BurmaNet News, November 8, 2006

[Editor]

November 8, 2006 Issue # 3083


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Rights group concerned by pro-junta social
DVB: Burma’s 88 Generation Students vow to continue freedom campaigns
Xinhua: Internet users in Myanmar number nearly 300,000

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Legal assistance centres for Burmese refugees by IRC

BUSINESS / TRADE
Thai Press Reports: Asia Thailand reviews trade talks with BIMSTEC

ASEAN
Straits Times: Asean-India FTA faces another

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Thai King, Suu Kyi among Asian Heroes Sai Silp
AFP: Post-coup Thai PM acknowledges comparison with Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Gambari aims for concrete results in Burma
AP: 13 Nations denounced for web censorship
Third Sector: Communications - Medium and message

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Gambari visit holds glimmer of hope
DVB: Wedding of the year?

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 8, Irrawaddy
Rights group concerned by pro-junta social organizations - Shah Paung

An exiled Burmese rights group has raised concerns over the growing
influence in Burma’s prisons of junta-backed civilian social
organizations, while international rights groups remain barred from
visiting prisoners.

Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Mae Sot-based Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners-Burma said that assistance programs spearheaded by the
Union Solidarity and Development Association as well as other
government-sponsored women’s groups are not systematic and cannot provide
the necessary care for the country’s prison population.

State-run The New Light of Myanmar reported on Monday that the chairperson
of the Prisons Department Maternal and Child Welfare Association donated
clothes and milk powder to three female prisoners who recently gave birth
in Rangoon’s Insein Prison.

Last week, members of the USDA are reported to have donated water
purifiers, food, medicine and food to prisoners in Myitkyina, Kachin
State.

According to Win Mya Mya, a resident in Mandalay, the USDA has also
visited the families of political prisoners to show them recent pictures
of their detained relatives and give them money.

Win Mya Mya added that the group’s members have visited numerous political
prisoners in Mandalay to assess conditions and potential needs of inmates.
They are said to have explained their visits as an effort to foster
national reconciliation.

Ba Aung, the husband of detained National League for Democracy member Hnin
Pa Pa, was visited by USDA officials on October 30, according to Win Mya
Mya. They showed him recent photos of his wife and other political
prisoners and told him that they were all doing well.

The officials added that their group could provide better assistance than
the NLD and gave him 10,000 kyat (almost US $8).

“What the USDA is doing is just a political move to make themselves look
good in the eyes of the international community, said AAPP’s Bo Kyi. “They
don’t care about the lives of the prisoners.”

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross has not been able
to visit prisoners in Burma since January 2006. Their visits were
discontinued at that time because of government pressure to allow members
of the USDA to monitor their work—something expressly prohibited by the
group’s protocols.

In a press briefing last week, Burma’s police chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi said
the government was negotiating with the ICRC about resuming their prison
visits. Other sources suggest the military government is pressuring to
group to leave Burma altogether, and that the group has already
permanently discontinued some of their programs.

Thierry Ribaux, the deputy head of the ICRC in Rangoon, told The Irrawaddy
on Tuesday that it was important for the group to continue their work in
Burma, and that they were currently in negotiations with the government.
He declined to give any further details.

Bo Kyi said that the ICRC previously supplied nearly 50 percent of all
medicine given to prisoners in Burma, who have suffered since the group’s
visits were stopped. There are currently 1,194 political prisoners being
held in jails across Burma.

____________________________________

November 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma’s 88 Generation Students vow to continue freedom campaigns

88 Generation Students vowed to continue to carry out peaceful movements
that effectively express the true feeling of the people on genuine peace
of Burma and national reconciliation.

‘As for us, we will continue to work for the substantiation of the
national reconciliation process,’ one of the 88 Generation Students Mya
Aye told DVB. ‘We will carry out all the methods that involve people’s
cooperation. We will not retreat a little bit over this. There is no doubt
about that. We believe that the public is always on our side.’

He also insisted that the signature campaign calling for the release of
all political prisoners including detained student leaders, the White
Expression campaign for the birthday of student leader Min Ko Naing’s
birthday and the multiple religious prayer campaign were all successful.

