BurmaNet News, April 1-3, 2006

[Editor]

April 1-3, 2006 Issue # 2932


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Serial killers: Another Burmese youth died in the hand of police
DVB: Burmese students detained for writing and distributing poems
Mizzima: Chin group calls for talks with Burmese military

ON THE BORDER
Thai Press Reports: Government of Japan provides assistance for Karen
refugees and Karen hilltribe people

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Bird flu in Myanmar under control: report

BUSINESS / TRADE
Asia Pulse: Daewoo Int'l to sell development rights to Myanmar gas field
Xinhua: Myanmar privatizes nearly 200 state-owned enterprises in 10 years

REGIONAL
DVB: India, China and ASEAN urged to help Burma

INTERNATIONAL
ITAR-TASS News Agency (Rus.): Russia wants to settle world issues jointly
with ASEAN: Lavrov
Irrawaddy: Maung Aye to visit Russia
AP: Bush calls India an ally in cause of democracy, but Delhi's friends
aren't always Bush's
DVB: ILO to take action against stubborn Burma junta

OPINION / OTHER
New York Times: Terrorists or victims?
Asia Times: Uneasy lies the crown in Myanmar - Larry Jagan

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 31, Democratic Voice of Burma
Serial killers: Another Burmese youth died in the hand of police

Another case similar to that of the murder of former political prisoner
Thet Naing Oo who was brutally killed by the police and fire brigade
members in Rangoon Kyimyintaing (Kemmendine) Township, recently occurred
at Mandalay in central Burma.

On the eve of 27 March, an unnamed youth, estimated to be over 20 years
old, who was working as a cart-pushing porter at Kaingdang Market in the
heart of Mandalay, was arrested and beaten up by municipal officials on
suspicion of committing a crime.

The youth was then handcuffed and handed over to nearby No.6, Police
Station and as usual, the police interrogated and beat him up until he
died.

When DVB contacted No.6 Police Station for comments on how the youth had
died, an officer on duty, deputy-sheriff Than Kyaw Htay answered the phone
but refused to answer the query after consulting with his colleagues, but
only said that there was no one to answer the query. From the tone of
their agitated voices, the police obviously knew about the murder as Than
Kyaw Htay was heard muttering indistinctively the name of the victim to
his colleagues.

The dead youth was said to be from a town in the surrounding areas, and
his name, age and address were still not known in details. But his body
was being kept at Mandalay General Hospital’s mortuary.

As the circumstance of his death is said to be very similar to that of
Thet Naing Oo’s, local residents have been critically talking about it
very loudly. But the extraordinary thing about the case is, locally based
pro-military authority organisation, the Union Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA) members are planning to sue the police and municipal
authorities to ‘unearth’ the truth about the killing.

____________________________________

April 1, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese students detained for writing and distributing poems

Seven students from Pegu College in lower central Burma have been arrested
by authorities for writing and distributing a poem titled Daung Man (the
might of the fighting peacock).

The seven students - Hnin Wint Wint Soe, May Su Su Win, Ne Linn Kyaw, Thet
Oo, Win Min Htut, Maung Maung Oo, and Zeya Aung - were arrested on 29
March.

Zeya Aung, son of U Aung, the proprietor of King Star teashop in Pegu, was
detained in the border town Myawaddy in eastern Burma on 29 March with
copies of Daung Man poem. Local residents said some Pegu College students
were arrested in connection with the issue.

When DVB contacted Pegu Police Station No 1, the police officer on duty
neither confirmed nor denied the arrest of the college students. When DVB
contacted the Police Special Branch as suggested by Police Station No.1,
there was no answer.

Moreover, Aung Aung Oo, proprietor of A2O Desktop Publishing Business in
Pegu was also arrested by authorities for printing the Daung Man poem.

____________________________________

April 3, Mizzima News
Chin group calls for talks with Burmese military - Mungpi

Leaders of the Chin National Front, an armed rebel group based on Burma’s
western border, said today they were ready to start ceasefire talks with
the Burmese military in an attempt to promote national reconciliation.

