BurmaNet News, July 21-23, 2007

[Editor]

July 21-23, 2007 Issue # 3251

INSIDE BURMA
DPA: Anti-inflation Burmese demonstrator spends three months in jail
DVB: Religiously motivated riot breaks out in Rangoon
KNG: Maj-Gen Ohn Myint threatens KIO
SHAN: Wa ordered 'to return home'
Irrawaddy: Burmese novel to contend for new Asian literary prize

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Resettlement program hits refugee education standards
AP: Star Trek star looks to beam up support for Myanmar refugees in Thailand

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar business organization to help trading companies to operate
globally

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: HIV/AIDS activist welcomes Human Rights Watch stand
Xinhua: UNFPA to expand HIV prevention project in Myanmar

ASEAN
DVB: ASEAN criticised as Burma marks 10 years as member

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister meets Bangladesh counterpart

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Newspaper advertisement's hidden message calls Myanmar's leader a killer
Reporters Without Borders: Press kept away from National Convention

OPINION / OTHER
SCMP: End this disgrace to humanity - Kevin Rafferty
Irrawaddy: The Asean dilemma - Pavin Chachavalpongpun

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 23, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Anti-inflation Burmese demonstrator spends three months in jail

Myanmar Politics Anti-inflation Burmese demonstrator spends three months
in jail Yangon The leader of an anti-inflation demonstration in downtown
Yangon on Monday completed his third month in jail, sources said.

"Htin Kyaw has been detained for the last three months and is still
languishing in custody in one of the camps in the outskirts of Yangon,"
said Win Naing, a self-styled independent politician.

Htin Kyaw and four others were jailed on May 22 for participating in a
demonstration against Myanmar's rising inflation and other economic woes,
such as electricity shortages.

"All of his colleagues who were detained on May 22 were released early
July," said Win Naing, the self-confessed mastermind behind the unique
form of protest in Myanmar, where no public demonstrations are permitted
without government approval.

The first anti-inflation demonstration was staged on February 22, this
year, and led to a short detention of the ringleaders.

Myanmar has been under the equivalent of martial law since later 1988, in
the aftermath of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrations that rocked the country that year.

____________________________________

July 23, Democratic Voice of Burma
Religiously motivated riot breaks out in Rangoon

A riot reportedly broke out between Muslim and Buddhist residents in
Rangoon’s Daw Pon township late on Friday, forcing local authorities to
issue a curfew.

Eyewitnesses said that the riot started after a Muslim man and two
Buddhist men quarreled at a local bar, causing religious tensions to
escalate.

“The fight started at a place between fourth and fifth streets. We saw
people rushing to the scene . . . It started at about the same time that
Muslim residents go home for their Friday prayers so many of them saw what
was happening and joined in,” one onlooker said.

“One of the Buddhist men had his arm broken.”

The fight escalated further as increasing numbers of Buddhist residents
joined in to fight back against the groups of Muslim men. Residents said
at the height of the riot, the streets were full of men armed with
makeshift weapons.

Burmese military troops then arrived at the scene in vehicles and on foot,
ordering everyone off the street and imposing a curfew.

“Everyone stayed inside as they were told. After that, there was no one on
the street,” one resident said.

Troops reportedly took position in areas heavily populated by Muslims and
near mosques. The electricity was also reportedly cut to several areas of
the township.

The following day, two Muslim and six Buddhist men were arrested by the
local authorities for their involvement in the incident locals told DVB.

____________________________________

July 23, Kachin News Group
Maj-Gen Ohn Myint threatens KIO

Burma's ruling military junta has threatened to "kick the Kachin
Independence Organization (KIO) to the mountains" if they persist in their
demand for an autonomous Kachin State.

The junta's Kachin State Commander Maj-Gen Ohn Myint has rejected the
KIO's demand for autonomy for Kachin State at the current and final
session of the National Convention, local sources said.

Maj-Gen Ohn Myint addressing an audience at a special City Hall meeting in
Myitkyina, Capital of Kachin State earlier this month said "No. We won't
give you the rights. What the KIO is demanding is self-determination? 
We'll kick you out to the mountains," a participant quoted the general as
saying.

