BurmaNet News, March 23, 2006

[Editor]

March 23, 2006, 2006 Issue # 2925


INSIDE BURMA
Khonumthung News: Village headman detained for countering forced labour

ON THE BORDER
Times (UK): Sold down the river: tribe's home to be a valley of the dammed

BUSINESS / TRADE
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Beijing admits illegal logging by Chinese firms
in Myanmar
Xinhua: China, Southeast Asian countries agree to ship product oil via
Lantsang-Mekong River

ASEAN
AFP: Envoy to press Myanmar but no Suu Kyi visit
Irrawaddy: Asean envoy arrives in Rangoon

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Myanmar pro-democracy activist granted refugee status in Japan
AP: U.N. clears way to abolish discredited Human Rights Commission

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 23, Khonumthung News
Village headman detained for countering forced labour

A village headman who had the “audacity” to ask for payment for labourers
who were forced to work, has been arrested.

Mr. Lebuai, the headman has been detained over the past three days for
asking a contractor to pay wages to labourers forced to work in the
construction of a hospital in Matupi, southern Chin state.

Soldiers of the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) – 140, arrested Mr. Lebuai,
a member of the Ahru Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) on
Monday.

Sources close to the VPDC told Khonumthung that the block member of Ahru
VPDC asked the contractor Dr. Tin Thura, the head of the medical staff of
Lailenpi hospital to pay the wages to the villagers forcibly engaged in
producing bricks.

“Mr. Lebuai was beaten and detained in the Lailenpi military camp for
requesting that the labourers be paid,” said a villager.

The army officers demanded 50,000 kyats (around Rs. 2,000) in exchange of
Lebuai’s freedom when the VPDC chairman and villagers approached the
military. Captain Htun Myint Hlaing of LIB 104 threatened that failure in
paying the ransom may result in imprisonment of Mr. Lebuai.

“The VPDC chairman returned empty handed. They have no other option but
arrange the money demanded,” said the villager.

Ten villages around Lailenpi were reportedly forced to supply 1,000 burnt
bricks each for the construction of a hospital in Lailenpi. Dr. Tin Thura
demanded the bricks from the 10 villages on March 20. Thirty villagers
have been forcibly engaged in producing bricks from the 10 villages to
meet the demand on time.

The villagers were forced to supply the bricks within five days and no
payment was made for the bricks. Villagers of Pintia, close to Lailenpi,
refused to supply the bricks and said they were “ready to face any action
by the military”.

The villages forced to supply the burnt bricks are Mala, Ahru, Tin Nam,
Satu, Paseing, Cakheng, Tisi, Lailenpi, Tawngla and Pintia. Free bricks
are often demanded for construction of government buildings in Chin state.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 22, The Times
Sold down the river: tribe's home to be a valley of the dammed - Richard
Lloyd Parry

Hydroelectric dams on the Salween River will destroy the local way of life
and flood the area with militia.

Weigyi, Thai-Burma border: Even in the dry season, and even in this time
of war and uncertainty, the Salween River is a majestic waterway.

It runs 1,900 miles (3,060 kilometres) from the high Tibetan mountains to
the Gulf of Martaban, and along its great length there are few places more
remarkable than Weigyi, on the border of Burma and Thailand.

Here the god of the Salween shows himself in the form of a notorious
whirlpool that churns the waters and can even drag a boat under. Locals
leave offerings of rice, flowers and bananas to appease the deity and to
thank him for the prosperity he brings.

But now ominous signs have appeared, signs that promise disaster for the
people of the Salween and their god.

They come in the form of yellow marks painted on the rocky banks and a
concrete plaque laid by Thai engineers. If their plans go ahead Weigyi
will be transformed from a jungle shrine into a massive hydroelectric dam.

The rocky cliffs will be replaced by concrete walls and throbbing
turbines. The jungle will be penetrated by rumbling roads and high
security fences.

Five dams are jointly planned by the Thai and Burmese Governments; far
upstream China proposes building 13 more. If only a few go ahead, the
Salween, the longest undammed river left in south-east Asia, will be
chained.

Conscious of the potential for bad publicity, the Thai and Burmese
Governments have kept secret their precise plans for dam building. But The
Times has obtained a copy of the memorandum of agreement signed between
them last December.

