BurmaNet News, September 7, 2006

[Editor]

September 7, 2006 Issue # 3040


INSIDE BURMA
Los Angeles Times: From ruins to ruined
Irrawaddy: Junta attempts to control inflated healthcare costs

ON THE BORDER
Nation: Some 10,000 Burmese workers to be allowed to work in Thailand

HEALTH / AIDS
AFP: Myanmar in health crisis after decades of civil war: leading doctor

DRUGS
AFP: Rebels in India's northeast vow to execute drug traffickers

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: Rights group says EU going soft on China, Myanmar
Mizzima: Activists to stage boycott demonstration at ASEM6 summit
Irrawaddy: Freedom House ranks Burma among ‘worst’ regimes

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: Rare glimpse into Burma's 'heart of darkness' details a human
rights catastrophe - Jon Ungphakorn

PRESS RELEASE
Backpack Health Worker Team: New report confirms: Eastern Burma is now one
of the world’s worst health disasters
CSW: Burma’s Kachin Christians face discrimination, rape, forced labour
and human trafficking, reveals new CSW Report

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 7, Los Angeles Times

>From ruins to ruined - Richard C. Paddock


Myanmar's regime is obliterating a cultural treasure as it `rebuilds'
ancient temples to bring in tourists. Experts are aghast -- and uninvited.