The main Kachin ceasefire group, Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) is
yet to react to Maj-Gen Ohn Myint belligerence.

Earlier this month, the KIO's biggest gold mines in Hukawng Valley and
Triangle Areas in northern Kachin State, the KIO's major revenue earners,
were stopped from operating by Maj-Gen Ohn Myint.

Maj-Gen Ohn Myint has told Kachin leaders "Don't call it Kachin State! 
You, Kachins are not living alone there," Kachin ceasefire group' sources
said.

In December 5, 2005, when the KIO presented a Kachin traditional silver
bag and a silver sword to Maj-Gen Ohn Myint at the Laiza Hotel in KIO
controlled area, he said, "I'll cut your (Kachin's) neck with this sword,"
the KIO sources added.

The Maj-Gen also told residents of Dum Bang village in Hukawng Valley, "We
must fight the Kachins and destroy them and their community," local
sources quoted him as saying.

Last year Maj-Gen Ohn Myint had tried to confiscate the Kachin Baptist
Church (KBC)'s Kachin Theological College (KTC) compound and popular Jaw
Bum compound, centenary memorial mountain of the KBC in Nawng Nang
Village, ten miles north of Capital Myitkyina, said KBC sources.

He has ordered heads of village administrators to remove all Christian
crosses at the entrances to villages, local church leaders added.

Commander Ohn Myint also helped form two Kachin armed groups like the
Rebellion Resistance Force (RFF), an ethnic Rawang armed group led by
businessman Ah Dang in Hkawng Lang Hpu in Putao in early 2006 and the KIO
group, which split, led by Lasang Awng Wa in Gwi Htu near Myitkyina in
late 2004.

All three Kachin ceasefire groups- KIO, NDAK and Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire
group and civilians have been suffering a spate of economic and social
problems after Maj-Gen Ohn Myint moved to Kachin State in late 2005.

The Kachin people now view Commander Ohn Myint as a threat, intent on
destroying the Kachin community, Kachin ceasefire groups, their religion,
society and economy, local people said.

____________________________________

July 21, Shan Herald Agency for News
Wa ordered 'to return home'

The Burma Army has directed units of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) along
the Thai-Burma border to return to their original areas on the Sino-Burma
border, according to Shan and Thai sources.

"The deadline is July 31," said Col Yawdserk, leader of the Shan State
Army (SSA) South. "Most of the small outposts have been evacuated as a
result. But the Wa have so far refused to budge from strongholds like Loi
Htwe (Doi Thway in Thai) along the border."

Yawdserk said he was unaware of newspaper reports about the junta's
deadline on the Wa to respond to its demand to surrender arms by August 1.

Sources in Tachilek meanwhile said Lt-Gen Kyaw Win, Commander of Shan and
Kayah state forces of the Burma Army, is visiting Mongton and Monghsat
townships where the bulk of the UWSA's southern forces are located.

The Burmese are also trying to stir up trouble between the SSA and the
UWSA by spreading rumors that outposts left by the UWSA would be handed
over to the SSA, according to a Thai security source.

The UWSA had been ordered by Deputy Senior General Maung Aye to move back
to Panghsang a decade earlier. Only the intervention by Gen Khin Nyunt,
who was then still in power, had saved the day for the Wa at the last
minute, said a senior Thai security officer.

____________________________________

July 23, Irrawaddy
Burmese novel to contend for new Asian literary prize -Yeni

A novel about the “spiritual” marriage between gay Burmese men and the
spirits being known as Nat was named to the longlist of nominees for a new
Asian literary prize, according to a statement released last week.

Smile As They Bow, written by well-known writer Nu Nu Yi (Inwa) and
translated into English from a Burmese edition first published in 1994,
will vie with 22 other candidates throughout Asia for the first annual Man
Asian Literary Prize.

The novel depicts events at a popular but controversial Nat festival in
the village of Taung Pyone, near Mandalay, where many in Burma’s gay
community gather each year to participate in ritual marriages with Nat.

“I worked for three years on the research for this novel,” the author told
The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The new prize will be awarded by the Hong Kong International Literary
Festival and the Man Group plc, a London-based investment company that
also sponsors the annual Man Booker Prize and the biannual Man Booker
International Prize.