It reveals that the first dam to be built will be at Hatgyi, south of
Weigyi. This is an area firmly under Burmese control and 30 miles inside
its territory. The guerrillas of the Karen National Union and independent
observers will find it very difficult to observe its effect on local
people. Construction is due to begin late next year.

“As long as I have lived here my family has been totally dependent on the
Salween for our livelihood,” says Htoo Lwee, a member of the Karen ethnic
group that lives in the village of Hoekey, a few miles below the proposed
dam site at Weigyi. “The river gives us a living from fishing and from
boating. It is our life and our mother. If the dam is constructed we will
not be able to live.”

The Salween is home to 70 species of fish including catfish, eel,
featherback and carp who thrive in its surging rapids and deep pools. The
dam would create a still-water lake to which they are ill-adapted.

The dam’s opponents calculate that the reservoir will be 640 sq km — the
size of Singapore.

It will destroy rice paddies, vegetable fields, 26 villages and two entire
towns. Temples and palaces will be submerged; 22,000 people will lose
their homes and 8,000 more will lose their livelihoods.

It will destroy forever the towns of Pasaung and Bawlake, the historical
capital of the Karenni people, and the site of royal palaces and Buddhist
temples and stupas (holy sites). The traditional homelands of one entire
tribe, the dwindling Yintalai, who number just 1,000, will disappear.

The river’s backed-up waters will flood rice fields and the garden plots
of beans, tobacco, and chilli with which families support themselves
during the dry season. It will block what locals refer to as the “Salween
highway”, and the trading boats which carry rattan, honey and buffalo from
the Karen and Karenni territories across the river to Thailand.

Still worse, in the eyes of many of the locals, the dam project will draw
into the area the notorious armed forces of the Burmese junta, which have
been enslaving, raping and killing the local tribespeople for decades.

“These dams will not only spell the gradual genocide of indigenous
peoples, but will also inflict a death sentence on endangered animal plant
and plant species,” says Pascal Khoo Thwe, author of the acclaimed memoir
of his Burmese childhood From the Land of Green Ghosts.

“There is no better way to destroy a country than by the combined power of
guns and bulldozers. Show me a cup of dam water and I will tell you
stories of human misery, and cries of dying animals and plants.”

This is one of the most isolated and chaotic corners of Asia, a place of
guerrillas and refugees, where no government holds sway. The tribespeople
of eastern Burma, particularly the Karen and the Karenni, have always
resisted government by the rulers in Burmese capital, Rangoon, whether
they be British imperialists or their successors, the generals of the
military junta called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Karen armed groups have fought a scrappy war against the Burmese since
independence 48 years ago but have recently found themselves driven into
an ever-narrower strip along the Thai border to where tens of thousands
have fled the fighting. It is in one of these pockets, a sanctuary from
the depredations of the SPDC, that the Weigyi dam will be built.

When an earlier dam was built on the Balu Chaung River in the 1960s, 24
Burmese battalions moved into the area. Human rights groups have gathered
numerous accounts of the rapes, forced labour and arbitrary killings and
arrests that were inflicted upon the local Karenni population.

Among the biggest victims were members of the Padaung tribe, famous for
the “long neck” women who stretch their necks with brass rings.

Numerous local people were killed or injured by landmines scattered as a
security measure in the fields around the dams.

But despite the energy generated by the hydroelectric plant, villages
lying literally underneath the power lines received no electricity.

“Instead of getting benefits from the dam, we will have only curses,” says
Seem Wen, a local village head and a major in the Karen National
Liberation Army. “Human rights abuses, forced labour, killings. There will
be many more refugees. If the dam is built, we will definitely show a
military response.”

But it is not only the Burmese junta, one of the world’s most cruel and
obdurate regimes, that will benefit from the dam. The 5,000 megawatts of
electricity generated will be channelled into the growing and
energy-hungry towns of neighbouring Thailand.

It is this that gives the anti-dam campaigners some hope. For, while the
SPDC cheerfully flouts human rights with little apparent concern for the
opinion of the outside world, Thailand is a lively democracy. “The SPDC
does whatever it likes,” says Nay Thablay, of the organisation, Karen
Rivers Watch.

“But in Thailand are many people who sympathise with us and we must
motivate them to put pressure on their own Government.”

The anti-dam campaigners are mobilising what few resources they have. A
group of young people have formed a pop group, Salween Angels, and
recorded songs protesting against the dam’s construction.

