BurmaNet News June 25-27, 2005

[Editor]

June 25-27, 2005 Issue # 2748

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Six Labour Solidarity Organization members reportedly arrested in Burma
DVB: Uncertainty over Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s inheritance case
Narinjara: Natural Gas found instead of water from digging a tube well in
Arakan
Xinhua: Myanmar enhances education cooperation with India

ON THE BORDER
Statesman: Myanmar rebels cop it in Mizoram

DRUGS
AFP: Myanmar slashes opium production, but fights methamphetamines alone
Nation: OP-ED: Burma's drug-free deadline is a delusion
Xinhua via BBC: Agency views Chinese role in replacement planting scheme
in "Golden Triangle"

REGIONAL
Thai Press Reports: New graduates from Naresuan University urge Thailand
to promote people with knowledge in Burmese and Cambodian languages

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: U.S. fails to get Myanmar on U.N. Council agenda
AP: Japan donates US$10.8 million to Myanmar for business, education,
environment

OPINION / OTHER
LA Times: Myanmar's captive soul
Washington Post: The unsung heroes

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 23, Democratic Voice of Burma
Six Labour Solidarity Organization members reportedly arrested in Burma

It has been learnt that six members of the Labour Solidarity Organization
were arrested by the special police unit on 15 June. Those who were
arrested are Arr Kar Hein alias U Zaw Nyunt, Ko Myint Soe, Ko Nay Lin, Ko
Tun Tun Naing, and two others whose names are under scrutiny.

All those who were arrested are long-term old political prisoners. Among
them, Ko Myint Soe and Ko Tun Tun Naing were released recently, about two
months back, from their over 10 years imprisonment. Ko Tun Tun Naing has
become a novice monk since he was released and was arrested in his novice
costume said his family members. It has also been learnt that police
searched the houses of those who were arrested.

Although the reason for their arrest is not clear, family members told the
Democratic Voice of Burma that they are especially worried that the
arrested people might encounter the fate of Ko Aung Hlaing Win, who
succumbed to torture in the [prison's] interrogation unit.

____________________________________

June 23, Democratic Voice of Burma
Uncertainty over Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s inheritance case

Legal circles in Rangoon are watching with interest what will become of
Burma’s detained democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s inheritance case,
after her representative lawyer U Tun Tin died on 18 June. U Tun Tin was a
legal advocate of National League for Democracy (NLD) and acted as court
representative of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was given the responsibility of
taking care of the case. As there is going to be a hearing on 28 June
concerning the case, questions are being asked as to whether the
authorities would allow someone to take the place of Tun Tin, or let other
lawyers see her. “Tun Tin was Daw Suu’s court representative. He stood as
witness at the court on behalf of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” U Nyan Win, one
of the NLD legal advocates told DVB. “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is currently
under house arrest
on 28 June, our lawyers will officially report to the
court that her representative had deceased. They will only consider after
that day whether she needs a representative or not
The lawyers have to
think about the process. Only Daw Aung San Suu Kyi could decide, as she is
the defender. If she is outside, we could say it straight away, for
example. As she is inside, there is also the problem of whether the
permission to see her would be granted.” The case started when Aung San
Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo sued her in late 2000 because he wanted to
take possession of half of their family lakeside home in Rangoon where she
is being detained.

____________________________________

June 25, Narinjara News
Natural Gas found instead of water from digging a tube well in Arakan

Mrauk U: Natural gas came out instead of water from a tube well in Set
Thar Village in Mrauk-U Township in northern part of Arakan state in
western Burma.

On the 17th of this month, the gas came out from the ground of the digging
for water in the compound of U Aung Than Kyaw’s house, who is the
president of Ya-Ra-Ka, the village level administration body of the junta,
SPDC.

The gas attracted attention of the local people who crowded the compound.

A witness of the event said, “The gas emerged from the tube well is
flammable. First, people tried setting the gas alight . But later they
realise the flame is not going to extinguish by itself. So they forcefully
put it out. Since they are fearful of fire, they informed the
authorities.”

Administrative authorities from the Mrauk-U Township and officials from
Battalion (540), based in Mrauk-U inspected the well and later stopped the
gas outflow with a concrete structure.< /P>

Currently, a team of geologists is in the village in order to find out
wether the gas come from an ore or not.

