BurmaNet News June 11-13, 2005

[Editor]

June 11-13, 2005 Issue # 2738

"Each household must also pledge that no mines or explosives of any kind
are present in their homes or compounds."
- Burma Home Minister Major General Maung Oo on new security measures
after the May Rangoon bombing, as quoted in Agence France Presse, June 13,
2005


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Security lockdown strains Yangon with searches, road blocks, army
patrols
Irrawaddy: Junta halts KIO public briefing
Irrawaddy: Burma regime holds second press conference since bombings
AP: Officials: Ousted Myanmar prime minister not sent to prison
AP: Myanmar junta denies tensions with powerful Wa minority over narcotics

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Myanmar separatist leader arrested in Bangladesh
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Myanmar refugees lodge complaint against German NGO

HEALTH / AIDS
Bangkok Post: HIV-AIDS in Burma: A time bomb about to wipe out millions

ASEAN
AP: ASEAN chairmanship may encourage reform in Myanmar, bloc's chief says

REGIONAL
AFP: UN urges Malaysia to allow refugees to work amid labour shortage

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar stagnation a 'great tragedy', says ex-US secretary Powell

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Khin Nyunt: Maybe Insein’s the right place

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 12, Agence France Presse
Security lockdown strains Yangon with searches, road blocks, army patrols

Yangon: Myanmar's ruling military has thrown a tight security blanket over
the capital Yangon following last month's deadly bombings and amid rumours
of impending attacks.

The May 7 blasts at two shopping malls and a convention centre killed at
least 23 people and wounded 150 in the worst such attack in decades here,
and exposed gaping holes in the city's formidable security apparatus.

Aside from leaving the ruling generals reeling and the junta wracked by
internal strife, the attacks and subsequent security lockdown have
terrified the city's estimated four million residents, particularly with
rumours swirling of new bombings, several residents told AFP.

"Usually pre-occupied with the high cost of living and spiralling
commodity prices, residents of Yangon now have something more scary to
worry about, and this is certain to change the lifestyle of many," a local
analyst said.

The normally Orwellian security machine has tightened even further after
the attacks, which the junta have blamed on an unlikely alliance of ethnic
rebel groups, pro-democracy organizations and student groups. Regulations
have intensified to allow round-the-clock searches of all private homes.

"We were not only subjected to a thorough (late-night) search inside the
house but had to sign a paper pledging that we would not harbor any
terrorists in the compound," a Yangon resident said.

Failure to report overnight visitors, including family members, results
"in stiff fines or spending time in a police lockup for a minimum of one
week," another resident explained.

Authorities have been out in force ensuring the new measures are complied
with.

In a recent inspection in Hmawbi township, 26 miles (42 kilometres) north
of the capital, Home Minister Major General Maung Oo warned against
harboring strangers and demanded residents report suspicious activity.

"Each household must also pledge that no mines or explosives of any kind
are present in their homes or compounds," he said.

In a Sunday briefing he called on citizens to be extra vigilant to thwart
future attacks.

"The terrorists are disguised as ordinary people and are making movements
among the public," he said.

It is now compulsory for state employees and those working in private
firms or supermarkets to wear identity cards at all times, amid intense
suspicion about strangers entering the workplace.

"No one dares move around after dark without carrying their national
registration card (NRC)," according to one resident who witnessed search
teams stopping cars and checking the identities of passengers.

Dozens of road blocks have been set up in and around the city, wreaking
traffic havoc on normally busy routes and bringing the transport of
commodities to a trickle. The number of passengers on buses into Yangon
has also slumped.

"We were stopped at least 15 times on the way, and each time we had to
step down and walk on foot to the checkpoint," said a woman who had
travelled to the capital from Hpa-an, in eastern Kayin State.

Commodity transport, too, has slowed dramatically from the Thai border
into Yangon, resulting in a further spiraling of prices.

"With searches at the border intensified, we're getting less and less
stuff here and we hardly have any customers," complained one shop-owner at
Mingalar market, the city's biggest wholesale market.

Pyay Road, leading to Yangon airport, was the scene of a lengthy traffic
jam last week when a rumor of an explosion at a teachers' training school
attended by children of senior military and government officials triggered
panic, with parents rushing to collect their children.

"It turned out to be a hoax but it scared us awfully," one parent said.

