BurmaNet News, April 28-30, 2007

[Editor]

April 28-30, 2007 Issue # 3193

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Mon ceasefire group looks toward elections in Burma
Khonumthung: Prison Charity Foundation office closed in Yangon
SHAN: More weapons, power to pro-junta militia

ON THE BORDER
Xinhua: Bangladesh requests Myanmar to launch livelihood schemes for refugees

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: High inflation impeding Burma's economy, says NLD
Xinhua: Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade up over 50 percent in 2006-07
Bernama: Malaysian entrepreneurs to visit Myanmar

DRUGS
Narinjara: Drug related cases in March lead to 322 arrests

ASEAN
Deutsche Press Agentur: Legislators meet to address Iraq and Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
AP: North Korea official "satisfied" with trip to Myanmar
Mizzima: UN: violence targeting education on the rise

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Birds of a feather - Aung Zaw

STATEMENT
Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus: ‘Burma is indeed a regional
security and stability threat’

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 30, Irrawaddy
Mon ceasefire group looks toward elections in Burma - Kyaw Zwa Moe

Despite previous criticism of Burma’s constitution-drafting National
Convention, one ethnic ceasefire group appears eager to contest elections
that have been expected to follow the resolution of the controversial
convention, a central committee member of the group said.

Nai Aye Mon of the New Mon State Party suggested that his party might
consider participating in forthcoming elections in Burma. The country’s
ruling junta has yet to announce details about future elections, but many
are speculating that elections will be held in 2008, following the
conclusion of the National Convention.

Largely considered a sham—the delegates have been handpicked by the junta,
and many groups, including the leading opposition group the National
League for Democracy are not represented—the convention has dragged on for
some 15 years. The NMSP joined the convention in 2004.

Burma’s last national election was held in 1990. The NLD won by a
landslide by the regime refused to recognize the results.

Since signing a ceasefire agreement with Burma’s ruling State Peace and
Development Council in June 1995, the NMSP has faced increased
restrictions on its activities in party-controlled areas, which include
the districts of Moulmein, Tavoy and Thaton in southern Burma. The group
has only limited control over local development projects in these areas
and is prohibited from bolstering its military, according to Nai Aye Mon.

However, the SPDC has enlarged its military presence in the area. In 2000,
there were only two regiments of Burmese soldiers in Ye Township, Mon
State. Now there are 10, Nai Aye Mon said.

The reinforcements, Nai Aye Mon adds, are thought to be there to block the
movement of ceasefire groups and other armed ethnic organizations such as
the Karen National Union, which has no ceasefire agreement with the SPDC.

Nai Aye Mon, head of the Mon National Relief and Development Committee,
says that there were about 20,000 internally displaced persons in Mon
State due to land confiscations by the SPDC in the years following the
ceasefire agreement, though in recent years there have been no such
reports.

“We won’t surrender our arms,” Nai Aye Mon said when asked if the NMSP
would resume its armed conflict. “We will be on the path of dialogue for
our goal. I can’t say we will fight again, but I can’t say we won’t.”

____________________________________

April 28, Khonumthung News
Prison Charity Foundation office closed in Yangon

The Prison Charity Foundation (PCF) established by Christians in Chin
state to help inmates, was shut down by the Burmese military regime on
March 4.

“Intelligence officers came and told us to change the name of the
foundation without giving any reason,” Rev. Dr. Joseph, a member of PCF
told Khonumthung News.

The military authorities ordered the PCF to remove the word “P” (Prison)
and call the foundation the -- “Charity Foundation” (CP). The PCF office
in Yangon was closed because PCF refused to erase “P”, according to Rev.
Dr. Joseph.

The junta it seems is uncomfortable with the word “prison” and views the
move of PCF members, who preach in prisons, as trying to convert inmates
to Christianity. And the number of converts is increasing.

According PCF records that from 1992 to 2007, over 25,000 prisoners were
converted to the Christian religion.

The PCF office in Bahan Township , Yangon was closed by the authorities
while Rev. Dr. Joseph was travelling. Later, his wife and three sons were
taken into custody for sometime.

