BurmaNet News, August 5, 2005

[Editor]

August 5, 2005 Issue # 2776


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Tight security expected to keep uprising commemoration muted
Irrawaddy: Burma’s private media face new junta threat
Irrawaddy: UN warns of humanitarian crisis in Burma
Reuters: Myanmar to lift food aid tax, barriers remain-WFP
Narinjara: SPDC attacks ILO through “forced mass rallies” in Akyab

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara: Famine on western border averted by rice smuggled from Bangladesh

HEALTH / AIDS
AP: U.N.: One-third of Myanmar's children chronically malnourished

BUSINESS / FINANCE
The Financial Express: India may bypass Dhaka to bring gas from Myanmar
SHAN: Consumer goods go skyhigh

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Japan's support will be beneficial to Burmese refugees: UNHCR

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: Burma needs to be pressurized

ANNOUNCEMENT
BBC: New website for rights and democracy
FOBC: 8-8-88 commemoration in Chiang Mai
TACDB, ANFREL: Commemorate the 17th anniversary 8-8-88 in Bangkok


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 05, Irrawaddy
Tight security expected to keep uprising commemoration muted - Yeni

The 17th anniversary of Burma’s 1988 democracy uprising is likely to be
marked in a subdued manner within Burma next Monday, although exile groups
are planning special commemoration events.

The anniversary, known as the 8-8-88 Memorial Day, commemorates the
student-led pro-democracy uprising on August 8, 1988, that was brutally
suppressed by the military forces of the junta leader, Gen Ne Win.
Thousands died, although the exact number remains unknown.

This year, tightened security is expected to ensure that the commemoration
remains muted. Han Tha Myint, a spokesperson for the National League for
Democracy, said the anniversary would be marked by "quiet prayers for
those who lost their lives, and (by)  food offerings to Buddhist monks."

Burmese exiles and emigrants, however, are expected to hold commemoration
events.

The Washington-based “government-in-exile,” the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma, called for signature campaigns urging
the Burma issue to be placed on the UN Security Council agenda. "It is
time for the United Nations Security Council to address the situation in
Burma,” the NCGUB said, lamenting that “the aspirations of the 8-8-88
heroes remain unfulfilled today."

A NCGUB statement drew attention to the plight of about 1,100 political
prisoners, who it said were being subjected to cruel and inhumane
treatment. It also charged the Burma Army with human rights abuses,
including rape.

A former student leader who took part in the 1988 protests, Kyaw Min Yu,
told The Irrawaddy by phone on Friday: “We have never give up the spirit
of the movement, because it truly sacrificed the lives of the people who
bravely dream to build democratic Burma. The dream is still going on.”

____________________________________

August 05, Irrawaddy
Burma’s private media face new junta threat – Clive Parker

Burma’s private press is facing increasing government pressure to actively
support state policies, journalists in Rangoon say, in what has been
described as a “serious threat” to the future of the country’s already
severely restricted media.

Journals in Rangoon say the recently renamed Press Scrutiny and
Registration Division in July issued new guidelines in a bid to offer
concessions to the media in return for a more proactive approach to
supporting the junta.

The head of the PSRD, Maj Tint Swe last week told one Rangoon journal that
he would work on a “give-and-take basis” with Burma’s private media.

However, journalists interviewed by The Irrawaddy say that overall the
situation is deteriorating further as the government attempts a more
sophisticated approach to propaganda, despite assurances of “more flexible
censorship policies.”

One Rangoon-based editor described assurances by the chief censor that its
policies were becoming less stringent as “contradictory.”

New guidelines issued by the PSRD state that journals are now permitted to
report on natural disasters “in the interests of the nation,” but all
opinion articles are now explicitly banned along with any negative
reporting on China, India and Asean, according to sources in Rangoon. The
main issue worrying Burma’s journalists, however, is the increasing
evidence that the country’s press will effectively have to promote the
regime’s standpoint, as the head censor indicated recently to one journal:
“We hope to get more material that’s in tune with the national interest,”
Maj Tint Swe said.

Since the end of last year, the ministry has increasingly forced journals
to run stories criticizing “internal and external destructive elements” in
the belief that such reports hold more sway published in Burma’s private
press than they do in the New Light of Myanmar, which is seen as a
mouthpiece of the junta.

