BurmaNet News, January 15-18, 2005

[Editor]

January 15-18, 2005, Issue # 2637


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Criminal charges reportedly filed against loyalists of former Myanmar
leader
Irrawaddy: KNU says regime not serious about ceasefire
DVB: UN office in Burma refuses to protect a human rights advocator in court
DVB: Trials of Bogale NLD members continue

ON THE BORDER
AFP: India says over 100 rebels killed in crackdown in revolt-hit Manipur

BUSINESS
IPS via Irrawaddy: Gas deal wins kudos, but activists warn of rights abuses

REGIONAL
AFP: 2,500 Myanmar migrants in Thailand killed by tsunami--NGOs
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Legislator urges Philippines to oppose Myanmar's
ASEAN chairmanship
Independent: Tsunami disaster: Fear of Thai officials puts Burmese into
hiding
Nation: Burmese caught in a vicious circle
Malaysiakini: 160 Burmese protesters arrested

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Iran and China deliver tsunami aid to Myanmar: report

OPINION / OTHER
Hong Kong Standard: Disastrous governance
Washington Post: After the Tsunami

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 16, Associated Press
Criminal charges reportedly filed against loyalists of former Myanmar leader

Yangon: Myanmar's military government has initiated criminal cases against
several military intelligence officers who were detained after the ouster
last year of former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, officials said.

Criminal charges concerning illegal economic activities, including illicit
possession of foreign exchange, were filed against several officers
earlier this month, officials familiar with the police investigation said
Sunday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the officers, all
of whom face multiple charges, would be tried at dates yet to be set. The
number of officers involved was not clear.

Khin Nyunt was also chief of the military intelligence service, which
served as his power base.

When he left the prime minister's post last October, it was originally
announced that he was retiring for health reasons. But leaders of the
country's ruling junta later accused him of insubordination and being
responsible for a major corruption scandal involving his subordinates.

The move against Khin Nyunt was widely believed to be engineered by
hardline junta members opposed to his relative tolerance of the
pro-democracy movement of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

After Khin Nyunt's sacking in October, about 26 intelligence officers were
detained at Myanmar's Insein prison - notorious for housing opponents of
military rule - and many of them had their assets frozen. Family sources
said Khin Nyunt's businessman son, Ye Naing Win, and another son, a
military officer, were also detained. Kin Nyunt is also under detention,
although it is not known under what conditions.

The junta moved quickly to smash the power of the military intelligence
service after Khin Nyunt's fall, seizing or dismantling government
agencies and commercial enterprises associated with it.

Among the prominent casualties of the purge were Home Minister Col. Tin
Hlaing and Minister at the Prime Minister's Office Tin Win.

Scores of officials from departments handling matters such as immigration,
customs, finance and revenue and foreign affairs who had military
intelligence backgrounds or were perceived to be closely associated with
the agency were fired from their posts.

Deputy intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, who survived the initial
purge, as well as some 1,500 other intelligence officers, have been
ordered to retire, and about 2,500 enlisted men from the intelligence wing
were transferred to infantry units in December.

The 56-year-old military intelligence service was officially dismantled,
with some of its responsibilities assumed by a new Office of Military
Affairs Security.

____________________________________

January 18, Irrawaddy
KNU says regime not serious about ceasefire - Shah Paung

The Karen National Union, or KNU, charged Tuesday that recent attacks by
the Burma Army on KNU rebel camps showed that the Rangoon regime failed to
take the ceasefire between the two sides seriously.

“They [the junta] haven’t take our ceasefire agreement seriously although
they keep on declaring (its existence),” said Padoh Mahn Sha,
general-secretary of the Karen National Union, or KNU, which has fought
for Karen autonomy for the past 55 years.

The Burmese government and the KNU reached a verbal ceasefire agreement in
January 2004 at an historic meeting in Rangoon between Karen leader Gen Bo
Mya and former Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt.

Last October, a KNU delegation went to Rangoon with the intention of
continuing ceasefire talks with high-ranking military intelligence
officials. A KNU delegate, however, said no meeting was held because of
the October political upheaval.

Since the verbal ceasefire fighting has broken out between the two sides
on several occasions.

