BurmaNet News, June 1, 2007

[Editor]

June 1, 2007 Issue # 3217

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Women staff face dismissal for refusal to relocate to Naypyidaw
Irrawaddy: Forced labor continues in Karen State, report says
DVB: Free Daw Suu prayer campaign ends
Irrawaddy:  ‘Save our schools’

ON THE BORDER
The Telegraph: Manipur militancy blame on Myanmar - Officer points to flow
of arms & drugs

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Burma releases cross-border trading figures
Mizzima: Indo-Burma border closure pushes up price of commodities

ASEAN
Reuters: Little SE Asia can do to change Myanmar -S'pore PM
The Nation: US-Asean Summit scheduled in Singapore
Gulf News: Asean members to set up human rights panel

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Welcome to Texas

OPINION / OTHER
International Herald Tribune: The Lady and the junta - Jared Genser and
Meghan Barron
The Japan Times: Free Aung San Suu Kyi
The Vancouver Sun: Burma's junta impervious to 'international pressure' -
Jonathan Manthorpe


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 1, The Irrawaddy
Women staff face dismissal for refusal to relocate to Naypyidaw - Htet Aung

Twelve female office staff members of Burma’s Ministry of Health have
refused to transfer to Naypyidaw, the new capital, despite a warning they
could be fired, a ministry office staff member said.

“Twelve out of sixteen staff were almost sure to be dismissed at the end
of May due to their refusal to permanently transfer to Naypyidaw," the
staff member who wishes to remain anonymous told The Irrawaddy. “But
another four staff have changed their mind and transferred to Naypyidaw.”
The fate of the 12 women staffers remains to be decided.

Government workers who have been transferred to Naypyidaw have complained
about inadequate facilities and the high cost of living, especially for
staffers who leave a spouse and family behind in Rangoon. The new capital
is about 300 kilometers north of Rangoon.

“They all have families," said the staff member. "The ministry can’t
provide enough accommodations for the married staff and they have to live
in the hostels built for the single staff. It is one of the major reasons
for them not to be willing to transfer to Naypyidaw.”

Sources among Rangoon’s civil servants said there have been similar
incidents in other government ministries since the regime moved the
administrative departments to the new capital in November 2005.

On May 8, the department of health under the ministry ordered 16 female
staff from its budget and construction section to transfer to the new
capital before May 14, or face disciplinary action, according to an
internal office document obtained by The Irrawaddy.

Kan Thaung, the deputy director of the department who is responsible for
addressing the case, refused to comment on the issue.

The women's service in the health department ranges from 8 to 25 years.

“We have never had any intentions to resign from our work for the
government,” said a letter obtained by The Irrawaddy explaining the
women's position. “Though the ministry could consider transferring us to
an appropriate local hospital under the department of health, the
officials haven’t given us such a chance.”

The salary of a junior clerk in the ministry is 18,000 kyat (US $15) a
month. The salary is not enough to make ends meet in Naypyidaw, where
meals are said to cost 1,500 kyat (US $1.20) daily. There have been rumors
of an extra government allowance of 20,000 kyat (US $17) a month, but no
action has been taken, said the staff member.

After nearly two years, the relocation process of the ministerial
departments to Naypyidaw has continued to face opposition from civil
servants who do not wish to live there.

____________________________________

June 1, The Irrawaddy
Forced labor continues in Karen State, report says - Shah Paung

The Burmese military government continues to use forced labor and launch
attacks against civilians as part of military operations in northern Karen
State, according to a Karen rights group.

According to a Karen Human Rights Group report released on Wednesday, the
Burmese Army in Taungoo District has attacked rural villages, used
villagers as forced labor, ordered villagers to relocate to military
controlled villages and established new army camps and bases.

“Since the start of January until now, there have been 19 villagers killed
and eight villagers wounded,” said a KHRG field researcher working in
Taugoon District. The violence increased in April and May, because
villagers began working in their fields and plantations.

Military officials in Taungoo District prohibited villagers from using
some forest trails, according to the report. Villagers who do not follow
the restrictions have been arrested. The military also confiscated
villagers land and ordered them to continue working in the paddy fields
and durian and beetle nut plantations from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“Villagers spotted in their fields outside of this time have been shot and
killed by SPDC soldiers,” the report said.