CNF general secretary Thang Lian said the group welcomed talks with the
military and were ready to negotiate and compromise over the terms of an
agreement.

“What ever terms and conditions we may have, we feel that [the CNF and the
Burmese military] should first meet and decide on the terms and agreements
for ceasefire
 but [the talks] should aim for national reconciliation,”
Thang Lian said.

The CNF sent a letter to the military through Reverand Chan Tio, former
general secretary of the Zomi Baptist Convention based in the Chin capital
of Hakha in February offering to negotiate a truce.

Thang Lian told Mizzima the group had still not received a response from
the military.

The CNF was formed by Chin university students in 1988 following the
Burmese military’s brutal crack-down on peaceful pro-democracy
demonstrators.

According to Thang Lian, peace negotiations between the military and the
CNF were launched in 1995 but later failed because of conditions set by
the military.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 3, Thai Press Reports
Government of Japan provides assistance for Karen refugees and Karen
hilltribe people

The Government of Japan is extending Grant Assistance for the Grassroots
Human Security Projects Scheme (GGP) to the Empowerment of Women and Youth
on the Border of Thailand-Myanmar project. H.E. Mr. Hideaki Kobayashi,
Ambassador of Japan to the Kingdom of Thailand, and Mr. Montri Pekanan,
Deputy Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood Association of
Thailand under the Patronage of Her Royal Highness the Princess Mother
(PPAT), signed the contract on March 7, 2006 at the Embassy of Japan.

Population growth through early marriage and/or health damage caused by
pregnancy and delivery have become issues in refugee camps and Karen tribe
villages along the Myanmar border. One of the reasons is that the people
can only understand the Karen language so that they cannot take full
advantage of the information and medical services provided by Thai
speakers. The PPAT has been promoting the education and the awareness
regarding family planning and reproductive health, and has set up birth
control clinics in Karen refugee camps and mobile units in tribal villages
along the Myanmar border.

At the request of the PPAT, the Japanese Government has agreed to fund the
production of posters and VCDs in the Karen language, the purchase of
equipment for educational activities, and a four-wheel drive car to go
around villages in the mountain areas. The total grant assistance amounts
to US$ 59,270, or approximately 2.3 million baht. Through this project, it
is expected that Karen women and young people will acquire reliable
knowledge regarding health, pregnancy, and delivery, and that their
quality of life will improve.

The Government of Japan is willing to support projects that will benefit
human security through the GGP scheme.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 2, Xinhua General News Service
Bird flu in Myanmar under control: report

Yangon: Myanmar's Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department (LBVD) has
announced the recent bird flu outbreak in the country has been brought
under control, local media reported Sunday.

The country has so far destroyed 226 chicken and 63 quail farms, culling
some 140,000 chickens and 130,000 quails in its efforts to contain bird
flu, which broke out in the country's two divisions in late February this
year, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar the reported.

Myanmar's full cooperation in the fight against the disease has also been
acknowledged by the international community, the report said, adding it
has so far received medical and lab equipment worth of more than 500,000
U.S. dollars from international organizations.

Since the outbreak of bird flu in early February, four townships in
Sagaing division and six townships in Mandalay division were affected.

After the initial outbreak in these areas, investigation was made on 47
poultry farms with 433 samples being examined, of which 26 from 35 chicken
farms were detected with the H5N1 deadly virus, earlier reports said.

As a preventive measure, ban of sale and transport of animals and their
products was imposed and restricted zones were designated between 3
kilometers and 7 kilometers from the infected farms and no evidence of
human and other animal infections from the H5N1 has been found, the
authorities said.

Meanwhile, as one of the preventive measures against probable spreading of
the disease, chickens and ducks have also been banned since March 23 in
Naypyidaw city, Myanmar's new capital outside Pyinmana.

