BurmaNet News, May 11, 2007

[Editor]

May 11, 2007 Issue # 3202


ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Migrant workers in Chiang Mai protest proposed restrictions
Narinjara News: Burmese spy arrested in Cox's Bazar

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Burmese junta prepares for FTA talks with EU
Mizzima: GAIL's project with Burma hits a wall

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: US think tank has advice for new French president

OPINION / OTHER
New Statesman: It could have been me - William Hague
Irrawaddy: Time to change the tune


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 11, The Irrawaddy
Migrant workers in Chiang Mai protest proposed restrictions - Sai Silp

Migrant workers and labor activists in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand
submitted a letter to the province’s governor on Friday to protest a
provincial plan for draconian restrictions on migrant workers.

Migrant workers, employers and labor activists expressed their opposition,
saying the proposed restrictions are in violation of basic human rights
and do nothing to solve migrant worker issues in Thailand.

Similar provincial migrant worker restrictions, first imposed in Phuket
Province in December 2006, were issued for "national security" reasons,
according to provincial authorities. The restrictions included a ban on
public gatherings of more than five migrant workers without prior
permission, a ban on the use of mobile phones, motorcycles and cars and a
curfew on migrant workers that restricts them to their living quarters
from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Chiang Mai’s governor, Vichai Srikwan, in an interview in the Bangkok Post
on April 18, said the provincial government is drafting the decree to
maintain peace and order in the province.

The action has raised fear among migrant workers in the province, which
has more than 100,000 Burmese migrants, mainly from the ethnic Shan
community.

A labor group gathered on Friday in Chiang Mai for a conference, “Curfew:
Voices from Migrant Workers," to discuss the restrictions.

Pranom Somwong of the Migrant Assistant Program said the government says
“national security” is an issue, but it does not care about the “human
security” of migrant workers, which is a basic human right.

“Human security means people can live and work peacefully and freely in
the community, which also contributes to national security,” she said.

Nang Noi, a Shan worker in a Chiang Mai restaurant, said the mobile phone
ban would make her life difficult because she needs to communicate with
her family.

“Besides that, my work starts in the evening and finishes late, so I
cannot go to work if the government doesn't allow us to go out after 8
p.m,” she said.

Sang Or, a Thai Shan who is also an employer, said authorities should
gather more information by listening to the opinions of employers and
employees, because the restrictions are not practical and would be
difficult to follow.

The group noted in its letter that the policy will prevent workers from
accessing medical service and educational opportunities during the night.
Many temples also offer Shan Buddhists opportunities to worship and
participate in other activities at night.

The group also urged the governors of Phuket and Ranong provinces to
rescind their restrictive decrees, which were among the first implemented
in Thailand.  The group urged Chiang Mai government officials to meet with
migrant group representatives and labor groups to find better solutions to
problems before implementing a local decree.

____________________________________

May 11, Narinjara News
Burmese spy arrested in Cox's Bazar

Bangladesh authorities arrested a Burmese spy in the border town Cox's
Bazar on 8 May, while he was carrying out his work there, reported a local
newspaper.

The Burmese spy was identified as Habibu Rahman, aged 24, from Buthidaung
Township in Arakan State, Burma.

The report stated that during the interrogation he confessed that he was a
spy for Burma.

Moreover, he told law Bangladesh law enforcement that was sent by a
Burmese army battalion stationed in Buthidaung, 80 miles north of Arakan
State capital Akyab, to collect information on sacral issues.

During the arrest, Bangladesh authorities seized a number of important
papers from him.

The suspect is still being held in an interrogation cell in Cox's Bazar
but is expected to be handed over to the police department soon, reported
the newspaper.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 11, The Irrawaddy
Burmese junta prepares for FTA talks with EU

Asean and the European Union have agreed to allow Burma to participate in
free trade agreement talks with the EU, amid signs the military junta is
preparing to highlight what it claims are recent democratic advancements.

Observers suggest that a recent workshop in Rangoon, titled "Challenges
and Perspectives for the Future of Asean-EU Relations," which included
nine foreign experts including pro-military government scholar Robert H
Taylor, could be seen as an effort by the regime to work out a public
relations strategy.

According to documents obtained by The Irrawaddy, the Track Two Workshop
and Field Trip—held from February 25 to March 4— has recommended that the
regime "should accelerate as much as possible the implementation of its
seven steps Road Map" to democracy and "should do more to highlight
positive initiatives for national reconciliation, including explaining the
central features of the power sharing envisaged in the new Constitution
and the peace dividends arising from the ceasefire."

