BurmaNet News, July 4-5, 2006

[Editor]

July 4-5, 2006 Issue # 2997


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar says release of Aung San Suu Kyi "dangerous"
Irrawaddy: Recent murders alarm Rangoon residents
Irrawaddy: Junta-backed group claims greater rights for women in Burma
Xinhua: Myanmar adds more base transceiver stations in Yangon to
facilitate phone calls

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Activists condemn Thai-China Salween deal

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima: Burma's film industry suffers downturn
Xinhua: Myanmar establishes first modern palm oil refinery plant
Xinhua: Indian business industry seeks to hold trade exhibition in Myanmar

DRUGS
SHAN: Wa vows to uphold drug-free stance

REGIONAL
The Australian: Burma seeks nuclear weapons alliance with N Korea
Xinhua: Singapore helps Myanmar develop human resources

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Google ban designed to safeguard revenue, says media watchdog
DVB: Burma junta sends more army officers to Russia for trainings

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Win Tin: Unbroken after 17 years’ imprisonment

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 5, Agence France Presse
Myanmar says release of Aung San Suu Kyi "dangerous"

Military-run Myanmar said Wednesday that freeing democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi would endanger the country and derided as "meaningless" the
international outcry demanding her freedom.

In a rare reference to the nation's opposition figurehead, the state press
also said her days were "numbered" and that she and her party were heading
for a "tragic end".

The 61-year-old Nobel peace laureate has spent 10 of the past 17 years
under house arrest at her lakeside residence in central Yangon. The junta
extended her detention in May for another year.

"If the restrictions on her are lifted, the release will pose danger to
her as well as to the nation," said the official New Light of Myanmar
newspaper.

"In fact, for the people of Myanmar, Daw Suu Kyi is just a woman turned
alien or a grave danger to the nation," said the junta's mouthpiece.

Following the extension of her house arrest, the United States -- a vocal
critic of Myanmar -- said it would pursue an unprecedented UN Security
Council resolution calling on the junta to change its repressive policies.

But Myanmar, which has accused Washington of using the United Nations to
increase international pressure on the junta, rebuffed global calls
demanding Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom.

"The US and liberal groups are making demands for her release. That is, in
fact, completely meaningless," the daily said, warning that the democracy
icon would remain under house arrest unless she gives up her democracy
causes.

"The restrictions will never be lifted until she abandons her practice of
the liberal policy. Even if the restrictions on her are lifted in such a
situation, the release will bring no changes," the state-run media said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the country's independence leader
General Aung San, co-founded the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) in 1989.

Her party won 1990 elections by a landslide but the military refused to
accept the results.

"NLD is at fault because Daw Suu Kyi is at fault," the paper said. "The
days of Daw Suu Kyi and NLD are numbered. They are heading for the tragic
end."

A top UN envoy who met Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon in May has however
argued that diplomacy could still nudge the reclusive junta down the path
to democratic reform. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962.

Ibrahim Gambari, the under-secretary general for political affairs, became
the first foreigner to see her in more than two years during his visit to
Myanmar.

____________________________________

July 5, The Irrawaddy
Recent murders alarm Rangoon residents - Shah Paung

A family of three in Shwepyithar Township, Rangoon, was killed last Sunday
during a robbery at their home, one local resident told The Irrawaddy by
phone on Wednesday, adding that such crimes are on the rise in crime
because of increasingly dire economic conditions in the former capital.

The resident, who declined to be named, said one of the victims was Ohn
Maung, a retired employee from the Department of Technical and Vocational
Education. He added that police have yet to identify any suspects in the
case.

A local police official refused to comment on the case to The Irrawaddy,
and local publications have not yet covered the murders.

Crime statistics on Burma are difficult to obtain as official agencies
generally refuse to provide reliable data. State-run media are quick to
discount any hint of an increase in criminal activity.

In November 2005, The New Light of Myanmar discounted widespread rumors of
a growing crime wave attributed to rising fuel and food prices—saying,
instead, that Burma had one of the lowest serious crime rates in the
region.

Other residents in Rangoon report that as many as seven deadly
burglaries—in which six people were murdered—have occurred in the city in
recent months. One Rangoon-based editor attributes these recent crimes to
the city’s poor economy, in which a growing number of people are unable to
provide for their basic needs.

