BurmaNet News, May 25, 2006

[Editor]

May 25, 2006 Issue # 2970


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: UN envoy's Myanmar visit brings hope of Aung San Suu Kyi release
AFP: Internet users in Myanmar face third day without connection
Irrawaddy: KNU prepared to fight back

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Migrant and refugee aid agencies refuse Total's money

REGIONAL
AFP: Myanmar refugees escape from Malaysian illegal immigrant detention
facility: report
AFP: Annan arrives in Thailand at end of Asian tour

INTERNATIONAL
New York Sun: Burma hints it is prepared to release opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi
AP: Envoy: Myanmar ready to 'turn a new page'
AP: U.N. rights expert calls for Myanmar to release detained pro-democracy
leader
Irrawaddy: US newspaper launches Burma section

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: More words from Burma

PRESS RELEASE
ALTSEAN, Burma Campaign UK, and US Campaign for Burma: Parliamentary Push
for UN Security Council Resolution on Burma Lauded - More Support Needed,
Say Activists
UNHCR: UN rights expert calls for release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, urges
inquiry into mounting number of deaths of political prisoners in Myanmar

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 25, Agence France Presse
UN envoy's Myanmar visit brings hope of Aung San Suu Kyi release

Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi's surprise meeting with a UN envoy has lifted
hopes among her supporters that Myanmar's military rulers may soon release
her from house arrest, but analysts are far more cautious.

The junta's latest order confining the Nobel peace laureate and democracy
icon to her home expires Saturday, after an unusually-short extension of
six months in November.

Hopes within her National League for Democracy were boosted after the
envoy, UN Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari, told reporters after
returning to New York that recent remarks by Myanmar's police chief "could
also be a way to prepare the ground" for her release.

"I can't say whether it will be done, but I certainly hope so," he added.

Myanmar's police chief Khin Yi had said earlier in the week that he did
not believe Aung San Suu Kyi's release would spark riots or rallies in the
street.

That has lifted hopes within her party that the nation's military rulers
have softened their stance, especially as the United States has stepped up
pressure on the regime to free her.

Analysts and diplomats warned that her release remained a distant
possibility, while admitting that the secretive regime often makes sudden
and unpredictable decisions.

The 60-year-old has spent more than 10 of the last 17 years locked away.
Her most recent detention began three years ago, after a brutal attack on
her convoy in northern Myanmar.

The most recent order for her house arrest expires Saturday, a day that
coincidentally marks the 16th anniversary of her party's landslide victory
in elections that the junta has never recognized.

"We are waiting for May 27. We are hoping for the best and we want to see
it," said party spokesman Lwin, who uses only one name, after also meeting
with Gambari.

The meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and Gambari was the first contact she
was allowed with anyone other than her maid or her doctor in more than two
years.

Lwin said the NLD viewed the meeting as a sign that the military was
willing to loosen its restrictions on her.

"We assume that the tension with the authorities has relaxed. It's a
positive sign," Lwin said.

Analysts and diplomats are much more cautious.

"The signs are not really good. Before that visit, the NLD was under so
much pressure," Thailand-based analyst Win Min said.

During the last month, Myanmar's generals had ratcheted up the pressure on
the NLD, intimidating many members into leaving the party while
threatening to outlaw the party over alleged ties to "terrorists".

Win Min also noted that the meeting with Gambari was arranged at the last
minute and held in secret at a military facility. The official media have
made no mention of the meeting.

"All of this means that they still want to control her very much," he said.

One senior western diplomat in Yangon, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said that while he doubted she would be freed, the junta might
agree to grant her more liberties -- such as permission to travel within
the city.

"You never know. Maybe she will be allowed to stay within Yangon," he told
AFP.

The United States has led the international pressure on the regime to
release her, with the State Department on Monday again demanding her
freedom.

Such pressure in the past has had little effect on the junta supremo,
Senior General Than Shwe, who is likely to make the final decision on her
fate.

His deputy, Vice Senior General Maung Aye, is believed to be more
receptive to making at least some gesture to the international community,
after he travelled this year to Russia and China -- which have so far
blocked major moves against Myanmar at the UN Security Council.

