BurmaNet News, June 16-18, 2007

[Editor]

June 16-18, 2007 Issue # 3228

INSIDE BURMA
DVB via BBC: Elected Burmese representative Than Lwin hospitalized after
attack
SHAN: Detained Shan leader: Body in turmoil, mind at peace
Church Sound Service: Burma: Christian publisher threatened with 12 years
in jail
Mizzima News: Burmese Prime Minister's health improves
AP: Myanmar says US human trafficking report disappointing

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: KNU, DKBA, government troops clash near border

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Getting to the roots of Burma’s latest timber trade
Irrawaddy: Burma to hold special gem sale

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Pranab takes stock of Indo-Burma projects
CNA-Taiwan: Taiwanese female lawmakers urge Myanmar junta to free Suu Kyi
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Myanmars mark Suu Kyi's birthday

INTERNATIONAL
IPS: No End to Forced Labour
Xinhua: Myanmar, Russia agree to promote bilateral cooperation

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima News: Burma needs to relax censorship and support journalists -
Htet Win
The Gazette (Montreal): Burmese democrats to mark a sad birthday this
week; The legitimate leader of Burma has spent 11 of the last 17 years in
detention

OBITURAY
Irrawaddy: Dora Than-E, veteran singer, dies at 99

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 17, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC Monitoring
Elected Burmese representative Than Lwin hospitalized after attack

Excerpt from report by Norway-based Burmese Democratic Voice of Burma on
16 June

The injury suffered yesterday by U Than Lwin, elected representative of
Mandalay Division's Madaya Township Constituency, is so serious that he
has been admitted in Mandalay General Hospital, his wife, Daw Khin Thi,
disclosed today.

U Than Lwin was punched in the face with a knuckle-duster by an unknown
person yesterday on his return home after praying for the freedom of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners at Sutaungpye Chedi.
His nose was broken in the attack.

He went to Madaya Hospital immediately after the attack but after his
injury was X-Rayed and examined, he was transferred to Mandalay General
Hospital, according to his wife, Daw Khin Thi. [Passage omitted]

Elected Representative U Than Lwin is 70 years old and who attacked him is
not definitively known yet. We asked who the attacker could be and U Khin
Maung Than, chairman of Madaya Township NLD, said:

[Begin Khin Maung Than recording] We know who he is in our hearts. We can
guess that he belongs to an organization that is opposed to us. We were
unarmed and when we went to pray at the pagoda we were only holding
flowers - Thabye flowers - joss sticks, candles, and small pots of sand to
hold our joss sticks in. Attacking us under a situation where we were not
looking for a fight or have any reason to fight ... in fact, before we
started off, we were warned by the chairman of the ward peace and
development council not to do anything because something could happen and
that he did not want anything to happen to us. We told him that we were
embarking on a peaceful mission and to pray so nothing could happen and
that we did the same thing last week and it ended peacefully because we
prayed and sent our metta [loving kindness] to all. We said nothing could
happen this time too. [End recording]

That was Madaya Township NLD Chairman U Khin Maung Than.

However, he told DVB that a complaint had been filed with the township
police to investigate and take action on the case.

____________________________________

June 18, Shan Herald Agency for News
Detained Shan leader: Body in turmoil, mind at peace

Khun Tun Oo, elected Shan leader who was detained and sentenced to a 93
year prison term in 2005, has been marking his time at Burma's
northernmost prison in Putao in peace, according to a family friend.

"I have prepared myself since Day One for this eventuality when I decided
to go into politics," he was quoted as saying. "So the long ordeal may
break my body but not my spirits."

Unlike him, many inmates including officers from the deposed Prime
Minister Khin Nyunt's Military Intelligence Service (MIS), who had been
top dogs in the country before his downfall in 2004, have still not got
over the shock of the sudden downturn in their lives. "They are mere
shells of their former selves," the source said. "And their health
conditions are fast deteriorating."

Khun Tun Oo himself is said to be suffering under high blood pressure and
diabetes.

Khun Tun Oo (Hkun Htoon Oo, according to his own spelling), who will be 64
on 11 September, is the nephew of Prince Sao Kya Hseng of Hsipaw, who
disappeared during the military takeover in 1962. His party the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) won the second largest seats in
the 1990 elections. One of his 8 colleagues who were sentenced at the same
time for treason, "Math" Myint Than, died on 2 May 2006 in Sandoway
prison.

Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), launching an urgent appeals program
on 18 January, says convictions of Hkun Tun Oo and 7 others "are all
invalid as they were based upon the one set of identical and flawed
information, allegations and court testimonies."

____________________________________

June 18, Church Sound Service
Burma: Christian publisher threatened with 12 years in jail

A Christian publisher has been threatened with 12 years’ imprisonment
unless he stops publishing books on theology. He intends to defy the
warning, reports Release International.

And Christian sources inside Burma (Myanmar) say the military government
has begun to compile a comprehensive list of Christians. They are pulling
together details of children’s homes, assemblies, pastors, leaders, church
members and even Christian families.

The junta has declared that to be Burmese is to be Buddhist - and concern
is growing about what the government will do with the list it is compiling
of Christians in the country.

The regime expelled many Christian missions from Burma in 1966 and now
demands written permission for any gathering of more than five people.
Many churches, Bible schools and even Christian-run orphanages have been
forced underground.

The government has restricted imports of Burmese Bibles to just 2,000 a
year - but demand for the word of God is high. A Christian publisher is
being warned to stop publishing or face 12 years’ imprisonment.

Soe Aye (not his real name) has been detained three times and is now being
warned that he could face extended imprisonment unless he stops publishing
theological textbooks.

His story is told in the latest edition of the webcast World Update on the
Persecuted Church by Release International. Release is supporting
persecuted Christians in Burma.

Soe Aye says that before a religious book can be sold in that country
every page has to be vetted by a team of three and then referred to the
Religious Department for approval – or rejection.
This is a regime that has been known to burn Bibles. Many of the textbooks
Soe publishes would never pass the test.

The authorities have been warning him for two years – and now they are
sending threatening letters. This determined young man told Release
International:

“They tried to stop me to publish any Christian book. In the letter they
say several times that if you publish more - any more - we’ll sentence you
for 12 years. But I continue publishing whatever we can, because we need
to work for the Lord. And I am not afraid of any sentence or any action
that they are going to take to me.  I believe that God will take care of
me.”

Soe says the people of Myanmar are hungry for Christian literature, so he
will go on publishing.

“People are seeking God. Many people suffer here, so they really long to
see their Redeemer. They are searching for God. So when they get our
literature they are very happy to read books - especially in the villages.

“Whatever they get, they really read it. So we need to supply Christian
books.”

____________________________________

June 18, Mizzima News
Burmese Prime Minister's health improves

Burmese Prime Minister, General Soe Win's health is improving but he has
to continue to stay in a hospital in Singapore, according to sources close
to the government.

Soe Win (59) arrived in Singapore for the second time for treatment on May
13. He is reportedly suffering from acute leukemia.

"His blood count for red blood cells has increased," the sources said.

On his first trip to Singapore for treatment, Soe Win spent more than two
months. Then, he stayed for 10 days in a military hospital in Rangoon.

With Soe Win unable to perform his duties in government, the ruling
military junta appointed Lieutenant General Thein Sein, as acting Prime
Minister.

The secretive military junta has blacked out information about Soe Win's
health.

Soe Win replaced ousted former Prime Minister and Intelligence Chief Gen.
Khin Nyunt, who was removed on charges of corruption and insubordination
in 2004. Khin Nyunt has been under house arrest, serving a 44-year
suspended sentence.

____________________________________

June 16, Associated Press
Myanmar says US human trafficking report disappointing

Myanmar is disappointed that the United States has described the country
in a report as a major center for human trafficking, a senior official
said, adding that the charge was politically motivated.

"The report is politically motivated, unfair and biased. It is very
disappointing as the U.S. has deliberately turned a blind eye to our
achievements and our determination in the fight against human
trafficking," police Col. Sit Aye, head of the department of transnational
crime, told The Associated Press on Friday.

In an annual global report released Wednesday, the U.S. State Department
placed Myanmar in Tier 3, the worst category for human trafficking, saying
it had not fully complied with the minimum standards for fighting
trafficking and was not making significant efforts to do so.

Myanmar adopted a National Plan of Action in 1997 to fight human
trafficking and introduced an anti-human trafficking law in September 2005
that imposes a maximum penalty of death, he said. The law also calls for
victims of trafficking to be protected and aided.

"The U.S. report is unjust and very unsatisfactory. The report belittled
not only our efforts but also undermined the activities of other agencies
working with Myanmar to tackle human trafficking," Sit Aye said.

