BurmaNet News, July 4-5, 2007

[Editor]

July 4-5, 2007 Issue # 3240

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burma ceasefire groups face uncertain future
AP: Myanmar warns terrorists plan to disrupt Constitutional Convention
DVB: Bago locals claim karmic victory as lightning strikes USDA leader
Narinjara News: Monsoons cause floods in Arakan
DVB: Landmine death toll rises in Karen state

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima News: China builds bridges with Burmese ethnic ceasefire groups
Bangkok Post: Karenni reject call to return to Burma from Thailand

BUSINESS / TRADE
KNG: Te Za mines jade with sophisticated equipment in

HEALTH / AIDS
AFP: Freed Myanmar AIDS activist returns to work

REGIONAL
Reuters: China move on Myanmar seen as too limited to help
Mizzima News: Burmese junta divides Naga homeland: NSCN

INTERNATIONAL
AP: EU calls on Myanmar to lift restrictions against International Red Cross
Reuters: Myanmar accuses Red Cross of helping rebels
Inner City Press: At UN in July, China's changed position on Myanmar and
faith in Somali "brothers" among tests - Matthew Russell Lee

ANNOUCEMENT
Prospect Burma: Prospect Burma job vacancy

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 4, Irrawaddy
Burma ceasefire groups face uncertain future - Khun Sam

Some of Burma’s ethnic ceasefire groups remain in the dark about what
their status will be following the conclusion of the National Convention,
scheduled to reconvene for its final session this month.

“We have no idea what will happen to us after the National Convention,”
Nuk Gan, a central committee member of the Kachin Independence
Organization, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday by phone from the group’s
headquarters in Laiza, near the Chinese border.

“We cannot say what we will do after the convention,” Nuk Gan added. “It
depends on the final result [of the convention].”

Nai Ong Ma’Nge, a spokesperson for the New Mon State Party, also said that
his group was unsure what might follow the convention, since the
government has given no specific time frame, saying only that the next
session will be its last.

The National Convention, initiated in 1993 to draw up guidelines for the
creation of a new state constitution, is the first of seven proposed steps
on the Burmese junta’s “roadmap to democracy,” which it alleges will end
with a referendum o­n the constitution and free elections.

In an article in state-run The New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday, Lt-Gen
Thein Sein, Burma’s acting premier and the chairman of the National
Convention, called on all citizens to use wisdom when voting in a
referendum on the junta’s unfinished draft constitution.

But Thein Sein gave no time table for when the constitution would be
complete or when a referendum would be held.

Most of the National Convention’s more than 1,000 delegates were
handpicked by the military government, while opposition parties, including
the National League for Democracy, boycotted the convention for being
undemocratic.

Several ethnic ceasefire groups still participating in the convention have
echoed that charge and complained that their proposals have been ignored
by the body, which recessed last December.

“We have urgently proposed to draw up a plan for a genuine union in Burma,
but we have seen no such principles in the current [draft] constitution,”
said Zahkung Ting Ying, chairman of the ceasefire group New Democracy
Army-Kachin.

According to a spokesperson of the Shan State Nationalities Peoples'
Organization, Burma’s ruling junta is pressuring ethnic ceasefire groups
to lay down their weapons ahead of its final stage of the National
Convention, which is scheduled to resume on July 18.

The Shan group reached a ceasefire with the junta in 1994 and recently
moved to a librated area controlled by the Karenni National Progressive
Party, which vows to continue fighting the military government.

Giving up their weapons is not an option for some ceasefire groups. “Even
though [the junta] urges us to disarm after the convention, we will not
think of doing so unless there is a constitution that guarantees our
peoples’ rights,” said NMSP Spokesperson Nai Ong Ma’Nge.

Meanwhile, other ceasefire groups such as the KIO and the United Wa State
Army have reportedly increased their troop strength.

China has reportedly invited some of Burma’s ethnic ceasefire groups based
near the China-Burma border to hold talks o­n the county’s political
problems and the National Convention.

According to Burmese political analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw, military exercises
held by ethnic ceasefire groups have recently increased along the
country’s border with China, which is worried about instability in the
region leading up to their hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games.

“China is concerned that the ceasefire groups near their border will begin
fighting against the Naypyidaw government,” Aung Kyaw Zaw said.

Burma’s generals may share those concerns. A report in The New Light of
Myanmar o­n Wednesday blamed “terrorist insurgents” for trying to commit
destructive acts with the intention of jeopardizing the convention.

But Nuk Gan said the KIO’s policy was to find a peaceful solution to their
problems through discussion.

