BurmaNet News, June 15, 2005

[Editor]

June 15, 2005 Issue # 2740


INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: Myanmar to strengthen tsunami warning system

ON THE BORDER
Xinhua: Myanmar to reopen sectional wartime highway linking India, China

REGIONAL
Japan Economic Newswire: ASEM ministers' disaster mechanism to cover
relief efforts

INTERNATIONAL
Korea Times: Koreans call for Suu Kyi’s release
AFP: In first, Japanese high court blocks deportation of asylum-seeker

OPINION / OTHER
Wall Street Journal: Lady Liberty - Mitch McConnell and John McCain
Asian Wall Street Journal: Destructive Engagement – Anwar Ibrahim
Washington Post: A Rose for the 'Unfree' - Vaclav Havel

PRESS RELEASE
US Campaign for Burma : R.E.M. to broadcast song from June 19th concert
into Burma

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 15, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to strengthen tsunami warning system

Yangon: Myanmar will sponsor a paper- reading session here on tsunami in
this weekend to study ways of strengthening its tsunami warning system,
the state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

Proposal on setting up a national tsunami warning center will be discussed
at the session scheduled for Saturday, sponsored by the Myanmar
Engineering Society.

A field report on post tsunami survey along the coastal areas of the
country will also be submitted for study, it said.

Myanmar was not much affected by last Dec. 26 tsunami that smashed across
the Indian Ocean compared with other South and Southeast Asian nations,
with official death tolls standing at 64 in coastal areas. The tidal wave
destroyed over 600 houses in 29 villages, leaving 3,460 people homeless in
some of the regions in six divisions and states -- Tanintharyi, Yangon,
Bago, Ayeyawaddy, Rakhine and Shan (South).

In the post-tsunami period, Myanmar has been undertaking a coastal storm
and tidal surge forecast project for improved weather prediction services.
The project, being implemented with the assistance of the Honolulu-based
PACON International (the Pacific Congress on Marine Science Technology),
involves the utilization of numerical prediction method to provide advance
warning of storm and tidal surge.

Besides, the Myanmar Meteorology and Hydrology Department (MHD) is also
strengthening its public information work about natural disaster and
climate change by planning to produce a series of documentaries to raise
public awareness against such unpredictable mishap to help manage
disaster.

Meanwhile, Red Cross societies from Southeast Asia is seeking better
cooperation in regional disaster management. It plans a meeting in Yangon
for the red cross societies from 10 member countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Timor to discuss such powerful
earthquake which shook islands off the northwest coast of Sumatra in
Indonesia on March 28, according to the Bangkok Office of the
International Federation of Red Cross.

The eleven SEA countries have established a regional disaster response
team in 2003 to assist each other when disasters occur.

According to MHD latest records, two low-intensity undersea earthquakes
measuring 2.3 to 3.5 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar' s capital of Yangon
last February without causing casualties and loss of properties.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 15, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to reopen sectional wartime highway linking India, China

Yangon: Myanmar will reopen by next year its section of a wartime highway
linking neighboring India and China after renovation to help facilitate
trade between those two countries, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

The 1,300-kilometer-long Ledo or Stilwell Highway, a strategic supply
route between India and China via Myanmar's border town of Myitkyina in
the northernmost Kachin state, was built during World War II by Chinese
and American troops.

The highway extends as Ledo (northeastern India)-Myitkyina ( northern
Myanmar)-Kunming (southwestern China).

The reopening of the Myanmar section of the highway, which will lead to
the most convenient land route between China and India as well as to turn
Southeast Asia into a key trading hub, was discussed by the Myanmar
Ministry of Commerce and the India- Myanmar Federation of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, the representatives of which visited Yangon last
May, the 7-Day News quoted the federation's officials as saying.

The current trading route to ship most of India's exports to China, by
contrast, is as long as 6,000 kilometers through the Malacca Strait and
the Indian Ocean before reaching China's eastern coast.

