BurmaNet News, October 8-11, 2005

[Editor]

October 8-11, 2005 Issue # 2820


INSIDE BURMA
Inter Press Service: Panic grips junta as Burma comes under UN scanner
 AFP: Myanmar's people struggle as prices soar

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Wa business firm still on the go

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: UNICEF to intensify measles program in Burma

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar to punish garment manufacturers for misusing imported raw
materials
Mizzima: Diesel price rise in Burma

ASEAN
AFP: ASEAN: lawmakers urge Annan to mobilize world drive for democracy in
Myanmar
Reuters: Southeast Asia deputies want U.N. action on Myanmar

REGIONAL
AFP: Myanmar's democratic progress slow, says Malaysia
Xinhua: Dhaka on hunt for terrorist-linked Rohingya refugees

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 11, Inter Press Service
Panic grips Junta as Burma comes under UN scanner - Marwaan Macan-Markar

Readers of the New Light of Myanmar, the official newspaper of Burma’s
military regime, are being treated to an unusual level of panic that
appears to be sweeping through a government known for its iron grip on
power.

“Do not exploit Myanmar’s affairs through exaggerations,” goes the
headline of a lengthy article that appeared in Rangoon’s mouthpiece last
week. It defends the virtues of the military leaders for achieving
“unprecedented progress” on the economic and political front.

This line of thinking by the Burmese junta, which has changed the
country’s name to Myanmar, has also taken other forms. The foreign
ministry, for instance, recently published a statement in the official
organ to prove that Burma was free of such horrors as child labor, forced
relocation of villagers and widespread rape of women from ethnic
communities.

“They are feeling the heat and panic has set in,” Aung Naing Oo, a
researcher at the Burma Fund, a Washington DC-based think tank, told IPS.
“They are up against a new political reality that could be very damaging
for the regime.”

Such panic, which has poured forth since the last week in September, is
expected to grow due to a looming possibility later this month that Burma
will for the first time be subject to scrutiny by the UN Security Council.

Tutu and Havel

Giving shape to that possibility are two global citizens who have,
themselves, experienced life under repressive regimes: South African Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu and the former Czech president Vaclav
Havel.

In late September, Tutu and Havel made the call for Burma’s military to be
subject to Security Council scrutiny, based on the findings of a 70-page
report that they commissioned. This study revealed a litany of human
rights violations Burmese citizens have been subjected to over the 43
years that the military has been in power.

The more glaring abuses have been the destruction of over 2,700 villages
since 1996, forced relocation of communities, Burmese troops
systematically raping women of ethnic minorities and widespread forced
labor, including conscription of over 70,000 child soldiers.

The junta has also failed to recognize the results of the 1990
parliamentary elections, where the opposition National League for
Democracy won over 80 percent of the seats in the legislature.

What is needed is for the UN body to adopt a binding resolution that would
compel Rangoon to work with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to achieve
political reform and restore democracy, states the report, “Threat to the
Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma.”

Over 1,100 political prisoners

Lending weight to that report was another that followed a week later, in
which Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN human rights envoy to Burma, told the
UN General Assembly that the junta had jailed over 1,100 political
prisoners.

Such incarceration and the continued house arrest of pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi “runs counter to the spirit of national reconciliation”
and political reform the junta states it wants to achieve, said Pinheiro.

These twin revelations give Rangoon little room to wriggle out the way
they have done in the past, says Debbie Stothard of the Alternative Asean
Network on Burma, a regional human rights lobby. “The Security Council
represents the biggest threat to them [the Burmese regime] because its
resolutions will be binding.”

It appears that the pretence maintained by Rangoon about external pressure
having little impact on its affairs has run out of steam, she noted during
an interview. “They have tried to ignore successive resolutions by the UN
General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Commission and have got away. But
this time they know that the old tricks will not work.”

