BurmaNet News, January 27-29, 2007

[Editor]

January 27-29, 2007 Issue # 3130

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burmese activist sues 30 publications
AFP: Thousands write protest letters to Myanmar junta leader
AFP: Aung San Suu Kyi said in good health after doctor visit

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: KNU 7th brigade prepares for 'Peace Areas'
AFP: Myanmar crackdown puts Indian insurgents on the run: rebels

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Myanmar oilman edges out big rivals in rush for natural gas
Xinhua: Myanmar to grant offshore block to Malaysian company for gas
exploration

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burmese activists in Malaysia target China, Russia embassies
AP: Malaysia detains 176 suspected illegal immigrants from Myanmar
Mizzima: Court frames charges against 34 Arakanese rebels

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 29, Irrawaddy
Burmese activist sues 30 publications

A strong supporter of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has filed
a defamation suit against more than 120 editors and publishers of local
journals which printed personal attacks against her, including linking her
to a pimp.

Naw Ohn Hla, a 45-year-old former member of the National League for
Democracy, is one of a group of women activists who visit Rangoon’s
landmark Shwedagon pagoda every Tuesday to pray for the release of Suu
Kyi. Although the NLD expelled her for allegedly not following the party’s
policy, she is actively involved in other political activities calling for
the release of Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Naw Ohn Hla told The Irrawaddy on Monday that she filed the case on Friday
in response to “vitriolic articles” about her in 30 private publications.
“The articles began to appear from January 8,” she said. “One of them,
written under the pseudonym Yan Yan, linked me to a well-known, now
deceased pimp from an area of Rangoon where I live.”

Although the article did not name her, Naw Ohn Hla says it identified her
by naming her place of birth and referring to her by the abbreviation Ma
Naw.

Burmese state-run media often carry articles lashing out at opponents of
the military regime inside and outside the country. But the junta always
insists that “commentaries” published in the state-run media do not
represent the government's opinion.

Privately-owned journals are come under intense pressure from the junta to
publish articles favoring the government. An editor of Rangoon-based
weekly journal, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Irrawaddy by
phone on Monday: “We have no power to reject (such) articles provided by
the government. When we appear at court, we will say the truth.”

The case is to be heard by a court in Sanchaung township, of east Rangoon,
on February 13. But most of the accused journals say they have not yet
received summonses to appear.

____________________________________

January 29, Agence France Presse
Thousands write protest letters to Myanmar junta leader

Thousands of people have written letters addressed to Myanmar's military
leader, Senior General Than Shwe, to complain about the harsh conditions
in the country, activists said Monday.

The rare show of public discontent was organized by a group of
pro-democracy activists -- the 88 Generation Student Group -- which gave
pencils and paper to the public and asked them to "open their hearts"
about life in the military-ruled country. Many in the group are leaders of
a failed student uprising that demanded democratic reforms in 1988. Key
student leaders were released from prison in the last two years after
serving long sentences.

Min Ko Naing, one of the group's leaders, declined to say exactly how many
letters they had received, but said thousands had been collected.

"We have seen most of the letters are about the economic problems that the
people are facing in their daily lives," he said. The activists had
planned to end the campaign on Sunday, one month after it began on
Myanmar's Independence Day on January 4. They now plan to continue the
letter-writing campaign due to its popularity.

"We heard from our colleagues that the one month time period for campaign
is not enough. It can be hard for people to really open up about their
feelings. That's why we decided to extend it, with no time limit," Min Ko
Naing told AFP.

The activists are collecting all the letters to send them to Than Shwe.
They also plan to summarise the letters in a paper that they will release
later, Min Ko Naing added. Min Ko Naing was among five pro-democracy
activists released on January 10 after more than three months in prison.

All five had already spent more than a decade in prison over their role in
the 1988 uprising, when troops opened fire on mass student protests.
Thousands of people were believed to have been killed.

____________________________________

January 29, Agence France Presse
Aung San Suu Kyi said in good health after doctor visit


Myanmar's detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was in good health when
her doctor and a dentist visited her last week, a source close to her
family and her political party said Monday. "We heard her doctor took a
dentist to see her last Thursday for treatment," said Nyan Win, a
spokesman for her National League for Democracy party. "Her doctor sees
her once a month for a routine checkup," he added.

