BurmaNet News, August 26, 2005

[Editor]

August 26, 2005 Issue # 2791


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Rangoon bombing suspects released
AFP: Myanmar cartoonist released from jail

REGIONAL
National Post: Bangladesh risks becoming terrorist hotbed: Aug. 17
explosions: 'The tide of Islamic violence is rising'
Narinjara News: Who can help them?
Xinhua: Asian countries call for regional framework to regulate labor
migration
Thai Press Reports: Thailand: district office has right to remove names
from citizen registration list, judge advocate says

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: A lesson on the value of charity

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 25, Irrawaddy
Rangoon bombing suspects released - Shah Paung

Burmese military authorities released 17 ethnic Karen—detained last June
on suspicion of involvement in the May 7 Rangoon bombings—on August 15,
according to a spokesperson for the opposition party National League for
Democracy.

The spokesperson, Myint Thein, added that one of the 17—Saw San Poe—died
in custody from injuries sustained while being tortured in prison.

The 17 detainees were arrested in the village of Ta Hku Hkee in Irrawaddy
Division, Ein-me Township by Burmese authorities—comprising nearly 100
police, soldiers and intelligence agents—on suspicions that they were
directly involved in the May 7 bombings in Rangoon, and that they aided
the ethnic opposition group Karen National Union by hiding weapons.

According to Myint Thein, Burmese authorities failed to discover any
incriminating evidence against the detainees and released them. The
authorities have focused on the village of Ta Hku Hkee since early July,
when soldiers from Infantry Battalion 93 based in Myaungmya surrounded the
village and cut off access, as reported by the Democratic Voice of Burma
in early August.

Original reports from Ein-me Township suggested that the village was under
suspicion of hoarding weapons for the KNU. It has since been discovered
that the arrest of the 17 ethnic Karen—and an unspecified number of other
villagers, including women—is in connection with the May 7 bombings in
Rangoon.

Burmese authorities are said to be considering compensation for the death
of Saw San Poe and the lengthy detention of the 17 villagers in the form
of local development projects and direct compensation to Saw San Poe’s
family. And while military forces have now withdrawn from the area, they
have warned the released villagers against revealing any details of their
incarceration, said Myint Thein.

Three bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in Rangoon at the Dagon Center,
Junction-8 Center and the Yangon [Rangoon] Trader on May 7. Official
reports claimed that 19 people were killed and 162 injured in the blasts.
Burma’s military government has yet to identify any legitimate suspects in
the case.

____________________________________

August 26, Agence France Presse
Myanmar cartoonist released from jail

Bangkok: Cartoonist Chit Swe, a member of Myanmar's pro-democracy
opposition, has been released from jail after serving a one-month
sentence, an international media rights group and Myanmar's main
opposition said Friday.

Reporters Without Borders said the 65-year-old activist for Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) was "released on completing a
one-month prison sentence on 23 August."

An NLD spokesman in Yangon said Chit Swe was released on Thursday
afternoon, and was reportedly in good health.

Chit Swe was sent to Yangon's notorious Insein jail after being convicted
of "defying the orders of the authorities" under a state of emergency law
often used against government opponents, Reporters Without Borders said in
a statement.

Chit Swe, who suffers from heart problems and chronic bronchitis, was
arrested on July 12 shortly after an NLD meeting was held at his home.

Reporters Without Borders said he has denied any wrongdoing, saying the
meeting was simply a discussion among colleagues.

The artist's cartoons in two financial magazines, Dana and Myanmar Dana,
often portray socio-economic problems in the country.

Although Chit Swe had not visited the NLD's Yangon headquarters by early
Friday afternoon, the NLD "heard that he was in good health," NLD
spokesman and lawyer Nyan Win told AFP.

"He will be on duty in the future."

Nyan Win said he and the NLD were happy about the release, saying the
cartoonist had worked hard for the league since its founding 17 years ago.

"I feel sorry he has faced a case like this."