During the trip, the junta allowed the group to visit the areas of the
newest ceasefire group, the KNU/KNLA Peace Council led by Maj-Gen Htein
Maung.

Meanwhile, an agreement was reached last week in Brunei between Asean and
the EU to let Burma participate in negotiations after more than two years
of wrangling over the military government's poor human rights record.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the Malaysia national news
agency Bernama that the EU's stance on Burma's rights record has not
changed although both blocs agreed that a successful FTA could provide for
comprehensive trade and investment liberalization.

Political oppositions groups have challenged the workshop's
recommendations for their failure to support a political atmosphere for
public participation, including releasing all political prisoners and
democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi who is under house arrest.

"The cause of Burma's political dilemma is that the military is still
ignoring the role of representatives chosen by the people in democratic
elections," Dr San Aung, an exiled member of the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), told The Irrawaddy. "We need a
coordinated policy from the international community to push Burmese
generals to create more democratization."

____________________________________

May 11, Mizzima News
GAIL's project with Burma hits a wall - Syed Ali Mujtaba

A bid by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) to source LNG as well
as natural gas from Burma along a pipeline and other sources to India
seems to have run into a wall. But GAIL officials still seem optimistic of
clinching the deal.

The state run undertaking is to source 3.5 million tones of liquefied
natural gas (LNG) per annum from Burma's A1 and A3 blocks estimated to
have reserves of about 5.7 to 10 trillion cubic feet.

A top official announcing the state run company's financial results on
Wednesday said its project with Burma has hit hurdles but the company is
working to revive them at the earliest.

'We have run into some problems with our Burma project, but we are still
working on reviving it,' U.D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing director,
GAIL, said in New Delhi.

Mr. Choubey was referring to the meeting held in Nay Pyi Taw, Burma's new
capital on March 16. Officials of the Burmese government had told
representatives of GAIL that it is considering exporting natural gas to
China.

"We are pursuing with Myanmar (Burma) Government for acceptance of our bid
for purchase of pipeline gas from A1 and A3 blocks as it is economically
more attractive compared to the expected Chinese offer. The discussions
are still going on and we hope to clinch the deal in our favour," Choubey
said.

GAIL along with an other Indian company ONGC Videsh Ltd together hold 30
per cent stake in A1 and A3 blocks, while South Korea's Daewoo is the
operator with 60 per cent stake. South Korea's KoGas has the remaining 10
per cent stake.

Last year it had submitted an aggressive bid for securing rights for gas
from Burma. This was in response to Burma's invitation for global bids to
gas produced from A1 and A3 blocks.

Moreover, the firm had also announced investing Rs 700 crore in the next
two years in the eastern coast of Burma to harness its oil and gas
reserves.

In February 2004 GAIL was given the status of 'preferential buyer' of gas
from these two blocks, subject to various conditions including pricing and
approval of other partners among other things.

The company had appointed SUZ Tractebel of Belgium as technical consultant
to carry out a study for preparing a detailed feasibility report,
Environment Management Plan and Rapid Risk Analysis study report for
transporting gas from Burma's A-1 and A-3 offshore blocks into India.

Pre-feasibility study of GAIL to market the gas in India through a
pipeline and other sources predicted that the A1 and A3 blocks can produce
about 16 million cubic meter of gas per day for the next 20 to 25 years.

Its pre-feasibility study had also invited Expressions of Interests (EoIs)
to select a firm or consortium through international competitive bidding
for transporting LNG from Burma to India. Eight national and international
firms/consortiums have responded to GAIL's invitation for the EOI. The
company was in the process of floating a Request for Qualification (RFQ)
to interested parties before tying up for the first CNG shipping Time
Chartering service that would have helped GAIL carve out a niche in
providing transportation solution to the demand of CNG in the domestic
market.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 11, Irrawaddy
US think tank has advice for new French president - Htet Aung

A policy paper issued by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington DC-based
think tank, on Wednesday called on France’s president-elect Nicolas
Sarkozy to adopt a more human rights-oriented foreign policy agenda,
particularly in relation to Burma.

The paper, titled “The Sarkozy Revolution: Five Recommendations for the
New French President,” was written by Nile Gardiner, the director of the
Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.