The nominees were chosen from among 243 submissions received from all over
Asia, according to the statement. The winner will be announced on November
10, at an awards ceremony in Hong Kong.

“This first year's submissions exceed our expectations both in quantity
and breadth," Peter Gordon, chairman of the Man Asian Literary Prize,
said. "Submitting a new work to a new Prize can be a courageous act,
especially for unpublished authors, and we are grateful to all the authors
who took part."

The prize aims to bring new Asian authors to the attention of the world,
to facilitate publishing and translation of Asian literature in and into
English and to highlight Asia's developing role in world literature,
according to the statement.

The novel was originally rejected by Burma’s state censors in 1993, but
the publisher eventually received permission to distribute a heavily
redacted version the following year.

The Burmese edition of Smile As They Bow was reprinted in a second edition
in May, and attempts to create a film adaptation were blocked by Burma’s
Motion Picture Censor Board.

"The authorities said the story was against the customs of Theravada
Buddhism and Burmese culture,” said Nu Ny Yi (Inwa). “They also said being
born a man is an honor, and that a person living as a gay man loses that
honor.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 23, Irrawaddy
Resettlement program hits refugee education standards - Violet Cho

The resettlement program for the Burmese refugee community along
Thailand’s border with Burma is having a negative effect on education in
the camps, according to an official of the Karen Refugee Committee.

Schools were losing teachers, contributing to an increasing lack of
interest among students, said the committee’s education coordinator,
Deborah Htoo. “Exam scores of the students are lower than ever before,”
she said.

This year, only 2,467 out of 34,000 primary and secondary school students
passed the annual examination called the “border test.”

When high school students were included in the statistics the pass rate
was 72 percent, still below last year’s figure of 80 percent.

Deborah Htoo said the loss of school principals, teachers,
teacher-trainers and other staff due to the resettlement program was
having a negative effect on teaching standards and student morale. Vacant
positions were not easy to fill, and students found it difficult to adapt
to younger teachers, she said.

Lay Thaw, a teacher-trainer in Umphiem refugee camp, said educational
standards would continue to decline as long as the present resettlement
program remained in force.

A recent report by the Committee for Coordination of Services to Displaced
Persons in Thailand said a decrease in the quality and availability of
teaching staff would have a negative impact on the education sector. Over
time, the report said, the decline would have reverberating effects within
refugee camps, because there would be a lack of qualified people to fill
high level camp-based jobs.


>From 2005 to early May 2007, 5,500 Burmese refugees from the nine refugee

camps in Thailand left for resettlement in third countries. The proportion
of educated refugees accepted for resettlement was higher than other camp
residents.

____________________________________

July 23, Associated Press
Star Trek star looks to beam up support for Myanmar refugees in Thailand

Thailand: Star Trek boldly took its cast where no man had gone before, but
one member of the original television series found the Thai-Myanmar border
region as troubling as anywhere the show took him.

Walter Koenig, who played Pavel Chekov, the cheeky Russian ensign aboard
the Starship Enterprise, put his science fiction aside and visited the
border region this week to meet refugees from Myanmar who fled the
country's oppressive military regime, he said.

Koenig visited a medical clinic that treats refugees in an effort to
garner world attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, also
known as Burma, he said.

"I was shocked at how little I knew," Koenig, 70, said, referring to the
hundreds of thousands of refugees living along the border in Thailand.
"The time was right in my life to be a part of something that is
worthwhile. It's one thing to espouse a liberal and political attitude —
and quite another to act on it."

The United States Campaign for Burma, an activist group based in
Washington, D.C., organized the trip to northwest Thailand where he met
civilians suffering from battle injuries and disease.

Star Trek fans share a value system that will help connect them to the
refugees and help shine a spotlight on their plight, Koenig said.

"In the original series, we were an international, interethnic,
interracial community," Koenig said. "People have responded to that for 40
years and I think there's a sense of benevolence and humanity in the fans.
Their nerdiness not withstanding makes them good company to get the word
out."