____________________________________

November 8, Xinhua General News Service
Internet users in Myanmar number nearly 300,000

The number of internet users in Myanmar has reached nearly 300,000, up
from merely 12 four years ago, ac-cording to a newly disclosed figures of
the telecommunications authorities Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs,
although the telephone wire capacity has been upgraded to 12 megabytes
(MB) per second from 2 MB previously, the internet lines are still so
congested that arrangements are to be made to upgrade the capacity further
to 45 MB in the future.

To improve the country's internet access, the authorities are also
extending connections of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) to
every township, setting the target to be met by the end of this year.

Myanmar is striving to improve public internet services and 50 public
access centers (PAC) have emerged this year in such areas as Yangon,
Mandalay, Pyinmana, Pyay, Magway, Muse, Myitkyina, Monywa, Pathein and
Taunggyi. It has projected to introduce 400 public internet service
centers in 324 townships in the country within three years to facilitate
communication links, according to local media.

As the first phase of the project, 100 PAC centers will be opened in the
current fiscal year of 2006-07, which is also the first year of the
three-year project which began in April, the Myanmar Info-Tech disclosed.

The internet services, which include E-mail and network game, were made
available by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT)
under the ministry and the Myanmar Info- Tech.

The country introduced e-education system in early 2001 with one ICT park
(now known as Info-Tech) in Yangon and another ICT park (now known as
Yadanabon Cyber Corporation) in Mandalay having been set up in the two
following years to provide ICT services in the country.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has also been launching an ICT development master plan
under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), aimed at narrowing the
development gap among the regional members. Detailed programs to link
international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the
master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation (MCF).

Being a signatory to the e-AFA initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar
has formed the e-National Task Force to support the IT development.

Moreover, the country has also signed a series of memorandums of
understanding since 2003 with companies from Malaysia, Thailand and an
ASEAN organization on ICT development.

With the improvement of public internet services, the country sees a step
closer towards ICT development, experts said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 8, Mizzima News
Legal assistance centres for Burmese refugees by IRC - Mungpi

For the first time, the International Rescue Committee is set to open
Legal Assistant Centres for promoting legal awareness and render legal
services to Burmese refugees living in camps along the Thai-Burmese
border.

In order to provide education on human rights and the Thai legal system,
the IRC in coordination with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is planning to
open at least seven LAC offices in nine refugee camps, which is home to
over 140,000 Burmese ethnic refugees in Thailand.

An IRC official told Mizzima, that the LAC offices, manned by legal
officers, will assist the camp authorities as well as the Thai authorities
resolve disputes in the camps and provide education on legal systems.

Refugees living in camps constitute mainly Burmese ethnic minorities
fleeing their homeland to escape severe human rights violation and
persecution perpetrated by the Burmese army.

While international humanitarian organisations including the IRC and the
UNHCR provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees, Thailand has housed
them in nine camps.

However, there have been numerous complaints by the refugees regarding the
lack of legal assistance to protect them from rights abuses in the camp by
the authorities or to help them take their complaints to court.

A refugee from the Mae Hong Song camp told Mizzima, in the past there have
been a lot of human rights abuses by the authorities. "But the people
cannot lodge complaints as there is no legal system to solve their
problems."

The IRC plans to inaugurate the first LAC office in refugee camp one in
Mae Hong Song province on November 22, and it will be followed by the
second in December at Mae La camp in Thailand's Tak province.

However, the rest of the LAC offices, which will be opened in other
refugee camps, still need approval from the Thai authorities, said the IRC
official.

The IRC, which has been providing humanitarian assistance to Indochinese
refugees fleeing to Thailand since 1976, has also provided humanitarian
assistance to Burmese refugees by giving emergency relief, medical and
educational assistance and helped run self-help programmes along the
Thai-Burmese border.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 8, Thai Press Reports
Asia Thailand reviews trade talks with BIMSTEC

Thailand will review trade negotiations with the Bay of Bengal Initiative
for Multi-Sectoral  Technical and Economic Cooperation (Bimstec) if the
talks this week become bogged down, Chana Kanaratanadilok, deputy 
director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department, said on Friday, The
Nation reports.
Bimstec members are meeting in Burma to expedite free-trade talks. The key
agenda is to push tariffs of trade in goods down to zero and promote
investment growth among members.