The Ledo highway was built by Chinese troops and the Allied Forces of the
United States in 1945 to transport logistic supplies to the beleaguered
Chinese army when the Yunnan-Myanmar road, a crucial lifeline in China's
war of resistance against Japanese aggression, was cut off by Japanese
troops in 1942.

It was later renamed the Stilwell Road after General Joseph Stilwell,
commander of the allied forces in Southeast Asia who commanded the US
forces in the China-Myanmar-India theater in World War II.

The road starts in Ledo (India) and divides in two routes at Myitkyina in
Myanmar. The southern route runs through Bhamo and Namkham in Myanmar
reaches Wanding in China, while the northern route passes Myanmar's
Kambaiti, China's Houqiao and Tengchong, before connecting with the
Yunnan-Myanmar road.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 15, Japan Economic Newswire
ASEM ministers' disaster mechanism to cover relief efforts

Beijing: Finance ministers from Asia and Europe are set to establish a
disaster dialogue mechanism that will coordinate economic policy and
relief efforts during times of crises when they meet later this month in
Tianjin, according to a draft of an action plan expected to be adopted
during the conference.

The draft of the 'Tianjin Initiative' obtained by Kyodo News on Wednesday
says the ministers will also call for the boosting of capacity building
between the two regions as a way to help the developing members of the
grouping.

The disaster dialogue mechanism, called the ASEM Contingency Dialogue
Mechanism for Emergent Economic and Financial Events, envisions
contingencies such as the Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated parts of
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India, the document says.

'Should similar events occur again in the future,' it says, the mechanism
will serve as 'an effective channel' for members 'to conduct dialogues on
economic and financial policy response and coordination of rehabilitation
and relief actions.'

The mechanism would boost efforts by Asia and Europe to contain and
minimize the negative economic impact of such emergencies and speed up
relief and reconstruction work, it says.

A meeting of the mechanism could be summoned by the host country of the
finance ministers' meeting at the time, and could be held at the levels of
deputies or senior officials, the document says.

The establishment of the mechanism is one of four issues listed in the
initiative.

One of the three other issues raised in the document is the strengthening
of capacity building between Asia and Europe, aimed at narrowing the gap
between the developed and developing economies of the grouping.

As part of that effort, Britain is set to propose co-hosting a seminar
with China on public debt management in London in December 2005, according
to the initiative.

The other two issues are a call for a review on the ASEM Trust Fund, which
was established in 1998 to provide aid to Asian countries affected by the
1997-1998 financial crisis, as well as a call for further studies in
financial cooperation between the two regions, including the development
of the Asian bond market.

The upcoming talks by the finance ministers will be their first in two
years, following the cancellation of last year's meeting due to a dispute
over the participation of Myanmar in the ASEM framework.

At the time, the European Union was reluctant to allow Myanmar into ASEM
due to the country's human rights record. The two sides eventually
resolved their differences, and added Myanmar, two other Asian members,
and 10 new European members to the grouping.

The Asia-Europe Meeting now groups the 25 member states of the European
Union and 13 Asian countries -- Japan, China and South Korea plus the 10
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- plus a
representative of the European Commission.

Diplomatic sources have said that during the talks in Tianjin, the finance
ministers are set to agree to reduce the frequency of their meetings from
once a year to once every two years.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 15, Korea Times
Koreans call for Suu Kyi’s release

An increasing number of Koreans are joining the campaign for the release
of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmars opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD), as her 60th birthday nears.

According to NLDs Korean branch, over 10,000 Koreans have signed a
petition urging the military government of Myanmar to set free the
international symbol of peaceful resistance.

It was on May 30, 2003, when thousands of people armed with sticks, clubs
and rocks attacked a convoy led by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
supporters from her National League for Democracy (NLD).

As many as 70 people are estimated to have died in the violence, according
to exiled opposition groups who blame the attack on the ruling military
junta. Suu Kyi was detained that night along with several party
colleagues, and has been in house arrest since then.

The campaign begun in June 2004, and among the Korean participants are
former President Kim Dae-jung, who is one of two Nobel Peace Laureates
from Asia, along with Suu Kyi.