Dr. Joseph said, “They told my wife to call me back promising to release
her. She promised them that she would call him back. As soon as they
released her, we managed to run away”.

Dr. Joseph and his family are taking refuge in Malaysia as authorities
have issued an arrest warrant after his office was shut down.

Rev. Dr. Joseph said that the PCF group worked for social needs, offered
food and medicine to inmates in 21 concentration camps out of 115 in
Myanmar . Over 450
members of the PCF also prayed and preached Christian religion for inmates
in some prisons camps.

Although the PCF office is closed, other members are said to be continuing
their mission. But they cannot function freely as before.

PCF was established in Hakha, the capital of Chin state in 1992 to help
prisoners facing various problems. It was shifted to Yangon in 2001 in
order to extend the work of the mission.

____________________________________

April 28, Shan Herald Agency for News
More weapons, power to pro-junta militia

The Burma Army sponsored militia groups are getting more weapons and
authority over local civilian populations, according to sources on the
border.

On 24 April, a meeting was held in Nakawngmu, Mongton Township, opposite
Chiangmai, where the area commander conferred upon two militia commanders
a number of assorted weapons and the authority to implement orders issued
by the Burmese military:

Tin Win, 32 automatic rifles, including 10 G3s and 22 Mzzs, and 1 RPG7
with authority over the sector stretching from Maeken to Monghang, roughly
east of the Mongton-BP1 highway.

Pi Koy, 10 G3s and 1 M60 mortar, with authority over the sector stretching
form Napayawng (Loi Khilek) to Zaktaw, roughly west of the Mongton-BP1
highway.

Similar reports with fewer details have also been received from Tachilek,
opposite Chiangrai.

Since the fall of Gen Khin Nyunt under whom the ceasefire groups had been
showered with special privileges, the rules are changing under Deputy
Senior General Maung Aye, who favours the militia over ceasefire groups.
"(They) are merely enemies who have taken a break in the fighting against
us," the present Mongton area commander's predecessor was quoted as saying
in 2005.

Everything, however, is not plain sailing for the militia. The Panhsay
militia, led by Kyaw Myint aka Li Yongqiang, had been disarmed in a
three-day operation, from April 22 to 24, by the Burma Army, reportedly
under Chinese pressure. Kyaw Myint had been a protégé of successive
regional commanders including Tin Aung Myint Oo, Myint Hlaing and Aung
Than Tut and was considered one of the untouchable druglords. "He received
50 assorted weapons earlier in the month," said a source.

Kyaw Myint is prominently highlighted in SHAN's latest report Hand in
Glove: The Burma Army and the Drug Trade in Shan State.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 30, Xinhua General News Service
Bangladesh requests Myanmar to launch livelihood schemes for refugees

Bangladeshi Foreign Advisor Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury on Monday said the
Myanmar authorities should launch some livelihood schemes like
micro-credit for the Rohingya refugees so they become willing to return to
their homeland, Bangladeshi news agency UNB reported.

"We would like to see them going back, but they are not willing, " he told
reporters at the Foreign Ministry on his return from Myanmar where the
issue was discussed with the Myanmar leaders.

The advisor, who made a four-day visit to Myanmar starting April 25, said
he advised the Myanmar authorities to launch some schemes like
micro-credit for maintaining livelihood of the Rohingya refugees so they
feel encouraged to return from their Cox 's Bazaar camps in southeastern
Bangladesh.

Besides, he said, effort must be made by the governments of Myanmar and
Bangladesh and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for
voluntary return of the refugees.

In mid-1991 to 1992, more than 250,000 Rohingyas entered Cox's Bazaar from
Arakan province in Myanmar. Presently, some 21,600 refugees, staying in
two camps in Bangladesh, are awaiting repatriation.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 30, Irrawaddy
High inflation impeding Burma's economy, says NLD - Htet Aung

Skyrocketing inflation is impeding economic growth and placing a heavy
burden on the Burmese people, the National League for Democracy, the main
opposition party, concluded Friday following a two-day workshop on the
economy.

“Basic commodity prices have increased from 30 to 60 percent since the
military regime promoted a salary increase for government workers in April
2006,” said Soe Win, the moderator of the workshop held in NLD
headquarters in Rangoon. “Inflation is also correlated with corruption.”