A home affairs official said that no order has been issued yet about Aung
San Suu Kyi, but analysts said the junta usually makes such decisions at
the last minute.

"The authorities were thinking until the last minute about whether to
allow Gambari to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi," said Win Naing, an
independent politician in Yangon.

"So we need to wait until the last minute to see if Daw Suu will be
released," he said.

____________________________________

May 25, Agence France Presse
Internet users in Myanmar face third day without connection

Yangon: Internet users in Myanmar were experiencing a third day without
web access Thursday after the military-ruled country's already tenuous
links to the online world were cut, service providers said.

Internet service providers were at a loss to explain the problem, and
officials could not say if the connection was broken or if it had been
deliberately taken down.

Internet users could only access local websites, which are usually
government-run.

The link went down on Tuesday afternoon, forcing Internet cafes in Yangon
to close their doors. "We don't know yet when the connection will be good.
We feel very sorry for our customers," one cafe owner said.

The cost of a computer and Internet service is beyond the means of most
people in this impoverished country.

But many city dwellers use Internet cafes, despite the strict monitoring
of their activities by the junta.

Myanmar's military regime imposes some of the toughest Internet censorship
rules in the world, blocking access to web-based email services like Yahoo
and Hotmail, as well as to international news media.

The break in service has caused major problems for airlines that use the
Internet to update their flight data.

"Airlines and some businesses are facing problems in updating their
information," one tour company manager told AFP.

____________________________________

May 25, Irrawaddy
KNU prepared to fight back - Shah Paung

Burma’s ethnic Karen had high hopes in 2004 that a gentleman’s ceasefire
agreement with the country’s military regime would bring peace, but two
years on those hopes have been dashed.

Karen National Union leader Gen Bo Mya and a 20-member delegation brokered
an informal ceasefire agreement with then prime minister Khin Nyunt in
January 2004.

News of the agreement drew a mixed reaction. Some Karen were optimistic,
while others worried that the ruling State Peace and Development Council
could never be trusted.

The naysayers were right. While full-scale operations by the Burmese army
in Karen State declined, smaller engagements never ceased. Since the
agreement in January 2004, the Karen National Liberation Army has clashed
with government troops more than an estimated 1,000 times, according to a
senior Karen leader who asked not to be named.

As more than 16,000 villagers from northern and eastern Karen State have
been displaced this year by orchestrated attacks on civilians by SPDC
troops—including indiscriminate killings and the burning of villages and
food stores—any semblance of a ceasefire has vanished.

Some 2,000 displaced villagers have gained admittance to Mae Ra Moo
refugee camp in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, while hundreds more
stream towards a makeshift camp on the Burma side of the Saleween River,
awaiting permission to enter Thailand.

Meanwhile, the KNU is struggling to provide security for the increasingly
vulnerable waves of refugees, while also trying to honor the spirit of the
ceasefire agreement.

“We are still looking at the situation,” said Mahn Sha, general secretary
of the KNU. “We cannot say that the ceasefire between the SPDC and [the
KNU] is totally broken.”

He added, however, that the Karen army was not prepared to stand by while
Burmese soldiers attacked and burned Karen villages. “If the Burmese army
attacks our villages, we're prepared to fight to protect our people and
have already started an offensive in 7th Brigade [close to the Thai Burma
border].”

As the dire conditions in Karen State deteriorate further, it remains to
be seen how a two-year-old gentleman’s agreement could be salvaged, and
whether it would have any real impact.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 25, Irrawaddy
Migrant and refugee aid agencies refuse Total's money - Khun Sam

Two non-government groups working with Burmese migrants and refugees in
Thailand have declined a US $6.12 million package offered by French oil
giant Total.

The NGOs say they refused the money because of Total's business dealings
with the Burmese military regime and its alleged involvement in forced
labor and human rights violations in the construction of the Yadana
pipeline project from Burma to Thailand in the 1990s.

