BurmaNet News, October 12, 2006

[Editor]

October 12, 2006 Issue # 3064

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: NLD youths deliberately arrested for political action – police officer
Irrawaddy: Teachers in Rangoon barred from petition campaign
Irrawaddy: Floods cause havoc across Burma
Xinhua: Myanmar launches year-long gambling-free campaign

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Onion prices soar in Burma

REGIONAL
AFP: At least 57 killed as floods lash Myanmar and Thailand

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Zimbabwe, Myanmar criticized in annual British government report on
human rights

OPINION / OTHER
DPA: Sham or not, junta's convention is the only game in town - Peter Janssen
New Straits Times: Masqueradein Myanmar

INTERVIEW
DVB: An exclusive interview with Czech FM, Alexandr Vondra

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD youths deliberately arrested for political action – police officer

Two National League for Democracy (NLD) youths from Moe Nyo Township, Pegu
Division, were deliberately trapped and arrested by Letpandan Township
Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) organising committee
members Than Myat Soe and Thant Zaw Win, a police sergeant who doesn’t
want to be named told DVB.

Win Ko Ko and Zaw Tun Latt were arrested on 6 October while travelling to
Letpandan from Moe Nyo on a train saying that illegal lottery tickets were
found on them. In fact, they were arrested for successfully persuading all
the villagers of Yethabya to put their signatures to the petition
demanding the release of all political prisoners and recently detained 88
Generation Student leaders, according the police officer.

Eyewitnesses told DVB that the police surrounded the two youth and after
searching them they shouted that they found vouchers for the lottery
tickets and they victims shouted in protest that they were deliberately
trapped. Illegal lottery tickets are usually distributed by gambling
syndicates under the control of local authorities.

____________________________________

October 12, Irrawaddy
Teachers in Rangoon barred from petition campaign

Teachers at Dagon University in Rangoon have been prohibited from taking
part in a petition campaign led by a student opposition group to demand
the release of several of their leaders, according to the group.

The crackdown on teachers comes more than a week after the 88 Generation
Students group, comprising former student activists and political
prisoners, launched the petition campaign. It was initiated following the
arrest of five of the group’s leaders, including the well-known activist
Min Ko Naing, in late September.

Mya Aye, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group, told The Irrawaddy
on Thursday that teachers at Dagon University have been told not to sign
petitions that have been circulating since Tuesday. In addition, they have
been required to sign an alternative document stating that they will not
participate in the petition campaign.

As of Thursday, the student group has collected about 210,000 signatures
from Rangoon and other cities across the country, according to Mya Aye.
The campaign, initially expected to finish on October 14, will now be
extended to October 23 due to difficulties in communicating with people in
rural areas of Burma.

Burmese authorities have also created problems for the campaigners. Two
youth members of the opposition party National League for Democracy were
arrested outside Rangoon last week because of their involvement in
collecting and transporting signatures for the student group.

A companion campaign, called “White Expression,” was also launched this
week, asking people to dress in white clothing to show their support for
the detained student leaders. The group has also demanded that the
military government free all political prisoners currently in
custody—including Nobel laureate and NLD head Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic
leaders—and initiate a genuine process for national reconciliation.

Hundreds of people in cities across the country have participated in the
White Expression campaign despite the group’s limited ability to publicize
it, said Mya Aye. Such a campaign is prohibited under Burma’s military
rule. The group will continue the campaign until October 18—the 44th
birthday of Min Ko Naing.

____________________________________

October 12, Irrawaddy
Floods cause havoc across Burma - Khun Sam

Heavy rains have brought new flooding across Burma, inundating villages
and farmland, killing an unknown number of people and making thousands
homeless. Rivers have broken their banks, dams breached, roads, railway
lines and bridges washed away.

Flood waters in Kyaukse, Mandalay Division, have submerged most of the
town. Many homes are almost completely under water, a Kyaukse resident
told The Irrawaddy by telephone. Staff and patients at Kyaukse hospital
were forced to move to an upper floor. A nearby bridge was damaged by the
flood waters.

