BurmaNet News, March 30, 2007

[Editor]

March 30, 2007 Issue # 3173


INSIDE BURMA
DPA: Foreign missions left in the dark in old capital
Mizzima: "It's not a surrender" - KNU/KNLA Peace Council
DVB: Would-be valentines poet arrested in Mandalay

ON THE BORDER
VOA: Activists accuse Burma of mounting a state of terror

HEALTH / AIDS
AP: HIV infections in Asia could more than double in 5 years

BUSINESS / TRADE
DVB: Economy in recovery, but not for the masses

INTERNATIONAL
Asian Tribune: Myanmar: UN human rights expert calls for release of
prize-winning journalist and poet

OPINION / OTHER
The Times (London): Look on those monuments to megalomania, and despair -
Ben Macintyre
Irrawaddy: The Burmese are calling
Irrawaddy: The changing face of Mae Sot, Thailand’s “Little Burma” – Aung Zaw

STATEMENT
Canadian Friend’s of Burma: CFOB welcomes CPPIB position on responsible
investment

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 30, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Foreign missions left in the dark in old capital - Peter Janssen

At the end of August the US embassy will move to its new premises in
Yangon, a massive building on the edge of Inya Lake that just happens to
be walking distance from the compound of opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

Permission to shift to its new site came one day before Myanmar's military
rulers officially announced plans to move the capital to Pyinmana, a
remote area 350 kilometres north of Yangon that now goes by the name of
Naypyitaw, or Royal Capital.

Despite the announcement, the US has gone ahead with its over 65 million
dollar investment.

Diplomatic sources in Yangon - there are no diplomatic sources in
Naypyitaw as of yet - said the main reason for the US move was security.
The old embassy site on Merchant Street, a veritable fortress now with
barbed wire fences and cement-filled oil drums around it, was deemed one
of the US's least secure missions in Asia.

It has been a target of frequent pro-government demonstrations, the most
recent of which occurred in January when a rather docile junta-supported
mob briefly stood outside the embassy to register their "outrage" over a
US-led motion to put Myanmar on the United Nations' Security Council
agenda.

The US has been among the most vocal critics of Myanmar's ruling junta and
one of the staunches supporters of Suu Kyi and her National League for
Democracy (NLD) that won the 1990 general election but has been blocked
from power since.

Not everyone, even among opponents of the military, appreciates the US's
hard-line stance which has been set in stone, literally, with their
decision to build a massive new embassy in a city which is no longer
Myanmar's capital.

"I would just say they were pretty wrong in reading the future of this
country; they thought the Naypyitaw project wouldn't come true," said Win
Naing, who labels himself an "independent politician."

The man behind a protest march in Yangon last month against rising
inflation, Win Naing is trying to carve out a position for himself as a
neutral force between the junta and the NLD, who have been deadlocked in
their opposition for the past 17 years.

Win Naing faults the US for failing to support other democratic forces
that are emerging in Myanmar in the shadow of Suu Kyi, the only opposition
leader who enjoys international recognition.

"By recognizing the NLD and the NLD alone and refusing to recognize any
other democratic forces, the US is making the NLD arrogant," said Win
Naing.

While Suu Kyi remains a powerful symbol for Myanmar's pro-democracy
struggle, her party has suffered from its virtual isolation from their
charismatic leader since her arrest in May 2003. She has been placed under
house arrest in her family compound, around the corner from the new US
embassy.

Other groups, such as the 1988 Students and Win Naing, have shown much
more initiative in staging passive protests against the regime over the
past two years while the NLD has disappeared from the scene, perhaps
biding its time until an anticipated election in the far distant future.

And while the US has remained rigid in its support for the NLD, other
countries have adopted a more exploratory approach to the ruling junta,
headed by Senior General Than Shwe, whose brainstorm it was to move the
capital to Naypyitaw.

"We have followed the same policy towards Myanmar for the past 16 years,"
said one European diplomat. "We have to realize that while our intentions
were good, we have not achieved them."

One sign of the times is that next week the 3D project, a
100-million-dollar programme to help Myanmar combat malaria, tuberculosis
and HIV/AIDS, will officially kick off next week, replacing the
similarly-motivated Global Fund that ended in 2006 largely due to US
political opposition to it.

The 3D programme is backed primarily by the European Union, with strong
bilateral support from the governments of Australia and Great Britain.

Ironically, such initiatives on the humanitarian and diplomatic fronts,
have now been impeded by the junta's decision to shift the capital to
Naypyitaw.

"When everyone was in Yangon it was already difficult making contact, now
the procedural obstacles have increased," said one western diplomat. "You
can't carry out projects like this."

