BurmaNet News, August 28, 2007

[Editor]

August 28, 2007 Issue # 3278

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Dozens detained over new protest in Myanmar
Reuters: Myanmar fuel protests spread to northwest oil city
DVB: Su Su Nway hospitalised after demonstration
Mizzima News: Officers seize computer from detained 88 student leader's home
Reuters: Civilian thugs doing Myanmar junta's dirty work
Narinjara News: ILO official visits Southern Arakan

ON THE BORDER
Khonumthung News: Goods pile up on Indo-Burma border

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Tourist arrivals in Myanmar up in 1st 4 months this fiscal year

HEALTH / AIDS
IMNA: IOM expands malaria prevention work in Mon state

ASEAN
Reuters: S.E. Asian nations concerned over Myanmar unrest

REGIONAL
Bangkok Post: Bangkok keeps eye on trouble in Rangoon

INTERNATIONAL
The New York Sun: U.N. chided on response to Burma unrest
Mizzima News: UK group lashes out at British government

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation: Politics behind Burmese protests - Aung Zaw
IHT- China’s Burma problem - Jeremy Woodrum

PRESS RELEASE
CSW: CSW urges British government to bring Burma crisis to UN
Conservatives: Conservative Party Human Rights Commission calls for action
on Burma

ANNOUNCEMENT
DVB via BBC Monitoring: Burmese opposition radio announces satellite tests

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 28, Agence France Presse
Dozens detained over new protest in Myanmar - Hla Hla Htay

Dozens of pro-democracy supporters were detained Tuesday after a top
labour activist tried to launch a new protest in Yangon against a sharp
rise in fuel prices, witnesses said.

About 50 activists had gathered near a bus stop close to the former campus
of Yangon University on the north side of Myanmar's main city, but
plainclothes police and pro-junta militia broke up the group after only 10
minutes, witnesses said.

Protesters chanted "Lower fuel prices, lower commodity prices!" as they
walked along a main road.

About 200 people gathered to watch the standoff between the protesters and
the security forces, witnesses said.

The march was led by Su Su Nway, a labour activist sent to prison in
October 2005 for more than seven months after reporting cases of forced
labour to the United Nations.

Some witnesses said she was among those hauled off by security forces, but
others said she had managed to slip away. Calls to her cell phone went
unanswered.

Su Su Nway is a member of the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD), but party officials did not immediately have details on the
arrests.

The protest was the latest in a series of bold demonstrations against the
military, which for 45 years has ruled impoverished Myanmar with an iron
fist and kept a tight lid on dissent.

But the junta sparked public anger when the government secretly hiked key
fuel prices by as much as five-fold on August 15.

That immediately doubled the cost of transport, which left many people
unable to even afford the bus fare to get to work.

For the last 10 days, pro-democracy supporters have defied official
threats and a clampdown on dissent to stage small rallies against the fuel
price increase.

State media said 56 people had been arrested over last week's protests,
but Thailand-based political dissidents on Monday said it was at least
100.

Among those held last week was Min Ko Naing, who is considered Myanmar's
most prominent pro-democracy advocate after detained opposition leader and
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Min Ko Naing was arrested along with 12 activists for leading about 500
protesters in a peaceful march in Yangon on August 19 -- the biggest
anti-government rally here in at least nine years.

Myanmar's state media has said only that authorities were interrogating
Min Ko Naing and the 12 others and that the junta would take legal action
against them. Most of them have already spent more than a decade in
prison.

The 13 were members of the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students group,
which is made up of former student leaders who led an uprising against
military rule in 1988.

That uprising, which initially began as a protest over Myanmar's harsh
economic conditions, ended with soldiers firing into a crowd of students,
killing hundreds if not thousands.

The uprising led to the creation of the NLD, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi.
The party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never
recognised the result.

____________________________________

August 28, Reuters
Myanmar fuel protests spread to northwest oil city - Aung Hla Tun

Rare dissent in military-ruled Myanmar against soaring fuel prices spread
to the oil-producing northwest on Tuesday, where a 200-strong crowd of
mostly Buddhist monks protested in Sittwe, a local source said.

The march lasted at least an hour down a road in the centre of the coastal
city, where analysts say living conditions and power shortages are
particularly dire even though it is the centre of the former Burma's oil
industry.

The marchers chanted slogans against this month's shock rises of diesel
and gas prices and some monks held religious flags, the source said.

Key players in a mass uprising against decades of military rule in 1988,
the monasteries have so far stayed out of the week-long series of small
but defiant protests in Yangon.

