BurmaNet News, June 20, 2006

[Editor]

June 20, 2006 Issue # 2987


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Burmese activist arrested for solo Rangoon protest
AFP: Myanmar rejects US report on human trafficking
Irrawaddy: Obituary: Aung Zay (1926-2006)

BUSINESS / TRADE
Asia Pulse: Myanmar to decide on gas exports to India by month end
Asia Pulse: Myanmar to get US$20 mln loan from India Exim Bank

ASEAN
AFP: SE Asia presses Myanmar, says region "lost"

REGIONAL
AP: Malaysian government ignoring refugees, human rights activists say

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Canada to take in 800 refugees from Myanmar
Financial Times: Annan urges new human rights council to break with past
and work impartially

OPINION / OTHER
Independent: The UN must halt this injustice in Burma - William Hague

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 19, Mizzima News
Burmese activist arrested for solo Rangoon protest - Mungpi

A man was arrested by Burmese authorities today after staging a solo
protest outside Rangoon city hall, according to the National League for
Democracy.

Tun Tun was reportedly demanding the release of detained democracy icon
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi before he was seized by police, NLD spokesman Nyan
Win said.

“We only know that [Tun Tun], age about 40, is arrested but we have not
been able to confirm what his demands are and where he is being kept,”
Nyan Win told Mizzima.

Dr Naing Aung of the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma said Tun
Tun was arrested at about 3pm this afternoon.

Citing sources in Rangoon, Dr Naing Aung said, “The charge for his arrest
is still unknown”.

In a statement FDB said Tun Tun was arrested after shouting “Freedom of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi . . . Our cause . . . Our cause”. While FDB said Tun
Tun was a youth member of the NLD, Nyan Win said he had no links to the
party.

Win Naing, an independent political analyst in Rangoon, told Mizzima
unconfirmed reports had spread of other protests in and around Rangoon
today as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi marked her 61st birthday.

____________________________________

June 20, Agence France Presse
Myanmar rejects US report on human trafficking

Yangon: Myanmar on Tuesday rejected a US report that branded the
military-ruled country as among the world's worst offenders for
trafficking in humans.

A State Department report this month accused the junta of direct
involvement in trafficking people for forced labor and sexual
exploitation.

"The military junta's economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, and its
policy of using forced labor are driving factors behind Burma's large
trafficking problem," it said.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, rejected the report, saying it was
making efforts to combat human trafficking.

The US report "once again unjustifiably classified Myanmar in the list of
countries assessed as neither complying with the minimum standards nor
making significant efforts in combating trafficking in persons," the
foreign ministry said in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

Myanmar would continue to fight human trafficking "regardless of negative
views and responses from those who blindly refuse to recognize the ongoing
commendable efforts," it said.

The US report said people from Myanmar were mainly trafficked to
Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Thailand for sexual exploitation, domestic
service and forced labor.

Myanmar was listed along with North Korea and Laos in the State
Department's "Tier 3" list of worst offenders of human trafficking.

Countries in the blacklist could face sanctions if they do not take
immediate measures within 90 days.

But Myanmar is already under US sanctions to pressure it to make
democratic reforms and to improve its human rights record.

____________________________________

June 20, Irrawaddy
Obituary: Aung Zay (1926-2006)

Aung Zay, veteran politician and a grandson of Burma’s last King Thibaw,
died on Sunday morning in Rangoon. He was 80. Aung Zay’s parents were Ko
Ko Naing and Htaik Suu Myat Phaya Lay, fourth daughter of King Thibaw and
Queen Suu Phaya Latt. Though a member of the royal family, Aung Zay became
a politician, erring towards leftwing ideology, for which he was nicknamed
by his friends “Red Prince.”

When a civil war broke out in Burma in 1948, with the government battling
various rebel groups, he was active in the peace movement. He joined the
Internal Peace Association to take part in peace groups led by Burma's
best-known writer at the time, and independence hero Thakhin Kodaw Hmaing.
As a strong opponent of military regimes, Aung Zay was detained from 1968
to 1970 under the Gen Ne Win regime, and then again under the current
regime from 1989 to 1992. In addition to his political activism, he spent
considerable time in recent years teaching English and writing articles in
various periodicals, mainly on Thibaw’s lost treasures—after colonial
British troops captured the king’s Mandalay seat of power in the late 19th
century.

