BurmaNet News May 21-23, 2005

[Editor]

May 21-23, 2005 Issue # 2724

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Two Ethnic Rebel Groups Announce Merger to Fight the Junta
AFP: Myanmar Shan ethnic group surrenders weapons
DVB via BBC: Wa forces to "consider" arms surrender when new government
emerges in Burma

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Irrawaddy: Burma’s Foreign Trade up 9 Percent but Fails to Meet Target
The Korea Herald: Daewoo International signs $12m Myanmar e-government deal
Xinhua: Myanmar encourages information technology in SMEs
Thai Press Reports: Thailand and Myanmar sign Salween river development pact
AP: Myanmar-India gas pipeline may be in place within five years, says
Indian official
Asia Pulse: Indian industry body seeks to boost trade with Myanmar

REGIONAL
BDNews: UNHCR threatens to wind up Bangladesh operations

INTERNATIONAL
DVB via BBC: Myanmar satellite TV to launch, targets Burma

OPINION / OTHER
The Independent: A time to remember Burma and challenge the junta's
repression

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 23, Associated Press via Irrawaddy
Two Ethnic Rebel Groups Announce Merger to Fight the Junta - Doi Tailaeng

Two ethnic Shan guerrilla groups announced that they have merged to fight
Burma’s military regime, which has recently stepped up attacks against the
minority amid fears that its political and military leaders are planning
to secede.

The Shan State National Army, which reached a cease-fire with the ruling
junta in 1995, will join with the Shan State Army or SSA, their leaders
said late Saturday at a joint press conference at SSA headquarters, just
across the border from northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province. The
groups are two of the biggest among numerous Shan organizations.

The move comes amid a government crackdown on Shan organizations,
including the heavy shelling of the SSA headquarters in April and the
arrests of at least a dozen Shan politicians since February.

Some of those detained have been charged with sedition following reports
that Shan politicians and guerrilla groups have held meetings, which the
government has said included plans for secession.

Shan State National Army leader Col Jai Yi was reported last month to have
fled northern Shan state with almost 2,000 of his guerrillas after
relations with the junta deteriorated. However, Burma’s state media have
reported that several hundred rebels have surrendered their weapons to the
government, reaffirming the cease-fire.

The total number of Shan guerrillas is impossible to verify, but is
believed to be in the low thousands.

The junta was already irritated due to some Shan delegates’ boycott of the
government's constitutional convention.

The regime's fears about separatism were reinforced last month when a
prominent Shan politician, exiled in Canada, issued a unilateral
“declaration of independence.”

Jai Yi and Col Yawd Serk, the SSA leader, said they would decide later on
a name for the merged group.

Saturday’s announcement coincided with Resistance Day, which marks almost
50 years of Shan struggle for autonomy from Burma’s central government.
The Shan are the country's largest ethnic minority, and live in a vast
area of northeastern Burma.

To mark the announcement of the merger, about 100 children playing
traditional drums marched to the center of the camp where about 300 people
gathered to hear a speech by Yawd Serk.

The activities ended with a wreath-laying and religious ceremony at the
tomb of guerrillas who died protecting Shan guerrilla camps.

____________________________________

May 21, Agence France Presse
Myanmar Shan ethnic group surrenders weapons

More than 300 members of a former ethnic rebel army in Myanmar's Shan
state have surrendered their weapons, 10 years after signing a ceasefire
with the military rulers, state media said Saturday.

Some 325 members of the 19th brigade of the Shan State National Army
(SSNA) on Friday handed in their weapons in the northern state's Lashio
township, becoming the third Shan former rebel army to so in the past two
months.

The weapons included a 60mm mortar launcher, six M79 launchers, 21 M23
machine guns, 7,663 rounds of ammunition and 102 mines, the offical New
Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

Brigade commander Gon Kay called on remaining ethnic armies to surrender
their weapons and condemned a declaration of independence in April by Shan
exiles led by Sao Kai Pha, son of President Sao Shwe Thaike of what was
then known as Burma.

"Now is the most opportune time for them to discard their armed struggle
and... enjoy the fruitful results," he was quoted as saying in the
newspaper.

SSNA members survived by extorting money from the Shan community to commit
attacks, Gon Kay added.