In contrast, Director-General of Police Departments Brig-Gen Khin Yi
claimed in a recent press conference that people have focused on recent
violent crimes because they have occurred in a group, but that the rate of
crime was actually dropping.

____________________________________

July 4, The Irrawaddy
Junta-backed group claims greater rights for women in Burma - Aung Lwin Oo

Members of the Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation—headed by the wives of
Burma’s top leaders—said that government policies have increased the
rights of women in the country during its annual commemoration of Women's
Day in Rangoon on Monday.

"Myanmar [Burmese] women have achieved the momentum of advancement and
security of life under the peace and tranquility of the State, [and]
prevalence of law and order due to economic development and improved
communication," government-run The New Light of Myanmar quoted Than Than
Nwe, wife of Prime Minister Gen Soe Win, as saying.

Other members of the junta-affiliated organization who attended Monday’s
event include Kyaing Kyaing, wife of junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe; Mya
Mya San, wife of Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye; and Khin Lay Thet, wife of Gen
Thura Shwe Mann. Women from the diplomatic community and UN agencies were
also in attendance.

"They keep on claiming that the situation for women in Burma is
improving," said Lway Aye Nang, a joint general secretary of the exiled
Women’s League of Burma. "But compared to the situation on the ground,
women are facing social and economic hardship," she added.

The MWAF also echoed the Burmese junta’s position on widespread calls for
the UN Security Council to help initiate reform in the military-run
country. Any recommendation to the Security Council, according to the
group, could have a negative impact on the Burmese population in general
and women in particular.

However, Lway Aye Nang of WLB—an umbrella organization comprising 12
women’s organizations of different ethnic backgrounds from Burma—said that
even without UN intervention, the position of women in Burma has already
worsened under military rule.

MWAF claims over 2.6 million members in just over two years of existence,
which would make it a major political organization in Burma. But the
legitimacy of their numbers has been called into question by those who see
the group as merely a pseudo-political junta mouthpiece.

"There are cases of forced recruitment, and it is questionable how it
managed to sign up so many members in such a short period," said Lway Aye
Nang.

During the Monday event, junta first lady Kyaing Kyaing awarded gifts to
outstanding Burmese women, including pro-government author Dr Ma Tin Win.

____________________________________

July 5, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar adds more base transceiver stations in Yangon to facilitate phone
calls

The Myanmar telecommunications authorities are adding increased number of
base transceiver stations in Yangon to help solve current pressing demand
for improved mobile phone links, the local weekly "The Yangon Times"
reported Wednesday.

Despite introduction of more and more GSM mobile phones in the country,
poor links are still in existence, causing difficulty frequently with the
accessibility, complained subscribers.

A number of high-rise buildings are being targeted for installation of
more such BTS, according to the report.

Meanwhile, according to the authorities, it will add 80,000 more new GSM
mobile phones in two major cities of the country to facilitate users in a
bid to enhance the development of the telecommunication sector.

The mobile phones will be added in Yangon and Mandalay for the current
fiscal year 2006-07.

There were over 140,000 mobile phones in Myanmar as of now since the 1990s
when such phones were first introduced.

According to the Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, GSM phones in
Myanmar can auto-roam 21 townships far up to the border areas also mainly
covering Monywa, Mawlamyine, Bagan, Ngwesaung, Chaungtha, Taunggyi,
Kyaingtong, Tachilek, Lashio and Muse in addition to Yangon and Mandalay.

Official statistics show that the number of various types of telephones in
Myanmar reached 513,301 as of March this year, the end of the previous
fiscal year 2005-06.

Of the total, mobile phones such as GSM, cellular and CDMA accounted for
146,321, while the auto fixed telephones remained at 303,228.

In Yangon alone, GSM phones stood 81,000 in number.

Under the current population in Yangon which stands at 5.2 million now,
there will be one GSM phone per 43 persons in the near future, up from one
GSM phone per 64 persons now.

Mobile phones were first introduced in Myanmar with cellular ones in 1993,
the DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication) and CDMA (Code
Division Multiple Access) in 1997 and the GSM (Global System for Mobile)
in 2002.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 4, Mizzima News
Activists condemn Thai-China Salween deal - Nga Ngai

A coalition of Thai and Burmese environmentalists voiced their opposition
on Monday to the signing of a deal between the Electricity Generating
Authority of Thailand and China's Sinohydro for the construction of five
dams on the Salween River.