Poultry farms in Naypyidaw, which is 300 kilometers south of Mandalay, are
under examination by the authorities, and no H5N1 avian influenza has so
far been found there

In the latest development, chickens and eggs from outside have also been
banned from being transported into Yangon. However, free sale of chickens
bred within Yangon is allowed, according to livestock farmers.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 3, Asia Pulse
Daewoo Int'l to sell development rights to Myanmar gas field

Seoul: South Korean trading company Daewoo International Corp. said Monday
it has received approval from the Myanmar government to sell part of its
stake in a gas field belonging to the Southeast Asian country to three gas
companies.

With the move now approved, India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. will
purchase 20 per cent of the development rights in the A-3 block under the
waters that lie off the northwestern coast of the country.

Marketing firm Gas Authority of India Ltd. and Korea Gas Corp. will also
buy a 10 per cent stake each from Daewoo.

The A-3 block, which measures 6,780 square kilometers, is estimated to
carry reserves worth more than 4 trillion won (US$4.11 billion).

Analysts have estimated that there are between 3 and 10 trillion cubic
feet of gas underneath the field. One cubic foot equals about 28.3 liters.

The site is also near the Block A-1 site, which the company has been
exploring since January 2004.

____________________________________

April 3, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar privatizes nearly 200 state-owned enterprises in 10 years

Yangon: Myanmar has priviatized 194 state- owned enterprises (SOE) as of
March this year since the country started the move in 1995, the Weekly
Eleven News reported Monday.

Of the enterprises auctioned to private entrepreneurs, 123 were previously
owned by the Ministry of Information, according to the government-formed
Privatization Commission.

Other privatized SOE include those previously owned by the Ministry of
Industry, Ministry of Cooperative, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of
Forestry.

Myanamr has since January 1995 been implementing the privatization plan
for its SOEs, including those nationalized in the 1960s, in a bid to
systematically turn them into more effective enterprises.

The plan is carried out through auctioning, leasing or establishing joint
ventures with local and foreign investors.

Myanmar has more than 55,000 factories, of which over 53,000 are private-run.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
India, China and ASEAN urged to help Burma

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India were urged
to hold a conference on the national reconciliation in Burma with
lawmakers from neighbouring countries.

The call was made at a seminar on regional cooperation for solving Burma’s
political problems which was held at the International Hall in New Delhi
on 1 April. China and India were also urged to cooperate with the ASEAN
for a peaceful democratic transition in the military-ruled country. At the
same time, the ASEAN was persuaded to initiate the process at its
impending foreign ministers’ meet in Bali.

A Philippines lawmaker and a member of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary
Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) Mario Joyo Aguja said that his group is planning to
meet with government officials and lawmakers from China and India to
discuss Burma issue and carry out pragmatic activities.

Indian parliament’s Rajya Sabha member and the patron of an Indian
parliamentary committee on Burma, Kumari Nirmala Deshpande said she hoped
India and China will cooperate and should cooperate for a happy outcome.

But a French observer who has been studying the Indo-Burmese relation said
that Burma’s ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) is not likely to lean on the Indian government on this
matter.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 3, ITAR-TASS News Agency
Russia wants to settle world issues jointly with ASEAN: Lavrov - Yelena
Volkova and Irina Shatalova

Moscpw: Russia is eager to promote cooperation with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the fight against terrorism, organised
crime, and drug traffic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated in
the course of his Monday talks with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win.

``We intend to devote special attention to our cooperation with the
countries of the Asia Pacific region,'' the Russian minister stated.
Myanmar, being as it is a member of ASEAN, ``is actively contributing to
the promotion of Russia's contacts with that organisation.'' Lavrov
positively assessed ``the two countries' interaction, including
cooperation on the world arena''.

The ministerial negotiations were held during the official visit to Russia
of Muang Aye, the deputy chairman of the State Council of Peace and
Development of the Union of Myanmar. This is the first-ever visit of such
a high-ranking Myanmar leader to Russia.

