BurmaNet News, October 22-24, 2005

[Editor]

October 22-24, 2005 Issue # 2829


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in detention 10 years: activists
Irrawaddy: “What bomb?” ask cowed locals
AFP: Transport costs soar after Myanmar fuel price hike
Irrawaddy: Situation critical for the ILO in Burma
Indian Daily: 'Myanmar building a secret nuke site'

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Burmese refugees interview with UNHCR for resettlement

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Increase of dengue fever cases reported in Myanmar

DRUGS
AFP: Myanmar deports two after massive heroin bust

ASEAN
AFP: ASEAN summit agenda to avoid thorny issues: Malaysia

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Groups launch joint appeal for Philippines support on Burma

INTERNATIONAL
U.N. News Center: Annan urges authorities in Myanmar to take steps towards
democratization
AFP: Canada condemns decade-long detention of Aung San Suu Kyi
The Times: UN urged to take action over Burma's oppressive regime

OPINION / OTHER
The Times: In Burma's agony
Nation: Put Burma on the UN’s agenda

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 24, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in detention 10 years: activists

Yangon: Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday marked
what her supporters said is a total of 10 years in detention, as
campaigners overseas pushed the United Nations to take strong action.

While there was no public recognition or demonstration on the streets of
the capital where security remained tight as usual, events were to take
place in London and New York, pro-democracy groups and supporters said.

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, secretary general of the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD), estimate that adding three periods of
detention and house arrest -- 1989-1995, 2000-2002 and May 2003-October 24
-- equals 10 years.

Aung San Suu Kyi, whom some locals call "The Lady", also spent her 60th
birthday on June 19 under house arrest at her lakeside compound in
suburban Yangon. Her only visitor is a doctor. Her telephone line has been
cut.

The NLD scored a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the military --
which has run the country since 1962 -- ignored the result.

Ex-Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, the most senior general willing to
hold discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi, was purged in October 2004 and is
himself now under house arrest in Yangon.

"The pattern of detaining, releasing and detaining Aung San Suu Kyi is
symbolic of the one step forward, two steps back strategy the regime has
perpetrated on the entire country," Debbie Stothard, coordinator of the
Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, said in Bangkok.

The military rulers of Myanmar, formerly called Burma, are afraid of
releasing the Nobel peace laureate because "they fear the immense
influence she has on the people in Burma and in the international
community," Stothard added.

NLD officials in Yangon could not be reached for comment.

The London-based Burma Campaign UK was to demonstrate outside the Houses
of Parliament in London on Monday.

It also released an 83-page report, "Ten years of detention: too many
years of empty words", which said that although the UN had passed 27
resolutions on Myanmar, all had failed and the world body needed a
coherent strategy.

"The repetitive words of fourteen years' worth of UN reports, resolutions
and statements, and the efforts of a sequence of UN Special Envoys and
Rapporteurs have failed to affect any positive change in Burma
whatsoever," it said.

"Instead, at each turn, Burma's generals have opted to reject, snub and
embarrass a UN system whose approach to Burma has been mired by an absence
of both strategy and sense of urgency."

In September, former Czech president Vaclav Havel and retired South
African archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a report to the United Nations
calling for new efforts to bring reforms to impoverished Myanmar.

They recommended that the UN Security Council adopt a resolution
compelling Myanmar to work with Secretary General Kofi Annan in
implementing a national reconciliation plan that would bring a
democratically elected government.

The junta says it is pursuing a "road map" to democracy and a new session
of the National Convention, where handpicked delegates have discussed
drafting a new constitution on and off for more than a decade, could
resume as early as next month.

Aung San Suu Kyi's cousin and a former prime minister in exile, Sein Win,
told the BBC on Monday that Myanmar's rulers had only partly succeeded in
limiting her influence.

"On the whole, Aung San Suu Kyi is still the leader of the people,"
US-based Sein Win said.

"And nothing can be done -- national reconciliation, or development of the
country, what we wanted -- without Aung San Suu Kyi's participation and
role."