Jackie Pollock, coordinator of the Chiang Mai-based Migrant Assistance
Program, told The Irrawaddy that her organization refused to be involved
with Total because of the company's record on human rights in Burma. “It
would be unethical to be funded by a company that has ignored human rights
abuses and violations,” she said.

In spite of its willingness to spend money on aid projects, Total is still
strongly criticized by human rights advocacy groups because of its
business involvement with the Burmese regime.

The Thailand-Burma Border Consortium, which provides assistance to Burmese
refugees in camps along the Thai border, has also declined Total money.
“Basically, we don’t want to take money from Total; we would not accept
funding from Total,” said the TBBC’s Sally Thomson.

Two humanitarian organizations, however, the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees and the National Catholic Commission on Migration, have said they
will accept Total financial aid.

Sumit Punnakari, project coordinator of NCCM, says his organization has
taken responsibility to carry out educational, health and other aid
projects in Mon and Karen State and to assist migrant workers in Thailand.
“With good management, accountability and transparency, I am sure that we
can save and help a lot of people,” Sumit said.

The UNHCR will spend its slice of the Total funding on aid projects in
seven border refugee camps.

Some human rights advocates and NGOs complain that a “lack of clarity”
exists about how money earmarked for projects is to be implemented and
claim Total is enhancing its public image by controlling how its funding
money is to be spent.

Mael Raynaud, a Chiang Mai-based French political analyst, said NGOs
should be cautious about accepting money or implementing projects from
Total’s funding. "They should not accept money from Total,” he said. “If
NGOs or any groups working for society accept the money they will lose
their credibility and ability to criticize Total,” he said.

There was a difference, Raynaud said, between victims of forced labor
accepting money and NGOs taking financial aid from Total.

Total has consistently rejected pressure from anti-regime campaign groups
to end investment in Burma, claiming that if it withdrew other companies
would simply take its place. “Total should withdraw from Burma,” said
Raynaud. “It is not acceptable that a company is making money out of the
suffering of people.”

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 25, Associated Press
Myanmar refugees escape from Malaysian illegal immigrant detention
facility: report

Kuala Lumpur: Seventeen Muslim refugees from Myanmar broke out of a
Malaysian detention center for illegal immigrants after cutting through
steel bars and a perimeter fence, a news report said Thursday.

The men, all ethnic Rohingya refugees, sawed through bars on their cell
windows and snipped a hole in the fence before dawn Wednesday, making
their escape in waiting cars near the facility in Sepang, the New Straits
Times reported.

Six were recaptured within hours of the break. Police and immigration
officers were searching for the rest, and checking on the facility's lists
of inmates' contacts and visitors the suspected source of the tools used
for the escape.

"We will continue our search until we find the detainees," the Immigration
Department enforcement director Ishak Mohamed was quoted as saying.

Ishak was not immediately available in his office or reachable on his
mobile phone for further details.

The temporary holding center, with some 280 detainees near the Kuala
Lumpur International Airport, was equipped with less stringent security
features compared to the department's other permanent detention
facilities.

An estimated 10,000 ethnic Rohingyas live in Malaysia. The government
announced in 2004 that they would recognize the community as refugees and
grant temporary stay permits, but some members of the ethnic group still
get rounded up in raids against illegal immigrants. The reason for this is
unclear.

____________________________________

May 25, Agence France Presse
Annan arrives in Thailand at end of Asian tour

Bangkok: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived late Thursday in Thailand
where he was due to hold talks with Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and
bestow an award on the nation's revered king.

He was greeted by Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon and by Deputy
Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, who is campaigning to replace Annan
as UN chief when his term expires at the end of the year.

Annan is due Friday to hold talks with Thaksin, just four days after the
premier returned to office following a seven-week break in the wake of
protests and a controversial election.

Later in the day, he will bestow an award on Thailand's King Bhumibol
Adulyadej in honor of his work on development projects, ahead of the
monarch's 60th anniversary on the throne.

The king will mark his anniversary in June with a series of events in
Bangkok to be attended by royalty from 30 countries.

Thailand is Annan's last stop on a five-nation Asian tour.

Before arriving here from Vietnam, he dispatched an envoy to East Timor,
where Australian commandos landed earlier in the day to help quell an
outbreak of fighting, Annan's spokeswoman said.

