BurmaNet News June 16, 2005

[Editor]

June 16, 2005 Issue # 2741

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar junta says it will introduce anti-human trafficking law soon
SHAN: Myanmar Reports say Wa attacks tomorrow

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Burmese Migrants, Labor Groups Fight for Fair Wages

DRUGS
Xinhua: Myanmar reports 219 drug cases in May

REGIONAL
AP: Malaysia detains 68 pro-Suu Kyi activists; Anwar slams ASEAN over
Myanmar policy

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar's junta stepping up arrests of activists: Amnesty
AFP: Britain demands Myanmar releases Aung San Suu Kyi
AFP: Suu Kyi's birthday sparks freedom campaign in former home of Britain
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: E.U. approves 1.5 million euros in humanitarian
aid to Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
AFP: Britain demands Myanmar releases Aung San Suu Kyi

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 16, Associated Press
Myanmar junta says it will introduce anti-human trafficking law soon

Myanmar's military government, accused of failing to curb human
trafficking, will enact a law to control the problem soon, state media
reported Thursday.

Home Affairs Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo said the junta has been preparing
an anti-human trafficking law that meets international standards, and the
Attorney General's office has already scrutinized the first draft, the
Myanma Ahlin newspaper said.

He noted that Myanmar has adopted the U.N. Convention on Combating
Transnational Crimes and the Treaty on Combating Trafficking in Persons,
and stressed the need to quickly introduce the legislation, the newspaper
said.

Earlier reports said the proposed anti-human trafficking law would be
introduced by midyear and would be used to aggressively prosecute
offenders by allowing law enforcement agencies to freeze the property of
traffickers and their accomplices.

Myanmar earlier formed a Preventive Working Committee for Trafficking in
Persons, which the government says has acted against 519 people and
rescued 2,629 victims.

In an annual report released this month, the U.S. State Department placed
Myanmar in the worst category for human trafficking, saying it had not
complied with minimum standards for eliminating the problem.

Myanmar's junta rejected the U.S charges, saying the report failed to
acknowledge the government's efforts and lacked objectivity.

____________________________________

June 15, SHAN
Reports say Wa attacks tomorrow

Several reports received since the end of May by both Shan and Thai
sources indicate that the United Wa State Army might begin its 4th attempt
to occupy the Shan State Army stronghold across Maehongson tomorrow.

The first reports were carried by Lahu deserters from the UWSA's 171st
Military Region who sought refuge with the Lahu villages scattered along
the Thai-Burma border. The latest one reached S.H.A.N. three days ago from
Tachilek, opposite Chiangrai, from a local Lahu militia leader who said
the UWSA-Burma Army assault on Loi Taileng, opposite Maehongson's Pang
Mapha district, would begin on 17 June.

Sources from southern Shan State also reported arrival in Mongpan, 100 km
across Chiangmai border on 14 June, of two 120 mm mortars "for use at Loi
Taileng." Thai security sources also say three 105 mm howitzers are
already in Monghta, a 4 hour drive east of the Shan enclave.

Many border watchers also wonder whether the attack is going ahead despite
tensions growing between Rangoon and the ceasefire groups, particularly
with the UWSA, whose planned ceremony to be held in Panghsang on 24 June
to declare a drug free zone has been postponed at the behest of Rangoon
following reports that it was displeased with the wording on the
invitation which styled the Wa organization "People's Government of the Wa
State", according to AP.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 16, Irrawaddy
Burmese Migrants, Labor Groups Fight for Fair Wages

A provincial labor court in Thailand’s border town of Mae Sot has
scheduled a second hearing of two connected legal cases brought by a group
of Burmese migrant workers and two labor rights groups against a Thai
garment factory and a Thai government labor office.

At issue is the payment of improper wages to six Burmese migrant workers
in Mae Sot, Tak Province, and discrimination in general against foreign
workers.

According to Tranom Somwong, a Project coordinator at the MAP Foundation
for the Health and Knowledge of Ethnic Labor, the migrants—employed by Mae
Sot’s B.B. Top factory—were paid less than half of the 139 baht per day
minimum wage set by the Thai government and were forced to work overtime
without any additional compensation.

B.B.Top employees are supposed to receive approximately 250 baht each day,
as they generally work about 15-hour shifts. The suit brought against the
factory alleges that the six workers should be reimbursed for 20 to 50
thousand baht each in back wages and unpaid overtime by their employer.
The official minimum wage for overtime work in Thailand is 26 baht per
hour.

The six workers were fired in late 2004 after one year of employment
following their protest to improve the situation at the factory. They now
face being put on a blacklist by other employers, which would prevent them
from finding new jobs.

