BurmaNet News, July 28-30, 2007

[Editor]

July 28-30, 2007 Issue # 3256

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Burmese authorities release five more activists
KNG: Junta forces locals into Buddhism in northern Burma
Narinjara News: Price of rice increases in western Burma
Mizzima News: Court defers defamation hearing against Weekly Eleven

BUSINESS / TRADE
AP: Imported food safety a problem, says Burma

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: New bird flu outbreak in southern Burma

ASEAN
DPA: Human rights, voting issues hobble ASEAN charter draft
AP: Asean agrees on human rights commission

REGIONAL
Narinjara News: Repatriation refused to 400 Burmese prisoners

INTERNATIONAL
The Independent: Ministers are urged to reveal Burma links
Xinhua: Myanmar to open embassy in Saudi Arabian capital

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation: Burma's road to reform: what has really changed? - Brad Adams
Irrawaddy: Charter for Asean: boon or bane – Dr. Tin Maung Maung Than
Star-Bulletin: Burma -- another Darfur? - Robert Weiner and John Larmett

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese authorities release five more activists

The Burmese military released five political activists on Friday night,
including high-profile protestor Htin Kyaw, after holding them without
charge for more than two months.

Htin Kyaw was arrested on April 22 after staging his third protest against
high commodity prices in front of Thingangyun township’ San Pya market.
The other four activists, all members of the National League for
Democracy, were arrested in May for praying for the release of party
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Htin Kyaw told DVB on the weekend that he had been held at a number of
different locations during his three-month detention.

“The last place I was held was the police brigade six headquarters in Shwe
Pyithar before they took me to the Aung Thabyay interrogation centre and
then dropped me home,” Htin Kyaw said.

He said that the day he was arrested, security officials had dragged him
off the street into a rice shop where several men beat him while another
held him by the throat. He said he was then taken to the Kyaikkasan
interrogation centre where he was detained for one night.

“The next day, I was sent to Aung Thabyay where I was kept in solitary
confinement for 67 days. I staged a three-day hunger strike . . .” Htin
Kyaw said.

He then gave his guards a list of four demands saying that he would not
cooperate until they were granted. He reportedly asked for a personal
audience with senior general Than Shwe, vice-senior general Maung Aye and
general Thein Shwe.

Htin Kyaw also demanded that his original calls for commodity price
decreases be met and that he and the other detained activists be charged
immediately or released. But he told DVB on the weekend that none of his
demands were met.

“The officials said that Burma’s leaders agreed with our demands [for
commodity price drops] but that we shouldn’t expect fresh water to come
out of a newly dug well,” Htin Kyaw said.

“I told them they would only find water if they started digging in the
right spot and stopped wasting time digging at the wrong location.”

___________________________________

July 30, Kachin News Group
Junta forces locals into Buddhism in northern Burma

Christian students from Kachin tribes - the Jinghpaw, Lisu and Rawang are
being systematically forced to convert to Buddhism by the junta's Putao
District Administration, a resident told KNG today.

The junta has opened a famous Na-Ta-Hla (Border Region Ethnic
Nationalities Development) School in Putao Township and offers free
education and accommodation to locals, the resident added. But, all
Christians have to worship and bow before Buddhist Pagodas and mention
Buddhism as their original faith in the Na-Ta-Hla School Border
application form, according to Putao residents.

About 160 students, mostly from Jinghpaw, Lisu and Rawang tribes are now
studying and staying at the NA-Ta-Hla School hostel which accepts only
grade five to 10 students yearly, they added.

On the border, not only is it mandatory for all students to compulsorily
learn the ruling junta's military doctrine but also take vocational
training such as sewing clothes for schoolgirls and agricultural
activities for schoolboys during school holidays, said residents.

The students are not allowed to go back home on holidays so there is a
lack of communication between students and their parents, according to
sources close to the Na-Ta-Hka School Border.

In Putao, most parents are poor and unable to send their children to
junta's schools. The local people's social and economic life styles are
being destroyed by rapid militarization and consequent increase in the
number of Burmese military bases, the sources added.

Meanwhile, heavy construction by the military is underway in different
areas of Putao District for the Northern Command Headquarters branch
office of the Burma Army, local residents said.

Since 2004, the authorities imposed a law where local Christian churches
were stopped from allowing more than three persons to assemble. Churches,
especially of "Church of Christ" of the Lisu and Rawang tribes have been
shut down by the authorities, according to locals.

