BurmaNet News, November 23, 2004

[Editor]

November 23, 2004, Issue # 2607


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Prisoners arrive at Myanmar's main jail before anticipated release

ON THE BORDER
New Era Journal: Early morning raid escalates conflict between KNU and HRP
Irrawaddy: Burmese workers’ rights champions win South Korean award

REGIONAL
AFP: Asia at critical stage of AIDS battle as infections top eight
million: UN
AP: ASEAN leaders' summit to focus on Myanmar, terrorism, economy
AFP: Thai, Myanmar premiers to meet at ASEAN conference

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Heroes of Press Freedom

PRESS RELEASE
Reporters Without Borders: Win Tin and 12 other journalists still in
prison despite anticipated release

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 23, Agence France Presse
Prisoners arrive at Myanmar's main jail before anticipated release

Yangon: Five trucks arrived at Myanmar's largest jail on Tuesday believed
to be carrying some of the nearly 4,000 prisoners expected to be released
by the military regime.

The trucks were carrying up to 250 inmates serving terms of around three
years and had been brought in from other jails for final checks, according
to officials outside the prison.

They were not released by late Tuesday from Insein jail, Yangon, where a
small group of families had been waiting outside. None is believed to have
been released since Friday.

Myanmar's military leaders on Thursday ordered the release of nearly 4,000
inmates they say may have been wrongly imprisoned by a now-dissolved
military intelligence unit. The opposition said red tape meant the process
could take a week.

Only several hundred have so far been released, among them a couple of
dozen dissidents including the leader of 1988 student protests, Min Ko
Naing, the country's number two political prisoner after democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi who is under house arrest.

"They said they would release 3,937 people and I don't see why they would
not free them," one analyst told AFP.

One woman outside the prison, Ma May Maw, 36, said she was hopeful for the
release of her husband who was jailed in 2003 with two others after
writing to the Red Cross over the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I came here Saturday and I came again today hoping that he will be
released because they are innocent," she said.

Amnesty International says there are about 1,350 political prisoners in
Myanmar.

The opposition National League for Democracy won elections by a landslide
in 1990 but has never been allowed to govern by the military, which has
run the nation since 1962.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 23, The New Era Journal (www.khitpyaing.org)
Early morning raid escalates conflict between KNU and HRP - Maxmilian
Wechsler

The evening of October 17 was typically quiet and uneventful evening at
the Hongsawatoi Restoration Party (HRP) headquarters situated inside
Burma, about 2 km away from Prachuap Khiri Khan province of Thailand.

As there was no report on movement of the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) troops who never came nearby anyway  none of  the 35
guerrillas and their 120 relatives living in the camp, not their leader
Colonel Pan Nyunt, were expecting that their lives would change so
dramatically within a few hours.

Only one HRP soldier was assigned that night to the forward observation
post near the base, and he was subdued by the group of invaders that
entered the compound without a problem before he could raise an alarm.

An eyewitness who fled into Thailand described the events the next
morning: “We woke up at 5.30 am next day to the noise of gunfire and
explosions coming from all directions, with many men, some in camouflaged
uniforms, running everywhere and shouting in Karen language: ‘Surrender,
surrender!’ A pandemonium erupted, with our people running for their
lives, while the gunmen fired indiscriminately at anyone and everyone, not
even sparing women and children.”

HRP spokesman Nai Kon Chan Nai said: “After the gunfire, seven people,
including all five children of Col. Pan Nyunt, aged from 5 to 19, were
found dead, and some others were injured. Among them was the Colonel, who
initially escaped from the scene but was shot in his neck, leg and foot
after he returned to the base to search for his family. His wife, Mi Hla
Yaing, suffered with shrapnel wounds on her shoulder. Both were treated at
the Thai hospitals.”

