BurmaNet News, February 17, 2005

[Editor]

February 17, 2005 Issue # 2658


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar resumes constitution talks amid sharp criticism
Irrawaddy: Shan group boycotts National Convention
SHAN: New spy machine starting from scratch

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Exiled Shans demand release of leaders
DVB: AAPP urges Burma junta to release ill prisoners

REGIONAL
AFP: Malaysian police arrest 18 pro-democracy activists outside Myanmar
mission
Mizzima: India urged to reverse policy on Burma

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: National Convention condemned by rights group
UNIAN News Agency: Ukrainian President dismisses, appoints ambassadors

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Will the National Convention work?

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 17, Agence France Presse
Myanmar resumes constitution talks amid sharp criticism

Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday re-launched a national
convention aimed at framing a new constitution, amid sharp Western
criticism for failing to include the leading pro-democracy opposition
party.

In an opening address to delegates mainly wearing ethnic and national
dress, convention head Lieutenant General Thein Sein said the nation
needed a new constitution after years of military rule.

But he also emphasized the military's paramount role in the country's
self-proclaimed "road map" to democracy, the first step of which is the
drafting of a constitution and the last is "free and fair" elections.

"The military is working to fulfill the aspirations of the people," said
Thein Sein, who is also first secretary of the government, known as the
State Peace and Development Council.

"Democracy can never flourish in an unstable atmosphere. We need peace and
stability," said Thein Sein, dressed in military garb.

The European Union, the United Nations and the United States have
condemned the proceedings as fatally flawed without the participation of
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy
(NLD).

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to
take power.

"Without the full participation of the democratic opposition and ethnic
minority groups, the national convention lacks the legitimacy necessary to
draft a constitution that is truly democratic and representative of the
will of the Burmese people," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher
said.

The NLD is boycotting the convention, calling for the release of Aung San
Suu Kyi and party vice chairman Tin Oo from house arrest.

Instead, in the days before the convention the military extended Tin Oo's
house arrest by one year and arrested seven leaders of the Shan ethnic
group.

"Drafting a new constitution could be a great opportunity for a country to
make progress by guaranteeing the human rights of all its citizens,"
Amnesty International's deputy Asia director Natalie Hill said in a
statement.

"But in Myanmar this opportunity has been marred by the ongoing
imprisonment of peaceful political activists and the recent arrests of yet
more political figures."

During the talks, the 1,075 delegates are not allowed to leave the
sprawling and isolated compound, which was built among rice paddies
expressly for the national convention.

The facilities, an hour's drive from Yangon, include top-notch medical
clinics, a theater, golf course and beauty salon -- leading delegates to
joke that the convention is as much a retreat as a working meeting.

The convention aims to lay out principles for a constitution that will be
presented to voters in a referendum. Most delegates, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said they were confident it could wrap up its work
before the end of the year.

Thein Sein told reporters that this session would endorse a blueprint for
a legislature drafted at the last session, and lay out plans for executive
and judicial branches.

If the convention wraps up within a few months, that would give the junta
something to defend itself against critics as it prepares to take over
chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2006.

But independent politician U Win Naing, who is not attending the
convention, said the new constitution would only make the military
stronger.

"This constitution will give them powers they don't currently have," he said.

Both the United States, which has branded Myanmar an "outpost of tyranny,"
and the EU have slapped sanctions on Myanmar.

The entire "road map" process had been cast into doubt after prime
minister General Khin Nyunt, who proposed the scheme in 2003, was sacked
last October and the powerful military intelligence unit he headed for two
decades was dismantled.

Some 300 people linked to military intelligence are now standing trial in
secret tribunals.

Regardless of the outcome of the convention, Myanmar's people are unlikely
to reap any benefits soon. The economy is in a shambles, HIV infections
are on the rise and the nation remains among the world's least developed.

______________________________________

February 17, Irrawaddy
Shan group boycotts National Convention - Nandar Chann

The National Convention to draw up a new constitution convened in Rangoon
Thursday, but without the presence of the Shan State Army (North)
ceasefire group.

The group—the SSA-N—said it was staying away from the Convention because
several of its leaders had been arrested.

