BurmaNet News, May 13-15, 2006

[Editor]

May 13-15, 2006 Issue # 2962

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Landmines claim more victims as Myanmar fighting rages
AP: Myanmar raises electricity rates, drops subsidies for civil servants
AFP: Myanmar junta to hold key meeting in new capital
Reuters: Myanmar refugees tell of murder, villages burnt
Mizzima: Burmese PM in car crash

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Myanmar man killed in landmine blast near convoy

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Myanmar an obstacle as EU pushes for FTA with Southeast Asia
Asia Pulse: India raises opening of another border point with Myanmar
Asia Pulse: Myanmar seeks Indian investment, greater trade
AFP: Myanmar's inflation soars after military raises wages

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: UN official to arrive in Rangoon on Thursday
AFP: Myanmar criticises US move to accept more refugees

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: Thailand's human-rights standing: a moment of truth - Kavi
Chongkittavorn

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 15, Agence France Presse
Landmines claim more victims as Myanmar fighting rages - Hla Hla Htay

With his arm hooked to a drip, Kyaw Lwin Oo lay in a hospital bed in rural
Myanmar hoping that doctors would not need to amputate his right leg after
a landmine accident.

"I feel better now. The doctor told me that maybe he wouldn't need to cut
off my leg," the 24-year-old said.

Like many people in the rural area of Bago, about 260 kilometers (160
miles) northeast of Yangon, Kyaw Lwin Oo earns his living from the jungles
surrounding his village.

Here, people trek into the wilderness to cut timber or collect wild fruits
to sell at market. His livelihood is tenuous at best, earning him only
about two dollars a day.

But since renewed fighting erupted in neighboring Karen state between
Myanmar's military government and ethnic rebels, their work has become
increasingly dangerous, especially due to landmines littering the
countryside.

Kyaw Lwin Oo's accident happened on Saturday while he was crossing the
road just a kilometer (half-mile) from his village.

Later the doctor said he wouldn't be able to save Kyaw Lwin Oo's leg,
making him another victim of a conflict that has raged largely outside the
world's view.

Doctor Maung Maung Khin said this was the 18th landmine victim who had
sought treatment at the hospital this year. Only 14 people suffered
landmine injuries during all of last year, he said.

Eight other landmine victims were still in hospital beds, and many blamed
ethnic Karen rebels for laying the mines in the first place.

But it is impossible to know which side planted the devices in a 57-year
conflict that is one of the world's longest-running insurgencies,
especially in a region where many fear to speak openly because of the
constant threat of reprisals by the military.

Since fighting between the Karen National Union -- the main rebel force in
the region -- and the military intensified in February, rights groups
estimate up to 11,000 people have been forced from their homes.

Some 1,000 people have arrived at the Thai border hoping to enter as
refugees, but it's difficult to know how many more are displaced inside
the country.

Human Rights Watch earlier this month accused the army of laying
2,000-plus landmines along the border and in civilian areas to prevent
more people from escaping.

Myanmar is one of only four countries known to have used landmines in the
last three years, according to the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines.

The military brought diplomats and journalists to this remote village to
show that they are trying to protect civilians.

"In fact, the government is not in favour of war. That is why it is taking
security measures," the information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan
told reporters.

"Because of mines laid by the KNU, a large number of rural people have
lost lives and limbs," he said.

Kyaw Hsan dismissed the reports of displaced people as "propaganda", but
said the military has taken action.

"To prevent KNU atrocities and sabotage, and to ensure public safety, the
government has to clear up the areas where the KNU and their hardcore
supporters could take refuge," he said.

The KNU insists that the military has waged an offensive, and blames the
junta for the failure of peace talks.

Myanmar's ruling junta has reached ceasefires with 17 other ethnic armed
groups.

"They are the ones who started the fighting because they have carried out
what we consider a genocide against the Karen people," KNU Colonel Nerdah
Mya told AFP in Bangkok.

"You can't really trust them. They say something and do something else.
They say they want peace talks ... but then they attack you," he said.

