BurmaNet News, June 9-11, 2007

[Editor]

June 9-11, 2007 Issue # 3223

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Pro-democracy activists threatened in state press
Mizzima News: Activists stopped from praying for Suu Kyi
DVB: Henzada court accepts law suit against civilian attackers
Mizzima News: Rangoon University students demand junta find missing student
DVB: Muslim student building seized by military official
Irrawaddy: Militia seizes land in Shan state for physic nut crops

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Two people killed during Karen rebel clash
Irrawaddy: Malaria on the rise along Thai-Burmese border
Reuters: First "XDR" TB cases found in Myanmar migrants

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar pharmaceutical imports increase in 2006-07

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Myanmar probable to re-get global fund aid: UN officials

ASEAN
AP: Western sanctions on Burma a waste, says Asean official - Eileen Ng

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: India takes serious view of Burmese poachers

INTERNATIONAL
World Politics Review: Russia, Burma discuss joint nuclear project, but
deal not yet done
AP: American TV star calls on world to focus on suffering in
military-ruled Myanmar
BBC Burmese Service: ENC lobbied US lawmakers
Inner City Press: At UNDP, evasive or no answers on Myanmar corruption, as
even Dervis' location is secret

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 11, Irrawaddy
Pro-democracy activists threatened in state press - Htet Aung

Burma’s prominent pro-democracy activists were threatened with "punitive
punishment" if they continue political activities, an article in a
state-run newspaper reported Monday.

The leaders of the 88 Generation Students “will get punitive punishment
imposed by the people soon
[which] may be much more severe than legal
action,” according to an article titled “To national traitors under the
name of students” written by Ko Ke in The New Light of Myanmar.

The article accused the former student leaders of “making a lot of
exaggerations and lies.”

"They may meet their end,” the article said.

Stories in the press frequently verbally attack the activists, but the
attack this time is considered to be more severe.

The 88 Generation Students, led by Min Ko Naing, has recently undertaken
several peaceful public campaigns to encourage people to express their
views about life in Burma. A campaign is underway to create a petition
with more than 500,000 signatures.

“This article has proven that Burma is a lawless country,” said Bo Kyi, a
joint secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners (Burma) in response to the newest threat to the pro-democracy
student leaders. “The military regime itself is breaking the law in the
country,” he said.

The group of 88 Generation Students declined to comment o­n the article.

In a letter sent to the embassies of China and Russia earlier this month,
the 88 Generation Students said Burma is now witnessing the junta’s
“increased attacks, arbitrary arrests and unfair imprisonment of peaceful
democracy activists more brutal and more severe than before.”

The attacks o­n pro-democracy groups increased after China and Russia
vetoed a proposal to place Burma o­n the agenda of the United Nations
Security Council.

There have been brutal attacks o­n pro-democracy activists in the past,
such as the Depayin massacre in which Burma’s democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi and her motorcade were attacked and scores of her supporters were
killed or injured.

Burmese regime-backed members of the Union Solidarity and Development
Association and the Swan Arr Shin paramilitary groups who called
themselves "dutiful citizens" staged confrontations with pro-democracy
activists who prayed at Rangoon pagodas last month for the release of Suu
Kyi.

____________________________________

June 11, Mizzima News
Activists stopped from praying for Suu Kyi - New Davies

More than 20 Burmese women activists were driven out of a Rangoon pagoda
today and were stopped from conducting a prayer vigil for the release of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by the pagoda management.

Women members of Burma's opposition political party – the National League
for Democracy –had gone to the Thanlyin-Kyaikgaug pagoda for prayers for
the party leader's release. They were driven away by the pagoda management
committee members, said NLD Women affairs in-charge Daw Myint Myint Sein.

"We went to the pagoda today. And we made swan offerings, and prayers. As
we were about to finish, a man (chairman of the committee) came and asked
us which group we belonged to and what we were doing here. Politics, he
asked? We cannot allow this, go away, he said and chased us away," Sein
told Mizzima over telephone.

"He also said that the committee cannot allow it because 'there is Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi's name'," added Sein.
Though the group was unable to conclude their prayers, Sein said that they
could pray for about 20 minutes.

Though some activists started conducting prayers at pagodas for the
release of detained Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate since her latest arrest
in May 2003, the prayer vigils gained new momentum in Rangoon and across
the country since the beginning of May 2007.

"This is the month of our leader's [Suu Kyi] birth day. And since her
arrest has been extended to another year, we are conducting prayers for
her release and other political prisoners," said Sein.

Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 11 of the past 17 years in solitary
confinement, will mark her 62nd birthday on June 19. Activists have
stepped up prayers for her despite the severe crackdown by the junta,
which had more than 100 activists arrested in May.