According to Amnesty International, there are more than 1,000 political
prisoners held in Myanmar, which was formerly known as Burma. NLD leader
and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 26, National Post (Canada)
Bangladesh risks becoming terrorist hotbed: Aug. 17 explosions: 'The tide
of Islamic violence is rising' - Peter Goodspeed

Terror returned to Bangladesh on the morning of Aug. 17 when 459 bombs
exploded within a space of 30 minutes in government offices, airports and
police stations across the country.

The highly coordinated attacks struck 63 of Bangladesh's 64 government
districts, displaying a sophistication and audacity as frightening as the
Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

But so far, the Bangladeshi bombing campaign has received little
international attention.

The attacks killed only two people and injured another 110. They appeared
to be designed to cause maximum panic while inflicting little real damage.

The homemade bombs were wrapped in layers of sawdust and tape, instead of
nails and shrapnel, to deliberately limit their power and damage.

Still, the fact such a sophisticated attack took place unhindered in the
third-largest Muslim country in the world should set alarm bells ringing.

Bangladesh is a dirt poor and politically chaotic country that has
traditionally been regarded in the West as a "moderate Muslim nation." It
may now be on the brink of becoming a failed state dominated by a growing
radical Islamist threat.

An editorial in the Daily Times of Pakistan warns: "The tide of Islamic
violence is rising in Bangladesh and it is more lethal than anything we
have known in Pakistan."

The bombings bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation and leaflets
scattered near each bomb site claimed they were the work of the recently
banned Islamist organization Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.

Formed in the 1990s with the financial support of extremists from Saudi
Arabia, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen calls for the establishment of Islamic rule
through an Islamic revolution.

The group was banned in February after being blamed for a series of bomb
attacks against leaders of the opposition Awami League.

Leaflets at the bomb sites called for Bangladeshi Muslims to wage jihad
against their government until shariah law is established in the now
secular state.

"It is time to implement Islamic law in Bangladesh," the pamphlets read.
"There is no future with man-made law."

Other papers left by the attackers tied the bombings to Iraq and
Afghanistan, saying, "Bush and Blair, be warned and get out of Muslim
countries."

None of that is really surprising in itself, as Bangladeshi politics have
teemed with confrontation and violence for decades.

One of the world's most densely populated countries, Bangladesh has a
history of homegrown hostility that is frequently tinged with religious
intolerance.

The country was founded in bloody conflict in 1971 out of a secular
nationalist movement that called for independence from Pakistan. Ever
since, mainstream Islamic parties, which originally opposed separation,
have been in constant conflict with the advocates of secular liberal
democracy.

But in the post-Sept. 11 world, the political tensions that haunt
Bangladesh have threatened to turn the country into a haven for
international terrorists. As an impoverished, predominantly Muslim state,
Bangladesh has the same demographic and cultural factors that were crucial
to the rise of militant extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Lawless and chaotic, it has been a haven for militants operating in India,
Pakistan, Kashmir, Indonesia, Burma and Thailand. It is already a transit
route for a massive drug- and arms-smuggling trade, and India has alleged
for years it is home to more than 195 camps where guerrilla groups seeking
autonomy or independence in north-eastern India are trained.

In recent years, Bangladesh has also been swept by a surge in Islamic
fundamentalist fervour.

In 1993, Muslim author Taslima Nasrin had to flee the country after she
received death threats for being critical of Islam in her writings. In the
past few years, there has been a spate of bomb and grenade attacks on
Muslim shrines, movie theatres and political rallies.

There have also been a steady stream of attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus and
secular leaders and journalists who have criticized Islamic
fundamentalists.

More importantly, Bangladesh, like Afghanistan and Pakistan before it, has
also seen a spectacular growth in the number of "madrassas," or
unregulated religious schools.

Human rights groups say the pace of the attacks in Bangladesh picked up
after parliamentary elections in October 2001 returned a four-party
coalition headed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The new
government includes two religious parties that are staunch supporters of
Islamic fundamentalism.