Many of Rangoon’s journals have previously attempted to isolate planted
articles by boxing them away from the rest of their news content or by
printing them on pages separate to the main body of their journals. All
these methods have since been banned by the head censor.

Journalists in Rangoon believe the Ministry of Information now wants to
replace the news articles it plants in Burma’s private press with articles
written in-house promoting government policies because readers are able to
easily distinguish planted news articles from “authentic” reports.

A journalist in Rangoon said an article in the New Light of Myanmar on
Wednesday provides the clearest indication of the line the junta is taking
in trying to improve its approach to propaganda.

The article states that “all the members of the literary profession
holding the effective weapon [a pen] will become an extra strength of the
nation if they protect the national interest. But if they remain
indifferent, they will be pointed as persons who are not dutiful towards
the nation.”

“It is true that no one is in favor of or accepts terrorist acts. But the
publishers seem to assume that just by featuring the articles on politics
that have already appeared in the state-run dailies, they are dutiful. We
think that some are over anxious to write and feature the political
articles,” the story said.

The journalist in question noted the article’s content is “very important
for journalists here [in Burma].”

“I believe this will mean even more strict policy changes for Burmese
journalists,” he said.

____________________________________

August 05, Irrawaddy
UN warns of humanitarian crisis in Burma – Aung Lwin Oo

A top UN official warned on Friday that Burma is threatened with a
humanitarian crisis, charging that the junta has failed to address the
burgeoning problem by imposing restrictions on international aid agencies
in the country.

Head of the U.N. World Food Program, James Morris (2nd R), distributes
food to students at a monastic school in Sin Kyo village in Burma, August
02, 2005.

“The humanitarian issues are serious, and getting worse [in Burma],” James
Morris, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, said at a press
conference in Bangkok. WFP says 15 percent of Burma’s 53 million people
face “food insecurity,” while one out of three young children are
chronically malnourished or physically stunted.

Morris was speaking after returning on Thursday from a four-day visit to
Burma aimed at easing restrictions on aid agencies operating in the
country. Humanitarian organizations, including UN agencies, have suffered
from a lack of access to their projects—especially within ethnic frontier
areas—since former prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt was ousted last October.

“The government, I think, does not appreciate the power, goodness and
strength of the humanitarian community ranks,” Morris said, adding that
most UN agencies’ teams have never met with the junta’s top leaders.

The WFP chief met with several government officials, including Prime
Minister Gen Soe Win and Minister of National Planning and Economic
Development Soe Tha. “Current agricultural and marketing policies and
restrictions on the movement of people make it very difficult for many of
those at risk to merely subsist,” Morris said.

During his one-hour meeting with Prime Minister Soe Win, Morris said he
urged the government to lift restrictions on the aid agencies. The WFP
agency has been buying hundreds of tons of rice from Burma for use in its
projects, and Morris has requested an exemption of 10 percent on tax for
the WFP’s rice purchases.

Morris also discussed humanitarian projects with the leaders of the
opposition National League for Democracy, ethnic groups and other
humanitarian groups. The UN food agency’s projects in Burma include
providing food to 400 households living with HIV/AIDS in central Burma and
former poppy farmers in Shan State, where Morris visited this week.

The agency’s projects also include providing 760,000 people from among
Burma’s most vulnerable groups with food-for-work, food-for-training and
food-for-education projects.

____________________________________

August 5, Reuters
Myanmar to lift food aid tax, barriers remain-WFP – Darren Schuettler

Bangkok: Myanmar's military junta has agreed to lift an "export" tax on
local food the World Food Programme buys to distribute internally, but
other policies are impeding efforts to ease hunger, the U.N. agency said
on Friday.

WFP Executive Director James Morris won a commitment to lift the 10
percent tax, the first of its kind faced by any WFP operation worldwide,
during a four-day visit to the former Burma.

"We found it unacceptable. We told the government we were quite unhappy
with it and the government said they would eliminate it," Morris told
reporters in Bangkok.

"Nowhere else in the world does the WFP pay an export tax for goods that
we buy within the country to be distributed within the country."

Morris said the tax was paid to private brokers "but ultimately the money
gets to the government and we objected to that and have been told we will
be exempted".