The sudden move was even more of a slap in the face for Myanmar's fellow
members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which
received no prior warning.

Singapore, for instance, was reportedly "furious" with the move since it
had already started construction on a new embassy compound in Yangon.

To date, the Myanmar government has yet to officially invite any embassies
to shift to the new capital, although it has designated a plot of "scrub
land" for future missions, where the diplomats will also be forced to
live.

Plots will be made available at the end of this year, diplomats said.

Meanwhile, hopes remain still high in some quarters that the diplomatic
migration may prove unnecessary.

"I remain convinced that if something happens to Than Shwe, like if he
drops dead, the capital will be moved back to Yangon in a second," said
one western diplomat. "Because no one, including the civil servants and
military, like living up there."

____________________________________

March 30, Mizzima News
"It's not a surrender" - KNU/KNLA Peace Council - Mungpi

The KNU/KNLA Peace Council, a splinter Karen rebel group led by Brig-Gen
Htay Maung, said it has not surrendered to the Burmese Army but has
changed its strategy by first striking a peace deal.

Major Maung Kyaw, liaison officer of the Karen National Union/Karen
National Liberation Army Peace Council, said no negotiation can be
possible without first reaching a peace agreement. But it does not mean
surrendering of arms.

"Our principle is that there can be no dialogue and no development as long
as there is continuous fighting. So, we need to find a way to stop this
fighting," Kyaw told Mizzima over telephone.

Kyaw added that despite criticism that the KNU/KNLA Peace Council is
following a new strategy, it does not mean that "we are surrendering."

Brig-Gen Htay Maung, commander of the 7th brigade KNLA, the armed wing of
the KNU, and a team of delegates on January 3 left for Rangoon for peace
talks with the Burmese Army without the approval of the KNU central
committee.

Following the trip, the KNU central committee dismissed Brig-Gen Htay
Maung from his post for flouting the central committee's orders and trying
to negotiate peace with the Burmese military junta without consulting the
KNU.

However, Brig-Gen Htay Maung and his group continued the peace process and
formed the KNU/KNLA Peace Council on January 31. The Peace Council also
declared that a peace deal has been struck with the Burmese junta and went
back to Toh Kaw Koe village, Kawkareik Township , Karen State with its
followers.

Kyaw said, members of the Peace Council are able to move freely in the Toh
Kaw Koe area, where the Karen revolutionary leader Saw Ba U Gyi had died
in August 1950, without fear of military attacks and are able to hoist the
Karen national flag.

"But we are in no way going to give up our arms," said Kyaw adding that
the word "surrender" used by a few media groups to label the Peace
Council, was disgusting.

"It's been 58 years that we have been fighting. This is not child's play
and just to say we are surrendering is ridiculous," said Kyaw.

Kyaw said following the agreement between the Peace Council and the junta
for a peace deal, the lives of Karen people in the area had been peaceful
with development projects on the anvil.

Currently Brig-Gen Htay Maung is demanding that the Burmese junta build a
channel that will supply water to the vast fields in the peace zone, said
Kyaw.

____________________________________

March 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Would-be valentines poet arrested in Mandalay

A teashop owner from Kyaukse township in Mandalay Division has been
arrested for writing and distributing a booklet of Valentines Day poems
last month.

Cynthia teashop owner Ko Kyaw Thu Moe Myint wrote a small book of poems to
mark Valentines Day last month and distributed copies for free to his
friends and family. Two of the 11 poems included referred to independence
hero general Aung San.

Shortly after, Ko Kyaw Thu Moe Myint was summoned by the Kyaukse township
chairman and was forced to sign a statement saying he would never publish
and distribute his own work again. His family told DVB they thought that
would be the end of the matter.

But on March 26, Ko Kyaw Thu Moe Myint was arrested and detained at the
Sinkhaing detention centre.

“He is being sued by the media control body because he published the book
without getting permission first. He distributed them free of charge—not
for sale. He did it for the joy of lovers’ day. I don’t know what he has
infringed upon,” one of his family members said.

Township officials were repeatedly unavailable for comment yesterday.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 28, Voice of America
Activists accuse Burma of mounting a state of terror - Lisa Schlein

Geneva: Human Rights activists from Burma are appealing to the U.N. Human
Rights Council and the international community to maintain pressure on the
government's military rulers to end their repression of the country's
Karen ethnic minority. The activists have issued a study that describes
the group's situation. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

The study "State of Terror" documented by the Karen Women's Organization
The Burmese activists say the information in the study was collected by
members of the Karen Women's Organization at great risk to their lives.
The study, called "State of Terror," documents a wide-range of human
rights abuses across Karen State, which borders Thailand.

