BurmaNet News, October 20, 2005

[Editor]

October 20, 2005 Issue # 2827


INSIDE BURMA
Financial Times: Rise in cost of fuel for Burmese

DRUGS
AP: China, Southeast Asian neighbors say opium production down, use of
synthetic drugs up

BUSINESS / TRADE
vnunet.com: Fortinet investigates sanctions busting claim

INTERNATIONAL
International Herald Tribune: Chance at top UN seat gets the juices flowing
AFP: Press freedoms slip back in West, advance in newly free states: watchdog

OPINION / OTHER
Thai Press Reports: Tsunami commemoration ignores victims who were foreign
migrant workers

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 20, Financial Times
Rise in cost of fuel for Burmese - Amy Kazmin

Bangkok: Burma's military junta announced yesterday it was raising the
price of motor fuel nine-fold, an apparent attempt to ease pressure on
state coffers strained by hefty subsidies on the tightly rationed
commodity.

The move, announced in notices posted at official petrol stations, comes a
few weeks after Burma's currency, the kyat, fell to a record low of 1,330
to the US dollar, from about 880 at the start of the year.


>From today the price of a gallon of subsidised motor fuel will be 1,500

kyat, up from 180 kyat, the price at which it has been fixed for the past
few years.

Analysts said the sharply higher prices would exacerbate domestic
inflation already spurred by the sharp fall of the kyat in recent months.

News of the surge in the fuel price, which spread rapidly through Rangoon,
sparked panic buying of many items in the capital as long-squeezed city
residents anticipated a ripple effect from the move.

"Life will certainly be more difficult for a lot of people," said Aung
Naing Oo, a Burma Fund researcher who monitors developments.

But Burmese have already been paying higher-than-official prices for much
of the fuel they consume.

Under the regime's system of rationing, car owners can obtain only 60
gallons a month of subsidised fuel. If they require more they must obtain
it through a thriving black market, where prices hover at about 3,600 kyat
for a gallon of diesel.

Though Burma sits on abundant supplies of natural gas, development of this
resource has proceeded slowly and the country still relies heavily on
imported oil products.


_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 19, vnunet.com
Fortinet investigates sanctions busting claim

Banned government allegedly using Fortinet technology to censor dissent
Iain Thomson, 2005

US antivirus and firewall vendor Fortinet is investigating claims that its
technology has been sold to the government of Myanmar (formerly Burma) in
breach of a US embargo.

The investigation began after a report by the OpenNet Initiative, a group
set up by Cambridge, Harvard and Toronto universities to monitor web
censorship.

The group claimed that Fortinet's products were being used to block sites
for internet users in Myanmar which are deemed unsuitable by the
authorities.

In tests the group found that 11 per cent of websites were blocked by the
technology, but that this rose to 85 per cent for web-based email sites.

Some 80 per cent of sites containing information critical of the Myanmar
government, or with pro-democracy content, were also blocked.

"Burma's commitment to regulating internet content through technical
methods is demonstrated by its purchase and ongoing implementation of
filtering software from the US company Fortinet," the report states.

"Our research suggests that Burma continues to seek to refine its
censorship regime. Burma's system of internet control shows no signs of
lessening, and may worsen as it moves to a more sophisticated software
product and as the state moves to tighten online restrictions."

A spokesman for Fortinet denied any wrongdoing by the company and promised
an investigation. "Fortinet uses a two-tier distribution model and does
not sell directly to end users," he said.

"Our channel partner contracts explicitly state that partners must obey
all US export laws and prohibit partners from exporting, re-exporting,
diverting or transferring Fortinet's products to any destination, entity
or person restricted or prohibited by US export controls.

"We are currently investigating the matter relating to Myanmar and
evaluating appropriate actions."

The security company does not have a channel partner in Myanmar and is
checking to see how the technology came to be installed.

Myanmar was placed under embargo by an executive order of Bill Clinton's
in 1997 after its government launched a crackdown on pro-democracy
protestors. The EU imposed its own sanctions in 1996.

____________________________________
DRUGS

October 20, Associated Press
China, Southeast Asian neighbors say opium production down, use of
synthetic drugs up - Alexa Olesen

Beijing: Anti-drug officials from China and Southeast Asia said Thursday
they have sharply cut illicit opium production but warned that abuse of
methamphetamines and other synthetic drugs is soaring, especially among
young people.

The officials were speaking at the end of a three-day conference held by
China, the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the United
Nations and international law enforcement groups.

