BurmaNet News, May 19, 2006

[Editor]

May 19, 2006 Issue # 2966



INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Top UN envoy meets Myanmar's opposition
DPA: Myanmar opposition party denies members resigning en masse
The Age: Keeping Burma's majority silent: 'We have lost our future'
DVB: Burmese authorities extend jail term of two NLD members

DRUGS
Irrawaddy: New drug restrictions focus on migrants

REGIONAL
SHAN: China key to opposition unity
DVB: India not likely to change policy on Burma – South Asian rights expert

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Bush renews Myanmar sanctions

OPINION / OTHER
South China Morning Post: Time for the UN to focus on Myanmar
www.conservativehome.com: Empower the "little people" to act while the
dinosaurs snore... - Ben Rogers

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 19, Agence France Presse
Top UN envoy meets Myanmar's opposition

Yangon: A top United Nations envoy tasked with pressing military-run
Myanmar on reforms met members of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi's opposition party Friday amid fresh US pressure on the junta.

Ibrahim Gambari, UN under-secretary general for political affairs, arrived
in Yangon Thursday for a three-day visit, marking the highest-level
mission by the global body for more than two years.

He has asked to see 60-year-old Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the
head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who has spent more than
10 of the last 17 years under house arrest.

But NLD spokesman Myint Thein said the military has not given Gambari
permission to see Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest is expected to be
extended next week.

"We have learned that the visiting UN envoy does not have permission to
see Aung San Suu Kyi," the spokesman told reporters following Gambari's
one-hour meeting with six members of the NLD's central executive
committee.

"We have asked him to continue asking the government for a meeting"
between the democracy leader and the UN envoy, Myint Thein said.

Asda Juyanama, a former Thai ambassador to the United Nations, said he was
skeptical whether Myanmar would allow Gambari to see Aung San Suu Kyi.

"If they don't let him see her, it is a signal to the world that this
regime does not want to talk to anybody" except China, India and Thailand,
Myanmar's neighbors with close political and economic contacts with the
junta, he said.

"They are afraid of her because if she goes out, there will be a large
following," the former UN ambassador said.

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

Gambari's mission came as US President George W. Bush on Thursday renewed
economic sanctions on Myanmar for another year, saying its military rulers
posed a threat to US national security and foreign policy.

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

But Asda argued US economic sanctions had so far failed to bring a change
in Myanmar's government because the junta could rely on China, India and
Thailand for economic support.

"For sanctions to work, neighboring countries have to cooperate. So Bush
has to put pressure on China, India and Thailand, too," he said.

Following the NLD meeting Friday, Gambari would travel to Myanmar's new
administrative capital outside the central town of Pyinmana early Saturday
to meet with top military officials.

Junta leader Than Shwe was holding a meeting of military brass in the
secret jungle compound called Naypyidaw, where many government and
military offices began working in February.

The notoriously reclusive military leader would see the UN envoy on
Saturday, a source close the military told AFP. Gambari would also see
other top military officials.

During his meetings with government officials, Gambari would press for
Aung San Suu Kyi's release as part of efforts to push the country toward
democracy, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York.

The junta has shunned a series of UN diplomats for years.

Malaysia's Razali Ismail, the UN's special envoy for Myanmar, stepped down
in January after being denied entry for two years.

In March, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar cut short a trip to
Myanmar aimed at pressing the junta over democratic reforms without
meeting Aung San Suu Kyi.

He visited Myanmar as an envoy for the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN).

____________________________________

May 19, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar opposition party denies members resigning en masse

Yangon: A leader of Myanmar's chief opposition party, the National League
for Democracy (NLD), denied on Friday state media reports that it was
losing scores of members to resignations.

"We have not received any resignations from any members including
MP-elects so far, as reported in government-run dailies," said
NLD central executive committee member U Lwin, chatting with reporters
before a meeting with visiting UN Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari.

Myanmar's military-run press has in recent weeks been reporting mass
resignations at NLD offices nationwide in what appears to be part of a
government campaign to disband the opposition party.

The NLD, headed by Nobel peace laurate Aung San Suu Kyi, won the 1990
general election by a landslide but has been denied power for the past 16
years by the country's ruling junta.

Gambari, the first senior UN official to visit Myanmar in over two years,
arrived on Thursday to assess the regime's efforts to restore human rights
and implement political reforms leading to a more democratic form of
government.

