BurmaNet News, March 31, 2006

[Editor]

March 31, 2006 Issue # 2931

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Two journalists jailed for photos of Pyinmana
The Myanmar Times via BBC: Burma enforces licensing of Internet cafes
The Myanmar Times via BBC: Burmese paper says businessmen prefer Rangoon
to new capital

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara: Two Arakanese soldiers from the Burmese Army surrendered to KNU
Inter Press News via Irrawaddy: Ethnic Groups Flee Drought and Army

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima: Burma turns to tax increases to control economy, report
World Markets: GAIL farms into Daewoo's Offshore Gas E&P operation in Myanmar

DRUGS
SHAN: Biz hub moves to Mandalay

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Practical solution needed on Burma: Philippines MP
Yonhap (South Korea): North Korea-Myanmar ties potentially dangerous:
ex-NSC official
TASS: Russia shows interest in developing cooperation with Myanmar

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 31, Irrawaddy
Two journalists jailed for photos of Pyinmana -  Khun Sam

The Burmese junta’s sentencing of two journalists to 3-year prison terms
for taking photographs of the new administrative capital in Pyinmana is an
“outrage” and further jeopardizes press freedom in the country, according
to Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association.

In a joint statement released on March 30, the two affiliated media
watchdog groups expressed concerns over press freedom in the
military-ruled country.  “It is a disgrace to see journalists arrested and
sentenced just for taking pictures on the streets of Pyinmana.”

The two journalists—Thar Cho (U Thaung), 52, a photojournalist for several
Burmese publications, and Moe Thun (Kyaw Thwin), 42, a columnist for the
religious magazine Dhamah-Yate, were arrested in late December while
filming and taking photographs of Pyinmana from a city bus.

The journalists were each sentenced to three years in prison on March 24
at a district court in Pyinmana for violating Article 32 (A) of the
Television and Video Act, which imposes legal sanctions against anyone
filming commercial video without an official license.

“This new evidence of paranoia by the military regime jeopardizes the
possibility of the Burmese and international press working in the new
capital. We call for their release,” said Geneva-based Reporters Without
Borders and the Burma Media Association based in Oslo in their released
statement.

The lawyer for the two defendants, Khin Maung Zaw, vowed that another
appeal has been planned. “They should be freed because the Television and
Video Act does not forbid taking pictures in authorized areas and states
that such pictures may be used for private purposes.” He added that his
clients were just using a small amateur camera.
RSF and BMA have expressed increasing concern over the lack of press
freedom and the imprisonment of journalists in military-ruled Burma. In
recent weeks, Burmese authorities have reportedly stepped up restrictions
against Burmese residents who provide information to exile media groups,
and many in Pyinmana have allegedly been investigated.

This latest incident is the first time journalists have been given the
maximum three-year sentence under the Television and Video Act since it
was adopted in July 1996, according to RSF and BMA.

The two journalists are currently being held in Yamaethin district prison
north of Pyinmana.

Burma, one of the few country in the world in which the state-owned and
private press has to submit to relentless advance censorship, still keeps
12 journalists in prison under harsh conditions, according to an RSF 2005
annual report.

____________________________________

March 31, The Myanmar Times via BBC
Burma enforces licensing of Internet cafes

Text of report in English by Khin Hninn Phyu, carried by Burmese newspaper
The Myanmar Times website on 20 March

The Department of Post and Telecommunication, under the Ministry of
Communication, Post and Telegraphs, this month started a programme
encouraging businesses which offer public internet access to step inside
the legal fold and run their businesses systematically under Myanmar
Info-Tech guidelines.

The programme would allow the growing field email service providers and
network gaming centres to operate legally by providing them with a public
access centre (PAC) licence.

State-owned enterprise Myanmar Info-Tech would serve as a facilitator to
help them register for the licence, the company's managing director U
Thaung Tin said. The programme was designed to get businesses running in
accord with the ministry's Wide Area Network Notification, issued in 2002,
he added.

Independently operating a business that offered internet access was a
breach of the notification and could result in the business being shut
down at any time and the operators facing charges, U Thaung Tin said.

