BurmaNet News, November 16, 2006

[Editor]

November 16, 2006 Issue # 3089

INSIDE BURMA
Fortune International: In harm’s way
Irrawaddy: Student in Rangoon creates Burmese language SMS
AP: Myanmar state media denounces U.S. occupation of Iraq
Myanmar Times: Young Yangonites frustrated with job search

BUSINESS / TRADE
Myanmar Times: Privatisations offer risk and reward

REGIONAL
AP: Southeast Asian leaders to discuss security and trade with Bush

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: ILO to report Myanmar forced labor complaints to Security Council
Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky): Louisville haven for new refugees

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation via Thai Press Reports: Global community rethinking approach to
get Myanmar (Burma) to undertake political reform

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 27, Fortune International
In harm’s way - Daniel Pepper

A proposed pipeline in Myanmar has farmers worried about their land and
human rights activists up in arms.

Thein Aung, a 50-year-old rice farmer with stubby toes and calloused
hands, pauses from his work in the sweltering September heat. He is racing
to finish harvesting one crop so that he can plant a second. If he
doesn’t, or if he refuses to hand over 20% of his output from both crops
to local military authorities, he will be arrested.  The country, Thein
says, is getting worse day by day.

The country is Myanmar, also known as Burma, and its military government
regularly confiscates land, uses forced labor, and levies exorbitant
taxes, according to farmers interviewed along the crumbling one-lane
asphalt road that connects the towns on the Kaladan River in western
Myanmar to India s eastern border. Their testimonies are backed up by
human rights groups like Amnesty International, which calls such treatment
routine, along with the torture of political opponents and extrajudicial
killings. The U.S. and the EU have had economic and political sanctions
against the regime for a decade, and this fall the UN Security Council
took up the issue of applying them more broadly.

The U.S. sanctions were triggered in part by what human rights groups
consider one of the great outrages of developing Asia the 1993
construction of a Unocal pipeline from the offshore Yadana gas field
through a thin stretch of southern Myanmar into Thailand. Villages along
the route were depopulated by soldiers who dragooned inhabitants to work
on the pipeline, and raped and killed along the way.

Now concerns are building that it could happen again, here in Arakan state
along the Bay of Bengal. The Indian government is proposing the
construction of a pipeline running from the Shwe gas fields 20 miles off
Myanmar s coast overland to India. Construction hasn’t begun yet, but
feasibility studies are complete, and experts say gas could begin pumping
by 2009. The field shwe  means  gold  in Burmese contains as much as 8.6
trillion cubic feet of gas, making it among the largest in Southeast Asia.
 The military s propensity for violence and systematic injustice has not
changed,  says Matthew Smith, a project coordinator at EarthRights
International, a U.S. nonprofit group that sued Unocal over the Yadana
pipeline.  And barring a radical and unexpected political change in
Myanmar, such violence will continue to be reflected in the Shwe project.

An added complication is the fight that s brewing between India and China
over who gets the gas. The field is being developed by South Korea s
Daewoo International, a spinoff from the now-defunct Daewoo conglomerate,
which has a 60% stake in the operation. India s ONGC Videsh, a subsidiary
of state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corp., owns 20%. The two remaining 10%
stakes belong to the Gas Authority of India and Korean Gas. India and
South Korea, along with China and Thailand, have made bids for the gas,
and Myanmar s government has signed memorandums with both India and China
for as yet unspecified amounts.

The regime claims there is enough gas to go around, but India, because of
its proximity, is clearly expecting the lion s share, especially after
discussions between India, Myanmar, and Bangladesh to build a shorter
pipeline through Bangladesh collapsed last year when India said terms set
by Bangladesh were unacceptable.  As far as we re concerned, we will
implement the pipeline inside India, says Rajiv Mathur, who oversees
sourcing at Gas Authority of India.

Gas Authority s current proposal calls for a much longer 900-mile pipeline
to skirt Bangladesh, cut through the state of Assam, and connect to an
existing pipeline network in Bihar, one of India s poorest states. That
would help India provide energy to underserved markets in eastern India,
Mathur says. But the $2.2 billion pipeline would cross through India s
restive eastern states, where low-level insurgencies keep the military
actively engaged.