According to a source close to the family, the dentist gave her a routine
cleaning and checkup, while the doctor performed his regular monthly
check. "The dentist completed a checkup. Everything is fine now," he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a 61-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been under
house arrest at her rambling lakeside home in Yangon for most of the last
17 years.

Her latest period in detention began after a May 2003 attack on her convoy
by junta-backed militia in the country's central region.

She was thrown into prison after the assault but, following a
gynaecological operation four months later, was allowed to return home --
again under house arrest. Her doctor's periodic visits are the only
contact she has with the outside world, and top UN official Ibrahim
Gambari has urged Myanmar's military rulers to allow the doctor to make
more regular visits.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military government since 1962. Aung San Suu
Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide
victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed them to take
offices.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 29, Irrawaddy
KNU 7th brigade prepares for 'Peace Areas' - Shah Paung

The commander of the Karen National Union 7th Brigade, Brig-Gen Htain
Maung, is apparently following through with plans to move the brigade's
headquarters while also surveying regions to designate as "peace areas."

A contingent of KNU/KNLA "peace representatives” toured areas in Karen
State together with officers from the Burmese military government and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, Maj Maung Kyaw, liaison officer of the 7th
Brigade, said on Monday.

“We went to those areas to survey the situation for those who will go back
and stay in the old villages,” said Maung Kyaw. “Some Tatmadaw [armed
forces] government officers went with us, and the KDBA was providing our
security.” He declined to identify the areas visited.

Maung Kyaw said people who want to return to the designated peace areas
can go back any time they choose. “It is not forced relocation,” he said.

Leaders of the 7th Brigade and Burmese junta officers agreed to a
cease-fire in Rangoon on January 16. Htain Maung described it as a "peace
agreement."

Because of the recent tension between the KNU and the break-away 7th
Brigade, the KNU will not celebrate the 58th anniversary of Karen
Revolution Day on January 31,
Mahn Sha said.

“We have ordered our people to celebrate the day by their self in areas
where they are based," he said. "Our [KNU] Central Committee will not
celebrate this day with a big ceremony like in past years.”

Karen people around the world have taken a strong interest in the standoff
between the policies of the KNU Central Committee and some 7th brigade
leaders, seeing it as a political wedge dividing the Karen community.

Some reports have speculated that Htain Maung plans to move the 7th
Brigade headquarters to Maw Pah Thoo on the Taungyin River near Khoko
village, the headquarters of DKBA Special Battalion 999. Maw Pah Thoo is
one of the designated control areas of the DKBA, a Karen cease-fire group
that broke away from the KNU in January, 1995.

However, liaison officer Maung Kyaw said if the 7th Brigade headquarters
relocates it would not be to Maw Pah Thoo but rather to Toh Kaw Koe
village of Kawkareik Township, Karen State. The Karen hero Ba U Gyi was
killed in the village on Aug 12, 1950, a date designated as Karen Martyr's
Day.

____________________________________

January 29, Agence France Presse
Myanmar crackdown puts Indian insurgents on the run: rebels

A major military crackdown by Myanmar has sent Indian separatists fleeing
and left a growing death toll, a rebel leader told AFP on Monday.

The junta had burnt down the general headquarters and two camps held by
the S.S. Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(NSCN-K). "Heavy fighting is going on with a brigade (about 3,000 men) of
the Myanmarese army using mortars and rocket launchers, launching a
massive assault on our cadres since the weekend," senior NSCN-K leader
A.Z. Jami said by telephone.

The NSCN-K, fighting for an independent homeland for Naga tribal peoples
in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, has at least 50 camps with
some 5,000 guerrilla fighters in Sagaing, northern Myanmar.

"We have lost three of our cadres and as many wounded in the attacks. In
retaliatory strikes, our boys killed more than 12 Myanmarese soldiers and
injured many more," the rebel leader said.

"About 60 of our cadres who were at the general headquarters during the
raid managed to flee the camp.

"The offensive comes a week after India's Foreign Minister Pranab
Mukherjee visited Yangon and sought the junta's help against rebels from
the northeast who have sought refuge across the border.

"The offensive by the military junta has the backing of the Indian
government with most of the weapons used in the operation supplied by New
Delhi," another senior rebel leader said, asking not to be named.

Mukherjee's trip followed reports that hundreds of rebels from Assam
escaped into Myanmar after India launched a military operation against the
guerrillas earlier this month.

