BurmaNet News, February 8, 2006

[Editor]

February 8, 2006 Issue # 2896

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Rangoon aid agencies await their fate
AFP: Newspaper presses to start rolling at Myanmar's new capital
DVB: Burmese PM not sure where to fly to China from
IMNA: Military keeps up heat on people following blast
Xinhua: Newly-built hotels in Myanmar new capital to open next month: report

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Rape claim at refugee camp
Irrawaddy: New round of migrant worker registration nears

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima: Consultant to study Indo-Burma gas pipeline routes

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Indian president urged to postpone Burma visit

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: US eyes push on Myanmar abuses with Asian help
WebIndia: Myanmar poses security concern to neighbours, says US official

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 8, Irrawaddy
Rangoon aid agencies await their fate - Clive Parker and Yeni

Burma’s military government may be planning to implement further
debilitating restrictions on humanitarian agencies in Burma, according to
a recently distributed document— despite the official presentation of
softer guidelines to representatives of the international humanitarian
community in Rangoon on Tuesday.

UN and other international aid workers left Tuesday’s briefing on the new
formalized rules for UN and NGO offices “optimistic” that a new government
proposal to hold frequent dialogues—every one or two months—with aid
workers might represent an opportunity to resolve recent problems.

“It is the first-ever guidelines [that have] come out officially
which is
a positive step,” Bhim Udas, chief representative of the World Food
Program, said after the session.

However, the existence of a similar but more detailed document drawn up by
the Burmese Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development,
following a meeting between Prime Minister Gen Soe Win and concerned
ministers on January 5, suggests the government may be about to impose
constraints on international humanitarian offices, which aid workers deem
unacceptable.

These guidelines—which the UN received unofficially, and indirectly, and
then distributed to its various offices a week ago—say that all aid
workers would have to be accompanied by a representative of one of several
junta-affiliated groups, including the Union Solidarity and Development
Association.

The International Committee of the Red Cross recently suspended prison
inspections throughout Burma after local-level USDA members insisted they
supervise meetings with detainees.

Patrick Vial, the ICRC’s chief representative in Burma, has said the
impasse was likely the result of a misunderstanding at the regional level.
But this recent insight into the junta’s plans suggests the policy of
supervising humanitarian programs generally has been rubber-stamped by the
prime minister. The ICRC has said it hopes to resolve the matter in
ongoing discussions with the government. Vial was unavailable for comment
today.

If the policy were to be formally introduced, the UN and other aid
agencies would almost certainly feel unable to continue normal operations
in Burma.
The text that we were given [at Tuesday’s meeting] was actually far less
restrictive than the text that was circulating underground

Other points of concern include the provision that international aid
offices would only be able to recruit Burmese staff from a list drawn up
by the government, a condition imposed in only a handful of countries
including North Korea and formerly in Vietnam.

The document also states that all funds would have to be deposited in the
government-owned Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank, and withdrawn in foreign
exchange certificates. The worry is that each FEC would then have to be
exchanged at the official rate of 450 kyat. The street rate is nearer
1,100 kyat, which in turn is roughly equal to one US dollar. If such a
measure were to be imposed, the junta would effectively be making huge
profits on international aid money through manipulation of the exchange
rate, sources say.

Adding further confusion to the situation, guidelines jointly distributed
on Tuesday by Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Minister of National Planning and
Economic Development Soe Tha and Minister of Home Affairs Maj-Gen Maung Oo
make no mention of these conditions.

“The text that we were given [at Tuesday’s meeting] was actually far less
restrictive than the text that was circulating underground,” a
humanitarian worker told The Irrawaddy.

Although these guidelines list objectives including the protection of
“national interests” and prevention of moves that may “jeopardize state
sovereignty”—as in the case of the original document—it does not mention
the USDA or restrictions on recruiting local staff. Tuesday’s guidelines
also make no mention of how funds would have to be deposited in Burma.

The main change to the existing situation—which is outlined in both
documents—means that the Ministry of National Planning and Economic
Development would take over from the Ministry of Home Affairs as the
junta’s main liaison with the UN and NGOs. The move means that Soe Tha
would become chairman of a new coordination committee, with Nyan Win as
vice-chairman and a host of other ministers, including Maj-Gen Maung Oo,
as members.

