BurmaNet News, January 11, 2007

[Editor]

January 11, 2007 Issue # 3119


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Detained Burmese activist leaders released
AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi's party urges UN to back resolution on Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Some Burmese troops to withdraw, says Karen delegation

DRUGS
Xinhua: Drug-ravaged province to open 22 new methadone clinics in
southwest China

ASEAN
AP: ASEAN won't defend Myanmar as U.S. brings rights issues to U.N.,
official says
South China Morning Post:  Myanmar a thorn in the side of Asean reformists

REGIONAL
AFP: Serious blows for human rights in SE Asia in 2006: watchdog

INTERNATIONAL
Xinhua: China rejects UN intervention into Myanmar issue, says FM spokesman
Irrawaddy: Hopes fade for Indonesian support on Burma resolution
Business Day: South Africa 'will oppose UN Burma rights vote'

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 11, Irrawaddy
Detained Burmese activist leaders released - Yeni

Five leading activists detained at the end of September by the  Burmese
military regime were freed early Thursday. The freed men said they had
been released unconditionally, and that it was now clear to the
authorities that they had not planned to create unrest or launch terrorist
attacks.

The five freed activists, all of them leading members of the 88 Generation
Students group, are Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe, Min Zeya and Pyone
Cho. All were repeatedly accused by the regime of plotting terrorist
attacks at a time when the US was pushing for Burma to be placed on the UN
Security Council agenda. They were not charged with any offence after
their arrest, however.

“Instead of chaos or terror, all of us emphasized that the country needs
national reconciliation and peaceful discussion to resolve the existing
conflicts,” Min Ko Naing, a well-known former student leader, told The
Irrawaddy by phone on Thursday.

The release of the five dissidents comes as the UN Security Council
prepares to vote on Friday on a US-drafted resolution on Burma and as
Asean foreign ministers meeting in the Philippines made a new call for
political freedoms in the junta-ruled country.

Aung Din, policy director of the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma,
claimed the release at this time of the five dissidents appeared to be “a
cynical ploy to stop the UN Security Council from taking action.”

The US-drafted resolution that comes before the UN Security Council on
Friday calls the deteriorating situation in Burma a serious risk to
regional peace. It urges the Burmese military government “to begin without
delay a substantive political dialogue which would lead to a genuine
democratic transition, to include all political stakeholders, including
representatives of ethnic nationality groups and political leaders.”

Washington faces an uphill struggle to win Security Council approval,
however, because Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the UNSC, are
against the resolution. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao
said at a regular news briefing: “We believe the Myanmar [Burma] question
is a purely internal affair.”

Burma’s main opposition National League for Democracy, led by detained
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi appealed to UN Security Council members
on Thursday to support the US resolution. NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the
resolution was intended to “lead to a genuine national reconciliation
through peaceful means.”

Freed activists also welcomed the US draft resolution. “We warmly welcome
what the US submitted,” said Min Ko Naing. “I believed it’s for the good,
but it is also important that action, not just words, must follow.”

____________________________________

January 11, Agence France Presse
Aung San Suu Kyi's party urges UN to back resolution on Myanmar

Yangon: Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy on Thursday
urged the UN Security Council to support a US draft resolution calling for
democratic reform in this military-ruled nation.

"There are no punitive actions in the proposed draft resolution. Moreover,
it focuses mainly on the establishment of national reconciliation through
the peaceful way of dialogue," the NLD said in a statement.

"Hence, the National League for Democracy requests that all the members of
the United Nations Security Council support the proposed draft
resolution," said the party, headed by detained Nobel peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi.

The United States on Tuesday submitted a draft resolution to the UN
Security Council expressing concern that the overall situation in the
military-run nation posed a serious risk to peace and security in the
region.

The text is a slightly amended version of a draft first submitted by the
US delegation last month, and calls on the junta to begin substantive
dialogue with all political leaders and national ethnic groups.

It also calls for the release of political prisoners including NLD leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than a decade under house arrest.

However China and Russia, two of Myanmar's closest allies, have questioned
the need for the resolution, and could veto any moves by the 15-member
Security Council to chastise the regime.

The UN Security Council decided to put Myanmar on its agenda in September
last year, with the United States driving efforts to pressure the
repressive regime to reform.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD
party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never
allowed them to take office.

____________________________________

January 11, Irrawaddy
Some Burmese troops to withdraw, says Karen delegation - Shah Paung

A delegation from the Karen National Union’s 7th Brigade returned on
Thursday from a meeting with Burmese officials in Rangoon, who said that
the ruling junta would withdraw troops from some KNU-controlled areas.

