BurmaNet News Jan 6, 2005

[Editor]

January 6, 2005, Issue # 2630

INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Another Two Bombs Explosion in Kachin
The Mercury: Bid to confirm toll in Burma
Irrawaddy: Burma Can Cope With Tsunami—Prime Minister
DVB: 30 sea-gypsies still missing in southern Burma
DVB: Burmese corpses found in the sea by Thai fishermen

BUSINESS / MONEY
Korea Times: Daewoo Drills Gas Mine in Myanmar
Mizzima: NE trade body to have office in Mandalay

REGIONAL
AFP: Tsunami calamity highlights key protective role of coral, mangroves

INTERNATIONAL
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Kofi Annan warns of second wave of tsunami deaths

OPINION / OTHER
Seattle Times: Secrecy hinders damage assessment in Myanmar

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 6, Mizzima
Another Two Bombs Explosion in Kachin

Two bombs blew up again this morning in Myitkyina, Kachin state, in
northern Burma.  The explosion occurred at Myoma block, near a station and
a muslin pali, at about 6 a.m. No one yet claims responsibility.

"It was in front of an ice factory behind the pali in Myoma block, but I
don't know details. Yes, it is confirmed," said Major Khun Mau, second
secretary and central committee member of the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), adding that that many KIO officers are in Myitkyina,
the capital of Kachin State, to celebrate the harvest festival.

It was the first bomb blast in 2005. Last year, three bomb attacks
occurred in the Kachin ethnic dominated area, particularly assassination
attempts on the leaders, but there was no clear information about the
culprits.

Observers believe there is deep conflict between rival Kachin armed
groups, and that Rangoon's generals have been manipulating the dividing
forces.

Reportedly, there have been disputes between Kachin army leaders and a
group of mainly Chinese businessmen regarding the sharing of business
interests such as gold and gem mining, and the forest.

However, there was speculation too that all assassination attempts may be
the start of the power struggle. An unsuccessful coup took place in
January 2004 at the KIO headquartersat Liaison Bum.

On Feb, 26, 2004, Col. Lazing Bawk, deputy chief of Staff of the KIA, was
killed by a bomb blast in the bathroom of his house in Laiza, a town
adjacent to the Chinese border.

On Sept. 15, Bawmwang Hsinwa Naw, a member of another cease-fire group,
New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), and a brother of Bawmwang La Raw, and
Chairman of Pan Kachin Development which ran several education and
health-care projects in Kachin State, was killed by a bomb blast.

On Dec. 10, NDA-K leader Zahkung Ting Ying's vehicle was was hit by a bomb
and he narrowly escaped an explosion because he shrewdly traveled in the
next car.

_____________________________________

January 6, The Mercury
Bid to confirm toll in Burma

Burma's assertion that it largely escaped the devastation of the Indian
Ocean tsunami has failed to allay concerns about the disaster's impact on
one if the world's poorest and most secretive countries, experts and aid
workers said today.

Military-ruled Burma has said only 59 of its people perished in the
December 26 tidal wave that has claimed about 150,000 people, many on Thai
and Indian islands very close to the South-East Asian country.

Burmese exile groups, who oppose the military junta in Rangoon, have cited
reports of destroyed fishing villages from travellers in the region
suggesting at least 400 are dead.

Aid agencies have estimated a toll of 90.

"Definitely the death toll should be higher but as far as exact figures go
it's almost impossible to know," said Soe Pyne, of the national Coalition
of the Union of Burma.

UN officials have speculated that almost 30,000 people in Burma need
urgent aid.

A World Food Program spokeswoman in Washington said the UN agency would
get its first close tour of Burma's disaster zone today.

____________________________________

January 6, Irrawaddy
Burma Can Cope With Tsunami—Prime Minister

Burma’s military rulers are capable of caring for the country’s victims of
the tsunami and aid from overseas should be sent elsewhere, Prime Minister
Lt-Gen Soe Win said Thursday.

The government says 59 of its citizens were killed by the Dec 26 disaster.
But international aid agencies have cast doubt on the claim, saying it
could be higher than 90.

Speaking at an international donor’s conference in Jakarta, Soe Win said
more than 3,000 people have been left homeless.

He said his government’s quick action meant the country was “able to
mitigate the effects of the disaster.” Helicopters carrying food, clothes
and medical experts were rushed to the affected areas, he said.

Soe Win said Burma was grateful for aid it had received from outside
countries, including China and Japan, but added he believed other nations
were in greater need of outside help.

“All available funds should be channeled to them as a priority,” he said.
“The situation in our country is manageable and we are doing our best to
alleviate the plight of our people.”