Set Thar Village lies to the east of Mrauk-U, on the bank of Kalandan
River. There is a strong possibility of finding a gas ore there, due to
its close proximity to the large offshore Shwe Gas Ore.

____________________________________

June 27, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar enhances education cooperation with India

Yangon: Myanmar is enhancing cooperation with India in education by
bringing in more aid from the neighbor in the northwest to raise its
education status.

Under a bilateral education cooperation program, the Indian government has
donated some laboratory equipment worth 500,000 US dollars to the Yangon
University, according to the Ministry of Education.

The equipment, handed over to Myanmar recently, is to be used to expand
scientific research activities including upgrading physics, biotechnology
and information technology (IT) laboratories.

Under the program launched last year, academics from India have also
conducted in the Yangon University seminars for doctoral candidate
students.

The Indian aid in terms of equipment and expertise would help turn the
university into a center of excellence for research in Myanmar, education
officials said.

As part of its program to aid human resources development in CLMV
countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam), India is also funding the
establishment of a business training institute, the Entrepreneurship
Development Center, with the provision of Indian academics to train
Myanmar students in the sectors of IT, banking, managing small- and
medium-sized enterprises and English.

The planned opening of the center in November this year will stand as
another milestone, both bilaterally and in the framework of the closer
ties between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 26, The Statesman
Myanmar rebels cop it in Mizoram

Guwahati: In a swift operation that is bound to earn praise from the junta
in neighbouring Myanmar, Mizoram police have wiped out a large base of
Myanmarese rebels deep into jungles along the border. The operation was in
response to a directive from the Union home ministry to drive guerrillas
of the Chin National Army from Myanmar from their base at Camp Victoria on
the Indo-Myanmarese border to the south of Mizoram. About 200 CNA rebels
had managed to flee the camp near the border with Myanmar just before the
Mizoram police launched their attack on the base early this week, police
sources informed the press by telephone from the state capital, Aizawl.
There were no casualties as the police destroyed the rebel base and found
a small cache of weapons. Victoria Camp was set up by the CNA about three
years ago. Though located on the Indian side of the international border,
the rebel base is accessible by a land route only from the Myanmar side.

The Mizoram state government was not very concerned about the base as the
rebels hardly posed any threat to the authorities on this side of the
border. However, the flush-out operation was necessitated by the concern
shown by the Union home ministry against Myanmarese rebels operating from
within the state of Mizoram. The operation gained momentum in the wake of
a visit to Mizoram by the special secretary of the Union home ministry, Mr
Anil Choudhury, earlier this month. The CNA has been organising a
low-intensity rebellion since 1988 for more autonomy for the mainly
Christian Chin in Myanmar's north-west, where government troops have been
pressuring them to convert to Buddhism. The operations Mizoram police
began early this week had been preceded by a pact between India and
Myanmar. Several rebel outfits in north-east India fighting for autonomy
have set up bases in the jungles of neighbouring Myanmar. The operation in
Mizoram is expected to elicit a similar response from the Myanmarese
authorities in eliminating Indian militants from its soil.

____________________________________
DRUGS

June 26, Agence France Presse
Myanmar slashes opium production, but fights methamphetamines alone

Yangon: Myanmar, the world's second-largest opium producer, torched
millions of dollars of illicit drugs Sunday, but experts said the reviled
military government's isolation left it unable to properly tackle its
drugs problem.

As it does every year, the regime used the UN-sponsored International
Anti-Drugs Day to burn a huge stash of seized opium, heroin, marijuana and
methamphetamines at a ceremony attended by diplomats and foreign
journalists.

Plastic bags with samples of the drugs were put on display at the Drug
Elimination Museum in the capital Yangon and guests were invited to
inspect them before some 328 million dollars' worth were burned in a giant
incinerator by the home minister, Major General Maung Oo.

The country, whose military is accused by the United States of having a
hand in the lucrative drug trade, says it has destroyed drugs with a
street value of 14.6 billion dollars in 19 previous burning ceremonies.

While it has been able to slash its production of opium, in which it
trails only Afghanistan, it is facing a growing problem with
methamphetamines, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Opium production dropped from 828 tonnes in 2002 to 370 tonnes last year,
with cooperation from the UN office which helps poor farmers grow
replacement crops.

"It's a spectacular decline," UNODC's Yangon representative Jean-Luc
Lemahieu told AFP, stressing that the battle was not over.

