BurmaNet News, July 11, 2007

[Editor]

July 11, 2007 Issue # 3244

INSIDE BURMA
IMNA: USDA's image make over
DVB: Karen villagers accuse DKBA of forced relocation
Narinjara News: Municipality levies fee for army's electricity consumption

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Looking for better life puts Burmese migrants at risk
Khonumthung News: ZORO opposes Indo-Bangla-Myanmar border fencing

HEALTH / AIDS
BBC World: Nurses on the frontline

ASEAN
Irrawaddy: Asean declaration urges more migrant worker rights

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: India's Burma policy requires imagination: Former UN Ambassador
Irrawaddy: Major Burmese art exhibition opens in Chiang Mai

INTERNATIONAL
ABC Radio Australia: Burma fails corruption index
VOA: UN sends relief to flood-stricken Burmese region

OPINION / OTHER
IPS: Thai junta going the Burma way? - Marwaan Macan-Markar

ANNOUNCEMENT
BBC World: Nurses On The Frontline

OBITUARY
Mizzima News: Famous actor dies prematurely

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 10, Independent Mon News Agency
USDA's image make over- Joi Htaw

The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) is going in for an
image makeover to project itself as a welfare organization in order to get
support from the people. This is part of the State Peace and Development
Council's seven point road map to democracy, said U Htay Aung, the
supervisor of Research Development, from the Network for Democracy and
Development.

State run MRTV channel said that a high profile military leader in a
speech during the closing ceremony of USDA's organizing training said that
USDA members have to serve and fulfill the local people's needs. It has to
be an association which represents society. He added that USDA members
must make Burma a democratic system.

Opposing the military leader's contention media groups in exile often
state that the members of USDA appear everywhere and intervene in people's
movements.

U Htay Aung said that USDA is trying to get along with the people and
struggling to receive public support because the SPDC will hold elections
after the draft constitution. To win the election following a referendum,
they will need people's support, he added.

USDA members in Mon State claimed that their organization is a
Non-Government Organization. The state owned media is publicizing the
activities of the USDA such as blood donations and distribution of
medicine among other things, which is meant to take care of the people.
The USDA is slowly acting like an NGO.

In the beginning when USDA was established, the government declared that
it was not a political party and forced students and people to join, said
U Htay Aung, but, the USDA secretary, Maj Gen Htay Oo stated in a press
conference in 2006, that the association may change to a political party
depending on the circumstances.

USDA was set up when Senior General Than Shwe took over the State Law and
Order Restoration Council in 1993 to use it as a political wing of the
military government, the supervisor said.

____________________________________

July 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Karen villagers accuse DKBA of forced relocation

Karen villagers told DVB today that the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army had
forced them out of their villages as a result of ongoing fighting with the
Karen Nation Union.

Villagers near Kaw Kayeik township, were reportedly ordered by the DKBA to
leave their properties by July 9.

“The DKBA said we had to start moving by the 9th. We are supposed to move
to a place that is about three hours away,” one villager said.

The DKBA confirmed today that they had asked the villagers to move, saying
that it was because they needed to clear the land for use against the KNU.
Seven villages, comprising more than 300 people have been ordered to move.

“We are just clearing the area because there are thieves and robbers,” a
DKBA officer said, adding that the villagers were not to blame for the
orders to move.

But villagers said they did not want to leave their land since their crops
were already into the monsoon season and they would lose their livelihood
if they were forced to abandon them.

The Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People said force relocations
were common across Karen State, with more than 90 villages forced to
relocate last year.

____________________________________

July 11, Narinjara News
Municipality levies fee for army's electricity consumption

The Akyab municipality has levied fees in order to pay for the electricity
consumed by the army and government departments in the capital of Arakan
State, said a well-known retired teacher.

"The municipal authorities have been collecting Kyat 300 per unit of power
on the metre reading, and Kyat 500 for the power metre box a month from
households in Akyab," he said.

People in the town are suffering due to the levy for the power metre box,
and most do not want to pay the extra Kyat 500 to the municipal
department, the teacher said.