For the landmine victims in Mone, the main question is how to survive when
their homes have been surrounded by hidden explosives.

"This happens very often," said Than Lwin, a 45-year-old father of six,
pointing at his leg injured by a mine on May 9.

"I had bad luck that day. I've been to that area many times, but there
were no mines there before," he told AFP.

____________________________________

May 15, Associated Press
Myanmar raises electricity rates, drops subsidies for civil servants - Aye
Aye Win

Myanmar's military government has raised electricity prices while at the
same eliminating special lower rates for civil servants and the elderly,
an official of the state electric power department said Monday.

The move has been touted as a free market reform by the government, and
comes directly after massive salary increases announced for civil servants
on April 30.

The new salaries appeared to have been an effort to placate civil servants
who in many cases were making less than US$10 (euro8.30) a month and were
hit hard by fuel price increases last year.

"As the country has adopted an open-market economy, everything has to be
adjusted according to the market economy. However, the government will
make a gentle and step by step increase so that the people will not face
hardship," said Information Minister Brig Gen. Kyaw Hsan last week when
asked about the possibility of electricity rate increases.

Effective May 1, every household and religious building will pay the same
rate of 25 kyats (US$0.02, euro0.015) per unit while industries will pay
50 kyats (US$0.04, euro0.03) per unit, said the official, who insisted on
anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

Under the previous rate table, there had been a sliding scale, ranging
from 2.50 kyats (US$0.002 or euro0.0015)to 25 kyats (US$0.02, euro0.015)
per unit, depending on the category of consumer and the amount used. The
price for civil servants and pensioners had ranged between 50 pyas
(US$0.0004 or euro0.0003) and 25 kyats (US$0.02, euro0.015).

"The new rate will have a bigger impact on government servants, retirees
and low-volume consumers," said high school teacher Myint Soe, who is now
getting 44,000 kyats (US$33.80, euro27.97) a month compared to 10,900
kyats (US$8.38, euro6.92) before the salary hikes.

It is unclear how the electricity rate increases will affect the problem
of power shortages, caused by inadequate domestic fuel supplies and a
shortage of money to import oil. The government for years has been forced
to use electricity rationing, even in the country's commercial capital and
biggest city, Yangon.

____________________________________

May 14, Agence France Presse
Myanmar junta to hold key meeting in new capital

Myanmar's top military leaders gathered Sunday ahead of their first major
meeting to take place in the new administrative capital, amid expectations
of a government shake-up.

The meeting was set to begin Monday in the new War Office compound in
Naypyidaw, the new government and military administrative compound built
in the mountains outside the central town of Pyinmana.

Junta leaders usually meet top military brass every four months, but the
last meeting in January was cancelled because of the government's move to
Naypyidaw, whose name means "capital where the king resides".

The secrecy surrounding the meeting was remarkable even for the
notoriously reclusive regime. The generals were gathering in a compound
that few people have even seen and cell phone signals in the region were
blocked.

The generals were expected to agree on bringing new blood into government
posts, sources close to the military said in Yangon.

"Some of the older ones who have been more than three years in a cabinet
post will probably be moved out to be replaced by other officers from the
military," one source said.

Win Min, a Myanmar military analyst based in neighboring Thailand, told
AFP that despite expectations of some changes in the ranks, predicting the
military's actions is always tricky.

"Every three or four years they do make changes to the SPDC, the military
council, and also to the cabinet. But it has been more than two years now
so the time is right to make the changes," he said.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as the junta calls itself,
rarely announces its reshuffles. Shake-ups in the last two years have
served mainly to consolidate the power of junta supremo, Senior General
Than Shwe.

Since Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was ousted in a sweeping purge of the
government in October 2004, the military has continued to weed out people
with links to the deposed PM and his many business interests.

Khin Nyunt was perceived internationally as a relative moderate in the
regime, who was willing to make at least some contacts with detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But now the military is tightening its grip on power, stepping up pressure
on Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy while waging an
offensive against the country's largest rebel group in eastern Myanmar.