“Under Nicolas Sarkozy, France should adopt a foreign policy that places
human rights at its heart,” Gardiner writes. “A good start would be a
government-backed ban on French investment in Burma.”

The conservative Sarkozy defeated the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène
Royal, France’s would-be first female president, in a contentious election
that ended on May 7. “France will be on the side of the oppressed of the
world,” Sarkozy said in a victory speech following the election. “This is
France’s message, it is France’s identity, it is France’s history.”

However, Burmese pro-democracy activists living in France don’t expect any
changes under Sarkozy on the country’s policy toward Burma. “There is no
political difference between Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac,” Aung Ko,
a Burmese activist living in France, told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

France supported a US-sponsored resolution on Burma at the UN Security
Council in January. Permanent members China and Russia vetoed the
resolution. But France still maintains substantial economic interests in
Burma through its Total Oil Company.

Total was sued in a Belgium court in 2002 by four Burmese refugees for
human rights violations in the construction of a gas pipeline.

“We have to continue to raise questions about Total because this is our
country’s politics, and all Burmese people are affected,” said Aung Ko,
who is also an actor who appeared in the 1995 film Beyond Rangoon, about
the 1988 pro-democracy uprising in Burma.

Meanwhile, US and EU leaders agreed “to exchange on Burma at all levels in
order to deliver the same political messages and coordinating possible
actions” during a one-day summit in Washington DC on April 30.

Burma’s main opposition group, the National League for Democracy, told The
Irrawaddy it was encouraged by Sarkozy’s stated commitment to helping
oppressed people around the world. But NLD spokesperson Myint Thein added
that the party has few relations with the French embassy in Rangoon.

Nicolas Sarkozy, a lawyer and son of Hungarian immigrants, will officially
take the office on May 16.

____________________________________

May 11, Irrawaddy
Burmese refugees seek new life in Finland - Louis Reh

Burmese refugees suffering in camps in Thailand are looking at the north
pole of Finland this spring and summer. They are seeking asylum through
the UN High Commissioner for refugees resettlement programme. Their hopes
of coming to Finland hinges around freedom of movement, building their
future and to educate their children.

"I came to Finland for my children's education and their future because
there is no hope for my children's further education in the refugee camp,"
said Ei Song, who has three children.

Ei Song has been in Karenni refugee camp I, in northern Mae Hong Son, in
Thailand since 1996. "Now my life has changed. I am no longer a refugee,"
he smiled "but I will remember my life in the refugee camp," Ei Song said.

These refugees have spent more than 20 years in refugee camps in Thailand
in shanties built of bamboo and thatch. Thai regulations allow education
only till the secondary level. But high school and two years of intensive
schools are being opened for students in the camps along the Thai-Burma
border.

"I came to Finland for my future education and my security," said Gaw Reh
(23), a Burmese refugee from Camp I, in northern Mae Hong Son. Gaw Reh
finished high school in Karenni refugee camp I and is enrolled in a
Leadership and Management school last year. The course is for two years.

Burmese refugees were suffering political oppression, forced relocation
and other human rights abuses by the Burmese military junta ruling the
country in the current stint for about 19 years. More than 400 Burmese
refugees are permanently resettled in Finland and an estimated 750
refugees are taken in annually from Turkey, Iran, Somali, Sudan, along
with Burmese refugees in Thailand in keeping with Finland's annual quota.

Finland receives about 3,000 applications seeking asylum annually, in
addition to well over 10,000 applications for work and residence permits.
Each year, between 2,000 and 3,000 people receive Finnish citizenship.
Most from Russia and Africa enter illegally and over stay their visa
period in Finland and wait to be granted visa by the government. Finnish
population accounts for about 5.2 million people.

Erika Feller, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection in the office of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees also called on Thai authorities on
May 3 to permit Burmese refugees residing along the Thai-Burmese border to
secure employment opportunities in Thailand.

Feller told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok that
Thai authorities should permit an estimated 140,000 Burmese refugees to
access works along the border in spite of Thai provincial authorities
enforced restrictions on migrant workers, such as night curfew, using
mobile phones, motorcycles and cars which started last December.

Burmese ethnic Chin students in America last Friday met State Department
officials and requested the US government help in educating young Burmese
and to receive more Burmese refugees from Thailand, India and Malaysia to
the US.

