BurmaNet News, March 17, 2005

[Editor]

March 17, 2006 Issue # 2921

INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: Shan ceasefire group holds closed-door meeting
Asia Pulse: Tourist arrivals in Myanmar hit record high in 2005

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Counterinsurgency creates fresh wave of refugees
Mizzima: Mizoram begins bird flu prevention training
Thai Press: Illegal immigrant workers from neighboring countries in Thailand

BUSINESS/TRADE
Financial Times: Avoiding unrest in a volatile environment

ASEAN
AFP: Indonesia urges Myanmar to allow Malaysian FM visit
AP: ASEAN moving slowly on creating human rights watchdog, say

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Home away from home for refugees

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 17, Shan Herald Agency for News
Shan ceasefire group holds closed-door meeting

Leaders of the Shan State Army-North wrapped up a weeklong meeting in its
Hseng Kiao headquarters three days ago, according to a central committee
member who returned to the border yesterday.

No details of the closed door meeting, held between March 8 and 14, were
disclosed except that it discussed in length the current political and
military situation and resolved to strengthen its "democratic centralism",
an expression from the Cold War era meaning "centralized control".

The long-standing tense relationship with the local Burmese commander,
particularly with Maj-Gen Myint Hlaing, Commander of the Lashio-based
North-eastern Region Command, appears to have eased.

"The regional commander had despatched his representative last month to
Hseng Kiao to inform us to let bygones be bygones," the central committee
member aid. "He placed the blame on subordinate commanders who had
presumably caused misunderstandings by their faulty reports. From now on,
we should constantly keep in touch,” he was quoted as saying.

Coming from a Burmese commander, who has never been known as a tactful
officer, it was reportedly quite incredible. "But at least it helped to
keep the uneasy peace," commented an officer who was not at the meeting.

The SSA-North has been under pressure since its patron Maj-Gen Hso Ten was
taken into custody on February 9, 2005. He was sentenced to 106 years
imprisonment on charges of treason and being associated with outlawed
organizations, among others.

Its closest ally the Shan State National Army (SSNA) had also been forced
to return to armed struggle since three of its units surrendered under
duress in April and May 2005.

"At present, there are three factions in the SSA-North," said an officer
close to the top. "The hawkish one appears to be in the majority. The rest
are the doves and the undecided."

He refused to say which leaders were in which faction.

"You don't need me to say who's where," he told S.H.A.N. "Maybe that's why
the Burma Army has chosen to tread softly."

____________________________________

March 17, Asia Pulse
Tourist arrivals in Myanmar hit record high in 2005

A total of 660,000 foreign tourists visited Myanmar in 2005, hitting a
record high in five years, the local Khit Myanmar News Journal reported
Friday.

Quoting the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the report said tourist
arrivals were up from about 470,000 in 2001 and 2002, 590,000 in 2003 and
656,000 in 2004.

The tourists came in through entry points of Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan as
well as border points, it said, adding that cross-border tourists
accounted for the majority.

In 2005, earning through tourism in the country rose to US$153 million, up
17 million from the previous year, official statistics show.

The figures also indicate that there are 596 hotels, motels and guest
houses in Myanmar providing a total of over 18,500 rooms. The number of
travel agencies in operation stands over 500.

More figures reveal that contracted foreign investment in the sector of
hotels and tourism has so far amounted to US$1.06 billion since Myanmar
started to open to such investment in late 1988. Of the investment, that
in hotel projects amounted to over US$580 million.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 17, Irrawaddy
Counterinsurgency creates fresh wave of refugees - Shah Paung

More than 700 Karen villagers have fled their homes for the Mae Ra Moo
refugee camp in the wake of the Burmese government’s relocation to
Pyinmana and renewed fighting between the Karen National Union and the
Burmese military, according to officials of the Karen Refugee Committee.

“Because of the move [of the Burmese capital] to Pyinmana, the enemies
[Burmese junta] are trying to push villagers off their land,” the chairman
of the KRC office in Mae Sot said. “They want to clean the area.”

Fighting in Taungoo Township, in Burma’s Pegu division, has increased in
recent days, and more refugees are fleeing to the Thai-Burmese border, the
chairman added.

In January 2006, some 301 Karen refugees arrived at Mae Ra Moo, with 355
arriving in February and 141 so far this month, according to a source
along the border who wished to remain anonymous.

The source, who helps provide food and emergency supplies to refugee camp
residents, suggested that many more refugees were expected to arrive in
coming weeks.