In 1960, the country's first Prime Minister U Nu decreed Buddhism as the
state religion of Burma against the will of the ethnic minorities and
various religious organizations.

____________________________________

July 30, Narinjara News
Price of rice increases in western Burma

The price of rice has increased recently in two western border townships
of Burma, to the point that people cannot afford to buy rice from the
markets, a businessman said.

The businessman said, "Many ordinary people are facing big trouble
maintaining their daily survival since the rice price went up. At the same
time, jobs for day laborers are very rare in the area currently as it is
the rainy season."

A source said the number of beggars for remnants of food in the street and
rural areas of Buthidaung and Maungdaw have increased greatly since the
rainy season started.

Currently at the Buthidaung market, a 50 kilogram sack of two brands of
rice - Midon and Ei Matha - is now 19,500 kyats, while Nga Sein brand rice
is 16,500 kyats per sack. The high quality brand of rice, Pawsan Mwe, is
now 30,000 kyat per 50-kilo sack.

U Hla Thein Tun, a farmer from Buthidaung said not only has the rice price
increased, but the price of paddy has also increased in the border area.
In the Buthidaung paddy markets, 100 tinns, or 250 baskets, of Mindon
brand paddy is 560,000 kyat, and Nga Sein brand paddy is 450,000 kyat for
100 tinns.

In Maungdaw Township on the border with Bangladesh, the prices of rice are
21,500 kyat for a sack of Ei Matha brand rice, 20,000 kyat for a sack of
Mi Don brand rice, 19,500 for a sack of Nga Sein brand rice, and 30,000
kyat for the high-quality Pawsan Mwe brand rice.

Due to the high price of rice in the border area, government servicemen
are also suffering to maintain their daily survival. The local authority
has to provide rice to the government officials at a lower price in order
to prevent hunger.

However, the government authority has no plans to provide subsidized rice
at a lower price to local residents, the businessman said.

____________________________________

July 29, Mizzima News
Court defers defamation hearing against Weekly Eleven - Nem Davies

Hearing of a defamation case against Weekly Eleven, a Burmese journal was
postponed by the Tarmway Township court in Rangoon today. The Burmese
Cultural Ministry's historical research department has pressed charges
against the weekly for publishing a report it considers defamatory.

The department earlier this month sued the Weekly Eleven, a Rangoon based
Burmese journal, over a report it published in December 2006.

Though the editor of the weekly journal arrived for the court hearing, the
judge decided to postpone it to August 13, sources close to the journal
said.

The weekly's report had criticized tour agencies for serving dinner on the
ruins of the temples of Pagan, one of Burma's major tourism spots, to
attract tourists. The report also quoted locals, who deem such conduct as
inappropriate and disrespectful towards the highly revered temples in
Burma.

In a contradiction of government policies, though the Burmese censorship
board, which is notorious for censoring any writing against the regime,
passed the report, the Burmese Cultural Ministry's historical research
department took the journal to court.

The historical research department has charged the journal of publishing
inaccurate and misleading reports. The journal editors have decided to
present the censorship board as a witness to defend them, sources close to
the journal said.

An editor of the journal refused to talk about the case saying, "It is
still too early to say anything. We cannot say anything at the moment as
the matter is in court."

An official at the Burmese Cultural Ministry in Naypyitaw, Burma's new
jungle capital, refused to comment saying, "I am not authorized to speak
and there is no officer to answer at the moment."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 30, Associated Press
Imported food safety a problem, says Burma - Aye Aye Win

Burma's government has said it cannot ensure all imported food and
medicine is safe, amid growing international concerns about the safety of
products from its giant neighbor, China.

Burma is flooded with Chinese goods—legally imported and smuggled across a
porous border—and traders say many are substandard if not harmful.

But the impoverished country's Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, said
it does not have enough resources to control the quality of all imported
products, according to a report o­n Sunday in The Myanmar Times, a weekly
English-language newspaper.

"The FDA currently has o­nly 100 staff, which is not enough to carry out
strict monitoring processes to ensure the safety of the 50 million
people," the agency's director, Dr Kyaw Lin, told The Myanmar Times.

Nevertheless the FDA's responsibilities will soon be expanded to include
screening cosmetics, consumer goods and medical equipment, the newspaper
cited Kyaw Lin as saying.

Burma imported nearly US $1 billion worth of Chinese products in fiscal
2005-2006, while an unknown amount of goods cross the border from its
giant northeastern neighbor.

