BurmaNet News, May 23, 2007

[Editor]

May 23, 2007 Issue # 3210


INSIDE BURMA
SHAN: Planned junta-SSA meeting called off
AFP: Myanmar arrests two more democracy activists
Irrawaddy: Burma suppresses history, says Rangoon writer
AP: Myanmar says North Korean ship docked near Yangon to take shelter from
storm
Irrawaddy: Burmese military trains cyber warriors

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Karen women's rights defender honored

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Thai energy giant hails commercial gas potential in Myanmar
Mizzima: Business firms in Burma evade tax

ASEAN
Irrawaddy: Asean meetings drop Burma issue from agenda

REGIONAL
AP: China says Aung San Suu Kyi's detention an internal matter for Myanmar
AFP: Myanmar moving towards democracy: Cambodian FM

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: UN chief appoints Gambari to pursue efforts in Burma
The Frontrunner: First lady, five female senators to launch women's caucus
on Burma
AP: Burmese refugees begin leaving for Oregon, other states

OPINION / OTHER
Asia Times: Myanmar drops a nuclear 'bombshell'

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 23, Shan Herald Agency for News
Planned junta-SSA meeting called off

The planned historic meeting between the Burma Army and Shan State Army
(SSA) South on the border today was postponed indefinitely after the Burma
Army delegation failed to appear at the venue, according to SSA leader Col
Yawdserk.

Speaking from his Loi Taileng base, opposite Thailand's Maehongson, the
50-year old commander expressed his "disappointment" that the meeting
failed to take place as planned. "I hope both sides will regard this only
as a temporary setback, as it will truly be in the interests of all those
concerned if we can meet sometime in the near future."

The meeting was called off reportedly because both sides could not agree
on the venue. The Burma Army had wanted its first get-together with the
SSA delegation led by Assistant Secretary General and Spokesperson Maj Lao
Hseng to take place in Tachilek. "The first meeting, we believe, should be
at a neutral location," said Yawdserk. "But future meetings can be held
anywhere, even Pyinmana, if sufficient mutual trust has been built up."

The SSA South, since 1996, has been calling for peace talks with the Burma
Army. The latter had in the past insisted that the former had no choice
but to surrender. The latest call for the meeting had come from the Burma
Army, that had for unexplained reasons made a complete U turn in its
policy towards the SSA.

____________________________________

May 23, Agence France Presse
Myanmar arrests two more democracy activists

Yangon: Myanmar has arrested another two members of the National League
for Democracy, the party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
activists said Wednesday, as a round-up of her supporters continued.

The junta began detaining pro-democracy activists on May 15, in an
apparent crackdown ahead of a May 27 review of Aung San Suu Kyi's house
arrest, which is expected to be extended further by the military-run
state.

"Two NLD members were taken by the authorities on Monday for no reason,"
said Myint Thein, spokesman of the NLD, which won elections here in 1990
but was never allowed to take office.

He said one woman was arrested in Yangon as she led a prayer vigil for
Aung San Suu Kyi, and a man was arrested at a different location in the
city.

At least 60 pro-democracy activists have been detained in the past week as
they went to pagodas to pray for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, and 45
people, mostly NLD members, remain in custody.

"We haven't got any information on those arrested people," Myint Thein said.

Despite the spate of arrests, the NLD is continuing its daily prayer
vigils for 61-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, which began on May 1.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years
under house arrest at her lakeside Yangon home, where she has little
contact with the outside world apart from a live-in maid and visits by her
doctor.

Calls for her release from world leaders past and present, as well as
human rights advocates, have been growing ahead of the review date, but
there are few signs Myanmar's military leaders plan to free her.

____________________________________

May 23, The Irrawaddy
Burma suppresses history, says Rangoon writer - Yeni

Burma's ruling junta has effectively erased the history of modern Burmese
rulers by suppressing their biographies, according to a Rangoon-based
historian.

Than Win Hlaing, 40, planned to distribute a biographical study of Burma’s
first prime minister, U Nu, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his
birth on May 25.