Maj. Gen. Maung Oo, an official of Myanmar's Home Affairs Ministry, said
poppy cultivation in his country, part of the heroin-producing "Golden
Triangle," has been reduced to limited border areas near China.

The U.N. said in a June report that opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar
fell 23 percent from 2003 to 2004, and production in nearby Laos fell 43
percent during the same period.

Thailand and Vietnam are "clear to a large extent" and Laos "is about to
be declared opium-free" in terms of cultivation, said Akira Fujina, the
East Asian and Pacific representative for the U.N. Office on Drugs and
Crime.

But while opium cultivation waned, use of synthetic drugs has boomed in
Asia, the officials said.

Some 80 percent of the world's seizures of methamphetamines occur in the
region, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on
Drugs and Crime.

Costa said Myanmar, also known as Burma, is the region's largest producer
of methamphetamines.

"Amphetamines obviously are replacing the narcotics, are replacing opium
and heroin," said Costa.

The abuse of methamphetamines in Asia is "spreading rapidly, especially
among the youth," delegates said in a joint statement. The drugs pose "a
serious threat to the fabric of society and the nations in this region."

Costa called on Myanmar's neighbors to crack down harder on chemical
exports to Myanmar in a bid to reduce the country's methamphetamine
production.

"Myanmar has no chemical industry of its own, so it does count, of course,
on imports from its neighboring countries," Costa said.

Busts of major labs that made methamphetimines and related synthetic drugs
in the Philippines; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Fiji and the Indonesia
capital, Jakarta, indicate significant smuggling along Southeast Asian sea
routes, according to Fujina.

He called for increased cooperation to stop such smuggling.

Delegates also promised to help farmers in the Golden Triangle area
develop new crops and to provide aid to make up for the loss of hundreds
of thousands of acres of lucrative poppy fields.

"Assist the farmers so you don't replace the tragedy of opium cultivation
with another tragedy of humanitarian suffering," Costa said.

The United Nations says it hopes to declare the Golden Triangle area - the
world's second-largest heroin-producing region behind Afghanistan - free
of opium poppy cultivation by 2007.

The Beijing conference was the Second International Congress of ACCORD, or
the ASEAN and China Cooperation Operation in Response to Dangerous Drugs.
The first congress was held five years ago in Bangkok, Thailand.

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

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 20, The International Herald Tribune
Chance at top UN seat gets the juices flowing - Seth Mydans

Bangkok: First out of the starting blocks, and building up a head of
steam, is the candidate from Thailand. But the man from Sri Lanka is right
behind him. And if the heavyweight from South Korea formally joins the
race, he could be the man to beat.

The prize is the top job at the United Nations, and following an informal
rotation, it will be Asia's turn, at the end of next year, to take the
wheel. No Asian has held the secretary general's post since U Thant of
Burma, who served for a decade until 1971.

The position is appointed by the 191-member General Assembly on the
recommendation of the 15-member Security Council. The term of the current
incumbent, Kofi Annan, ends in December 2006.

Not everybody is conceding the seat to Asia, and a number of other
candidacies are possible, particularly from Eastern Europe, which is
calling itself a region and claiming a place in the rotation.

Thailand's candidate, Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, is off
to what might seem a decisive head start. He has been campaigning for more
than a year and claims to have gathered the endorsements of more than 100
nations, including the backing of the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations, or Asean.

But these are diplomats speaking. Apart from Andrei Gromyko "Mr. Nyet" of
Soviet times it is rare to hear someone say no.

Last week, for example, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen of Finland, after a
visit by his Thai counterpart, Thaksin Shinawatra, offered the following
endorsement: "I told the prime minister that I met his candidate, and I
even told him I have met no other candidate."

Or the unnamed German official quoted in a Thai newspaper who praised
Surakiart in the following words: "He has an impeccable academic record,
as well, with a PhD law degree from Fletcher School."

Even among his closest neighbors, Surakiart who comes from a land famous
for its smiles must be wondering just how solid his backing is.

"Everyone will say, 'Well, of course we support you if you want to
nominate yourself,"' said Rizal Sukma, an Indonesian political analyst.
"But in the end there has to be an official Asean decision."

One problem Surakiart has is the fractured nature of Asia today,
particularly with frictions involving China, Japan and South Korea. If the
continent cannot agree on a single candidate, it could divide and lose. On
the other hand, an inoffensive compromise candidate could be an
embarrassment.