The British Minister for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, Ian
McCartney, who met with Burmese foreign minister Nyan Win at the recent
EU-Asia meeting in Germany, said Nyan Win told him the Burmese government
attacks ethnic armed groups because they are terrorists, according to a
BBC Burmese Service report on Friday morning. McCartney said Nyan Win told
him that reports about the Burmese government abusing ethnic groups are
just propaganda.

The KHRG report said Burmese soldiers are operating on a “shoot-on-sight
policy” and are attacking and burning down shelters, food supplies and
paddy fields in rural areas.

Citing specific incidents of forced labor, the report said the MOC 5
battalion used more than 200 villagers from about nine villages in
February as porters for military rations and army supplies. Villagers were
also used to upgrade a section of road. In March, the battalion ordered
enlisted more than 170 villagers from seven villages to serve as porters
for military supplies.

The International Labour Organization and the military junta recently
concluded an “understanding” to allow victims of forced labor to make
complaints to the ILO liaison office in Rangoon. Observers say forced
labor still occurs, especially in rural areas.

____________________________________

June 1, Democratic Voice of Burma
Free Daw Suu prayer campaign ends

The month-long Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi campaign came to an end in Burma
yesterday as activists from Burma’s Magwe and Shan States held final
prayer meetings.

U Kyaw Soe, a National League Democracy official from Shan State, told DVB
that activists and opposition members were mobilised in Taungyi and the
surrounding townships to mark the final day of the campaign.

“We gathered as many people as we could and went to a pagoda. We prayed
for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the other detainees from every
state and division,” U Kyaw Soe said.

In Magwe Division’s Chauk township, protestors tried to go to a local
pagoda to pray for the release of all political prisoners in Burma on
Wednesday only to find that the gates had been locked. Chauk NLD member Ko
Htun Htun Nyein said the group prayed outside the pagoda compound before
going to the township peace and development council office to see the
director U Chit Swe.

“He gave out orders to people around him, shouting ‘Drag these bastards
out!’ But no one followed his orders so he became furious and started
screaming at the top of his voice,” Ko Htun Htun Nyein said.

“We asked the township chairman U Thiha why our praying was a problem for
them. He said they couldn’t accept it because we’ve got a hidden agenda.”

Ko Yazar, one of the organisers of the nation-wide Free Daw Suu campaign,
told DVB yesterday that efforts to have the detained democracy icon would
continue. Reporting by Maung Too

____________________________________

June 2007, The Irrawaddy
 ‘Save our schools’ - Htet Aung

Burmese monastery school students hold out collection boxes to keep their
classes going

As Burmese children troop back to school this month they’ll be swapping
tales of what they did in the summer holidays. While most spent their few
free weeks at leisure, thousands of others will be recalling hours at the
roadside collecting money to ensure that their schools can continue when
term resumes.

These conscientious kids attend Burma’s 1,300 monastery schools, where
free primary education is offered up to grade five and, in just a few
establishments, grade eight. The alternative for their parents is to
enroll them in state schools, where the fees and the cost of uniforms and
school books are a big burden on average family budgets.

The monastery schools arose in the early 1990s in response to Burma’s
deepening economic crisis. The number of children attending them grew to
190,000 by the end of last year, and new schools are opening all the time
to accommodate the demand for monastic education. Many of the children are
from hill tribe communities.

It isn’t only the attraction of free education that makes the monastery
schools so popular, however, according to one abbot, U Thaondara, of Koe
Na Win monastery, on the outskirts of Rangoon.

“Monastic schools teach the students not only school lessons but also
religion and culture, so that the children can value and respect Burmese
culture,” he said. “That’s why parents become willing to send their
children to monastic schools.”

Thaondara founded a primary school two years ago in his monastery in
Mingalardon Township. He expects about 300 children will be enrolled in
his school this year, nearly three times as many as the 110 who attended
last year.

Despite the emphasis on religion and culture, the absence of school bills
is a big draw, however. The abbot of a Mandalay monastery with a primary
school said: “Most students willing to study at monastic schools are from
the poor communities. Their parents can’t afford to pay government school
fees.”

