BurmaNet News, May 27-30, 2006

[Editor]

 May 27-May 30, 2006 Issue # 2972


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar's opposition marks anniversary of attack against Suu Kyi
AFP: Myanmar rejects criticism of Suu Kyi detention
AP: Myanmar's former military intelligence headquarters leased to
entertainment company

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Report spotlights USDA’s political ambitions
Hindustan Times: 21 Kukis in custody of Myanmarese Army

BUSINESS / TRADE
Independent: In Burma, the ancient teak forests are being ripped
apart......in Chelsea, the banned wood is sold at the UK's top flower show

REGIONAL
AFP: UN pressure could ease terms of Suu Kyi's detention: analyst

INTERNATIONAL
Financial Times: Renewed calls to UN after Burma extends Suu Kyi's house
arrest
AP: EU 'deplores' Myanmar's decision to extend house arrest for Aung San
Suu Kyi
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Norway calls for release of Myanmar opposition
leader
AFP: Japan urges Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi
AP: France condemns Myanmar for extending house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Burmese delusions - Fred Hiatt
Nation: Time has come to break SPDC junta leaders -Kavi Chongkittavorn
Financial Times: General contempt for the UN and Annan

PRESS RELEASE
United Nations: Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the
Secretary-General on Myanmar

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 30, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's opposition marks anniversary of attack against Suu Kyi

Bangkok: With silent prayers at a golden pagoda, supporters of Myanmar's
detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday marked the third
anniversary of an attack against her convoy.

The May 30 attack, which occurred while she was travelling with members of
her opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party in northern
Myanmar, led to her latest house arrest.

On Saturday, the junta again extended the period of her detention by
another year, despite a growing international outcry demanding her
freedom.

Some 25 NLD members and supporters prayed at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the
most notable building in Yangon, for about one hour on Tuesday, while
several plain-clothes security officials monitored the move.

While the world learned about the extended house arrest of the 60-year-old
Nobel peace laureate on Saturday, the NLD has yet to confirm her latest
detention. She has spent 10 of the past 17 years in detention.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the military
government never recognized the result.

The latest extension drew an international uproar, but Myanmar's foreign
minister, travelling in Malaysia, rejected the criticism Monday, saying
her matter was "a domestic issue."

____________________________________

May 29, Agence France Presse
Myanmar rejects criticism of Suu Kyi detention

Kuala Lumpur: Myanmar's foreign minister on Monday rejected international
criticism over the decision to extend opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
house arrest.

"This is not an international issue. This is a domestic issue," Foreign
Minister Nyan Win said when asked about the uproar over the junta's
decision to keep her confined to her Yangon home for another year.

Nyan Win declined to explain why the ruling junta failed to release the
Nobel peace laureate.

"You already know it has been extended. The government has already
announced it," he said.

Hopes that Aung San Suu Kyi would be released when her detention came up
for review at the weekend had risen after the country's military rulers
unexpectedly allowed her to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on May
20.

But the extension drew swift international condemnation led by the United
States, which has spearheaded efforts to bring Myanmar before the UN
Security Council.

Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said he was disappointed by
the extension of the house arrest restrictions, but that this should not
jeopardise relations with Myanmar.

"We are disappointed but we realise that the communication channels that
we (Thailand, ASEAN and the United Nations) have with Myanmar are very,
very important," he said at the meeting.

"So although we do get disappointed but the communication line must
continue to be used, and we hope to see concrete progress in national
reconciliation and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi."

Kantathi who has in the past voiced his concern over the Myanmar junta's
increasingly secretive behaviour, said the military-run country was now
open to talking about issues "once considered to be off limits."

"They are now interacting with us and we hope to use this channel of
communication to try to create more incentives for Myanmar to move ahead
with reconciliation," he said.

He denied suggestions that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) had failed to engage its neighbour.

"I certainly don't think that ASEAN has failed. We see this clearly as a
process. We have been getting some positive signals from Myanmar and
negative signals. So this process will continue... and hopefully we will
hear good news soon."

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 10 of the last 17 years in detention. Her most
recent arrest period began after her convoy was attacked during a
political tour of northern Myanmar on May 30, 2003.

