BurmaNet News, March 9, 2006

[Editor]

March 9, 2006, Issue # 2915


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar and India sign natural gas deal
Irrawaddy: A growing Tatmadaw

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: China urged to end illegal timber imports

DRUGS
SHAN: Anti-drug officers torture suspect to death

ASEAN
AP: Malaysian foreign minister 'still hopeful' about trip to Myanmar but
no date set

REGIONAL
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: China offers to consult neighbours on
controversial dams

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burma’s human rights record slammed in US report
Inter-press Service: Swiss group's Burma withdrawal highlights junta
attitude to outside help

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: Democracy or hypocrisy? - Kanbawza Win
Asian Tribune: The most distinguished journalist of Burma has to celebrate
his 76th birthday in jail - Zin Linn

PRESS RELEASE
Earthrights International: Documentary about Doe v. Unocal wins Vaclav
Havel Award at One World Film Festival

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 9, Agence France Presse
Myanmar and India sign natural gas deal

Yangon: India and Myanmar agreed Thursday to consider ways of transporting
natural gas from fields off western Myanmar to the energy-hungry giant
next door, officials said.

The deal, along with two other pacts on satellite imaging and education,
was signed after talks between visiting Indian President Abdul Kalam and
junta leader Senior General Than Shwe in Yangon.

But India's top foreign ministry official Shyam Saran told reporters in
Yangon that they did not discuss the house arrest of Myanmar's
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"It did not come up in the talks," he said.

Kalam's visit, the first by an Indian head of state to Myanmar, has
focused on business interests between the world's largest democracy and
its military-ruled neighbor.

India has been jockeying with China to tap Myanmar's natural gas reserves
off the Arakan Coast, and is already involved in exploration projects in
Myanmar waters.

India has been trying to negotiate a three-billion-dollar deal to run a
pipeline from Myanmar and across Bangladesh to the eastern Indian city of
Kolkata, but has failed to make any headway in the talks.

The agreement signed Thursday would also allow studies into running a much
longer pipeline through northeast India, which borders Myanmar, or
converting the gas to liquefied natural gas for shipping

China and Myanmar have already signed a deal to allow China to study
building a pipeline from the Arakan Coast to its Yunnan province.

The satellite deal would allow Myanmar to use Indian satellite imagery,
which could be applied to agricultural projects or to survey for minerals.

The third deal agreed to improve cooperation in Buddhist studies.

The rest of Kalam's trip aims at furthering business ties, including a
dinner with the Chamber of Commerce on Friday before he leaves on
Saturday.

The United States and European Union impose sanctions on Myanmar for its
suppression of the pro-democracy movement. Despite the human rights
concerns, India has sought to strengthen ties with Myanmar since the 1990s
as it tries to compete with China for regional influence.

During US President George W. Bush's visit to India last week, he and
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deplored human rights abuses in
Myanmar and called on all nations to seek Aung San Suu Kyi's release.

She has spent more than 10 of the past 16 years under house arrest.

____________________________________

March 9, Irrawaddy
A growing Tatmadaw - Aung Zaw


>From its modest origins in the years following independence from Britain,

Burma’s Tatmadaw has pushed in recent years to modernize and expand
and to
further secure the power of the country’s ruling generals

Burma’s Tatmadaw (armed forces) has always exhibited a vigorous
nationalistic quality. In the early years of the country’s independence
from Britain, the government faced strong challenges from armed ethnic and
political insurgents. The appeal to nationalism, and an emphasis on
preserving the sovereignty of Burma, were perhaps more comprehensible at
that time than in the country’s modern age of military despotism, which
makes a mockery of the generals’ frequent appeals to national unity and
its “shotgun” diplomacy with respect to domestic matters.

Since the failed democratic uprising in 1988 and the present regime’s
seizure of power, Burma’s armed forces have steadily increased in size and
sophistication, an expansion that has always been justified by appeals to
national unity and independence. Put another way, Burma’s military growth
has been fueled by appealing to the fears of internal or external
disruptions.