Spokesman for the Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Kamynin said ``Russian
business is evincing interest in prospecting and mining useful minerals in
Myanmar, as well as in the development of the country's hydraulic power
system, transport and communication services''. ``In demand in Russia are
such Myanmar-produced goods as rubber, rice, fruits, sea products and
ready-made garments,'' he added. ``Expansion of multifarious cooperation
with Myanmar ranks among the most important tasks of our foreign policy in
Southeast Asia,'' Kamynin stated.

____________________________________

March 31, The Irrawaddy
Maung Aye to visit Russia

Burma’s second most powerful general, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, plans to
visit Russia on Sunday, according to official press reports.

Vice Snr-Gen Maung AyeState-owned newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar,
reported on Friday that Maung Aye will pay an official visit at the
invitation of Mikhail Fradkov, prime minister of the Russian Federation.
Further details of the trip were not announced.

Gen Maung Aye, commander in chief of the army, is the highest-ranking
Burmese official to visit Russia since the late dictator Gen Ne Win
visited Moscow in 1965. Maung Aye will lead a major delegation comprising
high-ranking officials, including the ministers of foreign affairs,
commerce, and science and technology.

Rangoon-based observers also suggest that Burmese businessmen who have
close ties with Russia’s arms industry will join the visit. Tay Za, a
prominent Rangoon businessman, is likely to be part of the delegation.

Tay Za is the sole representative in Burma of Russia’s Export Military
Industrial Group, also known as MAPO, and of the Russian helicopter
company Rostvertol. Observers suggest the delegation will focus on a range
of military and defense issues.

Lately, Russia has played a major role in the modernization of Burma’s air
force. The regime bought 12 MiG-29 jet fighters from Russia in 2002—a deal
Tay Za was involved in—at a reported cost of US $130 million.

In addition, Rangoon signed a contract in July 2002 with the Russian
Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) for the construction of a 10 megawatt
nuclear reactor in Burma. But Moscow reportedly shelved the project in
2003 because Rangoon could not pay for it.

Moscow and Rangoon established diplomatic relations in 1948, soon after
Burma gained its independence. Observers say, however, that defense
cooperation between the two countries has steadily increased since the
1990s. In 1995, Rangoon sent a high-level military delegation to Russia to
purchase arms. The unpublicized visit was led by Lt Gen Tin Oo, Secretary
Two of the ruling junta and army chief of staff.

The delegation bought more than a dozen Mi-17 military transport
helicopters and other military hardware and since the visit, Russian
technicians and military advisors have been frequent visitors to Burma.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Rangoon has sent more than 1,000 air
force officers, army engineers and technicians to Russia for training and
study.

Analysts suspect that Moscow has been keen to maintain diplomatic ties
with Rangoon in order to monitor Burma’s relations with its two powerhouse
neighbors, China and India. Moscow also sees Southeast Asia as a potential
lucrative market for selling arms and jet fighters.

____________________________________

April 3, Associated Press
Bush calls India an ally in cause of democracy, but Delhi's friends aren't
always Bush's - Tim Sullivan

New Delhi: In the carefully lit ruins of an ancient fort, U.S. President
George W. Bush ended his recent trip to India a visit that helped ease
years of mutual distrust and ushered in a landmark nuclear agreement by
insisting that "India has an historic duty to support democracy around the
world."

Bush went on to list a handful of countries where, he said, people were
suffering under oppressive regimes. Among them: Iran, Syria and Myanmar.

What he did not mention was that India has close ties to all three, and
has little intention of actively spreading democracy to any of them.

New Delhi's foreign policy has occasionally raised eyebrows in Washington
its friendship with Iran has been a concern at times, and it has been
urged to put pressure on Myanmar to reform but it has shown little sign so
far of impeding the U.S.-India nuclear deal, which is currently wending
its way through Washington.

"While (ties to countries like Iran) may cause some friction, both India
and the United States will learn to accommodate those frictions," said
Ashok K. Mehta, a retired Indian general and a writer on security issues.
"A strategic partnership does not come down to a black and white line."

Sometimes, though, India's foreign relations stand in stark contrast to
Bush's comments.