"Despite the difficulties and crackdown, we will continue with the prayer
vigil. We have vowed to conduct prayers from June 1 to 19," Sein added.

____________________________________

June 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Henzada court accepts law suit against civilian attackers

The Henzada township court has accepted a law suit filed by human rights
activist Ko Myint Naing against six men alleged to have bashed him outside
Oak Pon village.

Ko Myint Naing and colleague Ko Maung Maung Lay were beaten by a mob of
about 100 Union Solidarity and Development Association members, special
police and civilians from Henzada, Irrawaddy Division on April 18.

Ko Myint Naing originally filed a law suit against 12 defendants including
six men involved with the police and the USDA. The court refused to accept
the case against the six men, allowing only three low-level village
leaders and three civilians to be sued.

Myint Aye of the grass-roots Human Rights Defenders and Promoters said
that it was the guilty parties who were excluded from the legal action.

“One of them is a police station chief and another is a USDA secretary.
That’s why they weren’t included,” Myint Aye said.

Ko Myint Naing and Ko Maung Maung Lay, both members of the HRDP, were in
Henzada with a small group of other members as part of a campaign to
increase awareness of human rights issues.

The two men were bashed as they attempted to follow the rest of their
group out of Oak Pon village on a motorbike.

“We know that the main person who orchestrated the whole thing . . . was
the USDA township secretary . . . This shows that some people are above
the law,” Myint Aye said.

The Henzada court is due to hear the case tomorrow and on Wednesday.

____________________________________

June 11, Mizzima News
Rangoon University students demand junta find missing student - Nem Davies

Rangoon University students today sent a letter of appeal to the heads of
Burma 's ruling military junta demanding that it immediately find a
missing fellow student arrested in May for conducting prayers at a pagoda
in Rangoon.

Ye Myat Hein, a Bachelor of Science student in west Rangoon University in
Hta Tapin Township, was arrested on May 15 by a group of people, calling
themselves "the people", for conducting prayers at Kyaukdawgyi pagoda in
Insein Township.

The university students said they had sent a complaint letter to various
heads of units of the Burmese government as well as to the junta supremo
Sr. Gen Than Shwe to solve the case of the student, who has been missing
since May 15.

"We are writing this letter because a student has been arrested but nobody
knows his whereabouts. Not even his parents. And we don't know whether he
is alive or dead. And even the authorities in the university do not know
where he is," a fellow student, requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal,
told Mizzima.

The letter, signed by 23 students, said despite reopening of the
university and classes resuming, Ye Myat Hein, has been missing. And no
one including the university lecturers, professors, registrar and head of
departments, could give a clear answer.

Therefore, the letter has been written to draw the attention of the
authorities to solve the mystery of the missing student, the letter said.

The incident of Ye Myat Hein shows that there is no security for students
in Burma , said Ko Jimmy an 88 generation student.

"We don't know where he has been kept. We just know that he was arrested
by the so-called "people" but we are not sure whether he has been taken to
Kyaik Ka San detention camp or to Insein Prison," said Jimmy.

____________________________________

June 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Muslim student building seized by military official

A hall owned by the Muslim Former Students’ Religious Association on the
corner of Sule pagoda road and Anawrahta roadin Rangoon has reportedly
been seized by retired military major Kyaw Min and his wife.

Sources from Kyauktada township told DVB that Kyaw Min and his family
arrived at the building demanding entrance on June 9 and that they have
been living there since.

“Retired major Kyaw Min and his wife Daw Aye Myint came together with
retired captain Myint Maung and sergeant Myint Than who was in army
uniform,” a local resident said.

“They are refusing to leave the place and have declared that they will not
move out without an order from the military division.”

After Kyaw Min arrived on Saturday an argument reportedly broke out
between his family and members of the Muslim students association. Special
police were also called to the scene.

The MFSRA has said they will pursue the issue in court.

____________________________________

June 11, Irrawaddy
Militia seizes land in Shan state for physic nut crops - Khun Sam

A government-backed militia in northern Shan State confiscated nearly
1,000 acres of farmland earlier this year from villagers in Muse Township
and has begun clearing the land in preparation for the planting of physic
nut trees, according to residents in the Burma-China border town.

Villagers who complained about the seizure of land were told that the
militia had acted under orders from Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut, head of the
Burmese army’s Northeast Command.

Some villagers’ land was taken without any form of compensation. Others
were paid a small compensation, estimated by local sources to be as little
as 10,000 to 50,000 kyat (US $8 to $40) for small farms, or 100,000 to
500,000 kyat ($80 to $400) for tea and orange plantations.

Residents told The Irrawaddy o­n Monday that the Muse-based militia, led
by a man named Sein Win, has been seizing farms and tea and orange
plantations since the beginning of 2007.

“Without land, villagers who mainly rely o­n agriculture will find it more
difficult to survive and will be forced into day labor to feed their
families,” o­ne local resident said.