The bricklayers are paid $1.35 a day to rebuild the ancient ruin: a small,
13th century temple reduced by time to little more than its foundation.
But they have no training in repairing aged monuments, and their work has
nothing to do with actually restoring one of the world's most important
Buddhist sites. Instead, using modern red bricks and mortar, they are
building a new temple on top of the old.
They work from a single page of drawings supplied by the government. Three
simple sketches provide the design for a generic brick structure and a
fanciful archway. No one knows, or seems to care, what the original temple
looked like. Nearby are two piles of 700-year-old bricks that were pulled
from the ruin. The bricklayers use them to fill holes in the temple.
Known as Monument No. 751, the structure is one of hundreds of new temples
that have popped up all over the ancient city of Bagan, which ranks with
Cambodia's Angkor temple complex as one of Asia's most remarkable
religious sites. Once the scene of an international rescue effort, Bagan
is now in danger of becoming a temple theme park.
The late Myanmar historian Than Tun called the restoration "blitzkrieg
archeology."
"They are carrying out reconstruction based on complete fantasy," said an
American archeologist who asked not to be identified for fear of being
banned from the country. "It completely obliterates any historical record
of what was there."
Myanmar, also known as Burma, is ruled by a military government that has
been cut off from the West for more than a decade because of its brutality
toward its people. Since 1988, the generals who run the country have
killed thousands of democracy activists and imprisoned thousands more.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been
detained for nearly 11 of the last 17 years.
The government has been almost as ruthless with its monuments.
Myanmar is advertised to tourists as the Land of Golden Pagodas. Bagan's
largest temples rival the cathedrals of Europe in size and age, but rather
than being scattered across a continent, they are concentrated in an area
about the size of Santa Monica.
By some estimates, there were as many as 13,000 temples here during
Bagan's peak in the 13th century. Today, the Bagan cultural heritage zone
has more than 2,200 temples, along with 2,000 unidentifiable mounds and
ruins.
Despite the new construction, Bagan remains awe-inspiring. Climb up on one
of the larger monuments and the temples seem to stretch across the dusty
plain as far as the eye can see. Some of the larger monuments soar as high
as 20 stories; many are decorated with tiers of stone spires and ornate
carvings. Some of the largest temples house giant statues of Buddha
covered in gold leaf, and some still have original frescoes depicting the
life of Buddha.
Scattered among the large monuments are temples as small as a one-room
hut, often with a statue of Buddha inside, and squat, circular pagodas
with a conical stupa on top and no entryway.
Many of the temples were damaged by a major earthquake in 1975. The
military government at the time accepted international assistance, and
experts from around the world spent years restoring some of the most
important temples. Major temples restored after the quake remain in good
condition.
But after a new clique of generals came to power in 1988, interest in
upholding international standards for historic preservation vanished. The
regime rejected offers of continued foreign assistance and eventually
dropped its plan to seek Bagan's designation as a World Heritage site,
leaving one of the world's premier archeological sites without
U.N.-protected status.
The government decided instead that turning Bagan, also known as Pagan,
into a tourist destination could bring much-needed foreign cash. The
generals set about making the archeological zone more appealing to
visitors, particularly tourists from neighboring countries such as China
and Thailand that are not so critical of the military government. Few
Western visitors come to Bagan because of calls by the opposition for a
tourist boycott.
One of the regime's first steps was to uproot all 3,000 residents who
lived within Old Bagan's historic walls and move them to New Bagan a few
miles south.
"We were very angry," said one man who was 15 when his family had to pick
up and move its small wooden house. "The older people were very sad. We
had been there many generations."
Where the homes used to be, the government began building hotels and
restaurants. Much of the work was done with forced labor, a form of
exploitation for which the regime is notorious.
As in every aspect of society here, decisions on historic preservation are
made by generals with no special expertise or training. Government
archeologists say privately they have no choice but to go along.
"If we disagree," one said, "they will send us to prison."
Untrained workers began covering old walls with plaster, obliterating the
original contour of the brick. Statues were removed and replaced with no
attempt to make accurate copies. The damage has been greatest to the
medium-sized temples, many of which were neglected after the earthquake
and then damaged by subsequent restoration work, said French architect
Pierre Pichard, one of the foremost experts on Bagan.
"The monuments have lost a great part of their authenticity and
individuality," said Pichard, who worked extensively at Bagan after the
1975 quake and wrote an eight-volume catalog of the monuments published by
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
"Their missing parts, especially their upper superstructures, have been
rebuilt without evidence of their former shape."
The regime also began a building program that is changing Bagan's skyline.
On the eastern edge of the cultural heritage zone, the government recently
built a 154-foot observation tower that resembles a grain silo and sits
alongside a new resort complex and golf course. For $10 -- two weeks'
salary for a teacher here -- visitors can take an elevator to the top,
have a drink and watch the sun set over the temples.
In Old Bagan, workers have built a massive archeological museum and have
nearly finished a huge palace designed in 19th century Mandalay style --
not 12th century Bagan style. Both grandiose structures seem out of place
on the plain of temples.
Pichard, contacted at his home in Bangkok, Thailand, said the regime's
building spree in Bagan was reminiscent of the monuments built by
Mussolini during his fascist rule in Italy.
"The more oppressive a regime the more prone to build this kind of huge,
useless and ridiculous structure," he said. "They are terribly offensive
to the landscape and were certainly not needed. To use so much money for
these useless buildings in a country where most people do not have schools
for their children, electric power, roads and other facilities is, I
think, a crime."
In Bagan, like the rest of Myanmar, the influence of the outside world is
minimal and the archeological zone seems stuck in the past. Women carry
goods in baskets on their heads, and oxen pull heavy loads, such as bamboo
for building houses. Cars are few, and many people get around by bicycle
or horse-drawn cart. The few decrepit buses are so overcrowded that many
passengers sit on the roof.
At many temples, residents volunteer to guide tourists, then plead with
them to buy trinkets. Souvenir markets have been set up inside some of the
biggest temples, where anxious vendors call out to customers, wave their
merchandise and sound their gongs, resulting in a round of clanging and
shouting every time a tour bus arrives.
For Myanmar's elite, Bagan has become a valuable source of good karma.
Many Buddhists believe that those who contribute to the construction of a
temple are rewarded with "merit" that improves their fate when they are
reincarnated. Generals and top government officials have been among the
largest donors.
At the Archeology Department office in Bagan, officials keep a list of
hundreds of temple ruins ready for rebuilding, and a price list showing
how much donors would have to give for each one. The amounts range from
$700 for a small pagoda to $275,000 for a large temple. Most are between
$2,000 and $30,000.
The department is eager to accept donations and welcomed a recent visitor
who inquired about the program. Staff members provided a tour of two
temple ruins. One was available for $800, the other for $2,400. All that
remained of the original structures were walls 1 to 2 feet high.
Plans were already drawn up for replacements. The original walls would be
demolished, the old bricks discarded and new materials used. The larger
ruin would be turned into a 30-foot-high temple, the smaller a simple
pagoda. The new temples would cover the footprints of the old.
Government archeologists acknowledge that no one knows what the original
structures looked like and say their designs are a calculated guess based
on other buildings that survived. Even so, the design for a new temple can
be changed at a donor's request.
The ancient bricks and mortar were more durable than those used now. Even
today, the old bricks are stronger than the new ones. Bang one of each
kind together and it's the new one that breaks. But officials said it
would be too costly to copy the old materials.
The original bricks were made with clay and rice husks and, according to
legend, kneaded by elephants. The mortar was made of molasses, buffalo
leather, cotton and fermented peanut oil, archeologists say. The old
mortar was put on as thin as superglue; the modern cement is laid on
thick.
To make the new temples look more like ruins, the bricks are coated with
brown paint made from ground-up ancient bricks. The idea is to have them
look like old structures that have lost their stucco. It doesn't take
long, however, for the paint to wash off.
"The new brickwork, therefore, clashes with the aged appearance of the
surviving temples, the new monuments appearing like plucked, pink chickens
amidst the ancient shrines," American archeologist Donald Stadtner writes
in his new book, "Ancient Pagan, Buddhist Plain of Merit."
In addition to their reward in the next life, donors get a plaque outside
their newly built temples. Existing signs bear the names of generals and
ministers as well as donors from such places as Japan, South Korea, China,
Thailand and Switzerland.
Pichard and other Western experts say the rebuilding program has caused
irreparable harm to Bagan. Stadtner says the damage caused by the 1975
quake was "benign" compared with the reconstruction of the last 15 years.
"Up to 1990, Pagan was one of the best preserved sites and cultural
landscapes in Asia, with a perfect blend of the rural life where peasants,
villages and well-cultivated fields surrounded the monuments without any
harm," Pichard said.
"Now all actions result in disfiguring the site and endangering the
ancient buildings. Sorry for the cliche, but Pagan is becoming a
Disneyland, and a very bad one."