The opposition National League for Democracy had raised concerns during
its meeting with Morris on Thursday about the junta's influence on WFP
activities in Myanmar.

But Morris insisted the regime had no say in WFP's efforts to assist
760,000 people, including malnourished children, refugees from
neighbouring Bangladesh and former opium farmers in northern Shan State.

"The government does not tell us where to go. There is no political
influence," he said.

MALNOURISHED CHILDREN

Morris, who met Prime Minister Soe Win on Thursday, dismissed speculation
that he was there to convey a message from U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan, whose special envoy, Razali Ismail, has been refused entry to
Myanmar since March 2004.

Morris' visit came at a time when other U.N. agencies and aid
organisations say they are being hampered in their work.

"We are a humanitarian agency. I was not there on any sort of political
mission," he said of his one-hour meeting with Soe Win, who replaced the
ousted Prime Minister Khin Nyunt last year.

Soe Win's agreement to a first meeting with the U.N. country team was a
"huge step forward", Morris said. But the WFP boss did not get a
commitment to improve access for other humanitarian agencies.

About one-third of Myanmar's children are chronically malnourished, with
rates as high as 70 percent in some border areas.

Morris said WFP could provide only temporary relief and "clearly the
responsibility for these issues rests with the government".

However, he said WFP was frustrated at the array of permits, checkpoints,
local taxes and other restrictions that make it difficult to deliver food
in Myanmar.

It was "absolutely unacceptable" that the WFP had delivered only 430
tonnes of the 5,500 tonnes of rice earmarked for vulnerable people in
North Rhakine State, he said. The remainder was still sitting with
suppliers.

"I don't know if they are deliberate impediments or just a highly
bureaucratic decentralised system that makes it so difficult to move rice
from one part of the country to another."

____________________________________

August 8, Narinjara News
SPDC attacks ILO through “forced mass rallies” in Akyab

The ILO, and a Burmese labour organization, FTUB, were the main target of
criticisms in a Burmese military sponsored “mass meeting” in Akyab, on
July 30th.

The meeting, entitled “Guard Against Danger Posed by Destructionists
Through United Strength of the People,” was attended by the members of six
government organized non-government organizations (GONGOs) including
members of the Rakhine State Union Solidarity and Development Association,
Rakhine State Organization for Women’s Affairs, Maternal and Child Welfare
Association, War Veterans Organization, the auxiliary fire brigade and the
Red Cross Society.

While the government news reports state that about 1,000 people attended
from all parts of Arakan State, a local source says that most members at
these attendances close to the Junta. No ordinary citizen would attend the
meeting of their own will, and it is far from being “mass", as they call
it.

The source also comments that the presentations and speeches are just
carbon copies of “mass meetings” from other States and Divisions through
out Burma.

In the speeches delivered by the senior office holders of the GONGOs, many
exiled pro-democracy activists and organizations as well as overseas based
media organizations were attacked. Among them, the ILO (International
Labor Organization) and FTUB (Federation of Trade Unions of Burma) were
particularly targeted. The members of the FTUB were named and accused of
working against the country's interests. They are being branded as stooges
of the Western imperialists.

One Member of Rakhine State Women’s Affairs Organization Daw Thanda Min
strongly criticized the ILO in the meeting and said “one-sided decisions
of ILO inflicted sufferings on the people, including workers. According to
the ILO’s decision in 2000, the export of the garments produced in Myanmar
was banned. As a result, 160 garment factories were closed down and 40
factories laid off their employees. Therefore, over 80,000 workers lost
their jobs. Altogether 70,000 women were unemployed.”

She said the ILO had allowed Maung Maung (a) Pyithit Nyunt Wai of the
Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB), against whom action was taken
by the government, to address the 93rd ILO conference in 2005, ignoring
the entire population of Myanmar.

The speakers of the meeting also praised the junta’s construction projects
and showed their support for the “Road Map.” However, there were no
discussions on the continuous house arrest of the Nobel Laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi or the continuous price hikes and economic difficulties that
people are facing currently in Arakan.