"In 2003 we estimated that two million people nationwide where relying on
opium cultivation. That's a lot. Every year it declines, but it does not
mean the problem is being resolved," he said.

Some 150,000 people have received significant aid to scrap their poppy
fields, and 700,000 people have some assistance. But at least 1.15 million
people still depend on poppy crops that earn barely 200 dollars a year for
producers.

"They have food shortages, they live under difficult economic
circumstances," Lemahieu said.

"We have to focus on a little food security," he said. "It is reachable,
but we need far more resources, the international community is coming
slowly on board, but it is too slow."

"This is not a political issue, this is a humanitarian issue," he said.
"It is a forgotten crisis basically, no one is interested in Myanmar."

Narcotics produced in Myanmar flood Asian markets like Japan, South Korea
and Thailand, as well as those in North America and Europe.

While the production of opium has dropped, that of methamphetamines
appears to be rising.

Police Colonel Kham Aung, joint secretary of the Central Committee for
Drug Abuse Control, admitted that the problem of amphetamine type
stimulants -- known as ATS -- "is increasing over the years" even though
he did not know how many pills were produced or how many laboratories
exist.

"It is very easy to produce ATS," he told AFP in an interview. "All you
have to do is to get chemicals, a few people. The equipment is here in the
market, the method is on the Internet, you just download it and with high
school chemistry you can do it."

Unlike poppy fields that are visible by satellite, secret and often mobile
labs are almost undetectable. Trafficking routes and methods of transport
change easily.

And the problem stretches across borders, Lemahieu said: "The chemicals
come from China, from India. The gangs are ethnic Chinese."

The international community is preoccupied with Myanmar's drug trade, "but
they don't show it by coming here to help us," Kham Aung said.

The only international assistance is from the UNODC and a few small
non-government organizations.

"This is a military government, so a lot of Western countries don't want
to deal with us," he said.

"It should not be like that. This is a drug problem, it is an
international problem. We should set aside our political differences."

____________________________________

June 25, The Nation
OP-ED: Burma's drug-free deadline is a delusion - David Scott Mathieson

Tomorrow marks United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and
Illicit Trafficking, when people and governments celebrate the dream of a
drug-free world. In Burma, the ruling military regime, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) uses this day to appeal for more aid in their
fight against narcotics, staging drug-destruction ceremonies in Rangoon,
where everything from opium bulbs to No-4 heroin and cough syrup are
torched or crushed for the benefit of the international community. SPDC
officials and diplomats congratulate each other and talk about progress,
drug-free deadlines and development.

The Burmese regime's mouthpiece, The New Light of Myanmar, stated in March
that 18 such ceremonies between 1990 and 2004 had destroyed more than
US$14 billion (Bt575 billion) worth of narcotics and "paraphernalia", a
number arrived at by some artful calculation.

Yet how much has really changed in Burma's narco-dictatorship' Not much.
The hype is for the benefit of a complacent international community lulled
by deception that the Burmese regime is serious about narcotics
eradication.

And it works. The former East Asian head of the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Sandro Calvani, has heralded the end of "major
drug production in the Golden Triangle", and the public optimism of UNODC
Burma representative, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, has been successful in garnering
support and funding for their joint projects. The SPDC's 15-year,
three-phase narcotics-eradication project initiated in 1999 appears
impressive. It aims at having all of the country "opium-free" by 2014.
Swathes of Shan state, the main opium growing territory, have been
declared poppy-free, with deadlines agreed upon by local militias, the
SPDC and the UNODC.

At its peak in 1996, Burma was the world's primary producer, with 1,760
tonnes of opium. Last year, the UN claimed that had dropped to 370 tonnes.
Burma is now a distant second to Afghanistan. Yet look at other pages in
these UN reports, and they will tell you Burma is Asia's largest producer
of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATSs), or yaba, that Burmese production
coincided with opium reductions and that ATSs are the world's biggest drug
problem. Is this cause for celebration'

Just how accurate are UNODC figures' The UNODC relies on sophisticated
satellite monitoring and ground surveying to ascertain opium-crop
reductions, yet admits these methods "are not conclusive". In its 2004
opium survey, the UNODC claimed an annual 29-per-cent reduction in poppy
cultivation, from 62,200 hectares to 44,200 hectares. Yet most of this
"decline" came from a drought in northern Shan state that destroyed 80 per
cent of the crop. The other survey zones remained largely static, and in
eastern Shan state, cultivation rose. Independent accounts from southern
and eastern Shan state claim there has been a surge in opium cultivation
in the last year.

