BurmaNet News, August 27-29, 2005

[Editor]

August 27-29, 2005 Issue # 2792

"On 13 February, the birthday of Aung San and Burma’s Children Day,
40-year old Aung Pe hung a photograph of Aung San outside his classroom,
and saluted and sang a song honouring the national hero with his pupils.
He was arrested on the following day."
- "Burmese tuition teacher gets three years for saluting national hero,"
Democratic Voice of Burma, August 25, 2005

INSIDE BURMA
IHT: A familiar rumor for Myanmar junta; A coup or just more wishful
thinking?
AFP: Myanmar outlaws three political groups, ethnic rebel army
AFP: Myanmar group denies junta's claims of involvement in bombings
AFP: Myanmar names "culprits" of May 7 bombs, adds new suspects to list
AP: Report: Myanmar constitution-drafting talks to resume toward year end
AFP: Myanmar ministers coy on rumoured administrative shift from Yangon
Xinhua: Myanmar blames BBC for broadcasting false coup report
DVB: Burmese tuition teacher gets three years for saluting national hero

HEALTH / AIDS
AFP: Myanmar vows to continue AIDS projects despite fund's withdrawal

ASEAN
AFP: ASEAN official says no consensus among members over Japan's U.N.
Security Council bid

INTERNATIONAL
Narinjara: Min Ko Naing Awarded Civil Courage Award from USA
New Zealand Herald: Refugee camp 'not fit for human beings'

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 27, The International Herald Tribune
A familiar rumor for Myanmar junta; A coup or just more wishful thinking?
- Seth Mydans

Bangkok: Rumors of a coup among the generals who rule Myanmar, Thailand's
closed and repressive neighbor, flared briefly in the past week and then
died away just as suddenly.

Wishful thinking, said Aung Zaw, an emigre journalist from Myanmar who has
seen it all before many times.

Like the rumors in the past, they were plausible. Things have been so bad
for so long in Myanmar, the country once known as Burma, that people have
been saying for years that something has to change.

"There could have been some background to the rumor," said Josef
Silverstein, an expert on Myanmar at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
"And if not, Burma right now is at a point where it is probably ripe for
some kind of change."

Things do seem to be getting steadily worse for the generals at the
moment. But it remains as unclear as everything else in Myanmar whether a
change in leadership would mean a change of any sort in policy.

Myanmar was forced last month to give up its turn to take the rotating
chairmanship in 2006 of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, a humiliation for Myanmar's leaders, whatever the hidden dynamics
behind it.

In addition, major aid groups have begun withdrawing funds or warning of
cutbacks as the regime tightens restrictions on their operations.

And for the past year, since one of the troika that rules in Yangon was
arrested along with the entire military intelligence empire he controlled
experts on Myanmar say there has been an atmosphere of uncertainty and
resentment among many military and civilian officials.

The wholesale removal of the country's spy apparatus has left the
government further isolated from the population and blind in the face of
events that have included a rash of bombings earlier this year.

At this point, the military government is more isolated and ostracized
than ever from political and economic contacts with the outside world, and
it continues to share a mutual fear and distrust with its people.

The coup rumor, which first surfaced in a Thai newspaper report, pitted
the remaining two members of the ruling group against each other.

Reports suggested that the No. 2 leader, General Maung Aye, who commands
the army, had seized power from the longtime leader, General Than Shwe,
now 73, who has led Myanmar since 1992.

"They are now 18 years governing the country and they remain deeply
unloved by the majority of the population," said Aung Zaw, who edits
Irrawaddy Magazine, a Thailand-based emigre journal. "That's amazing."

The question was whether having a new man at the top would make much
difference in a country that has been isolated from the world since 1962
and whose ruling junta has harshly suppressed political opposition since
seizing power in 1988 and annulling an election it lost in 1990.

"That's the $64,000 question," said Debbie Stothard, coordinator of
Altsean-Burma, a regional human rights group. "Will Than Shwe if and when
he is succeeded will he be replaced by someone more pragmatic and disposed
to dialogue with the opposition?"

