BurmaNet News, August 14, 2007

[Editor]

August 14, 2007 Issue # 3266

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Vietnam PM arrives in Myanmar
BBC Burmese Service: Burmese football star sent to jail
Irrawaddy: Tension mounts between Wa and Naypyidaw
DVB: Military launches Kachin recruitment drive
Episcopal News Service: Myanmar mission team finds hope amid instability

ON THE BORDER
New Straits Times (Malaysia): 40 Myanmar illegals held
Irrawaddy: A hard but profitable life in Mae Sot market

BUSINESS / TRADE
DVB: High rice prices hit Rangoon residents
Xinhua: Myanmar to establish six special economic zones

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Malaysia needs to recognize Burmese migrant labour: report
Myanmar Times via BBC Monitoring: South Korea to admit Burmese workers
under employment permit system

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: UN evolving a multi-faceted strategy on Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Asia Times: Court drama snarls Myanmar-India romance

ABITUARY
Irrawaddy: Shan leader Khun Kya Nu dies, aged 72

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 14, Agence France Presse
Vietnam PM arrives in Myanmar

Vietnam's prime minister arrived in Myanmar on Tuesday for a two-day
official visit that will include talks with the nation's secretive junta
leader Than Shwe, officials said.

Premier Ngugyen Tan Dung arrived in Myanmar's main city Yangon and was
travelling on to the military's new administrative capital Naypyidaw,
airport officials said.

Military-ruled Myanmar has been isolated by western nations over alleged
rights abuses and the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who
has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year held up Vietnam, a former
US enemy turned trade partner, as a model for Myanmar to improve its
relations with Washington.

Although Vietnam is ruled by a communist regime, its government has
transformed the country into a rising economic star in Southeast Asia.

Myanmar's military regime abandoned socialism nearly two decades ago and
opened the country to foreign investment. But the economy has crumbled
under US and European sanctions and government mismanagement.

Dung is on a five-nation tour that includes Indonesia, Singapore, the
Philippines and Brunei.

____________________________________

August 14, BBC Burmese Service
Burmese football star sent to jail

A former Burma's goalkeeper Ko Aung Kyaw Kyaw who worked for the Customs
Department is sentenced to 14 years on corruption charges.

As many as five hundred people who worked for the Customs including Ko
Aung Kyaw Kyaw were accused of corruption and detained by the authorities
last year.

Many of them are facing long jail sentences including the former Director
General of The Customs Department. He is now serving 60 years jail
sentence.

Ko Aung Kyaw Kyaw is the latest in the long list of footballers belonged
to the Custom Team who are languishing in the jail.

Meanwhile, a new football team is formed for the grandson of Senior Genior
Than Shwe, Po La Pyae. He has been training to play for Air Bagan Football
Team owned by Burma's tycoon U Te Za.

____________________________________

August 14, Irrawaddy
Tension mounts between Wa and Naypyidaw - Saw Yan Naing

Soldiers of the United Wa State Army and the Burmese army have begun
preparing for armed conflict after several weeks of political tension,
according to sources close to the ethnic and government armies.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst based o­n the Sino-Burma border, told The
Irrawaddy on Tuesday that both camps have been conducting military
exercises in preparation for battle.

“[The Wa] are not remaining in their areas carelessly,” said Aung Kyaw
Zaw. “They remain at their camps with great caution.” He added that he
does not believe Burma’s ruling junta will launch an attack any time soon.

Tension between the UWSA and Naypyidaw erupted in recent weeks following a
government order that the Wa relocate units living near the Thai-Burmese
border to the group’s headquarters in Panghsang, near the China-Burma
border.

A deadline of July 31 was given for the relocation, but the UWSA continue
to ignore the order.

Maj Sai Lao Hseng, the spokesperson for the Shan State Army-South, said
that some of his units have heard considerable activity in the Wa area as
troop transports move soldiers to new security positions.

The Wa opposition group has also been reinforcing positions along the
Thai-Burma border, building new outposts, collecting rations, weapons and
ammunition since the end of July, said sources close to the Wa army.

Sources in the area add that several other ceasefire groups near the
China-Burma border, including the Kachin Independence Organization, the
Shan State Army-North and the Kokang Army have been training new recruits.

