BurmaNet News, October 6, 2006

[Editor]

October 6, 2006 Issue # 3061


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: ‘White Campaign’ for release of leaders by 88 generation
Mizzima News: KNO condemns Kachin group for attending convention
IMNA: Junta putting in place clauses of incomplete constitution
Irrawaddy: Mandalay flood victims ordered to return home
Irrawaddy: Veteran KNU leader dies

BUSINESS / TRADE
Reuters: Myanmar to begin new round of gas sale talks – source

REGIONAL
Narinjara: UNESCAP's trans-Asian railway network connects
Burma-Bangladesh-India among 32 Asian countries

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: EU calls for release of detained activists

OPINION / OTHER
The Australian: Burma wants help to keep terrorists at bay
Asia Times: Myanmar's losing military strategy

PRESS RELEASE
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on
detentions in Burma/Myanmar

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 6, Mizzima News
‘White Campaign’ for release of leaders by 88 generation

Students of the 88 generation are going on an overdrive with their
campaign for the release of five leaders arrested recently, along with Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, Hkun Tun Oo and other political prisoners.


>From October 10, the campaigners will start, what is being called, a 9-day

long "White Campaign", wearing white shirts to collect signatures from
people across the country.

The 'White Campaign' will come to an end on Min Ko Naing's 44th birthday,
October 18.

"It is the symbol of our purity. The junta has accused 88 generation
students of being terrorists, and has linked us with armed groups. We want
to show them that we are not so and we are doing, what we are doing,
honestly for the sake of national reconciliation," Marke, an activist from
Rangoon told Mizzima.

"We will urge people to wear white shirts on all these days," he added.

Activists also plan to hold a birthday party at Min Ko Naing's parent's
home but are still discussing about it with the parents of Burma's most
prominent student leaders.

Former political prisons, Min Ko Naing, Min Zeya, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe and
Pyone Cho were arrested by the military junta, which announced after a
week that the men in detention were involved in terrorism and were
instigating people to cause 'internal commotion'.

Marke is enthusiastic and explains the increase in the number of
signatures collected and the active participation of The National League
for Democracy.

"Actually, we are not systemic or organised as the NLD. The members of the
NLD helped us a lot and I thank them," Marke added.

He said today alone, 12,000 signatures were collected from Mandalay,
Amapura and Pakokku towns in central Burma.

Today is the Thadingyut holiday in Burma.

The 88 generation students have been collecting signatures in a
clandestine manner except at the NLD headquarters where they have opened a
centre.

Though rumours of a possible crack down on campaigners have been spreading
since yesterday, Marke said the situation is normal.

____________________________________

October 6, Mizzima News
KNO condemns Kachin group for attending convention - Mungpi

The Kachin National Organization, a Kachin political group in exile, today
censured Kachin groups attending the Burmese military junta's National
Convention, which is to re-convene on Tuesday.

Denouncing the convention, the KNO in a withering statement said the
ceasefire Kachin groups attending do not represent the will of the Kachin
people.

Organizing a protest rally today in New Delhi, the KNO in a scathing
attack said, just as the junta's sham convention does not reflect the
people's desire, ceasefire groups including the Kachin Independent
Organization do not represent the political aspirations of the Kachin
people.

Z. Dilla, information and organizer of the KNO told Mizzima, "We [the
Kachin] cannot accept the convention and the KIO does not represent us.
Knowing that the junta's convention will not bring any good, the KIO
should not attend it."

"The KIO and other Kachin ceasefire groups, aware of the junta's plan,
should not attend the convention if they really represent the Kachin
peoples' wishes," Dilla added.

The KIO, an armed rebel group waging a war of independence against Burma's
successive governments for more than 45 years, could not be immediately
reached for comment.

Reports suggest that ethnic Kachin armed groups – Kachin Independence
Organization, Kachin Defence Army (KDA), and New Democratic Army-Kachin
(NDA-K) - have arrived at the junta's convention venue in Nyaung Hnapin,
about 30 miles north of Rangoon.