The delegation, led by Brig-Gen Htain Maung, crossed into the Burmese
border town of Myawaddy on January 3 and traveled overland to Rangoon by
car.

There, the eight-member delegation met Lt-Gen Thein Sein, secretary-1 of
the State Peace and Development Council, and Maj-Gen Ye Myint from
Military Affairs Security, who said that the junta would pull out some of
its troops from Karen State.

“They will withdraw [troops] from areas considered unimportant,” a senior
leader of the KNU’s 7th Brigade said on condition of anonymity. “But in
important areas, the [SPDC] will continue to control.”

The 7th Brigade leader added that Burmese troops will pull out of an area
of Htee Mu Kee village in Papun district in 1st Brigade, where the late
Karen leader Gen Bo Mya was born, and some areas in 6th Brigade’s Vallay
Kee, and 7th Brigade, where the  KNLA’s Battalion 202 is based.

SPDC representatives told the delegation that if other KNU brigades wanted
the withdrawal of Burmese troops, their leaders would need to conduct
similar negotiations in Rangoon.

Following the announcement of the 7th Brigade delegation’s trip to
Rangoon, KNU officials said that they were acting independently of the KNU
and did not represent the interests of the group’s Central Committee.

“It seems like the Burmese [junta] is trying to divide us [KNU],” the
senior 7th Brigade leader said. “I don’t believe that they will withdraw
as they said.”

The SPDC’s latest offensive in northern Karen State and Pegu Division has
led to the displacement of more than 20,000 villagers, with thousands more
seeking refuge in camps along the Thai-Burmese border.

The 7th Brigade’s eight-member delegation included Col Paw Doh, head of
the KNU’s Liberation Army Battalion 101; Maj Shwe Ro, second-in-command of
Battalion 202; Htain Maung’s bodyguard Mar Ner, Say Plow Poe, the former
head of 1st Brigade, Pastor Timothy, a former member of the KNU’s
Executive Committee, and two other Karen pastors.

The group arrived back in Shwe Khoko village on Thursday and will hold a
press briefing at 7th Brigade headquarters at an unspecified date.

____________________________________
DRUGS

January 11, Xinhua General News Service
Drug-ravaged province to open 22 new methadone clinics in southwest China

Kunming: Twenty-two methadone clinics are set to open in southwest China's
Yunnan Province in response to rising drug addiction and the spread of
HIV/AIDS in the region.

The new clinics, comprising 15 fixed clinics and seven mobile stations,
brings the total number to 75 in the province.

Bordering the Golden Triangle drug-producing area which includes parts of
Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, Yunnan has suffered from crippling heroin
addiction in recent years.

"Yunnan had registered more than 50,000 heroin addicts by the  end of last
year, of whom only 2,600 took the methadone treatment  program, far below
the target of 30 percent," Zhang Ruimin, deputy director of the Yunnan
Provincial Institute for Drug Abuse.

The methadone treatment program, which was initiated in 2003 in China, now
covers about two thirds of all the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities on the Chinese mainland.  Yunnan opened its first methadone
treatment clinic in Gejiu City in mid April of 2004. At the clinics, a
dose of methadone drink usually costs 10 yuan (1.26 U.S. dollars).

The high rate of drug addiction has also resulted in a marked increase in
the number of officially reported HIV/AIDS cases due to the sharing of
contaminated needles. In December, the local Yunnan government announced
plans to bring in free compulsory HIV tests for pre-marital couples and
described the current AIDS situation in the province as "grave".

By the end of September last year, Yunnan had recorded 47,314 people
living with HIV/AIDS, accounting for about a quarter of the national
total.

China intends to add 195 methadone clinics to the current number of 307
and set up clinics in all its cities and counties which have over 500
registered drug users by the end of 2007.

Currently, China has about 1 million registered drug users.

____________________________________
ASEAN

January 11, Associated Press
ASEAN won't defend Myanmar as U.S. brings rights issues to U.N., official
says - Jim Gomez

Cebu: Southeast Asian countries will not step in to defend Myanmar from
U.S. attempts to push the United Nations toward declaring Myanmar's
authoritarian rule a threat to regional peace, an official said Thursday.

Myanmar should fulfill a long-standing pledge to democratize and release
all political prisoners, including pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi,
according to Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations.

Efforts to prod Myanmar to speed up democratic reform gained new urgency
Tuesday when the U.S. government introduced a U.N. resolution calling the
deteriorating political and human rights situation there a serious risk to
regional peace.

It urged the junta to immediately free all political prisoners. The move
by the U.S. has placed other countries in ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a
member, in an uncomfortable position.