This, however, will not be the first time that the State Peace and
Development Council, as the Burmese regime is officially known, faces the
threat of a Security Council dressing down. In June, a move was made by
the US government to place the Burmese case before the council, but that
attempt was blocked by two of its permanent members, China and Russia.

No escape

There was no escape in July, however, when the Burmese regime was named
among 54 governments and insurgent groups by the Security Council for
having child soldiers and was threatened with sanctions.

The new pressure comes at a time when the SPDC was reduced to a pariah
earlier this year by the members of the International Labor Organization,
which approved wide-ranging sanctions against Burma for its failure to
stop forced labor.

“The SPDC is not only isolated internationally, but that is the case with
all Burmese political groups working independently of it,” says Aung Naing
Oo. “All the opposition groups want Burma’s case to be placed before the
Security Council.”

Yet he and Stothard also share a worry common among critics of the SPDC:
that China and Russia would once again place hurdles and save Rangoon from
political embarrassment.

‘‘It is time then for us to ask China and Russia and others who want to
protect the SPDC how much more time they want to buy for this regime to go
on killing and torturing more people,’’ says Stothard.

____________________________________
October 9, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's people struggle as prices soar

Khin Swe Oo dreams of becoming a teacher but instead scrapes out a living
as a green-grocer in Myanmar's capital, where mysteriously soaring prices
have left her and most of Yangon's residents in a financial crunch.

"Selling fruits and vegetables as a green-grocer provides no long-term
security for my life. But I have to do it to support my family. What I
earn here lets me give 50,000 kyats per month to my family," the
23-year-old said with a soft voice.

That money, less than 40 dollars, gets her family in a village in northern
Myanmar far less than it did six weeks ago.

Since late August, diesel prices have risen 50 percent, medicine prices
have increased by at least 30 percent, and even a cup of tea costs 20
percent more.

High world oil prices have helped power the price hikes, but because the
notoriously secretive military government provides little meaningful
economic data, politicians and economists in Yangon say they are still
trying to understand why prices have gone up so quickly.

Myanmar's economy has been reeling under decades of mismanagement by the
military. European Union and US sanctions that have been tightened since
the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003 are also
biting hard.

The crippling inflation in Myanmar's already tattered economy has robbed
Khin Swe Oo not only of purchasing power, but of her dream that her
university education would guarantee her family's well-being.

"I'm very tired because I have to wake up before dawn and start to work
and keep selling until night. Now I have to work harder because everything
costs more in the capital," she said as she stacked tomatoes, cabbages and
other fruits and vegetables on her small tray on a sidewalk in the Kyit
Myin Daing evening bazaar.

Khin Swe Oo has applied twice for teaching jobs but failed to find one.
Although teaching doesn't pay much more than she earns now, a job would
provide stability and public respect she feels she lacks.

In the meantime, she makes ends meet by living with 14 other young women
in a single flat near the markets.

Prices for almost everything in the city seem to rise without stop.
Newspaper prices, for example, have risen five-fold.

"We have to sell newspapers for 100 kyats (about seven cents)... Now the
newspaper sales are declining. Sometimes we give it to our regular
customers for 80 kyats, but then we lose profit," Maung Maung, 28, a
hawker, told AFP.

Prices have risen as the kyat has plummeted. The local currency traded on
the black market Thursday at 1360 to one US dollar, having lost half its
value since January.

A man selling medicine in the busy Mingalar market said prices would keep
rising for imported goods as long as the kyat keeps weakening.

"We estimate that medicine prices have gone up about 30 percent on
average, compared with August," he said on condition of anonymity.

"We stay in business because people need their medicines," he said,

adding that most drugs were imported from neighboring China and India.

Diesel prices have soared by 50 percent to 3,600 kyat per gallon (about
four liters) forcing a corresponding increase in bus fares.

"We have to ask for a little more than before for the ride. We sympathize
with the passengers, But we have no choice because the diesel and petrol
prices keep rising," Thein Zaw, 36, a taxi driver, told AFP.