However, rumours have been swirling around the former capital that more
radical elements within the monkhood were considering entering the fray.

In the latest act of defiance in Yangon, around 50 people staged a march
through the north of the city before being stopped by men in civilian
clothes, witnesses and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
said.

Eight people were arrested, NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

"When they first started the march there were just over 20 people, but it
grew up to about 50 people when they were arrested," he said, adding that
labour rights activist Suu Suu Nway was among the marchers but not those
detained.

"She fainted while running to escape arrest so her colleagues took her to
hospital," he said.

Pro-junta gangs and armed and secret police continue to stake out
sensitive areas of the city in one of the most far-reaching crackdowns
since 1988.

Then, up to 3,000 people are thought to have been killed when the junta
sent in the troops to stamp out unrest.

Now, around 70 people have been detained so far, including Min Ko Naing,
the second-most prominent opposition figure after detained democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Min Ko Naing -- a Burmese nom-de-guerre meaning "Conqueror of Kings" --
was a key leader of the student movement in 1988 and still wields
significant influence.

Htay Kywe, another prominent member of the so-called "88 Generation
Student Group", remains in hiding, having escaped a Yangon-wide manhunt in
which cars and buses have been stopped and searched and trains and ferry
terminals monitored.

The world's largest rice exporter when it won independence from Britain in
1948, Myanmar has become one of Asia's most ruined countries after 45
years of unbroken army rule.

Suu Kyi, whose NLD won a 1990 election by a landslide only to be denied
power by the military, has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years in prison
or under house arrest.

____________________________________

August 28, Democratic Voice of Burma
Su Su Nway hospitalised after demonstration

Well-known activist and National League for Democracy member Su Su Nway
was hospitalised this afternoon after collapsing during a protest in
Rangoon’s Hledan township.

Eyewitnesses said Su Su Nway was seen arguing with special police and
government supporters as they arrested more than 10 other activists for
taking part in the protest against high fuel prices. She was seen
collapsing shortly afterwards.

“Su Su Nway has now been submitted to a hospital on Mahabandoola Garden
street . . . One of the people who was with her at the protest took her in
a car,” an eyewitnesses said.

It is unclear why the special police chose not to arrest Su Su Nway along
with the other activists but bystanders said they saw the police brutally
beating the arrested protestors as they were driven away in a truck.

Eyewitnesses also said that several bystanders who tried to intervene in
the arrests were also taken into custody and beaten. The protestors were
believed to also have been involved in the demonstrations along
Shwegondine road last week.

After the activists were arrested and driven away, two trucks carrying
government supporters arrived at the scene of the protest to break up the
large crowds that had gathered to watch.

____________________________________

August 28, Mizzima News
Officers seize computer from detained 88 student leader's home

After searching the house of detained 88 generation student leader Ko
Panneik Tun three times, Burmese officials took away a personal computer
and other belongings, a family member said.

While arresting Ko Panneik Tun on August 21, the officials conducted the
first search. On August 22, at 6 a.m. and on August 23, at about 12:30
p.m. they came back and searched his home again and took away some of his
documents and a computer that belonged to his sister.

"The documents are statements they [88 students] have publicly released
and the computer is also a simple one. When I asked 'when are you going to
return it', someone who looked like an officer just smiled at me, but when
my mother persistently asked him, he said 'I don't know'," Ma Saw Yu Mon,
sister of Ko Panneik Tun told Mizzima.

On August 21, a police officer along with three policemen and three others
in civil dress came to Ko Panneik Tun's house but the next day only the
three in civil dresses came. But during the third search on August 23, a
police officer in uniform came along with a group of people that included
local ward elders and searched the whole house, taking away the computer,
added Saw Yuh Mon.

She added that the police officers, who did not mention their names,
searched the house for over two hours.

Ko Panneik Tun's mother, who is suffering from heart problems said, "I am
worried, as they have come thrice and I won't be able to face it the
fourth time. And I have no strength since I am not a healthy person. Their
repeated searching has made me weaker, so the fourth time would be
extremely terrible for me to face."

Panneik Tun was arrested on August 21 along with 12 other 88 generation
students, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Mya Aye, Jimmy and Marki.
Following their arrest, authorities have conducted searches in their
houses and have reportedly taken away a computer from Marki's home too.

