BurmaNet News, December 16, 2004

[Editor]

December 16, 2004, Issue # 2621

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar junta putting Aung San Suu Kyi's health, safety at risk
Kao Wao: Refugees flee non stop into the kingdom

BUSINESS / MONEY
AFP: Myanmar signs oil and gas deal with Chinese-Singaporean consortium
Kyodo News Service: Mekong nations inch closer to smoother flow of goods,
people

REGIONAL
AFP: New warning of rights abuses as Malaysia steps up deportations

OPINION / OTHER
AFP: Quirky Yangon, a city like no other
IHT: Myanmar's Military: An Assault on Nature
Asia Times: Foreign crimes come home to the US

ANNOUNCEMENT
US Campaign for Burma: Burma, Realizing the Dream: The Second Annual
Working Conference of US Campaign for Burma

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 16, Agence France Presse
Myanmar junta putting Aung San Suu Kyi's health, safety at risk

Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party accused the
military regime Thursday of endangering party leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
life by restricting her access to a doctor and non-junta security

The famed pro-democracy leader's access to her doctor has been slashed
from three visits a week to one, while her personal NLD security detail
has been cut from 13 to six, the party said in a statement.

"We are very worried that she might be in danger," the NLD said, adding
the moves had come into affect Tuesday despite assurances by the junta
that arrangements would not be changed when it announced her detention had
been extended by one year last month.
The NLD called on the junta, known as the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), to take immediate steps to maintain Aung San Suu Kyi's
"health and security and (ensure her) life is not in danger".

"The SPDC has complete responsibility for whatever may happen to her while
she lacks security," the party said.

The statement said that when Suu Kyi had declared that the security
reduction was "unacceptable" the junta responded by abolishing the NLD
security detail altogether.

Yangon based analyst said the restrictions were being viewed as a very
serious threat to the leader's safety and health by her party.

"They (the NLD) are feeling very concerned and they are defending themselves

as they can," an analyst, who did not want to be named, told AFP.

"The most important message in all of this is that if anything was to
happen the responsibility would be on the regime," he said.

Several well placed sources had told AFP that junta security recently
started frisking her personal doctor making it very difficult for her to
send messages out to people.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since May last year when a junta-backed
mob clashed with her supporters during one of her political trips in
northern Myanmar.

The Nobel peace laureate underwent surgery in September last year, which
her doctor said was related to gynaecological and other unspecified
conditions.

The hospitalisation reignited international concerns over the health of
Suu Kyi, who has been seen by few people since the junta took her into
custody.

The charismatic 59-year-old has emerged as an icon of democracy during her
struggle against Myanmar's military, which has maintained an iron grip
over the impoverished Southeast Asian nation for more than four decades.

But she has paid a high price for her fame, including two previous long
spells under house arrest, one lasting for six years and the other for 19
months.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 despite a landslide election
victory by the NLD in 1990 that was never recognised.

______________________________________

December 16, Kao Wao
Refugees flee non stop into the kingdom - Mi Wossorn

Mon Refugees fleeing from Burma, especially from Southern Ye of Mon State,
continues despite the recent expiration date of registration work permits
in the kingdom.

Most refugees land in Mahachai, Samutsakhon, Thailand looking for
employment.  “We have no choice but to leave our village, there is
nothing, no work, no way to support ourselves, and we are targeted by the
junta.  There are grave human rights violations, which makes it hard to
survive,” said Nai Ong, a Yang Rae villager who just arrived at Mahachai
fishermen community two weeks ago.

Villagers from southern Ye township are subjected to human rights
violations at the hands of the Burma Army troops who seek to control Mon
state in its military offensive to annihilate the Mon armed group led by
Nai Hloin and Nai Bin, the splinter group from the New Mon State Party.

“We have to work not only to build their temporary camps (for the BA) but
also for their personal matters such as cooking, washing and night time
entertainment,” said Ms. Mi Yin a Chang Gu villager to Kao Wao recalling
her bitter experience back home in southern Burma.

“Many migrant workers from the Southern Ye area have gradually arrived
here over the past years seeking jobs.  Women and men come with the
stories about torture, inhumane killings, rape, extortion, forced labor
and portering which are common daily practices of the BA in those areas,”
said Nai Lahoin, a social worker in Mahachai..