The top UN official was scheduled to meet with several political parties,
including representatives of the NLD, Friday afternoon.

Thus far Gambari has been denied access to Suu Kyi, who has been under
house arrest for the past two years, or Myanmar's top military leader -
Senior General Than Shwe, who heads the self-styled State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), sources said.

Myanmar, formerly Burma, has been under military rule since 1962 when
General Ne Win staged a coup d'etat that overthrew the elected government
of U Nu and launched the country along the economically disastrous
"Burmese Way to Socialism."

Ne Win, in response to mass anti-military demonstrations, stepped down in
1988, paving the way for the current junta, comprised of his colleagues
and subordinates, to take over the reins of power.

After allowing a general election in 1990, the junta ignored the results,
launched crackdowns on the victorious NLD and other opposition parties and
kept opposition leaders such as Suu Kyi under house arrest.

The SPDC has promised to allow for democratic rule after a new
constitution has been written. The process of drafting the new charter has
already taken about 15 years.

____________________________________

May 20, The Age (Australia)
Keeping Burma's majority silent: 'We have lost our future' - Connie Levett

The Age's South-East Asia correspondent goes inside Burma for a rare look
at a shunned regime that is in the grip of a social, political and
economic meltdown.

The day after political writer Ludu Sein Win met a European visitor at his
home in Rangoon, Burma's feared military intelligence knocked at his door.
Stop talking to foreigners.

Maung Maung Kyaw Win arranged a meeting between an American journalist and
a recently freed leader of the 1988 student protests. Two weeks later,
armed plain-clothes intelligence officers met him at the bus stop and took
him somewhere quiet.

"We know everything. Don't think we know nothing about you. We have been
watching you for long years, so stay out of politics, stay away from (the
student leader) or your wife will become a widow," they told him.

The next morning, he fled, crossing illegally into Thailand. His family
followed two months later.

The threats are real. Last year, Aung Hlaing Win, 30, was arrested at a
restaurant in Rangoon, then interrogated and tortured by military police
for seven days. His interrogators told the family he died from a heart
attack during questioning. His body was cremated by the military.

This is Burma in 2006. When they talk about Big Brother here, they don't
mean a television reality show. There are at least 1156 political
prisoners, child labour is everywhere and the military regularly uses
forced labour to carry supplies and munitions.
Locals refer to living in Burma as being "on the inside", as if their
whole country was a prison. Since 1988, at least 127 democracy activists
have died in prison, according to the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners (Burma).

Aid workers are viewed with suspicion, foreign journalists are
black-listed, local media is censored and giving information about
government activities to outsiders is a jailable offence.

All but one person, Ludu Sein Win, who provided information for this story
from the inside, asked that their names be withheld.

Mr Sein Win wants to set an example of courage to the next generation of
activists. On oxygen and partially paralysed by a stroke he suffered in
prison, the 65-year-old activist fears the generals may outlast him.

For 44 years, the generals have brooked no opposition.

But now, as the economic wheels look set to fall off this gun carriage
regime, they have launched an aggressive two-pronged campaign to stamp out
their most loathed political and military opponents — Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy and the insurgent ethnic Karen National
Liberation Army. The brutality of the State Peace and Development Council,
as the junta is formally known, is only matched by its paranoia. The
generals consulted astrologers before moving the capital from Rangoon to
Pyinmana, in central Burma, last November and they are fighting their
silenced nemesis, Nobel peace laureate Ms Suu Kyi, who is under strict
house arrest in Rangoon, by planting astrologically powerful nut trees
across the country.

The Union of Myanmar — as the generals call Burma — dropped its "Burmese
way to socialism" for controlled capitalism about the same time it changed
its name in 1989. But it remains fiercely isolated.

It has weathered 10 years of American and European Union sanctions,
ignored the limp pleas of its ASEAN partners for reform, and dismissed as
interference the December 2005 United Nations Security Council decision to
look at the situation — for the first time. Instead, it deals with its
powerful neighbours India and China, as well as Russia, countries that
want to do business, not discuss human rights.

Inside Burma, the sanctions get mixed reviews. "The American sanctions are
not affecting the Government, the generals are happy every day," said a
monk who runs a school for the poor in the north. "The sanctions affect
the poor. With the sanctions the poor are getting poorer and poorer, day
by day."