Just how successful have UNODC projects been' In late 2003, more than
180,000 farmers had to receive emergency aid from the World Food Programme
to avert a famine generated by forced eradication of their crops. Four
years before, more than 100,000 civilians were forcibly removed to the
Thai border in a brutal "crop-replacement project" that was a smokescreen
for increased ATS production. In a neat twist of logic, Jean-Luc Lemahieu
calls for emergency poverty alleviation and warns of the "looming
humanitarian crisis" when the deadlines take effect this year.

How far should we trust the SPDC' The regime has been suspected of
involvement in the drug trade for years: at worst, a systemic collusion
with narcotics traffickers, at best the patronage of an environment
conducive to drug production and money-laundering. Some observers claim
that last year's purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and his military
intelligence clique, which engineered the cease-fires with major drug
producing militias and incorporated them into the economy and
constitutional process, would slowly unravel the nexus of collusion. This
is naive: kickbacks are just being kicked to other members of Burma's
military.

Increasing yaba smuggling into Thailand in the past several months
demonstrates that it's business as usual, and the recent offensive by the
United Wa State Army's (UWSA's) 171st Division, led by drug lord Wei
Hsueh-kang, was designed to wrest control of the border near Mae Hong Son
for increased drug shipments. Everyday cooperation between Burmese
military units, drug producers and smugglers in the borderlands near
Thailand, Laos, China and India are now systemic.

If there are appreciable declines in narcotics production, then someone
forgot to tell the drug dealers. Production and distribution have spread
to Laos, Cambodia and India, and smuggling to the rest of Asean, China and
Australia remains. In March this year, Thai police seized 610 kilograms of
heroin and more than 10,000 yaba tablets from a boat off the coast of Trat
province, the largest haul in 10 years. In 2003, Australia's largest
heroin seizure netted 50kg of the famous Double UO Globe-brand No-4 heroin
on a North Korean freighter. These major shipments all originated in
northern Burma. This month, Thai police intercepted 148kg of the
methamphetamine "ice" and 86kg of heroin on their way to Malaysia.

But perhaps the SPDC knows more about drug production than they're letting
on. A ceremony scheduled to be held in the Wa Special Region in northern
Shan state to mark the official opium-free pledge by the UWSA was
cancelled this month by the regime. Whether this was because the United
States indicted all the leaders of the UWSA earlier this year on drug
charges or there is still opium there is anyone's guess.

UWSA leader Bao Yu-chiang promised that "you can chop my head off" if
there were any opium left in the Wa area after today. However, the UNODC
and the SPDC have quietly pushed back the 2005 deadline to 2008, including
areas already declared "opium-free". Failure makes for a flat celebration.

David Scott Mathieson is a doctoral researcher at the Australian National
University.

____________________________________

June 27, Xinhua via BBC
Agency views Chinese role in replacement planting scheme in "Golden Triangle"

Kunming: Chinese companies have become the pillar of the current
replacement planting scheme in "Golden Triangle" of Myanmar [Burma],
Thailand and Laos, according to the National Narcotics Control Commission
(NNCC).

Encouraged by the preferential policy issued by the Chinese government,
nearly 100 Chinese companies have invested millions of US dollars in the
scheme in "Golden Triangle". Tens of thousands of local opium planters
have chosen to plant sugarcane and rubber, instead of opium poppies, for
those Chinese companies.

Latest official statistics show 90% of the heroin brought into China came
from the "Golden Triangle" area bordering southwest China.


>From the beginning of the 1990s, southwest China's Yunnan Province, a

major channel of drugs from the "Golden Triangle" area, began to help
local opium planters replace poppies with safe plants in major opium
planting areas of neighbouring countries.

The smooth transfer of local farmers' income source was believed as the
key to the success of the replacement scheme. Some Chinese companies were
encouraged to invest in the processing industry, thus attracting local
farmers to other crops planting.

The Chinese government issued a preferential policy in 2004 to remove the
import duty of goods produced by the related companies, which usually
export their products back to China.

"The policy supporting companies to play a major role in the replacement
scheme has attained huge achievement," said Li Yuanzheng, deputy director
of the NNCC office.