The KRC chairman said that the camp does not as yet have housing prepared
for new residents, but that new arrivals are staying in a temporary
“boarding house” building or at the homes of relatives or friends. Most
have also not registered for refugee status with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees.

“The UNHCR is working closely with the KRC and the camp committee in Mae
Ra Moo, as well as with NGOs,” Hanne Mathisen, head of the UNHCR office in
Mae Hong Son, told The Irrawaddy on Friday. “We held a meeting in Mae
Sariang and Mae Ra Moo camp to exchange information and to plan for the
future, and the camp is doing an excellent job already in accommodating
new arrivals.”

Mathisen added that anyone seeking refugee status must not look to the
UNHCR but rather Thai authorities.

“There’s no way in the world that it’s the job of the UNHCR to recognize
them [as refugees]. It is only Thailand that can provide asylum for them.”
The UNHCR, however, would support the government in doing that, she added.

Sources along the border suggest that Thai authorities are not happy with
the arrival of new refugees to Mae Ra Moo. At the same time, thousands of
displaced Karen villagers are hiding in the jungle near the border to
escape the escalating violence between KNU and Burmese government forces.

____________________________________

March 17, Mizzima News
Mizoram begins bird flu prevention training - Mi Mi

Authorities in Mizoram state in India have launched a bird flu
prevention-training programme for poultry and pig farmers in the hope of
stopping the disease from spreading to the state from Burma.

Hmar Kunga, public relations officer for the Mizoram State Animal
Husbandry and Veterinary Department told Mizzima, "We are conducting this
training for prevention of the sudden outbreak of avian flu. All dairy
farmers should know about this deadly epidemic and all the preventive
methods".

The training will start on March 23 and all farmers have been asked to
enrol. The Mizoram state government issued an order on March 2 banning the
import of all poultry, pig and milk products into the state from Burma.

C. Sangngaiha, a secretariat member of the emergency committee of the
department, said unless such imports are banned, the disease could quickly
spread from Burma to Mizoram.

Poultry sales in the state have reportedly suffered because of the ban.

____________________________________

March 17, Thai Press Reports
Illegal immigrant workers from neighboring countries in Thailand

More than 1,200 illegal immigrant workers from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar
have sought permission to work in Thailand. The Cabinet, during its
meeting on 14 March 2006, acknowledged a report by the Ministry of Labor
on its handling of illegal immigrant workers in accordance with the
Cabinet resolution on December 20 last year.

According to the Ministry of Labor, Thailand is facing a shortage of
500,000 workers. In order to ease this problem, the Cabinet decided last
December to allow the Ministry to bring in 200,000 workers from Cambodia,
Laos, and Myanmar to work legally in Thailand, based on the memorandums of
understanding on labor cooperation between Thailand and the three
neighboring countries.

It also told the Ministry to allow 300,000 illegal immigrant workers from
the three countries to continue to work in the Kingdom. But these workers
would be allowed to stay here temporarily while waiting for repatriation.
In order to have them work here, their employers must pay a guarantee of
between 10,000 and 50,000 to the police and seek a work permit at the
Ministry of Labor.

The Ministry told the Cabinet on March 14 that it had received complaints
from employers and owners of various workplaces, saying that the guarantee
fee for the workers was too high. They called for the fee to be cut to
between 1,000 and 5,000 baht. The Ministry held a meeting with 592
employers and owners of workplaces on March 13. The meeting resolved that
the new guarantee fee would be set by a working group and submitted to the
Committee on the Management of Illegal Immigrant Workers, which would
asked the Cabinet for consideration within 90 days. The meeting also urged
employers or owners of workplaces to bring their workers to seek work
permits by 30 March 2006.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported its progress on
nationality verification of illegal immigrant workers from Cambodia, Laos,
and Myanmar. It held a meeting on March 13 with government agencies
involved, such as the Ministry of Interior, the Department of Employment,
the National Security Council, the Royal Thai Police, and the Immigration
Bureau.

The meeting heard a report that the Government's national verification
program had already covered around 43,400 illegal immigrant workers from
Laos, representing 48 percent of all illegal immigrant workers seeking
work permits here. The program also covered 24,300 immigrant workers from
Cambodia, accounting for 32 percent of all illegal immigrant workers
asking for work permits. The meeting agreed that discussions would be held
with the Myanmar government on cooperation in the national verification
program.

The ongoing verification and documentation process will make it possible
for Thai authorities to allow these workers to work legally in Thailand
and to provide them with welfare, medical care, and other services.