____________________________________

May 29, Associated Press
Myanmar's former military intelligence headquarters leased to
entertainment company

Yangon: The headquarters of Myanmar's once-feared Military Intelligence
Service, disbanded in a government power struggle in 2004, has been leased
to a local entertainment company that will run it as a hotel, a magazine
report said Monday.

The Myanmar Emperor Co. Ltd. won the bid to lease the complex, located
some 12 kilometers (7 miles) north of downtown Yangon, the Weekly Eleven
news journal reported.

Military intelligence, or MI as it was commonly called, served as the
country's main political police, especially under the military regimes
that have run the country since 1962. It was deeply involved in the
persecution of still-detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her
National League for Democracy party.

The complex, which includes a 12-story building and five 5-story
buildings, had been a hotel before it was taken over by the Defense
Ministry and turned into the military intelligence headquarters.

The magazine reported that the company won the bidding from among seven
bidders to operate the hotel for 30 years with monthly rental fees of more
than 20 million kyats (US$16,129; euro13,329).

The complex, close to Yangon's International airport, has been vacant
since the ruling junta ousted the country's then prime minister and
intelligence chief Gen. Khin Nyunt and his loyalists in October 2004. Its
functions have been assigned to other organizations, mostly the army.

Other government offices and buildings, which became vacant after the
government shifted its ministries to the country's new administrative
capital of Pyinmana, will also be leased to private entrepreneurs.

Myanmar's military government in November began relocating civil servants
to Pyinmana, about 400 kilometers north (250 miles) of Yangon, and the new
capital officially began operating in February.

Khin Nyunt's ouster was widely believed to have been engineered by
hardline members of the ruling junta who were opposed to his more liberal
approach to Suu Kyi's pro-democracy movement.

Khin Nyunt was placed under house arrest along with his two sons, after
receiving a 44-year suspended sentence for bribery and corruption and
violation of army discipline. Many of his subordinates were also given
lengthy prison sentences and a network of businesses in which military
intelligence held interests was taken over by the army.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 30, Irrawaddy
Report spotlights USDA’s political ambitions - Aung Lwin Oo

A new report issued on Tuesday by a Burmese exile opposition group says
the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association aims to
become a major political force in the country.

The Thailand-based Network for Democracy and Development’s 88-page report,
White Shirts: How the USDA Will Become the New Face of Burma's
Dictatorship, documents the group’s current involvement in the development
of future political policy.

The USDA currently holds a majority of seats—some 633, or 58 percent—at
the constitution-drafting National Convention, according to Khin Ohnmar,
chairperson of NDD.

“It appears that the USDA is to fill the vacuum left by military, which
will be entitled to one fourth of the seats in any future parliament,”
Khin Ohnmar told The Irrawaddy today.

Despite government claims that USDA membership has increased since its
founding in 1993, the NDD says most members were recruited by harassment
and intimidation, based on its research and interviews with 20 USDA
members.

“They [the government] claim to have 28 million members, but most were
recruited against their will,” Khin Ohnmar said. “Our study found that the
organization has recruited basically among civil servants, businessmen,
political activists, teachers and students,” she added.

The NDD report says the pseudo-political organization is principally an
instrument of the regime which carries out violent acts against opposition
activists and the local population at large. It also notes that the group
has established militias and actively participates in the surveillance and
arrest of political dissidents.

“The real intention of the organization is not as clear as it seems, and
one shouldn’t take it lightly,” Khin Ohnmar warned.

The release of the report coincides with the third anniversary of a deadly
attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage in Sagaing Division on May
30, 2003, in which the USDA is widely believed to have played a prominent
role.

“Over the years, the degree of harassment, intimidation and outright
violence the USDA has inflicted on the people of Burma has contributed to
creating a climate of fear in the country,” Surapong Jayanama, the former
Thai ambassador to Burma, said in the report.

____________________________________

May 28, Hindustan Times
21 Kukis in custody of Myanmarese Army - Sobhapati Samom

Imphal: Twenty-one Kuki villagers living along the Indo-Myanmar border in
Manipur's Churachandpur district have been arrested by troops of the
Myanmarese army, a report here said on Saturday.

Most of the villagers who were reportedly under the custody of Myanmarese
army are said be to wood-cutters. An inquiry set up in this regard by the
state police came to an end on Friday here.