However, people have been compelled t concede to the demand because they
are afraid that the authorities will deprive them of electricity.

Many people in Akyab believe the extra money collected for the metre box
is for the electricity bill for the army and the government in Akyab, he
said.

In Akyab, the capital of Arakan State, electricity is irregular and people
often set up small power plants themselves using paddy husks as fuel
instead of petrol.

Despite the use of alternate power and the lack of uninterrupted
electricity, the municipal authorities are still collecting money from
townspeople for the power metre box.

The levy has been imposed by the municipal department under the Me Lin Ray
committee, the Akyab committee, and the military's western command.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 11, Irrawaddy
Looking for better life puts Burmese migrants at risk - Shah Paung

Saw Wah sat in the noisy, stifling darkness and hoped the Thai police
manning the checkpoints would not discover him. He had paid 3,500 baht
(about US $100) to ride in the luggage compartment of a bus for the 8-hour
ride from Bangkok to Mae Sot.

“Every time the bus arrived at a checkpoint, I was scared to breathe for
fear that they would discover me,” said Saw Wah. “I heard some passengers
leave the bus with the police.”

They were illegal migrants, just like him.

Saw Wah, 22, was one of thousands of Burmese refugees living in camps
along the Thai-Burmese border in Tak Province.

Burmese refugees are not allowed to live or work outside the camp; most
residents have no jobs, no income and not much of a future.

He and ten others had paid a courier 5,000 baht ($150) to take them to
Bangkok to find work. They set out on foot, had to tote their own food and
slept in the forest.

Just outside Bangkok, Saw Wah was detained for three days before finding
work. Separated from his friends, he was employed by a Chinese man to
purchase used electronics and other goods at a wage of 4,000 baht per
month ($120), which included a small room. He had to provide his own food.

Saw Wah’s story is typical of many Burmese refugees, who increasingly fall
prey to human traffickers. Half of all Burmese migrant workers in Thailand
have been trafficked, according to the Mae Sot-based group Social Action
for Women, and many of them don’t even realize it.

“The problem is that people do not know they have been trafficked. Even
when they face violence, they refuse to go back to Burma,” said SAW
director Aye Aye Mar. “If they escape from [employers], they cannot afford
to pay back the money they borrowed to find work in Thailand in the first
place.”

Not all of Thailand’s migrant workers are illegal. More than 400,000
Burmese workers renewed their work permits in June this year, according to
the Chiang Mai-based Migrant Assistance Program.

But many opt for less official channels to find employment. Trafficking in
Persons, a US State Department report launched in mid-June, described
Burma as “a source country for women and men trafficked for the purpose of
forced labor and sexual exploitation.”

The report criticized Burma’s military government for not doing enough to
stop the flow of human trafficking, particularly of women and children.

Aye Aye Mare said that Burmese can be trafficked in a variety of ways.
They are brought into Thailand in vegetable carts, diesel tanks or by
walking through a vulnerable point along the border.

Some have died from suffocation. Women have been raped by couriers on
their way to Bangkok. Migrants can pay as much as 15,000 baht ($450) to
get from Mae Sot to the Thai capital, where they hope to find employment.

Saw Wah lasted only six months at his job in Bangkok.

Returning to Mae Sot took considerable effort and substantial risk. He
endured an expensive and dangerous ride in the belly of a bus. In addition
to the 3,500 baht bus fee, he had to pay 4,000 baht ($120) in additional
fees and 300 baht ($8) to get from Mae Sot to his home in the refugee
camp.

“After 8 hours sitting in darkness, I felt dizzy and weak. I nearly feel
down after the luggage door opened and I tried to stand up in the light,”
Saw Wah said. “I will not go back to work [in Bangkok] again.”

____________________________________

July 11, Khonumthung News
ZORO opposes Indo-Bangla-Myanmar border fencing

The Zo Re-unification Organization (ZORO), a non-government organization
in Mizoram, India, is opposing the fencing of the Indo-Bangla-Myanmar
border. It feels that border fencing will be a barrier to the
reunification of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo ethnic tribes in Northeast India,
Myanmar and Bangladesh.

