BurmaNet News, May 8, 2007

[Editor]

May 8, 2007 Issue # 3199


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burma’s opposition unhappy about resumption of ties with N. Korea
DVB: Burmese authorities give military trainings to USDA members

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Salween dams - price to be paid by half a million locals: MYPO
Mizzima: Secret Kawthoolei Peace Commission formed: Statement

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Daewoo lawyers visit Burma to discuss Shwe Gas deal
Xinhua: Electric power sector dominates foreign investment in Myanmar

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Burma's Federal Constitution to be completed in 2007: FCDCC

INTERNATIONAL
Stabroek News (Guyana): Consultation, other issues caused abstention from
Myanmar human rights vote

OPINION / OTHER
Boston Globe: Chinese shadows

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 8, Irrawaddy
Burma’s opposition unhappy about resumption of ties with N. Korea - Htet Aung

Burma’s pro-democracy groups and activists have expressed their
unhappiness about the resumption of diplomatic relations between North
Korea and Burma, saying the development will bring no positive progress
for Burma and its people.

“The resumption of diplomatic tie between North Korea and Burma can’t be
beneficial to the people of Burma or the country’s transition to
democracy,” said Myint Thein, spokesman of the main opposition National
League for Democracy.

Late last month, Burma’s deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Thu, and his North
Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il, signed an agreement
in Rangoon to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Ko Ko Gyi, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group, commented in a
phone interview from Rangoon: “The relations between the two countries
should be the relations of their people. If the governments don’t
represent their people, then the relation will be the one between the
governments who seized power.”

Burma and North Korea are united in their opposition to the US and its
Western allies, who are pressing for democratic change there. The two
countries were designated by the US as “outposts of tyranny” in 2005.

Another veteran politician and a former ambassador to China, Thakin Chan
Htun, said he thought the US policy towards the two countries had
contributed to the restoration of diplomatic ties. Chan Htun, who is based
in Rangoon, said, “The military government can’t take into account the
misdeeds of North Korea in the past because they consider any country who
totally opposes the US as a friend.”

Chan Htun said he couldn’t agree with the resumption of diplomatic ties
with “a country that insults our country without at least a public apology
for their past misdeeds.”

Relations between Burma and North Korea were disrupted in 1983 when North
Korean agents attacked South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan and his
delegation during an official visit to Rangoon.

The socialist government led by Ne Win asked for an official apology from
the North Korean government. None was forthcoming.

____________________________________

May 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese authorities give military trainings to USDA members

The authorities of Ayataw Township, Monywa district in central Burma’s
Sagaing Division, ordered local people to supply one person from each
village for military trainings.

According to local residents, the edict was issued in accordance with the
order from higher military authorities and that villagers were notified by
means of the loudspeaker.

“Chairman U Tun said that villagers must pay 3500 Kyat a day for living
costs of the cadet,” said a villager of Myetnet. “1000 Kyat from each
household is being collected per month.”

But it is not clear when and where the trainings are to be carried out.
Currently around 150 members of the notorious Union Solidarity and
Development Association from Meikhila, Ma Hlaing, Thazi, Wundwin are being
given military trainings at Meikhtila in nearby Mandalay Division.

A Meikhtila resident told that although local people do not know why the
trainings are being carried out, they are frightened and concerned by the
prospect of members of USDA wearing military uniforms.

“They are not wearing their usual uniforms but the green military ones
and
they are training at a school on the edge of the town. Local people are a
bit worried and puzzled by it. They have this tradition of oppression and
we are very worried
We are looking at it with suspicious eyes.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 8, Mizzima News
Salween dams - price to be paid by half a million locals: MYPO - Mungpi

The military junta's grandiose plans to dam the Salween River, the longest
free-flowing river in Southeast Asia, will devastate sources of livelihood
of over half a million residents living on the mouth of the river, said a
new report released today.

The Mon Youth Progressive Organization in a new report, titled "In the
Balance" said, more than half a million local residents living on the
mouth of the Salween River in Burma will loose fresh drinking water,
agricultural productivity, and fish, if plans to construct dams upstream
are implemented.

It said, the people living on Salween banks, tributaries, and islands rely
on the Salween estuary, where the fresh water of the Salween meets salt
water, and that their lives are intricately interlaced with the seasonal
flow and daily tides of the river.