The consortium would construct the Myanmar portion of the pipeline, which
would be less than 200 miles long, most likely on land cleared by the
regime. As for possible human rights abuses along the way, what they do
there is their business, says Mathur.  We hope they proceed by
international laws, ethics, and norms.

Based on figures from previous pipeline deals, Myanmar s military regime
stands to make as much as $17 billion from the gas fields, by far its
largest energy windfall to date. David Mathieson, a researcher at Human
Rights Watch, a U.S. watchdog group, says that any gas deals would help
finance repression in Burma. Mathieson argues that in addition to abuses
that may take place along the route of the future pipeline, profits
accruing to the military regime will help it solidify its hold on power. 
Where do you think that the money is going to go?  he says.  It’s not
going to education or health programs it’s going to the military to build
a better command-and-control center to repress the population.

For human rights activists like Mathieson, the Unocal case looms large.
EarthRights International sued Unocal in California on behalf of Myanmar
villagers, using a 1789 U.S. tort law allowing noncitizens to sue for
civil damages in U.S. courts. A California superior court judge agreed to
let the case go to trial, but in March 2005, after eight years of
litigation, Unocal settled for an undisclosed amount. Its stake in the
pipeline grandfathered under U.S. sanctions is now owned by Chevron, which
bought Unocal last year.

Myanmar spends at least 40% of its budget on the military and little on
health and education. It claims astounding GDP growth rates of 12%, but
Sean Turnell, head of Burma Economic Watch at Macquarie University in
Sydney, says the real figure is between 1.5% and 4% and that, he cautions,
is solely a consequence of the high prices Burma can now command for its
exports of natural gas.

Myanmar s growing energy sector accounts for about a quarter of the
country s official GDP, while opium production makes up the largest
portion of the informal economy.

Myanmar is tied with Turkmenistan for the No. 2 spot in Transparency
International’s ranking of the world s most corrupt countries. While no
one is making accusations of dirty dealing, the same organization ranks
India and China as the two countries most likely to pay bribes to clinch
overseas contracts. India has recently offered increased arms sales to the
regime, including costly surveillance aircraft, tanks, helicopters, and
mortars. Daewoo has also been supplying military hardware and is now under
investigation in South Korea for doing so illegally. Chinese aid to
Myanmar was officially reported to be $100 million in 2005, but unofficial
estimates are in the billions over the past decade. The formal deals alone
are controversial, says Smith of EarthRights International.  These deals
will have severe social and environmental consequences for thousands of
innocent people, both in Burma and in India s northeast.

____________________________________

November 16, Irrawaddy
Student in Rangoon creates Burmese language SMS

A Burmese-language Short Messaging Service, or SMS, will soon be available
for mobile phone users in Burma, according to a report in the state-run
Kyemon newspaper on Thursday. The announcement of the new service—called
MySM—was made a day earlier during a press briefing at Rangoon’s Trader’s
Hotel, where the system’s creator, third-year Rangoon Computer University
student Maung Htoo Myint, explained the new system. Mobile phone service
was first made available in Burma in 2000, while SMS was introduced in
2004—only in English. MySM will allow users to send short text messages in
Burmese and English, and is expected to be available by the end of this
year. Maung Htoo Myint has also designed a mobile phone-based
English-to-Burmese dictionary that will be available to users some time in
the future. Further details of the new MySM service have been posted
online at www.mymyanmar.net/mobile.

____________________________________

November 16, Associated Press
Myanmar state media denounces U.S. occupation of Iraq

Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar's state media said Thursday that the United
States-led occupation of Iraq proved that sanctions and invading a country
were not the path to democracy.

A commentary entitled "Democracy Lesson Provided by Iraq", published in
the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, said the turmoil in Iraq showed it was
not easy to transform a country into a democracy.

"It is undeniable that Iraq during the time of Saddam Hussein was the most
powerful country in the Middle East," the commentary said. "Then came the
U.S. sanctions imposed on Iraq followed by invasion with excuses to
liberate the Iraqi people and plant democracy in the country."

The commentary added: "It is very doubtful that (Iraq's) puppet
government, relying on foreign assistance and alien troops deployed in
Iraq ... will be able to transform the nation into a democratic one."

Commentaries in Myanmar's state-owned newspapers are interpreted as the
viewpoint of the ruling military junta, which is the target of U.S. and
European Union sanctions because of its poor human rights record and
failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Myanmar's junta is also under pressure from the United Nations. The U.N.
Security Council took the historic step in September of putting the
country on its agenda, meaning that the regime is subject to greater U.N.
scrutiny.