The workshop concluded that inflation, governmental corruption and
unnecessary development projects cause citizens to suffer. Participants
analyzed the present economic situation and reflected on grassroots events
in their respective states and divisions.

“Inflation is the critical source of the current economic crisis,” said
Myint Thein, an NLD spokesperson.

The military regime launched an anti-corruption campaign in May 2006,
after more than 500 workers in the Customs Department were arrested and
charged in corruption cases.

On Monday, three civil servants in Burma’s Electric Power Supply
Enterprise in Wetthikan Township in Pegu Division were sentenced to three
years in prison for collecting improper payments from local residents, The
New Light of Myanmar reported.

Among the workshop participants, all members of the NLD, were businessmen
and former officials of the transportation, post and telecommunication and
trade ministries.

____________________________________

April 30, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade up over 50 percent in 2006-07

Bilateral trade between Myanmar and Thailand increased by about 51 percent
to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in the just-ended fiscal year of 2006-07
(April-March) compared with the previous fiscal year, the local
English-language Myanmar Times reported Monday.

With Myanmar enjoying a trade surplus of 1.9 billion dollars, the
Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade accounted for 30 percent of Myanmar's total
foreign trade, the weekly quoted an official of the Ministry of Commerce
as saying.

Thailand remained as Myanmar's top trading partner for 2006-07, in which
Myanmar's foreign trade reached 7.4 billion dollars, the report added.

In the fiscal year 2005-06, Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade, which includes
the border trade, amounted to 1.596 billion dollars with Myanmar's import
from Thailand taking up 237 million dollars and its export to Thailand
representing 1.359 billion dollars, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is building a border trade zone in Myawaddy, which
links Thailand's Maesot, as part of its process of transforming border
trade system into normal trade one. The Myawaddy border trade zone stands
as the second largest one of its kind after the Muse 105th Mile Border
Trade Zone bordering China's Ruili in Yunnan province

Besides, Myanmar absorbed the highest annual contracted foreign investment
of 6.065 billion U.S. dollars in 2005-06 fiscal year which mainly came
from Thailand with 6.03 billion dollars in a major power project which was
referred to the 7,110-megawatt Tar- hsan hydropower project on the
Thanlwin River in eastern Shan state's Tachilek.

The Thai investment prompted Myanmar's contracted foreign investment to
hit 14.4 billion U.S. dollars in 19 years as of March 2007 since the
country opened to such investment in late 1988, according to the latest
figures released by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic
Development.

____________________________________

April 30, Bernama
Malaysian entrepreneurs to visit Myanmar

Bangkok: A 26- member business delegation from Malaysia is scheduled to
make a four-day visit to Myanmar next month to seek opportunities in trade
and investment in the country.

The "New Light of Myanmar" newspaper reported that the delegation would be
led by Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) council member Tan Sri
Soong Siew Hoong.

It said the Malaysian businessmen would discuss matters related to trade
and investment, as well as hold business matching sessions with Myanmar's
entrepreneurs during the visit from May 9 to 12.

The report said that Malaysian entrepreneurs would likely discuss
employment of competent workers, and purchasing of timber, agricultural
and marine products, finished leather and other products.

Besides that, the delegation hopes to sell palm oil products, auto parts,
fruit juice base concentrates, first aid equipment, hollow steel sections
for furniture, retread tyres, leather footwear for industrial safety,
fertilizer, building materials and steel ware in Myanmar.

In addition, they want to invest in agricultural-based food industries,
and production of fertilizer and drinking water in Myanmar.

____________________________________
DRUGS

April 28, Narinjara News
Drug related cases in March lead to 322 arrests

The Burmese military government has taken action against 322 people in 217
drug related cases in March 2007 alone. Of the 322 are 253 men and 69
women, according to a recent report of a state-run newspaper.

Junta authorities arrested suspects throughout Burma during their
anti-drug drive in March, filing 217 drug related cases.