The report said, with the construction of dams, fresh water at the mouth
of the Salween River, which flows into the Andaman Sea, will be replaced
by sea water and will result in lack of drinking water and destroy fertile
lands, which will reduce agricultural productivity of farmers in the area.

"There are at least five townships that will face the consequences. And
there are more than half a million people in these townships and they are
all dependent on the Salween river basin," said Nai Chan Oung, one of the
spokesperson of the MYPO.

With the help of neighbouring Thailand and China, the Burmese military
junta is planning to construct more than five dams on the Salween River .
In March, the junta began constructing the Ta Sang dam, which activists
said has accelerated human rights abuses in Shan State.

Human rights and environmental activists said putting dams across the
Salween River , which the junta claims are development projects, has led
to deterioration of the environment and increased abuses such as forced
labour, forced relocation, land confiscation, and construction of new
roads for military expansion.

"If the water flow in the Salween changes even slightly and the water
becomes too salty, it will disrupt the delicate natural ecosystem of
water, plants, and fish that Mon people have depended on for generations,"
Nai Tiaung Pakao, another spokesperson for the MYPO said.

Oung added that the sediment rich soil along the Salween and on the
islands at its mouth, nourish the fertile paddy fields, vegetable gardens
and fruit plantations that feed Moulmein, the third largest city in Burma.

"Constructing dams on the Salween, thus, will trap the vital sediment
upstream and reduce productivity for farmers, create lack of fresh
drinking water and shortage of fish for fishing folks," Oung told Mizzima.

The MYPO, which did a field research in five townships along the Salween
River, called on the Burmese military junta as well as companies involved
in the construction of the dams to stop the plan considering the plight of
the people who will be affected by it.

The MYPO said, without any alternative plans that will provide relief to
the affected community, the dam project, though the junta terms it as a
development project, will be a disaster for local people.

"When we talked to villagers in downstream Salween, they were shocked to
know that there are such plans to build dams and are very much ignorant
about how it will be affecting them," Oung said.

According to the junta's agreement with Thailand, which is constructing
five dams on the Salween River, at least 80 percent of electricity to be
generated from the hydro-project will be sold to Thailand.

Activists said, locals are the least group of people that will benefit
from the junta's planned hydroelectric-projects on the Salween River.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 8, Irrawaddy
Daewoo lawyers visit Burma to discuss Shwe Gas deal - William Boot

Bangkok: International business wrangling over the fate of 200 billion
cubic meters of gas under the sea off the coast of Burma’s port of Sittwe
took a new twist recently with reports that South Korea’s Daewoo
industrial conglomerate has dispatched lawyers to Naypyidaw to discuss the
issue with the junta.

Daewoo, the main developer of the two blocks in the Shwe fields beneath
the Burmese waters of the Bay of Bengal, objects to the military
government’s reported— but not confirmed—intention to sell all the gas to
China. Other bids for the gas have been made by India, Thailand, Japan and
South Korea.

“Daewoo promptly dismissed the reports which surfaced last month that the
Burmese have chosen China, but the company has been reluctant to say any
more,” said Bangkok-based independent energy analyst Sar Watana.

“It’s a case of a secretive company and an even more secretive government,
but the rumor mill suggests Daewoo is fighting an exclusive China sale
hard and as a fall back position, will argue that Beijing should at least
pay more for the Shwe gas—which Daewoo would benefit from.”

The South Korean company clearly believes it has a say in who buys the gas
and at what price. In Daewoo’s last public comment on the Shwe fields in
March, spokesman Cho Sang-yeon said:  “We have received bids from South
Korea, Japan, China, Thailand and India and the winner may be announced in
a few months. We will sell to whoever offers the best price.” That
statement is still on the company website.

However, unofficial reports say the Burmese regime has agreed a low-end
price of US $4 per million British thermal unit (mBtu). But the generals
would also collect a $150 million pipeline transit “fee” from China.

Daewoo prefers to co-develop a liquid natural gas processing plant with
Malaysia’s state Petronas conglomerate in Sittwe and sell it to a range of
customers, not least big payers such Japan and South Korea.

India and Japan are offering between $5 and $6 per mBtu for the gas in
liquid natural gas form. But India, like China, really wants to buy the
Shwe gas exclusively and ship it home by pipeline, rather than in
condensed LNG form by sea tanker.

