BurmaNet News, November 5-7, 2005

[Editor]

November 5-7, 2005 Issue # 2839


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Rangoon moves Ministries to Pyinmana
AFP: Myanmar presses on with move to half-finished government compound
AP: Myanmar authorities remove roadblocks from front of U.S. Embassy
SHAN: Burglary scare in Rangoon markets

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Exiled Burmese groups denounce junta over Shan sentence

DRUGS
Bangkok Post: multinational drug suppression efforts stepping up

BUSINESS / TRADE
Asian Pulse: Indian firms look to boost ties with Mekong countries

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Thailand opposes calls for UN to take up Myanmar's rights abuse
Toronto Star: Junta must be reined in: Tutu
Sunday Times: Burma drives out Briton for probing forced labour

OPINION
Mizzima: Solution Burma: Mobster diplomacy

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 7, Irrawaddy
Rangoon moves Ministries to Pyinmana - Aung Lwin Oo

Burma’s information minister on Monday confirmed that the country’s
ministries were in the process of relocating from Rangoon to a new
administrative center nearly 400 km north of the capital in Pyinmana,
central Burma.

Speaking at a press conference in Rangoon today, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said
that the transfer had started on Sunday and explained that the move is
being made so that government operations will run more “smoothly.”

Kyaw Hsan dismissed earlier reports of travel difficulties for civil
servants, many of whom were only informed of the move last Friday, saying
the government had made necessary arrangements for transportation and
housing.

Pyinmana served as the military headquarters of Burma’s resistance
movement, led by independence hero Gen Aung San, during the country’s
Japanese occupation in World War II. The area is strategically located
within easy range of ethnic frontiers and sources say the generals have
already constructed anti-aircraft missiles and underground tunnels.
Outside the country the move has been widely viewed as the paranoid action
of a regime fearful of foreign invasion. The present capital, Rangoon, is
considered vulnerable to a seaborne attack.

The relocation to Pyinmana had originally been considered in 2001, when
The Irrawaddy reported on plans for the state-run television company MRTV
and a 1000-bed hospital to join ministry and military facilities in making
the move.

“We are very surprised by this sudden development. It is very puzzling,”
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday. The
statement said that the clarification will be sought from the Rangoon’s
ambassador in Singapore.

_____________________________________

November 7, Agence France Presse
Myanmar presses on with move to half-finished government compound

Myanmar government workers were working frantically Monday to comply with
the reclusive military junta's sudden order to relocate ministries to a
secret compound in a mountainous region north of Yangon.

Much of the compound 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of the capital
remains incomplete, without even housing for the staffers of the commerce,
foreign, home affairs and post and telecommunication ministries which
began moving Sunday to Pyinmana.

Analysts have said the move, which has been under preparation for several
months, was prompted by fears of an invasion by the United States, one of
the junta's staunchest critics.

They said the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq apparently reinforced the fears.

There was no official announcement of the move but a written order has
said that "the relocation must be completed before April 2006," accoridng
to government workers who had seen the document.

Only a handful of people in the first group who arrived late Sunday in a
military convoy have managed to telephone back to Yangon, mainly to ask
relatives to send them food.

One of them told AFP they were forced to spend the night on the floor of
an assembly hall, and that they had been informed they would only receive
meals for two days and then have to fend for themselves.

"We have all been put into one big hall where we have spent the night. We
don't know what to do so we are just waiting for orders," one worker said.

The first group of workers in the foreign ministry was given only one day
to prepare for the relocation, staffers in the ministry said.

None of the workers would speak on the record, fearing retribution from
the notoriously secretive junta.

The secret complex lies in a valley, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) from
the nearest town, they said.

An engineer involved in the construction told AFP that even housing for
some 40 deputy ministrers remains incomplete.

"The buildings for the deputy ministers are still far from finished, with
not even an access road to some of them," he said.

One analyst in Yangon told AFP the move was also part of the military's
broader plan to change the system of government after it completes
drafting a new constitution at a national convention due to resume on
December 5.

"Obviously the whole idea is motivated by security and strategic
concerns," he said.

The new compound is part of the military's plan to maintain its control of
the state, even after it hands power to a government that could eventually
be elected under the constitution it has been drafting for years, the
analyst said.