Annual fees, uniform and school materials at a typical government primary
school add up to at least 60,000 kyat (US $50), a financial burden that
strains the household budgets of many Burmese parents.

Far from welcoming the free schools as a contribution to filling the gaps
in the state system, the Burmese regime has placed obstacles in their way
almost from the start. In 1998, the government issued a decree banning
monasteries from upgrading existing primary schools to allow them to offer
secondary education.

With just a few exceptions, children who complete their primary education
at monastery schools have to continue their studies at government-run,
fee-paying secondary schools, but often fail to do so because of lack of
money.

“Most poor children who have finished their primary schooling can’t
continue their education,” said the Mandalay abbot, who requested
anonymity when interviewed by The Irrawaddy.

Monastery schools do their best to find the money to finance the further
education of their best pupils. Apart from public donations, most raise
funds through selling produce and handicrafts, even building shops on
monastery land to rent out to local business people.

Other problems arise here, however. Buddhist law bans monks from engaging
in money-making activity, and Abbot Thaondara is strict on that issue—“My
monastic school depends only on public donations,” he told The Irrawaddy.
“Income generation programs to raise funds for the school are just like
doing business.”

The schools also have problems hiring qualified staff, particularly
teachers who will work for as little as 10,000 kyat (US $8) a month,
compared to the 32,000 kyat ($24) earned by government school teachers.
Many monastery school teachers are local volunteers, with few or no
professional qualifications.

The hill tribe children who attend monastery schools come from Burma’s
Shan, Pa-O, Palaung, Lahu and Wa ethnic minorities. Many are admitted as
novice monks and, like the students who collect school fund contributions
at roadside stands, they also contribute to the upkeep of their schools by
taking part in morning alms rounds. A bowl of rice donated by a
neighboring shop or household means one less meal for the monastery
kitchen to provide.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 31, The Telegraph (Calcutta)
Manipur militancy blame on Myanmar - Officer points to flow of arms & drugs

Imphal: Illicit flow of weapons from Myanmar is fuelling Manipur’s
insurgency, according to Assam Rifles inspector-general (south) Maj. Gen.
B.K. Chengapa here today.

The general said inflow of a large quantity of arms from neighbouring
Myanmar had helped “insurgency and terrorism” thrive in Manipur. He called
for ensuring effective policing of the international border.

“The disturbed environment in our neighbour (Myanmar) has led to the
inflow of arms and drugs to Manipur, which, in turn, facilitated
insurgency and terrorism in the state,” the senior Assam Rifles official
said while opening a renovated rehabilitation centre for surrendered
militants here today.

The general pointed out that the Indo-Myanmar border was porous and this
problem has to be addressed as a part of the process of combating
militancy in Manipur.

“The Assam Rifles has already been given the task of guarding the border
here in Manipur. But unlike the western sector, here the border could not
be effectively guarded because of a shortage of security strength,” Gen.
Chengapa said.

He, however, expressed the hope that the task of protecting the border
would be gradually extended along the 500-km-plus international border.

According to the Manipur government’s records, more than 20 militant
groups are currently operating in the state. The insurgent outfits belong
to various ethnic groups and the goals range from “restoring the
sovereignty” of Manipur to protecting the interests of ethnic communities.

Stating that the internal security environment in Manipur has deteriorated
further over the past few years as a result of escalating violence and
extortion, Gen. Chengapa called for a major, comprehensive initiative to
bring “misguided” youths to the national mainstream. He praised the
surrender policy announced by the Ibobi Singh government as a step towards
mitigating insurgency and helping militants return to normal life. The
general added that renovation of the rehabilitation centre was a small
contribution from the Assam Rifles supplementing the government’s efforts
to resettle the former rebels.

The rehabilitation centre, located at Lamphel in Imphal West, currently
houses 22 former rebels belonging to various militant outfits, including
the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), United National
Liberation Front, Peoples Liberation Army and the Peoples Revolutionary
Party of Kangleipak.