The three groups, which had ceasefire agreements with the military junta,
are among the over 1,000 handpicked delegates who are to attend the
convention, which many critics, including the Kachin political
organizations, view as a sham.

The Kachin people cannot accept the junta's convention which is designed
to legitimize military-rule in Burma and its delegates are handpicked to
rubberstamp the junta's plan, said Dilla.

"We are demanding federalism and to achieve federalism it should begin
with a tripartite dialogue, which the United Nations has suggested," Dilla
added.

____________________________________

October 6, Independent Mon News Agency
Junta putting in place clauses of incomplete constitution

The Burmese military junta is going about putting in place clauses of its
draft constitution by planning to upgrade its rural administration by
paying salaries to Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) members.

All this time VPDC members were unpaid and served as volunteers.

According to sources close to the Three Pagoda Pass Peace and Development
Council, the military plans to pay VPDC chairman, Kyat 30,000 per month,
VPDC secretary Kyat 20,000 and Kyat 10,000 to VPDC clerks.

Sources claimed, the military government proposes to put an army officer
in the post of VPDC secretary or VPDC clerk.

“With the military government going ahead with its National Convention and
drafting of the constitution, the local administration is being toned up.
According to the constitution, the local administration will constitute 25
percent of the seats. That’s why they are putting their men in local
administration,” said U Htay Aung, Network for Democracy and Development
(NDD) researcher.

According to Lt.Gen Thein Sein’s report, the military government has
completed 75 percent of the new constitution, said U Htay Aung.

“The manner in which the military junta is going about the whole thing is
opposed to the democratic method. In a democratic system, people elect
their representatives to administrative bodies, but the military
government is placing its hand picked men in these bodies,” he added.

Presently the government is upgrading Karen State and it will be targeting
Mon State soon, a government officer in Mon State told IMNA. The Shan
Peace and Development Council is also implementing the up gradation
programme.

However, some people have bribed local authorities to get the VPDC
chairman’s post because as VPDC chairman one can make a lot of money from
villagers by resorting to corruption.

____________________________________

October 6, Irrawaddy
Mandalay flood victims ordered to return home - Shah Paung

Burmese authorities have reportedly ordered victims of the Mandalay floods
to return to their homes although much of the city is still under water.

“The water is still up to 3 ft deep, but the authorities have ordered
people to return to their homes,” said Shwe Maung, who had to abandon his
home because of the rising waters. Some residents are moving back into the
upper stories of their houses.

Another flood victim said rice had been provided by the charity World
Vision and some traders and had been distributed by the authorities. Flood
relief donations were being collected.

Shwe Maung said appeals had gone out to relief organizations such as the
International Committee of the Red Cross, but nothing had yet been heard
from them. The ICRC was not available for comment because Friday is a
public holiday in Burma.

An estimated 20 people have died in the floods in and around Mandalay, and
more than 3,000 people were forced to flee their homes. It continued to
rain on Thursday in Mandalay, where 3.9 inches fell in 24 hours. Flooding
has also occurred in Rangoon and other regions of the country. In Sagaing
Division 2.68 inches of rain were registered, and in Thayawaddy township
in Pegu Division, the rainfall was 2.87 inches.

____________________________________

October 6, Irrawaddy
Veteran KNU leader dies

A veteran leader of the Karen National Union, Pu Tah Eh—also known as
Maj-Gen Tin Oo—died on Thursday at his home on the Burmese-Thai border, at
the age of 83.

Born in 1923 in Palaing Chaung village, Nyaungdon Township, Irrawaddy
Division, Pu Tah Eh was active in Burma’s independence struggle, and
joined the KNU and the Karen National Defense Organization in 1948. One
year later, he became a captain in the KNU-controlled area of Irrawaddy
Division, and was later promoted to company commander because of his
exemplary military service. He was vice chief-of-staff at KNU headquarters
from 1964-1972.