An Arakanese politician, who does not want to disclose his name, comments
that the Burmese junta is ashamed to have to relinquish the ASEAN
Chairmanship for 2006, and hence they are attacking the western countries,
the exile movements and media organizations for being able to mobilize
international pressure. The ILO has been one of the strongest critiques of
the junta and FTUB has been one of the most active exile organizations.
That is why they are being particularly targeted.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 5, Narinjara News
Famine on western border averted by rice smuggled from Bangladesh

Famine in Burmese villages along the Burma-Bangladesh border has been
averted due to the smuggling of rice from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has kept tight control over the border, in an effort to curb
smuggling, but recently the border authority has relaxed its grip to allow
rice trading - resulting in massive rice imports from Bangladesh, says a
local trader.

A retired schoolteacher with an interest in the political situation along
the border says that Bangladesh is "unofficially" allowing the smuggling
to continue due to fear of a mass exodus if famine befalls the border
villages.

A shop owner from Maung Daw in Burma says that a 50-kilo bag of rice is
about 16,000 kyats, down from the previous high of 24,000 kyats. In rural
areas, imported rice from Bangladesh is about 15,000 kyats per bag.

He continued to say that “if the rice price is about twenty to twenty five
thousands, people would just starve. Only with the rice coming from
Bangladesh, can we survive." Even still, the rice price is far from
stable.

The sudden price hikes have hit people hard on the border areas, including
public servants who have to live on a fixed salary.

Another businessperson from Burma commented that rice is smuggled from
Burma into Bangladesh via the sea route, while rice from Bangladesh is
smuggled into Burma via land. This is due to the misfit border trade
policy of the Burmese authority in Arakan, he said.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 4, Associated Press
U.N.: One-third of Myanmar's children chronically malnourished – Rungrawee
C. Pinyorat

One-third of all children in Myanmar suffer from malnutrition - a serious
risk to the future of a country whose development has long been stalled by
political deadlock - a U.N. official said Friday.

Bureaucracy and other barriers are hindering the U.N. World Food Program's
aid distribution in the military-ruled country, WFP Executive Director
James T. Morris said in Thailand after a four-day visit to neighboring
Myanmar, also called Burma.

"One-third of children in Myanmar are chronically malnourished. Eight
percent are acutely malnourished," Morris said at a news conference in
Bangkok.

There is a high rate of school dropouts and as many as 400,000 people are
infected with HIV/AIDS, he said. The country's population is estimated at
54 million.

"This is absolutely tragic, serious and unacceptable ... and it should
concern leaders of this country greatly that their future is at risk," he
said. "The humanitarian price that the individual person pays for the lack
of nutrition and education is enormous."

Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962, is one of Asia's
poorest and most tightly controlled countries.

The current ruling junta came to power in 1988, after crushing a
pro-democracy uprising. It called elections in 1990, but refused to hand
over power when the pro-democracy National League for Democracy, or NLD,
won by a landslide.

Morris said he asked Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win to cut the 10 percent
tax it charges the WFP for rice bought in the country. Myanmar calls it an
"export tax," even though the WFP distributes all of it domestically.

He said that Myanmar's complicated, costly bureaucracy has made it hard to
move rice around the country for distribution. As a result, WFP could
distribute in western Myanmar only 450 of the 5,500 tons of rice it
purchased.

Myanmar has a food surplus, but needs to allow the free movement of food
and people, and the development of infrastructure for production and
distribution, Morris said.

Morris visited Myanmar's northern ethnic Wa territory - controlled by
guerrillas notorious as major drug producers - to inspect WFP's drive to
help wean farmers off growing opium poppies.

He said he also met and discussed international assistance to Myanmar with
senior members of the NLD, whose leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under
house arrest since May 2003.

Except for some humanitarian assistance, the NLD opposes most foreign aid
to Myanmar, which it says helps sustain the military government.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

August 5, The Financial Express
India may bypass Dhaka to bring gas from Myanmar

New Delhi: The government is planning to dump the option of routing the
Myanmar-India gas pipeline via Bangladesh. It is instead looking at two
alternatives: importing gas from Myanmar in compressed form via ships or
routing the pipeline through the north-eastern corridor of the country.