The memorandum of understanding was signed between the two groups on June 26.

Salween River Watch issued a statement today saying the, "the dams will be
built in a war zone near the Thai-Burma border where the Burmese
dictatorship has launched repeated military operations in an attempt to
control the ethnic peoples of Burma, their land and resources".

". . . We want to urge the Thailand and China governments should not take
advantage of the lack of steady situation of Burma . . ." Sai Sai, the
coordinator of Salween Watch, said.

The dam projects—reportedly worth more than US $1 billion—have been widely
criticised by human rights and environmental activists who say they have
resulted in forced labour, forced relocation and the displacement of
thousands of ethnic Karen.

Construction on the dams is scheduled to start in 2007 after the dam areas
have been properly surveyed and cleared.

Lau Eh Roland from the Karen River Watch told Mizzima, "Some villagers are
being laboured by doing digging the soil and clearing the land for the
first step of the construction . . . they are paid but if they get 4,000
kyats, the soldiers take 3,000 kyats from them and the worker gets only
1,000 kyats per day . . ."

Landmines are known to have been strewn throughout the dam areas, one of
which fatally wounded an EGAT surveyor.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 3, Mizzima News
Burma's film industry suffers downturn - Ngun Te

The future of the once-thriving Burmese film industry is uncertain
according to film makers who say the production of locally made flicks has
reached a new low.

Rising production costs, the slow censorship process and competition from
foreign films, DVDs and VCDs have reportedly caused a serious downturn in
the industry.

The chairman of the Burma Movie Association, Kyi Soe Htun, told Mizzima
only four or five movies had been produced since the start of the year—a
further drop from last year's low figures.

"Video production is too high. About 900 to 1000 new video films have been
released this year besides a lot of other entertainment.
Previously the film industry had to compete only with theatrical
performances. In this age, we have to compete with TV and video. Under
these circumstances, film production has fallen," Kyi Soe Htun said.

Well-known producer and director Zin Yaw Maung Maung said some film makers
found the revenue from their films did not cover production costs and that
he was out of pocket by 20 million kyat from his last film Yegetaung (Snow
Capped Mountain).

Drops in production have also meant uncertainty for Rangoon's few cinemas
with staff saying they have no idea which movies they will be screening
next.

Modern Love is the latest Burmese film to hit cinema screens and has been
showing at the Mingala, Thwin and Thamada theatres since June 23. Workers
at the Mingala said they did not know when new films would be available.

"There maybe new releases next week. I don't know whether the censor board
has passed them or not," a staff member from Mingala said, referring to
Hle Sar (Deceit) and Mhyaw Lin Chin Myar Swar (Great Expectations), which
are still being scrutinised by government censors.

Most of Burma's cinemas boost screenings with old Hollywood movies in
desperate attempts to keep the public's interest.

____________________________________

July 5, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar establishes first modern palm oil refinery plant

Myanmar has established its first modern palm oil refinery plant here to
help meet local edible oil demand, the local Weekly Eleven News reported
Wednesday.

The Yuzana Palm Oil Refinery Plant and Dry Fractionation Plant, set up
recently by the private-run Yuzana Edible Oil Group, will produce 200 tons
of edible oil daily and 40 percent of the current domestic market demand
will be met, the report quoted the Yuzana group as saying.

The plant will initially distribute about 2,000 tons of edible oil and its
products monthly and by 2010, it will go into full production and
distribution, the sources said.

According to official statistics, Myanmar needs over 300,000 tons of
edible oil annually but it produces only 200,000 tons and has to import
over 100,000 tons of the oil every year at a price of 500 US dollars per
ton.

Myanmar has been placing emphasis on growing edible oil crops in a bid to
meet domestic consumption, outlining three major items of crops --
groundnut, sesame and sunflower to be grown in the three divisions of
Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway.

In the 2004-05 fiscal year, Myanmar produced 249,000 tons of groundnut out
of 654,880 hectares grown, 197,000 tons of sesame out of 1.46 million
hectares and 94,000 tons of sunflower out of 511,100 hectares, the
statistics also show.

Other figures indicate that oil palm cultivated area in Myanmar now covers
over 52,650 hectares and there still remains tens of thousands of hectares
of vacant and fallow land suitable for reclamation for such crop
plantations.