____________________________________

January 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
30 sea-gypsies still missing in southern Burma

Rangoon-based International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) told DVB on 5
January that it received a report which says that more than 30
sea-gypsies, also known as Salon or Moken, from Mergui (Myeik) Archipelago
are still missing because of the deadly tsunamis.

IFRC’s spokeswoman Joanna McLean said that rescue efforts are also
starting for victims in Burma. She added that according to figures
compiled by coordinating groups including the UN, NGOs and the Red Cross,
86 people are confirmed dead, 10 missing and according to unconfirmed
reports, some fishermen and 25 Salon missing and nearly 6,000 people are
left homeless. The details are to be released by the IFRC on 6 January.

McLean said that she is still unable to confirm the report on the missing
fishermen and Salons as there have been many reports like this, and that
the IFRC is still cooperating with the authorities concerned to confirm
the reports.

She also confirmed that representatives of the Myanmar Red Cross and the
ICRC were allowed to visit the Mergui Archipelago and islands near
Kawthaung on the southern tip of Burma, and that no severe damages were
seen. She added that this could be due to the special geographical
position of the areas which both the outsiders and the people inside Burma
would find it difficult to understand.

When asked if anyone was allowed to visit the outlying Coco Islands, she
replied that she hasn’t heard that anyone has been allowed to visit the
areas but a NGO staff was allowed to talk to the people of the islands and
that there was no report of special damages there, and that the NGOs are
working closely with Health, Rescue and Relocation Ministry.

She confirmed that the victims are now receiving help from the
international community but not emergency appeal received by the
neighbouring countries. Through the Myanmar Red Cross, they are being
provided with mosquito nets, clothing, bed sheet, roofing materials,
candles, salt and other essentials needed for survival.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is also preparing to provide 5 kilos of
rice, 3 litres of cooking oil, clean drinking water and other necessary
materials for each family. In the future, the victims are to be provided
with materials needed to rebuild or repair their destroyed or damaged
homes.

____________________________________

January 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese corpses found in the sea by Thai fishermen

There has been a report that numerous Burmese corpses, presumably, victims
of recent tsunamis, have been found by Thai fishermen on Burmese waters.

DVB correspondent Maung Maung Hein said that there are many Thai fishing
boats from Ranong trawling on Burmese waters around coastal areas near
Rangoon, Moulmein and Arakan State.

He learnt from the wife of one of the Thai fishermen that the fishermen
discovered more than 80 corpses including men, women and children, and
pots, pans, plates and fridges floating on the sea near Moulmein.

The fishermen tried to salvage the corpses and hand over them to the
Burmese authorities at the nearest coast, but they were decomposing so
badly that it was impossible for the fishermen to haul them in one piece.

The fishermen were said to be returning from a fishing trip to the sea
near the coastal town near Ye and Tavoy when they discovered the floating
corpses.

Meanwhile, no boats belonging sea-gypsies, also known as Salon or Moken,
have been seen at a jetty of Ranong where they used to frequent for
selling their catches and shopping their essentials.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / MONEY

January 5, Korea Times
Daewoo Drills Gas Mine in Myanmar

Daewoo International Corp., a major Korean trading firm, said Thursday it
has conducted a successful drilling for a 93-meter-thick gas mine under
the sea in Shwe, Myanmar, raising hopes for mega commercial success in its
natural gas development projects in Southeast Asia.

Daewoo International plans to set up concrete plans for the commercial use
of natural gas in Shwe after conducting six to seven test drillings until
June, the firm said.

''The test drilling, which was very successful, suggests the Shwe mine is
93 meters thick and the density of gas there reaches 81 percent,'' the
firm said in a statement. ''It bodes well for our commercial success in
the development of the gas mine.''Daewoo officials said huge gas mines may
exist in surrounding areas in Shwe Phyu and Ngwe, adding it will soon
dispatch drilling ships and machines to the areas to conduct test
drillings.

Daewoo International is participating in the A-1 gas mine development
project as a major shareholder with a 60-percent stake. Korea Gas Corp.
holds 10 percent and two Indian firms own the remaining stakes.

Gas reserves of the A-1 zone are estimated at four to six trillion cubic
feet (TCF), which is equal to 0.7-1.1 billion barrels of petroleum and
80-120 million tons of liquefied natural gas.

_____________________________________

January 5, Mizzima News
NE trade body to have office in Mandalay

In a rare gesture, the Indo-Myanmar Traders Union, one of the leading
trade bodies in northeast India, will soon have an office in Mandalay,
Burma. The trade body, engaged in promoting trade with Burma , received
consent from the Mandalay Industrial Zone Corporation to open an office in
Mandalay.

