BurmaNet News, November 30, 2006

[Editor]

November 30, 2006 Issue # 3096

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar junta says Suu Kyi in good health, has access to doctors
Irrawaddy: Regime accuses US of endangering Burma’s “Peace and Security”
Japan Economic Newswire: Myanmar denies ordering permanent closure of Red
Cross offices

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Thousands fleeing army campaign in Eastern Burma
SHAN: Increase in Burmese troops on the border

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Burma says it’s winning HIV/AIDS fight - Clive Parker

DRUGS
Mizzima: Amphetamine machine and contraband narcotics worth Rs. 300 crores
seized from Burmese - Muana
SHAN: Opium down, drug use up in the north

INTERNATIONAL
UPI: Rights group slams Burmese military

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 30, Associated Press
Myanmar junta says Suu Kyi in good health, has access to doctors

Myanmar's military junta has denied a U.N. contention that detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi lacks access to her doctors,
insisting her health remains good. "We allow the doctor to visit her once
a month or any time she requests it," Police Chief Maj. Gen. Khin Yi told
reporters at a press briefing late Wednesday at the country's new capital
of Naypyidaw. "She has not yet made any request for the doctor to see her.

"Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for political affairs,
met Suu Kyi for an hour on Nov. 11. Gambari said she seemed "reasonably
well" and alert but that she needs more regular medical attention.

Gambari's visit came two months after the U.N. Security Council took the
historic step of putting the country on its agenda in September, meaning
that Myanmar's ruling junta is subject to greater U.N. scrutiny.

The visit was Gambari's second since May, when he became the first
foreigner to see Suu Kyi in two years. Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the last 17
years in detention, mostly under house arrest.

Suu Kyi, 61, looked gaunt in a rare photo released by the United Nations
after her meeting with Gambari.Suu Kyi's physician, Tin Myo Win, is one of
her only connections with the outside world.

Until recently, he was allowed to visit about once a month. However, he
was recently quoted as saying that he had not seen her since Aug. 24
because of political developments in the country. He did not elaborate.

He visited her for the first time in nearly three months on Nov. 16 and
conducted an ultrasound examination at her request for general checkup
during the visit.

Yi confirmed that "the ultrasound results were good and there were no
gynecological problems.

"Suu Kyi underwent a major operation in September 2003 that other doctors
said was a gynecological procedure, and she suffered a stomach ailment in
June.

Myanmar's junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement
led by Suu Kyi.In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party
won a landslide election victory.

Since then, Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel peace prize, has been in and
out of detention. She is kept in near-solitary confinement at her home and
is generally not allowed telephone contact or outside visitors.

____________________________________

November 30, Irrawaddy
Regime accuses US of endangering Burma’s “Peace and Security” - Khun Sam

The Burmese regime on Wednesday turned the tables on the US attempt to
achieve UN Security Council action on Burma, maintaining that Washington,
not the Naypyidaw junta, threatened regional peace and security.

The regime’s sharp reaction followed news that the US is preparing a draft
Security Council resolution that would show Burma’s policies were a
“threat to international peace and security.”

Speaking at a press conference in Naypyidaw on Wednesday, Burma’s police
chief, Brig-Gen Khin Yi, said the threat came from the US, not Burma. “The
use of the Security Council to interfere in the internal affairs of
Myanmar [Burma] can destroy its peace and stability,” he said.

The resolution being drafted by the US, said Washington’s UN ambassador,
John Bolton, would seek to make Burma comply with “its obligations to
reduce the downward spiral of its performance that constitutes a threat to
international peace and security.”

Washington maintains that Burma threatens regional peace and stability by
failing to curb the trafficking of people and of narcotics, hinder the
cross-border spread of such highly contagious disease as HIV/AIDS and
malaria, and by policies leading to one million Burmese citizens fleeing
to neighboring countries.

The US lobbied hard to put Burma on the agenda of the 15-member council
over the opposition of China and Russia, who maintained the regime
represented no danger to peace and stability in the region.