____________________________________
BUSINESS/TRADE

March 17, Financial Times
Avoiding unrest in a volatile environment - Ethan Kapstein

Think of some recent newspaper headlines: Nigerian rebels force the
temporary closure of Royal Dutch/Shell's operations in the Niger Delta;
Arab consumers boycott Danish products following the furore caused by
newspaper cartoons; US Congress threatens to block Dubai Ports' bid for P
and the French government opposes Mittal Steel's hostile takeover of
Arcelor.

Perhaps the greatest threats to the operations of global corporations, and
those that are most difficult to manage, arise out of the political
environment in which they conduct their business. One day, a foreign
company is a welcome member of the local community; the next day,
opportunistic politicians vilify it.

If companies had the choice, they would normally elect to invest in benign
political regimes that provided security to their employees and property
rights. But that is not always possible. In many developing countries,
governments are weak and unstable, and civil conflict is widespread. And
as the Dubai Ports and Mittal Steel examples suggest, even the most
advanced industrial nations can be fickle places in which to do business.

Executives generally have a difficult time conceptualising political
risks. Many of them are engineers by training, and they have never taken a
course in politics or been much exposed to the issues that students of
politics ask about multinational operations. As a result, they lack
clarity about who wins and loses from the company's presence, and which
groups in a given country support or oppose foreign direct investment.

Executives tend to think that, just because their companies bring jobs and
revenues to a region - and especially to poor areas - they should be
welcomed with open arms. What they have been slow to recognise is that
their companies are symbols - political symbols. To their detractors,
companies not only represent brands like Coca-Cola and Shell, but broader
entities such as "the United States," "global capitalism," "corruption"
and a multitude of other labels. Indeed, the presence of a foreign company
in a politically contested environment is manna from heaven for those who
oppose the government of the day. After all, one of the easiest criticisms
that can be made of a local president or prime minister is that they "are
in bed with" the evil foreign corporation. So long as that is the case, it
means that companies will always be easy targets for rabble-rousers of
various kinds.

Given this high degree of exposure to political uncertainty, how can
companies manage their operations in a way that protects their business?
How can they position their companies in such a way as to be buffered
against exogenous political shocks over which they ultimately have little
control?

Two broad strategies are on offer, and we find examples of both in the
business world: first, the enclave strategy; and second, the engagement
strategy.

The enclave strategy is most commonly found among multinational businesses
that exploit natural resources in the developing world, such as oil
companies. The idea behind this strategy is to ring-fence business
operations from the domestic environment to the greatest extent possible,
often by paying the local military to provide security.

The enclave strategy is easiest to put into operation when plants and
equipment are located far from population centres and where interactions
with local people are minimal. But as recent events from countries such as
Nigeria demonstrate, even the enclave strategy is risky on several counts.

First, the presence of the military often attracts rather than deters
those rebel groups, terrorists or others who are opposed to the regime in
power and who want to make a statement by harassing foreign companies.
That has been one of Shell's problems in Nigeria, and it is one that the
company continues to have a difficult time managing. Indeed, the use of
Nigerian military forces to protect the company's operations in the Niger
Delta has probably only made the company a juicier target for those groups
whose real objective is to fight the government. Again, the company
becomes a proxy or a symbol for the issues at stake in the local political
setting.

A second problem is that, when companies ask local militaries to provide
them with security, allegations of corruption or protection payments will
not be far behind. That, for example, has been the experience of the
French oil company Total in Burma, which has been accused of paying
Burmese soldiers to guard its operations. Situations such as this force
the company to devote scarce resources to defending itself against
corporate critics.

Further, to the extent that militaries sometimes use violent or
strong-armed tactics to protect corporate operations, the company becomes
exposed to additional and unsavoury allegations of human rights abuses. It
makes for the kind of disagreeable headline that most companies would
rather not see in newspapers, much less in court rooms.

One might argue that companies like Shell or Total ultimately have little
choice. They are operating in dangerous areas, with few assets available
to protect their operations and people. Do they not have a responsibility
to both local employees and distant shareholders to use the military if
that is the only way of doing business?

But there is an alternative strategy that companies should also consider
that has proved effective in difficult political environments. We call
that alternative the engagement strategy. In this model, multinational
companies "go local" by embedding themselves deeply in the communities in
which they operate. This means that they go out of their way to hire
workers who are representative not just of locally dominant groups, but of
the diversity of social groups (ethnic and religious) that surround them.
It also means that the company helps to build schools, hospitals and local
infrastructure. Overall, the purpose of this strategy is to become an
indispensable neighbour that has the political support of the region as a
whole in which it operates.