The legal actions brought by the six migrant workers followed an
unsuccessful attempt to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with B.B.
Top.

The six workers later enlisted the help of the Labor Protection Office in
Mae Sot in October 2004, with the assistance of the MAP Foundation, as
well as the Yaung Chi Oo Burmese Workers Association, to receive legal
assistance in their case against B.B. Top. The workers also received
support from three lawyers at the Law Society of Thailand.

However, the Labor Protection Office further exacerbated the problem by
insisting that the Burmese migrant workers had no rightful claim to
receive back wages, said Tranom.

Thailand’s labor laws theoretically apply to all workers, but strong ties
between local employers and a resistance to intervene on the part of
Thailand’s labor offices make enforcing labor laws problematic.

The first court hearing of the workers’ complaints against B.B. Top was
held on May 30, and the panel of three judges pressed both sides to
negotiate a settlement. NGO and legal representatives for the six Burmese
workers pressed for a total of 200,000 baht for all six workers. B.B. Top
officials, however, denied any wrongdoing and countered with a much lower
figure of 2,000 baht per person, adding that the factory had treated the
workers quite well.

One of the six workers claimed during the most recent court hearing that,
in contrast to the factory’s claim of fair treatment, she was actually
tortured with electric shocks when she refused to work overtime.

All attempts to reach a settlement on worker compensation have so far
failed, and a third hearing has been set for July 14. The six workers—some
of whom live in Myawaddy on the Burma side of the border from Mae
Sot—continue to receive assistance from the MAP Foundation and the Yaung
Chi Oo Workers Association

Migrant workers in other factories in Mae Sot face similar problems with
wages and working conditions, and some are preparing to bring suits
against other factory owners.

Nay Wun of Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association said that most migrant workers
in Mae Sot suffer abuse at the hands of employers. He added that migrant
workers lack the necessary knowledge of their rights under Thai labor
laws, allowing employers to exploit workers with impunity.

There are about 900,000 Burmese migrant workers employed throughout
Thailand. In  Mae Sot alone there are an estimated 100,000 workers.

In mid-2004, a group of Burmese migrant workers brought a similar legal
case against a Thai garment factory in Mae Sot. The 13 workers were
eventually awarded a total of 1.17 million baht (US $29,250) in
compensation for back wages.

____________________________________
DRUGS

June 17, Xinhua
Myanmar reports 219 drug cases in May

Myanmar registered 219 narcotic- drug-related cases in May, bringing the
total number of such cases revealed in the first five months of this year
to 1,251, official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar reported Thursday.

During the month, the army, police and the customs seized 6.58 kilos
heroin, 91.8 kilos opium and 4.2 kilos marijuana as well as over 3,800
stimulant tablets, and punished 320 drug offenders including 47 women.

Early this year, drug seizure was marked by the confiscation of 500,000
stimulant tablets in January and 172,000 in February. Of the January
stimulants seizure, 400,000 were caught in Tachilek and Kengtung alone,
eastern Shan state of the country, according to earlier official reports.
Along with the seizure were also 79 rounds of ammunition.

Myanmar recorded a total of 3,012 narcotic-drug cases in 2004, punishing
4,153 people in the connection. During the year, the authorities seized
973.5 kilos heroin and 606.8 kilos opium, an increase of 405.4 kilos and a
decrease of 874.8 kilos, respectively compared with the previous year. The
stimulant tablets confiscated amounted to 8.3 million, up 4.3 million
correspondingly.

Meanwhile, during the poppy cultivation season in 2004-05, a total of
3,270 hectares of such plantations were destroyed in Shan, Kachin, Kayah
and Sagaing states and divisions, the statistics show, revealing that one
opium refinery each in Shan state and Kachin state was overrun by the
authorities.

According to a survey report for 2004 of opium yield jointly conducted by
Myanmar and the United States' Criminal Narcotics Center (CNC), there was
34 percent drop in poppy cultivation, registering over 30,000 hectares in
2004 and 39 percent decrease in opium production during the year compared
with 2003.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 16, Associated Press
Malaysia detains 68 pro-Suu Kyi activists; Anwar slams ASEAN over Myanmar
policy

Malaysian police on Thursday detained 68 Myanmar citizens who gathered
outside their embassy to demand the release of pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, who turns 60 this weekend, activists said.

Separately, Malaysian dissident Anwar Ibrahim accused Southeast Asian
governments of "pussyfooting" around the issue of Myanmar's glacial pace
toward democracy, saying the region should intervene to stop what he
called the military junta's tyranny.