Bangladeshi officials refuse to acknowledge the presence of international
terrorists in their midst. They insist violent incidents are the
responsibility of home-grown criminals.

"We have local goons or hoodlums trying to portray themselves as political
groups," says Morshed Khan, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister. "There may be
some local goons, working in the name of religion, who are being hunted
down. But there is a difference between international terrorists and local
goons.There are no international terrorists in the country."

Still, Indian intelligence officials say that after the U. S. invasion of
Afghanistan, several hundred Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters escaped to
Bangladesh through Pakistan.

Other reports suggest members of Jemaah Islamiah, the group responsible
for the Bali bombing and terrorism incidents in Malaysia, Indonesia and
the Philippines, are hiding out in Bangladesh.

Now that the threat of terrorism haunts Bangladesh, people are demanding a
new vigilance.

"Let us never again hear anyone say that religious extremists are not
active in the country or that they are not a serious threat," declared and
editorial in Dhaka's leading English newspaper the Daily Star.

"After Aug. 17, we can never again say that we haven't been warned."

_____________________________________

August 26, Narinjara News
Who can help them?

Dhaka:  After a series of bomb blasts in Bangladesh on August 17th
security has been tightened everywhere in Bangladesh, including the two
border districts of Cox’s Bazaar and Bandaban, located in southernmost
Bangladesh near Burma.

In these two district towns alone there are over 100 Arakanese refugees
from Burma who are working at various projects run under the UNHCR
self-sufficient programs.  They are now anxious about there own security
after security in the area has been beefed up.

On the 20th of August, a special combing operation in a hill tract town of
Bandaban district was re-instigated with a team of around 2000 members of
the Bangladesh army and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).  The aim of the operation
is to crack down on terrorist groups who are sheltering illegally in the
area.

According to sources, prior to the operation about 30 foreign nationals,
mostly Burmese, were arrested by Bangladeshi enforcement officers for
suspected terrorist activities during this past year.

Among them was one UNHCR recognized refugee from Burma.  He was arrested
by a BDR team on the 25th of July while he was having dinner with his
family in his wife's village.

The refugee has since been transferred to police custody after severe
interrogation by the BDR.  He is facing a trial in the Bandaban district
court, accused of possessing guns.

According to a local newspaper from Cox's Bazaar, the man was arrested
while in possession of two guns and ammunition by the BDR, after a
gun-fight took place in the early morning of August 16th.

His wife says the case and accusations have been falsely created by
certain people, and that her husband was arrested in his house on the 25th
of July, without any weapons in his possession.  She added, "I also
complained to UNHCR officials on August 5th about my husband's arrest."

Another Burmese refugee has stated that without UNHCR intervention in this
case, the man will be facing a long jail term in Bangladesh.

He also told Narinjara recently that local authorities warned him that he
was recognized in Dhaka and should go to live there, and that foreigners
would not be allowed to live in the border towns of Bangladesh.

Another Arakanese refugee, who owns a rice noodle shop in Bandaban town
said that his family is now being closely watched by local intelligence
agents, because some Arakanese politicians used to visit his house
occasionally to eat rice noodles."

He also said, "I was very worried about my family's safety here.  I want
to leave for Dhaka where it is safer, but I have no plans to move even
though the situation is very bad here - because I am living here under the
UNHCR self sufficient program."

Most Arakanese refugees who are living in the border area are more worried
about their security since the one Burmese refugee was arrested on false
charges in Bangladesh.

One refugee said, "Even Bangladesh nationals are not safe at present, so
how can foreigners (refugees) have safety here? How can we continue to
live in Bangladesh without safety?  The international community and UNHCR
should strongly consider acting upon the situation of Burmese refugees in
Bangladesh."