____________________________________

August 28, Reuters
Civilian thugs doing Myanmar junta's dirty work - Ed Cropley

Rather than stir up memories of their bloody 1988 crackdown by putting
troops on the streets, Myanmar's junta is relying on gangs of paid thugs
and criminals armed with brooms and spades to crush a rare outbreak of
dissent.

Accurately predicting public anger at this month's shock fuel price rises,
the rulers of the former Burma released hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of
prisoners to clear the decks for mass arrests, diplomats and exiled
dissidents said on Tuesday.

Happily for the generals, those booted out of Yangon's fetid cells also
made perfect recruits for the shadowy Swan Aah Shin, or "capable strong
person", organisation which has emerged as the junta's main weapon against
protesters.

"It's an underground organisation and I don't know who would admit to it
existing, but it exists and it exists in force, and it has been evident
over the last week," said one diplomat who watched the Swan Aah Shin in
action on the streets of Yangon.

A Reuters reporter at the scene of what was probably a Swan Aah Shin gang
detaining 30 members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
last week was ordered not to take photographs and then chased away.

"Basically, they are junta-backed thugs. They come from anywhere, and are
the unemployed underclass. And they've been really effective -- they are
threatening," the diplomat said.

"Everywhere you go, there are groups and truckloads of grubby-looking men
looking bored and looking for a fight."

In 1988, by contrast, the junta sent in the troops to crush a nationwide
uprising of students, monks and civil servants. As many as 3,000 are
thought to have been killed in a bloodbath still etched deep in people's
memories.

POLITICAL PARTY

A Home (Interior) Ministry source said the Swan Aah Shin took orders from
the junta's feared Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a
social network claiming official membership of 23 million -- or nearly
half the population.

Whereas the Swan Aah Shin operate mainly in Yangon, a city of 5 million
people, the USDA and its network of activists and informants are the
generals' eyes and ears in the provinces, analysts say.

The pictures in state media of USDA officials doing daily good deeds, and
its stated aim to "uplift the morale and morality of the entire nation",
lead many to think it is being groomed as the army's political party
should elections ever be held.

The junta allowed elections in 1990 in a bid to shore up its authority
after the 1988 uprising, but the plan backfired when the NLD won a massive
landslide under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of
independence hero Aung San.

The generals ignored the results, and Suu Kyi -- subsequently awarded the
Nobel peace prize -- has spent most of the last 17 years in jail or under
house arrest.

Amid international criticism of the latest crackdown, in which about 60
people have been detained, human rights groups have singled out the use of
civilian militias as evidence of a more sophisticated approach to stifling
dissent.

The Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident news service based in Norway,
played dramatic secretly filmed footage of a gang dragging away social
activist Htin Kyaw and a colleague after their attempt to stage a protest
at a bus stop.

"Had the authorities wished, they could have sent uniformed police
officers to make an arrest," the Asian Human Rights Commission said of the
footage.

Instead, they chose to order an unknown gang to "grab and drag off their
quarry in the manner of criminals", the Hong Kong-based group added.

____________________________________

August 28, Narinjara News
ILO official visits Southern Arakan

Taungup: ILO Liaison Officer Mr. Stephen Marshal from Rangoon arrived in
southern Arakan State yesterday to investigate complaints of forced labour
abuses by government officials, said a human rights activist from Taungup.

"Mr. Marshal arrived in our town yesterday along with Burmese officials
and they are likely to proceed to Ma Ei and Rambree today," he said.

Mr. U Chit Shin, Director of the Burmese Labour Ministry and many other
officials accompanied Mr. Marshal.

Mr. Marshal is likely to investigate several complaints about local
authorities using residents for forced labour in three southern townships
in Arakan - Taungup, Rambree and Ann, the human rights activists said.

Among the complaints filed, one is well-known among the people in the
region as the authorities in Rambree Township arrested and punished the
complainant who wrote to the ILO Rangoon office about the forced labour.

U Thein Shwe Maung, who is from Kanaung Chay Village in Rambree Township,
was arrested by the local police on July 18 because he had led a group of
villagers in complaining to the ILO regarding the use of local villagers
for forced labour by the authorities, a local source said.

The local authorities forced villagers from Kanaung Chay Village in
Rambree Township to work on a pond construction project in the village in
March 2007. Despite the fact that the Korean Daewoo Corporation donated
400,000 Kyat for the pond's construction, local authorities forced
villagers to work without pay.

After the forced labour occurred, 25 people from the village complained to
the ILO office in Rangoon.

U Thein Shwe Maung was arrested but released on bail on August 10 on the
orders of the Rambree court.