Last week China's Premier Wen Jiabao ordered food and drug safety bodies
to make product quality a top priority after a series of scandals
involving tainted food and drugs led to the recall or rejection of a slew
of Chinese exports around the world.

Chinese officials, initially reluctant to acknowledge the problem, have
vowed more stringent surveillance and a crackdown o­n the country's
countless small, unregulated producers.

According to Burmese traders, who spoke to The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals from the country's
repressive government, Chinese imports to Burma are cheaper but of a lower
standard than the products China exports to the US and Europe.

The Myanmar Times said China is the fourth biggest supplier of legal
pharmaceuticals to Burma behind India, Indonesia and Bangladesh—but that
unregulated drugs also cross the border illegally.

Dr Maung Maung Lay, chairman of the Myanmar Pharmaceuticals and Medical
Equipment Entrepreneurs Association, told the weekly that 10 to 15 percent
of the pharmaceuticals available in the country are fake or flawed.

But poverty and a lack of awareness of the dangers of substandard or cheap
medicine means the people of Burma continue to buy Chinese
pharmaceuticals.

"People are not educated enough to differentiate between a cheap drug and
an expensive but potent one. Another reason why people go for cheaper
medicine is because they are poor," a drug shop owner commented.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 30, Irrawaddy
New bird flu outbreak in southern Burma - Khun Sam

A fresh bird flu outbreak has been reported in Mon State, southeastern
Burma, with authorities taking measures against the deadly virus,
according to a state-run newspaper.

A chicken vendor waits for customers at the market in Rangoon. Authorities
have confirmed a fresh bird flu outbreak has been reported in Mon State,
southeastern Burma.

The H5N1 virus was found in two poultry farms in Thanbyuzayat, Mon State
after tests were conducted on dead birds, Myanmar’s Livestock Breeding and
Veterinary Department confirmed Sunday in a report in the state-run
Burmese language newspaper The Mirror.
The report said that authorities have taken measures to contain the
outbreak, including culling more than 300 chickens on the two poultry
farms where the H5N1 virus was identified.

This fresh outbreak comes a month after a case occurred at a privately
owned chicken farm in Pegu Division, 80 km north of the former capital
Rangoon in June. Earlier outbreaks in Burma were identified in February
and April.

Apart from the two poultry farms, 65 other farms in Thanbyuzayat show no
signs of the virus and all chickens remain healthy, the report said.

Meanwhile, in India’s northwestern Manipur State, which borders Burma,
bird flu cases have been reported since July 11. Culling measures were
initiated and the sale of poultry has been banned.

Indian authorities on Sunday identified 28 more villages where culling
operations have been conducted, with about 60,000 poultry culled since
mid-July.

Burmese authorities have urged the public and government offices to be
more aware of possible outbreaks and to quickly report any potential cases
of the deadly bird flu virus.

No reports of human infection by the H5N1 virus have yet been reported in
the military-ruled country to date. The World Health Organization has
recorded a total of 319 human cases worldwide, with 192 fatalities.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 30, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Human rights, voting issues hobble ASEAN charter draft - Girlie Linao

Disagreements over the creation of a human rights body and decision-making
by voting have hobbled the drafting of a proposed charter of the
Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), officials said.

A high-level task force making the first draft worked overtime on Saturday
to settle differences on the charter, which was expected to be submitted
to ASEAN foreign ministers during their meeting on
Monday.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, who would chair the 40th
ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, said he was optimistic that the disagreements
would be resolved.

"I've been told that 90 per cent (of the first draft) has been agreed upon
and that the 10 per cent is the portion that they probably have to work
out," he told a news conference. "I am optimistic that at the end, we will
all agree."

Romulo said the creation of a human rights body and decision- making by
voting were the top issues that still have to be resolved.

According to diplomats, some ASEAN members, such as Myanmar, have objected
to the inclusion of a human rights commission in the landmark charter.

The Philippines has led more liberal members in pushing for the
commission, stressing that ASEAN must take steps to show the international
community that it was dealing with human rights concerns.

"To the world it's a universal desire that there must be a human rights
commission and I believe that the ASEAN can do no less," Romulo said.

Diplomats have noted that some ASEAN members were wary of any mention of a
human rights commission in the proposed charter as it would open up the
doors for intervention on internal matters, violating the group's cardinal
policy of non-interference.