____________________________________

October 24, Irrawaddy
“What bomb?” ask cowed locals - Jim Andrews

Rangoon: The day after a small bomb exploded outside Traders Hotel in
central Rangoon staff and business people in the neighborhood spoke
reluctantly and in hushed tones about this latest display of opposition to
the regime.

“Security measures,” was the explanation given for the guards posted
outside the high rise luxury hotel and for the locked street entrances to
the shopping mall leading from the lobby. “Bomb?” replied a staff member
when I asked about Friday evening’s incident. “What bomb?”

This was also the reaction I got when I made my way on Friday evening to a
meeting with friends in one of the hotel’s bars. The blast had occurred
one hour earlier and the hotel was ringed by soldiers and military
intelligence personnel.

“Than Shwe visiting tonight?” I quipped to a doorman. “Security,” he
replied, eyes cast down. No mention of a bomb.

“Security,” was also the explanation I was given in the bar. Admittedly,
it must have been a very small explosive device. There was no sign of any
damage at all in the area of the explosion. The large plate glass windows
of the hotel’s ground floor restaurant, directly adjacent to the site of
the blast, weren’t even cracked.

Whatever the size of the device, however, it must have created some
anxiety. Memories are still sharp of the three bombs that exploded in
Rangoon on May 7, killing—according to official accounts—19 people and
injuring 162.

The security crackdown that followed the attacks was so severe that it has
clearly intimidated Rangoon’s residents, making them reluctant even to
acknowledge that a further bombing had occurred.

The Traders Hotel bomb exploded as people are reeling from a further round
of draconian price rises, including an eight-fold hike in the price of
gasoline, to an unprecedented 1,500 kyat (US $1.22) a gallon (4.5 liters).
Could the bomb have been a reaction to the price hikes? My taxi driver
shrugged. “What good is a bomb?” he asked.  “There’s nothing we can do.”

Gasoline is not just eight times more expensive this week than last, it’s
also severely rationed. My taxi driver showed me his ration book, allowing
him six gallons (27 liters) every three days. No exemption is made for
taxi operators, who run Rangoon’s only reasonably comfortable form of
public transport.

Taxi drivers queue up along with private motorists at regime-run gas
stations for their daily dose of two gallons (nine liters). “How long have
you been waiting?” I asked one driver, nearing the head of a line
stretching several hundred meters down the street. “Forty five minutes,”
he replied, with a shrug of resignation.

Gasoline is available on the black market, at double the price at the
pumps. For a taxi driver forced to devote an hour or so of his working day
waiting in line to refuel it’s worth the money. For now, a taxi ride
downtown still costs 1,500-2,000 kyat (less than $2), but it can only be a
matter of time before operators hike their charges, too, and for Rangoon’s
runaway inflation to take another leap.

Nobody is spared. Fares on the jam-packed vehicles that pass for buses
were hiked 400 percent in the same week as gasoline prices went through
the roof. Household gas, electricity and water charges are up. The price
of cigarettes has jumped from 350 kyat (27 cents) to 500 kyat (41 cents)
for the most popular brand. Rice, a basic staple, is 50 percent more
expensive than a month ago.

“Every day it gets harder to live, harder even to put food on the table,”
a middle-class resident told me. “But what can we do? We can’t protest.
Nobody wants another 1988.”

The 1988 pro-democracy uprising was partly sparked by drastic hikes in the
price of such staples as rice. The demonstrations were brutally suppressed
by the military and hundreds died.

____________________________________

October 23, Agence France Presse
Transport costs soar after Myanmar fuel price hike

Yangon: Transport costs in Myanmar skyrocketed this week after the junta
raised the official price of fuel eight-fold, sending commuters scrambling
onto decaying trains for cheaper rides.

In a shock move that stoked fears of massive inflation, official fuel
prices soared from 180 kyat (about 14 cents) per gallon for petrol and 160
for diesel to 1,500 kyat (1.20 dollars) on Thursday.

Passing on much of the price hike to the public, bus operators immediately
quadrupled their fares, and taxi drivers doubled their rates, while only
Yangon's decades-old inter-city train charged the same.

Myanmar's economy has been reeling under decades of mismanagement by the
military, and EU and US sanctions tightened since the detention of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003 have bitten hard.