Authorities detained the demonstrators outside the embassy in Kuala Lumpur
after they spent some 30 minutes chanting slogans and waving posters
reading, "Free Aung San Suu Kyi," said Seah Li Ling, a spokeswoman for the
Malaysian human rights group Suaram.

The protesters were held for assembling without authorization, Seah said.
Gatherings of more than three people require a permit from police.

Police could not immediately be reached for comment.

Protests at Myanmar embassies around the world have been planned this week
to call for Suu Kyi's freedom on her 60th birthday. She has spent nearly
seven years in the military government's custody at various times since
galvanizing a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, she was most recently arrested in May 2003
after a pro-junta mob attacked her supporters in northern Myanmar. She was
initially detained at an unknown location and later taken to her home,
where she is still held.

Anwar, Malaysia's ex-deputy prime minister and now its most prominent
opposition figure, said the military's treatment of Suu Kyi and her
supporters were the ill effects of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations' refusal to push harder for political reform.

"ASEAN has been pussyfooting around for far too long," Anwar wrote in an
article released by his aides. "Radical changes must be instituted to make
the leap to democracy in (Myanmar), and constructive intervention is just
the first step in this direction."

Anwar didn't specify what moves should be taken, but indicated that ASEAN
shouldn't insist that strategies such as imposing sanctions or politically
isolating Myanmar would only yield negative results.

ASEAN members - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam - have a tradition of
noninterference in each other's internal affairs. ASEAN has tried to wean
Myanmar from dictatorship by engaging rather than ostracizing it.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 16, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's junta stepping up arrests of activists: Amnesty

Myanmar's military rulers have intensified their crackdown on political
opponents and stepped up the arrests of activists, human rights watchdog
Amnesty International said Thursday.

Some 1,350 political prisoners are being held incommunicado, without
access to lawyers and subjected to torture or mistreatment, said an
Amnesty report released three days before pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi's 60th birthday.

The Nobel laureate is the best-known of the political prisoners, having
spent most of the last 15 years under house arrest, and her supporters are
organizing worldwide protests on her birthday Sunday to call for her
release.

Five opposition members of parliament -- elected in 1990 polls but never
allowed to take office -- were jailed in February and March, more than in
the previous 21 months, the report said.

"Myanmar's political prisoners are being held hostage by the authorities,"
said Amnesty's secretary general Irene Khan.

"The continued use of detention to remove senior leaders from the
political process is a major obstacle in resolving the political deadlock
that has existed in the country since 1988," she said in a statement.

"The justice system, which should be protecting the human rights of all
the citizens of Myanmar, is being systematically misused to deny and
restrict the right to peaceful exercise of freedom of expression,
association and assembly."

At least 10 ethnic Shan leaders were also arrested in February, including
Khun Tun Oo, the leader of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy
party.

Other prominent prisoners include 75-year-old Win Tin, jailed since July
1989 for trying to tell the United Nations about human rights abuses in
Myanmar, Amnesty said.

Late last year the junta released nearly 20,000 prisoners following a
purge which ousted prime minister Khin Nyunt, but only 110 of them were
believed to be political prisoners.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military for more than four decades. Aung
San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in
1990 elections but the junta never recognized the results.

The military's self-declared "road map to democracy" has made little
tangible progress, despite US and European sanctions over the country's
rights abuses and failure to implement reforms.

In April the United Nation's top human rights body, the 53-member UN Human
Rights Commission, sharply criticised "systematic" abuse by the junta
including "extrajudicial killings, "widespread rape", "continuing use of
torture", forced relocations, people trafficking, and persecution of
civilians.

The UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro, has been barred from entering the country for the past year.

_____________________________________

June 16, Agence France Presse
Britain demands Myanmar releases Aung San Suu Kyi

Britain on Thursday demanded that Myanmar release detained pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 60 at the weekend, labelling her
treatment by the ruling junta "indefensible".

Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent some years living in Britain, where her two
half-British sons are still based, has spent most of the last 15 years
under house arrest, and has been largely cut off from the outside world
for the past two.

Activists in Britain and elsewhere are using her 60th birthday on Sunday
to focus attention on her plight.

"On Sunday, Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her 60th birthday under house
arrest, cut off from family, friends and political colleagues," British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a statement.

"Her treatment by the Burmese authorities is indefensible and I urge them
to release her and the 1,300 other political prisoners immediately," he
said, referring to Myanmar by its former official name of Burma.

"The Burmese authorities should begin a genuine process of reform and
political dialogue -- involving all political parties and ethnic groups --
to achieve national reconciliation so that the Burmese people can at last
live in peace and freedom," Straw added.

