BurmaNet News, May 31, 2007

[Editor]

May 31, 2007 Issue # 3216

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Burmese film industry head quits
DVB via BBC: Burmese democracy party religious service said "successful"
Kachin News: Curfew clamped in more townships in Northern Burma

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Karenni leader: Ceasefire pact two trip to oblivion
SHAN: Sino-Wa border reopened for timber trade
Narinjara News: Arakanese guerilla leader arrested in Bangladesh

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Indian companies to lay fibre optic cable to Burma

REGIONAL
Asia News: China weighs in on Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar's Suu Kyi detained against international law: UN

OPINION / OTHER
DVB: Engaging Burma’s generation x - Ye Thu

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 31, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese film industry head quits

Several members of Burma’s film association, including chairman U Kyi Soe
Tun, have reportedly resigned over the government’s draconian censorship
policies.

Well-placed sources in Burma’s entertainment industry told DVB on
condition of anonymity that U Kyi Soe Tun, vice chairman U Tin Aung and
member Maung Maung Oo had quit their posts at the Myanmar Motion Pictures
Association.

All three men refused to comment yesterday on the reports but industry
sources were adamant that they had resigned.

In January this year, the relationship between U Kyi Soe Tun and the
Burmese military soured after the famous director refused to bow to
government pressure and release a statement slamming the failed US-backed
United Nations Security Council resolution on Burma.

“He was pressured. He refused . . . He is in a situation to lose his
position. He would if he doesn’t do as they say,” a well-known director
told DVB in January.

“If you want to protest, do it with your own conscience and beliefs. We do
not like people forcing us to do things we do not believe in. We just want
to survive as artists and produce artistic works . . . We don’t like to be
coerced.”

____________________________________

May 31, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC Monitoring
Burmese democracy party religious service said "successful"

Excerpt from report by Norway-based Burmese Democratic Voice of Burma on
30 May

Dear listeners, the Mandalay Division National League for Democracy (NLD)
held a religious service and offered food to monks in memory of the
victims of the brutal assault at Depayin.

Although the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) also
insisted on holding the religious service at the same time, the NLD was
successful in completing the function because of the supervision by the
abbots.

Democratic Voice of Burma Correspondent Ko Aye Naing filed this report.

[Begin recording] [DVB] The Mandalay Division NLD held a religious service
and offered food to monks of Masoyein Monastery in Mandalay in memory of
the victims of the brutal assault at Depayin and the USDA insisted on
joining in. Mandalay Division NLD Organizing Committee member Daw Win Mya
Mya who had her arm broken in the assault and was imprisoned later had
this to say:

[Daw Win Mya Mya] The USDA said they wanted to join in the merit-making
and it was completed today. About 1,000 USDA members were there and around
200 NLD members of different rankings were there too. The NLD members sat
in the places reserved for them and the USDA were there too. But, there
was no untoward incident. The USDA members were standing en masse as if to
show force and the NLD members went about doing their own business.
[Passage omitted] [End recording]

____________________________________

May 30, Kachin News Group
Curfew clamped in more townships in Northern Burma

Burma's ruling junta has clamped curfew on more major townships in Kachin
State, northern Burma, according to residents.

The Bhamo and Man Si Townships came under curfew on Monday after the
junta's Northern Military Command Commander, Maj-Gen Ohn Myint and his
companions made a short visit to Bhamo on Sunday, said a Bhamo resident.

The curfew prevents civilians from being on the roads after 11 p.m. local
time. People are also forbidden to go to the teak forests in the two
townships with big knives, according to Man Si and Bhamo residents.

If civilians flout the law and are arrested with big knives in teak
forests they will be punished with a jail term of three years, residents
said.

The curfew was declared by the authorities in the two townships, 18 days
after Commander Ohn Myint imposed curfew in Myitkyina Township, capital of
Kachin State, Bhamo residents said.

The Burmese military junta is worried about the anti-military government
movements launched by civilians in major cities of Kachin State in Burma ,
said sources close to the army.

Last Thursday, U Htun Lwi (50), a member of the Kachin State National
League for Democracy (NLD) staged a solo protest against the junta in
Myitkyina Township. He was arrested by the authorities.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 31, Shan Herald Agency for News
Karenni leader: Ceasefire pact two trip to oblivion

According to Abel Tweed, Vice Chairman of Karenni National Progressive
Party (KNPP), one of the three major groups fighting against Burma's
military rulers, a ceasefire agreement would lead to nothing but total
submission to tyranny.