"I am happy to work with Burmese refugees because I am happy to see them
build a new life here in Finland," said Virpi Kupiainen social worker in
Kotka city in Finland.

Kari Jokelainen a nurse for Kotka social worker said "working with Burmese
refugees is a challenge because we come to know their cultures and their
experiences." Kupiainen said Burmese people here in Finland will have the
same rights and education opportunities as Finnish people.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 14, New Statesman
It could have been me - William Hague

A politician whose only crime has been daring to speak out in support of
democracy is serving a 21-year prison sentence

In association with Amnesty International William Hague on Saw Naing Naing

Political life invariably involves personal cost. For some politicians,
loss of privacy is the greatest drawback. Others regret the toll that the
commitments of political life take on family life. But, unlike in Burma,
an MP in this country runs no risk of being imprisoned if his or her ideas
run counter to the views of the government. In Burma, support for
democracy is deemed an unacceptable challenge to the authority of a regime
that maintains its grip on power through violence.

The MP Saw Naing Naing is just one Burmese politician who has paid the
price of thinking freely and daring to speak out.

He was first elected in 1990, when the National League for Democracy won
its landslide victory. Rather than take his place in parliament, as I did
in 1989, he was thrown in jail along with many of his fellow NLD members
and subjected to horrific privations during a decade-long incarceration.

He was released in 1999, only to be rearrested the next year when he put
his name to a statement denouncing the suppression of democracy in Burma.

Aged 58, he received a 21-year sentence for violating laws which ordain
the junta's official approval of anything written and which allow the
regime to punish all "threats to internal stability". Today he is one of
the 1,100 political prisoners believed to be incarcerated in Burma for
opposing the regime.

When I speak as a member of parliament or as the shadow foreign secretary,
I do so in the knowledge that my arguments, words and actions are open to
scrutiny by the public, my political opponents, and the media. In Burma no
such freedom exists.

Over five decades, Burma's military regime has sustained itself through
violence and intimidation. The regime starves, brutalises and dispossesses
its own people, permitting its army to use slave labour and child
soldiers.

The UN General Assembly and the UN Commission on Human Rights have
condemned the junta's gross human-rights violations in at least 28
separate resolutions over the years. However, these resolutions are not
enforceable, and the Burmese regime continues to act with impunity.

In January this year, the UK and the US led an attempt to censure the
government of Burma at the Security Council. They put forward a draft
Security Council resolution which called on the junta to take concrete
steps to allow full freedom of expression, freedom of association and
freedom of movement in Burma - first by unconditionally releasing all
political prisoners, then by lifting constraints on all political leaders
and citizens, and allowing the NLD and other political parties to operate
without restraint.

If it had been agreed, the resolution would have also called on the
Burmese government to cease military attacks against civilians in
ethnic-minority regions and begin a substantive political dialogue that
would lead to a genuine democratic transition.

The resolution was not passed because of opposition from other members of
the Security Council, including Russia and China. This was bitterly
disappointing and represents a missed opportunity.

At the end of April, the European Union renewed its Common Position on
Burma. Here was a chance for the EU to show its abhorrence for the actions
of the Burmese regime, but the Foreign Council chose to roll the terms of
the old position over to next year. The Conservatives have called for
extended EU sanctions and for the credible threat of restrictions on
European trade with Rangoon.

Some of the foreign investment from Europe and Asia plays a significant
part in Burma's survival. It is carried and directed through companies
owned and operated by Burma's ministry of defence. In cases such as this
one, we should encourage companies to examine and reduce their links with
the regime. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD have repeatedly called for the
world to cut off this lifeline that keeps the regime alive. We ought to
listen.

It is worrying that countries such as India, the world's largest
democracy, have remained silent about the regime's abuses. We should
encourage this key regional player to champion reform and change in Burma.
In addition, our own government, with cross-party support, should lead the
way in supporting democracy-building, human-rights documentation and
education, and in providing urgently needed humanitarian support to the
people of Burma.

We should all speak out for basic human and civil rights and the
aspirations of the Burmese, who desire what so many others around the
world are able to take for granted: the chance to express their views
freely and to be represented by the leaders they freely elect.

To take action on behalf of Saw Naing Naing, log on to:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/cases

William Hague is MP for Richmond (Yorkshire)

____________________________________

May 11, The Irrawaddy
Time to change the tune

It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that Burma’s military
leaders deserve none of the power and riches they’ve enjoyed since seizing
power in the bloody 1988 coup. But regional and western governments, as
well as analysts and observers, are increasingly nonplussed when asked for
solutions to the country’s political and humanitarian crises.