In 1980 he took command of the KNU’s Sixth Brigade in the Du Playa
Province, a position he held until 2000. He retired at the KNU’s 13th
congress in 2004 but retained the position of adviser. KNU General
Secretary Mahn Sha paid tribute to his military and political
contributions and said: “We are losing a good leader.” The funeral was
being held on Friday.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 6, Reuters
Myanmar to begin new round of gas sale talks - source

New Delhi: Myanmar will start fresh talks for the sale of gas to buyers in
India, Thailand, South Korea and China as prices offered last month were
not attractive, a source from state-run GAIL (India) Ltd. said on Friday.

Myanmar informed state-run companies from the four countries last week
that it would not accept the prices offered for gas from its A-1 and A-3
blocks, a senior GAIL official told Reuters.

The official said Myanmar was expected to begin new negotiations in a
week's time.

"They have informed us the tender could not be concluded as the price was
not on expected lines. They want to settle the price through separate
negotiations with each country to get a higher price," he said.

South Korea's Daewoo International Corp. operates and owns 60 percent of
the two blocks. Other partners are India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. with
20 percent, and marketing firm GAIL and Korea Gas Corp. with 10 percent
each.

In August, Daewoo had said three offshore fields it was developing in the
A-1 and A-3 blocks contained up to 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas.

India needed increased gas supply from Myanmar not only to meet its
growing energy needs, but also for the success of a proposed 1400 km
Myanmar-to-India gas pipeline, the GAIL official said.

"A pipeline to supply just our share of gas from A-1 and A-3 blocks is not
commercially viable. We need more gas from Myanmar to justify the
economics of the pipeline," he said.

While India, China, and Thailand would prefer to transport gas from
Myanmar through a pipeline, South Korea plans to ship it as liquefied
natural gas.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 6, Narinjara News
UNESCAP's trans-Asian railway network connects Burma-Bangladesh-India
among 32 Asian countries - Iftekhar Ahmed

The UN Economic and Social Commission for the Asia and the Pacific
(UNESCAP) proposed to sponsor trans-Asian railway network of about 81,000
kilometers to connect 32 Asia-Pacific countries including Bangladesh,
Burma and India.

The aim of the railway link is to facilitate growing trade, commerce and
tourism in the region.

Recently, the Law ministry of Bangladesh said there was no legal bar for
the government to sign the inter-governmental railway network agreement.

The UNESCAP in 1960, initiated the trans Asian railway network agreement,
which would be ready for signing at the UNESCAP ministerial conference on
transport to be held in Busan, South Korea, on November 6-11. The cabinet
division of Bangladesh government is likely to approve the proposal for
signing.

According to the Bangladesh communication ministry sources there are three
options proposed by the UNESCAP for trans-Asian railway routes: Route 1:
Gede (West Bengal, India)-Darsana-Ishwardi- Jamuna
Bridge-Joydevpur-Tongi-Akhaura-Chittagong-Dohazari-Gundum (Myanmar border
station). The link would have two sub-routes. Sub-route 1 includes
Tongi-Dhaka and Sub-route 2 includes Akhaura-Kulaura to Shahbazpur (
Mahisasan, India).

Route 2: will enter Bangladesh through Singabad (West Bengal, India) –
Rohanpur-Rajshahi-Abdulpur-Ishwardi and then follow the rest of the route
and sub-routes of Route 1.

Route 3: will enter Bangladesh through Radhikapur (West Bengal, India) –
Birol-Dinajpur-Parbatipur-Abdulpur-Ishwardi and then follow the rest of
the route and sub-routes of Route 1.

However, Bangladesh was unwilling to sign the Asian Highway project
agreement, the deadline for which was over on December 31, last year,
another mega and multilateral project under the same UN organisation, as
it has strong reservation on the proposed layout of the Asian highway
because both the entry and exit points of the route would fall in India.