He said that due to cooperation between Myanmar and neighboring countries,
270 people involved in human trafficking had been arrested and prosecuted
between September 2005 and April 2007, while 428 trafficking victims,
mostly women, had been rescued.

The U.S. has imposed economic and political sanctions against Myanmar's
military government because of its poor human rights record and failure to
hand over power to a democratically elected government.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 18, Irrawaddy
KNU, DKBA, government troops clash near border - Saw Yan Naing

New fighting between the Karen National Union, the government-backed
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and the government troops broke out o­n
Monday near the Thailand-Burma border, according to a KNU official.

A 2-hour battle started about 6:20 a.m. and ended shortly after 8 a.m.
involving the Karen National Liberation Army 103rd Battalion and the
junta-backed DKBA 907th Battalion and the government Light Infantry 203rd
Battalion in Kawkareik Township in Karen State, according to Lt-Col Nay
Say of the KNLA 103rd Battalion. The KNLA is the military wing of the KNU.

Casualty figures were not available.

An earlier clash o­n Friday broke out between the government troops and
the KNLA 201st Battalion. Mahn Sha, general secretary of the KNU, claimed
that fourteen Burmese soldiers were killed and an unknown number were
wounded.

Mahn Sha said that o­ne KNLA soldier died and o­ne was wounded. He added
that after the battle, the KNU recovered five guns and a satellite
telephone.

“They [the government troops] are increasing their attacks because they
want to cleanup that area. They came closer and set up six new battalion
camps near our KNLA 201 Battalion,” said Mahn Sha. “If they come close to
us, the fighting must happen. We can’t be patient. We are very sensitive
o­n our side.”

In the past month, more than 200 Karen refugees have fled from their homes
in Taungoo District of Karen State to the Thailand-Burma border in order
to seek safe shelter in Mae Hong Son Province-based refugee camps. They
have been denied entry by the Thai authorities.

Since November 2006, following attacks by the Burmese army as many as
27,000 Karen civilians have been displaced from their homes in Karen
State, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 18, Irrawaddy
Getting to the roots of Burma’s latest timber trade - Khun Sam

Not content with selling huge quantities of timber to China, Burmese
businesses are now digging up whole trees and exporting them to Chinese
customers who pay up to 100,000 Yuan (US $13,000) for a good specimen.

The prized trees are Ye-Htin-Shu (known by their Latin name ‘Podocarpus
nerrifolia’), believed by the Chinese to bring good luck. “Wealthy people
buy the trees and replant them in their gardens,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a
Burmese analyst who lives o­n the China-Burma border. Trees were also
offered as gifts to gain favor with high-ranking officials, he said. The
more mature the tree the higher the price. Some of them are 100 years old.

An official of o­ne Burmese company involved in the sale of trees to China
compared the business with jade-trading. “The price depends o­n the tree’s
appearance, size and quality,” said the official, who works for the
Maha-Kywe Company, based in Naung Cho, near Lashio Township. The company
has exported about 30 trees to China, and has permission to sell a further
70.

Special heavy machinery is employed to dig up the trees, complete with
roots, and transport them by road through the border trading town of Muse
to Ruili, in China’s Yunnan province.

Ye-Htin-Shu are rare trees and grow in lowland and valley areas of Burma’s
Shan State, near Naung Cho, Kutkhai and Hsipaw Township. They serve a
valuable purpose in water and soil preservation, according to Hkun Seng, a
Kachin environmentalist who recently conducted field research in northern
Shan State.

Many Ye-Htin-Shu trees were destroyed because they were clumsily uprooted
and inexpertly packed for transport, Hkun Seng said.

The trees are a lucrative source of income not o­nly for the export
companies but for local government officials who man checkpoints o­n the
road to China and demand transit fees, taxes and even bribes before
allowing the unusual freight to pass. Traders have to pass through about
eight check points between Naung Cho and Muse.

The junta’s paramilitary militia groups in northern Shan State and about
seven ceasefire groups, such as the Kachin Defense Army, are also involved
in the business.

Some illegal traders bypass the checkpoints at night, others bribe their
way through, according to Hkun Seng.

The trade in Ye-Htin-Shu trees began some 10 years ago, according to
business sources.  Brig-Gen Aung Than Htut, commander of Northeast Command
and chairman of Shan State (North) Peace and Development Council and
Naypyidaw’s Ministry of Forests, have so far approved the export of about
2,000 of the trees, the sources said.