Leaders of the various groups have further resolved to support each other
in the event of an attack by the Burmese army.

Meanwhile, residents near KIO bases in Kachin State said the Burmese army
has stepped up security around its armed camps in the region.

The UWSA has an estimated 20,000 soldiers deployed along Burma’s borders
with Thailand and China, according to analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw, while an
estimated 60,000 to 120,000 Wa villagers inhabit areas of lower Shan
State.

____________________________________

August 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
Military launches Kachin recruitment drive

The Burmese military has reportedly launched fresh recruitment drives in a
number of Kachin townships, forcing civilians to sign up at random,
residents said yesterday.

Locals from the Inn Gon, Madane Gon and Ten Mile villages in Moe Nyin
township said that since the authorities ordered military leaders to find
new recruits a week ago, a number of people had been snatched off the
street.

Others have reportedly been told that if they can pay the military the
money needed to hire mercenaries to substitute them, they will be spared
active service. Those who cannot afford to pay have been warned that
anyone outside after 8pm will be considered “fair game” by military
officials.

Some villagers, who refused to be named, said that local fire-brigade
officers had been forced by the authorities to arrest people seen near
brothels, drug dealers and gambling dens before handing them over the
military units.

Residents in Moe Nyin said that the town had been deserted after dark
since the recruitment drive with most people too scared to risk going to
tea shops or cinemas in case they are spotted.

____________________________________

August 13, Episcopal News Service
Myanmar mission team finds hope amid instability - Jennifer Andrews-Weckerly

In Myanmar, Christians comprise only five to seven percent of the
population, with Anglicans representing about two percent. Earning an
average of 40 cents per day, a priest often serves six or more parishes,
sometimes wandering the mountains looking for parishioners displaced by
military and resistance fighting. Bishops worry about malfunctioning
trucks and malaria in their travels throughout the dioceses.

In January 2007, a team of seven seminarians from Virginia Theological
Seminary joined missionary the Rev. Katharine Babson in Myanmar for more
than three weeks. Seminarian Jennifer Andrews-Weckerly shares a personal
account of her experience of Myanmar, whose people, she says, nurture a
sense of hope about the future, despite living in such challenging
circumstances.

One of the Anglican Communion's 38 Provinces, the Church of Myanmar was
formed in 1970, nine years after the declaration of Buddhism as the state
religion and four years after all foreign missionaries were forced to
leave. Today, Archbishop Samuel San Si Htay serves as the Primate of the
Church of Myanmar, which has six dioceses.

Nearing the end of our stay in Myanmar, we were eager to visit the working
elephants outside Toungoo. A small, weary pick-up pulled into the hotel
driveway, so full with passengers that we were unsure how it would
accommodate seven seminarians. However, with some creativity, we were on
our way!

After riding through the countryside for an hour, the driver stopped the
truck. While none of us spoke Burmese well enough to understand what was
happening, we knew something was wrong. The group disembarked onto what
seemed to be someone's front yard. One of the Burmese passengers explained
that the brakes were failing, and the driver had decided to consult a
mechanic. Looking around, we saw that the "shop" had no lift and only few
tools. Nevertheless, several men began working on the problem.

Our guide, Dr. Chan, recommended taking a walk. With nothing else to do,
we decided that a walk would do us some good. We strolled alongside
Buddhist monks, oxen carts, and bicycles, attracting the local residents'
full attention.

We approached a rice paddy beyond the heart of the village. Although the
team was content to observe from a distance, Dr. Chan recommended crossing
the dikes to get a closer view. We found this offer shocking. We worried
about trespassing, encountering swarms of mosquitoes, or falling off the
dikes, which appeared quite tenuous.

Most of the team looked at the sturdy ground on which we were standing and
decided that we should not test the swampy paddy. When Dr. Chan realized
we were not following him, he came back to the place where he jumped to
the first dike. First, he pleaded with the group as a whole. Then, he
called me by name.

"Jennifer, please come with me. It's okay. You can trust me."

I looked into his dark brown eyes, and saw a sparkle of adventure and joy.
I looked back at the dirty -- but dry -- road wistfully. Then I turned
back toward Dr. Chan. His smile conveyed a sense of confidence and
encouragement that warmed my heart, and I found myself jumping across the
water to the dike.