That time Bangladesh government had preferred route AH41 as Asian Highway
route in its territory the entry point of which would be in India and the
exit point in Burma. But the route AH41 was shown as a sub-regional route
in Asian Highway map.

The present government hands over power to the caretaker administration by
the end of this month so some officials of the communications ministry are
doubtful whether Bangladesh will be able to sign the agreement.

'It is not clear whether the caretaker government can sign this agreement
even if the present cabinet approves the deal,' said a top official of the
communications ministry.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 6, Irrawaddy
EU calls for release of detained activists - Aung Lwin Oo

The EU has expressed concern over the Burmese military government’s
continued detention of former student leaders, arrested last week, and is
pressing for their immediate release.

A statement issued from Brussels on Wednesday noted the bloc’s “deep
concern” over the recent arrests of five activists in Rangoon, and calls
on the junta “to release the detained individuals immediately.”

The statement said that “the EU appreciates the aspirations of different
civil society actors who try to promote peaceful reconciliation and
transition to democracy in Burma.” It also stressed that “dialogue between
various representatives of the society in Burma
is indispensable for the
development of the country.”

The junta earlier accused the detained activists, all of whom are members
of the 88 Generation Students group, of creating “instability and unrest,”
and of having links with exiled activists—a charge the group has dismissed
as groundless.

“If one studies carefully our recent statements, they will obviously see
our willingness to promote national reconciliation through dialogue,” said
Kyaw Min Yu, a member of the group. Activists in Rangoon and across the
country are currently campaigning to collect signatures for a petition
that calls for the activists’ release.

A “color campaign” is also in the works, in which the public is being
asked to wear white colors to signify their support of the group’s efforts
towards political development in the country. The new campaign will start
on October 10 and run until the 44th birthday of group leader Min Ko
Naing—one of the five detained activists—on October 18, the group said on
Friday.

Although the planned campaign coincides with the reopening of the
junta-sponsored National Convention, the group maintains that it has
nothing to do with the event, but only seeks national reconciliation in
the country. The military government has decreed that anyone deemed to
have interfered with the proceedings of the convention will be punished.

The National Convention—the first step of the junta’s roadmap to
democracy, which has been tasked with drafting a new constitution—has been
widely criticized for its lack of delegates from ethnic opposition groups
and the country’s main opposition party National League for Democracy.

“A genuine process of democratization can only be achieved by a dialogue
between the government and all other political and civil society forces,”
reads the EU statement.

The 25-nation bloc has drawn criticism for its perceived soft approach to
Burma’s military regime. On Tuesday, the London-based Burma Campaign UK
slammed the EU for failing to block companies from member states investing
in Burma’s lucrative oil, gas and timber trade, claiming that such
investments generate revenue for the military regime.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 5, The Australian
Burma wants help to keep terrorists at bay - Greg Sheridan

Co-operating with the junta on counter-terrorism strategies poses
difficult moral questions, writes foreign editor Greg Sheridan

Australia faces a dilemma over an approach from the ruling military junta
in Burma to increase the assistance it gets from us in counter-terrorism.

The dilemma is as exquisite as it is simple. The Burmese Government is, by
a vast distance, the worst regime in Southeast Asia in terms of gross
human rights abuses.

Several Southeast Asian countries are not democracies, but Burma's
breaches of human rights have been notable and consistent. It has a record
of seeking unconventional weapons. It has a record of ethnic-based murder
and forced servitude. It has comprehensively ignored the results of the
one democratic election it conducted in recent decades. And it allows a
substantial opium trade to flourish within its borders. It allows no
freedom of expression and very little in the way of outside reporting. It
has recently come on to the UN Security Council agenda.