Khin Yi said at the Naypyidaw press conference that Burma was being
unfairly tarnished with “unsubstantiated” allegations and that the US and
other critics were “turning a blind eye” to the country’s many welfare
achievements. Citing this year World Drug Report, he said that although
Burma remains the second largest producer of opium, it accounts for only 7
percent of worldwide production.

“The situation in Myanmar is something that does not need to be handled by
the Security Council,” he said. “Only then will it become a threat to
peace and security of the region as well as to the international community
as a whole.”

Burma’s Health Minister, Dr Kyaw Myint, and Education Minister Dr Chan
Nyein told the Naypyidaw press conference that progress was being achieved
in the areas of health and social welfare.

____________________________________


November 30, Japan Economic Newswire
Myanmar denies ordering permanent closure of Red Cross offices

Myanmar's police chief has denied the junta had ordered the International
Committee of the Red Cross to "close" its offices in the country, saying
it merely asked that the ICRC offices temporarily "suspend their
activities." "It is not true that we had issued the order to close their
offices," Police Chief Brig. Gen. Khin Yi told reporters Wednesday in
Myanmar's new administrative capital Naypyitaw.

He said the junta "asked them to suspend their activities for the time
being" pending the announcement of new rules and regulations to be
followed by foreign organizations in the country.

The ICRC said Monday in a statement that it "utterly deplores" the Myanmar
junta's order for it to close its field offices in Mandalay, Mawlamyine,
Hpa-an, Taunggyi and Kyaing Tong.

The five field offices provide humanitarian assistance to thousands of
people in sensitive border areas, support prisoners and their families,
and carry out rehabilitation work with land mine victims.

The ICRC lamented that the junta's move makes it "impossible for the
organization to carry out most of its assistance and protection work
benefiting civilians who live in difficult conditions in border areas.

"The statement said Myanmar authorities also announced that ICRC visits to
detainees, which were halted in December 2005, would not be allowed to
resume.

Due to restrictions placed on it by the junta, the ICRC said, its
activities in Myanmar in recent months have had to be scaled down, limited
to a few projects in the field of physical rehabilitation for amputees.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 30, Irrawaddy
Thousands fleeing army campaign in Eastern Burma - Shah Paung

More than 200 Burmese civilians fleeing Burmese army operations have
arrived at a refugee camp near the Thai border after a gruelling17-day
march and a further 3,000 are on their way, the New York-based Human
Rights Watch reported on Wednesday.

The refugees are enduring hunger and severe hardship to reach the safety
of Ei Tu Hta camp on the Burmese side of the Salween River, according to
the organization’s Asia director, Brad Adams. “The Burmese military
attacks villages, uses civilians for forced labor and steals their food
and money, forcing people to flee,” he said.

The military was acting in the ethnic region “like an occupying army,
using the population as expendable pawns,” Adams said. The military
operations in the region prevented villagers from “eking out even the
meanest existence.”

The regime’s Information Minister, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, has described the
current military offensive in Karen State as “clearing-up operations in
areas where hardcore KNU [Karen National Union] members are believed to be
hiding.”

Reports from the region, however, say regime troops are willfully
destroying villages, blockading whole communities and commandeering rice
fields. HRW says at least 45 civilians have so far been killed and 27,000
forced to flee. In the latest military action, seven Mon inhabitants of
Nyaunglebin township, in Pegu Division, died and 1,450 fled their homes.

In Htantapin township, also in Pegu division, troops had ordered villagers
to transport military supplies in their bullock carts. Each of more than
20 villages in the township had been ordered to make up to 25 bullock
carts available. Two villagers had been killed in the military action.

In the past two months, said KNU General-Secretary Mahn Sha, more than 700
farms had been destroyed in Htantapin township, 500 in Thandaung township
and more than 280 in the Papun areas. Troops of the 66th division were
blockading villages in Thandaung township, preventing inhabitants from
leaving to buy food.

A Free Burma Rangers relief team reported that troops were patrolling rice
fields and threatening to shoot villagers who wanted to harvest their
crop. In Taungoo district, the FBR reported, people from 12 villages had
been forced to act as human mine-sweepers by walking ahead of advancing
soldiers.