China has launched a reforestation program, “Green Storms,” in preparation
for the Olympic Games in 2008, but it’s not known whether the trade in
Ye-Htin-Shu trees is part of this initiative. The Chinese organizing
committee and the UN Environmental Program have jointly declared that the
2008 Games will promote and respect a healthier environment.

The London-based watchdog Global Witness says more than 1 million cubic
meters of timber, about 95 percent of Burma's total timber exports to
China, were illegally exported from northern Burma to Yunnan province in
2004.

“China takes any natural resources from Burma,” said Awng Kyaw Zaw.
“Burmese interests, ethnic ceasefire groups, the junta and its militias
are selling everything they have in Burma.”

____________________________________
June 18, Irrawaddy
Burma to hold special gem sale - Shah Paung

Burma will hold a special gems sale in Rangoon in early July to bolster
foreign exchange reserves, according to the government gems enterprise.

The sale will be held “from July 4 to July 16,” an official from the
Myanma Gems Enterprise told The Irrawaddy o­n Monday.

He said the gems sale will be held at two locations. Sales of jade will be
made at the Myanmar Convention Center o­n Min Dhama Road. Gems and pearls
will be sold at Gems Emporium Hall o­n Kabar Aye Pagoda Road.

According to the official, Burma holds three gems sales each year. An
annual gems sale began in 1964, with a second mid-year sale introduced in
1992. The third, “special” gems sale began in 2004.

“Domestic gem traders are being urged to display their quality gems, jade
and pearls at the special show scheduled for July 4, and the foreign
exchange proceeds from the sale will be designated as legal export
earnings,” according to Burma’s Central Committee for Sponsoring the
Special Sale of Gems, Jade and Pearls, quoted in a Xinhua news agency
report.

The last special gems sale in June 2006 attracted nearly 1,500 foreign and
local gem traders.

Last year’s annual gem sale in March produced sales of 3,652 lots of gems,
jade and pearls, with record proceeds of 148 million euros (US $185
million).

Jade sales alone remain o­ne of Burma’s major sources of foreign exchange
earnings, ranking fourth in a list of exports from the fiscal year
2005-2006, with proceeds of $205.47 million, according to the Xinhua
report.

In 1995, Burma enacted the New Gemstone Law, which allows national
entrepreneurs to mine, produce, transport and sell finished gem stones and
manufactured jewelry at home and abroad.

Since 2000, Burma’s military government has mined gems and jade in joint
ventures with 10 private companies o­n a profit-sharing basis.

Explorations for gems and jade are primarily conducted in six areas of
Burma: Mogok in Mandalay Division; Mongshu in Shan State; Khamti in
Sagaing Division; and Moe-Nyin, Hpakant and Namya in Kachin State.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 18, Mizzima News
Pranab takes stock of Indo-Burma projects - Syed Ali Mujtaba

India is involved in a variety of cross-border development projects with
Burma in diverse fields such as road, railways, telecommunications,
information technology and science, External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee said addressing a seminar in Shillong on Saturday.

"These initiatives are aimed at improving connectivity between north
eastern India and western Myanmar and are expected to give an impetus to
local economies as well as bilateral trade," Mukherjee said.

Citing examples, the Minister said probably among the most important was
the Kaladan multi-modal transit transport facility which envisaged
connectivity between Indian ports on the eastern seaboard and Sittwe port
in Burma and then through riverine transport and by road to Mizoram
providing an alternate route for transport of goods to north east India.

Refering to up gradation of the 160-km Tamu-Kalewa-Kalemyo road in Burma
across Manipur, he said it has already been completed and discussions were
on to start work on the trilateral highway project which proposes to
connect Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand via Bagan in Burma.

He also said efforts were underway to improve the infrastructure
particularly road links at the second India-Burma border trade point in
Rhi-Zowkhethar in Mizoram by upgrading the Rhi-Tidim and Rhi-Falam road
segments in Burma.

Apart from developing road links, attempts were being made to have a rail
link from Jiribham in Assam to Hanoi in Vietnam through Myammar, the
Minister said.

Outlining various steps taken to integrate foreign policy with domestic
initiatives, he said natural challenges remain to be addressed.

"One of the major challenges is to ease trade among geographically
contiguous economies by taking further steps to reduce and remove trade
and transport barriers," he said.

