BurmaNet News, November 14, 2006

[Editor]

November 14, 2006 Issue # 3087


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi expresses concern and support for ethnic minorities
Irrawaddy: Junta aims to bypass trade sanctions
Deutsche Press-Agentur: Myanmar veterans mark National Day with renewed
call for democracy
Irrawaddy: Burma celebrates National Day

BUSINESS / TRADE
Bangkok Post via Thai Press Reports: Thai companies active in investment
in energy projects in Myanmar (Burma)
Yonhap (South Korea): S. Korea approves regular flight services to Myanmar

REGIONAL
OneWorld South Asia: Exiled Burmese urge India to rethink its Burma policy

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Annan letter to junta calls for Suu Kyi’s release
The Independent: A portrait of a lady defiant

OPINION / OTHER
Boston Globe: A glimpse into Burma's cage

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 14, The Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi expresses concern and support for ethnic minorities

Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed her concern
and unwavering support for the country’s ethnic minorities during her
brief meeting with UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, a well-informed
source has told The Irrawaddy.

The Bangkok-based source said Suu Kyi had told the Nigerian envoy at the
meeting last Saturday of her serious concern for the situation in the
ethic regions and her sympathy for Shan, Karen and other ethic groups. Suu
Kyi assured him that she and her party would not abandon their cause.

The source said Suu Kyi had also told Gambari she was worried about the
health of detained Shan leader Hkun Htun Oo, the outspoken politician and
leader of the Shan National League for Democracy, who was arrested in 2005
and sentenced to 96 years in prison. His party won a landslide victory in
Shan State in the 1990 election.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma),
based in Mae Sot, Thailand, more than 170 members of ethnic minorities
belonging to various opposition parties, including armed groups, are being
held in Burma’s prisons. Many of them are Karen, Arakanese, Shan and Mon.
About a dozen Shan political leaders in prison because of their opposition
to the regime-sponsored National Convention and their ties with the NLD.

While the National Convention is being attended by representatives of
ethnic groups who have reached ceasefire agreements with the regime, it is
being shunned by respected ethnic leaders. During his latest visit to
Burma, Gambari watched the National Convention at work and met ethnic
leaders who are attending.

Burma’s main opposition party, the NLD, is also staying away from National
Convention sessions, and the regime is seen to be adopting a
divide-and-rule policy in its approach to ethnic groups who are
represented there.

This policy has its historical roots. In 1997, an ethnic nationalities
seminar held on territory controlled by Karen rebels angered the regime
and prompted massive military retaliation against Karen civilians and
rebel outposts. The cause of the retaliation was thought to be a video
tape showing Suu Kyi, wearing traditional Karen dress and delivering a
taped message to the seminar.

Suu Kyi’s father, Gen Aung San, the country’s independence hero, enjoyed
great support among ethnic minorities. During her spells of freedom, Suu
Kyi, now serving her third term of house arrest, often expressed her
support and sympathy for ethic minorities suffering military attack.

____________________________________

November 14, The Irrawaddy
Junta aims to bypass trade sanctions

A closed-door Rangoon meeting of Burmese government officials and business
people discussed ways of circumventing trade embargoes imposed by the US
and EU and reducing reliance on Asian trading partners, it was disclosed
on Tuesday.

The meeting, which took place one week ago but which went unreported in
the official press, brought together more than 100 participants from
government and the business sector. They included Khin Maung Lay and Aye
Lwin, director-general and director of directorate of trade, of the
Ministry of Commerce, members of the Union of Myanmar Federation of
Chambers of Commerce and Industry and entrepreneurs from the garment and
marine production industries.

One businessman told The Irrawaddy that one suggestion raised at the
meeting had been for the export of Burmese goods through offices abroad
without disclosing the true source. Government officials had urged
business people to seek ways of accomplishing this and reducing their
reliance on trade with China.

“It was highlighted at the meeting that China has mainly acquired cheap
goods and purchased under market price,” the businessman said. The volume
of trade with China, but also with Asean, had not reached expected levels,
the meeting was told.

The US formally applied sanctions against the military regime in Burma in
1990, while the EU introduced targeted sanctions following adoption of its
common position in 1996. The US stepped up its sanctions following the
attack on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her political
entourage in 2003.

Businessmen at last week’s meeting also raised the issues of a dual
exchange mechanism and effective banking system, which are currently
lacking in Burma.