This point was made explicitly—and ironically—clear during a speech by
Snr-Gen Than Shwe at this year’s Independence Day commemoration in
January. “Nowadays, brazen annexation of a nation with the use of force is
not as popular as before. However, it is found that some big nations are
essaying to interfere in the domestic affairs of others and influence
their political, economic, social and cultural traditions.”

The junta has always feared its own people and dealt savagely with any
challenge from within. A recent top-secret document obtained by The
Irrawaddy reveals just how deeply the regime fears external
interference—particularly from the West.

The document records the heightened concerns of top military leaders in
Burma over the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003. In it the
generals show a marked preoccupation with the US military’s
state-of-the-art weaponry, and they assert that the country’s operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan have more to do with demonstrating US military
might and impressing the world than pacifying rogue nations and combating
terrorism.

Army commanders are repeatedly admonished to prepare their troops to be
vigilant and to create alternative command posts in the event of an
invasion. Portions of the document also exhort regional commanders to
bolster their local defenses by stepping up training for fire brigades and
organizing local war veteran associations.

According to the document, the junta has also issued small arms and
provided platoon-level training for members of its pseudo-political
organization the Union Solidarity and Development Association.

Most analysts and Burma watchers believe that a direct US invasion of
Burma is unlikely, but the country’s top generals betray in the document
their lingering paranoia and an obsession with security—an issue that has
traditionally been used to justify the strengthening of Burma’s armed
forces.

No available official data exists on the junta’s defense spending, but
western defense analysts and independent reports indicate that levels have
now reached as much as US $1 billion. The sale of oil and gas to
energy-hungry neighbors has produced large cash reserves that could
potentially fund further expansion of the country’s armed forces.

In the years following independence in 1948, the Burmese military was
poorly funded, ill-trained and faced significant armed opposition from
ethnic and political insurgents. Perhaps its greatest challenges came from
the CIA-backed Kuomintang forces in northern Burma and the China-backed
Communist Party of Burma.

To combat growing instability, the military began to expand in the 1950s
and particularly following Gen Ne Win’s military coup in 1962. Burma has
purchased weapons from a variety of sources, including India, Pakistan,
Israel, France, Italy, Poland, Germany and Yugoslavia. It also received
smaller-scale pre-sanctions assistance from the US and UK, though
successive government leaders would spurn any further assistance from
these sources.

Having acquired equipment to outfit the country’s fledgling air force and
navy, Burma’s war machines fell into disrepair in the years leading up to
1988. Warships were incapable of maintaining effective coastal security,
and many of the country’s jet fighters could no longer fly. Burma lost
considerable ground in military readiness to regional neighbors such as
Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, all of whom were outfitted with
sophisticated modern jet fighters and warships from western nations.

In contrast to the military government’s weak coastal and air defenses,
the Burmese army gained a reputation as one of the toughest guerrilla
forces in the region, second only to Vietnam. The army had gained years of
experience in a jungle warfare campaign against insurgents. Their skills
in urban warfare, as well, were later honed during a series of nationwide
uprisings and student protests that culminated in the bloody crackdown in
1988. It was at this time that the newly installed commander-in-chief,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, began to use the annual Armed Forces Day to articulate
his plans to modernize Burma’s armed forces.

Those plans included raising troop strength in the army to some 400,000
active duty soldiers. Recent reports suggest that the generals have
achieved that mark, but with one important drawback. Most have little, if
any, combat experience, and morale within all branches of the military has
plummeted.

American scholar Mary P Callaham suggests in her book Making Enemies, War
and State-Building in Burma that the country’s military may not be as
effective a fighting force as it was once believed to be. “Officers as
high-ranking as majors and in some cases lieutenant colonels today
probably have less experience fighting wars than trying to build roads.”

Recent steps have also been taken to bolster Burma’s air and naval forces.
The presence of US warships off the coast of Burma in 1988 pointed up the
fact that the country had little capability to defend its coasts against
military aggressors, let alone illegal fishing vessels from neighboring
countries. Efforts have been taken in recent years to improve coastal
surveillance and signal intelligence capabilities. Some western defense
sources suggest that Burmese leaders have been eager to install radar
systems to warn against seaborne attacks. In 2003, Burma considered
purchasing two mini-submarines from North Korea, but the plan was
subsequently scrapped. Burma has also consulted with China on technical
and strategic matters related to the navy.