"We need to urgently reduce transaction costs through a series of
measures, including simplification of border trade procedures and further
improve physical connectivity," Mukherjee said, adding action on these
fronts, including in cooperation with the neighbours, is underway.

He noted that some fear that accelerated cooperation could pose serious
challenges. "These concerns and challenges need to be listed out. We need
to dwell on how they may be addressed... There is considerable urgency in
this," the External Affairs Minister said.

Mukherjee said "geography is opportunity and the very geographical
location of the North East makes it the doorway to South East and East
Asia and vice versa, a doorway for these economies into India." This
enormous geographical proximity, along with shared culture and customs,
would provide the basis for considerable synergies, the Minister said.

____________________________________

June 17, Central News Agency - Taiwan
Taiwanese female lawmakers urge Myanmar junta to free Suu Kyi - Deborah Kuo

Forty-four female legislators from across Taiwan's political spectrum
urged Myanmar's military-run government junta Sunday to free, without
conditions, Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 44 women lawmakers were joined by nine other female city and county
councilors from around the island in a signature-collection campaign aimed
at condemning the Myanmar junta for having recently extended Aung San Suu
Kyi's house arrest for another year.

Other people, including Yunlin County Magistrate Su Chih-fen, Taichung
City Mayor Jason Hu and his wife, and several Taiwanese classmates from
Suu Kyi's time at Oxford University, also signed the appeal demanding
total freedom for the Nobel peace laureate.

A copy of the signed petition will be sent to the United Nations'
Secretariat and the European Commission, the top executive body of the
European Union, said ruling Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang
Shu-ying.

The signature collecting campaign was launched on the eve of Suu Kyi's
62nd birthday, on June 19.

On the sidelines of the campaign, several NGO organizations from around
Taiwan are also sponsoring a "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" concert in Taipei
Sunday evening, hoping that more people in Taiwan will become aware of the
lack of democracy in the Indochinese country, Myanmar, and extend their
support to Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the last 17 years under house
arrest.

____________________________________

June 18, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Myanmars mark Suu Kyi's birthday

Kuala Lumpur: More than 300 Myanmars gathered yesterday morning to mark
the birthday of their imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

They listened to speeches about the 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner's
struggle to free her country from military rule. They then pondered the
next steps in their long campaign to free Suu Kyi, who has been held under
house arrest intermittently since 1991.

Aung Kyaw Moe, vice-chairman of the Democratic Federation of Burma for
Malaysia, said they had hoped their leader would be freed after her 62nd
birthday. "But last month, the junta extended her detention for another
year. We are sad about this turn of events. She is the real leader of our
country," he said.

Suu Kyi was born on June 19, 1945 but the Myanmars celebrated yesterday
because Tuesday is a working day. Kyaw Moe said those at the event worked
in factories, restaurants, pet-rol stations and on construction sites.

It was a low-key affair. Participants wore red armbands with the
Democratic Federation of Burma logo tied to the right forearm. They later
cut a cake in honour of Suu Kyi.

"We all pray for her release. Myanmar is so poor. It needs democracy. This
will make our lives better," Kyaw Moe said. He also hoped Asean would do
its bit to help free Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy to an overwhelming general
election victory in 1990 but was prevented by the military junta from
forming a government. Her latest detention, reinstated on May 30, 2003,
was supposed to have expired last month.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 15, Inter Press Service
No End to Forced Labour - Gustavo Capdevila

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) expressed profound concern
about the persistence of forced labour in Burma, while it is closely
monitoring the implementation of a mechanism for victims to file
complaints, which was recently agreed with the Southeast Asian country's
governing junta.

But the ILO's assessment of the case confirms that forced labour remains
widespread in Myanmar (the name given to the country by the military
government), and in fact continues to expand, ILO executive director Kari
Tapiola told IPS.

None of the recommendations of a survey commission sent by the ILO have
been put into practice yet, the international agency reported.

Forced labour is widely used in Burma, especially by the army, says a
report by the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards presented to
the International Labour Conference, which ended its annual three-week
session Friday.

In 1989, the London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International was the
first to denounce that tens of thousands of people in Burma were subjected
to forced labour.

But nearly 10 years later, in 1998, "when I came here, Myanmar still
denied that there was a problem of forced labour," ILO director general
Juan Somavía told IPS.

The military regime eventually acknowledged that it did exist. In
response, the ILO tripartite (government, labour and business) governing
mechanism adopted supplementary provisions to pressure the military junta
in Rangoon.