Activists are sailing down the river, warning local communities and
organising demonstrations. “Even if we cannot stop this,” says Htoo Lwee,
“we have to try for the sake of our river.”

But they are a few thousand stateless, almost voiceless, people against
two powerful governments, and they are realistic about their chances of
success. If the dam at Weigyi is stopped, it will be a triumph of local
determination. If not, then the rest of the world may hardly notice that
the turbulent, vigorous god of the Salween has been reduced to a placid
pond.

DAMAGED LAND, DISPLACED PEOPLE

# The Balu Chaung dam in the 1960s led to Burmese army atrocities against
the Padaung tribe, below

# The Three Gorges dam in China will displace at least 1.1 million people.
As well as destroying much of the habitat of the endangered Chinese river
dolphin and the Siberian crane, the reservoir will cover more than 1,000
important archaeological sites

# The Itaipu dam on the Paraná River between Brazil and Paraguay displaced
40,000 people, including the Ava-Guarani Indian tribe. 700 sq km of forest
was affected

# Egypt’s Aswan dam forced 90,000 people to relocate. Its reservoir, Lake
Nasser, covers 5,000 sq km. The Ancient Egyptian temple of Abu Simbel had
to be moved to higher ground

# Sardar Sarovar dam in western India is the largest of 3,000 planned dams
on Narmada river in Gujarat. Government estimates suggest that 41,000
families will be displaced if it is built. Amid protests, construction of
the dam was halted in 1995 and it is incomplete

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 23, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Beijing admits illegal logging by Chinese firms in Myanmar

Beijing: China on Thursday admitted that some of its companies and
individual citizens are involved in illegal logging in Myanmar (Burma) but
said it has asked the rogue operators to obey local laws.

"The majority of business is conducted according to the agreements between
companies from the two countries ... and conforms to local laws and
regulations," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said when asked about
reports of illegal logging in Myanmar.

"We cannot deny that, driven by (their own) interests, a few of them are
doing illegal logging," Qin told reporters.

He said the Chinese government was "paying high attention" to the problem
and "requests the Chinese companies and individuals to abide by local laws
and regulations."

"We will properly handle it according to the law," Qin said.

The environmental group Global Witness said in October that it found new
evidence of illegal logging in Myanmar by Chinese firms despite the
Chinese government's commitment in 2001 to uphold forestry-protection
regulations.

Global Witness said "a few Chinese businessman, backed by local
authorities," were exporting illegal timber worth 250 million to 300
million dollars annually across the border from northern Myanmar to
China's Yunnan province.

After a two-year study, the group estimated that two-thirds of Myanmar's
total revenue from timber exports came from illegal trade, mostly with
China.

It calculated that a truck carrying about 15 tons of illegal timber
crossed an official border checkpoint into China on average every seven
minutes.

Global Witness said officials in both Myanmar and Yunnan were colluding
with the illegal timber traders.

More than 100 Chinese timber companies and 20,000 Chinese loggers were
involved in the trade inside Myanmar, it added.

The group said large Chinese firms in the booming cities of Guangdong and
Shanghai took most of the profits from the illegal trade by using the
timber in products exported to Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

____________________________________

March 23, Xinhua Economic News Service
China, Southeast Asian countries agree to ship product oil via
Lantsang-Mekong River

Beijing: China and three Southeast Asian countries, Thailand, Burma and
Laos, have recently reached agreement on using the transborder
Lantsang-Mekong River to ship product oil, the Beijing-based China News
quoted local authorities charged Lantsang River affairs as saying.

Mekong River, called Lantsang River in China section, has been utilized
for tourism and transport of mineral ores, fruits and daily products as a
part of a regional cooperation scheme by China and the countries in the
Mekong River’s area.

Oil transported via the river will diversify China’s routes for imported
oil, which mostly comes into the country via the Strait of Malacca.

The oil will also ensure the supply in southwest China, where Chinese oil
giants Sinopec (NYSE: SNP) and PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) are competing with
each other fiercely.

China imported 127.083 million tons of crude in 2005, up 3.5 percent year
on year. The imports from the Middle East, usually shipped through
pirate-rampant Strait of Malacca, reached 59.992 million tons, accounting
for about 47 percent of the national total.

____________________________________
ASEAN

March 23, Irrawaddy
Asean envoy arrives in Rangoon - Clive Parker

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar arrived in Rangoon on Thursday
to begin a long-awaited inspection of Burma’s democratic progress on
behalf of Asean.