The Assam Rifles has opened a computer training centre and will also
impart driving lessons and training in tailoring to former insurgents.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 1, The Irrawaddy
Burma releases cross-border trading figures – William Boot

In spite of New Delhi’s grand economic expansion plans via Burma, called
the Looking East policy, India has the lowest volume of cross-border trade
among the four countries that share borders with Burma.

The neighboring Indian states managed to transact only US $17 million
worth of business in the 2006-7 Burmese financial year, according to
Naypyidaw Ministry of Commerce figures.

That was lower even than Bangladesh, which recorded $25 million in trade.

China was No. 1 with direct cross-border trade valued at $721 million,
while Thailand was second with $248 million.

However, when it came to overall trade, the Thais were Burma’s biggest
partner, logging $2.65 billion, according to the unverifiable Burmese
ministry figures. Since Bangkok is the biggest buyer of Burma’s gas
resources, this figure was not surprising.

China was Burma’s second largest overall trading partner in the year up to
March, followed by Singapore. India was in fourth place with trade valued
at $895—just under $1 billion, which was New Delhi's goal.

____________________________________

June 1, Mizzima News
Indo-Burma border closure pushes up price of commodities - Subhaschandra M

The continued closure of the Indo-Burma border has led to spiraling prices
of essential commodities in the northeastern border state of Manipur. The
border here is a major point for transit of goods and commodities.

The prices of essential items like candles, washing powder, soaps, pulses
and even rice, which are imported from Burma through the border town of
Moreh have soared according to locals and traders.

Even commodities least in demand such as candles, which cost Rupees 130
normally has increased to Rupees 145, said a local resident adding that
the stock are running out fast.

Indian authorities on May 25 sealed the Indo-Burma border following
continued unrest in the border town of Moreh and a bandh called by
auto-drivers in the town.

On May 23, auto-drivers in Moreh town called an indefinite bandh in the
town and the surrounding area, to protest against excessive monetary
demands by rebel outfits operating in the border areas.

Besides the bandh, the situation worsened when the All Tribal Students'
Union Manipur on May 24 called a state-wide bandh protesting against the
government's failure to implement the long pending demands which were
agreed to by the Manipur government.

The state-wide bandh was called following a four-day economic blockade of
National Highways 39 and 53, including the Indo-Burma route, by the ATSU.

In the given situation, locals said, supplies of essential commodity are
running out and prices are rising. The price of potatoes, which was Rs. 10
per kilogram before the blockade rose to Rs. 15 in the local markets. The
cost of a tin of refined oil has increased from Rs. 40 to Rs 50.

The situation deteriorated further following reports that supporters of
the blockade seized goods and commodities brought from the border town of
Moreh to Imphal, the capital of Manipur.

____________________________________
ASEAN

June 1, Reuters
Little SE Asia can do to change Myanmar -S'pore PM - Jan Dahinten and Koh
Gui Qing

Singapore: Southeast Asian nations can do little to influence Myanmar's
domestic policies or encourage the military leadership to open up,
Singapore's prime minister told an Asian security conference on Friday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which includes
Singapore and Myanmar among its 10 members, has long stuck to a policy of
non-interference in one another's domestic politics.

But the group has come under increasing pressure from the West to try to
exert influence on Myanmar to help secure the release of democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi and encourage more democracy.

'Myanmar is a problem. It's a problem for ASEAN, it's a problem for
Myanmar itself,' Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at the opening dinner
of a security conference attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
and other senior defence officials from the region.

'I think we have to be realistic about what ASEAN can do,' Lee said, in
response to questions. 'We have to accept that our leverage on them is
limited.'

On May 25, Myanmar's military junta extended the house arrest of
opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi for another year,
ignoring international pleas for her release from the White House, the
United Nations and from fellow Nobel winners.

Myanmar has been a thorn in ASEAN's side for years over its failure to
move on a 'roadmap to democracy' and release political prisoners,
including Suu Kyi.

'We can take a strident position and say well, we will condemn you, we
will shut you off, we will embargo you, we will put you in the dog house.
Will we make things better? Will we even cause things to change? I don't
believe so,' Lee said.

'They want to be closed off from the rest of ASEAN. They want to be left
on their own.'

Instead, ASEAN would leave Myanmar to sort out its own issues, Lee said.