Somavía said that when the junta allowed the ILO to open an office in
Burma to monitor forced labour, complaints from victims immediately began
to come in.

But two years ago, the situation became much more difficult after a
military coup was carried out within the regime, and a different faction
of officers took power, he said.

The ILO Governing Body reported last November that every effort had been
made to resolve the problem, and that it had decided to present the issue
for United Nations Security Council scrutiny.

At that time it was clear that the military government had no intention of
continuing to work with the ILO, said Somavía.

The ILO and the junta also disagree over the military punishment meted out
to those who dare bring complaints of forced labour. The ILO has
considered the possibility of requesting an advisory opinion from the
International Court of Justice in The Hague.

"On that very specific issue we now actually have an agreement," said
Tapiola, referring to the complaint mechanism agreed on Feb. 26. "So of
course now we are looking at this agreement, at how it works. But the
option of bringing a matter for an advisory opinion at the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) is always there."

"The question (of the ICJ) was because the government has one
interpretation and we had another one and we said the people should not be
punished for complaining about forced labour," said Tapiola.

Somavía said the government reacted to the pressure from the ILO Governing
Body and agreed to once again open the doors to allow the ILO to receive
complaints of forced labour from whistleblowers. That began to occur in
March, he added.

The director general said the ILO attempted to show the democratic forces
in Myanmar that the agency is doing what it can.

"The relationship between the ILO and Myanmar is one where we are now on a
trial basis implementing an agreement where we receive complaints on the
use of forced labour and then we pass them on if they seem to be serious
complaints, for the government to follow up on," said Tapiola.

"The government has followed up on a couple of cases and people have even
been punished to the extent that some people have been put in prison. But
this is a recent phenomenon and we have to see how it works," he added.

The ILO has a convention on forced labour (No. 29) dating back to 1930,
and another on the abolition of the practice (No. 105) from 1957, and
defines forced labour as "all work or service which is exacted from any
person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has
not offered himself voluntarily."

In a 2005 report, the ILO estimated that at that time, there were at least
12.3 million victims of forced labour around the world. Of that total, 9.8
million are exploited by private agents, more than 2.4 million have been
trafficked, and 2.5 million are forced to work by the state or by rebel
military groups.

The ILO reported that forced labour was found on every continent, in
virtually every country, and in every kind of economy.

Particularly stubborn are "traditional" forms of forced labour, like
chattel slavery and debt bondage, said the report.

Another form, bonded labour, is widespread among indigenous people in some
parts of Latin America, while slavery-related practices persist in areas
of Asia. In Europe and North America, meanwhile, increasing numbers of
women and children fall victim to trafficking for the purpose of sexual or
labour exploitation, added the ILO.

____________________________________

June 18, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar, Russia agree to promote bilateral cooperation

Myanmar and the Russian Federation have agreed to promote friendly
relations and cooperation between the two countries, the official
newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Monday.

The agreement, reached at the third regular consultation meeting of the
two countries held in Nay Pyi Taw last weekend, also covered enhancement
of bilateral cooperation in regional and international organizations, the
report said.

Representing at the meeting was Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu from
the Myanmar side and his counterpart Alexander P Losyukdy from the Russian
side.

Losyukdy arrived at Yangon last Friday on an official visit to Myanmar
during which he called on First Secretary of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) Lieutenant-General Thein Sein.

In April 2006, Myanmar SPDC Vice-Chairman Vice Senior-General Maung Aye
visited Moscow, during which the two countries signed a memorandum of
understanding on strategic cooperation in petroleum sector, two agreements
on cooperation in combating illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and
psychotropic substances and their precursors, and in mutual protection of
classified information.

In May this year, Myanmar and Russia signed a deal in Moscow to help
Myanmar build a nuclear research center which will include a laboratory
for producing medical isotopes and complex of buildings and equipment for
reprocessing and burial of nuclear waste, according to Russia's atomic
energy agency Rosatom.

Moreover, two Russian oil companies -- the Silver Wave Sputnik Petroleum
Pte Ltd and the Silver Wave Energy Pte Ltd of Kalmykiahave started in May
also this year drilling of a test well at an inland block in Myanmar's
northwestern Sagaing division in cooperation with Myanmar under production
sharing contracts signed earlier in March.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 18, Mizzima News
Burma needs to relax censorship and support journalists - Htet Win

There are several fields in Burma (Myanmar) in which the private sector
moves much faster than its public counterpart. Of these, private print
media – especially private news publications – is far outpacing its public
competition. And instead of encouraging cooperation in the informing and
entertaining of news-thirsty readers, the government instead gives these
independent outlets little room in which to operate.