Zaw Oo, a Myanmar political economist at American University in
Washington, said that Myanmar is especially vulnerable to rising world
prices because the junta buys diesel on spot markets, without committing
to long-term contracts.

"Since Myanmar is a net importer of diesel fuel, the increased oil price
has further eroded Myanmar's balance of payment positions, drawing its
currency to the lowest ebb," he said.

"Weak fundamentals account for high inflation, and the economy is
structurally so weak that the inflationary pressures are expected to rise
further."

Inflation now has the people of Myanmar, also known as Burma, deeply
worried. The knock-on effect of the steeply higher oil prices on public
transport was immediate.

Until Thursday, buses had charged about 20 kyat (less than two cents) for
a ride. Now they charge four times as much. Only train fares have held
steady at 10 kyat, making the aging carriages suddenly seem like a great
deal.

"The number of passengers has really gone up since bus fares have
increased," said one government staffer waiting at Yangon railway station.

The train service only has 14 cars running on two lines, but numbers have
jumped from an average of 70,000 passengers a day in September to 90,000 a
day now, according to the Weekly Eleven News journal.

But commuters now worry train fares will go up too.

"We heard that the train fees will also be increased because the official
petrol price went up," one passenger said. "We have to wait and see."

The price rise also hit hard the minority of Myanmar people who own cars.

Since fuel is a tightly rationed commodity in Myanmar, with each car
allowed only two gallons a day, most drivers had relied on the thriving
black market where prices have already been rising steeply for two months.

That cushioned the actual impact of the official price increase, since
most people were already paying more anyway.

But since the official increase, police have begun cracking down on the
illegal fuel trade, sending black market prices even higher.

Diesel has been selling at 4,000 kyat (3.20 dollars) a gallon, up about 67
percent since August, while petrol went for 3,000 kyat (2.40 dollars), up
58 percent.

Inflation broadly has soared this year, and especially since late August.
The kyat has lost about half its value against the dollar.

Businesses now worry about the consequences of rising transport costs.

"Some of my company's employees came to see me this morning at the office
to complain about the increasing bus fees," said one businessman, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.

"So I promised them that I will consider increasing their salaries," he
said. "I do not want to lose my staff.

"Now I also worry that commodity prices will grow higher because of the
increased transportation charges."

_____________________________________

October 24, Irrawaddy
Situation critical for the ILO in Burma - Clive Parker

The International Labor Organization’s already frosty relationship with
Burma’s ruling military government has reached a critical point, sources
within the organization say, raising concerns the organization may not
have a long-term future in the country.

UN officials in Rangoon are known to be concerned by the increasing
restrictions faced by the ILO recently—more so than other UN and
humanitarian organizations—with some even concerned for the personal
safety of the ILO’s chief representative in Rangoon, Richard Horsey.

“The ILO is in fact right now discussing the nature of its operations in
Burma with the government and we know it is under a big question mark,”
Janek Kuczkiewicz of the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions—an organization very close to the ILO—recently told The Irrawaddy.

Horsey has submitted a report on recent events to the ILO’s head office in
Geneva to be released on Friday and will subsequently form part of the
agenda of a forthcoming tri-annual ILO governing body meeting next month.
The issue of Burma will be a formal part of the agenda in Geneva during
talks in November.

“It is going to be difficult for me to prejudge what that discussion is
going to come up with. Yes, it is a difficult period, and the report will
raise some challenges and difficulties and it makes for a very difficult
discussion at the governing body,” Horsey said today, adding he is unable
to comment further until the official unveiling of his report later this
week.

The diagnosis, though, is unlikely to be good, particularly following a
recent incident in which the junta gave an 18-month jail term to Su Su
Nway, a Burmese woman who had previously brought instances of forced labor
to the attention of the authorities in a bid to gain compensation.

In its meeting in June, the ILO’s governing body noted that it “deeply
regrets
 that the government has not given any indication that suggests
that it is considering, in good faith, steps to provide for a legal basis
for freedom of association as requested by the committee.”