'We have exercised our influence, persuaded and encouraged, cajoled the
authorities to move and adjust and adapt to the world which is leaving
them behind,' he added.

Some of Myanmar's top government leaders have been in Singapore recently
for medical treatment, including junta leader Than Shwe, who came to the
city-state in January.

Last week, ASEAN officials said they would not raise the issue of
continued detention of Suu Kyi in meetings with 17 security partners,
including some of Myanmar's harshest critics, such as the United States
and the European Union.

Aside from Singapore and Myanmar, ASEAN includes Thailand, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

____________________________________

June 1, The Nation
US-Asean Summit scheduled in Singapore

US President George W Bush has agreed to hold a summit meeting with the
Asean leaders in Singapore ahead of the Apec leaders meeting Sydney in
September.

An informed source told The Nation that the summit which will be held in
Singapore on 5 September, will commemorate the 30th anniversary of
US-Asean relations. Singpaore is host of the upcoming Asean summit, which
will celebrate the 40-year old organization.

The meeting was agreed during the recent visit to Washington DC by
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The US considered the island a
strategic partner in its global counter terrorism strategies.

Bush met with the other Asean leaders previously along side the Apec
meeting such as the one in Busan, South Korea in 2005. Asean would like to
establish the so-called Asean plus one process, which the grouping has
enjoyed all key major powers including China, India, Russia and other
dialogue partner.

The source could not confirm that the inaugural Asean-US summit would be
institutionalized in the future. Although both sides have enjoyed good
cooperation under the establishment of 7 cooperation framework; in
comparison, China has forth-eight all together.

Thai Prime Minister Gen Surayud Julanont is scheduled to attend the
summit. He is scheduled to have two-eye meeting with Bush in Singapore.
During the recent visit by Christopher Hill, Assistant State Secretary for
East Asia and Pacific Affairs at the Government House also discussed this
possibility with the Thai side. [Dear dedicated BurmaNet readers: this
editor is signing off after 3+ years, thanks and see you on the other side
– Ed]

Thai-US relations have suffered followed the coup last September. US
lawmakers have strongly criticized Thailand for the coup and expressed
concerns over the restriction of press freedom in the country.

The source said Burma will be included in the summit meeting in Singapore.
The modality of the meeting is still under discussion. In previous
meetings, the Burmese delegation was represent by junior level officials.

US has maintained a strong anti-Burma policy and has called for the
release of Aung Sann Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, who has been in
incaceration for past 12 years. The Rangoon junta extended her
house-arrest at the end of last year against the outcries of international
community.

____________________________________

June 1, Gulf News
Asean members to set up human rights panel

Manila: Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean) have agreed on the establishment of a human rights council that
would try to address rights abuses of nationals in the region,
particularly in Myanmar.

Ambassador Rosario Manalo, head of the high level task force drafting the
Asean charter, said the terms of reference (TOR) for establishing the
regional human rights body would be submitted by July in time for the
Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Manila.

Manalo said the Philippines took the initiative of proposing the TOR to
boost the credibility of the regional bloc which is known for its
conservative stand and issues and policy of non-interference in the
affairs of member states.

"We are going to pepper preambles with phrases like people oriented,
respect for fundamental freedom and human rights. But if we don't have any
institution to bring those ideals into reality it will be a laughing
stock, it will not bring credibility in the charter," said Manalo in an
interview yesterday.

She said the human rights body would be composed of subcommittees to
tackle rights abuses.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June issue, The Irrawaddy
Welcome to Texas - Ampika Jirat

Karen migrants find life in America has its downside

Austin, Texas: When members of the Thai community in the US are asked to
help resettle newly arrived Karen refugees from the Thai-Burmese border,
old clichés surface. “Are these people members of the God’s Army?” ask
some. Others recall headline-grabbing incidents like the murder of a Thai
woman by her Burmese maid.

Many Americans share this prejudiced view of the Karen arrivals, believing
they have no idea of civilized bathroom or kitchen hygiene. Some are
surprised that the Karen actually wear shoes.

It’s difficult enough for Karen émigrés to cope with the prejudices of
their adopted country, but further shocks await them.

