BurmaNet News, January 27, 2006

[Editor]

January 27, 2006 Issue # 2888


INSIDE BURMA
The Irrawaddy: Change of guard in Rangoon
Narinjara: Foreign envoys visit Northern Arakan
Kaladan: Nasaka collects bribe from newly-weds

HEALTH / AIDS
Thai Press: Thailand, Myanmar border communities to cooperate in bird flu
prevention

DRUGS
SHAN: Wrong people promoted

BUSINESS / TRADE
The Age: Burma loggers resume pirate trade
Xinhua: Myanmar to hold pearl auction in February
Narinjara: Exchange centre for Burmese currency in Bangladesh disappears

REGIONAL
IMNA: First Mon newspaper to be published in Thailand
Mizzima: India worried after UK protests aircraft sale to Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Media rights watchdog condemns censorship, attacks on journalists in
Myanmar
DVB: England Sheffield confers Aung San Suu Kyi freedom of the city

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INSIDE BURMA

January 27, The Irrawaddy
Change of guard in Rangoon

Rangoon regional commander Lt-Gen Myint Swe has been replaced by Brig-Gen
Hla Htay Win, who was commander of the 11th Light Infantry Division, based
in Rangoon.

Since last year, there has been speculation that Myint Swe, who is also
head of the military intelligence service, would be promoted to become a
member of the ruling State Peace and Development Council. Brig-Gen Tin
Ngwe takes over as commander of the 11th LID.

Informed sources in Rangoon confirmed that Myint Swe, known to be close to
Burma’s top brass, has now been promoted as head of the Bureau of Special
Operations.

Burma previously had four BSO divisions, administered by four powerful
lieutenant generals. It is believed that the new BSO will oversee Rangoon
division and may expand to include Pegu and Pyinmana—where the regime’s
new administrative city is located.

Hla Htay Win is considered to be close to junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
It is commonly known that Hla Htay Win’s promotion received blessings from
the Defense Ministry. He is known to be also close to Gen Shwe Mann,
number three man in the ruling council and currently stationed in the
Defense Ministry.

Military observers in Rangoon suspect that Hla Htay Win’s appointment is a
sign of further power consolidation by Than Shwe. Military observers say
the junta boss has frequently appointed his cronies and allies to his
inner circle, and made the final decision to promote Myint Swe.

Observers said the latest move will further sideline Deputy Snr-Gen Maung
Aye, who is also vice-chairman of the SPDC, deputy commander of Defence
Services, and army commander. Than Shwe and Maung Aye are rumored to be at
loggerheads.

The Burmese junta does not make official announcements on military
reshuffles or appointments.

____________________________________

January 27, Narinjara News
Foreign envoys visit Northern Arakan

A 24-member foreign delegation from Rangoon has been visiting Maungdaw
Township, a western border town of Burma, since January 25, according to a
NGO worker from Maungdaw.

Diplomats from 15 embassies in Rangoon, including Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Norway, Vietnam, Thailand, Sweden, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland and
France, are part of the delegation on tour.

The senior representative of the UNHCR repatriation programme in Burma is
also accompanying the diplomats.

According to sources, the foreign envoys have come to Maungdaw to inspect
several projects being constructed by UNHCR and Bridge Asia Japan in
Maungdaw Township. A townsperson said that a group of about 9 foreign
diplomats visited Shwezar Bridge in Maungdaw yesterday.

The envoys have been visiting the locations of schools, tube wells, and
bridges, which are being constructed, by UNHCR and Bridge Asia Japan
(BAJ).

It was learnt that the foreign envoys have been visiting the north of
Arakan in the early months of each year to inspect several projects
implemented by UNHCR and BAJ.

____________________________________

January 27, Kaladan News
Nasaka collects bribe from newly-weds

A Rohingya villager had to bribe Kyat 300,000 to the Nasaka
(Burmese-Border Security Force) of Buthidaung Township, Arakan State,
Burma for getting his daughter married without permission, said a
relative.

The victim was identified as Mohammad Kobir, 50, son of Noor Mohamed,
hailing from in Kyingthama Palley Daung village of Buthidaung Township. He
had to bribe the Officer of Nasaka Area No. 9, Taung Ba Zaar, Buthidaung
Township of Arakan State.

The bride Mohammad Kobir's daughter 20, got married to Kafaiyet Ullah, 22,
son of Abdul Hoque.

Their parents had jointly applied to the Nasaka authorities for a marriage
permit. Due to the unbearable delay in getting the permission from the
Nasaka, they two married without permission.