With a climate of fear pervading the city, far fewer residents walk the
streets or visit street stalls, supermarkets or shopping centres.

"The atmosphere here is very, very tense," a Western diplomat said, adding
that he had never experienced such unease in Yangon in recent years.

Adding to the internal pressure, former premier Khin Nyunt, ousted in an
October purge, was transferred to Insein prison from house arrest last
Thursday and his secret trial is likely to begin soon, a source close to
intelligence officials said.

City dwellers are left wondering whether the increasing political tension
will lead to unrest.

"This is uppermost in the minds of everyone," one Yangon analyst said.

"But whether this (tension) will serve as a political catalyst still
remains to be seen."

____________________________________

June 13, Irrawaddy
Junta halts KIO public briefing - Khun Sam

Burma’s military junta ordered the Kachin Independence Organization to
cancel a public briefing scheduled for last Saturday in Nam San Yang—a
village in Kachin State—to explain its policy with regard to the National
Convention, according to a high KIO official.

Dr La Ja, General Secretary of the KIO, told The Irrawaddy by phone from
Kachin State that the public meeting, which was originally reported to the
Burmese authorities in order to obtain permission to hold the event, was
planned to discuss the organization’s attendance at the
government-sponsored National Convention—charged with the task of drafting
a new constitution—and to review the current status of the convention. Dr
Tu Ja, a vice chairman of the KIO and the leader of Kachin delegates to
the national convention, had been scheduled to give a speech at the public
meeting.

On June 11, however—just a few hours before the meeting was to start, and
after more than 1000 people had already arrived—the Burmese northern
regional commander Maj-Gen Maung Maung Swe instructed the KIO’s liaison
office in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, to cancel the meeting
without giving any reason, said Dr La Ja, who added that he had no idea
what might have prompted the move.

The KIO has held similar public briefings since the National Convention
adjourned at the end of March, amid growing doubts within the Kachin
community about the ethnic ceasefire group’s attendance of the convention.

Past meetings have been held in many towns that have large Kachin
populations, as well as in Lashio, Bhamo and Maija Yang. The most recent
public briefing took place in Laiza, a town on the China-Burma border.

____________________________________

June 13, Irrawaddy
Burma regime holds second press conference since bombings - Yeni

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council held its second press
conference since last month’s bombings in Rangoon on Sunday, and called on
local media to fight the threat of further attacks.

Minister for Information Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan lashed out at some foreign
media, including the BBC and Voice of America, accusing them of “false and
fabricated” reports that the junta had pressured the Shan State Army
(North) into a ceasefire agreement.

Burma’s own media was asked to participate actively in national security
and efforts to arrest those guilty for last month’s bombings.

"The strength of the media through cooperation plays a vital role in
guarding against terrorist acts," Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said.

Journalists were again given the chance to address questions to the
minister, although some participants noted many went unanswered and when
replies were forthcoming they lacked detail.

“The officials just gave their usual wishy-washy rhetoric. However, we are
trying to get more room to manoeuvre,” said one journalist..

The New Light of Myanmar, however, gave a different account of the event,
quoting NHK correspondent Khin Maung Myint as saying: “The performance of
the Information Minister was very successful."

Most journalists’ questions focused on security efforts since the bombings
in Rangoon on May 7. Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan repeatedly referred to the ongoing
efforts of the military and confirmed that no suspects had been arrested.

“All people are to report to officials by observing their environs with
vigilance. Security teams, Tatmadaw (Army) squads, police and local
authorities are always at hand," he said.

The SPDC also announced the official death toll from the bombings had
risen from 19 to 23, with 21 people still in hospital.

Asked about recent reports that former prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt had
been moved to Insein Prison, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan replied “not true” and
refused to elaborate further.

____________________________________

June 12, Associated Press
Officials: Ousted Myanmar prime minister not sent to prison

Yangon: Myanmar's former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, accused last year of
corruption and insubordination, has not been moved from house arrest to
prison as some media have reported, a government minister said Sunday.

"I want to officially deny that he has been moved to Insein prison. I can
guarantee that he has not been moved," Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo
said at a news conference.

He was commenting on media reports that the ex-prime minister had been
transferred from house arrest to the notorious Insein prison in the
capital, Yangon.

The home minister said it was too early to say whether Khin Nyunt would
face charges.