“I came to America hoping to study, but ended up cleaning in a hotel six
days a week in order to help my family pay the rent,” said Htoo Paw, one
of the first Karen refugees to arrive in Austin, Texas, under the US
resettlement program. “I’ll have to put my dream of further education to
rest for a while.”

Htoo Paw is too old to qualify for free education in the US. He’s 18, one
year over the age limit. Further education will now have to wait until he
can pay for it. His working hours at the hotel also prevent him from
taking advantage of English lessons provided by the resettlement program.

Htoo Paw set off for the US from Tham Hin refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese
border last September, together with 30 other Karen refugees. Tham Hin is
one of nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Burma, and it’s
providing the first batches of Karen for resettlement in the US. Its 9,500
residents are mostly ethnic Karen who fled Burmese army aggression in
Karen State.

Until recently, the US Homeland Security Act banned migrants who had
contact with armed rebel groups—effectively excluding from resettlement in
the US almost all Karen residents of camps along the Thai-Burmese border,
because they lived among the Karen National Union rebel movement. But last
year, the US government waived the exclusion clause for the Karen,
allowing the first groups into the country last August and September.

After approving refugees for admission, the US Department of Homeland
Security allocates them to 10 US resettlement agencies. Karen migrants are
cared for by the Episcopal Migration Ministries, a nonprofit organization
of the Episcopal Church. The EMM, in turn, assigns migrants to its
agencies in cities throughout the US.

Austin’s  Refugee Services of Texas, an EMM affiliate, took 30 Karen last
September and is expecting 300 more this year. Refugee Services of Texas
greets arriving migrants, provides them with housing, settles them into
their new communities and helps them find employment. Modest monetary
assistance and food stamps are also provided to help migrants over their
first four months in the US.

“I learned last year that America is taking us as refugees, but I had no
idea where and how I was going to live,” said Ba Zoe, whose mother and
sisters had left Tham Hin camp a few months earlier to resettle in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“I wanted to go to Milwaukee because my mother and my sisters were there,
but they just sent me here to Austin,” she said. “They sent a car to pick
us up from Tham Hin and gave us the airplane ticket. Then, when we
arrived, they came to meet us at the airport and took us to the apartment
and taught us how to use the heater, air-conditioning and all the
electronic devices.

“It was quite difficult at the beginning to express what we wanted. For
example, we cannot live on western food. We need shrimp paste and fish
sauce as our staple food, but we did not know where we could buy it. Then,
one day, a few Thai students who lived here came to visit us. We told them
what we wanted, and they took us to an Asian grocery. Life here is not
that bad after we got to eat our own food.”

But life in the US can still be hard if the newcomers don’t speak English.
Although Refugee Services of Texas offers English classes, instruction
begins at the lowest level and progress is slow. A pregnant woman said she
was nervous when the agency told her to call the emergency services number
9-1-1 if she felt the birth coming on during the night or at the
weekend—the number means nothing to her.

Refugee Services of Texas found one bilingual translator, but she spoke a
Karen dialect scarcely understood by the migrants. A Burmese interpreter
was enlisted to help out, but few of the migrants understood Burmese.

The problem was summed up by Ba Zoe: “I don’t understand a single word
that the Burmese interpreter speaks, but I don’t know how to tell the
agency because I don’t speak English.”

Lack of language skills also condemns migrants to accepting menial,
low-paid work.

“The agency told us that the financial help will last for the first four
months and that we need to get a job as soon as possible in order to be
self-sufficient and to pay back the airfare,” said  Aung Gyi, a
30-year-old Karen.

“The women are told to stay home to take care of the children while their
men folk work—as hotel housekeepers, for example. Once we get jobs, we are
automatically cut off from an opportunity to learn English,” Aung Gyi
said. His wife is pregnant and his 2-year-old son has a heart problem.
Aung Gyi’s job pays him $7.50 (9,370 kyat) an hour.

“Life here is certainly better than in the refugee camp,” said Aung Gyi.
“We can go anywhere we please, and we have more things to do than wait for
food handouts. And there’s no longer that fear of the Thai police if you
sneak out of the camp. But living in America is also a struggle. I can
only hope for the future of my children.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 1, International Herald Tribune
The Lady and the junta - Jared Genser and Meghan Barron

Washington: Halfway around the world, a 61-year-old woman sits alone in
her home, as she has for years. The telephone is forever silent, because
the line is disconnected. The doorbell never rings, because visitors are
forbidden. There is no mail, there is no news.

For Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Myanmar and
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, there is almost complete isolation.

For more than 11 of the past 17 years, the military dictatorship that
rules Myanmar, also known as Burma, has held Suu Kyi under house arrest.
The generals initially claimed the seclusion was for her own protection.

Now they assert that this pacifist and devout Buddhist is a "threat to
national peace and tranquility." When her dying husband requested entry to
Myanmar to see her one last time, even that request was denied.

"Please use your liberty to promote ours," Suu Kyi has said. The
international community has responded with a litany of goodwill gestures,
reaffirmed in a fourth judgment by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention that she is being detained in violation of international law.
But so far, everything has failed to produce results.

As he has done each year since 2003, the leader of the ruling junta,
General Than Shwe, again recently extended her sentence for an additional
one-year term.

Much more is at stake than the fate of one woman - "The Lady" - as she is
affectionately referred to by her people. While Suu Kyi spends day after
day trapped in her home, the junta ravages her country and brutalizes her
people.

More than 3,000 villages have been destroyed since 1996 as the military
wages a relentless campaign of killing, torture and rape against ethnic
minorities. A million refugees have fled the country and 600,000
internally displaced people struggle to subsist in primitive jungle
conditions. More than 800,000 people are used as forced labor and the
country has over 70,000 child soldiers.

As Myanmar disintegrates, its decay seeps into neighboring countries,
threatening regional security. Myanmar is currently the world's second
largest exporter of heroin and opiates as well as a major producer of
methamphetamines. The junta's failure to address its burgeoning HIV/AIDS
crisis has led to the spread of the disease along the drug routes into
neighboring countries.

The need for international action has never been more pressing. The first
step towards saving Myanmar is saving its elected leader, Suu Kyi, whose
political party, the National League for Democracy and its allies won over
80 percent of the seats in the 1990 parliamentary election.

The UN General Assembly and the former Commission on Human Rights have
adopted 29 consecutive resolutions on Myanmar, many calling for Suu Kyi's
release. The former and current secretarys general, Kofi Annan and Ban Ki
Moon, and the European Union have urged her release.

Even the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which had been reluctant
to pressure one of its members, has called for her release.

Earlier this month, former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik of Norway
and 58 other former presidents and prime ministers, including such
prominent figures as Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Vaclav
Havel, Lech Walesa, Kim Dae Jung, Corazon Aquino, Megawati Sukarnoputri
and Margaret Thatcher, called for Suu Kyi's release.

This courageous woman still strikes fear in the heart of the Burmese
junta. The international clamor for her release was ignored.

The stakes are too high for the international community to relent. "The
struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life
and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social, and
economic aspirations," Suu Kyi has said.

Although the international community has so far failed Myanmar, we must
persist. The injustice of the Lady's ongoing detention and the suffering
of her people remains a stain on our collective conscience.

Jared Genser and Meghan Barron are volunteer lawyers with Freedom Now in
Washington who represent Aung San Suu Kyi.

____________________________________

June 1, The Japan Times
Free Aung San Suu Kyi

To no one's surprise, the military junta that runs Myanmar (also known as
Burma) has extended the house arrest of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi for another
year. The continued detention of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is proof
of that government's contempt for international opinion, fundamental human
rights and the will of the people of Myanmar.

Ms. Suu Kyi leads prodemocracy advocates who want an end to military rule
and who, in 1990, won a national election. The junta ignored that ballot
and the international outcry that followed, and have consolidated their
grip on power ever since. Ms. Suu Kyi's winning the Nobel Peace Prize in
1991 only angered the government more. She was arrested and has spent 11
of the past 17 years under house arrest. Her most recent term of detention
continued for the past four years; she last left her house in November
2006 to meet with a United Nations envoy for one hour. The government
justifies the decision by calling her a threat to public order. In fact,
the only violence she has suffered has been at the hands of a
government-supported mob.

