BurmaNet News, April 27, 2007

[Editor]

April 27, 2007 Issue # 3192


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Drugs, arms seized in government raid on militia base
Kantarawaddy Times: Karenni refugee killed in landmine explosion

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Myanmar to step up fight against northeast India rebels
Mizzima: New China-Burma road open

BUSINESS / TRADE
Narinjara: Daewoo considers legal action against Burma: gas goes to China

INTERNATIONAL
International Herald Tribune: 2 diplomatic outcasts find common ground;
Myanmar restores ties with N. Korea
Irrawaddy: Renewed Burma-N Korea relations draws US attention

OPINION / OTHER
European Voice: Totally wrong about an evil regime – Ben Rogers

PRESS RELEASE
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC): Burma: Case against
TotalFina re-launched in Belgium

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 27, Irrawaddy
Drugs, arms seized in government raid on militia base - Shah Paung

Burmese army troops and members of Burma’s Anti-Narcotic Task Force have
reportedly raided the northern Shan State headquarters of the Pan Say
People's militia, seizing opium poppies, amphetamine pills, arms and fake
Burmese currency and arresting about 70 Pan Say soldiers.

The Pan Say People's Militia is an armed group that until recently was
allied to government forces. It was founded 20 years ago, and is based in
Pan Say village, near the Burmese-Chinese border town of Muse.

No mention of the raid has appeared in the official media. A local
businessman is the source of reports of the action. He said that the day
after the raid a Pan Say group set fire to trucks of the Anti-Narcotic
Task Force carrying the confiscated poppies.

Among the arrested Pan Say members were Pan Say Kyaw Moe and Pan Say Kyaw
Htwe, brothers of Pan Say Kyaw Myint, who leads the Pan Say People’s
Militia.
Pan Say Kyaw Myint, a well-known drug lord who has been attending the
junta-organized National Convention, reportedly escaped arrest.

The arrested Pan Say members are being held in the Anti-Narcotics
Detention Center in Muse and in Nankhan township, Shan State.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese observer who lives in the China-Burma border
region, estimated that the group has 120-150 soldiers under arms. He said
that earlier this month Burma's police chief, Brig-Gen Khin Yi, visited
the group. The Chairman of Shan State Peace and Development Council
(North), Brig-Gen Aung Than Htut, also met group leaders this month and
handed over arms and ammunition.

____________________________________

April 26, Kantarawaddy Times
Karenni refugee killed in landmine explosion - Nyar Moe

A landmine explosion killed a Karenni refugee who left the camp to find
honey. He belonged to Karenni camp I.

Baw Reh, who lived in quarter 16, Karenni camp I, Mae Hong Song district,
northern Thailand, stepped on a landmine and was killed last Tuesday
morning. He went to collect honey with three friends. His left leg was
blown off when he stepped on the landmine,

 "It happened at around 9 or 10 a.m. The four set out together but two
separated," his neighbour said.

"Two persons brought him back and the third person went to the camp and
called for help. More people converged. By the time Baw Reh could be taken
to the clinic in the camp, he died," his friends said.

Four persons, including Baw Reh have been killed in landmine explosions in
the area. The area is located on the Thai-Burma border and the Burmese
Army units are stationed there.

It is the season for Karenni refugees from camp I to go out and search for
honey because they can earn some money and use it for their consumption.

Many people go out to look for honey. They sell one bottle for 120 Bhat in
the camp.

Karenni camp I is located in Thai territory near the Thai-Burma border. It
is about two kilometers from the border. The area is a veritable danger
zone. In the past, many people, who went searching for leaves for roofing
their house, find vegetables and fish have been killed by landmines.

The Karenni refugee camp committee and camp security committee have given
standing instructions prohibiting camp inmates from crossing the border.
But some refugees have been crossing the border in search of leaves
vegetables, meat, and fish.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 27, Agence France Presse
Myanmar to step up fight against northeast India rebels

Guwahati: Myanmar has promised to step up military action against all
Indian separatist rebels operating from its territory, an Indian official
said Friday following security talks between the neighbours.

Myanmar made the promise after a series of meetings between visiting
Brigadier General Tin Maung Ohn and senior Indian army officers, the
official said.