It took plenty of coaxing, but one by one, we all braved the paddy to get
a closer look. The paddy was much more quiet and peaceful than the road.
The air seemed clearer, and we were able to see the lush, green rice
shoots. We came close to a group of six women standing in knee-deep water.
The hot sun beat down on their backs as they hunched over to plant one
shoot at a time. We found ourselves exhausted just watching them. On the
way back to the truck, Dr. Chan told us that the women work seven days a
week and earn about $.80 each day for their labor.

Our experience on the paddy with Dr. Chan was a metaphor for my experience
in Myanmar. It was an invitation much like Christ's invitation to take
another way. It is an invitation to travel to a place halfway around the
world, that the U.S. Government has sanctions against, that refuses to
allow democracy to rule, whose military junta creates a sense of fear and
anxiety, and whose food, culture, and dress is foreign.

As with Jesus, if you are open to becoming completely vulnerable, you will
find a place of deep joy. I found that place in Myanmar. It is a place
where hospitality is redefined -- where food, gifts, and laughter are
abundant, despite economic scarcity. People open their homes and lives to
you. Christians have a deep and abiding love and excitement for Christ
that they share readily. And, somehow, they nurture a sense of hope about
the future.

For further information about the Anglican Church in Myanmar, joining a
mission team to Myanmar, or to offer financial support to the Church,
please contact Myanmar missionary the Rev. Katharine Babson at
KatharineBabson at aol.com.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 14, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
40 Myanmar illegals held

Forty illegal immigrants from Myanmar have been arrested near the Thai
border in June and last month.

Eighth Malaysian Infantry Brigade commander Brigadier General Datuk
Shaharudin Abu Bakar said the immigrants were detained separately at
several locations in Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah.

The foreigners, including six women, entered the country without travel
documents. They were believed to be heading for Kuala Lumpur to look for
jobs.

"The immigrants were arrested by soldiers on patrol.

"The number of immigrants arrested within the period is staggering but the
situation is still under control, with round-the-clock security checks by
our men," he said.

____________________________________

August 14, Irrawaddy
A hard but profitable life in Mae Sot market - Htet Aung

A morning breeze makes the perspiring Moe Moe shiver as she walks across
the Thailand-Burma Friendship Bridge with a basket of tamarind and
vegetables perched on her head.

Beneath her feet run the waters of the Moei River, known in Burma as the
Taungyin. The bridge serves as o­ne of o­nly a few major border crossings
through which trade between the two countries has passed in increasing
quantities over the last decade.

The bridge also represents a vital component in the livelihood of scores
of school-aged Burmese children like Moe Moe. She walks daily from
Myawaddy, a Burmese border town just across the Moei River, to sell
seasonal produce in the Mae Sot market.

“I want to go to school, but my mother pulled me out because she can’t
afford [school fees.],” the thin-bodied and shy Moe Moe told me softly
while selling tamarind and lady fingers from a roadside stall in the
crowded market.

It is the full-moon day of wazo, the first day of the three-month Buddhist
lent, and the market swarms with Burmese migrant workers in fine
traditional dress. The scene makes me forget for a few moments that this
is Thailand.

Just 10 years of age, Moe Moe is o­ne of many child street vendors who
cross the bridge early each morning to earn extra money for their
families. They maintain a hectic schedule, as Moe Moe explained to me.

She wakes each day at 4 a.m. and accompanies her mother to the market in
Myawaddy to purchase produce. By 6 a.m., she reaches the border gate to
cross the river. Then, she travels by bus to the market, arriving there
about half an hour later.

Moe Moe and the other children vendors from Myawaddy can earn better
profits in Mae Sot.  “If I sell out all these tamarind and lady fingers, I
can get a profit of some 4,000 kyat (US $3.2),” she said. “I can’t get
such a profit in the Myawaddy market.”

However, extra profits come with the risk of arrest by market authorities.
“Sometimes I have to run away when they come,” 11-year-old Maung Htwe,
another of Mae Sot’s many street vendors, told me. “But luckily, I haven’t
ever been arrested so far.”