Last week’s gathering followed a meeting between Prime Minister Gen Soe
Win, UMFCCI officials and business people in Naypyidaw in late October.
Soe Win said the government’s policy makers were trying to generate trade
policies to help entrepreneurs export their products at fair prices and
find new markets.

Soe Win said trade by private businesses accounted for more 90 percent of
Burma’s GDP.  The government was creating better opportunities for trade
development, he said—adding that the total volume of Burma’s trade was
expected to reach US $7 billion in 2006-2007.

____________________________________

November 14, Deutsche Press-Agentur
Myanmar veterans mark National Day with renewed call for democracy

Yangon: Aging veterans of Myanmar's (Burma's) independence struggle
gathered Tuesday to mark the country's 86th National Day, calling on the
ruling junta to open a sincere dialog with the opposition to restore
democracy.

In a low-key ceremony honouring General Aung San and other independence
leaders, the veterans were joined by ranking members of the National
League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by Aung San's daughter, Aung San
Suu Kyi, in calling for reforms in the military-ruled nation.

"Though we have attained Independence the nation has disintegrated to
strife of armed struggles because of sectarianism, mistrust and disunity
up to the present," said Thakhin Thein Pe, 92, in a speech in Mayangone
Township.

He called for a dialog between the military government and the NLD to
bring about a quick transition to democracy.

However, he said previous appeals by veteran politicians have been met by
suspicion by government ministers and the state-run media, which have
accused the civilian political leaders of being terrorists.

Despite repeated calls for her release, Aung San Suu Kyi remains under
house arrest and the military continues to monopolize political power.

The National Day ceremony commemorates the 86th anniversary of a 1920
strike by Burmese students that is considered the beginning of the
country's independence struggle, which culminated in independence from
Britain in 1948.

But the struggle for freedom was side-tracked by a military coup in 1962
and the country has been ruled by a series of brutal juntas since then.

"After 28 years we attained independence, winning victories in the
struggles against the British imperialism and Japanese fascism. Then we
fell into the abyss of internal strife involving armed insurrections. Up
to now we have not tasted independence as yet," said a four-page appeal by
the veteran politicans.

They called for sincere three-way talks between the junta, the NLD and the
country's ethnic minority groups with the aim of establishing a broadly
based democratic government.

____________________________________

November 14, Irrawaddy
Burma celebrates National Day - Shah Paung

Pro-democracy activists in Burma marked National Day on Tuesday with calls
for reconciliation, an end to military domination and the release of
political prisoners.

More than 1,000 people attended the two ceremonies in Rangoon—at the
headquarters of the National League for Democracy and at the home of
veteran politician Thakhin Thein Pe.

The NLD ceremonies were attended by members of the 88 Generation Students
group of former student leaders, the Committee Representing the People’s
Parliament, veteran politicians and representatives of ethnic groups.

The NLD issued a statement calling for national reconciliation, a meeting
between the regime and Aung San Suu Kyi and the release of her and other
political prisoners. The NLD also called on the regime to allow its
offices to reopen nationwide and to cease its pressure on NLD members to
resign from the party.

The 88 Generation Students group also issued a statement calling on the
regime to end its military activity and to work on solving the country’s
problems.

In an official regime message, carried in the government newspaper New
Light of Myanmar, junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe declared: “With energetic
efforts, we all will have to build a new peaceful, modern and developed
democratic state where discipline flourishes.”

The government was implementing its seven-point road map as the nation’s
own policy program for transition to a democratic state, the newspaper
said.

Burma celebrates National Day on the 10th day following the full moon of
the month of Tazaungmon, which is November 14 on this year’s Western
calendar. It is a day steeped in political significance, commemorating a
boycott by Burmese university students to protest the British colonial
administration’s Rangoon University Act of 1920.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 14, Bangkok Post via Thai Press Reports
Thai companies active in investment in energy projects in Myanmar (Burma)
- Moe Kyaw

Thai energy companies have been among the largest investors in  
resource-rich Myanmar (Burma), helping to push the country's foreign
direct investment (FDI) to a record high level. According to data released
by the Pyinmana government last month, FDI into the country rose to $6.07
billion in the 2005-06 fiscal year that ended on March 31. The figure was
up from just $158 million the previous year, driven almost entirely by
$6.03 billion worth of Thai investments in the power sector.