But the Ministry of Information’s Press Scrutiny and Registration
Division, the country’s notorious censorship body, has blocked its
distribution.

“I was upset to learn that the book could not be distributed at the right
time,” said Than Win Hlaing. “What I was trying to do is preserve our
history for the next generation.”

Than Win Hlaing this year completed a 7-year prison sentence for his
previous book about historic sculpture in Burma and its preservation of
the history of the country’s most prominent historical figures.

The history of U Nu was designed to preserve the memory of one of Burma’s
best-known nationalist politicians and the first prime minister of an
independent Burma.

U Nu was a student leader and independence activist in the final decades
of British rule in Burma. He co-founded the influential Nagani, or “Red
Dragon,” book club, which circulated Burmese-language translations of
international works in the fields of literature, history, economics
politics and science.

Following the assassination of Gen Aung San and fellow cabinet ministers
on July 19, 1947, U Nu led the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League to
secure the Nu-Atlee Treaty, a pre-independence agreement later in the
year.

After independence was formally established on January 4, 1948, U Nu
became prime minister of a country immediately torn by civil war and a
growing communist insurgency. He was later overthrown by a military coup
led by Gen Ne Win in 1962.

Burma remains one of the worst violators of press freedom in the world.
According to the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders' annual
World Press Freedom Index, writers and journalists in Burma constantly
risk their lives or face the threat of imprisonment for trying to keep the
public informed.

On Monday, two local journalists on assignment for Japan’s major network,
Nippon Television, were arrested by Burmese military authorities while
covering the expected arrival of a cargo ship from North Korea reportedly
scheduled to dock at Thilawa port, 30 km (20 miles) south of Rangoon.

____________________________________

May 23, Associated Press
Myanmar says North Korean ship docked near Yangon to take shelter from storm

Yangon: A North Korean ship that docked near Yangon was in distress and
taking shelter from a storm, and inspections by Myanmar authorities found
no suspicious cargo on board, Myanmar's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

In a statement sent to foreign embassies Wednesday, the ministry said a
storm caused the North Korean cargo ship Kang Nam I, which was sailing in
Myanmar territorial waters, to develop engine trouble in one of its
engines and have inadequate supplies of food and water.

It was allowed to dock Sunday at Thilawa port, 30 kilometers (20 miles)
south of Yangon, for humanitarian reasons to make repairs and take on
supplies, the statement said.

Myanmar permitted another North Korean cargo ship, the M.V. Bong Hoafan,
to anchor at a port last November under similar circumstances and also
announced then that it had conducted an inspection and "found no
suspicious material or military equipment" on board.

Following North Korea's nuclear test last October, the U.N. Security
Council unanimously approved sanctions that included inspections of North
Korean ships.

The incident involving the M.V. Bong Hoafan grabbed attention because of
suspicions that North Korea supplies weapons and weapons technology to
Myanmar. Both countries are pariah states, shunned by much of the
international community, and North Korea has a record of exporting
missiles and other weapons to countries that might not otherwise be able
to obtain such armaments.

Foreign diplomats were similarly curious about the Kang Nam I.

"Myanmar port authorities of the Ministry of Transport made necessary
inspections on board and did not find any suspicious cargo or military
equipment aboard the ship," said the Foreign Ministry statement, a copy of
which was obtained by The Associated Press.

It said the ship left port in Myanmar with its captain and 18 crew members
on Wednesday morning.

Myanmar and North Korea, two of Asia's most authoritarian countries,
signed an agreement last month to resume diplomatic ties. Ties were
severed in 1983 after a bombing carried out by North Korean spies seeking
to assassinate South Korea's then-president, Chun Doo-hwan, during a visit
to Yangon.

____________________________________

May Issue, Irrawaddy
Burmese military trains cyber warriors

Recent graduates of Burma’s military academies now have the option of
training to hunt down cyber dissidents and disrupt anti-government Web
sites, according to sources close to the military. Some 50 military
officers have been attending a three-month course, scheduled to end this
month, to learn how to intercept e-mail messages and detect their sources.
Participating officers were carefully selected based on their previous
computer knowledge and language skills.