Meanwhile, Myanmar will start a 14-million-dollar three-year oil crop
development project soon in the current fiscal year of 2006-07
(April-March) with a loan assistance provided by the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to boost oil crop production, earlier
reports said.

The project, which also involves the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), will help reduce Myanmar's reliance on imported oil products.

____________________________________

July 4, Xinhua General News Service
Indian business industry seeks to hold trade exhibition in Myanmar

Indian business industry circle is seeking to hold trade exhibition in
Myanmar by early next year in a bid to promote bilateral trade and
economic cooperation between the two countries, a local weekly reported
Tuesday.

The exhibition, planned for January 2007, is being initiated by the
Indo-Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), the Weekly Eleven
News quoted the Myanmar CCI as saying.

According to the Myanmar CCI, a delegation of the Indo-Myanmar CCI visited
Yangon recently and discussed the purpose with the representatives of the
Myanmar CCI.

Relations between Myanmar and India have been growing in the past few
years with cooperation in all sectors, particularly in those of trade and
economy, setting a target for their bilateral trade to attain 1 billion
U.S. dollars by 2006.

Myanmar stressed the need to open more border trade points, set up special
economic zones in border areas and to build more border roads leading to
major cities in order in order to boost trade with India.

According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade, including
the border trade, amounted to 557.68 million U.S. dollars in the fiscal
year 2005-06 which ended in March, up 24 percent from 2004-05. Of the
total, the border trade accounted for 14.68 million U.S. dollars.

India stands as Myanmar's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand,
China and Singapore and also Myanmar's second largest export market after
Thailand, absorbing 25 percent of its total exports.

Figures also show that India's investment in Myanmar had reached 35.08
million U.S. dollars as of January this year out of Myanmar's total
foreign investment of 7.785 billion U.S. dollars since late 1988.

____________________________________
DRUGS

July 5, Shan Herald News for Agency
Wa vows to uphold drug-free stance

A year after the United Wa State Army, dubbed by the United States as a
terrorist organization with connections to drug trafficking, declared its
territory drug free, its leaders have again pledged to keep its promise to
the world come what may, according to a translated version of a speech
given by Xiao Minliang, Vice President of the Wa government, on 26 June,
World Anti-Drugs Day.

“It has been a year since we made the supreme sacrifice,” said Xiao at a
ceremony in Panghsang marking the event, “and we are determined to uphold
it whatever the hardships.”

He asked for the international community to provide food and promote
education for the Wa people and encourage investments, open up markets and
reduce taxes on Wa products.

A total of 73.55 kg of drugs was put to the torch.

Bao Youxiang, the Wa president, who has been in poor health, was unable to
attend the meeting, said the translator.

The group has been under heavy financial pressure since 26 March, when
Beijing, at the request of Rangoon, closed down its borders to timber and
minerals coming through Panghsang. “The Burmese generals want Panghsang to
surrender or return to drugs,” said the source. “Either way, we’re
finished. The only way we can survive is through understanding and
assistance by the international community.”

According to Undercurrents, a publication by Lahu National Development
Organization (LNDO) that came out yesterday, poppy fields were in full
bloom south of Mongpawk, where the UN Wa development project is ongoing,
and north of Panghsang during the 2005-2006 season. “Poppies are also
growing in areas directly under SPDC (the ruling military council)
control, including in village tracts east of Kengtung,” reads the journal
which monitors development along the Burmese side of the Mekong.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 5, The Australian
Burma seeks nuclear weapons alliance with N Korea - Greg Sheridan

Burma’s military junta has attempted to buy nuclear weapons technology
from North Korea's rogue regime in an alliance that presents a frightening
new threat to regional security.

The US issued a heavy-handed warning to Burmese military dictator Than
Shwe to cease and desist all such activities after discovering Rangoon's
bid late last year.

The prospect of the two pariah states of Asia joining together has alarmed
Western intelligence agencies, with the US privately circulating a draft
resolution condemning Burma's actions for the UN Security Council.

The terms of the resolution would say that Burma constituted a ''threat to
peace and security''.

This would be a Chapter Six resolution, which does not imply that the
Security Council would authorise the use of force against Burma or move
directly to sanctions. But it would be the first time Burma has been
formally censured by the Security Council. It is understood that no
nuclear material has been transferred.

North Korea, which is believed to possess six or seven nuclear weapons,
has engaged in tense brinkmanship with the US, recently threatening to
launch a new generation of Taepodong missile.