According to the findings of the report, the incident took place on May 6
afternoon at the Lunjang village popularly known as Salaplen, around 26 km
south-east of Singhat police station in Churachandpur district in south
Manipur. The report further identified the villagers.

Three Saktiman trucks used to transport the woods were also seized by the
Myanmar army team while apprehending them, sources said. The registration
numbers of the trucks are MN 02/5544,MN 02/6838 and MN 05/2178. Now after
getting the detailed report, Manipur Police finally registered a case
against those Myanmarese army on the charge of sneaking into Indian soil
without obtaining prior permission. The issue of frequent arrest of Indian
nationals by the Myanmarese army had been reported in the past.

____________________________________
BUSINESS /TRADE

May 27, The Independent
In Burma, the ancient teak forests are being ripped apart......in Chelsea,
the banned wood is sold at the UK's top flower show - Martin Hickman

Exhibitors at Britain's biggest garden show, the Chelsea Flower Show, are
selling hardwood from the unprotected rainforests of Asia in trade that
has been condemned by one of the country's leading environmental bodies.

Secret tape-recordings made during an undercover investigation by
Greenpeace and The Independent found sales staff taking orders for teak
garden furniture logged in Burma, whose brutal military regime is
condemned globally. One trader said a teak table tucked at the back of his
stand - behind more regular timber - had come from Burma because of
"corruption". To the outrage of environmental groups, the Burmese military
junta allows widespread logging of endangered rainforest.

The organiser of the show, the Royal Horticultural Society, backs the
certification of timber to ensure garden tables and chairs on sale there
are environmentally friendly and meet standards on child labour and human
rights.

But several traders are exploiting the high profile of the Chelsea Flower
Show to promote Burmese teak - even though the main certification body in
the UK, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) refuses to certify the
country's timber. One salesman claimed the teak tables on show at his
stand were FSC-certified from Thailand, even though the FSC does not
certify any teak from Thailand.

Exhibitors routinely get round RHS rules on sustainable timber by
submitting documents for a "sample" of their products, while ensuring the
main supply comes from cheaper sources, according to one garden furniture
supplier who sells only legitimate timber.

Evidence about the availability of wood not proven to be environmentally
or socially responsible comes amid rising concern over the fate of the
world's great forests, which are under ever increasing threat. Yesterday
the International Tropical Timber Organisation released figures showing
that less than 5 per cent of the world's tropical forests are being
sustainably managed.

To gather evidence The Independent and Greenpeace visited four stands at
the Chelsea Flower Show yesterday morning fitted with secret
tape-recording equipment.

At one of the stands, TFT Garden Furniture had a teak table at the back of
its stand, which it was ostensibly using for administration. But when The
Independent asked whether the company had any teak for sale the furniture
was shown as an example of the teak that could be ordered in the styles of
other tables on show.

Asked whether the table was "plantation" (made from certified timber), the
salesman, Peter Doherty, replied: "This is not. It's Burmese teak. It's
the best teak you can get because it's so corrupt out there. It's easier
with this [FCS-certified eucalyptus furniture] than this type of wood
[teak] which is hard wood, because it's so driven by demand. There's so
much going out and there's just not enough people to produce the paperwork
for it leaving the country and going here, there and everywhere."

He offered to sell the table for pounds 799, saying: "It's hard to get
FSCteak.

"The people in here [the Chelsea Flower Show] selling FSC teak, all
they've done is buy a sample set and they send it off to the RHS, who
organise this show and they say: 'This is our paperwork for it.' So it is
hard for the organisers to make sure that all of the paperwork that comes
in is for FSC."

A spokesman for TFT, based in Eastcote, Northamptonshire, said that the
salesman had got his "wires crossed" and insisted the company had not sold
any teak at the show. But he added that the sale of non-certified teak
from brochures was a regular feature of the industry and practised by his
firm. "Nine out of 10 times the customer is not bothered what they're
buying - whether it's from a rainforest or an apple tree," he said.

At another stand, Jonathan Stockton, of Stockton furniture in East Sussex,
freely offered to sell teak at the show. His stand featured designer
slatted chairs and benches - sustainably sourced - for between pounds 600
and pounds 3600.

"I'm not allowed to show uncertified wood at an RHS show," he said. "The
oak carries certification but the Burmese teak doesn't so the eco-warriors
will be shocked. But I don't care."