Military governments have ruled Myanmar since 1962. The current regime
came to power in 1988 after violently crushing a pro-democracy movement.

The junta called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when the
vote was won by the opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who won a
Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the past 17 years in detention, mostly under house
arrest. The junta says she is a threat to security in Myanmar.

____________________________________


November 6-12, Myanmar Times
Young Yangonites frustrated with job search - Khin Nyein Aye Than

Three young people in their early 20s are gathered near the lift in Pyi
Myanmar department store at Hledan Junction, staring at a board on which
notices advertising job vacancies have been posted.

It is a common scene in the Hledan area, where many young adults live in
hostels and attend classes, and where businesses looking for workers post
job notices in crowded areas.

One of the three job seekers, a recent English graduate from Dagon
University named Zaw Zaw, sighs as he read through the job postings.

“I don’t see anything that suits my educational background,” he says, “but
I want to find a good job.”

Kaythi, another recent Dagon University graduate with a degree in English
who has also taken private computer and secretarial courses, says she is
tired of trying to survive in Yangon without a job.

“In addition to job boards, I also read job vacancy ads in journals and
newspapers regularly,” she says. “When I see a job I like I apply for it,
but so far it seems like I’m just wasting money buying forms to apply at
job agencies because I haven’t been hired anywhere yet.”

“Some jobs offer salaries that are too low, like K20,000, but my monthly
expenses in Yangon are at least K50,000,” she says with a hint of
frustration in her voice. “If I can’t find a job in the next six months,
my family wants me to go back to Bago where they live and help with the
retail shop we opened in our home.”

Recent university graduates say that finding a good job with a high salary
is difficult nowadays, especially with employers demanding increased
proficiency in computer, foreign language and communication skills.

“The demand for good employees is rising and most companies want qualified
and experienced staff members,” says a human resources consultant in
Yangon. “Most qualified workers are already employed in good positions, so
young people who want to start working need to pad their qualifications by
taking professional courses like business, sales and marketing.”

“But the number of certificates they have won’t guarantee a good job if
they don’t have much work experience,” he adds. “Balance is essential.”

The increasing need to take professional courses poses additional
difficulties, as many young people who are not employed or are not from
wealthy families have trouble affording the course fees.

Kyaw Zeya is one recent graduate who found that having a university degree
alone wasn’t enough to secure a job.

“I just got a degree in mathematics from East University Yangon and I’m
working as sales promoter at the pharmaceutical company, but my aim is to
be a sales and marketing professional,” he says.

To achieve that goal, he says he has to take professional courses in sales
and marketing to supplement his education.

“When I asked about the fees for a diploma course I was upset to find that
a six-month course costs more than six months of my salary, and my family
can’t afford to pay either,” he says. “For now, I’m gaining sales
experience at my current job and saving money to take the courses. I’m
sure I’ll be able to take them someday, but the question is, when?”

According to the human resources consultant, Kyaw Zeya is smart to start
with a basic-level job in his field of choice to gain work experience
before applying for a higher-level job.

“Most young people are too choosy about their job titles – they all want
to start in high positions instead of at the basic level,” the consultant
says. “But work experience is a very important criterion for employers, so
it should be for young people as well.”

Some young adults are so desperate to find a good job that they end up
getting cheated in the process of looking for work.

Yangon resident Ye Win, now a star employee at a local company, recalls a
time shortly after he graduated from university when he was applying to
every job he could find that suited his qualifications.

During his job search, a fellow student at an English class told Ye Win
that he could help him get a job at a company where he knew the manager.
However, the classmate suggested that Ye Win buy the manager gifts to
ensure that he got the job.

“So, I gave my classmate K50,000 to buy a gift basket for the manager, and
after that I never saw him in class again,” Ye Win says. “Then I realised
I had been cheated.”

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 6-12, Myanmar Times
Privatisations offer risk and reward - Win Kyaw Oo and Zaw Htet

A girl empties a sack of paddy at a private rice mill in Ayeyarwady
Division. The government will privatise three rice mills in the same
division, which industry experts say could be good buys for investors.
Pic: Aye Zaw Myo

AS bidding closed on the government’s latest wave of privatisations last
Monday, Myanmar business leaders said they welcomed the initiative but
warned risks as well as rewards awaited investors.