If the North Koreans are able to miniaturise their nuclear weapons
sufficiently, they will eventually be able to place them on Taepodong
missiles, which are capable of reaching some targets in the US and
Australia.

Intelligence sources confirmed to The Australian that the Burmese military
had a booming relationship with the North Korean military. Burma and North
Korea do not have formal diplomatic relations. These were broken in 1983
when, in an act of state terrorism, the North Koreans detonated a bomb in
Rangoon which killed most of the visiting South Korean cabinet.

But Than Shwe and the equally eccentric and reclusive North Korean leader,
Kim Jong-il, have been engaged in intensive proxy diplomacy designed to
re-establish formal diplomatic relations between the two states.

Western intelligence agencies believe Burma gets surface-to-air missiles,
artillery and small arms from North Korea. The Burmese have also asked the
Koreans for Scud missile technology.

The highly secretive Burmese state maintains the biggest army in Southeast
Asia, with a regular military estimated at about half a million people and
a paramilitary force of some 100,000.

Diplomatic observers do not believe the US resolution at this stage would
pass at the Security Council because China would oppose and, if necessary,
veto it.

However, presenting it publicly would acutely embarrass Burma's defenders,
especially China.

The resolution makes no specific mention of Burma's nuclear ambitions.
Instead it focuses on Burma's human rights abuses, which lead to the
outflow of large numbers of refugees. Because of the poor state of Burma's
health services, many of these refugees are HIV-positive.

Burma also threatens international security through its drug-growing
activities. Australian authorities believe much of the heroin sold in
Australia is grown in Burma.

Apart from China, which has deep strategic interests in Burma, some Third
World members of the Security Council may also object to a resolution
based mainly on the internal human rights record of a member nation.

Burma has also made separate inquiries with Russia over the possibility of
developing a peaceful nuclear power industry. At different times the
Burmese have denied this. The Russians are believed to have been
unresponsive to the Burmese requests.

Their lack of embassies in each other's countries has not inhibited the
development of the military-to-military relationship.

This growing relationship is of a cute concern to Western intelligence.
Both Burma and North Korea have their chief external strategic
relationship with China.

China sees Burma as an important strategic asset. Much Chinese diplomacy
has centred on energy security and Burma offers China substantial oil and
gas reserves. Burma also offers China strategic reach into the Indian
Ocean through access to its naval ports.

It also provides China with enhanced intelligence capabilities through
intelligence establishments, especially on the Burmese border with India.
Burma's ruling military junta has become increasingly erratic and
unpredictable in recent years. Last year, it moved its entire capital from
Rangoon to Pyinmana in central Burma and built a new capital, virtually
from scratch.

This was apparently because it feared a US attack on Rangoon, but the
timing of the move, which was scheduled to within a minute, was reportedly
determined by astrological readings.

At the same time as cracking down on the opposition National League for
Democracy, headed by imprisoned Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the
Burmese regime has intensified a vicious war against the Karen and other
ethnic minorities.

The other nine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are
increasingly frustrated with Burma. Malaysia's Foreign Minister, Syed
Hamid, called last month for the UN to take responsibility for encouraging
the Rangoon junta towards greater openness and moderation. This call
represents a humiliation for ASEAN and a realisation that the strategy of
reforming Burma through ASEAN membership has failed.

Some ASEAN leaders have asked US President George W. Bush to take a hard
line on Burma to help break the paralysis on political movement within the
country. The Americans are considering convening a meeting of like-minded
nations to discuss Burma at ministerial level at this year's ASEAN
meetings, scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur later this month.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has committed to attend this
meeting. The Japanese and some members of ASEAN are likely to be invited.
Mr Downer is also likely to meet Burma's Foreign Minister in Kuala Lumpur.
Last November, the UN Security Council met privately for a briefing on
Burma from a member of the UN Secretariat, the first time the Security
Council had considered Burma, even informally.

The international mood is hardening against Burma and this could result in
renewed calls to expel it from ASEAN.

____________________________________

July 5, Xinhua General News Service
Singapore helps Myanmar develop human resources

A Myanmar student was awarded with Singapore scholarship here Wednesday
under a program of Singapore to help Myanmar develop human resources.