According to another local resident, many of the area’s farms have been in
operation for generations, and current owners often have no legal
documents that verify their ownership of the land.

The recent seizure of land is not the first time that villagers in the
region have lost out to Burma’s aggressive campaign o­n physic nut
production. Residents in Muse say that the militia has been seizing tracts
of land since the beginning of 2007.

Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, from Burma’s Ministry of Defense, and Maj-Gen Aung Than
Htut attended a physic nut growing ceremony and inspected a physic nut
plantation near the Lashio-Muse Road in Shan State in mid-May, according
to a press report in Burma’s state-run The New Light of Myanmar.

The report added that physic nut crops have been planted o­n 2,785 acres
of land in Lashio in 2006-07, with another 1,200 acres expected to be
planted in the next year.

Burma’s military government in the last year has adopted a national plan
to cultivate some 7 million acres of physic nut crops throughout the
country in a bid to cut the country’s dependence o­n oil imports.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 9, Mizzima News
Over 2000 Indians seek refuge in Burma - Ko Dee

Over 2,000 Indians, residing on the Indo-Burmese border town of Moreh,
fled to Burma today to take refuge after tension broke out in the town,
following fresh clashes between Manipuris and ethnic Kuki rebels.

Burmese military officials in Tamu Township provided the Indians, mainly
Manipuris and Bengalis, with shelter and supplied food in Burma's border
point in Nanphalone village opposite Moreh in India.

A local resident, speaking to Mizzima over telephone, said there was
palpable communal tension in Moreh following the killing of four ethnic
Kuki drivers this morning by suspected Manipuri militants, who intruded
from Burma.

Last night, a gun fight broke out between suspected Manipuri and Kuki
militants in Moreh, the local said, requesting anonymity for fear of
reprisal. He failed to give details of the clash.

"Locals are continuing to flee to Burma side of the border since this
evening. More than 2,000 crossed over. As all border gates are closed,
they are jumping over the fence," the local said.

Several Kuki women this afternoon held a protest rally and demanded that
the bodies of the four drivers, which were taken away by the Moreh police
for post mortem and filing a case be returned, the local resident said.

Tension mounted when five Manipuri fishermen, unaware of the events
returned to the town this afternoon and were killed by an unidentified
group.

Kukis are the largest community in Moreh, which is an international trade
point connecting Burma and India . The minority community such as the
Manipuris, Bengalis and south Indians largely control the business sector
in the town.

Manipuris and other communities, apprehensive of being caught in the
ongoing trouble have began to seek refuge across the border, locals said

"They [Indians] fled to Burma because they are scared that the tension
might affect them," the local said.

The Indian refugees where sheltered in a primary school in Nanphalone
village and were given food by the Burmese border security force, the
local added.

Fresh tension broke out in Moreh just two days after the indefinite bandh
was called off by Manipuri women folk following the killing of a Manipuri
driver by suspected Kuki militants on June 2.

Following the bandh call Indian and Burmese authorities sealed the border
gates putting a stop to trade activities.

____________________________________

June 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Two people killed during Karen rebel clash

Two people were reportedly killed on Saturday when several shells landed
near the Burma border town of Myawaddy during a clash between the Karen
National Union and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

A young man and a three-year-old child were killed and several other
people were injured at about 11pm Saturday when an unknown number of
artillery shells were fired into the Sit Hmudan Haung Asu village.

KNU spokesperson major Saw Hla Ngwe blamed the deaths on the DKBA’s 907th
battalion.

“Kyaw San Oo, 33, U Khin Maung Aye, 53, and Ma Cho Mar, 23, were wounded
and three-year-old Aung Thu and Ko Kyaw San, 25, were killed by the
shells,” he said.

But the DKBA said that it was the KNU that was responsible for the deaths.

"They fired at us first. We were attacked by a KNU unit led by Officer Hla
Min. We fired in return because we were attacked. We did not fire at the
village only at their unit,” a DKBA source said.

____________________________________

June 11, Irrawaddy
Malaria on the rise along Thai-Burmese border - Violet Cho

The number of malaria patients has sharply increased this month among
communities of Burmese refugees and migrants o­n the Thailand-Burma
border, said a senior medical worker in Mae Sot, Thailand.

“More than 50 malaria patients come to the clinic every day, and half of
them have to be hospitalized for proper treatment,” said Khin May, a
senior medic at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, which provides health
services to Burmese communities in Mae Sot and also inside Burma.

“Since last month, the hospital has accommodated more than three hundred
malaria patients. With no doubt, there will be more patients coming,” Khin
May told The Irrawaddy o­n Monday.

Another staff member said the clinic treated more than 8,000 malaria
patients last year. Thirty of them died from the illness.

Breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes emerge during the raining
season, especially in areas where heavier rainfall contributes to a higher
population of mosquitoes, according to Shoklo Malaria Research Unit based
in Mae Sot.

The Shoklo facility is a field station attached to the faculty of tropical
medicine at Bangkok’s Mahidol University and part of the
Welcome-Oxford-Mahidol University Research Program.

Seven Burmese have died from malaria near the Three Pagodas Pass, o­n the
border with Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province.

A local resident said the outbreak will probably get worse this year
because of a lack of healthcare services, hospitals and clinics.

Several health organizations and NGOs used to operate in the area in past
years, but several—including Medecins Sans Frontiere—have since pulled
out, leaving local residents more concerned about the threat of malaria
and other ailments.

The current increase in malaria cases has created a shortage of medicine
and available space at Mae Tao, run by Dr Cynthia Maung.

“We do not have enough medicine or space for all of the people who come to
the clinic,” says Khin May. “Last week, when there were too many patients,
we were rushing to buy medicine at local markets.”

Health officials in Burma maintain that the military government has made
improvements in the treatment and prevention of malaria, which has been
designated as a major communicable disease of national concern.

According to a press report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua o­n Monday,
Burma’s Ministry of Health claims that malaria morbidity and mortality
rates in the country have dropped since 1988-89.

____________________________________

June 11, Reuters
First "XDR" TB cases found in Myanmar migrants - By Gill Griffith-Jones

Mae sot, Thailand  - Aid workers have discovered the first cases of
"extensively drug resistant" TB among migrants from Myanmar, intensifying
fears about untreatable infectious diseases propagating in the army-ruled
former Burma.

French aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it had confirmed two
cases of "XDR" tuberculosis in the Thai border town of Mae Sot last week,
and had two other suspected cases of the hard-to-treat strain.

One of the infected patients was a refugee, the other a migrant worker,
MSF said.

MSF's discovery made no headlines, unlike the furor in the United States
over bungled attempts to isolate an XDR-infected 31-year-old lawyer who
flew halfway round the world despite requests not to travel.

However, as an indicator of the growth of drug-resistant killer diseases
in Myanmar due to a combination of simmering civil war, a non-existent
health service and the widespread availability of fake drugs, it is
arguably far more serious.

"We cannot treat XDR here. There is no treatment for them," said Janne
Krause, one of the MSF doctors responsible for dealing with the growing
numbers of TB patients flocking across the border.

MSF, which sees between 50 and 80 new TB patients from Myanmar every
month, started treating "multi-drug resistant" patients in 2005.

Throughout an arduous treatment course in a special "TB village" in a
refugee camp, patients are under careful monitoring to ensure they do not
deviate from prescribed dosages.

Allowing them to miss doses, take half doses or doses with fake pills that
contain only a fraction of the correct drugs is a sure way to let the TB
bacterium mutate and start to build up immunity, experts say.

Unfortunately, among refugees and the desperately poor migrant workers
flooding into Thailand, ad hoc self-treatment is the norm.

"They don't take their drugs regularly. They take them every second day
because they want to save drugs. They stop taking them then start again
after some weeks. They take all kinds of drugs in different combinations,"
she said.

Some patients have even managed to get hold of "second-line" drugs used to
treat the multi-drug resistant strain.

"This is how they become finally XDR," Krause said.

The World Health Organization has confirmed 269 cases of XDR TB in 35
countries, with 85 percent of patients expected to die. Myanmar has not
had any confirmed cases.

Long-term treatment with strong antibiotics can cure patients but in the
United States the costs exceed $250,000 per patient.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 11, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar pharmaceutical imports increase in 2006-07

Myanmar imported pharmaceutical products valued at 100 million U.S.
dollars in 2006-07 which ended in March, an increase by 25 percent from
2005-06 when it was 80 million dollars, a local media reported Monday.

These pharmaceuticals were mainly imported from such Asian nations as
India, Bangladesh, China and Indonesia, the Myanmar Times quoted the
Ministry of Commerce as saying.

Of the imports, only 10 percent came from European countries, the sources
said, adding that 60 percent of the imports were done through normal
trade, while the rest through border trade.

Myanmar has one state-run Pharmaceutical Industry operating under the
Ministry of Industry-1 and the industry has three factories respectively
in Yangon, Pyin Oo Lwin and Tatkone near Nay Pyi Taw supplying 40 percent
of the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar health authorities are strengthening the
supervision of security of food and drug on sale in the markets and
examination is occasionally carried out to ensure that drugs produced
locally are quality products which meet the set standard for public safe
consumption and those imported are only genuine and potent and quality
ones.

