BurmaNet News, December 20, 2006]

[Editor]

THE BURMANET NEWS
A listserv covering Burma
www.burmanet.org

............................................................
December 20, 2006 Issue # 3110


INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: Regional commander No. 2 to oversee operations after clashes
Xinhua: Myanmar leader meets Sri Lankan PM

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Freezing weather hits Thailand, Burma border areas

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Koreans face 5-year jail terms in arms transfer case

REGIONAL
IRNA: India to put fresh demand before Myanma

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Rights group urges Myanmar to end use of landmines

PRESS RELEASE
Canadian Friends of Burma: Ivanhoe Mines in the process of divesting from
Burma

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 20, Shan Herald Agency for News
Regional commander No. 2 to oversee operations after clashes

Brig-Gen. Way Lin, Deputy commander of the Kengtung-based Triangle Region
Command of the Burma Army, has arrived in Tachilek, opposite Maesai, to
personally direct operations against the Shan State Army-South following
recent clashes, according to both Thai and Shan sources.

The latest clash took place yesterday near Nawngkhiao, a Palaung village
south of Mongloong, Mongkok sub-township, Monghsat District, about 25
kilometres northwest of Tachilek, according to the SSA. The fighting began
at about five in the evening and lasted 20 minutes. The SSA patrol was
able to slip away without a scratch, said Lt-Col Gawnzuen, the SSA
Commander at Loi Kawwan, opposite Mae Fa Luang district. The Burma Army's
Infantry Battalion 221, however, suffered more than 10 casualties,
according to a militia source.

"Things are getting tough for field officers now," he added. "They've been
warned by Naypyidaw that anyone who fights a losing battle will be
court-martialed."

All sources agree that the Burma Army had sustained heavy losses during
its latest operation against the SSA South that began early this month.

Meanwhile Way Lin's arrival in Tachilek coincided with tighter security
measures in the city. Two Chinese made six-wheel armoured cars were seen
manning the Thai-Burma Friendship Bridge No.2 this morning. "More troops
are seen everywhere," said a monk, "even temple grounds are no exception."

On inquiry by Thai border authorities, their Burmese counterparts
reportedly said that the situation was normal and they were only testing
the armoured vehicles. This was contradicted by travellers coming from
Talerh, 48 kilometres away, who said they came across hundreds of Burmese
troops on their way to Tachilek.

____________________________________

December 20, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar leader meets Sri Lankan PM

Yangon: Vice-Chairman of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council
Vice-Senior General Maung Aye met  Wednesday with visiting Sri Lankan
Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw,
state-run  Myanmar Radio and Television reported in a night broadcast.

Wickramanayaka also had discussions with his Myanmar counterpart General
Soe Win on bilateral issues including economic cooperation in the morning.

But neither side disclosed the details of their meetings.

Wickramanayaka arrived here on Monday for a four-day working visit to the
country.

Wickramanayaka is the second Sri Lankan prime minister visiting Myanmar
since Mahinda Rajapaksa came in December 2004, before which there had been
no high-level visits between the two countries in nearly three decades
since 1976.

During Rajapaksa's 2004 visit, Myanmar agreed to export 2,000 tons of rice
to Sri Lanka to help solve the latter's rice shortage.

Earlier in February 1996, the two countries established a Joint Commission
for Bilateral Cooperation and so far, Sri Lanka has injected 1 million US
dollars' investment in Myanmar since 1988,  official statistics show.

In November this year, Myanmar agreed with Sri Lanka to establish direct
air and sea links to effectively boost bilateral trade ties.

Currently, trade between Myanmar and Sri Lanka is transacted through
Singapore.

According to the Directorate of Trade under the Ministry of Commerce, Sri
Lanka mainly imports forestry products and beans and pulses from Myanmar
via brokers in Singapore and the country has expressed interest in also
importing Myanmar gems and selling its own products in the Myanmar
markets.

Myanmar and Sri Lanka are members of the subregional grouping of BIMST-EC
(Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand- Economic
Cooperation), which was originally formed with four members in June 1997
and later joined by Myanmar in August the same year.

The grouping expanded its membership to include Nepal and Bhutan at the
first BIMST-EC summit in Bangkok in July 2004.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 20, Irrawaddy
Freezing weather hits Thailand, Burma border areas - Sai Silp

The northern border provinces of Thailand have been declared a disaster
area following freezing temperatures which have hit rural residents and
recent refugees from Burma especially hard.

The Mae Hong Son provincial office said temperatures hovered around 15
Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mae Hong Son city and temperatures were
below freezing in more mountainous areas, including the border area of the
Shan, Karen and Karenni states in Burma. Tak Province in Thailand was also
declared a disaster area.

The temperature in Thailand's Pangmapha District, where an unofficial Shan
refugee camp is located, was below 10 Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit)
according to a provincial report on Wednesday.

A provincial official told The Irrawaddy there could be more than 100,000
people in the province in need of warm clothes and blankets. Almost all
are ethnic villagers who live in rural areas or along the border with
Burma.