He arrived in Thailand less than a week after UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari
made a rare visit to neighboring Myanmar, where he was allowed to meet
with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 25, The New York Sun
Burma hints it is prepared to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi -
Benny Avni

United Nations: Dangling the release of Burma's best-known freedom
fighter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Rangoon's military rulers hope to avert further
outside help for victims of the deepening crisis in Burma, its opponents
say.

Fresh from a trip that included a visit with Ms. Suu Kyi, U.N.
Undersecretary-General Ibrahim Gambari yesterday indicated that she might
soon be freed.

Addressing Turtle Bay reporters yesterday, prior to briefing the Security
Council or Secretary-General Annan, Mr. Gambari said, "We were there, we
made the appeal directly," and "if anything will happen, I think we've
done the best that we can to promote such an outcome." In the meantime, he
said, medical care should be accorded to Ms. Suu Kyi "and her companion."

Japan's U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, said Mr. Gambari told him that Ms.
Suu Kyi came to their Rangoon meeting last week "with a companion."
Another diplomat described the companion as a "caretaker" living with Ms.
Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest and who, prior to last week's meeting,
was seen by no outsider for nearly three years.

Mr. Gambari, who during the rule of dictator Sani Abacha served as
Nigeria's U.N. ambassador, said that the military dictatorship in Burma is
showing signs it wants "to turn a new page in relations with the
international community."

At the same time, the regime seemed to prepare the ground for a possible
release of the Nobel peace laureate, Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been in custody
on and off since the landslide victory of the party she heads, the
National League for Democracy, in a 1990 election.

"I think there will not be rallies or riots in Myanmar if Suu Kyi is
released," Burma's police chief, Major-General Khin Yi, told reporters at
a Kuala Lumpur meeting of Southeast Asian chiefs of police. "I don't think
there are a lot of supporters for her. Some members of the NLD have
resigned."

Backers of the opposition were not impressed. The junta has set Ms. Suu
Kyi free several times before as pressure on the government mounted, only
to re-arrest her later, the policy director for the Washington-based U.S.
Campaign for Burma, Aung Din, told The New York Sun. Mr. Annan "should be
aware of the promises given and broken frequently by this regime," he
said.

While Mr. Gambari planned his visit, Mr. Din added, "NLD members were
forced to resign, the party was threatened and told to disband, and ethnic
minorities were attacked and forced to flee from their homeland."

The fighting with minority Karen rebels has intensified in recent weeks,
forcing villagers to flee across the Thai border. Drugs from Burma
reportedly have been smuggled across the border to China, and reports of
AIDS cases are on the rise.

Mr. Annan "should ask the U.N Security Council to adopt a binding
resolution, which will make the regime really turn a new page," Mr. Din
said.

A statement released yesterday by the chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary
Myanmar Caucus of the Association of South East Asian Nations, Zaid
Ibrahim, also called on the council to adopt a resolution that would
"empower [the council] to intervene in Burma's crises."

Earlier this week, American ambassador John Bolton asked Mr. Gambari to
officially brief the council on his Burma trip. According to diplomats,
there were no objections. Mr. Gambari yesterday refused to tell the Sun if
Ms. Suu Kyi urged the involvement of the council or whether Mr. Annan
would support such a move.

--------------------------------

May 25, Associated Press
Envoy: Myanmar ready to 'turn a new page' - Nick Wadhams

United Nations: Myanmar's military junta appears ready to "turn a new
page" and engage the international community after years of hostility, a
top U.N. official said Wednesday.

Pressure from Myanmar's neighbors and members of the U.N. Security
Council, as well as offers of new aid, have spurred a shift from the
regime, Undersecretary-General Ibrahim Gambari told reporters, days after
returning from a rare visit to the nation.

Gambari had rare access to senior leaders during his trip and was the
first senior U.N. official to meet with detained pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi in two years. He said that was a sign of a changed attitude
from the junta.

"I would say that there appears to be a willingness to turn a new page in
the country's relations with the international community," Gambari said.