The chief UN Coordinator in Burma, Charles Petrie, in responding to the
briefing told the three ministers that the humanitarian community in Burma
welcomed the opportunity to hold frank dialogue with the government, also
highlighting the three humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality
and neutrality.

Petrie will now meet other UN heads in the next few days in order to
receive feedback on how to proceed in what remains an unclear situation.
Meanwhile, humanitarian workers in Rangoon are left wondering what was the
motivation behind the government’s decision to suddenly address the issue.

While most aid workers expressed relief at the outcome of Tuesday’s
session, one high-level aid worker said both sets of guidelines point to
more problems in the future: “I fear we’re going to see [the situation]
slide further,” he told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

The WFP’s Udas insisted that recent developments would not affect his
agency’s operations: “It’s business as usual,” he said.

International aid workers in Burma say they will use the opportunity to
communicate with the government to press for fewer restrictions, as they
enter a critical 12 months with more pressing humanitarian needs in Burma.
The UN and NGOs are currently preparing to begin programs to address the
threat of bird flu, further compensate for the loss of Global Fund money
to tackle HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and launch a far-reaching
measles campaign at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Burma’s humanitarian community will wait to see which of the
two sets of guidelines the government will eventually follow.

____________________________________

February 8, Agence France Presse
Newspaper presses to start rolling at Myanmar's new capital

Yangon: Myanmar's shift to its new administrative capital is taking
another step towards completion with state-owned newspapers to begin
rolling off the presses there Thursday, an official said Wednesday.

Three state-owned newspapers will be published and distributed to
government ministries that have been relocated to the new capital in
Pyinmana, north of Yangon, an interior ministry official said on condition
of anonymity.

"Our staff there have already tested the printing machines," he told AFP.

Military-run Myanmar has three daily state-run newspapers -- the
English-language New Light of Myanmar and the Myanmar-language Myanmar
Ahlin and Mirror newspapers.

The ruling junta hopes to finish moving government ministries and the
military headquarters to Pyinmana by the end of February, Information
Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan said last week.

Several three-star hotels are under construction at the logging town in
central Myanmar, and at least one is expected to open in March, a weekly
newspaper reported Wednesday.

Two hotels and several guest houses already in Pyinmana forbid foreign
guests, hotel sources told AFP.

Whether foreigners are permitted to stay over night in Pyinmana in the new
hotels, or whether they will be for Myanmar nationals only, remains
unclear.

Some government offices will start working in Pyinmana this week, even
though they don't all have telephone lines yet, a senior home affairs
official said Saturday.

Myanmar's notoriously secretive rulers abruptly announced in November they
were moving the government to Pyinmana.

Speculation about the reason for the relocation ranges from the junta's
fear of a US invasion to astrological predictions and worries over
possible urban unrest in Yangon.

____________________________________

February 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese PM not sure where to fly to China from

Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Prime Minister Gen Soe Win is reported to be not sure which airport he is
to depart from for his upcoming friendship trip to China and civil
servants are in a state of confusion as to how to make preparations.

According to an unidentified civil servant from the Prime Minister Office,
those accompanying Soe Win are not sure whether they are to go to Aye-la
Airport near Pyinmana or Rangoon Mingaladon Airport, and those who are
seeing him off don’t know where to go to either. To make the matter worse,
Soe Win himself doesn’t know where to go, the civil servant added.

Another civil servant confirmed the report and said that the decision will
be made by the SPDC chairman Gen Than Shwe, but there had been no order
forthcoming from him. But he added that they are likely to fly from
Mingladon Airport as planned originally.

Soe Win is scheduled to visit China on 14 February.

____________________________________

February 8, Independent Mons News Agency
Military keeps up heat on people following blast

Despite the shock of the gas explosion decreasing by the day, the military
government has kept up the heat on the people of the area.

The troops arrested a former militia leader on February 6 and more than 10
villagers including the secretary of the Village Peace and Development
Council (VPDC). They were sent to the Military Southeast Region in
Moulmein on suspicion of being involved in the gas explosion, according to
a source closed to the VPDC.

Some Burmese people were beaten up by the military and travel is
restricted in the blast area. The military has been checking the
registrations of family members (Burmese call it Poun zan Thit hse) of
Burmese people from upper Burma who work in the area, local people
claimed. Troops have been targeting people of Burmese nationality because
they believe Burmese men from Thailand caused the explosion.