Just a few days after Bush returned to Washington, Indian President A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam left for a trip to Myanmar, also known as Burma, where a
brutal, long-ruling junta has suppressed ethnic minorities, gunned down
demonstrators and kept opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house
arrest for years.

Though Kalam raised the issue of democratic reforms with the junta, India
has also made clear it was more interested in Myanmar's energy supplies
and Indian militants hiding along the India-Myanmar border.

The visit infuriated the Burmese exile community.

"As the world's biggest democracy, India is not doing much" to advance the
cause of democratic change in Myanmar, said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the
National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella group of opposition
exiles.

Given India's energy needs and security concerns, it "will support the
military regime in one way or another," he said in a telephone interview
from Thailand.

In the days since Kalam's visit, both the United States and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations have urged India to press Myanmar
for democratic reforms.

"India is a democracy and of course should raise this," U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice told U.S. lawmakers at a recent Senate subcommittee
hearing.

But New Delhi offers no apologies for its ties to countries like Myanmar.

"While we encourage and support democracy, we would not like to ... be
seen as thrusting democracy on any country," said Mehta.

Instead, top officials repeatedly insist, India's policies are rooted in
self-interest.

In some ways, India's foreign relations are mirrored in Washington, which
finds itself allied to such unlikely friends as Saudi Arabia with its
secretive, autocratic government largely because of energy needs.

"The basic objective of our foreign policy, as well as our domestic
policy, is to promote our enlightened national interests," Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh told reporters earlier this year.

With an economy growing at 8 percent and limited domestic resources, that
interest is often energy: Myanmar, Syria and Iran are all current or
potential suppliers of oil or natural gas to India.

But it is India's relationship with Iran that gets the most attention.

"We have a strong and valuable relationship with Iran which we would like
to take forward," Singh told parliament in February, noting Indo-Iranian
ties "go back several millennia."

But if such relationships sometimes make Washington uncomfortable, the
backlash has been fierce when the United States has openly put pressure on
India over Tehran.

Indian lawmakers were infuriated when U.S. Ambassador David C. Mulford
said in January that if India did not support referring Iran to the U.N.
Security Council over its nuclear program that the India-U.S. nuclear pact
could "die" in the U.S. Congress, which still must act to get the
agreement finalized.

Despite the anger over Mulford's comments, India still voted with the
United States to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council, where Tehran
could face sanctions.

Less than two months after the vote and just three weeks after Bush was in
Delhi Iranian Vice President Esfandiyar Rahim-Masha'i came to town.

He insisted relations between India and Iran were getting better all the
time.

____________________________________

March 31, Democratic Voice of Burma
ILO to take action against stubborn Burma junta

The UN International Labour Organisation (ILO) has decided to “review
further action to be taken to effectively secure the compliance” by
Rangoon military government, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) as it continues to refuse to release those detained for reporting
forced labour to the ILO.

The decision was taken on the last day of a two-week long meeting at the
ILO HQs in Geneva.

“The main point was to put an item on the agenda for the international
labour conference which is in June,” said Richard Horsey, the ILO
representative in Rangoon who attended the meeting told DVB. “This item
will be to review all of the options that the conference has to secure
compliance with the recommendation of the mission of enquiry and also to
stop prosecutions of the people who complain in Burma about forced
labour.”

Horsey explained the difference between the ILO previous decision and the
current one as follows:

“Last year, the only question was whether to reactivate the measures which
were already taken in 2000. So now the question is not only the old one
but then to take additional measures. There are lots of questions what
could be done. You know, the different members of the ILO have some ideas
which kind of actions, but it could be, of course, action against Myanmar
(Burma) or could be other actions under international law. But this is a
question which will be discussed in June.”

Rangoon military government’s representative attended the meeting and
asked if he said anything in particular, Horsey replied:

“Yes, his only reaction was to remind that (the) name of the country is
Myanmar, not Burma. The government has accepted that these people are in
prison. They have said that this is not because of the ILO, not because of
contacts with the ILO. The governing body was not satisfied with the
development and has made a specific request that these people are
released. But in June, they will consider what action they can take to
ensure that these people are released and that in the future, no action is
taken against people complaining about forced labour.”