"So we're providing them with the opportunity to operate legally by
registering as PACs."

Although doing so incurs additional charges such as monthly fees and
adherence to certain rules and regulations - such as regular reports to
Myanmar Info-Tech of internet users' identities and websites visited -
registering was a safe way of doing business, he said.

So far the department has issued 79 PAC licences but it would increase
this number in support of the programme.

So far 16 of the authorized PACs have opened, including locations in
Mawlamyine [Moulmein] in Mon State, Pyinmana in Mandalay Division, Monywa
and Shwebo in Sagaing Division, Taungoo and Magwe in Magway [Magwe]
Division, Pyay [Prome] in Bago [Pegu] Division, Myeik [Mergui] and
Kawthaung in Tanintharyi [Tenasserim] Division, as well as in Yangon
[Rangoon] and Mandalay cities.

Applications for a PAC registration can be made to Myanmar Info-Tech.

____________________________________

March 31, The Myanmar Times via BBC
Burmese paper says businessmen prefer Rangoon to new capital

Text of report in English by Win Kyaw Oo, carried by Burmese newspaper The
Myanmar Times website on 20 March

With Pyinmana enjoying a real estate boom as government ministries settle
into the new administrative capital, many property developers are taking a
more cautious approach to major projects in Yangon [Rangoon].

U Than Tin Aung, an architect with more than 20 years of experience in
urban planning and development, said most developers and business owners
in Yangon have adopted a wait-and-see attitude before expanding into other
areas.

"Many developers are looking for ways to stimulate Yangon's property
market rather than move into more remote areas like Pyinmana, where
infrastructure is still limited," he said. "Even after the government's
move, few businesses are likely to leave Yangon or expand their businesses
to Pyinmana."

He said Yangon remains the most attractive place in Myanmar for
investment, as the financial returns will be greater than anywhere else in
the country.

U Than Tin Aung said the government's move to Pyinmana was similar to the
Malaysian government's shift from the bustling city of Kuala Lumpur to
Putrajaya, which was founded in 1995 specifically to serve as the
country's new administrative centre.

"Putrajaya is still under development to turn it into an integrated city,
but it has had no negative impact on commercial activities in Kuala
Lumpur," he said. Meanwhile, developers are still debating the effects of
the move to Pyinmana on Yangon's property market.

U Than Tin Aung said development in the new administrative capital has
kept the demand for, and therefore the price of, construction materials
high.

"In such a scenario, the bargaining power of Yangon developers is impaired
because construction costs are so high," he said. "Some developers are
forced to sell property quickly at lower prices just to make up for
construction costs."

However, architect U Aung Myint, the managing director of Amenity Design
Group, said activity in Pyinmana has had little impact on the Yangon
property market.

His company is involved in large, ongoing development projects in Yangon's
downtown area.

"The property market in Yangon is so well established that it will resist
the effects of the move," he said.

"Developers can continue working and relying on the purchasing powers of
city dwellers."

U Than Tin Aung said developers should come up with practical plans to
turn Yangon into a more developed commercial hub and submit them to
government officials, many of whom have a sound knowledge of urban
development in other countries. He cited as an example the goodwill visit
by Prime Minister General Soe Win to China last month, during which he
toured economic centres such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangzhou
province, as reported in state-run media.

"These cities underwent rapid development in a short time because Chinese
authorities facilitated growth in a way that was attractive to investors,"
U Than Tin Aung said.

Development in Pyinmana was spurred by urban design competitions sponsored
by the Department of Human Settlement and Housing Development under the
Ministry of Construction in late 2003 and early 2004, he said.

The approved design included a city hall, convention centre, shopping
malls, radio and TV broadcast complex, general hospital, sports stadium
and swimming pool.

One retired professor from the Yangon Institute of Economics said he
welcomed the development of Pyinmana because it would contribute to the
economic growth of the entire country.

"Without such growth, the financial sector would face an increased rate of
inflation," he said.

The retired professor also said developers need not look to other
countries like Malaysia to see that the property market in Yangon is not
threatened by the government's move to Pyinmana.