"We have got a response from U Maung, chairman of the Mandalay  Industrial
Zone Development Corporation to open the office, and our organization will
submit a proposal in this regard soon,"  W.N, Singh, vice president of
Indo-Myanmar Traders Union ,told this correspondent today. He said the
office would be set up very soon as' Myanmar is now very positive to
enhance trade with India. "

"We also want to reciprocate our proposal by openingan office in  Imphal
by the junta," he said. "Northeast India has not been able to enhance
trade with Burma in spite of having vast scope. The new office would solve
problem of traders while exporting and importing. Besides, it will
strengthen bilateral relations between the countries," he added.

After the ASEAN rally, the Indian Commerce Ministry took a series of
measures to increase volume of trade with Burma and other ASEAN countries,
for which it offered incentives to traders in the region. Similarly, the
junta is also seeking help from Indian companies to invest in the country
to improve the economy.

Expressing satisfaction with the gesture of the junta, Singh, who is also
involved in export and import with Burma, said the Burmese government has
softened its stand on  trade with India, so traders are now willing to
boost export with Burma. "I am optimistic that both India and Burma will
be able to increase the volume of trade in years to come. But at the same
time Burmese traders should come forward to strengthen trade with this
region," he said.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 6, Agence France Presse
Tsunami calamity highlights key protective role of coral, mangroves –
Richard Ingham

Long-term environmental lessons must be drawn from Asia's tsunami
disaster, especially the consequences of ripping out mangroves and
destroying coral reefs that help protect coasts from sea and storms,
experts say.

"Places that had healthy coral reefs and intact mangroves were far less
badly hit than places where the reefs had been damaged and the mangroves
ripped out and replaced by beachfront hotels and prawn farms," said Simon
Cripps, director of the Global Marine Programme at the environment group
WWF Internationational.

"Coral reefs act as a natural breakwater and mangroves are a natural shock
absorber, and this applies to floods and cyclones as well as tsunamis," he
said in an interview from Geneva.

He compared the outcome of the December 26 tsunami in the Maldives, the
low-lying archipelago which emphasises good coral management in its policy
of upmarket tourism; and the Thai resort of Phuket, where mangroves and a
coastline belt have been replaced by aquaculture and a hotel strip.

Both places were swamped and suffered severe economic damage. In the
Maldives, just over 100 people have been counted as dead and missing in a
populace of 270,000; in Phuket, where there is a roughly similar size of
population at peak season, the toll is nearly 1,000.

Thailand's isolated neighbour, Myanmar, where much of the mangrove remains
intact, was notably spared the scale of devastation which struck the Thai
coast, WWF's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific, Dermot O'Gorman, told
AFP, according to US satellite images and eyewitness accounts.

In India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, "areas in Pichavaram and Muthupet
with dense mangroves suffered fewer human casualties and less damage to
property compared to areas without mangroves," the British-based science
website SciDev.Net says.

Doug Masson, a senior researcher at Southampton University's Oceanography
Centre in southern England, said that even the best-managed coastal buffer
offers no guarantee of a shield against a major tsunami, but it certainly
helps to save lives.

"There is a big dampening effect if you have a coral reef. My feeling is
that coral is what probably saved the majority of people in the Maldives.
The reef broke up the tsunami and it travelled forward as a broken wave
and so was far less deadly," he said.

"As for mangroves, the effect would be different. It would act as a
dampener but the wave would not be broken up before it hits."

Mangroves are a complex ecosystem of tangled trees, growing in muddy,
brackish coastal creeks.

In many parts of South and Southeast Asia, the mangroves have been chopped
down to make way for tourism or growing seafood. Thailand, in becoming the
world's biggest prawn exporter, lost almost half of its mangrove acreage
between 1975 and 1993, according to Cripps.

Many of the tourist developments are set right on the beach, rather than
located back from the sea, which means that vacationers and resort workers
were doubly exposed to the tsunami after the loss of this natural buffer,
said Cripps.

Jeff McNeely, chief scientist with the Swiss-based World Conservation
Union (IUCN), said last week that reckless development in Indonesia and
Thailand, in a geologically active region, had been the main driver for
the high toll.

"(...) People have started to occupy part of the landscape that they
shouldn't have occupied," he said.

"(...) The mangroves were all along the coasts where there are shallow
waters. They offered protection against things like tsunamis. Over the
last 20-30 years, they were cleared by people who didn't have the
long-term knowledge of why these mangroves should have been saved."

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

Jan 6, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Kofi Annan warns of second wave of tsunami deaths

sia could be hit by a second wave of deaths, this time from preventable
causes, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told an emergency
summit Thursday in Jakarta.