It accuses the Burmese military regime of waging a sustained campaign of
terror against people in the state. It documents about 4,000 cases of
abuse in nearly 200 villages.

A co-author of the report, Blooming Night Zan, who is also a
representative of the Karen Women's Organization, says Karen women are the
main victims of government attacks. She says they are doubly oppressed
because of their ethnicity and their gender.

"Ninety percent of all documented human rights violations in the report
are forced relocations and forced laboring or portering," she said. "These
violations have often been committed in conjunction with rape, beating,
mutilation, cultural murder, denial of rights to food, water and shelter
and denial of the right to legal redress."

"The State of Terror [report] shows the direct link of accountability of
the Burmese military regime for its violations 
 atrocities committed
within a human rights framework," she added.

Zan says increasing numbers of Karen are fleeing across the border into
Thailand to escape the brutal treatment and many more people have become
internally displaced. She says international action is needed to end the
abuse.

Another Burmese activist, Win Naing, came to Geneva specifically to
petition the U.N. Human Rights Council to monitor the situation in Burma.

Naing, who represents the Burmese government in exile or the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, says a strong voice is needed
from the United Nations to protect his people.

The Human Rights Council is now debating whether it should do away with
the special rapporteurs that investigate human rights violations in
countries around the world. Naing urges the Council not to do this.

"We still need our special rapporteur on Burma," he said. "We still need a
country resolution of Burma. Without the international institutions'
involvement, there will be more and more human rights violations."

Naing says his group supports international sanctions against the military
government because the so-called policy of constructive engagement does
not work.

The peace activists say Burma has more than 1,300 political prisoners,
including Nobel Laureate Aung San Sui Kui. They say they do not believe
the government will free Sui Kyi from house arrest because they are afraid
of her and of the support she receives from the people.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

March 30, Associated Press
HIV infections in Asia could more than double in 5 years

Manila: The number of people in Asia infected with the HIV virus that
causes AIDS could more than double to 20 million over the next five years
without a better government response and more funding, officials warned
Friday.

"At the current level of inadequate response, it is expected this number
will rise to about 20 million in the next five years," said the
independent Commission on Aids in Asia that is funded by the Joint United
Nations Program on HIV/AIDS or UNAIDS.

There are currently around 8.6 million people infected in Asia with HIV.

It said the number of deaths currently average around 500,000 yearly and
financial losses to the Asian region are estimated at US$10 billion
(euro7.5 billion) annually. But that economic cost is predicted to rise to
as high as US$29 billion (euro21.72 billion) per year if the epidemic is
not controlled within the next five years.

Despite these projections, investments on HIV control in the region remain
extremely low at ten percent of the required US$5 billion (euro3.74
billion) per year, it added.

UNAIDS data show the number of infected people receiving antiretroviral
therapy, which inhibits the replication of the HIV virus, has increased
more than threefold since 2003, but they represent only 16 percent of the
total of those in need of treatment in Asia.

Only Thailand is providing treatment to at least 50 percent of those in
need, UNAIDS said.

The nine-member commission of economists, policy makers and civil society
members was created in 2006 to analyze the socio-economic impact of
HIV/AIDS and make policy recommendations on how it can be mitigated. The
commission is holding its two-day Southeast Asia Sub-Regional workshop in
Manila until Friday.

Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chairman of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's economic advisory council and head of the commission, told
reporters that while the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is low in Southeast Asia,
the region is populous, making the number of infections high. It also has
a huge number of mobile workers, who risk spreading HIV.

He also said there was a need to mobilize domestic funds to control
HIV/AIDS in the region, because more than 80 percent of funding currently
comes from foreign aid organizations.

In Southeast Asia, Laos and the Philippines are among those which have low
HIV prevalence rates, while Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand are among those
which have a high prevalence of the virus, according to J. V. R. Prasada
Rao, a UNAIDS director and a member of the commission.

The commission said the reasons for the inadequate response in the region
are manifold, ranging from low levels of awareness and understanding among
policy makers of the long term impact of HIV/AIDS to a difficulty in
predicting the dynamics of the disease progression, and a lack of funding.

Sex remains taboo, with very little encouragement for sex and family
education for young people. Multi-partner sex and injecting drug use,
which mainly drive the epidemic, are criminal acts in the eyes of the law,
resulting in infected populations remaining highly stigmatized and
deprived of even limited health care services, it added.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Economy in recovery, but not for the masses - Clive Parker

Deciphering Burma’s highly unrealistic economic data is problematic but
beneath all the phony numbers, after years of almost non-existent growth,
the economy is finally picking up.