Her house arrest order was due to expire last weekend. The government
extended it, despite calls worldwide to let her go. In fact, the junta
appears to be tightening its grip. The U.N. estimates that there are 1,100
political prisoners in Myanmar, including the top leadership of the
opposition.

The junta has shrugged off harsh criticism and sanctions from Western
countries, Japan and the U.N. It gets crucial support from China, which is
always wary of international pressure against a government to improve its
human rights policies. Meanwhile, the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations is reluctant to criticize a member's internal politics and worries
about losing whatever influence it has among the junta.

The "go slow" approach has had no effect. The junta has made no
concessions and there has been no progress toward a political system that
actually reflects the will of the Myanmar people. It is time for a harder
line: sanctions that bite the leadership and real isolation of a "rogue
state."

____________________________________

June 1, The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
Burma's junta impervious to 'international pressure' - Jonathan Manthorpe

The information minister in Burma's junta, Gen. Kyaw Hsan, is fond of
telling visiting dignitaries that detained National League for Democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi "is irrelevant."

To which the obvious appropriate answer is: Then why has the military
regime just renewed the order for her house arrest?

The truth is that after spending 11 of the past 17 years in detention, Suu
Kyi is still as popular with Burmese people as when the NLD conclusively
won elections in 1990, elections the junta refuses to acknowledge.

And she is probably the only person who could broker with the junta a
return to democracy without the generals facing judicial retribution for
their decades of obscene abuses of human rights.

But the junta's supreme leader, Gen. Than Shwe, who has been called "the
most powerful and least educated man in Burma," is impervious to reason or
to pressure.

In the days running up to May 27, when Suu Kyi's last term of house arrest
expired, there was the most outspoken campaign for her release that has
been seen throughout her years of detention. Demands for the release of
the Nobel Peace Prize laureate came from the United Nations General
Assembly, the European Union and even the 10-state Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Burma is a member.

In addition to this was a letter signed by 59 former presidents and prime
ministers including such unlikely bedmates as the first president George
Bush, Bill Clinton, former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto,
recently departed Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and
Mozambique's former Marxist revolutionary leader Joaquim Chissano.

There is no indication that this list of luminaries caused Than Shwe to
blink or hesitate for a moment. Quite the reverse.

He seems convinced the international community is all blather and has no
real will to engineer the downfall of his junta in favour of a
representative and accountable civilian government.

He is probably right.

The devaluation of the currency of international human rights advocacy
since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and Washington's other extra-judicial
responses to terrorism have been of enormous succour to Burma's generals
and to other despots around the world.

More than that, Burma has recently become of great economic and
geo-strategic interest to Asian powers, especially China and India.

Beijing has made northern Burma, with its rich reserves of natural
resources, into what amounts to an economic colony with the added benefit
of a strategic land corridor from China's southwestern provinces to the
Indian Ocean.

India's interest in Burma is partly a response to the firm foothold
achieved by rival China, but primarily a result of the wish to develop
land routes for trade with the vibrant economies of ASEAN.

With these powerful interests at his shoulder, Than Shwe shows little fear
of the international community mustering enough will to depose him.

Indeed, there is a growing conviction among Burma-watchers and the
substantial community of exiles in various countries that Than Shwe is in
the process of abandoning the half-hearted "road map" towards an eventual
transition to a civilian government that was begun in 2003.

The junta's aim always was to design a constitution that appeared to
provide a civilian government, but which left all significant power in the
hands of the military.

Than Shwe does not appear to believe that even this charade is necessary now.

He has embarked on a new course of international defiance by contracting
with Moscow for the construction of a 10-megawatt nuclear reactor.

The junta's interest in acquiring nuclear know-how began in the 1960s when
several exploitable deposits of uranium were discovered, but has made
little progress since.

The deal with Russia includes the training of about 300 Burmese officers
in nuclear physics. Burma and Moscow insist the deal is entirely innocent,
is only for scientific and power generation purposes and has no potential
for weapons development.

But the junta has recently renewed diplomatic relations with North Korea,
which were severed in 1983. In the past few months two North Korean ships
have made mysterious visits to Burmese ports and there is speculation that
missile or nuclear technology was delivered.