Senior petroleum ministry officials say routing the pipeline via
Bangladesh is fraught with serious difficulties as Dhaka is adamant on the
three pre-conditions set by it for allowing passage to this pipeline, as
part of the trilateral dialogue

“The conditions set by the Bangladesh government of providing a free trade
and energy corridor to Nepal and Bhutan and also of correcting the $2
billion trade imbalance has got nothing to do with Myanmar, so why should
this be made part of the trilateral dialogue process,” questioned a
ministry official.Meanwhile, the Indian foreign ministry is already
discussing all these issues as part of the bilateral dialogue.

A pipeline via Bangladesh will not only carry Myanmar gas to India but
will also help in transporting gas within Bangladesh. Besides, Bangladesh
will also get a transit fee to allow passage to this pipeline, the
official said.

The ministry has asked GAIL India to make a presentation on transporting
Myanmar gas in compressed form and also through a pipeline via north-
east. As per GAIL officials, there is a technology called Enersea for
transporting CNG by ship. “We are carrying our further studies and will
shortly submit a detailed proposal for the consideration of the ministry,”
said the GAIL official.

____________________________________

August 5, Shan Herald Agency for News
Consumer goods go skyhigh – Chai Sayam

Commodity prices in Rangoon have gone up at least 10% during the past week
probably due to the skyrocketing fuel prices, according to sources coming
to the border:

Cooking oil 1,800 kyat ($1.8) per viss (1 viss = 1.6kg) until very
recently, is now over 2,000 kyat ($2). Pork and chicken are 3,000 kyat
($3) per viss.

Traders, faced with complaints from their customers, are blaming on the
higher costs of transportation, while the delivery sector in turn is
pointing fingers at the rising fuel prices.

The bus fare, 20 kyat ($0.02) until now, is in for a 150% increase, one of
the bus drivers told S.H.A.N.

The government has been urging public transports to convert to CNG
(compressed natural gas) systems with an offer of loans. The cost of
conversion is 2.5 million kyat ($2,500) per vehicle.

As commodity prices surge, many denominations of the legal tender have
become obsolete: first, the coins, then the 1-kyat notes. “There are still
some 5-kyat bills here and there,” said a Rangoonian, “but nobody seems to
know how to use them. Now the ten-kyat notes are fast going out of use.”

The basic unit of transaction from now on will be the 20-kyat note, he
predicted.
The only price that remains unchanged is that of rice. “If it weren't for
the junta’s warnings, the rice traders would have raised it skyhigh long
ago,” said a government official.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 5, Mizzima News
Japan's support will be beneficial to Burmese refugees: UNHCR

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in New
Delhi said on Friday that the US $ 5,00,000 that has been contributed by
the government of Japan for the year 2005, comes at an opportune moment,
as it will help increase support for Burmese refugees in India.

In recent weeks, the UNHCR office commissioned a survey to record the
actual living conditions of Burmese refugees in New Delhi.

"The findings of a recently concluded survey on the Myanmar community show
that they live in very difficult conditions in west Delhi." the UNHCR
stated.

"The funding support from Japan will help us respond to specific issues
that have been identified in the survey. This includes access to education
by Burmese children, and the inability to get proper paid jobs for the
Burmese refugees" said the Deputy Chief of Mission, Ms. Carol Batchelor in
an interview with Mizzima News.

There are about 11,000 refugees under UNHCR's mandate in India, most of
whom are from Afghanistan. There are some 1,200 refugees from Burma
(Myanmar). About 400 Burmese asylum seekers in New Delhi are not being
recognised by the UNHCR as refugees.

"We do not see any concrete benefit for the Burmese refugees from the
UNHCR's so-called training’s and self-reliance programmes in the past. If
UNHCR continues in this manner and spends the Japanese money into these
ineffective programs, I think these programs will not benefit the
refugees," said a Burmese refugee.

For some Afghan refugees, local integration leading to naturalised Indian
citizenship is a possibility. Those who cannot return and those who have
no prospect of integrating in India are resettled by UNHCR in a third
country.

Resettlement is also an option for those who face protection problems in
India. "We want to prioritise the cases where a person is faced with a
number of challenges and that have compounded difficult situations in
India, and refer for third country resettlement", Carol points out.

A refugee who has lived for 12 years and above can apply for
naturalisation. Given the circumstances in India and difficulties they
face in adjusting with the local community, Burmese refuges think that
third country resettlement is the best option for them.