When the current financial year ends tomorrow, Burma will almost certainly
have recorded its most profitable year in terms of foreign exchange
earnings and taxation revenue since the beginning of military rule 45
years ago. There is just one problem—almost none of these gains seem to be
reaching the average Burmese citizen.

An interim report by the Asian Development Bank released this week said
that during the previous 2005 fiscal year, Burma saw gains in agriculture,
energy and mining. Predictions from the Economist Intelligence Unit
suggest that Burma’s GDP growth would be expected to increase steadily
from about 3.5 percent in 2006 to four percent in 2008. This is slow by
booming East Asian standards, but compared to 2003 when the banking crisis
prompted negative growth of more than two percent, the economy has
certainly rebounded.

The driving force behind the turnaround is not difficult to ascertain. In
March alone, The New Light of Myanmar reported that Burma’s Ministry of
Energy held at least eight meetings with foreign officials from Thailand,
Singapore, India, Malaysia, Russia and South Korea. Three of these
meetings concluded in new oil and gas deals.

As ADB said this week “High gas prices will continue to buffer [Burma’s] .
. . external accounts and exploration for more gas and oil is under way.”

In the 2005 fiscal year, EIU says that energy sales accounted for 37
percent of Burma’s export revenue, a percentage that is understood to be
climbing every year; the main reason the junta surpassed US $1 billion in
foreign exchange reserves around September 2006 for the first time ever.

Similarly, taxation revenue has risen even more sharply as the government
has begun to enforce its own tax legislation. The authorities claimed
nearly nine times more tax in the 2005 fiscal year compared to 2001,
netting 450 billion kyat in the previous fiscal year, if we are to believe
Burmese government statistics.


>From the beginning of the 2007 fiscal year on April 1, Burma expects to

reach 2.38 trillion kyat in GDP and is kicking things off by permitting
all 1500 private firms in Rangoon’s industrial zones to run 24 hours a
day, The Myanmar Times reported in its latest issue.

As ever in Burma though, this only tells half the story.

If the junta’s aim of reaching above ten percent growth year-on-year from
2006-2010 is unrealistic, as economic institutions like ADB have
suggested, then any tangible benefits for the general populace seem even
less likely.

Banks haven’t been able to lend money since the crisis in February 2003
and the kyat has reached successive all-time lows since then as the junta
has tried to print its way out of the ensuing monetary mess.

Meanwhile, the junta’s increases in taxation revenue have partly come from
foreign organisations and their employees, but also from small Burmese
businesses that are finding their profits increasingly squeezed. All of
these factors are detrimental to the economic wellbeing of small
businesses and the average Burmese.

Add to that double-digit inflation and the subsequent threats by the
military that businesses increasing prices may be punished in some cases
and you have a general population feeling the economic strain, says a
Rangoon-based business editor, requesting anonymity “The trickling down
effect [of increased GDP], if there is any, is totally invisible on the
ground level.”

The prices of the main commodities—rice, gold and oil—are at, or
approaching, all time highs, the editor said, adding that most townships
Rangoon are “still in the dark for most of the day and the night.” Indeed,
Burma’s nearly 55 million people—including recent demonstrators in
Rangoon—are surely asking themselves where the profits from energy, gas,
agriculture and tax are going.

A large slice has clearly gone to the building of the capital Naypyidaw,
which has also been funded, it is thought, by soft loans from foreign
countries including China and Thailand.

The junta may have convinced itself it is building a “modern and developed
nation” but invariably the figures lie, or at least do not to tell the
whole truth. As ever, the government has failed the true gauge of progress
in Burma in that the average person remains as impoverished as ever, with
few opportunities for economic relief.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 29, Asian Tribune
Myanmar: UN human rights expert calls for release of prize-winning
journalist and poet

The United Nations independent expert Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro on the
situation of human rights in Myanmar (Burma) has appealed to the Army
rulers to release the distinguished poet and journalist U Win Tin who is
the country's longest serving political prisoner, having been jailed for
nearly 18 years and all other political prisoners.Since he was originally
imprisoned in 1989, U Win Tin has been sentenced three times, each time
while behind bars. Currently, he is serving a seven year sentence
following a letter he wrote to the UN about the ill treatment and poor
conditions of political prisoners.Since he was originally imprisoned in
1989, U Win Tin has been sentenced three times, each time while behind
bars. Currently, he is serving a seven year sentence following a letter he
wrote to the UN about the ill treatment and poor conditions of political
prisoners.