Donations of clothing or blankets can be made to the Mae Hong Son or Tak
provincial offices.

Heavy morning fog made road transportation difficult in many areas.
Visibility was limited to 20 to 30 meters, according to reports.

In rural areas, many school children who do not have warm winter clothes
were forced to attend classes outside in the sunlight.

Shet Reh, a Karenni refugee in Nai Soi Camp, Karenni 1, Maung District of
Mae Hong Son Province, said the cold weather was especially hard on 300
newly arrived Burmese refugees who appeared with little or no possessions.

“The weather is getting cold very fast," he said. "Refugees who arrived in
the camp this year don't have enough warm clothes and blankets." Refugees
who have lived in the camp for a longer period have already received
blankets and winter clothing from NGOs, he said.

The refugees' living conditions should improve as the public becomes more
aware of their situation. The winter weather is expected to continue until
late February.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

December 20, Irrawaddy
Koreans face 5-year jail terms in arms transfer case - Clive Parker

The 14 South Korean executives indicted this month over the alleged
illegal transfer of arms technology to Burma could serve up to five years
in jail if found guilty at their the trial, beginning next week, a
prosecutor said on Wednesday.

The head of Daewoo International, Lee Tae-Yong, along with 13 associates
of the South Korean conglomerate, will face charges over the illegal
transfer of arms technology worth US $133.38 million used to build an arms
factory outside the Burmese town Prome, Pegu Division.

Kim Hoo-Gon, a prosecutor at the High-Tech Crime Unit in Seoul, told The
Irrawaddy that the trial is ready to begin on December 28. “According to
Korean law, the maximum possible penalty is 5 years in prison,” he said.

Kim declined to say whether the prosecutor’s office had tracked down Yang
Jae-Sin, the former president of Daewoo Machinery, now known as Doosan
Infracore, who was believed to be in the US when the Seoul District
Prosecutor’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest on December 6. There
have been no reports of his status since then.

Kim said his office had found no evidence that the South Korean Embassy in
Rangoon and the Korean Trade Investment Promotion Agency office in the
former Burmese capital had been party to the secret deal, which was
allegedly signed in May 2002. Both were questioned during the
investigation, which began in August after the South Korean National
Intelligence Service learnt that a 55-year-old former employee of the
South Korean Defense Ministry's Agency for Defense Development had stolen
information used to build the weapons factory.

Investigators say that 480 different components were shipped to Burma from
October 2002 to build the facility in Prome. They were listed using names
designed to hide their real use—the technology transfer will allow the
junta to produce six types of shells used in 105mm howitzers and anti-tank
weaponry. By October this year, 90 percent of the deal had been completed
and paid for, investigators said. The junta allegedly deposited the
proceeds in the personal bank accounts of the 14 accused.

News of Daewoo’s alleged supply of arms technology to the junta has
outraged Burma campaign groups already angry at the South Korean company’s
development of gas fields off the coast of Arakan State.

“We are grateful that the South Korean legal system is now holding Daewoo
International and other corporations accountable for their actions in
Burma,” said Kyaw Khaing of the Shwe Gas Movement in Thailand—which
opposes the gas project—in a statement on December 7.

It is not yet clear whether this month’s case will have any impact on
Daewoo’s energy deals with the regime. Prosecutor Kim declined to comment
on the issue on Wednesday.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 20, IRNA
India to put fresh demand before Myanmar

India to put fresh demand before Myanmar to crackdown on Northeast
insurgents New Delhi, Dec 20, IRNA India-Myanmar-Insurgents India is
likely to make a fresh demand to Myanmar to crackdown on northeast
insurgent groups operating from that country when Myanmarese Home Minister
Maj Gen Maung Oo meets his Indian counterpart Shivraj Patil here on
Thursday.

The demand is expected to be made at a meeting between Union Home Minister
Shivraj Patil and the visiting delegate on December 21, a PTI report said
here quoting sources in the Home Ministry.

They said that New Delhi is likely to take the opportunity to impress upon
Myanmar about the need to launch a drive against the insurgents.

In the past too, India has utilized talks at the Home Secretary level to
discuss issues like security, border management, trade, drugs and
smuggling besides free movement of people and release of prisoners.

Sources in the security establishment say insurgent groups like United
Nationalist Liberation Front (UNLF) and People's Liberation Army (PLA)
operate from across the border.

India has also been raising the issue of shifting of boundary pillars in
Ukhrool and Chandel districts of Manipur allegedly by the Myanmarese army,
a charge denied by Yangon.

India shares 1,643 km border with Myanmar and Arunachal Pradesh alone
accounts for 520 km followed by Mizoram 510 km. Manipur shares 398 km of
its boundary with Myanmar and Nagaland another 258 km.

The Border Roads Organization (BRO) is building a 151-km long
Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalewa road in Myanmar and it is likely to offer to maintain
the road.