''We will report the results of the campaign to the United Nations along
with those collected from the rest of the world, Maung Maung Lwin, vice
president of NLDs Korean branch, told The Korea Times yesterday.

Special events are being planned to celebrate the 60th birthday of the
freedom fighter on June 19, which are also meant to enhance the countrys
interest in the issue.

Official celebrations hosted by the Korean branch are scheduled on the day
at Marronier Park in Taehangno, Seoul and Sokwang Temple in Puchon,
Kyonggi Province.

Burma Action Korea, a Myanmar refugees and migrant workers organization in
Korea, on the other hand, plans to distribute the two most popular Korean
protest songs, ''Like a Rock (Pawichorom) and the ''March for the Beloved
(Imul Wihan Haenjingok), in Myanmar, translating them into Burmese.

Soe Moe Thu, former guitarist of Stop Crackdown, the countrys first and
only rock band of illegal migrant workers, did all the translations. The
two songs will be recorded in Korean and English as well, along with some
10 other songs newly written by Thu.

While expressing appreciation for the support of many Koreans, leaders of
the Korean NLD also reported their concerns, about local corporations that
remains close with the current military government of Myanmar.

''The government spends about 70 percent of its total revenues on
military-related expenditures, the vice president said. ''Investing the
country now means nothing but helping the anti-democratic government, but
Korean companies has spent more than 5,000 billion won on it.

On Sunday, another outdoor petition signing campaign was scheduled in
Chongno, downtown Seoul, only to be stopped at the complaints of nearby
shop owners, shortly after the beginning of the event. ''I wish more
Koreans were interested in our fights to regain democracy and the symbol
of it. Lwin continued.

Born in 1945 as the daughter of General Aung San_ the national hero of the
country who led its independent movement under the British rule_ Suu Kyi
spent most of her earlier life in the United Kingdom, and returned to the
country to nurse her ailing mother in 1988.

The harsh rule of the Myanmar military government, however, led her to
speak out for democracy, and in the same year she founded NLD with other
leaders in the democracy movement.

_____________________________________

June 15, Agence France Presse
In first, Japanese high court blocks deportation of asylum-seeker

Tokyo: A Japanese high court on Wednesday approved refugee status for a
Myanmar asylum-seeker, the first time the judiciary has blocked a
deportation from Japan which has come under fire for its refugee policy.

The Osaka High Court, reversing a lower house court decision, granted
refugee status to Maung Maung, 37, who entered Japan illegally in 2001 and
said he would be persecuted in Myanmar for taking part in pro-democracy
activities.

In July last year the Osaka District Court denied him asylum. But the high
court ruled that Maung Maung "is expected to be harmed physically and
mentally by the current government if he goes back to Myanmar."

According to the justice ministry, it was the first ruling by any high
court in Japan against a deportation order. However, the government could
still bring the case before the Supreme Court.

In January Japan was criticized by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) for deporting two Turkish Kurds who had been recognized as
refugees by the UN body.

The Kurds had said they would be persecuted for their political views, but
Japan countered that they had misrepresented themselves in hopes of
staying in the country.

The UNHCR said the deportation by Japan, which historically has hosted few
refugees, was at odds with its assistance to refugees and disaster victims
abroad.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 15, Wall Street Journal
Lady Liberty - Mitch McConnell and John McCain

Aung San Suu Kyi, the courageous leader of Burma's democratic opposition,
known simply as the Lady, will spend her 60th birthday this Sunday in
captivity. Though her National League for Democracy won a landslide
election in 1990, the ruling junta nullified the results, seized power and
placed Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest. There she has remained, on and off,
for 15 years.

Despite her years in captivity, this brave woman remains resolute in her
commitment to democracy and justice for the Burmese people. Through her
words and actions, Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has
demonstrated time and again that freedom is her life's calling.