However, if members, particularly India, show a lack of interest in
pushing for a free-trade area under Bimstec, Thailand will need to ask for
the government's mandate to proceed with the talks.

"The department will need to ask for Commerce Minister Krirkkrai Jirapaet
and the Cabinet's decision if the discussion makes no progress," Chana
said.

The Bimstec talks have been stuck on the issues of rules of origin and
sensitive lists. India has proposed too many conditions on the
rules-of-origin issue. As a result, other members have followed India's
footsteps.

India, the leading country in Bimstec, also included a large number of
products on its sensitive lists.

"This practice has made opening free trade in goods difficult to achieve,"
Chana said.

Chana said the free-trade talks' objective is to bring down or eliminate
tariffs and obstacles on trade.

However, the continuous conditions of others members will make for a
failure to reach agreement.

Bimstec was formed by Bangladesh, India, Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand in
1997 to enhance economic cooperation and boost trade between South and
Southeast Asia. In 2003, Bhutan and Nepal also joined the group. After
that, the group agreed to integrate free trade and investment promotion.

So far, Bimstec has reached cooperation to launch a Bimstec Business
Travel Card and an exchange of information to control bird-flu outbreaks.
Six sectors have been identified for cooperation: trade and investment,
technology, transportation, energy, tourism and fisheries.
But the group has made very slow progress in mapping out an actual plan of
action to achieve these goals. Chana noted that none of the plans had
yielded any significant results for the member economies.

Meanwhile, Thailand and India will also hold bilateral trade talks this
year to push the pact towards more progress. Thailand wants to see
movement on the bilateral talks instead of focusing on the early-harvest
agreement covering 82 product items since September 2004.

____________________________________
ASEAN

November 8, The Straits Times (Singapore)
Asean-India FTA faces another delay - Ravi Velloor, India Bureau Chief

New Delhi: ASEAN'S free trade agreement with India is set to miss another
deadline and is unlikely to take shape before at least the middle of next
year, Asean Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said.

'We hope to wrap up the agreement on trade in goods by the time the Asean
economic ministers meet in the middle of next year. After that, we can
move to discuss trade in services,' Mr Ong told The Straits Times in an
interview on Monday.

Originally intended to take effect this year, both sides had agreed to
have the FTA in place by January next year.

But negotiations have stalled over Indian reluctance to lift curbs on a
long list of items, mostly agricultural goods, that it deems sensitive to
its domestic interests.

Although the original list of some 1,400 items had been pruned to 864, and
then to around 560, it includes a raft of items vital to Asean's economic
interests. Malaysia and Indonesia have been pushing to lift tariffs on
palm oil, a key export. Vietnam wants pepper and black tea off the list.
Asean has also presented India with a 'sensitive' list.

An Indian negotiating team is currently preparing for the next round of
talks to be held in Jakarta next week.

'I do not believe the gap in our positions cannot be breached. Both sides
have to sit down and come out with a good list of products,' said Mr Ong,
who was in New Delhi for an Asean-India technology summit.

On Myanmar, the secretary-general said Asean is not planning any new
initiatives on the military regime, and the country's slow pace of
political reform is unlikely to be a major issue at the grouping's summit
next month.

'I am not sure how firmly individual leaders may champion the issue, but
we do not expect it to be a contentious matter at the summit itself,' he
said.

Heads of the 10-member Asean will hold their next summit on the Philippine
island of Cebu next month. They will be joined by leaders of Japan, China,
South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India for the second East Asia
Summit.

Myanmar's lack of progress on its road map to democracy has been a source
of embarrassment and frustration for Asean, whose influence in Yangon has
waned even as the country's military rulers are courted aggressively by
China and India.

The seven-step road map, which was outlined in 2003, has not moved much
beyond Step One, the drafting of a new Constitution.

In May, Myanmar extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.
Subsequently, an Asean Ministerial Meeting in Kuala Lumpur called on
Myanmar to release all political prisoners, without naming Ms Suu Kyi.

'Asean leaders' position is that we have accepted the road map and will be
urging Myanmar to go with the road map,' said Mr Ong.

'That is where we are. I do not think there will be any new initiative on
Myanmar.'