____________________________________

May 15, Reuters
Myanmar refugees tell of murder, villages burnt

Near the Salween River, Myanmar: Over the last month, more than 800 ethnic
Karen have fled the biggest Myanmar army offensive in a decade to a
makeshift jungle camp near the Thai border. Hundreds more are likely to
follow.

In some of the first independent confirmation of a growing refugee crisis
inside the former Burma's Karen State, Reuters interviewed dozens of
families who walked for weeks through malaria-infested forests to escape
soldiers of the SPDC, as Yangon's ruling junta is known.

Protected by Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) guerrillas in a steep
valley one mile (1.5 km) from Thailand, they spoke of friends and
relatives murdered, villages burnt to the ground and the ashes seeded with
landmines.

Some of them used the word "myo dong". In Karen, it means genocide.

"The SPDC is trying to make sure the Karen are wiped off the map of Burma
-- the people, the culture, the language," said 30-year-old Sor Law Lah
Doh, who arrived two days ago in the camp near the Salween river with his
wife and three children.

Another new arrival, 70-year-old Kya Kwa Po, agreed.

"The SPDC will only be happy when there are no more Karen in Burma," he
said, sheltering from the midday sun beneath a blue tarpaulin slung across
bamboo poles on the edge of the jungle.

The Karen, a mainly Christian people who make up just over 10 percent of
Myanmar's 52 million people, have been fighting a guerrilla independence
war in eastern Myanmar for the last 50 years -- one of the world's
longest-running conflicts.

Since November, reports from refugee relief groups inside Karen State have
pointed to a determined assault on ethnic areas by the Burmese-dominated
junta, which calls itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

Over the weekend, Yangon's secretive generals, who exert total control
over the media, accused the KNU of planning "atrocities and sabotage acts"
against the government.

"The government has to clear up the areas where KNU members and their
hardcores could be hiding," Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw
Hsan told reporters on Saturday.

However, he blamed the exodus of refugees on a power struggle within the
Karen rebel movement.

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a Christian group that helps refugees inside
Myanmar, says more than 15,000 ethnic minority people have been forced to
flee their homes but remain inside the country as internally displaced
people, or IDPs.

The U.N. refugee agency confirmed two weeks ago that 1,800 had crossed
into Thailand since December, where 120,000 ethnic minority people from
Myanmar live in permanent refugee camps.

U.N. officials did not comment on possible IDP numbers, but information
from refugees near the Salween River, which forms the border with
Thailand, corroborated FBR estimates of thousands on the run in the
jungle.

FLIGHT TO SAFETY

Sor Law Lah Doh, who led his family past landmines and SPDC patrols on a
10-day trek to the relative safety of the Salween, said 170 of the 200
people in his village fled after a raid in which all their homes and rice
banks were razed.

He said he knew of 100 other similar-sized communities who had suffered a
similar fate.

So far, in the last month, 805 refugees have made it through the jungle to
emerge, filthy, exhausted and sick at the Karen camp, a collection of 200
bamboo huts nestled in the dense jungle. The camp has only been open since
April 5.

Some families trekked for up to three months to escape. In two cases,
women gave birth on the run. Their children, along with three others born
in the camp, now cling to life, at the mercy of diarrhoea, infection and
malaria.

"This is the worst situation for the Karen for 10 years," said Peter, a
teacher from one of the main refugee camps in Thailand who has been
brought in to try and establish clean water, food and shelter at the
rapidly swelling village. Another group of refugees from Karenni State to
the north are due to arrive at any moment, he said.

"If the SPDC continue to use force to chase people away, it will get
bigger," said Peter, who has only one name. "The Thai camps are already
full -- there is no room for new arrivals. The people will have nowhere to
go but here."

____________________________________

May 15, Mizzima News
Burmese PM in car crash

Reports have emerged from Rangoon that Burmese prime minister Soe Win was
hospitalised yesterday after a car he was travelling is crashed into a
tree.

According to sources, Soe Win and his family were in a car headed for
Rangoon from Burma's new administrative capital in Pyinmana.

The driver of the car is believed to have lost control before smashing
into a tree. Soe Win's family members are believed to have been admitted
to Mingaladon military hospital with minor injuries.