The state-owned firms Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat),
PTT Plc and its subsidiary, PTT Exploration and Production Plc, have all
put money into Burma in an effort to tap its natural resources. Egat has
invested more than $150 million in the mega-dam project on the Salween
River. The rising price of crude oil and the search for natural gas have
prompted both PTT and PTTEP to invest heavily in Burma's oil and gas
sector.

Oil and gas play a significant role in Thai-Burma trade. PTT, majority
controlled by the Thai government, has been buying all the gas from the
Yadana and Yetagun offshore oil concessions in the Gulf of Martaban.

In the 2005 calendar year, PTT imported 62.75 billion baht worth of
natural gas from Yadana and Yetagun. This was a sharp increase from the
16.79 billion baht worth of gas the company imported in 2004.

Apart from oil and gas products, Burma also exports teak and hardwood, raw
furniture and marine products.

Trade volume between Thailand and Burma jumped to $2.22 billion in 2005
from $1.96 billion in 2004, according to Thai Customs statistics. But,
according to official figures released by the Burmese government, the
total trade volume is only $778 million. The border trade statistics
released by the two countries have always been substantially different.

Last year, the amount exported to Burma released by the Thai Customs
Department was nine times higher than the Burmese official data showed.

The difference in trade volume could also be due to the use of
unconventional routes among traders, as many border checkpoints exist on
the long porous border between the two countries.

The two countries share three official border trade zones: Mae
Sot-Myawaddy, Ranong-Kawthaung and Mae Sai-Tachilek.

____________________________________

November 14, Yonhap (South Korea)
S. Korea approves regular flight services to Myanmar

Seoul: South Korea on Monday gave the green light for the country's two
flag carriers to operate regular direct flights to Myanmar for the first
time, the government said.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation said Korean Air and Asiana
Airlines will provide seven weekly flights from Incheon International
Airport, the country's main international gateway, to Yangon, the
Southeast Asian country's capital. The two companies previously had no
regular flights on the route, although Korean Air started charter flights
to Yangon in May.

No. 1 carrier Korean Air was also allowed 13 new weekly flights from South
Korea to Cambodia, while rival Asiana Airlines was allowed 11 flights, up
from the previous six per week.

Korean Air was also awarded seven weekly flights linking Incheon and
China's central city of Zhengzhou. while Asiana Airlines was permitted to
run 20 new weekly flights from South Korea's southwestern city of Gwangju
to Beijing, the ministry said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 14, OneWorld South Asia
Exiled Burmese urge India to rethink its Burma policy - Rahul Kumar

New Delhi: Exiled political leaders from Burma have expressed their
anguish at the Indian government’s policy of appeasing the Burmese
military junta that has internationally been seen as committing gross
human rights violations and suppressing its own people.

The India Social Forum (ISF), a potpourri of culture, political debates,
youth activism and everything anti-establishment, provided the right
platform for exiled Burmese leaders and students to lament India’s growing
proximity with the military regime in Burma, renamed Myanmar. The exiles
not only took out protest marches but also organised a seminar -
Participation of India in Burma’s Democracy.

Member of Parliament from Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
party, National League for Democracy (NLD), Dr Tint Swe urged the Indian
government to change its stance towards the military regime and instead
support the Burmese people for restoration of democracy in his country.

Dr Swe, who has been living in exile in New Delhi for around 16 years
lamented: “Till the 1988 uprising for democracy, we enjoyed India's
support but now India is warming up to Burma because of four factors –
improved Chinese relations with Burma, turmoil in North East India,
economic opportunities and import of gas. We wish that India would promote
democracy in Burma which will also lend stability to India's troubled
North East."

Indian analysts agree and too want a change in India’s foreign policy.
Executive director of Delhi-based NGO - The Other Media - Ravi Hemadri
said: “India’s role cannot be underestimated in Burma’s situation. Indian
companies – both private sector as well as public sector – are keen to
invest in Burma where lax labour laws and environmental laws are in force.
Just about 10 years back this was not so in trade and external relations.”

Hemadri added: “Our earlier policy included supporting pro-democracy
students, providing camps for Burmese refugees in the North Eastern state
of Mizoram and we even gave a Jawaharlal Nehru Award to Aung San Suu Kyi.
Now when the Indian President went to Burma a few months back he did not
even inquire about her or utter her name.”