“We have to deal carefully with the military government,” Nuk Gan said.
“No matter what we say, they will do what they want with the draft
constitution. If the public revolts, they will say that Burma should be
controlled by military. It may be a trick to allow them to seize power
again.”

____________________________________


July 4, Associated Press
Myanmar warns terrorists plan to disrupt Constitutional Convention

Myanmar's military government has warned that former students have turned
into "terrorists," infiltrated the country's biggest cities and plan to
disrupt a constitution-drafting convention, state-run media reported
Wednesday.

At least a dozen "internal and external terrorists," linked to a group of
exiled student dissidents, completed small-arms training near Myanmar's
border with Thailand and have entered the commercial capital, Yangon, the
New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

The paper said they were also in the administrative capital, Naypyidaw,
and the northern city of Mandalay.

It said the All Burma Students' Democratic Front, or ABSDF, trained the
terrorists. The paper also printed the names and descriptions of some of
those accused of planning "to jeopardize peace and stability," and urged
the public to expose them. Myanmar is also called Burma.

ABSDF Chairman Thankhe, who uses a single name, said his group has no
plans to attack and called the reports "misinformation" from a
dictatorship.

"All the stories are made up. They (the junta) are trying to accuse
organizations struggling for democracy, to sideline them," Thankhe said by
telephone from an undisclosed location in Thailand.

The ABSDF was formed in 1988, after the junta crushed pro-democracy
demonstrations in Yangon and a number of student activists fled to eastern
jungle areas along the Thai border, where ethnic minority groups gave them
safe haven.

The ABSDF had more than 10,000 members in 1989, but has since shrunk to
only a few hundred.

Most have since formed other organizations. Others have emigrated to other
countries, but some have remained in the border area fighting the military
government.

A National Convention drafting guidelines for a new constitution is
scheduled to resume on July 18 at Nyaunghnapin convention center, 45
kilometers (25 miles) north of Yangon.

The junta says the convention is the first of seven steps on a "roadmap to
democracy" that is supposed to culminate in free elections.

The military government hand-picked most of the convention's 1,000
delegates. No timetable has been announced for completing the process.

Critics say the proceedings have been manipulated and should not be taken
seriously, because key opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house
arrest and cannot attend. Her National League for Democracy party has
boycotted the convention to protest her detention and those of other NLD
leaders.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been in prison or under house
arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

The junta first convened the convention in 1993. It was aborted in 1996
after NLD delegates walked out in protest, saying that it was undemocratic
and that the military was controlling the proceedings. The convention was
resurrected in 2004.

Myanmar has been without a constitution since 1988, when its 1974 charter
was suspended. The country has been under military rule since 1962.

____________________________________

July 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Bago locals claim karmic victory as lightning strikes USDA leader

Union Solidarity and Development Association leader and National
Convention delegate U Than Oo from Bago division’s Tharawaddy township
died yesterday after he was struck by lightening.

Staff at Tharawaddy’s USDA office told DVB yesterday that U Than Oo was
struck in the back of the head by a bolt of lightening while he tended his
farm.

“U Than Oo died on the spot when he got struck by lightening at about
10:30am . . . Hi farm hand was a few ranges away from him but was also
caught up in the shock,” USDA officials said.

Local residents responded to news of U Than Oo’s death by saying that it
had resulted from his accumulation of too much bad karma. Residents,
activists and National League for Democracy members have accused the USDA
secretary of harassment and thuggery.

“He and his USDA members harassed the NLD and . . . he went around town in
a pick-up truck shouting ‘Down with those people relying on external
elements, acting as stooges, holding negative views,” one resident said on
condition of anonymity.

“Everyone hated him . . . Now he has faced this fate after being hated by
everyone is saying that he was punished.”

____________________________________

July 5, Narinjara News
Monsoons cause floods in Arakan

About 2,000 houses in Thandwe Township in southern Arakan have been
flooded in rains since July 1, 2007.

The rainfall recorded in Gwa, the southernmost township in Arakan, was
13.95 inches, a government report said. This is the highest quantum of
rainfall in the month of July for Gwa Township in 24 years.

"Quarters one and two in our town are submerged and about 2,000 homes in
the township of Thandwe have been inundated," said the local Thandwe
resident.

At least 700 or 800 dwellings in the downtown quarters of Thandwe are
submerged, while an additional 1,200 to 1,300 hundred houses in rural
areas of the township have been flooded.

Taungup, another town located in southern Arakan, is also facing the same
problem from rains and some parts of the town are now flooded.

The Taungup-Thandwe motor road is inundated and communication between the
two towns came to a halt yesterday.

The Gwe Chaung Bridge located on the Taungup-Thandwe motor road is now
under water and vehicles from Rangoon have stopped plying to Thandwe, a
local said.