Khin Nyunt, who also formerly headed the country's powerful military
intelligence apparatus, was removed from power by the ruling junta last
October, accused of insubordination and responsibility for a major
corruption scandal involving his subordinates.

Thirty-eight military intelligence officers close to Khin Nyunt were given
long prison terms in April.

The move against Khin Nyunt's close colleagues was seen as a struggle
within the junta, resulting in the emergence of hard-liner Gen. Than Shwe
as the key power broker.

Khin Nyunt's two sons and his son-in-law were also arrested soon after his
ouster, and his son-in-law was among those who received prison terms in
April.

The sons, Lt. Col. Zaw Naing Oo and Dr. Ye Naing Win, were put on trial
last month and are being accused of economic crimes.

____________________________________

June 12, Associated Press
Myanmar junta denies tensions with powerful Wa minority over narcotics

Yangon: The government denied Sunday that an official ceremony to declare
an area of northern Mynamar drug-free has been postponed because of
tensions with the powerful Wa ethnic minority. It blamed the onset of the
rainy season.

The much-publicized ceremony in the Wa State, one of the world's major
sources of narcotics, was to have taken place June 24. Invitations have
already been sent to diplomats and reporters.

"The ceremony was postponed because it is difficult to travel to Wa State
during the rainy season and not because of any tension between the
government and the (Wa army)," Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan
said at a press briefing.

The United States and Thailand have long accused the 16,000-strong United
Wa State Army of producing and trafficking heroin and methamphetamines. In
January Washington indicted eight Wa leaders on drug charges. Another
leader, Wei Hseuh Kang, a 51-year-old ethnic Chinese, was earlier indicted
for heroin trafficking.

But the Wa claim they are out of the drugs business and plan to go ahead
June 24 in declaring their region an "Opium Cultivation Free Zone." Drugs
are to be burned that day as a symbol of their pledge.

The postponement has sparked rumors about tensions between the ruling
junta and the Wa, poor security conditions in the Wa State and the ethnic
army's reluctance to declare itself drug-free.

The once rebellious Wa reached a peace agreement with the military
government in 1989, allowing the ethnic group to exercise a measure of
autonomy in its region and even maintain a well-armed force.

Sources within the diplomatic community say the ceremony was postponed
until after the monsoon rains because the junta was displeased with the
wording on the invitation which called the Wa organization the "People's
Government of the Wa State." The military did not want the Wa army to
describe themselves as a government, diplomats say.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 13, Agence France Presse
Myanmar separatist leader arrested in Bangladesh

Dhaka: A senior member of a Myanmar separatist group has been arrested in
a remote area of Bangladesh on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking and
trading, the official BSS news agency said Monday.

Authorities described the arrested man as "commander Thaingjuthoi of the
National United Party of Arakan".

He was arrested late Sunday with three "associates" after soldiers and
Bangladesh Rifles border guards found them hiding in a cave in the
southeastern Bandarban district close to the Myanmar border, BSS said.

Security forces were interrogating the four who were suspected of being
involved in the illegal sale and trafficking of arms, the report said.

The National United Party of Arakan wants independence for Myanmar's
Arakan province.

Myanmar has been at various stages of civil war for decades, with
government troops battling several ethnic guerrilla armies.

____________________________________

June 13, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar refugees lodge complaint against German NGO

Bangkok: Myanmar (Burmese) refugees in a Thai-Myanmar border camp have
lodged a complaint against the Berlin-based Malteser Hilfsdienst (MHD) for
providing them with inadequate medical services, aid officials confirmed
on Monday.

"They did lodge a complaint with us and provincial authorities so what we
will try to do is go in and form a committee to listen to both sides,"
said a spokesman for the Bangkok office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Residents of Ban Mae La Luang camp in Mae Hong Son province, 650
kilometres north of Bangkok, have accused MHD, a German aid organization
funded by the European Union, of providing the camp with poor quality
medicine, refusing to listen to the needs of residents and failing to
improve sanitary conditions in the camp.

The camp, the temporary home to about 10,000 "displaced people" from
neighbouring Myanmar, is run by a consortium of non-governmental
organizations. MHD is responsible for medicine and sanitation in the camp.

The refugees' chief complaint appears to be over MHD's reluctance to
provide camp residents with antibiotics, a widely overused medication in
many parts of Asia.