Three dams in Mandalay Division—Zawgyi, Panlaung and Tsamoung—were
breached and flooded nearby areas. “The situation is very bad,” said a
resident. “We’ve heard of deaths, especially in the villages.”

According to the state-run media, at least 13 people have died in Mandalay
Division, where Kyaukse, Myitthar, Myitnge and Patheingyi Townships have
been particularly badly hit. The Dokehtawaddy River at Myitnge had risen
to more than 10 meters, nearly 2 meters above its danger level, according
to official reports. Train services in the region have been suspended.

Official reports say more than 3,000 homes and extensive areas of farmland
have been inundated across Burma. Rangoon, Magwe, Sagaing and Shan State
have been particularly hard hit.

Meanwhile the state-run media reported that a government-affiliated oil
company ship had rescued a fishing boat which was in danger of being swept
out to sea off the Arakan coast.

____________________________________

October 12, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar launches year-long gambling-free campaign

Myanmar has decided to launch a year-long gambling-free campaign,
designating the fiscal year of 2006-07 as a period of stepping up cracking
down on gambling in Yangon, a local press media reported Thursday.

The decision to introduce the campaign, which is aimed at eliminating all
kinds of gambling, came after the police authorities made a surprise raid
on a gambling venue in the downtown area late last month, said the Khit
Myanmar.

Earlier in June this year, the Myanmar Police Force combated gambling in
Yangon on soccer matches of the 2006 World Cup through viewing TV live
broadcast, punishing both the bookmaker and the gambler. Other crime
cases, which the authorities also combated, include illegal two- and
three-digit Thai lottery which were seen everywhere.

To bring down crime rate in Yangon, the police authorities have also been
launching a crime-free-week campaign every month since January this year
with police force members patrolling round the clock in townships in
Yangon, coupled with education on crime prevention through exhibitions and
distribution of pamphlets against crimes. Before the campaign was
introduced, there had been a greater number of cases of theft, robbery,
cheat and murder occurring in Yangon.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 12, Irrawaddy
Onion prices soar in Burma - Shah Paung

The price of onions has increased four-fold in recent days, according to
agricultural sellers and producers in Burma.

In early 2006, the price of onions ranged from 350 kyat (20 US cents) to
500 kyat (30 cents) per viss (1.6 kg). Sellers in Mandalay, in central
Burma, say the current wholesale price has gone up to 1,500-1,700 kyat
($1-1.20) per viss.

Sellers say that have increased their prices in response to cost rises
imposed by produce companies. One such company in Rangoon told The
Irrawaddy on Thursday that they are now selling at the fixed price set by
the government.

According to an official with the Myanmar Onion and Garlic Producers and
Exporters Association—also the owner of an onion company—the Myanma
Agricultural Product Trading set the official price for onions at 900 kyat
(60 cents) per viss.

Yet onion sellers in Myawaddy, opposite the Thai-Burmese border town of
Mae Sot, are getting as much as 1,800 kyat ($1.30) to 2,000 kyat ($1.40)
per viss. Other sellers in Tachilek, opposite Mae Sai in northern
Thailand, and Three Pagodas Pass are charging more than 1,000 kyat (70
cents) per kilogram.

The official blamed the recent onion price hikes on heavy rains and
flooding that have affected several regions of Burma and devastated this
year’s onion crops—damage that will also affect next years crops. Onion
exports from Burma have been halted to help control the crisis.

“I’ve lost about 3 million kyat (almost $2,200) because flooding has
destroyed nearly 15 acres of onion crops and other materials,” the
official said.

The planting season for onions usually runs from November (the end of the
rainy season) to March. In November and December 2005, the key
onion-producing regions of Mandalay and Magwe divisions were hit by heavy
flooding that destroyed as much as half of the areas’ onion crops.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 11, www.plosmedicine.org
Burmese Junta Responding Too Slowly On HIV, TB, Malaria and Avian Flu

Burma's authoritarian military regime, the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), is impeding the health community's efforts to control
infectious disease threats in Burma, according to an investigation
published in PLoS Medicine.

