BurmaNet News, August 15, 2007

[Editor]

August 15, 2007 Issue # 3267

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar's junta imposes a 100 percent fuel hike
Irrawaddy: Rights activists, politicians join in Burmese flood and poverty
relief
SHAN: Burmese soldiers rape Lahu girl
BBC Burmese Service: KNLA denied defection
Khonumthung: Internet users in Chin state warned not to send
anti-government mail

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima News: A glimpse into the lives of Burmese sex workers in Thailand

BUSINESS / TRADE
DPA: Myanmar and Vietnam sign pact on petroleum cooperation
Reuters: Myanmar to sell gas to China - India minister

REGIONAL
Khonumthung: Burmese woman asylum seeker in South Korea to be deported to
India

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: State Department lists Burma as a Security Council priority

INTERVIEW
Irrawaddy: Breaking down ‘wall of silence’ on HIV and safe sex in Burma -
An interview with Swe Zin Htaik

STATEMENT
AHRC: Burma: Public assaults and deaths in custody; no one to investigate

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 15, Associated Press
Myanmar's junta imposes a 100 percent fuel hike

Myanmar's ruling military junta imposed a surprise 100 percent hike on
fuel at state-owned gas stations on Wednesday, apparently to keep up with
global oil prices.

As usual in the tightly controlled country, the price hike was not
officially announced and car owners discovered the increases only when
they drove up to fill their tanks.

The government, which holds a monopoly on fuel sales and subsidizes them,
raised prices of fuel from 1,500 kyats (US$1.16; 85 euro cents) to 3,000
kyats (US$2.33; €1.71) per imperial gallon for diesel and to 2,500 kyats
(US$1.94; €1.42) for gasoline.

A canister of natural gas containing 65 liters (17 gallons) was raised
from 500 kyats (39 U.S. cents; 29 euro cents) to 2,500 kyats (US$1.94;
€1.42).

"The price increase was posted on a notice board at the pump but no one
explained the reason for the price hike," one car owner told reporters.

Although no official reason was given many believe the increase stems from
the government's shortage of foreign currency to purchase fuel from
abroad.

Although Myanmar's gasoline prices are lower than those in many countries,
fuel is relatively expensive for most in Myanmar, where a teacher, for
example, earns about 40,000 kyats (US$31.30; €22.80) a month.

Myanmar last imposed a fuel hike in 2005.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, suffers from a constant gasoline shortage
due to limited domestic oil production and limited foreign exchange
reserves.

Gasoline has been sold under a rationing system in the country's major
city, Yangon, since 1980. Each car has a ration book, allowing car owners
to purchase 227 liters (60 gallons) per month.

Vehicle owners who do not use their full quota often sell the excess fuel
to black-market vendors.

Fear of spiraling food prices as a result of the hike sent housewives
rushing to buy staples such as cooking oil, onions and rice while many
drivers who did not bring enough money with them had to either return home
or fill only a part of their tanks.

Since many buses and taxis are run with natural gas, commuters faced a
shortage of buses running on the road.

The government has been promoting the use of compressed natural gas, or
CNG, as an alternative fuel for vehicles since 2005. Myanmar is a major
producer of natural gas.

____________________________________

August 15, Irrawaddy
Rights activists, politicians join in Burmese flood and poverty relief -
Saw Yan Naing

Human rights activists and opposition politicians are leading efforts in
Burma to help victims of the recent floods and other needy people.

Su Su Nway, a prominent Burmese human rights activist in Rangoon, told The
Irrawaddy on Wednesday that she and colleagues from the opposition
National League for Democracy were mobbed by about 400 needy people when
they distributed clothing the previous day in Rangoon’s Hlaing Thayar
Township.

“When I saw so many people living in the Rangoon area grabbing the clothes
we had donated I felt very sad,” Su Su Nway said. The situation in rural
areas must be far worse, she added.

Su Su Nway said she knew of people having to pawn their pots, pans,
clothes and even their ID cards to meet their daily expenses. Some were
surviving o­n just o­ne meal a day.

Veteran opposition politician U Win Naing said he and his family had
donated about 200,000 Kyat (US $156) in aid for needy people. He appealed
for support for the initiative.

____________________________________

August 15, Shan Herald Agency for News
Burmese soldiers rape Lahu girl

Four soldiers from the Kengtung based Burma Army artillery battalion raped
a 10-year old Lahu girl in early June. The victim was hospitalized, said a
local.