He was referring to the planned peace talks between the Shan State Army
(SSA) South and the Burma Army last week that failed to materialize.

To prove his point, Tweed showed S.H.A.N. a document he had received from
a high-level Thai security officer years back. The said officer had
claimed to have picked the information up from a senior official from the
now defunct Military Intelligence Service (MIS).

According to the two step peace arrangement, as the document was called:

Ethnic armed groups that had agreed to a ceasefire with the Burma Army
would be granted "Deployment Areas," each with an approximate radius of 5
miles, where they could maintain armed patrols for their own security
without disturbance from the Burma Army. They would also be encouraged to
engage in social and economic activities while minimizing their military
activities.

Two options will be given to the groups when general elections are called
some time in the future: forming political parties to participate in the
elections (in which case they have to either surrender their arms or
relinquish their commands to the Burma Army) or choose not to participate
in the elections (in which case they must remain in their 'Deployment
Areas' during the elections)

The fate of the groups that choose to hang on to their arms will be left
to the new government and its policy with regards to the said groups

"That's a one way trip to the end of our struggle for the people, " Abel
Tweed commented.

The KNPP's last round of peace talks, which took place in Tachilek on 23
March, ended inconclusively after the Burma Army "invited" it to abandon
its armed struggle and "return to the legal fold", the junta's euphemism
for surrender.

Three days later, the Karenni bases across Maehongson were shelled heavily
by the Burma Army, an act the KNPP interpreted as Naypyidaw's signal that
there would be no further peace talks between the two.

____________________________________

May 31, Shan Herald Agency for News
Sino-Wa border reopened for timber trade

Cross-border timber business between Panghsang, the Wa capital, and
China's Meng A, known in Shan as Mong Nga, which was suspended on 26 March
2006, has returned as of yesterday, according to sources from the border.

It was the result of a complaint by Bao Youxiang, supreme Wa leader, to
Chinese authorities that the year long closure had made it almost
impossible for Panghsang to continue enforcing the opium ban declared two
years ago.

However, it is still not clear whether the lifting of the timber ban also
applies to the trade mineral, another lucrative business on the border.

The reopening of the border is welcomed by the local populace. "Panghsang
is alive again," said a happy resident, "now that businessmen have
returned."

The opium output in Wa controlled areas along the Chinese border, once the
largest in the whole Shan State, has gone down to a minimal for two
consecutive seasons since 2005, according to both local and non-local
sources.

____________________________________

May 31, Narinjara News
Arakanese guerilla leader arrested in Bangladesh

An Arakanese guerilla leader was arrested on Tuesday in a border village
of Chittagong Hill Tract in Bangladesh, during a raid conducted by the
Bangladesh army, reports an Arakanese politician from the border area.

U Htun Aung Kyaw, Commander in Charge of the Democratic Party of Arakan, a
member organization of the Arakan National Council, was caught by the
Bangladesh army in the village of Bodi Punking under Rumaw Township in
Bandarban District, on the evening of May 29.

There is no information yet regarding whether or not he was arrested in
possession of arms and ammunition.

A day after he was arrested army authorities send him to the Bandarban
jail, and it is believed that a Bangladesh intelligence unit may
interrogate him about his work and networking in Bangladesh.

U Htun Aung is a senior guerilla leader and has been reportedly a wanted
person of Bangladesh law enforcement, as he was a leader in collecting
tolls from Bangladeshis living in the hill districts.

The Democratic Party of Arakan, a renegade group from the National United
Party of Arakan, is currently staying in the Bangladesh-India-Burma border
area, from where they are struggling for a Burmese federal union.

This is the second time U Htun Aung Kyaw has been arrested by Bangladeshi
authorities; he was first arrested around 1989 on a remote island in
Bangladesh waters in Cox's Bazar district, along with a platoon. He was
released from prison three years later.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 31, Mizzima News
Indian companies to lay fibre optic cable to Burma - Mungpi

To upgrade its telecommunication links with Burma, India has agreed to lay
fibre optic cables to Burma from the Northeastern border state of Manipur.

The landline connection between India and Burma will be sponsored by
Indian state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and executed by the
Telecommunication Consultants India Limited (TCIL), BSNL officials said.