More than 5,200 people attended the handover ceremony including State
Peace and Development Council first secretary Lieutenant General Thein
Sein.

In April, the Palaung State Liberation Army from northern Shan state and
the SSNA's 11th Brigade handed in their weapons.

Eighteen armed ethnic groups and splinter groups have signed ceasefires
with the military government.

____________________________________

May 21, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
Wa forces to "consider" arms surrender when new government emerges in Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 14:30 GMT, 21 May 05
Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 21 May

The Rangoon military junta newspapers on 20 May carried a news report on
the unconditional exchange of weapons for peace of the commander and men
of Shan State National Army, SSNA, Brigade No 19. It is rather strange to
know that the cease-fire groups that attended the ceremony were Shan
cease-fire group representative Maj-Gen Loi Mao, U Mahtu Naw from remnant
Kachin group, and U Aik Mone from the Palaung peace group with the major
cease-fire groups - the Wa and Kokang, absent from the ceremony.

When DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] contacted the UWSA [United Wa State
Army], a Wa official from Lashio said they were not invited. When asked
why they were invited for the SSNA 11th Brigade's and U Aik Mone-led
Palaung State Liberation Army's surrender ceremonies and not this one, he
replied that it could be because of their recent political statement.

The Wa official explained to DVB that the statement issued by UWSA's
Pangkham Headquarters included two main points - the UWSA will consider
whether to surrender their weapons when a genuine constitution and a
civilian government emerges, and will announce the total drug eradication
issue in June.

Although the statement has been faxed to the SPDC authorities and foreign
news agencies in Rangoon, the Wa official claimed it is strange for the
SPDC not to report the statement in the newspapers like before.

The UWSA with 20,000 troops is the most powerful of the cease-fire groups
and it is the first cease-fire group to officially declare that it will
consider surrendering the weapons when a new civilian government emerges.

It is believed that other cease-fire groups such as the Kachin [Kachin
Independence Organization] and Mon [New Mon State Party] might issue
similar statements in the near future.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

May 23, AP via Irrawaddy
Burma’s Foreign Trade up 9 Percent but Fails to Meet Target

Burma’s foreign trade for the fiscal year 2004-2005 increased by nearly 9
percent but failed to meet the official target, a semiofficial newspaper
reported Monday.

The country's total foreign trade in the last fiscal year was US $4.9
billion compared to US $4.5 billion (€3.55 billion) in the previous year,
an increase of 8.9 percent. The government had projected a total foreign
trade volume of US $5 billion, the semi-official journal Myanmar Times
reported, quoting Commerce Minister Brig-Gen Tin Naing Thein.

Fiscal years end on March 31.

Speaking at a recent meeting of the Union of Myanmar [Burma] Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, the minister said Burma’s exports amounted to US
$2.9 billion, up from US $1.9 billion the previous year.

The minister said exports from the agriculture, forest and marine sectors
increased but declined significantly in the garments industry from US $327
million in 2003-2004 to US $216 million last year.

The United States and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions
against Burma in recent years to pressure the military government to
improve human rights and release detained pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.

The minister said garment exports to the United States had dropped by more
than 50 percent over the past three years.

_____________________________________

May 23, The Korea Herald
Daewoo International signs $12m Myanmar e-government deal - Kim So-young

A consortium led by Daewoo International Corp. has signed a $12 million
contract with Myanmar to computerize the Southeast Asian country's
government ministries and interconnect them with high-speed Internet
network.

Daewoo International, Korea's leading global trading and investment
company, said yesterday that its consortium with database management
system provider KCOMS Ltd. won Myanmar's large-scale project to build a
e-governance system over the coming year.

The consortium will establish a network infrastructure for the country's
central government, link its 38 government ministries to the network and
computerize its personnel management system.

"As we have secured the first part of Myanmar's grand e-governance plan,
this will have a positive impact on our potential to win subsequent
contracts in the country and also enter other Southeast Asian markets,"
Daewoo International President Lee Tae-yong said.

"This development will also serve as a crucial stimulus for the depressed
domestic IT industry, by demonstrating that local IT technologies could
make inroads into the potentially huge Southeast Asian market."