The girl who lives in Pher Yang village, Mueng Khun ward, 14 miles from
southern Kengtung, was raped by Sergeant Thein Htun and his three
colleagues when she was herding cows on the field. The girl fell
unconscious. The rapists covered her with bushes after they raped her
because they thought she was dead.

"She came out from bushes on regaining consciousness after an hour.
Luckily, villagers found her on the road side. She was in a critical
condition. She was sent to hospital. Out of sympathy doctors and nurses
did not charge her parents for the treatment,” said a relative of the
victim.

"Local people who heard of the incident came to the hospital and offered
snacks and some money," said another local.

The Triangle Commander gave Kyat 700,000 to her parents as compensation
and warned them not to talk about the rape. Even though the army put a lid
on the rape case it is widely known in Kengtung.

____________________________________

August 15, BBC Burmese Service
KNLA denied defection

A commander of the KNLA 6th Brigade has described the meeting between his
group and the Burmese Army officials are just an attempt to reach a mutual
understanding and confidence building.

Earlier, the commander Lt Col Kyi Lin is said to be preparing to surrender
to the Burmese government after a few meetings with the top brass Lt
General Maung Bo in Kawkareik.

He admitted that his recent meeting with the Burmese military intelligence
officials was done without the knowledge of the KNU Central Executive
Committee in the interview with the BBC.

____________________________________

August 15, Khonumthung
Internet users in Chin state warned not to send anti-government mail

Internet users in Matupi town, Chin state, Burma have been warned not to
send anti-government e mails by Burma's ruling military junta. A new  
cyber café has been set up in Matupi.

Officials of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a junta
backed organization, set up an internet café for public use adjacent to
the police station in Matupi town in July this year.

The local authorities pasted posters in every corner of the main road in
Matupi town warming users not to send black mail to prevent people from
spreading anti-junta propaganda to the outside world over the net,
according to a local in Chin state.

The people were notified that whoever mails anti-junta messages through
the internet would be dealt with severely by the authorities. However, the
punishment for flouting the rule by internet users is not mentioned.

 E-mail senders have to show letters and email addresses to staff from the
USDA office handling computer. All incoming and outgoing e mails were
checked by USDA office staff.

 "We submit the papers that included letters we wrote to our friends to
office staff. We have no knowledge of using the computer and sending e
mails", said one sender in Matupi.

The USDA charge internet users between Kyat 500 and Kyat 1,000 (Burmese
currency) since the internet café is newly set up. They charge around Kyat
500-to 600 to receive mails.

Since 2006, the military authorities had set up internet cafés in other
towns of Chin state where they charge around Kyat 3000 to Kyat 4000 an
hour.

Recently, Burmese military government geared up its cyber village project
for internet access in rural area like in urban areas.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 15, Mizzima News
A glimpse into the lives of Burmese sex workers in Thailand - Christopher
Smith

Though originally released almost a decade ago, "Sacrifice", a film
documenting the plight of Shan State girls working in the Thai sex
industry, proves no less poignant a saga for today's world.

Set predominantly in the northern Thai border town of Mae Sai, opposite
Burma, the film chronicles the factors that force girls from Burma's Shan
State to seek employment in the sex industry across the border, and the
trials and hardships that follow as a result of their trade.

Though the subject matter of the film is the prostitution of young girls
from Shan State, the underlying message is one of social, cultural and
economic forces back home that seemingly leave the girls with little
choice but to accept their fate in the brothels of Mae Sai.

Socially and culturally, the girls relate how they must find a means of
repaying their debt to their parents for bringing them into the world.
While sons are said to provide for the life beyond, girls understand
themselves to be the providers in this life.

While some of the interviewees said they and their families were tricked
into the resulting lifestyle by Thai businessmen with promises of jobs in
other economic areas combined with a forward on the girl's wages, many
alluded to the economic reality of their situation as forcing their hand.

The girls related how they could hope to earn no more than $8 a month in
wages back in Shan State, while there were no doctors or existing social
net to provide for the daily needs of life.

The selling of their bodies then became a choice of crude economic
necessity, even if it still remained a time-consuming process just to make
enough money to pay off their debts to the brothel while earning enough
money for meager remittances.