There has been no apparent voice for a more modulated approach toward the
opposition since the arrest last October of Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt,
the prime minister and head of military intelligence.

As tough as the rest of them, he had nevertheless appeared to advocate
something a bit more creative than simply locking up the pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

She had been released from house arrest for a year before being physically
attacked and confined again to her home in May 2003, for the third time in
14 years.

But that does not mean there are not other advocates for change within an
ossified leadership structure that has pursued few new policies as the
country has sunk deeper into poverty and isolation over the past two
decades.

"We are not going to see the true colors of people until they come into
power," Stothard said. "Obviously there are people in the regime who are
more business-minded and pragmatic. But you can't be open about having a
moderate position. Any general who says 'I like dialogue' is basically
someone who has a death wish."

Curiously, Khin Nyunt appears to not have been entirely excluded from
possible future developments in Myanmar. He was sentenced last month to 44
years in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he is believed to be
under house arrest now.

He was convicted of corruption, a rather audacious charge coming from a
government that sustains itself through corruption.

It is unclear whether his removal was the result of a pure power struggle
or of differences over policy. The leniency of his sentence could be a
sign that he still has influential supporters within the leadership,
according to analysts.

Meanwhile, the men in power continue to play on what seems a one-stringed
instrument. Whenever they are faced with criticism, they retreat into talk
of democracy, calling attention to a constitutional convention that has
been held, off and on, since the early 1990s.

Aung Zaw, the Irrawaddy editor, calls it "the longest
constitution-drafting convention in any country in the world."

And in the face of what they clearly see as a threatening world, these
generals educated in jungle warfare retreat, literally, into plans for a
bunker.

According to unofficial reports, they are spending tens of millions of
dollars to move the military headquarters from the capital, Yangon, 580
kilometers, or 360 miles, north to Pyinmana.

"They've started building mansions, compounds, underground tunnels,
bunkers, all kinds of weird things," Aung Zaw said.

No one is quite sure what the complex is for. Some say it is a defensive
position in case of an American invasion feared by the generals. Others
say that like many of the policies of Myanmar's rulers over the years, it
is being built at the direction of astrologers.

For the men who rule this closed and suspicious nation, life has become a
bunker within a bunker.

____________________________________

August 28, Agence France Presse
Myanmar outlaws three political groups, ethnic rebel army

Yangon: Myanmar's military rulers announced late Sunday they had outlawed
three political groups and an ethnic rebel army, accusing them of
intending to disrupt stability in the country.

The junta announced in an evening television news bulletin that the groups
were "unlawful associations".

Earlier Sunday police accused one group, the All Burma Students'
Democratic Front, of involvement in May 7 bomb attacks that killed 23
people and injured 162 others at two shopping malls and a convention hall
in the capital.

The other banned groups include the US-based National Coalition Government
of the Union of Burma made up of parliamentarians elected in a 1990 poll
that was won by the National League for Democracy but never recognised by
the junta.

Also outlawed are the Federation of the Trade Union of Burma and the
northeastern Shan State Army, which in May merged with the Shan State
National Army to fight the military government.

The junta believes "their intention towards us could be dangerous for the
state's stability and also presence of law and order," the news report
said.

Myanmar's military authorities in May blamed the Yangon blasts on an
alliance of "terrorist" ethnic rebels, including a wing of the Shan State
Army, working with pro-democracy exiles. The groups have denied any
involvement.

Myanmar, formerly Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962.

____________________________________

August 29, Agence France Presse
Myanmar group denies junta's claims of involvement in bombings

Bangkok: A Myanmar dissident group accused by the ruling military junta of
involvement in deadly May bombings in the capital Yangon denied the
charges on Monday.

The junta said Sunday that the All Burma Students' Democratic Front
(ABSDF) was one of three political groups that would be outlawed because
they intended to disrupt the country's stability. An ethnic rebel army
would also be banned.

The junta also accused the ABSDF of involvement in the May 7 bomb attacks
that killed 23 people and injured 162 at two shopping malls and a
convention hall in Yangon.