Daewoo International currently is leading an oil exploration project off
Myanmar jointly with Korea Gas Corp. and two Indian companies. In January,
the company, which holds 60 percent share in the project, said it found a
93-meter gas layer.

The company is also part of a Korea National Oil Corp.-led gas field
development project in Vietnam as well as an LGN project in Oman, also led
by KNOC.

On the back of stable growth in overseas sales and thriving energy
business, the company's 2004 sales and operating profit rose 21.5 percent
and 23.1 percent respectively over the previous year to 5.01 trillion won
and 96 billion won.

Daewoo International shares have risen more than 32 percent this year,
reaching 13,500 won at Friday's market close.

Daewoo International is a former unit of now-defunct Daewoo Group, which
collapsed under a mountain of debt after the 1997-98 Asian financial
crisis. The company graduated from a debt workout program in 2003 and has
been making steady improvement.

_____________________________________

May 23, Xinhua
Myanmar encourages information technology in SMEs

Myanmar is encouraging its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to
apply to information and communication technology (ICT) and a pilot
project for e( electronic)-business development is underway, a local
weekly reported Monday.

The pilot project, which is to prove that using ICT in SMEs will bring
about cost effectiveness, increased profit and easier expansion of
business, is to be implemented by the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry and scheduled to be completed later this year, the
Myanmar Times said.

Myanmar has a large number of SMEs but only a few are using ICT, the
report said.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has formed a sub-committee under the Myanmar Industrial
Development Committee (MIDC) recently to help private sector develop SMEs
by stepping up research and disseminating technical knowhow, training out
more skilled workers, providing coordination between SMEs, upgradation of
them and exploration of markets for their products.

Over 5,000 SMEs have already been established in the 19 industrial zones
across the country and there are still more than 30,000 others located
outside the zones.

According to official statistics, there are more than 100,000 private
industries in Myanmar with over 2 million workers being employed and 90
percent of the industries are SMEs categorized into 13 kinds.

The Myanmar government has urged promotion of SMEs in the country to bring
about sustainable development of the private sector.

The production volume of the industrial sector has reached over 350
billion Kyats (about 437.5 million US dollars), standing after the
agricultural sector, according to official statistics.

Myanmar's industrial output grew by about 24 percent annually in the past
four fiscal years (2001-02 to 2004-05). The country has set a target of
27.5 percent for the current fiscal year (2005- 06) which began in April.

In the just-ended fiscal year of 2004-05 (April-March), the country's
industrial sector contributed 10.7 percent to the gross domestic product
(GDP).

_____________________________________

May 23, Thai Press Reports
Thailand and Myanmar sign Salween river development pact

Thailand and Myanmar are planning to sign a memorandum of understanding
later this month on the joint development of electricity by damming the
Salween River.

The construction of six dams are planned along the Salween River and are
expected to generate some 15,000 megawatts of power, the Energy Minister
Viset Choopiban said on Thursday.

The joint development plan will benefit both countries as it would reduce
their reliance on increasingly expensive fossil fuels and provide a much
cheaper source of energy, the Energy Minister said.

After the MOU is signed, Thailand and Myanmar plan to conduct an in-depth
study on the demand for electricity, the scale of investment needed and an
environmental impact assessment.

The development of the Salween River as a source of energy could take
years to materialise because of the potential resistance from
environmentalists, according to an energy expert Piyasawasti Amranand,
Chairman of the Energy for Environment Foundation.

It took eleven years for the Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos to be built, he said.

_____________________________________

May 23, Associated Press
Myanmar-India gas pipeline may be in place within five years, says Indian
official

A natural gas pipeline from Myanmar to India could be operational in five
years, an Indian government official said Monday.

"As matters stand, it will take one year for government clearances,
another one year for the project's financial closure and a further three
years for the construction of the pipeline," which would connect the two
countries through Bangladesh, India's Petroleum Secretary Sushil Tripathi
told reporters.

India, Bangladesh and Myanmar reached an agreement on the pipeline project
earlier this year. The 290-kilometer (180-mile) pipeline would cost US$2
billion ([euro]1.54 billion).

"We are looking at importing up to 40 million cubic meters of gas a day
through this pipeline," Dow Jones Newswires quoted Tripathi as saying.

ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas arm of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp.,
and the Gas Authority Limited have stakes in two offshore exploration
blocks in Myanmar. Both the Indian companies are state owned.

India's current natural gas output of 80 million cubic meters a day meets
only about 70 percent of its demand, which is expected to surge to around
391 million cubic meters a day by 2024-2025, according to Petroleum
Ministry estimates.

India is also looking into obtaining natural gas from Iran through a
2,775-kilometer (1,724-mile) pipeline via Pakistan. Iranian energy
officials have said it could be operational by 2009.

However, the United States is opposed to the US$4 billion ([euro]3
billion) project. It wants to use the pipeline issue to pressure Iran to
end its nuclear program, which Washington says is aimed at producing
weapons.

Pakistan also is eager for the project because it would also have access
to the gas and earn an estimated US$600 million ([euro]455 million) a year
in transit fees.

_____________________________________

May 23, Asia Pulse
Indian industry body seeks to boost trade with Myanmar

Industry body PHDCCI today sought extending a fresh line of credit to
Myanmar of at least US $25 million to facilitate trade between the two
countries.

Due to US sanctions against Myanmar, direct dollar trade between India and
Myanmar is not possible and it was essentia that the two countries
collaborate in financial services, particularly banking services, it said
in a release.

The Central Bank of Myanmar had opened accounts with banks in Singapore,
and recently in China, through which trade is being facilitated.

A similar arrangement should be worked out between India and Myanmar, the
chamber said.

Bilateral trade can also be conducted in euros, it said, adding even rupee
trade between the two countries could be considered. The US trade embargo
on Myanmar provides a chance to India Inc to establish presence in the
Myanmar market.

A direct container service between the two nations should be started to
reduce the high transportation costs on account of routing consignments
through third countries, it added.

Identifying tourism as an area in which both India and Myanmar have
tremendous potential, PHDCCI said the two countries can jointly
collaborate and develop tourism packages and market them internationally
for foreign tourists.

Myanmar is undergoing an economic restructuring process and there was
significant potential for Indian investment in the country. Lack of
knowledge of specific projects, business opportunities and commercial
information were obstacles in greater Indian business interest in Myanmar,
it said.

While government-to-government interaction needs to be sustained,
business-to-business interaction needs expansion, the chamber added.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 21, BDNews: News from Bangladesh
UNHCR threatens to wind up Bangladesh operations

The UNHCR has threatened to wind up its operations in Bangladesh after a
series of reported violations of human rights in two refugee camps for
Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar.

Officials concerned told the news agency that the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees did not sign the annual agreement with the
disaster management ministry for the current year.

The repatriation of 20,000 Rohingyas, sheltered in the Nayapa and
Kutupalang camps, will face uncertainty, if the disagreement over the
human rights issues between the government and the UNHCR is not resolved,
fear officials working in Dhaka in the UN agency, disaster management
ministry and the Rohingya Repartition Commission.

‘We have already discussed the issue with the UNHCR,’ said Shamim Ahmed,
chief of the ministry’s Rohingya refugee cell.

He admitted that the annual agreement with the UN agency was yet to be
signed.

‘We have sent a proposal over the annual agreement to the UNHCR. After the
agency’s approval, it will need endorsement of the government on some
required matters.’

He, however, hoped that the repartition of the Rohingya refugees would
start soon after both the parties reached a consensus.

The deputy representative of UNHCR in Dhaka, Mulusew Mamo, expressed his
dissatisfaction over human rights situation in the two refugee camps in
Cox’s Bazar. He said the human rights situation in the camps was really
bad.

‘The refugees in the camps have no freedom of movement... Virtually they
are passing a captive life,’ he said.

‘We informed the Bangladesh government on the issue several times and hope
that they will give more attention to the matter.’

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 23, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
Myanmar satellite TV to launch, targets Burma

Text of press release by Democratic Voice of Burma web site on 23 May

Oslo, 23 May - The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) will start broadcasting
satellite TV into Burma from 28th May, 2005. This will be the first ever
free and independent Burmese-language TV channel.

The Burmese people will finally be able to watch television programmes
that have bypassed the all-pervasive system of control and draconian
censorship enforced by the military dictatorship inside Burma. DVB
television programmes will be based on information, education and
entertainment.