"They take the guardianship of the nation very seriously and have been
painstakingly preparing for" the transfer, he said.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

The US and European Union have imposed sanctions for its suppression of
the pro-democracy movement, including the detention of democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

The junta says the next session of constitutional talks on its
self-declared "road map" to democracy will resume on December 5. Critics
describe the talks as a sham since they have been boycotted by the
opposition Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to
take power.

_____________________________________

November 7, Associated Press
Myanmar authorities remove roadblocks from front of U.S. Embassy

Workers used forklift trucks and blowtorches Monday to remove dozens of
cement-filled yellow drums and other barriers that have been in front of
the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar's capital since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror
attacks in the United States.

The government did not announce a reason for clearing the security
barriers or say whether the street in front of the downtown embassy
building would be reopened to traffic. The removal began Sunday.

A U.S. Embassy official, contacted by phone from neighboring Thailand,
said Monday that the mission had raised its concerns about the changes
with the highest levels of Myanmar's government Monday, and confirmed that
three of the five lanes in front of the embassy that had been closed were
now open to traffic.

Myanmar's military government is notoriously secretive, and what news it
chooses to release generally comes in official announcements in the
state-controlled media. When armed police were removed from diplomatic
premises last month, the Foreign Ministry held a briefing for diplomats,
but failed to explain the move.

Mutual hostility between Yangon and Washington - a top critic of the junta
because of its poor human rights record and failure to restore democracy -
also limits dialogue between the two countries.

The embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity that is customary
among U.S. diplomats in Myanmar, said there were no plans to close the
embassy, but that its staff were reviewing the security situation.

With dozens of police and security officials looking on, workers used
blowtorches to break up the drums before taking them away on fork lifts.

Security was boosted at the U.S. and British Embassies in Yangon after the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Armed police and police cars were
stationed at the two embassies, and busy Merchant Street - where the U.S.
Embassy is located - was sealed off from traffic with barbed-wire
barricades and heavy drums.

_____________________________________

November 5, Shan Herald Agency for News
Burglary scare in Rangoon markets

Rumors of widespread burglaries have scared owners into downing their
shutters early in Rangoon. More and more people are being affected because
of this, according to the Free Information Group. Acute financial distress
is said to be forcing many from the suburbs to resort to burglary.

"People are being affected because of the rumors of robberies. First a
shop closed and others followed suit. Finally, the whole market was shut
down,” said a shopkeeper from Yuzana Blazer, Tamawe Township. Afraid of
being robbed, some shopkeepers have stopped opening their stores
altogether in markets in Rangoon.

"Prices rose even before the price of oil and fuel went up because of bomb
blasts. Goods from China and Thailand have stopped coming, as the borders
are closed. As a result, prices are mounting daily,” explained a
rice-store owner from Insein Market. The shopkeeper said previously people
bought rice in by Pyi (3.3 Liter), but now they can only buy in milk-cans.

Because of financial problems more and more people in the suburbs of
Rangoon are resorting to burglary, while some women have turned to
prostitution. Security has been tightened around cargo-stores, shopping
malls and markets.

"Though I don’t have good curries, I can still afford regular meals. But
it is a bad situation, and some have died of starvation. If someone starts
stealing there are many who follow suit because they are hungry,” said a
laborer from a suburban area.

_____________________________________
ON THE  BORDER

November 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
Exiled Burmese groups denounce junta over Shan sentence

Exiled Burmese political groups denounced the sentencing of 8 Shan leaders
including Shan National League for Democracy chairman Khun Htun Oo and
Shan State National Council patron Gen Hso Ten to lengthy prison terms by
Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

In a statement issued on 5 November, the Burma Communist Party (BCP) said
that the SPDC is a group Burman racist counter-revolutionaries and that
Hso Ten was sentenced thus because he is a Shan national who dared to
start an armed revolution against the junta.

Chairman of the exiled branch of the United Nationalities League for
Democracy (UNLD), Khoo Marko Ban said in a statement that the junta has
been oppressing and cowing the ethnic national leaders but they will
continue to contrive for the emergence of a true federal union with other
Burmese pro-democracy groups.

____________________________________
DRUGS

November 6, Bangkok Post
As new players move in to fill the vacuum, multinational drug suppression
efforts are stepping up – Surath Jinakul

The Thaksin government's war on drugs has faded from front-page headlines
even while officials are still working hard to stop the flow of heroin and
methamphetamines from illegal labs along the borders with Burma and Laos.

