BurmaNet News, November 8, 2005

[Editor]

November 8, 2005 Issue # 2840


INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: SSA engaged in bitter debate
IMNA: Police cracks down on NC representative's Internet Cafe
Independent: Burma’s rulers take the road to Mandalay

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: 3rd Burma Media Conference

DRUGS
Irrawaddy: Fewer drugs in northern Thailand

REGIONAL
Thai Press Reports: Foreign Affairs Minister indicates that he not
received report from Burmese
AFP: Thai FM says bringing Myanmar into dialogue vital to bird flu fight
Thai Press Reports: Group to promote rights of South East Asian indigenous
people

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Shan leaders sentenced
The Nation: Burma a top item in talks with US

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 8, Shan Herald Agency for News
SSA engaged in bitter debate

The news filtering in of lengthy jail sentences for its leaders has
plunged the ceasefire group Shan State Army-North into a bitter war of
words, according to sources from northern Shan State.

The 106 years prison term handed down to the group's supreme leader
Maj-Gen Hso Ten, 93 years for Hkun Htun Oo, leader of Shan State's biggest
party Shan Nationalities League for Democracy and similar long drawn-out
sentences for other leaders on November 3 was "a slap in the face" of the
group, said a source.

"It happened only a few days after we had presented the regional commander
with the list of our NC (National Convention) delegates," said another
source wanting to remain anonymous. "Which simply means we are nothing to
them and they do not care whether we are going back to armed struggle."

All the commanders, battalion upwards, were outraged by the court
announcement, they claimed.
Leaders of the SSA 'North', at the time of reporting, are still engaged in
a heated debate. The outcome is expected to be announced "soon", according
to a member of the SSA's supreme command.

The list of Convention delegates is conspicuous by the absence of the
names of previous delegates: Col Gaifah, Col Sai Du and Lt-Col Hsarm Moon
Tom. It includes Lt-Col Harnserk, Majors Haw Lern, Awng Aye and Aung
Myint, and Lt Wansai.

The SSA 'North' had boycotted the February session of the Convention
following the arrests of 10 Shan leaders in Rangoon and Taunggyi.
_____________________________________

November 8, Independent Mon News Agency
Police cracks down on NC representative's Internet Cafe

Suspicious that news was being passed on to the media from an internet
cafe in Ye town, Mon state, the Burmese military government cracked down
on it, the owner complained.

“They told me, news from the area was filtering through my shop to Burmese
Radio Stations in foreign countries. I denied the allegation. The news was
not passed on from my cafe, because we cannot send news by passing the
server. Neither can we send information to the outside world because it is
banned,” explained U Soe Myint, who runs the shop with the help of more
than 20 staff members.

The crackdown on the cafe came in November 6 and the police interrogated
the owner. The shop was opened in the middle of this year and caught the
fancy of residents in Ye township. Every day hundreds of young people in
the town came to the internet cafe for accessing the net for news.

U Soe Myint was unhappy with the crack down and the interrogation. He was
appointed as National Convention Representative for Mon State .

“Being interrogated as a NC representative means a loss of influence of
the representative,” U Soe Myint told his friend.

U Soe Myint was also invited to join the coming Part (3) of the National
Convention, which will begin on December 16, according to military
government invitation letter.

U Soe Myint was appointed as Mon State Representative from Ye township. U
Hla Win from Zee Phuu Taung and Daw Myit Kyuu, headmaster of Lamine high
school were appointed along with him.

In Mon State some internet cafes were opened during the end of last year
and this year. But it is under the control of the military government.
Some shops are allowed to access outside world web pages while some are
not. But some shops do so use the internet.
_____________________________________


_____________________________________
November 8, The Independent
Burma’s rulers take the road to Mandalay – Jan McGirk

No one knows whether to blame it on the dire predictions of a powerful
Burmese soothsayer or recent tough talk from Condoleezza Rice, the US
Secretary of State. But today, Rangoon, the capital of Burma, is even more
of a backwater than usual because the ruling military junta has abruptly
abandoned its British colonial-era headquarters to head for a
Burmese-style Brasilia in the hills.

