BurmaNet News, February 23, 2006

[Editor]

February 23, 2006 Issue # 2906

INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: Length of convention rests on USDA
DVB: Shut up or be shut in: Burma junta warns crackdowns on opposition
Kaowao: Confiscated farmland turned into brick kilns for building military
camps

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Dhaka frustrated with slow repatriation of Burmese refugees
Irrawaddy: Opposition groups deny involvement in May bombing
IMNA: Mon national conference to be held in April

ASEAN
AFP via Jakarta Post: Indonesia hints at raising democracy issue in Myanmar

REGIONAL
Yonhap: Calls rise for review of 1983 Rangoon bombing by North Korea

INTERVIEW
DVB: Interview with Aye Tha Aung of CRPP on NLD’s Union Day special statement

___________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 23, Shan Herald Agency for News
Length of convention rests on USDA

The duration of the on-and-off going National Convention will not rest on
the assurance given by Gen Than Shwe to the UN chief last April that the
constitutional process would be completed by the end of 2005 but only on
how soon the junta's quasi-political organization will prove up as a full
fledged political party, according to two convention delegates.

"As soon as the Kyant-hput (the popular derogative name for the Union
Solidarity and Development Association  USDA) is set, you can bet the NC
(National Convention) will take no more than 3-days to round off," said
one delegate from Shan State. "But by the look of things, the process may
eat up another 3 years to complete."

The other delegate, concurring with the first, said the reason for the
indecision is that the 22 million member USDA, formed in 1993, is woefully
short of politically motivated people. "There are only two things that
motivated the majority of them to become members:

    * Anticipated personal gains
    * Fear of consequences if one refuses to join"

His township, for instance, boasts nearly 30,000 members. "But how many of
them can the generals trust to vote in their favor during the referendum
(to ratify the draft constitution) and subsequent general elections? They
know they'll be lucky if they get 1,000 votes."

Meanwhile, the National Unity Party (NUP) formerly the ruling Burma
Socialist Program Party (BSPP), that had championed the military's cause
during the 1990 elections has somehow run out of its favor, after winning
only 10 seats. "Apart from letting them hold meetings, Rangoon has done
very little to sustain the party," said the first delegate. "Perhaps they
want to keep it as a spare party."

Apart from the USDA, the military government has also reportedly been
forcing women to join the Myanmar Women Affairs Federation (MWAF) head by
Prime Minister Soe Win's wife, Daw Than Than Nwe.

___________________________________

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Shut up or be shut in: Burma junta warns crackdowns on opposition

Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw San warned that effective actions will
be taken against all political parties including the National League for
Democracy (NLD) as they are operating against the existing laws, according
to a report by Xinhua.

Kyaw San accused pro-democracy political activists inside Burma of trying
to destroy the country by using foreign powers and attempting to incite
the international community to pile more pressure on the military
government.

He added while the junta is ‘vigorously’ working hard for democracy,
domestic political forces should be following the existing laws – meaning
military rule. Some parties are not obeying the laws, but working towards
confrontations with the military government, Kyaw San said during a news
conference at northern Shan State town Lashio on 22 February.

Observers said that it is a thinly-veiled threat by the junta on the NLD
for urging the junta to carry out urgent political reforms for the sake of
the country and the people – in a special statement issued on Burma’s
Union Day, 12 February.

___________________________________

February 22, Kaowao News
Confiscated farmland turned into brick kilns for building military camps

The State Peace and Development Council has been confiscating land in Mon
State to build camps for forced labour for brick kilns. The bricks are
used to construct military camps, according to a young Mon
environmentalist.

“I want to do research on the brick industry in Ye Township because these
operations are having a huge impact on the local people and the
environment. They (Burmese military) have not only confiscated the land
but are destroying it by digging large pits to dig clay for making bricks
used to build army bases. The pits are as big as soccer pitches and are
about 10 to 30 meters in depth. We will not be able to grow anything in
the future,” says Nyan Seik, an environmental researcher and a recent
graduate from the Nationalities Youth Forum Programme based in Chiang Mai.

About seven to eight acres of confiscated land are being used for the
Burmese military’s brick kilns that render the land useless. Mon farmers
face instant impoverishment and have no hope of regaining their land when
the transitional period comes.