The ILO also urged the Asian nation's rulers to halt forced labour and
"expressed its profound concern at the continued lack of any meaningful
progress towards abolishing forced labour", especially in Burma.

In 1998 an ILO inquiry found that forced labour was pervasive and
systematic throughout the country, particularly with the military. In 2000
the ILO's governing body recommended trade and other sanctions against
Burma because of its lack of cooperation in tackling the practice. The
sanctions recommendation was frozen in 2001 amid promises from Burma's
military leaders to stop forced labour and accept limited ILO
surveillance.

The ILO and Burma agreed on a plan of action to crack down on forced
labour in May 2003, but it fell apart. Last October, an ILO report on
forced labour in Burma noted the unwillingness of the military regime to
cooperate with the international community and detailed measures taken by
Rangoon to intimidate the ILO's representatives in the country.

The ILO also recommended that the Burmese government should "enact
legislation guaranteeing freedom of association to all workers and
employers and to explicitly protect workers' and employers' organisations
from any interference by the authorities, including the army."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 3, The New York Times
Terrorists or victims?

In Sierra Leone there is a woman who was kept captive in her house for
four days by guerrillas. The rebels raped her and her daughter and cut
them with machetes. Under America's program to resettle refugees, she
would be eligible to come to safety in the United States. But her
application for refuge has been put on indefinite hold -- because American
law says that she provided ''material support'' to terrorists by giving
them shelter.

This law is keeping out of the United States several thousand recognized
refugees America had agreed in principle to shelter. By any reasonable
definition, they are victims, not terrorists.

A Liberian woman was kidnapped by a guerrilla group and forced to be a
sexual slave for several weeks. She also had to cook and do laundry. These
services are now considered material support to terrorists. In Colombia,
the United Nations will no longer ask the United States to admit dozens of
refugees who are clearly victims, since all their predecessors have been
rejected on material support grounds. One is a woman who gave a glass of
water to an armed guerrilla who approached her house. Another is a young
man who was kidnapped by paramilitary members on a killing spree and
forced to dig graves alongside others. The men, many of whom were shot
when their work was finished, never knew if one of the graves would become
their own.

The law makes no exception for duress. It also treats any group of two or
more people fighting a government as terrorists no matter how justified
the cause, or how long ago the struggle. So the United States has turned
away Chin refugees, for supporting an armed group fighting against the
Myanmar dictatorship, which has barred them from practicing their
religion. The United States has acknowledged that the law would also bar
Iraqis who helped American marines find Jessica Lynch.

The law does not formally reject these applicants but places them on
indefinite hold. No one accused of material support has ever had that hold
lifted. The Department of Homeland Security can supposedly waive the
material support provision but has never done so.

Clearly, Congress needs to add an exception for duress, allow the
secretary of state to designate armed movements as nonterrorist, and allow
supporters of legitimate groups to gain refuge. These changes would pose
no risk of admitting terrorists to the United States and would keep
America from further victimizing those who have already suffered at the
hands of terrorist groups.

____________________________________

April 4, Asia Times
Uneasy lies the crown in Myanmar - Larry Jagan

Bangkok: As Myanmar's reclusive ruling military junta moves toward more
isolationism, its senior generals are moving to re-establish something
akin to the country's long-abolished monarchy to shore up their lagging
legitimacy. As the new palace walls go up, the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) has stepped up its persecution of foreign organizations
operating in the country.

November's mass relocation of Myanmar's capital 400 kilometers north to
Pyinmana from Yangon was shrouded in secrecy and caught many observers,
diplomats and regional allies unawares. Civil servants were given a day's
notice of the move, and thousands of government workers were abruptly
bused with their belongings to the newly built, mosquito-infested capital
city.

At the time, many viewed the move as a strategic retreat motivated by
fears of a possible US invasion. Washington officials had repeatedly
referred to the regime as an "outpost of tyranny" because of its abysmal
human-rights record. A siege mentality definitely motivated the move, but
as the dust settles on Pyinmana, it is apparent that the move is part of a
larger scheme to establish a new sort of royal order for the country.