The other declared candidate in Asia is Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a
former ambassador to Washington who spent a decade at the United Nations,
including five years as an under secretary dealing with disarmament
issues.

He is advertising himself as a hands-on manager who knows how the United
Nations works.

In the past few weeks, South Korea's foreign minister, Ban Ki Moon, has
been edging forward, advertising himself, quite simply, as better than the
other guys.

"There are already two very good candidates," he told the Reuters news
agency early this month. "But, you know, when I was in New York last month
I heard from many, many member countries that Asia needs to have a very
good, credible candidate."

Surakiart, for his part, is presenting himself as a champion of reform,
human rights, fiscal responsibility and general good will.

"If my contribution would help only one person, helping them from
starvation, that would be my success," he said recently, in a remark that
appeared to be addressed to people with a high tolerance for artificial
sweeteners.

If the Asian competition begins to look bruising, other possible names
have been floated from such places as Iran, India, Chile and even
Chappaqua, New York, the restless retirement home of Bill Clinton.

The most serious non-Asian possibility at the moment is the outgoing
Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who points out that Eastern
Europe if indeed it can be counted on its own as a region has never had a
turn at the job.

If it were not for his hard work over the past year, Surakiart could be
seen as a long shot. A former foreign minister and finance minister who is
just 47, he is overshadowed by more statesmanlike figures even in his own
country, and he is something less than a household name.

His biggest liability is his prime minister and patron, Thaksin, who has
never shown much love for the United Nations. Thaksin, who clearly has
ambitions to be a regional leader, may be the most undiplomatic statesman
around.

His best-known remark about the United Nations came in 2003 after a
special envoy from the organization criticized his human rights record
particularly an anti-drug campaign in which more than 2,500 people were
shot and killed.

"The United Nations is not my father," he said dismissively, which raises
the question of who is trying to be whose father.

More recently, when 131 Muslims fled across the southern border to
Malaysia saying they were afraid of Thai military abuses, Thaksin and
Surakiart along with him tried to dissuade the UN refugee organization
from interviewing them.

The Thai officials said the organization, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, was meddling in Thailand's internal affairs.

Thaksin's harsh crackdown on a violent uprising in the Muslim south, along
with insensitive remarks about Islam, have alienated him from the
important Muslim nations of Malaysia and Indonesia, but he doesn't seem to
mind.

It will be interesting to see how far a man who disdains tact or diplomacy
can get in his ambitions for regional leadership, or how successful his
chosen candidate to head the United Nations will be.

Many of his own countrymen have their doubts.

"A delusion of grandeur," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a leading Thai
political scientist.

_____________________________________

October 20, Agence France Presse
Press freedoms slip back in West, advance in newly free states: watchdog

Paris: Press freedom is being eroded in parts of the Western world,
failing to advance in Iraq, but making progress in states emerging from
repression, the watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported
Thursday.

Its 2005 annual press freedom index again puts North Korea at the bottom
of the list in 167th position, while Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland,
the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland share top spot.

The top 10 countries are all European. New Zealand (12), Trinidad and
Tobago (12), Benin (25) and South Korea (34) are the highest-ranked
countries in other continents.

The Paris-based watchdog reports that Middle Eastern countries (Iran 164,
Iraq 157, Saudi Arabia 154, Syria 145) are among states where journalists
have the toughest time and where government repression or armed groups
prevent the media from operating freely.

"The situation in Iraq deteriorated further during the year as the safety
of journalists became more precarious," RSF said.

"At least 24 journalists and media assistants have been killed so far this
year, making it the mostly deadly conflict for the media since World War
II. A total of 72 media workers have been killed since the fighting began
in March 2003."

The US army (United States in Iraq, 137) also violated press freedom, as
it did in 2003 and 2004, RSF said. "Six journalists were jailed in Abu
Ghraib prison without explanation and not allowed to receive visits from
their lawyers, families or employers. Four journalists were killed by US
army gunfire between September 2004 and September 2005."

Iran once again had the region's worst record of press freedom, with seven
journalists in prison and four others provisionally free and in danger of
being returned to jail at any moment.

"Akbar Ganji is still being held in solitary confinement despite a more
than 60-day hunger-strike, an international campaign and several official
promises to free him. Cyber-dissident Mojtaba Saminejad has been in jail
since October 2004, serving a two-year sentence."

Some Western democracies slipped down the index. The United States (44)
fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York
Times reporter Judith Miller and legal moves undermining the privacy of
journalistic sources.