He is recruiting celebrity friends to join the effort, potentially
including his Star Trek castmate, George Takei — known as Mr. Sulu in the
series. Some 3,000 Karen villages in Myanmar's eastern region have been
destroyed by the country's military, said Jeremy Woodrum, USCB campaigns
director. "People don't know twice as many villages have been destroyed in
Eastern Burma than in Darfur," Woodrum said. "It's totally lost on the
United States and the world."

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

Koenig's son, Andrew, 38, filmed his week-long trip. Footage, as well as
Koenig's personal written accounts during his trip, will be available on
his Web site.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 23, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar business organization to help trading companies to operate globally

Myanmar's biggest business organization, the Union of Myanmar Federation
of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), has urged private trading
companies in the country to strive for effective business operation
globally, saying it is ready to render assistance to increase the number
of such globally operational private trading enterprises.

A report of Monday's Flower News said that of the 40,000 private companies
registered with the government, only 4,000 or 10 percent are engaged in
foreign trade.

The reports pointed out that most of the companies in operation have
little capital and weak access to foreign markets, citing the fact that
most trading companies are based in Yangon and Mandalay with far lesser
number of such companies available in other states and divisions.

The UMFCCI is arranging such weak trading companies to form public ones,
the report said. It has set up such public company as the Golden Land East
Asia Development Ltd, engaging in building Myanmar Liaison Office and Park
in the China-ASEAN international economic zone in China's Nanning city
with the cooperation of a Chinese company.

The organization also urges local companies to follow suit with Indian
counterparts to trade rice and other agricultural crops to boost foreign
trade.

According to the latest official statistics, Myanmar's foreign trade hit
nearly 8 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2006-07 which ended in
March. Of the foreign trade during the year, which was up 42.9 percent
from 5.54 billion dollars in 2005-06, exports took up 5 billion dollars,
an increase of 40 percent from 3.554 billion dollars in the previous year,
while imports accounted for 2.92 billion dollars, a rise of 47.5 percent
from 1.979 billion dollars correspondingly.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 23, Irrawaddy
HIV/AIDS activist welcomes Human Rights Watch stand - Htet Aung

Burma’s leading HIV/AIDS activist on Monday welcomed a call by Human
Rights Watch for international pressure on Burma’s government to end its
harassment and intimidation of AIDS activists.

“Human rights are very, very important in HIV/AIDS education and
prevention,” Phyu Phyu Thin told The Irrawaddy in a telephone interview,
reacting to a Human Rights Watch statement addressed to a conference in
Sydney, Australia, of the International AIDS Society. Human Rights Watch
called on conference participants to bring pressure on the Burmese regime
to stop harassing and intimidating AIDS activists.

Phyu Phu Thin was freed on July 2 after nearly six weeks of detention by
Burmese authorities for taking part in a prayer campaign for the release
of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Human Rights Watch said that her
detention showed how important respect for human rights was in combating
the disease.

“Scientific advances will have little impact if people living with HIV
continue to be stigmatized and abused," said Joe Amon, a molecular
biologist who is director of Human Rights Watch's HIV/AIDS Program.

Phyu Phyu Thin said the work by activists and other NGOs combating
HIV/AIDS was being hampered by government restrictions. “We can’t travel
freely or hold workshops and discussions on HIV/AIDS education and
counseling,” she said.

Amon said that while international scientists and experts were free to
travel to Australia to discuss the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS,
activists were being harassed and jailed for their work to combat the
disease.

Phyu Phyu Thin said: “If we can enjoy human rights and if the government
spends more of the state budget in buying anti-retroviral medicine instead
of buying weapons from India, we can save the lives of many AIDS patients
who badly need the treatment.”

Phyu Phyu Thin and her group, mostly youth members of the NLD, are
currently providing ARV medicine, accommodation, and care and counseling
services for about 50 patients nationwide. Since 2002, her group has been
giving such services to over 1,000 HIV/AIDS patients.

“The situation we have seen daily is very bad,” she said. “Even now, five
new patients are waiting for me [in the NLD headquarters] to get medicine.
The funds we have are too limited to cover such daily demands.”

“We can not end the AIDS epidemic solely through science,” said Joe Amon.
“Scientific advances and human rights advances must go hand in hand.”