Petrol prices have jumped from 1,900 to 2,300 kyat, but diesel is in
greater demand for buses, trucks, fishing boats and generators to keep the
lights on during the city's daily blackouts.

Even Yangon's popular teashops have been affected, as condensed milk
prices have jumped by 25 percent and sugar by 40 percent.

"I have increased the price of a cup of tea cup from 100 kyats to 120, but
I'm afraid of losing my customers," one shopkeeper said.

One of the few items that has held relatively steady is rice. The Atmahta
rice used by most people has increased only seven percent. One rice
shopkeeper said the small price hike was only because of increased
transport costs.

Myanmar's military rulers, keenly aware that the last dictatorship fell
because of protests sparked by soaring rice prices, has struggled to keep
prices down by cutting back on exports to ensure domestic supply.

The head of the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders Association, Nyein, told
the Myanmar Times newspaper last month that current prices were about 50
percent lower than prevailing prices on the international market, and that
growers might cut back production because they were operating at a loss.

Despite her financial struggles, Khin Swe Oo says she will try to keep
working in Yangon to support her family in the village.

"I will be very glad if I get a teaching job. I know the salary is low but
my life will be more dignified. Now everybody looks down on me," she said
sadly.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 11, Shan Herald News Agency
Wa business firm still on the go

The Hongpang Group of the United Wa State Army in Tachilek, opposite
Maesai, is still in operation despite the removal of its signboards as
ordered by the Kengtung-based Triangle Region authorities, reports Pegasus
from the border:

Not only its factories are still running, motor vehicles with Wa's SW
number plates are still roaming the streets in Tachilek as usual.

Since October last year, Rangoon has been launching a countrywide
crackdown on unregistered cars known popularly as "withouts", during which
thousands of cars have been impounded. The campaign however has left the
Wa strictly alone.

Last month's sensational seizure of Wa drugs consignment in Mongpiang, 260
km from the Thai border, is still the talk of the town in eastern Shan
State. However, both Burmese and Wa officials have lately refused to utter
a word about the affair.

Also a month after the massive haul, Rangoon has yet to issue any public
statement.  "Which makes us wonder whether Rangoon and Panghsang (the Wa
capital on the Chinese border) have reached some sort of understanding,"
said a local businessman.

According to a Wa source who attended a meeting held at Hwe Aw, 40 km
north of the Chiangmai border, Wei Hsuehying, Deputy Commander of the
Thai-border based 171st Military  Region, had informed the UWSA's local
commanders and officers that "the Burmese (military) had tricked us into
moving the white powder (heroin) and the pills (methamphetamines) down
south so they could grab and blackmail us.

The UWSA has been two options, he was quoted as saying: either to fight
the Shan State Army-South of Col Yawdserk or to transform into a
pro-Rangoon militia force.

The majority of the participants had voiced against both alternatives,
said the source. "But the final decision rests with Panghsang," he said.

The Wa are increasingly feeling restricted by the expansion of Burma Army
bases along the border where they have for more than ten years considered
their bailiwick.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 10, Irrawaddy
UNICEF to intensify measles program in Burma - Clive Parker

UNICEF has announced it will work with Burmese health officials and other
organizations in a bid to immunize 15 million children against measles
next year.

Measles is one of the main causes of death for the 10.7 percent of Burmese
children who currently die before their fifth birthday, a situation that
has prompted UNICEF to launch Burma’s biggest-ever immunization program.

“Measles kills more children across the globe than any other
vaccine-preventable disease, and leaves many more afflicted with permanent
disabilities,” said Carroll Long, the head of UNICEF’s Rangoon office.

A recent report by the UN and the Asian Development Bank, “A Future Within
Reach,” outlines the Asia Pacific region’s progress in achieving the
much-publicized Millennium Development Goals, and describes Burma as
making “slow progress” in reducing its infant mortality rate. In Southeast
Asia, only Cambodia was reported to have a worse record in this regard.