Another long-time principle of the ASEAN that is under scrutiny is its
policy of consensus, which has become tedious and has hampered fast
decision-making by the group.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Founded in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War and Cold War, the
regional bloc provided newly independent states in South-East Asia a forum
to engage each other and to deal with other powers as a single entity.

ASEAN played a key role strengthening the trust among the highly diverse
people and governments in the region, as well strengthened cultural,
economic and economic ties.

Its non-interference policy to internal affairs of member countries and
consensus-based approach worked well in maintaining the cohesiveness of
the organization during the Cold War.

But in January, ASEAN leaders signed a blueprint for a charter that would
transform it into a rules-based organization, improve its decision-making
process and set up a legal framework to restructure its existing
mechanism.

Romulo said the ASEAN foreign ministers intend to submit a final draft of
the proposed charter to ASEAN leaders during their 13th summit in
Singapore in November.

Analysts have said that the adoption of a legally binding charter will
make the ASEAN more effective and efficient in terms of delivering its
decision on key issues.

Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos, a member of the Eminent Persons
Group that developed the blueprint for the proposed ASEAN charter, had
warned that unless ASEAN takes bold changes in its traditional ways, its
relevance might be diminished.

"Although ASEAN is one of the most successful regional organizations
today, there is no guarantee that it can maintain its relevance in the
coming decades and remain an driving force in regional cooperation," he
said.

____________________________________

July 30, Associated Press
Asean agrees on human rights commission - Jim Gomez

Southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed Monday to set up a regional human
rights commission, overcoming fierce resistance from military-ruled Burma.

A charter being drafted for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian
Nations will include a provision mandating creation of the human rights
body, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

A diplomat involved in negotiations o­n the issue said lower-level
officials finished a draft of the charter o­n Sunday with a reference that
Burma did not accept the commission, leaving it to foreign ministers to
resolve the issue at their annual meeting Monday.

"We have agreed that there will be a human rights body," Singapore Foreign
Minister George Yeo said after the ministers met for four hours to discuss
the draft. "There was a consensus."

Yeo said details will be settled later but that the foreign ministers
hoped to have everything worked out by the time that Asean leaders hold
their annual summit in November, when they plan to approve the charter.

"I'm very optimistic," Yeo said.

Asked about Burma's resistance and reaction to the agreement, he said: "I
think Myanmar [Burma] takes a positive attitude toward all these
developments."

When Burma joined Asean a decade ago—over the objections of Western
countries critical of its human rights record—the country appeared to be
taking the first steps toward democracy, making it a good candidate for
membership as its neighbors sought a unified bloc that could hold its own
economically and politically against groups like the EU.

Since then, Burma has turned into Asean's black sheep, ignoring
international outcry over the continued house arrest of Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and producing little tangible progress in
implementing a so-called roadmap to democracy that it says will lead to
free elections.

Details of the agreement among Asean foreign ministers were not
immediately available. Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam had suggested earlier
that they were not ready for the immediate establishment of such a body,
and Asean members might be allowed to join the commission at a later date.

Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam—Asean's most recent members—all have
authoritarian or single-party governments.

The Philippines had pressed strongly for an Asean rights body, with Romulo
saying it would give the bloc "more credibility in the international
community."

"I would say most of the Asean countries were in favor of this from the
very beginning. We had to agree on this, we had to get a consensus. Now we
have the consensus," he said.

The debate over the charter reflects how Asean's diverse membership,
including fledgling democracies, communist countries and a military
dictatorship, has hobbled decision-making.

At their annual meeting, the foreign ministers were also expected to
tackle terrorism, better enforcement of a regional anti-nuclear treaty,
disaster management and ways to help poorer members catch up with
wealthier o­nes to foster faster economic integration.

Asean, formed 40 years ago, decided to draft a charter to become a more
rules-based organization with better bargaining power in international
negotiations. It hopes the charter can be adopted at an Asean summit in
November.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 29, Narinjara News
Repatriation refused to 400 Burmese prisoners

Over 400 Burmese prisoners have been languishing in several Bangladesh
prisons because Burmese authorities have refused to take them back, an
official report said.

Many of these prisoners are now in Cox's Bazaar and Bandarban district
prisons, waiting for an opportunity to return home to Burma, a Burmese
from Cox's Bazaar said.

"Many of them have already served their jail terms, but cannot go home as
their country refuses to recognize them as citizens," jail officials said.