“We could enjoy some benefits by taking over the state’s privatised
factories, but there might also be challenges along the way,” U Zaw Min
Oo, joint secretary of the Myanmar Garment Association, told The Myanmar
Times, citing a difficult business climate in Myanmar at present.

Point in case: a thread factory in Yankin township, Yangon, being run by
the Ministry of Industry (1) and up for sale with a base asking price
K43.63 million.

Seeking to supply a domestic garment industry struggling to find its feet
after losing important Western markets in 2003, the factory is yet to
succeed in producing high-quality thread required for clothing that is
destined for picky consumer markets, such as Japan’s, said U Zaw Min Oo, a
director at Crocodile Trading Co., Ltd, which owns garment factories in
Myanmar producing for export.

He noted that most raw materials used by the Myanmar garment industry were
imported from neighbouring countries.

Furthermore, succeeding in turning out high-quality thread would likely
require additional investment to upgrade machinery, U Zaw Min Oo said,
adding that a shortage of skilled labour would also have to be addressed.

“There are only 150 garment factories in Myanmar while Bangladesh has 4000
such factories. So there is less potential in Myanmar to make money by
investing in a factory like a thread mill,” he said.

The Yankin plant is one of six state-run enterprises the Privatisation
Commission announced on October 20 were to be sold under a competitive
bidding system.

The others include an ice factory and cold storage facility being run by
the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in the Thai border town of Kaw
Thaung, Taninthayi Division. With a base asking price of K712.529 million
it is the most expensive of the privatisations.

In Ayeyarwady Division, three rice mills – two in Lapputa township
(K123.34 million and K328.31 million) and one in Einme (K100.44 million) –
as well as a bran mill in Mawlimyinegyun (K208.05 million) are to be
transferred out of the care of the Ministry of Commerce.

But while U Zaw Min Oo said it would be tough for investors to get a
greater share of the local thread market and garment-sector industrialists
were too occupied with their current operations to consider taking on the
thread factory, the mill sales generated more positive responses.

“The privatisation of rice mills is good for the government as well as for
the private sector,” said U Win Aye Pe, joint secretary of the Myanmar
Rice Millers Association.

He claimed the government’s mills were superior to Myanmar’s
private-sector mills in both capacity and brand-acceptance in the market.

“Even though state-owned rice mills are outdated, they still function
better than privately-operated ones,” he said.

There are 70 state-owned rice mills across Myanmar, most of which use
machinery imported from Japan, he said. “As far as I know, all of them are
in good running order.”

He added that private rice millers tended to opt for cheaper Chinese
machinery that was generally recognised to be of poorer quality than
Japanese equipment.

The government’s mills were also often built on large plots of land, U Win
Aye Pe said.

“All in all, the mills will be of good use to private businesspeople,” he
said.
As for the cold storage facility in Kaw Thaung, Dr Aung Lwin, managing
director of marine exporter Pyi Phyo Tun Co. Ltd, said it would be a
challenge for investors to control labour mobility.

“That’s because the facility is located in a town on the Thai border,
which means there is a high tendency for labour to move into the
neighbouring country in search of better job opportunities and more
attractive wages,” he said.

However, another seafood exporter, U Thet Aung, pointed out that the cold
storage facility was well-positioned to facilitate the quick delivery of
marine products to Thailand, whose market consistently showed high demand
for seafood.

The six factories now on offer comprise the third state sell-off by the
Privatisation Commission this year, following the announcement of the sale
of 12 state-run enterprises in April and another 11 in June.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 16, Associated Press
Southeast Asian leaders to discuss security and trade with Bush - Jim Gomez

Hanoi: Southeast Asian leaders and U.S. President George W. Bush will
discuss ways to enhance trade and counterterrorism cooperation when they
meet on the sidelines of a summit of Pacific Rim countries this weekend,
officials said Thursday.

Bush and leaders of seven countries belonging to the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations will meet Saturday in Hanoi, where they will be
attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Singapore Foreign
Minister George Yeo said.

"We'll be talking about the importance of the Americans continuing to take
a strong interest in this region," he said.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said the ministers would
discuss political, economic and security issues along with the concerns of
individual ASEAN members.