Most recently, Burma has turned to India for acquiring warships and
training in ship-building. In January 2006, Indian Vice Admiral Arun
Pradesh met top junta leaders, including Than Shwe, reportedly to discuss
upgrading Burma’s navy using Indian technology.

Burma has also attempted to improve the country’s air force. In the last
two decades, the junta has purchased jet fighters from China and
negotiated with India for other aircraft. Burma’s military acquired 12
MiG-29 jet fighters from Russia in 2001, and analysts believe that the
junta is negotiating for medium to long-range air-to-surface
missiles—useful for ongoing counterinsurgency campaigns, but also an
obvious attempt to upgrade its air defenses against a better-equipped
Royal Thai Air Force that has a fleet of more than 30 substantially more
sophisticated American-made F-16 fighters. Thailand, however, has far
fewer troops.

Despite significant efforts to improve all branches of Burma’s armed
forces, the Tatmadaw will require many years to fully update troop
strength, infrastructure, maintenance and repair, and equipment of its
forces. It is likely that, even under a democratic government, elected
leaders will adopt a similar stance as the current military government on
the need for a well-trained and well-equipped national army.

Where a democratically elected government will differ from Burma’s current
leaders, however, is on the crucial issue of refurbishing the image of the
country’s armed forces. No more will they be the pawns of despots, charged
principally with perpetuating a military state and subjugating the
civilian population.

And if democracy is ever to thrive on Burmese soil, the country needs to
establish a truly professional and volunteer army, led by civilians and
charged with protecting the national interests of all Burma’s citizens,
rather than enforcing the political policies of a ruling elite.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5537&z=102

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 9, Irrawaddy
China urged to end illegal timber imports - Khun Sam

London-based environmental watchdog Global Witness says China must act on
a pledge to end the illegal import of Burmese timber. In a press release
issued Wednesday, the group accused the regional superpower of felling
trees in other countries, while protecting its own forests. It also said,
however, that China appears to have finally decided to crack down on the
flourishing cross-border timber trade.

Mike Davis of Global Witness said in the press release that the Chinese
government’s move “represents a welcome, if overdue, first step” but that
they now need to act on that pledge.

A recent article in China’s People’s Daily Online quoted State Forestry
Administration spokesperson Cao Qingyao as saying that China enforces
rigid control over imports and will firmly crack down on illegal
deforestation and illegal imports. It was also announced that China has
committed itself to “only allow in timber [from Burma] which has been
lawfully licensed.”

The Global Witness release said that it had found evidence of ongoing
illegal logging during an investigation in February: “At least 150 loaded
log trucks are crossing the border from Burma into China every night.”
Illegal cross-border timber trade between Burma and China now stands at
more than 1.5 million cubic meters per year, according to the report, with
an approximate value of US $350 million.

“The Burmese and Chinese governments must move decisively to close the gap
between the increasingly encouraging rhetoric and the reality on the
ground,” said Davis, adding that “they must convert their promise into
action.”

In late January, Global Witness also revealed that Burma’s military junta
had started cracking down on illegal logging, but seemed motivated more by
short-term political and security objectives than by concern for
sustainable management of forest resources.

____________________________________
DRUGS

March 9, Shan Herald Agency for News
Anti-drug officers torture suspect to death

In Muse northern Shan State, Burmese anti-drug officers had tortured a
civilian suspect to death, and refused the victim’s family to hold
funeral, according to sources from the border.

On 6 March evening Mr. Lao Mong, 52, a native Chinese went to visit his
friend’s house, Law Ja. He found 8 Burmese anti-drug officers inspecting
Lawkya’s house, but having found nothing they took Lao Mong back to his
house at Kawngmooloi No. 79 and inspected, but again found nothing
illegal. Then the officers took him away to be interrogated.

His family went to the police station, but did not see him. Later, when
they learned that his body was at the hospital, they prepared a coffin and
went there to ask permission to take it back home.