Resurrecting royalty

Than Shwe, the SPDC's top general, is systematically resurrecting the
symbols and rituals of Myanmar's royal history to lend legitimacy to his
regime's right to rule. And there are emerging indications that he intends
to anoint himself as the country's new monarch - more than 120 years after
British India annexed and dissolved the Awa royal dynasty.

In neighboring Thailand, a widely revered constitutional monarch has
underpinned the country's transition to democracy - a constitutional model
the generals have no doubt noted. This year's relatively subdued Army Day
celebrations were held in Pyinmana, which was christened the "Royal City"
on March 27, the same date the country's liberation army was founded in
1945.

Three golden statues of former Burmese kings watched over the parade
grounds at the new palace-city, nestled in the same hills where Myanmar's
independence leader General Aung San - the father of detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi - launched his movement against the Japanese
occupation 61 years ago.

"Today, the tatmadaw [armed forces] and the people are striving together
for the emergence of a democratic state and these are tasks which need
time to be implemented," Than Shwe, 74, told members of the armed forces
last week on Army Day.

At the same time, it is also clear that the SPDC has no intentions of
introducing political reform and handing over power to a civilian
government - as it previously asserted to appease the international
community. Instead, the junta is adopting an increasingly isolationist
strategy to preserve its power and deflect international pressure to
reform its politics. It recently arrested and sentenced to prison three
local journalists who had photographed Pyinmana without official
permission.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Seri Syed Hamid Albar cut short a visit to
Myanmar last month, a trip that had already been delayed months by the
junta. Representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), he
was not able to meet with Than Shwe or Suu Kyi or to see Pyinmana. His
highest-level meeting was with his Foreign Ministry counterpart.

Apart from the royal symbolism, the move to Pyinmana had an important
strategic component, political analysts contend. By moving to a more
central geographic location, the regime will have better access to the
frontier areas, along the borders with India, China and Thailand, and be
able to exert greater control over the ethnic rebel groups that have
recently signed tenuous ceasefire pacts and the other armed groups that
are still fighting for autonomy.

"The motive behind the move is to make sure the military is in a better
strategic position to control the regional commanders, the ethnic rebel
groups in the border areas [and] the future parliament and combat any
possible social unrest throughout the country," said Win Min, a Myanmar
analyst in exile.

The move also was apparently designed to head off resistance from within.
"Stuck in Pyinmana, the civil servants are less likely to be contaminated
by the [critical] public sentiment on the streets of Rangoon [Yangon],"
said a Yangon-based Western diplomat. "The regime is conscious of the role
government workers played in [the] 1988 [uprising] when they joined the
students and monks on the streets of the capital calling for democracy."

Aware of the resentment the sudden move may have galvanized among civil
servants and some soldiers, the government recently announced a tenfold
increase in government salaries to commence after the Buddhist New Year in
mid-April. But the inflationary pressure from the mass move is also likely
to accentuate the country's smoldering financial crisis, which has
deepened through the billions of dollars spent building the new capital.

In 2003, the government moved to shutter several scandal-ridden banks,
leaving thousands of depositors empty-handed. With the exchange rate fixed
well below black-market rates and the politically expedient decision to
bolster government salaries at a time state coffers are depleted,
Myanmar's malfunctioning economy is starting to show some of the glaring
financial distortions seen in Argentina before that country's fateful
economic and social meltdown in 2002.

Expelling the white faces

The move to Pyinmana and the resurrection of royal symbolism, however, is
only part of Than Shwe's strategy to preserve political power. The October
2004 purge of the once-powerful Military Intelligence Service (MIS) saw
the unceremonious fall of former prime minister and intelligence chief
General Khin Nyunt and thousands of his MIS supporters. Khin Nyunt was
widely viewed as the military officer who most favored engagement with the
international community, and he was instrumental in Myanmar's accession
into ASEAN in 1997.