"The Myanmar army has assured us (they will) step up the fight against
militants from the northeastern states," said the Indian army commander,
who asked not to be named.

The meetings were held in Guwahati, the main city in India's state of Assam.

Another officer, Lieutenant General Paramjit Singh, described Yangon's
decision as "a breakthrough" as in the past, Myanmar has acted against
just one group -- the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland's Khaplang
faction.

The group says it is fighting for an independent tribal homeland in
India's Nagaland state and says its general headquarters is situated in
Myanmar.

India and Myanmar share a 1,640 kilometre (1,000 mile) unfenced border,
allowing militants from the northeast to use the adjoining country as a
springboard to carry out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on Indian troops.

New Delhi has been asking Myanmar to flush out all the rebels, including
the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), regarded as the most
powerful among the 30-odd separatist groups in India's northeast.

The ULFA, which wants an independent homeland in Assam, is on the run
after the Indian army intensified operations against them in January
following a wave of killings and bombings blamed on the group.

"The ULFA militants have sneaked into their bases in Myanmar. If (Myanmar)
launches an operation it would be easier for us to deal with militancy
here," said another senior Indian army source.

Besides the ULFA and Naga rebels, at least three other militant groups
from the insurgency ridden northeast are believed to have training camps
across the border.

"There are about 20,000 guerrillas in Myanmar belonging to various groups
of the northeast," Kughalo Mulatonu, a Khaplang faction leader, told AFP
by telephone.

Last year, Myanmar targetted Mulatonu's group, killing at least a dozen
rebels and overrunning many bases.

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

____________________________________

April 27, Mizzima News
New China-Burma road open - Myo Gyi

The near 100-kilometre new road connecting China and Burma was opened
yesterday. Known as the Ledo Road , portions of it dates back to World War
II.

Officials from the two countries, local ethnic leaders and representative
of Kachin Special Region I and II attended the inaugural ceremony of the
road held in Karpaiti, Kachin. The road stretches from Tengchone in Yunan
province in the extreme south-western region of China, to Warshaung in
Kachin state, Burma .

The 96- kilometre asphalt road which cost 200 million Yuan has been under
construction since 2004. Road building equipment from Yunan and 6,000
Chinese workers were on the job. By Chinese standards the road is in the
grade II category.

A trip along the old Warshaung Road, not negotiable in the rainy season,
took eight hours. Along the new road it will take only three hours from
Tengchone to Warshaung.

The ceremony was attended by the Chinese delegation led by the
vice-governor of Yunan province while the Burmese delegation was headed by
the commander of Northern military Command General Ohn Myint.

The road is a part of the 225 miles Ledo Road constructed in 1941 by
Western Allies to connect Kuming, China and Ledo in Assam, India for
sending supplies to the Chinese as an alternative to the Burma Road which
was cut off by the Japanese in 1942. It was renamed Stilwell Road i n
early 1945 at the suggestion of Chiang Kai-shek because it was built on
the directions of General Stilwell.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

Friday,27, Narinjara News
Daewoo considers legal action against Burma: gas goes to China

Daewoo International is contemplating the initiation of legal proceedings
against the Burmese military regime following the junta's decision to sell
natural gas from the A-1 and A-3 blocks in the Arakan offshore area to
China, according to a report by Indian Petro.

It is unclear what type of legal action is being considered, or what
jurisdiction it would fall under.

South Korean and Indian firms, including Daewoo International, face heavy
losses if natural gas from blocks A-1 and A-3 is sold to China. The
proposed sale will be at a rate marginally over the $4.00 per million
British thermal units (mBtu) agreed upon in an MoU signed by Burma and
China on March 14, 2007. The gas should fetch at least $4.41 per mBtu,
says Amitav Ranjan of the Indian Express newspaper.

Daewoo's stock dropped more than 3 percent after the news emerged that
China was picked to receive the gas.

Daewoo wants the consortium to be engaged with downstream projects of A-1
and A-3 blocks, including payment of a tariff from the proposed Chinese
pipeline, the report says.

The report also claims that Daewoo has plans to offer an economic package
to counter the latest Chinese offer to buy the gas from these blocks. This
is Daewoo's biggest energy project, and development costs for the gas
fields are estimated to be between USD 2-3 billion.