Dr Chris Beyrer (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and
colleagues carried out field investigations in Burma in 2005 and 2006, and
also searched the medical and policy literature on HIV, TB, malaria, and
avian flu in Burma.

The researchers found that the SPDC's investment in health care is one of
the lowest worldwide and that the health sector has been weakened by
widespread corruption. The SPDC has also weakened the country's laboratory
infrastructure, say Beyrer and colleagues, due to disinvestment and
through creating a dearth of skilled personnel.

The researchers found that Burma's national reporting system for HIV is
"too limited in scale and scope to accurately capture HIV/AIDS in this
large and diverse country." They cite evidence that around 40% of Burma's
population is thought to be infected with TB. "Burma has been rated by
WHO," they say "as moving far too slowly to adequately control TB--a
problem identified by WHO as far back as 1998 as being due to a lack of
political will and commitment." There is also evidence that the government
is spending too little on both TB and malaria control, and troubling
evidence of rising rates of multidrug-resistant TB and malaria.

Burma's first report of the avian flu (H5N1) virus describes emergence on
March 8, 2006, on a farm in the Mandalay district, and 112 birds died in
the outbreak. "Veterinary authorities in the country called for
international assistance," say Beyrer and colleagues, "but the state-run
media did not notify the Burmese people of the threat until March 17,
2006, more than a week later."

The authors say that attempts by the health community to control
infectious disease threats by trying to work through the junta are
becoming increasingly difficult. As an example, although in 2004 the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria awarded Burma US$98.4 million
over five years, the fund terminated the grant on August 18, 2005 due to
restrictions recently imposed by SPDC. The fund made it clear, say the
authors, that the decision was due to the SPDC having imposed restrictions
on access to project implementation areas, and having added additional
procedures to the procurement of medical supplies.

Health-related programs, such as Population Services International,
Medecins Sans Frontieres Netherlands, and numerous others that are
currently functioning in Burma, are likely to continue conclude the
authors, "but from a public health perspective, much more fundamental and
widespread change will be required to actually meet the scale and scope of
Burma's HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria epidemics, increasing malnutrition, and
other health threats."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 12, Agence France Presse
At least 57 killed as floods lash Myanmar and Thailand

At least 57 people have been killed and thousands forced to abandon their
homes as the worst floods in recent memory wreaked havoc across Thailand
and Myanmar on Thursday.

Military-run Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries, struggled to
cope with floods that have so far killed 13 people, according to state
media.

The Myanmar authorities evacuated 500 homes on the outskirts of the
central city of Mandalay after floodwaters rose overnight, one official
said, while residents said about 10,000 people had fled to emergency
shelters.

Some sought refuge in schools, but many were forced to camp out by the
side of the road. Desperate villagers piled whatever possessions they
could carry into canoes as floodwaters submerged homes.

"I've never seen flooding like this before in my life," said one
67-year-old villager.

The road between Mandalay and the tourist city of Bagan was blocked, as
was the main highway between Yangon and Mandalay, with lorries backed up
for miles waiting for some five feet (1.5 meters) of water to subside.

Most official media made no mention of the devastating floods, although
the official Mirror newspaper said 10 people had been killed when the
floodwaters hit Kyuakpantaung township, 150 miles (240 kilometers)
southwest of the city of Mandalaya on Tuesday. A Burmese-language
state-run newspaper put the overall toll at 13.State media reported
Wednesday that more than 3,000 homes and 900 acres (364 hectares) of
farmland were inundated.

In neighbouring Thailand the death toll from flooding caused by heavy rain
in the wake of Typhoon Xangsane rose to 44 on Thursday.

The floods, which began last August, have affected two million people in
46 provinces, causing an estimated 236 million baht (seven million
dollars) worth of damage, and deluging 1.5 million rai (600,000 acres) of
farmland.

Ministry of health officials said that 260,000 people are suffering from
flood-related diseases.