It is not only Burmese prisoners that are facing this problem in
Bangladesh. Prisoners from India, Pakistan, Nigeria , Malaysia, Tanzania,
Nepal , Ghana, and Saudi Arabia face the same problem of rejection by
their respective home countries.

Among the prisoners, there are 400 from Burma and 200 from India,
including eight women.

A prison source said the countries refused to recognize them as citizens
as the prisoners do not have passports or valid documents.

Whenever prison authorities approach the respective embassies in Dhaka,
they always respond negatively, shattering the hopes of prisoners waiting
to return home and rejoin their families, prison authorities said.

According to an official source, Bangladesh is now facing a serious
problem as the country spends Taka 10 million a year to accommodate and
feed the prisoners refused repatriation.

"These people have been a terrible burden for us as we are struggling to
arrange accommodation for 86,000 inmates," said one jail official.

It is a headache for prison authorities who already have problems with
overcrowded jails. At the Dhaka Central Jail, there are around 9,000
prisoners in a facility built to hold just 2,700.

The Burmese prisoners and other foreign citizens were arrested in
Bangladesh on various charges, including drug smuggling and illegal entry
into the country. They were tried and sentenced to jail terms by the
courts.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 28, The Independent
Ministers are urged to reveal Burma links - Ben Russell

Ministers are coming under increasing pressure to reveal which British
companies import goods from Burma amid a growing clamour of protest at the
appalling human rights abuses carried out by the country's military
dictatorship.

Campaigners, trade unionists and MPs demanded that the Treasury release
details of imports from the south-east Asian state, insisting that
consumers have a right to know whether goods, from gems to clothing, come
from the troubled country.

Leaders of the UK-based Burma Campaign, which presses for the restoration
of democracy in the country, said yesterday that requests for a breakdown
of Britain's imports from Burma had been rebuffed after HM Revenue and
Customs said releasing the information was not in the national interest.

British imports from Burma totalled £34.5m in 2005, a fall on 2004's total
of £73.8m. But campaigners said that consumers had a right to know whether
they were buying goods that might help prop up the military regime.

They have targeted the trade in gems - most of the world's high-quality
rubies originate in Burma - teak imports and clothing as key areas where
the Burmese regime generates vital foreign exchange.

Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, said: "The
ruling junta in Burma is one of the most barbaric regimes in the world.
Given the heinous crimes and human rights abuses that it continues to
commit, it is indefensible for companies to do business with it. Those
that do should be named and shamed."

____________________________________

July 30, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar to open embassy in Saudi Arabian capital

Myanmar is making arrangement to open soon an embassy in Riyadh, capital
of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East to start carrying out its diplomatic
undertakings, the local Weekly Eleven News reported Monday.

The introduction of an embassy in Riyadh will bring the total number of
permanent diplomatic missions of Myanmar in the Middle East to three after
Egypt and Israel.

Saudi Arabia, which established diplomatic links with Myanmar in August
2004, had opened its embassy in Yangon in Dec. 2005.

In May this year, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu visited Saudi
Arabia and had discussions with his Saudi counterpart on the two
countries' trade and Myanmar workers' job opportunities in Saudi Arabia.

According to the foreign ministry, Myanmar has established diplomatic
relations with 96 countries in the world since its independence in 1948.

Myanmar has so far set up embassies in 30 countries and two permanent
missions in New York and Geneva, and three consulates-general in China's
Hong Kong and Kunming and India's Kolkata respectively.

Meanwhile, 28 countries have their embassies in Myanmar. In addition,
China and India have respectively set up consulates-general in Myanmar's
second largest city of Mandalay, while Switzerland's in Yangon and
Bangladesh's in Sittway.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 28, The Nation
Burma's road to reform: what has really changed? - Brad Adams

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), a
military-controlled, nominally "transitional" government, has ruled Burma
since 1988 (following 26 years of formal military rule under dictator Ne
Win). Despite some economic liberalisation, it continues to exercise
almost uncontested control marked with widespread violations of human
rights and a denial of basic freedoms.

Support in the international community for the constitutional process is a
last resort after years of vacillation by the SPDC, broken promises of
democratic reforms and flagrant disregard for international norms of
respect for basic rights, but the new constitution, if it is completed in
its present form, will not necessarily make things any better: it plans to
codify the role of the military in the future affairs of state, reserves
one quarter of parliamentary seats for serving officers, makes sure the
president will be a retired general and includes a raft of provisions
designed to bar opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San
Suu Kyi from participating in elections. She remains under house arrest in
Rangoon, despite widespread calls for her release.