However, a former political prisoner said that without the sanctions, the
regime would be "more rampant" and the international attention offered
some protective breathing space.

Despite the economic boost from its new business partners, Burma is in the
grip of social, political and economic meltdown. This country of abundance
— luxuriant tropical forests, plains of rice paddies in the south, swathes
of opium poppy fields in the north and, below the ground, rubies, jade and
diamonds — was once the world's major exporter of rice. Now it is one of
the poorest countries in the region.

Life is uncertain. Electricity shortages mean most people get only eight
hours of power a day; in the past month there have been a series of
unexplained bomb blasts in Rangoon and near the new capital; and inflation
is soaring — the price of rice, a staple of the poor, jumped 23 per cent
in April — thanks to increases in public service salaries of up to 1200
per cent.

The co-opted farmers who are building Pyinmana's new roads by hand earn
1000 kyat (less than $A1) a day. There will be no pay rise for them. Only
1 million of Burma's 53 million people work for the Government, yet the
salary increases have pushed up prices to breaking point for everyone.

The increases were given to suppress anger about the forced move to the
new capital.

On November 6 last year, public servants were loaded into trucks with a
day's notice because an astrologer had reportedly told the generals the
stars had aligned for the move.

They arrived to find only a third of the 66 new ministry buildings ready
for them.

One economic analyst estimated the pay rises, which took effect on May 1,
will cost the Government 100 billion kyat a month, but that it only has
200 billion kyat in reserves.

"They don't have enough revenue. They will have to print more money, so
prices are going up," he said.

The official rate for the Burmese kyat is six to the US dollar. On the
black market, it is 1350 to the dollar. "In Burma, most people are poor; a
thin slice are rich, a thin slice middle class," said a doctor in a town
north of Rangoon. "No one hoards money. If you can afford to, you store
food, rice, oil, because tomorrow maybe you can only buy half as much with
your money."

The rice hoarding has raised concerns about a shortage by August, the last
month before the new harvest. It is a sensitive issue.

"No one can write about rice at the moment, it's censored," said a Rangoon
journalist.

The new capital, along with low water levels in hydro dams, is also being
blamed for nationwide electricity shortages. Even on the streets of
Rangoon, the generators outside each shop drown out conversations.

"Pyinmana takes electricity from all over the country. It means we have
electricity for only eight hours a day," the doctor said.

"In Pyinmana, it's on 24 hours a day. You should drive through Pyinmana
slowly, but don't stop, don't take photos."

In March, two Burmese journalists were jailed for three years for filming
the capital's new administrative buildings.

Why a financially strapped regime would spend millions moving its capital
from a sea port to a baking central plain in the middle of the country is
a topic of widespread speculation.

The town has historical significance. It was the centre of operations for
independence leader General Aung San — Ms Suu Kyi's father — during World
War II, and was later used as a base by the communists. It is closer to
the centre of the country, providing a territorial buffer in case of
invasion by the US — a possibility the generals take seriously.

The communists had a saying: Pyinmana is a dagger in the heart of Burma.

>From there, they believed they could control the country. They were wrong.

Now the junta hopes it will work for them.

A Mandalay journalist listed reasons for the move: "Astrological, it is an
old trend from 200 years ago that the astrologers of the king advised him
to move the palace for restoration of their life and property. Now they
think they are kings; and economic, people make money moving the capital."

Two corporations control 80 per cent of contracts for the
multimillion-dollar Pyinmana move. Htoo Corporation is owned by Tayza, the
junta's main arms buyer; and Asia World, Burma's biggest conglomerate, is
the legitimate business face of former opium kingpin Lo Hsing Han.

The third reason to move is security concerns, the journalist said, but
not fear of the Americans. "They are protecting themselves from a people's
movement as the economy gets worse and worse," he said.

"This Government will make some tricks soon. Rice is going up, the army
will create a diversion, ethnic war or a clash between monks and the
Muslims."

Two aggressive diversionary campaigns are being waged by the regime. Amid
the economic turmoil, the junta is targeting Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy and the Karen National Liberation Army, which has
been fighting a war for autonomy since 1947.

In the past month the junta has burnt Karen villages, blocked supplies
into mountain villages east of Pyinmana, beheaded at least one villager,
and driven thousands of new refugees to join the 700,000 already in camps
on the Thai border and in other neighbouring countries.