Authorities in Assam blamed the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for
violence that saw 86 people killed -- mostly Hindi-speaking migrant
workers. At least four other militant groups from India's northeast,
including the ULFA, have training camps in Myanmar's jungles.

There was no confirmation of the military offensive from Myanmar.

The NSCN's Khaplang faction has observed a ceasefire with New Delhi since
2001 although peace talks have not started.Myanmar had last year also
launched a military operation against the NSCN-K and overran several of
their bases. India and Myanmar share a 1,640-kilometer (1,000-mile)
unfenced border.

The rebels say they want to protect ethnic identities and allege the
federal government is taking the resources in the mineral, tea, timber,
and oil-rich region.

More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the
northeast since India's independence in 1947.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 28, Agence France Presse
Myanmar oilman edges out big rivals in rush for natural gas - Griffin Shea

In the scramble for Myanmar's natural gas, Moe Myint runs the only company
managed by Myanmar nationals that has got a toehold in an area that could
boast some of the biggest reserves in Southeast Asia.MPRL E and P Ltd,
registered in the British Virgin Islands but run by Myanmar nationals,
last week edged out other international competitors to sign a deal for the
rights to explore oil and gas off Myanmar's western coast.

Oil companies have become increasingly interested in Myanmar's Arakanese
coast after a consortium led by South Korea's Daewoo announced last year
that it had discovered and certified at least seven trillion cubic feet of
natural gas in an offshore area it was exploring. That sparked a rush to
lay claim to rights to explore along the entire coast, with China's
biggest producer -- China National Petroleum Corporation -- signing a deal
for three blocks on January 15 this year.

Other companies from India, Thailand and Malaysia have also wooed
Myanmar's government for the rights to explore a region that is seen as
increasingly likely to hold potentially vast untapped reserves of oil and
gas.

The resulting financial boom for the military government, which has run
the country once known as Burma since 1962, has also drawn criticism from
activists who have protested the deals for shoring up the regime.

With the country under a patchwork of sanctions from the United States and
Europe, neighbouring nations have thrown Myanmar a lifeline with their
eagerness to tap its natural resources to fuel their own growing
economies.

But Moe Myint says he believes such contracts are good for the country and
its people over the long term, regardless of who is running the
government.

"There's a lot of argument and criticism over these contracts that the
government is selling off all our natural resources. I disagree," he says.
"These are contracts applicable and accepted worldwide by international
oil and gas industry standards. And the very fact is that you may have
natural resources, but you simply cannot keep them in the ground without
any development.

"You have to do something about it, and you have to maximize the value of
your resources when the opportunity is there, not only through sales to
international consumers but also to fulfill our domestic needs," he tells
AFP."Myanmar has over a 100-year history of exploration, development and
production of oil under successive governments, commencing in the early
days from simple hand-dug wells using bamboo as casing.

"Thus, whether it be this government or future governments, all
governments would need such contracts, not only for domestic needs as the
country develops, but to generate foreign currency revenue streams as
well," he adds. MPRL's exploration contract involves a 33-million-dollar
commitment to explore for natural gas during the first four years of a
25-year contract.

The company has a six-month study period to review existing data on the
so-called A6 block, and will pay the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas
Enterprise two million dollars if it decides to proceed with exploration
after the study period. Moe Myint says that since the Daewoo find,
geologists now believe that natural gas deposits fan out from the gulf
toward Myanmar's coast.

If more gas finds are confirmed, Myanmar's government hopes to either
build a pipeline that would run across the country to China's southwestern
Yunnan province, or set up a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant that would
allow the gas to be shipped anywhere.

India has also been negotiating to build its own pipeline to Myanmar, but
those talks have so far failed to make much headway. "Even during the
Second World War, with its oil fields in central Burma, the country was
looked at as a landbridge to China," Moe Myint says.

"We are just perfectly situated in a demand area, shall I say, from
energy-thirsty growing economies all around us."Moe Myint got into the oil
business just as Myanmar opened up to outside investment after years of
economically disastrous socialist policies.

He had resigned in 1987 after 13 years as a commercial pilot for the
national flag carrier Myanmar Airways, and two years later started Myint
and Associates to provide oilfield services to companies coming into the
country.