The next step, he said, would be to get the U.N. team that's now in place
in Myanmar to start talks with the junta about improved humanitarian
access to tens of thousands of displaced people in the country's east, the
fight against HIV/AIDS, reconciliation with Suu Kyi's political party,
which has been shut down, and other issues.

Gambari's comments were met with skepticism from the U.S. Campaign for
Burma, a Washington, D.C. advocacy group. Campaigns director Jeremy
Woodrum cited the government's offensive against the Karen ethnic group in
the east.

"They have used Aung San Suu Kyi in the past as a trump card to deflect
international pressure," Woodrum said. "The U.N. Security Council must act
now to stop these senseless attacks on innocent civilians."

Gambari planned to brief the Security Council about his trip, possibly
sometime next week. That itself signified a change in the international
approach to Myanmar because China, which has close economic ties to
Myanmar, has traditionally opposed such briefings for the attention they
bring.

Gambari said pressure from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had
helped change the government's stance, as well as offers of some US$100
million from the international community over five years to fight HIV and
other diseases.

"Doors have been opened that were closed before," Gambari said. "We'll try
to widen those doors and get the U.N. country team to follow up."

Earlier Wednesday, lawmakers from six of ASEAN's 10 nations urged Myanmar
to release Suu Kyi and called on the Security Council to take "concrete
steps to resolve the political deadlock, as well as the deteriorating
social and economic conditions, in Burma."

The junta took power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy movement. In
1990, it refused to hand over power when the National League for Democracy
won a landslide victory in general elections.

Since then, Suu Kyi has been in and out of detention. Her latest house
arrest was last extended in November 2005 for six months. This was seen as
a good sign and raised faint hopes for her release because the government
could have extended the detention by one year.

It is still unclear whether Myanmar will release Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace
Prize winner. Her latest house arrest expires on May 27.

But Gambari said comments from Myanmar's police chief that her release
would not threaten the country's stability suggest that the junta may be
preparing to release her.

He also said he believed that if the government lifted restrictions on the
NLD it could play a larger role in the dialogue to restore democracy in
Myanmar.

"I think they would be an important force and I believe it would be in the
interests of Myanmar and of the region, in the context of an all-inclusive
political process, if they were allowed to make their contributions."

____________________________________

May 25, Associated Press
U.N. rights expert calls for Myanmar to release detained pro-democracy
leader - Bradley S. Klapper

Geneva: Myanmar should "unconditionally" release detained Nobel Peace
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi when her current sentence ends later this
week, the U.N.'s human rights expert for the country said Thursday.

The release of Suu Kyi and more than 1,000 other political prisoners being
held by Myanmar's ruling military junta is necessary if the country is to
embark on a transition toward democracy, said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the
United Nations' special investigator for Myanmar.

Suu Kyi, head of the opposition National League for Democracy, has been
held, mostly under house arrest, for about 10 of the last 17 years. Her
current sentence is set to end Saturday.

"I encourage the government to release her unconditionally and to free all
remaining political prisoners," Pinheiro said in a statement released at
the U.N.'s European headquarters.

"The transition towards democracy and national reconciliation will only
commence when these voices and all those who support democratic rights and
fundamental freedoms are included in the political dialogue on the
drafting of a new constitution for Myanmar," he said.

Myanmar officials have not indicated whether Suu Kyi's term will be
extended. She is in virtual solitary confinement at her residence in
Yangon, and has been allowed no outside visitors except occasional checks
by her personal physician.

Last week, however, she was allowed to meet U.N. Undersecretary-General
Ibrahim Gambari for her first meeting with a senior U.N. official in two
years.

Gambari called it a sign of a changed attitude from the ruling military
junta, which he said appeared ready to "turn a new page" and engage the
international community after years of hostility.

Myanmar's military junta took power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy
movement. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party won a landslide
victory in general elections.