As a result of all this, the US and the European Union have adopted
policies of effective isolation towards Burma. Asian countries have
adopted the opposite approach. China has become Burma's strategic patron
and guarantor, and its chief source of diplomatic contact and military
co-operation. India, witnessing China's strategic dominance in Burma, has
also stepped up its own diplomatic engagement with Rangoon.

Most of the nations of Southeast Asia, although acutely embarrassed by the
bad name Burma brings to ASEAN, have nonetheless not tried at all to
isolate Burma. This is because they must engage Burma in order to have any
hope of affecting the way it affects them. Thailand is the prime example,
with its huge, porous border with Burma.

Every day hundreds of Burmese illegal immigrants, many of them
HIV-positive, cross the border, often carrying drugs, or with an intention
to participate in crime in Thailand, or just seeking a better life, but
inevitably bringing with them vast problems for the Thai state.

Canberra has a policy of limited engagement with Burma, which sits
somewhere between the US and European policies on the one hand, and the
Asian policies on the other.

The war on terror adds an acute new dimension to the dilemma. If
terrorists use Burma as a base to conduct an operation in, say, Bangkok,
which kills hundreds of Australians, there will be nobody saying to the
Australian Government, well at least you kept the purity of your policy
intact. Instead, they will damn Canberra for ignoring a glaring hole in
the regional counter-terrorist effort.

But, sensibly, Australia has not been ignoring that gaping hole
altogether. Canberra has provided a lot of counter-terrorist training to
Burma already, though this has never been mentioned publicly. A range of
Australian agencies has been involved in training Burmese
counter-terrorist agencies. The Immigration Department, for example, has
helped with immigration intelligence training. The Australian Nuclear
Science Technology Organisation has helped on monitoring radioactive
sources.

Burmese law enforcement officers have been involved in Australian courses
on major investigation management, post-blast incident management, and the
international management of serious crime. AUSTRACK has provided training
on tracking international terrorist finances. And perhaps most significant
of all, Burmese law enforcement officers have attended courses at the
Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation in Semarang. JCLEC is run
jointly by the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian national
police.

All this training has so far been carried out in an ASEAN context. It has
not been bilateral Australia-to-Burma-only assistance.

However, it is still Australian assistance to Burma and therefore still
poses a moral dilemma. Could any of the Burmese institutions involved in
learning from Australians misuse that knowledge in domestic repression?

It's pretty hard to see how the skills involved in managing a bomb site
could be used to suppress dissidents. On the other hand, if you can track
terrorist finances perhaps you can track dissident finances a bit better
as well; if you can track terrorists more effectively you can probably
track the movements of political refugees more effectively.

In the real world there is no getting away from these moral dilemmas. As
one official puts it, one question has to be whether providing such
training is likely to help protect Australian lives. The answer is
undoubtedly yes.

There are many reasons why Australia provides so much counter-terrorist
training to Southeast Asia. The main reason is, to improve, directly by
training, the capacity of counter-terrorist agencies in the region. A
related reason is to increase the degree to which Southeast Asian agencies
from different countries talk to each other.

Terrorists flow effortlessly across borders and if the Malaysians didn't
speak to the Thais, for example, or the Filipinos didn't speak to the
Indonesians, this would be disastrous for effective counter-terrorism.

A further reason, and one that needs to be expressed with a certain
delicacy, is that providing such training provides Australian agencies
with invaluable knowledge and contacts. These are useful always, but they
are critical if an incident happens that involves Australians.

The Burmese state, apart from being brutal, is also ramshackle. We don't
want it to persecute its citizens but we do want it to stop its territory,
or its citizens, being used for terrorist purposes. It would be extremely
foolish just to ignore Burma.

The broad balance of the counter-terrorist story in the region is quite
positive. The southern Philippines is becoming a much less secure haven
for the Indonesian-based Jemaah Islamiah. We are halfway through the
traditional terrorist bombing season and JI has not perpetrated a new
attack in Indonesia. Operationally, JI is under a lot of pressure.