"Releasing Aung San Suu Kyi is not only a moral imperative but a crucial
step to start this process."

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory
in 1990 elections but the junta never recognized the results. Britain was
the colonial ruler of Burma until independence in 1948.

_____________________________________

June 16, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi's birthday sparks freedom campaign in former home of Britain

When Aung San Suu Kyi turns 60 this weekend, the detained Myanmar
democratic leader might not be aware of the fact, but in her former home
of Britain, campaigners are pushing hard for her freedom.

The Nobel Peace laureate, whose National League for Democracy won an
overwhelming victory in a 1990 general election only to have the result
ignored by the ruling junta, has spent the past two years cut off from the
world.

However, back in Britain -- until World War II the colonial ruler of what
was then Burma, and still the home of Aung San Suu Kyi's two half-British
sons -- momentum is gathering over her plight.

A series of events to publicise the human rights situation in Myanmar
ahead of her birthday on Sunday began when British MPs debated the country
in parliament.

Ian Pearson, the Foreign Office minister whose remit covers Southeast
Asia, faced a grilling from MPs Wednesday in Westminster Hall, used as a
spillover forum for lawmakers' private concerns when the House of Commons
is blocked by government business.

On Thursday, lawmakers were holding a "reception" for Aung San Suu Kyi at
parliament, while on Friday demonstrators were due to target the Myanmar
embassy in London.

The following day, her 28-year-old son Kim, one of her two children by
late British husband Michael Aris, is expected to receive the freedom of
the city of Edinburgh on her behalf.

Vera Baird, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party who
heads an MPs' group calling for democracy in Myanmar, is among a series of
politician pressuring Blair to push for tougher sanctions on the country.

Meeting a delegation from her group last week, Blair agreed to use
Britain's six-month presidency of the European Union, beginning next
month, to push for tougher EU sanctions, Baird told AFP.

Much of the protesting has been organised by the Burma Campaign UK, which
has even managed to get traditionally apolitical music television station
MTV to co-run a campaign for young Britons to e-mail the Myanmar junta
with their concerns.

This was a reprise of a 2003 effort in which MTV viewers contacted to
United Nations over the issue, said Burma Campaign UK spokesman Mark
Farmaner.

"Last time over 120,000 people e-mailed the United Nations asking them to
take action. This time the target is the regime itself," he said.

"It is unusual for the them (MTV) to do something as overtly political."

Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's independence assassinated hero
Aung San, has extremely close links with Britain.

>From 1964-67 she studied at Oxford University, meeting Tibet expert Aris,
whom she married in 1972. She lived in Britain for much of the next decade
and a half, returning to Myanmar in 1988 to nurse her dying mother before
being drawn into the country's political crisis of the time.

Since then, she has stayed in Myanmar, spending much of her time under
house arrest and unable to leave the country for fear she would never be
allowed back.

Even when Aris was dying of cancer in 1999, she decided not to travel to
Britain to see a husband who had last been allowed to visit Myanmar four
years earlier.

While Britain is active in campaigning on Aung San Suu Kyi's behalf, some
campaigners say privately the involvement of the former colonial power can
prove problematic.

For example, they say, her sons rarely campaign in public after the junta
previously used photographs of the half-Burmese half-British pair to cast
aspersions on Aung San Suu Kyi's national loyalty.

However, Baird said this was not a worry for her.

"I think it's really our responsibility to keep her case at the forefront,
and to lead the campaign to free her and to free Burma, because of our
colonial past," she told AFP.

"We're the closest country with links to it in the Western world, in
influential circles like the EU and the G8. I think it's our
responsibility."

_____________________________________

June 16, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
E.U. approves 1.5 million euros in humanitarian aid to Myanmar

The European Commission has approved 1.5 million euros in humanitarian aid
for vulnerable groups in Myanmar (Burma), E.C. aid officials said
Thursday.

The aid will be provided to United Nations agencies and various
non-governmental organizations working inside Myanmar through ECHO, the
commission's humanitarian aid department.

"This is humanitarian aid so we provide it to partner organization and
non-governmental agencies such as the United Nations," said Heinke Viet,
ECHO's spokesperson for its regional headquarters in Bangkok.

The European Commission has been providing humanitarian aid to Myanmar for
years, with contributions growing from 6.5 million euros in 2001 to 19.4
million last year, said Viet.

The aid is delivered directly to the "vulnerable groups," by-passing
Myanmar government agencies.

The E.U. stopped all government to government aid programmes in Myanmar
following a brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations that
rocked the country in 1988.

Aid programmes, other than humanitarian, are unlikely to be resumed until
the ruling military regime releases opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
who has been under house arrest for the past two years, and initiates
democratic reforms.