Asked whether he had teak on show, he replied: "No we can't show it but I
can sell it to you."

He later said he was seeking certification for his products. One of the
stands sold only certified teak while another had teak furniture, which a
salesman said was FSC-certified "from Thailand".

The RHS said it did everything it could to ensure only certified timber
was sold. Its brochure warns buyers to insist on certified timber: "If
global timber resources are not managed in a sustainable way, the
long-term availability of timber and the biodiversity which relies upon
it, cannot be assured. Some tropical hardwoods are already under threat
due to excessive harvesting."

Bob Sweet, the show's organiser, said they "disapproved" of exhibitors
using the event to sell non-certificated timber from their catalogues.

Friends of the Earth estimates that the multi-million pound trade in
hardwood garden furniture in the UK destroys 143,000 square kilometres of
tropical rainforest annually.

A spokeswoman for the Forest Stewardship Council said that Burma's
position on human rights made it "completely incompatible" with
certification.

She said: "Unfortunately some companies, because of the RHS rules, will
have on display one or two FSC lines to get into the show but the vast
majority of what they sell will not be certified by us."

Greenpeace said: "The management of the RHS needs to take drastic action
to ensure that immoral and environmentally-damaging logging like this is
not available at the show."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 28, Agence France Presse
UN pressure could ease terms of Suu Kyi's detention: analyst - Griffin Shea

Bangkok: Renewed UN pressure could prompt Myanmar's military rulers to
loosen restrictions on democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, an analyst said
Sunday, despite their one-year extension of her house arrest.

The extension drew swift condemnation from the United States, which has
spearheaded efforts to bring Myanmar before the UN Security Council.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the decision "yet another
sign of the regime's intransigence and brutal repression."

Hopes had risen that she might be released when her detention came up for
review at the weekend, after the junta unexpectedly allowed her to meet
visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on May 20.

The meeting was her first contact with an outsider in more than two years.
The military normally keeps the 60-year-old incommunicado, locked inside
her rambling lakeside home in central Yangon without a telephone.

Her only company is her maid and she is allowed periodic visits from her
doctor.

She has spent 10 of the last 17 years in detention. Her most recent arrest
period began after her convoy was attacked during a political tour of
northern Myanmar on May 30, 2003.

UN undersecretary general Gambari is expected to brief the Security
Council this week on his talks with Aung San Suu Kyi and with junta leader
Than Shwe.

Depending on how the Council reacts, the junta could agree to some
concessions to fend off international pressure despite the latest
extension, Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo said.

"We can't rule out the possibility that some of the restrictions they have
put on her may be taken away," he said.

"The first thing the military might do is to allow her to see her
(party's) leadership," he said. Other concessions could include increased
visits from her doctor or meetings with other visitors, he added.

So far, Russia and China have blocked any significant action on Myanmar at
the Security Council.

Military analyst Win Min said he believed that the junta allowed Gambari's
visit because Moscow and Being had told the generals to make at least a
small gesture to the international community.

"They said that Burma needs to cooperate a little as well," he said,
referring to the country by its former name.

An Asian diplomat in Yangon said the junta could not release Aung San Suu
Kyi because they still fear her enormous popularity.

"For the government, she is still a threat because of her enormous
influence at home and abroad. The junta continues to fear her because they
believe she can quickly draw a large number of supporters," the diplomat
said.

The diplomat said that talking with the United Nations may be as much as
the generals are prepared to offer.

"They were aware of the importance of maintaining dialogue with the UN,
but that's as far as they could do. The extension of her house arrest just
confirmed that the junta had no intention to make further efforts to the
international community," he said.

Opening a dialogue is in itself an accomplishment. The junta had prevented
a series of envoys, both from the United Nations and from neighbors in
Southeast Asia, from meeting her during the last two years.

Two UN envoys have stepped down after being denied access to the woman
known in Myanmar simply as "The Lady".

But the analysts warned that predicting the junta's moves is difficult
because all the decision-making rests with Than Shwe.

A new dialogue with the United Nations may not mean the military is
prepared to set her free.