Many former delegates to this convention, including many elected in 1990,
are now imprisoned, exiled or dead. Elected delegates constitute about 1
per cent of the 1,080 people in attendance. Those who do go, even the
handpicked ones supporting the SPDC, are not permitted to question the
proceedings or suggest alternative provisions. Many ethnic groups that
have signed cease-fires with the SPDC after decades of fighting central
government rule are becoming increasingly vocal and dissatisfied with the
process, but it requires courage to publicly question this stage-managed
process: a 1996 law makes it a criminal offence to criticise or obstruct
the constitutional process in any way.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently dispatched his
special envoy on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to Beijing, Tokyo and New Delhi
to consult with key countries following his meetings in Washington the
previous week. Gambari, who visited Burma twice last year, the
highest-ranking UN official to be accepted after years of the SPDC barring
other envoys, is drumming up support for engaging the military government
at this critical junction. In India, Gambari and his hosts agreed that in
engaging the SPDC it is important to "recognise positive steps made by
[Burma] while at the same time encouraging it to make further progress
towards democratisation and human rights".

Just what the positive steps have been is unclear. In late June the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took the remarkably rare
step of making a public statement on Burma. Jakob Kellenberger, the
president of the ICRC, stated that "repeated abuses committed against men,
women and children living along the Thai-[Burmese] border violate many
provisions of international humanitarian law". The ICRC was also concerned
at the limitations on its activities since late 2005, especially in areas
where thousands of civilians are being coerced into supporting the army in
military operations and "the large-scale destruction of food supplies and
the means of production". Restrictions on other aid agencies have
circumscribed the ability of most humanitarian agencies to access areas
and communities in urgent need.

In April, the United Nations Development Programme stated in a
confidential humanitarian-strategy paper stated that "many of the
difficulties encountered by the population of [Burma] today are a result
of ill-informed and outdated socio-economic policies, along with the lack
of legal protection and redress for victims of injustice and abuse".

In spite of this, the military government remains firmly entrenched in
power, with strong diplomatic support from its big neighbours China and
India. The military shows no sign of being willing to step back and hand
power to an elected civilian government. So what can the international
community do?

The resigned argument that little can be done with Burma because of
China's influence and increasing arms sales and diplomatic support from
India and Russia should be a challenge to Asean, which has watched as
Burma has repeatedly embarrassed it through its intransigence and broken
promises. Thailand and the other members of Asean must press the Burmese
government to end its widespread human-rights violations and create a
credible process of handing power to a credible civilian government
through free and fair elections. While some in Asean have spoken out
against the slow pace of reform, Asean as a whole must also speak clearly
and publicly about the situation in Burma. A twisted constitutional
process, military assaults on civilians and the denial of basic freedoms
have no place in the future political system of Burma, or in an Asean that
is in the process of developing its own human-rights framework. Burma's
standing in Asean should depend on genuine reform.

Brad Adams is the director of the Asia division of the New York-based
Human Rights Watch.

____________________________________

July 30, Irrawaddy
Charter for Asean: boon or bane? - Dr. Tin Maung Maung Than

A High Level Task Force of senior Association of Southeast Asian Nations
bureaucrats has been engaged, since the end of March, in drawing up a
draft charter for the regional bloc. Barring any major disagreements, it
will be discussed at the 40th Asean Ministerial Meeting in Manila, which
ends on August 2, before finalization and presentation at the Singapore
Summit (of the heads of Asean governments) in November.

Very little information has been divulged about the charter’s provisions,
which have apparently been based on a report by the Eminent Persons Group
and endorsed by the 12th Asean Summit in Cebu in January.

The charter will establish a legal framework for Asean and will likely be
seen as an attempt to foster greater integration, as envisaged in the Bali
Concord II (October 2003), and to correspond with Asean’s Vision 2020
outlined in Kuala Lumpur in December 1997, whereby the bloc is targeted to
become a “concert” of nations, “outward looking, living in peace,
stability, prosperity, bonded together in partnership in dynamic
development and in a community of caring societies.”

Before pondering whether the charter would reflect continuity and change
in Asean over four decades, it would do well to review the context of the
bloc’s formation and related conditions affecting the founding member
states in 1967 in contrast to the changed circumstances faced by the
grouping in 2007.