“Rice is now becoming harder to buy, education in many places is on hold
and it is very dangerous to move anywhere near where the Burma army is
operating,” a FBR report said.

The UN’s special envoy to Burma, Under Secretary-General for Political
Affairs Ibrahim Gambari told reporters in New York earlier this week that
during his recent talks in Naypyidaw with Burmese regime leaders he had
urged a “cessation of hostilities against the ethnic minorities.”
Political observers believe Gambari returned from his four-day visit to
Burma with empty hands.

____________________________________

November 29, Shan Herald Agency for News
Increase in Burmese troops on the border

New battalions have been despatched by the Burmese Army to the border
opposite Chiangrai province, Thailand, prompting both Thai and Shan forces
to keep an eye on further moves, reports S.H.A.N. correspondent Zerng Tai.

Around Loi Kawwan, Shan State Army's easternmost base on the Thai-Burma
border, the Burma Army had earlier stationed three battalions on a
rotational basis. The current three are Infantry Battalion (IB) 244 from
Kengtung and Light Infantry Battalions (LIB) 331 and 360 from Mongphyak
and Mongpiang respectively. But three more battalions have arrived in the
zone since November 27: IB 221 (Monghpyak) and LIBs 570 (Monghpyak) and
571 (Tarlerh).

The latest move by the Burma Army occurred a week after a whirlwind tour
by Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, who oversees military operations in Shan and Kayah
States .

This was in addition to previous reports on the movement of the United Wa
State Army (UWSA) that currently has a ceasefire status with Burma's
ruling junta and has participated in the Burma Army's operations against
the SSA on several occasions.
On November 5, 2006 , a radio message intercepted by Burma watchers said
the UWSA's 171st Military Region commanded by Wei Hsuehkang, had trained
1,350 men in Mongjawd, opposite Chiangmai's Chiangdao district.

Another UWSA unit, the 214th Brigade, recently renamed 414th, has taken
over the security of the strategic Loi Htwe mountain, also opposite
Chiangdao, thereby freeing the 171st to move further westward and
reinforce its forces around the SSA's main base, Loi Taileng, opposite
Maehongson.

Signboards bearing the name 'Hongpang', the UWSA's business firm, that had
disappeared since the 496-kilogram heroin seizure in Mongpiang last year,
have returned this month further deepening suspicions that the UWSA and
the Burma Army have reached some sort of rapprochement.

One UWSA official in Panghsang, the Wa capital on the Sino-Burma border,
has however dismissed the likelihood of a joint Burma Army-UWSA operation
against the SSA "at least in the foreseeable future". He nevertheless
acknowledges the presence of more Wa troops on the Thai border.

"Many Wa families (who have been there since the 1999-2001 relocations)
want to return to the north," he explained. "We are just trying to head it
off by an expanded rubber plantation project along the Thai-Burma border."

The UWSA, with assistance from China, has been launching a region wide
rubber plantation project, he added. The Chinese had also recently donated
10,000 tons of rice to make up for the losses suffered by Wa farmers when
they were forced to quit their centuries-old poppy cultivation last year.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

November 30, Irrawaddy
Burma says it’s winning HIV/AIDS fight - Clive Parker

Minister of Health Dr Kyaw Myint on Wednesday told a press conference in
Naypyidaw that Burma is winning the fight against HIV/AIDS, citing a drop
in the number of cases over the past five years.

Referring to statistics that show infections dropped from 1.5 percent in
2000 to 1.3 percent last year, Kyaw Myint denied that Burma’s HIV/AIDS
epidemic constituted a threat to international peace and security, one of
the arguments used as part of the US-led effort to address Burma at the UN
Security Council.

“HIV prevalence in Myanmar [Burma] has reduced,” he told gathered members
of the government, press and the humanitarian community.

Despite claims of progress by the regime, privately it still appears to be
highly concerned by the epidemic. Burmese Prime Minister Soe Win told his
Thai counterpart Surayud Chulanont in a meeting in Naypyidaw this month
that HIV in Burma is widespread and that there was a lack of experts in
the country to solve the problem.