But the officers replied that the body would have to be operated to find
out the cause of his death.

It was around 6 pm the anti-drug officers took Lao Mong to the Muse
hospital. Many people, including nurses, witnessed evidence of torture on
his body.

On 7 March, the officers informed the victim’s family that they could take
his ashes back, but refused to reveal where they cremated his remains.

____________________________________
ASEAN

March 9, Associated Press
Malaysian foreign minister 'still hopeful' about trip to Myanmar but no
date set - Tini Tran

Hanoi: Malaysia's foreign minister said Thursday he is "still hopeful" of
making a planned trip to Myanmar to monitor its progress toward democracy
but has so far gotten no response from the country's military leadership.

"I'm still hopeful but there is no fixed date. I'm still waiting," said
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar during a press conference held in Hanoi
for his two-day visit to Vietnam. "We have requested for some dates to be
able to go. At present, Myanmar has not responded yet."

The veteran diplomat was chosen by the 10-country Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) to visit Myanmar to verify the junta's claims that
it is making progress toward democracy.

"I have got a specific agenda that was agreed to at the ASEAN summit and
agreed to by Myanmar themselves for the purpose of assisting Myanmar to
allay the fears of the international community in terms of Myanmar's
direction," he said.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been an international pariah since its
military rulers refused to turn over power after opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, now under house arrest, won elections in 1990 by a landslide.
Western nations have pressed ASEAN members to pressure Myanmar to restore
civilian rule.

Syed Hamid said he hoped the junta would permit the visit before a foreign
ministers' retreat in Bali, Indonesia, scheduled for mid-April.

The Malaysian minister was in Vietnam for talks on expanding bilateral
cooperation in trade, investment and science.

The foreign minister, who arrived in Hanoi with his wife a day earlier,
was greeted by his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Dy Nien, at the
government guesthouse.

The two men retired for a half-hour of private talks before Syed Hamid
emerged to co-chair the fourth meeting of the Vietnam-Malaysia joint
commission for economic, technical and scientific cooperation. The body,
established in 1995, discusses political and security issues as well as
cooperation in trade and investment.

After the meeting, the two agreed to focus on increasing bilateral trade,
which hit US$2.2 billion last year, and expand cooperation in the field of
oil and gas exploration.

The foreign minister also was scheduled to meet with President Tran Duc
Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai later in the day. He was to depart
on Friday after visiting the Temple of Literature, a historic Hanoi
landmark.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 9, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
China offers to consult neighbours on controversial dams

Beijing: China's foreign ministry on Thursday offered to consult
neighbouring countries on controversial plans to dam the Nujiang river,
which flows through south-western China into the Salween.

Chinese officials will take "full consideration" of the possible effect on
downstream nations and want to hold "friendly consultations" on plans to
build a string of dams for hydroelectric power plants along the Nujiang,
ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

Quin told reporters that the Chinese government will take a "sincere and
responsible" attitude in finalizing its plans for the Nujiang, which runs
parallel to the Lancang, which flows into the Mekong.

Consultations with neighbouring countries would cover both the usage and
environmental protection of the river, he said.

The Salween river flows through Myanmar (Burma) and forms part of the
country's border with Thailand.

The issue of the development of the Nujiang, which flows through a poor,
mountainous area of China's Yunnan province, has prompted strong debate in
China in the past two years.

The central government appears likely to approve the plan in some form,
but it suspended the project in late 2004 for a further
environmental-impact assessment.

The Nujiang prefectural government is promoting a plan to build up to 13
dams along the river as a pillar of its economic development.

But the Nujiang attracts some of the millions of relatively wealthy urban
residents who now travel to China's remotest corners for holidays, and
opponents said the dams will irreversibly change the pristine environment
in the deep valley.

In one editorial, the official China Daily accused urban opponents of the
dams of hypocrisy.