On Wednesday, lawmakers from six of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations' 10 members urged Myanmar to release Suu Kyi. The United States
also has said it is ready to improve relations with the junta if it moves
toward releasing Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

____________________________________

May 25, Irrawaddy
US newspaper launches Burma section

The Fort Wayne Sentinel—a daily newspaper and online news service based in
Indiana State in the US—is on Thursday launching a new Burma news section.
The print edition will feature the stories of four former political
prisoners on its front page. They include one about detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s former security director Khin Oo who now lives
in Fort Wayne: “I am asking Americans...to help the Burmese democracy
movement,” he said in an announcement by the paper introducing the new
project. The internet edition will feature information in Burmese, along
with a link to an online petition allowing readers to write directly to US
congressmen and the Chinese mission to the UN in New York asking for
support on the Burma issue at the UN Security Council. Part of its
coverage will also include stories and photos by journalist Steve
Linsenmayer, who spent a month in Burma in January. Fort Wayne, with a
population of up to 3,000 Burmese, has the largest concentration of people
from the repressed Southeast Asian country in the US. “We wanted to share
their inspiring—yet troubling—stories with the rest of our community,”
said the newspaper’s executive editor Linda Austin. Most fled Burma after
the military crackdown in 1988 and the subsequent failure of the junta to
hand over power after losing a 1990 general election. The new Burma news
service by The Fort Wayne Sentinel can be viewed at
www.burmafortwayne.com.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 25, Washington Post
More words from Burma

The regime again promises change, but will Aung San Suu Kyi be released?

Burma’s dictators may be willing "to turn a new page in relations with the
international community." So said the United Nations' second-ranking
official, Undersecretary General Ibrahim Gambari, speaking yesterday after
his recent trip to that Southeast Asian nation. If he's right, great:
Burma's 50 million people are among the most oppressed anywhere in the
world. But don't pop the champagne corks yet.

The ruling junta has made many similar promises in the past, and it has
yet to honor one. Maybe -- let's hope -- the generals will release
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by Saturday, when her latest six-month
term of house arrest is set to expire. That would be a good first step.
But more than 1,100 of her supporters remain imprisoned on political
charges, in terrible conditions, and she has been released before, only to
be quickly reimprisoned. Altogether she has been detained for more than 10
of the past 17 years, though she and her National League for Democracy
overwhelmingly won an election in 1990.

Meanwhile, the regime is waging a deliberate and brutal ethnic cleansing
campaign against the people of the Karen nationality. The U.N. special
rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, and five other
top U.N. officials issued a statement of alarm last Tuesday about the
displacement of "thousands of ethnic minority villagers." It said that
other reports from various sources "corroborate very serious allegations
of unlawful killings, torture, rape and forced labor." According to Sen.
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), more than half a million people in Burma are
"internally displaced." The ongoing campaign has added at least 15,000 to
that number.

Last year the world's nations, acting through the United Nations, promised
to consider collective action if "national authorities manifestly fail to
protect their populations." Yet their response to Burma's brutalization of
its own people has been lethargic. The Security Council has refused up to
now even to endorse a resolution demanding political dialogue and the
freeing of political prisoners. China and Russia haven't wanted to involve
themselves; more surprisingly, neither has democratic Japan -- this
despite the fact that the regime's corruption and misrule present an
obvious threat to neighboring countries, in the spread of AIDS, heroin and
refugees.

The irony here is that Burma ought to be an easy case. In some
dictatorships, there seems to be no alternative to the regime. But in
Burma, there is no question that the people support Aung San Suu Kyi -- a
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, wedded to nonviolence, committed to peaceful
dialogue with the nationalities that Burma's regime seeks to wipe out.

The U.N. Security Council ought to welcome positive statements -- and
demand positive action.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 23, Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, Burma Campaign UK, and US
Campaign for Burma
Parliamentary Push for UN Security Council Resolution on Burma Lauded -
More Support Needed, Say Activists

Three Burma campaign organizations today called for support for a letter
by parliamentarians and legislators to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and
the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council seeking a binding,
non-punitive resolution on the Southeast Asian country of Burma.  The
letter, launched by 33 members of parliament and congress from 16
countries in Asia, Europe, and the United States, stated that in many
previous cases around the world "the Security Council failed to act
swiftly, and many innocent lives were lost as a result. This must not be
allowed to continue in  Burma."