Then in 1996 he formed MPRL and partnered with Baker Hughes of the United
States, Nissho Iwa of Japan and Keppel of Singapore on a project to
enhance production of oil and gas in Mann Field in central Myanmar.

The other partners pulled out three years later, and MPRL took over the
entire project. The new exploration contract marks a big leap for the
company, which now employs 3,000 people, directly and indirectly, with a
regional office in Singapore.

____________________________________

January 28, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to grant offshore block to Malaysian company for gas exploration

The Myanmar energy authority is likely to grant an offshore block to a
Malaysian company for oil and gas exploration and production, the
English-language Myanmar Times reported Sunday.

Quoting sources close to the Ministry of Energy, the report said
Malaysia's Rimbunan Retrogas Ltd is probably to be granted rights for such
undertaking at A-5 deep-water block off the western Rakhine coast.
According to the sources, France's TOTAL oil company once drilled two
wells in the block in the 1970s but did not find hydrocarbon.

Earlier this month, a British-Virgin-Island-based oil company -- the MRPL
E and P Pte Ltd, reached a production sharing contract with the state-run
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to explore and produce oil and gas
at Block A-6 off the same Rakhine coast. The block is said to cover an
area of about 9,830 square kilometers.

There have been a number of foreign oil companies exploring gas in the
Rakhine offshore area in recent years. These companies include a
consortium, led by South Korea's Daewoo International Corporation with
60-percent stake. Other companies go to South Korea Gas Corporation (10
percent), ONGC Videsh Ltd of India (20 percent) and Gas Authority of India
Ltd (GAIL) (10 percent).

Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources in the offshore areas. With
three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore ones, Myanmar
has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 TCF or 510 billion cubic-meter
(BCM) out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated
reserve of offshore and onshore gas, experts said. The country is also
estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve,
official statistics indicate.

The Myanmar figures also show that in the fiscal year 2005-06 which ended
in March, the country produced 7.962 million barrels of crude oil and
11.45 BCM of gas. Gas export during the year went to 9.138 BCM, earning
over 1 billion US dollars.

Available statistics reveal that such investment in Myanmar's oil and gas
sector had reached 2.635 billion dollars as of March, the end of the
fiscal year 2005-06, since the country opened to foreign investment in
late 1988.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 29, Irrawaddy
Burmese activists in Malaysia target China, Russia embassies - Khun Sam

Nearly 200 Burmese activists in Malaysia on Monday gathered at the Chinese
and Russian embassies in Kuala Lumpur to protest the two countries for
their veto of a UN Security Council resolution on Burma earlier this
month.

Demonstrators denounced China and Russia for their veto and demanded that
they end their economic and military support of Burma’s ruling junta
instead of using their status as permanent members of the Security Council
to block the UN body from addressing Burma.

About 180 protestors—many of whom were members of Malaysia-based Burmese
pro-democracy groups—demonstrated with signs that read “Stop Army Supply
to Burmese Junta” and “China and Russia Stop Their Veto Powers.” Some
participants also read letters addressed to the two embassies.

The demonstrations were peaceful, though security was tight, according to
Maung Thein, the chairman of the Malaysia-based Democratic Foundation of
Burma, who said that police gave the participants only 10 minutes to
protest.

“By their veto, China and Russia are granting permission to the Burmese
junta for further human rights violation. It is our duty to protest them
and to denounce their veto on behalf of Burmese nationals,” Maung Thein
told The Irrawaddy today by phone from Kuala Lumpur.

In letters addressed to Chinese and Russian embassy officials, Maung Thein
and other demonstrators wrote of their concern that Burma would become
more difficult to engage in democratic reform after the failure of a
US-sponsored resolution at the Security Council, and they demanded that
the two countries stop using their veto powers to support Burma.

China and Russia cast a rare double veto on January 12 that blocked the
passage of a resolution sponsored by the US and the UK that called on the
Burmese regime to release all political prisoners and speed up progress
toward democracy.

“All sectors of Burma, which is among the most poorly developed among
their regional neighbors, have been ruined by the military junta,” said
Kyaw Kyaw, the chairman of the Malaysia-based National League for
Democracy and a participant in the demonstration. “To solve this problem,
we need democracy and political reform. China and Russia should not behave
like obstacles in solving Burma’s political problems.”

A similar demonstration denouncing China and Russia was held last week by
about 100 Burmese activists in New Delhi, India.