Aung Zay was buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of Rangoon on Tuesday.
The ceremony was attended by hundreds of people, including former student
leaders, veteran politicians, writers and students from his English
classes. “He is one of our models, who always acted down to earth,” said
one prominent student leader, Min Ko Naing.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 20, Asia Pulse
Myanmar to decide on gas exports to India by month end

New Delh: Myanmar may decide by the end of the month if it will export
natural gas to India or China after a consultant, Genesis Oil and Gas
Consultants of the UK, makes a presentation on monetising reserves found
in Block A-1.

Genesis, appointed by block operator Daewoo International of South Korea,
will make a presentation in London on June 27-28 on the options for
developing Block A-1, where Indian firms ONGC Videsh Ltd and GAIL (India)
Ltd together hold 30 per cent interest, an industry official said.

Pipeline exports to China or India are likely to be the most favoured
option to exploit Block A-1 gas discoveries off Myanmar.

"A number of possible development options remain under consideration,
including a liquefied natural gas project with exports likely destined for
South Korea (Daewoo and compatriot Kogas have 70 per cent equity in A-1)
and/or pipeline exports to countries such as Thailand, China and India,"
he said.

Daewoo had earlier indicated that it would announce its decision on which
projects to pursue after reserves are certified by mid-2006 following the
latest drilling campaign and once it had filed a declaration of
commerciality. Reserves at the Shwe (gold) field, one of several giant
structures on A-1, have been independently certified at between 2.88
trillion and 3.56 trillion cubic feet of gas by Houston-based consultant
Ryder Scott Company.

The official said while GAIL has already completed a Detailed Feasibility
Report for a US$3-billion onland Myanmar-India gas pipeline bypassing
Bangladesh, preliminary studies have also been done for a pipeline to
China.

____________________________________

June 20, Asia Pulse
Myanmar to get US$20 mln loan from India Exim Bank

New Delhi: The Export and Import Bank of India is likely to extend a US$20
million loan to Myanmar shortly, for modernisation of a refinery project.

"An agreement is scheduled to be signed for the US$20 million Line of
Credit to Myanmar within a couple of weeks," a senior Exim Bank official
said.

He said the Line of Credit is meant for rehabilitation of a refinery
project and upgradation of technology in the plant.

The premier export and import financing bank has 60 lines of credit
currently under implementation amounting US$2.04 billion, involving 87
countries.

____________________________________
ASEAN

June 20, Agence France Presse
SE Asia presses Myanmar, says region "lost"

Kuala Lumpur: Southeast Asian lawmakers called Tuesday for Myanmar to be
hauled in front of the UN Security Council, saying its neighbours were
"lost" on how to deal with the country's military rulers.

In a sign of growing frustration across the region, the bloc's main
committee on Myanmar said there had been no sign of change despite calls
for democracy and the release of political prisoners like Aung San Suu
Kyi.

"We urge the United Nations to take the issue to the Security Council,"
said the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), Malaysia's Zaid Ibrahim.

"There is no democratic progress in Myanmar and ASEAN is lost on what to
do," he said in a telephone interview from the Indonesian capital Jakarta
where some 20 council members gathered to decide on future action plans.

"Unless there is pressure from the UN and the Security Council, I do not
see any changes taking place and Aung San Suu Kyi will continue to be
detained," said Zaid, speaking on behalf of the caucus.

Lawmakers from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore
and Thailand are members of the caucus, which was formed in 2004 to push
for democratic reforms in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

ASEAN has put aside its policy of non-interference in members' affairs in
recent months to demand that Myanmar's ruling generals introduce
democratic reforms or risk bringing the entire region into disrepute.

Regional government have begun openly expressing their irritation with the
Myanmar generals, and there have been rumblings that it should be ejected
from ASEAN which it joined in 1997.

The regime thumbed its nose at ASEAN envoy Syed Hamid Albar, the foreign
minister of Malaysia, which the group sent to Yangon earlier this year to
check on its claims to be shifting towards democracy.

Syed Hamid was denied access to Aung San Suu Kyi, prompting him to say
that regional leaders were "frustrated and disullusioned" with their
intransigent neighbour.

Zaid said that regional heavyweights China and India must now play a
bigger role in ending Yangon's repressive policies and campaigning for the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We think it is not in the interest of China and India to allow the
political situation in Myanmar to remain stagnant as it poses a problem to
its neighbours," he said.

Last December the United States pushed the UN Security Council to hold a
briefing on human rights and other problems in Myanmar for the first time.

Washington is now lobbying for a UN Security Council resolution calling on
Myanmar's military regime to change its repressive policies.

UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said Monday that it was
possible Myanmar could be referred to Security Council.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later
rejected the results of national elections won by the National League for
Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent 10 of the past 17 years in
detention at her lakeside home in Yangon.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 20, Associated Press
Malaysian government ignoring refugees, human rights activists say

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's government is ignoring tens of thousands of
refugees living in the country, denying them basic human rights and legal
protections, rights activists claimed Tuesday.

Malaysia one of Southeast Asia's most industrialized and stable countries
has at least 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers who fled violence or
persecution from places including Indonesia's Aceh province, the southern
Philippines and Myanmar.

"However, they are perceived with ill regard and declined their
fundamental rights to shelter, health care and education as a result of
their indefinite status," Malaysia's leading human rights groups said in a
joint statement to mark the U.N.'s World Refugee Day.

The activists accused the Malaysian government of brushing aside repeated
calls from local and international organizations to recognize political
refugees and asylum seekers by ratifying the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention.

Refugees in Malaysia are thus caught between exclusionary immigration
policies and their inability to return home, the six groups, including
prominent organizations Suaram and Tenaganita, said in the statement.

"The invisibility of refugees in this country needs to be addressed," the
groups said.

"It is a stark contradiction when we speak and commend ourselves of being
a tolerant and accepting society, when (a) xenophobic attitude toward the
large refugee population still exists," they added. "Our society needs to
understand that refugees exist and live amongst us."

Officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and home affairs, which
handles immigration matters, could not immediately be reached for comment.

In recent years, ministry officials have defended the country's
immigration laws, saying the government has the right to regard refugees
as illegal immigrants. Nevertheless, the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees has held talks with authorities in hopes of improving laws to
protect refugees from ill treatment.

Malaysia has long attracted migrants, including those fleeing poverty,
from Southeast Asia. Though the country relies heavily on foreign laborers
for menial work, authorities regularly deport illegal immigrants, who are
widely blamed for crime and social problems.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 20, Agence France Presse
Canada to take in 800 refugees from Myanmar

Ottawa: Canada has agreed to take in more than 800 refugees from Myanmar
who have been living in border camps in Thailand, Ottawa announced
Tuesday, on World Refugee Day.

Canada's minister of citizenship and immigration, Monte Solberg, said in a
statement that a group of 810 refugees -- most of them belonging to the
Karen ethnic group -- would be welcomed to Canada in the coming months.

"Welcoming these refugees, who have endured a prolonged state of limbo in
terrible conditions, is in the best humanitarian tradition of Canada,"
Solberg said. "As Canadians, we look forward to helping them rebuild
secure lives and join our society."

Fighting in Myanmar involving the Karen National Union -- the oldest and
largest rebel force, which is still battling the country's military regime
-- has escalated since February.

Human rights groups say the upsurge has forced up to 11,000 people to flee
their homes.

There are currently 140,000 refugees from Myanmar living in nine border
camps in Thailand, many of whom have been there for up to 20 years. They
represent the largest group of refugees in Southeast Asia.

Jahanshah Assadi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
representative in Canada, hailed Canada's decision.

"We were delighted at Canada's swift response to our group submission of
810 Karen refugees and impressed at the smooth and efficient manner in
which the Canadian selection team conducted the interviews in a remote
refugee camp environment," Assadi said.

Australia, Britain, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Sweden and the United States also responded to the UNHCR's appeal
by offering to accept refugees from Myanmar, the immigration ministry
noted.

____________________________________

June 20, Financial Times
Annan urges new human rights council to break with past and work
impartially - Frances Williams

Geneva: The new United Nations Human Rights Council, which has replaced
the discredited human rights commission, was urged yesterday to break with
the past and work impartially to improve human rights worldwide.

Addressing the council's inaugural session in Geneva, Kofi Annan, UN
secretary-general, appealed to its 47 members to avoid the "political
point-scoring" that marred its predecessor.

The council "must recognise . . . the importance of universality and
objectivity and the need to eliminate double standards", he said.

Mr Annan's remarks reflect lingering fears the council could succumb to
the same politicisation and self-interest that led to the commission's
demise, as human rights abusers ganged up to prevent criticism of
themselves andothers.

Council members include China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Cuba, with
questionable human rights records. However, new requirements for members
to be elected by the UN general assembly, and put their own human rights
records up for scrutiny, deterred the worstviolators such as Sudan and
Zimbabwe from standing for election. Others, such as Iran, failed to win
majority support.

Alone among the five permanent members of the Security Council, the US did
not seek election last month.

But Jan Eliasson, general assembly president, who guided the negotiations
on creation of the council, said yesterday that he expected the US to
stand next year when a third of seats come vacant.

Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, urged the
council to confront thechallenges posed to human rights by poverty,
discrimination and conflict, and to muster the will "to uphold the rule of
law in the faceof global threats, such asterrorism".

The council is due next week to discuss pressing human rights matters
raised by council members.

Diplomats expect discussion of Sudan, Burma, North Korea and the
Palestinian occupied territories, as well as human rights abusesin the
US-led "war on terrorism".

Muslim states plan topush for a debate on respect for religion after the
con-troversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

The council may also adopt a new convention on disappearances and a
declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. Unlike the commission,
which met annually, the council will meet at least three times a year.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 20, The Independent
The UN must halt this injustice in Burma -  William Hague

The Burmese Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 61st birthday
yesterday as she has spent 10 of the last 16 years - under house arrest.
During this time Burma under the military junta has experienced not only
the violent reversal of a democratic election result, but also abuses
ranging from the persecution of ethnic minorities to systematic rape and
the conscription of child soldiers.

There are those who would argue that Suu Kyi, leader of the National
League for Democracy, is merely a poster-girl for the West. They should
reflect on the fact that 16 years ago she was democratically elected to
lead Burma. Her imprisonment is a travesty of justice, not just for Suu
Kyi alone, but for the people of Burma.

When the UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari visited Burma last month and was allowed
to see Suu Kyi, the sense of optimism was such that some almost believed
there could be an end to the injustice of her detention. For those with an
intimate knowledge of the situation the surprise was Mr Gambari's
optimism, and not the familiar woesome tale that followed. Suu Kyi's
sentence was extended for another year, and the Karen, Shan and other
ethnic minorities found themselves under yet another attack.

It now appears that accommodating the UN envoy was a manoeuvre designed to
defuse the international outcry over the latest atrocities against the
Karen people. In recent months, in the biggest offensive Rangoon's
military has launched since 1997, more than 18,000 Karen civilians have
been forced to flee their villages. Several thousand have reached the Thai
border, while many thousands remain in hiding in the jungle.

The crisis in Karen state is by no means the only concern in Burma. The
ruling junta have perpetrated gross human rights violations for decades,
including the widespread and systematic use of rape as a weapon of war,
forced labour, forced relocation, torture, killings, and the use of human
minesweepers. More than 2,800 villages have been destroyed and a million
people internally displaced in eastern Burma alone since 1996. More than
155,000 refugees are in camps in Thailand, and thousands more in India,
Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries.

I recently had the privilege of meeting Charm Tong, a brave young Shan
activist and representative of the Shan Women's Action Network, which
published the report Licence to Rape, documenting the Burma Army's use of
sexual violence in Shan state. Burma has an estimated 70,000 forcibly
conscripted child soldiers, the highest in the world. More than 1,100
prisoners of conscience remain in jail, subjected to severe torture and
inhumane conditions, and 127 political prisoners have died in detention
since 1988.

In May, the Security Council was briefed by Mr Gambari, following his
visit to Burma, but the council failed to agree any concrete action.
Pessimists and regime apologists would have us believe that the
difficulties of generating consensus on Burma at the Security Council
means that the effort should be abandoned altogether. But the fact that
Burma was raised at all is an important step in the right direction.

The case for UN Security Council action is clear. Last year, a report
commissioned by the former Czech president Vaclav Havel and the former
archbishop of Cape Town Bishop Desmond Tutu concluded that Burma meets all
the major criteria for UN Security Council action. Over the past 14 years,
28 resolutions have been passed at the UN General Assembly and the UN
Commission on Human Rights condemning the Burmese junta's gross human
rights violations. However, these resolutions are not enforceable. The
time has come now for UN Security Council action, which would be binding.

A resolution under Article 41 of Chapter VII of the UN Charter should
require Burma's junta to work with the UN secretary-general's office to
implement a plan for national reconciliation' restore the democratically
elected government' release immediately Aung San Suu Kyi and all prisoners
of conscience' and ensure unhindered access to all parts of the country
for the UN and international humanitarian agencies.

In the meantime, our Government, with cross-party support, should lead the
way in supporting democracy-building, human rights documentation, and
education, and in providing urgently needed humanitarian support. It is my
strong view that our Government should increase efforts to bring Burma to
the UN Security Council immediately. What better way to celebrate the
courage and commitment to freedom of those working bravely inside the
country to advance democracy than with a full discussion of the crisis at
the Security Council followed by meaningful action?

The writer is the shadow Foreign Secretary.