"They may allow UN access to Aung San Suu Kyi but that doesn't mean they
are going to release her," Win Min said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 29, Financial Times
Renewed calls to UN after Burma extends Suu Kyi's house arrest - Amy Kazmin

Bangkok: Burma's military rulers have extended the detention of Nobel
Peace prize-winning democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking renewed
calls for the United Nations Security Council to tackle Burma's prolonged
political crisis.

Although the secretive junta made no formal announcement, Burmese
reporters were quietly told Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended for
another year, crushing hopes of her imminent freedom.

It was an open snub to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, who made a
rare, direct appeal to powerful Senior General Than Shwe to "do the right
thing" and free Ms Suu Kyi, 60, as a crucial step towards addressing
Burma's severe social and economic problems.

The US condemned the extension as a "sign of the regime's intransigence
and brutal repression", while Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union's
external affairs commissioner, called it "very, very regrettable".

Even Burma's fellow members of the Association of South East Asian
Nations, which have urged the junta to accelerate political reforms,
expressed chagrin at Ms Suu Kyi's prolonged confinement, an ongoing
embarrassment for the region.

"I was hoping . . . that they would not extend the house arrest," said
Syed Hamid Albar, Malaysia's foreign minister. "But that is their right.
Of course, we are disappointed."

Pro-democracy activists said the regime's treatment of Ms Suu Kyi
signalled the junta's disregard for the international community, and they
reiterated demands for the UN Security Council to increase pressure on the
military regime to relinquish power.

"The UN has tried and failed several times in the past to solve this
problem with talks," Yvette Mahon, director of the Burma Campaign UK,
said. "What we need now is a binding Security Council resolution to compel
the regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi and restore democracy to Burma."

Burma's ruling generals say they are implementing a seven-step political
road map to establish what they describe as a "disciplined democracy" in
the ethnically diverse country of 52m people. But critics say any genuine
reform process must involve Ms Suu Kyi, the charismatic leader of the
National League for Democracy and the living symbol of Burmese aspirations
for a better life.

In 1990, the NLD won a resounding parliamentary election victory but was
barred by the junta from taking power. Since then, the NLD leader has been
in and out of house arrest, cumulatively spending more than 10 years
confined to her dilapidated family bungalow. Her current detention began
in May 2003, after an attack on her convoy.

____________________________________

May 30, Associated Press
EU 'deplores' Myanmar's decision to extend house arrest for Aung San Suu Kyi

Vienna: The European Union said Tuesday it "deplores" Myanmar's decision
to ignore appeals from around the world and extend the house arrest of
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a statement from the government of Austria, which holds the EU's
rotating presidency, the 25-nation bloc said it "deeply regrets the
decision of the Burmese government to extend the house arrest of Aung San
Suu Kyi and deplores that international appeals, including that of the EU
on 26 May 2006, have once again been unheard."

"This decision must be seen as yet another sign that the Burmese
government is unwilling to compromise and to move in the direction of an
all-inclusive democracy," it said.

The EU statement called anew on the government of Myanmar to release Suu
Kyi and all other political prisoners "and to engage all political and
ethnic forces of the country in a genuine dialogue with a view to bringing
about true national reconciliation and the establishment of democracy."

Suu Kyi has spent about 10 of the last 17 years in detention. In defiance
of international pressure from governments and human rights groups,
Myanmar's junta ordered the extension of her house arrest on Saturday.

____________________________________

May 30, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Norway calls for release of Myanmar opposition leader

Oslo: Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Tuesday expressed
"great regret" over recent reports that the military rulers of Myanmar had
extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and called
for her release.

In addition to the "immediate release" of the 61-year-old Nobel Peace
Price laureate Suu Kyi, the Norwegian foreign minister called for the
release of "the more than 1,000 other political prisoners in Burma," a
statement from his ministry said.

Myanmar's military rulers have not given any reason for the latest
extension of Suu Kyi's arrest.

Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest for 10 of the past 17 years, her
most recent arrest dating back to May 2003. Gahr Store also urged the
military rulers to initiate a dialogue with Suu Kyi's opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD) party, and ethnic minorities.

Suu Kyi has not been able to visit Oslo to accept her 1991 Nobel award.

____________________________________

May 29, Agence France Presse
Japan urges Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi

Tokyo: Japan on Monday called on Myanmar to release democracy icon Aung
San Suu Kyi after her detention was extended by the country's junta.