When Asean was first conceived, the Cold War was at its height and
Communist China was in the throes of the disastrous Cultural Revolution. A
war was raging in Indochina and two of the five founding members were
facing communist insurgencies. Indonesia was o­n the verge of establishing
a “New Order” developmental state and trying to normalize relations with
neighboring Malaysia and Singapore after ending its hostile konfrontasi
policy against them. Singapore and Malaysia were also trying to come to
terms with a traumatic separation after a short-lived attempt at
unification.

Despite Asean’s professed aim to be free from external interference, there
were foreign military bases in the region (deemed to be temporary to get
around the incongruity). The economies of the original Asean-5 were feeble
and barely industrialized. Under those circumstances, the principal aim
then was to allay the fears and suspicions among founding members and
build confidence through elite cooperation and socialization, while the
professed emphasis was on enhanced economic collaboration (little of which
was achieved in the first decade).

Thus, Asean began its organizational life with a declaration (not a
binding treaty) conspicuous by the absence of formal decision-making
protocols, rules (especially silent on entry and exit) and codes of
conduct.

Fast forward to 2007. Asean finds itself embedded in a vastly changed
regional and international environment. The Cold War is over. China is a
rising economic power pursuing a capitalist growth path. India has risen
to rival China as another economic behemoth. Foreign military bases are no
more. Asean’s membership has doubled and peace and tranquility is the rule
rather than the exception. The threat of inter-state war has been
superseded by non-traditional security threats ranging from terrorism to
piracy to avian flu.

The original Asean-5, together with Brunei and Vietnam, have achieved
considerable economic progress, and economic cooperation has come a long
way with the gradual implementation of the Asean Free Trade Arrangement
and negotiations for Asean-wide FTAs with other developed economies and
China. All member states are plugged into the global economy. Demands for
pluralism and civil society participation are increasingly challenging the
monopoly enjoyed by regime-centric national interests. Good governance,
respect for human rights and democratic practices are being promoted as
regional norms by domestic and international lobbies.

All these developments and challenges of the 21st Century seem to call for
a more institutionalized rule-based Asean qualitatively different from the
informal, consensus-driven bloc that has become seemingly out of sync with
the times.

So what kind of a charter will the Task Force produce? Given that the
framers are pragmatic bureaucrats who need to ensure that it is acceptable
to the respective national governments and live with the consequences, it
is more likely that they will opt for continuity and incremental, rather
than radical, change. Some ambiguities and generalizations subject to
interpretation by member governments may be present as well with regard to
sensitive issues. The fact that the authoritarian CLMV (Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Vietnam) countries would not allow anything that would compromise
regime security and long-term national interests surely works against
incorporation of liberal norms and values.

The definitive answer will only be known when the Asean leaders endorse
the charter at the forthcoming Singapore summit. However, what it would
not incorporate regarding enforcement rules for non-compliance by member
states is already known.

There will be no provisions for sanctions against recalcitrant members,
and suspension and expulsion are out of the question. The seemingly
sacrosanct principles of non-interference in internal affairs of member
states and consensus-based decisions are likely to remain intact, but
qualifications for tackling issues with trans-boundary implications (like
smoke haze and avian flu) for the former, and allowing members to opt out
or letting at least two members go ahead, without seeking overall
consensus, for the latter, may be expected. Some mechanism for protecting
human rights is being worked out and is expected to be included in the
final version, but it is doubtful whether an effective enforcement regime
could be agreed upon.

The biggest beneficiary could be the Asean Secretariat, which will benefit
from expanded human and financial resources accorded by the charter, which
is likely to incorporate most of the EPG’s recommendations o­n enhancing
its role. With Thailand’s former foreign minister and Democratic Party
stalwart Surin Pitsuwan (the two heads preceding him were civil servants)
set to become the new Asean secretary-general at the beginning of 2008, it
will be most interesting to see how the Secretariat plays out its expanded
role under the new charter.

Dr. Tin Maung Maung Than is a Burmese researcher at the Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, and the author of the book State
Dominance in Myanmar. The above article will appear in the August 2007
edition of The Irrawaddy magazine.