Moreover many villagers around the explosion site are being forced to
patrol the pipeline to ensure its security after the explosion on February
1 night.

About 35 villagers from each village near the blast site are patrolling
the Kanbauk- Myaing Kalay pipeline near their villages every night and
day, said the source.

Guarding the pipeline is the responsibly of the military government. It is
not the responsibly of the villagers, Nai Kasauch Mon, a director of Human
Right Foundation of Monland (Burma) said.

“Guarding the pipeline means trouble for the villagers because the
responsibility is that of the army,” according to Nai Kasauch Mon.

Their livelihood is being disturbed because of they are being forced to
patrol. the gas pipeline, he added.

Most of the explosions in the gas pipeline occurred in Mon State and
two-thirds of the pipeline passes through Mon area. The pipeline crosses
farmlands, rubber plantations, several villages, and some towns.

____________________________________

February 8, Xinhua General News Service
Newly-built hotels in Myanmar new capital to open next month: report

Yangon: Some newly-built hotels in Myanmar's new capital of Pyinmana will
open next month to facilitate people traveling to the new capital for
official business with government departments, a local press media
reported Wednesday.

As part of the hotel projects being implemented with momentum in the
designated hotel zone in Pyinmana, the hotels to be opened for operation
were built by four private construction companies, of which the Maz
Myanmar is leading, followed by Htoo, Asia World and Adin, the weekly
newspaper 7-Day quoted construction sources as reporting.

All of these hotels are all of three-star grade, the sources said.

There was only one private-owned and relatively up-to-standard hotel in
Pyinmana which is the Phoenix before the government ministries moved from
Yangon.

Meanwhile, the authorities assured that relocation of Myanmar's capital to
Pyinmana would not effect the country's tourism industry operation, saying
that despite move of the ministry's offices to Pyinmana among others, the
information counter and the Myanmar Hotels and Tourism Services (MHTS)
will remain stationed in Yangon to facilitate formality process dealing
with visa arrival, visa extension and application for traveling remote
areas in the country.

The Myanmar government started last Nov. 6 moving its administrative
capital from Yangon to Pyinmana, a plain land in the central part with
mountain ranges in the west and the east and 390 kilometers north of
Yangon, saying that the move is to enable effective administration over
the whole nation from the central part.

As of now, almost all ministries have moved out from Yangon and office
works have started in Pyinmana since last Saturday, official sources
confirmed.

Involving dozens of construction companies under contracts with a work
force of about 40,000, the building of the administrative offices and
residential quarters for thousands of transferred civil servants as well
as other infrastructures such as airfield, hospital and electric power
plant at the new capital have almost been completed and expansion of the
"Pyinmana special region development project" is underway, local sources
said.

With the relocation of the capital, the Myanmar government has established
a new military command headquarters for the new capital of Pyinmana. The
special headquarters is believed to command the new capital and areas
around Pyinmana.

In addition to Pyinmana capital military command headquarters, there are
also 12 regional command areas in Myanmar at present including Yangon's
and Mandalay's.

Pyinmana was once an area where the Myanmar Armed Forces based before the
country regained independence in 1948.

With Pyinmana being transformed into a capital for the country' s central
administration, Yangon is seen to be remained as a commercial capital.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 8, Irrawaddy
Rape claim at refugee camp - Shah Paung

The Karen Women’s Organization is investigating allegations that a
14-year-old Burmese Karen girl was raped by a Thai soldier on Monday, one
day after Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had visited her refugee
camp.

KWO officer Ler Pwe, who has taken responsibility for the case, told The
Irrawaddy that the rape occurred near the Mae La refugee camp on the
Thai/Burmese border, when the girl, who had only been at the camp for one
month, was out herding goats with her 7-year-old brother. A Thai soldier
is believed to have approached the pair, raped the girl twice and offered
30 baht (less than US $1), which was refused. The brother and sister then
ran back to Mae La and reported the incident.

Vice-chairman of Mae La camp committee Saw Jollay confirmed the incident
would be reported to the Thai authorities but said they had so far been
unable to identify the soldier in question. “It is difficult to
investigate this kind of case,” he said, “because there are many Thai
soldiers at checkpoints near our camp, and we do not have a clear
description.”