"Japan deems it regrettable that the Government of Myanmar has not yet
lifted the detention under house arrest," foreign ministry spokesman
Yoshinori Katori said in a statement.

"Japan strongly hopes ... that it will expedite the democratization
process, including the early release of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners, and resume dialogue with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi,"
Katori said.

In a rare break with the United States, its main ally, Japan has rejected
sanctions on Myanmar and preferred the approach of most Asian states to
try to engage the military regime.

Japan used to be a major donor to Myanmar but has suspended new aid for
infrastructure or development projects, although it still provides
humanitarian assistance.

Hopes had risen that Aung San Suu Kyi might be released when her detention
came up for review at the weekend, after the country's military rulers
unexpectedly allowed her to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari on May
20.

The Nobel Peace laureate has spent 10 of the last 17 years in detention.
Her most recent arrest period began after her convoy was attacked during a
political tour of northern Myanmar on May 30, 2003.

____________________________________

May 29, Associated Press
France condemns Myanmar for extending house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi

Paris: France on Monday condemned Myanmar's extension of house arrest for
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, calling it "bad news for the
Burmese people."

France again called for the immediate and unconditional release of the
Nobel Prize winner and all other political prisoners. It also urged
Myanmar's government to cooperate with the United Nations and with
humanitarian agencies.

"Prolonging the detention of Madame Aung San Suu Kyi does not tally with a
genuine and open process of national reconciliation and democratization
which the authorities in Yangon should begin," said French Foreign
Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei.

Suu Kyi has spent about 10 of the last 17 years in detention. Myanmar's
junta ordered the extension of her house arrest on Saturday, in defiance
international pressure.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 29, The Washington Post
Burmese delusions - Fred Hiatt

Aung San Suu Kyi knows where she will be spending her 61st birthday next
month.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was due to be freed from house arrest two
days ago. But despite a personal appeal from U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan and a personal visit from Annan's deputy, Burmese strongman Than
Shwe instead extended her term of confinement.

So Aung San Suu Kyi, sometimes called the Nelson Mandela of Asia, will
mark her June 19 birthday alone, isolated from family and supporters as
she has been for most of this decade and the last, in her decaying
lakefront house at 54 University Avenue Road.

Since she is totally cut off -- the regime did not allow even her
terminally ill husband to visit before he died in 1999 -- we have to
imagine how she might respond to the latest injustice. A devout Buddhist,
dedicated to nonviolence and forgiveness, an Oxford-educated mother who
has given up everything for her country, Aung San Suu Kyi would probably
counsel this: Don't waste time thinking about me.

Think, instead, of the political prisoners whom Than Shwe is holding in
far worse conditions than mine, in Insein Prison and elsewhere -- more
than a thousand.

Think of the peasants whom Than Shwe's soldiers are raping, killing and
evicting from burned fields and villages -- more than 10,000, just in the
past few months.

And think with sympathy, not anger, about the U.N. leaders who once again
allowed themselves to be deluded by a dictator, she might say. Think with
clarity about what that means for next steps.

Saturday, the day Aung San Suu Kyi should have been freed, was also the
16th anniversary of the election that should have made her prime minister.
Her party, the National League for Democracy, won four out of five
parliamentary seats. In power, it might have put Burma -- a southeast
Asian nation of 50 million people (about as many as Spain and Portugal
combined) -- on track to join the tiger economies of Asia, such as South
Korea, in rising prosperity and democracy.

But Burma's military rulers never honored the election's results. Aung San
Suu Kyi, under house arrest even on election day, did not become prime
minister. Many of those who should have sat in parliament went to prison
instead. And Burma continued its long slide into destitution.

Last fall two men who know something about peaceful transitions from
dictatorship to democracy -- retired archbishop Desmond Tutu of South
Africa and former president Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic -- urged
the U.N. Security Council to help. They did not ask for military action or
even for sanctions, only that the Security Council put Burma on its formal
agenda and adopt a resolution instructing Annan to make it a top priority.

Not too much to ask, you might think, of an organization that puffed up
with pride a year ago over its newfound resolve that governments could no
longer hide behind borders and claims of "sovereignty" if they were
abusing their own people. Burma seemed the perfect test: Than Shwe's
ongoing campaign against the Karen nationality in the northeast hill
country may well meet the U.N. definition of genocide.