After the meeting, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will have
a 45-minute talk with Bush, according to Filipino officials.

Thailand's new prime minister, Surayud Chulanont, has no plan to raise any
issue, Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsongkram said. The United States
has denounced the Sept. 19 military coup that ousted former leader Thaksin
Shinawatra as a setback for democracy, and has urged the government to end
martial law.

Total trade between ASEAN and the U.S. rose 12.4 percent to US$152 billion
last year.

In August, the U.S. and ASEAN signed a Trade and Investment Facilitation
Arrangement, a nonbinding agreement aimed at bolstering trade and
investment.

After signing the pact with ASEAN ministers in Malaysia, U.S. Trade
Representative Susan Schwab stressed it would not prod Washington to lift
economic sanctions or ease its criticism of military-ruled Myanmar over
its poor human rights record. Myanmar is an ASEAN member.

Although economic cooperation is likely to top the agenda at Bush's talks
with ASEAN members, Myanmar may also be discussed, Indonesian Foreign
Minister Hassan Wirayuda said earlier.

Washington has also been concerned over the presence of al-Qaida-linked
militants in Southeast Asia. It has deployed troops to the southern
Philippines to help train and arm Philippine forces battling Muslim
militants who have been linked to Osama bin Laden's network.

ASEAN, meanwhile, has reiterated its willingness to help broker six-party
talks over the North Korean nuclear standoff by offering the Philippines
as a neutral venue for the negotiations, Romulo said late Wednesday. He
said he discussed the offer with other diplomats, including his Vietnamese
counterpart, and there had been no definite reply yet.

ASEAN, currently chaired by the Philippines, protested North Korea's
recent nuclear test, saying it threatened Asian peace and security.

ASEAN members Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam also belong to APEC. Its other members are Cambodia,
Laos and Myanmar.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 16, Agence France Presse
ILO to report Myanmar forced labor complaints to Security Council

Yangon: The UN's labor agency said Thursday it has decided to bring its
concerns about forced labor in Myanmar before the UN Security Council and
international courts in The Hague.

The decision by the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization
came amid growing frustration with Myanmar after a mission to the
military-ruled country ended last month at an impasse on how to respond to
complaints of forced labor.

The ILO has been trying for almost a decade to get Myanmar's government to
crack down on forced labor, but it said in its decision that the practice
remained prevalent.

"Forced labor is a scourge on humanity. Any government or regime intent on
perpetrating it will clash with the ILO head-on," the agency's director
general Juan Somavia said in a statement from Geneva.

"The ILO has been committed to dialogue with the Myanmar authorities to
solve the problem, but for some time now the message hasn't been getting
through to the Myanmar leadership -- maybe it's stuck on the desk of the
labor minister," he said.

"The door is still open, but if negotiations are not conducted in good
faith, then other ways have to be explored.
"This is what the Governing Body embarked on today in its reference to the
Security Council, the International Court of Justice and the International
Criminal Court."

The UN Security Council has already placed Myanmar on its agenda, amid
intense pressure from the United States for the country to improve its
rights record, make democratic reforms, and free opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

The labor agency said it would also prepare legal options with the
International Court of Justice, which was created 60 years ago to deal
with disputes between states.

Its rulings are final and without appeal but the court has no means of
enforcing them.
The ILO said it would also hand over documentation on forced labor to the
prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, the world's first
permanent war crimes tribunal.

Many of the complaints of forced labor were against Myanmar's military,
and some acts could constitute crimes against humanity.

The junta has officially banned forced labor, but the outside monitors say
little action has been taken to stop the practice.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International said last year that tens of
thousands of people were being forced into labor and suffering other
abuses.

____________________________________

November 16, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky)
Louisville haven for new refugees - Peter Smith

Families who fled Myanmar's violence are welcomed

Bundled in a turtleneck sweater and a jacket to cope with the unfamiliar
cold, Kwee Paw calmly described the terror that changed her life.

Nine years ago, she said, government soldiers destroyed everything in her
village in her native Myanmar, also known as Burma. She and her family
fled to another village, which the soldiers also destroyed.

"They came and burned everything, (took) everything from me," Kwee Paw,
26, said through an interpreter recently at the Kentucky Refugee
Ministries office in the Highlands. "I got nothing left. That's why I
(had) to go to Thailand. There's no way that we can stay."