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 8, Irrawaddy
Thai King, Suu Kyi among Asian Heroes Sai Silp

Time magazine’s Asia edition will honor 60 years of “Asian Heroes” in its
forthcoming 60th anniversary edition.

Time magazine’s heroes include Thailand’s revered king, Bhumibol
Adulyadej, Burma’s independence hero Gen Aung San and his Nobel
Prize-winning daughter Aung San Suu Kyi.

The anniversary edition, available on November 13, honors King Bhumibol
for his social and political guidance of Thailand through some of its most
difficult years.

“Bhumibol...quietly counseled and sometimes openly cajoled governments,
always urging them to put public interest first,” noted the article. “His
stewardship has been so masterful that in time of crisis, Thais invariably
turn to one man: King Bhumibol.”

While consistently ignored by Burma’s ruling generals, the country’s
father of independence, Gen Aung San, remains a much-loved figure and
national hero, as does his daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Andrew Marshall writes in the magazine: “Ordinary Burmese still privately
revere Aung San as the father of the nation. But for Burma's generals, he
is primarily the father of jailed pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, whose name
they will go to any lengths to forget—even dishonoring their independence
hero in the process.”

Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has been in prison or under house arrest for 11
of the past 17 years, and continuously since May 2003.

Marshall includes a quote by Suu Kyi on her father, who described him as
one “who put the interests of the country before his own needs, who
remained poor and unassuming at the height of his power, who accepted the
responsibilities of leadership without hankering after the privileges, and
who retained at the core of his being a deep simplicity.”

“Many Burmese would describe his courageous daughter in exactly the same
way,” Marshall concludes in the article.

Time magazine’s other heroes include India’s Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal
Nehru, Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, China’s Deng Xiaoping, Tibetan
spiritual leader Dalai Lama, and several actors, athletes and business
leaders.

____________________________________

November 8, Agence France Presse
Post-coup Thai PM acknowledges comparison with Myanmar

Thailand's army-appointed prime minister Surayud Chulanont has admitted
that the kingdom's post-coup govern-ment is "in the same shoes" as
neighbouring Myanmar's military regime.

"We, the Thailand and Burmese governments, are almost in the same shoes,
so we have to be very carful on how to solve this problem," he told
reporters late Tuesday when asked how his government would approach
relations with Myanmar.

Military leaders who ousted former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra
on September 19 installed Surayud, a former general, as premier, but have
promised elections by the end of 2007. Myanmar has been under military
rule since 1962.
"For Thailand, we have a timeline to draft our new constitution and return
to democracy, but from the Burmese we don't see any indication on the
timeline," Surayud said, referring to Myanmar by its old name.

"So we have to be very careful, both of us, I myself and the Burmese prime
minister," the former army chief told foreign correspondents.

Thailand's Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram said the prime minister
would be visiting Myanmar as soon as they had arranged a suitable date.

"Whether or not we will go to Myanmar, the answer is yes," Nitya said.

Since taking office on October 1, Surayud has visited Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philip-pines and China, and he will
visit Brunei and Singapore on Thursday.
Myanmar has remained off the itinerary, and some analysts had read this as
a snub to the ruling junta.

Bangkok and Yangon have long maintained regular diplomatic and military
relations.

International pressure has been mounting over Myanmar's dismal human
rights record and repression of political opposition, including the years
of house arrest the regime has imposed on democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

However Thailand and other neighboring countries rely on Myanmar's vast
natural resources to fuel their growing economies, and have thus been less
inclined to take a strong stance against the military-ruled nation.

"I can say on a broad policy of Thai and Burma that we still carry on what
the previous government has committed with the Burmese on the bilateral
issues," Surayud said.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 8, Irrawaddy
Gambari aims for concrete results in Burma - Clive Parker and Yeni

Ibrahim Gambari, UN under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, will
return to Burma Thursday with the aim of achieving concrete results to add
to the access he secured during his first visit in May, the world body has
said.

A statement from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s office Tuesday said
Gambari was expected to meet with the same government officials and
opposition figures as last time, namely the head of the junta Snr-Gen Than
Shwe and National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, among
other leading figures from both sides of the political divide.

It added that dialogue would be expected to produce results this time:
“The Secretary-General emphasizes
that the continued value of such
engagement can only be demonstrated by tangible steps forward on central
issues such as human rights, democratic reform and national
reconciliation,” the statement read.