____________________________________

September 7, Irrawaddy
Junta attempts to control inflated healthcare costs - Yeni

Burmese authorities have put pressure on several private hospitals,
clinics and pharmacies in an effort to control rising costs of services
and treatments.

Business sources in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that numerous
healthcare providers met Aung Than Win, secretary of the Rangoon Commodity
Price Control Committee, last week and were ordered to initiate a price
freeze.

According to the Rangoon-based journal Voice, Aung Than Win alleged that
more than 800 healthcare facilities in Rangoon have engaged in illegal
practices and have failed to pay required taxes.

The government intervention, according to Rangoon sources, follows a
recent hike in the price of medicine—the result of government attempts to
crack down on illegal imports of pharmaceuticals from Thailand and China.

“Unavoidably, the supply of medicine in the market has declined, so prices
have increased,” a Rangoon-based businessperson said.

Burmese authorities, meanwhile, have recently created three official
bodies to control all commodity prices—commodity price control committees
in Naypyidaw, Rangoon and Mandalay, tasked with bringing down skyrocketing
prices of other consumer goods such as rice and edible oil.

Last month, several traders at Byintnaung Complex, Rangoon’s largest
commodity wholesale market, as well as the U Nyein, a member of the
Myanmar [Burma] Rice Traders Association, were reportedly arrested and are
being held at an undisclosed location.

The journal Voice, quoting the chairman of the Myanmar Edible Oil Traders
and Oil Entrepreneurs Association, reported that four members had been
dismissed from the association, and 13 other businesspeople were given
bans on trading from one to three months for “breaking regulations set by
the CPCC.”

Recent announcements in the state-run press have claimed that increases in
commodity prices have only been temporary and that a forthcoming bumper
harvest will ensure food sufficiency for the whole country. “In Myanmar,
rice production has not decreased. Rice is not in short supply either,”
Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said in a press conference in
August.