Myanmar enacted the National Food Law in March 1997, forming a special
food and drug authority in a bid to enable the public to consume food of
genuine quality, free from danger and hygienic problem, and to control and
regulate the production, import, export, storage, packaging, distribution
and sale of them systematically.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 11, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar probable to re-get global fund aid: UN officials

Myanmar stands an opportunity to re- get the Global Fund aid to fight HIV,
tuberculosis (TB) and malaria after it was stopped nearly two years ago, a
local media quoted the remarks of United Nations health officials as
saying Monday.

Besides the remarks of Dr Mario Ravigilione, Director of anti- TB
Department of the World Health Organization (WHO), the possibility for
Myanmar to re-obtain the global fund aid was also implied during a recent
meeting at Geneva's World Health Conference between UNAIDS Director
Michael Sidibe and Myanmar Minister of Health Dr Kyaw Myint, the Voice
news journal said.

The Global Fund suspended its aid to Myanmar on Aug. 19, 2005 but after 10
months, Myanmar received another committed Three- Disease (3-D) Fund to
fight HIV, TB and malaria in substitution from a group of six donors on
June 9, 2006.

According to earlier official report, the five-year 3D Fund project, which
started last April and is worth of a total of about 100 million US
dollars, is being funded phase by phase by the group of six donors of the
European Commission, Sweden's Sida, the Netherlands, United Kingdom's
Department for International Development, Norway and Australia's Aus AID.

Out of 27 million dollars' fund requirement for the launching of the
first-year-phase project, the 3-D fund has obtained 10 million dollars
from the donor group, according to the European Commission which has also
committed 20 million euros (35 million US dollars).

Earlier similar commitments for the 3-D fund reportedly include 36 million
dollars from the United Kingdom Department for International Development,
over 11 million dollars from the Australian Government Aid Program (Aus
AID)'s and 770,000 US dollars from Norway.

Meanwhile, a recent workshop involving Myanmar, the World Health
Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS stated that 338,911 people were estimated to
have lived with HIV/AIDS and the HIV prevalence in Myanmar has reduced
from 1.5 percent in 2000 to 1.3 percent in 2005.

It is estimated that about 100,000 new TB patients develop annually and
about half of them are infectious cases, the Myanmar health ministry said,
disclosing that Myanmar achieved 95 percent TB case detection rate and 84
percent treatment success rate in 2005.

Meanwhile, the trend of malaria morbidity and mortality has been
decreasing at present with malaria morbidity per 1,000 population reducing
from 24.5 in 1988-89 to 9.3 in 2005-06, while its mortality down from 10.4
to 3.1 correspondingly, according to the health ministry.

Myanmar has designated AIDS, TB and malaria as three major communicable
diseases of national concern and efforts are being made to combat the
three diseases.

____________________________________
ASEAN

June 11, Associated Press
Western sanctions on Burma a waste, says Asean official - Eileen Ng

Western sanctions to force democracy on military-ruled Burma are pointless
because the country will survive as long as it is supported by giant
neighbors China and India, a senior Southeast Asian official said Monday.

"We should look at some other ways of doing it instead of just carrying on
applying sanctions. Sanctions for what?" said Ong Keng Yong, the
secretary-general of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations
of which Burma is also a member.

"Myanmar [Burma] is not part of the global economy. They are no big
shakes. Even if you pull out everybody from Myanmar, every economic
investor, they are not going to collapse simply because their two big
neighbors will always be willing to sustain them," Ong said, referring to
China and India, which are not members of Asean.

"Everybody is just banking on the isolation strategy but it doesn't work,"
he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of a business
conference he is attending here.

With its strategic location, Burma is courted by both China and India,
which are rivals for regional dominance in the Indian Ocean area. Still,
China has gained the upper hand by providing large amounts of aid to the
junta, and with its investments, effectively controls the economy of
Burma's northern border provinces.

India, which has a flourishing trade with Burma, also refuses to join the
tough economic and political sanctions imposed by the US and Europe.

The current junta seized power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy
movement. It held an election in 1990 but refused to hand over power after
it was won by the National League for Democracy party. The NLD's leader,
Aung San Suu Kyi, has been detained under house arrest for 11 of the last
17 years.

Ong said Asean is unhappy about Suu Kyi's detention, but there isn't much
that the bloc can do. Asean has a policy of non-interference in member
nations' domestic affairs, and does not adopt sanctions, but has recently
taken a harder line with Burma, urging it to hasten its progress toward
democracy.

"This is the sad thing about Asean... Asean doesn't want to talk about
punitive measures. You are asking the government to release Suu Kyi
(under) international pressure but that will never happen," he said.

The top US diplomat to Burma, Shari Villarosa, last month defended
sanctions but admitted they haven't worked. She said a policy of
engagement is also unlikely to yield results.

"The military has proved to be impervious to much of anything," she said.