Politically, it is going after the national league and Ms Suu Kyi, the
most potent symbol of the regime's illegitimacy. In 1990, the league won
82 per cent of seats in Burma's first democratic election since the 1962
coup. The army refused to accept the result. In recent weeks, the regime
has made it clear that it will never accept the result, preferring
"discipline flourishing democracy" over liberal democracy for Burma.

Meeting league representatives has become the riskiest business in town,
especially after a league proposal in February called for the junta to
convene the elected parliament while, in return, the league would
recognise the junta as holder of interim executive power. The proposal
included a demand to free Ms Suu Kyi.

In rejecting the proposal, the junta sent a warning to the party.
Information Minister Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan told a news conference
that "the Government has strong and irrefutable evidence that NLD was
involved with anti-government groups as well as terrorist groups that
would justify it being declared illegal".

The junta wants to separate the league from the electorate.

"The wider community, without the NLD connection, is less constrained,
people are willing to talk in groups rather than just one on one, but it's
very unpredictable, some people they watch like a hawk," said the Western
diplomat.

As it turns the screws on the league, the regime is stage-managing
high-profile mass resignations from the party, using bribery and coercion.

One league member told Radio Free Asia that he had been offered 100
million kyat to resign. The plan, say observers, is that by the time the
junta has rewritten the constitution to protect army powers and is ready
to hold elections, the league will no longer exist.

Where is Ms Suu Kyi in all this? Since 1989, she has spent a total of 11
years under house arrest. Her current detention, since 2003, is the
strictest yet, isolated from all but her maid in the family home in
Rangoon.

In the West, questions are raised about how relevant Ms Suu Kyi can be,
locked away as she is.

A road trip through Burma answers that question. The Lady, as she is
known, because to speak her name aloud is dangerous, is the one figure who
unites the rural poor and the urban elite. Leaders of the ethnic
minorities respect her.

There is no other political opposition. Prior to the huge demonstrations
of 1988, when more than 3000 civilians were massacred by the military,
there had been periods of unrest every three or four years. Since the
election and subsequent bloody crackdown, there have been no significant
protests.

Thousands of activists were jailed or fled to the jungles on the
Thai-Burma border.

"Students are not political any more," said one former political prisoner,
explaining that universities had been broken up and campuses had been
moved so they were at least 16 kilometres from the town centre.

"We have lost our future, throughout the whole country. More and more
people, have fear — of government, oppression, fear of being sent to
jail."

Another former political prisoner agreed. "Now there are no underground
movements, because there is no one to do so. They know all the people who
have taken part and they are watching us. We can't move without their
knowledge. We have to report (to the authorities) whenever we leave our
residential district."

A Mandalay journalist described Ms Suu Kyi as the only public figure with
the power to organise people.

"Many people believe in the power of dynasty. In Burma, political
consciousness is a cult of personality, people don't know the 'isms', they
admire Aung San and his daughter."

The generals recognise her influence and, to counter it, are employing the
power of the stars. Suu Kyi translates as Tuesday-Monday. To defeat Ms Suu
Kyi's hold on the public consciousness, the regime was told to find a
Monday-Tuesday symbol.

Enter the humble physic nut tree, a source for bio-fuel. More importantly,
its name, "kyet suu", translates as Monday-Tuesday. There is now a
nationwide physic nut tree-planting program, led by the generals and their
wives.

They believe it will prevent Ms Suu Kyi's seeds of dissent from taking root.

The struggle continues. Analysts wonder how long, even with help from the
physic nuts, this regime can continue to grind down its people.

"You assume you can't go on running a country like this forever," said a
Western diplomat in Rangoon.

Mr Sein Win said that while the current military control was suffocating,
the uprising 18 years ago also took many people by surprise.

"All it needs is a spark," he said. "If people have no other way out, no
hope, if they cannot bear the hardship any more, poor, desperate people
will do anything."

____________________________________

May 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese authorities extend jail term of two NLD members

Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has
extended the prison terms of Dr Win Aung, chairman of Khin-U Township
National League for Democracy (NLD) in Sagaing Division, and two other
members by seven years.

Of the three, Dr Win Aung and Khin Maung Win were both sentenced to 10
years imprisonment in July 2005 for violating the Video Law and Printing
and Publishing Law while Soe Win Aung was given a three-year sentence for
infringement of the Video Law.