The UN says 7.6 percent of babies born in Burma die in their first year,
with overall life expectancy in the country only 57 years compared to
about 75 years in developed nations.

UNICEF hopes next year’s immunization drive will go some way towards Burma
reducing its mortality rate by two-thirds over the next ten years, one of
the Millennium Goals set by the international community.

“Next year, the measles campaign will help put a significant dent in
measles-related mortality and help put us on the path towards making
measles rare in Myanmar [Burma],” Long said in a UNICEF statement released
today.

Last year Burma immunized 78 percent of children under 1 year old against
measles. The international community is aiming to reach a 90 percent level
of immunization against all “preventable” diseases by 2010.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 10, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar to punish garment manufacturers for misusing imported raw materials

The Myanmar authorities have blacklisted 50 garment manufacturers for
misusing imported tax- free raw materials to make apparel for the domestic
market instead of the export market, local media reported Monday.

These garment factories were granted tax exemption on the import of raw
materials including textiles to be used to manufacture garments for the
export, Myanmar Times said.

Punitive measures could be taken against the blacklisted garment
manufacturers, subject to a decision of the Trade Council, the highest
trading authorities.

The authorities will impose sale tax on the factories found to have
violated the prescribed rules and regulations, the report added.

According to official statistics, Myanmar exported over 150 million
garments in number in the fiscal year 2003-04, dropping by 39.8 percent
from 2002-03, partly due to the import ban by the United States on
Myanmar's textile, apparel and footwears. The export was valued at 327.5
million US dollars.

The figures also show that in the first ten months of 2004-05 fiscal which
ended in March, the country exported 74.52 million garments in number.

____________________________________

October 11, Mizzima News
Diesel price rise in Burma

Black market diesel prices are soaring in Burma after a series of police
raids on illegal diesel businesses.

A gallon of diesel costs Ks. 4,000 in Rangoon up from Ks. 3,100 five days
ago.

"It is difficult to find and buy diesel now in Rangoon. We can buy only 5
to 10 gallons only. We cannot buy in barrels now",

 a Rangoon based businessman said.

Illegal diesel dealers are also being forced to pay increased bribes to
government officials.

"The bribe is so high now. We now pay Ks. 20,000 to those who previously
accepted Ks. 5,000", a diesel dealer said.

Petrol prices have risen by Ks. 200 to Ks. 2,300 a gallon in five days.

A massive illegal diesel racket was recently stumbled on by Rangoon
police. The sons of several generals, government officials, commanders of
Burma Navy, the Coast Guard and several high-profile businessmen.

Since the racket was discovered, hundreds of illegal street vendors have
been arrested and interrogated

____________________________________
ASEAN

October 11, Agence France Presse
ASEAN lawmakers urge Annan to mobilize world drive for democracy in
Myanmar - Gerard Aziakou

Southeast Asian lawmakers on Monday called on UN chief Kofi Annan to
mobilize a coordinated drive by major powers to pressure Myanmar's
military junta into accepting genuine democratic reforms.

The call was made here by the three members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC)
who suggested that constructive engagement with Yangon by ASEAN had failed
to yield results.

"You can't have just ASEAN handling it (the issue)...The initiative must
come from here, or from Europe or from America," said AIPMC's chairman,
Malaysian MP Zaid Ibrahim. "Then if we all agree on the basic parameters,
then perhaps we may see some progress."

"I think the secretary general (Annan) should do that (coordinate an
international drive)," he added.

He said big players who have a stake in seeing change in Myanmar -- the
United States, Europe, China, Japan, India and Russia -- must be involved.

"It is normal for big players to talk to another big player because big
players don't like to be talked to by small players," he noted and urged
Europe and the United States to engage with China to find a solution "in
the way they did with North Korea" on the nuclear issue.