General Than Shwe, the country's most senior leader, has shifted the
capital from its dilapidated riverside site to a purpose-built jungle
'command and control centre', located about 250 miles up-country in
Pyinmana. After months of government dithering, speculation and denial,
unmarried civil servants from nine ministries were ordered on Friday to
start packing their bags. By Sunday, a great convoy of vans was lumbering
up the main road towards Mandalay and away from the golden pagodas of old
Rangoon.

In the erstwhile capital, residents are baffled by this sudden exodus and
wonder if foreign diplomats and all their foreign currency may soon
follow. Protective spirals of razor wire and concrete security bunkers,
erected in front of Rangoon's foreign embassies shortly after the 11
September attacks, were inexplicably dismantled yesterday.

Not everything, however, has changed that radically: roadblocks were still
in place outside the lakeside house of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy
icon and imprisoned Nobel peace laureate.

The junta's secret dream scheme for a new command centre far away from
Rangoon was well under way even before Ms Rice stood in front of the US
Senate last January and lumped Burma together with North Korea, Cuba,
Iran, Zimbabwe and Belarus as 'outposts of tyranny.'

Quietly, the sleepy trading centre of Pyinmana has become the focus for a
mania of construction. This verdant town, where steam locomotives still
arrive pulling freight cars of sugar cane, was the stronghold of the
Japanese army during the Second World War, and is guarded by jungle-clad
hills. It was from here that Ms Suu Kyi's heroic father, General Aung San,
launched the Burmese independence movement.

With very little fanfare, the town has been refortified over the past
three years by the Burmese generals into a xenophobe's Xanadu. There are
reports that the new military complex now extends over 10 square
kilometres and that the infantry is already in place.

Immediately after the US-led war in Iraq, Burmese exiles circulated
rumours that the US would surely back regime change in south Asia next.
Any day, the Burmese bush telegraph suggested, a fleet of warships,
nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers would sail up the Irrawaddy and
launch yet another invasion.

The generals, already smarting from tough US sanctions on textile exports
and the banning of all new investment, have apparently been making serious
contingency plans, with anti-aircraft artillery and missile silos in
place. If all else fails, it seems the pariah regime could wage a
guerrilla war from the surrounding jungle, adapting the techniques of the
ethnic forces with whom they finally have signed ceasefire agreements.

Government hardliners were braced for reprisals from Washington last week
after Charm Tong, a 23-year-old Shan human rights activist, met with
President Bush and described the systematic gang rape committed by Burmese
soldiers against ethnic women inside the country.

But it is not only the worry of being branded war criminals that fuels the
junta's paranoia. Some analysts see the hand of astrology in its decision
to relocate, especially because the move appears to have been planned for
a particularly auspicious date. Like his predecessor, the dictator Ne Win,
who once insisted that every denomination of the country's currency be
divisible by his lucky number nine, General Than Shwe is known to be
extremely superstitious. It was the recent proclamation of a soothsayer
that predicted Rangoon was on the verge of 'collapse'. Informed sources
say the leader concluded the city 'must be destroyed' to save the regime.

The new capital will be officially named 'Yan Lon,' which translates as
'secure from strife;' a close cousin to 'Yan Gon', or 'end of strife', the
official name for Rangoon.

In Rangoon, where rumours circulate quickly, the new capital has been
redubbed by local wags as 'Escape City'. Just who is escaping whom is not
clear. Land has been confiscated from thousands of villagers who were
displaced to make way for the new capital. More than 5,000 more will go by
the start of next year. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has
registered complaints that labourers were made to construct camps for army
battalions and an air defence squadron.

'At least 14 villages had to provide 200 workers each on a daily basis for
the work,' said an ILO report, which the regime rejected as baseless.
Shortly afterwards, death threats were made against ILO representatives in
Rangoon, and Burma gave notice that it would withdraw from the
organisation.