A year later, they were all tried inside Shwebo jail and their sentences
have been further extended by seven years. Sagaing Division NLD Organizing
Committee member Khin Than, verified the report as follows:

“Dr Win Aung's sentence was extended by another seven years on 7 May under
Section 5-J (The Emergency Provisions Act of 1950) and U Khin Maung Win's
sentence was also extended by another seven years, so both are now serving
17-year jail terms. Ko Soe Win Aung also received another seven-year jail
term under Section 5-J so he is serving a 10-year jail term. I was told
that the sentences of all three were extended by seven years under Section
5-J. I heard the news from Shwebo through Dr Myint Naing, Sagaing Division
NLD Organizing Committee member, who contacted me by phone.”

When asked why the sentences were extended, Khin Than replied:

“I do not know why the sentences were extended. Dr Myint Naing informed me
that their sentences were extended under Section 5-J. Under the
circumstances, I think it shouldn't have happened.”

Dr Win Aung's lawyer was not informed about the proceedings carried out
inside the jail before the sentence was extended. NLD Legal Affairs
Assistance Committee member Nyan Win said this matter is not in conformity
with existing laws.

“One thing that needs pointing out is that Dr Win Aung's lawyer was not
present at the hearing which was held inside closed doors. This should not
happen in the judicial system. It should be an open court as they were
given heavy sentences. I think it is not right to hear the case in this
manner.”

Sagaing Division NLD members told DVB that Dr Win Aung, Kin-U Township
elected representative (MP), is very active in NLD affairs and performed
his duties exceptionally well during Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Sagaing
Division visit before the Tabayin incident. He was arrested for allegedly
distributing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Sagaing Division tour video and Kyemon
U Thaung's book on (the late dictator) Ne Win's conspiracies.

____________________________________
DRUGS

May 19, Irrawaddy
New drug restrictions focus on migrants - Sai Silp

Thai officials have stepped up surveillance of small, independent drug
traffickers, and new measures are now targeting migrant workers from
neighboring countries.

Sukhum Opartnipat, an official with the Office of the Narcotics Control
Board, said that the number of Thai nationals engaged in drug trafficking
has fallen, while at the same time the number of traffickers among migrant
workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia has increased.

“They work like an ‘ant army,’ little by little, not a big amount [of
drugs] but a continuous one,” said Sukhum. “So, they are in our focus.”

He added that the most popular drugs—particularly among teenagers—remain
methamphetamines and ecstasy. Drug users are increasingly avoiding clubs
and bars, choosing instead to consume drugs at home or in more private
places.

This is in response to greater surveillance by Thai officials, who fear an
increase in drug use across the country.

After a meeting on Friday with outgoing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
Pol Lt-Gen Kritsana Polanan, the general-secretary of ONCB, said that the
demand for drugs has increased in the last two months in view of the
higher frequency of drug arrests, the Thai daily newspaper Matichon
reported on Friday.

Kritsana said that the most popular entry point for drugs in Thailand is
still in the north, which accounts for about 79 percent of the country’s
drug supply. But drug routes have shifted from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai.

An official from the Chiang Rai provincial police said that the shift may
be the result of increased checkpoints along border roads in the
province—not only the road from Mae Sai.

“They [traffickers] use new routes in Chiang Mai (which borders Burma’s
Shan State), and in Wiang Kaen district, Payao province and further
south.”

Authorities in Chiang Rai have identified some 45 points of access for
drugs along the borders with Burma and Laos. Checkpoints in these areas
will be increased during long holidays that are considered peak
trafficking times.

Thai drug officials also plan this year to provide treatment for 20,000
people addicted to drugs, according to Kritsana. The program will be
funded by the government with a budget of 100 million baht (approximately
US $2.5 million).

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 19, Shan Herald Agency for News
China key to opposition unity

Ongoing efforts by opposition groups to engage China has been welcomed by
the Sino-Burma border based ceasefire groups, according to a high level
source from one of the armed groups that has been at peace with Burma's
military rulers since 1989.

"With China too close for comfort, it is not possible for us to take the
initiative (to return to the opposition fold)," said the 45-year old
source on a visit to the border yesterday. "And Beijing tends to look at
Thai border-based groups as American proxies."