When the Nasaka Area No. 9 headquarters found about the marriage its
officer summoned the bride's father on January 1 to inquire into the
matter. The newly-weds fled from the village. The bride's father Mohammad
Kobir accompanied by Maung Loon, a Chairman of Village Peace and
Development Council (VPDC) of Ngaran Chaung village Tract of Buthidaung
Township went to the Nasaka Camp of Area No. 9 and settled the matter
after paying Kyat 300,000 as a bribe to the officer, said a VPDC member.

However, some have been getting married without permission but if the
Nasaka finds out they are arrested and fined or sent to jail, the VPDC
member added.

Some couples afraid of being sent to prison and not able to bribe the
Nasaka flee to the Bangladesh abandoning their ancestral land. Some flee
their motherland before getting married and cross the Burma-Bangladesh
border to marry, said an elder who lives in the same village as the bride.

Delay in getting wedding permits by the Nasaka forces the newly-weds to
marry without permission and then fleeing the country he added.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

January 27, Thai Press Reports
Thailand, Myanmar border communities to cooperate in bird flu prevention

Health workers from refugee camps and migrant communities on the
Thai-Myanmar border will meet with local officials and international
donors in Thailand's northwestern province of Takl on Jan. 27 to review
contingency plans to cope with a possible outbreak of bird flu.

The workshop, co-organised by the provincial public health office and the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the United Nations'
Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), is
expected to attract over 70 delegates from the provincial government,
international organisations, UN agencies, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) and embassies.

The meeting is expected to help identify key elements of an avian flu
preparedness plan to protect refugees and migrants living in crowded camps
and communities in close proximity to their livestock along Tak province's
border with neighbouring Myanmar, according to Thai News Agency (TNA).

"We also expect to come up with guidelines and a plan of action for
preventing or controlling an outbreak," said Jaime Calderon, Coordinator
of IOM's migrant health programme in Thailand. - VNA

____________________________________
DRUGS

January 27, Shan Herald News for Agency
Wrong people promoted

As the crackdown on drug suspects continues, 8 of the anti-drug officials
have been promoted, a subject that has become the talk of the town among
official circles in Tachilek, opposite Maesai:

The actual field work was done by the territorial police, Crime
Investigation Department and the Special Bureau before the Home Minister,
on receipt of the reports, issued orders to launch the crackdown, they
said. "The Mu-Yit (Anti-drug unit) cashed in only at the last minute,"
said a disgruntled police officer.

U Kyaw Hsan, a native of northern Shan State, is the head transfer of the
local anti-narcotic force. He is said to have a track record of successful
drug busts.

The police source also rejected reports about the recent of Tachilek
district police chief for negligence of duty. "He was only a temporary
substitute for Aung San Oo, who was killed a few months back (during a
raid on a drug suspect)," he explained. "He left only because the new
chief (Police Lt-Col Win Naing) has been appointed. Nothing to make a fuss
about."

According to Irrawaddy, 24 January, at least 8 people have been arrested
and 5 homes seized following a month long campaign that has resulted in
the confiscation of drugs worth $10 million, quoting an anti-narcotic task
force official.

A joint raid on Wednesday (25 January) at an Akha village in Loi Tawkham
tract, west of Tachilek, also netted 70 sacks, each containing 100,000
yaba (methamphetamine) pills. Ah Her, the local militia leader was
detained.

As for Yishay, the Lahu militia leader of Nampong, also in Loi Tawkham
tract, an arrest warrant was yet to be issued although the raid on his
camp resulted in the seizure of 400,000 yaba pills and a compressor. The
court has however issued arrest warrants for his associates Nawkham and
Kamfa. All three are still at large, agreed the sources.

"It is somewhat bizarre to us," admitted another official source. "Our
superiors don't seem to be too keen on capturing Yishay. In fact, they
have already given back his arms seized on 14 January to his deputy
Petru."

Yishay, a former disciple of Mong Tai Army leader Khun Sa, who surrendered
in 1996, is wanted in Thailand on drug charges. He has been active in the
Burma Army's numerous military campaigns against the anti-Rangoon Shan
State Army 'South'.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 27, The Age
Burma loggers resume pirate trade - Connie Levett, Bangkok
When Chinese contractors stopped illegally logging Burma's northern
forests last year after a damning report was released, environmentalists
thought they had won a significant victory.

For four months, the log trucks that had crossed the Chinese border into
Yunan province at a rate of one every seven minutes all but disappeared
from the roads, according to observers in Burma and China for Global
Witness, a London-based organisation that monitors logging in South-East
Asia.

But just as the group prepared to celebrate, the Chinese logging trucks
were back, feeding China's enormous appetite for hardwood. China banned
logging of its own land in the late 1990s because of concerns about
deforestation.

In its October report, A Choice for China, Ending the Destruction of
Burma's northern frontier forests, Global Witness targeted the Beijing
Government, believing it would be more responsive to international
pressure than Burma's military junta.