____________________________________

July 23, Xinhua General News Service
UNFPA to expand HIV prevention project in Myanmar

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) will expand its HIV prevention
project in Myanmar
with the help of Three-Disease (3-D) Fund to cover two dozen more areas in
the country, a local weekly reported Monday.

The UNFPA is at present using its regular fund to carry out the prevention
of mother-to-child HIV transmission project in 24 townships in the country
and the coverage will be extended up to a total of 50 townships across
Myanmar by 2010 with the 3-D fund additionally, the Myanmar Times quoted
sources with the organization as saying.

According to the organization, the UNFPA is offering voluntary counseling
and confidential blood testing for pregnant women who seek antenatal care
and providing care and treatment for opportunistic infections in
HIV-infected pregnant women.

There are three stages at which HIV can be transmitted from mother to
child during pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding, health experts
said.

Meanwhile, The 3-D fund is considering to provide a new aid of 20 million
US dollars to Myanmar to support work in fight against HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, diplomatic sources said earlier, however,
adding that the aid is subject to Myanmar's assurance to provide a
supportive operating environment for the fund and the work be guided by
the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality.

The 3-D Fund will help stop the spread of the diseases by supporting work
through national and international non-governmental organizations, the UN
System and local public health teams, it said, adding that the fund will
focus on priority areas identified in the three national strategies for
HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

The 3D Fund was developed in 2006 for an operational period of five years
by a group of six donors comprising the European Commission, Sweden's
Sida, the Netherlands, United Kingdom's Department for International
Development, Norway and Australia's Aus AID to compensate for grants which
were suspended in August 2005 by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and
Malaria.

A recent workshop involving Myanmar, the World Health Organization (WHO)
and UNAIDS stated that 338,911 people were estimated to have lived with
HIV/AIDS in 2004 and the HIV prevalence in Myanmar has reduced from 1.5
percent in 2000 to 1.3 percent in 2005.

HIV/AIDS is among the three major communicable diseases of national
concern designated by Myanmar. The other two diseases are tuberculosis and
malaria.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 23, Democratic Voice of Burma
ASEAN criticised as Burma marks 10 years as member

As Burma marked the 10 year anniversary of its membership in ASEAN today
the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus said the regional grouping
had failed to encourage democratisation in the country.

AIPMC executive director Roshan Jason told DVB today that while ASEAN had
granted Burma membership in an attempt to win the ruling regime’s trust,
the grouping had failed to persuade the military to implement meaningful
political reforms.

“Not only has there been a lack of change in democracy or any signs of
democratisation in Burma, there is also a lack of respect for human rights
and the increasing abuse of human rights,” Jason said.

He said that while the ongoing decline of the country’s economic, health
and education sectors and the continuing armed conflicts had resulted from
the militaries lack of management skills, ASEAN was also responsible for
shouldering some of the blame.

“ASEAN has to take full responsibility for the state of Burma’s situation,
the state of its people, economy and politics. They took ownership of the
situation by allowing Burma to become a member,” Jason said.

Burma became a member of ASEAN along with Laos in 1997.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 23, Mizzima News
Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister meets Bangladesh counterpart

Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu, on a four-day official visit
to Bangladesh , will hold talks on strengthening bilateral cooperation
during a meeting today with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary.

The visit of the five-member Burmese delegation is part of the two
countries' annual consultations on bilateral issues, sources in the
Bangladesh Foreign Ministry told Mizzima.

The talks between the Burmese delegates and the Bangladesh foreign
secretary will include Bangladesh-Burma road links, border trade,
repatriation of refugees, maritime boundary, contract farming and easing
of visa procedure, an official at the Bangladesh foreign ministry said.

The official said the Burmese Deputy Minister led delegation will go site
seeing on Tuesday and is scheduled to head back to Burma on Wednesday.

Recently Bangladesh and Burma have warmed up to each other on bilateral
relationship with high ranking officials of both countries exchanging
visits.

Besides, building road links and increasing border trade, the two
countries recently agreed to construct hydro electric projects in western
Burma.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 23, Associated Press
Newspaper advertisement's hidden message calls Myanmar's leader a killer

An advertisement placed in Monday's English-language Myanmar Times
newspaper by a satirical art group had a hidden message calling the
country's military ruler Gen. Than Shwe a "killer."