"ZORO is concerned that the land which was under the administration of the
Chin-Lushai-Kukis, was permanently divided when the British granted
independence to India, Pakistan and Burma. This led to the division of the
indigenous tribes into further minority groups with a resulting diasporic
dispersion of these tribes," said Mr. Thangmawia, president of ZORO said
at press conference held in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram on July 9.

The generic word 'ZO' means Chin-Kuki-Mizo tribes living in India, Myanmar
and Bangladesh in a total area of around 91,000 square miles.

Mr. Thangmawia had also addressed the issues of the re-unification of
Chin-Kuki-Mizo, Indo-Bangla-Myanmar border fencing and natural resource
exploration scheme in the areas of the so called Zo tribes at the United
Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held from May 14 to 25 in New
York.

The governments of Mizoram, Manipur and other states of northeast India,
however, are concerned over easy infiltration of ethnic rebel groups, the
flow of drugs, arms smuggling and other criminal activities due to the
porous border.

O Ibobi Singh, Chief Minister of Manipur state said on June 14 that the
Ministry of External Affairs of India has sanctioned funds to expedite the
work of fencing 10 kilometres of the 1,643-kiolmetre Indo-Myanmar border.

The United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and International
Narcotic Control Board (INCB) is said to have also warned Northeast India
to be vigilant about the poor state of border security facilities as the
region could become a major transit point for illicit drugs.

India is trying to construct the fence across 4,096-kilomtere
Indo-Bangladesh border in order to prevent infiltration and cross-border
movement of rebels active in Indian territory.

Nevertheless, ZORO feels the international boundary that divided the so
called Zo tribes as artificial and had called on the UN forum to address
the issue on the reunification of Chin-kuki-Mizo from different regions.

ZORO also feels that Zo tribes are being taken advantage of by more
powerful societies.

ZORO was formed in 1988 in Champhai district in Mizoram state on the
Indo-Myanmar border with the purpose to reunify Chin-Kuki-Mizo people
under one administration head in conformity with the resolution of
Chin-Lushai conference held at Fort Willian in Culcatta on January 29,
1892.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 6, BBC World
Nurses on the frontline

Showing times: Friday 6th & 13th July at 1930 GMT
Repeated: Sundays at 0830 (Not Europe), Mondays at 0930 & 1230 (Asia
Pacific only), Tuesdays at 1530 and Wednesdays at 0130 (Not Asia Pacific
or South Asia) & 0730 GMT
http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/Programme.aspx?id=99

Nurses On The Frontline follows nurses giving battlefield treatment to
civilians caught up in a 60 year old conflict in the mountains of Eastern
Burma.

Nurses On The Front Line returns with 2 new episodes on nurses giving
battlefield treatment to civilians caught up in a 60 year old conflict in
the mountains of Eastern Burma are the subject of two new installments.
Since Independence the Karen ethnic minority numbering some 2 million have
been in open conflict with the military government of Burma. Caught up in
the conflict between the resistant fighters and the Burma infantry are the
villagers. Hundreds of thousands have been forced into exile. Those that
remain live in isolated jungle communities, plagued by landmines and
malaria. Their main source of medical care is provided by the Free Burma
Rangers, a band of volunteer aid workers and medics funded largely by US
Christian groups. Drawing on footage shot over four years, our filmmakers
tell the story of four Karen nurses on Rangers’ missions as they dodge the
Burmese army and ubiquitous land-mines to deliver basic health care to a
frightened people always on the move. The result is a rare and insight
into one of the world’s longest and least reported ethnic conflicts.