"They enjoy a wealthy lifestyle, created by pollution-creating
developments within the cities they live in, yet ask the poverty-stricken
residents living in underdeveloped regions to maintain their 'original
lifestyle' and preserve the 'natural beauty,'" the newspaper said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 9, Irrawaddy
Burma’s human rights record slammed in US report - Shah Paung

Human rights abuses by Burma’s military government increased last year,
according to a comprehensive report by the US State Department. The
22,000-word report, released in Washington yesterday, listed more than 20
areas where “serious abuses” had occurred.

The report documented killings, torture and rape, disappearances,
arbitrary and political arrests, forced relocation and confiscation of
land and property, forced labor and recruitment of child soldiers,
religious discrimination and human trafficking.

Not only the Burmese regime and its armed forces came in for strong
criticism in the report, which said ethnic armed groups were also guilty
of serious abuses—“although to a lesser extent than the government.” The
report specifically named the Karen National Union, the Karenni National
Progressive Party and the Shan State Army-South, saying there were
allegations against them of “killings, rapes and forced labor.”

Some ceasefire groups, such as the United Wa State Army and the Karenni
National Peoples Liberation Front, “also reportedly committed similar
abuses against civilians in their home regions. Armed groups and ceasefire
groups also practiced forced conscription of child soldiers.”

The bulk of the report described human rights abuses by the government and
its armed forces. Several pro-democracy activists had died while in
custody “under suspicious circumstances,” and conditions in Burma’s 35 or
so prisons and around 70 labor camps “generally remained harsh and
life-threatening.” The government continued to deny prisoners adequate
medical care, the report charged.

The regime also “routinely used arbitrary arrest and incommunicado
detention,” and at the end of 2005 there were some 1,100 political
prisoners in Burmese jails, where torture was reportedly routine.

Killings, rape, arbitrary arrests and forced relocations reportedly
occurred in areas where the Burmese armed forces operated. “According to
credible reports, on July 11, 27 Karen villagers, including children, were
massacred by the Burmese army after being arrested for allegedly having
contacts with the KNU,” the report said. “The villagers were internally
displaced persons, who had been hiding in the jungle on an island off the
coast of Palaw Township, Taninthary [Tenasserim] Division.”

Addressing the area of civil liberties, the report said the regime
continued in 2005 to restrict freedom of speech and of the press “severely
and systematically.” Many prominent writers and journalists remained in
prison for expressing their political views.

Restrictions remain firmly in place on religious freedom. “The government
did not hesitate to arrest and imprison Buddhist monks who opposed the
government,” the report said.

____________________________________

March 9, Inter-press Service
Swiss group's Burma withdrawal highlights junta attitude to outside help -
Marwaan Macan-Markar

The Burmese military's decision not to allow the Geneva-based Centre for
Humanitarian Dialogue to renew their stay permit for Rangoon has
highlighted the junta's attitude toward international groups operating in
the country, according to Burma watchers.

CHD has been given until the end of March to vacate its Rangoon office out
of which it ran a political reconciliation program that began in August
2000. The independent center's representative in Rangoon, Leon de
Riedmatten, had to leave late last month February, when the junta refused
to renew his visa.

"We were informed of this decision verbally," Andrew Andrea, head of
communications at CHD, told IPS in a telephone interview. "We weren't
shocked but disappointed. It will make our job more difficult."

CHD, which has a record of helping resolve conflicts in Indonesia, the
Philippines and Nepal, has been left with no choice but to close down its
office in the Burmese capital and consider working from Bangkok.

While devastating for the group, the junta's decision, however, has
brought to light the sensitive work de Riedmatten and his staff
accomplished in creating conditions for dialogue between senior military
officials and opposition groups.

The latter included Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, when she was
free from house arrest, members of her political party, the National
League for Democracy and leaders of the country's ethnic communities.

CHD's role is also believed to have enabled United Nations envoy for
Burma, Razali Ismail, to pursue his work as an intermediary between
Burma's strongman, senior general Than Shwe, the former prime minister
Khin Nyunt and Aung San Suu Kyi during a one-year period that ended in May
2003.

"Before the CHD, there wasn't any notable foreign organisation prepared to
help with the reconciliation process in Burma. And Leon had very good
contacts with high level offices in the military government that helped,"
said Soe Aung, spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma,
an umbrella organisation of 30 political Burmese exiled groups.