“There is no way that China would be interested in buying the Shwe gas as
LNG and having to transport it through the Malacca Strait via Singapore,”
said Asian business consultant Michael Protz in Bangkok.

“That’s why it is also pushing to separately build an oil pipeline through
Burma to transship Middle East oil into its southwestern provinces.”

But how much negotiating muscle does Daewoo really have?

“They could hardly take legal action against their Burmese partner [the
state Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise],” said energy consultant Watana. 
“If they walked away from the project with their technical know-how and
equipment it would be a setback to gas production, but someone else would
soon step into their shoes, perhaps even the Chinese themselves. Anyway,
they have committed too much already financially to pull out now.”

South Korea’s total share of the exploration and development contract in
the gas-rich A-1 and A-3 Shwe fields is actually 70 percent, including its
smaller partner Korea Gas. Daewoo’s other two foreign partners are Indian
state agencies—the Gas Authority of India and ONGC Videsh.

The Indian government last week appeared to back Daewoo’s lawyers’ visit
in a statement from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary, MS
Srinivasan.

“The last word on this issue had not been said," Srinivasan told the New
Delhi parliament. "The agreement has not been signed and sealed, so we are
still in a discussion stage.”

Quoting unnamed officials, Indian media reported that Burma has sought to
wriggle out of an exclusive supply deal with India on the grounds that
there is not enough Shwe gas to justify a US $1 billion-plus, 1,500-
kilometer pipeline through Burma via India’s northeast states.

Such a pipeline would be necessary because after long and unsuccessful
negotiations with Bangladesh for pipeline transit rights, India abandoned
its efforts to obtain a shorter pipeline route.

However, in recent days the interim government in Dhaka, backed by the
army there, has indicated a willingness to re-open negotiations and to
abandon the previous government’s intransigence on several related trade
issues with India.

Dhaka’s new foreign affairs ministry adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury,
was quoted by the Times of India as saying Bangladesh was now prepared for
trilateral talks on a pipeline with Burma and India.

The Shwe fields are as close to Bangladesh as Burma and a 300-kilometer
pipeline through Bangladeshi territory would ship the gas much quicker and
cheaper to the heart of India.

“There is no evidence that Daewoo and its Indian partners are working
together to undermine China’s bid, but it would be naïve to believe they
are not,” Protz added.

A group of Daewoo executives are still undergoing criminal trial in Seoul
for alleged complicity in a scheme to ship weapons technology to Burma in
violation of South Korean government embargoes. India and China have no
such laws, however, and both countries have been competing to sell arms to
the junta in what observers see as sweeteners for access to Burma’s gas
and oil.

____________________________________

May 8, Xinhua General News Service
Electric power sector dominates foreign investment in Myanmar

Yangon: The electric power sector dominated foreign investment in Myanmar
with 6.311 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of January this year, the
local Weekly Eleven News quoted the government's National Investment
Commission as reporting Tuesday.

Of a total contracted foreign investment of 14.4 billion dollars in 408
projects, the electric power sector was followed by oil and gas with 2.938
billion dollars, manufacturing (1.61 billion U.S. dollars), construction
development (1.056 billion dollars), hotels and tourism (1.034 billion
dollars), mining (534 million dollars) and transport and communications
(313.27 million dollars), the report said.

The foreign investment, scattered in 408 projects, came from 28 countries
and regions, of which Thailand, Singapore, United Kingdom and Malaysia
were leading.

In 2005-06 fiscal year, Myanmar absorbed the highest annual contracted
foreign investment of 6.065 billion U.S. dollars 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.

Other investments during the fiscal year were from India with 30.575
million dollars in oil and gas, from Thailand with 4.4 million dollars
also in oil and gas and from China with 700,000 dollars in mining totaling
over 35 million dollars, according to the figures of the Central
Statistical Organization (CSO).

Other sectors include mining, livestock and fisheries, transport
communication, industrial estate, construction and agriculture.

In the first half (April to September) of the fiscal year 2006- 07,
Myanmar brought in 33 million U.S. dollars' contracted foreign investment
from Russia, according to the CSO.

Meanwhile, the industrial sector dominated national investment with 33.706
billion Kyats (26.96 million dollars) out of a total of 140.822 billion
Kyats (112.65 million dollars) in 675 projects with the agricultural
sector standing the least as of the end of January this year, the report
added.