"All of the accusations are nonsense, groundless and meaningless," ABSDF
chairman Than Khe told AFP by telephone from the Myanmar-Thailand border.

Than Khe also denied the junta's claim that his group worked with Maung
Maung, alias Pyithit Nyunt Wai. Yangon said Maung Maung had masterminded
the bombings with the help of a large foreign government.

Previous reports incorrectly said that the junta blamed two men for the
attacks, not one man using an alias.

"We the opposition groups are never involved in terrorist action against
the people," Than Khe said. "Even though we have taken up arms, we never
attack people."

Than Khe said the ban would have no effect on the group or its struggle to
bring democracy to the former Burma.

Only dialogue coupled with the release of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi and other opposition figures would bring stability to Myanmar, he
added.

The junta also outlawed the US-based National Coalition Government of the
Union of Burma, which comprises parliamentarians elected in a 1990 ballot
that was won by the National League for Democracy but never recognised by
the junta.

The US-based Federation of the Trade Union of Burma and the northeastern
Shan State Army, which in May merged with the Shan State National Army to
fight the military government, were also outlawed.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

____________________________________

August 28, Agence France Presse
Myanmar names "culprits" of May 7 bombs, adds new suspects to list

Yangon: Myanmar's police chief on Sunday named two men allegedly
responsible for the May 7 bombings that killed 23 people and wounded 162
in the capital of the military-ruled state.

Police chief Khin Yee used a rare press conference to add more names to
the list of pro-democracy and activist groups which the junta claims were
responsible for the three bombs that hit two upscale shopping malls and a
convention hall.

"Our security staff have been informed that the three inhumane bomb blasts
in Yangon were masterminded by Maung Maung in alliance with Pyithit Nyunt
Wai with assistance from a big nation," Khin Yee said.

Khin Yee said Maung Maung and Pyithit Nyunt Wai belong to the
pro-democracy National Council of the Union of Burma, Myanmar's former
name. They received help from the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW)
group, Khin Yee added.

The radical student group claimed responsibility for a small bomb at a
Myanmar hotel in March and was behind an embassy hostage drama in Bangkok
five years ago.

"It has been learned that (the two men) with monetary assistance from a
western organisation committed the bomb blasts," Khin Yee said, without
elaborating.

The junta in May claimed a "world-famous organization" -- its usual way of
referring to the US Central Intelligence Agency -- gave 100,000 dollars
for the bombing operation.

"They will continue to launch destructive acts with accelerated momentum,"
Khin Yee said, since they had fled a "big western nation" he declined to
name.

"Although we have exposed the culprits of the Yangon bomb blasts, there
are still many measures to be taken. Hence persons by name and further
details are to be kept secret until an appropriate time," Khin Yee said.

Police had examined video footage from the Yangon convention centre and
noticed several alleged members of the All Burma Students' Democratic
Front talking with a member of the Network for Democracy and Development
"terrorist group" several minutes before the blast, Khin Yee said.

This marks the first time the authorities have accused the VBSW and the
Network for Democracy of involvement in the attacks.

The police chief named two of the men seen on the video footage as Zaw Win
Lwin and Ko Pauk. He said intelligence records showed they belonged to the
students group and had attended bomb-making classes on the border with one
of Myanmar's neighbours, which he declined to name.

In May the junta said military-grade explosives were used in the attacks
and added three student and pro-democracy groups to the list of groups it
accuses of involvement.

The three groups, plus four others previously blamed, have no history of
collaborating with each other.

_____________________________________

August 28, Associated Press
Report: Myanmar constitution-drafting talks to resume toward year end

Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar will reconvene talks to draft a new
constitution on an unspecified date later this year, a state-run newspaper
said Sunday.

The National Convention, billed by the junta as a first step toward
restoring democracy, was adjourned in March "to allow the delegates to
attend to their works" and will restart after the annual rainy season,
which ends in mid-October, the Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.

The paper quoted Lt. Gen. Thein Sein - the convention's chairman and a
leading member of the ruling junta - at a meeting Saturday to discuss
preparations for the talks.