There are said to be no proper primary schools in Pyinmana, a city
envisioned as a martial Milton Keynes, so families have not been commanded
to move there yet. Forced labour reportedly has, however, built government
bureaucrats a stellar golf course, next to escape tunnels, bunkers, a
military hospital, an airstrip and a mammoth hydroelectric plant to power
their mansions. A parliament building is rather a low priority in the
authoritarian scheme, at least until a new constitution is formalised.

Funding for the new capital's infrastructure comes from Chinese and
Russian investors, plus well-connected businessmen and arms dealers who
can conveniently launder their ill-gotten gains through the massive
government project. The country's most competent electricians, plumbers
and technicians have assembled a grid which will be the envy of old
Rangoon, where power cuts are routine. Pyinmana is the only place in
Burma, other than the Wa Army's collection of casinos and barracks at
Pangsang, where international telephone calls go through unhindered.

What's more, Burmese exiles in Thailand claim that the new capital will be
located conveniently close to a secret spot in the western Shan Hills
where Burma's nuclear programme is being developed. Because it is
frequently shrouded by mists, Pyin Oo Lwin, just 42 miles east of
Mandalay, will be difficult to monitor by satellite.

Burma's Information Minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, is declining to
catalogue the reasons for the government's precipitous move. Just last
month, General Maung Aye, the deputy leader, announced that the move would
be deferred until the new year. But the wishes of General Than Shwe have
obviously prevailed.

'The reason we are moving is because Pyinmana, which is in the centre of
Myanmar, is geographically and strategically located for the development
of the country,' Kyaw Hsan said, reading from a prepared statement. 'We
have made arrangements to fulfil food, shelter, education and health
requirements for the convenience of the government servants.'

When reporters pushed him to comment on any defensive military motives for
relocation, the officer gave a tight grin: 'Has there been any declaration
that the US will attack?

'If you need to communicate on urgent matters, you can send a fax to
Pyinmana,' the statement continued. 'We will send you the new numbers in
due course, and you will be informed of the date to start communicating
with us.'

The move has understandably sent shock waves through Rangoon. 'I couldn't
believe my ears when I first heard about this project,' one junior
commerce ministry official said to reporters over the weekend. 'We all
were officially informed about this only on Friday. We were shocked.'

Political pundits say moving the capital miles away is designed to further
isolate Burma's democratic opposition and limit the influence of Aung San
Suu Kyi, for whom last month marked 10 years under house arrest.
Campaigners in exile are pressing the United Nations Security Council to
demand the release of Burma's most prominent dissident, the restoration of
democracy, and freedom for 1,100 political prisoners locked up for years
in the country's jails.

Ms Suu Kyi, who turned 60 this summer, has resisted any compromise with
the ruling junta for 16 years. Her passionate calls for 'Freedom from
Fear' have echoed around the world. The UN envoy, Razali Ismail, has been
banned from seeing her for the past 16 months and any possibility of
dialogue with the generals looks increasingly remote. Meanwhile, the human
rights situation in Burma appears as abysmal as ever.

According to the latest report, submitted to the UN by the former Czech
president Vaclav Havel and the retired South African archbishop Desmond
Tutu, more than 70,000 child soldiers have been conscripted by the regime
for its fight against ethnic insurgents. They serve alongside security
forces who routinely rape civilians, torture prisoners, and execute
citizens without trial. The junta censors and wiretaps private
communications and harasses the press. Government-hired thugs disguised as
monks intercepted Ms Suu Kyi's convoy in May 2003, beat her and killed
scores of her political followers.

Mr Havel and Archbishop Tutu recommended that the UN Security Council
adopt a resolution compelling Burma to implement democratic reforms. When
the US attempted to start a formal discussion of Ms Suu Kyi's release in
the UN security Council last year, Russia and China refused to table the
motion. China, by far Burma's biggest trading partner and arms supplier,
was recently allowed to build its first military base on the Indian Ocean
on Burmese soil.