"The ILO official is going to Rambree today from Taungup and will
investigate this case," the activists who spoke to Narinjara said.

In Arakan State, government officials are still using local people for
forced, unpaid, labour in various government work sites, but the people
have been unable to complain about the abuses to the ILO Rangoon office
due to fear of retaliation by the authorities. The villagers used as
forced labour are handicapped because they do not know how to complain to
the ILO office, said a local elder.

This is the first visit by ILO Liaison Officer Stephen Marshall to Arakan
to investigate complaints of forced labour after he joined his current
post with the ILO in Burma in May 2007.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 28, Khonumthung News
Goods pile up on Indo-Burma border

Goods from Burma bound for India are piling up on the Indo- Burma border
after Indian authorities closed the Indo-Burma trade road (2) in August
this year. Businessmen are suffering heavy losses as a result.

Following a tip-off that opium and ammunition are likely to be trafficked
from Burma to India, the police superintendent of Champhai district in
Mizoram state, India on August 20 ordered the closure of the Indo-Burma
border trade road (2) for two months.

The Indo-Burma border trade road (2) links Zokhuathar in Mizoram state,
India to Kalay town in Sagaing division through Tedim in Chin state,
Burma.

 "The storerooms on the Burma side are overflowing with goods said to be
valued at Kyat 20,000,000 (US $ 15,267)," a local on the Indo-Burma
border said.

 "We want the border to be opened as soon as possible. There is no more
space for the goods as all the storerooms near Tio river are full," a
trader from Burma on the border said.

Traders are worried that the goods will be damaged in the rains that have
been heavy and frequent on the Indo-Burma border areas.

Moreover, the storeroom owners are charging traders between Kyat 2,000 to
Kyat 5,000 a day for keeping the goods.  The amount depends on the number
of goods stored.

A minimum of 100 traders from Burma are engaged in business activities
along the Indo-Burma border trade road (2) to Mizoram state daily.

In order to promote border trade between India and Burma, both governments
signed an agreement on reconstruction of the Indo-Burma border trade road
(2) in 2003. However, local authorities in Mizoram state, occasionally
close the road to stop drugs and ammunitions from Burma entering Mizoram.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 28, Xinhua General News Service
Tourist arrivals in Myanmar up in 1st 4 months this fiscal year

Tourist arrivals in Myanmar through Yangon entry checkpoint alone hit over
47,000 in the first four months (April-July) of the fiscal year 2007-08,
up 20 percent from 2006-07 correspondingly, the local Weekly Eleven News
reported Tuesday.

These tourists came in the form of free independent traveler and package
tour, the report quoted the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism as saying.

During the period, visitors with other visas reached over 26, 000, up 5
percent correspondingly, the report said.

According to local statistics, in 2006-07, a total of 654,602 foreign
tourists visited Myanmar, gaining 198.48 million U.S. dollars, an increase
of 11.4 percent compared with the previous year.

Of the 654,602 tourists visiting Myanmar in 2006-07, 276,613 entered
through Yangon checkpoint, 5,763 through Mandalay and Bagan checkpoints
and 372,226 through border checkpoints, the figures show.

Of the types of tours, package tour accounted for 25 percent, while free
independent traveler 47 percent and the rest with other visas 28 percent.

The tourists visiting Myanmar mostly came from Thailand, China, South
Korea and Japan in Asia, Germany, France and Italy in West Europe and some
countries in North America.

Myanmar so far has over 600 hotels with 23,000 rooms as well as 700 travel
and tour companies.

Since the Myanmar Hotels and Tourism Ministry started conducting tourist
guides training courses in 1992, it has brought up more than 6,000 tourist
guides up to 2006 respectively skilled in English, Japanese, French,
Chinese, Thai, German, Russian, Italian and Korean languages, the ministry
sources disclosed.

More figures revealed that contracted foreign investment in the sector of
hotels and tourism has so far amounted to 1.06 billion dollars since
Myanmar started to open to such investment in late 1988. Of the
investment, that in hotel projects amounted to over 580 million dollars.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 28, Independent Mon News Agency
IOM expands malaria prevention work in Mon state - Chan Mon

International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Burma has started work
on prevention of malaria among the poor and the workers who live in the
jungles and plantations. They are providing free malaria diagnosis,
treatment and mosquito nets in areas where malaria infection levels are
high.

IOM teams are especially targeting those most at risk, living in
precarious accommodations in the plantations and farms in Mudon,
Kyaikmayaw, Thapyuzayart, and Moulmein (Mawlamyine) Townships in Mon
state.