The move is thought to have been conceived to block dissidents’ access to
foreign and exile media groups. Sources say the new recruits are expected
to monitor communications from politicians, activists, journalists,
writers and NGO workers in Rangoon. The junta is also said to be sending
selected students to China and Singapore for advanced IT studies, as they
have done several times in the past.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 23, Irrawaddy
Karen women's rights defender honored

Zipporah Sein, a Thailand-based Karen women's activist will receive the
Perdita Huston Human Rights Award this year. Zipporah, the executive
secretary of the Thai-Burmese border-based Karen Women’s Organization,
works to aid women’s struggle for freedom, democracy and equality in
Burma. She has documented human rights violations committed by the
military government against ethnic Karen people and run safe houses in
refugee camps, providing shelter and counseling to women and children
facing violence. Last year, she was nominated by an international women’s
organization for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Perdita Huston Human Rights Award was established in 2002 to
commemorate American journalist and women’s rights activist Perdita Huston
and to honor the life and work of others who are outstanding advocates for
women's rights in the Third World. This year's recipients also included
Samar Minallah of Pakistan and Bishnu Maya Pariyar of Nepal. The award
ceremony will be held in Washington DC in June.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 23, Agence France Presse
Thai energy giant hails commercial gas potential in Myanmar

Bangkok: Thailand's largest oil exploration firm, PTTEP, on Wednesday
hailed the commercial potential of a natural gas field that it is
exploring off the coast of impoverished Myanmar.

PTTEP, working with Myanmar's top state-run oil enterprise, Myanmar Oil
and Gas Enterprise, is searching for new natural gas reserves in the
offshore M-9 block in the southwestern Gulf of Martaban.

Hungry for energy, Thailand currently imports about 20 percent of its gas
from military-ruled Myanmar, which is under US and European sanctions, and
is vying for a bigger share of Myanmar's vast natural resources.

"The gas flow rate found at the M-9 block recently confirmed its potential
for commercial production. It is good news for us to see the latest
progress of the ongoing drilling," PTTEP spokesman Sitthichai Jayant said.

He told AFP that they would go ahead with existing plans to drill three
more exploration wells by July, but said it was likely that they would
then move into the production phase.

The M-9 block has been the focus of PTTEP's ongoing offshore gas projects
in the Martaban Gulf.

State media in Myanmar previously estimated the block M-9 contains 8.0
trillion cubic feet of gas, and Sitthichai said they aimed to start
production -- for both local use and export -- by 2011.

The Thai company has set aside 3.0 percent of its 74.5 billion baht (2.15
billion dollars) investment outlays for this year for exploration in
Myanmar.

Myanmar, one of the world's poorest nations, is under a series of US and
European economic sanctions imposed over the junta's human rights abuses
and the house arrest of 61-year-old democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as energy-hungry
neighbours like China, India and Thailand are spending billions of dollars
for a share of Myanmar's vast energy resources to solve power problems at
home.

According to 2006 official figures, 13 foreign oil companies are working
on 33 projects in Myanmar.

____________________________________

May 23, Mizzima News
Business firms in Burma evade tax

More than 60 percent of business firms in Burma do not pay tax to the
government, according to a source in the tax department.

About 12,000 business houses, constituting 60 percent of 20,200 companies
in Burma avoid paying tax.

The military junta is contemplating launching a drive to collect tax and
punish the evaders, the sources said.

"Every business firm has to renew its registration annually. We are going
to come up with a plan that if they fail to pay tax, we will terminate
their registration," said an official from the Ministry of National
Planning and Economy on condition of anonymity.

The big business houses, including Burma's tycoon like Tay Za, of Maung
Weight as well as Peace Myanmar Group and International Beverage Trading
are on the list of tax evaders.

According to Burmese law, if someone evades tax he can be sentenced to
three to ten years in jail or be fined.

The military junta has been pushed to start a new tax collection procedure
since last year to resuscitate the country's deteriorating economy.