"In this part of the world, and in Thailand, people are so used to taking
a lot of medications, especially antibiotics, and the MHD has been trying
to put controls on the use of these medications, " said the UNHCR
spokesman, who asked to remain anonymous.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 10, Bangkok Post
HIV-AIDS in Burma: A time bomb about to wipe out millions - Larry Jagan

Burma is facing one of the world's worst Aids epidemics. In parts of the
country, HIV/Aids is raging out of control

The scourge of Aids and HIV in Burma is being fuelled by a mixture of
ignorance, denial and lack of government action - a dangerous cocktail
that could affect a quarter of the population within the next decade. In
the past six months since former prime minister General Khin Nyunt was
purged, the situation with regard to the Aids epidemic has begun to
deteriorate even further, as the intelligence chief had been one of the
few in the regime who understood the enormity of the problem.

Three young Burmese women sit quietly in the foyer of one of Lashio's main
tourist hotels. The youngest is barely 13, and obviously very unhappy. A
few minutes later a visiting Chinese businessman comes down to meet them,
with his Burmese host, and the group go out. The three Burmese women, all
in their teens, are prostitutes --- the youngest possibly working for the
first time.

''This is common place in any town on Burma's main transport routes,'' a
Burmese resident tells me. ''Every hotel has an escort service.''

Lashio is a major commercial town in northern Burma, in Shan State. It is
situation on the labyrinth of roads which connect the capital Rangoon,
south of the city, to China in the north and India in the west. The roads
are used by many buses, cars and trucks.

''A woman is included in the price of a room in most of these hotels,''
I'm told by a Burmese driver who did not want to be identified.

Commercial sex workers are one of the main ways the deadly HIV/Aids
disease is being transmitted in Burma, according to UN Aids experts. In
Rangoon, international aid workers estimate that more than two-thirds of
prostitutes are HIV-positive.

Lashio is already in the throes of a major hidden HIV/Aids epidemic. Three
years ago, 17% of pregnant women who were tested voluntarily by the local
hospitals were found to be HIV-positive, according to a local health
official who wanted to remain anonymous.

On that basis, one in five pregnant women in Lashio are suffering from the
Aids virus.

International health experts say this level of infection is consistent
with the pandemics of Africa.

''The sample may be skewed as people offering themselves for voluntary
testing often have a greater fear they may be affected,'' says Dr Min
Thwe, head of Burma's anti-Aids campaign. ''It is not a random sample.''

But anecdotal evidence suggests that in Shan state at least, the disease
is rampant. ''The explosion of HIV/Aids in Shan State is frightening,''
according to the American Aids expert, Dr Chris Beyrer. He estimates that
more than 10% of adults are now HIV-positive.

''That's the worst ever incidence of the disease in the region,'' he says.

''It's on the level of that which hit northern Thailand a decade ago. The
difference then was that the Thai government recognised it and did
something about it, whereas the military junta are allowing this one to
rage out of control,'' says Dr Beyrer.

Aids-related deaths are nothing new in Burma, especially in Shan state.
''Almost every week then, there was a funeral of someone who had died from
Aids,'' a local Burmese development worker confides to me.

Northern Burma has been hit hard by the HIV/Aids crisis. In Kachin state
there has also been a dramatic rise in the number of people suffering from
the disease. The rebel Kachin Independence Organisation, which signed a
truce agreement with the military regime in Rangoon more than a decade
ago, says privately that the area is being devastated by the disease.

The former KIO leader Brang Seng, who died several years ago, once told me
that he had originally entered into ceasefire negotiations with Burma's
military rulers in the early '90s for fear that HIV/Aids was destroying
the Kachin people.

''I realised that with Aids there was a very real danger that we might win
the battle [against the Burmese army] but lose the war [against the
disease].''

Since then, despite concerted efforts by the KIO, the Kachin Baptist
Church and international aid organisations, Aids is continuing to spread.
Development workers in the state say Aids orphans are now increasingly
common.

''The growth of HIV/Aids in areas of Kachin state is becoming increasingly
visible,'' says a foreign expert who works in the area. ''There are
increasing cases of Aids even in the remotest villages,'' he adds.

The Burmese government does recognise they do have a problem. ''We are
doing everything that we can, given our meagre resources,'' says Dr Min
Thwe, Burma's leading anti-Aids official.

