BurmaNet News, January 5, 2005

[Editor]

January 5, 2006 Issue # 2873


INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: Shan leaders concerned over safety of commander
Mizzima: More civil servants to relocate Pyinmana in January

HEALTH / AIDS
IMNA: Medical workers afraid of treating emergency patients after MSF
withdrawal

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Norway pulls investments in seven multinationals over ethical concerns
Narinjara: Burma plans to export Arakanese natural gas to China
Irrawaddy: Burma ranked third most restrictive economy in the world

INTERNATIONAL
Christian Science Monitor: For pariah nations, 'rogue' status pays off

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 5, Shan Herald Agency for News
Shan leaders concerned over safety of commander

The exiled Shan political group, Shan Democratic Union, has expressed
serious concern over the safety of Shan State Army 'South' commander and
his 30 plus colleagues who surrendered between January 1 and 2.

In a short statement issued today, the SDU demanded that the troops led by
Lt-Col Khun Kyaw " be treated as Prisoners of War (POWs), according to the
Geneva Convention."

"Reports reaching international media indicate that the SSA-S's POWs might
not be properly treated as prescribed by the Geneva Convention."

Khun Kyaw surrendered after a four-month long hot pursuit in northern Shan
State by the Lashio-based Burma Army's Northeastern Region Command.

According to the Geneva Convention, adopted on 12 August 1949, "Persons
taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed
forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by
sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all
circumstances be treated humanely," and "Violence to life and person, in
particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture
are and shall remain prohibited at any time."

The SDU is led by Sao Sengsuk, a former SSA leader who is based in Thailand.

____________________________________

January 5, Mizzima News
More civil servants to relocate Pyinmana in January

The Burmese military has set the end of this month as the final deadline
for a second batch of government workers to move to Pyinmana.

The first group of civil servants from nine ministries including the
ministries of defense, foreign affairs, agriculture, electric power, home
affairs, and commerce moved to the new capital in November.

"We already got the instruction to move," an officer from agriculture
ministry told Mizzima.

New registration cards are to be issued for all civil servants from the
ministry listing their new address as Naypyidaw division, Naypyidaw
township, the officer said.

Many civil servants are unhappy about their upcoming move to Pyinmana as
some housing projects in the new capital remain unfinished and reports
circulate of water and electricity shortages.

Government workers in Pyinmana are housed in common male/female wards and
some low-level staff are not provided with beds. Buses from Rangoon were
made available to staff last month.

_____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

January 5, International Mon News Agency
Medical workers afraid of treating emergency patients after MSF withdrawal

Mon medical workers working in refugee camps and resettlement areas are
afraid of tackling emergency cases given the lack of support and technical
assistance following the withdrawal of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

MSF in Thailand, which was helping Mon and Karen Refugees and Internally
Displaced Persons in southern Burma by crossing the border, stopped its
operation at the end of December after MSF was denied permission by the
Ministry of Interior of Thailand to cross the border.

According to senior medical worker in Hlockhani Camp, Nai Aye Korn,
“patients from refugee camps and internally displace people requiring
emergency treatment cannot be sent to Thai hospitals.”

“Thai authorities will not allow us. Even if they do allow us, there is no
organizational support for the cost of treatment” he said.

Currently Mon medical workers, in Tavoy, Yebyu, Ye, Thanpyuzayart,
Kya-inn-seikyi, Kyait-Ma-Yaw, Kawkareit and Three Pagoda Townships are
seriously worried about undertaking treatment even though MSF has given
medicines for six months.

According to the medical worker, most patients who needed emergency
treatment were sent to Thai hospitals for better treatment and care with
the support of MSF.

Medical workers in Ta-Dane village, west of Three Pagoda Pass and refugee
camps in Tavoy district, are worried about not having enough medicine with
the growing patients list and an increase in malaria.

NMSP leaders, camp leaders and refugees are worried about what will happen
after the six month supply is gone.

“If another medical organization does not arrive or support us, there will
be a big problem. Development of refugees and their living standards will
drop,” said Nai Thay Mon Relief and Development Committee which is helping
Mon refugees and Karen Refugees in the area.

Though NMSP agreed with the Burmese military junta not to ask for any kind
of help from NGOs, the NMSP has to search for organizations that can help
them because they cannot arrange medical treatment, explained a Mon health
department official.

The main disease afflicting them is malaria and malnutrition. The patients
are mostly children, pregnant women, and jobless resettled persons.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 5, Agence France Presse
Norway pulls investments in seven multinationals over ethical concerns

Oslo: Norway has withdrawn investments of more than 500 million dollars
(413.6 million euros) from seven multinational corporations, including
Boeing and Honeywell of the US, due to ethical concerns over the groups'
production of nuclear arms components, the government said on Thursday.

The five other companies are BAE Systems of Britain, Safran of France,
Finmeccanica of Italy, and US groups Northrop Grumman and United
Technologies.