The world knows well the gross violations of human rights committed by the
State Peace and Development Council in Rangoon. The junta routinely jails
democracy activists, sometimes resorting to torture and murder. The
Burmese military employs rape as a weapon of war, destroying the lives of
innocent ethnic minority women and girls. Child soldiers are pressed into
the military's rank and file. Narcotics production remains a profitable
business, with illegal drugs flowing across Burma's borders into
neighboring countries. Refugees continue to cross its borders as well, and
HIV/AIDS is on the rise.
[Aung San Suu Kyi]

Under the junta's misrule, Burma has become a failed state and a pariah in
the world. Its economy lies in ruins, its meager social services benefit
only the military elite, and a climate of fear pervades Burmese society.
The export of drugs, refugees and disease presents immediate and growing
dangers to countries in the region, and a series of recent bomb blasts in
Rangoon has heightened instability.

Burma's ruler, General Than Shwe, displays a thuggish mentality that holds
little hope for any peaceful reconciliation inside his country. Instead,
Ms. Suu Kyi shines as the country's bright light for a free tomorrow.
Together with the NLD and Burma's ethnic minorities, Ms. Suu Kyi has
displayed infinite patience, dignity and wisdom in dealing with one of the
world's worst regimes.

As Ms. Suu Kyi marks her 60th birthday, it is time for the international
community to press anew for her immediate and unconditional release. She,
like all prisoners of conscience languishing in Burmese prisons, should be
freed and allowed full access to diplomats, NGOs and journalists who wish
to meet with her.

In pursuit of this goal, the international community should take a number
of steps. The U.S. Congress should quickly pass -- and the president
should sign -- legislation extending import sanctions against Burma. The
State Department should redouble its efforts in Europe and Asia to raise
the issue of Burma, and to encourage additional sanctions against the
junta. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold its 12th
Regional Forum Post Ministerial Meeting in Laos next month, an opportunity
for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to promote a common approach to
Burma among our Asean and EU partners.

Finally, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has an opportunity to
demonstrate personal leadership on this issue. He should call for the
Security Council to address the threat that the Burmese regime poses to
its people and to the region, and demand a meaningful reconciliation
process that includes the full participation of the NLD and ethnic
minorities.

Some in the international community fail to see the urgency of restoring
just rule in Burma, believing that the passage of time will eventually
undermine the SPDC's tyranny. But as we see today, the SPDC could just as
easily tighten its grip as lighten its repression. We must stand behind
Ms. Suu Kyi and other Burmese democrats to ensure that time abets freedom,
not despotism and misery.
* * *

The world has seen an astonishing hunger for freedom recently, in varied
countries across the globe. The Burmese people hunger for democracy and
justice no less than their brothers and sisters in Ukraine, Lebanon,
Afghanistan and Iraq. As we supported the legitimate aspirations of the
people in those nations, so too must we seek freedom for all those denied
it in Burma. Dr. Martin Luther King observed that "right, temporarily
defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." Right will ultimately triumph
in Burma -- the question is not if but when. The international community
would do well to combine its efforts to hasten that joyous day. That would
truly be a fitting present for Ms. Suu Kyi.

Messrs. McConnell and McCain are Republican senators from Kentucky and
Arizona respectively.

_____________________________________

June 15, Asian Wall Street Journal
Destructive Engagement - Anwar Ibrahim

If Asean’s policy of constructive engagement with Burma is measured by the
extent of economic penetration by Asean businessmen, then it amounts to a
resounding success. There is certainly more construction than engagement.
A Singapore information-technology company last month announced that it
had won a multi-million dollar contract to expand Yangon International
Airport. A Malaysian company headed by a former diplomat and a
Thai conglomerate controlled by powerful politicians have both secured
even larger contracts from the Burmese government. With more than $1.5
billion worth of projects up for grabs, it should come as no surprise that
investors and entrepreneurs from member states in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations are falling over
each other to “engage” the military junta.

Asean’s policy of constructive engagement has become a euphemism for a
multilateral scam to milk an already impoverished nation. The irony
couldn’t be more tragic. This is a country endowed with natural
resources—oil and gas, the best teak in the world, abundant precious
stones such as jade, rubies and sapphires. Yet more than half of her
population lives in extreme poverty.