Gambari will be painfully aware that too many fruitless trips to Burma
will likely backfire on the UN Secretariat—following his last visit, the
junta declined to release Aung San Suu Kyi despite a personal plea from
Annan. Instead, the government extended her detention by one year.

Since then, Burmese officials have disputed claims that the regime is
failing to engage with the international community by alluding to
Gambari’s visits as evidence of its willingness to cooperate, despite
continuing to bar entry to Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN special
rapporteur on human rights in Burma.

Opposition groups joined the UN Secretariat Wednesday in requesting
concrete action by the government. The NLD again called for the release of
Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners—including former student
leaders the authorities have detained since Gambari’s visit six months
ago—as the starting point in the reconciliation process.

“We are always ready to hold discussions with the regime anywhere,”
spokesperson Nyan Win told The Irrawaddy.

The NLD, he said, was willing to re-enter the constitution-drafting
National Conciliation—which Gambari is expected to witness first-hand
during his three-day visit—if the government made the process
“transparent, free and open.”

The 88 Generation Students group said it also hoped to meet with Gambari
to hand over to the UN its petition signed by 535,580 Burmese citizens
which calls on the junta to release the more than 1,100 current political
prisoners in Burma, including members of its ranks arrested last month.

Jimmy, one of the petition organizers, said the group had contacted the UN
office in Rangoon in the hope of securing a meeting with Gambari so that
it could also communicate its thoughts on a possible way forward for
political reconciliation in Burma. A meeting is yet to be confirmed.

Whether the government agrees to such a demand from the opposition is
likely to be seen as an indication of Gambari’s chances for making
headway.

Supporters of UN Security Council action on Burma, including the UK, have
predicted that the under secretary-general’s hand is likely to be
strengthened this time following the council’s decision in September to
place Burma on its formal agenda.

Gambari himself has hinted that the current state of affairs at the
council may have created just the right amount of leverage. Speaking
during his last briefing on Burma to the council on September 29, he
suggested that efforts to go one step further—perhaps by pushing for a
resolution—might have worked against him: “They [the Security
Council]
realized that
it is important to avoid doing anything that will
complicate the good offices role of the secretary-general, and I believe
that nothing they have done so far, in my opinion, would do that,” he
said.

Although the US has thus far held back on a resolution, it has repeatedly
said it will push for action before the end of the year, the same time
Gambari’s term at the UN Secretariat is due to be reconsidered with the
introduction of a new UN secretary-general, South Korea’s Ban Ki-Moon.

____________________________________

November 8, Associated Press
13 Nations denounced for web censorship – Verena Dobnik

The Internet enemies list numbers 13: Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran,
Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

These are the countries singled out by the press freedom group Reporters
Without Borders as the worst culprits for systematic online censorship,
and they were targeted in the group's 24-hour online protest ending at 5
a.m. Wednesday.

"No one should ever be prevented from posting news online or writing a
blog," said the Paris-based group, Reporters Sans Frontieres in French,
which taps more than 100 journalists who are "keeping us informed."

Worldwide, 61 people, 52 in China, are in prison for posting what the
countries claimed was "subversive" content, the reporters' group said in
its annual report.

The cyberspace demonstration was advertised in Manhattan in Times Square
and in Bryant Park on truck-transported billboards. As of Tuesday
afternoon, 10,000 people had registered their protest, with black holes on
the group's Web site gradually disappearing with each click, said Lucie
Morillon, the group's spokeswoman in Washington.

The 13 countries "censor and block online content that criticizes them,"
the organization said in defining its protest. "Multinationals such as
Yahoo! cooperate with the Chinese government in filtering the Internet and
tracking down cyber-dissidents."

Reporters Without Borders said it obtained a copy of the verdict in the
case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003
for his online pro-democracy articles in China. Reporters Without Borders
said that the search engine company Yahoo! Inc. had helped Chinese police
identify him.

"It's one thing to turn a blind eye to censorship it's another thing to
collaborate," Morillon said.
In a statement, Yahoo! said: "We continue to employ rigorous procedural
protections under applicable laws in response to government requests for
information, maintaining our commitment to user privacy and compliance
with the law."