Maung Htwe attended primary school in Moulmein before his mother called
him to live with her in Myawaddy. “I left the school and followed my
mother,” Maung Htwe told me with a soft smile. “I have sold seasonal
vegetables in the [Mae Sot] market for two years.”

Market authorities often arrest street vendors in the Mae Sot market who
have not obtained permission to sell goods there.

“If you want to sell things in the market, you need to apply for
permission from the market authorities and pay tax for selling there,”
explains Nay Naing, a member of Yaung Chi Oo, a Mae Sot-based Burmese
migrant worker organization. “But you need a Thai citizen to serve as
grantee in the process.”

Every day a long line of Burmese citizens cross the bridge carrying a blue
“Temporary Border Pass,” for which they must pay 1,000 kyat (80 US cents),
plus an additional 500 kyat (40 US cents) per bag of goods to be sold in
the Mae Sot market.

Min Oo, a member of Yaung Chi Oo, said the border pass does not allow them
to work or sell in the market. If they are arrested, the market
authorities usually seize all the goods and place the seller in custody.

Despite the risks, Burmese vendors—many of them just children like Moe Moe
and Maung Htwe—continue to cross the Friendship Bridge in steady numbers.

As long as Mae Sot has a demand for their goods and services, and as long
as poverty in Burma drives them to seek better opportunities to help their
families, the Mae Sot market will remain an enticing though dangerous
place to do business.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 14, Democratic Voice of Burma
High rice prices hit Rangoon residents

High rice prices in Rangoon have reportedly forced many residents to rely
on handouts from donation centres opened by activists and politicians such
as Amyotharyay Win Naing.

In the past month Amyotharyay Win Naing and activists involved in the
February protests against high commodity prices have opened several
donation centres around the former capital to provide rice to people who
are being forced to skip meals.

Amyotharyay Win Naing said the donation centres aimed to ensure that most
people in Rangoon were able to eat regularly as inflation rates continued
to rise across Burma.

“We are just trying to help to people who have begun to starve,” he told DVB.

One resident of South Dagon township said that since rice vendors started
charging more than 1000 kyat for one pyi (roughly two kilos) last month,
many of his neighbours had been unable to afford the staple.

“We can’t buy rice for ourselves now . . . we thank these men for their
donation,” the resident said.

Many families yesterday reported only being able to afford half the amount
rice they needed with others saying they had started skipping meals in
order to make ends meet. One Rangoon housewife said that with the price of
oil rising to more than 300 kyat a viss, she was finding it difficult to
provide for her family.

Ko Thein Aung Myint, who was involved in the February protest, said that
his family was also finding it difficult to afford enough food.

“Most people have to work hard to earn about 1500-2000 kyat a day . . .
when prices increase many people find food impossible to afford,” Ko Thein
Aung Myint said.

____________________________________

August 14, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar to establish six special economic zones

Myanmar is planning to establish six special economic zones (SEZ) to
attract direct foreign investment into the country in a bid to promote its
economic development, local Weekly Eleven News reported Tuesday.

The six SEZs are outlined as Thilawa Port in Yangon, Mawlamyine in Mon
state, Myawaddy and Hpa-an in Kayin state, Kyaukphyu in Rakhine state and
Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay division, the industry circle was quoted as
saying.

Prospective sectors for foreign investment are outlined as production,
high-tech, agriculture, livestock breeding, forestry, transport and
communications, and banking services.

Foreign investors making direct investment in the SEZs will be
categorically exempted from taxation ranging from two to eight years, the
report said, specifically adding that investment in high-tech will be
exempted from income tax for the first eight years, while that in
production for the first five years and that in agriculture, livestock
breeding, forestry and banking services for the first two years.

Prospective investors in the SEZs are viewed as coming from China, India,
Singapore, and Thailand.

Meanwhile, a new SEZ law has reportedly been drafted for future enactment.

According to the latest official statistics, contracted foreign investment
in Myanmar has reached 14.6 billion U.S. dollars in 402projects since the
country opened to such investment in late 1988.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 13, Mizzima News
Malaysia needs to recognize Burmese migrant labour: report

Ironically, despite significant contribution through hard labour to
Malaysia's burgeoning economy, Burmese refugees and migrant workers remain
unrecognized, unwelcome and live in constant fear, said a new report.