“Internal and external destructive pessimists are making false accusations
and instigation to the effect that Myanmar is subject to poverty and
commodity prices are skyrocketing,” Kyaw Hsan added.

According to a Rangoon-based editor, privately owned publications, subject
to severe censorship, have nonetheless been allowed to report on
commodities price hikes, but “only to blame traders for bullying the
prices and taking advantage” of buyers.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 7, The Nation
Some 10,000 Burmese workers to be allowed to work in Thailand

Some 10,000 Burmese workers will be registered to fill positions that Thai
workers are not willing to do starting on 1 October, caretaker Labour
Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said Wednesday [6 September].

The first 1,000 workers will enter Thailand after the designated date, and
the remaining workers will gradually trickle in the following months. Most
of them will work on fishing trawlers and at seafood processing factories,
where Thai workers tend not to want to work.

Thai employers in need of Burmese labour can register as of 1 September to
secure quotas from the Department of Employment. Registration is free but
those who want to speed up the process can pay 3,800 baht in advance for
the workers' passports and mandatory medical check-ups.

Details obtained after a previous registration found that 177,226 Thai
em-ployers wanted to hire 1,087,834 migrant workers. At the same time,
13,487 mi-grant workers entering Thailand illegally were arrested and
7,354 of them are now being prosecuted.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

September 7, Agence France Presse
Myanmar in health crisis after decades of civil war: leading doctor


Bangkok: Forced relocations and sickness brought on by decades of civil
war between government forces and ethnic rebels have thrown eastern
Myanmar into a health crisis, a prominent doctor said Thursday.

In a four-year survey of 2,000 people, Cynthia Maung, an ethnic Karen
doctor and pro-democracy activist, found high rates of pregnancy-related
deaths -- one in 12 women dies at childbirth -- and malnutrition.

The region's infant mortality rate is 91 deaths for every 1,000, compared
to 76 in the rest of Myanmar. One in five children die before their fifth
birthday, the survey, conducted by Maung's group Back Pack Health Worker
Team, found.

"For almost 50 years, Burma has been under the rule of a military
dictator-ship and has been suffering from civil war," said Maung, using
the former name for Myanmar.

"People are always under threat of being forced into jungles or displaced
to neighboring countries," Maung, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in
2005, told a news conference during a rare appearance in Bangkok.

Myanmar's government frequently forces villagers in the country's east to
abandon their homes in a bid to deny guerillas food, funding, new recruits
or information, Maung said.

Others flee government attacks, and rights groups estimate about 540,000
peo-ple are displaced in eastern Myanmar, including not only the Karen but
other ethnic minorities targeted by the junta.
About 140,000 others live in refugee camps on the Thai side of the border,
while hundreds of thousands more enter Thailand illegally to seek work.

Maung, 46, who fled Myanmar because of her involvement in a 1988
pro-democracy uprising, has treated hundreds of thousands of mostly
migrant workers and ethnic minority people at a clinic she opened in Mae
Sot on the Thai-Myanmar border.

Jon Ungphakorn, a prominent Thai senator and vocal critic of Myanmar's
mili-tary junta, called on the international community to pressure the
junta to end its repressive policies.
"With abysmal statistics like these, it is no wonder the regime tries so
hard to hide them from the world," the senator said in the report.

"The Burmese military junta is the source of the problem, not only through
its abuses and neglect for the welfare of people, but also through
increasing restrictions on humanitarian aid efforts, particularly to
ethnic minorities liv-ing in rural Burma," he said.

The World Health Organization has ranked Myanmar's healthcare system as
the world's second worst after Sierra Leone.

The country also has one of the world's highest rates of tuberculosis,
with 97,000 new cases detected each year, while malaria is the nation's
leading cause of illness and death.