In Cuba, Reporters Without Borders said, the government "ensures that
there is no Internet access for its political opponents and independent
journalists, for whom reaching news media abroad is an ordeal."

The punishment for writing "a few counterrevolutionary articles" for
foreign Web sites can be years in prison, it said.

Reporters Without Borders said it tracks cases of online repression in
various ways, including through court cases and reports of arrests by
family and friends.

The nonprofit group, founded in 1985 by French journalist Robert Menard,
is 70 percent funded by sales of its magazine, Reporters Without Borders
For Press Freedom, which includes photos of journalists in jail. About
200,000 copies are printed three times a year.

Nepal, Maldives and Libya have been removed from Reporters Without
Borders' annual list of Internet enemies. But there's an addition to the
list, Egypt, where it said "many bloggers were harassed and imprisoned
this year."

On the Net:
Reporters Without Borders: http://www.rsf.org

____________________________________

November 8, Third Sector
Communications - Medium and message - Indira Das-Gupta

The Lady of Burma tells the story of opposition leader and political
prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Lady of Burma is the first play about the life of pro-democracy
campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi to be brought to the London stage.

Written and directed by Richard Shannon, it is a one-woman play starring
Liana Gould, and will be performed at the Old Vic on 12 November to
improve awareness of the democracy campaign's plight and raise funds for
the Burma Campaign UK.

'I have always been interested in Burma,' says Shannon. 'Then I met Liana,
who bears a striking resemblance to Aung San Suu Kyi, which gave me the
idea for the play.

'I approached the Burma Campaign UK and they gave me a lot of help with my
research, setting up meetings with political prisoners and lending me
hours of video footage.'

Shannon has focused on the Nobel Peace Prize winner's personal struggle,
as well as the political obstacles she has overcome.

'She is always portrayed as this heroic character, but hers is also a
story of personal tragedy,' he says. 'I want to win people's hearts and
minds, and I believe a play can be the most potent way of affecting
people.'

The charity hopes the play will, as well as raising funds, spark a
groundswell of opinion that will increase pressure on the Burmese
government to release Aung San.

'We don't expect the play to lead to her immediate release,' says Shannon.
'But it's a start.'

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 8, Irrawaddy
Gambari visit holds glimmer of hope

The UN’s Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari,
is to pay another visit to Burma, his second in six months. But what lies
in store this time is anyone’s guess. Few of the pundits and journalists
who follow events in Burma maintain any kind of guarded optimism.

Gambari, who described the situation in Burma as “serious” during the
briefing he gave to a closed-door session of the UN Security Council in
September is scheduled to meet Burma’s paramount leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe
and other top military leaders. But informed sources suggest that the
high-ranking UN official will also again get to meet detained Nobel Peace
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since 2003.

Although the release of Suu Kyi is not part of Gambari’s agenda, he might
have a chance to sound her out on the current political stalemate.
Likewise, Than Shwe, who holds absolute power in Burma, might have some
new thoughts to share with Gambari, instead of just repeating what he told
his UN visitor on his first visit to Naypyidaw.

Interestingly, Gambari’s schedule says he plans to observe the on-going,
regime-sponsored National Convention. He also intends to meet leaders of
the ceasefire groups attending the convention

The National Convention, which is being held at an isolated location on
the outskirts of Rangoon, has been proceeding at a snail’s pace since
1993, and is widely regarded as a sham. It is ostensibly drafting a new
constitution, part of the junta’s so-called road map.

Handpicked delegates, apologists and sympathizers of the regime are
attending the convention, where free discussion on national and political
issues is taboo. In reality, the convention means little for most Burmese.
The main opposition party and the landslide winner of the 1990 general
election, the National league for Democracy led by Suu Kyi is staying away
from the proceedings, along with many veteran political figures and
respected ethnic leaders.

Rangoon-based critics tell The Irrawaddy that the military regime is
likely to exploit Gambari’s presence at the National Convention as a means
of giving it legitimacy. Well versed in playing shrewd diplomatic games
with the UN and other international agencies, the regime has much to gain
from Gambari’s visit.

Some critics cynically point out that Burma must have gained something
from Gambari’s first visit in order to invite him a second time. Following
his first visit, he had several meetings with Burmese diplomats in New
York.