The replacement scheme mainly operated by Chinese companies for the first
time brought the poor farmers in the "Golden Triangle" stable income and
made them capable of feeding themselves.

More than 20 companies from Xishuangbanna Prefecture in Yunnan have
trained nearly 10,000 local farmers in northern part of Laos and reduced
opium poppies of 100,000 mu (6,667 ha), according to Sa Rui, president of
import and export association of the prefecture.

"There were two-thirds of local farmers depending on planting opium
poppies when I came here in 1996, but now it is very difficult to find
some opium," said Bo Xiang, representative of Mengpeng Sugar Plant in a
northern county of Laos. His plant paid 3.6m yuan (433,740 US dollars) to
local sugarcane farmers in 2004 alone, helping each farmer earn at least
3,000 yuan (363 dollars) a year, much more than the average 1,000 yuan
(121 US dollars) when they planted poppies.

Although many replacement schemes by foreign countries had failed, the
Lincang Jingying Sugar Group from Yunnan has successfully attracted local
farmers to plant 37,000 mu (2,467 ha) sugarcane in the Shan State of
Myanmar, once a major region producing opium. "Our objective is to expand
the sugarcane to 100,000 mu (6,667 hectares) in the future," said Li
Shiping, board chairman of the group.

By now, the companies from Yunnan alone have helped local farmers in
"Golden Triangle" plant more than 600,000 mu (4,000 ha) of sugarcane and
other crops, reducing at least 100 tons of opium, sources with the
provincial drug control committee said.

Thanks to the successful operation of the Chinese companies, more
investment from the government has gone to improvement of road and
traffic, water facilities, tourism, culture and education, according to
the committee.

"We will actively promote the replacement scheme with the company
operation as a core, aiming to ensure the non-poppy situation in some
regions," said Li Hanbai, vice-governor of Yunnan Province.

In addition, China Individual Labourers' Association also issued a
circular to its members, calling for more participation in the replacement
planting or other economic activities in "Golden Triangle".

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 27, Thai Press Reports
New graduates from Naresuan University urge Thailand to promote people
with knowledge in Burmese and Cambodian languages

New graduates from Naresuan University have urged the government to
promote those who have knowledge of the Burmese and Cambodian languages,
and use them to assist those alien workers to communicate more effectively
with their employers.

Ms. Oyejai Moyjun a 23 year-old fresh graduate of Naresuan University in
Phitsanulok, is now working at the social welfare and employee protection
department in Maesod District of Tak Province. She said the reason that
she majored her undergraduate study in Burmese is because there has been
an increasing number of alien workers in the province, especially from
Myanmar and Cambodia. Thus, she hopes to help the employees to communicate
with their employers better.

She added that there are currently 18 other graduates from Naresuan
University who studied the Burmese language. She believes that the
government should also employ them and make good uses of their knowledge.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 24, Reuters
U.S. fails to get Myanmar on U.N. Council agenda - Evelyn Leopold
United Nations: The United States failed on Friday to put political
repression in Myanmar on the U.N. Security Council's agenda because Russia
argued the issue was outside the council's international peace and
security mandate.

The U.S. delegate, Gerald Scott, said Myanmar, which he called by its
former name of Burma, had to be raised because it was important to remind
the world community the situation "continues to decline."

He said he did not request any action, but the U.S. effort was seen as an
attempt to put the southeast Asian nation on the council's agenda, which
requires the consent of all 15 council members. Myanmar has been
criticized in other U.N. forums.

Scott noted the military junta still had some 1,300 political prisoners
and that opposition leader Aug San Suu Kyi, who just turned 60, was still
under house arrest.

"So we felt it was appropriate to raise this point with other members of
the international community," he told reporters after council
consultations. "We'll have to see what happens next.

Participants at the council meeting said Scott was backed by Britain,
France, Denmark, Greece and Romania but opposed by Russia, China and
Algeria.

"We don't see any ground for including it on the agenda (because) the
Security Council is seized with matters of international peace and
security," Russia's envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, told reporters after the
meeting.

"I will not comment on the substance because the matter has not been
brought before the council formally," he said.

Although human rights have been creeping into the Security Council's
agenda of war and peace, sanctions and peacekeeping missions, the issue of
Myanmar has been promoted by U.N. human rights bodies. Their critical
findings have been turned into General Assembly resolutions.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, one of the world leaders who has called for
Suu Kyi's release, has frequently spoken out on the subject and at various
times dispatched envoys to Myanmar to negotiate with the government.