This is not an easy task because the drug gangs always change their
production bases and trafficking routes. And as established dealers are
picked off by the law, new drug producers and traffickers have entered the
illegal business, even producing new kinds of drugs to attract more
customers.

Mr Chartchai Sudhiklom, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the
Narcotics Control Board (ONCB), said new drug gangs from China, Laos,
Vietnam and Cambodia are competing for control of the lucrative business,
which also involves players in Europe, the Middle East and the United
States.

"The old gang associated with Khun Sa is gone, and Wei Hseuh-kang and the
Pao brothers are reportedly distancing themselves from drugs and moving
into the finance business," he said. "New groups have entered the fray."

Meanwhile, according to an ONCB source, members of the United Wa State
Army (UWSA), which operates drug factories along the Thai-Burmese border,
are facing intense suppression. They are increasing the production of
methamphetamine pills (known in Thai as yaa baa) and will try to dump them
on the market as soon as possible.

To avoid confrontation with the UWSA, the new drug groups have set up
production bases in Laos, where the rugged terrain shields them from
anti-narcotics officials as well as the Wa. Also, the trafficking routes
from Burma into Thailand have become unsafe for them. Every attack by Thai
suppression units causes so much damage to them that it is not worth the
risk.

Chartchai said the new production bases are along the Mekong River and the
drugs can be transported through various routes with little chance of
being detected.

It is not only the new operators that have settled in Laos, but also many
of those which used to up line along Thai-Burmese border. According to
reliable sources, stronger suppression from both Thai and Burmese
authorities has taken a heavy toll during recent years.

"The drug gangs have taken financial and personal losses because of our
suppression efforts. They would be taking a great risk if if they continue
to produce in the same areas and use the Thai northern routes for
trafficking," Chartchai said, adding that only a few small laboratories
remain along the Burmese-Thai border, mainly opposite Tak and Mae Hong Son
provinces. They produce relatively small volumes of drugs and can move
quickly to limit their damages if they are raided.

LAOS HEATING UP

But as a result of the drug gangs efforts to evade detection, the
situation has become serious in Chiang Saen and Chaing Khong districts of
Chiang Rai province, across from Bor Keow district of Laos.

According to police sources, as many as 30 mobile drug laboratories have
been identified along the Thai-Laotian border.

The geography of the region, with its dense jungle, presents problems for
law enforcers. Besides, there is also a lack of experienced suppression
personnel, unlike on the Thai-Burmese border where officers have high
exposure to the wiles of drug gangs.

The production bases of the new network are mainly along the Mekong River,
which is a good site for factories and also for transportation anywhere
along the international waterway. There are many transport routes for the
drug gangs to choose from, depending on the circumstances, to avoid the
risk of arrest. For example, during heavy suppression activities by Thai
authorities, the gangs can deliver drugs via Vietnam and then ship them to
destinations such as Malaysia, Singapore and beyond.

"This route has become widely used. There are reports by Vietnamese and
Laotian drug agents that more and more drug traffickers are being arrested
along the borders of the two countries," said Chartchai.

However, the drug deals themselves are much more likely to be made in
Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Following negotiations and a possible
down payment process, the operation heads in Vientiane will send an order
to the production units, or to locations where drugs are stored , to
arrange for delivery to the appointed locations.

According to high-ranking officers, drug gangs in Laos commonly ship drugs
across the Mekong either to Chiang Khong or Thoeng district of Chiang Rai
province, and also to the district of Chaing Kham in Phayao province. Then
the traffickers may move further into the northeastern region, to
provinces such as Phetchabun and Nan.

The remaining production bases in Burma commonly use the trafficking route
from Won Pong in Burma across the Mekong River to Muang Mom in Bo Keow
district of Laos and then take route No.13 to Udom Chai and Luang Prabang,
then back on Route 13 again heading to Vientiane, where the drugs are
stored before being smuggled out to other destinations.

Drug shipments taken to Sa Keow province along the Thai-Cambodian border,
and then back across the border to Cambodia heading down to the port town
of Kampong Som, are put on board ships bound for ports of call all around
the world.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION HIGHLIGHTED

The intensified efforts to smash the drug trade in the Golden Triangle
region have met with mixed success. Many big players have been nabbed and
others are running scared. But the market is so lucrative that newcomers
are always willing to take risks to fill the vacuum.