ASEAN foreign ministers, gathered in Cebu ahead of a regional summit this
weekend, discussed the U.S.-endorsed U.N. draft resolution during a
working dinner late Wednesday and came up with no common position,
Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.

Ong said Myanmar's continued failure to reform meant ASEAN would not come
to its defense. "We don't know what to do," he told reporters. "This is
now outside our purview."

Fellow ministers relayed to their Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win their
continuing dismay over the junta's failure to rapidly fulfill outlined
reforms, and its refusal to release Suu Kyi and other prisoners, Ong said.

ASEAN has repeatedly conveyed such stern reminders to Myanmar in every
regional summit. "We continue to call, they may continue to fold their
arms, but we have to continue to call," Ong said.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo welcomed some recent moves
undertaken by Myanmar, but called "for further progress toward the road to
democracy" in a speech at the start of the summit meetings.

A National Convention is drafting guidelines for a new constitution, the
first of seven steps outlined in a "roadmap to democracy," which the junta
says will culminate in free elections. But no timetable has been announced
for completion of the process, and the United Nations does not view it as
"all-inclusive" because Suu Kyi's party is not taking part.

On Wednesday night, Myanmar released five student activists a week after
it set free several dozen political prisoners as part of a New Year's
amnesty.

Myanmar has said it is a peace-loving nation that poses no threat to its
neighbor or region.

Western nations and even fellow ASEAN members have long expressed concern
over Myanmar's dismal human rights record. Some ASEAN members like
Malaysia have lately become more blunt in their criticism, urging the
junta to show "tangible progress" in its promise to democratize.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the current group of
generals took power in 1988. They called elections in 1990 but refused to
recognize the results when Suu Kyi's party won a resounding victory.

Myanmar should have been the ASEAN chairman and host of the regional
summit this year, but it gave up the chance amid protests by Western
governments. The prestigious chairmanship, rotated alphabetically among
all members, was abruptly passed on to the Philippines.

____________________________________

January 11, South China Morning Post
Myanmar a thorn in the side of Asean reformists - Greg Torode

Charter will be crucial to dealing with renegade junta

Cebu: Of all the platitudes thrown around during the annual Asean meetings
starting in earnest today, Myanmar's briefing on its "Road Map to
Democracy" is expected to be among the most empty.

Yet few could be more important. None of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations' 10 members represents the challenges facing the grouping
like Myanmar. Just as Asean thrashes out ways of staying relevant, and
giving itself more teeth and a stronger future framework to deal with
recalcitrant members, it struggles to deal with Myanmar in the short term.

Veteran members such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have all
expressed frustration in recent months and weeks over dealing with
Myanmar's ruling junta.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi used his position as host six
months ago to warn that Myanmar was affecting the "image and credibility"
of Asean. Yet still a final group statement was watered down, eventually
scratching any call for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Asean officials admit to a growing sense of impotence as the junta makes a
mockery of years of well-meaning efforts to drag the nation in a more open
direction.

Some fear it is growing ever-more isolationist despite joining Asean. They
have confirmed Myanmar will be discussed at meetings surrounding the 12th
Asean Leaders' Summit and the 2nd East Asia Summit. But it is unclear
whether Myanmar will face stronger condemnation.

"No one is happy. There will be lots of talking behind the scenes, but it
is not clear where it is going to lead," one diplomat said. "They may find
themselves off the hook once again."

The US this week put more pressure on the generals, submitting a draft
resolution to the UN Security Council expressing concern that the
situation in Myanmar posed a serious risk to regional peace and security.
However China and Russia, two of the junta's closest allies, have
questioned the need for the resolution, and could veto any moves by the
15-member Security Council to chastise the regime.

Despite recent moves to free some political prisoners, Myanmar's generals
are expected to offer little fresh information on any reform plans.

The sense of weakness and frustration stems from Asean traditions that
seek consensus in decision-making and stick to a strict code of
non-interference in members' internal affairs. The code faces an
unprecedented review over the next few days as retired leaders present
draft proposals on a charter designed to strengthen the grouping.

Host drafter, former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, recently insisted
the new charter was not drawn up simply to reflect members' needs and
interests - a veiled reference to Myanmar. Mr Ramos has stated repeatedly
the charter should mention democracy as a goal for member nations.

It is also set to introduce voting on awkward or controversial decisions,
as well as a way to suspend members who turn hostile.

"In exceptional circumstances, the traditional policy of non-intervention
may be adjusted and sanctions imposed for non-compliance," he said.

Myanmar is expected to seek support from Vietnam and Laos to limit the
draft's central thrusts.