She spent the ensuing years in a Thai camp, working by day on farms and
living among thousands of other refugees in cramped bamboo huts that
sweltered in the tropical sun beneath roofs of plastic sheets.

Now Kwee Paw and her husband, Beh Leh, are among the first Myanmar
refugees coming to Louisville after fleeing one of the world's most
notorious regimes.

More are arriving this week. Shortly after midnight yesterday, Ar Pay Moo;
his wife, Paw Thwe Moo, and their four young children arrived at
Louisville International Airport, where they were greeted by Catholic
Charities volunteers. They're staying at an apartment in the Bashford
Manor neighborhood and are beginning the orientation process this week.

They all are members of the Karen ethnic group, which for years has been
persecuted by the military government of Myanmar, a regime widely
criticized by the U.S. government and human-rights groups.

Beh Leh, 30, who met his wife in the refugee camp, said they are "happy"
to be in Louisville, where "we can live without fear."

The State Department earlier this year cleared the way for thousands of
Karens living in Thai refugee camps to come to the United States.
Louisville's two main refugee agencies, Catholic Charities and Kentucky
Refugee Ministries, expect to bring more than 200 Karens here between them
by next year.

The Karens are the latest ethnic group to take refuge in Louisville. They
follow recent migrations of such groups as Meskhetian Turks from Central
Asia, Bantus from Somalia and Dinkas from Sudan.

Kwee Paw, Beh Leh and a third refugee, Teh Shwe Pomya, 27, arrived about
two months ago and have been busy studying English and learning other
skills -- everything from how to open a bank account to how to use
American-style plumbing and electrical appliances.

The three spoke on a recent chilly afternoon after a class at the Kentucky
Refugee Ministries office on Cherokee Road. Mahn Saing, a Karen refugee
who came to Louisville on his own 16 years ago, translated for much of the
interview, although the others used newfound English phrases when
possible.

The newer refugees, like many Karens, are Christians. Pomya, who spent
seven years in a refugee camp, said their faith sustained them throughout
the ordeal. "We trust 
 that God will look after us," he said, as the
other two nodded.

Soft-spoken and subdued when describing the horrors of their life in
Myanmar, the refugees said America is vastly different from their past
lives, where they used kerosene for cooking and light and never saw snow
or a building taller than seven stories.

They had assumed America was full of whites speaking English, and were
surprised to find people of all races. They recently received bus
directions, for example, from Somalian refugees who are also learning the
language.

"I don't like cold, but it's OK," Kwee Paw said of the climate
differences. "We've got to face it."

Like other refugees, the three are getting financial help from the
government, businesses and nonprofit groups in their first months until
they can settle in and find work.

Some have only limited education and are experienced mainly in farm work.
Pomya, with a 10th-grade education, learned to use computers in the
refugee camp and taught younger people what he knew.

Saing said his fellow Karens are "very honest, hard-working people.
They're very gentle and simple. 
 They follow the Ten Commandments to a T.
They're very devoted."

Pomya, as one of the first to arrive, said he wants "to help people coming
after me. That's my primary goal because I arrived first."

Several churches are helping sponsor the refugees, setting them up in
apartments and helping them acclimate to American culture.

Pomya is living in an apartment on Southern Parkway, provided by Gateway
Community United Methodist Church. Kwee Paw and Beh Leh are living at the
Americana Apartments.

And two Episcopal parishes, St. Luke's and Christ Church Cathedral, are
preparing apartments for an extended family of Karens.

"I guess part of being a Christian is welcoming people," said Patti
LaMontagne of St. Luke's Church. "These people have been through terrible
circumstances. It's a chance to reach out and help someone in a new land
where they know no one."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 16, The Nation via Thai Press Reports
Global community rethinking approach to get Myanmar (Burma) to undertake
political reform

Myanmar's (Burma) national convention reopened last month amidst
heightening global concern about the ongoing political stalemate in that
country, The Nation reports.

The national convention is the first of the seven steps in the
government's roadmap to democracy, but has been dismissed by opposition
figures within and outside of Burma for lacking democratic principles.

As political reforms in Burma have been carried out with little success,
the global community is rethinking its approach to deal with the regime
more effectively. But this rethinking process is not an easy task. There
is great division in the global community over the prospects for political
change in Burma, the degree of threat Burma poses to  its neighbours, and
effective measures to encourage greater freedom in the country.