The latest clash occurred last Tuesday when Burma Army troops attacked the
Kalaw Waw camp of the KNU’s battalion 201 as the troops were celebrating
the Karen New Year. Battalion 201 is commanded by Col Ner Dah Mya, a son
of Gen Bo Mya.

The KNU said several Burmese soldiers were killed in the attack and some
were arrested by the KNU.

Mahn Sha said Tuesday that Burmese troops are still in the Kalaw Waw area
and some 500 villagers who had fled the fighting are hiding in the forest,
afraid to return to their homes.

____________________________________

January 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
UN office in Burma refuses to protect a human rights advocator in court

The trial of Saw Pan Koo, a youth member of National League for Democracy
(NLD) from Bogale Township, Irrawaddy Division in the delta region of
Burma, who has been detained for distributing leaflets containing the UN
Universal Human Rights Declaration, is to be postponed to the coming week.
The decision was made at the hearing in nearby Pyapon court on 13 January
and the trial is to be finished by 20 January, according to the defending
lawyer U Tin Win. 30-year old Saw Pan Koo from Myinkakone Village was
arrested by the local authorities on 6 December along with 13 other NLD
members. Initially, they were charged with attempting to celebrate Burmese
National Day and Saw Pan Koo was later singled out and tried with
distributing the leaflets. The leaflets were published and distributed
legally by UNDP office in Rangoon and the defending lawyers requested one
of the officials from the UNDP to appear as witness in court, but they
none of the officials have shown up yet. DVB contacted the UNDP office in
Rangoon for comment but only been told that all the officials are on
various trips. The defendant lawyer U Tin Win told DVB that Burmese
military junta includes the Human Rights declarations in the school
curriculum but arrests those who distribute the leaflets containing the
declarations. DVB: 14 Jan 2005

____________________________________

January 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
Trials of Bogale NLD members continue

The trials of 11 NLD members from Bogale Township, Irrawaddy Division in
the delta region of Burma, charged with attempting to celebrate the
Burmese National Day, continued inside nearby Pyapon Prison on 13 January.
The defendants are, Bogale Township NLD chairman U Aung Khin Bo, members U
Aung Htay, U Khin Maung Chit, U Tet tun, U Tin Oo, U Aung Myint, U Win
Naing, U Hla Myint, Daw Myint Myint Sein, Daw Hnin Si and Daw Khin Khin
Lay. The defending lawyer U Tin Win told DVB that the court cross-examined
the defendants including Saw Pan Koo who was also charged with
distributing leaflets containing the UN Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. As the trials were held within a prison no one including family
members of the defendants, was not allowed to attend trials. The
defendants were arrested on 6 December 2004 and U Win Tin said that they
still appeared to be in a positive mood as they are convinced that none of
them are guilty as charged.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 18, Agence France Presse
India says over 100 rebels killed in crackdown in revolt-hit Manipur

Guwahati, India: India's army said Tuesday it had killed 126 separatist
rebels and captured several hundred more in a crackdown begun three months
ago in the revolt-hit northeastern state of Manipur.

Since operations intensified in October, 459 rebels have been captured in
Manipur, one of seven remote northeastern states that are hotbeds of
ethnic and tribal fighting for autonomy or independence, the army said.

Soldiers have smashed key rebel bases belonging to the outlawed United
National Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), the People's Liberation Army
(PLA) and the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, the army said in a statement.

"The rebels are on the run and we are getting full cooperation from
Myanmar", which is preventing insurgents from sneaking across the border,
the statement said.

There was no immediate comment available from any of the rebel groups.

The army also said it had seized a large cache of weapons including 68
rifles, grenades and mortars in one weekend rebel camp raid.

Despite the haul, it expressed concern that the rebels had many
sophisticated weapons and explosives including anti-aircraft guns,
anti-tank rocket launchers and mortar bombs.

"The total cadre strength of militants in Manipur is estimated to be
several thousand and they possess (the) latest weapons," the army said.

Rebels say they are trying to protect their ethnic identity and accuse New
Delhi of plundering resources from the region, which is rich in minerals,
tea, timber, and oil.

Last year, India got support from Myanmar in its efforts to crack down on
the rebels when Yangon agreed to cooperate in fighting terrorism.