Suu Kyi has spent nine of the last 16 years behind bars or under house
arrest, prompting international protests and U.S. and European Union
sanctions against the junta. The Nobel Peace Prize winner's latest stretch
of detention began in May 2003.

Myanmar's generals have ruled the country, formerly known as Burma, since
1962. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a landslide
election victory in 1990 but the junta refused to hand over power.

_____________________________________

June 27, Associated Press
Japan donates US$10.8 million to Myanmar for business, education, environment

Yangon: Japan has donated US$10.8 million ([euro]8.94 million) for a
business and cultural exchange center, a scholarship fund and to help
plant forests in military-ruled Myanmar, the Japanese Embassy said Monday.

The grant includes 409 million yen (US$3.7 million; [euro]3.1 million) for
the construction of the Myanmar-Japan Center for Human Resources
Development to be built on the Yangon University campus, the Embassy said
in a statement.

The center will provide business training courses, cultural exchange
programs and Japanese language studies, it said.

The grant also includes 484 million yen (US$4.4 million; [euro]3.6
million) for scholarships for young Myanmar officials to study in Japan,
the statement said.

A further 293 million yen (US$2.7 million; [euro]2.2 million) was
allocated to help plant forests in the country's arid central region,
called the dry zone, combat desertification and provide local residents
with resources to improve the environment.

The aid was presented during a ceremony in Yangon attended by the Japanese
Ambassador to Myanmar Nobutake Odano and Myanmar's National Planning and
Economic Development Minister Soe Tha.

Myanmar receives little foreign aid because of Western disapproval of the
junta's poor human rights record and its failure to hand over power to a
democratically elected government.

Japan is the largest aid donor to Myanmar. Tokyo suspended grants for
major projects after the junta took power in 1988, but has since given aid
under a grass-roots program focused mainly on health, education and
humanitarian projects.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 27, Los Angeles Times
Myanmar's captive soul

Repressive military regimes have ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma,
for 43 years, suffocating the political process and inflicting poverty on
a once-rich nation. The woman who should be leading the country, Aung San
Suu Kyi, marked her 60th birthday last week; she has spent nearly 10 of
the last 16 years in prison or under house arrest.

Demonstrators in dozens of cities in scores of countries celebrated her
birthday and insisted that the country's military junta free her. That's a
demand the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations needs to press forcefully. If
Myanmar wants to assume the rotating leadership of the 10-member
association, which is scheduled to happen next year, it should free Suu
Kyi. If it refuses, other nations should boycott the annual meeting, set
to be held in the capital, Yangon, once known as Rangoon.


Suu Kyi was visiting Burma from her home in England in 1988 when rallies
against the ruling generals erupted. She is the daughter of a revered
leader in the fight for independence from Britain, Aung San, and quickly
moved to the forefront of the pro-democracy protests. The generals, who
issued orders to open fire on demonstrators and killed thousands, put Suu
Kyi under house arrest the next year with no charges or trial. But in
1990, her political party won 82% of the seats in the national assembly.
The generals ignored the results.

Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and though she has periodically
been granted freedom, she has not left Myanmar for fear she would not be
allowed to return. Her husband was allowed to visit her in 1996, but the
generals barred him in 1999 as he was dying of cancer.

Suu Kyi was influenced by India's apostle of nonviolence and leader of its
independence movement, Mohandas K. Gandhi, yet India refuses to impose
sanctions on Myanmar. China is a major trading partner, as is Thailand.
The U.S. has a better record, renewing sanctions each year on Myanmar
because of Suu Kyi. The sanctions have not won her release, but they need
to be retained, and other nations should adopt them. To lift sanctions
would reinforce the military's belief that it can act with impunity.

Myanmar tries to keep foreign correspondents away and control access to
Internet sites and e-mail, but Times staff writer Richard C. Paddock
recently visited. In a telling commentary on the repression and poverty
wrought by decades of military rule, a 47-year-old worker in the largely
Buddhist nation told him, "In my next life, I want to come back in another
country."

_____________________________________

June 27, Washington Post
The unsung heroes - Fred Hiatt

In Burma, democracy's price can be life

No prime ministers took note when Aung Hlaing Win was seized on May 1
while sitting at a market food stall in Rangoon, the capital city of the
totalitarian state of Burma.