The withdrawal follows a recommendation from Norway's Advisory Council on
Ethics, which is tasked with monitoring the ethics of companies in which
Norway places its massive state Pension Fund, formerly known as the Oil
Fund.

Norway's finance minister asked the central bank, which manages the fund,
to sell the holdings, worth 3.3 billion kroner (416.2 million euros, 502
million dollars). They were sold last year, Finance Minister Kristin
Halvorsen told reporters on Thursday.

"This does not mean that there won't be other companies (excluded)... Our
work will continue," she stressed.

Norway, however, did not withdraw its stake in French oil group Total, in
line with the Advisory Council's recommendation. Total has been criticised
by several humanitarian aid groups for its controversial business dealings
in Myanmar, formerly Burma, which is run by a military junta.

"The Advisory Council... considers it likely that Total was aware of the
human rights violations that were committed and directly linked to the
construction of a gas pipeline between 1995 and 1998," Halvorsen said.

"However, it's not the history of a company but its current situation and
future that forms the basis of a recommendation" on whether to withdraw
funds, she added.

The Advisory Council said it saw "no direct link today between the human
rights violations committed by the Myanmar regime and Total's activities
in this country."

The Norwegian Burma Committee said it was "very disappointed" by the
decision.

According to the most recent statistics available, the Norwegian state
holds 0.679 percent of Total.

Norway's state Pension Fund, into which the state deposits its massive oil
and gas revenues, is one of the richest funds in the world. At the end of
September 2005, it was worth 1,281.1 billion kroner (161.4 billion euros,
195.2 billion dollars).

The sheer size of the fund enables Norway to exert pressure on companies
to ensure that their operations are ethical.

Norway is the world's third-largest oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia and
Russia.

The Scandinavian country has already withdrawn its stakes in 10 other
companies, including Thales of France, European Aeronautic Defence and
Space Company, and US groups General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and
Raytheon.

They are accused of helping manufacture cluster bombs, devices which are
particularly lethal for civilian populations.

____________________________________

January 5, Narinjara News
Burma plans to export Arakanese natural gas to China

A team of Daewoo and Burmese government representatives visited Taungup
Township between December 21 and 24, 2005 to inspect potential gas export
routes from Arakan State to China.

There were four representatives from Daewoo, two from the state-run
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), two from the private firm Asia
Wealth, and two from the government Public Construction Department,
according to a source close to one of the companies involved.

Nan Maung and San Paw were the representatives from MOGE, Kyaw San Hla and
Myo Khin Tun were the representatives from Asia Wealth, and Hla Yee and
Wai Moe represented the Public Construction Department.

The team visited Magaee Kyan, an offshore island between Taungup and
Manaung, on the December 21 to inspect the surrounding waterways in the
area. The team was met by the commander of the Western Command, General
Khin Maung Myint.

On the following day, the delegation inspected the route between Maee -
Latt Pann - Linn Ree - Lae Tuu in Taungup Township, followed by the route
between Taungup and Min Don, Magway Division in central Burma on December
23.

According to a reliable source in the region, the tentative plan is to
transport the gas through a pipeline that will run from the sea through
the Arakanese Mountains from Taungup Township to Mindon in central Burma.

>From Mindon, the pipeline will run through Minbu, Yenangyaung,

Kyaukpadaung, Popa, and Pyin Oo Lwin into Shan State. In Shan State, the
gas pipeline will pass through Nawnghkio, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Lashio, Hseni,
and Mu-Se into Yunan, China.

Though some initial planning has been carried out, no official
announcement has been made regarding the pipeline from either the Burmese
government or the companies involved

____________________________________

January 5, Irrawaddy
Burma ranked third most restrictive economy in the world - Clive Parker

Burma has been ranked third from bottom in a new survey monitoring global
economic freedom, with researchers reporting a small improvement in the
country’s business environment over the past 12 months.

The Washington-based Heritage Foundation—a think tank focusing on
economics—ranked Iran and North Korea as the only countries with more
restrictive economies than that of Burma in its report released yesterday.

“Pervasive corruption, nonexistent rule of law, arbitrary policymaking,
and tight restrictions on imports and exports all make Burma an
unattractive investment destination and have severely restrained economic
growth,” it said.

Burma’s overall performance was deemed to have improved marginally,
particularly in regards to monetary policy and government intervention in
business, although researchers admitted that data for the country was
“unreliable.”

A particular area of concern remains the ability of foreign businesses to
operate in Burma. The report said that many overseas-based companies have
been unable to renew business licenses since February 2002 and are often
subject to arbitrary rules imposed by the military government.

“This
 has disrupted the business of many foreign investors, and forced
closure of several foreign manufacturing firms,” says the US Department of
Commerce.

While Burma’s economy ranks poorly in a global context, one business owner
in Rangoon said the economic climate had improved dramatically since Burma
moved away from its socialist program in 1988.