In response, Surayud said his government was ready to help and provide its
own expertise, a Thai Government House press statement said.

While the UN’s recently released HIV/AIDS survey for 2006 says “there are
early indications that the epidemic [in Burma] might be diminishing,” it
adds that the country is still “experiencing a serious epidemic.”

The report says the 1.3 percent infection rate as cited by the Burmese
health minister applies only to adults, or those aged over 24 years old,
compared to a rate of 1.4 percent in 2003. For young people aged 15 to 24
years old, the UN estimates an HIV prevalence rate of 2.2 percent, which
it describes as “a cause for serious concern.”

In addition, some 43 percent of injecting drug users and 32 percent of sex
workers were found to be HIV positive in 2005, “proportions that have
changed little since 2000,” the report says. Dr Kyaw Myint made no mention
of this data during his speech on Wednesday.

The UN does, however, point to some notable successes in tackling the
disease in Burma. HIV infection levels among pregnant women have declined
from 2.2 percent in 2000 to 1.3 in 2005, studies show. Similarly, among
men seeking treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases, eight
percent were HIV positive in a 2001 study, compared to just four percent
last year.

Burma has also recently introduced programs that the UN believes will help
aid the fight against HIV/AIDS, as referred to by the health minister. A
methadone program as a replacement for heroine users was piloted in
February this year in Rangoon, Mandalay, Lashio and Myitkina.

Similarly, an education program on safety was offered to injecting drug
users for the first time with the support of international
non-governmental organizations working in Burma, along with 1.1 million
disposable syringes, in 2005.

Nevertheless, it was not until the same year that public sector
antiretroviral treatment was offered to HIV-positive people in Burma, and
only in 2004 that safety was achieved nationwide on blood stocks, the
health minister said. Just over 95 percent of supplies transfused were
tested the same year.

An external UN review of Burma’s HIV/AIDS program conducted in March and
April this year—the first for more than a decade—also shows mixed results.
A copy of the findings circulated at a conference on HIV/AIDS in Toronto,
Canada in August, as posted on the HIV Information for Myanmar website,
shows that “significant progress has been achieved in the health sector in
Myanmar [Burma] by the national response to HIV/AIDS.”

“These accomplishments deserve recognition. But much work is still needed
for the NAP [National AIDS Program] to achieve the greatest possible
impact,” it adds.

Describing Burma as “one of the countries hardest hit by the HIV epidemic
in Asia,” the appraisal says that the national program to fight the virus
is under funded and severely short-staffed, particularly at the township
level. Similarly, health centers were found to be lacking adequate
equipment and a reliable electricity supply.

____________________________________
DRUGS

November 30, Mizzima News
Amphetamine machine and contraband narcotics worth Rs. 300 crores seized
from Burmese - Muana

A Burmese migrant and a Chinese national were apprehended for being in
possession of a sophisticated illegal drugs making machine and contraband
narcotics estimated to be worth Rs. 300 crores in Kolkata. The arrest
followed a tip off from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Nang Lian Kham alias Micheal Suanpu (37) belonging to Tuithang village,
Tedim Township, Chin state, Burma and a Chinese national were arrested at
a godown of Balmer Lawrie& Company Ltd. on the Netaji Subhas Road,
Kolkata, West Bengal, India by officers of the Indian intelligence agency
on November 15. The duo have been charged with possession and
transportation of a Columbia made Amphetamine manufacturing machine to New
Delhi, according to security sources.

It is learnt that parts of the machine were transported in three trips
from Columbia through Hong Kong to Kolkata and then New Delhi. Nang Lian
Kham and his accomplice were arrested on their return trip after having
delivered the machine and completing the monetary transaction.

The machine is estimated to cost Rs. 300 crores. Interestingly Nang Lian
Kham claimed it is a shampoo making machine. The Drug Enforcement Agency
of USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation is said to have kept tabs on the
duo’s activities and relayed the information to the Indian intelligence
agency.