According to IOM Chief of Mission , dengue fever is breaking out in Mon
State and malaria is at a high level.

"The rainy season is always peak season for malaria in this area, which is
also facing infection because a lot of internal workers, who are working
in rubber plantations in Mon area, come from areas where malaria is
not-endemic and they have not developed any resistance to malaria," said
Isabelle Bouan, Chief of Mission.

"While waiting for the results of the malaria tests, we give the families
some education on malaria prevention and give them either long lasting
treated mosquito nets or pills to treat their own mosquito nets,” she
added.

IOM started operating from April 2006, and has been running six (6)
malaria control units in four townships since then. IOM is currently
expanding and will cover six townships, where IOM will be implementing an
integrated malaria, TB, and HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment or
care and support programme.

IOM will operate fifteen (15) malaria microscopy units, nine (9) TB
microscopy units and two malaria mobile clinics. Its target is internal
migrant workers from various parts of Burma who are working in rubber
plantations and other places, and communities affected by migration either
because they host migrants or because they are source communities to which
migrants come back to.

____________________________________
ASEAN

August 28, Reuters
S.E. Asian nations concerned over Myanmar unrest - Clarence Fernandez

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) voiced concern over
unrest in Myanmar on Tuesday, its first comments after soaring fuel prices
prompted rare public protests in the military-ruled nation.

But ASEAN, several of whose 10 members consider the excesses of Myanmar's
military regime to have cast all of Southeast Asia in a bad light, will
stop short of sending an envoy to Yangon to express its concern,
Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said.

"What we have done is to make our views known in a certain way, maybe it
is not the high-profile way where we send a special envoy to go to Yangon,
or to the new capital, to make a case," he told reporters in the Malaysian
capital.

"But we have learnt through the last 10 years the way to work with Myanmar
is to present a logical and good ASEAN position and they will find a way
to answer our queries."

Myanmar's military government said on Monday it was forced to increase
fuel prices this month because it could not afford the growing cost of
subsidies. Diesel prices were doubled overnight and the cost of compressed
natural gas surged five-fold.

Last week, Myanmar authorities arrested around 30 members of the country's
main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, during protests
over the price hikes, as well as 13 leading dissidents.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has criticised the
arrests, urging Myanmar authorities to immediately release the detainees
and hold talks with demonstrators.

Ong warned against overreacting to the wave of arrests, however.
"Immediately after the protests, the presumption is there is no wrong done
by protesters, but there is all the evil-doing by the Myanmar government.
Is that a fair assumption?" he said.

Debbie Stothard, spokeswoman of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, a
group campaigning against Myanmar's membership, said the arrests were not
legal, with detainees being denied trial, legal assistance and access to
their families.

"In any ASEAN capital, increasing the price of fuel by 500 percent would
invite sustained riots, whether it's Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta or Bangkok,"
Stothard told Reuters.

"ASEAN at the very least should publicly express concern over the recent
developments and call for political dialogue to resolve this latest
crisis," she added.

Protests spread to the oil-producing northwest on Tuesday, where 300
people, including Buddhist monks, staged a protest march in Sittwe, a
local source said.

ASEAN admitted Myanmar to its fold 10 years ago and maintains that keeping
the nation engaged will lead to some change, but is getting restive to see
the country move towards democracy.

The grouping's ministers last month urged Myanmar to restore democracy and
release political detainees, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

An estimated 1,100 political prisoners are believed to be behind bars in
the former Burma. Suu Kyi, 62, has now been confined for more than 11 of
the past 17 years. Her latest detention began in 2003.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 28, Bangkok Post
Bangkok keeps eye on trouble in Rangoon - Achara Ashayagachat and Wassana
Nanuam

Thailand is closely monitoring the political situation in Burma, where
public discontent over fuel price increases has led to demonstrations and
the arrest of a number of protesters in Rangoon.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sawanit Kongsiri said yesterday that the situation
was under close watch due to concerns that it could affect Burma's roadmap
to democracy.

But Mr Sawanit was optimistic that what was happening in Burma would not
disrupt the ongoing National Convention to draft a constitution.

The Burmese government had announced that the process would be completed
next month, as earlier pledged, he added.

Pornpimon Trichot, a Burma expert at Chulalongkorn University's Institute
of East Asian Studies, said the Burmese junta's crackdown on protests
against fuel price hikes would not disturb Thai or other leaders of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

''Asean and Thailand are concerned more about economic interests, such as
energy benefits in Burma, than the plight of the Burmese people.
Therefore, they have reserved their comments while the international
community comes out to condemn the suppression,'' she said.