“We feel lucky because we can do business,” he said. “One way of looking
at things is the only way is up.”

“Wouldn’t it be amazing one day when we are not in the least 20 [in terms
of economic freedom].”

Agriculture is one notable area of progress in Burma’s “highly-restricted”
economy, he said. The junta maintains a ban on the export of a number of
food stuffs in a bid to keep domestic prices low, but some crops—including
onions—have been deregulated recently, the junta issuing export licenses
in a bid to increase the flow of foreign currency into the country.

As the Heritage Foundation says though, Burma’s economy is far from
achieving international standards of freedom. Studies in previous years
show that progress is often undermined by periods where restrictions are
re-imposed.

As the Rangoon-based business-owner said, the Burmese economy is unlikely
to witness substantial progress for some time.

“There’s still a long way to go,” he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 5, Christian Science Monitor
For pariah nations, 'rogue' status pays off - Howard LaFranchi

Washington: Iran's announcement this week that it will resume nuclear fuel
research and North Korea's warning that it will snub further nuclear
nonproliferation talks because of US actions indicate that this year, like
the last, will revolve to a fair degree around actions of the world's
pariah nations.

Yet even as countries such as Iran, North Korea, and Burma adopt public
positions sure to isolate them further from the rest of the world, many
experts say there are rational explanations for what these outcast regimes
say and do.

Moreover, experts add, the rise of a powerful friend abroad - China - may
serve to encourage pariah states to stand up to international pressure,
and even to taunt the global community with more outlandish acts and
statements.

"A certain amount of what we hear from these countries' leaders is
bluster, but we also have to figure they mean what they say," says Thomas
Sanderson of the transnational threats project at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies. "They believe they are upholding some truth,
but it is also how they remain in power."

This motivational mix - ideology and political pragmatism - appears to be
true for the reigning global-outcast champs, Iran and North Korea.

How to respond to such countries is not an academic question, experts say,
given the gravity of the issues involved - including nuclear proliferation
- and the time and energy the US expends on them.

But why would a new leader of a country already under scrutiny act in ways
guaranteed to heap scorn on his regime, as did Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad when he recently depicted the Holocaust as a "fairy tale" and
publicly attacked Israel's right to exist?

In part, the Iranian leader may be pursuing a particular view of Iran's
role in the Muslim world. Mr. Ahmadinejad subsequently told the national
security council of Iran's parliament that reaction to his Holocaust
comment had been "positive," according to Iran's state news agency. The
report paraphrased the president as saying, "the Islamic world was getting
passive and extinguished [on opposing Israel] and needed a shock on the
basis of truth."

Internal politics also play a role, says CSIS's Mr. Sanderson. "These
people have an external audience, but they also have an internal audience
they have to deal with," he says. "Ahmadinejad is trying to isolate those
... who would work with the US and rally support among groups that aren't
so enthusiastic about his leadership."

Ahmadinejad is indeed "appealing to his base," says Mark Palmer, vice
chairman of Freedom House in Washington. But he is also revealing who he
is, and to that extent his pronouncements are "helpful," he says, "because
they clarify for us what the regime is about. This is not tactical."

Iran's president is also playing politics with the nuclear issue, knowing
that many Iranians see the nuclear program as an expression of nationalist
ambitions, analysts say. On Monday, Iran informed the International Atomic
Energy Agency that next week it will resume "nuclear research" for its
"peaceful nuclear energy program," a designation that in the past has
covered for experimentation in uranium enrichment. The news placed a
question mark over Iran's agreement with European countries to suspend
such work and drew a US warning of possible "additional measures to
restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions."

A similar calculus is at work in North Korea, experts say, where the
regime stokes a sense of threat from the outside to further its chief
goal: retaining control.

"Real or imagined threats from the US are used by the regime ... to
inculcate a kind of siege or bunker mentality in the people," says Marcus
Noland, a North Korea expert at the Institute for International Economics.

Ideology and pragmatism factor into Pyongyang's actions as well, Mr.
Noland says. The regime's periodic threats to cooperate even less with the
outside world - such as Monday's warning to the US about financial
sanctions it has imposed - are aimed at a domestic public that has been
wriggling under government control.

Videos and tapes of South Korean soap operas have been flooding the
country, Noland notes, prompting police to search homes to learn who is
watching what. Such moves are evidence that the regime fears losing
control of the public, he says.

One US response to pariah provocations has been to draw international
attention to them. The State Department publishes a list of countries that
violate their citizens' right to religious freedom, for example. That and
similar lists uniformly include Iran, North Korea, and Burma.

But such public condemnations may become less effective with the emergence
of a global power that often appears on those same lists: China.

"As China emerges as a bigger bankroller and a bigger market, it emboldens
these other countries to continue acting the way they do," says Sanderson.
"If you look at who backs these regimes," adds Palmer, "time and again
it's China." To counter that influence, the US must be more, not less,
engaged with the outcasts - specifically their people, says Mr. Palmer.