In theory, constructive engagement” with Burma is simple enough. It is
essentially non-interference in her internal affairs coupled with a
supposedly altruistic concern for her socioeconomic wellbeing. Rather than
isolating Burma from the rest of Southeast Asia, the policy is supposed to
engage and gradually integrate her into Asean. This is the so-called
“Asean way.” The ultimate aim, though it is never made an explicit
condition, is supposed to be to encourage the junta to introduce political
reform and start down the path toward democracy.

In reality, this approach has taken on the status of a religious dogma so
sacrosanct that it is sacrilegious for anyone to propose otherwise. For
instance, when I called on Asean to adopt a policy of “constructive
intervention” in July 1997, particularly in dealing with issues of
democracy and human rights, it was considered diplomatic blasphemy. I had
tried to persuade Asean to accept the reality that admitting new members
such as Burma would lead to a host of new problems.

Instead Burma was admitted unconditionally, and accorded all the benefits
and privileges that come with Asean membership. Emboldened by its
membership, the junta proceeded to tighten its repressive rule by
launching a campaign of mass arrests against Aung San Suu Kyi’s
supporters. Eight years later, On the contrary, repression continues with
impunity. Thousands of prisoners of conscience are still denied their
civil liberties, and constructive engagement continues to be invoked as an
excuse to turn a blind eye to corruption, oppression and gross violations
of human rights.

Proponents of constructive engagement come heavily armed. There is the
stock reply that the imposition of sanctions will only hurt ordinary
Burmese. Geopolitically, it seems a strategy of isolating Burma would be
counterproductive as the West would lose any influence it may have over
Burma and drive her straight into the arms of China.

But it is now evident that constructive engagement has not only failed to
bring about democratization, but was never seriously intended to encourage
any move in this direction. Instead, as far as Asean is concerned, the
policy amounts to a subconscious manifestation of collective guilt. It was
former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who made an unashamed
endorsement of dictatorship, in response to Western criticism of political
oppression and human rights violations. It might have been a Freudian
slip, but responding to criticism of Burma’s human-rights record in 1997
he said, “discrimination against Burma is discrimination against Asean.”

There are clear lessons to be drawn from Indonesia’s experience since the
fall of Suharto. Its rapid emergence as a new democratic nation in the
aftermath of the Asian financial crisis gives the lie to the excuse that
democracy can not develop overnight. And the will of the people of Burma
shouldn’t be any less resolute. In spite of risks to life and limb,
thousands continue to fight the oppression and the tyranny of
dictatorship.

Asean has been pussyfooting around for far too long. It is in the
organization’s own interests that its leaders shift away from the Cold War
mindset that existed at its inception in 1967, and reinvent Asean
according to the spirit of the times nearly four decades later. Radical
changes must be instituted to make the leap to democracy in Burma and
constructive intervention is just the first step in this direction.

Mr. Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, is now a
distinguished senior fellow at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies in Washington, D.C.

_____________________________________

June 15, The Washington Post
A Rose for the 'Unfree' - Vaclav Havel

On Sunday Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her 60th birthday, which in a
Buddhist culture marks an important milestone in one's life. I would like
to meet her and give her a rose like the one she is seen holding in a
photograph in my study. Such an ordinary wish, however, in the case of
such an extraordinary woman as Aung San Suu Kyi may seem a silly idea. The
last time I wrote about her in The Post [op-ed, Oct. 12, 2003] was shortly
after "unknown" assassins tried to deprive her of her life and Burmese
generals put her under house arrest for the third time since 1989. Since
then, except for the occasional purge of senior generals, an
ever-increasing population of political prisoners and multiplying human
rights abuses, nothing in Burma seems to have changed.