The authorities also seized 93.9254 kilograms of opium in 56 cases, and
1.36484 kilograms of heroin in 69 cases during March. Moreover, 2.9395
kilograms of opium oil were seized in ten cases, and 4.8233 kilograms of
low-grade opium were seized in 12 cases. Also seized were 28.1011
kilograms of marijuana in 17 cases, 18,387 stimulant tablets in 34 cases,
3.39 kilograms of opium speciosa in eight cases, nine kilograms of
ephedrine in one case, and 195 bottles of buprenorphine injection in one
case.

In Burma , the number of drug trafficking cases has been increasing, as
many people have become involved in the crime in an attempt to escape the
current economic crisis in Burma, said a police official from Akyab.

____________________________________
ASEAN

April 30, Deutsche Press Agentur
Legislators meet to address Iraq and Myanmar

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (second right) hits the gong
to mark the
opening of the 116th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Nusa Dua, Bali,
yesterday

Bali: Parliamentary delegations from 126 countries gathered yesterday on
the Indonesian resort island of Bali for a six-day Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU) conference to discuss issues including the war in Iraq and
democratisation process in Myanmar.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wass scheduled to officially
open the 116th meeting of the IPU yesterday evening. More than 1,300
members of parliaments from 126 of IPU's 148 countries, which will also
touch other issues, such as global warming, poverty and unemployment, the
importance of interfaith harmony in the globalisation era and human
rights.

An Israeli delegation refused to attend the Bali conference, following
anger among some hardline Indonesian lawmakers, joined by Islamic
hardliner groups in the world's largest Muslim nation.
Iran also did not take part in the IPU meeting held in Jakarta in 2000.

Indonesian House Speaker Agung Laksono said the war in Iraq and human
rights abuses in Myanmar are other important issues which expected to
attract more attention from most delegations during the six-day annual
conference.

"Several delegations have expressed their deep concern over the
undemocratic conditions in Myanmar under the military regime there, the
sectarian conflict in Iraq and the presence of foreign troops in the
war-torn country," Laksono was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.

Laksono said Indonesia would submit a draft resolution on Iraq to the
assembly calling for an immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

"If the draft is accepted, parliaments sending their delegates to the
meeting will prompt their respective governments to join force to press
the US-led foreign forces out from Iraq and to give more space for
conflicting Sunnis and Shiites to end the bloody conflict," Laksono added.

Djoko Susilo, chairman of the Indonesian Parliamentary Caucus on Myanmar,
said that IPU needed to discuss the democratization issue in Myanmar
because the country had not gained significant progress in
democratisation.

"Attention to the Myanmar issue tends to increase from various countries,"
Susilo said. "IPU needs to issue a statement on Myanmar, including on the
release of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi."

Established in 1889 and with its headquarters in Geneva, the IPU, the
oldest multilateral political organization, currently has 148 affiliated
national parliaments and seven associated regional assemblies.

The world organisation of parliaments also has an office in New York,
which acts as its permanent observer with the United Nations.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 28, Associated Press
North Korea official "satisfied" with trip to Myanmar

North Korea's vice foreign minister said Saturday that he was "satisfied"
with his trip to Myanmar, which culminated in the two repressive regimes
resuming diplomatic relations.

Myanmar severed diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1983 after North
Korean commandos were blamed for a fatal bombing during a former South
Korean president's visit to Yangon.

The two countries signed an agreement to restore ties Thursday, the second
day of the four-day visit by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong
Il, whose trip had been cloaked in secrecy.

"We had a wonderful visit. I am satisfied," Kim Yong Il told reporters.

Asked if North Korea will open its embassy in Myanmar, Kim replied, "Let
us see."

Relations between the two countries were severed following the bombing
that targeted former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan. He was unhurt,
but 21 people were killed, including four South Korean Cabinet ministers.

Three North Korean commandos involved in the bombing were detained one was
hanged, a second blew himself up during his arrest and a third, Kang Ming
Chul, remains in Yangon's Insein prison.

The two countries have been quietly working to normalize relations for the
past few years. The two governments routinely have contact at regional
meetings, and Myanmar has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

Both Myanmar and North Korea have been widely criticized for their
authoritarian governments, with Myanmar drawing censure for its detention
of political opponents, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi.

North Korea has drawn international condemnation for its refusal to
abandon its nuclear weapons program.