For its part, Burma’s state-run The New Light of Myanmar has this year
taken anti-ILO rhetoric to new levels, using pseudo-political
organizations, including the Union Solidarity and Development Association
and the Myanmar Women Affairs Federation, to denounce the body, even
calling for Horsey and his team to leave the country.

News of a deterioration of the ILO’s situation in Burma comes after UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday submitted a report to the General
Assembly in which he expresses concern for the ability of UN offices to
fulfill their mandate in the country.

“The United Nations funds and programs
 tasked to provide humanitarian
assistance for the people of Myanmar [Burma] have been compelled to
operate in a more restricted operational environment, with authorities
imposing onerous fees, bureaucratic hurdles, and extensive restrictions on
both travel to projects sites and the import of supplies and equipment,”
Annan says in his report, adding that Khin Nyunt’s ouster last year had
made communication with the Burmese government extremely difficult.

The secretary-general also draws attention to the continuing political
deadlock in the country, calling on the junta to allow the participation
of groups including the National League for Democracy in the National
Convention.

_____________________________________

October 23, Indian Daily
Myanmar building a secret nuke site


Myanmar's military government is allegedly preparing to build a secret
nuclear project near the western slope of the Shan Hills, some 42 miles
from the central Myanmarese city of Mandalay, according to an independent
website. Quoting sources, the site run by the ''Shan Herald Agency for
News'' said the project was being constructed at a "secure site" near
Maymyo, officially known as Pyin Oo Lwin near Mandalay. It also published
a map of the location of the project.

The site is located in "a flat land surrounded on all sides by steep
hills. In addition, the area remains shrouded in mist all round the year,
an aspect which the project's planners believe will make it virtually
invisible from the air". An airfield has also been under construction
since last year at Aneesakhan on the way to Mandalay. "Half of the homes
in the town and all homes in the surrounding villages of Singaunggyi,
Kangyigon and Nyannyintha were demolished for the purpose. As for
Paungdaw, another village nearby, it lost all of its farmland", the
website said.

The military regime has, however, maintained it was "only acquiring
nuclear technology for medical research purposes and has denied its
nuclear programme being a front for bomb-making", the report said.
"Sources close to the military say the army is transferring the nuclear
plant from Magwe to Maymyo", it said, adding that village homes and fields
have been confiscated "without compensation since 2003.

Roads, some say tunnels as well, are being constructed. "It has also been
declared off-limits to the local populace with long-term imprisonment as
punishment for trespassers", it said, adding that Maymyo, once part of the
Shan state and later of Mandalay district, "has become so militarised
during the last decade (that) sources are estimating its population as
half civilian and half military". Myanmar's west point, defence services
academy, is also located here. As per the map, the so-called "secret site"
is located in the vicinity of the Yeywa dam site under construction by
Chinese engineers.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 24, Irrawaddy
Burmese refugees interview with UNHCR for resettlement - Louis Reh

More than 600 Burmese refugees along the Thai-Burma border have begun
interviewing today for possible resettlement in the US, Finland, New
Zealand and Norway, said the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
office in Mae Hong Son, northern Thailand.

“Some 475 Karenni refugees from Ban Tractor camp [Mae Hong Son] will be
interviewed by the US, Finland and New Zealand, and 200 Karen refugees
from Mae Ramu camp will be interviewed by Norway,” said Hanne Mathisen of
UNHCR.

The interviews started today in the Karenni and Karen refugee camps,
according to Mathisen, and additional interviews will be held with
Canadian officials at the Karen Mae La Oon camp in early 2006.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, a group of religious
non-governmental organizations that supplies food and housing supplies to
border residents, estimates that more than 162,000 Mon, Karen, Karenni and
Shan refugees currently live along the Thai-Burma border.

Interviews are being conducted by the resettlement countries’ ministries
of Justice and Interior, as well as their ambassadors to Thailand, said
Mathisen. “The US has a very large embassy in Bangkok, so the US
ambassador will
interview some of the refugees,” Mathisen told The
Irrawaddy today.

The UNHCR began registering and interviewing refugees last August to
determine whether they qualified for resettlement in a third country.
“Some of the refugees could be rejected if they don’t meet the criteria of
the resettlement countries,” said Mathisen.