India's remote northeast is a cauldron of insurgent outfits fighting for
causes ranging from autonomy to independence. Thousands have lost their
lives to rebel-related violence since India's independence in 1947.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS

January 18, Inter Press Service via Irrawaddy
Gas deal wins kudos, but activists warn of rights abuses - Ranjit Devraj

New Delhi: While a new trilateral deal for Burma to export natural gas to
India through Bangladesh augurs well economically for New Delhi, activists
warned that the Burmese military regime could implement the project using
forced labor.

Last Thursday, in what was seen as a major breakthrough in regional
cooperation, India, Burma and Bangladesh announced in a joint-statement
that they would participate in the construction of a gas pipeline from
Burma’s Shwe natural gas field, in the Gulf of Bengal, which would benefit
all three countries.

“The government of Burma agrees to export natural gas to India by pipeline
through the territory of Bangladesh and India to be operated by an
international consortium as may be agreed upon by the parties concerned,”
said the joint-statement released in the Burmese capital Rangoon.

India’s Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyar
explained that the deal allowed flexibility for natural gas to be both
injected and siphoned out of the pipeline.

Besides Burma, he said, gas from fields in Bangladesh and in India’s
north-eastern state of Tripura could carried in the pipeline.

But as Aiyar toasted the deal with Bangaldesh’s Minister for Energy and
Mineral Resources A.K.H. Mosharraf  Hossain and Burma’s Energy Minister
Brig-Gen Lun Thi, the Shwe Gas Campaign Committee (India), led by Burmese
dissidents, called on the Indian government to postpone the project.

“We want India to see the suffering that the project will cause to the
people of Burma,” said the statement issued by the committee.

“It’s not that we do not want India to have a relationship with Burma but
we are simply asking India to wait until Burma gains democracy,” it added.

According to the group, Burma will implement the project using forced
labor, forced relocation and a large military deployment to protect the
gas pipeline.

“This will result in rape and other human rights violations,” said the
dissidents.

The US-based environmental lobby group Earth Rights International (ERI)
pointed out in a report last August that there were an alarming number of
similarities between the Yadana pipeline and the proposed Shwe pipeline.

“Forced labor and human rights abuses are still an ongoing problem
throughout Burma, and it can be assumed that these violations will
continue at any major development project site,” said ERI.

Last December, a ground-breaking settlement was reached between the energy
giant Unocal and Burmese villagers in connection with the Yadana gas
pipeline project.

The settlement reached in a US court will compensate 14 Burmese villagers
who first sued Unocal in 1996, claiming it should be held liable for
enforced labor, murder and rape allegedly carried out by the Burmese
military during the construction of the 1.2 billion US dollar Yadana
pipeline in the country.

The action was brought against Unocal, which is based at El Segundo in
California, on the grounds that it benefited from the Burmese government's
activity even if it did not endorse it. Legal experts now point out that
the settlement may have major ramifications for other multinationals
operating in Burma.

Presently, the Shwe pipeline consortium is comprised of four entities.
Daewoo International (60 percent stake) and the Korean Gas Corporation (10
percent) are both incorporated in South Korea, while India is represented
by the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Videsh Ltd and
the Gas Authority of India Ltd (all having at total of a 30 percent
stake).

On June 5, last year, the International Labor Organization (ILO) announced
that it planned to re-instate sanctions against Burma should the regime
fail to make significant progress towards eradicating the use of forced
labor.

The regime in Burma seized power in a 1962 coup. International human
rights groups point out that in the absence of significant political and
institutional reforms, the end to forced labor is unlikely.

More than anything, India views Burma as a reliable alternative source of
energy for its power-hungry industries.

According to minister Aiyar, India’s demand for gas would reach 400
million standard cubic meters per day by the year 2025 necessitating a
constant search for energy sources.

The Shwe natural gas pipeline deal contrasts with a decade-old wrangle
over the proposed Indo-Iranian pipeline that must transit through
Pakistan—a country with which India has been having a long-standing
dispute over the territory of Kashmir.

Aiyar has said that the Indo-Iranian pipeline, expected to cost four
billion US dollars and also earn Pakistan 500 million US dollars annually
in transit fees, could work only as part of an overall improvement of
economic ties between the South Asian neighbors.

Fears expressed by New Delhi that the pipeline could be held hostage by
political instability in the region was borne out last week when tribals
sabotaged Pakistan's key Sui gas fields in the Baluchistan province
crippling industrial activity and necessitating supply cuts for domestic
user in the port city of Karachi.