____________________________________
DRUGS
September 7, Agence France Presse
Rebels in India's northeast vow to execute drug traffickers

Guwahati: Separatist rebels in India's northeast vowed Thursday to execute
drug traffickers in the region which is home to rampant heroin use and
fast-spreading AIDS.
"Drug traffickers will face capital punishment without any trial," three
rebel groups in the remote state of Manipur said in a statement.
India’s northeast borders the heroin-producing "Golden Triangle" of
Thailand, Laos and Myanmar and has a major problem with intravenous drug
use, which is the most common cause of AIDS in the region.
"Drug abuse has not only compounded the problem of HIV/AIDS but also taken
a heavy toll on the mental and physical health of youths," the groups
said.
Officials say the state of 2.4 million people has up to 100,000
intravenous drug users -- a majority of whom are believed to be
HIV-positive.
The three groups -- the United National Liberation Front, the Kanglei
Yawol Kanna Lup and the Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak -- are
fighting for an independent homeland for Manipur's majority Metei
community.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence in
Manipur in the past two decades.
A number of rebel groups in the revolt-racked northeast of India have
begun trying to stamp out illegal drug use and fight other social
problems, a move seen by local commentators as a bid to win public
support.
During the past three years, militants have killed at least a dozen drug
traffickers in Manipur, officials have said. Others have been shot in the
leg.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 7, Reuters
Rights group says EU going soft on China, Myanmar

Brussels: A leading human rights group accused the European Union of
treating China and Myanmar's rights situations as an "afterthought" for
its summits with Asian countries at the weekend.

"It's ridiculous that the EU is not going to put human rights right up on
the agenda; it's a complete sell-out," Brad Adams, Asia director of Human
Rights Watch, told Reuters.

"On China we are extremely disappointed that they can treat human rights
as an afterthought when it should be central to their relationship. It's
really inexplicable given that the situation in China is deteriorating
rapidly."

Adams also accused the EU of backing away from a visa ban on top officials
from Myanmar by inviting the military-ruled country to attend the Sept.
10-11 summit in Helsinki with Asian states, which follows Saturday's EU
summit with China.

"Again the EU is taking the soft option; the Burmese have done nothing to
encourage a concession, in fact quite the contrary.

"The EU is trying to act like there isn't really a problem," Adams said,
adding that this was ironic when pressure on Myanmar was growing in the
Association of South East Asian Nations, of which the country is a member.

Adams referred to remarks by Finnish ambassador to China Antti Kuosmanen,
who was quoted on Sunday by AFP news agency as saying he did not expect
rights to be "a dominating point" in Saturday's China summit.

"You have the arrest and detention of critics and really a climate of fear
in Beijing for activists, lawyers, journalists," he said. "This is exactly
the time they should be telling the Chinese leadership it's impossible to
have business as usual."

Adams said items low on summit agendas sometimes failed to get mentioned,
but officials from Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said
this would not be the case.

"It is going to be brought up at the meeting," said Sanna Kangasharju,
spokeswoman for Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.

Vanhanen was asked at a news conference in Helsinki if rights in China
would be discussed, and replied: "There is a working dinner at the meeting
for which issues like these fit."

On Wednesday, Finland condemned the "appalling" state of human rights in
Myanmar but defended the invitation, saying it was a chance to press
Yangon to change.

The military has controlled Myanmar, formerly called Burma, in various
guises since 1962 and ignored a 1990 landslide election victory by Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

She has been in prison or under house arrest since May 2003, and many of
her supporters have been jailed.

_____________________________________

September 6, Mizzima News
Activists to stage boycott demonstration at ASEM6 summit - Nem Davies

Burmese democracy activists in Finland are set to stage a massive
demonstration against the participation of representative of the Burmese
junta at the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM6) on Sunday.

Members of the Finland branch of the Amnesty International and Burmese
activists are geared up to stage a boycott demonstration to be held in
front of the Helsinki Fair Centre, where the ASEM will be held. They will
urge European and Asian countries to press the Burmese junta to implement
democratic reforms.

Thar Swe, joint coordinator of the Finland based Campaign for Democracy in
Burma, told Mizzima, "We will urge inclusion of a discussion on democratic
reforms in Burma at the ensuing ASEM summit."