____________________________________
ASEAN

May 23, Irrawaddy
Asean meetings drop Burma issue from agenda - Estrella Torres

Manila: Senior ministers of Asean have side-stepped the issue of Burma,
including the continued detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
during a series of meetings in the Philippines this week.

Philippines foreign undersecretary Erlinda Basilio said the human rights
issue in Burma is not on the agenda of the Asean senior officials meeting
set to conclude on Wednesday and the Asean Regional Forum on Friday, as
well as other parallel Asean meetings.

"We are not taking up Myanmar (Burma)," said Basilio, in a briefing with
Manila-based reporters. "Our position with regards to Myanmar is defined
by the Asean communique issued in Kuala Lumpur (in 2005) to give time and
space for Myanmar to sort out its national challenges with the
participation of all the political forces."

The foreign ministry official said: "A nation is not built in a day: it
takes time. At the same time, we are also still trying to build a nation.
Other countries are similarly situated. We are faced with different
challenges. We have to adopt solutions to our problems."

"We hope that the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi will be lifted for
humanitarian reasons. She should be released from house arrest, and that
will remove another contentious issue."

But Asean, she said, will not push the matter with Burma during the Asean
meetings, citing the regional body's principle not to discuss internal
problems.

Party list Rep Etta Rosales of Akbayan meanwhile criticized Asean senior
ministers for their conservative stand amid continued human rights
atrocities committed by Burma's military junta.

"We find them (Asean senior ministers) so terribly conservative," said
Rosales, in an interview on Wednesday at the launch of the regional
campaign of the Free Burma Coalition at the University of the Philippines
in Quezon City.

"The fact that they do not agenda it (the Burma issue) shows that they are
allowing non-compliance to the democratic standards of Asean to prevail.
They have become very quiet and passive," Rosales said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 23, Associated Press
China says Aung San Suu Kyi's detention an internal matter for Myanmar

Beijing: China declined to join Southeast Asian nations urging Myanmar to
release detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying Wednesday that
her confinement is an internal matter for Myanmar's government.

China's stance, given in a brief Foreign Ministry statement, came a day
after the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN broke
with its core policy of non-interference and pointedly called on Myanmar's
military-backed government to release Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize
laureate.

"The Aung San Suu Kyi matter is Myanmar's internal affair," the Foreign
Ministry statement said. "The Chinese side hopes to see Myanmar maintain
political stability and continue to make progress in the process of
national reconciliation."

The discord between ASEAN and Myanmar one of its members puts China in a
bind. Suu Kyi's years of arrest and harassment by Myanmar authorities has
put a human face on the junta's political suppression.

Beijing has worked hard to build close relations with ASEAN and its 10
members, seeing their support as crucial to China's smooth economic and
geopolitical rise, and is trying to portray itself as a responsible world
player.

But Beijing has also benefited from Myanmar's political isolation,
providing Chinese diplomatic support to the junta and crucial investment,
especially in oil, gas and minerals.

In a sign of this balancing act, China, along with Russia, vetoed a
U.S.-backed resolution in United Nations Security Council in January,
calling on Myanmar to end political suppression. However, in doing so,
China's U.N. ambassador said Beijing would support ASEAN in its policies
toward Myanmar.

"China will, as always, support ASEAN to play a leading role in addressing
the issue of Myanmar," Ambassador Wang Guangya said then.

____________________________________

May 23, Agence France Presse
Myanmar moving towards democracy: Cambodian FM

Phnom Penh: Myanmar is moving towards democracy, Cambodian Foreign
Minister Hor Nam Hong said Wednesday, adding that he hoped the reclusive
state's constitution would be finished this year.

"We hope that in the near future constitutional rule will be implemented
and democratic reform will move forward," he said following a three-day
visit to Myanmar with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The military-run state has held sporadic negotiations aimed at drafting a
new constitution, but these have been dismissed as a sham by the
international community including the United Nations, European Union and
the United States.

Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who
remains under house arrest, and her National League of Democracy have
boycotted talks on what the regime calls a "road map" to democracy.

During their trip, Cambodian officials did not raise the issue of Aung San
Suu Kyi's detention, Hor Nam Hong said, with the leaders focusing instead
on boosting trade and tourism links.