"We will never know the exact magnitude of how many men, women and
children have perished in the 11 days since (the tsunami), the real figure
is likely to exceed 150,000," Annan said.

"We do know at least half-a-million were injured, that nearly two million
need food aid and that many more need water sanitation and health care,"
he said. "We have a duty to the survivors to stop the tsunami from being
followed by a second wave of death this time from preventable causes," he
said.

"The goodwill and concern around the world are enormous, so are the
challenges facing us. There are daunting logistical constraints but they
are not insurmountable," he told the gathering.

Annan echoed earlier comments from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono calling for creation an early warning system. "We must also draw
and act on every lesson we can to prevent this occurring in the future,"
he said.

Yudhoyono had called for an unprecedented response to the Asian Tsunami in
his opening address to a one-day emergency summit in Jakarta. "What the
victims went through beggars the imagination," he said. "This tragedy has
been a humbling experience, it proves no nation can survive alone,"
Yudhoyono told the gathering.

He called on all of the countries present at the meeting to meet the
combined cost of the catastrophe. "Our response to this unprecedented
catastrophe must be equally unprecedented so that we immediately put an
end to the human suffering and misery that came later," he said.

The one-day emergency summit is an attempt to coordinate the massive aid
effort for tsunami-hit countries, with more than 20 leaders from donor and
affected countries and international organizations attending.

Among the highest profile delegates are Annan, World Bank President James
Wolfensohn and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. Country leaders at
the conference include the prime ministers of Japan, China, Australia and
South Korea.

Thailand's Foreign Minister, Surakiart Sathirathai proposed that his
country host a regional early warning system to limit the damage in future
disasters.

"At the regional level early warning is the key to disaster prevention,"
he told the meeting. "We are prepared to go ahead on this issue by
ourselves if necessary, but we would prefer coordinated action on a
regional basis.

"I propose that the Asia Disaster Prevention centre in Thailand be
enlarged and utilized as a focal point to develop such a regional early
warning system," he said.

Heads of charities and aid agencies from all over the world are also in
attendance to discuss ways to ensure that aid is distributed as
efficiently as possible.

"One of our hopes (from the conference) is even greater coordination and
cooperation that are or will be offering assistance," Dave Toyten, chief
executive of international Christian charity World Vision, told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.

"In many ways the biggest challenge is logistical. The greatest
frustration is not being able to get supplies to areas where they are
needed."

The conference was proposed by Singapore and was organized by the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional grouping of
Cambodia, Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore,
the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Myamar's (Burma's) Prime Minister Soe Win said the country had only 59
dead, three missing and 43 injured from the giant wave. "The situation in
our country is manageable and we are doing our best to alleviate the
plight of our people. We welcome the help and assistance that has been
provided," Win told the meeting.

Independent aid groups, however, said the toll in Myanmar may be much
higher, but the country's secretive ruling junta refuses to allow foreign
relief workers or journalists into the country.

Indonesia has been hardest hit by the massive tsunami of December 26, with
an estimated 94,200 fatalities. Close to 4 billion dollars in aid had been
pledged to affected countries, with more pledges expected at the
conference.

Australia alone pledged 750 million dollars, followed by Germany with 664
million dollars and Japan with 500 million.

France pledged 103 million dollars, Britain 94 million dollars, Sweden 74
million dollars, Canada 67 million dollars, China 63 million dollars,
Denmark 55 million dollars and the Netherlands 32 million dollars.

The United States - in addition to providing logistics, ground troops and
350 million dollars in aid - was providing half the fleet of 100
helicopters the United Nations is using to send emergency supplies to the
tens of thousands of people who survived the disaster, which hit 12 Indian
Ocean countries.

More than 150,000 people were killed from Indonesia to Somalia.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 6, Seattle Times
Secrecy hinders damage assessment in Myanmar - Paula Bock

Superstition, distrust and a secretive military regime are making it
difficult to assess the death toll and damage from the Dec. 26 tsunami in
Myanmar, a country ruled by dictators since 1962.

"There's an age-old superstition that if there's a big natural disaster,
there's going to be a new king or a regime change," says Stephen Dun of
Seattle. "That's one of the reasons they're keeping a big blanket on this
whole situation."

Dun serves on the board of the US Campaign for Burma, a human-rights and
pro-democracy group, and is an elected representative of the Karen
National Union. The Karen tribe, the largest and most powerful of
Myanmar's ethnic minorities, has been fighting the government for decades.