Miss Ei Kyaing Soe, 22, was the successful student out of 17 sitting for
examination for the scholarship offer conducted by the Singapore Embassy
and also the 14th Myanmar recipient of the Singapore scholarship for
member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
announced by the then Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong at the 6th
ASEAN Summit in Hanoi in December 1998.

Singapore Ambassador Robert Chua encouraged Ei Kyaing Soe at a farewell
party to try her utmost in studies in Singapore to prepare significant
contribution to the economic development of her home country of Myanmar
upon graduation.

Ei Kyaing Soe, a Mandalay native and a student from the Pyay Government
Technological College, is to pursue a 5-year undergraduate degree course
in Electrical Engineering at the Nanyang Technological University.

Chua said Singapore would provide more such opportunities to Myanmar
students seeking education in Singapore universities.

The Singapore Embassy told Xinhua that Singapore has trained more than
5,000 Myanmar government officials since the Singapore Cooperation Program
(SCP) was launched in 1992.

Myanmar is among the top recipient countries under the SCP and the
technical assistance has largely been rendered to the sectors of
agro-business, tourism, trade and export development, civil aviation, port
management, shipping and telecommunication, the embassy said.

To help Myanmar develop human resources, Singapore has set up a training
center in Yangon in 2002 as part of its program to assist the four
less-developed ASEAN members under a fund of 30-million-U. S.-dollar
Initiative for ASEAN Integration.

Economic cooperation between Myanmar and Singapore has been developing
rapidly since 1995 when such programs were initiated which cover the
sectors of tourism, agriculture, livestock and fisheries, maritime
transport and human resources development.

Singapore is the largest investor in Myanmar with over 1.5 billion U.S.
dollars having been injected into the country as of now since Myanmar
opened to foreign investment in late 1988, according to Myanmar official
statistics. The investment was mainly put into hotels and tourism at the
early stage and later expanded to oil and natural gas exploration.

The Myanmar figures also show that Singapore's bilateral trade with
Myanmar amounted to 750.6 million dollars in 2004-05. Of the total,
Singapore's exports to Myanmar was valued at 609 million dollars, while
its imports from Myanmar stood at 141.6 million dollars.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 5, The Irrawaddy
Google ban designed to safeguard revenue, says media watchdog - Clive Parker

Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday that Burma’s ban on Google was
designed to help the junta avoid losing money on its telephone and email
services as people move to free web-based communication.

The government in late June banned Google’s increasingly popular Google
Talk along with a similar program, Skype, as well as Gmail and a lesser
known free mail service, Sailormoon.com. At first, analysts speculated the
move was designed primarily to clamp down on unchecked communication
internally and abroad.

Paris-based media watchdog RSF says, though, the government is also trying
to eliminate the global competition to its own telephone and email
services: “The decision to ban Gtalk and Skype were taken partly for
financial reasons,” it said. “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services
were breaking into the profitable long-distance telephone call market, in
which the state has a monopoly.”

A Rangoon-based journalist who declined to be named said that the Minister
of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw—the official
which ultimately oversees Burma’s telephone and internet services—has
recently complained that the ministry’s revenues had dipped. It was not
available for comment on Wednesday.

Burmese have increasingly taken to Google’s free web-based communication
tools, particularly Google Talk, which allows users to call others on the
system anywhere in the world for the price of an internet connection. By
comparison, an International Direct Dial call on Burma’s
government-controlled telephone system is among the most expensive in the
world. A call to the US costs US $4.50 a minute, while neighboring China
is $2.25 a minute.

Burma has always attempted to ban free email services—85 percent of
web-based email are blocked in Burma, according to research last year by
the Open Net Initiative, a collaboration between Harvard University, the
University of Toronto and Cambridge University.

This allows the only two providers in the country—Myanmar Posts and
Telegraphs and Bagan Cybertech—to maintain a monopoly in the domestic
market. An email account with Bagan’s Mail4U costs 8,000 kyat ($6) a year
and requires users to submit detailed personal information. One of Burma’s
leading IT companies, Softcomm Technology, says there are now 400,000
email users in Burma—less than one percent of the population. If all used
free email instead of the official service, then Burma’s fledgling IT
sector would lose $2.4 million a year in what is a rapidly growing market.

RSF said that “the authorities, who already block access to Yahoo! and
Microsoft email services, want to force Burmese Internet-users to use
Mail4U,” which is provided by Bagan, “a state enterprise that filters and
controls email content.”