On Saturday, Ali Alatas, a visiting envoy for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan and former Indonesian foreign minister, told reporters that the
convention would resume by December. He met with convention organizers on
Friday.

Myanmar has had no constitution since its 1974 charter was suspended after
the military took power in 1988.

An earlier constitutional convention in 1993 was suspended in 1996 after
members of the opposition National League for Democracy party walked out,
saying they were being forced to rubber-stamp decisions made by the junta.

The NLD boycotted the current convention, which began in February, after
the military refused to release its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel
Peace Prize laureate who has been in detention since May 2003.

The National Convention was also boycotted by a major ethnic Shan party
along with a smaller ethnic minority party.

_____________________________________

August 28, Agence France Presse
Myanmar ministers coy on rumoured administrative shift from Yangon

Yangon: Two Myanmar ministers on Sunday side-stepped questions about
whether the regime is considering shifting part of its administration from
Yangon to a more secure region in the mountains.

Analysts have said that several ministries are preparing to move inland to
Pyinmana, about six hours north of the capital along the road to Mandalay,
possibly over fears within the regime of an attack by the United States.

"At this point we have had no official instructions whatsoever concerning
shifting to Pyinmana," Information Minister Kyaw San told a press
conference which was aimed at defusing another rumour of a coup in the
military junta.

Home Minister Maung Oo was similarly cryptic.

"The issue of shifting to Pyinmana -- time will decide this matter," he
told reporters.

Diplomats and observers in Yangon have said that construction is well
under way at Pyinmana, which could become the "escape city" for top
leaders, military commanders and some ministers.

Plans for the site call for a military base, a large hydroelectric dam at
Paung Laung built with Chinese assistance, as well as tunnels, bunkers,
hospitals and, of course, a golf course, observers said.

The plan was apparently reinforced by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003,
which heightened the junta's fears of attack by its arch-critic, they
said.

_____________________________________

August 28, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar blames BBC for broadcasting false coup report

Yangon: A Myanmar government spokesman Sunday blamed the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for broadcasting a false coup report on the
country, charging the station with having links with the attack plan of
"internal and external destructive elements".

The BBC released a report on Aug. 23 saying a change had taken place in
Myanmar's top leadership.

"That BBC news report can be found as linking with tripartite aboveground,
underground and expatriate attack plan of internal and external terrorist
destructive elements in collusion," said Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan,
Minister of Information.

Citing the 1988 incident, Kyaw Hsan recalled BBC and other foreign media
fueled unrest for spreading anarchy cross the country by broadcasting
instigative, slanderous and fabricated news then, charging that BBC's
recent broadcasts were made timely with terrorist destructive elements'
plan for creating unrest.

Kyaw Hsan also charged the interviews with some politicians by other radio
stations such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America with worsening the
issue.

Kyaw Hsan urged all media men of Myanmar to launch counter offensive
against media offensive of internal and external terrorist destructive
elements, calling on people on their part to be aware of the traps of
fabricated and instigative false news made by these elements in collusion
with broadcasting stations and media.

He blamed the BBC for the responsibility for broadcasting the fabricated
news purposely.

_____________________________________

August 25, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese tuition teacher gets three years for saluting national hero

The township court of Rangoon Twante, on 25 August, sentenced a private
tuition teacher Aung Pe to three years in prison for saluting the picture
of Gen Aung San, Burma’s national hero and father of democracy leader and
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The defending lawyer Myint Thaung
provided strong evidences indicating his client’s innocence but they were
rejected by the judge, according to Nyan Win, one of National League for
Democracy (NLD) legal advocates. Aung Pe’s wife Htay Htay Lwin who
witnessed the sentencing of her husband at the court told DVB that she is
proud of her husband as he was imprisoned not for working for his own
benefits. On 13 February, the birthday of Aung San and Burma’s Children
Day, 40-year old Aung Pe hung a photograph of Aung San outside his
classroom, and saluted and sang a song honouring the national hero with
his pupils. He was arrested on the following day. His lawyers are planning
to lodge appeals to higher courts.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 28, Agence France Presse
Myanmar vows to continue AIDS projects despite fund's withdrawal

Yangon: Myanmar vowed Sunday to continue its fight against HIV/AIDS
despite the withdrawal of an international anti-AIDS body from the
military-ruled country because of operational restrictions.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced on
August 19 it was pulling out of Myanmar because the junta had created "an
impossibly difficult environment to work in".