As part of a face-saving 'road map to democracy', the junta also has drawn
up a new constitution which effectively tightens its grip on power. It
reserves seats in the national and regional parliaments for the army, and
bars Ms Suu Kyi from ever becoming president. The document was completed
without any input from the National League for Democracy (NLD), her party,
which has boycotted the convention.

Ms Suu Kyi was tending her ailing mother in Rangoon when General Ne Win
staged a coup in 1988 and the military fired on student protesters,
killing thousands. After speaking out against the army's excesses, she was
taken at gunpoint and placed under house arrest the following year. The
NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, but the generals
annulled the result. Ms Suu Kyi, kept incommunicado by the junta at her
family's run down house in Rangoon, became an icon for the dispossessed
and a thorn in the junta's side.

Admirers, who fear that military spies might overhear her name and must
refer to her obliquely as 'The Lady', would throng to Ms Suu Kyi whenever
she was allowed to travel inside her country, from 1995 to 2000 and for a
few months in 2002 and 2003. Her passion for Burma meant she frequently
sacrificed contact with her two sons, who now live in Britain.

While she was locked away, her British husband, the Oxford don Michael
Aris, died of prostate cancer in 1999. Ms Suu Kyi made the painful
decision not to visit him on his deathbed at Oxford because she suspected
the generals would block her re-entry to her country. And so, while her
country changes around her, Burma's indomitable 'Titanium Orchid' remains
in Rangoon, a staunch advocate of democracy, while the generals switch
their lair and devise new ways to try to retain their grip on power.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 8, Irrawaddy
3rd Burma Media Conference

Nearly 100 Burmese journalists, reporters, writers, editors and poets from
various media organizations, together with foreign correspondents and
media consultants, gathered for the 3rd Burma Media Association conference
in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

The two day conference, which finished today, included panel discussions
and presentations on various issues such as networking, media law and
ethnic news agencies in a bid to support Burmese journalists inside Burma
and in neighboring countries such as Thailand, India and Bangladesh. The
BMA advocates freedom of expression in Burma and the protection of Burmese
journalists.

____________________________________
DRUGS

November 8, Irrawaddy
Fewer drugs in northern Thailand - Sai Silp

Pol.Maj-Gen Chamnong  Kaewsiri, Commander of Chiang Rai Provincial Police 
Board, told The Irrawaddy that narcotic drug crime cases in the eight
provinces of Northern Thailand had fallen, compared to 2004. But in the
northeast, Thai agents arrested many more traffickers and seized more
drugs.

He also pointed that more traffickers from southern provinces such as
Narathiwat, Songkla, Surat Thani and Pattalung were arrested in Chiang
Rai. He was in contact with anti-narcotics officials in the South about
the development.

Chiang Rai province is the major crossing point for drugs from Burma.
Apart from distribution in Thailand, the drugs are transported to China
and Laos. The latest official police anti-narcotics report, from October
1, 2004 to September 30, 2005, says Chiang Rai police arrested 3,420 drug
suspects in 2005 (3,728 cases, 2004 ) with 50 kilograms of heroin, about 2
million amphetamines, and other types of narcotics. About 180 million baht
was frozen.

Chamnong said drug production was constantly moving, through Burma, Laos
and Cambodia.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 8, Thai Press Reports
Foreign Affairs Minister indicates that he not received report from
Burmese government on relocation

Foreign Affairs Minister Kantathi said he has not been notified by the
Burmese authority about the relocation of the capital, but he believed the
change of Burmese capital from Yangon to Pyinmana, which is 600 kilometers
away, may be a decision made based on internal reason. He said that the
Foreign Affairs Ministry has to consider whether the relocation is
permanent, before deciding on moving the Royal Thai embassy to the new
capital. He said that he would consult the Burmese government again to
inquire about the reasons during the APEC Summit in Pusan, South Korea. He
said that it was unlikely that the change in the capital resulted from the
Burmese government's fear of attacks from the United States.

Regarding the riots in Paris, Dr. Kantathi said that the incidents have
not affected Thai people yet, and there is still no need to forbid Thai
people from traveling to France, as the situation is not that violent. He
expressed confidence that the French government would be able to fix the
problem soon.