In 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice listed Myanmar and North
Korea as among six countries that were "outposts of tyranny."

The United States has said the resumption of ties will not alter U.S.
foreign policy.

____________________________________

April 30, Mizzima News
UN: violence targeting education on the rise - Christopher Smith

The United Nations reports that attacks targeting and effecting
educational facilities, staff and students is increasing around the world,
including inside Burma.

The report, "Education Under Attack" and issued by the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), incorporates violence not
only directed at physical destruction and the loss of life, but also
includes violence that prevents children from attending schools as well as
the use of children as soldiers.

In Burma, the report states that violence is preventing more and more
children from having access to basic educational opportunities. A clear
example of this is the recent forced migration of hundreds of locals from
villages along the Thai border in the wake of persistent offensives by the
Burmese Army and its allies.

Further, the report states that as recently as 2002 there were an
estimated 70,000 child soldiers in Burma, some as young as 11 years old.

Speaking from UNESCO headquarters in Paris, UNESCO Director General
Koichiro Matsuura commented, "Education is one of the pillars of
development, prosperity and peace. It is a human right. We must do our
utmost to defend and ensure the security of those in this vital area."

The report warns that without innovative responses to the education
crisis, conflict prone regions experience an increased risk of conflict
arising out of a wider sense of dissatisfaction, beyond separatism; a
crucial component of the dissatisfaction resulting from a lack of
sensitivity by the government to local culture, language and history.

The report calls on the international community to stand united in an
effort to end the impunity of those that perpetrate violence, while giving
additional weight to human rights instruments in the struggle to curb
educational violence.

"Education is now accepted as a necessary part of the initial response to
an emergency created by conflict. The challenge now is to make education
part of the solution to conflicts," concludes the report.

Currently in Burma only one out of three children is said to complete at
least five years of school.

Regional members Thailand and Nepal were also singled out as countries in
which violence is having an increasingly negative impact on the
educational system.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 30, Irrawaddy
Birds of a feather - Aung Zaw

The renewal of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea has created
uneasiness and made Burma’s neighbors nervous.

Both Thailand’s leading English language newspapers, The Bangkok Post and
The Nation, warned that regional governments should watch the development
carefully.

The concern is not unfounded. Burma’s nuclear ambitions are an open
secret. Thus, the carefully planned renewal of ties with North Korea,
which has claimed to have nuclear weapons and is believed to have sold
conventional weapons and ammunition to the regime in Naypyidaw in the
past, is likely to create tensions.

The role of China cannot be discounted, in view of a statement by a
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman welcoming the resumption of diplomatic
ties between the two countries.

"North Korea and Burma are both friendly neighbors of China," Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said, adding: "We are happy to see
and welcome the improvement of their bilateral ties."

But Washington, which is going to take a tougher stance, along with Japan,
vis-a-vis the regime in Pyongyang, said the establishment of diplomatic
relations between Burma and North Korea won’t change the US image of these
two countries.

US State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters: “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.”

Inside Burma, the renewal of ties between two “outposts of tyranny” went
without fanfare and remained a hush-hush affair.

Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il’s visit to Burma last week was low-key.
An expected visit to Burma’s new capital, Naypyidaw, didn’t come about.
There were no meetings with Burma’s high ranking officials, despite
widespread speculation that he was meeting Secretary 1 Lt-Gen Thein Sein.
Burma’s official newspaper The New Light of Myanmar kept silent on the
visit.

Staying at Rangoon’s Hotel Nikko, Kim Yong Il and three North Korean
officials who accompanied him clearly did not want to draw the attention
of the local press and foreign diplomats, who closely monitored the visit.

The North Korean leader visited the Shwedagon pagoda and the national
museum, followed by a dozen local reporters. The North Korean party made a
brief sightseeing tour of Rangoon and later visited the Cambodian embassy.

Many Burmese who knew of the bombing incident at the Aung San mausoleum in
1983 wanted a formal public apology from North Korea and were surprised
and disappointed that the Burmese regime agreed to renew ties without
apparently receiving one.