If Asean—which comprises most of Burma’s immediate neighbors—and the West
were honest, they would admit that nothing they’ve done has made much of a
dent in the Burmese junta’s protective armor.

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the current regime’s theft of
power. But Burma has endured a military dictatorship for much longer than
that. The junta took what was not rightfully theirs in 1988, but they
stole it from a fellow thief, Gen Ne Win, who staged the country’s first
military coup in 1962.

After nearly a half-century of authoritarian rule in Burma, the rest of
the world still quarrels endlessly over the issue of engagement versus
sanctions. Since 1988, the US has put pressure on the regime with strict
trade sanctions imposed in 1997 and further tightened in recent years by
President George W Bush.

But the aging generals in their Naypyidaw hideaway still cling tightly to
the reins of state, though only with the political and economic muscle of
two strong-backed neighbors: China and India. In return for their
“protection”—weapons, cash and international political support, among
other things—China and India are rewarded with ample supplies of Burma’s
much coveted natural resources.

History shows that the US was not always so fastidiously anti-engagement
with Burma. Ne Win received economic and military aid from the US,
including helicopters and arms to suppress the narcotics trade.

During the pro-democracy uprising in 1988, US Congressman Stephen J
Solartz, then chairman of the House of Representatives’ Sub-committee on
Asian and Pacific Affairs, flew to Rangoon for talks with Burma’s top
leaders, including then President Dr Maung Maung.

The US subsequently downgraded its diplomatic presence in Burma when
government forces bloodily suppressed the uprising, including the
indiscriminate slaughter of demonstrators in front of the US embassy in
Rangoon in September 1988.

In 1994, US Congressman Bill Richardson received permission to visit
detained Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. While he failed to
achieve any notable political breakthrough, Richardson’s diplomatic
efforts earned wide praise.

US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright drew headlines a few years
later for her visit to Burma, during which she met Suu Kyi and then spy
chief Gen Khin Nyunt, among other high-ranking military leaders.

While predictably gracious to Burma’s democracy icon, Albright chose to
lecture the head of the country’s secret police like a naughty schoolboy—a
move not inclined to inspire confidence or cooperation in the War Office.

That’s not to say she was wrong to berate Khin Nyunt. But what about
following through? In typical fashion, the US—then and now—failed to
produce tangible results.
In fact, the US has lost enormous political capital from its military
involvement in the Middle East. Burma seems to have fallen a few slots on
its political agenda. But the US still imposes heavy punitive sanctions on
Burma, which cannot be ignored.

Sanctions—like all other US efforts in Burma—have produced little fruit.
Humanitarian crises in the country have deepened, and the regime still
maintains an iron grip on power. No wonder, then, that policymakers in the
EU and Asean are increasingly critical of the hard-line US position.

The simple truth is that sanctions alone don’t work and regime change is
unlikely—if not impossible.

A more proactive diplomacy is necessary to complement sustained sanctions.
Alternative diplomatic channels must be developed to influence the
generals and the neighbors who support them.

The international community must also find sensible ways to get assistance
directly to Burmese people in need. As the shutting down of two offices of
the International Committee for the Red Cross illustrates, direct aid is a
difficult prospect. But those suffering in Burma don’t have the time for a
“wait and see” attitude.

Children suffering from malnutrition cannot wait. Burma’s swelling ranks
of people living with HIV—estimated to be nearly a half million—need
medication and hospice care. Refugees and internally displaced ethnic
minorities along the Burma-Thailand border need food, proper shelter and
medicine immediately.

They can’t wait for the outcome of another crisis management project or
consultant report filled with the jargon of impotent humanitarian
“aid-speak.” They need results, and they need them now.

Burma is suffering, and the flow of migrants displaced by economic woes or
military aggression by the government has spread that suffering to Burma’s
regional neighbors.

Meanwhile, junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe feels no pressure. The cavalier
leader of a failed state stood proudly on Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw
before 15,000 soldiers—the handpicked enforcers of his
“discipline-flourishing democracy”—with no thought for those who are
suffering.

Those who feel the pressure are the US, the EU, Asean and everyone else
who sincerely desires positive change in Burma. They must act quickly, and
with fresh, effective policies, before it’s too late.