"It will be fitting if they are taken to USA rather than repatriated to
Burma," said a source close to Nang Lian Kham.

The two are under joint interrogation by the Interpol. They are in the
custody of the Special Investigation Team of India's Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI).

Nang Lian Kham receives a subsistence allowance from the UNHCR as a
Burmese refugee. He claimed to be a native of Manipur state, India during
interrogation.

____________________________________

November 30, Shan Herald Agency for News
Opium down, drug use up in the north

Opium output in northern Shan State has decreased through it has done
nothing to reduce the availability or use of drugs there, reports Hawkeye
from the border:

"Now we are seeing more women and girls using drugs," said an NGO worker
in the north who dismissed figures given by the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) October report as "a gross underestimation."

According to the report Myanmar Opium Survey 2006, heroin and ATS (yaba)
use in northern Shan State is as follows:

    * Prevalence rate of heroin users           0.13%
    * Prevalence rate of ATS    users           0.06%

"I don't think they made inquiries inside city limits", she told S.H.A.N.
"The drug market in Muse's quarters: Zawnzaw, Tawyawd, Wiang Nang etc is
such, it is as if they are throwing a party everyday."

The UNODC report did concede that "the surveyed population.. are all
living in rural areas. Both types of abuse are mainly an urban
phenomenon." It did not say why no survey was conducted in the urban
areas.

Lawyers also point out that the number of drug cases has also dropped
compared to previous years. "In Muse (opposite Ruili) alone, we used to
handle at least 200 cases per year," said a member of the legal
profession. "But now the year is almost over and yet there has been less
than 40 cases so far."

The junta may be trying to hoodwink the world that drug production, trade
and abuse have been effectively dealt with, but they don’t fool anybody"
she added, "except maybe those who want to be fooled."

Sources say nowadays very few people are taken legal action for
involvement in drugs. "They have rather become a sort of vegetable garden
for the police where the latter can live off," said a local resident from
Namkham, 19 miles southeast of Muse.

Zau Yam, 36, of Mongwi tract, for instance, has been selling drugs for 5-6
years, but he is said to be "untouchable" as he enjoys "an inside track"
with the local law enforcer Police Lt Hla Ngwe. At least one-fourth of his
20-men are said to be hardcore drug addicts. One of them died of overdose
on 10 November.

Sources also do not appear to set much store by the ruling military
council's crop substitution program:

In Mawtawng, Tima, Mongyu, Nam Oom, Kho Moong and Nam Hpakka, south of
Muse, maize corn has been designated as a replacement crop. "But we are
not allowed to sell in Muse, where we can get 7,000 – 7,500 Kyat
($5.4-5.8) per 22 pyi-bag (about 73 liters)", said a farmer. "The
officials at the 105 mile checkpoint instead force us to sell to the
Sanchein company at 4,000 – 4,500 Kyat ($3.1-3.5) per bag price."

The overall situation, concludes a businessman in Muse, is much worse than
that described in Hand in Glove, a report by S.H.A.N. which came out last
September.

According to Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC chief, war on opium is 'being won'
in Southeast Asia. (AFP, 16 October 2006)

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 30, United Press International
Rights group slams Burmese military

Human Rights Watch criticized the Burmese military Thursday for using
thousands of civilians as "expendable pawns" in its battle against
insurgents. "The Burmese army is driving thousands toward the border with
Thailand and herding villagers into squalid relocation sites or into the
jungle away from their ruined homes and dying crops," said Brad Adams, the
group's director for Asia.

Across the country, more than 82,000 have been forced to flee conflict,
and at least 45 civilians have been killed by government forces, the
report said.

Since 1996, to clear out villages, the army disrupts the harvest by laying
thousands of landmines around houses and fields to deter civilians from
approaching their villages and crops. "The Burmese military attacks
villages, uses civilians for forced labor and steals their food and money,
forcing people to flee," Adams said. "The military acts like an occupying
army, using the population as expendable pawns.

"The United States is seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution calling
on Burma to end attacks on civilians and to stop causing displacement, the
report said.