The network of the landline project will begin in Imphal, capital of
Manipur, and connect to Moreh in the border. And in Burma, about 500
kilometres will be connected, commencing from the Burmese border town of
Tamu to Mandalay , the second largest city in central Burma, BSNL
officials said.

"This is part of Indo-Myanmar [Burma] bilateral cooperation. And the BSNL
will finance the Indian side of the network," an official in the BSNL's
planning department told Mizzima.

The telecommunication link between the two countries will be the first
step towards setting up a land link between India and Southeast Asia,
which will pass through Kuala Lumpur and conclude in Singapore, the
official, added.

TCIL, which will execute the project in Burma, said it has already started
work and the first phase of laying the network of the landline project is
expected to be completed by the end of this year.

A TCIL official, who requested not to be named, told Mizzima that the
project is being carried out as part of the Indo-Burmese government to
government cooperation on telecommunication.

"The project is on and is under execution," the TCIL officer said.

Meanwhile, reports said work along the two borders to link India and Burma
will be completed by the end of June.

However, BSNL and TCIL are on the process of negotiating with the Burmese
government for clearance and to finalise the locations where the cables
will land. And a high-level bilateral meeting with the foreign ministries
of the two countries is likely if the BSNL and TCIL are unable to
negotiate with the Burmese authorities.

Meanwhile, the BSNL and the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), are
planning to construction an undersea submarine link to Singapore.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 28, Asia News
China weighs in on Burma

Military junta supporters yesterday prevented a prayer vigil in Yangon in
favour of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Some 200 people had
in fact gathered in Myanmar’s former capital to commemorate the 17th
anniversary since the electoral victory of Ms Suu Kyi's party, the
National League for Democracy (NLD). This came after the military regime
on Friday renewed the order that has kept the Nobel Prize laureate under
house arrest despite international protest. For China instead, the issue
is an internal Myanmar matter.

Yesterday’s rally, which went unhindered in front of the NLD’s
headquarters, was later blocked by police and junta supporters throwing
insults and threatening people as they tried to peacefully march to the
famed Shwedagon Pagoda, where they had planned to pray for the opposition
leader’s release.

In 1990 the NLD won the elections but Myanmar's military rulers did not
recognise the results. Instead Ms Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the past 18
years detained as a political prisoner.

The junta’s decision to renew Ms Suu Kyi’s detention orders has raised
international criticism. Demands for her release have in fact increased
over time.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon “strongly believes that the
sooner restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and other political figures are
lifted, the sooner Myanmar will be able to move toward inclusive national
reconciliation, the restoration of democracy and full respect for human
rights,” his spokeswoman said.

Last week the members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) broke the organisation’s traditional stance of non-interference
and called on the military junta to free Ms Suu Kyi.

Meanwhile at the United Nations Security Council a US-sponsored resolution
tabled in January to end repression in Myanmar remains blocked by Russia
and China.

China is especially interested in Myanmar’s isolation; Chinese companies
have in fact invested in local mining, oil and gas resources.

China’s Foreign Ministry recently stated that Ms Suu Kyi’s fate was an
internal Myanmar matter.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 31, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's Suu Kyi detained against international law: UN

Washington: A UN panel has found that Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San
Suu Kyi is being detained in violation of international law and called for
her immediate freedom, according to the ruling released by her family's US
lawyer Thursday.

"The deprivation of liberty of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is arbitrary" and in
contravention of three provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human
Rights, said the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The independent UN tribunal, whose membership comprises experts from
Algeria, Iran, Hungary, Paraguay, and Spain, informed Myanmar's military
junta of the ruling three weeks ago before it was relayed to attorney
Jared Genser, who is also president of US rights group Freedom Now.

"It is a strongly-worded ruling," he told AFP.

"The Working Group believes that under the circumstances the adequate
remedy would be the immediate release of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi."

Genser said, "We are gratified the UN has reaffirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi
is being held in violation of international law."

But he pointed out that the judgment was about much more than the
detention of "one courageous woman," and that her detention "is a symbol
of the ongoing oppression of the Burmese people."

"The real question is how long would Burma's bold-face defiance of the
United Nations, ASEAN, EU, and so many others be tolerated?" he said.

The UN panel had given similar rulings thrice previously with respect to
prior terms of her house arrest by the military government of Myanmar --
also called Burma.

The latest ruling, Genser said, was significant because the UN working
group found that the junta's allegations that Aung San Suu Kyi was trying
to overthrow the government were "completely unsubstantiated."