Reports indicate Soe Win left Pyinmana during an important quarterly
commander's meeting, which analysts say could end in a serious military
reshuffle.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 14, Agence France Presse
Myanmar man killed in landmine blast near convoy

Myanmar's junta has blamed ethnic rebels for inciting unrest that has
forced thousands from their homes, as a man was killed by a landmine which
officials said was meant to attack a military convoy.

The landmine exploded late Friday in the village of Penwegon, 160
kilometers (100 miles) north of Yangon, as a military convoy was bringing
a group of diplomats and journalists to visit a demining project.

Police said the man could have been trying to target the convoy, which was
en route to Karen state where the military and ethnic rebels have been
locked in fierce combat since February. Rights groups say the fighting has
forced some 11,000 villagers from their homes.

The information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, said insurgents had
ordered the man to place the anti-vehicle landmine on the dirt road, which
is the main highway linking Yangon and the central city of Mandalay.

"It's under investigation. But we assume that it was an (anti-vehicle)
mine explosion," Kyaw Hsan told reporters in Karen state.

"According to the information that we have, he killed himself while he was
carrying this mine from one place to another at the instruction of the
insurgents," Kyaw Hsan said.

"This man was just a villager. We are still investigating who instructed
him to do this. He was killed because of his misdeeds," he said.

The diplomats in the convoy included officials from the German and
Philippine embassies, as well as from UN agencies. An AFP reporter was
also in the convoy.

Kyaw Hsan denied reports from groups such as Human Rights Watch, that up
to 11,000 people -- mainly from the ethnic Karen minority -- have been
forced from their homes since the latest fighting broke out in February.

"They are launching propaganda to the effect that about 10,000 Karen
villagers fled and some 1,800 reached the border," he said.

The general insisted that the Karen National Union, the main rebel force
in the area, instigated the violence that has raged since February by
using landmines and other explosives to stage attacks in eastern Myanmar.

"In fact, the government is not in favour of war so it is taking security
measures. As the KNU has been time and again jeopardizing and harming the
lives and property of the people, the government has to take security
measures," he said.

"Because of mines laid by the KNU, a large number of rural people lost
lives and limbs," he added.

A KNU leader told AFP in Bangkok that he knew nothing about the explosion
in Pegwegon. "I haven't heard anything about it," Colonel Nerdah Mya said.

Landmine explosions and other bombings have been increasing in areas
around Karen state since the fighting escalated there earlier this year.

Nerdah Mya said fresh violence was underway near the Thai border on Sunday
despite the onset of the rainy season, but that fighting appeared to be
far from the scene of Friday's blast.

He also insisted that the military was to blame for the fighting.

"They are the ones who started the fighting because they have carried out
what we consider a genocide against the Karen people," he said.

Talks between the KNU, the largest group still battling Yangon, and the
military have in the past broken down. Myanmar's ruling junta has reached
ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups.

Although the KNU once controlled a vast stretch of Karen state, the
Myanmar military has made steady gains in recent years, leaving the rebels
with little more than a string of bases mainly along the Thai border.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 15, Agence France Presse
Myanmar an obstacle as EU pushes for FTA with Southeast Asia

The European Union (EU) wants to strike a free trade agreement (FTA) with
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but human rights
issues in Myanmar could be a problem, EU trade commissioner Peter
Mandelson said Monday.

He said he would meet later in the week with his counterparts from ASEAN
members, who are in Manila for an informal retreat.

"The reason why I want to see closer links between the EU and the ASEAN
countries is because I want to persuade European business to look beyond
China to the wider opportunities of Asia," Mandelson told reporters.

He said there was a need "to bring new focus to our trade relations with
ASEAN countries."

A feasibility study for an FTA has already been commissioned and "now we
got to see whether we can open up negotiations," Mandelson said.

However, he said there would "always be risks in taking the adventurous
course".