In the southern Philippines the critical outside actor is the US.
Australia is about to embark on greater training with the armed forces of
The Philippines but it is the Americans, especially the CIA and the US
Navy SEALS, who are providing the most active assistance to the Filipinos
in their war against the terrorists, especially the murderous Abu Sayyaf
gang.

Under The Philippines constitution the Americans cannot take combat action
themselves on Philippines soil, but they equip and train the Filipinos,
locate the enemy and lead the Filipinos to the brink of action. It is a
universal assessment that the Filipinos are much more effective when
they've got the Americans helping them.

This underlines the importance of the story, first broken in The
Australian last year and confirmed in The Washington Post's Bob Woodward's
book, State of Denial, this week, that Australia now has unprecedented
access to US intelligence, including an exemption from the no-foreign-eyes
rule for US intelligence concerning the war on terror. Although Australia
possesses great expertise on Southeast Asia, the Americans certainly have
expertise, and intelligence, on the southern Philippines, a central
battleground in the Southeast Asian war on terror, that we do not.

Now the Burmese would like more assistance in their counter-terrorist
efforts. Frankly, we'd be ill-advised to decline.

____________________________________

October 7, Asia Times
Myanmar's losing military strategy - Clifford McCoy

Chiang Mai: Despite its newer, more modern weaponry, Myanmar's ambitious
military-modernization campaign is proving ineffectual in fighting the
various ethnic armies along its borders. Myanmar's army, also known as the
Tatmadaw, remains the same light-infantry force that it was 50 years ago,
as evidenced by its current offensive against the Karen National Union
(KNU) and other armed insurgencies along its eastern border with Thailand.

There is no end in sight for Myanmar's grinding 57-year-old civil war,
despite the extensive military upgrades. Rather than win over the
ethnic-minority population through political dialogue, providing
sustainable economic opportunities and building and equipping schools and
health facilities, the army has launched repeated military offensives into
areas where ethnic groups resist the rule of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC). These operations, because of the accompanying
human-rights abuses, have over the years only fueled the insurgencies.

Although ceasefires have been agreed with some of the ethnic insurgents,
several, including the KNU, the Karenni National Progressive Party, the
Shan State Army (South) and the Chin National Front, are still fighting
the regime. Meanwhile, the SPDC junta's relations with some of the
ceasefire groups are shaky. Many ceasefire groups are unhappy with the
lack of political progress and there is the possibility that, if
pressured, some or all of the groups could go back to armed struggle.

Despite this, the SPDC seems to believe that its counterinsurgency
strategy is working and is instead concentrating on protecting itself from
foreign invasion. It has bought expensive military hardware, expanded
conscription into government-run militias in both the countryside and the
cities and, in its most extravagant move, relocated the capital from
coastal Yangon to inland Pyinmana.

Aggressive spending
In the past decade, the SPDC has spent hundreds of millions of US dollars
on military hardware and greatly expanded its artillery and armored units
with an eye toward developing a conventional defense capacity. Over that
period, military-related expenditures have accounted for nearly half of
Myanmar's annual budget. Yet counterinsurgency capacities have not evolved
commensurately.

In the field, the typical soldier is still fighting the same battle, with
substandard equipment, inadequate supplies of food and medicine, and the
knowledge that if he is seriously wounded in combat, he will likely die
before reaching the nearest hospital.

Nowhere in evidence are the tanks and armored personnel carriers (APCs)
that the SPDC purchased from Ukraine and China. According to
Australia-based military analyst Andrew Selth, the junta has acquired 50
T-72 tanks from Ukraine and more than 200 Type 69II, Type 59D, Type 80 and
Type 85 main battle tanks in addition to 105 Type 63 light tanks from
China.

The regime has also obtained more than 300 Type 85 and Type 90 tracked
APCs from China. Another 1,000 BTR-3U wheeled APCs are to be assembled in
Myanmar over the next 10 years from parts sent by Ukraine. Yet all of
these vehicles are next to useless in the forested and mountainous terrain
where most of the counterinsurgency operations take place and are more
likely to be used against a possible urban uprising of pro-democracy
protesters.