"Look at the towns of Sagaing and Monywa in Sagaing Division," he said.
"The division's administration was based in Sagaing, but Monywa is more
developed and more economically vibrant."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 31, Narinjara
Two Arakanese soldiers from the Burmese Army surrendered to KNU

Two ethnic Arakanese soldiers from the Burmese Army surrendered to a KNU
base in Taungu Township and they arrived in the Thai-Burma border recently
says the BBC Burmese program.

The two soldiers Nyan Lynn from Mann Aung Township and U Kyaw Thein from
Rathidaung Township in Arakan State were forced to join the military three
years ago.

They surrendered to the Brigade (2) of the Karen National Union and
arrived in the Thai-Burma border.

In the BBC interview, two soldiers said they fled from their posts in
Taungu Township under the Burmese Army Division 77. They said the reason
for their surrender was they could not bare the discrimination they
suffered for their Arakanese ethnicity and the abuses the military commits
on the civilians in the front line areas.

Nyan Lynn said they had been forced by their senior army officers to kill
one female teacher and another civilian in 2003 in the front line areas.
When they refused to carry out the order to abuse the civilian, the senior
officer severely punished them. Hence, they fled the Burmese army, Nyan
Lynn said in the interview to BBC.

The two soldiers also said they have no chance of going back to their
homes and families after the surrender to KNU, and they will now dedicate
their lives to serve the community in the border areas.

____________________________________

March 31, Inter Press News via Irrawaddy
Ethnic Groups Flee Drought and Army  - Marwaan Macan-Markar

In much of Asia a dry season could mean a break from monsoon rains and
intermittent floods but for the Karen ethnic community, settled along
Burma’s eastern borders, it means a season of death, destruction and
flight.

The current dry season has seen over 5,000 Karen villagers flee their
homes, after the Burmese army launched another military campaign, say
humanitarian agencies working along the border Thailand shares with Burma.

Some of the victims have had to walk for days over rugged, hilly terrain
to seek refuge in Thailand, while hundreds of others are “living in fear”
in the forests.

“We have had more than a thousand come across since December,” Sally
Thompson, deputy director of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, told
IPS. “There are over 400 who have come down the Salween River and are
waiting to cross.”

Women like Naw Paw Paw, 53, are among the Karen villagers at the receiving
end of the on-going dry-season offensive that was launched by Rangoon in
October last year. “They (the Burmese army) looted our houses and took our
money,” the mother of six says in a documentary film on the Karens,
“Season of Fear,” that was screened in Bangkok this week. “The next
morning they burnt our village and left.”

Rangoon’s military assault in the Karen areas of Burma is an annual
feature in its attempt to defeat the country's oldest ethnic rebel group,
the Karen National Union. But the current onslaught has been particularly
intense, completely shredding the gentlemen’s agreement that Rangoon and
the KNU struck in January 2004 to end hostilities.

“They have been shelling and shooting villages and they have attacked our
camps,” Mahn Sha Lah Phan, general secretary of the KNU, said during a
telephone interview. “There were over 15 attacks last month, and in March
there has been more fighting.”

The terrain under siege comes within an area that Rangoon wants to bring
under its control because it borders the new administrative capital,
Pyinmana, which the junta has just unveiled in central Burma.

The other reason, say environmentalists, is that it is part of the junta’s
bid to secure territory to build roads that are needed to help construct a
series of large dams on the Salween River, which flows through Karen
State. The five planned dams have already run into controversy, with
groups in Thailand and exiles from Burma protesting the destruction they
would cause to the pristine forests and the village lifestyles in the
area.

For Burma’s neighbors in South and Southeast Asia, the plight of the
Karens, forced out of their homes, offers ample testimony about why this
military-ruled country will continue to remain a source of refugees.
Rangoon’s brutal policies against the country’s ethnic communities hav,
since the early 1970s, seen thousands of men, women and children from
Karen, Karenni, Shan, Chin and Rohingya minority communities flee to
neighboring countries for safety.