Burma's government says it expects its foreign trade to exceed US $8
billion in the fiscal year through March 2008. Trade volume for just-ended
fiscal year jumped 40 percent to $7.93 billion from $5.54 billion the
previous year, according to the Commerce Ministry.

With both diplomacy and engagement failing to prod Burma on its path to
democracy, o­ng said Asean needs to find a "face saving" way out. An Asean
charter, or constitution, being drawn now may help compel Burma to relent,
he said, although he did not spell out exactly what that would be.

But the charger should not be seen as an instrument drafted to punish
Burma, he said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 10, Mizzima News
India takes serious view of Burmese poachers - Syed Ali Mujtaba

New Delhi has taken a serious view of poachers from Burma increasingly
preying on the fragile marine ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

"Myanmar poachers are taking away our marine resources like valuable fish,
killing sharks and destroying corals," said Air Marshall P.P. Raj Kumar,
military commander of Adaman and Nicobar.

"The poachers usually come in small boats at night and escape in bigger
vessels that lurk outside India's territorial waters, he said.

"We have step up the battle against the rising number of boats sneaking in
from Myanmar," he added.

More than 200 poachers were arrested till May this year, compared to 357
last year, the Air Marshal said quoting defence records.

"We are just catching 15-20 percent of the poachers from Myanmar. A large
number of them are getting away."

The Air Marshal said that the poachers from Burma have even set up
hideouts in the archipelago.

"We have destroyed some permanent bases set up by the poachers but many
more continue to exist in some remote islands," he said.

India has air and naval bases and listening posts across the archipelago
as it is the main sea lane between the Indian Ocean and the South China
Sea.

"The region is prone to smuggling, piracy and poaching, besides illegal
immigration, Kumar said.

"There is a lot of pressure on pirates in the Malacca Strait and if some
groups decide to hide anywhere or make camps, it will be bad for everyone
and will be a headache for us," he said.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are located about 1,200 kilometres east of
the Indian mainland. The Islands have some of the world's pristine beaches
and rare corals. Its waters have prized fish, sea cucumbers, sea turtles
and rare salt-water crocodiles.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are also home to some of the world's most
isolated and primitive tribes and their territory is off limits to
outsiders.

Thousands of people were killed and the region's rich marine life suffered
heavy damage in the wake of the tsunami in 2004.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 8, World Politics Review
Russia, Burma discuss joint nuclear project, but deal not yet done -
Graham Lees

Bangkok, Thailand -- Russia has put a price tag of half a billion dollars
on plans to build a nuclear "research" center in Burma, one of the world's
poorest countries, where electricity is a luxury for most inhabitants.

Rangoon's new diplomatic friend North Korea set a precedent for a
destitute country managing to find the means to develop nuclear
capabilities. But many Burma watchers take the view that on the issue of
nuclear power there is little comparison between the North Korean and
Burmese regimes.

The former is run by a dynastic demagogue, while the latter is controlled
by self-enriching generals who rarely dip into their pockets to pay for
anything.

Given the cost estimate put forward by Atomstroieksport -- the agency that
handles Russia's overseas nuclear technology business deals -- and the
need to find and fund the training of at least 300 Burmese scientists and
technicians to help run it, Western diplomatic circles in Southeast Asia
are beginning to take informal bets on whether the penny-pinching junta
will ever actually proceed with the development.

The Russians have said a nuclear center -- ostensibly for medical and
agricultural research -- would be powered by a 10-megawatt light-water
research reactor fuelled by 20 percent enriched uranium 235.

Before the Russians appeared on the scene, there had been occasional
speculation that North Korea was secretly trading nuclear technology to
the Burmese regime, although nothing has ever been proven.

Suspicion refocused on possible North Korean involvement following two
mysterious visits to Burma by North Korean ships recently, the last one
docking in late May. Both vessels were claimed by the Burmese authorities
to have sought port refuge from storms and to have been searched according
to a U.N. Security Council resolution following Pyongyang's nuclear tests
last October.

Few observers believe the storm refuge story.

North Korea and Burma resumed diplomatic relations only in April, although
North Korean technicians have been seen in the country for several years.

On the wilder shores of unverifiable claims, a Burmese exile-run news
agency, Burma News International, has just published an interview with a
Burmese army officer recently returned from Russia who claims the junta is
seriously interested in acquiring nuclear weapons -- primarily to spook
its historic adversary but now main trading partner Thailand.

However, despite the nail-biting anxiety in some quarters over the
proposed Russia-Burma nuclear cooperation, not only is it not yet a done
deal, it would take at least five years to materialize even if it was,
says Atomstroieksport.

The agreement reached in May between the Burmese regime and the Russian
Federal Agency for Nuclear Energy, known as Rosatom, was merely an outline
proposal. The two sides still have to sit down some time before the end of
this year to agree on specific plans and timetables.