The leaders of several countries, including the United States, Britain and
the European Union, also consulted with CHD staff while shaping their
policies on Burma.

"Many governments had a steady dialogue with us, because they knew we
talked to all the parties," said Andrea.

CHD's success in Indonesia last August – where a peace agreement was
signed between Jakarta and rebels fighting for a separate state in the
northern province of Aceh – was a high point for the group.

The achievement, which began with CHD-initiated dialogue between the two
warring parties in 1999, brought to an end a 25 years of ethnic conflict
that has claimed 10,000 lives.

"CHD's approach helped create the right conditions for the subsequent
peace talks," Surin Pitsuwan, Thailand's former foreign minister, who was
involved in that reconciliation effort, told IPS.

"It offered itself as a non-threatening player from the beginning and then
worked on preparing the psychological conditions for peace to be
acceptable as a viable option."

But the junta's tough stance toward the group has caused hope for a
similar success to dim. The military's decision not to allow the group to
stay in Burma shows they are in no mood to negotiate over the future of
the country.

The eviction notice given to CHD will only worsen Burma's position within
the Association of South-east Asian Nations, members of which have already
started to criticise the country.

This month, Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo revealed the
increasing difficulty ASEAN members are having when dealing with Burma,
when he suggested to Singapore's parliament that Rangoon's intransigence
was leaving the regional group little option but to "distance" themselves
from the military regime.

On Tuesday, Malaysia's foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters in
Kuala Lumpur that a planned trip to Burma this month, to monitor the
progress of democracy, had again been stalled by the junta.

"Stopping CHD's work is another case of the SPDC wanting to play
hardball," said Surin.

"They are telling the world they don't want facilitation from outside."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 9, Mizzima News
Democracy or hypocrisy? - Kanbawza Win

Just days after United States president George W. Bush and Indian prime
minister Manmohan Singh jointly declared their solidarity with Aung San
Suu Kyi, India has launched a bold new attempt to schmooze Burma’s
military.

Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, along with other high-level Indian
officials, is in Rangoon relishing the junta’s hospitality. His visit
marks the highest-level diplomatic interaction between the two countries
in almost two decades.

In the past ten years relations between Burma and India have warmed
considerably and India’s ‘Look East’ policy has meant greater trade and
cooperation. India’s leaders are obviously worried by the close ties
between Burma’s generals and China and have chosen engagement for economic
benefit over promoting democracy and human rights.

And if the junta is embracing a visit from the leader of the world’s
biggest democracy, they must be sure they have nothing to fear in terms of
political pressure.

In fact, India has helped the Burmese military attack and oppress
pro-democracy activists on the India-Burma border. Indian authorities have
also been accused of killing Arakan rebels and attacking ethnic Chin.

Burma’s generals are clearly convinced that India is about as concerned
with democracy in Burma as they are.

Instead of calling for the release of political prisoners in Burma,
president Kalam is set to talk about military and strategic cooperation,
oil and gas and security.

According to sources, India is also planning to offer Burma the specialist
assistance needed to build war ships, train military personnel and sell
the generals three nice new naval aircraft at a discounted price.

It is ironic that India promotes itself as a bastion of freedom in Asia
but is dealing with Burma in much the same way as long-time rights abusers
in China.

At last India has sacrificed her democratic ideals for a slice of
western-style hypocrisy.

____________________________________

March 9, Asian Tribune
The most distinguished journalist of Burma has to celebrate his 76th
birthday in jail - Zin Linn

U Win Tin, former editor-in-chief of Hanthawaddy Newspaper and secretary
of National League for Democracy Central Executive Committee, celebrates
his 76 th birthday on March 12 in the notorious Insein Prison, where
nearly 100 political activists died in recent years. He has been
languishing in Special cell No.10 for the past 17 years. He is in poor
health. Urethral infection led to prostate gland disorders; severe pain
engulfs him while trying to urinate and bleeding when he defecates. Yet,
this prominent Burmese writer, who co-founded National League for
Democracy along Aung San Suu Kyi, has not asked for special treatment, not
even special diet. He is putting up with the suffering in the torture
chamber, stoically.