Thailand hosts the largest number in its northern provinces, an estimated
335,000 refugees, followed by Bangladesh, which has some 122,000 refugees,
and India, which has over 52,000. Malaysia is also home to some victims of
Burmese military onslaughts.

But the picture is as troubling inside the country, states the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre, a Geneva-based agency affiliated with the
Norwegian Refugee Council. By the end of 2005, Burma had the “worst
(internal) displacement situation” in Asia, the IDC revealed in a report
published in mid-March.

There are nearly 540,000 internally displaced people in Burma, it added, a
number that tops Bangladesh, which has 500,000 IDPs, Sri Lanka, with
341,175, Indonesia, with 342,000 and Afghanistan, with 153,000.

“[There are] an estimated 92,000 IDPs hiding in the forests (in Burma),
where living conditions are extremely harsh,” adds the report. “They are
exposed to hunger, inadequate shelter and lack of medical services.”

The period May 2004 to May 2005 saw 87,000 villagers swelling the ranks of
the displaced “due to conflicts or human rights abuses,” according to the
report. “The military government’s objective of increasing control over
minority areas through a policy of forced assimilation and repression of
autonomy movements has resulted in decades of conflict that has displaced
and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians.”

Burma’s notoriety about IDPs and refugees are but two in a long list of
violations the military regime has perpetrated. The other violations
include forced labor, forced relocation of communities, rape, torture,
imprisoning of political activists, conscripting children into the Burmese
army, extortion and the suppression of free expression.

“All kinds of systematic human rights violations continue, and the
internal displacement of minorities is among the [most] serious of them,”
Bo Hla-Tint, a minister in the National Coalition Government of the Union
of Burma, the democratically elected Burmese government in exile, told
IPS. “There have been six dry-season offensives against the Karens, which
is part of the oppression directed at the ethnic forces along the border.”

Yet, such suffering appears furthest from the mind of Burma’s strongman,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe. On Monday, as the country marked an anniversary to
celebrate the army's achievements, Armed Forces Day, he praised the
stability that the nearly 400,000-strong active-duty soldiers had achieved
in Burma.

The Burmese army, said the head of the junta, should be praised for
consistently striving to achieve “community peace and tranquility” and
“for the prevalence of law and order in the country.”

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 31, Mizzima News
Burma turns to tax increases to control economy, report - Siddique Islam

The Burmese military has been forced to introduce new taxes and improve
tax collection procedures to control the country’s economy, according to a
new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia
and the Pacific.

But UNESCAP’s ‘Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2006’, which was
released yesterday, said the country’s informal economy remained large,
making tax collection and regulations difficult.

“Further improvements in tax revenues are expected based on the
replacement of ad hoc exemptions with a more transparent set of rules, and
the possible introduction of excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and luxury
goods as well as a value added tax,” the report said based on figures for
last year.

UNESCAP said the increased tax revenues were designed to help reduce
Burma’s fiscal deficit. The financing of the deficit had been managed by
Burma’s central bank, further fuelling inflation rates in the country.

While inflation levels were on the increase this month after the
military’s decision to drastically raise the wages of civil servants and
military personnel, the report put last year’s inflation figure at eight
percent, down from 54 percent in 2002.

The report also said economic sanctions against the country had caused
export rates to decline.

“Exports, especially of garments, from Myanmar have been adversely
affected by international sanctions, while the services account has been
eroded by larger profit repatriation and a decline in tourism receipts,”
the report said.

According to figures in the report, Burma’s gross domestic product growth
rate was 4.5 percent last year and the country’s agriculture sector had
grown 4.2 percent.

But the report said the growth of the country’s agricultural sector had
been hindered by the military’s forced reduction of rice prices – a move
made to curb domestic unrest resulting from inflation rate increases.

The report also said 2005 saw less private investment in Burma and that
the real wages of many workers had been eroded.