Among the likely stumbling blocks to an FTA with ASEAN is the Asian bloc's
reluctance to force democratic and human rights changes in Myanmar, which
has continued to ignore calls by both the EU and the United States to free
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The EU and US have slapped trade sanctions on Myanmar, which is an ASEAN
member along with Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

Mandelson said ASEAN and EU ministers should "find a way through" the
problem if an FTA is to be signed.

"It will be tragic if other ASEAN countries were to forgo economic
opportunities and expand trade in the world because of Myanmar's refusal
to change for the better," he said.

"It will be tragic if other ASEAN countries were to forgo economic
opportunities and lose expanded trade in the world because of Myanmar's
refusal to change for the better," he said.

"I don't want to see people in Southeast Asia as a whole held back and
unable to tackle the urgent challenge of poverty because of Myanmar's
refusal to embrace the (international) norms and standards," he said.

ASEAN secretary general Ong Keng Yong said ASEAN trade ministers, meeting
in Manila, had agreed to "work on an ASEAN-EU economic policy based on an
FTA."

"Our conclusion-- we can do an FTA if there is enough political readiness
on the part of the EU," Ong said, stressing that the EU would have to
consult with all 25 member nations.

"We didn't talk of conditions. We are ready to talk with Europe about an
FTA if they are ready," Ong added.

On the Myanmar issue Ong said this would be discussed with the EU
representatives on Tuesday, adding: "We'll see what they tell us. We'll
take it from there."

____________________________________

May 15, Asia Pulse
India raises opening of another border point with Myanmar

India has raised the issue of opening another border point with Myanmar
besides increasing the commodities basket as part of increasing bilateral
trade between the two countries.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath flagged this issue with his Myanmarese
counterpart Brig Gen Tin Naing Thein during a meeting of India-Myanmar
Joint Trade Committee here, an official release said.

"Our Bilateral Border Trade Agreement inked in 1994 provides framework
facilities by which trade is being carried out through the designated
border points of Moreh-Tamu and now Zowkhathar-Rhi since January 2004. We
now hope to add another border trading point at Pangsau Pass," Nath said.

He also favoured increasing the border trade commodities basket from the
present limited list of 22 commodities but said the two countries needed
to study the obstacles that stand in the way of bilateral trade, whether
they relate to banking, transport or other infrastructure related
problems.

Nath said though trade has risen to more than US $500 million in 2004-05,
this was still short of the target set by the two sides at the first JTC
meeting in Yangon in 2003.

Both Nath and Brig Gen. Thein emphasised the natural complementarities of
the two economies and noted that after Myanmar's entry into ASEAN and Bay
of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation
(BIMSTEC), new avenues had opened for greater cooperation on a bilateral
and regional basis.

____________________________________

May 15, Asia Pulse
Myanmar seeks Indian investment, greater trade

Myanmar on Saturday invited Indian investors and said bilateral trade
needed to be intensified to achieve a US$1 billion target.

"We are planning to establish a new industrial zone in Yangon. In that
zone, India can invest," Myanmar Ambassador H E U Kyi Thein said at a CII
meeting.

This was a good opportunity for investment, he said, adding the two
countries also needed to expand trade ties.

"We will have to intensify trade to reach the challenging target of US
$one billion in 2006," Thein said.

Bilateral trade stood at US$557.68 million in 2005-06, up by 24 per cent
compared to last financial year, he added.

Myanmar was importing fertiliser, cement, machinery goods from India, he
said, while seeking investments from Indian companies in the
pharmaceutical sector.

Thein said ways and means must be found to extend the border trade, which
stood at US$14.68 million.

He also emphasised on laying down rules and regualtions for transit trade
with China and Thailand.

Speaking on the occasion, Directorate of Trade Deputy Director General U
Myo OO said: "We met Commerce Ministry officials and had fruitful
discussions. We have set some priorities and identified some commodities
for trade."

Stating that Indian industry was keen to expand its trade and investment
relations with Myanmar, Rajshree Sugars and Chemicals Chairperson Rajshree
Pathy said efforts must be made to include more goods and services in
trading arrangements.