When we talk about censorship in Burma there are unwritten rules practiced
by the military junta since the 1962 coup which terminated democratic
governance.

Rule One: The government does not want controversial subjects among the
public. Therefore it censors such items as not newsworthy.

Rule Two: The Office of Scrutiny does not engage in dialogue with any
public or private organisation over published items.

Rule Three: Critical thinking about Burma is ignored by the government.

Amid an attractive market, the military government continues to suppress
the growth of private news publications, while claiming that it has
granted more journal publishing licenses. But this increase in licensure
is measured in quantity, not quality.

The Ministry of Information has so far granted 270 publishing licenses –
120 for weekly newspapers and 150 for monthly magazines. Out of weekly
papers, according to the government's Office of Press Scrutiny, 21 are for
general news journals.

However, with the number of private news journals on the rise and a
population of nearly 55 million, the country is increasingly relying on
independent papers rather than the state-run media to stay informed, even
if the quality of local journalism is still lacking and may not be up to
the challenge.

People increasingly trust news coverage by the private media over
state-owned news outlets. The government also recognizes the strength of
the private media, and in part cooperates with them to keep the public
informed of its own news agenda.

Meanwhile, growing competition has weeded out the weaker journals and led
to better standards in the industry, say some analysts, adding that it is
a sign of a market-focused economy. More than 30 companies have already
surrendered their publishing licenses in the last nine months alone, due
to lack of technical know-how and poor financing.

Government cooperation with private news journals is increasing, with
reporters from private journals allowed to cover state news conferences.
Previously only foreign correspondents and state-owned news agencies were
invited.

However, in one instance, the government a banned a senior journalist with
The Myanmar Times, a privately owned weekly, from attending
state-sponsored press conferences after he raised some probing questions
at a conference held last November.

Criticism of private journals is still widespread and the quality of
reporting in many falls far short of the public's expectations. However
this is not necessarily due to the performance of journalists with the
publications, but rather because the government's Office of Press Scrutiny
heavily censors news content.

The Office's stand effectively kills the talent of newer professionals in
the industry, turning a blind eye to the industry development mantra: 'The
more flexible censorship is, the better the media industry will be able to
operate.'

News reports are expected to benefit both the government and the public.
In practice, it is mainly the junta which benefits, resulting in
deteriorating trust between the government and the public, an alarmingly
mitigating factor in the country's progress.

Government censors should be more flexible, reducing the burden on
journalists and publishers. It is especially relevant in a developing
country like Burma, which still needs censorship because of the low
education level of a majority of the people.

The government sometimes blocks information to protect its image,
regardless of the interests of their citizens. Yet a protected image is
nothing amid an increasingly interconnected world.

According to a retired senior minister, Burma cannot win the trust of
others until others begin speaking positively of the government. For such
a purpose, a robust media can benefit the country and the government,
because domestic news outlets can balance negative reports from foreign
news sources. This remains true even if some observers remain skeptical
about whether Burma's fledgling private media can match the quality of
foreign news outlets.

Private newspapers can act as ambassadors abroad, but using state-owned
media to respond to negative reports is ineffective. Most countries use
private media rather than state-run media to clarify or counter outside
reports.

The government should look for new and better ways to communicate to local
people and the outside world. Such an approach would result in a healthy
culture of communication between the government and the public.

What Burma's nascent private media needs in order to succeed in this
objective is more investment, more trained journalists, better printing
technology and a change in government policies.

____________________________________

June 17, The Gazette (Montreal)
Burmese democrats to mark a sad birthday this week; The legitimate leader
of Burma has spent 11 of the last 17 years in detention

One of the world's most melancholy birthdays will be marked in Burma on
Tuesday. In the sweltering heat of Rangon, Aung San Suu Kyi will turn 62 -
solitary, heroic, under house arrest, the only legitimate leader of her
people but no closer to freedom or power than she was a long, gloomy
decade ago.

The military dictatorship in Burma gave her an early birthday present at
the end of May. The regime announced a further year of detention for the
Nobel Peace Prize winner, adding to the 11 years out of the last 17 that
she has been confined to her peeling lakeside villa on University Avenue.