____________________________________

January 29, Associated Press
Malaysia detains 176 suspected illegal immigrants from Myanmar

Malaysian authorities detained 176 suspected illegal immigrants from
Myanmar who set up their own village and passed themselves off as
U.N.-recognized refugees, an official said Monday. District enforcement
workers and civilian volunteers on Sunday raided the immigrants'
settlement, which comprised scores of tents, bathrooms and a volleyball
court on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, said Suhaimi Ghazali, a state
legislator for the central district of Dengkil.

Many of those detained had documents that they claimed were given to them
by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, but preliminary checks with
immigration authorities showed the papers were false, Suhaimi said.

The raid followed complaints by residents in surrounding areas who
believed the immigrants were in Malaysia illegally, Suhaimi said. The
detainees were sent to an immigration center and were expected to be
deported once their illegal status is confirmed.

Malaysia has long attracted migrants, including those fleeing poverty,
from Southeast Asia. Though the country relies heavily on foreign laborers
for menial work, authorities regularly deport illegal immigrants, who are
widely blamed for crime and social problems.

Activists have estimated that Malaysia has at least 150,000 refugees and
asylum seekers including many with no valid immigration documents who fled
violence or persecution from places such as Myanmar, Indonesia's Aceh
province and the southern Philippines.

____________________________________

January 29, Mizzima News
Court frames charges against 34 Arakanese rebels - Mungpi

The City City Sessions Court, Kolkata today framed charges against 34
Arakanese and Karen rebels, who were arrested in Andaman and Nicobar
Islands in 1998 by the Indian Navy.

The Court charged the ethnic rebels from Burma with the Arms Act, the
Explosive Substances act and the Foreigners Act.

"If found guilty [of any of the charges], they [the rebels] could face a
lifetime in prison." Akshay Sharma, the defence lawyer told Mizzima.

The rebels, identified as members of the National Unity Party of Arakan,
an ethnic armed rebel group fighting against the Burmese military
dictators, were arrested in February 1998 by the Indian Navy during
"Operation Leech" in Landfall Island of Nicobar.

The rebels were detained and put on trial in a Port Blair court in the
Andaman-Nicobar archipelago.

However, following appeals by human rights organizations that the alleged
rebels had no consular access in Port Blair, the Supreme Court in October
2006 ordered the trial to be shifted to Kolkata.

Sharma said the court today also fixed the trial of witnesses to be held
on March 21, 22, 23, on a witness per day basis.

According to the Indian Army, a huge quantity of arms, ammunition and
explosives were reportedly seized from the rebels when they were arrested.

But the rebels claimed they were betrayed by Indian Military Intelligence
after being used by them for several years to monitor Chinese naval
activity. The rebels also accused the Indian Military Intelligence of
killing six of their leaders in cold blood.

"The Court has also directed that all the arms and ammunitions which are
alleged to have been recovered from these persons [the rebels], should be
brought to the Court," said Sharma.

The rebels said they were brought to Landfall Island by an Indian Military
Intelligence officer Lt-Colonel Vijay Singh Grewal, a Burmese speaking
officer in 1997, on the promise that they would be allowed to set up their
operational base on the Island.

But on reaching the Island, Indian Military Intelligence betrayed the
rebels and killed six of their key leaders, who had reached an agreement
with the Indian Military intelligence, the rebels said.

The rebels, who are currently in Presidency Jail in Kolkata, said they
faced harassment and pressure by jail authorities. In December 2006, jail
authorities and some other convicts together attacked the rebels, when
they complained about the food being served.

Following the brawl, which resulted in three of the rebels being
hospitalized, the Home Department of the West Bengal Government issued an
order that the concerned "accused persons shall not be removed from the
prison in which they are now confined."

This order necessarily results in conducting the trial inside the jail
precincts, away from media glare and the outside world.

However, appeals from concerned civilians and intellectuals made the state
government withdrew the order on December 16, allowing the trial to
continue to be held in open court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation in their first information report
(FIR) had charged the rebels with the National Security Act and Indian
Territorial Authority Act.

"But in the charge-sheet they could not provide any document. So in the
charge sheet they have not even alleged these sections against them [the
rebels]," said Sharma.

Sharma added that technically the accused rebels now face ordinary charges
and "they should not be treated as terrorists or extremists working
against the sovereignty of India."