In 2000, Burma’s then foreign minister, Win Aung, told reporters at an
Asean regional meeting in Bangkok that Burma expected a formal apology
from North Korea. Burma nevertheless supported North Korea’s becoming a
member of the Asean Regional Forum.

The renewal of ties undoubtedly made some diplomatic missions in Burma
nervous and will certainly create security concerns in the future, if
North Korea decides to open an embassy there. South Korea, Japan, and
Western embassies will closely watch  Pyongyang’s next step and its
relations with the regime in Naypyidaw.

The question frequently asked by many diplomats in Rangoon now is whether
North Korea will open an embassy in Burma’s new capital, Naypyidaw.

If North Korea decides to reopen its embassy in Burma, a Western diplomat
in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that the South Korean, Japanese, Chinese and
some Western embassies will be actively monitoring the mission and its
activities. Moreover, as Burmese leaders are now trying to persuade
embassies in Rangoon to relocate to Naypyidaw, central Burma, some
diplomats are convinced that North Korea and Burma will have discussed the
question of opening an embassy there.

Burma’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu has said it is up to Pyongyang to
decide whether to open an embassy in Naypyidaw.

The current theory in diplomatic circles in Rangoon is that if North Korea
opens an embassy in Naypyidaw, South Korea, Japan, China and some Western
countries will be forced to follow.

Burma’s military regime claims that it exercises an “active and
independent foreign policy” with its neighbors and the international
community. The renewal of ties with North Korea definitely touched a raw
nerve among its neighbors.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

April 29, Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus
‘Burma is indeed a regional security and stability threat’ –
Parliamentarians at the IPU, Bali, Indonesia

A seminar on Myanmar/Burma, held on the sideline of the 116th Assembly of
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Bali, Indonesia, today had IPU
delegates openly acknowledge that the Myanmar military junta’s misrule has
a negative spill-over effect on the region and its stability.

The Speaker of the Parliament of Indonesia, Agung Laksono, speaking at the
seminar titled ‘Military Rule in Burma, Its Effects on the International
Community and ASEAN’ said that all Parliamentarians have a genuine and
unique role in encouraging the restoration of civil, political and
democratic rights of the Burmese people.

“It is very clear that out destinies as neighbouring countries are to
seriously address Myanmar’s deteriorating crises without delay,” said
Agung, at the seminar jointly organized by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary
Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) and the National Coalition Government of the Union
of Burma (NCGUB).

Presenters at the seminar, held at the Bali International Convention
Centre (BICC), the official IPU venue, also encouraged Indonesia and ASEAN
to support a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Burma.

In his speech, Philippines Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr.,
Vice-President of the AIPMC, further urged ASEAN to repair the damage to
its reputation, which was caused primarily by the renegade policies of the
Myanmar junta.

“ASEAN has to make a strong stand on Burma; a stand that would not allow
the military any room to manoeuvre. Don’t buy into what is touted to be
the ‘road map to democracy’
and the junta’s sham ‘National Convention’ which has gone on for years and
is noninclusive of all relevant parties,” said Pimentel.

“ASEAN must adopt a realistic, coordinated and no-nonsense position on
Burma,” he added.

Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party the National
League of Democracy (NLD) were expelled from the Myanmar junta’s National
Convention, which have been drafting a constitution in a process that has
spanned almost 15 years.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian IPU head of delegation, Finn M. Vallersnes, in
his address, said that he was concerned of the lack of progress in the
promised transition in Burma towards a legitimate civilian government.

“I believe that time is running out for the military regime. The world
does not want such undemocratic regimes any more and more importantly
people don’t want them anymore.
People want security, human rights and democratic values,” said Vallersnes.

Close to sixty-(60) participants at the seminar, comprising of Members of
Parliament, IPU official country delegates, Indonesia government
officials, media and members of the civil society, attended the
AIPMC-NCGUB half-day seminar, which was cosponsored by the Indonesian and
Norwegian IPU delegation.

Prior to the start of the seminar, an exhibition on Burma’s detained
Members of Parliament, organized by the IPU Human Rights Committee on
Parliamentarians, was launched by the its chair Senator Franklin M.
Drilon.

For media contact:
Roshan Jason (AIPMC Executive Director: +62-815-1400-6416, +6012-3750974)