The report - "We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in Malaysia"
by United States based Project Maje, an independent information project,
which has distributed information on Burma's human rights and
environmental issues, reveals the abysmal plight of Burmese refugees who
have worked on Malaysia's massive infrastructure projects but received no
gratitude for their labour.

The report, released on August 10, said Burmese refugees and migrants
despite their contribution to Malaysia's fast growing economy have often
been subjected to immigration raids by RELA, a government backed people's
volunteer corps.

"Rela has acquired special powers of search and seizure, and arrest
without warrant that not even the regular police possess. Reports of raids
conducted by them, read like horror stories, about humans brutalized,
humiliated, robbed, dragged out of their beds, forced into trucks that
take them away to certain detention centres, of which the general public
know very little," the report said.

With its economy charting an upward course, Malaysia has attracted migrant
workers as well as refugees from neighbouring Southeast Asia including
Burma and also from other countries like Bangladesh and Nepal .

Malaysia is estimated to host at least 200,000 Burmese refugees and
migrants, who are mainly employed in construction sites and restaurants.
With no legal documents the Burmese people are vulnerable to random raids
conducted by the police or RELA.

Arrest of refugees from Burma in Malaysia, either by the Immigration
authorities, Rela or the police is usually followed by a sentence of one
to six months in immigration jail or camp. However, there has been
increasing incidents of combining the jail term with a primary lashing of
male refugees or migrants, the report added.

The report condemns the Malaysian authorities for over empowering the
RELA, which many rights groups and NGOs have termed 'a band of bandits',
and called for disbanding the group.

Malaysia however, defends, the RELA, which was set up in 1972, and vested
with powers based on the 1964 Emergency (Essential Powers) Act of
Malaysia's turbulent Cold War post-Independence era, when ever it comes
under attack by rights groups for their conduct.

The report called for a concerted effort to pressure the Malaysian
government to protect Burmese refugees and migrants, who fled their home
country because of repression by the ruling junta.

With the 'Visit Malaysia Year tourism promotion for 2007' slogan
"Malaysia: Truly Asia", for Malaysia to really "be Asia" it should admit
and accept that people from other countries in Asia, including Burma, do
live and work there, and do contribute to building, feeding and growing a
vibrant and thriving nation, the report said.

____________________________________

August 14, Myanmar Times via BBC Monitoring
South Korea to admit Burmese workers under employment permit system

Text of report in English by Burmese newspaper The Myanmar Times website
on 6 August

[Report by Ye Lwin from "Business" section: "SKorea calls on govt for
labour"]

South Korea will open its doors to Myanmar workers under a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) expected to be signed shortly, which places greater
emphasis on government approval than did the previous recruitment system.

Once the MoU is signed by the labour ministries of the two countries,
Myanmar workers will be admitted to South Korea under a new
government-to-government programme known as the Employment Permit System
(EPS), according to a senior official at the Republic of Korea embassy in
Yangon.

"We, the Korean side, submitted a draft MoU to Myanmar's Ministry of
Labour two months ago and now the government of Myanmar has accepted our
proposal," Choi Kwang-jin, first secretary at the embassy, told The
Myanmar Times on July 30.

"So far, the Korean Ministry of Labour has signed MoUs with nine countries
to recruit labourers - the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia and Pakistan," he added.

Myanmar applicants must be aged 18 to 39 and pass a Korean language test -
including written and spoken Korean - which will reflect language commonly
used in factories, at construction sites or in the service industry, Choi
said.

"Those who pass the KLT (Korean language test) with at least 60 points
will be eligible to work in the service and manufacturing sectors. Those
who get under 60 points but above 30 points will be eligible to work in
the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors," he explained.

Workers must also pass a medical examination, a criminal background check
and have never been deported from South Korea, Choi said.

Last month, the Ministry of Labour opened a basic Korean language and
culture course at its training centre in Yankin township, Yangon, to help
prepare potential workers.

South Korea previously recruited foreign workers from the developing world
through private employment agencies, with migrant labourers having to pass
the Industrial Training System (ITS).