But Ms Pornpimon also disagreed with some western analysts who said the
current peaceful demonstrations could not bring down the Burmese military
regime and would be eliminated swiftly.

''It is not a direct challenge against the junta. It is civil disobedience
and an expression of daily suffering that is beyond what can be tolerated,
such as the plight of Aids patients, the plight of the students and the
unjust increasing cost of living, especially fuel prices,'' Ms Pornpimon
said.

Meanwhile, army chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin visited Burma yesterday in
an attempt to ensure smooth cooperation between the two countries' border
forces after his retirement at the end of next month.

In what will be his last trip as army chief, and to bid farewell to
Burmese military leaders, Gen Sonthi said talks between commanders along
the border to solve their common problems should continue after his
retirement.

He said he wanted to assure the Burmese leaders the Thai armed forces'
policy toward Burma would remain unchanged after his retirement.

Gen Sonthi met Senior General Than Shwe, leader of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) and the Burmese armed forces, and Gen Maung
Aye, the Burmese army chief and deputy chairman of the SPDC, during his
visit yesterday to Burma's new administrative capital, Naypyidaw.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 28, The New York Sun
U.N. chided on response to Burma unrest - Benny Avni

While several more protesters were arrested by Burma's ruling junta
yesterday, adding to the more than 100 already held and allegedly tortured
since last week, and new alarms have been raised about heightened levels
of unrest and human rights abuses in the country, both the U.N. Security
Council and Secretary-General Ban have largely stayed on the sidelines,
issuing no more than mild statements.

Although the regime in Rangoon reported that 64 protesters were arrested
last week, a group of exiled Burmese, the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners, has issued a list naming at least 100 people it says
were rounded up and tortured.

The arrests are apparently part of the ruling junta of General Than Shwe's
response to a wave of protests that followed a spike in
government-controlled gasoline prices of 500%. The increase has made bus
rides to work unaffordable for most Burmese.

Mr. Ban's special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, said last week that he
did not believe the recent events meant he should visit Rangoon soon. "I
have a standing invitation to go. It's just a question of when is best,"
Mr. Gambari told The New York Sun.

"I am sure those arrested are now being tortured by the junta," the
secretary of the AAPP, Tate Naing, who spent more than four years in
prison, said in a statement yesterday. "We know from firsthand experience
that those arrested in Burma are always brutally tortured - both
physically and psychologically - immediately upon arrest."

Saying the events in Burma represent a dangerous new trend, human rights
groups have called on the Security Council to convene. But U.N. diplomats
say America, Britain, and France have been discouraged by a precedent set
in January, when China, Russia, and South Africa resisted an American
initiative to convene the council and later blocked it from issuing a mild
statement on Burma.

"We need the secretary-general to help by supplying us with a technical
reason to reconvene the council," a Western diplomat who requested
anonymity told the Sun yesterday. One such reason, he said, could be a
trip to Burma by Mr. Gambari, who then would brief the council. But U.N.
officials say it is up to the council to ask for a briefing. The
Nigerian-born Mr. Gambari has traveled to several world capitals in recent
months to discuss Burma-related issues but has visited the country as Mr.
Ban's envoy only once. He is not eager to confront the ruling junta now,
as it struggles with a new wave of dissent, according to several U.N.
diplomats.

After a day of calm, major clashes were renewed yesterday in three Burmese
towns, the policy director of the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for
Burma, Aung Din, said. The clashes, which were fiercest in Pegu, 50 miles
north of Rangoon, pitted supporters of the imprisoned Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, members of her NLD party, unaffiliated students, and Buddhist
monks against government-backed citizen groups such as the Union
Solidarity and Development Association.

According to the AAPP report, the government-backed groups recently
recruited members of Burma's Muslim minority in an attempt to "stir up
religious tensions with the predominantly Buddhist population."

A leader of a dissident group known as the 88 Generation Student Group,
Htay Kywe, was one of those arrested yesterday, Mr. Din of the Campaign
for Burma told the Sun. The detainees are likely to end up at Rangoon's
Insein prison, known for its harsh conditions.

The Geneva-based U.N. human rights commissioner, Louise Arbour, yesterday
issued a statement calling for Burma's leadership to conduct talks with
the protesters. A host of human rights organizations and Western
governments have issued similar exhortations. In a statement last week,
the State Department called for the immediate release of those arrested
"and for an end to the regime's blatant attempt to intimidate and silence
those who are engaged in peaceful promotion of democracy." Mr. Ban issued
a more measured statement, saying he "calls on the authorities to exercise
maximum restraint in responding to any demonstrations and encourages all
parties to avoid any provocative action."