Thai authorities rendered medical and other humanitarian assistance to the
victims, despite the rogue behavior of the group, whose main activity has
been not to fight the SPDC but to extort money from villagers and business
people on both sides of the border. They even fired mortar rounds on a
Thai army patrol which intercepted them on Thai soil in 2003. Recently,
they opened fire on a Thai helicopter that flew over their territory.

The September 18 attack on the HRP base wasn’t launched  as one might
expect  by their principal enemy, the SPDC, but their supposed
comrades-in-arms  the 4th brigade of Karen National Liberation Army
(KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU).

The HRP spokesman also claimed that a Muslim group of the All Burma Muslim
Union who are under the KNLA command took a part in the raid.  ”Altogether
about 60 men marched towards our main base under darkness and avoiding all
mine-fields, an indication that they might receive an ‘inside’ help. They
remained there for five days and before retreat, they took away weapons,
ammunition, communication equipment and everything else of value. As they
were leaving they burned to the ground all the buildings and 50 huts where
our people lived. A few days later, SPDC troops arrived and took over the
wreckage.”

Mahn Sha, General Secretary of the KNU, confirmed that elements of the 4th
brigade attacked the base, but insisted that the operation was planned
secretly by low-ranking soldiers without advance notice or permission from
their battalion or brigade commanders. They were joined by ex-KNU members,
a Muslim group and local residents who had been terrorized by the HRP
guerrillas and requested a help from them.

“I am really very, very sorry that innocent children were killed because
they had nothing to do with the misdeeds of the HRP commanders. This
should have never happened,” said visibly upset Mahn Sha.

However, he pointed out that the HRP men had entered an area of the KNLA’s
6th brigade near to the Three Pagoda Pass few years ago, collected money
from local people, bought weapons and fought their New Mon State Party
(NMSP) brothers outside the area. After the mission, Mahn Sha said, they
returned to the KNU territory and did the same all over. “We have warned
them many times to stop this kind of action because it causes many
problems for everyone and it benefits the SPDC. But they didn’t listen to
us. As a result, in early 2003 the local people asked us to help, so we
attacked them and killed 12 HRP guerrillas.”

The HRP has been embroiled in controversy since its foundation in 2001 by
153 deserting NMSP soldiers with their weapons and ammunition. The NMSP
and the HRP had a verbal agreement that their troops would never attack
each other. The HRP didn’t keep the bargain though, instead of fighting
the SPDC, their fought with NMSP troops on several occasions. Because of
this conflict as well as other internal problems, the HRP were forced to
leave the stronghold opposite to Thailand’s Sangkhlaburi district in late
2002 and established the new headquarters 300 km down south opposite to
Prachuap Khiri Khan province.

With a lack of discipline, the HRP gradually lost even the few friends and
allies it had in the opposition movement, such as some Mon monks living in
Thailand who arranged some food and some little money  for them and also
gave them political or  military advice, usually wrong.

In 2003, when the Thai military ordered Col. Pan Nyunt to stop all
criminal activities along the border, he threatened to fight everyone with
several thousand strong army he supposed to be recruiting. The HRP
continued its path of self-destruction by kidnapping six Burmese and one
Thai workers in January 2004 and setting them free after their company
paid 5 million baht or US 122,000, ransom.

With the exception of a Mon-run newsletter, the attack on HRP base has not
been much publicized in other media, but word of the incident has gotten
around and shocked the exile community around the world. “It is apparent
that the laws of the jungle have been applied,” said an exile in Thailand
who wished to remain anonymous in fear of reprisal.

A Palaung leader, Mai Aik Phone, expressed his opinion more bluntly: “It
is very unfortunate that Mon and Karen kill each other. They should be
united instead, and fight our common enemy, the SPDC. They should find a
solution by talking to each other and solve the problem by peaceful means.
If the HRP members are really involved in criminal activities inside the
KNU areas, they should have been arrested. Killings won’t solve anything,
but will inflame hatred between the two ethnic groups. The KNU said it was
sorry but the children and others were dead already! If one is killed, the
others will want  revenge.Then the cycle will continue.”