A local resident said he has never seen flooding in the area before, and
added it is a consequence of felling trees irresponsibly in Arakan Roma.

____________________________________

July 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Landmine death toll rises in Karen state

The number of people killed by landmines in Karen State has increased
dramatically this year as tensions continue between rival Karen rebels,
according to staff at the Mae Tao clinic on the Thai-Burma border.

Saw Eh Thamwe, the coordinator of the clinic’s mine victim department,
said that the clinic had treated 16 people injured by landmines in June
alone and that increased tensions between the Karen National Union and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army were to blame.

“This year has the highest number of land-mine cases due to intensified
fighting. in previous years, there were as few as ten landmine cases a
year but in the first six months of this year we had 30 cases,” Saw Eh
Thamwe said.

Married couple U Pho Htin and Daw La Pyait from Maw Htoo Tha Lae village
near Myawaddy were bought to the clinic yesterday after they were injured
by a landmine while gathering bamboo shoots in the jungle in the early
morning.

“The wife lost both of her legs and her husband has gone blind. Because
their wounds were quite serious we have sent them to the Mae Sot hospital
with the assistance of the [International Committee of the Red Cross,” Saw
Eh Thamwe said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 4, Mizzima News
China builds bridges with Burmese ethnic ceasefire groups - Ko Dee

In a calculated move to mount pressure on an obdurate Burmese military
junta, China has begun to meet border based Burmese ethnic ceasefire armed
groups, sources on the Sino-Burmese border told Mizzima.

The Chinese interest in building bridges with the armed ethnic outfits,
albeit centres on its economic compulsions. China would want the
Sino-Burma border to be free of strife so that it can use Burma as a major
trade gateway. Renewed armed conflict between the rebel ethnic outfits and
the Burma Army will only jeopardize China's ambitious economic growth.

Chinese officials met two armed rebel groups last month and plans to meet
other groups this month, according to the source, who requested anonymity.

"China is planning to meet all the ceasefire groups. Their policy is aimed
at negotiating with them. The agendas are likely to include the national
convention and regional administration," the source said.

China is concerned by reports that indicate the groups are gearing up to
revive armed insurgency following pressure from the junta to lay down
arms, the source added.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese military analyst based on the Sino-Burma border,
told Mizzima that China wants its frontiers bordering Burma to be safe and
stable, so that it can use Burma as a major trade transit point.

Economic interest cannot be ruled out as China's intention in meeting the
ceasefire groups, he added.

Reports suggest that one of Burma's longest surviving ethnic insurgent
groups, the Kachin Independence Army, is now meeting Chinese officials in
Kunming. The KIO could not be reached for confirmation.

Speculation is rife that the KIO last week formed a security unit, for
expansion of the group by taking in new recruits.

Another unconfirmed report said, Lt –Gen Thein Sein, chairman of the
junta's convention convening committee, visited Shan state on July 1 and
met several ceasefire armed groups, and discussed matters related to the
national convention.

____________________________________

July 4, Bangkok Post
Karenni reject call to return to Burma from Thailand

Mae Hong Son - Long-necked Karenni refugees living in northern Mae Hong
Son province have turned down Burma's latest call for them to return to
their motherland, saying it is not safe because of the continuing fighting
there. During a recent Thai-Burma Township Border Committee meeting in a
Burmese border community, the Burmese authorities sought cooperation from
Thailand to help repatriate the long-necked Karenni, who took refuge in
the North.

Lae Manthu, a leader of the long-necked Karenni in Mae Hong Son, said he
and other refugees did not want to return for the time being as they were
uncertain about the situation there.

Fighting between Burmese soldiers and ethnic rebels continued, he said.

The Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), of which the long-necked
Karenni are members, agreed the group should not return, Mr. Lae said.

The Padaung, as they are also known, fled Burma to escape armed
hostilities between government troops and ethnic insurgents more than 15
years ago.

They are living at three holding centres in Mae Hong Son set up by
Thailand. They were given refugee status and now are under the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Over time, their lives have
changed as they have been exposed to the booming tourism industry in the
northern province. Many earn money from sales to tourists.

For some years, the Karenni National People's Liberation Front (KNPLF), a
splinter group that broke away from the KNPP to side with the Burmese
junta, has called on Thailand to send the long-necked Karenni back home.
The KNPLF wants these tribal people to draw tourists to its new village in
Burma.

Mae Hong Son authorities are now in the process of relocating these
people, moving them all to the same holding centre and stating security
reasons.

Under the plan, refugees from Ban Huay Sua Tao and Ban Nai Soi holding
centres in Muang district will be moved to the Ban Huay Pukaeng holding
centre in the same district. The relocation is expected to be completed in
September.