Said Chartchai: "From our reports, small traders are become bigger, and
they have no trouble recruiting new members."

Because the drug gangs cross international borders at will in the remote
production areas, regional drug control agencies are turning more and more
to cooperation. Thai authorities are working alongside their counterpats
from Burma, China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. All these nations are
active participants in the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP)
and recently signed a memorandum of understanding at Siem Reap province of
Cambodia.

"International cooperation on drug suppression is so significant because
drug producing and trafficking is a crime without boundaries. The gangs
use the border areas for producing and trafficking to third countries. At
present time, drug problems in neighbouring countries such as Cambodia are
very severe," said Chartchai.

He went on to explain that the chemical substances for producing yaa baa,
ecstasy and "ice" (crystal meth) are easily smuggled into Cambodia at the
present time. The situation is similar to that in Thailand in 1986, he
said.

Chartchai said that the drug rings in Cambodia are now producing what is
being called "pink ice" - a mixture of yaa baa with "ice", which is
smuggled intoThailand and is becoming popular with Thai teenagers. Thai
police have seized several shipments of the smuggled drug.

The signatories of the memorandum of understanding, under the auspices of
the UNDCP, have designed a cooperative plan on suppression of drug
producing and trafficking, reduction of opium cultivation area, and also a
measure on preventing and treating addiction.

At the same time, bilateral cooperation between Thai and Burmese
authorities and Thai and Laotain authorities goes on actively.

For instance, in January this year, Thai drug agents in Chiang Rai
arrested and seized some 6,000 amphetamine tablets. Burmese cooperation in
further investigation of the case then led to the arrest of a big drug
runner and the seizure of 240,000 amphetamine tablets in the Burmese town
of Thachilek.

In May, Thai and Laotian authorities collaborated on the bust of 916,000
amphetamine tablets and 19.5 kilogrammes of heroin. Three Laotian and 2
Burmese nationals were arrested in Ban Pone Tong in Vientiane.

Chartchai said that a strong local suppression scheme had to be
implemented along with the international efforts.

He pointed out the differences in the ongoing national strategy as
compared to the two much-publicised wars on drugs which were launched in
2003 and last year. These were broad operations to weed out drugs
nationwide. The current operation, said Chartchai, concentrates on
suppression of production sources in the areas along the borders and in
major cities, particulary tourist cities.

"Another significant suppression target is those big time drug dealers who
are still on the run. Many thousands of people with arrest warrants out on
them have chosen to become fugitives, yet they normally continue to be
active in the drug trading rings," said Chartchai. In law enforcement
operations from April 1 to June 31, a large number of small and big drug
dealers were arrested, and large amounts of drugs were seized (see table).

The three-month operation along the Thai-Lao and Thai-Burmese borders met
with good results.

With intensive joint patrols and checkpoints, military forces, police and
narcotics control officers from the three countries arrested a total of
1,369 drug traders, and more than 2 million methamphetamine pills, 4
kilogrammes of heroin and 47,223 kilogrammes of marijuana were seized.

Chartchai noted that at the same time, the ONCB has set a goal of reducing
the number of addicts to 60,000, from several hundred thousand now. In
recent months more than 5,000 drug addicts have voluntarily sought
rehabilitation.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 7, Asian Pulse
Indian firms look to boost ties with Mekong countries

Looking to increase India's share in the US$195.4 billion Greater Mekong
Sub-region (GMS) market, comprising Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
and Yunan Province of China, industry chamber CII is taking the initiative
to explore opportunities for domestic companies.

CII has joined hands with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to organise
Mekong Development Forum (MDF) meeting from November 9-10 here, in an
attempt to improve upon India's abysmal 1.3 per cent share of trade being
done in Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS).
Over 40 top government and industry representatives from the GMS would
deliberate on various options to tap various oppurtunities for mutual
trade.

With a population of over 237 million, the volume of trade in GMS has been
estimated to be US$195.4 billion during 2003-04 fiscal and India's 1.3 per
cent trade share could be improved through various identified sectors such
as transport, energy, tourism, trade and investment, a CII statement said
here.