The government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, says 59 people were killed
by the tsunami, with an additional 43 injured and three missing. In
neighboring Thailand, by contrast, there are more than 5,000 confirmed
dead and 4,000 missing.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters in Phuket, Thailand,
that satellite photographs suggest Myanmar escaped the worst ravages of
the tsunami. But he said he had no idea whether Myanmar's military rulers
were telling the truth about the death toll.

Yesterday, officials from the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and
Red Cross said the government's official number of 59 deaths was in the
right range.

Yet dissidents and human-rights activists still don't believe those
figures, reflecting a general skepticism of the regime's pronouncements,
including those regarding natural disasters.

David Steinberg, an expert on Myanmar at Georgetown University, says the
generals who have ruled since 1962 have always been economical with bad
news. "Disasters, naturally or otherwise induced, tend to undercut the
perceived legitimacy of the state, so they report them only reluctantly or
in a tardy manner," he said.

In Myanmar, early numbers were especially sketchy. The
government-controlled newspaper, New Light of Myanmar, published
condolence messages from military generals to surrounding nations the day
after the tsunami, but waited two days to publish an initial death toll of
36.

Aid workers did not have free access to some of the potentially
hardest-hit areas along the coast, where navy patrols and military
roadblocks normally prevent access to military radar installations. Also,
in the coastal Tennaserim Division, the area around a controversial
natural-gas pipeline is heavily guarded. Construction of the pipeline has
been linked to human-rights abuses, environmental damage and forced
displacement of villagers, human-rights groups say.

Yesterday, the WFP's team visited villages around Myanmar's southernmost
town of Kawthaung and was working its way up the isthmus. The team
reported many fishing villages escaped serious damage on the coastline
just north of Thailand's hard-hit resorts of Khao Lak and Phuket.

"I'm not a geologist; I've got no idea why Myanmar was relatively
unscathed," said WFP Asia Director Anthony Banbury.

Loss of fishermen feared

Yet the WFP says 30,000 are in immediate need of food, shelter and water,
and hundreds of Myanmarese fishermen are believed to have perished along
the Thai coast.

The government's ministries of health and social welfare officially
refused offers of international relief assistance, saying they could cope
on their own. But they later changed their minds.

The military junta ruling Myanmar is reluctant to open the door to
international aid groups or the international media, Dun and other
dissidents say, because greater access might expose human-rights abuses,
poverty and neglect of widespread health problems such as HIV/AIDS.

The government also tightly controls the media. The only real source of
independent news is international radio reports. If those programs
reported massive earthquake and tsunami damage in Myanmar, Dun says, it
could "give the people hope [for regime change], and that's dangerous."

Eyewitnesses have counted more than 400 deaths in Myanmar's Irrawaddy
Delta, Tennaserim Division and Rakhine Coastal regions, says Aung Din,
policy director for the US Campaign for Burma. More than 100 fishing boats
are missing, carrying as many as 10 fishermen each.

Still unknown is the fate of hundreds of Salon or Moken people, so-called
"Sea Gypsies," expert swimmers and divers who mostly live as marine nomads
on rickety boats, fishing by day and anchoring at night offshore from the
800 or so small islands of the Myeik Archipelago.

In a news release, the Myanmar Embassy in London said the country was
largely spared because the islands of the Myeik Archipelago, unlike
Phuket, are still sparsely populated and have no tourist industry.

"Besides, these islands have probably shielded the more populous coastal
towns and villages of the southern ... region," the release said.

That's possible, says research geophysicist Steven Ward of the University
of California, Santa Cruz — but not according to his computer model.

Strong waves likely

Based on the earthquake epicenter and aftershocks, which were mostly north
of the epicenter, Ward believes the resulting fault stretches almost 620
miles north through India's Nicobar and Andaman islands. Given the length
of the fault, he says, the waves would have been equally strong in Myanmar
as they were 120 miles away in Phuket.

The islands may have dissipated some of the tsunami's force, Ward says,
but what of the people who fished around the islands?

Humanitarian groups that have long provided relief to people displaced by
Myanmar's decades-old civil war are focused on providing aid.

"Everybody talks about clean water being the key issue," says Larry Dohrs
of Seattle Burma Roundtable, an aid and education group. "All the wells
for coastal communities would get fouled up. Seawater in everybody's well.
That's where international assistance would help, and that's what they're
[Myanmar officials] shrugging their shoulders at."

Think long term, says Hal Nathan, founder of the Foundation for the People
of Burma, a nonprofit aid organization that provides medical and other
basic supplies for people displaced by war in Myanmar.

"We haven't gotten any aid into the area affected," he says. "Even the
United Nations can't get in. But we plan to go over the next couple
months. They'll need medical treatment, clothing, clean water, rebuilding
homes."

Reuters and The Associated Press material is included in this report.