Nurses On The Front Line follows a group of nurses into hostile territory
– and lifts the lid on one of the world’s least reported conflicts

The Karen people of Eastern Burma have endured a 60 year old conflict with
the country’s military government. The European Parliament has condemned
the Burmese government’s activities as ‘ethnic cleansing’. But the
conflict in the mountains of Eastern Burma the size of Switzerland between
the army and the Karen Resistance has gone largely unreported by the
world’s media. Under cover of dense jungle and airtight press
restrictions, the military government has driven an estimated 150,000
thousand of Karen and their ethnic cousins the Karenni into neighbouring
Thailand. Those unwilling or unable to leave are ‘internally displaced’ –
scattered through the forest, tormented by landmines and malaria.

But the Karen have not been wholly abandoned. A band of medics and aid
workers– the Free Burma Rangers – deliver basic health care to Karen and
Karenni civilians. Many of the Rangers are Karen themselves, trained by
outfits such as Medcins sans Frontieres and American medical experts. All
are volunteers, seeking a way to help their embattled people. Some have
been inspirted to lend their support by bitter personal experience. An
example is 34-year-old Paw Htoo – one of the nurses featured in the first
programme. Thai-trained Htoo told us she joined the Rangers when
government soldiers murdered her husband. But the FBR – funded by churches
and private individuals – also includes foreign volunteers from the US and
elsewhere.

Over four years our 
.On the Front Line filmmakers went on four mercy
missions with the Free Burma Rangers. In the two films we see the nurses
delivering medical aid in the heart of the war zone. Theirs is not a
military operation. Their purpose is simply to deliver medical care and
humanitarian aid to beleaguered Karen communities. But with the forest
riddled with mines and Burmese soldiers, they are every bit as dangerous
as any armed incursion and secrecy on locations and even of the precise
composition of the FBR missions was a condition of the filming. Such is
the concern, even our crew cannot be identified in the programmes or the
credits.

In the first film, going back to the very first filming mission, the
Rangers establish a makeshift treatment centre deep in hostile territory.
They do not lack for patients – typhoid, diarrhoea, dengue fever and
malaria are rife in the region. Then they get an emergency call – a young
man has stepped on a mine. The Rangers amputate, but are unable to prevent
infection from setting in. The victim is distraught, knowing that for the
rest of his life he’ll be a burden instead of a help to his family. “When
it happened I asked the others to shoot me,” he said. “Now no one can do
anything for me. From now on I won’t be able to do anything”.

The second programme follows Maw Naw, a recent recruit to the Free Burma
Rangers. He finds more evidence of the army’s campaign to demoralise the
Karen and depopulate their mountain homelands: a burned-out village. The
Rangers can’t be everywhere at once. In their absence the villagers must
be their own doctors. Maw Naw meets a man who claims to performed
amputations on seven land mine victims – without anaesthetic and using a
small pocket-knife. Incredibly, he says all his patients survived.

In another part of the forest, Maw Naw and the filmmakers witness the
evacuation of a village. A Burmese Army patrol is spotted and the
villagers flee their huts for the forest. The exodus is eerily calm – this
is nothing new for the Karen. Indeed they say this is the third time in a
year that they have had to leave their homes. Other refugees tell
harrowing tales of forced labour, nocturnal attacks and rape.

The film ends with Mwa Naw and the crew witnessing a brief gunfight
between Burma Army and Karen guerrillas. This time, all of the Karen
fighters return. But their numbers are rapidly dwindling – as is Karen
resistance as a whole. The Free Burma Rangers are doing their best – they
estimate they have treated some 300,000 people and delivered humanitarian
aid to twice that number. But many believe that without further outside
assistance the Karen will follow several of Burma’s other minority groups
into oblivion.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 11, Irrawaddy
Asean declaration urges more migrant worker rights - Ron Corben

Thailand is taking steps to reform migrant worker laws and regulations but
still falls short and often fails to take into account the situation faced
by refugees, especially from Burma.

That was one of the messages from a seminar this week sponsored by the
International Labor Office as part of follow-up talks to strengthen
migrant workers' rights throughout South East Asia.

The gathering was a follow-up to the Association of South East Asian
Nations Declaration o­n the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of
Migrant Workers signed by the Asean nations in January.