It was placed by Danish-based Surrend, which has experience placing
clandestine ads under the noses of repressive regimes, group member Pia
Bertelsen said in a telephone interview from Denmark with The Associated
Press in Bangkok, Thailand.

The ad, published in Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon, looked like an
innocent call for tourists visiting Myanmar from Scandinavia, with the
drawing of a palm tree and sun, and text praising Myanmar's "beautiful
country and friendly people."

At the bottom of the half-page ad was "The Board of Islandic Travel
Agencies Ewhsnahtrellik and the Danish Industry BesoegDanmark," including
the long Danish-looking word "Ewhsnahtrellik." When read backward it said,
"killer than shwE."

Bertelsen said the ad was a way to show even autocratic leaders could be
criticized.

"What we want to achieve with the ad is to show that there are cracks in
even the worst regimes. That with art you can find these holes and fly
under the censorship's radar and hit the despots," she said.

To place the ad, Surrend presented themselves as an advertising company.

The Myanmar Times was not immediately available for comment, but Bertelsen
said the ad was designed in a way so it was hard for them to discover the
hidden message.

"We don't think they will be blamed. And also, The Myanmar Times is an
important propaganda tool for the Burma regime so they are a part of the
regime we criticize," she said. Burma is the former name for Myanmar.

The Myanmar Times has weekly editions in both English and Burmese. It was
founded in 2000 and is partly owned by the government, and like all media
in Myanmar is censored by the Ministry of Information.

Surrend has placed similar ads with hidden messages before, including in
the government-controlled Tehran Times last December that spelled out
"swine" below a photo of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The ad reads like a criticism of U.S. President George W. Bush, but the
first letter of each sentence line up along the left of the ad and spells
"swine" when read from top to bottom.

"Our purpose with our art is not to make revolutions, but to poke fun at
the despots," Bertelsen said.

____________________________________

July 19, Reporters Without Borders
Press kept away from National Convention

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the government’s decision to
obstruct foreign and Burmese press coverage of a national convention that
has the job of writing a new constitution. No foreign journalist has been
given a visa, while Burmese journalists were granted only very limited
access to yesterday’s opening session.

“This convention is in fact an institutional sham, and the military
government seems to be so ashamed of it that it has decided to keep
journalists away,” the press freedom organisation said.

A BBC World Service journalist told Reporters Without Borders that the
government had originally planned a six-day programme for foreign
reporters, including a news conference on the national convention and a
visit to the new capital. The BBC’s Bangkok bureau even got a call from
the Burmese embassy asking it to come and collect its visa on 13 July.

But then, for unexplained reasons, the consular service refuse to issue
it. Other foreign news media such as Agence France-Presse confirmed that
their visa requests had been unsuccessful.

Burmese journalists working as correspondents for foreign news media were
allowed to visit the place where the convention is taking place,
Nyaung-Hna-Pin, located 30 km outside Rangoon. But they were forbidden to
go with tape-recorders or mobile phones, they were not allowed to spend
more than a few minutes in the convention room where the thousand
delegates were gathered, and they were prevented from independently
interviewing any of the participants.

About 50 journalists were allowed to attend the news conference that was
held in October 2006, when the convention finished its previous work.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 21, South China Morning Post
End this disgrace to humanity - Kevin Rafferty

The leaders of Thailand, China, India, Russia and Singapore have a great
opportunity to set free 50 million people from virtual slavery.

In doing so, they can bring potentially great economic rewards for their
own countries.

They must put pressure on the military junta in Burma - the regime's
change of the country's name to Myanmar has not been approved by any
parliamentary resolution - and force them to relinquish power. What has
happened and is happening in Burma is a disgrace to humanity. It has gone
on for too long.

Sadly, resolutions in the United Nations, open letters from government
heads, appeals from Nobel laureates, the cutting off of aid by the World
Bank and other donors, sanctions by western countries, and fulminations
from the United States have had no effect.

The latest proof of the cruelty that is part of everyday life in Burma is
a report from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Red Cross
rarely intervenes to name or shame a government; it prefers quiet
diplomacy.