In terms of risk, therefore, India’s investment in Burma’s Shwe gas
pipeline presents little problems.

According to Prof Ganganath Jha, a Southeast Asia expert at the New
Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, the investment in Burma is
integral to India's policy of shifting attention from the oil-rich, but
strife-ridden countries of the Middle East to the stable economies of
Southeast Asia that also happen to be richly endowed with natural
resources.

“Projects like the gas pipeline from Myanmar [Burma] will undoubtedly go a
long way in opening up the eastern region and help landlocked countries
like Nepal and Bhutan and improve conditions in India's long-neglected
north-east,” Jha told IPS.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 16, Agence France-Presse
2,500 Myanmar migrants in Thailand killed by tsunami--NGOs

Ranong, Thailand: At least 2,500 Myanmar (Burma) migrant workers were
killed in a single Thai province when it was lashed by tsunamis on
December 26, Myanmar non-governmental organizations based in Thailand said
Sunday.

"Two thousand five hundred Burmese people have been killed by the tsunami
in Phang Nga province," Moe Swe, the general secretary of the Yaung Chi Oo
Workers Association based in western Thailand, told Agence France-Presse,
using Myanmar's former name.

The assessments were based on a one-week series of interviews and
information collected on the ground with Myanmar laborers, Thai employers
and local villagers, said Moe Swe, whose organization is based in Mae Sot,
a Thai town along the Myanmar border.

He said a total of 4,000 Myanmar migrants had gone missing, and that among
them many are now presumed dead, some are believed to have moved to other
provinces, and others are thought to have gone back to Myanmar, Moe Swe
said.

A second source, Htoo Chit, coordinator of the

Grassroots Human Rights, Education and Development Association based in
Kanchanaburi, said the migrant death toll may have reached 3,000.

"According to our last survey, in Ban Naam Khem, Khura Buri and Khao Lak
(towns in Phang Nga), 2,500 to 3,000 Burmese people have been killed, and
5,000 to 7,000 have gone missing," Htoo Chit told Agence France-Presse.

More than 120,000 Myanmar migrants work in Thailand-based fishing crews,
in the seafood processing industry, or as farmers and construction workers
-- often for one to two dollars per day -- according to Surapong
Kongchanthuek of Thailand's committee on human rights for stateless or
displaced people.

Late last month he estimated that about 500 people from Myanmar, many of
them unregistered fishermen, may have died in the disaster.

On Sunday Thailand's confirmed death toll was 5,321, including 1,732
believed to be Thais, 2,173 were believed foreign, and 1,416 of unknown
national origin.

The number of people reported missing was 3,170, including 1,039 foreigners.

_____________________________________

January 18, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Legislator urges Philippines to oppose Myanmar's ASEAN chairmanship

Manila: A senior Philippine legislator on Tuesday urged the government to
oppose Myanmar's (Burma) chairmanship in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2006.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, chairman of the Senate's foreign
relations committee, said Myanmar must first improve its human rights
record before being allowed to chair ASEAN.

"We must insist that Myanmar first stop its human rights violations," she
said. "The Philippines should take steps to impress on the government of
Myanmar to stop the oppression of human rights."

Santiago said Myanmar can start by releasing opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi from house arrest and more than 1,000 other political detainees
from jail.

ASEAN rotates the chairmanship of its standing committee, which heads its
annual leaders' summit, among its 10 members.

According to the ASEAN secretariat, Myanmar is scheduled to assume the
chairmanship of the standing committee in 2006 when the group's annual
summit will also be held in Yangon (Rangoon).

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Santiago said the Philippines should not be stopped by ASEAN's policy of
non-intervention, noting that "human rights laws have amended that
principle".

"We now have the right, not only to speak against the error of one
government, but also to take collective action," she said.

The Philippines has in the past spoken out against alleged human rights
violations in Myanmar, and joined calls for the government there to
implement democratic reforms.

_____________________________________

January 17, The Independent
Tsunami disaster: Fear of Thai officials puts Burmese into hiding - Jan
McGirk

Ban Namken, Thailand: While urgent efforts continue to find more than
3,000 people missing in Thailand since the Boxing Day tsunami, others are
trying hard not to be found. They are Burmese immigrants, many of whom
built and serviced the seaside resorts flattened by the huge waves.