Most Arakanese refugees have fled to Bangladesh since the 1988 democracy
uprising in Burma, and they have not had the opportunity for resettlement
in western countries like some Burmese refugees in Thailand and India.

It has been learned that there are over 150 Buddhist Arakanese refugees
recognized by the UNHCR as 'urban refugees' living in Bangladesh,
particularly in the two districts of Cox's Bazaar and Bandaban.  There are
another 20,000 Burmese Muslim refugees living in two refugee camps within
Cox's Bazaar district.

_____________________________________

August 26, Xinhua General News Service
Asian countries call for regional framework to regulate labor migration

Bangkok: Senior officials of Asian countries and international groups on
Friday called for a new framework to regulate migration labors that have
contributed to the region's development but suffered unfair treatment.

"Governments often face the difficult task of balancing the desire to
control irregular migration with respect for the rights of migrants and
recognition of the economic and social forces that compel much of the
movement," said Kim Hak-Su, executive secretary of the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).

He made the remarks at a three-day regional seminar on migration labors,
which ended here on Friday.

International migration should be explicitly incorporated into national
economic and social policy-making, said a statement issued at the end of
the seminar, attended by representatives from 12 Asian countries and 15
international groups.

The participants also called on all governments in the region to sign up
to existing regional agreements to counter human trafficking as one of the
measures to solve the problem of illegal migration labors.

Management of migration is particularly complex due to the significant
flows of irregular migration in much of the region, UNESCAP said in the
statement.

In Thailand alone, almost 1.3 million adults from Laos, Cambodia and
Myanmar registered themselves as migrant workers with the Thai government
last year, according to data provided by the International Organization
for Migration (IOM).

The migrant workers, many entering Thailand as illegal immigrants, have
taken the toughest and lowest-paid jobs in the kingdom but can hardly
guarantee their basic rights due to their special status in the society.

IOM estimates that about 100,000 migrant kids in Thailand will grow up
without proper education and health care for lack of nationality.

The number does not include kids of migrant workers who haven't registered
with the Thai government for fear of expulsion.

_____________________________________

August 26, Thai Press Reports
Thailand: district office has right to remove names from citizen
registration list, judge advocate says

A judge advocate told the Supreme Administrative Court on Tuesday that the
court should overturn last year's ruling by the Chiang Mai Administrative
Court ordering the reinstatement of Thai nationality to 866 villagers in
Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district, The Nation reports.

The judge advocate, who would not want to identify himself before the
court, said that the 2002 order by the Local Administration Department's
Mae Ai district office to remove the names of the villagers from its
citizen registration list was legal. He said the district office has the
legal authority to act in such a manner.

He said the order had not affected the basic rights of the villagers.
Moreover, he claimed that to remove the villagers' names from the
registration list did not mean that their Thai citizenship had been
revoked.

The Administrative Court's rules of procedure allow a judge advocate to
make a statement of opinion before the court rules on a case. The judges
will make a ruling within a month.

Some 30 villagers from Mae Ai district, located on the border between
Chiang Mai and Burma, gathered on Tuesday at the Supreme Administrative
Court in Bangkok to listen to the statement. Many said they did not
understand the meaning of what he said.

The villagers construed the removal of their names from the district's
citizen registration as a revocation of their Thai nationality and basic
rights.

Kae Yawan, a villager from Ta Ton sub-district, said once his name was
removed, he lost his right to vote in elections.

"In 1997, I could exercise my right to vote in the general election, but
in last year's election for the Tambon Administration Organisation I could
not vote since the officer said my name was withdrawn from the voters'
list," he said.

Vinij Lamlua, a lawyer for the villagers, said he hopes the Supreme
Administrative Court would rule in villagers' favour.

On February 5, 2002, the Mae Ai district office, as the local authority of
the LAD, removed the names of 1,243 villagers from its citizen
registration list. This automatically meant that their Thai nationalities
had been revoked since they had to return their ID cards within 30 days
after the removal of their names.