"The Lady," as everyone in Burma calls her, has been a victim of her
country's generals since 1990. That was the year the regime carelessly
allowed a democratic election and saw its political allies routed. Suu
Kyi's National Democratic Party won 392 of 485 seats.

The generals took care of that little difficulty by simply ignoring it,
bringing down the hammer of repression. They don't fool around. In 1988,
Burmese soldiers massacred 3,000 students in a preview of events a year
later in China's Tiananmen Square.

Almost a decade later, when I visited Burma, a sunny afternoon in Rangoon
became suddenly chilly as armoured cars, equipped with heavy machine-guns,
cruised slowly along downtown streets. Ne Win, who instituted the
dictatorship in 1962, once warned, "If the army shoots, it shoots to hit.
There is no firing in the air to scare."

Simply put, Burma's leaders are thugs. They are also rather thick. For
years they called themselves the State Law and Order Restoration Council
("SLORC"). Western opponents loved to slurp that one out. The junta
finally changed its moniker on the advice of a PR agency.

The generals live in splendid isolation, seemingly without a fig for what
anyone thinks. Apparently on the advice of astrologers, they have moved
the country's capital from Rangoon to a place in the boonies named
Pyinmana.

Their idea of subtle denigration is to accuse Aung San Suu Kyi of refusing
to denounce party members who killed opponents and, er, ate their livers -
i.e. the Lady is soft on cannibalism. Even Danny Williams hasn't used that
one, yet.

The regime's main accomplishment has been to drive Burma's once-prosperous
economy into the ground. Once the world's largest exporter of rice, the
country is now close to a basket case, ruined by isolation and strict,
stupid adherence to Ne Win's "Burmese road to socialism."

The only rich people appear to be men in uniform, who prosper through
corruption, including rakeoffs from the heroin and amphetamine trades.
Recently, the junta's current leader, Than Shwe, draped his daughter in
pearls and diamonds at a wedding to rival any Rockefeller's.

The world keeps tapping at the windowpane, but the junta pays no
attention. Canada's foreign minister, Peter MacKay, might fulminate
honourably against the regime, and the House of Commons pass harsh
resolutions, but who cares in Pyinmana?

The countries that count in this equation are Russia, which is helping
with a nuclear reactor, and Burma's neighbour China, which is happily
gulping its natural resources. Diplomats say Mandalay and the north are
starting to look like a province of China.
Meanwhile, the Lady sits alone and incommunicado at 54 University. That is
where my wife and I visited her 10 years ago, during one of the periods
when she had some freedom to talk to visitors.

It was a memorable encounter with a quick-witted woman even more beautiful
than her photographs. I was looking through my notes of that day recently.

"It's not just that they are brutal," she said of her opponents."It's that
they are small-minded. That's not a very nice combination." Like
Churchill, she sent words out to sting and do battle.

Was she discouraged? "What is there to be discouraged about? Gandhi said
the victory is in the struggle itself. The struggle itself is the most
important thing. I tell my followers that when we achieve democracy, we
will look back with nostalgia on the struggle and how pure we were."

She chuckled. "You know better who your friends are when you are a
dissident."

In the end, she was sure, "We will prevail because our cause is right,
because our cause is just ... History is on our side. Time is on our
side." It was magnificent, inspiring - a Burmese Mandela awaiting her day
in the sun.

In Rangoon, a cynical diplomat added some spin: "Yes, and she'll probably
be as old as Nelson Mandela, too." Sad to say, he's starting to look like
a prophet.

____________________________________
OBITURAY

June 18, Irrawaddy
Dora Than-E, veteran singer, dies at 99

Dora Than-E, the veteran Burmese singer and close friend of Burma's
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, died at his home in Oxford,
England, o­n Sunday at age 99.

Widely considered o­ne of Burma’s greatest singers, Than-E won the hearts
of Burmese audiences with gramophone recordings from the 1930s. She later
married an Austrian documentary film maker and lived most of her live
outside Burma, working for the UN in India, Algeria, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Than-E was also a close friend of Burma's independence hero Gen Aung San,
former UN Secretary-General U Thant and the country’s detained
pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi.

In 1995, Than-E accepted the Jawaharlal Nehru Award o­n the behalf of Suu
Kyi. In her address, she read a statement by Suu Kyi that described Than-E
as "the first Burmese to become a member of the United Nations
Secretariat, she has been an ardent advocate and a practitioner of
international understanding."