A senior member of the NMSP says that if the HRP families wish to return
to NMSP areas, they are all welcome and nothing will happen to them.
“However, as for Col. Pan Nyunt and his guerrillas are concerned, there
could be some problems to accept them and we need some time to talk.”

But the defiant Colonel Pan Nyunt vowed from his bed in Prachuap Khiri
Khan hospital to keep fighting the SPDC, brushing aside the advice of the
Thai military that his remaining guerrillas should surrender their weapons
and to leave the border area. Allegedly after consulted with a monk on the
phone, he demanded that the Thai authorities  allow him to undergo a major
surgery in Bangkok and to arrange a meeting with the SPDC for cease-fire
talks. This was totally rejected by the Thai side.

Several HRP members openly admitted that their group had always lacked
political leadership and there were numerous conflicts between the HRP
commanders, mainly on the distribution of money. “The main dispute between
the HRP and the KNU that led to armed hostilities involved the collection
of taxes from the cross-border cattle and wood business,” claimed Nai Kon
Chan Nai.

“Whatever the dispute between the HRP and the KNLA, the only ones who will
benefit are those who want to inflame the ethnic problems in Burma,”
concluded Mai Aik Phone.

_____________________________________

November 23, Irrawaddy
Burmese workers’ rights champions win South Korean award - Shah Paung

A humanitarian group defending workers’ rights in the Thai border town of
Mae Sot has won a major South Korean “justice and peace” award, it was
announced Monday.

South Korea’s Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Foundation awarded its 2004
“Justice and Peace” award to the Young Chi Oo Burmese Workers’
Association, which defends the rights of Burmese migrants working in Mae
Sot. The Association recently scored a big success in winning compensation
for Burmese workers sacked by Thai textile factory owners for protesting
against their conditions of employment.

The South Korean award is worth $US 10,000. The South Korean branch of the
National League for Democracy (Liberated Area), or NLD-LA, announced that
the prize is to be presented on December 10, Seoul’s Human Rights Day. Moe
Swe, head of the Young Chi Oo Burmese Workers’ Association, said a
representative of the Association would collect the award.

Apart from defending migrant workers’ rights in Mae Sot, the Young Chi Oo
Burmese Workers’ Association runs two clinics and “safe houses” for
dismissed workers and for women who leave the sex trade. It also gives
health education courses and occupational training.

The Tji Hak-soon Justice & Peace Foundation’s annual “Justice and Peace”
awards date back to 1997. The Foundation publishes a monthly newsletter
and campaigns for greater awareness by governments, international
organizations and corporations, and for the adoption of policies ensuring
respect for human rights.

The foundation is named for the late Korean human rights activist Tji
Hak-Soon, outspoken opponent of military rule in the 1970's. His friends
and followers created the Foundation in his memory in 1997.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 23, Agence France Presse
Asia at critical stage of AIDS battle as infections top eight million: UN

Bangkok: The booming sex trade has contributed to an HIV/AIDS crisis in
Asia with more than eight million people now living with the virus and
numbers rising sharply among women, the United Nations reported on
Tuesday.

The number of infected Asians jumped by one million over the past two
years, bringing the regional total to 8.2 million, according to an annual
AIDS epidemic report by UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation.

Some 5.1 million of those live in India, the highest number in the world
except for South Africa. The virus is spreading fastest in Asia and
Eastern Europe.

China had some 220,000 new infections since 2002 to take the total to
840,000. Infections among East Asian women jumped by 56 percent over the
same period, representing the largest global increase for women.

Asia, the world's most populous region with 3.9 billion people, has long
been identified by the UN as prone to an epidemic which threatens to be as
bad as in sub-Saharan Africa, home to two-thirds of the people with HIV.

The report revealed alarming increases in infection rates among
intravenous drug users but said the sex industry was still the main driver
of transmissions.