It said the forum would provide a platform for Indian industry to engage
with GMS governments, industry and senior ADB officials to discuss
specific investment projects pertaining to transport, energy, tourism,
infrastructure and ITES sectors.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 7, Agence France Presse
Thailand opposes calls for UN to take up Myanmar's rights abuse

Thailand opposed Monday calls for the UN Security Council to take up
Myanmar's human rights abuses, saying pressuring the military junta would
not lead to improvements.

"Our feeling is that it's not a constructive thing to do in the Security
Council. We feel that it may not be a good way to resolve or make things
improve," Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said in an interview
with AFP.

Countries, including Malaysia, have urged UN chief Kofi Annan to mobilize
a coordinated drive by major powers to pressure Myanmar's military junta
into accepting genuine democratic reforms.

UN special envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, in a report to the UN General
Assembly last month, detailed serious human rights violations against the
country's ethnic minorities, demanding the release of 1,100 political
prisoners in Myanmar.

In September, former Czech president Vaclav Havel and South African
Archbishop and Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu also released a
report urging the Security Council to take up the issue.

Myanmar has rejected calls for intervention saying claims about rights
abuses were exaggerated.

Kantathi said the best way to bring about change was through continued
dialogue.

"We need interactions with Myanmar. Sometimes people think that we haven't
really achieved results, therefore the door (to dialogue) is not useful.
But the door remains useful," he said.

"So we hope to keep them engaged and we share the same goal as everyone in
the international community - we would like to see national reconciliaton,
democracy and the release of (democracy leader) Aung San Suu Kyi as soon
as possible."

A senior Western official visiting Bangkok last week said the United
States was preparing to take up Myanmar at the Security Council.

"They will argue that the Burmese authorities are blocking the entry of UN
envoys," the official said on condition of anonymity, using the country's
former name Burma.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions for its
suppression of the country's pro-democracy movement, including the
detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only
imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

The junta says the next session of constitutional talks on its
self-declared "road map" to democracy will resume on December 5. Critics
describe the talks as a sham since they have been boycotted by Aung San
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to
take power.

____________________________________

November 6, The Toronto Star
Junta must be reined in: Tutu - Leslie Scrivener

Nobel Peace laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Burmese democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi have never met, never even exchanged letters.

But the injustice of her 16-year imprisonment by her country's military
government led Tutu to commission, along with former Czech president
Vaclav Havel, a report outlining in harrowing detail why the U.N. Security
Council must intervene and shine a light on Burma's bullying generals.

Charges against the junta read like those filed against a renegade state:
drug trafficking, overthrowing the elected government, persecuting ethnic
minorities ordering forced labour and even using rape as a tool of terror.

Written by an international team of lawyers, the report calls for the
restoration of democracy, allowing the United Nations and humanitarian
organizations access to all parts of Burma and Suu Kyi's immediate
release.

"The proposals are quite mild," says Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1984 for his anti-apartheid activism in South Africa.

"If the junta can't make reasonable progress on these, then it must become
very clear that they are indeed a very serious threat to peace."

It is the emphasis on threats to the region's peace and stability that is
at the core of the report - problems in Burma have the potential to spill
over its borders and affect its neighbours.

In recent years, Thailand and China, in particular, have chosen
neighbourly economic engagement, while Western countries have imposed
sanctions.

"Many of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries have
themselves evolved from being repressive regimes and Burma sticks out like
a sore thumb and is mucking them up," Tutu wrote in an email response to
written questions.

Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world; 700,000
refugees have fled in recent years, many to camps on the Thai border.

Burma is second only to Afghanistan in heroin production and is the source
of unique HIV/AIDS strains that are especially virulent along
heroin-trafficking routes. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria withdrew its $98 million (U.S.) funding because the government's
persistent meddling inhibited aid workers from doing their job.

Most poor Asian countries spend about 3 per cent of their GDP on
education, Burma spends 0.3 per cent. The World Health Organization ranks
Burma 190 out of 191 countries in health care, ahead of only Sierra Leone.

Burmese life expectancy is low - 56 - compared with neighbouring
Thailand's 72.

Meanwhile, the ranks of the military have swollen - estimates range from
380,000 to 500,000 soldiers in a population of about 50 million.

Armed troops are a common sight in the streets of Rangoon, the capital,
which the military junta has renamed Yangon.