Hundreds of itinerant Burmese fishermen used to live in a warren of shacks
across the street from Mem Bamroong's souvenir shop in Ban Namkem village.
Now there is only a foetid pond.

That morning, she happened to look out of her window and saw a fishing
trawler bearing down on her. "I screamed and ran outside, up the hill, but
the water knocked me around," the shopkeeper said, lifting her T-shirt to
display deep cuts on her torso and three taped broken ribs. "I have not
seen any Burmese fishermen since."

Not all of them can have drowned. Some 30,000 Burmese labourers are
registered with the Thai government. Many work in the six southern
provinces struck by the tsunami, on shrimp boats, at rubber and coconut
plantations, or in low-paid construction jobs. Officials believe up to
1,000 may have died. But the number of undocumented Burmese migrants means
the exact toll may never be known.

Aung Myo Min, a Burmese exile, said: "We have the names of at least 163
dead Burmese immigrant workers, but there's nothing. The bodies have just
disappeared."

The economic immigrants, rather than live in Burma, where they face forced
labour, ethnic insurgencies or military conscription by the ruling junta,
are willing to stay at Thai camps that lack running water, power or
plumbing. At least a million Burmese are thought to live in Thailand. Many
are in hiding; after 500 were deported last week. So far, 2,000 have been
sent back. Makhaing, hobbling on a broken leg caused by the waves smashing
her into a wall, has avoided the free medical clinic. She has stayed away
from the morgue photos as well. Along with at least 10 other Burmese
migrant labourers, she is camped at an inland rubber plantation, north of
the Khao Lak coast.

No longer able to work, Makhaing is frightened that her husband will be
caught and deported. Police have been rounding up poor immigrants,
supposedly to prevent them plundering the wreckage of luxury hotels and
homes. Makhaing told social workers she would return to Burma with her son
if it were possible. But for the family to survive, her husband must work
in Thailand.

One group of protesters on a tourist beach unfurled a banner reading:
"Better to be killed by the tsunami than starve". Htoo Chit, a human
rights advocate, said: "Some in hiding haven't had food for two or three
days." Thai immigration officers said they would free detained workers
only if their employers can provide proof of their legal status. Yet many
registration files are missing or destroyed and several employers are
dead.

But some Burmese workers who want to go home are blocked by employers who
cannot find Thais willing to work under the poor conditions. On Wednesday,
six relief workers from World Vision were beaten by a mob in the fishing
village of Ban Thab Lamu. Police detained the aid workers. "A shipowner
thought we were persuading the Burmese to go back," Chitra Thumborisuth of
World Vision said. "It was a misunderstanding. But we do help repatriate
Burmese."

_____________________________________

January 15, The Nation
Burmese caught in a vicious circle - Supalak Ganjanakhundee & Subhatra
Bhumiprabhas

Win Soe, a 19-year-old Burmese worker, spent days searching for her
parents and two brothers who went missing from a fishing boat anchored off
Ban Nam Khem in Phang Nga.

She has now given up the search, convinced that the December 26 tsunami
took her family.

Alone and in despair, all she wants to do is go back home to Burma, but
her employer refuses to release her from her employment contract.

Thousands of Burmese migrant workers who survived the deadly catastrophe
are facing the same grief and uncertainty as Win Soe.

To make matters worse they are receiving little, if any, relief.

Many, like Win Soe, have been unable to break their contracts, while many
others who wanted to stay on and search for missing relatives have been
deported.

Swiss Ambassador to Thailand Hans-Peter Erismann expressed concern over
the fate of Burmese workers because of the treatment they are receiving.

I dont know how to help them, he said in an interview.

More than 120,000 Burmese workers are employed in the six southern
provinces, working on fishing boats and rubber plantations. About 10,000
of them were directly affected by the disaster, said a social worker who
monitors migrant workers in Thailand.

An estimated 600 Burmese alone working on fishing boats in Ban Nam Khem
vanished in the killer tsunami, said Pranom Somwong of Action Network for
Migrants (Thailand).

Of the 3,700 still unidentified corpses, about 1,000 are believed to be
Burmese, said Surapong Kongchantuk, from the Law Society.