____________________________________

May 8, Mizzima News
Secret Kawthoolei Peace Commission formed: Statement - Than Htike Oo

A new Karen organization, heavily critical of Karen armed groups,
including the Karen National Union, was formed yesterday.

The so-called Kawthoolei Peace Leading Commission formed by some Karen
veteran leaders and new generation commanders blamed the two Karen groups
– the KNU and its faction the KNU-KNLA Peace Council of failing to usher
in peace for the Karen people, said a email statement sent to Mizzima.

The secret organization, which does not mention the names of its members
and does not have even a contact phone number, said in the statement that
the KNU was a "political lackey" and that one of the longest surviving
rebel groups in Southeast Asia is "fighting battles continuously which is
producing refugees".

The faction led by former KNU commander General Htay Maung who recently
fought against the KNU has also been criticized and blamed by the
Kawthoolei Commission.

"The KNU-KNLA Peace Council yet to prove that it can stop armed conflicts
in Karen State. It has failed to release a statement appealing for peace,"
the statement said.

Mizzima is not clear whether the Kawthoolei Commission actually exists or
who could have hosted the letters on the internet.

Pado Man Shar, the spokesperson of the KNU said "We don't know who
distributed it and what this organization is and what their aims are. I
can't comment on it."

Maung Kyaw, the liaison officer of the KNU-KNLA Peace Council said
"Possibly, they are not impressed with the leadership living in Maesot
(KNU) as well as with us."

"I am sure this letter is not by DKBA
I guess someone is trying to crate
more conflicts between us," he added.

The editor of the Thai-Burma border based monthly publication on Karen
affairs Karen Information Center said "There are some former members of
the KNU living in other countries and they may have done it. Who knows?"

"I think they are aiming to bring about peace between the two groups and
have distributed it. However, it should be open for discussion. It can be
discussed. Otherwise, it is difficult to consider the matter," she added.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 7, Mizzima News
Burma's Federal Constitution to be completed in 2007: FCDCC - Mungpi

The final draft of the Federal Constitution of Burma, which will guarantee
self-determination, equality, and protection of the rights of the
minority, will be ready soon. It will be placed before the international
community to judge its legitimacy, Burmese opposition groups in exile said
today.

Col Khun Okka, vice-chairman of the Federal Constitution Drafting and
Coordinating Committee, said the second draft of the Federal Constitution
will be completed by July and will be made available to the international
community.

Col Okka, who is in New Delhi for a consultation seminar told Mizzima, the
second draft will be sent out to the international community including the
United Nations and to people inside Burma so that they can compare it with
the military junta's draft constitution.

Meanwhile, the ruling junta under its seven point roadmap is currently in
the process of drafting a constitution. Reports said the junta is
determined to wrap-up its constitution drafting convention, which is
currently recessing, this year and get on with the second point of the
roadmap -- referendum.

"It is for the people to see and to judge which constitution is legitimate
and choose for themselves. And the role of the international community in
accepting the constitution is important," said Col Okka, who is also a
member of the National Democratic Front, an umbrella organisation of
Burmese armed rebel groups.

The FCDCC, which was formed in April 2005, includes representatives of
Members of Parliament elected in Burma's last election in1990, political
parties in exile, umbrella armed resistance groups, women's groups,
students and youths.

The FCDCC, tasked with drafting a Federal Constitution, completed the
first draft in 2006 and it was approved by over 60 Burmese organisations
in exile at a conference in April 2006 on the Thai-Burma border.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 7, Stabroek News (Guyana)
Consultation, other issues caused abstention from Myanmar human rights
vote - Insanally

Guyana abstained from voting on a draft resolution on the human rights
situation in Myanmar at the UN General Assembly in December last year
because of some tendentious issues in the resolution and difficulties in
consultation on the issues, among others.

Asked about the abstention at a press briefing he hosted at the Foreign
Service Institute on Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally
said Guyana was not the only Caricom country that did not vote.

He said Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Belize did not vote as
well for various reasons, which included a lack of consultation among
Caricom countries which have made a commitment to consult on foreign
policy issues.

The resolution on the repressive, military junta-led state was adopted by
a recorded vote of 82 in favour to 25 against, with 45 abstentions.