"Humanitarian aid must be provided where it is most needed, and regardless
of the political situation in a country," said Commissioner Louis Michel,
who heads ECHO.

Much of the 1.5 million euros will go to populations living in Myanmar's
border areas for health, water and sanitation and protection activities.

In many of Myanmar's remote areas 75-85 per cent of the population does
not have access to basic health care.

ECHO funds will be used to provide basic health care through mobile
clinics with special attention to malaria, tuberculosis and diarrhea, the
most life threatening diseases in Myanmar; mother and child care, as well
as health, hygiene and nutrition education to the population and training
to health staff are the other priorities for ECHO.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 16, Agence France Presse
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's hope for democracy, turns 60 in isolation

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose pacifist struggle against Myanmar's military
rulers has made her an icon of democracy, turns 60 on Sunday under the
house arrest that has left her a silent but still central figure here.

Her supporters plan protests around the world to mark the birthday, but in
Yangon the woman people refer to simply as "The Lady" will spend the day
much like any other, at her lakeside home where she is allowed no guests
and no telephone.

The junta shows no sign that it might release her, despite repeated
demands from the United States, European countries, the United Nations,
some of its Asian neighbors and a host of human rights groups.

Her isolation has paradoxically heightened her celebrity overseas, leading
international music stars to lend their fame to raise money for the Nobel
laureate's cause, and inspiring protesters to stage demonstrations outside
at least 16 of Yangon's embassies in foreign capitals on her birthday.

But here in Myanmar, observers say the house arrest has left her National
League for Democracy voiceless and seemingly without a plan for ending the
ongoing political stalemate since the junta refused to recognize the NLD's
victory in 1990 elections.

"She is silent, but she has no choice," one Western diplomat said. "She is
watched constantly, and she cannot receive much information either."

Her latest house arrest began nearly two years ago, and her only visitor
has been her personal physician.

She has spent a total of nearly 10 years in detention since she
unexpectedly joined the democracy movement in 1988.

Aung San Suu Kyi's rise to the Myanmar's political forefront was almost
happenstance. She had been living in Britain, where she married an
Englishman and was raising two children.

By chance, she had returned to Yangon in 1988 when pro-democracy protests
filled the streets and were brutally suppressed by the military in a
bloody crackdown believed to have killed thousands.

Shortly after the protests, she helped form the NLD and quickly became a
symbol of peaceful yet determined resistance against the military
dictators.

The junta has dealt with her opposition by keeping her out of sight,
placing her under house arrest for the first time in 1989.

Nonetheless, her party went on to win a landslide victory in 1990
elections, and the following year she received the Nobel Peace Prize in
recognition of her efforts.

That first arrest lasted six years, but in 2000 she was again confined to
her home for 19 months.

She was released after a UN envoy brokered historic talks with the junta,
but her refusal to play by the military's rules resulted in another arrest
in May 2003 after a bloody attack on her convoy that has never been fully
explained.

Since her latest arrest, the junta has held a new round of constitutional
talks at its National Convention -- the first step on its so-called "road
map" to democracy -- which has been widely dismissed by the United
Nations, Europe and the United States.

NLD decided to boycott the talks, insisting first on the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo, who is also under house arrest.

That decision effectively severed what little contact the nation's leading
opposition party had with the junta.

"She can't do anything, she can just wait," one Western analyst here said.

"Nobody is getting any instruction from her, whether it is ... because she
can't get any messages out ... or just she feels she has nothing to say,"
he said.

Critics say the effectiveness of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest in
silencing NLD highlights the party's dependency on her for leadership.

"The whole movement has been so dependent on her the whole time, and
increasingly so," the analyst said. "Now there is hardly any party
activity."

The junta has allowed the NLD to keep open its Yangon headquarters, but
plainclothes security forces keep it under constant watch, and its
regional offices have been shuttered.

Aside from the formidable pressure from the junta, the NLD also faces
internal hurdles. At 60, Aun San Suu Kyi is among the youngest of the
party leaders.

Other top party members are in their 80s, and no effort has been made to
groom a new generation of leaders.

"There has never been any sort of attempt to rejuvenate the party," the
Western observer said.

"A lot of people have felt they have never been listened to. A lot of
members have left the party because there was no space for them," he said.

Even if the party is struggling to chart a new course with Aung San Suu
Kyi locked out of sight, she is still on everyone's minds as an essential
figure in Myanmar's politics.

"Aung San Suu Kyi remains a major player in Myanmar's future politics," a
Myanmar observer said.

"Things will remain the same until she is released."