____________________________________

May 14, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's inflation soars after military raises wages

Like many workers in Myanmar, Ni Ni Win won a hefty 18 percent raise last
month. But the single mother says she's worse off than before, after the
government's wage increases sent inflation soaring.

"It's worse than before. The prices for everything are soaring. I'm poorer
than I was," Ni Ni Win said.

The military government awarded 10-fold increases to civil servants on
April 1, which set off a chain reaction that saw prices soar and the value
of the kyat currency drop.

Many private employers, like Ni Ni Win's, then awarded increases to their
own staff so they could keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living.

As a 33-year-old single mother, she says she finds it difficult to survive
-- even though unlike many of her neighbors, she has steady work sewing
and repairing old gunny bags.

Her salary rose last month by 200 kyats to 1,300 kyats (one dollar) a day,
but the price of ordinary Atmahta rice, the staple food, has shot up 67
percent this year, according to foreign economists at embassies here.

She pays about 500 kyats for a small bag of rice, plus 400 kyats for the
bus ride from her impoverished township to her job.

"I have to be thrifty with my expenses. I have to feed my 16-year-old son
and I have to pay for water, candles and other expense in my home," she
said.

After she pays for her household expenses eevry day, she has nothing left
most of the time.

"I cannot keep up with the rising prices," she said.

Since the military awarded the pay increase, prices have jumped at least
20 percent, according to economists.

Aung Thu Nyein, a Myanmar analyst based in Thailand, said the economy was
prone to such shocks because the military usually opts for dramatic change
-- like 10-fold salary increases -- over gradual policy adjustments.

"They have no consistency, they have no graduations. If they change
something, they change it quickly," he told AFP in Bangkok.

Keeping tabs on the economy is guesswork at best, he said, estimating that
the black market is 50 percent larger than the formal economy.

And on the black market, where most goods are sold, prices are soaring.

Petrol prices jumped from 2,400 kyats per gallon in March to 3600 kyats in
April, while diesel went from 3,000 kyats to 4,200 kyats.

The value of the kyat on the black market has also dropped, from 1,150 to
one dollar in late March to 1,330 to one in the first week of May.

Ni Ni Win said she dreams of buying a pair of gold earings and a ring, but
for years she hasn't even bothered to ask the price of gold.

Gold is one of the few investments in Myanmar that maintains its value,
and its price has shot up 57 percent this year. In the last month alone,
gold went from 350,000 kyats per tical to 450,000 kyats. A tical is 0.56
ounces.

The government has warned gold shops not to artificially inflate their
prices, but so far has not taken any action against them.

"Our profits are normal, even though our sales volume was down because of
the increasing gold price," a worker at the Shwe Nan Daw goldsmith said.

The head of a major electronics store in Yangon said sales have sunk since
the salaries were increased.

"Although our business is down, we have to increase our staff's salary
because commodity prices are increasing," he said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.

He said that his company increased wages by up to 30 percent.

"The important thing is to continue working regularly," he said. "We need
time for prices to stabilize."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 15, Irrawaddy
UN official to arrive in Rangoon on Thursday - Clive Parker

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, is
scheduled to arrive in Rangoon on Thursday to meet with top junta
officials as reports continue of deteriorating conditions in Burma.

The UN official will stay in the country for two days, The Irrawaddy
understands, beginning his trip with a briefing from the chief UN
coordinator in Burma, Charles Petrie.

It is still not clear which junta officials will meet with Gambari and,
more controversially, whether he will be allowed access to any members of
the opposition National League for Democracy. Stephane Dujarric, spokesman
for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said on Friday that the trip was
“still being finalized.” Dujarric is expected to give further details in
an announcement at his daily press conference in New York at midday local
time on Monday.

John Bolton, the US representative to the UN, told Gambari in a meeting
last week that Washington backed the visit “on the condition that the
concern for Aung San Suu Kyi be raised in all of his meetings and that the
concerns expressed in the [Security] Council be clearly conveyed
to the
Burmese authorities.”