"To be with a man takes minutes, to plant rice takes hours in the beating
sun," relates one girl. The girl, having slept with, in her estimate, over
six thousand men in six years, died shortly after filming of AIDS-related
complications.

Overall the stories that come across the screen tell the lives of girls
whose horizon for life focuses very much on the here and now, an approach
to life necessitated by a combination of social and economic factors.

As one girl in the film says, "A little time with something is more than a
lifetime with nothing."

Shortly before the release of the film, estimated numbers of Burmese girls
and women working in the sex industry in Thailand ranged anywhere from
30,000 to 60,000.

But the issue of Shan State girls seeking to eke out a living as sex
workers is not limited to the Thai side of the border. The trade is just
as pronounced, and even more visible, on the Burmese side in the town of
Tachileik.
Here, literally dozens of brothels exist down the side streets and
alleyways of the former heart of the Golden Triangle. Touts on the street
are never far between in their offers of introducing prospective clients
to the throngs of girls.

In a question and answer session following the screening, Hseng Noung of
the Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) said that although awareness of the
potential lives that befall Shan girls who make the journey to Thailand
has improved since the movie was first aired, the traffic of persons
coming from Burma to Thailand has only increased as a result of continued
and worsening economic hardship and repression.

"Sacrifice" was originally released in 1998 and is the work of United
States-based filmmaker Ellen Bruno. The film was screened Tuesday night in
Chiang Mai, Thailand, by the Informal Northern Thai Group.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 15, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar and Vietnam sign pact on petroleum cooperation

Myanmar Diplomacy Energy Myanmar and Vietnam sign pact on petroleum
cooperation Yangon Myanmar and Vietnam have signed a memorandum of
understanding on strategic cooperation in the petroleum sector, state-run
media reports said Wednesday.

The "strategic cooperation in oil and gas" agreement was signed Tuesday
between Myanmar Energy Planning Department director-general Soe Myint and
PETROVIETNAM chief executive officer Tran Ngoc Canh, said The New Light of
Myanmar.

The signing was witnessed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who
was in Myanmar's new capital of Naypyitaw Tuesday to discuss bilateral
relations with Myanmar's military regime.

While in Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of the old capital of Yangon,
Dung met with Myanmar Acting Prime Minister Lieutenant General Thein Sein
to discuss "matters on mutual cooperation and further cementing of
friendly ties between the two countries," said Myanmar's state-run media.

Both Vietnam and Myanmar are members states of the Association of
South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Dung is on tour of the ASEAN region that
has already taken him to the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore and will
end in Brunei.

____________________________________

August 14, Reuters
Myanmar to sell gas to China - India minister

Myanmar has picked PetroChina to sell gas to China via a pipeline from two
blocks in which Indian firms have stakes, India's junior oil minister said
on Tuesday, dashing the hopes of bringing the gas to India.

In February, Myanmar decided to sell gas from its A1 and A3 offshore
blocks to China, and in March it told the partners in the block, Dinsha
Patel said in a written answer to a question in the Indian parliament.

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp. owns 20 percent of each block, while
Indian gas transmission company GAIL (India) Ltd. has 10 percent of the
two assets.

South Korea's Daewoo International Corp. operates the two blocks with a 60
percent stake, and Korea Gas Corp. owns the remaining 10 percent.

"GAIL impressed upon the partners and Myanmar Government that GAIL's
pipeline offer was still the most competitive and offered optimum value
for them due to proximity of India to these fields. However, Myanmar
government stuck to their decision to sell the gas to China," Patel said.

Despite the country's political isolation and Western sanctions, Myanmar's
offshore natural gas fields have become a hotly contested commodity as
neighbours seek stable, secure sources of cleaner fuel for their
fast-growing economies.

Patel said on Tuesday the Myanmar government had signed a memorandum of
understanding with India in March 2006 acknowledging GAIL as preferential
buyer of gas from A1 and A3 blocks.

In August 2006, Myanmar invited bids for 15.8 million cubic metres a day
of gas from the two offshore blocks through a pipeline, he said. GAIL
submitted its bid.

"Subsequently, Myanmar government reviewed their decision to sell this gas
through the pipeline route and invited bids for sale of 3.5 million tonnes
per annum of liquefied natural gas. GAIL again submitted its bid," Patel
said.