"We would all like to see our (ASEAN) governments take a stronger stand on
the Burma issue," Thai Senator Jon Ungphakorn told reporters.

But he said AIPMC would like to see big powers such as Japan, China, India
and Russia "not just look at their own short-term interests in Burma (now
called Myanmar) but to look at the long-term stability of the region."

Those governments, he added, should work with the European Union, ASEAN
and the United States to try to come to a consensus position.

"I think we could then have a very good resolution in the (UN) Security
Council," he said.

"The deteriorating situation in Myanmar is affecting not only those within
the country, but people outside its borders as well," Ibrahim said.

"Quite apart from its truly disgraceful human rights record, Myanmar's
troubles, ranging from ethnic conflicts and refugee outflows to drugs and
the unchecked spread of HIV/AIDS, have become a serious cause for concern
for ASEAN and the international community."

AIPMC has backed a joint call by former Czech president Vaclav Havel and
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu last month for the UN Security
Council to take new steps to push the junta to reform.

UN special envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, in his own report to the UN
General Assembly, has meanwhile detailed serious human rights violations
against the country's ethnic minorities and demanded the release of the
1,100 political prisoners in Myanmar.

That number includes Aung San Suu Kyi, whom Myanmar military rulers have
placed under house arrest for much of the past 16 years -- the world's
only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

Her party won 1990 elections but was never allowed to govern. Its offices
have been shut down by the military junta.

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

____________________________________

October 11, Reuters
Southeast Asia deputies want U.N. action on Myanmar - Evelyn Leopold

A group of southeast Asian parliamentarians advocated on Monday that the
United Nations organize major countries to pressure Myanmar's military
junta into accepting some democratic reforms.

Three legislators, from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore told a news
conference that ASEAN, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, was incapable of bringing about change in Myanmar, formerly
Burma, without outside help.

Instead, the three, representing some 100 parliamentarians, said the
United States, the European Union, Japan, China, India, Russia and ASEAN
should devise standards of democratic change Myanmar should make and then
pressure the military to accept them.

The effort, they said, would best be led by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan. The group met Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. undersecretary-general for
political affairs.

"If we all agree on the basic parameters, then perhaps we may see some
progress," said Malaysian parliamentarian Zaid Ibrahim, chairman of the
ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus.

He said the best way to get change was through the U.N. Security Council.
The United States in June tried to put political repression in Myanmar on
the council's agenda but Russia, China and Algeria opposed the move.

Jon Ungphakorn, a Thai senator, and Ramasamu Ravidran, a Singaporean
parliamentarian, said the time to recognize that Asia's "constructive
engagement" with Myanmar had produced no results.

"You can't have just ASEAN handling it," Zaid said. "The success or
failure of initiatives, depends on the big powers, the United States and
Europe. It depends on China" as well as Russia, Japan and India.

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions against
Myanmar but Asian nations have not.

Ungphakorn said southeast Asian nations were wary of instability in
Myanmar, with refugees and narcotics traffic streaming into neighboring
countries.

Myanmar's generals have ruled the country, since 1962, with disastrous
economic results. Aug San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party
won elections in 1990 but the junta refused to hand over power. She is now
in detention.

Myanmar is a member of ASEAN, along with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 11, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's democratic progress slow, says Malaysia

Moves toward democracy in military-ruled Myanmar "will take a long time",
Malaysia's foreign minister said Tuesday after a rare meeting with the
country's reclusive leaders.

The minister, Syed Hamid Albar, had met with Myanmar's Prime Minister Soe
Win, Senior General Than Shwe and his own counterpart U Nyan Win during a
one-day visit to Yangon the previous day.

After arriving back in Kuala Lumpur Tuesday, he said Myanmar's junta
remained wary about democratic reform and was reluctant to step up the
pace on its self-declared "roadmap" to democracy.

Syed Hamid said the leaders of the country formerly known as Burma had
told him the roadmap plan was "on track" but that "first they will focus
on strengthening national unity and political stability".