"It is an internal affairs of Myanmar's," he told reporters.

Cambodia has close diplomatic ties with Myanmar, which has been under
military rule since 1962 and is one of the most isolated nations in the
world.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 23, Mizzima News
UN chief appoints Gambari to pursue efforts in Burma

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday designated his
special adviser Ibrahim Gambari, who visited Burma twice last year, to
continue the UN's efforts to pursue political reforms in military-ruled
Burma.

Gambari in his capacity as undersecretary-general for political affairs,
during his visits to Burma, was given a rare opportunity by the military
junta to meet detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

His last visit in May 2006 had generated optimism and sparked speculations
that the junta would release Suu Kyi. However, following his visit the
junta did just the opposite. It renewed Suu Kyi's house arrest by yet
another year.

Spokeswoman for the UN chief, Michèle Montas, on Tuesday announced that
Ban Ki-moon, who has appointed Gambari as his Special Adviser on the
International Compact with Iraq and Other Issues, designated him "to
continue to pursue the good offices mandate on Myanmar entrusted to the
Secretary-General by the General Assembly, effective immediately."

"The Secretary-General looks forward to the continued cooperation of the
Government of Myanmar and all relevant parties to the national
reconciliation process, with a view to making tangible progress towards
the restoration of democracy and the protection of human rights in
Myanmar," Montas said during a press briefing in New York.

____________________________________

May 23, The Frontrunner
First lady, five female senators to launch women's caucus on Burma

First lady Laura Bush will join five female senators today to launch a new
Women's Caucus on Burma, focusing on the human-rights crisis in the South
Asian country that continues to detain Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi."
Bush "will meet with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kay Bailey
Hutchison (R-Texas), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)
and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), along with Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary
of state for democracy and global affairs, and Shari Villarosa, deputy
chief of the U.S. mission in the Burmese capital of Rangoon.

____________________________________

May 23, Associated Press
Burmese refugees begin leaving for Oregon, other states - Bradley S. Klapper

Geneva: A group of 31 Burmese refugees left Tuesday for the United States,
where they will be allowed to permanently settle after years of limbo in
southeast Asia's biggest refugee camp.

The Burmese are the first of several thousand members of the Karen ethnic
minority expected to leave Thailand's Mae La camp for a new life in the
United States, the International Organization for Migration said.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been denounced by the United Nations for
persistent human-rights violations against minorities in the eastern state
of Karen, which borders Thailand. Last year, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice waived certain restrictions on U.S. resettlement of Karen
refugees.

Many of the Karen have lived for years in Thai refugee camps as a result
of persecution by Myanmar's ruling military junta. The Mae La camp was
established in 1984 with an initial population of 1,100, but has since
swelled to some 45,000 mainly Karen refugees.

IOM spokesman Jean-Philippe Chauzy said the refugees moving to the U.S.
range in age from 2 to 68.

The organization is transporting them by bus to Bangkok, where they will
be flown to their new U.S. homes in Oregon, Kentucky, Texas, New York,
California, Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina, Chauzy said.

The Karen are an example of a group that the administration of U.S.
President George W. Bush is seeking to provide assistance for by changing
immigration restrictions established after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The proposed policy shift would offer the Bush administration greater
flexibility in deciding who can and cannot enter the U.S., a
simplification of the current waiver system for allowing in those who
fought repressive governments or were forced under duress into providing
support for armed groups.

Last year, the U.S. government planned to accept 56,000 refugees; the
actual number was 44,000, in large part due to the restrictions.

IOM could not say how many of the new refugees received the material
support waiver from the U.S. government because the Geneva-based body was
not part of the interviewing process. IOM moved nearly 2,500 Karen
refugees from another Thai border camp, Tham Hin, to the United States
last year.

Karen rebels have been fighting for half a century for greater autonomy
from Myanmar's central government. Cease-fire talks broke down three years
ago, and the Myanmar army launched a major offensive in Karen State in
2005.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, the main aid agency caring for tens
of thousands of refugees along the Thai-Myanmar frontier, estimates that
in 2006 alone the violence forced 82,000 people to leave their homes.