Speaking generally about resolutions, Insanally said many had to do with
procedures, which include late submission, length, not being easily
interpreted, and tendentiousness. The Myanmar draft fell into this last
category, he noted.

However, he did not say what was tendentious about the draft resolution.
The minister's response to the question came four months after a letter
writer to this newspaper had expressed concern about Guyana's abstention.

Insanally said the UN membership has to look at the processes involved in
adopting resolutions and ensuring that they are not questionable and
laughable. The processes, he said were too important to be left to
manoeuvrings.

He said that in retrospect, however, Guyana could have voted in favour of
the draft resolution because it is accepted that the military in power
does not respect human rights and could be rebuked for that.

Guyana, he said, has never been slothful in advocating democracy; one of
the cornerstones of the country's domestic and foreign policies. Added to
which Guyana subscribes fully to the UN Convention on Human Rights. He
sees the establishment of the new Human Rights Council as a more sensible
approach to dealing with the issue.

In his letter to the editor, Max Mohamed said he found Guyana's position
"quite interesting, particularly since the resolution addresses issues and
concerns that are shared by many Guyanese."

He questioned how Guyana could justify abstaining on a resolution that
addresses among other things, the issue of ethnic-based policies which
continue to suppress a large segment of the Guyanese population as it does
for Myanmar, formerly Burma. Mohamed said many Guyanese believe similar
"systematic violations of human rights" and "discrimination and violations
suffered by persons belonging to ethnic nationalities" are familiar in
present-day Guyana; and allegations - against present and past
administrations in Guyana - of political arrests and denial of freedom of
expression persist.

The draft resolution on the situation of human rights in Myanmar would
"have the (UN) Assembly express grave concern at ongoing systematic
violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of
Myanmar, including discrimination and violations suffered by persons
belonging to ethnic nationalities, the continuing use of torture, deaths
in custody, political arrests, continuing imprisonment and other
detentions, as well as the continuing recruitment and use of child
soldiers, the use of landmines, forced labour and denial of freedom of
assembly, association, expression and movement."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 8, The Boston Globe
Chinese shadows

Although there never was an axis of evil, there are murderous
dictatorships in the world today that have one thing in common: support
from the People's Republic of China. In Sudan, Burma, Uzbekistan, and
Zimbabwe, China has become an enabler of evil.

Although Beijing's bosses rule in the name of communism, their motives for
backing tyrants have nothing to do with the doctrines of Mao Zedong. Their
reasons for helping the genocidal regime in Sudan avoid meaningful United
Nations Security Council sanctions, or for voting against a Council
resolution to censure the military junta in Burma, are more capitalist
than communist. China's foreign policy is not driven by any quaint notions
of solidarity with the wretched of the earth.

Being the world's fastest-growing consumer of energy and having almost no
oil of its own, China wants to ensure its access to oil and protect its
large investments in foreign oil fields and oil-producing consortiums. So
China has partnered with governments that kill their own people, using its
state-owned companies to acquire interests in oil or natural gas reserves
around the world.

It is known that the China National Petroleum Company owns the largest
slice of Sudan's two major oil consortiums and buys more than half of
Sudan's oil exports. It is less well known that after Uzbekistan's despot
Islam Karimov massacred protesters in the town of Andijan in 2005, China's
foreign ministry said it staunchly supports Uzbekistan's "striking at the
three forces, which are terrorism, splittism, and extremism."

This was China's way of equating Karimov's repression with Beijing's
campaigns against autonomy for Tibet, independence for Taiwan, and
political activism by Muslim Uighurs in western China. Shortly afterward,
Karimov was received for a state visit in Beijing, where he signed a $600
million joint venture to develop oil fields in Uzbekistan.

Because China fears any outside interference, particularly on the issues
of Tibet, Taiwan, and the Muslims of Xinjiang province, the government has
elevated noninterference into a sacrosanct principle justifying its
commercial and diplomatic partnerships with dictators such as Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe.

Thus far, China seems unpersuaded by the economic argument that it is a
waste of money to pursue energy security by buying stakes in oil reserves
in Sudan or natural gas pipelines in Burma. So the best way to deter
China's rulers from being the principal enablers of genocide in Darfur or
forced labor and ethnic cleansing in Burma is to name them and shame them
as often as possible. The last thing China's rulers want is to have the
2008 Olympic games in Beijing branded with the name that many are trying
to apply: the Genocide Olympics.