Thus, this open and highly damning condemnation is proof that quiet
diplomacy - also the favoured excuse of neighbours in Southeast Asia - has
not worked.

The Red Cross has accused the military of inflicting "immense suffering"
on ordinary people in Burma. It says the junta's actions have "helped to
create a climate of constant fear among the population and have forced
thousands of people to join the ranks of the internally displaced, or to
flee abroad".

This week, the generals thumbed their noses at the world by reopening
their tame constitutional convention to adopt a scheme which would ensure
their grip on power. Now is a good time for the rest of the world to stop
this miserable and misery- creating scam.

The tragedy of modern Burma extends further and deeper than the Red Cross
report, which concentrates on very basic rights - or lack of them.
Economically, the junta has still greater disasters to its name: it has
managed to turn one of the richest regions of the world - blessed with
abundant natural gas resources, minerals and excellent agricultural land -
not merely into a pariah state, but into an impoverished state.

Burma's national product last year was US$85.2 billion, or US$1,800 per
capita, using purchasing power parity figures, but only US$9.6 billion, or
a paltry US$200 a head, if the regime's official exchange rate is used. A
good indicator of how removed the regime is from reality is that it is
still using an exchange rate that values the kyat at 16 US cents, whereas
the officially tolerated black market values it at about 0.08 US cents.

The country gets by only with a little help from its friends. For ordinary
people, this means small-scale smuggling across to Thailand and border
trade with China.

For high-ranking figures in the regime, the links are often illegal,
damaging to the environment (such as logging and deforestation), dangerous
to health (such as drug smuggling), but always immensely lucrative.

When Thandar Shwe, the daughter of junta leader Than Shwe, got married
last year, champagne flowed freely and diamonds were the decoration of the
day. Wedding gifts were worth US$50 million, or three times the country's
health budget.

The rulers manage to thrive because of links with key business figures in
Thailand, and state and commercial ties with China, Singapore, India and
Russia, though recent reports say that a deal with Russia to build a
nuclear research reactor is in jeopardy because of the stinginess of the
junta in paying its share.

It is time for the junta's major partners to take action. Thailand must
get its generals and businessmen to stop the illegal dealings and put
pressure on the junta to honour the wishes of their own people.

China is the most interesting case. Although it is a major supplier of
consumer and capital goods to the nation, it would do much better if it
were trading with a developing, prospering Burma.

A huge market is being suppressed by the stupidity of the junta; it is not
in China's economic interest to prolong this, with the attendant risks of
increasing instability along its 2,185km doorstep.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should have a quiet word with his
foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who infamously said that India has no
ambition to export ideologies, because the people of each country should
decide what type of government they want.

That, surely, is the point: let the people decide - but the people of
Burma have no say in the way their country is being miserably governed. Mr
Mukherjee may have been misled into thinking that the junta would sell
India gas that China covets. Greater experience would have told him that
the junta is untrustworthy.

Dr Singh's own experience of economic development should tell him that
India can never be secure with an unstable, impoverished Burma on its
already rebellious border, and that India, along with China, would benefit
if Burma's resources were developed for the benefit of all, not plundered
exclusively by the corrupt rulers.

Burma is the most straightforward case of consistent abuse of power
accompanied by gross mismanagement. The damning Red Cross report should be
a signal for action, with China, India and Thailand in the lead, assisted
by Russia and Singapore. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, under
its new incoming secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan, can help in creating a
tempting exit door and supervising fresh elections.

All of the leaders of the aforementioned countries know the case against
the Burmese junta is clear cut, and that they are the ones who can put the
crucial pressure to exert peaceful regime change.

If they do not, they are being complicit in the stupidity of the junta -
which is mismanaging and bringing misery to Burma - and they must also
share responsibility for the tragedy exposed in the Red Cross report.
Burma is the most straightforward case of consistent abuse of power and
gross mismanagement.

Kevin Rafferty is a political commentator

____________________________________

July 23, Irrawaddy
The Asean dilemma - Pavin Chachavalpongpun

July marked the 10th anniversary of Burma’s admission to the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations. During the past decade, Burma’s prolonged
political crises, the junta’s reluctance to push for democratic reform and
the continued imprisonment of opposition figures—including Aung San Suu
Kyi—have severely damaged the credibility of Asean in the eyes of the
world community.