Villagers from Kalawt to Khawza of Southern Ye are suffering from brutal
human right violations and oppression by the Burma Army who want to wipe
out the Mon armed group; the insurgents in turn use ambush tactics and
guerrilla warfare. Conflict between the groups has been raging now for
about (8) years non-stop. Villagers are being driven out of their homes
with nothing but the clothes on their back; many are often caught in the
crossfire between insurgents and Burmese Infantry (61) and Light Infantry
(299), which are rotationally deployed throughout Southern Ye Township.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / MONEY

December 16, Agence France Presse
Myanmar signs oil and gas deal with Chinese-Singaporean consortium

A Chinese-Singaporean consortium has signed an oil and natural gas
exploration contract with military-ruled Myanmar, state media said
Thursday.

The deal was signed Tuesday between state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas
Enterprise and a consortium including China National Offshore Oil Co
(CNOOC), Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corp, and Singapore's Golden
Aaron Pte Ltd, the New Light of Myanmar reported on its website.

The deal will see exploration of oil and gas at Block A-4 off the western
Rakhine coast and Block M-10 in the Gulf of Mottama in southern
Tanintharyi Division, according to the daily.

The report did not provide any further details on the deal.

Chinese firm Dian-Qian-Gui signed a similar exploration deal in October
for central Myanmar, while Focus Energy -- registered in the British
Virgin Islands -- also said it would spend a further four million dollars
on its oil operations.

Myanmar has signed dozens of oil and gas exploration and production
contracts with foreign firms.

The cash-strapped nation in September signaled plans to increase its total
oil production by 67 percent this year to reduce costly petrol and diesel
imports.

_____________________________________

Dec 16, Kyodo News Service
Mekong nations inch closer to smoother flow of goods, people

Ministers of six countries sharing the Mekong River moved a step closer
Thursday to freeing up the flow of goods and people in the region by
signing several documents needed for the move, and agreeing to complete
the remaining negotiations as early as possible in 2005.

In a one-day meeting here, the ministers of Cambodia, China, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam also agreed to seek more support from the
private sector to finance projects in their economic cooperation program,
which in one estimate is expected to cost $15 billion over the next five
years, participants said.

The ministers were meeting to reaffirm the political momentum for the
plan, known as the Greater Mekong Subregion program, which was first
incepted in 1992 and promises to bring highways, power grids and dams to
the region.

The aim of the plan is to bolster the poorest economies in the region and
narrow the gap with their richer neighbors.

The six countries 'renewed their commitment to the pursuit of the shared
vision of growth, equity and prosperity for the subregion,' a joint
statement adopted at the meeting said.

In the meeting, the ministers signed four documents aimed at facilitating
the transport of goods and people in the region, leaving eight more before
negotiations are complete.

As part of that plan, two members -- Laos and Vietnam -- separately signed
a memorandum of understanding that will pave the way for the start of
reduction of customs procedures at their borders into a single step.

The move, to be implemented in the first half of 2005, is expected to
significantly cut the time for customs clearance at their border,
according to the participants.

The ministers also agreed on the need to lure more private-sector funds
into the program, participants said. The Asian Development Bank, a key
partner of the plan, estimates that infrastructure projects alone will
require $15 billion over the next five years.

Among the key projects in the cooperation plan is the East-West Economic
Corridor, which will traverse Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. Other
routes include the North-South Economic Corridor connecting Kunming in
China's Yunnan Province to parts of Laos and Bangkok, and the Southern
Corridor linking Bangkok with Cambodia.

Leaders of the Mekong River countries are scheduled to meet in Kunming in
July 2005.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 16, Agence France Presse
New warning of rights abuses as Malaysia steps up deportations

A new warning of looming human rights abuses in Malaysia's major crackdown
on illegal immigrants was issued Thursday as deportations by sea and air
picked up pace.

An Indonesian navy ship took on 4,000 migrants at Port Klang near the
capital Kuala Lumpur overnight, bringing the total number of illegal
immigrants deported over the past six weeks to 134,665, government
officials said.

The ship is to make two more trips before the end of an amnesty period on
December 31. The Indonesian air force has also deployed a Hercules C-130
to take workers fleeing threats of arrest, imprisonment and whipping if
they do not leave.

Indonesians make up most of the estimated 1.2 million illegal workers
drawn to Malaysia by jobs in construction, plantation work and services.
Others are from the Philippines, India and Bangladesh.

Rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
have strongly criticised the government's plan to deploy half a million
volunteer neighbourhood security group members to help round up migrants
who do not take advantage of the amnesty.

The volunteers will receive cash rewards for each migrant arrested, an
economic incentive that Human Rights Watch worries could lead to
"vigilantism".

On Thursday, a local organisation promoting women's and migrant's rights,
Tenaganita, warned that foreign girls trafficked into Malaysia for forced
prostitution, as well as genuine refugees, could be swept up in the
crackdown.