Over the last few years, Gen Khin Nyunt had tried to galvanise the country
into action. ''HIV/Aids is a national cause,'' Gen Khin Nyunt told the
pro-government newspaper the Myanmar Times in early 2001. ''If we ignore
it, it will destroy entire races.''

Several government-support awareness campaigns have been launched. There
are billboards in many of the country's urban centres, especially in
Rangoon, warning people of the dangers of HIV/Aids.

There have been large exhibition in Rangoon and other key provincial
cities across the country promoting measures to combat the spread of the
disease. The government has also organised other awareness activities
including walkathons and fun runs. More than 5,000 young people joined the
last one on World Aids Day 18 months ago aimed at increasing their
awareness of the dangers of the disease.

''We are here because Aids is a big problem and everyone should know about
it,'' says a 17-year-old university student as he finishes the three-mile
walk.

But despite this new openness, Burma's military rulers are still in a
state of denial. Some insist that Burma's culture and religion limits the
spread of the disease.

''Another thing,'' the deputy health minister Mya Oo lectures me, ''we
have the religious teachings and traditional cultural values because
Myanmar [Burma] people do not believe in pre-marital sex, and no
extra-marital sex but we know this is not enough.''

Officially there are 330,000 HIV sufferers in Burma. UN officials believe
that the number is substantially higher and estimate it to be around 4% of
the population.

Officially the UN estimates there are more than a half a million HIV
sufferers in the country. Privately though, senior officials at UNAids
admit it is certain to be double that. It is much more likely that the
figure is around a million, they concede.

One international medical official in Rangoon, who wants to remain
anonymous, believes that there may be as many as six million people in
Burma with HIV or Aids.

Most government officials dispute any figures higher than 2% of the
population. But the head of the country's national Aids programme is far
more frank.

''We think the estimated people living with HIV/Aids from blood testing
and the reported cases to date are just the tip of the iceberg,'' Dr Min
Thwe confides. ''We just don't know the actual magnitude of the problem.''

They constantly point to their sentinel surveys which are conducted with
the assistance UN officials. But anecdotal evidence reveals a much greater
prevalence of the disease.

Hot spots like ports, transport centres, borders and mining areas are all
likely to have a very high incidence of HIV, says a former western aid
worker in Rangoon.

Rangoon, Mandalay, Tachilek and Moulmein probably have largely major
unreported epidemics, he says.

Several fishing villages along the Andaman Sea have all reported large
incidences of HIV, according to local church officials. In one village
near the Thai town of Ranong, at least 10% of the male adults were
diagnosed as HIV-positive and under medical attention, a Catholic worker
in the area said. That was more than four years ago; since then many of
them have died he says.

Although the extent of the HIV epidemic in Burma may be unverifiable at
present, the evidence is that it is raging out of control, despite the
government's belated efforts to cope with it.

In many areas at least 10% of the population are HIV-positive. The rate of
growth puts Burma's epidemic on the scale of Africa's pandemic. It is a
time bomb that has been ticking away for more than a decade and it is
about to explode, a former western aid worker in Rangoon said.

____________________________________
ASEAN

June 13, Associated Press
ASEAN chairmanship may encourage reform in Myanmar, bloc's chief says

Kuala Lumpur: Allowing military-ruled Myanmar to chair ASEAN next year
could speed up the process of democratic reform there, the group's
secretary-general said Monday.

Myanmar is due to take over the rotating chairmanship of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in 2006. But the United States and
European Union fiercely oppose the move and have threatened to boycott
ASEAN meetings and stall the bloc's development funding if Myanmar assumes
the chair.

"If Myanmar chairs ASEAN, then there will be constant international
attention on this situation in Myanmar, and there will be a certain amount
of pressure in moving the national reconciliation and democratization
process," ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong told The Associated Press.

"But if they are out of the chair, then for the next one or two years,
they won't be on the radar scope. This is the downside," he said.

The junta took power in 1988 after brutally crushing a pro-democracy
movement. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when the National League
for Democracy party, led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won a
landslide victory in general elections. Suu Kyi has been under house
arrest for much of the past 14 years.

Myanmar is also facing pressure from within ASEAN - parliamentarians from
Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines have demanded that it give up its
bid to lead the 10-nation bloc unless it releases Suu Kyi, improves human
rights and introduces promised democratic reforms.