Aung San Suu Kyi is still kept under strict house arrest, and the Burmese
generals have fortified themselves even more against any attempts at a
dialogue. A dialogue? To conduct a dialogue with a regime that
consistently disdains basic human rights and freedoms -- that uses arms
instead of words and harassment and violence instead of discussion --
probably does not make any sense.

This is something that the European Union recently learned the hard way
when it thought -- partly out of naivete, partly out of expediency -- that
a more forthcoming attitude toward Fidel Castro's regime would lead to a
more forthcoming attitude on the part of Castro toward his political
prisoners and dissent in general. But Castro made a fool of the E.U. He
released a few critically ill prisoners, secretly jailed some others and
did not let some European parliamentarians into the country. Those
parliamentarians who somehow managed to slip in were unceremoniously
expelled.

I hope that the European Union will draw a lesson from this experience --
for example, when it again negotiates lifting the arms embargo on China.
It makes sense to keep up the pressure on the military junta in Burma,
which considers all the justifiable calls to free Aung San Suu Kyi and
other political prisoners, as well as calls to begin democratic reforms,
to be unjustifiable interference in the country's internal affairs.

Even a decade and a half after the fall of communism there, the citizens
of Central and Eastern Europe still vividly remember that their communist
rulers made the same arguments. Abuses of human rights and freedoms have
never been and will never be solely internal affairs of any country. As
someone who years ago experienced firsthand the arbitrary rule of a
dictatorial regime but then lived to see better times -- to a large extent
because of the international solidarity extended to us -- I appeal to all
those who have the opportunity to act against such arbitrary acts to
express their solidarity with people who to this day live in a state of
"unfreedom."

This is also why -- together with my friends His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, former presidents Richard von
Weizsaecker of Germany and Frederik W. de Klerk of South Africa, and
others -- I founded the Shared Concern Initiative. The first public
manifestation of this initiative was an open letter in support of Aung San
Suu Kyi. This is why I welcomed it when the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations moved beyond its "non-interference" policy and began publicly
debating whether Burma should assume the chairmanship of that
organization. This is why I support U.S. sanctions against the Burmese
regime and why I find it easy to identify with resolutions by U.S.
legislators. This is also why I appeal to the European Union to learn from
its Cuban fiasco and step up the pressure on the Burmese regime both
within the framework of the United Nations and in other international
forums -- and to do it in clear and comprehensible terms.

The current situation in Burma is bad. Since 1990 the ruling State Council
for Peace and Development has repeatedly promised that it would take steps
leading to gradual democratization of the regime. Not a single one of
these promises has been even partially fulfilled.

But I am still an optimist. After all, I come from a country where, as
late as mid-1989, while all around us totalitarian icebergs were cracking
and thawing, the stupid, repressive regime remained strong. I, together
with other people of a similar mind-set, was in prison. Yet, by the end of
that same year I was elected the president of a free Czechoslovakia.

Seemingly unshakable totalitarian monoliths are in fact sometimes as
cohesive as proverbial houses of cards, and fall just as quickly.
Continuing democratization of the whole region, together with growing
dissent inside the country, must eventually have a positive effect. As
Aung San Suu Kyi celebrates her 60th birthday, I wish for her that those
changes will happen as soon as possible, and that my silly idea -- to hand
her a rose -- becomes a simple and easy thing to do.

The writer is former president of the Czech Republic.

_____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

June 15, US Campaign for Burma
R.E.M. to broadcast song from June 19th concert into authoritarian country
of Burma

New Technology Allows Modern "Berlin Wall" Concerts Aimed At Supporting
Human Rights

For More Information Contact: Jeremy Woodrum, (202) 223-0300

(Washington, Athens, Dublin)  Popular music artists R.E.M. will dedicate a
song at its June 19th concert in Dublin, Ireland to the world's only
imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi.  The song will
be broadcast via satellite television inside the Southeast Asian country
of Burma, where Suu Kyi is held under arrest.  With the aid of satellite
technology, this will be the first time the Burmese people will be able to
watch part of an international music concert in which musicians speak
about Aung San Suu Kyi. For more information, please visit:
www.uscampaignforburma.org