The Asean document calls for improved migrant worker rights and welfare,
as well as taking steps to combat human smuggling and trafficking.

The Thailand Development Research Institute released a study this month
that estimated Thailand will need up to 700,000 migrant workers in 2007.

Migrant employment should be free of discrimination and arbitrary
regulations, and include provisions for incentives to “law abiding
employers,” according to the study.

Kovit Buraphatanin, the director of the International Affairs Division of
the Labour Ministry, said there are sound economic reasons for reforms to
be put in place.

“The government realizes that foreign workers create a mutual benefit for
those who are coming to work here, and also the country, because it makes
the economy go smoothly,” Kovit told The Irrawaddy.

Thailand is preparing new laws o­n “alien workers," he said, and with
their passage many reforms could occur, including categorizing occupations
that will be open to foreign workers as well as setting quotas.

“The management of the foreign worker would be more systematic,” he said.

In media reports, academics at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute for
Asian Studies have criticized existing migrant worker regulations as
arbitrary and dependent o­n whoever is in power. The academics accused
some officials of corruption in overseeing changes to favor certain
authorities or political figures.

Prapan Vongsarochana, a senior official in the Thai Education Ministry,
told the seminar that worker reforms have been taking place since 1992,
including easing restrictions on migrant children to attend schools.

Since 2005, school entrance requirements and documentation required by
migrant worker parents have been eased.

“If they have no IDs or house registration papers or documents whatsoever,
the mother and father can come to the school and testify that these are
their children,” she said.

“Even if you are undocumented (migrant worker children) you have rights to
education, regardless,” she said. However, children of "political"
refugees do not have the same rights.

Often there are uncertainties on how long migrant children will remain in
school.

“The parents are here to make the most money they can (before they
leave)," she said. "The Burmese people are facing many problems back in
their own country. Many are fleeing poverty and repression.”

ILO labor analyst Manolo Abella, in a telephone interview, said the ILO
was trying to persuade ASEAN countries to further open labor markets, with
skill assessment studies one of the first issues to be addressed.

There are both technical as well as political issues that need to be dealt
with as different groups are affected by reforms, he said. Similar issues
were faced by the European Union in the1960s, with the resolution of the
question of qualifications taking several years.

“We are looking at these things," Abella said. "They will need to address
these issues sooner than later.”

Opening the seminar, Bill Slater, the director of the ILO’s sub-regional
Office for East Asia, said the labor migration issue had implications for
“economic activity,
human security and national security.”

Slater said the ASEAN declaration signifies a regional concern for the
management of labor migration and “demonstrated a commitment to regional
cooperation to tackle issues arising from cross-border movement of labor.”

Migrant workers play a key role in developing economies, he said.

“No doubt, the exports of agricultural and fishery products from Thailand
are the efforts of both Thai and foreign workers, from plantation,
harvesting, processing and transport,” he said.

“They also help Thai export-oriented sectors from shrimp and rubber to
textile in their competitiveness internationally.”

The ILO says migrant workers in Thailand number about 5 percent of the
workforce and contributes US $2 billion to Thailand’s economic growth.

Slater acknowledged that the issue of opening labor markets is
controversial and divisive.

“The management of labor migration is not an undertaking of o­ne
individual country, but it is the responsibility of the origin, transit
and destination countries to ensure orderly migration,” he said.

In Thailand, gains have been made in migrant worker rights  in recent
years, said Vitit Muntarbhorn, an international human rights advocate and
law professor at Chulalongkorn University.

“For Thailand over the past five years the door has become much more open
to migrant workers through a process of regularization,” Vitit told The
Irrawaddy.

Under these policies, foreigners working clandestinely have been able to
come forward and openly register with the government.

But in the case of Burma, despite Thailand's signing a memorandum of
understanding o­n labor migration, the agreement remains largely
ineffective.

“That has to be dealt with diplomatically and cautiously,” he said. “We
need concrete, accessible, meaningful responses in terms of access to
health care, access to wages, guarantees of access to consular help—the
basics of life in terms of reasonable responses to their livelihood,
including to ensure their safe return to their country of origin,” he
said.