"We will also urge international communities and organizations for a
non-cooperative action against the Burmese junta," he added.

Burma, which participated in the ASEM meetings in 2004 in Laos, is
reported to be sending its foreign Minister Nyan Win to the eight-day
meeting to begin next Monday. The meeting will be attended by 39 Asian and
European countries.

Finland's decision to invite the Burmese delegates to the meeting has
attracted criticism from campaigners and activists saying the decision
breaches the European Union's imposition of visa ban to the Burmese
military generals.

However, a Finnish Foreign Ministry official told Mizzima the decision to
invite Burma is in keeping with the EU's sanctioned policy which allows an
exemption on the ban in case of those attending intergovernmental
meetings.

"But we, the Finland based Finnish Burma Committee and CDB sent a joint
letter of objection to the Finnish Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister
for providing
visa to the junta," said Swe.

In 2005, the Netherlands refused to grant visa to the Burmese economic
minister, Soe Thar, to attend an ASEM meeting.

_____________________________________

September 7, Irrawaddy
Freedom House ranks Burma among ‘worst’ regimes

An international non-profit organization, Freedom House, has rated Burma
one of the world’s most repressive countries. In a report by the group
released on Wednesday, titled “The Worst of the Worst: The World’s Most
Repressive Societies,” Burma is listed along with Cuba, Libya, North
Korea, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The 17 countries and 3
territories profiled in the report are drawn from a list of 45 countries
and 8 territories that are considered to be “not free” and where citizens
endure systematic and pervasive human rights violations. Freedom House
described Burma as a country that lacks political rights and civil
liberties, and which allows violations against political activists,
journalists, social workers and members of ethnic and religious minority
groups. “The Freedom in the World ratings are not only the assessments of
the conduct of governments, but are intended to reflect the reality of
daily life,” the report said. Freedom House, which is partially funded by
the US State Department, expressed the hope that the report will be useful
to the work of the new UN Human Rights Council.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 7, The Nation
Rare glimpse into Burma's 'heart of darkness' details a human rights
catastrophe - Jon Ungphakorn

When I was a child, Burma was considered to be the rice basket of Asia,
richly endowed with natural resources. With advanced health and education
systems, Burma seemed headed for a bright and prosperous future.

The opposite has instead unfolded - a spiralling transition into a society
of extreme repression, poverty and serious health problems. Today, Burma
is known more for its brutal military dictators and the severe human
rights violations they have committed. Under their misrule, Burma has
deteriorated into a UN Least Developed Nation, with a health system ranked
second worst in the world, and is notorious for its corruption, money
laundering, drug and human trafficking, forced labour, child soldiers and
mass rape of women by the military.

Censorship is draconian and reliable statistics remain elusive, part of an
effort to hide the facts behind a facade of normalcy. In particular, there
is an absence of information about populations living in the conflict
areas or "black zones" of Burma, who have faced decades of civil conflict.
A newly released report entitled "Chronic Emergency - Health and Human
Rights in Eastern Burma", provides us with an appalling glimpse into this
heart of darkness. In this report by the Backpack Health Worker Team
(BPHWT), the extent of the public health catastrophe in these areas, after
five decades of civil war, money being taken out of social services, and
widespread human rights abuses, is revealed for the first time. Infant,
child and maternal mortality rates are much higher than Burma's official
statistics, already amongst the worst in Asean. Death and disability from
malaria, landmine injuries, and malnutrition are widespread. Forced
relocation doubles the chance of childhood death and increases the risk of
a landmine injury by almost five times. An inadequate supply of food not
only increases the risk of malnutrition but also increases the chances of
landmine injuries and malaria, as people are forced to forage in the
jungles.

The Burmese military junta is the source of the problem, not only through
its abuses and neglect for the welfare of the people, but also through
increasing restrictions on humanitarian aid efforts, particularly to
ethnic minorities. The Burmese regime has set increasingly restrictive
conditions, leading several international organisations to withdraw from
Burma or severely curtail programmes, including the Global Fund for
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the International Committee of the
Red Cross, and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) - France. Dr Herve Isambert
of MSF-France, one of the few groups that had been working in Karen and
Mon States, said in March: "The [Burmese] authorities don't want anyone to
witness how they organise the forced displacement of the population, the
burning of villages and forced recruitment."