The ceasefire groups comprising, from north to south, New Democratic
Army-Kachin (NDA-K), Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), Myanmar
National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) better known as Kokang group,
United Wa State Army (UWSA) and National Democratic Alliance Army Eastern
Shan State (NDAA-ESS) better known as Mongla group, are already reeling
from China's recent ban on teak, antimony and all other merchandise
unlicensed by Rangoon coming across the border. "Joining groups they
regard as pro-West would be the last straw," he told S.H.A.N. "Clear the
deck with them and nothing will keep us from working together."

According to opposition sources, their own brand of Look-East policy has
been on the upswing ever since Depayin -- the bloody attack by pro-junta
USDA (Union Solidarity and Development Association) members on 30 May 2003
on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade. "China wants reform and stability, both
in one," an activist leaving for Beijing in March said, echoing a Reuters'
report on February 13 that the Chinese want Burma "to take more liberal
policies" but that they "don't want a crisis," no matter which party is in
the government.

Another opposition source noted that the declaration of independence by a
group of Shans last year was a setback to the relationship with Beijing.
"They found it to be in friction with their One China policy," he said.

____________________________________

May 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
India not likely to change policy on Burma – South Asian rights expert

Although India has been selected to be a member of the new UN human rights
council, the country will not change its policy on Burma’s military junta,
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Executive Director of the
South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center (SAHRDC) Ravi Nair told DVB.

Nair, who is also a special advisor to the UN economic and social council
said that from the beginning India adopted the policy to deal with the
SPDC with the long-term view. He added that as long as the Indian
parliament, the public and the media could not put enough pressure, the
Indian government will continue to give support to the Burmese government
in international discussions including those at the human rights council.

When asked why the Indian government is not reacting to the calls by the
United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for
its involvement in democratic transition in Burma, Nair said that the
Indian public is supporting democratic movements for Burma but the
government is wrongly cooperating with the junta.

He also pointed out that exiled Burmese pro-democracy activists are quite
weak in working with Indian political leaders and figures trusted by the
Indian public.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 18, Agence France Presse
Bush renews Myanmar sanctions

Yuma, Arizona: US President George W. Bush on Thursday renewed economic
sanctions on Myanmar for another year, saying military rulers of the
Southeast Asian nation posed a threat to US national security and foreign
policy.

Myanmar's military junta has been accused of serious human rights abuses,
such as jailing the country's opposition leaders, particularly democracy
icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Their latest crackdown on ethnic minorities, targeting mainly the Karens,
has been condemned by rights groups, who say it is the most serious
offensive since 1997.

"Because the actions and policies of the government of Burma (Myanmar)
continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national
security and foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency
... and the measures adopted ... with that emergency must continue in
effect beyond May 20, 2006," Bush said in a statement.

The US sanctions date to May 1997 and were stiffened by Bush in July 2003.

They prohibit new investments and exports of financial services to and
imports from Myanmar. The United States has also frozen Myanmar junta
members' assets in the United States and has broadened denial of visas to
regime officials.

The United States put the international spotlight on Myanmar in December
when it successfully pushed the UN Security Council to hold a briefing on
human rights and other problems in the Southeast Asian state for the first
time.

Ibrahim Gambari, the highest-ranking UN official for political affairs,
arrived in Myanmar Thursday, in the highest-level mission for more than
two years to press the junta on democratic reforms.

The envoy has asked to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 10
of the last 17 years under house arrest, according to UN spokesman
Stephane Dujarric in New York.

But the opposition leader's supporters do not expect the military to
approve a meeting between Gambari and Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest
is expected to be extended next week.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 19, South China Morning Post
Time for the UN to focus on Myanmar

If some power-hungry generals were looking for a place to set up a
dictatorship with minimal interference from the outside world they would
go a long way to find a more amenable place than Myanmar. It has a low
profile because it is not strategically placed and has few resources.
Giant neighbours China and India tend to mind their own business.

This helps to explain the longevity of the junta that has ruled Myanmar
for decades. Now, however, the generals are entertaining a potentially
troublesome visitor - United Nations under secretary-general for political
affairs Ibrahim Gambari. His mission includes a request to see detained
political leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He is not expected to succeed where
envoys before him have failed. But, unlike them, he may be able to make
the generals pay for their contempt for international opinion, driven by
fear of the threat she represents to their grip on power.