Now is the time for Mr. Ban to "personally intervene and the Security
Council to formulate a collective response," Mr. Din said. But an American
diplomat told the Sun that, as of yesterday, Washington had no immediate
plans to convene the council to discuss Burma.

____________________________________

August 28, Mizzima News
UK group lashes out at British government

Prominent British rights group, Burma Campaign UK has criticized British
policies toward Burma as what they perceive as a lack of initiative at a
time when protests, demonstrations and arrests are taking place throughout
the country.

"It is shameful that the British government has not taken any concrete
action in response to this new wave of repression in Burma," reads
yesterday's statement from the organization.

The group goes on to say that there appears "no sense of urgency" and "no
apparent strategy" from the British government, along with an
unwillingness to follow through on past initiatives.

Specific measures Burma Campaign UK would like to see undertaken by the
British government include calling for discussions among decision-making
bodies at both the United Nations and European Union, as well as an
increase in unilateral sanctions imposed against the junta.

While acknowledging past leadership of the British government regarding
Burmese initiatives, the rights group says that British leadership in
addressing Burma has comprehensively failed since January of this year.

Since the first month of the year British policy is said to have: "failed
to press for the EU Common Position on Burma to be strengthened when it
was renewed in April, failed to support an International Labour
Organisation referral of Burma to the International Court of Justice over
forced labour, and failed to take action when two British Virgin Island
registered companies invested in Burma's gas fields."

"The regime literally gets away with murder because every time they commit
atrocities we see the same limp reaction from the international
community.", said Mark Farmaner, the Acting Director of the Burma Campaign
UK.

Meanwhile, United Nations Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is
personally accused of having "gone into hiding" at a critical juncture of
the fight for rights in Burma.

"The tragedy is, despite the failure of the British government to act, it
is still one of the democracy movement's strongest supporters. That should
shame governments around the world, and is one reason why the generals
will sleep easy tonight," concludes the missive.

Burma Campaign UK will be conducting a protest outside the Foreign Office
today in London. It will be the first protest organized by the group in
over a decade.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 28, The Nation
Politics behind Burmese protests - Aung Zaw

The sudden fuel price increases that triggered street protests and a
political crackdown in Burma in recent days highlighted not only the
country's economic woes and the incompetence of the ruling generals but
also the country's political problems.

The military rulers have made the same kind of blunder as occurred in 1987
when General Ne Win's government suddenly announced the demonetisation of
bank notes.

The cancellation of bank notes and Ne Win's speech in August 1987, in
which he proposed "economic reform" and admitted "mistakes" in the past,
only provided ammunition to the outraged public and dissidents who were
fed up with the socialist regime. A year later, Ne Win saw his own demise.

The current regime's announcement of huge fuel price increases was greeted
with shock and was followed by widespread street demonstrations in Burma's
former capital. As in 1988, the protests quickly turned into political
demonstrations. A cowed public bravely took to the streets in pockets of
demonstration in Rangoon and provinces as far away as central Burma. Some
demonstrators even gave political speeches or held pictures of detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her father, General Aung San,
the late independence hero. The demonstrations are clearly not about the
fuel price increases; Suu Kyi and her father have nothing in common with
the price of gasoline.

The demonstrations are manifestations of a fight for freedom. The Burmese
were waiting for the spark that would ignite a political uprising. It
remains to be seen, however, how the fragile protest movement can resist
the brutal nature of the regime.

As usual, the regime has reacted with provocation, attacks, arrests and
the detention of key pro-democracy leaders including Min Ko Naing, a
former leader of the 1988 uprising. Its actions can only invite more
trouble and an international outcry, nothing unusual for the regime.
However, the junta is determined to quell the protests with brute force.

As the protests continue, foreign and Burmese analysts are looking into
the causes of the fuel price increases. Some say the regime has been
considering a privatisation of the fuel distribution system in Burma and a
probable sale of retail outlets to a private company. This might have
caused the regime to increase fuel prices to make the chosen company
initially profitable.

Some theories are more intriguing, however. One of these suggests that
military leaders who wanted to postpone the final session of the National
Convention, which has been drafting guidelines for a new constitution,
deliberately increased the fuel prices to provoke public outrage.