Some 4000 Myanmar workers travelled to South Korea under the ITS scheme
although the Korean government phased this out in 2007 and replaced it
with the EPS, which eliminates the role of private agencies and requires
government backing for labour transfers.

"In 2006, South Korea recruited 1296 Myanmar workers under the ITS
system," Choi told The Myanmar Times. He added that by the end of July, no
labourers had been sent this year.

Myanmar was one of 15 countries sending labourers to South Korea under the
ITS mechanism, which required three-year contracts.

"Under the previous programme, we recruited a limited number of employees
and workers to meet a quota. Now that we've abolished the quota for
workers, we can recruit an unlimited number but it depends on the Korean
employers," Choi said.

According to Yangon-based overseas employment agencies, South Korea is
becoming an increasingly popular destination with Asian migrant workers
because pay and conditions for labourers are better than in Singapore and
Malaysia, the two most common foreign markets for Myanmar workers behind
Thailand.

If Korean employers violate the terms of a job contract, workers can
complain at any of the 46 labour inspection offices across the country,
Choi said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 14, Irrawaddy
UN evolving a multi-faceted strategy on Burma - Lalit K Jha

The United Nations is now working towards evolving a multi-prong strategy
towards restoration of democracy in Burma, the release of political
prisoners and protection of human rights.

It is under this mandate from the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, who
hails from South Korea and has a keen interest in the region, that the
Special Envoy for Burma,    Ibrahim Gambari, has initiated discussions
with key players in bringing democracy to Burma.

As Gambari returned from another round of consultations o­n Burma this
week, it is also believed he will consult with some Burmese organizations.

"All of Gambari's consultations are taking place in the implementation of
the secretary-general's good offices mandate for Myanmar [Burma], in
support of which Myanmar's regional neighbors can play an important role,"
Faran Haq, an associate spokesperson for the secretary- general told The
Irrawaddy.

"Any effort to promote positive changes in Myanmar is going to require not
o­nly direct dialogue with the government and people of the country, but
also dialogue with all key interested countries, including Myanmar's
neighbors in Southeast Asia.

"From the UN's point of view, it is important to try to mobilize all those
who can potentially help support our efforts in the implementation of
relevant General Assembly resolutions," Haq said.

Following the first round of consultations, the next step appears to be
talks with pro-democracy supporters both inside and outside Burma and then
trying to engage the military junta in dialogue.

"The secretary-general has asked Gambari to continue his dialogue with the
Government and people of Myanmar.  He therefore intends to visit Myanmar
again soon, although dates have yet been determined," Haq said in response
to a question.

Diplomatic sources in the UN acknowledge that at this point, it might be
difficult for Gambari to hold talks with the pro-democracy forces inside
Burma, including a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi who is currently under
house arrest.  However, he is expected to receive feedback from
non-governmental organizations, the Burmese expatriate community and
pro-democracy leaders outside Burma in the next phase of the process.

Soon after he was named Special Adviser o­n Burma, Gambari held
discussions with top officials of the Bush Administration in Washington,
followed by a week-long trip to three key Asian nations—China, India and
Japan.

While China has been a traditional supporter of the military junta, India
in the last few years has developed close military and economic ties with
the Burmese generals.  Japan is a major donor to Burma.

Gambari also visited key European countries—Russia, Britain, Paris and
Brussels—before making another week-long trip to Thailand, Singapore,
Malaysia and Indonesia. He returned to the United Nations this weekend.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 14, Asia Times
Court drama snarls Myanmar-India romance - Jessicah Curtis

On nearly all counts, India-Myanmar bilateral relations are on the
upswing, with fast-growing military, trade and investment links. All, that
is, but on one count: the unsettling revelations emerging from a case
being heard in an Indian court about the infamous 1998 Operation Leech
sting.

Ever since India's Ministry of Defense claimed nearly a decade ago to have
captured what it referred to as an "international gang of gun smugglers"
linked to 34 ethnic-Arakan and Karen rebels who were fighting against
neighboring Myanmar's military government, the follow-up investigation
into the charges has led to one embarrassment after another for the Indian
defense establishment.