The issue of Myanmar and its human-rights abuses is close to being listed
on the agenda of the UN Security Council for the first time. Mr Gambari's
visit could push it over the line. The result could be significantly
increased pressure on the junta.

That Mr Gambari received a visa to visit Myanmar at all is a sign that
they are feeling the heat. The UN special representative to Myanmar quit
in January because he had not been allowed into the place for nearly two
years. In a recent report to the UN Security Council on Myanmar, Mr
Gambari told of overflowing jails with more than 1,100 political
prisoners, forced labour, poverty, disease, poor health care and
inadequate food security. The United States has rightly declared the
council's involvement as essential to putting Myanmar on the path to
democracy and economic recovery.

Close observers say the junta is alarmed at the prospect of being placed
on the security council agenda and that its decision to receive Mr Gambari
is damage control. Blocking access to Ms Suu Kyi would send the wrong
signal and could derail that strategy.

In the past, countries including China, Japan and Russia have been
reluctant to put Myanmar on the council agenda. They say that whatever its
shortcomings, the regime does not threaten international peace and
security, although rampant drug trafficking in border areas, a brutal
military campaign against Karen rebels and the flight of 140,000 refugees
into Thailand do not do much for either. The generals should weigh their
political support carefully. China is flexing its muscles in dispute
resolution. If the junta is to head off security council listing, it may
be obliged to show some real progress towards meeting international
concerns.

The generals remain afraid of a woman they have persecuted since they
refused to hand over power after her National League for Democracy won an
election in 1990. Myanmar needs leaders with her courage and more support
from the UN if its people are to have a better life.

____________________________________

May 19, www.conservativehome.com
Empower the "little people" to act while the dinosaurs snore... - Ben Rogers

I am angry. I am angry at a murderous regime which is carrying out crimes
against humanity and attempted genocide with impunity. And I am angry that
the world still remains largely silent and inactive.

Protest Let me qualify that last sentence. When I say “the world”, what I
mean really is the world’s governments, the United Nations, the European
Union and – and this is perhaps the worst part – major relief
organisations. Ordinary people – once they become aware of the situation –
have responded on the whole with extraordinary generosity. Earlier this
week, I took part in a demonstration at the Burmese Embassy in London –
and was joined by twenty or so ordinary concerned citizens. My sister, a
violinist, played the theme tune of Schindler’s List, which she dedicated
to the Karen. People have written letters and given money. It is the
people with power who should be ashamed of themselves.

In Burma today, a holocaust is unfolding before our eyes. In recent weeks,
in Karen State, over 15,500 civilians have been displaced, according to
the Free Burma Rangers. The numbers have been rising almost daily.
Villages have been torched, rice barns destroyed and the Burma Army has
laid landmines around abandoned villages to stop people returning from
their homes. Civilians have been shot at point-blank range. People have
been beheaded and mutilated. A nine year-old girl was shot, and her father
and grandmother killed. The Burma Army is hunting these people down like
animals. And what have these civilians done to deserve this? Nothing,
except desire to live in freedom, peace and dignity.

According to the Karen Human Rights Group, the crisis looks set to
escalate still further. At least 27 Burma Army battalions are now poised
to destroy hundreds of villages in Papun District, which would, they say,
“doubtless lead to the forced displacement of tens of thousands more.”
These are, they report, “attacks against undefended villages with the
objective of flushing villagers out of the hills to bring them under
direct military control so they can be used to support the Burma Army with
food and labour.”

This week, the Karen crisis has finally gained some media coverage. The
Times had a full page on May 15. The BBC news featured it at ten o’clock
last night. But still more coverage is needed.

Yet still the world sleeps. The crisis has been developing for several
weeks now, but only this week did a group of UN Special Rapporteurs issue
a statement condemning the atrocities. Kofi Annan has said nothing. Does
he remember Rwanda? Does he recall his promise: “Never again”? Well, it’s
going to be “never again” all over again if he does not act now. Burma
should be brought to the UN Security Council immediately, a resolution
passed, and the powers now available in the recent Resolution 1674
obliging the international community to act to protect civilians suffering
violations in armed conflict should be exercised.