Gambari’s visit will be the first by a UN official with a specific mission
to discuss democratic conditions and national reconciliation in Burma
since the former UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail went to Rangoon in March
2004. Gambari delivered the first-ever briefing on Burma at the UN
Security Council in December 2005 in which he drew attention to Burma’s
stalled democratic reform, forced labor, an impending humanitarian crisis
and other major problems.

“The secretary-general’s efforts to engage with the authorities to address
the concerns of the international community remain stalled,” he told the
15-member body at last year’s briefing.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has set an informal deadline of the middle
of this year for the junta to allow visits by special envoys, release Aung
San Suu Kyi along with all political prisoners and allow the reopening of
NLD offices throughout the country. Meanwhile, the state-run press has
featured regular reports of “mass resignations” by NLD members, a claim
dismissed as a sham by the party.

A spokesperson at NLD headquarters in Rangoon said today that no contact
had been made by the UN or the junta in connection with Gambari’s visit,
fuelling fears that the UN could suffer a similar fate to Asean, whose
envoy Syed Hamid Albar was forbidden access to Burma’s opposition during a
visit in March.

Regardless of the outcome, Bolton said an “appropriate” next move would be
for Gambari to address the Security Council for a second time after
returning from Rangoon. “I think that is something we could profit from,”
he told reporters in New York on Friday.

____________________________________

May 14, Agence France Presse -- English
Myanmar criticises US move to accept more refugees

Myanmar's information minister has criticised the United States for moving
to accept refugees that support an armed group fighting the ruling
military junta.

"Actually, the majority of the so-called refugees are KNU terrorists,
their families, relatives and hard core supporters," Brigadier General
Kyaw Hsan said Saturday.

The Karen National Union is the oldest and largest rebel force still
battling the junta. Fighting has escalated since February, in a campaign
that rights groups say has forced up to 11,000 people from their homes.

The United States was ignoring the attacks by KNU forces, and spreading
propaganda about the displaced villagers, Kyaw Hsan told journalists in
Thabyay Nyunt village in Karen State, about 320 kilometers (200 miles)
north of Yangon.

"The foreign masters trying to interfere in Myanmar's internal affairs are
ignoring the terrorist acts causing loss of lives and limbs," he said.

"They are launching propaganda to the effect that about 10,000 Karen
villagers fled," he added.

The general also accused the KNU of using the latest violence as a reason
to lobby the United States to bring Myanmar before the UN Security
Council.

"They intend to make the accusation that Myanmar has become a threat to
the region in order to insinuate that the UN Security Council should take
action against Myanmar," he said.

The military government took a group of reporters and diplomats to Thabyay
Nyunt to showcase a project to clear landmines that they said were laid by
the KNU.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month waived a law to
make a group of Myanmar refugees, almost all of whom back the KNU,
eligible for resettlement into the United States.

With the waiver, some 9,300 ethnic Karen refugees housed in Tham Hin camp
in Thailand along the Myanmar border and who backed the KNU will no longer
be viewed as supporters of terrorism.

Under US law, people who provide material support to terrorist
organizations are not eligible to settle in the United States.

The KNU is the de facto civilian government of the ethnic Karen people in
areas it controls in Myanmar, resisting and seeking autonomy from the
junta.

In early 2004, Myanmar's military regime and the KNU entered into a
temporary ceasefire, but their talks have since stalled and the conflict
has intensified in recent months.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 15, The Nation
Thailand's human-rights standing: a moment of truth - Kavi Chongkittavorn

The good news was Thailand received 120 votes from the 191 United Nations
members when secret ballots were cast on May 9 to elect 47 members of the
newly established Human Rights Council.

Not bad for a country that only entered the race on April 24 as part of
the Asian group. Thailand's UN team had 16 days to lobby, working all
kinds of trade-offs to win such sizeable support.

The Foreign Ministry put a brave face on the result, explaining that being
elected did not reflect the actual human-rights situation inside the
country. Countries such as China, Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia
immediately came to mind. Deputy permanent secretary for Foreign Affairs
Sihasak Phuangketkeow defended Thailand's decision to enter the race, even
though it was a bit late in applying, by stressing that the effort
highlighted the importance placed on human-rights issues and standards.
That much was clear.