There are 177 Padaung refugees living in Ban Huay Sua Tao, 233 in Ban Nai
Soi and 199 in Ban Huay Pukaeng.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 5, Kachin News Group
Te Za mines jade with sophisticated equipment in

The Htoo Trading Company, owned by well-known Burmese tycoon Te Za, is
running full scale jade mining operations with sophisticated mining
equipment in Phakant, Kachin State in northern Burma. The tycoon is close
to the Burmese military junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe.

Over 15 hydraulic earth diggers and over 20 Volvo 12-wheel trucks operate
daily in Kawng San and Tawng Kaw mines. The expensive and unlicensed Volvo
trucks cannot be used by any other jade mining company in Phakant except
Te Za and Myanmar Dagaung Co. Ltd., said a local jade businessman.

In Phakant, Burma's ruling junta has not allowed companies to use
unlicensed mining equipment such as diggers and trucks but  Te Za's Htoo
Trading Company and Myanmar Dagaung Co. Ltd., derived from former United
Wa State Army (UWSA)'s Hong Pang Group of companies owned by Wei Shao
Kang, have been permitted to use unlicensed mining equipment, local
businessmen said.

Te Za does not know much about jade, so he needs to cooperates with the
Myanmar Dagaung Co. Ltd. The mining site's signboard and all the trucks
have "Myanmar Dagaung" written on them instead of Htoo Trading Company,
said local jade miners.

The Myanmar Dagaung Co. Ltd. is owned by former Hong Pang Group of
company’s owner, Wei Shao Kang, a Chinese who is associated with the drug
business in Burma. He knows much more about the jade business and also has
a lot of experience, local jade businessmen said.

Now the Myanmar Dagaung Co. Ltd. occupies the entire Gwi Kha mine with the
help of the junta and several company posters can be seen in the area, a
jade businessman told KNG.

Te Za, one of Burma's official export and import license holders is close
to Burma's ruling junta head Senior General Than Shwe. He occupies the
entire Kawng San and Ting Kaw Mines and has forcibly displaced over 30
households in each mine area with the help of the Phakant-based junta's
Strategic Command No.3 in October last year.

The entire Phakant jade mining areas are going to be occupied by the two
pro-junta companies of Htoo Trading and Myanmar Dagaung rather than the
UWSA, PaO National Army (PNA) led by Aung Kham Hti and Burma's other
ethnic ceasefire groups, the businessmen added.

Phakant jade mining areas have been totally controlled by Burma's Ministry
of Mines after the strongest Kachin ceasefire group, Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO) signed a ceasefire agreement with Burma's junta in 1994

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 5, Agence France Presse
Freed Myanmar AIDS activist returns to work

People with AIDS start lining up before dawn outside Phyu Phyu Thin's
house in Yangon, waiting to see the woman they call their sunshine.

Some are too weak to stand, but sit or lie down outside the home of one of
Myanmar's most prominent AIDS activists, in one of the countries
hardest-hit by the disease.

Myanmar's health system has collapsed under decades of military rule, and
Phyu Phyu Thin is one of the few people who has tried to help people
living with HIV find the scant services available to them here.

For seven weeks, they waited in vain to see her after Phyu Phyu Thin was
arrested in May along with more than 60 others for joining in vigils to
pray for the release of Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Phyu Phyu Thin, 36, was freed late Monday, after dozens of others were
released last month. About 10 are still believed to be in custody,
according to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

"We feel stronger mentally when we see Phyu Phyu Thin," said Boat Sone,
the HIV-positive widow of a political prisoner who died last year of an
AIDS-related illness.

"We felt really depressed when she was arrested. She is a light for us
while we are living in darkness."

Phyu Phyu Thin has headed the NLD's AIDS programme since 2002, tapping
into the party's youth league and recruiting students and Buddhist monks
as volunteers to help about 1,000 people with HIV from around the country.

When patients come to Yangon, she helps them find places to stay and tries
to match them up with the few treatment services available, mainly at
clinics run by international aid agencies.

She also organises home-based care for patients who need it, and has found
private donors to pay for life-prolonging drugs for about 30 people.

Although she's not a doctor herself, she talks about the people she helps
as "her patients." Eleven of them were so distraught by her arrest that
they held a prayer vigil last month to call for her release, only to be
detained themselves for four days.

Her patients range in age from two to almost 50. They are at different
stages of illness, and many live in rural areas where even basic health
services are limited.

"By the time many of them come to us, they already have AIDS-related
illnesses," Phyu Phyu Thin said.

Getting treatment to people in remote parts of the country is one of her
most difficult challenges, a struggle shared by international agencies
that are forced to work within strict limits imposed by the military
government.