Many have fled as migrant workers to Thailand. Villagers who could not
flee are forced into making the bricks, a labour intensive operation which
requires villagers to work up to 12 to 15 hour shifts each day. “They
stand all day long making bricks, moulding the clay with their hands into
bricks which are dried in the hot sun, then they’re fired in a kiln,” Seik
said. “I guess about 5,000 bricks are made a day,” he added. Some of the
bricks are sold to the locals.

Another major problem is that trees from the surrounding forests and from
gardens belonging to local people are being cut down for fuel to bake the
bricks, which leads to deforestation and erosion. And the huge pits, along
with the erosion will spoil the water wells.

Over 10 new battalions have been set up in southern Mon State since 1995
after the New Mon State Party agreed to a ceasefire with the Burmese
government.

Unofficial estimates by sources reckon that about 10,000 acres of land
were confiscated by the SPDC military in Ye township, who exploit every
available niche to build new military camps in keeping with its to its
self- sufficient policy.

___________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 23, Mizzima News
Dhaka frustrated with slow repatriation of Burmese refugees - Siddique Islam

Officials in Dhaka have expressed their frustration over the slow
repatriation of Burmese refugees living in long-term camps in Bangladesh’s
Cox’s Bazaar district.

Bangladesh’s foreign minister, M Morshed Khan, reportedly told the
country’s new United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
representative, Pia Prytz Phiri, on Wednesday he was unhappy with the
process.

Sources in the foreign ministry told Mizzima Khan asked Phiri for the
process to be sped up during a meeting between the two at Khan’s office
when Phiri presented her official letter of accreditation yesterday.

Phiri reportedly said she would look into the matter.

There are more than 20,000 Burmese refugees, mainly Muslims from Arakan
State, living in the Kutupalong and Nayapara camps in Cox’s Bazaar.

UNHCR has started the voluntary repatriation of 236,618 of the 250,000
refugees in Bangladesh.

____________________________________
February 23, Irrawaddy
Opposition groups deny involvement in May bombing - Yeni

An association of Thai-Burmese border-based opposition groups today denied
the Burmese government’s accusations that they were involved in a series
of deadly bombings in Rangoon last May.

The Thailand-based Network for Democracy and Development said such charges
have become routine with Burma’s ruling junta. “They have made such
charges many times before,” Htay Aung, the NDD spokesperson, told The
Irrawaddy by phone on Thursday.

According to state-run newspapers, Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan
said that 27-year-old Yunod, also known as Aung Cho Oo, was arrested as a
"terrorist" with the NDD.

The organization was founded in 2001 by former members of the All Burma
Students’ Democratic Front, which continues its armed opposition to
Burma’s military government in eastern Burma.

On May 7 last year, four bombs exploded at Dagon Center and Junction-8
shopping centers, and at the Yangon [Rangoon] Trade Center, where a Thai
trade fair was in progress. The near-simultaneous explosions killed 23
people and injured more than 150, according to official reports. Witnesses
in Rangoon, however, claimed that the casualties were much higher than
government figures.

The junta was quick to blame several dissident groups based along the
Thai-Burmese border.

At a Tuesday briefing in Lashio, in Burma’s Shan State, Yunod told
reporters that he wasn’t involved in the bomb blasts, but was ordered by
Thein Win, who was described by government officials as a leader of the
NDD, to gather intelligence about security around the bombing sites.

A Rangoon-based journalist told The Irrawaddy that the charges don’t hold
up. “The government is still lacking hard evidence, and basically it’s the
same old theory.”

The ABSDF also denied any involvement in bombings, but the group
acknowledged that Khun Kyaw, who was arrested last month along with some
50 other rebels from the Shan State Army (South), was a former member of
the ABSDF.

The junta has accused Khun Kyaw—also known as Myint Soe and Thangyaung—of
leading the notorious Kachin Massacre on February 12, 1992, in which 15
ABSDF soldiers were killed by fellow members on suspicions that they were
spying for Rangoon. During the Lashio briefing, authorities used testimony
from seven survivors of the massacre to support charges of torture and
killing by Khun Kyaw.

Burma’s information minister also said during the briefing that two
members of the ABSDF had been arrested in the northwestern border town of
Tamu—about 820 kilometers (510 miles) north of Rangoon, near the Indian
border—for two explosions last month at a busy weekend market that injured
two people.

Last month two Burmese pro-democracy activists were arrested by an
unidentified armed group in Moreh, India. The raid might have been carried
out by Burmese troops or a proxy militia comprising border-based Manipuri
rebels, local activists said.