____________________________________

November 8, Agence France Presse
Thai FM says bringing Myanmar into dialogue vital to bird flu fight

Bangkok: Thailand's foreign minister defended his country's policy of
engagement with the junta in Myanmar, saying it is needed to bring the
reclusive regime into the battle against bird flu.

Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said the junta agreed on the need
for regional cooperation and transparency to combat bird flu, which has
killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003.

'This is another example as to the importance of why we need to keep
Myanmar engaged,' Kantathi said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

'People have criticized the door that we have opened for Myanmar. The door
is to transmit information back and forth. So this is the point of
emphasis -- that the door is important,' he said.

Thailand raised the issue of bird flu when it hosted a regional summit
last week with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, pledging a 2.5-mln usd
fund to help them tackle the disease.

During the summit, Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win denied his country had
experienced any cases of bird flu, despite international concerns that its
crumbling health-care system might not be able to detect an outbreak.

'Due to nationwide precautionary measures being taken, Myanmar has no
record to date of any infectious diseases such as avian influenza,' he
said in a rare public comment on the disease.

Kantathi said all nations at the summit had agreed to boost transparency,
cooperation and information sharing to contain the deadly H5N1 strain of
the virus, which has claimed 13 lives in the kingdom alone.

'We emphasize the need for transparency and all the leaders (at the
summit) agree that we need to work closely together and share information
and do things in a transparent way,' he said.

'This point about bird flu was discussed by the prime minister of Myanmar,
who actively participated. It was his recognition that we need to work
together,' Kantathi said.

He said Thailand is also working closely with China, which may see its
first fatality of bird flu as the government is investigating whether the
death of a 12-year-old girl last month was due to the virus.

Thailand said last week it would begin producing its own generic version
of anti-viral drug Tamiflu by February, believed to be the most effective
defense against bird flu.

'We are doing our best. We have been proactive in many ways,' the Thai
foreign minister said.

'But of course it is important to emphasize that, at this point in time,
there is no immediate danger of bird flu becoming a pandemic.'

____________________________________
November 8, Thai Press Reports
Group to promote rights of Southeast Asian indigenous people

Indigenous people in Southeast Asia demand to have their voices heard, The
Nation reports. Growing human-rights violations and environmental
degradation caused by development projects in Southeast Asia have forced
the formation of a regional network among afflicted indigenous people and
rights and green groups.

The first so-called regional civic network met in Phnom Penh last week to
update and assess the situation of the lower Mekong region.

Development projects have become a major cause of environmental
degradation and human-rights violations along this part of the giant
Mekong River, delegates at the meeting said.

Energy-development projects and land-rights conflicts were among the top
issues discussed.

Indigenous people are probably among the groups most seriously affected by
development along this part of the Mekong River, speakers said.

In Cambodia some nine indigenous groups are suffering from land grabbing
by private investors amid poor implementation of land laws. In many cases
villagers are forced to sell plots, and in some cases local influential
people are involved, Cambodian villagers said.

In our tradition, land rights belong strictly to the whole community, and
we all help each other to use land for every one. Now the investors have
come in and forced us to sell. We have no concept of personal land rights,
said Kam Prae Nang Laou, 65, a mother of four from Rattanakiri province
about the threat to her community from the Cambodian government's recent
economic development.

The threat to environmental and human rights for Cambodians is also coming
from hydro projects across the border in Vietnam, activist Kim Sangha of
the Se San River Protection Network added.

The Yali Falls Dam has affected at least 55,000 Cambodians along the Se
San River who suffer every day from fluctuating water levels, which have
killed over 30 people since the dam's completion in 2000. The impact has
been that great, not to mention the ecological impact from such things as
bank erosion, Sangha said.

We see no attempt by our government to seek compensation from the
Vietnamese government. Sadly, we have heard three more dams will be built
on this river, the closest one only eight kilometres from our border.
Think how many villagers will suffer, he said.