The authorities were not providing proper assistance to the Burmese and
most were afraid to ask for help because of a police crackdown on the
workers, which began after reports that some Burmese were involved in
looting, he said.

Immigration police are repatriating Burmese workers because officials
be-lieve they took part in looting in devastated areas after the tsunami,
sources said.

Immigration police had sent back 1,500 Burmese workers in the first two
weeks following the tsunami, while about 500 Burmese were detained in
Ranong pending deportation, Surapong said.

It is inhumane to send them back while they are suffering. They should be
given the basic necessities like other victims, said Surapong, who is the
Law Societys vice chairman of the human rights sub-committee on ethnic
migrants.

Fearing arrest and expulsion, many Burmese have fled into the jungle and
are begging food from temples in the Phang Ngas Khura Buri district. Many
of the injured ran off after receiving only basic medial attention.

_____________________________________

January 17, www.malaysiakini.com
160 Burmese protesters arrested - Roshan Jason

About 160 Burmese Chin immigrants, including several women, were arrested
by the police this morning for demonstrating outside the Burmese embassy
off Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.

The group, who was protesting against the Burmese government's alleged
persecution of Christians, were hauled up after failing to adhere to the
police's order to disperse.

Realising that arrest was imminent, the protestors began to congregate in
prayer. Soon after, the 30-odd police personnel, headed by Pudu police
station chief Mohd Asri Mohd Yunus, swung into action.

A few tried to struggle but the rest were taken to the waiting police
trucks without much fuss.

Earlier, Mohd Asri had given the protestors 15 minutes to disperse. He
warned them that they were in breach of Malaysian law and could face
arrest for an illegal assembly.

"You must respect our law. There are more than three of you gathered which
amounts to an illegal assembly. This is a public area and you are
disturbing the peace. If you don't leave, I will disperse all of you by
force or by arresting you," he told them in English.

The police chief had initially asked a Burmese embassy personnel - only
known as Zaw - standing inside the building's guarded gates to translate
what he had said. However, the official said the protestors "were all
educated" and refused to get involved.

Religious repression

The protestors had failed to convince Mohd Asri to allow them a day long
protest. They were in turn accused of causing a ruckus, in the
semi-residential area, with their chants.

It is unclear whether those arrested have refugee status. Those found not
to have valid travel documents are likely to be deported.

The protestors arrived at the embassy at 10.50am in three bus loads. Soon
after setting up a protest parameter using pink ribbons, they began their
protest against the human rights violations in their homeland.

Wearing large pink and red paper crosses on their t-shirts, the group
chanted, in Burmese and English, calling for the end to religious
repression back home and in the world at large.

They flashed banners which read "Malaysian government's concern over
religious persecution and human rights violations in Myanmar is much
needed", "Refugees are amounting in Myanmar" and "Myanmar government has
no mercy on tsunami victims".

Cross demolished

Community spokesperson and the Young Men Chin Christian Association leader
Salai San Aung told reporters that the protest was also against the
Burmese military leadership's recent demolition of a large concrete cross
in Matupi (in Burma's southern Chin state) on Jan 3 this year.

"We are persecuted. The cross - a symbol erected by all Christian
denominations - was destroyed by the junta. We are refugees. We fled from
the Burmese jungles but are now forced to live in Malaysian jungles," he
said adding that they urged involvement from the international community
to end abuses against all Burmese.

"We can't go back to our country. We can't do anything. We are refugees
now in Malaysia."

Salai 'disappeared' soon before the arrests began.

As the scene cleared, traces of their protest remained - in the form of
broken and trampled-on crosses belonging to the protestors - on the street
outside the Burmese embassy.

The Burmese military regime has long been accused of rights and political
abuses ever since it assumed power in 1962.

The most internationally condemned incidents being the killings of
pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988 and the continued imprisonment of
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 18, Agence France Presse
Iran and China deliver tsunami aid to Myanmar: report

Yangon: Iran has airlifted 600 tones of tsunami aid relief to
military-ruled Myanmar, media reported Tuesday as the United Nations
confirmed it had sent several teams to the isolated nation to assess
damage there.

China also sent an unspecified amount of emergency aid to the isolated
nation and relief from the Netherlands was expected to arrive in the
coming days, said the privately run weekly magazine, The Voice Journal.