There have been unconfirmed reports in recent weeks that the entire
population of Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand’s Ratchaburi
Province—which houses more than 9,000 refugees—was scheduled for
resettlement in the US. “There has been no legal decision or announcement
by the US yet,” said Mathisen.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 24, Xinhua General News Service
Increase of dengue fever cases reported in Myanmar

Yangon: Nearly 13,000 cases of dengue fever (DF) occurred in Myanmar so
far this year, a sharp increase from last year's 6,000, the local Myanmar
Times reported Monday.

The figures represented the second biggest outbreak of the mosquito-borne
viral disease since 2001 when it was reported as 15, 695.

Of the 6,000 DF cases reported during last year, nearly half of which were
in Yangon, especially in the Southeastern area of Thaketa, the Health
Department said.

The authorities are urging Yangon residents to take preventive measures
against the disease which is spread by a species of mosquito active during
the day.

The authorities warned that the Aedes mosquito carrying the virus put
residents in heavily populated areas at increased risk of contracting the
disease than other urban areas, adding that there is no specific treatment
or vaccine for DF.

DF usually breaks out during and after the rainy season and children aged
under 12 were particularly vulnerable to DF.

Meanwhile, the health department has started launching a mass campaign in
Yangon since last June on prevention and control of DF which has caused
widespread infection in the capital.

The campaign includes carrying out sanitation activities every weekend and
giving educative talks.

Broken out in Myanmar intermittently, the DF was first detected in Yangon
in 1969 and a major outbreak of the disease followed in 1970, which was
confined in Yangon until 1973. The first case in northern Mandalay
division was detected in 1974 and major outbreaks had occurred in the
division about every four years.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

October 23, Agence France Presse
Myanmar deports two after massive heroin bust

Myanmar has handed two suspected traffickers to China after seizing almost
500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of heroin in the country's second biggest
drugs bust, the government said on Sunday.

Speaking at a rare press conference in the capital, Myanmar police force
chief Brigadier General Khin Yee, said 494 kilograms (1,093 pounds) of the
drug were seized in the eastern state of Shan on September 10.

"Because of the cooperation of Myanmar, China, Laos and Thailand, Han Yu
Won and his colleague Li Phu So, alias Ah So, were seized by the Laos
police force on September 22, before they went to Vietnam," Khin Yee said.

The men, who fled to Laos, were deported to Myanmar from Vientiane on
September 28. Myanmar authorities then deported the men to China on
October 2, Khin Yee added.

Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo said the heroin was brought to
Myanmar from China, but was destined for Thailand.

Han Yu Won, 35, was from China's Yunnan province, Khin Yee said. Li Phu So
was a Chinese whom Khin Yee said was living near the Myanmar-China border.

At least 84 Myanmar people were arrested in connection with the bust, but
Khin Yee did not say if any had been charged, or released.

A Western diplomat in Yangon said the United Wa State Army was directly
involved in the shipment, and many of their members were arrested in the
raid, which came after a stand-off lasting at least 90 minutes.

The bust is the second largest in Myanmar's history after a haul of 592
kilograms of heroin worth 74 million dollars in 2004.

____________________________________
ASEAN

October 24, Agence France Presse
ASEAN summit agenda to avoid thorny issues: Malaysia

Putrajaya: Thorny issues such as violence in southern Thailand and
democratic reform in Myanmar have been left off the agenda of December's
ASEAN summit although leaders can raise them on the sidelines, Malaysia
said Monday.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said formal discussions would not be
held because of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) policy
of non-interference in each other's affairs.

"The structured agenda is very clear," he told a press conference adding
that topics listed in the agenda included economics and trade cooperation.

"ASEAN is not in the habit of discussing a particular country in an agenda."

However, Syed Hamid said leaders were free to raise any issue on the
sidelines of the summit to be held in Kuala Lumpur, but suggested that
even then talks would be cautious.

"The leaders can discuss everything but the leaders are also conscious of
the ASEAN tradition," he said.

A proposed ASEAN charter of human rights would also not be listed on the
agenda, Syed Hamid said.

"Within those few days, we have to be focussed. Our focus is more economic
and the integration of ASEAN rather than discussion on specific issues,
human rights," he said.