The Nobel Peace Prize committee issued no statement when police cremated
his badly bruised body days later, without allowing his young widow a
viewing.

And neither the U.S. Congress nor any European notables objected when,
just two weeks ago, a court in Burma ruled that Aung Hlaing Win, a
30-year-old member of the National League for Democracy, had died of
chronic liver illness while in custody, not from beatings he received
during interrogation.

Aung Hlaing Win's private tragedy was unfolding while the world's worthies
were lavishing attention on the head of his democracy party, Aung San Suu
Kyi, who on June 19 marked her 60th birthday while being held
incommunicado under house arrest. There were tributes and calls for her
release from President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, fellow
Nobel Peace Prize winners and leaders across the globe.

Those tributes were appropriate, and necessary. Aung San Suu Kyi is the
Nelson Mandela of Asia. But there were risks also in the world's focus on
one individual in Burma, for -- as she has often said, during her
intervals of partial freedom -- the movement for democracy does not depend
on any one person.

For, if Aung San Suu Kyi represents one great mystery of humanity -- its
seeming ability to produce great leaders at moments of great need -- young
Aung Hlaing Win represents another, perhaps even greater mystery: the
willingness of ordinary people to risk everything for freedom, knowing
that their sacrifice will be recorded in no one's history textbook.

Aung San Suu Kyi possesses the birth lines of leadership: Her father led
Burma to independence from imperial Britain after World War II. But she
married a British academic and raised her two boys in Oxford, without
aspiration or training to lead a nation.

A visit home to her ailing mother in 1988 coincided with the rise of
student opposition to the ruling military junta, and Aung San Suu Kyi was
pressed to play a role. The dictators, with the usual clueless faith of
their kind in their own popularity, called an election in 1990, which they
lost in a landslide to Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League, though
even then she was under house arrest. The generals never allowed the
parliament to sit; many elected members to this day sit in prison instead.

Yet Aung San Suu Kyi remains the Burmese leader whom the world knows and
reveres. Through a decade and a half of persecution, she has maintained a
dignity, a serene steeliness, that every day rebukes the small-minded
cruelties of her captors. The insults they shower upon her in their state
press befoul them in ways they dimly perceive but never entirely
understand.

We know little of her condition today; not even the Red Cross is permitted
to visit her increasingly shabby lakefront house. We know even less of the
1,300 or more political prisoners and of the thousands more, in this
nation of 50 million, who, like Aung Hlaing Win, stand up for liberty. The
junta does its best to prevent any honest reporting from the country --
even unauthorized ownership of a fax machine is a crime -- so we can only
guess at the drama underlying the few reported lines on his case.

Did he have an inkling of what was coming as he ate his noodles in that
stall May 1? Did the judge who certified his death as accidental go home
that night and mutter his secret shame to his wife? Did Aung Hlaing Win's
friends warn him: Don't join the party, what good can it do?

In a way, that is the real mystery. The unsung fighters for democracy,
whether in Burma or Belarus, Kazakhstan or China -- they do not ask
themselves, What good will it do? Their calculations are made in some
deeper place, hard to fathom for those of us spared such choices.

But over the coming months, many people in our fortunate outside world
will face choices that could affect the answer to that question. The
European Union, Japan, Burma's democratic neighbors in Southeast Asia and
India -- these for the most part have followed a policy of "engagement"
with Aung San Suu Kyi's captors, though she and her party consistently
have warned that such a policy could only strengthen the repression.

Whether they have been motivated by genuine hope that the junta would
reform, or by more cynical attraction to Burma's oil and other resources,
doesn't really matter. It's clear that the policy has failed.

Now they could opt for a harder-headed policy of coordinated, sustained
pressure on the regime to release political prisoners and begin a
political dialogue. It's likely, though not assured, that setting such a
price to Burma for being received in polite international company would
have an impact. It's certain that birthday cards won't suffice.

_____________________________________

June 27, The Nation
The world must keep up the pressure on Rangoon - Kavi Chongkittavorn

Whatever momentum was gained from the international calls to free Aung San
Suu Kyi and to allow for democracy in Burma on the occasion of the
opposition leader's recent 60th birthday must be sustained at all costs.