Having renamed the country Myanmar, the junta also gave itself a name
change, from the menacing SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council)
to the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) - a true misnomer, given
the government's abysmal human rights record.

"We give the military guns to fight the enemy," says a Rangoon taxi driver.

"But who is the enemy? They think the people are the enemy."

Tutu urged leaders of Burma's neighbouring countries to put pressure on
the generals who run the country to work toward reconciliation.

"They should make it quite clear to the ASEAN nations that their own
welfare and prosperity are on the line," Tutu wrote.

"And that they should do all in their power to help bring about the kind
of changes in Burma that would contribute to stability in the region."

The report notes that the regime has refused to comply with every
recommendation made by the U.N. and its commission on human rights over
the past 14 years: "In short, the United Nations' efforts to date have
failed."

But it was the injustice of Suu Kyi's imprisonment that moved Tutu to join
with Havel in commissioning this report.

"Most of the Nobel Peace laureates have been incensed at the continuing
house arrest of our sister laureate," Tutu says.

Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, has been
under an increasingly punitive house arrest since 1989. Nevertheless, to
the junta's astonishment, her party won 80 per cent of the votes in the
1990 election, Burma's last.

The generals simply ignored the results.

Tutu has tried to enter Burma but has never been allowed.

"A few Nobel laureates (the Dalai Lama, Betty Williams, Oscar Arias and I)
tried but got no further than the Thai border as the Burmese authorities
would not let us in a few years ago," he wrote.

Citing "peace, tranquility and a growing economy," Burma's foreign
ministry said it "rejects the report in its entirety.

"It is based on misinformation by a few remaining insurgents and foreign
funded expatriates who are now feeling they will soon be irrelevant when
Myanmar crosses the threshold to a new era."

____________________________________

November 6, Sunday Times
Burma drives out Briton for probing forced labour - Michael Sheridan

A British United Nations official investigating forced labour in Burma has
left the country after receiving death threats in a campaign apparently
inspired by hardline members of its ruling military junta.

Richard Horsey, 32, who works for the International Labour Organisation
(ILO), is one of the few international officials who have been able to
travel to far flung parts of the country. He has collected more than 100
allegations of abuse.

Horsey and his wife, who is expecting their first child this month, left
after receiving more than 20 anonymous letters threatening to cut off his
head or poison him.

The letters started to arrive at the family home in Rangoon after a series
of officially organised rallies attacking the UN.

At one such event, a speaker accused the ILO of responsibility for the
closure of 160 garment factories in Burma and called it a "troublemaker".
The speech was reported in the official press under a headline inviting
readers to "wipe out" those harming the national cause.

The threats prompted an official complaint by Juan Somavia,
director-general of the ILO, to the Burmese government.

The country's military junta has come under fire for decades for
conscripting boys to the lower ranks of the military as porters and mine
carriers. It is also accused of forcing villagers to work on roadbuilding,
logging, mining and other projects from which officers make a profit.

The UN's Commission on Human Rights has accused Burma of "the worst forms
of child labour", while Amnesty International is dismayed by a general
deterioration of human rights in the country.

In a recent report, Amnesty instanced the case of a farmer from the Shan
tribe forced to work by the military. "They kicked me off my tractor," he
told investigators. "I fell down -my arm was outstretched on the ground
-and a soldier jumped on my arm and broke it. They just left me lying
there."

The report goes on to detail how civilians are beaten and killed if they
fail to keep up with the work rate forced on them by the "Tatmadaw", the
military who run the camps. "The situation has worsened since the
authorities instituted a policy requiring the army to be self-sufficient,"
it concludes.

Soldiers from the Tatmadaw now regularly confiscate land without
compensation, forcing yet more civilians into work camps. A 27-year-old
woman from Thayetchaung in the east of Burma described how her community's
life had disintegrated after the army arrived.

"Everything is upside down," she said. "People's properties and
livelihoods are destroyed. They are so stressed they have become like
homeless beggars. I am so angry about what the military is doing to our
village."

Diplomats believe the campaign against Horsey is the most aggressive sign
of a newly militant xenophobia among army officers who ousted the prime
minister and head of military intelligence, Khin Nyunt, last year. They
have since set Burma on a path of deeper isolation from the West and
closer ties with China.