He said refugees also need to receive more attention from the government.

“Refugees come into Thailand for even more desperate reasons than migrant
workers," he said. "It’s only logical in a way that we should provide
equitable treatment so that all sides, all parties, will have access to
the basics of life.”

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 11, Mizzima News
India's Burma policy requires imagination: Former UN Ambassador - Syed Ali
Mujtaba

India's foreign policy on Burma should be innovative and imaginative and
may synchronize with the interests of our northeast states, said T. P
Sreenivasan, former Ambassador to the UN in an exclusive interview to
Mizzima News.

"I cannot but recommend a continuation of our foreign policy towards
Burma, with a right mix of commitment to democracy and readiness to work
with the military government," Sreenivasan, who served as India's Charge
D' affairs in Burma from 1983 to 1986 said.

"Our general policy of dealing with those in authority in Myanmar [ Burma]
should also enable us to keep our options open in the event of democracy
being reinstated in the immediate future," he added.

Sreenivasan holds the view that Burma needs India as much as we need Burma
and reasons for the proximity with democratic India is an asset for the
Burmese regime in its struggle against the Western onslaught on its
dictatorial character. Burma also needs to diversify its ties beyond
China, he said.

Talking about China , Sreenivasan said given the history and growth of
Sino-Burma relations, India cannot match this in the near future but the
foothold India seems to have secured in different areas in Burma should be
of value.

The Chinese have not expressed any concern over India's increasing
involvement in Burma so why should India be screaming about China 's
involvement in Burma, he asked and suggested that both countries should
learn to coexist by accommodating each other.

On India 's "Look East policy, Sreenivasan said, this has far reaching
positive and negative implications for the region. Among the positive
implications, there would be creation of population centres along the
Asian Highway with benefits in terms of economy and employment, an
interest in stability and meeting of India's energy requirements.

On the negative side, there would be the threat from HIV/AIDS and drug
dependency, the likely loss of opportunities for the indigenous people as
a consequence of exposure to globalization and the possibility of
insurgencies becoming more violent.

On the prospects of democracy in Burma, Sreenivasan said, reform needs to
come from the younger generation in the army, which may find it desirable
to acquire international legitimacy by shaping a democratic structure that
preserves the predominant position of the army. But reforms may lead to a
revolution as well. In that case India may well be able to play a role to
bring stability and peace in Burma. It is for this eventuality we need to
prepare at diplomatic, military and economic levels in cooperation with
ASEAN countries, he argued.

However, Sreenivasan cautioned; "India should not force the pace of change
in Burma nor should it increase its involvement beyond a point in Burma."

Although every one recognizes the importance of Burma in India, it remains
the least popular neighbour among diplomats, scholars and journalists.
There is virtually no expertise on Burma in any of these circles. This has
to change if we are to anticipate possible scenarios in Burma and prepare
to meet each of them, if not to shape a scenario, which meets our
interests and aspirations, Sreenivasan concluded.

____________________________________

July 11, Irrawaddy
Major Burmese art exhibition opens in Chiang Mai

More than 100 paintings and sculptures by 36 Burmese artists are on show
at an exhibition that opened on Tuesday in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

The exhibition, the largest of its kind ever seen in northern Thailand,
was mounted at Chiang Mai University’s art museum in a collaboration
between the university’s fine arts faculty and the city’s Suvannabhumi art
gallery, the only venue in the city devoted to Burmese contemporary art.
It runs until July 30.

More than 300 artists, collectors, students, journalists and art
enthusiasts attended the opening, drawn by the opportunity to view the
full range of contemporary Burmese artistic endeavor, represented by such
leading artists as Khin Maung Yin, Win Pe Myint, Kyee Myint Saw, Min Wae
Aung and pioneering sculptor Sonny Nyein. Prices range from US $300 to
$17,000.