Similar incidents have occurred at the Mae La camp in recent years. In
2003, a 13-year-old girl was raped by a Thai soldier and the case reported
to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As punishment, the
soldier was ordered to pay a small fine and moved to a different posting.
After a similar incident in 2004, the soldier in question ran away before
a punishment had been decided. “We worry that it will happen like this
again,” Jollay said.

____________________________________

February 8, Irrawaddy
New round of migrant worker registration nears

Thai labor officials are preparing for a new round of migrant workers’
registration in March by setting up “one-stop service points” at ten
locations in Bangkok and on the Thai/Burmese border in Mae Sot, Tak
province. Immigration police, labor officers and public health officers
will be on hand to receive license applications from employers and
interview migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia. Applications will
also be taken for public health insurance. An amendment to the existing
migrant worker registration procedure, which first came into effect in
2004, means that employers will now have to pay a cash guarantee of up to
50,000 baht (US $1,250) for each employee.

Last year the total number of registered migrant workers in Thailand was
close to one million, with most—more than 200,000—based in Bangkok,
according to figures from Thailand’s Department of Provincial
Administration. Next to Bangkok, most migrant workers—over 120,000—were
registered in Tak province. After March 30, migrant workers discovered
without the necessary documentation will be detained and face
repatriation, a Mae Sot labor official confirmed to The Irrawaddy today.
____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 8, Mizzima News
Consultant to study Indo-Burma gas pipeline routes - Syed Ali Mujtaba

India has appointed Brussels-based company Suz Tractebel to consult on
alternative routes for a gas pipeline from Burma to India, bypassing
Bangladesh.

Burmese authorities have been pressuring the Indian government to come up
with alternate routes for the pipeline that do not involve Bangladesh.

Indian officials were also prompted to make the move by Burma's singing of
a lucrative gas agreement with China.

India's state-owned GAIL Limited, which is in charge of the pipeline
project, announced the decision to commission SUZ Tractebel as a technical
consultant yesterday.

SUZ Tractebel have been instructed by GAIL to, "carry out a study for
preparing the detailed feasibility report, environment management plan and
rapid risk analysis study report for the [Burma]-India pipeline project
via the northeast Indian territory," according to a GAIL statement.

The company has been given three months to come up with the reports.

"The proposed pipeline will be routed through the states of Mizoram,
Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. The pipeline will also have the provision to
transport gas from developing gas fields in Tripura and Assam," the GAIL
statement said.

In a letter to the Indian petroleum ministry last month, Burma assured the
country it had sufficient gas reserves to meet the needs of both China and
India but said India would have to wait until May for third party
consultants to confirm reserves before export deals were finalised.

Burma confirmed the A1 block in the Shwe field contained 2.88 trillion to
3.56 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and is waiting for assessments
from several other fields including the Mya1 well in the A3 block.

GAIL and ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of India's Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation, hold 30 percent stakes in Burma's A1 and A3 blocks.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 7, Mizzima News
Indian president urged to postpone Burma visit - Mungpi

Indian president APJ Kalam should postpone his planned visit to Burma in
March according to human rights workers, politicians and journalists in
New Delhi.

Participants of a two-day National Reconciliation in Burma seminar in New
Delhi urged the president yesterday to delay his visit until National
League for Democracy leader Aung San Su Kyi was released from house
arrest.

B.B Nandy, a former additional secretary of the government of India, said
he was strongly opposed to the presidential visit.

“We are very much against it . . . conditions there are not conducive. The
visit will not serve any purpose accept boosting the military regime,”
Nandy said.

Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights and
co-organiser of the seminar criticised India’s stance on Burma and said,
“It has been a shame that India has not been able to demand even the
release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Kalam told reporters in Singapore last week he planned to visit Burma in
what would be the first official trip to the country by an Indian head of
state since 1987.

Participants also expressed concern over the Burmese military’s
involvement in drugs and arms smuggling across the Indo-Burma border.

“India is greatly affected by what is happening in Burma. So, India has a
vital national interest in ensuring that Burma gets democracy, and human
rights violations in Burma be stopped and drug traffic, arms smugglings be
prevented,” said Nandy.

Participants in the seminar, organised by ACHR and Mizzima News, also
drafted a nine-point list of demands to be submitted to the Indian
government and Ministry of External Affairs.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 7, Reuters
US eyes push on Myanmar abuses with Asian help - Paul Eckert

Washington: A U.S.-led drive for political change in Myanmar is winning
key support in Asia as refugees and other troubles caused by the military
junta spill over borders, American officials said on Tuesday.