Emmanuel Goue, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders-Switzerland,
said his group's main problem was access to their patients in southern
Myanmar, where they provide 700 people with anti-retroviral drugs.

Goue said he had to ask the military for permission to travel to the
region two months in advance.

"What if I have an emergency? What if my people need me now to solve some
problems? Impossible!" he said.

The UN-initiated Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria
withdrew from Myanmar last year due to similar complaints, although a
European-led fund has formed to try to fill the gap.

The lack of treatment and prevention efforts contributes to the disease's
spread in a country where the UN says some 360,000 people are infected
with HIV, or about 1.3 percent of adults.

Tin Ko is one of them. He found out he had HIV only after his daughter was
born with the disease.

"If we'd had a chance to prevent mother-to-child transmission, my daughter
wouldn't have gotten HIV," he said. At two years old, his child is the
youngest person receiving help from Phyu Phyu Thin's group.

But he's one of the lucky ones receiving anti-retroviral treatment from
Myanmar's Wai Bar Gi infectious disease hospital.

"I have no fear of death, but I want to work so that others can have
access to drugs," Tin Ko said.

Phyu Phyu Thin said she believed that expanding treatment programmes in
Myanmar was the only way to save the country's youth.

"Treatment is needed urgently because people are dying everyday. Treatment
not only can prevent death, it can also save the country's workforce of
young people," she said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 4, Reuters
China move on Myanmar seen as too limited to help - Paul Eckert

China won plaudits for hosting rare U.S.-Myanmar talks last week, but
resolving one of Asia's longest-festering problems will require far
greater action by Beijing, experts and activists said on Tuesday.

China arranged and hosted meetings in Beijing between the top U.S.
diplomat for Southeast Asia and ministers from Myanmar, the highest-level
talks in about half a decade.

Eric John, deputy assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, used
his talks with Foreign Minister Nyan Win and two other junta ministers to
press for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the
confinement she has suffered for more than 11 of the last 17 years, U.S.
officials said.

Analysts and activists who work on Myanmar -- most of whom still use its
former name, Burma -- welcomed the Chinese move. But they said Beijing is
far from applying meaningful pressure on the military rulers that have run
that impoverished Southeast Asian country in various guises since 1962.

"China is under attack from many human rights activists for its support
for the worst dictatorial regimes in Sudan, Burma, North Korea, etc, so it
might want to change its image," said Aung Din, policy director of the
Washington-based advocacy group U.S. Campaign for Burma.

In a June 28 Washington Post commentary that brought the little-noticed
U.S.-Myanmar talks to public attention, prominent former diplomat Richard
Holbrooke suggested Beijing could perform a role on Myanmar akin to the
other major trouble spot on China's border: nuclear-armed North Korea.

Noting recent pressure from China on Sudan that he said "changed the
equation" in the crisis in Darfur, Holbrooke suggested similar
Chinese-U.S. collaboration on Myanmar.

China as junta's lifeline

As with Sudan, China has sold millions of dollars worth of weapons to
Myanmar at friendship prices. Beijing has also invested huge sums in
helping Yangon upgrade Indian Ocean naval facilities, including listening
posts that China uses, and is a major importer of Myanmar's timber and
minerals.

Those interests -- as well as close political relations forged when
Myanmar and China were both treated as pariahs by the West following army
massacres of pro-democracy activists in Yangon in 1988 and Beijing in 1989
-- help the Myanmar junta survive political isolation and trade embargoes.

"Trade sanctions, the Myanmar junta can just ignore because of the
investment flowing in from China and also from India," Indonesian lawmaker
Djoko Susilo said in an interview in Washington.

Susilo, who has spearheaded parliamentary activism on Myanmar in Indonesia
and in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said China has built up
"good leverage" with Yangon, but so far uses it "only on superficial
things."

Wary of China's rising clout in its backyard -- the 10-member ASEAN
includes Myanmar -- Southeast Asians say the United States needs to be
more flexible to have any impact.

"The Bush policy does not give any incentives for a regime like Myanmar to
improve the situation," Susilo said.

Derek Mitchell, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, says that the United States has to step away from a
policy of largely shunning Yangon while encouraging China to take concrete
steps with Myanmar.

"We need to be sober about how far China's going to go," he said. "What it
would take really for progress is for the Chinese to get in the game
rather than simply referee it."

China could prod Myanmar to change by stopping weapons sales, holding up
investments, threatening to withdraw diplomatic cover and joining
concerted diplomacy by ASEAN, the United States, Europe and India, said
Mitchell.