Previously, the junta had argued that she was being held for her own
safety later it claimed that she was a threat to the national security of
the country, he said.

The ruling comes on the heels of the extension of her house arrest by the
Yangon junta last week and widespread international calls for her release
from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union.

In addition, earlier this month, a group of 59 former presidents and prime
ministers also sought her release in a letter to the junta chief General
Than Shwe.

The letter was organized by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne
Bondevick and included signatures from such figures as former Czech
president Vaclav Havel, ex-Polish leader Lech Walesa and former South
Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

The junta last Friday extended the detention of the 61-year-old democracy
campaigner and Nobel peace laureate by another year.

Her National League for Democracy won elections in Myanmar in 1990 by a
landslide but was never allowed to take power. In the 17 years since then,
Suu Kyi has spent most of the time under house arrest at her Yangon home.

In a joint declaration, the Asia-Europe meeting of foreign ministers
called for "the early lifting of restrictions placed on political parties
and the early release of those under detention, including Aung San Suu
Kyi."

It also deplored "the lack of tangible progress in the declared transition
towards a civilian and democratic government" in military-run Myanmar.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Engaging Burma’s generation x - Ye Thu

The first time I heard Min Ko Naing’s name was in Bangkok in 2001, a few
months after leaving Burma. I saw his name in an exile media report and
had forgotten it a few hours later.

The second time I heard his name was a year and-a-half later when a group
of my exiled friends were having—what I considered at the time to be—a
boring conversation about politics. They asked me if I knew who Min Ko
Naing was, and when I said I didn’t I became the laughing stock of the
exiled community.

But to be fair, I’m a product of my generation and if you asked the same
question of a lot of people my age (24) in Burma, you would probably get
the same response. Very few people our age know much about Min Ko Naing.
He was thrown in prison when I was just seven years old.

Few of us are old enough to remember the events of 1988 and none of us
were old enough to vote in the 1990 election. Most of us know little about
the relationship between the NLD and the military. We grew up knowing that
the opposition movement was not something that should be discussed openly.

The military is largely responsible for shaping our generation in this
way. Many of us are not interested in politics after years of only hearing
what the military has had to say. When I was growing up, I learned nothing
about the NLD and was given no opportunity to hear about their work.

Our generation, to make a generalisation, doesn’t like the military, but
mainly for economic and social reasons. Our hatred for the junta is a
response to their backwardness rather than a reflection of our passion for
democracy or political ideals.

But people my age are vital to the success of the opposition and the
future of Burma. What is a revolution or a political struggle without its
student element and without the support of people young and fearless
enough to force political change?

Imagine what the next generation is going to be like if something is not
done to engage them in the fight for our country’s future. This is one of
the greatest challenges facing today’s democracy movement in Burma.

The 88 Generation Students are doing a great job of reinvigorating
political debate in Burma and making their campaigns more palatable to the
average person. But the opposition is still basing many of its campaigns
on events that potential ‘generation x’ activists don’t remember and can’t
relate to.

No, the military should not have reacted to the 88 protests in the way
they did. Yes, they should have handed over power in 1990. But they are
not going to make an about-face and say, “Sorry about that. Here’s your
parliament back.”

The fact is, the opposition is aging. Most NLD ‘youth’ members are in
their late 30s and many of the elected members of parliament from 1990 are
dead. The opposition is now faced with a race against time to engage
people my age and help nurture the next generation of pro-democracy
activists.

It won’t take much to impress us. All we want is political campaigns that
actually work.

Past campaigns have focused too much on exactly that—the past. Activists
such as Ko Htin Kyaw appear to have realised that and are focusing their
protests on the poor economic and social conditions of the here and now.
It is these types of campaigns that are likely to encourage generation
x-ers to join in because these are things that we can relate to.

The lack of 24 hour electricity? Yup, that annoys the hell out of us. High
inflation and commodity prices? Yes, those anger us as well. The poor
education we get is infuriating and we hate the fact that we are seen as
‘underdeveloped’ by people our age in neighbouring countries.

Protestors calling for change in these areas may not get the immediate
response from the military they want, but at least these campaigns provide
a rallying cry for younger generations.

Four years after I first heard of Min Ko Naing, he was finally released
from prison. Three years on, the 88 Generation Students have achieved a
considerable amount of success in their attempts to win the trust of a
wider demographic.

They are focusing their demands around things that everyone wants rather
than high politics—the one thing people from younger generations have been
conditioned not to understand.