Since 1996, more than 3,000 villages have been destroyed or abandoned in
eastern Myanmar and more than 1 million people displaced, according to the
group's most recent report, which said Myanmar's military was subjecting
Karen women to brutal rapes, torture, murder and forced labor for the army
as part of the offensive.

The military, which has been in power since 1962, has uprooted and abused
residents in other ethnic minority areas such as Shan State. The current
junta, which took power in 1988 after crushing pro-democracy
demonstrations, held a general election in 1990 but refused to recognize
the results after a landslide victory by the National League for Democracy
party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 24, Asia Times
Myanmar drops a nuclear 'bombshell' - Larry Jagan

Bangkok: Myanmar's military leaders have never made a secret of their
interest in developing a domestic nuclear-energy industry. Plans to buy a
nuclear reactor from Russia have been in the pipeline for years, and this
month in Moscow the two sides formally resurrected those controversial
plans.

Myanmar's move notably comes at a time when both Iran and North Korea have
raised US hackles through their nuclear programs. Washington in recent
years has referred to Myanmar as an "outpost of tyranny" and maintains
trade and investment sanctions against the military regime. Some political
analysts are already speculating whether Myanmar might try to use the
threat of re-gearing its nuclear test reactor to reproduce weapons as a
way to counteract US-led pressure for political change.

Under the new agreement, Russia's atomic energy agency Rosatom will build
a nuclear-research center, including a 10-megawatt light-water nuclear
reactor with low-enriched uranium consisting of less than 20% uranium-235,
an activation analysis laboratory, a medical isotope production
laboratory, a silicon doping system, and nuclear-waste treatment and
burial facilities, according to a statement released by Rosatom.

The project is initially slated to focus on medical and agricultural
research in support of Myanmar's languishing and highly underdeveloped
economy, a Western diplomat acquainted with the nuclear plans told Asia
Times Online on condition of anonymity. As part of the agreement, Russian
universities would also be tasked with training an additional 350
Myanmar-national specialists to work at the planned nuclear center.

Over the past six years, more than 1,000 Myanmar scientists, technicians
and military personnel have received nuclear training in Russia, according
to Myanmar government officials. Under a 2002 agreement, Russia was set to
build a nuclear reactor in Myanmar but later scrapped the plan over the
junta's lack of funds. Nonetheless, Moscow informed the United Nations'
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in mid-2003 that it planned to
provide training in nuclear science to some 300 Myanmar citizens each
year.

According to Russian officials, the construction and supervision of the
planned research center will come under the control of the IAEA. Myanmar
is currently a member of the IAEA and already reportedly has a so-called
"safeguards agreement" in place. Under the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT), states in compliance with their safeguards' obligations and
other provisions are allowed to pursue nuclear energy or technology solely
for peaceful purposes.

In practice, however, verifying the fulfillment of those obligations has
proved difficult, most recently witnessed in the case of Iran's secretive
nuclear-energy program, which it insists is for peaceful purposes and
within its NPT rights, while others, such as US, suspect it is geared for
a weapons program. Russia is also involved in developing a nuclear
facility for Iran.

There are already concerns in some diplomatic quarters that Myanmar's
notoriously reclusive regime could throw up similar challenges to IAEA
inspectors. No timetable has yet been set for the implementation of this
one-off safeguards agreement, nor have any provisions been set for
procuring supplies beyond what is required initially to establish the
nuclear-research center, diplomats note.

Moreover, the junta's stated motivation for establishing a
nuclear-research reactor has vacillated over time. In January 2002,
then-foreign minister Win Aung told this correspondent that Myanmar was
committed to developing a nuclear-research facility for medical purposes
and also possibly to generate nuclear power. Myanmar "is keen to explore
the use of nuclear energy", he said at the time. "After all, many other
countries in the world are using nuclear power."