Asean’s struggle to solve Burma’s political deadlock has complicated its
efforts to build a genuine regional community. Ten years on, the group
needs to seriously reassess Burma’s membership and its own failure in
pressuring the junta to implement democratic reform. Asean must ask itself
how Burma can participate as a worthy member in the organization’s future
development.

The reassessment should begin where Asean has failed; namely, in bringing
Burma into the modern era. Burma’s ruling junta made numerous promises to
the organization once it gained membership, but it has continuously defied
regional and international pressure to change its political course.
Instead, Burma wooed energy-hungry Asean neighbors with its abundant
natural resources, while employing the group as a protective shield
against an increasingly outraged international community.

The Thai-initiated “Constructive Engagement” policy, designed to convince
the world that bringing the junta to the table was better than further
marginalizing it, has proven to be a disastrous approach. The policy was,
in reality, neither constructive nor engaging, but merely served to
legitimize Burma’s brutal regime with the blessing of Asean.

A subsequent approach, called the “Flexible Engagement” policy, also
failed because it was thought to have breached Asean’s fundamental
principle of non-interference in a country’s internal affairs.

At the crux of Asean’s failure to introduce change in Burma lie two
important factors. First, Asean naively assumed that Burma shared values
and objectives that were compatible with those of the regional
organization. Second, the group lacked a viable strategy, or the
collective will, to make good on the promises of its policy toward Burma.

Today, many questions remain. Has Asean managed to come up with a
realistic strategy on Burma? How will the regional bloc deal with the
junta, and through what mechanism, if the latter continues to challenge
its credibility? Failure to address these essential questions will result
in the group’s further loss of influence, or worse. Asean could be
dismissed as irrelevant in the eyes of the international community.

In the last decade, Asean perceived the Burma problem as largely a
regional issue, which required a regional solution. While the group
focused on overcoming other obstacles to its expanding influence, the
Burmese political impasse remained a lesser priority.

Asean anticipated that Burma’s chairmanship of the group would provide the
impetus to make the country a more responsible member. Instead, Burma
blithely gave up the rotating chairmanship.

Only recently has Asean recognized the risk of being considered extraneous
to international politics if it remains incapable of reining in the
Burmese junta and convincing it to honor its promises of political reform.

The regional bloc’s long-term goal of establishing an Asean community by
2015, and of launching an Asean Charter, possibly by November 2007, has
forced it to acknowledge the urgency of toughening its stance on Burma,
which has long represented a major barrier in Asean’s external relations,
particularly with Europe and the US.

Accordingly, Asean leaders recently announced that Burma would now be
required to defend itself before the international community. Some members
even called for a UN debate on Burma should the junta fail to expedite its
“road map” to democracy.

What Asean should have done at this point was to widen the diplomatic
scope of its engagement with Burma. The grouping should make Burma less of
a regional problem and more of an East Asian one. This would assist
greatly in building immense pressure on the Burmese regime.

Asean could begin by holding dialogues with China and India about the
deteriorating situation in Burma through existing frameworks like the East
Asia Summit. The two Asian giants are known to be Burma’s close allies,
particularly since the implementation of intense international sanctions
by Western nations.

The most difficult task for Asean will be to convince China and India of
the necessity of putting human rights before strategic interests. “Asean
may remind them of the danger of their selfish pursuit of strategic goals
in Burma that will put them on par with an energy-driven policy of the US
in the Middle East during the last few decades,” said Michael Vatikiotis,
visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in
Singapore.

Burma has come to a critical juncture. Its future in Asean appears to be
bleak if it persists in following its despotic course. The next 10 years
will be even more critical for Asean and Burma. The forthcoming charter,
considered Asean’s mini-constitution, will undoubtedly further complicate
Burma’s controversial membership by compelling Asean to decide at last
whether Burma is worth protecting or whether it is simply dead weight for
the organization.

Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Singapore-based Thai economist, is the author
of A Plastic Nation: The Curse of Thainess in Thai-Burmese Relations.