Back to 1996, I myself was thrown into solitary confinement in the
infamous dog-cell No.2 of Insein Prison. At that time, Dr. Myint Naing
(MP) was in the dog cell No.1, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung (MP) in the dog cell
No.3, Myo Myint Nyein in No.4 cell, Dr. Khin Zaw Win in No.5, U Naing
Naing (MP) in No.7, U Tun Win in No.8 and U Win Tin was in cell No.10. We
were charged with a heinous crime. It was exposing the human rights abuses
being indulged in by authorities. We smuggled that report to outside world
and hence invited the Junta's wrath. By the time we checked into the
prison, U Win Tin was unwell. He had undergone a hernia surgery and needed
treatment regularly. He was denied a daily bath. He was denied a cup of
water when thirsty. He is a man of steel and never shows a sign of
depression. Like him, we were also denied facility for daily bath. Even
drinking water whenever we felt thirsty. That is the Junta's decree and
its minions at the prisons were happy to enforce with a vicarious thrill.

Why U Win Tin was arrested remains a mystery. He was picked up on 4 July
1989 for a crime he never committed. Three months later, on 3 October, he
was pronounced guilty and awarded a jail term of three years with hard
labor. Subsequently, the sentence was increased by 11- years in June 1992
and by 7 years in March 1996.

On his third trial, U Win Tin was charged with smuggling out of the prison
anti-junta political review and a report on human rights abuses in Burmese
prisons to Mr. Yozo Yokota, the then UN Special Rapporteur for Burma.

The only outside world outside the solitary prison cell for him is the
prison hospital ward, which he frequents regularly. In the recent past, he
had suffered two heart attacks; he underwent two operations and has begun
to wear a surgical collar for spondylitis. Most of his teeth were lost and
he has no hope of getting dentures. His eye-sight has become poor; but
there is no hope of new spectacles from authority.

Nonetheless, U Win Tin remains unwavering in his commitment to his
ideology. The Junta had told him directly and through intermediaries that
he could hope to breathe freely if he could distance from NLD. At least
publicly renounce his political beliefs and sign a letter of resignation
from the NLD. He listens to his interlocutors, patiently and with a smile;
but offers them no reply. The offer is repeated at least once a year by
the military authorities. Every time it met with the same response.

U Win Tin was born on 12 March 1930. He is single; according to close
friends, he is married to journalism. He received a Bachelor of Arts
degree in English Literature, Modern History, and Political Science from
Rangoon University in 1953. He made up his mind to become a journalist
after reading Queed, a novel by Henry Sydnor Harrison (1880-1930). He was
an assistant editor of the then Burma Translation Society between 1950 and
1954, and went on to be a consultant with the Djambartan publishing
company of the Netherlands from 1954 to 1957. His credentials as an
editor, and literary & art earned for him a place on the Burmese
Encyclopaedia Publishing Board.

A widely travelled person he had brought out Kyemon (Mirror) Daily for
eleven years (1957- 1968) as its executive editor. He moved to Mandalay in
1969 to join the Hanthawaddy Daily as its Editor-in-Chief. He was with the
paper for nine years till it was closed down in 1978 for publishing
critiques of mismanagement by local authorities and satirical cartoons.

The military authorities suspected a clandestine correspondence between U
Win Tin and Aung San Suu Kyi when he was undergoing treatment in Rangoon
General Hospital. They believe he had advised the Lady to launch a civil
disobedience campaign.

U Win Tin was awarded UNESCO's World Press Freedom Prize for 2000 and
World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award for 2001.
Last year, 55 mayors of towns all over France have signed a Reporters
Without Borders' (Reporters Sans Frontieres) petition calling for the
immediate release of U Win Tin. French monthly, Maires de France, took the
initiative for the petition. Amnesty International's London Office has
also launched a petition campaign urging the ruling junta to release U Win
Tin unconditionally.