Thousands have fled their homes and into temporary shelters, and severe
flooding remains in 18 provinces, mostly in central and northern Thailand.

In Ayutthaya, 90 kilometres (56 miles) north of Bangkok, flooding has
lashed hundreds of ancient temples, while the northern tourist province of
Chiang Mai has been worst hit, with seven fatalities and one person
missing.

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) said heavy
rains would continue in northern and central regions until the end of
October, before moving south.

"Rains might be decreased by the end of this month, but floods are
unlikely to get away from Thailand until December, as the sea level
remains high," DDPM official Suriyan Domkhunthod told AFP.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 12, Associated Press Worldstream
Zimbabwe, Myanmar criticized in annual British government report on human
rights

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett was to highlight humanitarian
problems in Sudan and Zimbabwe Thursday when she releases Britain's
official annual international human rights report. Beckett was scheduled
to address an audience of non-governmental organization workers as she
detailed efforts by British diplomats across the world to aid civil
liberties.

"The report will focus on some of the positives in the past year,
including reform in Nepal, elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo
and work on international rights for the disabled," said a Foreign Office
spokesman, on condition of anonymity.

However, he said the 356-page report would also contain criticism of the
military junta in Myanmar and the Zimbabwean government.

The report would also denounce the resumption of violence in Sri Lanka and
the ongoing conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, the spokesman said. United
Nations officials estimate 200,000 people have died and more than 2
million people have been displaced in the Darfur conflict.

In last year's report Britain said improved international human rights
would help undermine the propaganda and recruiting efforts of terrorist
groups.

However, civil rights groups have criticized Tony Blair's government's own
attitude on human rights, claiming it has been complicit in the use of
secret CIA prisons, the existence of which were acknowledged by President
George W. Bush in September.

Blair's government has also denied accusations it has allowed the U.S. to
use British airports to conduct so-called extraordinary rendition flights,
allegedly used to ferry prisoners to and from the secret prisons.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 12, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Sham or not, junta's convention is the only game in town - Peter Janssen

Yangon "Sham" is an apt description of the military-led National
Convention process that resumed this week in Myanmar (Burma) but,
increasingly, the sluggish undertaking seems the only way out of a
political impasse that has deprived this country of international aid,
crippled the economy and beggared its people.

The fourth session of the convention, launched Tuesday with 1,086
delegates handpicked by the junta in attendance, will concentrate on
drafting articles in Myanmar's new constitution that will establish the
framework for holding general elections.

No one is expecting an election soon. A fifth session is likely some time
next year to fine-tune the charter, after which the charter will be
drafted and adopted by a referendum which will then pave the way for an
election.

Myanmar's last election of 1990 was a triumph for the National League for
Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi - who was under house arrest at
the time and is under house arrest now - which won more than 80 per cent
of the contested seats and should have handed them power from the people.

The military decided otherwise. Citing Myanmar's still unresolved military
conflicts with its ethnic minority groups, the junta in 1992 initiated the
National Convention process to draft a new constitution that would deal
with the delicate task of "power sharing" in a country that had been under
military rule since 1962.

The convention, convened in 1993, was unconvened in 1996 after the NLD
delegates walked out of the process, labeling it a sham designed to
legitimize the military's role in Myanmar politics.

It was resumed in 2004 as the first step in the military's "seven step
road map" to democracy. The NLD, although invited to rejoin the process in
2004, refused to do so, choosing to highlight the process's shambolic
nature but failing to stop it from plodding on.

"I understand the NLD's claim that it is a sham but it was a tactical
mistake for them to have refused to rejoin the process," opined one
western diplomat in Yangon. "They have sidelined themselves and the train
will go on without them."

This session of the convention process will concentrate on articles
dealing with an eventual poll, including requirements for parties allowed
to contest the polls.

One can expect some clauses that will exclude the participation of the NLD
in the forthcoming election, such as a prohibition of parties with links
to armed insurgent groups or terrorists, an accusation regularly made
against the NLD by the junta.