"The government, by not differentiating between the trafficked persons and
those who consciously entered illegally, is promoting the crime of
trafficking in human beings when it arrests the victims and not the
traffickers," director Irene Fernandez said in a statement.

Tenaganita urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Rights of
Migrant Workers "to intervene on the forthcoming unjust crackdown on
undocumented workers."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in
Malaysia has already deployed mobile teams in an urgent effort to register
refugees hiding in the jungles on the fringes of Malaysian cities where
many work illegally.

It is feared that asylum seekers from military-ruled Myanmar and the
strife-torn Indonesian province of Aceh will be swept up along with the
illegal migrants, Volker Turk, head of the UNHCR in Malaysia, told AFP.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 16, Agence France Presse
Quirky Yangon, a city like no other

There is a familiar golden pagoda shimmering at sunset, the graceful Asian
charm of brilliant green and indigo blue buildings, the old-quarter smells
redolent of India. Still, Myanmar's Yangon is a city like no other.

Just 90 minutes by plane from Bangkok, a cosmopolitan but in many ways
conventional metropolis, Yangon is for the visitor a capital streaked with
oddities.

Its quirkiness stems largely from the nature of the military regime that
rules it and decades of post-colonial isolation.

Here, one is expected to drive on the right, yet steering wheels too are
on the right -- the result of an astrologer's warning to the highly
superstitious then-dictator Ne Win in the 1970s that the left-hand side
was bad karma.

Overnight traffic in the former British colony flipped from left to right.
But as Myanmar produces no vehicles and imports hardly any, 90 percent of
the cars have remained right-hand drives.

"Sometimes it's difficult when you want to pass, as you can't see a
thing," grumbled one Yangon driver.

At least he has no need to worry about the pesky motorbikes that are
ubiquitous in Asian cities like Hanoi and Phnom Penh: a blanket ban means
the sprawling city of five million is astonishingly void of the cheap
two-wheelers.

Although accounts vary, the decree was apparently announced after one of
Ne Win's grandsons pretended, while riding a motorbike, that he was
attacking an official convoy that was transporting a top-level junta
dignitary.

Motorbike licenses were summarily revoked.

Also largely absent from the streets of this city are the numbers of
people with their ears glued to their mobile phones that are found in
cities like Bangkok and Singapore -- and the disturbing rings of the
gadgets.

The few mobile owners here are a minority of the business elite and
Burmese with powerful connections.

To get a phone one needs to obtain a recommendation letter from either the
state Myanmar Post and Telecommunications Company or from a high-ranking
military officer.

Five thousand dollars later, you're connected.

Should you one day wish to return the mobile, this enormous sum,
equivalent to 30 years salary for the average worker, is not refunded.

Getting a bird's eye view of this charming city is virtually impossible.
At 22 storeys, the Traders Hotel is the tallest building in town, but
Lilliputian by comparison to the skyscrapers of Hong Kong and Kuala
Lumpur.

Yangon is also the only capital in the region where a majority of the
population still wears its traditional garb of a tunic and longyi -- a
length of cloth wrapped around the waist and knotted in front.

A mere 10 percent of inhabitants wear trousers. The authorities published
decrees this year telling students to stick with the national costume and
not let themselves be influenced by decadent Western fashion.

Footwear brings a touch of democracy to the country, however.

Everyone -- even ministers and military officers -- wears the Burmese
version of the flip-flop made of rubber or velour straps and rubber soles
and priced from 500 kyat, about 50 US cents.

When the crowds converge on Yangon's pagodas, where footwear is removed,
the odds are high that you'll leave wearing someone else's sandals.

Despite the lush city's broad avenues, the quickest way from point A to
point B is not always a straight line; residents are sometimes diverted by
a series of barricades aimed at keeping the public away from the homes of
those whom the junta has placed under house arrest.

Opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi languishes in
her villa on the southern banks of Inya Lake. Her arch-enemy, Ne Win's
daughter Sandar Win, is confined on the northern banks.

Recently deposed prime minister General Khin Nyunt -- an ex-enemy of the
former and a personal friend of the latter -- is also under house arrest,
as are dozens of his associates, since his sacking in October.

_____________________________________

December 16, International Herald Tribune
Myanmar's Military: An Assault on Nature - César Chelala

NEW YORK Although the human rights abuses carried out by Myanmar's
military are widely known, the harm done to the country's environment is
frequently neglected. Since assuming direct power in 1988, the military
junta has been conducting an unrelenting assault on Myanmar's flora and
fauna.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been called the last frontier of
biodiversity in Asia. But many species are now endangered as a result of
pipeline and dam projects, and of mining and logging policies carried out
by the Burmese military. And the junta's environmental practices have
significantly harmed the health and quality of life of the Burmese people,
particularly women and
children.