We estimate that the DVB TV programmes will be able to reach more than 10
million people in Burma, one fifth of the total population, via satellite.

Our mission is to provide accurate and unbiased news and to promote
understanding and cooperation amongst the various ethnic and religious
groups of Burma. Our programmes will also foster independent public
opinion, enable social and political debate and encourage the spread of
democracy, freedom of thought and human rights in Burma.

DVB began radio broadcasting to Burma in July 1992. Today, it is
broadcasting to Burma via shortwave radio transmitter for two-hours daily.
It has millions of listeners inside Burma.

DVB is funded by the government and non-governmental organizations in
Europe and America. For satellite TV broadcast, DVB received funding from
the Free Voice of the Netherlands, U.S-based National Endowment for
Democracy and the Freedom of Expression Foundation in Norway.

DVB television programmes can be received via PAS 10, 68.5 Degree East,
3940 H, Symbol rate 3000 on every weekend - Saturday (Burma time 20:00 to
21:00) and the repeat on Sunday (Burma time 12:00-13:00).

For More Information, please contact: Aye Chan Naing (Director), Tel + 47
22 86 84 86/+ 47 911 077 43 Khin Maung Win (Deputy Director), Tel + 47 908
002 63

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma web site in English 23 May 05

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 21, The Independent
A time to remember Burma and challenge the junta's repression

Fifteen years may not be a long time in the history of a country with
roots as ancient as those of Burma. For the people of that benighted land,
however, it must seem a very long time indeed. This is how many years
Burma has been deprived of the democracy for which it voted so
overwhelmingly in May 1990. The anniversary of that inspiring and
ill-fated election falls next week.

Next month contains another, no less symbolic, date: the 60th birthday of
Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of the assassinated head of Burma's first
post-war government and the woman who led the victorious National League
for Democracy campaign through that 1990 election. In many countries of
the world, 60 is the age at which a woman would qualify for her pension.
Ms Suu Kyi is likely to pass her birthday still under the house arrest she
has endured on and off for most of the past 16 years. The latest
extension, declared by the military junta last year, means that she will
remain out of circulation at least until October. Experience raises few
hopes that she will be released even then.

But there is another prediction that can surely be made about Ms Suu Kyi's
arrival at pensionable age. After devoting the best part of her life to
fighting by peaceful means for democracy in Burma, she is most unlikely to
abandon her mission now. She has already sacrificed so much: her
comfortable life in the West, her family, and the husband to whom she was
not permitted to bid farewell, even as he lay dying in Britain. She has
always seen her first duty as being to Burma.

The past 15 years have not been completely without the occasional flicker
of optimism. Three years ago, Ms Suu Kyi was released and travelled the
country, campaigning. But once she started to criticise the junta directly
for refusing to start the political talks they had promised, she was
re-arrested 'for her own protection' after a series of provocations and
attacks.

When Lieutenant General Soe Win was made prime minister last year, and
placed his predecessor under arrest, the expectations were that he would
quash these first tentative shoots of reform. In the event, he released
several thousand prisoners, including leading dissidents. Aung San Suu
Kyi, however, was not among them. The word was that the purge within the
junta was the culmination of a power struggle in which those who supported
gradual reconciliation with Ms Suu Kyi were defeated.

The re-arrest of this heroic campaigner for democracy in Burma elicited
statements of condemnation from around the world that were just as swift
and forceful as the fury that had greeted her initial detention in 1989
and the abortive election. They brought a toughening of the EU's trade and
investment embargo and, for almost the first time, severe condemnation
from the US. The high level of international interest in Aung San Suu
Kyi's fate may be one reason why she has survived and has been confined to
house arrest rather than prison.

The fact that Ms Suu Kyi is still detained, however, and that the prospect
of democratic elections still seems as remote as ever also shows the
limits to what this degree of foreign intervention has been able to
achieve. The sanctions are neither as tough nor as watertight as they
could be. What is more, efforts to shame Burma in public statements and
international forums are still far too timid and inconsistent. Of all the
repressive regimes that cry out for sustained attention from the US and
its allies, Burma must be near the top of the list.