In April 2002, 866 villagers filed a case against the LAD with the Chiang
Mai Administrative Court. Last April, the court ruled the order to remove
the villagers' names was unjust and ordered the LAD to reinstate the
villagers' citizenship. The LAD appealed to the Supreme Administrative
Court.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 26, Nation
A lesson on the value of charity

Thailand has much to learn from Taiwan in terms of human rights policy
regarding foreign workers. Victimised Thai workers and Thai society in
general must gracefully accept the sincere apology offered by Taiwanese
Vice President Annette Lu on Wednesday for failure by Taiwanese
authorities to enforce labour standards and protect workers’ human rights.

It was brave and honourable for Taipei to own up to its mistake and take
remedial actions to see to it that Taiwanese employers provide decent
working and living conditions and accord Thai and other foreign workers
respect and human dignity. Her apology followed the Sunday riot by Thai
workers employed to build a subway system in Taiwan’s southern port city
of Kaohsiung. There was nothing perfunctory about the way the vice
president expressed her remorse on behalf of Taiwan for the alleged
mistreatment of Thai workers by Hua Pan, a company hired by Kaohsiung Mass
Transit Bureau to provide accommodation and manage their living quarters.

“It is regrettable that such a thing could have happened in Taiwan which
has boasted of its respect for human rights,” Lu told reporters after
meeting with labour officials and local authorities in Kaohsiung. “The
improper management that led to the riot makes us feel ashamed.”

Preliminary investigation by Taiwanese authorities suggests that the
workers were subjected to mental distress, including being unfairly fined
for small transgressions, in addition to inhumane and squalid conditions
of their dormitory, according to Taiwanese media reports. Taiwanese
workers’ rights advocacy groups also showed solidarity with foreign
workers by demonstrating in front of the Council of Labour offices to
protest the council’s failure to investigate complaints of ill treatment
foreign workers and to demand it review foreign workers policy. There are
about 90,000 Thai workers being employed in Taiwan, which makes it the
biggest national group of foreign workers in the territory. Taiwan also
represents the biggest labour market for overseas Thai workers, which
number about 150,000 in total, who remitted some US$1.5 billion (or Bt60
billion) home in 2004.

The labour situation in highly industrialised Taiwan is, in a number of
ways, similar to what is happening in Thailand: the demand for unskilled
and semi-skilled labour far outstrips supply, necessitating import of
large number of foreign workers to make up for the shortfall. To be fair,
as is the case anywhere in the world Taiwan and Thailand included, some
unscrupulous employers will always try to take advantage of foreign
workers. It takes alert government authorities, well-informed public and
active civil society organisations to see to it that workers are protected
and well treated.

Which brings us to the often unfair way in which Thailand treats its
estimated 1.3 million foreign workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos, who
are employed in agriculture, fisheries and as domestic helpers and
construction workers. Although things are improving – last year the Thai
government began requiring all migrant workers to apply for work permits,
in a move inching toward better regulation of foreign workforce.

Yet too many foreign workers are still being employed illicitly and as
such are subjected to human rights abuses, unfair treatment and inadequate
healthcare, education and other services for their children born in
Thailand. Many employers are unwilling to register foreign workers, in
order to avoid being required to improve living and working conditions,
which would cut into their profit margins. To them, it is simply cheaper
to bribe corruption-prone law enforcement officials to turn a blind eye on
illicit employment of foreign workers.

This dismal state of affairs must not be allowed to continue. The
government must come up with a more realistic quota for the foreign
workers it needs and see to it that employers who choose to hire foreign
workers rewards them for their valuable service by improving their working
and living conditions.

The Thai public must also wake up to the reality that it is consistent
with Thailand’s national interest to treat foreign workers well because a
regulated foreign labour force that is well taken care of and paid fairly
helps improve productivity, competitiveness and even stimulate the economy
with their spending. There is a lesson to be learned from what happened to
Thai workers in Taiwan.