Many of the burdens arising from tyrannical rule in Burma are no longer
borne by the people of Burma alone. Almost a million Burmese refugees have
officially fled to neighbouring countries, perhaps another million live
internally displaced in Burma, and probably over a million exist as
undocumented migrants in Thailand alone. Malaria, much of it
drug-resistant, is rife on Thailand's borders with Burma. Tuberculosis
remains the most common disease diagnosed in Burmese migrants living in
Thailand, and some diseases already eradicated or controlled in Thailand
such as lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) are returning. Narcotics
continue to flow from Burma, bringing with them the spread of HIV and a
rash of social, economic and other health woes. Increasingly, hospitals in
Thailand, their budgets already strained by the government's under-funded
universal health programme, also have to devote increasing resources to
provide care for migrant workers.

Polite diplomacy and unconditional engagement with the SPDC have not
worked. In fact, trade and investment have provided them with the means to
perpetuate their repressive rule. This year, in some of the areas covered
in this survey, the regime actually intensified attacks on ethnic Karen
civilians, displacing perhaps 18,000 more, creating a new humanitarian
catastrophe. Thousands have already crossed into Thailand or are camped
just on the border.

Groups such as the BPHWT, working in dangerous areas inaccessible to
international humanitarian relief, should be fully supported by Burma's
neighbours and international agencies in their impressive efforts to
develop appropriate health services in such dangerous conditions. I admire
this team of brave men and women for their dedication to the welfare of
the communities whom they serve. They live and work under the same threat
of violence as the people they serve - since the inception of the Backpack
Medic Programme, seven medics and one midwife have been killed by
landmines or SPDC soldiers.

Pressure must be brought to bear on the junta, whose policies continue to
exacerbate these public health problems. This is why activists,
legislators and many governments already support a binding UN Security
Council resolution to ensure that the Burmese regime fulfils its own
promises of economic and political reforms.

As Thais, we are well qualified to work with the international community
on a common agenda that puts the interests of the Burmese peoples and of
long-term social stability in the region above narrow commercial
interests. We must also support those groups such as the BPHWT who are
working along the border, as their vital work also serves our long-term
national interests. Indeed, we can ill afford not to.

Jon Ungphakorn, whose term as a senator ends with the next sitting of the
Senate, is a Member of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus
(AIPMC) and a respected advocate on issues related to health and human
rights.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

September 7, Backpack Health Worker Team
New report confirms: Eastern Burma is now one of the world’s worst health
disasters

A report released today in Bangkok at the Foreign Correspondents Club of
Thailand warns that people displaced by conflict in Burma face a public
health catastrophe.

The report entitled “Chronic Emergency,” released by the Backpack Health
Worker Team (BPHWT), is the result of systematic surveys in communities of
internally displaced persons living in the eastern conflict zones of Burma
and provides the first glimpse of their health status.

The report shows that decades of civil war have decimated the health of
these populations, with standard health indicators ranking this area
amongst the worst in the world. The report also demonstrates that human
rights abuses such as forced relocation, violence, forced labor, and the
destruction of food and crops are common and serve as major drivers of the
health crisis.

Launching the report, Thai Senator Jon Ungphakorn, a member of the ASEAN
Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, blamed the Burmese regime for the
ongoing health crisis in eastern Burma.

“With abysmal statistics like these, it is no wonder the regime tries so
hard to hide them from the world.  The Burmese military junta is the
source of the problem, not only through its abuses and neglect of the
welfare of the people, but also through increasing restrictions on
humanitarian aid efforts, particularly to ethnic minorities living in
rural Burma.”

The BPHWT are a multi-ethnic group of mobile medical teams serving
displaced people in Eastern Burma. Dr Cynthia Maung, a founding member of
the BPHWT, recipient of the Magsaysay Award and a Nobel Peace Prize
nominee in 2005, says eastern Burma is a humanitarian disaster zone.