"The generals are very good at getting other people to pay," said Collin
Reynolds, a Bangkok commodities analyst.

"Take Burma's rich natural gas resource as an example: it's now the
country's biggest source of income but the junta has managed to get
foreigners to pay to find it and pipe it."

The ruling Burmese generals are not only extraordinarily fickle -- prone
to superstition and following soothsayer advice, which has them changing
their minds on a whim -- many of them have been sick of late.

Five senior military chiefs have been in the hospital in Singapore for
treatment in recent months.

Unofficial reports say two top junta men, Prime Minister Soe Win, and Shwe
Mann, the general who is rumored to be in line to take over as paramount
leader from the sickly Than Shwe, are both being treated in the city-state
for serious disorders.

"If Burma's leaders continue their secret trips to Singapore for the
treatment of undisclosed ailments, rumor and speculation are bound to
increase," said Aung Zaw, an exiled Burmese and editor of The Irrawaddy
magazine. "Talk will ultimately turn to a reshuffle within the military's
top ranks."

Some Western diplomats in Southeast Asia think that the new expansionist
Russia of President Vladimir Putin sees in the Rangoon regime a convenient
means to gain an influential foothold in a region that is increasingly
dominated economically and politically by China.

After Moscow's offer to help develop nuclear research in Burma, Russian
companies have acquired licenses to prospect for gas and oil in the
country. Just last month, two companies linked with the obscure Russian
republic of Kalmykia began drilling onshore in Burma's remote northwest.

Most industry analysts consider the drilling a sop to the Burmese, but the
timing could not have been better. Both India and South Korea, major
investors in Burmese offshore gas, are bickering with the generals over
rumored plans to sell China several trillion cubic feet of gas they have
found and are producing.

Gas earned $2.16 billion of the $5 billion in export income claimed for
Burma by the regime for the 2006-7 fiscal year to March.

Both China and India have been competing to supply armaments to the
Burmese military, with the gas in mind.

"It boils down to whether the Russians see sufficient strategic benefit in
establishing a significant presence in Burma. They certainly don't need
Burma's oil and gas," said one Western diplomat in Bangkok, who spoke on
condition of anonymity.

"If the junta is too difficult, the Russians will look elsewhere. Don't
forget they have recently sold sophisticated warplanes to neighboring
Malaysia."

India has recent experience of the Burmese junta crying poverty and
getting someone else to foot the bill. The two countries are supposed to
be jointly redeveloping Burma's western port of Sittwe, which was a
seaside resort in the British colonial era.

Burma was due to pay only 10 percent of the expected $100 million bill
but, just as Indian contractors were preparing to move in, the generals
claimed they had no money. New Delhi, desperate to open up the port as
access via the River Kaladan to India's isolated northeastern states,
quickly agreed to pick up the whole bill.

Likewise, India wants to "jointly" build road and railway links as part of
its so-called Look East economic policy, but the Burmese regime says it is
too poor to participate.

New Delhi has begun to show some impatience with Rangoon and hinted just
last week that it might review its investment in Burma's gas resource
development if the generals show too much favor to Beijing.

It's been largely overlooked that Russia was gearing up to build a nuclear
research center in Burma in 2002, but the plan was abandoned because the
Burmese generals said they couldn't afford it.

It remains to be seen whether Moscow's Southeast Asian strategy is
important enough to warrant picking up the entire tab for a "joint"
nuclear research center.

Graham Lees is a Bangkok-based British journalist and WPR's Asia
contributing editor. He has worked in several countries in East Asia over
the last ten years covering regional business and political affairs.

____________________________________

June 11, Associated Press
American TV star calls on world to focus on suffering in military-ruled
Myanmar

A star of the popular American TV show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"
urged the world Monday to turn its attention to the suffering of people in
military-ruled Myanmar.

Eric Szmanda spoke to reporters after a three-day visit to the
Thai-Myanmar border, where he met refugees fleeing an ongoing campaign by
the Myanmar military against the Karen ethnic minority.

"One and a half million people have been forced from their homes, women
are systematically raped, men and children have been forced into slave
labor," he said." It's time to say, `Enough is enough.'"

Admitting that until recently he knew little about events in the Southeast
Asian nation, Szmanda said he would share his experiences with friends and
co-workers in Hollywood "and anybody who will listen."

Szmanda plays Greg Sanders on the Emmy Award-winning CBS television
series, ranked in the top three most-watched TV programs around the world
every year since its debut in 2001.

His trip was sponsored by the US Campaign for Burma, an activist group of
Americans and Myanmar exiles based in Washington.

Szmanda called on the military in Myanmar, also known as Burma, to end its
attacks on the Karen in the country's eastern region. Some 3,000 Karen
villages have been destroyed in the offensive, according to several
non-government organizations working along the border.