Ong said Myanmar would make a final decision on whether it would take up
the chairmanship at the ASEAN foreign ministers' summit in Laos next
month.

"Up to now, the reaction of the Myanmar leaders and representations they
have made on the issue have been positive. They have been listening and
did not react in a negative or confrontational manner. But we do not
really know what decision they will make until they tell us in July," he
added.

Asked about a report on a possible compromise that would allow Myanmar to
take up the ASEAN helm but for Thailand to host all international
meetings, Ong said it was impractical.

"It is best not to take a half-baked decision. On paper it may be
attractive, but you may have to spend more money and there may be more
headache," he said.

The Philippines is next in line to chair the grouping and should consider
preparing a contingency plan should Myanmar decide to pass up its turn, he
added.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 13, Agence France Presse
UN urges Malaysia to allow refugees to work amid labour shortage

Kuala Lumpur: The UN refugee agency on Monday urged Malaysia to allow
thousands of refugees living there to work, saying it would help relieve
an acute labour shortage caused by a crackdown on illegal workers.

Malysia had launched "a desperate search" for new foreign workers from
Pakistan and elsewhere, said Volker Turk, head of the UN High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia. "Why not use the existing refugee
population that cannot be deported anyway for economic purposes?

"Some of them are already working anyway, illegally, to gain a source of
income. Why not legalise and regularise that?" he told a UN-sponsored
conference on migration and refugee issues.

Allowing refugees to seek legal employment would benefit Malaysia's
economy and demonstrate its humanitarian credentials, he said.

"What the crackdown has shown is that it has made clear that the Malaysian
economy depends on foreign labour," he later told reporters.

Malaysia is one of Asia's largest importers of labour. Foreign workers,
legal and illegal, number around 2.6 million of its workforce of 10.5
million.

The repatriation of about 400,000 illegal immigrants, mainly low-wage
Indonesian workers, during a four-month amnesty that ended in March left a
huge gap in the agricultural, construction, manufacturing and services
sectors.

"It may be in the long-term humanitarian, security and economic interests
of Malaysia to allow the estimated 50,000 refugees here in the country to
enter the job market as readily available foreign labour," said Turk.

There are some 40,000 refugees already registered with the UNHCR in
Malaysia -- about 20,000 from Indonesia's troubled Aceh province and some
10,000 Muslim Rohingyas from military-run Myanmar, formerly known as
Burma.

The remaining 10,000 are other ethnic minorities from Myanmar and elsewhere.

"There are people who we have not been able to register who got caught up
(in the crackdown)," Turk said. "We have about 900 people in detention at
the moment who are of concern to the UNHCR, which is a very high number."

The 900 were awaiting trial and could be subject to jail sentences and
caning under Malaysia's tough immigration laws, he said.

Following the crackdown, Malaysia announced it would fast-track the
recruitment of workers from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar and Vietnam
to alleviate the labour crunch.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 13, Agence France Presse
Myanmar stagnation a 'great tragedy', says ex-US secretary Powell

Bangkok: The political and economic stagnation that has marred Myanmar
under military rule has been a "great tragedy" and pressure on the junta
must continue if reform is to happen, former US secretary of state Colin
Powell said Monday.

"I think what has happened in Myanmar-Burma is a great tragedy," Powell
told a leadership forum in Bangkok, referring to 1990 national elections
that were won in a landslide by the democratic opposition but ignored by
the junta.

The National League for Democracy party, led by Nobel laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi, won 392 of 485 contested seats in the elections, considered free
and fair by the international community. The junta never allowed the
winners to take office.

Washington and the European Union have imposed stiff economic sanctions on
the isolated government, which holds Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest
and has stalled its own democratic road map.

"All of us, the US, the United Nations, all of Myanmar's neighbours, have
tried to put pressure on them to simply realise that they're going down a
dead end," said the top diplomat of President George W. Bush's first term.

"We have to... continue to apply pressure on the regime," he added.

"They need to release Aung San Suu Kyi and let her participate in the
political life of her country."

Powell noted that Myanmar and North Korea remain the two most intractable
problems in all of Asia.

"Nations that lock themselves up like that -- North Korea and Myanmar --
they are so desperately in need and help is waiting for them" if they
embrace political reform, he said.