____________________________________

March 31, World Markets Research Center
GAIL farms into Daewoo's offshore gas E&P operation in Myanmar - Steven Knell

The Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has strengthened its presence in
Myanmar further with the news that its move for an equity stake in the
another of the country's promising gas fields has been sanctioned.
According to reports covered by Dow Jones today, officials in Myanmar have
backed GAIL's agreement with South Korea's Daewoo International Corp. that
will see the Indian NOC take up a 10% interest in the A-3 natural gas
exploration block that Daewoo operates.

Significance: Daewoo was awarded the licence for the 6,780-sq.-km A-3
block in 2004 and reached a tentative deal over a production-sharing
contract (PSC) with GAIL the following year (see Myanmar: 4 October 2005:
India's OVL And GAIL Acquire Equity in Daewoo's Gas Block in Myanmar).
Expectations are high for the development of the gas reserves identified
in place at A-3 block, and even more so for the adjacent A-1 block.
Exploratory drilling in the former is expected to commence later this
year, while the commercialisation of the latter is further along and
likely to commence production in 2009.

The activities of GAIL and other Indian NOCs in Myanmar's upstream sector
will continue to strengthen the claims for the development of an overland
gas transmission pipeline linking the two countries.

____________________________________
DRUGS

March 31, Shan Herald Agency for News
Biz hub moves to Mandalay

Mandalay, Burma's second major city, has replaced Tachilek, opposite
Maesai, as the new nerve center of the country's international drug trade,
according to insider sources.

Most of the big time dealers have also departed from Homong (opposite
Maehongson) and Nakawngmu (opposite Chiangmai), two other key markets on
the border. "The number of big bosses connected to Kokang is conspicuously
larger than those connected to the Wa," said a 52-year old native of
Kengtung, who feels no shame to admit he is a dealer as well as user.

The raison detre for the move, said another businessman, is the increased
crackdown on the business since September under Chinese pressure in
eastern Shan State that constitutes Burma's part of the Golden Triangle:

On 10 September 2005, a 496 kg heroin shipment escorted by the United Wa
State Army's 2518th Independent Regiment commander Ta Pan, was seized in
Mongpiang, 100 km west of Kengtung.

Another campaign that began in December until the end of January in
Tachilek also netted an unprecedented 12 million ATS (Amphetamine Type
Stimulant) pills.

Since then more drugs are being shipped from Mandalay, already reputed as
a Chinese city in the heart of Burma, to its neighboring countries both by
land and by water:

          o Via Rangoon to areas adjoining Thailand
          o Via Rangoon through the Gulf of Martaban to Thailand and other
countries
          o Via Kachin, Sagaing, Chin and Arakan to India and Bangladesh

On the Tachilek front, increased suppression has yet to kill the business
but it is on tighter security. "In the past, you can either do it on
credit, down payment or in kind," said the dealer-user. "These days were
long gone. Now you have to be a long-standing customer with full ready
cash for a minimum of 200,000 pills to close a deal."

Nevertheless, the ongoing political crisis in Thailand, say border
watchers, has taken away most of the law enforcement agencies' attention
away from drugs, allowing millions of pills to escape to Bangkok.

"The crisis in Thailand is sort of a blessing to the drug traders,"
claimed a businessman in Maesai. "Actually that's also what has been
happening in Burma for a long, long time."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 31, Mizzima News
Practical solution needed on Burma: Philippines MP - Mungpi

Philippines member of parliament Mario 'Mayong' Joyo Aguja said
international policies on Burma should be reviewed and practical solutions
favoured during a workshop in New Delhi today.

Aguja told participants at the one-day workshop titled Sustainable
Solutions for Burma's Crisis and Regional Cooperation, sanctions should be
reviewed to find more effective ways of promoting change in Burma.

"There are different ways of looking at sanctions . . . does it change the
behavior of the regime? For now, people are saying it did not [work],"
said Aguja, also a member of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus.

Aguja said international and regional governments needed to review and
reassess their policies on Burma to see, "in what other ways the sanctions
could be used to hit the regime but not affect the people".

"Sanctions are political instruments that could be use against a regime

but I think it could be a combination of things. Political dialogues on
one hand and sanction on the other hand by adjusting on the real politics
and conditions of the area," Aguja said.