"Most new infections in Asia occur when men buy sex, and large numbers of
men do so," said the report. It said up to 10 percent of Asian men pay for
sex.

Many sex workers were still prepared to work without condoms because some
clients were willing to pay much higher prices for unprotected sex, it
said.

Fewer than one in five sex workers in Jakarta massage parlours reported
using condoms.

Men who slept with sex workers were often responsible for passing the
virus to their wives and girlfriends, who are now being infected in record
numbers, said UNICEF regional AIDS advisor Wing-Sie Cheng.

"For women, remaining faithful is no longer a good enough precaution to
ensure they are safe from the risk of HIV infection," she told AFP.

The report said illegal drug injectors were the second largest factor in
the spread of HIV in many Asian countries, particularly in Indonesia,
Nepal, Vietnam and parts of China.

"One in two injecting drug users in Jakarta now test positive for HIV,
while in cities such as Pontianak (Indonesia) more than 70 percent of drug
injectors are being found to be HIV-positive," the report said.

It recommended more nations adopt opiate substitution and needle-exchange
programs to cut down on the use of dirty needles.

HIV epidemics were already deeply entrenched in countries such as India,
Myanmar and China where current anti-AIDS campaigns were making limited
headway, said the report.

It cited a 2003 survey which revealed that one in five Chinese could not
name a single way to protect themselves against the virus.

Despite the grim news the report said many Asian nations could still avert
potential epidemics and urged them not to waste a golden opportunity.

It said Bangladesh, East Timor, Laos, Pakistan and the Philippines all had
very low HIV prevalence rates and could stave off potential epidemics if
they adopted the sort of prevention programs adopted by countries such as
Thailand.

Thailand was widely praised in the 1990s for its unflinching response to
the AIDS epidemic, including promoting the use of condoms which helped
reduce new annual infections from a high of 143,000 in 1991 to 19,000 last
year.

The kingdom has also been a regional leader in the distribution of cheap,
generic anti-AIDS drugs which have allowed thousands of people in the
region living with HIV to continue relatively normal lives.

The UN agencies estimated that 3.1 million people will have died worldwide
from AIDS in 2004 -- more than 540,000 of them in Asia -- the most in any
one year and 200,000 more than in 2003.

They said nearly 40 million now have HIV, the highest toll in the 23-year
history of acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

_____________________________________

November 23, Associated Press
ASEAN leaders' summit to focus on Myanmar, terrorism, economy - Vijay Joshi

Democracy's apparent dead end in Myanmar, the terrorist threat from a
Muslim insurgency in Thailand, and the flight of foreign investment to
colossus China are on the diplomatic plate for Southeast Asia's annual
summit next week.

This year's Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting will be hosted
by the poorest and most isolated member, Laos.

It's a coming-out party for the communist nation, and also the first
regional parley for new leaders in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and
Myanmar.

"What's new in the field today? Terrorism, diseases like bird flu and
SARS, and the economic relevance of ASEAN," said Ramon Navaratnam of the
Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, a non-governmental think-tank, in
Kuala Lumpur.

The 10-nation ASEAN opens its conference Thursday in the Laotian capital
Vientiane, culminating in a leaders' summit next Monday and Tuesday.

The group has been working on an ASEAN Free Trade Area, a market of 530
million people and a combined economy of US$ 1 trillion (euro 769
billion). But the countries remain a chain of disparate markets.

Some countries impose higher tariffs than has been agreed, goods can take
five weeks to clear customs and prices on identical items vary on average
31 percent across the region, said a report by consultancy McKinsey & Co.
in March.

Malaysia has stood out for measures protecting the region's only homegrown
car industry.

ASEAN was founded by Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and
Thailand in 1967 as a bulwark against communism. It evolved into a
political, cultural and economic club, with Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar
and Cambodia joining from 1985 to 1999.

Chin Kin Wah, a regional analyst for Singapore-based Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies, said ASEAN needs to push for greater economic
integration.