Myanmar is due to take over as president of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations next year.

Regional legislators have urged it to relinquish the role unless its
military rulers implement democratic reforms and free political prisoners,
while the United States has threatened to boycott key ASEAN meetings if
Yangon is the host.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 13, Irrawaddy
Khin Nyunt: Maybe Insein’s the right place - Aung Zaw

For weeks, there has been speculation in Rangoon that the military junta
has been preparing to put purged prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt on trial at
notorious Insein prison. A June 11 foreign press report said he had been
moved to the jail from house arrest. But the following day this was denied
in a press conference by Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo.

Since Khin Nyunt was removed last October, there have been two main
theories: One is Khin Nyunt will be tried for corruption and
insubordination. The other is the junta is not prepared to do so because
there has been a secret agreement among top leaders that the original
members of the junta will not be charged with crimes. Thus, it is unsure
if the regime leaders have courage to take Khin Nyunt to the dock. It
could open a Pandora’s Box.

Khin Nyunt is one of the remaining senior members of the former State Law
and Order Restoration Council, which took power in 1988 after the military
brutally crushed a pro-democracy uprising. In 1997, the SLORC changed its
name to the State Peace and Development Council.

Many of Khin Nyunt’s former military intelligence men and associates are
now serving long prison sentences after the agency was dismantled. The
purge’s effects are still being felt in high places.

Some Burma watchers think Khin Nyunt did have a plan to seize power. The
junta’s number three man, Gen Shwe Mann, told local businessmen in a
speech last year that the disgraced general had disobeyed orders and asked
his officers to collect information on other brass. It is known that Khin
Nyunt kept dossiers on top officials.

It is also known that the ambitious Khin Nyunt, a favorite of late
dictator Gen Ne Win, gathered enemies as he quickly rose to the top and
expanded his power base. He ended up as number three in the junta and
military advisor to paramount leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe. He started the
Office of Strategic Studies in 1994 – helping to run everything from
foreign policy, the economy and drug trafficking to ceasefire negotiations
with ethnic minority insurgents – and stocked it with his intelligence
officers.

And all the time his military intelligence agency acted as an “invisible
government,” alarming other senior army officers.

He was also the regime’s acceptable face, traveling around Southeast Asia,
where leaders saw him as a moderate in the regime. At home, he impressed
international visitors and foreign journalists. But behind the scenes Khin
Nyunt was far more cunning and manipulative than his more
straight-forward, if tough-minded, colleagues.

Whether Khin Nyunt was truly pragmatic is still debated. There is no
record that he was in any way democratic, or sympathized with the
opposition. In fact, he and his military intelligence arrested numerous
activists and opposition members, keeping them behind bars and maintaining
Burma’s image as a police state. He was considered pro-China, and publicly
expressed sympathy for the Chinese leadership after the brutal crushing of
pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989.

Khin Nyunt gave his nod to the opening of a new newspaper, The Myanmar
Times. But that wasn’t any move towards press freedom because he set up
his own censorship board for the paper. It was an empty exercise to polish
his image, because at the same time his military intelligence agents
locked up prominent journalist Win Tin and others. Intelligence officers
worked at the Press Scrutiny Board, and Burma continued to have one of the
world’s most heavily censored press.

The general has also been wrongly labeled as the man who introduced the
current seven-point road map to democracy, which has yet to start. In
fact, the map was introduced in 1993, and Khin Nyunt just revived it in
2003. The road map’s aim anyway is to ensure the military remains in power
in some fashion.

Khin Nyunt’s downfall had nothing to do with any policy dispute among
military leaders. It is case of dog-eat-dog in Burma’s military regime.

Khin Nyunt, like many of his military colleagues, is deeply superstitious,
and one tale is particularly alarming, and perhaps telling. He had his
chief astrologer Bodaw Than Hla (arrested since October) use his own bath
water to cook rice to feed his men. He apparently thought this would win
their hearts and minds.

The general and his associates are therefore anything but innocent. They
deserve justice, but the junta should explain why Khin Nyunt should be
kept under house arrest, rather than brought to trial. Such a trial should
prove popular with most Burmese. To Khin Nyunt, Insein prison is a
familiar name, because he sent so many innocent people there to spend many
years, or die. So it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to keep him there.