ASEAN's non-interference policy has been strained in recent years,
particularly by the Myanmar junta's refusal to adopt democratic reforms
which has embarrassed other members of the 10-nation grouping.

Thailand and Malaysia have also been engaged in a war of words over the
flight of 131 Thai Muslims across their common border, apparently fleeing
violence in their homeland in a movement that worries Malaysia.

Syed Hamid said the inaugural East Asia summit to be held after the ASEAN
talks will concentrate on mapping out a direction for the forum which
comprises ASEAN plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and New
Zealand.

He said the East Asia summit would also discuss practical issues such as
how often it should meet.

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

____________________________________
 REGIONAL

October 24, Mizzima News
Groups launch joint appeal for Philippines support on Burma - Nem Davies

About 130 people including lawmakers, human rights advocates and
representatives of non-government organisations in the Philippines have
signed a statement urging the Philippines government to support efforts to
have Burma included on the United Nations Security Council agenda.

The letter, released on Thursday was signed by a number of politicians
including Nereus Acosta, an elected member of the Philippine Congress and
Millet Apostol of the foreign relations committee of the House of
Representatives.

A meeting between the signatories was sponsored by the International
Initiatives Dialogue (IID) and the Free Burma Coalition (FBC) and was held
at the University of the Philippines in Manila.

IID is lobbying the Philippines government to take an active role in
calling for a democratic transition in Burma while FBC is a Burmese-led
group supporting the struggle for democracy and human rights.

Isagani Abunda, advocacy officer for Burma Campaigns of IID, said the
groups aim to pressure the Philippine government and other members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to put Burma on the agenda.

Abunda said the government, a Security Council member, was approached by
the Burmese military and urged to block the attempt.

The Philippines will assume the chairmanship of ASEAN next year after
Burma decided to relinquish the chair.

"ASEAN cannot be stable until Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is
released
" said Nyo Ohn Myint, the main Burmese speaker at the meeting and
representative of FBC.

IID executive director Gus Miclat said the Philippines should take a more
active stance on Burma issues.

"We know perfectly well that despite internal changes in the military
junta in Burma last year, substantial political changes have not followed.
How can our conscience allow ASEAN to be ruled by a gang of human rights
violators?" said Miclat.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 21, U.N. News Center
Annan urges authorities in Myanmar to take steps towards democratization

The absence of an all-inclusive process of democratization and national
reconciliation in Myanmar is exacerbating the suffering of the country's
people, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report which calls on
the authorities to take steps to rectify the situation.

Political contacts between the UN and Yangon have been significantly
reduced since former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was ousted late last year,
according to the report on the situation of human rights in the country.

At the same time, UN relief organizations face a slew of problems, "with
authorities imposing onerous fees, bureaucratic hurdles, and extensive
restrictions on both travel to projects sites and the import of supplies
and equipment," according to the report.

The Secretary-General warns of a "significant risk" that other aid groups
will follow the example of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria, which recently withdrew $98 million in funding pledges from
Myanmar because its work was being hampered. If relief organizations were
to leave, this would result in "worsening the plight of millions of people
in Myanmar."

While there had been signs of progress in 2003 when the Myanmar
authorities announced their seven-point road map towards democracy, since
then even basic requirements have not been met, according to the report.
The National Convention charged with drawing up principles for a new
constitution continues to exclude representatives of many political
parties, including the National League for Democracy headed by Aung San
Suu Kyi.

With the Convention set to reconvene before the end of this year, the
Secretary-General urges the Myanmar authorities to make the road map
process more inclusive and credible. Towards that end, he calls on them to
resume dialogue with representatives of all ethnic nationality groups and
political leaders, release political prisoners, lift constraints on
political leaders, re-open the offices of the National League for
Democracy, and include all concerned in the road map process.

_____________________________________

October 21, Agence France Presse
Canada condemns decade-long detention of Aung San Suu Kyi

Canada on Friday condemned Myanmar's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Nobel peace laureate and opposition democracy leader held under house
arrest for 10 years, and demanded her immediate and unconditional release.