"How much further can we take this economic grouping? That is the most
important question," he said. "ASEAN has to take the grouping beyond just
tariff reduction."

ASEAN's economic relevance could be undermined by bilateral free trade
agreements negotiated by richer ASEAN countries, especially Singapore,
which has been impatient with the pace of liberalization.

"Singapore is a Trojan horse in ASEAN," Navaratnam said. "She is only
interested in her own interests ... and can't wait to move with others."

ASEAN also is worried by the growing influence of China and India, which
draw away foreign investment. The McKinsey report says ASEAN suffered a 66
percent decline in foreign investment and a 50 percent drop in economic
growth since Asia's 1997 economic crisis.

But when it comes to China, the region's mantra could be: If you can't
beat them, have them join you.

In Vientiane, an agreement will be signed by China and ASEAN to set up a
free trade area aimed at removing tariffs on merchandise goods by 2010.
The two sides are supposed to begin the tariff cuts in 2005.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will hold a separate summit with ASEAN leaders,
as will prime ministers of Japan, South Korea and India.

In addition, for the first time since 1977, leaders of Australia and New
Zealand are invited to the summit.

The four first-time attendees from Southeast Asia are Malaysia's Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Myanmar's Prime
Minister Lt. Gen. Soe Win.

Soe Win will likely face intense questioning in private from colleagues
about his military-ruled country's professed quest for democracy, which
has all but stalled, drawing unwanted criticism for the region from world
leaders.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, and
relatively moderate Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was fired last month on
corruption allegations.

Last week, the junta released nearly 4,000 political prisoners from jail,
apparently to blunt criticism, and that may placate ASEAN partners, said
Malaysian political analyst P. Ramasamy.

"I don't think ASEAN is ready to renounce its non-inteference policy," he
said. "I don't see ASEAN putting any pressure on the Myanmar government to
release Suu Kyi."

However, in a departure from protocol, Myanmar political's situation is
likely to be cited in this year's summit statement, Thai government
sources said on condition of anonymity.

Thailand also may face scrutiny - especially from Muslim-majority
countries Indonesia and Malaysia - over allegations of heavy-handed
tactics to control an Islamic insurgency in its southern provinces.

More than 500 people have been killed this year, including 85 at the hands
of security forces on Oct. 25.

"ASEAN needs to pay special attention to the situation in southern
Thailand as it can become a new flashpoint for terrorism in Southeast
Asia," political analyst Agos Yusuff said in Kuala Lumpur. "Thailand must
also stop treating this as a domestic issue but one with the potential to
threaten regional stability."

Thailand is ready to respond if the issue is "raised by any country," said
Kitti Wasinondh, the Thai Foreign Ministry's head of ASEAN affairs.

______________________________________

November 23, Agence France Presse
Thai, Myanmar premiers to meet at ASEAN conference

Bangkok: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Tuesday he would meet
his new counterpart from Myanmar for the first time at the ASEAN summit in
Laos later this month.

Thaksin said Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win asked for a meeting during the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Laotian
capital Vientiane.

The two-day meeting of leaders starts on November 29.

Thaksin told reporters in Bangkok the talks "would include security,
economic and drugs cooperation" issues but did not mention detained
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been kept under house arrest
since May 2003.

Lieutenant General Soe Win, a military hardliner, became premier last
month after his predecessor, General Khin Nyunt, was sacked and placed
under house arrest for corruption.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 23, The Washington Post
Heroes of Press Freedom

When the Committee to Protect Journalists holds its annual awards ceremony
tonight in Manhattan, three of the winners will not be present. Aung Pwint
and Thaung Tun, Burmese writers and documentary filmmakers, have been in
prison since 1999, in Aung Pwint's case for "illegal possession of a fax
machine." The third winner, Paul Klebnikov, is being recognized
posthumously; in July he became the 11th journalist to be assassinated in
Vladimir Putin's Russia for doing his job. Mr. Klebnikov was American,
while the other 10 victims were Russian, but they have in common their
stubborn courage. According to the CPJ's executive director, Ann Cooper,
their cases have something else in common: No one has been brought to
justice in any of the killings.