But the bad news was that the effort was in vain as Thailand fell three
votes short of being among the 13 Asian countries elected to the panel.
The last seat went to Sri Lanka, which garnered 123 votes. It is
interesting to note that the two countries will be pitching against each
other again later this year for a successor to the outgoing UN chief Kofi
Annan.

There are at least three points that must be made clear concerning
Thailand's defeat. First, Thai diplomacy is in deep trouble because it
failed to muster adequate support. During the transitional period, the
Foreign Ministry was out of the loop on domestic and key foreign policy
issues. It became indecisive on whether to join the race or not. That
helps explain why many more countries with far worse human-rights records
got elected, since they started lobbying and making deals much earlier. Of
course, as the Foreign Ministry said, the vote result had nothing to do
with the elected members' standards of human rights. However, it does
reflect their diplomatic finesse and standing, including the leverage
accorded them by other UN states.

Now, senior ministry officials are quite nervous about Thailand's bid for
the top UN post. The failure to make the Human Rights Council is a wake-up
call for a country that used to be proud of the diplomatic tradition that
helped it escape colonisation by Western powers. The voting patterns
visible at the election of the rights council showed the current state of
mind and perception of UN members, and more specifically their attitude
towards Thailand.

The reason Thailand failed on this front was due largely to the double
standards of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. During his
numerous overseas trips, he often bragged about freedom of expression and
political liberty in Thailand while the country was in fact under
oppressive policies. At a summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, he told
international media that the Thai press was the most free in the world,
when in fact it was struggling against increasing government control and
Thaksin's own prejudice against the media. At home, he said the same thing
while defamation lawsuits against his critics increased and quite a few
commutiny radios were shut down.

Some key Asian countries were elected to the rights council even though
they do not accord freedom to the press or respect human rights and
openness. But they have one virtue in common - they do not boast about
their respect for human rights and press freedom at home or abroad. They
keep their mouths tightly shut, whereas Thaksin was silly enough to keep
describing a situation that was opposite to the reality at home.

Second, Thailand's human-rights record has in fact deteriorated in the
past five years under Thaksin. All the blame should be placed on Thaksin,
as he initiated the anti-drug campaign in February 2003 that sparked an
international outcry over the widespread extrajudicial killings. Contrary
to the toll of 2,500 victims that is often cited by the government and
media, the real number was three times higher because the campaign did not
stop in April as everybody believed but went on until a year later. The
second phase of the campaign began at the end of 2003 and continued until
the first quarter of 2004.

Human-rights violations also occurred in the handling of the insurgency in
southern Thailand, including the killing of Muslim lawyer Somchai
Neelaphaijit in 2004 and the deaths of some 80 protesters at Tak Bai last
October. A culture of impunity also has proliferated throughout.

Finally, Thailand's human-rights pledges were not as comprehensive as they
should have been. Both Indonesia and the Philippines committed to 11
international bills of rights while Thailand was ready to pledge to only
five, although this is not bad when compared to Malaysia with three and
China with none. The government pledged to ban torture two years ago but
failed to deliver.

When Thailand joined the now-defunct UN Commission on Human Rights in 2000
in Geneva, it wanted to promote its human rights standard to the world and
raise its own standard. Thailand did not have to defend its human-rights
record at the UN, unlike other members, as it had good international
standing.

Now Thailand has lost its place to Indonesia as the international
community's favourite Southeast Asian country. Indonesia, which came in
second with 165 votes after India's 173, was hailed as a new icon for
developing countries. The votes reveal Jakarta's growing confidence in its
international profile and global network and support. Last week, Indonesia
hosted the Developing Eight (D8) meeting in Jakarta and then offered to
mediate in the Iran nuclear crisis. Last December, Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed former foreign minister Ali Alatas as a
special envoy on Burma - a new diplomatic undertaking in Asean.

When a new Thai government is established in the near future, the question
of how to remedy the current situation and improve Thailand's reputation
and promotion of human rights will rank high on its agenda.