Concern over Myanmar may spill over to the East Asia Summit of Asean
leaders and their counterparts from China, Japan, India, South Korea,
Australia and New Zealand. A push among some delegates seeks a greater
role for China and India in pressuring the junta.

"There is now a sense of desperation about the limits of what we can do,”
it only shows how important this charter will be," a veteran Asean
diplomat said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 11, Agence France Presse
Serious blows for human rights in SE Asia in 2006: watchdog

Bangkok: New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday slammed the
deteriorating situation in Southeast Asia in 2006, citing the coup in
Thailand and a crackdown in Myanmar as damaging rights in the region.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) annual report said that Myanmar, formerly known
as Burma, withdrew further from the international community last year, and
escalated counter-insurgency campaigns against ethnic minority groups.

"In the conflict areas, human rights violations such as forced labor for
Burmese army units, rape of women and girls, and summary executions
continue," the report said.

The watchdog said a military offensive against the Karen National Union,
the largest ethnic group still fighting the junta, had displaced about
27,000 civilians and destroyed 232 villages, as well as crops and food
stocks.

"Scores of civilians were killed and thousands taken as forced porters,"
it said. The report also accused the ruling junta, which calls itself the
State Peace and Development Council, of forcibly recruiting children into
its armed forces.

HRW slammed the extension of house arrest for opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, the junta's slow pace of democratic reform, and the continuing
detention of some 1,200 political prisoners.

"International efforts to foster change in Burma were thwarted by the SPDC
and sympathetic neighbouring governments," the report said.

Growing economics like China and India are keen to tap Myanmar's abundant
natural resources, and are thus reluctant to openly criticise the regime.

Meanwhile in Thailand, HRW said basic rights, already eroded under the
ousted government of Thaksin Shinawatra, had deteriorated after the
military seized power on September 19.

It criticised restrictions on civil liberties imposed immediately after
the coup, including martial law, bans on political gatherings and
restrictions on the media.

HRW also took issue with a culture of impunity under Thaksin and his harsh
policy toward Burmese refugees.

"Thaksin's poor human rights record, however, did not make the September
19 coup a welcome development internationally," the report said.

In three Muslim-majority southern provinces where a separatist insurgency
has killed more than 1,800 since January 2004, HRW accused both the
security forces and separatists of killings and "serious abuses".

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 11, Xinhua General News Service
China rejects UN intervention into Myanmar issue, says FM spokesman

Beijing: China rejects the intervention of the UN Security Council into
the Myanmar issue, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao at a
regular press conference on Thursday.

The United States proposed a resolution to the United Nations on Myanmar,
which term Myanmar's junta policies as threat to regional peace and
security.

When asked to make comments on this resolution, Liu said the situation in
Myanmar did not pose any risks to regional and international peace and
security.

This issue of Myanmar was part of the nation's internal affairs, Liu said.

Liu said constructive help is needed to solve the Myanmar issue. The
international community should support the special envoys of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN Secretary
General to make mediation efforts, and should encourage the government of
Myanmar to continue its cooperation with the international community.

The other neighboring nations of Myanmar, including the member states of
the ASEAN and the Non-Aligned Movement, all held the same attitudes of
rejecting the intervention of the UN Security Council into the Myanmar
issue, Liu said.

China urged concerned nations to act discreetly and show responsible
manners, to avoid further complication of Myanmar's situation.

____________________________________

January 11, Irrawaddy
Hopes fade for Indonesian support on Burma resolution - Clive Parker

Indonesian support for the UN Security Council resolution on Burma was
looking increasingly unlikely on Thursday, just a day before the UN’s most
powerful body looked set to vote on the initiative.

Indonesian Member of Parliament Djoko Susilo, who is also a member of the
Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, told The Irrawaddy that
Indonesia could not be expected to support the US-led initiative.

“I am not optimistic,” he said. “The maximum, in my observation: They [the
Indonesian government] will abstain.”

Susilo said he has communicated regularly with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs officials responsible for devising Indonesian policy at the
Security Council.

He added that the group of Indonesian MPs supporting the resolution, which
he described as “mild”, would “try to push” Jakarta to endorse the
initiative ahead of the vote, which will include Indonesia as a new
non-permanent member of the UNSC. AIPMC members in Indonesia were planning
a meeting on the issue for Friday.

Susilo said the unpopularity of the US government in Indonesia—the largest
predominantly Muslim country in the world—and its policies in the Middle
East, and particularly Iraq, had not helped win Jakarta’s backing.