Burma's A-1 and A-3 blocks contain up to 10 trillion cubic feet of gas,
which are planned for production starting in 2009, despite the fact that
the potential end uses and modes of transport are as of yet officially
undecided.

South Korea and Japan hoped to lift 2.7 tons of liquefied gas a year from
these wells, in order to reduce their reliance on Middle East energy,
while parties from India and Thailand have been wooing Burma to pipe the
gas to them.

Analysts observed that the Burmese regime offered its gas to China due to
its permanent position and veto power on the United Nations Security
Council, where the United States has often been critical of Burma's human
rights record, and where China has effectively defended the regime.

Daewoo is the operator of the A-1 and A-3 blocks located offshore of
Arakan State, with a 60 percent stake, while Korea's KOGAS has a 10
percent interest. The remaining is held by India's ONGC, which has a 20
percent stake, and the Gas Authority of India (GAIL), which has a 10
percent stake.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 27, The International Herald Tribune
2 diplomatic outcasts find common ground; Myanmar restores ties with N.
Korea - Seth Mydans

Bangkok: United in their hostility toward America, two of the world's most
repressive nations - Myanmar and North Korea - restored diplomatic
relations Thursday after more than two decades of estrangement.

Their diplomatic reunion, sealed during a North Korean visit to Myanmar
that was so low-key that it seemed almost a secret mission, was far
quieter than the countries' rupture in 1983. That came a month after a
powerful bomb, thought to have been set off by North Korean agents,
exploded in the capital of the country then known as Burma.

The bomb narrowly missed the South Korean president, Chun Doo Hwan, who
was making an official visit to the capital, Rangoon, now called Yangon.
More than 20 people were killed, including several high-ranking South
Korean officials, and at least twice that number of people were wounded in
a blast that could be heard miles away.

But relations between the two nations have quietly been warming over
recent years as both sought allies under pressure from the West.

''You can say it's a case of outposts of tyranny getting together,'' said
Aung Naing Oo, an exile from Myanmar who is a political commentator here,
using a phrase coined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of the United
States in 2005. The other countries Rice described this way were Iran,
Cuba, Zimbabwe and Belarus.

Both Myanmar and North Korea are subject to economic sanctions and harsh
condemnation from Washington and both appear to consider themselves under
military threat from the United States.

There is a difference, though. North Korea, with its nuclear weapons,
really does face a potential military confrontation with the United
States.

Similar fears among the generals who rule Myanmar are apparently one
reason for their move last year to a remote new capital, Naypyidaw, which
is part administrative center, part military base.

''I think we regard the threat to Burma as preposterous, as Americans,''
said David Steinberg, a professor at Georgetown University who is an
expert on Myanmar. ''But the Burmese take this seriously. There are groups
inside Burma that would want this to happen.''

It is not clear that the new diplomatic ties will have much more than
symbolic effect. Political analysts dismiss the notion put forward by some
exiles that nuclear weaponry could be involved.

''There has been speculation about nuclear activity, but it's been
pooh-poohed by experts on the matter,'' said Robert Taylor, a London-based
consultant on Myanmar affairs.

Win Min, an exile from Myanmar who teaches political science at Chiang Mai
University in Thailand, said, ''I doubt with their money and with their
level of education - to get nuclear technology - I doubt it.''

North Korea does have conventional arms and military expertise to offer,
and there are unconfirmed reports that, for several years, as relations
warmed, North Korea has been supplying weapons.

Myanmar, for its part, can offer natural resources in the kind of barter
arrangement it prefers, experts said.

''Myanmar likes trade relations with almost everybody,'' Taylor said,
relying primarily on China, India and Russia to neutralize sanctions
imposed by the United States and Europe.

The junta has been reaching out to other countries that are shunned by the
United States like Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

''Myanmar is a source of cheap food,'' Taylor said, despite the deep
poverty of its own people. ''North Korea might be seeing an advantage in
that.''

The agreement was signed without fanfare during a three-day visit to
Myanmar by Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il of North Korea.

Myanmar's deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Thu, made the announcement to
reporters in Yangon and said it would be up to the North Koreans to decide
whether to open a diplomatic mission in the new capital, about 320
kilometers, or 200 miles, to the north.

Other embassies have refused to move and remain in Yangon, an eight-hour
drive away over bad roads.