In the letter, the legislators criticized the Burmese military regime's
imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi as the world's only incarcerated Nobel
Peace Prize recipient.  It also cites the fact that 2,700 villages have
been destroyed in eastern Burma and that 1/2 million villagers are living
on the run as internal refugees after being driven from their homes.  An
additional  700,000 refugees have fled to neighboring countries.  It
chillingly notes that savage new attacks in eastern Burma were launched in
recent weeks, in the form of a "new military offensive against civilians
of the Karen ethnic monitory, shooting unarmed civilians, including
children, burning villages, using rape, torturing and mutilating people,
and even beheading people."

The Alternative Asean Network on Burma, Burma Campaign UK, and US Campaign
for Burma urged members of parliament and congresses from around the world
to sign the letter.  The three groups also urged security, human rights,
and other organizations to help organize MPs and members of Congress from
as many political parties as possible to sign.    They pointed out that 13
elected members of parliament remain locked up in Burma.

"We strongly support this effort and urge as many members of parliament
and congress from as many countries as possible to sign on and show their
support" said Altsean, BCUK, and USCB.  "History shows that we cannot wait
for the Security Council to take action; we must demand it."

The letter states that previous efforts by the UN have failed to bring
change to Burma, including 28 consecutive resolutions by the UN General
Assembly and UN Commission on Human Rights, four special rapporteurs from
the Commission on Human Rights, two special envoys from the Secretary
General himself, and countless bilateral and regional initiatives.  The
letter also cites failed efforts by the European Union and Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, and points ut that, "UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan called for democratic transition in Burma by 2006, but the regime
has failed to respond."

The letter supports a proposal by South Africa's 1984 Nobel Peace Prize
recipient Bishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech President Vaclav Havel for
a binding, non-punitive UN Security Council resolution on Burma.  The two
recently commissioned an extensive report on the urgent need for UNSC
action.  After the release of the report, the Security Council held its
first-ever confidential briefing on Burma on December 16th, 2005.  In
notes from the meeting that were widely leaked to the media, the UN
Secretariat encouragingly suggested a course of action for Burma at the
Security Council and called for major changes by mid-2006.  As that
deadline approaches, the situation in Burma has only grown worse.

To sign on to the letter, legislators in Asia should contact the ASEAN
Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus at info at aseanmp.org, or the Alternative
ASEAN Network on Burma at altsean at altsean.org

Other leaders should contact  the Burma Campaign UK at
mark.farmaner at burmacampaign.org.uk or the US Campaign for Burma at
info at uscampaignforburma.org.

____________________________________

May 25, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN rights expert calls for release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, urges inquiry
into mounting number of deaths of political prisoners in Myanmar

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro, issued the following statement today:

On 27 May, the current term of detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi finally
comes to an end. Detained for 10 of the last 16 years without charge or
trial, the General-Secretary of the National League for Democracy and
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate has been held in isolation for the past three
years. I encourage the Government to release her unconditionally and to
free all remaining political prisoners.

The continued existence of political prisoners, and their treatment,
reveals much about the human rights situation and the pace of progress
towards democracy in Myanmar. They are the victims of the denial of the
most basic liberties, including freedom of expression and assembly. At
least 1156 of Myanmar's citizens are behind bars, without access to the
guarantees of due process, for exercising of their political rights. Their
welfare is a cause for very serious concern.

The recent report, "Eight Seconds of Silence", released by the Assistance
Association of Political Prisoners, documents the tragic deaths since 1988
of 127 democracy advocates and human rights defenders while in detention
in Myanmar or shortly after their release. In the past year alone, the
number of such deaths has risen to 10.

It is time for the international community to urge the establishment of an
independent enquiry into the rapidly escalating number of deaths of
political prisoners in Myanmar. This investigation should seek to
establish the accountability of those responsible and lead to compensation
for the victims' families.

The transition towards democracy and national reconciliation will only
commence when these voices and all those who support democratic rights and
fundamental freedoms are included in the political dialogue on the
drafting of a new constitution for Myanmar.