India would continue to make efforts for import of gas from all possible
sources including Myanmar to achieve energy security for the country, the
minister said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 15, Khonumthung News
Burmese woman asylum seeker in South Korea to be deported to India

A Burmese woman Ms. Pari (name changed for security reasons) from Chin
state, Burma is likely to be deported to India by South Korea after being
detained for a year.

In 2005, A Korean Christian pastor took Ms. Pari (26) and her friend from
India to Korea where Pari worked as a domestic help. Later, she left her
work because she could not bear the repression by the landlord.

After a year of working as a domestic help, she was arrested and detained
by the immigration department of South in Korea in August 2006.

"She (Pari) appealed to the immigration department not to send her back to
India. She is worried that the Indian authorities would deport her to
Burma", Cheery Zahau, coordinator of the Women's League of Chinland told
Khonumthung News.

Meanwhile, WLC is gearing up to launch a campaign to free Pari from
detention and to convince the South Korean government that her life will
be  at risk in the likelihood of her being deported.

The UNHCR office in South Korea is said to have sought a lawyer to follow
up the case and is seeking asylum for Pari, Cheery Zahau said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 15, Mizzima News
State Department lists Burma as a Security Council priority

"The international community must act now" to address the situation in
Burma, reads a public statement, released today, highlighting five
countries that the United States government believes should be the subject
of strong Security Council action.

The briefing highlights not only the treatment of its own people by the
Burmese junta, but also accuses the military regime of threatening
regional security.

"The unconscionable human rights abuses visited by the junta upon its own
people, nearly a million of whom have been internally displaced or turned
into international refugees, are already destabilizing the region," reads
the paper.

The spread of HIV/AIDS, human and drug trafficking are also listed as
issues not only detrimental to Burmese society but also to regional
security on the whole.

The other countries of particular concern and focus, according to the
State Department, are Iran, Lebanon, Sudan and North Korea.

The release, issued by the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs and
entitled "United States Policy in the United Nations Security Council,"
reaffirms the United States commitment to work with and through the
international body in an effort to address international security issues
related to the aforementioned countries.

The United States played a leading role in pushing the issue of Burma onto
the Security Council's permanent agenda on the 15th of September, 2006.

A subsequent Security Council resolution related to Burma was vetoed by
permanent Security Council members China and Russia.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

August 15, Irrawaddy
Breaking down ‘wall of silence’ on HIV and safe sex in Burma - An
interview with Swe Zin Htaik

Nearly one in three sex workers in Burma were living with HIV in 2005,
according to a UNAIDS report from 2006. The ruling junta’s National AIDS
Program also admitted that in 2005, HIV prevalence among 15- to
24-year-olds was 2.2 percent. Only in 2002 did the junta admit the
existence of the epidemic in Burma.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy, the once well-known Burmese actress
Swe Zin Htaik talks about her recent efforts to combat the spread of
HIV/AIDS in Burma. She heads a mass media marketing campaign, in
partnership with the international non-governmental organization
Population Services International, to encourage condom use in the country
as an essential means of preventing the spread of the virus.

Question: How many condoms have PSI already distributed in Burma since 1996?

Answer: PSI started distributing its own brand of condom [Aphaw] in 1996.
That year, we distributed 2.6 million condoms. By 2005, the number of
condoms distributed in the commercial, public and PSI social marketing
sectors reached 42.8 million.

Q: Could you please explain these sectors briefly?

A: The commercial sector, in fact, has existed for years as a market of
“hidden sales.” According to our social marketing strategy, we encourage
the existing market to develop for the benefit of society. If condoms can
be obtained for free, people might misuse them, throw them away or sell
them to others. As a result, their importance can be devalued by the
general public. That’s why PSI imports condoms and distributes them at a
special “subsidized rate” in the market. We named our product “Aphaw” and
used Burmese language o­n the packaging. But after 2000, we changed the
packaging to English because we were worried that people wouldn’t value
our product if it was made in Burma. We have often created new package
designs to grab our customers’ attention.

Q: During more than a decade of condom distribution and HIV/AIDS awareness
education in Burma, what social constraints have had an impact on your
work?