“The situation would be greatly different if the motion [Burma resolution]
were tabled by the European Union,” he said, adding that US Embassy staff
in Jakarta had failed to interact with Indonesian politicians—including
AIPMC members—on the resolution.

His assessment of the situation comes less than a week after the
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda told The Jakarta Post after
seeing the draft resolution that the international community should “find
more effective ways (than issuing a resolution) to help overcome the
problems in Myanmar [Burma].”

Similarly, the Indonesian ambassador to the UN, Rezlan Ishar Jenie, told
the council during a debate on international peace and security in New
York on Monday that the UN’s most powerful body “should concentrate on
conflicts that really constitute a threat to international peace and
security, and refrain from meddling in issues which are best addressed by
other UN organs,” citing human rights as one of those issues.

Although Burma was never mentioned by name during the two-hour discussion,
diplomats in New York considered the debate a litmus test on how the
council was likely to proceed on contentious issues like Burma in 2007.

Reports from the Asean Summit in Cebu, Philippines on Thursday quoted
Asean foreign ministers saying that the regional block would not defend
Burma against the resolution, but would also not recognize Burma as a
security threat, a point that is included in the UNSC draft text on Burma
seen by The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win reportedly asked his Asean counterparts
to come to the junta’s aid to stave off the US-led action at the UN during
a dinner in Cebu on Wednesday evening. Indonesia is the only current Asean
member of the Security Council.

Meanwhile, China again reiterated its opposition to the draft resolution
on Thursday in a press conference in Beijing. The Associated Press quoted
Liu Jianchao, a Foreign Ministry official, as saying that China remained
firmly against the move.

“The neighboring countries of Myanmar [Burma] and some non-aligned
countries hold the identical view,” he told reporters.

Indonesia is one of a number of current members of the Security Council
that are also part of the Non-Aligned Movement, along with South Africa,
Congo, Qatar, Peru, Ghana and Panama.

The group has previously said that it does not support UNSC action on
Burma. However, some of its members—namely Peru and Ghana—voted for
Burma’s inclusion on the UNSC’s agenda during a vote last September, while
Qatar and Congo voted against.

AP reported that South Africa had objected to the draft when it was
introduced to the council on Tuesday, a point that has dismayed campaign
groups given the country’s own recent struggle for democracy.

Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK said on Thursday: “I am appalled
that South Africa would side with Burma's dictatorship rather than its
democracy movement. International solidarity played an important role in
supporting South Africa's democracy movement. How can their memories be so
short?”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu—a staunch critic of the former Apartheid regime in
South Africa—was the co-sponsor of a report in 2005 calling for UNSC
action on Burma. A member of his staff, Lavinia Browne, told The Irrawaddy
on Thursday that the Nobel Peace Prize winner “has chosen not to comment”
on South Africa’s position on the Burma resolution ahead of the expected
vote on Friday.

____________________________________

January 11, Business Day
South Africa 'will oppose UN Burma rights vote'

Human rights groups and a website that covers Burma claim SA could vote
against a resolution criticising that country's human rights record.

This vote would be SA's first on the United Nations (UN) Security Council
and could indicate the stance SA will take on resolutions criticising
countries on their human rights records.

The US-sponsored resolution has been mired in controversy, with both
Russia and China indicating they did not feel the council should be
discussing the issue as Burma did not constitute a threat to world peace.

SA's permanent mission to the UN was unavailable to comment.

Mark Farmaner, spokesman for the Burma Campaign UK, said: "As a former
antiapartheid activist, I can't believe the South African government would
back Burma's military dictatorship rather than its democracy movement. If
SA votes against the resolution, it will be a day of shame for SA," he
said.

"There are a lot of former anti-apartheid activists shaking their heads in
disbelief."

According to the BBC, the draft resolution says the situation in Burma has
deteriorated and poses "a serious risk to peace and security in the
region".

The draft resolution calls on the Burmese government to release political
prisoners, allow free political activity, end arbitrary executions and the
rape of women, and condemns attacks on the Karen people.

A report on Burma -- titled A Threat to the Peace -- which was
commissioned by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech president Vaclav
Havel two years ago, proposed that the Security Council pass a resolution
criticising the Burmese government.

According to The Irrawaddy, an internet news site covering Burma and
southeast Asia, Russia and China -- both permanent security council
members -- as well as SA and Indonesia, which are serving two-year terms,
will vote against the resolution.

Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitali Churkin, was quoted by the BBC News
website as saying: "We think that it's not a proper issue to discuss in
the Security Council."

Burma has been under military rule for the past 40 years and the
government shrugged off the results of 1990 elections, won by the party of
the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.