"Canada reiterates its call for Burma (Myanmar) to immediately and
unconditionally release Aung San Suu Kyi and the members of her party,"
Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew said in a statement.

"For most of the past decade and a half, Aung San Suu Kyi has been
detained under house arrest by the Burmese authorities. When these periods
of detention are viewed cumulatively, October 24, 2005, marks the
completion of her 10th year of detention," Pettigrew noted.

Myanmar, which has been under military rule since 1962, refused to
recognize the 1990 election victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy and has detained many of the NLD's officers over the years. 
The Canadian foreign minister urged the Myanmar regime to recognize the
1990 election results and lead the country toward democracy.

"The Burmese authorities should also abandon their ongoing efforts to
entrench and legitimize military rule, and instead recognize the 1990
national election results and take steps to initiate genuine democratic
reform," he said.

"The people of Burma have languished far too long under authoritarian
rule, and continue to suffer human rights abuses."

_____________________________________

October 24, The Times (London)
UN urged to take action over Burma's oppressive regime - Richard Lloyd Parry

Democracy activists are calling on the UN Security Council to take action
against the Burmese Government as Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's
imprisoned opposition leader, completes a total of ten years in detention
today.

Since 1989, the year before Daw Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
won elections that were ignored by the ruling junta, she has spent only
six years free of house arrest. Despite repeated condemnations by Kofi
Annan, the UN Secretary-General, and by foreign governments and
international human rights organisations, the ruling State Peace and
Development Council shows no sign of releasing her or relaxing its
authoritarian rule.

Such a move has also been proposed by two of the world's most respected
human rights advocates, the South African archbishop, Desmond Tutu, and
the former political prisoner and Czech president, Vaclav Havel. A report
commissioned by them last month points to the Burmese junta's repression
of political opponents and ethnic minorities, the large number of refugees
fleeing the country, and state-sanctioned drug trafficking. They argue
that these represent a threat to international peace and security and
justify stern action in the UN Security Council.

The report lists 27 resolutions by the UN General Assembly and UN
Commission on Human Rights, all of which have been ignored.

There were no reports from Rangoon of any events to mark the beginning of
Daw Suu Kyi's 11th year in detention.

The Burmese police said that they were questioning six people over an
explosion on Friday in front of an hotel, the latest in a series of
sporadic and mysterious explosions in Rangoon in the past two years. In
May at least 23 people were killed by bombs. The Government blamed
dissident groups, but the bombs may indicate divisions within the junta
itself.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 24, The Times (London)
In Burma's agony

In cruel solitude, denied visitors or even a telephone, a frail woman
marks ten years as the political prisoner of a vicious and illegitimate
military dictatorship. Since 1988, when she returned from Britain to her
native Burma and, in response to a massacre of student demonstrators,
formed the resolutely non-violent National League for Democracy, the Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of those 16 years in
prison or under house arrest. It is 15 years since the League astounded
the junta by winning 80 per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections
that the generals believed they had rigged so as to ensure the League's
political demise. The junta quashed the result, imprisoned her and many
League colleagues and set out to crush every last shred of opposition; yet
- as became obvious from the throngs that crowded to her when she was
briefly released in 2002 -it cannot extinguish the loyalty which Daw Suu
Kyi, known to Burmese simply as "The Lady", commands.

Her release is imperative and urgent, because that enduring loyalty is now
this crushed society's only potential bulwark against the tragedies that
have engulfed it, beginning in 1962 with General Ne Win's disastrous
"Burmese way to socialism".

These were intensified by the clique that has the gall to call itself the
State Peace and Development Council. The country now officially known as
Myanmar is a problem not just for its people but, increasingly, for the
region. On the pretext of crushing rebellions by persecuted minority
peoples, the regime has committed every conceivable abuse. Nearly a
million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries; as many are
internally displaced. Military "enterprises" run rackets that, with the
collusion of China and elements of the Thai military, are stripping gem
mines and teak forests, as well as trafficking in opiates and
amphetamines. In a fertile land, a third of children are malnourished,
HIV/Aids and tuberculosis are rife and humanitarian agencies are
systematically thwarted.