"Canada (21) also dropped several places due to decisions that weakened
the privacy of sources and sometimes turned journalists into 'court
auxiliaries'. France (30) also slipped, largely because of searches of
media offices, interrogations of journalists and introduction of new press
offences."

There was better news from countries which have recently won or retained
their independence, says the report, disproving the argument that
democracy takes decades to establish itself.

"Nine states that have had independence (or recovered it) within the past
15 years are among the top 60 countries -- Slovenia (9), Estonia (11),
Latvia (16), Lithuania (21), Namibia (25), Bosnia-Hercegovina (33),
Macedonia (43), Croatia (56) and East Timor (58)," it says.

"More and more African and Latin American countries (Benin 25, Namibia 25,
El Salvador 28, Cape Verde 29, Mauritius 34, Mali 37, Costa Rica 41 and
Bolivia 45) are getting very good rankings."

The bottom 10 countries were listed as:

158 -- Vietnam
159 -- China
160 -- Nepal
161 -- Cuba
162 -- Libya
163 -- Myanmar
164 -- Iraq
165 -- Turkmenistan
166 -- Eritrea
167 -- North Korea

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 21, Thai Press Reports
Tsunami commemoration ignores victims who were foreign migrant workers

The December 26 tsunami killed Nai Nai's wife and only daughter. Since he
is just a Burmese migrant worker, not a foreign tourist, Nai Nai will
never be on the Thaksin administration's guest list for the tsunami
commemorative events. Nor will Matoo and her husband. They lost all three
of their children to the killer wave. But even 10 months after the
tsunami, the couple, like other Burmese migrant workers, are still unable
to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones for a proper religious
send-off, the Bangkok Post reports.

Since many are illegal workers, they fear arrest and forced deportation if
they turn up at the morgue to reclaim the bodies.

Other lost their documents with the waves, so they too have the same fear.

Matoo and her husband are more fortunate in this regard. TAG, an advocacy
group for migrant worker's rights, helped them dig through the piles of
registration records to prove they are not illegal so they finally got
their registration cards re-issued. But the problem does not end there.

The Thai authorities require the relatives to produce documents from their
governments to reclaim the bodies. But the Burmese government views its
own people as criminals for crossing the border illegally.

So how on earth can they get the necessary paper to get the bodies of
their lost loved ones? How on earth can Matoo arrange a proper send-off
for her children? As the government is frantically trying to invite the
relatives of the foreign tourists killed by the tsunami, offering them
free tickets and accommodation, in the hope of using their presence in the
commemorative events to shore up the country's tourism image, the Burmese
migrant workers remain as invisible as ever.

Remember what happened after the tsunami? While aid was readily
forthcoming to foreign tourists, which impressed people the world over
with Thai generosity, the Burmese migrant workers were slapped with
looting allegations that forced them to flee to the mountains to endure
starvation and sickness in hiding.

And although they suffered the same tragedies and needed the same help as
the Thais and foreign tourists after the tsunami, they never received
state help. Worse, they were arrested and deported on sight.

Frightened, many of them chose to return home to recover from the shock
and the losses. Many have since returned. Their explanations are similar;
there's no work at home. And despite the fear of deportation and future
tsunami threats, at least they can work and be sure to get their next
meals here.

They are working as illegal aliens, though, because the authorities
stopped re-issuing registration cards to those who survived the tsunami
and refuse to register newcomers, or returnees. Consequently, they are
subject to constant extortion or slave-like treatment.

For the women, they face greater risks. Last week, for example, a young
Burmese woman at Koh Lak was raped by a Thai man who reportedly offered to
pay her 2,000 baht in damages. Fearing forced deportation, the girl might
have no other choice.

Before the tsunami and since, these ethnic migrant workers still suffer
the same oppression, thanks to our ultra-nationalist history that makes us
see the Burmese as the atrocious people who burned down our ancient
capital of Ayutthaya.

It does not really matter if they are Mons, Karens, Kachins, Shans or of
other ethnic groups. As long as they come from Burma, we lump them all
together as the cruel, untrustworthy Burmese who deserve to be treated
inhumanely.

Of the 120,000 registered workers in the six tsunami-hit provinces, some
7,000 were in the worst hit areas of Takua Pa and Koh Lak in Phangnga.

No one knows how many of them perished, but many believe the final toll to
be close to 1,000.

We cannot escape our karma. With time, the bodies of foreign tourists will
eventually all be reclaimed. But the bodies of those Burmese migrant
workers will remain behind to haunt us with our own cruelty for a long,
long time to come.