Many of the details of what transpired on India's Andaman Islands on
February 8, 1998, are still unclear. However, court observers say the more
credible version of that evening's events has come in defense of the rebel
Karen National Union (KNU) and National Unity Party of Arakan (NUPA).

According to the defendant rebels, they traveled overnight from southern
Thailand, where they had procured arms from unknown dealers, to India's
Landfall Island for a scheduled rendezvous with Indian military and
intelligence officials. The two insurgent groups were in the process of
moving more than US$2 million worth of arms and ammunition on to the
island, where they claim Indian intelligence officials had offered them
storage facilities.

They also say the same Indian officials had provided them similar
clandestine support for years, but for still-unknown reasons that abruptly
changed that evening in an intelligence sting operation now famously known
as Operation Leech. After mooring on the island, six NUPA leaders were
immediately apprehended and led away by Indian officials, while the other
accompanying 28 rebels were disarmed, shackled, and held in a different
area.

According to their court testimony, some of them soon thereafter heard the
sound of gunshots in the distance. The six NUPA leaders, witnesses say,
have not been heard from since. The detained rebels have spent the past
nine years in legal limbo, and no formal charges were filed by India's
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) until December 2004.

The CBI and Ministry of Defense had reportedly squabbled internally for
years over how to proceed with the case, and critics have made suggestions
of a state cover-up. By the time the case was finally transferred to a
sessions court in Kolkata, several lawyers who had agreed to represent the
rebels said they had been harassed by Indian officials and refused access
to the defendants. One legal counsel, T Vasandar, died in mysterious
circumstances, according to their defense lawyers.

Meanwhile, because of lack of evidence, the CBI was forced to drop one of
the initial charges that accused the rebels of attempting to wage war
against India. During the proceedings, state prosecutors have reportedly
failed to produce significant pieces of evidence requested by the defense,
including the ammunition seized that evening, according to Siddharth
Aggarwal, the rebels' lead lawyer. Aggarwal has also complained that the
court allowed three military officials allegedly involved in the sting
operation to testify via video link without cross-examinations by the
defense.

Conflicting claims
According to Aggarwal, his clients' defense is simple: "They were called
to Landfall [Island] by the Indian authorities with the promise that ...
they [would] be armed by the Indian Army in their quest for freedom
against the military junta" in Myanmar. The prosecution has denied the
claims, insisting that the Indian military's only contact with either
rebel group was for the purpose of conducting the sting.

Whether or not the Indian military had deeper ties to the NUPA and KNU is
still in dispute. But the allegations raised at the trial have nonetheless
been a public relations disaster for New Delhi, crucially at a time when
several big business deals with Myanmar's military junta hang in the
balance.

When the rebels were first arrested in 1998, the trial and its revelations
would have been less problematic for India. Back then, New Delhi hadn't
yet launched its diplomatic charm offensive toward Myanmar's generals, and
then-defense minister George Fernandes openly supported and even provided
sanctuary in his personal compound for exiled Myanmar pro-democracy
student groups situated in India.

With India's "Look East" diplomatic strategy, which includes securing new
regional sources of fossil fuels, now in full swing, the trial has
highlighted the still-conflicted nature of the two sides' budding
bilateral relationship and the difficulty India is having cutting ties to
its past policy of at least tacit support for Myanmar's pro-democracy and
rebel movements.

Beginning in the late 1990s, India slowly moved to change its position and
engage Myanmar's military regime, toward the strategic aim of curbing
China's growing influence in the neighboring country. Indian defense
officials were and remain vexed by Yangon's agreement to allow Beijing to
build a listening post at Coco Island in the Indian Ocean.

India's new policy toward Myanmar has arguably paid economic and strategic
dividends for both sides, though at the expense of India's previous
foreign policy that emphasized democracy promotion. Myanmar's generals
have been able to diversify with a competing power their past reliance on
China for arms, aid and trade. At the end of last fiscal year, according
to official statistics, India-Myanmar trade had reached US$650 million,
making India Myanmar's fourth-largest trading partner after China,
Singapore and Thailand.

Military-to-military ties have in particular strengthened. A number of
leading Indian defense officials have recently visited Yangon and, in
return, junta leaders General Than Shwe and General Maung Aye have been
given what the Indian press referred to as "red-carpet welcomes" on their
arrival to New Delhi. India's arming of Myanmar's military has helped it
crack down on other separatist groups fighting against New Delhi that in
the past have operated from remote territories along the two countries'
border.