People along the Se San River are in the same predicament as those along
the Nam Thuen in Laos, Pak Mool in Thailand and the Salween in Burma who
have just begun testing the effects of dam projects in their areas,
participants said.

The progress of human-rights and environmental degradation depends very
much on the level of democracy in those countries, Chhith Sam Ath of the
NGO Forum on Cambodia said.

Anna Malingdog of EarthRights International agreed. In Burma, she said,
minority people along the Salween were forced to relocate.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 8, Irrawaddy
Shan leaders sentenced - Shah Paung

The US State Department has condemned the long prison sentences handed
down to eight ethnic Shan politicians in Rangoon.

In a statement released on Monday, the State Department said: “The United
States condemns the secret trials and sentencing of eight Shan political
leaders to lengthy prison terms.” Sentences ranged up to 106 years jail.

The ethnic leaders from Burma’s northeast Shan State were arrested a few
days before the regime’s constitution-drafting National Convention was due
to reconvene in February, 2004. The arrests were thought to be connected
to a meeting with opposition leaders, and moves among some Shan leaders to
set up an independent state.

Those sentenced include Hkun Htun Oo, chairman of the Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy, Sai Nyut Lwin, general-secretary of the SNLD and
Maj-Gen Sao Hso Ten, president of the Shan State Peace Council and former
leader of the Shan State Army (North).

Opposition National League for Democracy lawyer Pu Cin Sian Thang
confirmed that a Rangoon court had sentenced Hkun Htun Oo to 92 years in
prison, Sai Nyut Lwin to 75 years and Maj-Gen Sao Hso Ten to 106 years.

The State Department has also called on the Burmese military government to
immediately release all political prisoners, including opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo, and to allow their full
participation in a meaningful political dialogue leading to genuine
national reconciliation and the establishment of democracy.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in the statement: “These
actions demonstrate that the junta’s so-called “Roadmap to Disciplined
Democracy” is neither credible nor inclusive.”

Cin Sian Thang, who is also a member of the Committee Representing the
People’s Parliament, added that the junta had cut the phone lines of the
detainees’ families.

Speaking of the arrests at a conference in March 2004, the junta’s
minister of information, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, said: “The activities of the
group [of Shan leaders] are very dangerous to the stability of the state
and national solidarity, and would lead to disintegration of the Union.”

____________________________________

November 8, The Nation
Burma a top item in talks with US - Sopaporn Saeung

Both countries agree to meet regularly to promote reconciliation for Burmese

Thailand and the US have agreed to regularly consult each other on
national reconciliation and democracy in military-ruled Burma.

Burma was among the strategic issues discussed during the two-day "Thai-US
Strategic Dialogue", which ended yesterday.

The talks were co-chaired by Krit Ganjana-Goonchorn, permanent secretary
at the Foreign Ministry, and Eric John, Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

Despite different approaches, both sides reiterated a shared goal in
seeing progress on democratisation in Burma, they said. Thailand supports
the junta's on-going "road-map", which is now involves initial steps
drafting a constitution, while the US believes international pressure and
sanctions are more likely to yield democracy in the military-ruled state.

The US supports the idea of Burma's situation being discussed by the
United Nations Security Council, but Thailand thinks the time is not yet
ripe.

John gave no comment when asked for his opinion on Burma shifting its
capital to Pyinmana, while Krit said the news was not new. He did not
foresee that people would move north along with the military.

Both sides agreed to draft a plan of action on bilateral ties between
Thailand and the US by February next year, Krit said. It would help shape
the direction in various fields, including security, economics and
education.

John declined to comment on a Washington Post report claiming that
Thailand was one of eight countries that had a secret jail to detain and
interrogate terrorists. He said he would not comment on intelligence
matters.

His counterpart, Krit, however, called the report "malicious" and a "total
fabrication".

The Thai-US strategic dialogue came after a 10-year pause. The last such
meeting in 1996 focused mainly on security-related issues. But with bird
flu in the region, both countries agreed to co-operate in combat a
possible avian influenza pandemic.

The US delegation responded positively on technical transfers and vaccine
research.