The magazine did not specify what sort of aid was being delivered.

A UN official told AFP Tuesday that representatives from the World Health
Organisation, the UN Development Program and the UN children's fund UNICEF
had visited parts of the Myanmar's coastline Friday and found only minor
damage.

Myanmar estimates the tsunami killed 59 people -- a similar figure to one
estimated by the World Food Program. The junta also estimates that 592
houses and 17 villages along the coast were destroyed, leaving 3,205
persons homeless.

Prime Minister Soe Win has said that while Myanmar welcomed international
aid, it should be channelled to other countries worse affected by the
disaster which has claimed more than 168,000 lives in 11 Indian Ocean
nations.

Some non-governmental organisations in neighbouring Thailand estimate that
at least 2,500 Myanmar migrant workers were killed in a single Thai
province when it was lashed by tsunamis on December 26.


_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 13, Hong Kong Standard
Disastrous governance - Roby Alampay

Tsunami denial shows Rangoon is the worst enemy of its people

In the wake of the tsunami that devastated South and Southeast Asia, and
amid the daze and gloom of a truly global calamity, any bit of good news -
every reason to hope - is obviously welcome.

And yet here is one optimistic assertion that even the world's overwhelmed
aid agencies are finding hard to believe: Burma's initial declaration that
it survived the tsunami relatively unscathed has been met with skepticism
and concern.

The country's ruling junta initially said that less than 60 of its people
were killed, and about 100 were injured and remain unaccounted for.

Given the 150,000 people who died in its immediate neighborhood, those
numbers should represent a miracle. But given the frontage of Burma to the
Andaman Sea, aid groups, scientists, and Burmese exiles fear it is more
indicative of something more familiar and less inspiring. They have called
for independent assessments of the tsunami's impact on the country's
southwestern coast.

That in itself poses a formidable challenge. Burma's ruling junta is
notoriously protective, and defensive, of any bit of news or information
that can be gathered from within its borders. All media is
state-controlled.

Very few outsiders, even among aid organizations and foreign officials,
are granted free access to any part of the country.

Even teams from Unicef and the World Food Program (WFP) had difficulty
getting clearance to visit the areas most likely to have been affected by
the calamity. It was only last week that the WFP had its chance.

Until things are validated on the ground, international relief efforts had
to resort to satellite pictures to have a clearer idea of how the tsunamis
hit Burma. The early prognosis was that the country indeed suffered much
less damage than neighboring Thailand, but surely must have been
underestimating, if not underdeclaring, the actual effects of the tsunami.

Burmese exile groups say their own sources so far place the country's
death toll at 400 to 600.

Now that the WFP has returned with its own findings, it appears that the
junta may yet be vindicated in its reports, but only up to a point. The
WFP says the official death toll is probably close to accurate, although
at least 10,000 Burmese may yet need food assistance.

Whether Burma was indeed somehow spared or its leaders somehow managed to
bury the truth will surely remain up for debate. Whatever the facts, to
those for whom Burma's story is as unfamiliar as the concept of oceans
erasing entire villages, the junta's perceived denial is probably as
mind-boggling as the calamity itself. Clearly, after all, this was
nobody's fault. Why in the world would any government downplay the misery
caused by a natural disaster on its own people?

On one level, Rangoon is notorious for the habit. The world's skepticism
of everything Rangoon says, or does not say, is as reflexive as the
Burmese junta's response to any disaster that befalls their people, or any
problem afflicting their society. Its military leaders not only deny
corruption, poverty, and the existence of a narcotics industry in Burma;
they also work hard to filter the air of any hint of vulnerability:
whether it be to opposition politicians, the international community,
human rights advocates, or nature itself.

In a feature published in June by Irrawaddy Magazine (an independent
Burmese publication operating out of Thailand), journalist Dominic Faulder
noted how Burma's state-controlled media failed to make any mention of a
May typhoon, the strongest storm to hit the country in 30 years, that sunk
vessels, killed 140, and rendered an estimated 18,000 homeless.

In that same feature, Faulder revisited the scene and incident of what is
now simply referred to as the Great Fire of Mandalay. In 1981, Faulder
wrote, up to a sixth of the city may have been razed by a fire that
started at a black market fuel shop, displacing tens of thousands. Once
again, the state press said nothing of the matter. News wires with no
access to the city or the story could only make short, sketchy dispatches.