That has meant the sale by India of a wide range of military hardware,
including surveillance aircraft, T-55 tanks and 105mm artillery pieces.
While that has certainly improved Myanmar's military capabilities, it has
also raised concerns among international rights groups, which claim the
arms sales will help Myanmar to fight against the same rebel groups India
is accused of in the past clandestinely supporting.

In apparent exchange for the arms deals, India is vigorously lobbying
Myanmar to award it the rights to natural-gas blocks in the Shwe fields
off Myanmar's Arakan state. India reportedly sweetened its offer last week
by proposing to develop a major new port in Arakan territories that would
pave the way for more efficient fuel exports. China is also reportedly
competing for the gas rights.

Some political analysts say the revelations emerging from the Operation
Leech trial, including Delhi's alleged past support for rebel groups who
operate in the very areas India is now bidding to develop for energy
exports, have compromised its negotiating position vis-a-vis Myanmar. The
KNU and NUPA have both claimed in court to have received support from
Indian intelligence operatives for years before Operation Leech was
launched.

Independent researchers working on Myanmar's western borders told Asia
Times Online that Indian intelligence operatives likely spent years
cultivating ties with rebel groups fighting Myanmar's military in the late
1980s and early 1990s and that they had made several offers of logistical
support to the Arakan and Chin insurgent groups operating in Myanmar's
remote western border regions.

So far these courtroom claims have not spread much further than the
presiding court in Kolkata. "If the trial goes on for too long, the Indian
military's contacts with Burmese rebels will be revealed ... That's why
they killed the six leaders. It was because they knew too much," said
David Htaw, a KNU official monitoring the case.

Brahma Chellaney, a senior Indian military analyst attached to the New
Delhi-based Center for Policy Research, believes that despite the damning
nature of the claims, the overall upbeat relationship between India and
Myanmar is unlikely to be hurt by the trial. He contends that Myanmar's
military, condemned for its repression in the court of international
opinion, is now basking in its association with the world's largest
democracy.

"Despite all this, the relationship between the two countries just keeps
improving," Chellaney said.

Jessicah Curtis is a freelance journalist based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

____________________________________
ABITUARY

August 14, Irrawaddy
Shan leader Khun Kya Nu dies, aged 72 - Khun Sam

Khun Kya Nu, prominent ethnic Shan leader and pro-democracy fighter, died
in exile on Monday in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, at the age of 72.

Khun Kya Nu, who was also known as Sao Seng Suk, was born in Taunggyi,
capital of Burma’s Shan State, in 1935.

He was the sixth of 10 children of Khun Kya Bu, one of the signatories of
the historic 1947 Panglong Agreement that was supposed to lay the
foundations of a modern federal union of Burma. The agreement was also
signed by Burma’s independence hero, Gen Aung San, father of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, along with several ethnic leaders.

While studying at Rangoon University, he joined the armed Shan resistance
in 1959. He became commander-in-chief of the Shan State Army, which was
transformed from the Shan State Independence Army in 1964.

Khun Kya Nu retired from the SSA in 1976, but still took part in leading
Shan political groups and ethnic political alliances, including the Shan
State Constitution Drafting Committee, which he chaired, and the Ethnic
Nationalities Solidarity and Cooperation Committee, which later became the
Ethnic Nationalities Council.

During his long commitment to the Shan cause and to the construction of a
democratic, federal Burma he won the respect of many ethnic leaders and
democratic organizations.

Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News, and a close
associate, said Khun Kya Nu’s death was a loss for the Shan people and
ethnic communities.

“He is one of the few leaders after the late Eugene Chao Tzang Yaanghwe
who had principle and initiated Shan politics. It will be hard to find
anybody to replace him.”

Sai Lao Hseng, spokesman for the Shan State Army-South, said the SSA-S was
saddened by Khun Kya Nu’s death. His passing would have its effect on Shan
politics, Sai Lao Hseng said. The Shan people should follow the course he
had taken, he added.

Khun Kya Nu’s funeral will be held on Saturday in Chiang Mai.