"The path to which the Government has committed itself is one in which
there is no place for political prisoners," the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Myanmar Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro said in a
statement

"Rather, processes of national reconciliation and democratic transition
are invariably facilitated by the release of all political prisoners."

U Win Tin, who earlier this month spent his 77th birthday in a prison cell
in Yangon, is a Laureate of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) World Press Freedom Award, among other international
accolades.

He is a "human rights defender and democracy advocate whose commitment to
the cause of democracy, freedom of speech and human rights have earned him
the support and respect of people around the world striving to promote and
protect these values," Mr. Pinheiro said.

Since he was originally imprisoned in 1989, U Win Tin has been sentenced
three times, each time while behind bars. Currently, he is serving a seven
year sentence following a letter he wrote to the UN about the ill
treatment and poor conditions of political prisoners.

There are over 1,200 political prisoners in Myanmar, several of whom are
now elderly or in poor health and in urgent need of medical attention,
according to the statement. U Win Tin, who has been held for extended
periods of time in solitary confinement, is one of many detainees whose
state of health has deteriorated partly due to detention conditions and
who should be freed on humanitarian grounds alone.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 30, The Times (London)
Look on those monuments to megalomania, and despair - Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre on Burma's bizarre but predictable architectural vision

In the foetid depths of the Burmese jungle, on the road to Mandalay, slave
labourers toil to build a glinting new metropolis for their military
overlords.

This is Naypyitaw, "Seat of Kings", the new capital city decreed by
Burma's brutal junta, and the latest (and oddest) example of autocracy as
architecture.

This week foreign journalists got their first glimpse of the new city,
some 300 miles north of Rangoon, a strange, gleaming confection of
official hotels, ministries and government housing. To the east stands the
new fortress that is home to Burma's supreme military commander, the
reclusive General Than Shwe.

Naypyitaw is intended to project power and control, but the absurd new
city in the malarial jungle speaks more of paranoia and megalomania. The
new metropolis may even bring a little hope to the oppressed people of
Burma, for in the long and tasteless history of totalitarian architecture
the most extravagant building works are often the precursor to a regime's
collapse.

Tyrants have always built big and gaudy. The dictator awards himself a new
city, a palace, a monument in stone, intended to intimidate and impress.
He imagines, like Shelley's Ozymandias, "King of Kings", that his great
statue will confer immortality, but it crumbles to dust, a warning of the
transience of power: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." Just
about every despot has had an "Edifice Complex", as Deyan Sudjic, the
architecture writer, entitled his recent book about the relationship
between wealth, power and architecture.

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini and Saddam all imagined vast cities
constructed in their own honour. Stalin's Palace of the Soviets was to be
higher than the Empire State Building. Hitler's Reich Chancellery was a
deliberately theatrical statement, with towering brass doors 17ft high and
the Fuhrer's 4,000 sq ft "study".

In 1984, written in 1948, George Orwell left a prescient description of
the sort of totalitarian architecture that would soon dominate the
Communist bloc, imposing and hideous: the Ministry of Truth, an "enormous,
pyramidal structure of white concrete, soaring up terrace after terrace,
three hundred metres into the air . .

." Saddam put his heart into his architecture. Or rather his arms, which
were cast in bronze (in Basingstoke), and then formed into a huge arch
holding two scimitars aloft. Today, in Basra, British soldiers eat their
lunch in the colossal hall of one of Saddam's 32 palaces.

Saparmurat Niyazov, the grotesque dictator of Turkmenistan, dubbed himself
the Great Turkmenbashi, "Father of all Turkmens", renamed the month of
January after himself (and April after his mum), and built a new capital
from white Italian and Turkish marble on the edge of Kakarum desert. The
dictator died last December. His huge gold statue still stands in the city
square, automatically rotating its face to the sun; but probably not for
much longer, for the sun has already set on the city Turkmenbashi built.

The moment of greatest architectural extravagance seems often to presage
the waning of power. Sir Edwin Lutyens completed his redesign of New Delhi
in 1931, a magnificent modern imperial capital intended to last for ever.
The bells carved into the pillars of the Viceroy's Palace were silent as
an indication that they would never ring to signal the end of empire. The
British left just 16 years later.

In the same way, it has been shown that large corporations often
disintegrate most rapidly after building large and impressive new
headquarters: a company that spends its cash and time on self-aggrandising
buildings may already have lost the edge.