A: As an actress known to many people, I have had many constraints. When I
started a communications component in the PSI program in 1999, I had to
talk about condom use and sex education. People looked at me and my works
with curiosity. The government watched what I was doing and saying. The
Ministry of Health perceived me as just an actress with no health
training. Even my family told me not to do such a work, which they
considered shameful. Nevertheless as a campaigner, I have continued my
campaign despite encountering such social and cultural constraints. I have
tried to push open the closed doors o­n this issue, and the doors have
gradually begun to open. The communication campaign struggled under a
“denial stage” until 2000. My first HIV series, called “Travelers of
Happiness,” encountered a very disgusting reaction. o­nly after Burma
signed an agreement to start HIV/AIDS education and prevention at the
Asean meeting in 2002 could we gradually proceed with our communications
campaign.

Q: What other obstacles did you experience at the grassroots level as you
started launching your communications campaign?

A: We use three types of media: interpersonal communication, print media
and broadcasting. It was too difficult to do before 2000. We couldn’t talk
about HIV/AIDS education through the state-owned television. Therefore, we
approached the state radio and launched a radio series on HIV/AIDS
education. After we had launched four series, we received a letter from a
Buddhist monk complaining that it was not appropriate to broadcast about
HIV and sex education through the state media. After that, we had to drop
our program. That is the cultural constraint I experienced. Now, we have
also five mobile movie tracks and can travel and advocate among the public
by showing [HIV and sex education] movies, but we need to get prior
approval from government authorities. Sometimes it takes one or two months
to get permission, which is a constraint the foreign expatriates [from the
organization] don’t like. However, as a social activist, I have to be
patient about such constraints for the sake of the people.

Q: Can you talk about Burmese women’s attitudes regarding condom use?

A: We have to use a “peer approach” method among high risk groups and
encourage people to talk to their peers. The National AIDS Program also
adopted a guideline that condom use demonstrations must be conducted among
people of the same; that is, women must discuss with women, and men with
men. There are some who might be afraid to buy condoms, but the more
deeply I become involved in this work, the more I realize that Burmese
women’s awareness level is not so low.

Q: There are sex workers in Burma, as there are in other countries, but
the conservative nature of Burmese society does not like to accept this
reality and the industry is legally prohibited. What strategies do you
think are needed for Burma to effectively educate its young people about
sex?

A: In the period between 2000 and 2002, I was warned that there were no
sex workers, gay or heterosexual, in Burma. No mention was made in all of
my communication products even though commercial sex workers, or CSWs, and
men selling sex to men, or MSM, were our targeted groups. Therefore, we
launched peer education programs during that period of denial. We went to
the nightclubs o­nce a month as part of our HIV education and Aphaw
promotion campaigns. We gradually built up networking among CSW and MSM,
through which we selected some individuals as interpersonal communicators.
Then, we opened drop-in centers and appointed them as peer educators. We
have to treat them without discrimination. This is our organization’s
rule. Now hundreds of people come to our drop-in centers monthly.

Q: Do you have any final thoughts o­n your work and your experiences?

A: When I produced my first campaign series, I was pressured not to appear
in mass media. But I had to be patient and develop my scripts. I then
launched fifteen series without difficulty in 2004. We must take the key
and open the closed door of this issue instead of just standing and
knocking.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

August 15, Asian Human Rights Commission
Burma: Public assaults and deaths in custody; no one to investigate

In recent days a spate of public assaults by the police and deaths in
custody has been reported by independent media monitoring conditions in
Burma.

According to the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) Radio, on 27
July 2007 a 58-year-old man died while being transferred from police
detention to a prison in Mandalay Division, upper Burma. U Ohn Kyaing was
among seven pagoda trustees from Pan-aing village arrested and charged
over the theft of the historic Shwemawdhaw Pagoda's diamond-topped
umbrella. He had allegedly been tortured during interrogation at Meiktila
Police Station No. 1 and not received medical attention. The court
hearings are continuing against the remaining six.

Two days later, a young man accused of stealing a motorcycle also died in
the custody of the same police. Ko Kyaw Htay, 36, was kept in the police
lock-up after being arrested at his house late at night by a unit of ten
officers from Meiktila Police Station No. 2 on July 27, who according to
his mother began assaulting him from the moment that they slapped on
handcuffs; he was later transferred to the same station as U Ohn Kyaing,
where he allegedly died. Visitors were denied access to him just a few
hours before his death.