The international response has been a flabby mix of selective Western
sanctions, and an abortive Asean policy of "engagement". While pretending
to be preparing a new "democratic" constitution, the junta has blocked
serious mediation, even by UN envoys. But Asean is no longer the shield
that it was. In July it forced Burma to relinquish its turn at the body's
rotating chairmanship, and a parliamentary caucus within Asean is pressing
for its suspension. Washington is pressing the Security Council to put
Burma on its agenda with a resolution obliging it to free Daw Suu Kyi and
her fellow political prisoners and acknowledge the League's legitimacy. A
coruscating new report sponsored by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Vaclav
Havel buttresses that case. China objects, but nine of the 16 Council
votes would suffice. Burma differs from other abominably misruled states
because a democratically elected alternative exists, something not even
China can deny.

United pressure is crucial if an intransigent regime is to change.

_____________________________________

October 25, The Nation
Put Burma on the UN’s agenda

As Aung San Suu Kyi marks her 10th year of detention, Thailand should
support a more proactive approach. Aung San Suu Kyi must be a lady of
steel to tolerate the combined 10 years of detention by the military junta
in Rangoon. The junta hopes that she will simply languish in house arrest
and everything will be fine, because nobody will remember her.

That is totally wrong. On her 60th birthday in June, leaders from around
the world came out to support and praise her courage, and call for her
release. But as usual, it fell on deaf ears in Rangoon.

Burma’s survival has been helped by China and India, two Asian powers
which are being used by the military leaders. China has provided
everything to the country, including defence procurements for the generals
to keep their power strong.

Of late, the junta has indicated that Burma would like to follow China’s
model of economic and political development. In the past, several
political models were pondered, including those practised in India – and
in Indonesia under the reign of former president Sukarto. But along with
leadership changes in the past few months, the Chinese model has been
accepted and considered the best one to follow. This will allow China to
increase its already widespread influence inside Burma further.

Therefore, it is hard to see any changes occurring inside Burma,
especially towards liberalisation. China itself has already said that it
will not adopt liberal democracy as practised elsewhere and will continue
with its own unique political system.

It will be interesting to see the extent of the Chinese-Burmese friendship
in the future and watch how it envelops and affects Asean in the long run.
After all, Burma has already withdrawn from the chairmanship for next
year. None of the Asean members can say exactly when Burma will be able to
resume the post.

With the ongoing dispute between Thailand and Malaysia over the fate of
131 Thai-Malay citizens remaining unsettled, Asean is not likely to
increase its pressure on Burma in the near future. But certainly the Asean
caucus dealing with Burma will continue its campaign on its own.

The group is currently facing a huge dilemma because member countries are
not in harmony with each other. Never before in the history of Asean have
the grouping’s core countries been so vicious in their dealings with each
other. This sorry state of affairs could have far-reaching implications
for Asean because it could divide the members states further.

As Asean ponders its future, it is an opportune time for the members of
the UN Security Council to be more proactive in pushing for changes in
Burma. They can reference the report commissioned by Vaclav Havel and
Desmond Tutu, which has found that Burma does meet the criteria for UN
Security Council intervention.

So far, many Western countries have backed calls for Burma to be taken to
the Security Council. At the moment, Asean as a whole is still against
such a move because it would further isolate Burma.

If the Security Council takes up the Burmese issue, it would be good for
Asean. For one thing, it would remove pressure from the group, which at
core wants to see positive change in the country. It would also benefit
China, as it would demonstrate Beijing’s sincere stance that it will not
oppose improvements to the political situation there.

Thailand has been very quiet on this issue because of its focus on the
southern crisis, but it would be wise to support putting Burma on the
Security Council’s agenda. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra already has
his hands full dealing with the situation in the South.

With Burma on the Security Council’s agenda, Thailand would be freer to
shift its policy. Bilaterally, Thailand does not portray itself as
anti-Burma, but the likelihood of support for this motion is now higher
than ever.

As long as Suu Kyi is still under detention and world leaders stand
unified behind her, it will be hard for the Burmese junta to ignore her.
After all, the international community has failed to deliver on its
promises to her for the last 17 years. Now only the council’s intervention
will make a difference.