Human rights groups also criticise Burma for suppressing minority tribes.
In the east of the country more than 2,700 ethnic Karen villages have been
destroyed in the past 10 years and their populations forced into state-run
relocation camps. Brutal murders and gang rapes have become commonplace.
There are said to be more than 1m internally displaced persons, mostly in
the Karen, Shan and Kayah states.

Despite their bravado, the generals are suffering. Burmese factories have
lost market share due to new trade rules, power shortages and investor
wariness because of official corruption and the junta's pariah status.

Horsey said the economic malaise was prompting paranoia among the elite.
"There are people who have lodged complaints and are now being thrown into
prison," he said.

"One man was given a seven-year jail sentence this Monday for allegedly
advising some villagers to send me a letter of complaint. And the friends
of a man who was killed last year while being forced to work are now being
prosecuted for bringing the case to my attention."

Additional reporting:

Nicci Smith in Mae Sot

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OPINION / OTHER

November 5, Mizzima News
Solution Burma: Mobster diplomacy - Nyo Ohn Myint

Regional and global players are likely to become increasingly tired of the
Burmese government's mobster diplomacy.

In the past they were able to argue that unlike North Korea, Burma was not
a danger to the international community. But what with the Havel and Tutu
report and the regime's death threats targeting the ILO, diplomatic
efforts seem pointless.

The military regime took civil administrative power from the collapsing
Burma Socialist Program Party in September 1988, soon after facing
intensive demonstrations and political unrest. Many Burma watchers and
observers viewed the move as a new episode in Burmese politics.

The regime gambled on a market economy without political liberalisation
after election results favored a landslide victory for the National League
for Democracy (NLD) in 1990. They intentionally deceived international and
domestic communities convincing them of future democratic transitions.

The theology of openness is always a starting point for political change.
But this may not work for Burma. Harvard scholar Dr David Depise warned in
1995 that, "lack of political stability, there would not be any economic
prosperity. Unlike contemporary Vietnam's economic liberalisation, Burma
needs to have a political legitimacy that the regime doesn't have".

In fact, the regime hastily introduced an open market economy that only
provided benefits for its cronies. At the same time, it offered business
opportunities and ceasefire agreements to ethnic armed groups allowing the
regime to promote an image of political stability.

On the other hand, the regime failed to make structural adjustments and
the continuation of previous socialist economic policies and regulations
and the refusal to adjust the monetary system to international standards
while allowing the capitalisation that encouraged foreign direct
investment destabalised the economy.

Some frustrated on-lookers and impatient scholars argued that indeed,
Burma needed more engagement, which would allow more social and political
space under the regime's uncompromising framework.

But former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, former Finance Minister General
David Able and Deputy Minister of Finance Brigadier General Zaw Tun all
paid the price of promoting more liberal regional and international
interaction.

Recently, the regime decided to forgo the 2006 ASEAN chairmanship, a move
believed to be designed to ease international pressure. But junta chose
confrontational techniques with the ILO.

This 'mobster diplomacy' should not be taken lightly. The regime organised
40 anti-ILO public forums led by the Union Solidarity and Development
Associations (USDA), a key player in the assassination attempt against Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi two years ago. It would be hard to say that 1988,
beheadings by unknown mobs and the current death threats against ILO
officials are unrelated.

The regime has prepared a violent approach to international relations.

The junta raised the price of fuel eight-fold last month despite the
crippling effect on the average person. Many believe the regime used the
move as a litmus test of the public's acquiescence.

"This regime's testing of people's tolerance is a dozen times more
dangerous than collective international pressures, it's extremely
dangerous" said Zaw Oo, Washington based political economist and former
student leader.

"Currently, the highest level of pressures from the international and
domestic enemies that regime ever has" is being inflicted the diplomat
stressed.

He also said internal power struggles among the military's top brass were
gaining intensity and would likely end in bloodshed.

Ironically, the detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other potential
political opponents is enough for the regime to feel secure during the
drafting of the constitution.

However, domestic challenges will not stop political activist and leaders
from standing up to the regime. One prominent ethnic ceasefire leaders
said, "if the regime's refusal of political dialogue with the NLD and
resolution of eco-social demands, the bottom line is to force a coup
against hard liners that would be Than Shwe or Maung Aye by self-defensive
generals. They may no longer follow these two's mobster diplomacy at the
appropriate time."