A SSA-N member in Rangoon said: “We aren’t attending.” He said he had not
heard if the Shan State National Army, or SSNA, was attending.

The National Convention is being held in Nyaung Hnapin, Hmawbi Township,
about 40km from Rangoon. The government invited 1,086 delegates from
around the country. It says that 1,075 of them, including representatives
of armed ethnic groups which signed ceasefire agreements with the military
government after 1989, are in attendance.

The SSA-N member said that Sao Khai Hpa, vice-chairman of the SSA-N, went
to military headquarters yesterday to continue negotiations with the
junta. Sao Khai Hpa said he cannot talk with foreign media at the moment
because the situation remains delicate.

Lt-Gen Thein Sein, secretary-1 of the military government, reportedly told
Sao Khai Hpa at a meeting on Tuesday that the SSA-N leaders would not be
released.

Maj-Gen Sao Hso Ten, president of the Shan State Peace Council, or SSPC,
was arrested by the military regime after attending a meeting in Taunggyi,
the capital of southern Shan State, in early February.The SSPC comprises
the SSA-N and SSNA. According to Shan sources, the SSA-N and SSNA have
their troops in northern Shan State on alert.

On February 14 the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, or SNLD, asked
regime chairman Snr-Gen Than Shwe, to release Shan leaders, including the
group’s leader Hkun Htun Oo, who was arrested early this month. They
received no response from the government.

Several other political activists were arrested early this month.
82-year-old Shan politician Shwe Ohn, well-known female politician Cho Cho
Kyaw Nyein, and Thu Wai, chairman of the Democracy Party, are in
detention, said reliable sources in Rangoon.

Hkun Htun Oo’s “overseas courier service,” which distributes foreign
newspapers and journals within Burma, was shut down by the authorities on
Monday, according to two of his close friends in Rangoon.

Fu Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress and a member of
the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament, or CRPP, said the
authorities have been watching his home and following him when he leaves.

______________________________________

February 17, Shan Herald Agency for News
New spy machine starting from scratch

The Office of the Military Affairs Security (OMAS), the successor to the
dissolved Military Intelligence, is starting almost everything from the
bottom as most of the former intelligence officers have been purged,
according to sources from the Sino-Burma border:

Before 18 October 2004, when Gen Khin Nyunt, then Burma's spy chief, was
ousted, the whole Lashio-based Northeastern Region that stood guard over
24 townships was policed by the Military Intelligence Battalion #2. Under
it were MI-9 in Lashio, MI-23 in Kutkhai and MI-29 in Laogai (Laukkai).

However, the total OMAS manpower as of New Year's day was only 14,
commanded by Lt-Col Nyi Nyi Thein Myint and his deputies Maj Htun Nay Lin
and Maj Min Htut, who is responsible for the security of Lashio.

Their plan is to establish 4 intelligence platoons during the year in the
whole Northeastern Region, according to sources close to the military:
Platoon1 for Kuthkai, Hsenwi, Namkham, Muse and Panghsai townships
Platoon 2 for Laogai, Kunlong, Chin Shwehaw, Mongmai, Pangwai and Hopang
townships
Platoon 3 for Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Namlan, Nawngkhio, Mongmit and Manpiang
townships
Platoon 4 for Tangyan, Mongyai, Namtu, Manhpang, Pangyang and Nahparn
townships
The description of their jobs include keeping under surveillance not only
dissident groups but also ceasefire groups and former MI members.

At present, some of the OMAS burdens are being shared by the police, says
one. "But it still has a long way to go. So if the activists are up to
something, the time to do it is now, he confides."

The new director of the OMAS is Maj-Gen Myint Swe, reported to be a nephew
of Daw Kyaing Kyaing, Burma's current "First Lady".

______________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 17, Shan Herald Agency for News
Exiled Shans demand release of leaders

Shans meeting on the Chiangmai border yesterday have called on Rangoon to
release leaders arrested last week.