Initially, both the Chinese and Burmese governments denied the illegal trade.

However, it is the Burmese who have since shown signs that they were
taking the problem seriously, said Susanne Kempel, a spokeswoman for
Global Witness.

That may be because the illegal trade costs the Burmese junta an estimated
$A330 million a year in lost taxes. Under the illegal trade, the money is
funnelled directly to regional military commanders and semi-autonomous
indigenous "ceasefire" groups for concessions.

Last August, the Burmese northern regional commander was replaced. By
September the new commander had banned logging and locals say a
shoot-to-kill policy on illegal loggers was being enforced.

Burma's Forestry Minister then travelled to Beijing and Yunan province for
talks on the illegal border trade, according to Burmese press reports.

In January the Burmese Forestry Ministry acknowledged that 100,000 metres
of teak wood was being illegally traded in northern Burma. Global Witness
maintains that the figure for all illegal timber traded in the north is
eight times that figure.

"There were some very positive signs. The Burmese Government was not
denying (the trade)," Ms Kempel said. "A little bit of transparency is a
significant movement in Burma. We know that at the top of the Burmese
regime there is concern about loss of revenue."

With the renewal of logging, Global Witness is now looking at less
appealing explanations for the four-month halt to logging.

"It could be a concern for the environment," Ms Kempel said. But, she
said, it also could be that the motivation to stop the illegal logging was
that it hurt the treasury, that it might increase the depressed
international price for teak, and it could at the same time undermine the
indigenous ceasefire groups for whom the timber trade is the main source
of income.

"Or the new regional commander may just want to get control of the
concessions himself," Ms Kempel said.

The latest logging was definitely coming from Government-controlled areas,
she said. "It makes us question what their intentions are and whether they
are serious."

____________________________________

January 27, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to hold pearl auction in February

Yangon: Myanmar will sponsor a pearl auction in February with an aim boost
foreign exchange earning, sources with the state-run Myanmar Pearl
Enterprise (MPE) said on Friday.

The three-day Myanmar Pearl Auction-2006, scheduled for Feb. 17 to 19 at
the Inya Lake Hotel, will be held in accordance with the international
auction system and more than 100,000 pearls in lots will be sold with the
larger lots being reserved at a floor price of 10,000 US dollars, the
sources said. About 90 foreign companies will joint the event which mainly
display South Sea pearls.

Recently, Myanmar has introduced some measures to boost pearl sale
outlining them as increasing the size of pearls cultured by the
enterprise, boosting pearl output in Myanmar waters and fixing reasonable
prices for the pearls to attract foreign merchants.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has targeted to produce 100,000 units (55, 000 mommis)
of cultured pearls by 2008 under an oyster breeding program. Accordingly,
the MPE began breeding 200,000 oysters in November 2004 to achieve the
targeted result.

Oysters are bred along Myanmar's southern coast mainly on Pearl island,
Mali Island and Shwe Island, and Myanmar specializes in producing South
Sea Pearls.

According to official statistics, pearl output from Myanmar's ocean waters
was 323,481 units in the fiscal year of 2004-05, an increase from 179,295
in 2003-04.

Myanmar possesses a total pearl production area of 25,600
square-kilometers. The country started yielding pearls in 1956.

Cultured pearl production, which is undertaken at farms in Myeik
Archipelago in southern Tanintharyi division, has been up sharply since
1992 when the government launched a campaign to encourage more domestic
and foreign investment in the sector.

Of the six pearl producers in the country, there are Myanmar- foreign
joint ventures involving companies from Japan, Australia and Thailand. Of
them, the Myanmar-Japan partnership represents the biggest producer with
an investment of about 8.47 million U.S. dollars, according to the MPE.

Pearl lots, along with locally-produced quality gems, jade and jewelry,
are sold at the country's regular gems emporiums held up to three times a
year in recent years through a sale system ranging from sealed tender to
competitive bidding.

Besides, Myanmar held a special pearl emporium and design competition in
July 2003 to promote the sale of the item.

____________________________________

January 27, Narinjara News
Exchange centre for Burmese currency in Bangladesh disappears

The plummeting value of the Burmese currency by the day has forced
businessmen to abandon their currency exchange business in Teknaf, a
border town of Bangladesh. This has put Burmese traders wanting to
exchange money in Teknaf in a spot, said a local trader there.

According to border sources, Burmese traders are now taking their money
all the way to the Burmese town of Maungdaw from Teknaf, to exchange the
Burmese Kyat to Bangladeshi Taka.

Bangladeshi businessmen complained that the business of currency exchange
is not profitable any longer along the border because the value of the
Kyat is hitting a new low every day.

This apart, people are not willing to keep Burmese Kyat on hand because it
is as useless as paper.