Up until the end, Hitler was still planning his Germania, Albert Speer's
Brobdingnagian vision of a new Rome for the 1,000-year Reich: avenues wide
enough for 90 stormtroopers to goosestep abreast, a triumphal arch to
dwarf that of Napoleon, a dome nine times larger than St Peter's. One of
the most telling scenes in Downfall, the remarkable film of Hitler's last
days, depicts the Fuhrer in his bunker, madly enthusing over a scale-model
of Germania as the bombs fall.

Hitler once studied to be an architect. So did Mohammed Atta, the
mastermind of the World Trade Centre attacks. The Great Turkmenbashi was a
town planner before taking power. Three monsters of destruction, each
fascinated by the symbolism of architectural power.

Men build great palaces to show they are strong, or defy the world, or
prove their worth to themselves. Or to hide. Work continues today on
Robert Mugabe's $5 million retirement palace in an exclusive Harare
suburb, a sort of African Chinese pagoda covered in expensive and ugly
blue tiles.

Almost all significant architecture is about the projection of power: the
pyramids, the Taj Mahal and Hamilton Palace, the unfinished £ 40 million
mansion being constructed by the property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten.

Unveiling plans for the Millennium Dome, his own Great Work, Tony Blair
declared: "It will be the envy of the world." A billion pounds later, it
stands empty, a monument to Mr Blair, but not quite in the way he
intended.

Above all, architecture is a political art. Few regimes can resist the
temptation to flatter themselves in stone, brick or bronze. Yet the
architecture of repression holds a particular place in cultural history,
for it seldom endures: undermined by hubris, held together by the ego of
one individual, the new cities and grand palaces of the dictator tend to
decay swiftly, like the gilt peeling off Saddam's bathroom taps.

Brasilia was built in 1965 to forge a new identity for Brazil, but Burma's
new capital is very different: a place for the junta to seal itself away
from the people, a fortress inside a fortress. In the Burmese jungle a new
city rises: Naypyitaw, Seat of Kings, refuge of the paranoid, mausoleum of
military dictators.

____________________________________

March 30, Irrawaddy
The Burmese are calling

Earlier this week, Burmese authorities closed a key border crossing on the
Moei river in Mae Sot in Thailand’s Tak province.

The move followed Thailand’s temporary closure of the border crossing in
Kanchanaburi province after the kidnapping of two Thai border police
officers in Sangkhlaburi district by members of the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army—a splinter group of the Karen National Union with close ties
to Burma’s ruling junta.

The closing of the Mae Sot-Myawaddy border crossing is believed to have
been in retaliation for the Sangkhlaburi closure.

Burma knows well the value of the Mae Sot-Myawaddy crossing, as trade
through this portal generates about 40 million baht each day. However,
they might also believe they have the upper hand in dealing with Thailand,
and so can endure the lost trade revenue temporarily.

And Burma has plenty of other avenues for their brisk trade in teak,
seafood, livestock and other goods—not to mention revenue from natural gas
and other natural resources.

Border closings are a common element in the hot-and-cold relationship
between the two countries, particularly when relations sour or on
occasions when border tensions produce occasional armed conflict.

Thailand’s provincial governor in Mae Hong Son on Friday took the next
step in the current tit-for-tat diplomacy by closing that province’s
border checkpoint. This move comes on the heels of a grenade attack
allegedly by Burmese border troops that killed one Thai ranger last week.

Officials from both countries continue to meet over the issue, but with
little success so far.

Relations between Burma and Thailand have been uneasy since Surayud
Chulanont became prime minister in October last year. His appointment by
Thailand’s military-led interim government, installed following a
bloodless coup that unseated the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, has
done little to smooth longstanding tensions among the Burmese,
particularly because he is widely seen as being sympathetic to Burmese
ethnic groups along the border.

As the former army chief in the early 2000s, Surayud ordered several
border closings to stem the flow of drugs into Thailand, believed to be
coming from the Wa region of Burma. That period also saw several border
clashes with Burmese soldiers, and several months passed before relations
normalized.

Surayud has maintained only minimal contact with Burma’s ruling generals,
with the exception of a brief visit as part of an Asean tour after his
appointment as premier late last year.

Sources along the border suggest that the junta and its allies within
Karen State want to pressure Thailand for allowing members and leaders of
the Karen National Union to live on Thai soil. Others believe that Burma
is merely flexing its muscles while Thai security forces are busy with an
increasingly blood insurgency in the southern provinces.

But some Thai officials seem willing to appease the Burmese regime and
restore some balance to deteriorating relations.

In early March, Thai soldiers stopped a small group of Burmese monks from
finishing a “freedom march” from Bangkok to Mae Sot. The peaceful march
was conceived to draw attention to international and regional demands for
the release of all political prisoners in Burma.