Condemning Burma's military leadership as violators of human rights and
even of their own trademark slogans: Non-disintegration of the Union and
Non-disintegration of the Nation Unity by arresting Hkun Htun Oo, Chairman
of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, Sao Hso Ten, Chairman of the
Shan State Peace Council, and their associates last week, representatives
from 14 groups that included members of Shan Democratic Union, Restoration
Council of Shan State, Shan Women's Action Network and others demanded
that "The military authorities must release the leaders of Shan State
immediately and unconditionally."

"Our demand may well likely fall on deaf ears," said a representative from
Shan Women's Action Network, who was proposing a draft resolution. "But we
want the world to know all of us are one and the same with those unjustly
imprisoned."

A participant from Shan Relief and Development Center that is active in
Southern Shan State also expressed fear over the fate of those detained.
"They had poisoned the Prince of Yawnghwe (Sao Shwe Thaike, Burma's first
president) to death," he said. "Who can guarantee the same thing won't
happen again?"

Sao Shwe Thaike, father to Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office's Harn
Yawnghwe, died under mysterious circumstances in 1962, eight months after
his imprisonment following Gen Ne Win's March coup.

Another participant from Fang-based Migrant Workers Center openly
questioned whether the UN-supported call for Tripartite Dialogue (between
military, democratic opposition and the ethnic opposition) was still
feasible. The ensuing debate resulted in the consensus that a
multi-pronged strategy should be employed in accordance with the late Chao
Tzang Yawnghwe's tireless exhortation for 'Common Goals, Diverse Actions'.

"The arrests of our leaders will not spell the end of the Shan struggle,"
Wansai, General Secretary of the Shan Democratic Union, later told
S.H.A.N..

Burma, Shan States, Chin Hills and the Kachin Hills agreed on 12 February
1947 to form today's Union of Burma on the basic principles of Full
Autonomy, Human Rights and Democracy. The country has been at full blown
war with itself since the 1962 coup and the abrogation of the 1947 union
constitution.

Resolutions
Shan Community Exchange
(16 February 2005)
•       The military authorities must release the leaders of Shan State
immediately and unconditionally
•       The Burma Army itself is the saboteur of the Union and National Unity
•       The Shan community is totally against the Burma Army's violations
of Human Rights
•       The military authorities must accept full responsibly for all the
unpleasant consequences arising from the imprisonment of Shan State
leaders

______________________________________

February 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
AAPP urges Burma junta to release ill prisoners

Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), in a
statement demanded Burma's military junta, State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) to release all ill political prisoners. Although the SPDC
released nearly 20,000 prisoners since November 2004, only 86 political
prisoners were released. The spokesman of AAPP Ko Bo Kyi told DVB that
prisoners such as Dr. Than Nyein, Dr. May Win Myint, U Zaw Ne Zaw and U
Aung Soe Myint are old and they are suffering from many kinds of illness.
According to the list compiled by AAPP, there are more than 120 political
prisoners with ill health. He also urged the international community
including the ICRC to put sufficient pressures on the junta for the
immediate release of the prisoners. "When giving pressures, we are
demanding all political, diplomatic and economic pressures. We are
demanding all three," he said. He added that both the UN and governments
of the world accept that political change of a country depends on the
release of political prisoners and it is necessary to demand the
international community to put more pressures on the SPDC. Ko Bo Kyi also
denounced recent arrests of Shan leaders by the SPDC and demanded their
immediate release.

______________________________________
REGIONAL

February 17, Agence France Presse
Malaysian police arrest 18 pro-democracy activists outside Myanmar mission

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police on Thursday arrested 18 Myanmar nationals,
including one woman, for participating in an illegal pro-democracy protest
outside the Myanmar embassy here, a rights group said.

Criticising the arrests, the Voice of the Malaysian People (Suaram) group
said the protestors, who belonged to the Shan ethnic minority group, were
being detained at Kuala Lumpur's Pudu police station.

They had demonstrated outside the Myanmar embassy earlier in the day
against the relaunch in Yangon Thursday of a national convention aimed at
framing a new constitution, Suaram spokeswoman Seah Li Ling told AFP.

Writing a constitution is the first of seven steps in the roadmap to
democracy laid down by Myanmar's military rulers in 2003.

The convention has come under sharp Western criticism for failing to
include the leading pro-democracy opposition party.