Meanwhile, on July 30 a young man was reportedly beaten to death by
special drug squad police operating in the capital of the northern Kachin
State. According to the Delhi-based Mizzima news service, 22-year-old
Maran Seng Aung was sitting on the road in the vicinity of his home in
Myitkyina around 9:30am when three officers on motorcycles came, bound his
wrists and assaulted him in public before pulling him into an auto
rickshaw. By 5:30pm his dead body was in the local hospital. His mother
has reportedly been warned against pursuing a complaint in the local
court. The case is strongly reminiscent of the death in special drug squad
custody of another young man, Maung Ne Zaw, in May 2006. His mother
refused to give up on making complaints; she was forced out of the country
by constant threats and harassment from the perpetrators and other state
officers. Mizzima reports that people in Myitkyina claim that there is at
least one death in the drug squad's custody every month.

At the start of August, DVB also broadcast that 38-year-old Ko Maung Myint
died in detention in the northeastern town of Muse having been stopped
while illegally crossing the China border and not having enough money with
which to pay off the police as demanded. When his wife came to the station
on the third day of his custody, August 4, she was told that his body had
been sent to hospital. When she went there she reportedly saw bruising and
injuries suggestive of an assault.

These reports are both credible and consistent with other similar cases
documented in detail by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) over the
last couple of years, including the assault and death in Rangoon local
council officials' custody of Ko Naing Oo this March, the death in police
custody in Pegu Division of Maung Lin Lin Naing during February, and the
assaults and deaths in police custody of Htwee Maung in Arakan State and
Maung Chan Kun in Irrawaddy Division during January 2007 alone.

The increasingly frequent accounts of bloody assaults by the police and
other local security forces in Burma speak to the fearlessness with which
these personnel operate. Although the military regime pretends to invite
complaints against state officers, in reality there are no avenues through
they can be entertained properly—least of all where they involve
allegations of murder--as all parts of the state apparatus are compromised
and controlled.

But whereas the existing state institutions cannot themselves be called
upon to offer redress to victims, in the past there was at least one other
viable option. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) could
earlier access prisons and other centres of
detention and confidentially report specific cases to higher authorities.
It had been opening up new offices around the country and for some time
had been making important interventions, in accordance with its global
mandate, that must certainly have saved lives.

However, since late 2005 the ICRC has been stopped from visiting
detainees, after the authorities refused to comply with its standard
arrangements and procedures, including that it be entitled to talk with
prisoners in private. At the end of June it issued a vigorous
press release in which it roundly condemned the government for its
attempts to thwart the committee's work in the country. Its president,
Jacob Kellenberger, was quoted as saying that ''The organization uses
confidential and bilateral dialogue as its preferred means of achieving
results. However, this presupposes that parties to a conflict are willing
to enter into a serious discussion and take into account the ICRC's
recommendations. This has not been the case with the authorities of
Myanmar  and that is why the ICRC has decided to speak out publicly."

In response, the government used one of its proxies to accuse the
committee of relying on "wrong assessments" and "made-up exaggerated
stories". The wife of the junta's head, who doubles as the head of the
Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation, in July observed Myanmar Women's Day
by saying that the ICRC was to blame as its personnel "mostly met the
prisoners who were in the list given by anti-government groups...  were
followed by unrest and protests at the jails" and so "the authorities had
to hold discussions to lay down new procedures".

The belligerent response reinforces the ICRC's point. The government in
Burma has long approached discussions with international organisations not
with the intention of seriously taking into account their recommendations
but in order to give the appearance of dialogue while achieving nothing.
In this manner the revamped armed forces have remained in control for
nearly two decades.

However, people in Burma need international groups to persist in their
efforts to intervene, if for no other reason than that it will be many
years before any credible domestic institutions may exist upon which
citizens can rely to assert their rights and obtain even some limited form
of redress. It is for this reason that the steady withdrawal of the ICRC
from the country is a great loss for people in Burma.

The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly supports the both principled
and pragmatic position of the ICRC on its work in Burma and hopes that it,
and other concerned international organisations, will be able to find some
means through which to do effective work that can save lives there.
However, where their mandates are so restricted and perverted as to make
them meaningless, there is little that can be done other than to withdraw
until such a time that a new opportunity exists for intervention.
Meanwhile, the stream of reports of beatings, torture and deaths in
custody across the country is evidence that the concerns of the ICRC are
neither made up nor exaggerated. Rather, the incidence of abuse can only
be far higher than that reported, as while the deaths in custody continue,
there is no longer anyone there to investigate.

The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental
organization monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong
Kong-based group was founded in 1984.