The exhibition was officially opened by Assistant Professor M L Surasavati
Suksavasti, the dean of Chiang Mai University’s faculty of fine arts. He
told The Irrawaddy he was impressed by the high quality of the Burmese
work and viewed the exhibition as “a place for the Burmese artistic
community to survive under the tight control of the government's
censorship."

The opening ceremony included a brief lecture by the Burmese art critic Ma
Thanegi on the history of Burmese contemporary art.

Mar Mar, owner of the Suvannabhumi Art Gallery, said the exhibition was a
“dream come true. We Burmese can be happy and proud of our art.”

Thai artist Sutthirat Supaparinya said she was impressed by the range of
work on show, particularly by the surrealism of Myat Kyawt and San Minn.
Myat Kyawt’s paintings in the exhibition feature people flying above
modern Rangoon cityscapes—“I don't know exactly what the meaning is,” said
Sutthirat. “But I feel that the people want to have freedom."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 11, ABC Radio Australia
Burma fails corruption index

A World Bank report has cited some progress in the global fight against
corruption, but warns that overall problems with stability and poor
governance remain entrenched in many regions.

The 1996-2006 Worldwide Governance Indicators report showed a number of
African countries had demonstrated progress.

The United Stateswas notable for its decline in five of six areas over the
10-year span, including control of corruption and government
effectiveness, and showing its sharpest decline in political stability.

Finland led the pack when it came to the fight against corruption over
Iceland and Denmark, while Burma, North Korea and Somalia came in last.

____________________________________

July 11, Voice of America
UN sends relief to flood-stricken Burmese region

The United Nations is sending relief supplies to victims of floods that
swept through central Burma last week.

The United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF says that it is distributing
medicine, clothing, cooking utensils and water purification tablets.

UNICEF says that it was able to begin distributing relief supplies so
quickly because of disaster preparations made after the December 2004
tsunami.

Burma's state media has reported that flood waters more than one meter
high displaced thousands from their homes and washed out at least one
bridge 50 kilometers north of the capital.

Heavy rains are common during Burma's annual June to September monsoon
season.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 11, Inter Press Service
Thai junta going the Burma way? - Marwaan Macan-Markar

Thailand's junta leader, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, is in danger of
inviting comparisons with military strongmen in neighbouring Burma, where
successive generals have refused to transfer power to a civilian
administration for decades.

Suspicions have been triggered by the vague language Sonthi used while
explaining his political future beyond a general election scheduled to be
held at the end of the year. A debate is now swirling in the press and in
university circles here about the political ambitions of the country's
army chief, who came to power following a coup last September, the
country's 18th putsch.

''He could have ruled out all speculation that he wants to be made the
prime minister after the poll by simply saying no to the job,'' Michael
Nelson, a German academic specialising in Thai political culture, told
IPS. ''By being evasive, he is showing that he entertains the idea that he
want to jump into politics.''

''This is making people jittery about the true intentions of the coup,
which was to return power back to the people,'' he added. ''It seems like
an effort by the army to regain lost glory after its powers and prestige
was reduced in the late 1990s.''

''Sonthi came under fire from critics and allies alike on Sunday for
playing games and planning a return to power by the people,'' reports
Tuesday's edition on 'The Nation', an English-language daily. ''It follows
fresh speculation that he will run in the next general elections under a
new political party backed by the army.''

Burma's military generals, who have held power since a 1962 coup, are in
the process of getting a new constitution approved by a military-appointed
constitutional assembly. Following that, a referendum will be held in that
South-east Asian nation. But this charter has language that aims to cement
the military's power in the country as an over-arching force, consequently
undermining pledges made by the Burmese junta that the constitution will
usher in democracy and give power to the people.

The prospect of Sonthi succumbing to the 'Burma syndrome' has been fed by
Thailand's new charter, approved by a military-appointed,
constitution-drafting assembly earlier this month. This document,
Thailand's 18th constitution since becoming a constitutional monarchy in
1932, is to face a referendum in mid-August.