The military keeps a tight rein on information, banning public discussion
of environmental issues and punishing those who try to question its
policies because the regime's own survival rests on the exploitation of
the country's natural resources. The generals have allowed massive logging
and the construction of gas pipelines and other development projects that
have caused serious damage to the environment. Teak forests that have
provided livelihoods for many ethnic minorities are being rapidly
destroyed by Thai loggers, causing floods and landslides, and threatening
the survival of endangered animal species.

Uncontrolled fishing by Thai companies to whom the junta gave fishery
concessions has led to the impoverishment of the people from whole
villages who depend on this activity as their only sustenance.

The worsening economic situation of affected families lowers Burmese
children's health and nutrition rates, which are already among the lowest
in Asia.  More than one million children are malnourished, 9 percent to 12
percent of them severely so.

The current most significant cause of environmental destruction is the
Yadana natural gas pipeline. In Myanmar, the pipeline cuts through rich
ecosystems,  disrupting the natural habitat of rare animals. In Thailand,
the pipeline goes through an important rainforest, threatening the
survival of endangered wild elephants.

In addition to the environmental damage, the construction of the pipeline
has been linked to human rights abuses. On Monday, lawyers for Unocal,
which is building the pipeline, announced that an agreement in principle
had been reached to compensate 14 anonymous villagers who sued the
California-based company in U.S. state and federal courts, claiming it
should be held liable for enforced labor, murder and rape by the Burmese
military during the pipeline's construction. Unocal has denied that abuses
occurred.

What can be done to alleviate the serious attacks on the environment by
the Burmese military? All sectors of society, particularly ethnic minority
groups,  should be brought into a broad discussion of environmental issues
as a preliminary step to developing safeguards for environmental
protection. International assistance should be provided to indigenous
grass roots organizations, which have been working intensely for the
protection of the environment.

At the same time, an agreement should be sought between the government and
environmental organizations on a set of priority actions to be implemented
together, such as detailed environmental assessments that take into
consideration the views of the affected communities.

The outcome of Myanmar's environmental problems, however, depends on its
military rulers. As Yuki Akimoto, an attorney with Earth Rights
International, has said, "Until those who are exploiting Myanmar's
environment begin to prioritize ecological protection and respect for
human rights, the future of the country's natural and human resources will
be grim."

(César Chelala is the author of ‘‘Impact of the Environment on Children’s
Health,’’ a publication of the Pan American Health Organization.)

_____________________________________

December 16, Asia Times
Foreign crimes come home to the US  - Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Lawsuits based on a 200-year-old US law appear to have
persuaded oil company Unocal to compensate alleged victims of human-rights
abuses committed by Myanmar soldiers during the building of an oil
pipeline. The tentative settlement was reached in two lawsuits brought by
unnamed Myanmar plaintiffs against the California oil giant for serious
rights abuses inflicted against them and their communities by the
soldiers.

The precise terms of the settlement, which was announced in a joint
statement by Unocal and EarthRights International (ERI) - the plaintiffs'
representatives - were not divulged. "Although the terms are
confidential," the statement said, "the settlement in principle will
compensate plaintiffs and provide funds enabling plaintiffs and their
representatives to develop programs to improve living conditions, health
care and education and protect the rights of people from the pipeline
region.

"These initiatives will provide substantial assistance to people who may
have suffered hardships in the region," added the statement, which is
posted on both the Unocal and ERI websites. ERI added that it was
"thrilled [and] ecstatic" with the settlement, but its lead attorney in
the case, Rick Herz, declined to elaborate.

The case, which was originally filed in federal court in 1996 under the
Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), has traveled a tortuous route through the US
and California court systems over the past nine years. The settlement is
designed to end litigation in both the state and federal cases.

Considerable attention was paid to the federal case because it was one of
the first filed against corporations under the ATCA. Passed by Congress in
1789,  the law gave federal district courts jurisdiction over any civil
action by a foreigner against any other person on US territory for acts
committed abroad "in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the
United States".

The law, which was originally aimed at piracy, lay dormant for some 190
years before human-rights attorneys began using it in the 1980s on behalf
of victims of abuses committed overseas. Some of the cases were filed
against foreign dictators. such as former Philippine president Ferdinand
Marcos and senior military officers from Guatemala, Indonesia, Argentina,
Ethiopia and El Salvador who were visiting or residing in the United
States. While damages have been awarded in almost all such cases, they
have rarely been collected, primarily because the defendants fled the US
after receiving legal service.