There’s even some optimism that the regime might have a pleasant surprise
in store for Gambari. Than Shwe is obviously keen to meet him again and
will be offering his guest—a rare visitor to Southeast Asia—first class
treatment.

UN envoys and special rapporteurs have been jetting in and out of Burma
for 18 years with little tangible results. They know they have to play a
delicate game with an unpredictable regime and that if they speak out
strongly the regime will shut the door on them. Before them is the example
of former UN special envoy Razali Ismail, who was barred from entering
Burma and finally quit his post in frustration.

Optimism is, indeed, in short supply these days when it comes to Burma,
and it probably won’t dictate Gambari’s mood on this trip to Burma, even
though he said his first visit had turned a new page. There were hopes
that during the visit the regime might free Suu Kyi, but the junta only
extended her detention by a further year.

Gambari’s first visit was followed by an increase in regime pressure on
activists, democracy groups and international NGOs operating inside Burma.
Latest victims of regime suppression include a number of prominent
activists, including Min Ko Naing, one of the leaders of the 1988 national
uprising, who are back in jail, and the International Committee of the Red
Cross.

The ICRC stopped its regular prison visits last December because of strict
conditions imposed by the Home Affairs Ministry, and the organization may
now shut down its operations in Burma altogether. The ICRC’s border
offices are anyway now defunct, say observers in Rangoon.

The departure of the ICRC would be a devastating blow to the country’s
political prisoners, estimated to number more than 1,000. It would
certainly mean more deaths and more suffering in Burma’s gulag. Activists
in Rangoon are saying with macabre humor that Gambari and his delegation
should take advantage of any opportunity to visit the city’s notorious
Insein prison and talk to its prisoners because it could be their last
chance.

For all the dark humor and dimmed optimism, however, there’s still a
glimmer of hope that Gambari’s visit may yield beneficial results for the
entire country and not just for the generals.

____________________________________

November 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Wedding of the year? - Dale Stewart

It's usually satisfying when the situation in Burma reaches the
international headlines. But then there is the coverage given to the
leaked wedding video of senior general Than Shwe's daughter Thandar Shwe.

First seen on Burmese internet forums a week ago, the video shows Thandar
Shwe and her groom major Zaw Phyo Win, deputy director of the Ministry of
Commerce, at a lavish ceremony held in July.

Thandar Shwe appears wrapped to the back teeth in jewels and surrounded by
the sort of finery that the average Burmese person can only dream of. The
ceremony obviously represents a vulgar display of wealth in a country
where many people struggle to make ends meet. Frankly, it's disgusting.

But there are several problems with the extensive coverage of the video
being leaked in and outside Burma. The first flaw is simple. The only
Burma story thought newsworthy enough to run this week is about a wedding
that happened four months ago?

I think the internally displaced Karen civilians might have something to
say about that, along with the political prisoners, the oppressed
opposition and the activists working toward a Security Council resolution.

Searching for serious Burma-related news through Google in the past few
days has proved a frustrating and fruitless exercise. Every second
headline reads something like, "Lavish wedding video sparks outcry in
Burma".

This headline screams the second problem with the coverage. Outcry? Says who?

I'll wager the miniscule amount of people inside Burma able to afford
internet access who have taken the time needed to download to full video
are pretty disgruntled. So too may be the small number of people willing
to waste their VCD allowance on something that contains footage of Than
Shwe's family.

But, 'outcry in Burma'? It just doesn't wash. The vast majority of Burmese
people have probably not seen the video and are unlikely to. It's hard to
imagine how this 'outrage' and 'furor' is going to spread in a country
where most people don't have either a computer or a television, or even
electricity.

Most of the stories run in the international press have interviewed
between two and three Burmese people, many of whom are living in exile.
Their feelings of repulsion at the video, while justified, hardly
constitute widespread outrage among the masses.

It's a shame to sensationalise news on Burma. The situation in the country
really is bad enough without it needing to be falsely presented in beaten
up stories that contribute nothing to outsiders' understanding of Burma's
problems.

The video of Thandar Shwe's opulent marital ceremony may well be
disgusting to people who watch it. But let's have some perspective.

Wedding of the year? More like sensationalist story of the century.