South Korea also seems to have buried the past. It had already signaled
that it had no objection to Myanmar's resumption of ties with the North.
On Wednesday the Reuters news agency quoted an official of the South
Korean Foreign Ministry as saying Seoul respected Myanmar's decision.

''We hope this restoration will lead to the opening of North Korea and
hope it will contribute to peace and stability within your country,'' the
official was quoted as saying.

As it has expanded its foreign relations, Myanmar has pursued what it says
is its march toward democracy, with plans to resume later this year - and
perhaps finally complete - a slow-moving constitutional convention.

That is to be followed by an election that outside analysts say the
generals will ensure they win, after a humiliating loss in 1990 in a
parliamentary vote that they found necessary to annul.

That election was won by the National League for Democracy, headed by Aung
San Suu Kyi. Many of its members have since been imprisoned, and Aung San
Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, where she has been for most of the
past decade.

''They'll have a referendum, they will win, and at some point in the
future they'll have an election, which they've got it made in because of
the terms of their new constitution,'' Steinberg said.

____________________________________

April 27, Irrawaddy
Renewed Burma-N Korea relations draws US attention - Lalit K Jha

The renewal of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea will be
closely observed by the US, a State Department official said this week.

Tom Casey, a State Department spokesperson, told reporters in Washington
that the restoration of diplomatic ties would not change the image of
these two countries in the eyes of the US.

“I don't think that the establishment of diplomatic relations with either
of these two countries has any profound impact on how we view them,” he
said.

In 2005, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice listed Burma and North
Korea as among the six countries that were "outposts of tyranny."

Responding to media reports that closer relations might result in the
transfer of nuclear technology to Burma, a State Department official told
The Irrawaddy that concerns about North Korea and nuclear proliferation
are well known.

“As far as transfer of nuclear technologies is concerned, we have been
very clear to the North Koreans that it is a matter of serious concern,”
the official said.

Referring to the ongoing talks with North Korea, the official also said
the US goal is to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the threat
of proliferation from North Korea.

“The North Koreans have promised in this process that they would abandon
their existing nuclear weapons program," he said. "We are in the process
of trying to implement this agreement.”

Burma and North Korea severed diplomatic ties more than two decades ago,
following an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the South Korean
president in Rangoon, which took the lives of a number of ministers and
other officials.  North Korean agents were charged and convicted of
plotting the murders.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 12, European Voice
Totally wrong about an evil regime - Benedict Rogers

With the review of the European Union’s common position on Burma [Myanmar]
due later this month, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner
for external relations, urgently needs lessons about one of the most
brutal dictatorships in the world.

The junta in Rangoon is guilty of every possible human rights violation –
from the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 1,200
political prisoners on to torture, systematic use of rape, forced labour
and conscription of child soldiers, use of human minesweepers, the
destruction of more than 3,000 villages, and the displacement of more than
a million people.

Reports, photographs, and documentary films produced by serious and
well-respected organisations would fill the Commissioner’s office from
floor to ceiling.

Yet the foreign affairs commissioner’s response to a question by
UK MEP Sajjad Karim to my recent report for Christian Solidarity
Worldwide (CSW) on violations of religious freedom in Burma was a crass
repetition of regime propaganda.

The Myanmar Council of Churches and the Catholic Bishops Conference had,
she noted, distanced themselves from the report, Carrying the Cross: the
military regime’s campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution
against Christians in Burma. This showed, she said, that “accurate
information
is difficult to obtain”.

Really? In Europe, not long ago, heavily watched religious organisations
in Romania or Hungary kept their counsel. Ferrero-Waldner’s native
Austria, and with it the Catholic church, was in living memory under Nazi
rule. If she really doesn’t know, any diplomat could explain that
statements like this in a dictatorship are issued under duress.


“Tensions that have arisen between Buddhists and Christians should be
addressed in a wider search for national reconciliation,” the Commissioner
opined. No. At a grassroots level they generally get along fine, and
Carrying the Cross has been warmly endorsed by the predominantly Buddhist
government-in-exile, by several Muslim groups, and by Christian-majority
ethnic groups.

The problem is not mythical “tensions” but a regime which has perverted
Buddhism for its own political ends and relentlessly persecutes and
discriminates against Christians and Muslims.