Lawyers began bringing cases against US and foreign corporations – usually
involving alleged abuses committed by foreign armies or police that were
providing security for the companies - under the ATCA in the mid-1990s.
Though the trial courts dismissed most of them, some, including the Unocal
case, have been working their way through the federal judiciary. No case
involving corporate defendants has yet been heard by the Supreme Court.

The most successful actions have been brought by survivors of the Nazi
Holocaust against foreign companies and banks that rejected their efforts
at recovering money or insurance claims after World War II. While none of
these ever came to trial, they helped induce Swiss banks to negotiate
settlements worth more than US$1 billion.

The announcement appears to make the Unocal case the second one under the
ACTA in which a settlement has been reached. Thus it could also create a
precedent for several other pending cases against oil companies, including
one brought by Indonesian plaintiffs from Aceh province against ExxonMobil
and another by Nigerian plaintiffs from the Delta region against Shell.

The Unocal case revolved around plaintiffs' allegations that they or their
family members had suffered a variety of serious abuses, including forced
relocation, forced labor, rape, torture and murder at the hands of Myanmar
army units that were securing the route of the Yadana pipeline project
managed by a consortium of companies, including Unocal, France's Total and
the Myanmar state oil company, during the construction of the pipeline.
The plaintiffs contended that Unocal knew or should have known that the
military had a record of committing such rights abuses, that it knew or
should have known that it did commit such abuses during the project, and
that it benefited from the commission of such abuses, particularly
forcible labor and relocation.

In a landmark decision that reversed the trial court's decision that the
plaintiffs had to show that Unocal also wanted the military to commit
those abuses, a federal appeals court ruled in 2002 that the plaintiffs
needed only to demonstrate that Unocal knowingly assisted the military in
perpetrating the abuses, and that the plaintiffs had presented enough
evidence to that effect for the case to go to trial. At the same time, the
plaintiffs filed a similar action in state court under California tort and
unfair business practices laws. In June 2002, a state court judge rejected
Unocal's request for a dismissal, finding that the plaintiffs had
presented sufficient evidence that a jury could find Unocal to have been
vicariously liable for the military's human-rights abuses.

Unocal's hope of avoiding a full-scale trial - either in federal or state
court or both - was further set back by two other decisions handed down in
the past six months. In the most significant decision, the US Supreme
Court upheld by a 6-3 vote the continued validity of ATCA, despite a major
challenge by the administration of President George W Bush and several
major business associations that argued in "friend of the court" briefs
the law should not give victims of serious abuses the right to sue for
damages in US courts. Although the court did not rule on the applicability
of the act to corporate activities, it found that "for the purposes of
civil liability, the torturer has become - like the pirate and the slave
trader before him - hostis humani generis, an enemy of all mankind".

The Justice Department had argued that the ATCA, as "somewhat of a
historical relic", could not be permitted to provide "an untethered grant
of authority to the courts to establish and enforce precepts of
international law regarding disputes arising in foreign countries". Unocal
had hoped that the Supreme Court, which had never ruled on an ATCA case
before, would have accepted the arguments of the administration and its
business allies and effectively gutted the act. But it did not get its
way.

Then, in mid-September, a California state judge rejected a new Unocal
appeal for the case to be dismissed, in effect ending the first phase of a
trial and preparing the way for a jury to be empanelled. With jury trials
pending, Unocal apparently decided to settle the case, which, according to
the federal court, should be finalized by February 1.

_____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

December 16, US Campaign for Burma
Realizing the Dream: The Second Annual Working Conference of US Campaign
for Burma

How grassroots citizens can help 50 million people in their struggle for
human rights, freedom, and democracy

February 26th-27th, 2005, George Washington University, Washington, DC

You are invited to join hundreds of students, activists, and professionals
for the world's largest annual gathering of supporters of freedom and
democracy in Burma.

The first morning of the conference includes invited speakers from the US
Congress, Executive Branch, human rights organizations, and Burmese
dissidents in exile including elected members of the parliament. The
afternoon session and the following morning will include workshops and
brainstorming sessions focused on supporting democracy in Burma in 2005.

REGISTER ONLINE NOW at www.uscampaignforburma.org or
http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/whatyoucando/conference.html

"In a country like ours which is totally crushed by a military regime,
justice is a dream. But, it is a
dream that we are determined to realize."

-Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient and leader of Burma's
non-violence democracy movement, under arrest for most of the past 15
years

1612 K St, NW #401
Washington, District of Columbia 20006
United States