____________________________________

July 5, Mizzima News
Burmese junta divides Naga homeland: NSCN - Subhaschandra M

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isaac-Muivah faction), one of
the more powerful rebel outfits in India's northeastern region has accused
Burma's military junta of dividing the homeland of the Naga community.

The NSCN (IM) which is into a dialogue for peace with the government of
India since August 1, 1997 , monitored by its Ministry of Information and
Publicity (MIP), has published a book titled Naga Homeland in Danger: The
politics of Constitution making in Myanmar ( Burma).

Isak Chishi Swu, Chairman of the NSCN-IM, formally released the book from
its general headquarters in Hebron near Nagaland's commercial capital
Dimapur during the first day's session of the Joint Council meeting of the
Government of People's Republic of Nagalim on July 4, sources said.

The book release function was attended by Thuingaleng Muivah, the General
Secretary of the NSCN-IM, along with other top officials of the outfit.

Giving a vivid account of the plight of the Nagas in Eastern Nagalim under
Burma, divided by British imperialists from Western Nagalim in total
violation of Nagas' right to live as one political body, the book claims
that the manner of exploitation of the Nagas is nothing but unfair and
inhuman "as the boundary is made to run through villages, fields and even
homes."

The Naga community living on the Indian side used to call those who live
across the international boundary in Burma as eastern Nagas.

These eastern Nagas used to visit their neighbours in Manipur's Ukhrul as
well as Nagaland's border district during annual festivals. In Manipur,
they visit during the time of Naga's seed sowing festival Lui-Ngai Ni
which falls on February 15 every year.

"The political plight of the Nagas and the gross injustice done to the
Nagas by successive governments in Myanmar (Burma) can no longer be
tolerated by the Nagas in general and the NSCN in particular," said a
press release issued by the outfit's Ministry of Information and
Publicity, while informing that this is the reason why it had brought out
the book to expose to the whole world what the military junta is doing to
further divide the Naga homeland.

"This book is meant to drive home the point that the world should no
longer remain silent to the act of treacherous imposition by slicing away
Nagas' land in the guise of creating a Naga state but which excludes most
important townships and mineral-rich areas," the statement of the outfit
further said.

The book also exposes the condition of Eastern Nagalim under the coercive
control of the Burmese military junta, which commits excessive human
rights violations. Further the book points to the dirty politics or game
plan of drafting a new constitution putting the Nagas at the receiving
end, the MIP release said.

"In the storm of controversy is the National Convention. What exactly is
the National convention? Find out from the book and its implication on the
Nagas," it added.

The NSCN (IM) asserted that importantly, the book is worth its weight in
gold in pushing forward the Nagas' aspiration for a homeland now divided
across two countries, subdivided under different state controls and facing
further division in Eastern Nagalim which is presently in Burmese
territory.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 4, Associated Press
EU calls on Myanmar to lift restrictions against International Red Cross

The European Union urged Myanmar to lift restrictions against the
International Red Cross on Wednesday, denouncing recent moves to restrict
the group's humanitarian work in the country.

The EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU
Development Commissioner Louis Michel appealed for Myanmar authorities to
restart dialogue with the Red Cross as soon as possible.

The Geneva-based Red Cross on Friday went public in condemning abuses
against civilians and detainees in Myanmar, saying they were causing
"immense suffering."

Michel said he was "concerned about the seriousness of the violations
denounced by the International Red Cross," adding that actions to destroy
food supplies and reported abuses by the military against men, women and
children living along the Thai-Myanmar border amounted to violations of
international humanitarian law.

"The provisions of the international humanitarian law should ... be fully
applied," Michel said in a statement. The Red Cross said Myanmar
authorities were making thousands of detainees serve as porters for the
armed forces, exposing them to the dangers of combat and other risks.

The organization said it had tried to resolve the problems through
confidential talks with the military junta that runs Myanmar, also known
as Burma, but that so far they have refused to engage in serious talks.

Ferrero-Waldner said the EU would help facilitate talks between the Red
Cross and the junta.

Red Cross officials said Myanmar has imposed increasingly severe
restrictions on ICRC staff, making it impossible for them move
independently and hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The organization has been unable to meet with prisoners, notably with the
country's most prominent detainee, Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

The ICRC last visited Suu Kyi in 2003. She has spent more than 11 of the
past 18 years in detention.

____________________________________

July 5, Reuters
Myanmar accuses Red Cross of helping rebels - Aung Hla Tun

Myanmar's military rulers hit back on Wednesday at rare public criticism
from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), accusing the
humanitarian agency of secret ties to guerrillas.

"The authorities found out evidences that personnel of the five regional
offices of the ICRC had clandestine relations with insurgent groups," said
Than Than Nwe, president of the Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation.