Social activist Jaya Srivastava feels that globalization and
marginalisation are the culprits that have forced countries as well as
corporates to queue up to Burma as an economic and trade partner.

Srivastava said: “It is because of globalization that companies are
looking at resource rich regions and Burma is just one of them that can be
used to make profit. It is for the same reason that countries also want to
improve their relations with the military regime.”

Srivastava added: “The spectrum of marginalization is so large in the
Indian society - political and business classes - that the Burmese issue
has been marginalized. Rural India, North East India and many other
sections have been marginalized. Even the media does not cover most of
these issues. But the question is how do we get out of this
marginalisation?

She suggested that the exiled Burmese people link up with the various
movements and struggles in India.

“The Burmese will have reach out to other groups – student, environmental,
social and political - and tell them about the Burmese cause. Only will
you be able to take your fight for democracy forward,” suggested
Srivastava to an audience that mostly comprised Burmese youth.

But Swe brought out the ground realities. He said: “There was a time when
entire Burma would be glued to radio sets to listen to All India Radio’s
news, features and pro-democracy speeches of our political leaders. But
now the radio does not even take the name of Aung San Suu Kyi, most
probably due to Indian government directives. People stopped listening to
it and prefer other foreign radio services for news on Burma.”

He lamented that India prevented the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) from taking measures against the Burmese regime for its forced
labour practices.

“India along with three other countries supported the military regime for
its poor human rights record over forced labour. All construction in Burma
has been done by the military regime through forced labour. It is simple.
Every family is asked to provide one person for work and no money or food
is given for that work,” said the exiled Burmese leader.

Hemadri says the exiled leaders get maximum support from the Scandinavian
and other European countries but Indian government’s policies towards
Burma are important as India is a big neighbour. “The world looks at India
and China for their relations over Burma which is why Indian support is
necessary for democracy in my country.”

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 14, Irrawaddy
Annan letter to junta calls for Suu Kyi’s release - Clive Parker

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has made another plea to the head of
Burma’s government, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, to release National League for
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, a UN spokesperson
said on Monday.

The message, delivered by UN Under Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari
during his meeting with the junta leader in Naypyidaw on Saturday, also
“urged a government security review, which should lead to the release of
other detained persons,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in
New York.

There are currently more than 1,100 political prisoners detained in
Burmese jails.

Annan also stressed in the letter that the international community expects
“concrete actions” by the Burmese government following Gambari’s four-day
trip to Burma last week.

The Irrawaddy understands that the junta was receptive on the issue of
Aung San Suu Kyi’s situation during discussions with Gambari on Saturday.
The government has in the past, though, ignored UN calls for the release
of the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Following Gambari’s first visit to Burma in May, Annan appealed to Than
Shwe “to do the right thing” by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi, but a day
later, a representative of the authorities visited the NLD leader’s
lakeside home in Rangoon with the news that her detention would be
extended for a further 12 months.

Afterwards, Dujarric said on behalf of Annan that the Burmese government
had “missed a significant opportunity to confirm
its expressed commitment
to move toward true national reconciliation and all-inclusive democracy,
as well as improved relations with the international community.”

____________________________________

November 14, The Independent
A portrait of a lady defiant - Kate Thomas

The Lady of Burma, The Old Vic, London

There is silence. A light shines on the crumpled form of Aung San Suu Kyi.
To her left is the blood-red flag of Burma's National League for
Democracy; to her right, a simple bamboo hut. Still silence.

Such is the life of Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, portrayed by Liana Mau Tan
Gould in this special performance of The Lady of Burma at the Old Vic.
Democratically elected as the leader of Burma in 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi
has never been allowed to govern her country. Under arrest in her own
home, she isn't allowed to see her friends or her family; all visitors are
banned. Her phone line is cut and her post is intercepted. She has nothing
in her life but this simple bamboo hut - and her cause.

The director, Richard Shannon, could have let the silence linger. It would
have served as a powerful reminder of the 11 years Suu Kyi has spent
alone.

But that would not have made for such an entertaining evening. When Gould
eventually rises, and begins a one-woman interpretation of Suu Kyi's life,
the crowd - and it is a crowd, not an audience; the support for the cause
is palpable - breaks into applause.