After two months of stalling by the junta, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry
said in a statement that Syed Hamid “will hold discussions with leaders of
Myanmar [Burma] and various representatives in the reconciliation and
democratization process” during the visit which ends on Saturday. It
looked increasingly unlikely though that this would include a meeting with
Aung San Suu Kyi or other representatives of her party, the National
League for Democracy.

NLD spokesperson Myint Thein told The Irrawaddy his party was ready to
talk with the delegation, but there had still been no word as to whether
such a meeting would take place late Thursday.

“We hope to meet with him [Syed Hamid]. We are very eager to explain about
our situation, but whether he can get the permission from the government
or not we don’t know,” Myint Thein said. “It is very important for him to
meet our lady,” he added referring to Aung San Suu Kyi.

The NLD, if given the opportunity, would explain its future plans and the
current situation in Burma to Syed Hamid, Myint Thein said.

Malaysian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Farimah Akhbar declined to comment
on whether a meeting with Burma’s main opposition party was likely: “There
is no information about that and even he [Syed Hamid] didn’t want to
comment about that,” she said.

Leon de Riedmatten of the Geneva-based Center for Humanitarian Dialogue,
who has often served as a mediator between the junta and the NLD, said a
meeting between Syed Hamid and Aung San Suu Kyi would represent a “big
surprise.”

When Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win agreed in December to receive a
representative of Asean to inspect Burma’s democratic progress, the bloc
indicated it would seek full access to all stakeholders in the process.
Observers were hopeful the visit would seek to go beyond discussions on
the junta’s much-criticized Roadmap to Democracy. But after months of
delays in which the junta said it was too busy relocating the capital to
Pyinmana, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has struggled to receive
commitment from Rangoon.

Syed Hamid appeared to soften Asean’s resolve on the issue at the weekend,
when he conceded that meetings with junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe and
high-level opposition figures might not be possible. “Otherwise, I will
meet anyone," he said in a statement reported by the official Malaysian
news agency Bernama.

On Thursday it was still not even clear which government officials the
Malaysian foreign minister would meet with, although analysts said a
discussion with junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe was unlikely. In his place,
Prime Minister Gen Soe Win was tipped to meet with Syed Hamid.

The delegation’s findings will be presented to other Asean foreign
ministers during a retreat in Bali, Indonesia on April 17 to 18.

Burma’s military government came under further pressure over Syed Hamid’s
visit on Wednesday, as outrage continued following the killing of
40-year-old Thet Naing Oo, allegedly by Yangon City Development Council
officials and fire workers last week.

The Asean Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus in a statement condemning the
murder by its chairman, Zaid Ibrahim, said: “AIPMC urges the Asean envoy
to Burma, Syed Hamid Albar, to raise issues of violence by Burmese
authorities against citizens, and the prolonged detention of elected
members of parliament in Burma.”

“Only with the discontinuation of such blatant disregard for human rights
by Burma, can Asean be satisfied that the regime is indeed working towards
democratic reforms in the country, as called for by the regional bloc,” he
added.

____________________________________

March 23, Agence France Presse
Envoy to press Myanmar but no Suu Kyi visit

Yangon: ASEAN's special envoy arrived in Myanmar Thursday to press the
military junta on democracy and human rights but will reportedly be
blocked from seeing detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid's visit had been delayed due to
wrangling with the regime over meeting the democracy leader, who has spent
most of the last 16 years in jail or under house arrest, diplomats said.

But Syed Hamid will hold talks Friday with Prime Minister Soe Win, with
the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stepping up
pressure on Myanmar in the face of mounting global criticism.

Syed Hamid was welcomed by Myanmar's foreign minister Nyan Win before
being quickly whisked to his hotel, security sources said.

"I am going there with an open mind," he said before the trip. "I would
like to meet everyone involved in the reform process."

The military, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, has spelled out
a "road map" for democracy including talks on a new constitution but Aung
San Suu Kyi's party has boycotted the process, which critics have called a
sham.

Myanmar agreed at last year's ASEAN summit to invite Syed Hamid in January
but the visit apparently stalled over the envoy's insistence on meeting
the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

"Malaysia insisted the foreign minister should be able to meet Aung San
Suu Kyi during the visit. But Myanmar kept rejecting the request. That's
why his trip was so delayed," a Yangon-based diplomat said.