The officials told Congress the Bush administration would step up
diplomatic pressure after progress last year in getting Myanmar discussed
by the U.N. Security Council and in convincing neighboring states to raise
their voices.

"The current regime's xenophobic, ever more irrational policies are
driving the country relentlessly downhill in a manner that increasingly
harms and threatens Burma's neighbors and the broader region," said
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. diplomat for
Asian affairs.

He told the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human
Rights and International Operations that Washington was lobbying countries
worldwide to build "strong, consistent international pressure on the
regime to implement change."

"Increasingly, other governments, along with parliamentarians and the
media, understand that the situation in Burma must change, and they are
starting to speak out," Hill said, using the country's former name.

Myanmar's neighbors, long reticent on human rights abuses in the country,
were increasingly alarmed over drug exports and the threats of diseases
such as HIV/AIDs and malaria, as well as millions of refugees and
migrants, he said.

CHINA BACKS JUNTA

China has bucked moves to censure its close friend Myanmar, a source of
timber and minerals for China's economy. Beijing announced on Tuesday it
will host Myanmar Prime Minister Soe Win next week and sign bilateral
trade and economic deals.

But Hill said that even Beijing was impatient with Myanmar, which experts
say has spread drugs and HIV/AIDS into China.

"Chinese officials, while yet to speak out publicly about the situation in
Burma, have privately noted their concerns, and we are engaged in an
active dialogue with them," he said.

The United States wants Myanmar to free Nobel laureate and democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 1,100 other political prisoners, restart
dialogue with the political opposition and to end curbs on U.N. agencies
providing humanitarian aid.

In late 2005, following a high-profile push that included U.S. President
George W. Bush hosting Myanmar refugee activist Charm Tong at the White
House, the country was taken up in an informal Security Council briefing
and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations began to prod Myanmar to
reform.

U.S. lawmakers are expected to renew a ban on imports from Myanmar under
the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which is due to lapse in summer.

Hill said Myanmar, with two-way trade of just $5 billion, shunned trade as
part of "paranoid" efforts to close its doors to the outside world -- a
mind-set he said that prompted the junta to move its capital into the
wilderness last year.

Assistant Secretary of State Barry Lowenkron told the subcommittee that
Myanmar's abuses were a global concern.

"Forced labor, trafficking in persons, use of child soldiers, religious
discrimination, rape, torture, execution and forced relocation,
particularly of citizens belonging to ethnic minorities, are the order of
the day," he said.

____________________________________

February 8, WebIndia
Myanmar poses security concern to neighbours, says US official

Washington: Myanmar's ruling military junta poses a security concern to
the country's immediate neighbours and the broader region, a senior US
official has said.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Christopher
Hill said neighbours of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, ''have
particular reason to be concerned because many of the country's growing
problems will not stay within its borders.'' Mr Hill was testifying before
the Asia and Pacific Sub-committee and the Africa, Global Human Rights and
International Operations Sub-committee of the House Committee on
International Relations, yesterday.

The Burmese government's economic policies have severely hurt the economy,
which remained stagnant in 2005, he said asserting that inflation might
have risen as much as 50 per cent.

Citing the regime's failure to devote resources to health and education,
the Assistant Secretary said, ''HIV infections are on the rise (in
Myanmar) and there are high rates of tuberculosis and malaria.'' The
country could have unreported cases of avian influenza in both poultry and
humans, which would have global health implications, Mr Hill said.

''Burma remains the world's second largest producer of opium, and
production of amphetamine-type stimulants is on the rise,'' he said,
adding ''90 per cent of the heroin in Southeast Asia comes from Burma.''
In separate testimony, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human
Rights and Labor, Mr Barry Lowenkron cited forced labour, trafficking in
people, the use of child soldiers and religious discrimination as serious
human rights concerns in Myanmar.

''The regime's use of forced labour is particularly common in regions with
ethnic and religious minorities,'' Mr Lowenkron said, adding that the
military had persecuted Muslim and Christian communities in Myanmar's
western Chin State, adjoining India.

Mr Hill and Mr Lowenkron both called on Myanmar authorities to immediately
release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political
prisoners.

They have called on authorities to initiate a credible and inclusive
political process, grant access for UN representatives and lift
restrictions on UN agencies and NGOs providing humanitarian relief.