For example, LaFarge Group, the manufacturer of building materials, has
successfully used the engagement strategy for its operations in the
politically troubled region of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. In the wake of the
2005 tsunami disaster, the company not only restored its operations in the
province but also provided the community with financial and human
resources to help in the reconstruction effort. LaFarge is widely
appreciated in Banda Aceh, and harming its plant or people in any way
would not make good political sense for those who wish to make a
statement. As a result, LaFarge uses a locally recruited and trained
security force - one that is representative of the region's diverse
population - as its primary source of protection.

The engagement strategy makes good sense in developed world markets as
well. The more that companies can win local community support for their
operations, the more politically secure they will be. For example, Dubai
Ports and Mittal Steel might have avoided some of the problems with their
respective takeover bids by reassuring US and European unions about the
benefits they would bring to workers, their families and communities.

To be sure, the engagement strategy entails its own set of risks.
Specifically, one could hypothesise that the more companies do by way of
public service, the less that local governments will do. By building
schools and hospitals, for example, companies shift burdens onto
themselves that, in truth, they would rather not accept. The challenge of
the engagement strategy, therefore, is to strike the appropriate balance
between what is the responsibility of the company and what is the job of
the local government.

Managing political uncertainty will never be easy but, as we have seen,
there are different strategies to choose from, and executives must give
the alternatives no less consideration than they do to other investment
decisions.

____________________________________
ASEAN

March 17, Agence France Presse
Indonesia urges Myanmar to allow Malaysian FM visit

Indonesia on Friday urged Myanmar to allow Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed
Hamid Albar to visit the military-ruled country to assess the progress of
its democratic reforms.

"We hope that Myanmar would receive the Malaysian foreign minister,"
foreign ministry spokesman Desra Percaya told AFP.

A trip to Myanmar by Syed Hamid had been planned for January but was
cancelled by the country's ruling generals.

Malaysian officials said last month that it had been rescheduled for
March, but Syed Hamid said last week that the trip was "stalled".

Percaya said Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win would visit Indonesia on
April 19 for a two-day informal meeting of foreign ministers from the
Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the resort island of
Bali.

But he said it was not clear whether Myanmar's much-criticised "road map
to democracy" would be discussed during the ASEAN meeting.

"There's no fixed agenda for the retreat (in Bali). It will depend on
whether Syed Hamid can visit Myanmar," Percaya said.

But the issue of Myanmar's democratic progress is likely to be raised
during bilateral talks between Myanmar's foreign minister and his
Indonesian counterpart under the framework of a joint commission, Percaya
said.

The commission was set up during a visit to Myanmar by Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier this month.

During the visit, Yudhoyono offered to help the junta work towards
democracy and share Indonesia's experience in shifting from
authoritarianism to democracy.

Myanmar proclaimed its seven-step "road map" to democracy in 2003 and is
in the process of drafting a new constitution.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro, last week called the process "fundamentally anti-democratic" and
said that little had changed in terms of abuse and repression.

The opposition National League for Democracy won 1990 elections in a
landslide but the result was never recognised by the military.

The opposition leader, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is under
house arrest and is only permitted visits by her doctor.

____________________________________

March 17, Associated Press
ASEAN moving slowly on creating human rights watchdog, say proponents –
Pauline Jasudason

Southeast Asian countries are taking very tentative steps toward setting
up a regional human rights watchdog, officials said Friday, suggesting
progress is slow because of bureaucracy and national sensitivities.

The idea of a watchdog has been proposed by the national human rights
institutions of Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, but
does not have the formal backing of the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations.

ASEAN has shown willingness to tackle the problem by tentatively agreeing
in 2004 to set up a commission to protect the rights of women and
children, human rights officials from the four countries said after a
three-day meeting.

"We see the beginning ... baby steps," Malaysian Human Rights Commissioner
Ranita Hussein told reporters.

The four countries hope their discussions will act as a launch pad for the
eventual establishment of a human rights mechanism in ASEAN, a diverse
grouping including nations practicing varying degrees of democracy,
communist governments and a military dictatorship.

Ranita said the four countries' human rights bodies also discussed the
possibility of cooperating in areas such as guarding the rights of migrant
workers, human trafficking, economic, social and cultural rights and
fighting terrorism.

"There has been no great leap as yet. It's definitely quite slow," said
Sriprapha Petcharamesree, an official of the National Human Rights
Commission of Thailand. "You know how ASEAN works."