India and Myanmar have a pact for maintenance of peace and tranquillity in
the border areas under which Home Secretaries of both countries meet once
annually.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 20, Agence France Presse
Rights group urges Myanmar to end use of landmines

Bangkok: A New York-based human rights group claimed Wednesday that
Myanmar's military government was using landmines to terrorize and starve
the civilian population.

Human Rights Watch said Myanmar, formally known as Burma, was the only
government in the world still using antipersonnel mines on a regular basis
throughout 2006, and accused it of using civilians as "human
minesweepers".

The watchdog said the army used mines to disrupt the harvest and starve
people in Karen state, where ongoing fighting between an ethnic rebel
group and the army has forced thousands to flee.

"In order to separate ethnic armed groups from their civilian population,
the Burmese army lays landmines and other explosive devices in order to
maim and kill civilians," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights
Watch.

"This is a concerted policy aimed at denying people their livelihoods and
food or forcing them to risk losing limbs or lives."

The rights group said villagers and relief workers reported that soldiers
had in November began laying the landmines by houses, rice fields and
along paths leading to the fields to stop farmers harvesting their crops.

Civilian casualties are rising as a result, Human Rights Watch said,
particularly in Mon township where they said three people were killed and
six injured last week when a mine exploded in a private kitchen.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmine's Landmine Monitor Report 2006
said 225 people had been injured and at least five killed by landmines
planted by government forces and non-state armed groups in 2005.

Human Rights Watch said "dozens" have been injured or killed by landmines
in Karen state during 2006.

In their statement Wednesday, the group also claimed that soldiers were
forcing civilians to walk in front of the troops to act as "human
minesweepers".

The Karen National Union (KNU) is one of the few remaining insurgent
groups yet to sign a peace deal with the junta.

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, launched an offensive against the
KNU in November last year, forcing thousands of civilians to flee to
Thailand as refugees.

Human Rights Watch also accused insurgent groups of using landmines, and
the Landmine Monitor Report said the Karen National Liberation Army -- the
KNU's military wing -- was likely using mines extensively in 2005 and
2006.

Myanmar is not a signatory to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which 153 states
have signed.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

December 19, Canadian Friends of Burma
Ivanhoe Mines in the process of divesting from Burma

London, Ontario: During a final round of public consultations hosted by
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) yesterday, public and social
activists were informed that Ivanhoe Mines is in the process of divesting
from Burma.

It is a confirmation of a major institutional investor on the position of
Ivanhoe Mines that hinted in its press release dated Oct. 18, 2006, as
followed, “Ivanhoe is negotiating the divestiture of its joint venture
interest in the Monywa Copper Project in Myanmar [Burma].” However, Burma
activists are still skeptical on the real intention of Ivanhoe Mines.

Ivanhoe initially announced its intention to sell off 50% of its
joint-ventured assets in Burma worth US $120 million to a consortium of
Korean companies, but failed to realize it in June, as announced in May of
this year.

Meanwhile, public pressure is rapidly mounting on CPPIB to divest almost 3
million shares it holds with Ivanhoe Mines in the market value of CAD $32
million. Activists from Canadian Friends of Burma and Friends of the Earth
challenged unethical investment of public pension fund contributed by 16
million working Canadians in the evening consultation. A report on CPP
investment in Burma was also issued prior to the consultation by Friends
of the Earth (available on www.foecanada.org).

Ivanhoe invested USD $150 million in mid-1990 and an additional USD $390
million was planned to invest in the expansion of Letpadaung project,
located six miles southeast of the existing Ivanhoe-operated mine in
Burma.

However, operations had to shut down for one month in April this year,
citing expected decreases in production, inability to import additional
mining equipment, and an additional 8% tax imposed on copper exports from
Burma. The company also said that it is concerned about timely approvals
for the expansion of the Letpadaung deposit.


Ivanhoe earned US $47 million from operations from Burma last year and
provided approximately about US $60 million to the coffer of the military
junta including 30% tax on chopper exports and 4% loyalty fee.

In the consultation, CPPIB senior executives also expressed their
concerns, given the nature of political risk in Burma, and informed the
public that they have met with Ivanhoe Mines executives a number of times
and exchanged dossiers, making their concerns known since early this year.

The Government of Canada discourages investment in Burma; however, the
level of Canadian investment in Burma remains the same. Some new
businesses even showed interest in doing business. For example,
Calgary-based TransCanada Pipelines, along with Calgary-based Sea NG
Management Corporation and Kanata-based BMT Fleet Technology, expressed
interest to transport gas from Burma to India.

Recently, the new Conservative government assured Burma activists that
they would review the existing symbolic economic measures on Burma and
replace with more punitive and effective measures including a ban on
investment in Burma.

Further contact: Tin Maung Htoo at 613 297-6835 (cell)

Canadian Friends of Burma is a federally incorporated, national
non-governmental organization founded in 1991 which supports the Burma
pro-democracy movement in the struggle for peace, democracy, human rights
and equality in Burma.