"I think the road to democracy will take a long time unless something
happens to give them more confidence or there is more unity among the
people that will expedite the process," the minister told reporters.

"The three leaders said they have a common voice and they want democracy,
but not at the price of their people suffering."

Syed Hamid said the leaders had voiced apprehension about what they saw as
the destabilising effects of introducing democratic reforms, and that the
junta had cited violence-torn Iraq as an example.

"I see that they are careful and do not want to make a mistake," he said.

"They see what is happening in other countries as an example. They want to
be sure that the climate is right in order to implement democracy without
creating chaos."

Pressure has been growing internationally over the slow pace of reform in
Myanmar, with calls from countries for the United Nations and the UN
Security Council to take up the issue.

A UN special envoy, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who has not been allowed into
Myanmar for nearly two years, last month told the UN General Assembly in a
report of continued detentions and maltreatment of civilians and
activists.

But Syed Hamid indicated there was no guarantee that pressure from the
world body would yield results.

"If we take action through the UN, I don't know what will happen," he said.

"But in the meantime they do not appear keen to allow the UN special envoy
to return to Myanmar or to mediate, because during the meeting we didn't
even talk about Aung San Suu Kyi," he said, referring to Myanmar's
detained pro-democracy leader.

"They are extremely sensitive about such topics, which they consider their
internal affairs," he added.

Syed Hamid earlier told the Bernama state news agency that the leaders had
also discussed greater economic cooperation and that two countries were
mulling a joint commission to boost ties.

Malaysia is the fourth largest investor in Myanmar, and Syed Hamid said
the junta was keen for more business.

"What General Than Shwe has said to me is that he hopes Malaysian
investors will be encouraged to come to Myanmar," he said. "There are many
opportunities and projects in Myanmar."

____________________________________

October 10, Xinhua
Dhaka on hunt for terrorist-linked Rohingya refugees

Bangladesh's security forces have strengthened the ongoing hunt to net
Rohingya refugees of Myanmar following their reported connection with the
banned Islamic militant outfits of the country, local media reported
Monday.of the country comprising army and the Bangladesh Rifles

The drive was strengthened following the statement of Mufti Abdul Hannan,
top leader of the banned Harkatul Jihad Al-Islam, who was arrested from
the capital on Oct. 1, the New Age reported Monday.

Mufti Abdul Hannan confessed to interrogating police about his bomb
planting for assassination of Opposition Leader and former prime minister
Sheikh Hasina in 2000, and that he was the mastermind in the countrywide
bombings on Aug. 17, 2005 in which three people were killed and over 150
others were injured.

Hannan reportedly had directly participated in the war in Afghanistan
against the former Soviet Union. During the war he received a bullet
injury in his hand and then returned to Bangladesh in 1995 and formed his
militant group Harkatul Jihad Al- Islam with the aim to establish a
Taliban like government in Bangladesh.

According to the report, Hannan said the Rohingyas living in remote areas
in the southeastern Chittagong hill tracts were involved with the
Mujahideen militants in carrying out terrorist activities and collection
of arms and ammunitions. The joint forces have strengthened operations in
the areas.

The Rohingyas, who are Muslims and speak the same language as the people
in Chittagong area, are not regarded by the government of Myanmar as an
indigenous race. Hundreds of thousands of them fled across the border to
Bangladesh during a crack down in 1978, and militant groups soon emerged
among the refugees, the report said.

The United Nations eventually intervened and most of the Rohingyas were
repatriated to Myanmar. However, in 1991-1992, another wave of 250,000
refugees came across the border, and while most of them have also been
repatriated, more than 20,000 remained in United Nations High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR) supervised camps southeast of Cox's Bazar. But quite
a few Rohingyas live outside the UNHCR's camps, and it is among these
destitute and stateless people that various Islamist militant groups have
found fertile ground for recruitment, the report said.