Opponents to the National Convention process are hoping that international
pressure, in the form of sanctions proposed at the upcoming United Nations
Security Council, will force the military to include the NLD in a
"national reconciliation" process.

With the likelihood that any proposal of more sanctions will be vetoed by
China and Russia, such hope seems farfetched, observers in Yangon concur.

With Suu Kyi being kept incommunicado from the NLD for the past three
years, and the party now led by "octegenarians" of questionable political
savvy, there is an absence of strong leadership to provide a viable
alternative to the convention process, even dedicated pro-democracy
supporters acknowledge.

"It's not a proper process, but it seems to be the only way," said one
activist, who spent five and a half years in a Myanmar prison for openly
criticizing the National Convention in 1993. "We have been waiting too
long."

Myanmar's long-suffering people are suffering more this year, with
inflation above 20 per cent due to rising petrol prices and a five-fold
increase in civil servants salaries.

While the military regime is surviving on natural gas exports to Thailand,
accounting for an estimated one-third of their export revenues, and timber
exports to China, the people face dire prospects with diminishing foreign
investments in the country and scant international aid to bolster
collapsed public systems in health and education services.

The World Bank, IMF, ADB and most bilateral aid programmes from western
democracies were severed in the aftermath of the military's brutal
crackdown on the pro-democracy movement of 1988, and are not likely to be
resumed until after some form of democracy is restored in Myanmar.

Already, within the international aid community operating in Myanmar, a
healthy debate is underway on how to provide assistance to the Burmese
people without subsidizing the ruling regime.

"There are still a lot of people who say let's give stacks of money to the
government, especially within the UN, but the people who say - let's not
do anything - I don't think you hear them anymore," said Guy Stallworthy,
director of Population Services International (PSI) in Yangon, an NGO that
has successfully stocked the local market with millions of cheap condoms
to prevent HIV/AIDS. "I think everybody is saying we've got to do
something."

A similar pragmatism from the international community on the military's
national convention, as the only path open to constitutional rule and an
eventual election, may also be required.

"It's the only game in town," said the head of one international
organization. "It's naïve to think there will be any other game in this
situation and to think that pressure form the UN Security
Council can change that."

____________________________________

October 12, New Straits Times
Editorial: Masqueradein Myanmar

The  military junta in Myanmar has billed the reconvened National
Convention - which was launched 13 years ago, suspended for nine years,
and last met less than a year ago - as a significant step in its
seven-point roadmap to democracy.

The constitution-drafting convention, however, looks more like a
masquerade to prolong military rule rather than a real stab at political
reform. Without the participation of the National League for Democracy,
the 1,000-member assembly lacks credibility. In addition, in the weeks
running up to the conference, the military rulers have resorted to the old
tactic of arresting those who criticise them. NLD leader and Nobel
peacelaureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. Moreover,
whatever the final shape of the military-guided constitution, it will
leave the armed forces very much in command of any future government.

We should be used by now to hearing from the tinpot dictators that they
want to give up power and restore democracy. Despite promises of change,
Myanmar's authoritarian rulers have not carried out a single concrete
reform measure. The junta has pulled the wool over the eyes of the world
too many times in the past and there is no one outside the coterie of
military officers who still believes that the long-stalled constitutional
talks are anything other than a showcase convention which the generals are
manipulating for their own ends. Since the junta is orchestrating the
convention to tighten its reins on government, genuine democracy
regrettably remains a distant prospect in Myanmar.

With the generals still refusing to make any concrete concessions to
political reform, there does not seem much that anyone can do. After all,
the ruling junta has thumbed its nose at the international community all
these years and has done pretty much as it liked. The regime has not
wilted under the pressure of economic sanctions imposed by the West,
ignored the resolutions passed by the United Nations, and stonewalled
Asean's attempts at constructive engagement. Although the generals seem
unfazed by international criticism, the world cannot stand by and do
nothing.