"The U.N. can do a lot on Burma, countries in this region can do a lot on
Burma, the United States and Europe can do a lot on Burma, but they need
to start to speak out, regularly and quickly and with urgency. I think
that's the most important thing that we can do," he said.

During the trip, Szmanda visited the clinic of Dr. Cynthia Maung, who has
treated thousands of her fellow refugees over the past two decades and has
been called "The Mother Theresa of Burma."

Szmanda said his visit to the clinic was "one of the most inspiring and
shocking things that I have ever seen."

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, the latest junta emerging
after a brutal 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests. The military has
been widely accused of atrocities against ethnic minorities and of
suppressing the democracy movement led by detained Nobel Peace prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

____________________________________

June 11, BBC Burmese Service
ENC lobbied US lawmakers

A top level delegation from the Ethnic Nationalities Council (Union of
Burma) has met members of US assemblies including Senate Edward Kennedy
and congressman Tom Lantos of the Democratic Party.

"The international community has supported Burma's democracy movement but
there is no common position on Burma and the SPDC(military government) is
exploiting this situation", ENC spokesperson Lian Sakhong told the BBC
Burmese Service.

ENC representatives have been to China, India, European countries and some
members of ASEAN as part of their international campaign to highlight the
need for a unified stance towards the Burmese military government.

____________________________________

June 1, Inner City Press
At UNDP, evasive or no answers on Myanmar corruption, as even Dervis'
location is secret

United Nations - In connection with the last minute, Friday afternoon
document-dumping of the limited audit of its operations in North Korea,
the UN Development Program offered a rare media availability. UNDP
spokesman David Morrison, rather than ignoring written questions, this
time took them orally and at least had to dodge. After the briefing,
various information that was promised to be sent, wasn't. But what was
asked, and answered, is indicative of an agency without oversight, some
say, a Programme out of control.

Beyond questions about North Korea, Inner City Press asked about scandals
surrounding UNDP in Myanmar and with diamond mining in Zimbabwe. Of the
latter, Mr. Morrison said it's a "murky situation," one that the public is
now supposed to believe will be cleared up by an investigation by an
unidentified "Harare law firm."

On Myanmar, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked UNDP in writing to
address public reports of the firing of six UNDP staff for corruption.
After ignoring the written questions, Mr. Morrison on Friday said that the
press reports are not accurate. They name the wrong province, he said,
without disclosing the right one. Rather than six fired, it was four staff
whose contracts were not extended, and one who was demoted, for violating
the terms of their contracts. But Mr. Morrison said nothing about what the
violations were about.

Zimbabwe wins chair of UN Committee on Sustainable Development (UNDP and
diamond mines not shown)

After Friday's briefing, Inner City Press again asked in writing,
including to UNDP's two most senior officials. Their personal spokeswoman
Christina Lonigro responded that "on Myanmar, David answered this question
at the briefing." But he pointedly did not say what the violations
concerned, nor where they occurred.

Inner City Press asked about Ad Melkert's statements months ago that he
was committed to transparency, that "you ain't seen nothing yet," and that
UNDP would move to make its internal audits available at least to the
countries on its Executive Board, and to implement financial disclosures
at last similar to the Secretariat's.  Mr. Morrison's response made clear
that the internal audits are still not being made available -- this he
blamed on the need to consult with other agencies -- and that, on
financial disclosure, "no one has signed yet."

Nevertheless, in an email later on Friday, Ms. Lonigro claimed that "both
Kemal Dervis and Ad Melkert have filled out financial disclosure forms." 
Who is to be believed? David Morrison ("no one has signed yet") or Ms.
Lonigro?

At Friday's briefing, after Inner City Press asked if UNDP's future
financial disclosure regimen will include review by an outside accounting
firm, as the UN Secretariat's program does, Mr. Morrison said, "We could
undertake to find that out for you." But ten hours after the briefing, and
after two email reminders from Inner City Press, even this simple answer
was not provided. Nor were answers to longstanding questions about UNDP in
Georgia and how many people UNDP employs.

Even information as basic as the physical location of Kemal Dervis,
technically the third highest official in the UN system, is not
forthcoming. Inner City Press had asked for confirmation that Mr. Dervis
is attending the Bilderberg Group meeting in Turkey to June 3.  Ms.
Lonigro, Dervis's personal spokeswoman, despite claiming to have answered
"all" the questions, left this one untouched. So who's running UNDP?

Mr. Morrison acknowledged that UNDP gives documents to its Executive Board
late, but did not respond to Inner City Press' question about UNDP's
request for that its proposals to shift to "results-based budgeting" be
considered only orally at the upcoming Executive Board meeting. A Board
member told Inner City Press on Thursday that his colleagues on the Board
do not provide sufficient oversight of UNDP. Who does?  Developing.