''Although the regime in Thailand has been at pains throughout to deny
comparisons being made between it and its counterpart in neighbouring
Burma, it is increasingly difficult to avoid them,'' argued the Asian
Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in a statement released over the weekend.
''In Burma too the junta is putting the finishing touches on a
constitution that has the purpose of cementing the role of the military in
state affairs for years to come and ensure the continued impunity of
senior officers for any alleged wrongdoing.''

''It is by now clear that if the referendum is passed and the bogus draft
constitution brought into law it will return Thailand to a 1980s model of
elite-bureaucratic government under military guidance,'' added the Hong
Kong-based non-governmental body. ''If it is not, the military regime
reserves the right to pick and amend any of the country's previous
constitutions in its stead. In either case, the generals have already
taken steps to ensure that their presence will again be felt heavily
throughout Thailand for many years to come.''

Analysts like Thitinan Pongsudhirak say that the junta has spent the last
nine months ''gradually institutionalising the military's role in
politics'' to ensure that the it ''remains as a body with influence after
the parliamentary elections.''

Consequently, the coup leaders are shredding the compliments the military
were showered with last year for driving from power former prime minister
Thaksin Shinawatra through the putsch, said Thitinan, who is the director
of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's
Chulalongkorn University. ''The statements then that it was a good coup
have become a myth.''

Of particular concern, he explained in an interview, were the ''subtle and
sophisticated ways'' in which the junta has been shaping its political
agenda, often doing so ''within the law'' to avoid overt criticism. The
dramatic spike in the military budget is a case in point, where defence
spending has gone up by 66 percent in the two national budgets presented
to the country's army-appointed parliament since last year's coup. The
defence bill for the 2007-2008 budget is 4.5 billion US dollars.

As alarming to human rights groups is the junta's move to resurrect a
security law that was used during the Cold War to go after members of the
Communist Party of Thailand and others deemed enemies of the state. The
Internal Security Act, which the junta wants passed by the members of the
parliament that it appointed, is ''the key measure to re-establish the
Army as a government within government,'' noted a respected commentator
who writes under the pseudonym 'Chang Noi' in Monday's edition of 'The
Nation'.

''What the law does is give massive new powers to the army chief,'' adds
Chang Noi. ''It make him in many ways more powerful than the prime
minister, and not answerable to anyone.''

If approved, the act will see the return of the Internal Security
Operations Command (ISOC). Among the powers at this military-run agency's
disposal would be to ban public assemblies, block roads, detain suspects
for up to 30 days without any charges, hold people deemed threats to
national security, conduct searches on premises without any warrants,
confine people to house arrests, and seize and confiscate anything
considered suspicious.

But the Thai military will not have a free run with such plans, says
Thanet Aphornsuvan, assistant professor of history at Bangkok's Thammasat
University. ''They will be aware of what happened in 1992. They will
probably want to follow the public mood before making a decision; even
Gen. Sonthi's plans to become the prime minister.''

That year saw a bloody showdown between the military and a pro-democracy
movement on the streets of Bangkok, resulting in over 40 deaths and over
100 people going missing. It came after Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon, who had
come to power through a coup the previous year, refused to hand over
authority to a civilian government following a general election. He took
on the role of prime minister with the support of five political parties
after resigning in April 1992 as the supreme commander-in-chief and head
of the military.

____________________________________
OBITUARY

July 11, Mizzima News
Famous actor dies prematurely

Dwe, one of the finest and most famous actors Burma has produced died on
Wednesday evening in a Rangoon hospital.

Dwe (a) Thargyi (a) Htein Linn, (40) suffered a massive heart attack while
shooting for a film. He died at SSC hospital around 6 p.m according to
friends.

" He was in a critical condition when he was admitted to the hospital. The
ECG was showing a straight line and his blood pressure was zero," said a
nurse from the hospital.

He started his career as a teenager with a film Kwatlat Taku Phay Pay Par
and his screen name was Htein Lin.

"He was a very good actor and a rarity in Burma," said May Nyein, a writer
in exile and a friend of the late actor.