Now that Myanmar has finally found its way onto the agenda of the Security
Council, the world body has a chance to play a bigger role. Asean should
also press China and India to use their considerable clout on Myanmar. A
concerted effort from the international community is required to make the
generals mend their ways.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

October 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
An exclusive interview with Czech FM, Alexandr Vondra

“We are very glad that for the first time the Security Council, the UN has
adopted Burma as a part of its agenda and we strongly believe that this
process will lead to a resolution which will promote (the) process of
national reconciliation in Burma.”

Q: I hope you are aware of the recent arrest of the prominent student
leaders; Min Ko Naing and others. They were arrested simply because they
were asking for reconciliation, peaceful transition to democracy, release
of political prisoners
I would like to ask your comment on this recent
arrest.

A: We are very, very disappointed by the current evolvement in Burma. The
arrest of former student leaders, I think, is another sign that the regime
is not getting ready for the dialogue. It is an oppressive regime and can
only tell we are going (for?) a long time. The dictatorial regime should
be pressed more by the international community and that the democratic
opposition in Burma should enjoy more support from the UN and other
international bodies.

Q: Now, Burma has been (is) in the Security Council’s agenda. What kind of
resolution, do you think, the UN Security should talk (take)?

A: Well, it’s just the beginning of the process. We are very glad that for
the first time the Security Council, the UN has adopted Burma as a part of
its agenda and we strongly believe that this process will lead to a
resolution which will promote (the) process of national reconciliation in
Burma.

Q: What is (the) Czech Republic’s policy towards Burma? Can you please
explain your foreign policy regarding Burma?

A: Yes, certainly. There is a long tradition of the Czech interest in
Burma. It was the former president Vaclav Havel who proposed, nominated
Aung San Suu Kyi for the Nobel Peace Award in the early nineties. And
since that, we have a lot of people, the various NGOs who are trying to be
as much supportive as much as they can. And I think it’s very good to keep
a certain tradition. I personally could meet Aung San Suu Kyi when she was
in house arrest in Rangoon in the middle of (the) nineties. Still, I am
still keeping this in my memory, in depth. I think that in
?practical/practice we could do everything where we can to
 that Aung San
Suu Kyi be released and could play an important role in the Burmese
(Burma’s) future, because I think that she deserves (for) the stress on
non-violence and dialogue.

Q: What role Czech Republic can play within (the) EU and the international
arena, to have proper, in your opinion, to have proper policy towards
Burma?

A: Look, we are not a European super power. We are just among the small
European democracies. But I think due to our experience with the human
rights and pro-democracy movement in the 70s and 80s, we have certain
obligation to speak loudly, and to support those who are fighting freedom
and promoting understanding and the dialogue. I think that the Czech
Republic just like some other countries with similar traditions in Europe,
Scandinavia, Holland, Poland and others. We should speak loudly for other
people who are suffering, people who are arrested while promoting freedom
and democracy.

Q: My last question is about your own personal experience. When we learnt
about your background, your personal history, you were also detained for a
few years for freedom movement. Now you become a politician. So, freedom
fighter turned a politician. There are many people in Burma who have to
become a politician. So, I want to ask your personal experience – how your
lifestyle can change from a freedom fighter to a politician. Is it an easy
job or what kind of experience you can share?

A: Well, I certainly remember and appreciate the support which we had in
the past when we were working in the underground, when we were arrested.
So we really appreciated the support of the western politicians, diplomats
and others. It helped us to save our lives, to reduce our time spent in
prison, to bring more attention to the various human rights organisations
and international bodies. So I think what we can do right now is to repay
this certain debt, and to support those who are in need in the world and
certainly the people in Burma among those who really need our attention
and support.

Q: 
Do you have any message for the military rulers in Burma who are
considered the most repressive in the region?

A: I think there is a book written by Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the books,
a collection of her speeches and the title is if I remember
 ‘Freedom from
Fear’, or something. So, the message is, don’t be afraid. At the end, the
things will turn in something ?better the experience of which I from
(?certainly hope). So, there is no reason for pessimism. At the end, we
have to be optimist(ic) and work hard to make the world better.