But the Security Council did not act. Instead, Annan sent Undersecretary
General Ibrahim Gambari to Burma 10 days ago. Gambari emerged from his
smiling photo session with the dictator to announce, without mentioning
the ongoing ethnic cleansing, that the regime appeared ready "to turn a
new page in relations with the international community."

Annan, visiting neighboring Thailand, chimed in: "I'm relying on you,
General Than Shwe, to do the right thing."

Alas.

Insiders speculate that Aung San Suu Kyi may have been presented with
conditions for release that she would not accept -- to overlook the ethnic
cleansing of the minority Karen people, for example. It's also possible
that Than Shwe never intended to let her go.

Either way, U.N. faith in the essential goodwill of ruling dictators, and
in the power of perpetual talk over discomfiting action, has again been
disappointed. Will the resulting embarrassment impel the Security Council
actually to do something?

Aung San Suu Kyi might have some useful advice on that score.
Unfortunately, we can only imagine what it might be.

____________________________________

May 29, The Nation
Time has come to break SPDC junta leaders -Kavi Chongkittavorn

The visit paid to her by Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary general
for political affairs, and his optimism brought the fate of the Nobel
laureate to the fore once again. Unfortunately, hopes for her release were
dashed when the junta announced on Saturday that she would be kept under
house arrest for another year.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta knew how to use the
high-profile UN visit and the meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi to create a
less hostile international environment, even temporarily. At this point
the junta leaders are unable to make any other concessions on rights or
political freedom as they have their own "road map" to pursue at all
costs.

They want to drag their feet again knowing their giant neighbours, China
and India, will not change their stance. These Asian giants' interests in
Burma are so entrenched that any move by either side would simply be a
faux pas. Furthermore, Russia and China are two members of UN Security
Council that are willing to stick their necks out for Burma. Their
unwavering support actually increases the regime's intransigence and
encourages it to toughen its stance against the opposition and make the
road to democracy more difficult.

Apparently, from the regime's standpoint, releasing Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners, as repeatedly demanded by the United Nations, Asean
and the rest of international community, would be too dangerous at this
juncture. She is still a popular leader and her party, the National League
for Democracy (NLD), is still a legitimate political entity. She remains
the biggest threat. So far, the regime's insidious ploys to undermine her
leadership, including attempts to kill her through a front organisation,
and her party have not worked. The latest attempt, to brand the NLD a
terrorist group, is a case in point.

This reflects the regime's current thinking. Facing international wrath,
especially from the West and Asean, is preferable to possible domestic
upheavals led by Suu Kyi, as she has done previously. Internally, the
junta can use brute force to control Burmese society and crack down on
dissidents at will. Following its move to the new capital Pyinmana last
November, the junta's top priority is to consolidate the military's hold
and further isolate the military from civilian populations.

Ironically, in the international arena Burmese apologists and countries
benefiting from Rangoon's lack of democracy and legitimate government are
out in force defending the regime like wolverines.

The extension of Suu Kyi's detention was based on the shrewd calculation
that there would be no change in the regional and international
environment in the next 16 months that would alter the current political
landscape beneficial to the regime. At the very least, there will be a
status quo. The SPDC believe that their road map has made progress and
they can muddle through with a new constitution backed by national
referendum later this year, followed by a general election next year. The
rest of world will not learn of the nitty-gritty anyway because of
preoccupation with other serious global issues.

As such, it is imperative that the UN and Asean live up to the expectation
of bringing openness and democracy to Burma. Gambari's trip to Burma
marked the UN's return to a role in Burma after two years of complete
absence. Before that, the UN special envoy for Burma, Ismail Razali, was
the key person. For 15 years the UN has deliberated on the human-rights
situation in Burma without any tangible action. UN chief Kofi Annan has
reiterated that he wants to see progress in the country's openness.

Gambari's four-hour meeting with Suu Kyi was a big slap to Asean's face.
When Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar went to Burma in March as
the grouping's special envoy, his request to see the NLD leader was turned
down. He fumed and then cut short his visit by a day. But being in the
Asean family, his discontentment quickly evaporated after the ministerial
retreat in Cebu in April, when he suddenly and shamelessly started playing
Rangoon's tune.