At that time, Win Aung said no deal had been signed, but that initial
research had been undertaken. Apparently the initial plans to develop a
nuclear-energy industry emerged a year or two earlier. Win Aung told the
IAEA in September 2001 of the country's plans to acquire a
nuclear-research reactor and requested the agency's help in securing one,
according to IAEA officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two months later, the IAEA sent an inspection team to Myanmar to assess
the country's preparedness to use and maintain a nuclear reactor safely.
The team concluded that the safety standards in place were well below the
minimum the body would regard as acceptable, according to the IAEA
officials. At the time, Myanmar failed to respond to the IAEA report and
prompted UN nuclear officials in Vienna to fear that Myanmar planned to
proceed with its nuclear ambitions without the necessary safety
requirements.

Groundbreaking had reportedly commenced, but construction was halted when
Moscow realized the junta didn't have the financial resources to pay for
the facility. Yet the junta never fully abandoned its nuclear ambitions.

On the nuclear prowl

In recent years, Myanmar has sent emissaries abroad to explore different
options for developing a nuclear reactor and avenues for acquiring nuclear
technology, according to Western diplomats tracking the junta's nuclear
plans. They contend that this year Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Too made a
low-profile visit to Iran in the regime's search for nuclear technology
and materials.

Myanmar's close contacts with Pakistan have also recently come under
diplomatic scrutiny. Western diplomats based in Islamabad say they are
convinced that the junta's desire to acquire nuclear know-how has been a
central focus of the budding bilateral relationship. Pakistani officials
have fervently denied that they are in any way abetting Myanmar's nuclear
ambitions. But widespread rumors that two Pakistani nuclear scientists
accused of nuclear proliferation were given sanctuary in Myanmar in 2003
still linger.

More ominous have been the growing contacts between Myanmar and North
Korea - last month the countries formally re-established diplomatic
relations. According to a US State Department official involved in
monitoring nuclear-proliferation issues, several suspicious shipments have
arrived from North Korea over the past six months. "We have been tracking
North Korean ships and several docked in Yangon late last month originated
from the port where we believe nuclear materials may be shipped," he said.

After one North Korean ship docked at Yangon's port last November, the
official said, Washington reminded the junta that it was obliged to search
the ship under the UN sanction measures adopted the previous month after
Pyongyang staged its controversial nuclear test. Myanmar authorities
reported back three days later, according to US sources, saying that the
vessel in question contained nothing illicit or suspicious.

Last year's shipments from North Korea also reportedly upset China - as
neither Pyongyang nor Yangon informed Beijing of the two countries'
increasing military-to-military contacts. For their part, Chinese
authorities are convinced that Myanmar has recently received military
hardware, including missiles, from North Korea, but not nuclear weapons or
materials, according to a senior government source in Beijing.

The latest North Korean shipment arrived in Yangon this week and its cargo
is being unloaded amid exceptionally tight security, according to Yangon
residents who have passed by the port facilities.

There is still no confirmed site for the planned nuclear reactor, though
reliable sources believe it will be built somewhere in the country's
central Mandalay division. North Korean technicians reportedly visited the
site last year, according to a Myanmar military source who spoke with Asia
Times Online.

At the same time as the junta presses ahead with its plans for a nuclear
reactor, the government has stepped up its exploration for uranium in the
country. Surveys and test mining are taking place at four sites, including
in the ethnic Kachin and Shan states, a government official told Asia
Times Online on condition of anonymity. At the time the original plans for
a nuclear reactor were mooted, the government had reportedly discovered
uranium deposits in five areas in central and northern Myanmar, according
to official government statistics.

The nuclear reactor that the regime now plans to build is reportedly not
capable of producing enriched uranium or potentially of any military use,
according to senior nuclear specialists who monitor these matters closely.
Nonetheless, there are still concerns both in the West and in the region
that Myanmar's military rulers over the long term could harbor
nuclear-weapon ambitions.

"The generals cannot be trusted," said a Bangkok-based Western diplomat
who follows Myanmar affairs. "While they say they will let the IAEA in at
the moment, the history of rogue regimes like the one in Yangon is that
they never keep their promises."

Larry Jagan previously covered Myanmar politics for the British
Broadcasting Corp. He is currently a freelance journalist based in
Bangkok.