____________________________________

February 23, Independent Mon News Agency
Mon national conference to be held in April - Loa Htaw

A conference to find a solution to the problems plaguing the Mons will be
hold in April. Representatives of Mon nationals worldwide will
participate, according to a decision of the implementing committee.

The implementing committee of the Mon national conference held a meeting
recently and decided to hold a conference on April 25 said Nai Suthorn, an
implementing committee member.

“One obvious issue to discuss in the ensuing conference is to prevent the
Mon people from disappearing from their own state as more and more Burmese
from upper Burma migrate to Mon land because of a government policy” said
Nai Suthorn general secretary of Mou Unity League.

He added, “Mon people have migrated to other countries and the Burmese
migrated to Mon land. These are two different issues. The Mon people will
go back when they have enough money for investments in their hometown and
they can’t stay in other countries forever without citizenship. But the
Burmese have citizenship and they can stay in Mon land forever.”

“We are afraid that the Mon people, Mon language and Mon literacy will
disappear and they will become landless when they go back home” he said.

Mon national conference has been held annually from 2003 based on these
objectives and to make of Mon people aware about the rights of
self-determination. “The purpose for holding the conference is to make Mon
people take interest in celebrating the Mon National Day and to acquire
more rights regarding Mon literacy in Thailand.” Nai Suthorn said.

"We also want our people to talk about their problems to the
representatives from the areas so we can discuss and find solution in the
conference, " he added. In the ensuing conference in April,
representatives from both inside the country and Europe, US, Canada,
Australia, Malaysia among others will be involved.

____________________________________
ASEAN

February 23, Agence France Press via Jakarta Post
Indonesia hints at raising democracy issue in Myanmar

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who will visit
military-ruled Myanmar next month, may raise the issue of its transition
to democracy, his spokesman said Thursday.

Yudhoyono is due to arrive in Myanmar, which is under increasing pressure
from other Asian nations to show evidence of its reform efforts, for a
two-day visit from March 1.

"The president will meet with Senior General Than Shwe and the emphasis of
the talks will be on bilateral issues" covering diplomatic and economic
topics, spokesman Dino Patti Jalal told reporters.

Asked whether the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
or the issue of Myanmar's so-called roadmap to democracy would be raised,
he said: "The issues will be bilateral, but the possibility is not
foreclosed that this will also be discussed."

He added that Indonesia would "assist, if we are asked by Myanmar, to
implement their road map to democracy."

Indonesia's foreign minister said in January that Yudhoyono or a special
envoy was planning to visit Myanmar in order to recount to the junta how
Indonesia underwent its own transition fromauthoritarianism.

Yudhoyono's visit comes as Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar is
trying to finalize a date to go to Myanmar as an envoy of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations to check on its progress towards democracy.

Myanmar is holding Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house
arrest, and her National League of Democracy has been blocked from taking
office despite winning elections in 1990.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 23, Yonhap News Agency
Calls rise for review of 1983 Rangoon bombing by North Korea - Kim Hyung-jin

Twenty-three years after 17 high-ranking Seoul government officials were
killed in a North Korean bombing in Burma, now Myanmar, the full truth may
be known soon as one of the Northern communist agents involved wants to
live in South Korea, according to a South Korean lawmaker.

On Oct. 9, 1983, a powerful bomb demolished the Martyr's Mausoleum in
Rangoon, now Yangon, just before visiting South Korean President Chun
Doo-hwan was to pay homage there.

The mausoleum is a major national sanctuary in Burma where the body of the
country's founding leader Thankin Aung San is buried. The late patriot is
the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, a prominent opposition leader in Myanmar.

Chun escaped unhurt as his motorcade was delayed by a few minutes due to
traffic congestion. Seventeen South Koreans, including four Cabinet
members, who lined up, waiting for the president's arrival, were killed
instantly.

Those killed also included four Burmese nationals. Some of the 46 people
injured were South Korean journalists accompanying their president. Burma
was their first stop on a six-nation Asian tour.

Chun cancelled the rest of his schedule, returned to Seoul and pinpointed
North Korea as the culprit. North Korea denied involvement but Burma, with
evidence, publicly incriminated Pyongyang and severed diplomatic ties with
it.

According to Burma's official reports, three North Korean agents detonated
by radio one of the three pre-planted bombs in the roof of the mausoleum.
However, they did so prematurely as a presidential bugle mistakenly rang
out a few minutes early to signal Chun's arrival.