Than Than Nwe, wife of Prime Minister Soe Win, made her comments at an
official Women's Day ceremony on Tuesday and reported in the former
Burma's state-controlled Burmese and English-language newspapers the
following day.

The Geneva-based ICRC issued a rare public censure of Myanmar last week,
accusing the junta of serious abuses against civilians and prisoners,
including forcing them to serve as army porters walking ahead of soldiers
through minefields.

The ICRC says it has also been unable to visit any of Myanmar's estimated
1,100 political prisoners since late 2005 because the authorities have
refused to allow ICRC staff to conduct meetings in private.

It has also closed three humanitarian offices near ethnic conflict areas
this year, citing government restrictions.

Than Than Nwe said the ICRC chose to visit only "prisoners who were in the
list given by anti-government groups at home and abroad" and invariably
stirred up trouble.

"Separate meetings with such prisoners were followed by unrest and
protests at the jails in consequence," the New Light of Myanmar, the
junta's main English-language mouthpiece, quoted her as saying.

"Such activities harmed State's sovereignty, stability, peace and
prevalence of law and order, so the authorities had to lay down new
procedures," she said.

Since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, the Southeast Asian
nation has been riven by dozens of guerrilla conflicts with ethnic
minorities seeking either autonomy or independence.

Many of these intensified after the army seized power in 1962 and
established military rule that has endured to this day.

The junta signed ceasefires with many rebel groups during the 1990s,
although the three largest militias -- the Karen National Liberation Army,
the Karenni National Progressive Party and the Shan State Army -- refuse
to lay down their weapons.

State media reported last month that "terrorist insurgents" had killed 27
people in two attacks on buses in Karen and Karenni areas.

Official newspapers frequently rail against "internal and external
terrorists" or "destructive elements", junta shorthand for the opposition
National League for Democracy and exiled political groups.

____________________________________

July 3, Inner City Press
At UN in July, China's changed position on Myanmar and faith in Somali
"brothers" among tests - Matthew Russell Lee

China's Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya on Tuesday explained this
country's foreign policy, and relatedly his seeming flip-flop this year on
the right approach to Myanmar.

In January, China along with Russia cast vetoes opposing a resolution to
put the situation in Myanmar on the agenda of the Security Council. In his
explanation of vote, still available online on the Chinese government's
website, Amb. Wang said that "the tenth ASEAN summit will be held soon.
China will, as always, support ASEAN to play a leading role in addressing
the issue of Myanmar."

But after the May summit of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations called on Myanmar's military-based government to release detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Chinese did not "support ASEAN to play
a leading role in addressing the issue of Myanmar." A day after the ASEAN
summit ended, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a contrary statement,
that "the Aung San Suu Kyi matter is Myanmar's internal affair."

Tuesday at Amb. Wang's press conference to open China's month at the head
of the Security Council, Inner City Press asked "what changed between
January and May?" Amb. Wang did not directly address the change, but
rather noted that "Myanmar is China's neighbor" and that "any efforts by
the Myanmar authorities to improve their situation should be appreciated."

Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross strongly
criticized Myanmar's army's use of detainees as porters and, essentially,
as involuntary human mine sweepers. The ICRC nearly always refrains from
such criticism, in order to maintain humanitarian access -- making its
rebuke of Myanmar all the more striking.

One might have asked, and still might this month ask, Amb. Wang what
exactly are the "efforts by the Myanmar authorities to improve their
situation" which "should be appreciated"? Whose situation is being
improved?

On the other hand, in another now-signature Chinese diplomatic move, the
Chinese government last week arranged for meetings between Myanmar and the
United States, in Beijing. Inner City Press Tuesday asked questions about
this, first to Chinese mission staff then to Amb. Wang, who said this was
consistent with China's "work to bring dialogue between main parties" in
the effort to bring "peace and stability." It is analogous, then, to
China's role in the Six Party Talks with North Korea. In fact, China's
foreign minister Yang Jiechi met Tuesday in Pyongyang with Kim Jong-il.

At his press conference on Tuesday, to his credit, Amb. Wang took more
than a half an hour of questions, the majority on Iran, Lebanon and
Darfur.  On Iran and the Middle East, Amb. Wang deferred to the
International Atomic Energy Agency and to the Quartet, respectively. The
briefing began with a question on Kosovo. Amb. Wang in response
distinguished between "status" and "standards," which will be discussed in
the Council on July 8. Asked if Kosovo's contested status is now a matter
between the U.S. and Russia, Amb. Wang said that if Serbia and Kosovo
could agree, all else would follow.

This echoed Amb. Wang's answer on May 30, again to Inner City Press, on
questions on Kosovo and Darfur:

Inner City Press: Ambassador, could you say what China's thinking is on
Kosovo, the pending Kosovo proposals?