Aguja also said he would push for a debate on sanctions against Burma
during a presentation to the Danish parliament on April 6.

Delivering a key-note speech at the workshop, Indian member of parliament
Nirmala Deshpande agreed sanctions should be reviewed and a new strategy
on Burma developed that involved regional countries including China and
India.

"It will be the interest of all countries to work for the establishment of
democracy in Burma, and especially the neighboring countries and ASEAN
countries should work together," said Deshpande.

____________________________________
March 31,  Yonhap (South Korea)
North Korea-Myanmar ties potentially dangerous: ex-NSC official - Lee
Dong-min

North Korea and Myanmar have ties that could turn into a security threat
and thus need close monitoring, a former White House aide said.

Michael Green, former Asia director at the National Security Council,
ranked the two governments together in their defiance of the international
community.

""Both regimes are clearly beginning to mirror each other in terms of
criminal activities, misuse of their own people to create instability for
their neighbors, for negotiating purposes,"" he told a Senate hearing on
Wednesday.

The transcript of the hearing was made available Thursday.

""They are not interested in opening and engaging,"" Green said, and they
have things they can get from each other.

The junta in Myanmar, for example, is likely to seek nuclear weapons or
other weapons of mass destruction.

""They (Myanmar) have food, they have things that North Korea wants, and
it's a connection that I think we should be watching very, very
carefully,"" said Green.

The North Korea-Myanmar relationship has been on and off the radar for
years with suspicions of possible nuclear weapons cooperation.

The Far Eastern Economic Review had reported in late 2003 that North
Korean technicians and aircraft were spotted in central Myanmar.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairwoman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia
and Pacific, recalled the report, saying it is an issue ""that we need to
be paying attention to.""

Green, who left the White House just last December, said that evidence
suggests there are North Koreans active in Myanmar.

""I don't think we know a lot about what they are doing, but I think we
should be trying to learn more,"" he said.

North Korea and Myanmar apparently have the same strategy -- deliberately
creating transnational instability and then blackmailing their neighbors
who try to pressure them, Green said.

""They are behaving like criminal gangs extorting money from shopkeepers
in the neighborhood in exchange for keeping other criminal elements 'under
control,'"" he said of the two regimes.

""The neighboring states make these bargains with the regime out of fear
of what might come next and with the hope that they are contributing to
stability, when in fact the problems are just being allowed to fester and
grow,"" he said.

China's relationship with Myanmar and its effect on other nations of the
region are also resonant of its relationship with North Korea, according
to Green.

China is Myanmar's strongest supporter, and economic interaction between
them has motivated Japan, India and others to engage Myanmar also, he
said.

""I am once again reminded of North Korea, where fear of China's unchecked
influence has propelled the Republic of Korea (South Korea) to take a more
accommodating stance towards Pyongyang,"" said Green.

____________________________________

March 31, TASS
Russia shows interest in developing cooperation with Myanma - Yelena Volkova

Russian business shows interest in prospect and extraction of minerals,
development of hydropower engineering, transport and communications in
Myanma, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin said on
Friday on the eve of a visit of Foreign Minister of Myanma U Nyan Win to
the Russian capital.

His talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow are
scheduled for Monday.

Russian authorities ``find it important to establish contacts between
business circles, including on the line of the Commerce and Industry
Chambers,'' Kamynin said. According to him, ``such goods of Myanma's
traditional export as rubber, rice, fruits, sea food and sewing articles
are in demand in Russia.''

``Our countries successfully interact on the international arena,
including at the United Nations and within the format of the Russia- ACEAN
dialogue,'' the diplomat said. ``Expanding multilateral cooperation with
Myanma is one of the most important directions of Russia's foreign policy
in South-East Asia.''

Russia and Myanma ``come out in favour of strengthening the central role
of the United Nations and its Security Council in issues of maintenance of
peace, pooling efforts of the world community in fight with international
terrorism,'' Kamynin said. Russia, as he noted, ``is interested to expand
and diversify cooperation with the member-countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, including within the framework of the ACEAN
Regional Forum and the Russia-ACEAN parliamentary dialogue.''