Indeed, as Ukraine teeters between democracy and Putin-style thugocracy
(see above), the CPJ awards highlight the backsliding that has taken place
throughout most of the former Soviet Union. Except for the Baltic
republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, "there is less press freedom
now in the former Soviet Union than there was in the closing days of the
Soviet Union itself," Ms. Cooper said. One testament to that is an awardee
who will attend the ceremony tonight: Svetlana Kalinkina of Belarus. Ms.
Kalinkina was editor in chief of a popular daily newspaper until her
country's dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, made publication almost
impossible by means of official harassment, politically motivated tax
inspections, death threats and detentions. Today all media in Belarus are
under official control.

In Russia, a few small outlets maintain some independence, but Mr. Putin
has engineered control of all national television networks and most major
newspapers. Mr. Klebnikov, an American journalist of Russian descent and a
fluent Russian speaker, was one who would not be intimidated. In April, he
launched the magazine Forbes Russia, which was dedicated to supporting
reform by exposing corruption in politics and business. On July 9 he was
gunned down outside his Moscow office. Authorities have made some arrests
for show but have made no genuine progress toward solving the case.

The final awardee tonight will be Alexis Sinduhije, founder and director
of Burundi's Radio Publique Africaine. His station has hired ethnic Tutsis
and ethnic Hutus and seeks to promote peace between the groups in a nation
where peace has been in short supply. For that the station has been
subject to government intimidation and bans, the CPJ reports, but it
continues to broadcast. Like Aung Pwint and Thaung Tun, Svetlana Kalinkina
and the late Paul Klebnikov, Alexis Sinduhije carries on with a principled
defiance of the odds that most American journalists can only stand in awe
of.

______________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

November 23, Reporters Without Borders
Win Tin and 12 other journalists still in prison despite anticipated release

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association called on the
prime minister Soe Win to keep his promise and quickly release renowned
journalist Win Tin and 12 other journalist prisoners.

Win Tin was still in his special cell at Insein Prison in Rangoon, despite
news put out on 19 November that his name was on a list of prisoners whom
the military junta was about to release.

Several media and other organisations even reported on 20 November that
the 74-year-old Win Tin, arrested on 4 July 1989 and serving a 20-year
sentence, had already been freed.

Win Tin's friends told Reporters Without Borders that neither the prison
nor military authorities had told them about any early release.

Speculation about freedom for political prisoners followed an 18 November
announcement that nearly 4,000 prisoners were to be freed because of
"irregularities" on the part of military intelligence, headed by former
prime minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt.

Appealing for the release of Win Tin and 12 other journalists, the two
press freedom organisations said, "They were all sentenced for false
reasons and at unfair trials. They should all benefit from the decision to
release prisoners detained unfairly by former secret service heads."

As at 23 November 2004, at least 13 journalists were in jail in Burma: 
Aung Pwint, Sein Ohn, Myint Thein, Thaung Tun, Win Tin, Monywa Aung-Shin,
Ohn Kyaing, Sein Hla Oo, Thein Tan, Nay Min, Lazing La Htoi, Zaw Thet Htwe
and Aung Myint.

Sports journalist Zaw Thet Htwe, editor of the First Eleven, was sentenced
on appeal in May 2004 to three years in prison. His arrest was believed
linked to the success of the sports magazine, specialising in football,
and for its independent editorial line.  Amnesty International and
Reporters Without Borders have collected thousands of signatures on an
appeal for his release.

The military junta released four journalists in 2003 but has still not
freed journalist Sein Hla Oo whose seven-year prison sentence officially
ended in August 2001.

For more information about imprisoned Burmese journalists see: www.rsf.org
and www.bma-online.net.