Demonstrators claimed that the convention showed the military's intention
to retain its dictatorship in Myanmar, Seah said.

"It is regrettable that this has been the second mass arrest of Myanmar
nationals this year," she added.

Last month, some 164 Chin activists were arrested outside the Myanmar
embassy after a similar illegal protest.

Public demonstrations without a police permit are banned in Malaysia.

One Chin activist was subsequently released while the other 163, including
three women are being held in two different detention camps housing
illegal migrants, Simon Sang, a Chin refugee community coordinator told
AFP.

Seah urged the police to release all those arrested immediately, failing
which they should be given access to lawyers.

She also called on police to allow the UN refugee agency officials to meet
the detainees.

_____________________________________

February 14, Mizzima News
India urged to reverse policy on Burma - Mungpi

Indian intellectuals demanded today that India reverse its policy on Burma
from supporting the military junta to supporting the democracy movement.

"India is making a big mistake by supporting the [Burma's] military junta.
So, reverse the policy again in favor of the restoration of democracy,"
Bibhuti Bhushan Nandy, a former Government of India additional minister
told Mizzima at the end of a one-day seminar on Problems of Restoration of
Democracy and Human Rights in Burma held in Kolkata.

Speaking at the seminar, editor-in-chief of The Statesman newspaper, C. R.
Irani condemned the Burmese military junta for detaining Nobel laureate
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in Burma.

Other speakers in the seminar also highlighted the failure of Indian
government attempt to deal with the Burmese Military generals in terms of
trade and commerce, and how business investments by multinational
companies in Burma generate human rights violations.

Citing past Yadana gas pipeline projects of Unocal in the US and  Total in
France in collaboration with the junta and consequent rights violations,
Nai Kasauh Mon, director of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland, said
India should re-consider its plan of investing for extraction of natural
gas from Burma as there would be similar consequences of human rights
violations in Burma, particularly in remote areas where ethnic minorities
live.

"We want the people of India. to understand that this is not yet the right
time to buy natural gas from Burma. And if India does, it will only
strengthen the military junta and will not benefit the people.  Therefore,
India should temporarily stop its plan of buying natural gas from Burma
until there is a democratically elected government," Nai Kasauh Mon said.

Held at the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Jadavpur  University
Campus, Kolkata, the seminar unanimously agreed to form an India-Burma
people's friendship society in Kolkata to promote good relations between
people of the two countries and to work for the cause of restoration of
democracy and human rights in Burma.

It is also further recommended that Indian parliamentarians and
legislators, cutting across political lines, should form an all
parliamentary caucus to pressure the Indian government to back democracy
and human rights in Burma.

The seminar, jointly organized by the Centre for Research in
Indo-Bangladesh Relations (CRIBR), Kolkata ,and the Mizzima News.

The seminar recommended that the proposed caucus should create awareness
about developments in Burma and closely interact with similar
parliamentary caucuses on Burma in ASEAN and Australia and western
countries.

A ministerial meeting between India and Burma on non-traditional security
issues was held at New Delhi last week.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 17, Irrawaddy
National Convention condemned by rights group - Yeni

Citing the prolonged detention of pro-democracy leaders Aung San Suu Kyi
and Tin Oo, last week’s arrests of ethnic Shan leaders and recent military
attacks on  Karen, Karenni, and other ethnic minorities, Debbie Stothard,
Altsean-Burma Coordinator, said these events were “demolishing hopes that
the NC process could be a means of positive political transformation for
Burma.”

The United States, Britain and the United Nations have also questioned the
legitimacy of the National Convention so long as opposition leaders are
under house arrest or in jail. In Thailand, Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Sihasak Puangketkeow said the Thai government wanted to “see all the
parties participate in the National Convention.” But, he added, “the door
is closed for the opposition to join.”

Meanwhile, the ruling military government has extended the detention of
prisoner of conscience Tin Oo, vice chairman of the National League for
Democracy, or NLD, and other opposition leaders. The junta has also
arrested Shan political activists, giving no explanation for their
detention.