Thai police in Mae Sot also broke up a hunger strike led by Burmese
demonstrating in support of the monks’ freedom march and increased
security measures near the homes of Burmese opposition leaders in Mae Sot.

A group of Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus members who visited
Mae Sot last week were also told by local authorities not to visit
dissidents and human rights offices in the city, though they were allowed
to call on the medical clinic run by Dr Cynthia.

These developments have led some analysts in Mae Sot to suggest that Thai
authorities are unwilling to allow sensitive Burma-related political
activities on Thai soil that could prove embarrassing to Burma.

The border closures may be business as usual in the frequently turbulent
relations between Thailand and Burma; or, they may be an effort by
Naypyidaw to create a more complex diplomatic row in order to pursue some
political advantage.

But if relations don’t improve in the coming weeks, Surayud may be
compelled to take a break from politicking in Bangkok and the troubles in
the South, because the Burmese are knocking on his door.

____________________________________

March 30, Irrawaddy
The changing face of Mae Sot, Thailand’s “Little Burma” - Aung Zaw

Whenever I go to Mae Sot I see gradual and slow changes. But on my latest
visit, after an absence of almost eight months, I saw evidence of rapid
growth.

Everywhere I went, I saw new houses, land development projects,
restaurants, gas stations, guest houses—even coffee shops with wireless
internet connection had arrived.

I also saw new construction and an expansion of tents at the immigration
office near the Friendship Bridge, connecting Thailand and Burma. The
tents shelter hundreds of Burmese migrants, many of them women, waiting to
be deported. I suspect this is not an uncommon sight in Mae Sot. A few
years ago, I witnessed a major crackdown in Mae Sot where thousands of
Burmese were rounded up in one day and sent back to Myawaddy. But they
sneaked back.

I am sure this group will also find its way back to Mae Sot, even though
wages on the black economy are low—a house maid in Mae Sot earns 800-1,000
baht (less than US $50) a month.

Step into Mae Sot’s food market any morning and you’ll see many Burmese
strolling around and chatting in their language without fear. Mae Sot is
still very much “Little Burma.”

I paid a brief visit to Dr Cynthia’s clinic, known as the Mae Tao clinic,
near the airport. She had just finished meetings with donors, and told me
her clinic needs 50 million baht ($1.4 million) this year to cover
expenses and to treat the around 100,000 patients she registers annually.
Yet some donors who attended the meeting told me a more realistic figure
would be 75 million baht ($2.1 million).

The clinic faced a serious funding shortage in 2004, and Cynthia and her
medics don’t want to experience the same problem again.

More than 300 medical staff are employed at her clinic, treating patients
from Burma and locally resident Burmese. I noticed that many I remembered
from my previous visits, since 1995, had gone. Many well-trained and
talented medical staff had emigrated to the West under resettlement
programs. New, younger staff had joined her clinic, but one senior medic
there told me that the younger generation receiving training were also
looking for opportunities to resettle in third countries.

This presents a serious crisis for many groups along the border—especially
in refugee camps, where well-trained and talented refugees who are
teachers, medics and community leaders are leaving for third countries.
Finding replacements for them is a major hurdle.

Cynthia, known as Burma’s “Mother Teresa,” remains committed to providing
medical services to her patients and training for her staff.  Thai
Ministry of Health officials in Mae Sot are helpful and admire her work
and dedication.

The clinic has come a long way since opening illegally in Thailand in late
1988. It now shoulders much of Thailand’s burden in caring for Burmese
patients with malaria, TB and such infectious diseases as HIV/AIDS. Now
the clinic is well-established and well- recognized, with a number of
dedicated foreign physicians working for her as volunteers.

Cynthia told me most of her patients are suffering from malaria, although
increasing numbers of HIV/AIDS cases are being treated.  A pilot project
to treat a dozen HIV/AIDS patients with antiretroviral drugs is planned
for April in association with Mae Sot hospital. Individual donors from
Western nations have also offered financial support for some HIV/AIDS
patients, but this is not enough, she said. She also sees increasing
number of patients coming to her clinic from inside Burma.

An international donor has offered to finance the construction of a new
clinic for Cynthia, which would relieve the increasing pressure on her
present premises. Meanwhile,
Dr Simon Tha, a well-known Karen physician and peace negotiator between
Karen rebel groups and the Burmese regime, is reported to be opening up a
Japanese-financed hospital in Myawaddy, the Burmese town opposite Mae Sot.

I wondered aloud if patients from Burma and Karen State might seek
treatment at this hospital when it opens, instead of visiting Cynthia’s
clinic. “It depends on how he [Dr Simon Tha] runs his hospital,” a donor
told me.