Lest we forget, in July 2000 Asean put forward a plan to dispatch a troika
to Burma for a fact-finding mission, which Rangoon quickly rejected.
However, when the European Union proposed a similar plan, it was accepted.

Asean's short memory and inconsistency is directly tied to the junta's
brinkmanship and ability to work the concerns of individual members
against the group's collective psyche andgoals. Using the grouping's fear
of outside interference has shielded Burma from further isolation. Burma's
ability to join the Asia-Europe Meeting last year was a big success for
the junta.

After months of confusion and mess, the regime wanted to show off the new
capital, situated in the hinterlands, with Gambari's visit. The junta was
wise to give the UN envoy cause for optimism about the political process
and the possibility of Suu Kyi's freedom. Now the Nigerian diplomat must
be wondering why he momentarily lapsed and spoke of a new era for Burma
and the UN's willingness to give at least US$100 million (Bt3.8 billion)
worth of aid in exchange of political progress.

Gambari is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council in the next few
days. A resolution on Burma, called for by the United States and Britain,
could be adopted afterwards to deplore the general oppression there,
including the attacks on Karen refugees along the Thai-Burmese border. It
will be a different briefing from the one he gave informally last
December. For the past 15 years the junta has succeeded in stopping the
council from putting the Burma situation on its agenda, thanks to the
backing of China and Russia

To date it is the US government and lawmakers who have done the most to
push the issue onto the council's agenda. Last week, both houses of the US
Congress also passed a bipartisan resolution to extend and renew import
sanctions against Burma for another year.

With Suu Kyi's renewed detention, the international community cannot stay
idle. While in Bangkok last week, UN chief Kofi Annan pleaded for her
release and reiterated that progress in the political process must be
inclusive. Her freedom, he said, would "allow the government and the
people, not only to build the nation together, but to focus on the
essential issue of economic and social development".

Asean should show leadership on the Burma issue. As the process of putting
together the Asean charter continues, the drafters should keep in mind
Burma's actions since its admission almost a decade ago. In the long run,
only a sensible Asean charter can have any real impact on this
intransigent member.
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May 30, Financial Times
General contempt for the UN and Annan

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning democracy
advocate, were deeply disappointed this weekend when Burma's military
rulers extended the house arrest of the world's most famous political
prisoner.

Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations political chief, had, perhaps
inadvertently, raised hopes of "the Lady" being released when, after his
own trip to Burma, he declared the ruling junta was "ready to turn a new
page" in its relations with the international community.

Some interpreted the words of Gambari - who had been granted a rare
meeting with Than Shwe, Burma's powerful senior general - as a signal that
perhaps Suu Kyi's confinement, which had been due to expire on Saturday,
would not be prolonged further.

Gambari's assessment of the junta's desire to better its relations with
the international community may be similarly ill judged. Kofi Annan, the
UN secretary-general, tried to follow up his deputy's trip by calling Than
Shwe to talk about further steps to bring Burma, now a virtual
international pariah, in from the cold.

UN insiders say the idea was for Annan to thank the general for his
openness to the UN, and to encourage him to reach an understanding with
Suu Kyi, and offer to help start a dialogue with her NLD party, which won
elections in 1990, and ethnic groups fighting a brutal war on the
country's borders.

But Annan's telephone call mysteriously failed to get through. Perhaps
that is why Annan decided to go on television to urge the general, by
name, to "do the right thing".

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 30, Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on Myanmar

New York: The Secretary-General was deeply disappointed to learn that the
Myanmar authorities have extended the detention under house arrest of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, the General Secretary of the National League for
Democracy (NLD). He believes Myanmar's leadership has missed a significant
opportunity to confirm, through concrete actions, its expressed commitment
to move toward true national reconciliation and all-inclusive democracy,
as well as improved relations with the international community.

Despite this setback, the international community cannot abandon the
search for improvements in the difficult situation in Myanmar. The
Secretary-General will continue to make every effort to secure not only
the relase of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees, but also
to urge Myanmar's authorities to take other steps they discussed with the
Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, during his
recent visit to the country. These include improved safety and access for
humanitarian assistance, restraint in military operations that have
affected civilians, and- ultimately – the possibility of internal dialogue
that could lead to national reconciliation.