Amb. Wang: I think that, of course, that for China for many -- for a
number of years will support the effort by Mr. Ahtisaari to try to move
forward with these status negotiations. But I think that so far, the two
main parties have not reached agreement, so I think it will be difficult
for China before the two parties agreed on a common formula.

Inner City Press: And with the U.S.'s sanctions against Sudan yesterday,
what is the timing here in the Security Council? What do you think the
timing -- do you think -- do you envision a resolution coming forward?
What is China's position?

Amb. Wang: I've noticed that -- what the United States had decided
yesterday. But I think that it is quite unfortunate, because for China we
believe that there are three fronts. The humanitarian side, of course --
the situation not satisfactory. There are many problems. But many see that
over the last couple of months, there has already been improvements.
Secondly, on the political process, as -- we see that the two special
envoys of the secretary-general and of the AU are carrying out their
negotiations to promote this political process.

Thirdly, on the peacekeeping, I think that now with the deployment of the
second stage, and now the secretary-general has sent letters to the
Sudanese explaining to them his ideas about the third stage, about hybrid,
I think that on all three fronts, there are a lot of efforts in trying to
push forward a diplomatic solution to the problems in Darfur. So therefore
I think under such circumstances, the moves taken by the United States,
particularly the announced -- the sanctions and also talking about having
a Security Council resolution on the sanctions -- I think that this might
make the fragile situation a bit more complicated, so I think we are a bit
concerned.

Tuesday on Darfur, Amb. Wang quoted Ban Ki-moon's recent claim of
"credible progress." He took issue with the statement that China is
Sudan's main supporter, saying that "China does not feel shy about its
good relations" with its "African brothers." In response to another
question on Darfur, Amb. Wang repeated his previous statement on Myanmar,
that China believes in "no interference in internal affairs" of other
countries.

Inner City Press asked Amb. Wang for his view on requests for a UN force
by the UN- and Ethiopia-installed Transitional Federal Government of
Somalia. Amb. Wang cited to the request by "the government, the
authorities" for such troops -- an implicit though not necessarily
accurate distinction with Darfur -- and said that the Council members
should "be aware of the desires of the African countries."

One is left wondering why armed conflict between government "authorities"
and insurgents in Myanmar is an "internal matter," but in Somalia it is
not. Does Ethiopia's incursion into Somalia de facto make it a more of a
matter of international peace and security than is Myanmar? Perhaps this
month Amb. Wang will answer this question; perhaps events in the wider
world will cast light on it.

Inner City Press asked what Amb. Wang and the Council will do if on July
15 the Somali Reconciliation Congress is postponed, for what would be the
third time.  "Prime Minister Gedi gave firm assurances to Council members
that there will be no delay," Amb. Wang responded. "We have to count on
his assurances." We'll see.

____________________________________
ANNOUCEMENT

July 5, Prospect Burma
Prospect Burma job vacancy

The Chairman and Trustees are seeking a part-time Executive Director to
take over as soon as possible, and at the latest by mid December 2007.

Prospect Burma is a small UK registered charity which exists to help the
education of Burmese citizens who will promote democracy in their
homeland. It fulfils this mission by granting scholarships for study
courses at tertiary level at educational institutions outside Burma, and
by supporting small scale educational projects, both inside and outside
Burma.

Based in Fulham, the Director, supported by a part-time Development
Officer, by the Trustees and volunteers, is responsible for an expanding
worldwide scholarship programme, for an English Language School in Delhi,
and for other actual and planned projects. He/she maintains relations with
major institutional and individual donors, and with representatives in
Thailand and India. The Director is responsible for the main
administrative functions of the charity, and makes policy recommendations
to the Trustees.

The Director should have wide administrative experience, including with
IT, and some knowledge of academic matters. Ideally he/she will have
experience of charity work. It is desirable for the Director to have
experience in developing countries. The position calls for a flexible
approach and willingness to take on a wide variety of hands on tasks.
Terms and conditions are by negotiation.

For further background on the charity see the website,
"http://www.prospectburma.org" www.prospectburma.org.

Interested candidates should send their CVs to the Chairman, Mr. Martin 
Morland, CMG,  Prospect Burma, c/o Porters Lodge, Rivermead Court, 
Ranelagh Gardens, London SW6 3SE  by August 7 2007, with a covering 
letter.

Prospect Burma
Porters' Lodge Rivermead Court  Ranelagh Gardens  London SW6 3SF
Telephone: 020 7371 0887 Fax: 020 7371 0547
E-Mail: ian at prospectburma.org
Website: www.prospectburma.org