The suggestion that accurate information about human rights violations is
hard to come by is an insult to the courage and determination of those
braving minefields and feral Burmese soldiery to document them.

Her remark is all the more egregious given the fiasco of 2005, when – on
her watch – a Commission-organised Burma Day pointedly excluded the
Burmese democratic opposition; they were told, without explanation, that
they were “not invited”. Instead, lobbyists with links to the regime in
Rangoon were given the floor and a half-empty room to address.

Nor can this approach be excused as Ferrero-Waldner eccentricity, a naive
belief that she personally can charm the dictatorship. Confusion and lack
of resolution pretty well are the common position.

So far a grand total of €7,000 of the assets of individuals in the Burmese
regime has been frozen across all 27 member states. The visa ban is no
more than a shopping ban, being regularly lifted for international
summits. As for the EU list of Burmese state-owned enterprises in which
investment is banned, it includes a pineapple juice factory and a tailor’s
shop. There is no reference to a single company in the oil, gas, or timber
sectors. It is time Ferrero-Waldner kept a decent silence or did the
unthinkable: tell the truth, which is that any half-way serious policy is
effectively blocked by French national interests.

Total Oil, France’s largest company, is the single largest corporate
investor in Burma and provides the regime with some €340 million a year.
In the words of Aung San Suu Kyi: “Total has become the main supporter of
the Burmese military regime.” The other 26 member states care too little
about human rights, or coherent EU foreign policy, to stand up to them.
For its part, the UK has done nothing about large-scale investment through
dependent territories such as Bermuda.

But even without civil and political courage there are ways of
strengthening the EU common position. A start would be to extend the asset
freeze to the regime’s assets, not just those of individuals. Clear
support for a UN Security Council resolution on Burma and the engagement
of the UN Secretary-General would help too. So would increased funding for
democracy and civil society. And what about calling for meaningful
tripartite dialogue between the regime, the ethnic minorities, and the
opposition National League for Democracy – winners of the last free
elections?
A failure to strengthen the common position is to send a clear message to
the regime that it can continue its Mugabe-like oppression of its own
population with impunity.

I invite the commissioner to join me on my next visit to the landmined
fields, burned-down churches, and terrified villagers of Karen State. They
could enlighten her sur place about the “tensions that have arisen”.

Benedict Rogers is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the
Genocide of Burma’s Karen People (2004, Monarch).

_____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

April 26, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Burma: Case against TotalFina re-launched in Belgium

Brussels: The ITUC has welcomed a decision on April 26 by the Defence
Minister in Belgium, André Flahaut, in his capacity as Acting Justice
Minister, to use his authority under Belgian law to re-launch legal
proceedings brought by four Burmese refugees against oil company
TotalFina.

The Minister had already used this power last January, to request the
retraction of a decision by the Belgian Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation)
to order the investigating magistrate (Juge d’Instruction) not to proceed
with processing of a case brought in 2002 by the refugees under Belgian
jurisdiction against TotalFina alleging complicity in crimes against
humanity.

Thanks to Flahaut’s decision the case, which had been frozen since 2003
following modifications o the Belgian universal jurisdiction law, should
now be re-opened. A series of legal obstacles had meant that it had not
been possible for the case to be processed expeditiously. A key point in
the legal wrangling concerned the scope of the universal jurisdiction law,
in particular whether the case could be brought on the basis that one of
the four plaintiffs has been granted political refugee status by Belgium.
TotalFina is accused of providing logistical and financial support to the
Burmese military junta in relation to the company’s involvement in the
construction of an oil pipeline from Burma to Thailand. The Junta is
notorious for its use of forced labour, deportations, murder, torture and
arbitrary execution.

The ITUC, which has followed the case from its inception, attributes this
latest breakthrough to the work of “Action Birmanie”, a Belgian ngo which
has been supported for several years by a coalition including ITUC Belgian
affiliates CSC and FGTB. The ITUC hopes that justice will now finally be
done in relation to this case.

Founded on 1 November 2006, the ITUC represents 168 million workers in 153
countries and territories and has 304 national affiliates. Website:
www.ituc-csi.org

For more information, please contact the ITUC Press Department on +32 2
224 0204 or +32 476 621 018.