The EU Presidency issued a pathetic statement, belatedly. But they played
right into the Burmese junta’s hands. The illegal regime which terrorises
Burma justifies its acts of genocide as simply counter-insurgency. The EU,
in turn, said it was “very concerned” about the military’s “campaign
against the Karen National Union”. But it is not a campaign just against
the KNU, the Karens’ armed resistance group. It is unarmed women and
children who are on the run in the jungle. The EU also called upon the
Burmese regime to cease its “dislocations” of civilians. What kind of
Euro-crat speak is that? I think the civilians feel a bit more than just
“dislocated”. It makes it sound like they are moving house.

The British Government has said next to nothing, and the Department for
International Development (DFID) still refuses to provide humanitarian aid
to the Internally Displaced People. Oh, they will boast of the £8 million
it spends in Burma. They will claim credit for the £1.8 million they give
to refugees on the Thai-Burmese border. They will talk about the
importance of the HIV/AIDS work that forms the majority of DFID’s aid
programme. And that is clever, because who can argue with HIV/AIDS? But
the truth is, in terms of scale of suffering, the HIV/AIDS crisis in Burma
and DFID’s effort to combat it is dwarfed by the humanitarian emergency
affecting thousands in eastern Burma – and DFID’s lethargic response. DFID
says they want aid to go to the most vulnerable people. Who are more
vulnerable than a total of over one million people on the run, without
food, medicine or shelter?

DFID will then claim that such aid just cannot be monitored. Well, I know
the groups that deliver aid in the conflict zones of eastern Burma.
Backpack medical teams and small relief groups. I have travelled with some
of them. Their accountability is better than most governments. They
produce financial reports recording every single penny spent. Their video,
photographic and testimonial evidence is outstanding. And four other
Governments already provide some funding to them. So DFID has no excuse. A
new British Ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning, has just been appointed, so
we wait to see whether he can move British policy forward – but until then
thousands remain unfed, unsheltered, untreated and unheard.

But in a way, the sleepiness and bureaucracy of the UN, the EU and DFID is
not surprising, though it is not excusable. Truly shocking, however, is
the response I have received from three major relief organisations, who I
approached to ask them to help.

At this stage I won’t name and shame them. I am still trying to persuade
them to wake up. But readers would be horrified if they knew. One major
household name in the aid charity business responded with these words: “I
can say that the main concern is that any response we make does not in any
way compromise [our] 
 existing relationship with the [Burmese]
government.” Remember, it is that “government”, if you can call it that,
which is carrying out a form of genocide. Another major relief charity
replied saying: “I am aware of [our] internal systems and processes. They
do not allow for a grant to be sent to any organisation or individual who
does not have a prior partner agreement with us. Developing a partner
agreement is a lengthy process and not the ideal route to take for a one
off grant.” Explain that to someone in the jungle with no food, medicine
or shelter. A third said: “I know a higher level response from [us] could
be argued, but at this time we have determined that we can only commit to
our advocacy efforts.”

And so instead it is left to small organizations and individuals to
respond. The group I work for, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, is
primarily an advocacy organization. Aid is not our remit. But when those
whose remit it is fail to act, we believe we have an obligation to do what
we can. So, from our existing limited funds and from donations from
supporters specifically for this crisis, we have sent a few thousand
pounds. Another organization of which I am a trustee, the Humanitarian Aid
Relief Trust (HART), which is very small, also sent a few thousand pounds.
And my mother, bless her, has been turning to friends in our small town in
Dorset and has raised several thousand pounds. A friend of mine summed it
all up beautifully when she said: “Throughout history, the tragedy has
always been the slow response of those in power, whether they be
government or large organizations. It is always the little people who move
quickly, giving all they have”. Reminiscent of Edmund Burke’s “little
platoons”.

As the Conservative Party considers foreign policy and international
development, it would do well to learn from the current Government’s
record. It should put the promotion of democracy at the heart of foreign
and aid policy where this Government has failed to. And it should develop
greater flexibility for channeling aid money. I have never been in favour
of government-to-government aid. I have always been for the voluntary
sector. But within the voluntary sector, we need to explore how we can
help the “little people” who are doing courageous and life-saving work –
when the dinosaurs are not even limbering up.

Benedict Rogers is Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Human Rights
Commission and works with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, an international
human rights organisation. He is the author of "A Land Without Evil:
Stopping the Genocide of Burma’s Karen People" and was Conservative
Parliamentary Candidate for the City of Durham in 2005.