After visiting Dr Cynthia, I dined with a well-known dissident who has
been living in the border area for several years. He didn’t conceal his
frustration when we talked about Burmese politics and life in exile. “We
are just surviving,” he said.

His organization receives grants from some US-based foundations, but he
said he and his group were sick of asking for money and answering too many
questions from donors.
“I know they don’t read our reports,” he said—and I could sense the pride
and frustration in his mind.

At least, he doesn’t have to care for the sick, only about his politically
ailing homeland. The struggle for a free Burma needs money, though, and
that’s scarce. “With money, we can hold together and regain our momentum.”
He told me about funding cuts facing his colleagues and organizations
along the border.

“I have committed myself to the revolution for almost 20 years and I have
nothing,” he said.

But he wants to hold on for a few more years to see what changes will come
to his country and what his organization can do to help. But, with no sign
of Burma’s generals relinquishing power in a hurry, he also has to think
of a personal exit strategy. “In 2008, I need to think of myself,” he
sighed.

His frustration and disappointment are not just directed at the regime. He
dismisses Asean as hopeless, Burma’s neighbors as dishonest, and believes
that powerful nations are too busy with non-Burma issues. “The US is
trapped in the Middle East,” he complained.

“I buy lottery tickets these days,” he laughed. I asked him what he would
do if he won. “Well, we will see if we can teach a lesson or two to the
regime.”

“Are you going to buy arms?” I asked. He chuckled, but gave me an honest
answer: “We can have some good fights or guerrilla warfare. We can try.”
Perhaps this is part of his intention to regain momentum, and I fully
understand that he could not say this to his donors in the US or Europe.
“Don’t worry, you have Rambo in town,” I joked, referring to the new
Hollywood movie featuring a rescue raid into Burma.

We finished our drinks, paid up and walked out of restaurant. Mae Sot lay
quiet, dark and dead to the world. But in the darkness, I imagined the
Burmese hiding in the rice fields, sleeping in small huts or restless
behind prison bars. And I saw faces in the faint street lights, smiling
and waiting for customers. I suspect they might not agree with me when I
say Mae Sot has changed.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

March 29, Canadian Friends of Burma
CFOB welcomes CPPIB position on responsible investment

Ottawa: The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) welcomes the Canada Pension
Plan Investment Board’s (CPPIB) decision to sign on to the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).  The CFOB also strongly urges
on Ivanhoe Mines to join the EITI and disclose matters related to the
environment on its operations in Burma.

The CPPIB holds 2,859,000 units of shares from Ivanhoe Mines in the
current Canadian market value of $38 million. CFOB is encouraged that the
CPPIB has in the past expressed concerns about how environmental, social,
and governance issues relate to its holdings in Ivanhoe Mines and
encourages the CPPIB to continue to do so.  CFOB supporters are
particularly concerned with Ivanhoe’s refusal to take responsibility for
environmental impacts, because at least fourteen locations near the
current operations have been identified as contaminated sites.

Within eight years of its operations, Ivanhoe has earned more than US$ 260
million in revenue and US$120 million in profit. This significant earning,
however, is only 50% of the total profit generated from the Monywa Copper
Project, since the same amount of earnings, is going to the coffers of the
Burmese military junta, due to their 50/50 joint-venture. The military
also received more than US$ 30 million for commercials tax, which is 30%
on chopper sales, for the period between 2003 and 2006. Although Ivanhoe
is said to have earmarked US$10 million for community development
projects, it is still blurred on how the development fund is being used.

On Monday, March 26, 2007, the CPPIB announced it is becoming a signatory
to EITI.  It stated that, disclosure is the key that allows investors to
better understand, evaluate and assess potential risk and return.  It also
said that through enhanced transparency companies that adopt the
principles of EITI can reduce political and reputational risk.

“By signing onto EITI, the CPP Investment Board has showed that it is
serious about public concerns on the matter of responsible investment,”
said Tin Maung Htoo, Executive Director of Canadian Friends of Burma. “We
hope this initiative will help persuade Ivanhoe Mines to disclose
environmental and financial matters,” he added.

CFOB’s research indicates that the CPPIB holds shares in a number of
Canadian and non-Canadian companies doing business in Burma.

Further contact:

Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
145 Spruce St. Suite 206
Ottawa, ON   K1R 6P1
Tel: (613) 237-8056

Mobile (613) 297-6835 – only for media-
Fax: (613) 563-0017
Email: cfob at cfob.org
Website: http://www.cfob.org