The army's new artillery units are equipped with more than 100
155-millimeter WP52 and 122mm Type 54 howitzers and 30 107mm Type 63
multiple rocket launchers from China, 16 155mm Soltam field guns from
Israel, 16 130mm Type 59 field guns from North Korea, and 80 75mm mountain
howitzers from India, according to military analyst sources. The only
apparent use of heavier artillery, according to reports by the independent
Karen Human Rights Group, has been a battery of 120mm mortars being used
to shell the area around Ler Mu Plaw camp in northern Karen state.

Nor have the much-talked-about MiG-29s purchased from Russia, nor the
older F-7s and A-5s purchased from China, so far been seen in the skies
over Karen state. The SPDC purchased 50 Chengdu F-7E/K/M "Airguard"
fighters and 48 NAMC (Nippon Aircraft Manufacturing Corp) A-5C/M
ground-attack aircraft from China in the 1990s. These were later joined by
10 MiG-29 air-superiority fighters from Russia.

Technicians were brought in from Serbia in 2004 to repair the 12 SOKO G-4
Galeb ground-attack aircraft that had been grounded for many years because
of a lack of spare parts. Of little use against mobile guerrilla units,
they are also too valuable to risk being shot down by a lucky Karen
soldier. Poor maintenance and the lack of spare parts also hinder their
use. The same can be said for the Tatmadaw's helicopter fleet, which has
carried officials to visit camps and to move supplies to large secure
camps.

The air force has also purchased 12 PZL Swindik W-3 Sokol multi-purpose
helicopters and 18 Mil Mi-2 "Hoplite" helicopters from Poland and 12 Mil
Mi-17 medium-lift transport helicopters from Russia. All of these
helicopters can be configured for a ground-attack role, and according to
Andrew Selth, there has been discussion in the Tatmadaw about the use of
helicopters in assault operations. To date, however, helicopters have not
been used in attacks and generally do not move infantry around, rescue
wounded soldiers or send supplies to units in the field either.

Despite all the money being spent on expensive hardware, the common
Tatmadaw infantryman is still poorly equipped. Deserters have commented
that their backpacks and webbing are of a low quality and the uniforms are
so bad that many soldiers try to purchase their own as soon as possible.
Many soldiers wear Chinese-style jungle shoes, which wear out after a
couple of months and are much inferior to jungle boots.

Since 1996, the SPDC's weapons factories have produced new assault rifles
and light machine-guns for the infantry. The MA series of weapons were
designed to replace the old German-designed but locally manufactured
Heckler and Koch G3s and G4s that equipped Myanmar's army since the 1960s.
After more than six years, some units still have not received the new
weapons. The ammunition supplied by the regime's munitions factories,
especially the 5.56mm for its new rifles, is reportedly very poor and
burns too hot. Ethnic opposition sources such as the Karen and Shan say
they try not to use captured Tatmadaw ammunition, if possible.

The insurgents have to make do with a motley collection of mostly old
automatic rifles and carbines backed up with a few mortars and
machine-guns. With the exception of the now-defunct Burmese Communist
Party, which received most of its weapons from China, the rebel groups buy
their weapons, ammunition and equipment on the black market or capture
them from Tatmadaw units during ambushes or raids on encampments. The lack
of ammunition has forced some of the insurgent groups to rely very heavily
on land mines to protect their camps, supply routes and civilian
populations.

The only really useful procurement in fighting ethnic insurgents has been
thousands of trucks and four-wheel-drive vehicles obtained from China. In
addition, the Tatmadaw has obtained numerous Nissan trucks and Patrol
four-wheel-drive vehicles from Japan and locally produces Hino trucks.
Using these vehicles, the army has been able to move large numbers of
units and concentrate them in eastern Pegu division and northern Karen
state.