The outpouring of support from presidents, prime ministers, intellectuals,
Nobel laureates and activists demonstrated one simple truth - the Lady
matters.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, perpetuated by junta apologists and
other vested interests in the past five years, that the long-suffering
opposition leader of National League of Democracy has been the main
stumbling block of progress because of her attitude towards political
processes and national reconciliation, Suu Kyi is in fact loved and
respected by the Burmese and other people around the world.

Given this, it would not be surprising that in coming days, if not weeks,
the pressure on Rangoon will continue to grow. Leading this effort will be
lawmakers in the United States, European Union and core Asean countries.

American politicians such as Senator Mitch McConnell and Senator Richard
Lugar have already made clear that they want to maintain the sanctions
that have been imposed on Burma. Over the years, they have called on
China, Thailand and the members of Asean to do their part as to ensure
that the political situation inside Burma improves. So far, these calls
have largely fallen on deaf ears in this corner of the world.

This approach has been the target of much criticism from people who say
sanctions will hurt the Burmese people more than the junta leaders. This
would only weaken them when what they need is humanitarian aid. Medicine
and healthcare facilities have been given to Burma. It is not clear
whether the people who need them have access to them.

Since 1988, the Burmese people have had sanctions imposed on all aspects
of their lives by the military junta, which is far insidious than anything
the international community could do. These days, more selective sanctions
must be contemplated, focusing particularly on business and industrial
transactions that generate huge foreign exchange. The junta has dangled
energy concessions in front of foreign oil companies, persuading them to
invest and even to call for the end of sanctions.

What is interesting is the effect the mounting pressure from US lawmakers
has had on the Bush administration, especially on US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, who has yet to visit the region officially. Laos will
host an Asean ministerial meeting later next month, which Rice, as the new
secretary of state, is expected to attend. She is also supposed to attend
the back-to-back post-ministerial and Asean Regional Forum meetings.

However, the worsening political situation in Burma has created a certain
ambivalence, if not anxiety, within the top echelons in Washington over
whether Rice should go ahead with the July trip. They fear that her
presence would send the signal that the US is willing to tolerate
dictatorships, and not just to Asean and Burma, but also to the
international community.

US Ambassador Gerald Scott, senior advisor with the US mission at the UN,
has expressed serious concern about the fact that the situation in Burma
continues to decline. He raised this issue at the closed door meeting
called to discuss Afghanistan and Iraq last week even though Burma was
officially not on the UN Security Council agenda. Both China and Russia
vetoed the inclusion of Burma.

In the past few days, there was a flurry of diplomatic activity in Bangkok
when the US Embassy was told to prepare for a special unscheduled half-day
stopover in Bangkok by Rice, possibly on July 10. Several core Asean
foreign ministers from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam
and Philippines have been invited to Bangkok to meet with her to discuss
issues relating to the region, including Burma.

If the trip materializes, it is likely to reinforce the importance of
sustaining US and international sanctions against Burma, depending on how
much Rice emphasizes this topic. It will also impress on Asean that it
must exert more "peer pressure" on its member. Asean members should take
some comfort in the fact that it is better for them to isolate or
reprimand Burma than to allow outsiders to do so.

In fact, Asean parliamentarians have since November already paved the way
for their respective foreign ministers to do just this. They have jointly
called for on the grouping to bar Burma becoming the chair of Asean and
hosting next year's foreign ministerial meeting. As of now, all
indications have suggested that this campaign will succeed, though it
remains to be seen how Burma will react.

Some quarters within Asean are extremely concerned that if Burma is passed
over next year, it will be a blessing in disguise to the junta leaders.
How will Asean respond if Burma expresses a desire to host the 2007 Asean
annual meeting?

By that time the junta leaders will have completed their phoney charter
and held a national referendum that will enable them to form a so-called
democratic government. While Burma cannot fool the people and countries in
the region, a semblance of democracy could go a long way in other parts of
the world and score some the generals some important points.

The campaign to pressure Burma will be strengthened if Britain, which
takes up the EU presidency next week, can narrow the focus of key EU
members; otherwise, the situation is unlikely to change too much.

Thailand has already lost any chance of being an honest broker because of
its perceived closeness with Burma. Since the departure of former Burmese
prime minister Khin Nyunt, Thailand has had a harder time than most
officials would like to admit in establishing a channel of communications
with the new group in Rangoon. Ironically, it is now much easier for
Thailand to shift it policy towards Burma and align itself with the
international coalition.

Only by sustaining this convergence of forces will the international
community affect the world's most infamous pariah state.