After the bombing, the communist trio -- an army major and two captains --
fled the scene, but two days later, one of them was shot to death and two
others were arrested after failing to blow themselves up with hand
grenades

One of the two captured agents was later executed by hanging but the
other, identified by Burma as Kang Min-chul, was kept alive because he had
cooperated with the Burmese investigation into the case.

The incident has drawn renewed public attention in South Korea as Rep.
Chung Hyung-keun of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP), who
once worked for the government's main intelligence agency, said recently
that the surviving communist agent, Kang, has expressed his hope to settle
in South Korea.

""The government should bring him here to get to the bottom of this kind
of barbaric act and record it in history,"" Chung said through his aide,
Park Woong-seo.

Some believe that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il should be held
responsible for the Rangoon bombing, because he, as a key party official,
was deeply involved in day-to-day state affairs, including the North's
policy toward South Korea.

Kim Jong-il officially took over power when his father and president, Kim
Il-sung, died of heart failure in 1994.

On Monday, the opposition lawmaker introduced a petition calling for the
National Assembly to urge the Seoul government to make efforts to obtain
Kang's release from prison and bring him to Seoul.

""Related authorities should make efforts to take custody of Kang, the
sole survivor who is a living witness to this historic incident,"" said
the petition, signed by 56 retired soldiers, civic activists and other
ordinary citizens.

According to the lawmaker's office, the communist agent, now 50, was first
sentenced to death but later had it commuted to life imprisonment. The
agent lost his right arm when he tried to kill himself by detonating a
grenade but generally is in good health, it said.

South Korean government officials said they have no immediate plan to seek
Kang's release from Myanmar.

""This is a very sensitive issue, so all related government ministries
should coordinate,"" said Kim Dong-chan, an official at the Southeast
Asian affairs bureau at Seoul's Foreign Ministry.

""First, we have to check whether Kang really became an inmate sentenced
to life in prison and wants to come to the South,"" another ministry
official said, requesting anonymity.

Myanmar's Embassy in Seoul said it is aware of the news on Kang but has no
knowledge of whether its government will allow him to fly to South Korea.

""We don't know what is going on in Yangon,"" said Kim Jung-hwan, a Korean
spokesman at the Myanmar Embassy.

A military junta took over Myanmar in 1988. It has since brutally cracked
down on pro-democracy protests. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, has been under house arrest for most of the past 18 years.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Interview with Aye Tha Aung of CRPP on NLD’s Union Day special statement:
Part - I

Aye Tha Aung first told DVB the essence/summary of the latest Committee
Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP) in Rangoon as follows:

ATA: Especially, the National League for Democracy (NLD) members explained
to us the NLD’s statement issued on the Union Day (12 February). We held
discussions based on this.

DVB: As you did that, what is the CRPP position on this? Did you support
it or not?

ATA: The NLD explained to us the matter concerning the statement. All the
CRPP members who attended the meeting agreed with them. We, the CRPP
(members) will issue a statement tomorrow.

DVB: You must have listened to the radio. The NLD did that without
consulting the CRPP and the like were reported. How do you explain that?

ATA: In my opinion, the NLD had to issue (the statement) by looking at the
time and situation. We can understand. If I have give my own opinion, the
statement issued on the Union Day mainly comprises of the call for Hludaw
(parliament) and it is not against the CRPP’s policies. Another thing, if
the present military government accepts the facts in that statement, it is
necessary to hold discussions on these facts and there is a potential to
have discussions on a table. All CRPP members agreed and accepted it.
Another thing, as for the affairs of the ethnic nationals, ethnic national
parties and the NLD have never worked cheek by jowl. During the 17 years,
we had worked and cooperated through many kinds of difficulties and dire
straights. As we have been cooperating thus, when it comes to the ethnic
national affairs, ethnic nationals put forward their views and the NLD
leaders hold similar views – therefore we were able to work together
pragmatically. Therefore, what I want to say is, in this day and age when
we are fighting for democracy, we all accept that we need to substantiate
the rights of ethnic nationals at the same time. We are also contriving
thus. We are working together because the NLD leaders are clear on issue
this and agree with us.

DVB: Another thing – in the NLD’s Union Day’s statement, there is the
deadline of 17 April. What does the CRPP think of this?

ATA: Things are like this. The NLD statement says 17 (of April) – which is
the New Year day for the people of Burma. It is an auspicious occasion.
Especially if the present military government accepts the proposal of the
NLD, the prescribed time is neither a long one nor a short one and I think
it is a suitable one.