Late last year, Than Shwe told the other top military leaders that all the
"white faces" should be expelled from the country. He reportedly ordered
that they be replaced either by Myanmar people, or at the very least by
other Asian faces. Since then, the SPDC's persecution of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies has been stepped up dramatically.

"We do not need anyone's help, not the UN, not India or China, nor ASEAN,"
he told the United Nations secretary general's special envoy, Ali Alatas,
when they met in Yangon in August.

In that direction, authorities recently introduced strict new guidelines
to control the activities of the international agencies operating in
Myanmar, including the UN. In February, the junta refused to renew the
visa of the country representative for Humanitarian Dialogue, a
Geneva-based conflict-resolution outfit that played a behind-the-scenes
role in establishing the secret and eventually failed UN-brokered
negotiations between the SPDC and the opposition National League for
Democracy in 2003.

A special ministerial committee has recently been established to oversee
the implementation of these regulations and control the activities headed
by the planning minister, with the interior minister and foreign minister
acting as his deputies.

"This is clearly part of the military government's overall security
strategy to make sure that it is in total control of the countryside,"
said a UN worker formerly based in Myanmar, requesting anonymity. After
the 2004 purge, "army chief Maung Aye was horrified when he realized that
the military headquarters was totally unaware of how many foreigners and
international organizations were operating in the country", he said.

The military's top brass have moved to control international NGO
activities tightly and restrict the UN's operations. "There has been a
concerted effort to make sure we cannot visit our projects throughout the
country over the past year," said one international aid worker based in
Yangon. There is also a campaign under way to expel the few critical
international organizations left in the country.

Last year the International Organization of Labor (ILO), which has in the
past reported on the junta's use of forced labor, was inundated with death
threats, according to its officials. This practice ended abruptly after it
was revealed in the international media. No group was ever arrested or
took responsibility for making the menacing calls.

Thereafter, however, Than Shwe and his top advisers have aggressively
lobbied the UN to take the pro-government grassroots organization the
Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA) as its main local partner
- a suggestion UN representatives in Yangon have strenuously rejected
since it was first mooted more than six months ago. Negotiations are
ongoing and the UN has encountered increasing difficulties in conducting
its work here.

Some months ago the authorities told the International Crescent Red Cross
(ICRC) that officials from the USDA and local community organizations,
such as the National Women's Committee, must accompany them on their
prison visits. The ICRC rejected this out of hand - as it is international
practice for the independent humanitarian organization to visit prisoners
privately and not reveal information publicly about the visits.

Since February, the ICRC has stopped all prison visits and the future of
the respected non-partisan organization's work in Myanmar is in severe
jeopardy. Already there are reports the situation for political prisoners
in the country's jails has deteriorated dramatically since the ICRC
suspended its visits. "Beatings of prisoners in Rangoon's notorious Insein
prison have increased since the Red Cross stopped visiting," said a former
political prisoner with contacts in the prison.

Both the ILO and ICRC notably work in sensitive areas for the military,
especially the strategic border areas, and Maung Aye reportedly sees them
as a threat to the army's authority. Both organizations are likely to face
increasing problems and pressure from the ruling junta in the coming
months to withdraw from the country all together, Yangon-based diplomats
say.

There is little to no evidence that Myanmar's top generals, increasingly
desperate - both economically and politically - have reconsidered their
attitude toward the former military intelligence officers who once engaged
with the international community but in 2004 were cashiered out of the
army and sentenced to long jail terms for various charges and offenses.

"Unfortunately Burma's leaders are not like their Chinese patrons when it
comes to those who lose their position for political reasons," said a
former diplomat requesting anonymity. "There is very little chance of Khin
Nyunt and his people rising from the ashes, as Deng Xiaoping did after the
end of the Cultural Revolution, and taking a significant role in the
administration of the country."

Instead, the junta seems increasingly content to pull up the drawbridge on
their new palatial capital and withdraw from the wider world around them.

Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the BBC. He is
currently a freelance journalist based in Bangkok.