Rarely is a show with so few props so powerful. A red cloth becomes a
child. A soft breeze lends it life - and then, as Gould recounts one of
the many massacres that have claimed the lives of children in Burma, it
falls to the ground. It is a pool of blood. It stays there. Nobody comes
to take it away.

Gould tells of how Suu Kyi's husband Michael Aris, an Oxford scholar, was
denied the right to visit her in Burma, even as he knew he was dying from
cancer. Aris's friends and family must be among those here this evening.
So transfixed is the crowd that even in the Old Vic, where the sound of
the seats creaking and the walls shrinking is usually part of the
performance, there is quiet.

As the soliloquy draws to a close, there is an unexpected eruption of
emotion from the solitary figure on stage. Oh, how this calm, graceful
woman has suffered. And then there is silence. But a light shines on
Gould's crumpled form, and does not go out. The lady of Burma may live in
solitude, but tonight she is not alone.

"The one-woman performance was the best way of telling Suu Kyi's story,"
says Maureen Lipman, hosting the second part of the evening in conjunction
with the Burma Campaign UK. "Humanising a political crisis is the best way
of bringing it to the people."

Lipman is joined by Neil and Glenys Kinnock, John Pilger, Annie Lennox and
Prunella Scales. "When a cause attracts campaigners as different as John
Pilger and myself, you don't need me to tell you how much anger and
resentment against the Burmese junta there is," Neil Kinnock says. A
gravelly voiced Lennox, having just flown in from New York, relays a
message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a vehement campaigner for Burmese
democracy. "Men, armed to the teeth, are running scared of Suu Kyi," she
reads. "When those men are no more than the flotsam and jetsam of history,
her name will be emblazoned in of gold. She has already won, and they know
they have lost."

The evening ends with an address by the young human-rights campaigner and
ethnic Karen refugee Zoya Phan, who, in traditional Burmese dress, tells
the audience that she wants nothing more than to go back home. While her
eyes express desperation, her words, even as she cries: "I hope I have
wrapped my arms around your heart," do not sound trite. "But I do not want
your heart," she continues: "I do not want your words. I want your
actions." Her soft Burmese lilt lends urgency to her pleas, and as she
walks away to a standing ovation, there is not a dry eye in the house.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 14, Boston Globe
A glimpse into Burma's cage

The United Nations' special envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, met over the
weekend with the chief of Burma's ruling junta, General Than Shwe, and
then with Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. He was supposed to be
delivering a tough message to one of the world's most brutal dictators,
and demonstrating solidarity with a woman who has been incarcerated for 10
of the past 17 years because of her devotion to democracy, human rights,
and non violence. Instead, he was played for a pawn in the junta's game.

The regime's aim in hosting Gambari was transparent. Having been placed on
the agenda of the UN Security Council because of its record of violent
repression, forced labor, atrocities against ethnic minorities, and
narco-trafficking, the junta faces the prospect of a council resolution
demanding substantive changes. As it has done in the past, the regime is
seeking to substitute the trappings of diplomatic dialogue for any
meaningful political reforms.

The ruling generals want to avoid having to release Suu Kyi and the 1,200
other political prisoners they hold under horrific conditions. The
Security Council has also called for political reconciliation with Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy, the party that won 82 percent of
parliamentary seats in a 1990 election the junta refused to honor. If Than
Shwe had wanted to signal a real interest in acceding to the Security
Council's requirements for reform, he could have freed Suu Kyi, or at
least released some of the other political prisoners, while Gambari was in
Burma.

The absence of any substantive concessions from the junta during the visit
from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy made Gambari's statement that
he was "very satisfied" with his trip to Burma seem incongruous at best.

The photo that was released of a smiling Gambari standing alongside a
visibly grim Suu Kyi cannot be taken as a sign that his visit caused the
regime to change its despotic ways. On the contrary, her pose and
expression suggest something like a hostage's resistance to having her
photo used for the junta's propaganda purposes. Indeed, Gambari said
afterward that she asked to be able to see her doctor more often; in the
past, months have gone by without her doctor being allowed to examine her.

What is needed now is for the governments that placed Burma on the
Security Council's agenda to adopt a resolution instructing the junta to
release all political prisoners, undertake national reconciliation leading
to a genuine transition to democracy, and stop the ongoing ethnic
cleansing of minorities. This would be the clearest sign that the UN takes
seriously the obligation it adopted last year to protect civilian
populations from their own abusive regimes.