“One out of twelve women may lose their life giving birth. Displaced
people are 2.4 times more likely to have a child die than people not
displaced. Their children, if they do survive, are more likely to be
malnourished. Most of these deaths and illnesses are preventable.”

According to statistics from international agencies such as UNICEF,
Burma’s national figures for infant and child mortality already rank
amongst the worst in Southeast Asia.  Adds Dr. Maung, “In eastern Burma it
is even worse, infant and child mortality is twice as high. In displaced
areas, one-in-five children will die before their fifth birthday and over
15 percent of children suffer from malnutrition.”

Despite the scale of the crisis, the junta has instead exacerbated the
situation, launching the biggest offensive in eastern Burma for a decade
in February of this year, displacing an additional 18,000 people.

The BPHWT report concludes that without addressing the factors which drive
this health crisis, such as the human rights abuses and inability to
access healthcare services, there can be no sustainable solution to this
chronic emergency.

For interviews please contact:
Dr. Cynthia Maung   ( phone.   09-9615054 )
Note: ( 18:00 to 21:00 hrs Bangkok Local Time)
Or, Mahn Mahn        ( phone.   07-9438750 )

_____________________________________

September 7, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Burma’s Kachin Christians face discrimination, rape, forced labour and
human trafficking, reveals new CSW Report

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) returned this week from a
fact-finding visit to Kachin State in northern Burma with fresh evidence
of violations of religious freedom and human rights against the largely
Christian ethnic group.

In its report, released today, CSW highlights restrictions on the
construction, extension or renovation of churches, and widespread
discrimination against Kachin Christians in Government positions.

One Kachin pastor told CSW that Burma’s ruling junta, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), “hates Kachins because we are Christians.” In
October 2005, the SPDC’s Northern Commander, Brigadier-General Ohn Myint,
reportedly said in a speech that he did not want to see any crosses or
other Christian symbols on roadsides in Kachin State.

Rape, forced labour, land confiscation and forced relocation continue to
be “widespread and regular”. According to one Kachin, “rape happens in
every area where there is an SPDC army camp.” In January this year, for
example, a Kachin woman was raped at gun-point by a soldier of SPDC Light
Infantry Battalion 37. The trafficking of Kachin women from Burma into
China, often to be sold as “wives” or sex slaves, is also widespread and
alarming, with more than 50 cases reported so far this year. Since March,
12 Kachin women have been rescued, four from the China-North Korea border.

In an interview with CSW, a former Burma Army Major who has defected
confirmed the widespread use of rape by the SPDC, and the use of child
soldiers. He said that SPDC soldiers are given a quota of new soldiers to
recruit each month, to help the army expand. Soldiers go to railway
stations, bus stations and other public locations and simply grab whoever
they can find. “Sometimes the children are so young that they still pee in
the night,” he said. “That gives you an idea of the age of the youngest
child soldiers.” They also take elderly men who are not really fit to
serve as soldiers. “Many of the recruits are too young or too old to be in
the army,” the defector said.

Reports continue to emerge of gross human rights violations in other parts
of Burma as well. Last week, the Free Burma Rangers reported the killing
of 22 civilians in Nyaunglebin district, Karen State, between March and
July this year, and a continuing military offensive in Papun district. The
Free Burma Rangers also reported on violations in Shan State, including
the rape of a nine-year old girl in October 2004.

CSW’s Advocacy Director Tina Lambert said: “This has been a
ground-breaking visit but we know we have barely scratched the surface.
Burma’s junta is one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, and
we intend to continue to do all we can to help the people of Burma,
including the Kachins, tell the world of their plight. It is essential
that the international community recognise the desperate situation in
Burma, and take action by bringing the issue to the agenda of the United
Nations Security Council.”

For more information and a copy of CSW’s full report on the Kachin, please
contact Penny Hollings, Campaigns and Media Manager at Christian
Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329 0045, email pennyhollings at csw.org.uk  or
visit www.csw.org.uk.

CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom,
works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and
promotes religious liberty for all.