The organization is notoriously bureaucratic and member states tend to be
reluctant to interfere in each other's internal affairs.

"But I think with the (cooperation) of the national human rights
commissions and civil society, I know we will be able to push the ASEAN
governments," Sriprapha said.

Sriprapha said a regional watchdog would help promote and protect rights,
especially in countries where no rights bodies exist, "for example in the
case of Myanmar."

The representatives of the four countries said they would encourage rather
than pressure governments to establish independent domestic human rights
watchdogs.

The 10 countries in ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 17, Irrawaddy
Home away from home for refugees - Suvendrini Kakuchi

Despite spending more than half his life in Japan, Min Maung Nyo, a
Burmese national who first arrived in 1989 to study agriculture and never
went back after the military junta took over, says he longs to return some
day.

“Japan does not easily accept foreigners both legally and socially, which
is one of the key reasons why it's difficult to call Japan home,” says Min
who heads the Burma Democratic Movement in Japan, a lobby group advocating
democratic reform in the home country.

Min speaks for hundreds of Burmese refugees as well as many other
nationalities who have filed for asylum in Japan, most of them living in
limbo, till they get a positive answer from a government that has gained a
reputation as a closed country.

Last year, Japan accepted 46 refugees from among more than 300 applicants
of which 42 were of Burmese nationality.

“Japan is not the kind country for foreigners seeking refugee status and
even for those who have been accepted,” says Fusako Yanase, spokesperson
for the Association for Aid and Relief in Japan, a leading support group.

Yanase bases her judgment on her 27-year experience working with
Indo-Chinese refugees living in Japan since 1975 when Japan was forced to
accept people fleeing hardship in post-war Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos,
after intense international pressure.

The government then adopted a refugee policy for the first time that
permitted a small number—the first target was 500 but later increased to
10,000—Indo-Chinese refugees who had begun arriving in boatloads in Japan
just as they were seeking refuge in other industrialized countries.

This month, Japanese officials wind up that 30-year program and report
almost 12,000 Indo-Chinese refugees in the country, the largest group of
people seeking asylum.

In line with the policy, the government will also end its support programs
for Indo-Chinese refugees such as learning centers and shelters that had
provided short-term language classes and other cross-cultural
communication lessons to facilitate adoption of their new country.

Activists are dismayed with the situation. “We have a lot more to do to
help the refugees in Japan despite the end of the refugee program that
covered them. Second and third generation Indo-Chinese continue to face
hardship in Japan and need help,” explained Yanase.

Indeed, a survey on the group taken in 2000 by the foreign ministry,
indicates the refugees have mixed feelings about the country that offered
them a safe haven when they needed it.

While 60 percent replied they were grateful to be able to come to Japan,
35 percent indicated that life had not improved or had even got worse
since they settled down.

They cited lack of language proficiency, economic hardship and difficulty
in finding decent housing in that order.

Yanase adds that surveys conducted by activists show more than half of
Cambodians wanting to return home as also a third of Vietnamese.

Indo-Chinese refugees, she says, are unhappy with their jobs—the first
generation especially were employed in unskilled labor despite being
well-educated at home—and had difficulty passing exams for top level
professions and were treated as outsiders by their Japanese neighbors.

“There is no doubt that Indo-Chinese refugees are treated poorly compared
to Westerners who have settled in Japan. This is why Japan continues to be
a hard destination for these people and as soon as they see their
countries open up, they prefer to go home,” says Yanase.

Eri Ishikawa, head of the Refugee Support Programme, a civic group, says
the hardships faced by people seeking refugee status—some wait for more
than ten years—is one of the many symbols of how difficult it is to live
in Japan.

“One of our biggest concerns is the lack of a comprehensive refugee
recognition policy in Japan. The justice ministry decides on an ad hoc
basis giving us or the applicant no explanation on the reason for turning
down an application,” she said.

Experts says Japan’s experience with Indo-Chinese refugees has extended
valuable learning experience for the country that is reluctantly facing
its internationalization, and is forced to give up national pride in its
homogeneity—a status that human rights advocates call a myth by pointing
to minority groups such as ethnic Koreans who have been living here since
the 20th century.

Polls show that many second and third generation refugee populations value
Japan’s high education and technical standards but are disappointed by
visa barriers and the lack of awareness and respect for their own culture
by the Japanese.

Yanase has also begun programs to help refugees feel comfortable with
their identity by teaching Japanese about other cultures and the benefit
of cross cultural communication in changing Japan.