During a rare press conference on Sunday, Information Minister Kyaw Hsan
said many European Union member countries, whom he did not name, had
disagreed with the Global Fund's decision.

"Some of the EU members had promised (money) for projects outside the
Global Fund," Kway Hsan said, without elaborating.

"The government will continue these projects on its own," he added.

The Global Fund said Myanmar had increased restrictions on the movement of
humanitarian workers -- particularly UN Development Programme staff, who
implement most of the fund's projects -- and on medicine imports.

With at least 330,000 of Myanmar's 50 million people suffering from
HIV/AIDS, it is the worst-affected country in Southeast Asia after
Thailand.

The AIDS epidemic in Myanmar has fueled a rise in tuberculosis, with
97,000 new cases annually -- one of the highest rates in the world -- and
a drugs resistant strain of the disease is on the increase.

Some 600,000 people, most of them poor, get malaria every year in the
country.

_____________________________________
ASEAN

August 29, Associated Press
ASEAN official says no consensus among members over Japan's U.N. Security
Council bid

Singapore: Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have not
agreed whether to endorse Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N.
Security Council, a senior ASEAN official said Monday.

ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong commented on ASEAN regional security
talks held in Vientiane, Laos, in July.

"Japan was of the view that ASEAN countries all agreed that Japan should
be a permanent member, but at that discussion I got clarification from
some of the ministers there that they have not yet said so," Ong said.

Japan wants to be a council member and has proposed U.N. reform along with
Germany, Brazil and India.

Ong also said ASEAN had not ruled out Russia's participation in the
ASEAN-led East-Asia summit in Malaysia in December.

Ong said Russia was lobbying for a place at the inaugural summit even
though ASEAN ministers had decided at the July meeting that other than the
ASEAN nations, the gathering will include only China, Japan, South Korea,
India, Australia and New Zealand.

"It is not a closed issue because some countries have suggested that maybe
we should look at it again," he said.

"It is the bureaucrats and the senior officials who are constantly trying
to maneuver a space so we don't have to slight anybody or cause offense to
anybody, particularly the Russians, so they are trying to keep that open,"
Ong said.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 29, Narinjara News
Min Ko Naing Awarded Civil Courage Award from USA

Ko Min Ko Naing, a prominent student leader from Burma, who also led the
1988 people's uprising in Burma, has been selected for the Civil Courage
Award recently.

New York based Northcote Parkinson Fund selected Ko Min Ko Naing along
with two other people - a journalist from Russian and an Indonesian who
was a human rights lawyer - for the award.

They will be awarded $ 50,000 US by the organization at the ceremony held
in New York on 11 October this year.

According to source, Ko Min Ko Naing has requested that the organization
donates the awarded money to other human rights organizations working for
people around the world.

An Araknese politician recently released from Akyab jail who was living in
Akyab jail with Ko Min Ko Naing appreciated Ko Min Ko Naing’s decision and
said that Ko Min Ko Naing totally deserves the award.

He added, “the selection by the Northcote Parkinson Fund to award Min Ko
Naing with the Civil Courage Award is totally deserving of Min Ko Naing
because he has sacrificed his life for the Burmese people. When he was in
jail in Akyab, he did not accept any offers from the jail authorities for
food and medical treatment. Instead, he asked the authorities to transfer
the food or services to other prisoners. He always fights for other
people's interests, not his own. Therefore, every prisoner from Akyab
jail, including jail authorities, respects him. We are happy to hear that
Ko Min Ko Naing was selected for the Civil Courage Award by the Northcote
Parkinson Fund.”

The Northcote Parkinson Fund is used to award people around the world who
bravely sacrifice their own lives for other people.

Min Ko Naing has already received a number of international awards
including the John Humphrey Freedom Award, awarded by Canada, in 1999.