Elements of six different divisions from various parts of Myanmar,
including as far away as Kachin and Arakan states, have been carried on
the trucks. These divisions have also been able to rotate their battalions
from home areas into and out of the front line. The army has also been
able to keep its stockpiles supplied with food and ammunition. Although
the use of motorized transport is limited in the rainy season, the trucks
are still useful for bringing supplies up to forward staging bases from
where they can be portered up to the front-line camps. Before the monsoon
rains began, even some of the front-line camps could be supplied by
vehicle.

Out of step
At the front, however, Tatmadaw soldiers still must march by foot up steep
mountain trails to seek out the soldiers of the Karen National Liberation
Army and hunt down its civilian supporters. Expanded road networks and
large numbers of trucks have enabled the Tatmadaw to build up large
stockpiles at rear bases. However, units at the front line still find
themselves short of rations, medicine and sometimes ammunition. Most of
the supplies for units on operations must still be carried over mountain
trails that are impassable to vehicular transport.

The use of civilians as porters has become common operational practice
despite frequent protests by international rights bodies such as Human
Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations-sponsored
International Labor Organization. Frequent reports have documented the
mistreatment and killing of villagers and convicts carrying supplies for
the army. This inefficient practice also ties the soldiers to long columns
and the use of trails, limiting their operational capabilities. Without
the use of helicopters or air drops, the army is almost completely reliant
on how much the porters can carry.

Soldiers of the various ethnic armies, although equipped with old weapons,
often without enough ammunition, are frequently able to get the better of
Tatmadaw units in combat. That's because they are fighting for a homeland
cause, and many ethnic insurgents have years of combat experience. They
know the terrain intimately, and are conditioned to fight in mountainous
and forested areas.

They also usually have the support of the civilian populations where they
operate. Most civilians are willing to share food with the guerrillas and
help them with carrying supplies. They view the soldiers from same ethnic
group as fighting to protect them from the Tatmadaw. This support from the
civilian population is also their weakness, and the army's
counterinsurgency strategy has long sought to exploit it by targeting
them.

Strategy and tactics likewise remain relatively unchanged from decades
ago. The guiding strategy is still the so-called "four cuts", which seeks
to deprive armed resistance of food, funds, intelligence and recruits by
separating them from civilian support. The army implements this strategy
by targeting villagers, razing their jungle communities and forcing them
out of the hills and mountains. The SPDC has notably shown very little
inclination to dedicate resources toward winning the "hearts and minds" of
ethnic civilians.

Recent reports from the Free Burma Rangers and the Karen Human Rights
Group indicate that army columns have been conducting sweeps of
KNU-controlled territory, shooting villagers on sight and destroying their
food supplies and crops. True to form, the great majority of casualties
inflicted by the army's current year-long operations have been Karen
civilians, providing yet further fuel to the fire of Myanmar's long war.

Clifford McCoy is a freelance journalist based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

October 5, CFSP, General Affairs and External Relations
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on
detentions in Burma/Myanmar

The EU notes with deep concern that former student leaders Min Ko Naing,
Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe, detained by the Burmese/Myanmar authorities on
the 18th anniversary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) last week,
have still not been released. The detention of two further activists, Min
Zeya and Pyone Cho, on September 30 has given rise to further concern.

The European Union appreciates the aspirations of different civil society
actors who try to promote peaceful reconciliation and transition to
democracy in Burma/Myanmar. Dialogue between various representatives of
the society in Burma/Myanmar, like in any other country, is indispensable
for the development of the country.

The EU reiterates that a genuine process of democratization can only be
achieved by a dialogue between the government and all other political and
civil society forces. The EU therefore calls upon the government of
Burma/Myanmar to release the detained individuals immediately.

The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries
Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of
the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA
countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European
Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align
themselves with this declaration.

* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be
part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.