"Now it looks like the envoy has accepted the conditions that he will not
see her," the diplomat said.

While ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of
member states, the bloc has become more vocal in line with censure from
the United States, European Union and United Nations.

The United States has a total ban on Myanmar's exports while the European
Union has more targeted measures such as a travel ban on the junta, an
arms embargo and a ban on investment in state companies.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has repeatedly said that the international
community would not regard the constitutional process as credible if Aung
San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) does not take part.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later
rejected the result of national elections won by the NLD.

Along with the 60-year-old NLD leader, the United Nations estimates that
more than 1,100 political prisoners are detained in Myanmar -- one of the
poorest and most isolated nations in the world.

Earlier this month, US President George W. Bush, travelling in India,
called on all nations to seek the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house
arrest was again extended by six months in December.

In its annual report on human rights, Washington said the junta's rights
record worsened in 2005 and its military rulers continued to commit
serious rights abuses.

The junta also recently stunned the outside world when it secretly moved
the administrative capital to Pyinmana, a remote mountain city 320
kilometers (200 miles) north of Yangon.

Syed Hamid will report on his mission at ASEAN's meeting of foreign
ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali in April, Malaysia's foreign
ministry said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 23, Associated Press
Myanmar pro-democracy activist granted refugee status in Japan

Tokyo: A Japanese court granted refugee status to a pro-democracy activist
from Myanmar on Thursday because he would face persecution if he returned
to his home country, a court official said.

The Nagoya District Court gave Than Lwin Tun, 35, refugee status to remain
in Japan, nullifying a 2004 order from Japan's immigration authorities to
deport him, said court spokesman Ryuji Kubo.

Lwin Tun landed at Nagoya port in central Japan in 1997 as a seaman aboard
a Singapore-registered vessel and has stayed illegally ever since, Kyodo
News agency reported. In Japan he joined a pro-democracy organization and
participated in rallies, Kyodo said.

"If the military junta (in Myanmar) got to know the plaintiff's
participation in movements, there will be fear that he will be detained
unreasonably or tortured," Kyodo quoted Presiding judge Yukio Kato as
telling the court.

Officials from the United States and other western countries have
repeatedly condemned human rights abuses by Myanmar's military-led
government. The current junta took power in 1988 after violently
suppressing pro-democracy protests.

Japan has often been criticized for its reluctance to take in refugees.

The nation has accepted just over 300 refugees 14 percent of applicants
since it introduced a U.N. refugee program in 1982. It has accepted only
46 refugees in 2006, of which 43 have been from Myanmar, according to
Justice Ministry figures.

____________________________________

March 23, Associated Press
U.N. clears way to abolish discredited Human Rights Commission - Edith M.
Lederer

United Nations: The U.N. gave a green light Wednesday night to abolish the
discredited Human Rights Commission on June 16, clearing the way for the
new Human Rights Council to become the U.N.'s main rights watchdog.

Last week, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace the highly
politicized and often criticized commission with a new human rights body.
The assembly ignored U.S. objections that not enough was done to prevent
abusive countries from becoming members.

The Economic and Social Council, which coordinates the U.N.'s work in
those fields, approved a resolution abolishing the Human Rights Commission
without a vote.

The commission will be replaced by a new 47-member Human Rights Council,
which will be elected on May 9 and hold its first meeting on June 19. Like
the commission, the council will be based in Geneva.

The commission came to be discredited in recent years because some
countries with terrible human rights records used their membership to
protect one another from condemnation.

After voting against the new council, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told the
General Assembly its "real test" will be "whether it takes effective
action to address serious human rights abuse cases like Sudan, Cuba, Iran,
Zimbabwe, Belarus and Burma."

Despite Washington's opposition, Bolton said the United States will work
with other member states "to make the council as strong and effective as
it can be." But he said no decision has been made on whether the United
States will seek a seat.

The United States wanted the new council elected by a two-thirds vote of
the General Assembly to keep rights abusers from winning seats, and it
wanted countries subject to U.N. sanctions related to human rights abuses
or acts of terrorism barred from membership.

The General Assembly resolution setting it up calls for election by an
absolute majority 96 members and does not ban any country from membership.

While the commission has been strongly criticized in recent years, it did
play a major role in setting up much of the global legal framework for
protecting individual rights including the landmark Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. That document was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948
after it was written by the commission under the leadership of Eleanor
Roosevelt, widow of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.