"Officially, nothing happened, so there was no way of guessing how many
people may have died,'' Faulder wrote. "A town of 100,000 could burn to
the ground here and nobody would ever know about it.''

On a deeper level, the rationale behind this habit of denial is simple but
uncompromising. For a military government that imprisoned, killed, and
chased away the country's last democratically elected leaders, and for a
brutal leadership that suppresses journalists and writers, legitimacy is
tied to never having to admit any problem, making disasters inconvenient.

If not for anything else, catastrophes of this scale - like a fuel-train
collision that kills 3,000 in North Korea, or a massive earthquake in Iran
- tend to give the aid agencies compelling arguments to be allowed into
even the most notoriously secretive of states. That affords the world a
glimpse of living standards, infrastructure, systems, children, poverty,
and such other indicators of reality within the world's most restricted
borders.

Never mind if the tour is incidental to the help that their neighbors
merely want to offer. For the Burmese junta, any glimpse of imperfection
in a rule defined by denial is one glimpse too many. And so between the
need to aid its people and its reflex to hide any blemish, the junta has
been consistent in making its choice.

As Faulder wrote: this is "the land where disasters don't happen,
officially.'' For the people of Burma, that tragedy is as devastating -
and more lingering - than anything the tsunami may have brought to their
shores.

Roby Alampay is the executive director of Bangkok-based Southeast Asian
Press Alliance.

_____________________________________

January 15, Washington Post
After the Tsunami

The unprecedented generosity in response to Asia's tsunami has reflected
the sense that this is a different sort of tragedy. Many disasters in poor
countries are caused or exacerbated by human failings: Famines often are
created by war; tornadoes kill people in large numbers where authorities
have failed to plan for them; the long-term problems of poverty frequently
reflect corrupt or incompetent leadership. But the tsunami was an act of
nature that rose up from the ocean; although helter-skelter development of
coastal areas may have compounded the damage, the people of rich countries
perceived the tsunami as a case of pure misfortune. And so the charitable
response has been enormous.

The success of the relief effort, by contrast, is bound to depend on the
competence of governments. National pride may prove an obstacle: India's
government refused foreign help, and then was slow to deliver assistance
to the remote Andaman Islands; Indonesia's government has forbidden U.S.
Marines from staying overnight on its soil, which has restricted the U.S.
role in clearing rubble and in reconstruction; Burma's dictators as usual
seem more interested in preserving their positions than allowing help to
reach their citizens. Indonesia has also announced that foreign aid
workers must register with its officials before leaving the two main towns
in Aceh, a requirement that may become onerous if implemented
restrictively.

Beyond the question of national pride, government leadership of
reconstruction can be good, bad or indifferent. One of the mistakes made
in previous disasters was to allow feeding camps to spring up far from
people's dwellings; this separated survivors from their pre-disaster lives
and delayed their return to self-sufficiency. That's why it has been
essential to deliver relief supplies to people in remote regions rather
than forcing those people to trek into the towns in search of help.
Helicopter drops of food, coupled with an urgent effort to reestablish
road links so that traders can move goods, have rightly been early
priorities.

Another potential mistake is to allow a flood of foreign help to destroy
local coping mechanisms. Food aid may be essential in the immediate
aftermath of a disaster but can drive local food prices down if sustained
for too long, hurting local producers. Conversely, an inflow of foreign
money can drive local prices up to the detriment of consumers.
Policymakers must steer a path down the middle. Aid must also be
distributed to reach the most vulnerable groups, because famines and
medical shortages often reflect not an absolute scarcity but rather a lack
of purchasing power among the poorest. If supplies are simply dropped from
a helicopter, some will muscle their way forward and walk off with them,
selling them to those compatriots who can afford them.

Disasters can generate a tragic clash between humanity's two sides:
Fortunate westerners are spurred to admirable generosity, but desperate
survivors in the stricken regions may steal the gifts or bend them to
their own ends. The result frequently is disillusionment with the whole
idea of aid. If Indonesia and the other tsunami-struck countries can
manage disaster relief well, they will be helping the wider cause of
foreign assistance as well as their own people.