Last year, journalists and dissidents outside the country had celebrated U
Win Tin's Diamond Jubilee Birthday at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of
Thailand, in cooperation with Reporters sans Frontieres. Burma Media
Association (BMA) brought out a special commemorative magazine to mark the
occasion. The magazine featured as many as 11 articles written by U Win
Tin himself and other anti-Junta journalists. In a message, Prof. Paulo S.
Pinhero said: "Win Tin did not want to discuss his personal condition but
wanted to discuss the human rights situation and the conditions of other
political prisoners. Despite all the terrible constraints of prison, I
must say that I found him very well informed and extremely lucid. He was
very strong and remained committed to the cause of democracy, freedom of
speech and the respect of human rights".

Aung San Suu Kyi describes U Win Tin as a man of courage and integrity.
"He could not be intimidated into making false confessions. He is as clear
as ever and his spirit is upright and unwavering".

Now Burma's junta is trying to deceive the International Community,
especially the ASEAN, through an undemocratic seven-step roadmap. An
undemocratic or pro-military roadmap will produce an authoritarian regime
or a fake democracy mechanism controlled by the military council.

By detaining over 1300 political prisoners (including Aung San Suu Kyi, U
Win Tin, U Tin Oo, Khun Tun Oo and 13 members of parliament), the military
junta has turned a deaf ear to political dialogue and free press as well.
Burma has no hope of changing into a genuine democratic federal union.
Since December, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has
been prevented from visiting the prisoners, who, according to the report,
are subject to ''torture and ill-treatment.'' Other allegations of human
rights abuses in prison ''include food, water, sleep and light
deprivation; harsh beatings; forced squatting for prolonged periods;
shackling and solitary confinement.''

''No improvement; no improvement at all,'' Paulo Sergio Pinheiro (Special
Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar) said on 24
February 2006 while addressing a press conference in Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Thailand in Bangkok. ''The situation has
deteriorated'', he declared and said his 29-page report on the plight of
political prisoners will be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Commission
in April 2006.

Burma's ruling military junta has announced several amnesties for
political prisoners under pressure from the international community with
the fond of hope of avoiding additional sanctions. U Win Tin's name has
never figured in any of these lists. Last month, U Win Tin told his friend
who visited him in prison not to worry about his release. "If the junta
has a plan releasing political prisoners, I might be the last",' he
reportedly remarked with a twinkle in his eye.

* Zin Linn: The author, a freelance Burmese journalist and ex-political
prisoner, lives in exile. He is an executive member of the Burma Media
Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans
Frontiers.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

March 5, Earthrights International
Documentary about Doe v. Unocal wins Vaclav Havel Award at One World Film
Festival - Karim Olaechea

EarthRights International congratulates Milena Kaneva, director of the
film Total Denial and winner of the Vaclav Havel Award at the One World
International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The film was
personally chosen for the special prize by Vaclav Havel, world renowned
author, dramatist, poet, political dissident, and the first Czechoslovak
president after the Velvet Revolution.  Vaclav Havel presented Ms. Kaneva
with the award on Thursday, March 2nd, in Prague.

Total Denial follows the story around the precedent-setting lawsuit Doe v.
Unocal, brought by EarthRights International and co-counsel on behalf of
11 Burmese villagers caught in the path of the Yadana pipeline project--a
joint venture of French and American energy giants Total and Unocal and
the brutal Burmese military regime. The Burmese military, while providing
security for the Yadana project, forced villagers living along the
pipeline route to work as slaves, clearing the pipeline route and building
infrastructure such as helipads for the project. The military relocated
villages, and committed countless acts of murder, torture and rape while
"securing" the gas pipeline. Thousands of men, women and children were
forced into hiding in the jungles of Burma, or into refugee camps in
Thailand, their villages destroyed to make way for the pipeline.

Shot over 5 years from 2000-2005, the documentary takes the viewer from
the jungles of Burma to the courtrooms of America, and features extensive
interviews with EarthRights International founders Ka Hsaw Wa and Katie
Redford. For more about EarthRights International and the Doe v. Unocal
case, click here

Total Denial has also been selected for the Toronto Hot Docs festival
which takes place from April 28th to May 7th, 2006. For more about Total
Denial, and Milena Kaneva, visit www.totaldenialfilm.com .