____________________________________

July 29, Star-Bulletin
Burma -- another Darfur? - Robert Weiner and John Larmett

The country tumbles into chaos while drug traffickers ship their wares to
Hawaii, where crystal meth is highly profitable

In a little-noticed State Department report in March, Burma was re-branded
from the "Golden Triangle" to the "Ice Triangle." A nation of 42 million
in Southeast Asia, Burma remains the second-largest opium poppy grower in
the world after Afghanistan, but Burma and China are now "the world's top
producers" of amphetamines, according to the U.N. Office of Drugs and
Crime. Burma produces more than a billion pills a year of methamphetamine
alone -- aimed not just at neighbors Thailand, China, India and Cambodia,
but the United States -- largely in and through Hawaii and California.

Drug-trafficking organizations based in Asia are in Hawaii's illegal drug
market because the price of a pound of "ice" -- crystal methamphetamine --
retails for twice what it does on the U.S. mainland. According to the law
enforcement officials, a pound of crystal meth retails in the western
United States for $12,000 to $16,000. The same pound will fetch as much as
$30,000 in Hawaii.

The Star-Bulletin, as far back as 2003, has run feature articles on the
"Ice Storm" sweeping the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaii started getting attached
to ice in the 1980s, before the rest of the country, when the drug started
streaming in from Asia. Hawaii has earned the title of "Ice Capital" of
the nation.

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently confirmed (Drugs and Drug
Abuse State Factsheet, updated June 2007) that "Crystal methamphetamine
(ice) is the drug of choice in Hawaii." Last year more methamphetamine was
seized in Hawaii than any other drug. Federal drug seizures in Hawaii in
2006 were: cocaine: 18.2 kgs., heroin: 0.3 kgs., marijuana: 13.1 kgs.,
hashish: 1.2 kgs and methamphetamine: 50.5 kgs. The DEA reported that in
Hawaii, the majority of methamphetamine is converted into ice.

The human toll is serious because, as DEA reported, ice "lands in local
night clubs, street corners, hotel sites, public areas, raves and private
residences. The widespread use of crystal methamphetamine in Hawaii has
had a devastating impact on Hawaii's economy and family structure. ... The
drug's presence has increased street violence and property crimes."
According to the Hawaii state Department of Health, more than 3,600
individuals were admitted to treatment centers seeking help for
methamphetamine in 2005; and only a small fraction of individuals come
forward to seek treatment.

Burma, the center of the world's "Ice Triangle," has one of the most
repressive governments in the world. This year, Burma was listed among the
world's most failed states by the magazine Foreign Policy, right behind
Sudan in human rights violations. In 1990, the ruling military junta
arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the overwhelming parliamentary
party winner, the National League for Democracy, with 82 percent of the
seats. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and her colleagues have been
in prison or under house arrest since that election.

Yet the foreign policy of this and previous administrations toward Burma
is based on silence and complacency. From trade to troops to diplomacy, we
have made it a point to do absolutely nothing other than occasional White
House "white papers" and weak sanctions.

The Burmese people endure forced labor for army units, rape of women and
girls, and military conscription of boys, now an estimated 70,000-plus.
The authoritarian military government, the State Peace and Development
Council, claims that its soldiers are volunteers and that the minimum
requirement age is 18. However, according to Human Rights Watch, "the vast
majority of new recruits" are "forcibly conscripted," with 35 percent to
45 percent ages 11-14.

Two decades of brutal treatment by the Burmese military in Eastern Burma
have caused more than 500,000 internally displaced and homeless civilians,
whose villages have been destroyed; there are thousands more in areas
where monitoring is impossible. An estimated 1.5 million Burmese are
illegal escapees in neighboring Thailand, on top of the 150,000 in
official camps. The SPDC blocks humanitarian aid to areas of ongoing
conflict.

In just a two-year period in Darfur, 400,000 were killed and two million
rendered homeless by violence that wiped out entire villages. The
international community has awakened and demanded that the atrocities in
Darfur stop. The U.S. Congress has used the strongest language possible to
condemn the bloodshed in Darfur, describing it as genocide and holding the
Sudanese government responsible. The presidential candidates are
discussing no-fly zones and military action, both unilateral and
international.

President Bush and Congress must speak and act against human rights
violations and bloodletting in Burma before it becomes another Darfur.
Burma's drugs exacerbate the situation even further -- it is clearly in
U.S. national security interest to take action.

If the community of nations fails to act, Asia's and America's youth will
pay the ultimate price.

Robert Weiner, president of a Washington think tank, is former spokesman
for the White House Office of National Drug Policy. John Larmett, senior
policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates, is a former foreign affairs
assistant to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and former Sen. Gaylord Nelson
(D-Wisc.).