Not a single Burmese refugee under UNHCR mandate has applied for Indian
citizenship.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 5, Mizzima News
Burma needs to be pressurized

On July 27, Burma had to forgo the alphabetical rotating chairmanship of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Some see it as a
softening of Burma's repressive stance leading to democratic reforms.

This is being proved wrong. The military junta's compromise with the ASEAN
is a prudent response for the well being of the Generals, and not for its
people. Signs of trouble are still brewing. Continued arrest of
pro-democracy activists and ethnic leaders, continue to taint the National
Convention ignoring as it does the 1990 elections where winning parties
like the National League for Democracy and Shan Nationalities League for
Democracy were sidelined.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest while at
least four NLD members have been arrested within a month and another Shan
leader Sao Khun Kyar was arrested in the first week of August. The junta's
road map to democracy is illegitimate. Moreover, the junta is forcing the
private media to write articles in support of the regime's policies. It
has cautioned the media not to be critical of the ASEAN turnabout.

There is a little doubt that such policies are plunging the country into a
snake pit of chaos and poverty.

All of this is a metaphorical connection between what is happening inside
the country. Refugees and thousands of migrant workers are heading for
neighbouring countries. HIV-AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, illicit
drugs are rampant, leading to influx to the region and even to the West.
World Food Program executive director James Morris said one third of young
children in Burma are chronically malnourished and large numbers receive
little or no education. He said this in Bangkok following a four-day visit
to Burma.

The military junta's policy that "The Tatmadaw is your Father and Mother"
has led the natural resources rich country to where if finds itself today.

A panoramic view of the wider failing of the Constructive Engagement
Policy of ASEAN and a corrupt regime being propped up by China and India
is resented by its own citizenry. It is a domineering business interest
driven geopolitics that ignores human well being.

_____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

August 4, British Broadcasting Corporation - Burmese
New website for rights and democracy

Human Rights Education Institute of Burma is to launch a new internet
website promoting Burma rights and democracy.

Featuring in seven languages, ‘BurmaGuide.net’ is designed for easy access
to a collection of resources useful to people interested in Burma’s future
as a democratic country.

Ko Aung Myo Min, director of HREIB says access to information is very
important for people to understand their rights.

He also said the resources will also be distributed on compact discs
loaded with open sources software that will be usable on any computer.

_____________________________________

August 5, Friends of Burma Coalition
(dream of freedom) VOICES OF 88 (remember)

Monday August 8th, 2005
6pm – 9pm
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Ajarn Tepsiri Art Gallery Soi Wat Umong, off Suthep Rd
(going from Suthep rd to Wat Umong before you get to the temple on the
left hand side you will see a banner)

To remember the courage of the people of Burma who came out onto the
streets on Aug 8th 1988 to call for freedom and democracy in their
country, the Friends of Burma Coalition (Chiang Mai) are organizing an
evening of culture and art.

There will be the Keys to Freedom art performance, the sound of freedom
performance, personal stories from 88, an exhibition, ethnic performances
and VDO. Shan food will be provided.

For further information please contact:
Friends of Burma Coalition (Chiang Mai) at fobchiangmai at yahoo.com
Telephone: 060904118

_____________________________________

August 5, Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB) and Asian
Network for Free Elections (ANFREL)
Commemorate the 17th anniversary of people’s struggle for democracy in Burma


Sunday 7 August, 2005
1– 5pm
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
At the Student Christian Centre
(located at foot of Hua-chang Bridge, near Asia Hotel on Phyathai Road)

Keynote Speech on “Thai Loves Burma” by Professor Thongchai Winichakul,
Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, History Department, University of
Wisconsin-Medison, USA.

And a panel discussion on “Insight into the Junta’s draft of new
constitution and the state of democracy” with:
Prinya Tewanaruemitrkul, Thammasat University’s faculty of law
U Khun Marko Ban, Minister of Federal Affairs, The National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB)
Somchai Homla-or, Asian Network for Free Elections
Sunai Pasuk, Human Rights Watch

*The event will be held in Thai with provisions of English and Burmese
translation

For further details, please contact Somsri Hananuntasuk at 01-8105306