Despite the remaining policy differences among various countries towards
Burma, their aims and objectives have commonalities. These are the
achievement of national reconciliation, the restoration of democracy and
the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. It is therefore imperative to come up
with a common approach that would be best not only for Burma but for the
region too.

So far, the approaches of various countries have been mutually
contradictory. The United States considers Burma a  "serious threat to
peace and security", citing the junta's strategy that led to a range of
destabilising   problems, such as drugs and human trafficking. The
European Union's objective is however less strict, and its approach is
less emotional than the US. This explains why the EU agreed with the
multilateral approach in discussing Burma at the United Nations.

For Japan, democracy and human rights are uppermost in its foreign policy
objectives and its assistance to Burma has   thus been suspended.
Meanwhile, Australia has continued to provide modest indirect assistance
to Burma, such as conducting courses on human rights for Burmese police
personnel. But there has also been cautious engagement in areas that might
affect Australia's interests.

Asean seems to have changed its approach, particularly after Burma was
pressured to skip its turn at the rotating chairmanship of the
organisation. Thailand, sharing a common and volatile border with Burma,
has preferred engagement to sanctions, claiming that Burmese cooperation,
both bilaterally and in frameworks like ACMECS (Ayeyawady-Chao Phya-Mekong
Economic Cooperation Strategy), is paramount to the Thai national
interest.

Recognising these conflicting approaches, Burma successfully exercised its
weakness and problems as a tool to divide   its neighbours and great
powers and hit at their soft spots. These countries urgently need a common
approach to bring about changes in Burma. Such a process would require
some "give" on the part of each state, and with the right mix of stick and
carrot, there could be progress in Burma.

It is obvious that non-interference and total sanctions against Burma have
not worked during the past 16 years. On the contrary, they have generated
counterproductive results such as the extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest
and the  continuing imprisonment of Burmese political activists. The
sanctions also failed partly because the countries involved were far too
tactical and distracted by great power politics and other economic
interests.

A reassessment of this approach towards Burma is crucial, as it would be
foolish to sustain such a course of action when it has proven ineffective.
First and foremost, one has to reject a simplistic "black and white"
treatment of sanctions, where non-support for sanctions was equated with
support for the junta. In fact, Suu Kyi mentioned in 2002 that her
National League for Democracy party did not approve of all kinds of
international sanctions. Some humanitarian   assistance remains essential
for the ordinary Burmese.

The challenge facing the UN Security Council is the ability to handle the
issue with prudence and in a non-confrontational manner. It is worth
reconsidering whether Burma is really a "regional security threat" or if
this is a case of the situation being exaggerated. It is fair to say that
China, India and other countries in the region would not describe Burma as
a threat with which they cannot cope. It is also unlikely that Asean
perceives Burma as hindrance to its integration. Burma is simply a "black
mark" on Asean.

Such thinking is intended not to shield Burma from international
criticism, but to mirror the realities on the ground and to point where
sanctions met with failure. In the past, the sanctions were meant to hurt
the government, but on balance, they instead contributed to the economic
misery of the common people. Moreover, rather than isolating Burma, the
sanctions isolated the world from Burma and deprived it of influence over
the country's development.

What the international community needs now is "smart sanctions", in which
the imposition of sanctions is put forward alongside dialogue,
humanitarian assistance and the use of soft power. Not all countries need
to exercise the same degree of pressure against Burma. It depends on the
individual country. And Thailand can play its part through its engagement
policy with Burma.

Humanitarian intervention is vital in this process and where the Security
Council can advise alleviating the human rights situation in Burma.
Currently, Germany is the only European country that still gives
scholarships to Burmese officials. Educational assistance is fundamental
to changing the mindset of those in the government, and it is important
not to treat the Burmese government as a unitary actor. It was also a
mistake to include children of the Burmese elite in visa bans because this
prevents them from studying at Western universities.

The most ambitious, or rather controversial, suggestion here is to
encourage more trade, investment and other cultural activities with the
Burmese government. Tourism represents one key component because every
tourist is an agent of change and a source of income, not only for the
government but also for many individuals involved in the industry.

Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun is the author of 'A Plastic Nation: The Curse of
Thainess in Thai-Burmese Relations'.