The organization commented that the ban on Google—which seemed to hit
Rangoon before it applied to the rest of the country—was sporadic.
Research by The Irrawaddy, however, suggests that it is comprehensive, but
some users were avoiding the restriction through proxy servers which
circumvent the blocks imposed by Burma’s internet service providers. Proxy
servers have been used by people with the necessary knowledge for some
time in Burma, but their use is understood to have become more widespread.

Meanwhile, Myanmar Teleport—the infrastructure arm of Burma’s internet
system, which is responsible for blocking content—denied on Wednesday
there was any problem using Google. “People can use Google Talk and Gmail,
it’s okay,” said an unnamed network manager who declined to elaborate
further.

This appears to contradict the experiences of internet users in Burma, as
well as Google itself, which said shortly after the ban that it was
“aware” of the problem. “We are currently looking into it,” spokesperson
Eileen Rodriguez said.

Burma’s internet system, which RSF said was fast-becoming a closed
“intranet,” is considered highly restricted. RSF lists Burma as one of
only 15 internet “blackholes,” along with North Korea, China, Cuba and
Iran. The Open Net Initiative last year described Burma as “one of the
world’s most restrictive regimes of internet control.”

____________________________________

July 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma junta sends more army officers to Russia for trainings

Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is
preparing to send more than 20 Air Force officers to Russia in the coming
days, for trainings and studies.

The plan is said to be the result of the SPDC vice-chairman General Maung
Aye’s recent visit to Russia.

The officers are sent to Russia with the intention of finding resources
and studying ways of maintaining fighter aircrafts, training aircrafts,
transport planes and helicopters used in the Air Force, according to
sources close to Burma’s Air Force.

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OPINION / OTHER

July 4, The Irrawaddy
Win Tin: Unbroken after 17 years’ imprisonment

The 76-year-old Burmese journalist and writer Win Tin completes on Tuesday
his 17th year of imprisonment, gaining for himself the doubtful
distinction of being among the longest serving political prisoners in
Burma and perhaps in all Southeast Asia.

Human rights organizations and press freedom groups have long been calling
for his release—but in vain, meeting only total silence from the regime.
He was jailed in 1989, convicted of "subversion" and "anti-government
propaganda." Currently, he languishes in Rangoon’s infamous Insein prison.

Win Tin has won international recognition for his pro-democracy
involvement, and in 2001 he was awarded the World Association of
Newspapers Golden Pen of Freedom and the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press
Freedom Prize.

Last July, there were hopes of his impending release when he was taken to
Insein prison gates along with a handful of political prisoners who were
released. Win Tin, however, was led back to his cell, to the dismay and
mystification of activists and human rights defenders, who accused the
regime of mental torture.

If it is, in fact, the generals’ intention to break this fine man they are
sorely misled.  In spite of ill health and the rigors of solitary
confinement, Win Tin remains strong and committed to the democracy
movement, say his friends who have visited him in prison. One close friend
and frequent visitor said Win Tin remains devoted to his political beliefs
and principles. When he heard last year that he was to remain a prisoner
he told his friend “I keep the flag flying even when there’s nothing
left.”

Despite Win Tin’s defiance and unbreakable resolve, and in view of the
regime’s callous intent to prolong his prison stay, the conditions of his
incarceration demand improvement.  A scholar, writer and journalist,
author of books, essays and articles, and formerly editor of a respected
newspaper, Hanthawaddy, Win Tin is now denied the one privilege—free
people would call it a right—to do what might relieve his plight: write.

Another capricious cruelty imposed by the regime is to deny Win Tin and
other political prisoners the access to medical care they enjoyed up until
the International Committee of the Red Cross stopped making prison visits
last December.

Outside the prison walls, the regime’s Secretary One, Lt-Gen Thein Sein,
urged the state-sponsored Myanmar Writers and Journalists Association in a
speech this week to be patriotic and to seek harmony in the development of
a literature to benefit all people.

He told writers and journalists to understand what he called the unfair
acts of big nations, saying they posed dangers to Burma’s spirit,
independence and sovereignty. Empty words, indeed.

The man much better qualified to address Burma’s writers on the subjects
of patriotism and harmony sits, gagged, in a prison cell. In the free
world, however, his silence is far, far more eloquent than anything
emanating from the mouths of such pathetic philistines as Thein Sein.