Ko Min Ko Naing was released from Akyab jail by authorities at the end of
last year after completing a 15 years jail term.

_____________________________________

August 29, The New Zealand Herald
Refugee camp 'not fit for human beings'

An Auckland man who spent three months in a refugee camp on the
Thai/Burmese border believes the only humanitarian thing to do with the
camp is to close it.

Alex Abela, 73, a retired computer manager, responded to an article in the
Herald in March about the need for an English teacher in the Tham Hin camp
west of Bangkok. He went there in May as a volunteer and is at home to
recover from illness before returning.

Although he has also worked as a volunteer teacher in China, Samoa, Papua
New Guinea and the Solomons, he was shocked at the living conditions of
the 9000 Burmese refugees who have fled from fighting in Burma to Tham
Hin.

"The first thing that hits you is the state of the streets. They are not
streets, they are dirt alleys. Whenever it rains, the water goes down, and
after a while it seems like a gutter," he said.

"The second thing that strikes you is the smell. The houses have no
toilets. All they have is a hole under the house. They use it up and cover
it with lime, and when it rains there is an overwhelming smell of lime.

"The third thing is the lack of hygiene. People become so dirty for so
long, because washing is just a bucket. At 2pm every day they can get
water from a tap in the street for two hours, and every family has to get
a bucket of water. That is used for drinking, washing and everything else
that you need water for. Once a month they go to the river and have a
bath."

Mr Abela was lucky. He stayed with the camp administrator in a village
about an hour away down a bumpy track. Like everyone else, he shared his
bed on the floor with rats, cockroaches, mosquitoes and lizards.

That was luxury compared with the people who slept inside the camp in
cramped bamboo huts, with plastic sheets for roofs, which turn the huts
into furnaces during the day. The huts are raised on stilts so the people
can live underneath them, where it is cooler in daytime, going into the
huts only at nights.

For most people there is nothing to do in the camp, and they are not
allowed to go outside it to work. Mr Abela said that when he walked along
the alleys in daytime he would see hundreds of people just sleeping
because there was nothing else to do.

Western aid agencies provide rations of rice, fish paste, cooking oil,
firewood and some vegetables and chicken for every person in a family.
There is one doctor.

"Their health is pathetic, really," Mr Abela said. "From time to time
there are outbreaks of malaria and sometimes there are other serious
outbreaks - I don't know what they are. Whenever there's an outbreak, old
people and pregnant women die."

There are three schools and a Baptist Bible college, as most of the people
are of the partly Christian Karen ethnic group. But Mr Abela was the only
foreign teacher, and his classes were so popular that some people moved to
Tham Hin from other camps along the border to attend them.

"They want to be resettled in America, Australia or other English-speaking
countries, so English is very important to them," he said. "But they are
losing their education. They are going down, down, down. So when I teach
English I tell them that English is only a tool to education."

He had 120 students in his class and needs two more volunteers to go back
with him to help - even for just a few months on their way to or from
overseas experience elsewhere.

"It's impossible to stay a long time because of the general conditions,
the lack of cleanliness or hygiene, and the weather," he said.

"It's very hot and it really dries you up. You can't teach more than three
hours a day because your throat just finishes. I had to take pills all the
time for the throat."

Many Burmese refugees in Auckland have friends and relatives in Tham Hin,
and the New Zealand Immigration Service has agreed to take 125 Burmese
refugees as part of its United Nations quota of 750 refugees in this
financial year.

The US, Australia, Canada, Finland and Sweden are also accepting Tham Hin
refugees, and Mr Abela said others would like to stay in Thailand or
return to Burma.

"I agree with the Thai Government that the Tham Hin camp should be closed
completely, forever," he said.

The Thais want it closed within two years.

"We can't continue with this place. It's a terrible place. It's not fit
for human beings," he said.

"It is the responsibility of the UN and Thailand and other nations to
accept more of these refugees."

* Anyone interested in teaching in Tham Hin can contact Mr Abela at 09
483-7597 or email him using the link below.