly do expect
a lot more from India, Southeast Asia and the United Nations.

As with North Korea, rogue states don't persist in isolation; they depend
on the sufferance or blind eye of outsiders. In the case of Myanmar -- a
major exporter of AIDS, drugs and refugees -- it's long past time for its
neighbors to take a stand. Incredibly, the regime has been accorded the
2006 ASEAN chairmanship; that organization ought to now strip Yangon of
that honor and suspend its participation in that organization. Moreover,
without a significant loosening of the junta's iron grip on human rights
in Myanmar, it's also time for the U.N. Security Council to discuss adding
its own sanctions.