“We strongly condemn these actions and urge the authorities to release
these people, along with the many other prisoners of conscience in the
country,” said Natalie Hill, deputy Asia director of Amnesty
International, or AI. “The Burmese authorities must also amend those laws
and practices which have been routinely used to deny people their rights
to peaceful political activity.”

According to AI, there are more than 1,300 political prisoners in Burma.
Many of those currently detained or in prison are legitimate delegates.

“The military government has oppressed the people with divide-and-rule
tactics,” said Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Thai-Burma border-based
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), or AAPP. “The
pro-democracy advocates—even the ethnic minorities—are marginalized and
cannot express their perspectives.”

Several Burmese exiled activists staged a protest against the National
Convention in front of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Thursday.

_____________________________________

February 16, UNIAN news agency
Ukrainian President dismisses, appoints ambassadors

Kiev: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has signed a decree to relieve
Anatoliy Orel of his post as Ukrainian ambassador to Italy and Malta, and
also as Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN's Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN reported
at 1846 gmt on 16 February.

In another report at 1842 gmt, UNIAN said Yushchenko appointed Ihor
Humennyy as Ukraine's ambassador to Thailand and Burma.

Both presidential decrees were signed on 15 February, the agency said.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 17, The Irrawaddy
Will the National Convention work?

Burma’s junta-organized National Convention resumed its meandering,
stilted course today. The convention was initiated twelve years ago, but
when asked what progress it has made, nobody has an answer—except the
military leaders.

The task of the convention is to draft a new constitution for the country
aimed at resolving a political stalemate among opposition, ethnic and
military leaders that has existed for over a decade. The convention,
however, lacks crucially important representatives of opposition and
ethnic groups. Thus it will inevitably fail.

The National League for Democracy, or NLD, the landslide victor of the
1990 elections, has boycotted the convention since 1995 because its
proceedings are undemocratic. The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy,
or SNLD, which placed second in the elections, is following the NLD’s
example. A few other ethnic parties have also refused to join the
convention.

So who is filling the seats of the convention center? Most of the 1076
representatives are handpicked by the junta. About 100 are from ethnic
groups that signed ceasefire agreements with the junta after 1988, when it
assumed power.

The representatives’ backgrounds are shady at best. For example, Maha Ja
is a former commander of the now-defunct Mong Tai Army of the Kokang opium
warlord Khun Sa. A Thai provincial court recently issued a warrant for his
arrest on drug charges. Moreover, members of the United Wa State Army, a
16,000-member heroin-producing group in eastern Burma, are also in
attendance.

The ceasefire groups currently in the convention center seem convinced
that the convention can produce positive results. This despite the fact
that days before the convention resumed, the authorities arrested several
ethnic Shan leaders, including Maj-Gen Sao Hso Ten, a leader of the Shan
State Army (North), or SSA-N, a ceasefire group invited to the convention.
Though the group demanded the release of its leaders, the junta ignored
them and the group decided not to attend the convention in protest. In
addition, Chairman Hkun Htun Oo of the SNLD and his general secretary were
also detained for unknown reasons.

The arrests show that the junta still sticks to its long-time policy of
favoring no one, not even among those that support its agenda. First and
foremost, the junta’s priority is keeping power all to itself. This policy
has proven pragmatic and successful, and the junta can hardly be faulted
for clinging to it.

The ethnic groups, however, are showing a disappointing lack of unity.
They are silent about the Shan leaders’ arrest and seem barely cognizant
that the SSA-N has walked out of the convention. This despite the high
probability that the military government would not hesitate to visit the
same fate on the other ethnic groups in the future. The junta’s
divide-and-conquer tactics have succeeded with Burma’s ethnic groups, and
the ethnic groups know it.

For the junta, the convention is just a placebo pill it feeds to the
outside world in order to convince it of its “legitimacy.” That’s why the
generals have consistently tried to stage the convention under their own,
full control.

With support by most of the ethnic ceasefire groups, the junta will push
through with a constitution even though it lacks true legitimacy.
Subsequently, Burma and its citizens might be forced to accept a new
constitution drawn by warlords and drug lords, not the
democratically-minded opposition and ethnic leaders. How can such a
constitution resolve the country’s problems?