Many currency exchange centres in Teknaf have turned to other business, so
much so that the business of exchanging currency between Kyat and Taka has
all but disappeared from the Bangladeshi town.

Along the Bangladesh - Burma border, the current exchange rate is 1 taka
to 18 kyat.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 27, Independent Mon News Agency
First Mon newspaper to be published in Thailand - Mi Loa Htaw

“Voices of Mon” the first Mon newspaper to be published in Thailand is
ready to be distributed from February.

The “Voices of Mon” will be printed both in Mon and in the Thai language
and it will cover activities of Mon people in Thailand and Mon state,
business culture and news, said the publisher Nai Ong, chairman of Thai
Raman Organization.

“We want to see Mon people understand people in Thailand,” he added. A Mon
migrant worker in Thailand Nai Sa Ha Mon also said that it is very
important for Mon people to understand people of Thailand because the
cultures are quite different.

“I think we will become more united if the newspaper can help us
understand each other,” said Nai Sa Ha Mon. “For the first time we will
distribute newspapers for free. And we want to invite our people to
subscribe to our newspaper at 200 Bath per year. So we can continue
publishing” Nai Ong said.

The newspaper will publish one thousand copies, twenty pages in Thai and
four pages in Mon language. “Actually we want to have more pages in Mon
but the problem is we don’t have enough writers who can write the Mon
language ” added Nai Ong.

Even though it is a newspaper it will be published two months at a time.
In Thai-Mon history, it will be the first such newspaper. There have been
Thai Mon newspapers before but it was only in Thai language with Mon’s
born in Thailand publishing it. But now both Mon people in Thailand and
Mons from Mon state will work together to bring out the newspaper.

____________________________________

January 27, Mizzima News
India worried after UK protests aircraft sale to Burma - Madhumita
Bhattacharya

A senior Indian official has confirmed the United Kingdom has threatened
to stop arms sales to India if the country goes through with the sale of
an aircraft to Burma.

A top official in the Indian ministry of defense told Mizzima in Calcutta
the UK had threaten to stop the sale of ten second-hand Royal Navy Sea
Harriers and jet fighters to India if officials went ahead with the
proposed resale of a UK-made BN-2 Islander aircraft to Burma.

The British High Commission in New Delhi wrote a letter to the Indian
External Affairs Ministry complaining about the coming sale, which was
then forwarded to the Defense Ministry and the Navy before Indian Navy
Chief Admiral Arun Prakash's visit to Burma from January 19 to 22.

"They made it clear that there will problems with future sales of military
equipment to India if Delhi went ahead with the sale of the Islander
aircraft to [Burma]," a top defense ministry source said in Calcutta.

The Indian Navy has reportedly said there was no resale clause in the
contract signed with British aviation firm Britten-Norman for the aircraft
two decades ago.

Burma wants the two-engine plane for maritime surveillance and aerial
ambulance missions.

During Admiral Prakash's visit to Burma, the military proposed the
creation of permanent deputation posts for Indian Navy officials in Burma
to help train Burmese sailors and officers.

"We wanted to do that deal because it would give us access to their
facilities but we could not push for closer ties because we cannot afford
to upset out hardware suppliers in the West," an Indian navy source said.

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INTERNATIONAL

January 27, Agence France Presse
Media rights watchdog condemns censorship, attacks on journalists in Myanmar

Bangkok: An international media rights group Friday accused Myanmar of
imposing severe censorship and demanded it release an imprisoned
journalist whose health has worsened due to poor prison conditions.

"The military junta seems bent on perpetuating these direct and indirect
attacks on the right to inform," Paris-based Reporters Without Borders
said in a statement.

The group demanded the military-ruled government release journalist Than
Win Hlaing "who is very ill after spending six years in terrible prison
conditions."

He was sentenced to seven years in prison for offences including
mentioning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in one of his books, the
group said.

The Nobel peace laureate has spent more than 10 of the past 16 years in
some form of detention, with virtually no contact with the outside world.
In late November, the junta extended her house arrest by another six
months.

Reporters Without Borders also voiced outrage after the military's
censorship bureau withdrew New Year's greetings written by journalists in
the Yangon Post Journal, a privately-owned weekly.

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January 26, Democtric Voice of Burma
England Sheffield confers Aung San Suu Kyi freedom of the city

The northern English city Sheffield is planning to offer Freedom of the
City to detained Burma’s democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Su
Kyi.

The award is usually conferred upon those who fight for human rights and
democracy by the mayor of Sheffield himself. The award will be given on 8
March during an official ceremony in which a play about human rights and
democracy will also be performed.

It is the second time Sheffield grants a distinguished award to Aung San
Suu Kyi. In November, Sheffield Hallam University also conferred her an
honorary doctorate degree, according to a report from the city’s
administration office.