The National Convention, attended by handpicked delegates, has faced some
resistance from ethnic groups over issues of autonomy. Senior officials
told foreign journalists - who were granted visas but then not allowed
into the country - that tension has been rising. Contradictory reports
also came out of Burma that National Convention closing remarks and
speeches have been prepared.

The most interesting theory is that some army leaders who wanted to outdo
Burma's paramount leader, Senior General Than Shwe, calculatingly
announced the fuel price increases to trigger unrest and riots.

It is impossible to know the real story behind the increases since the
regime made no prior announcement, nor did it provide any proper
explanation for them. Now the regime is busy hunting down the street
protesters, labelling them "agitators", prompting the question: who is the
real agitator?

The regime might well have anticipated the social and political unrest,
putting its hired thugs and security officials on alert to intimidate,
attack and arrest pro-democracy activists. Some analysts and journalists
in Rangoon say that the street protests and rapid reaction by students and
former activists gave the excuse to the regime to arrest prominent
pro-democracy leaders like Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and many others. Min Ko
Naing, who had spent 16 years in solitary confinement, had been telling
colleagues in exile that the regime has been looking for an excuse to
again detain him and his comrades.

As in 1988, a scuffle between a group of civilians and university students
finally turned into an anti-government demonstration. Why? Dissidents and
ordinary Burmese were looking for a political reason to confront the
military regime.

The street demonstrations in Rangoon this week are a clear reminder of the
1988 uprising. Twenty years on, Burma remains a political time bomb.

Aung Zaw is the editor of the "Irrawaddy" magazine.

____________________________________

August 27, International Herald Tribune
China’s Burma problem - Jeremy Woodrum

Regarding the article “Hundreds march in Myanmar over prices” (Aug. 23):
Human rights activists and citizens marched through the streets of Rangoon
in opposition to a steep rise of fuel prices. Unfortunately, policymakers
around the world have not shown the same fortitude as these protesters.
The UN Security Council has remained shamefully paralyzed on Burma for the
past 8 months since China vetoed a multilateral resolution that would have
condemned the country’s military regime.

Thankfully, opposition to China’s position on Burma seems to be growing.
Last week, a group of members of parliament from the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations called on China to modify its unequivocal support
for the junta.

This move may represent the first time in recent history that China’s own
neighbors are balking at its perceived heavy-handedness in regional
diplomacy. In particular, Southeast Asian lawmakers are unhappy that China
refuses to endorse Ban Ki Moon and Asean’s call for the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi.

China could easily reverse the growing frustration with its policy on
Burma by endorsing a multilateral approach to to the country, publicly
supporting Ban Ki Moon and Asean’s calls for the release of Suu Kyi,
ending attacks against ethnic minority civilians, and pressing Than Shwe,
the military leader, to enter negotiations with Suu Kyi and Burma’s ethnic
minorities.

Such moves would not only bring greater stability to Burma, they would in
no way undermine China’s investments in the country. Those marching and
bleeding in Rangoon - as well as those suffering and hiding in eastern
Burma - hope for such an outcome.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/26/opinion/edletmon.php

Author: Jeremy Woodrum, Washington
Co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 28, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
CSW urges British government to bring Burma crisis to UN

Burmese Exiles in London protested today outside the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office to call upon the UK government to do more to resolve
the current crisis in Burma. In support of the protest, Christian
Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has released a statement urging the UK
Government to bring the crisis in Burma to the UN Security Council.
Representatives from CSW and Burma Campaign UK also joined the protest
today.

Last week, hundreds of people joined some of the largest demonstrations
held in Burma in a decade. The protests were sparked in response to the
military regime’s decision to raise fuel prices by 500 per cent. In
response, the regime has launched a severe crackdown on protestors. Over
100 people have been arrested in the last week, including almost all the
leading pro-democracy activists, and demonstrators have been savagely
attacked by police and pro-junta mobs.

On 22 August, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office, Meg Munn MP, condemned the detention of leading
activists who were arrested the previous day, and called for their
immediate release.

Commenting today, CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: “We welcome
the remarks last week by the Foreign Office Minister. However, it is
extremely disappointing that the UK government has so far only issued this
one statement on the current crisis. Given our history with Burma, we have
a special responsibility to provide a much more robust and proactive
approach in order to prevent the situation deteriorating further.

“We urge the United Kingdom to take the lead in calling for an emergency
meeting of the United Nations Security Council to address the situation.
We also urge the United Kingdom to bring the issue of Burma to the agenda
of the next EU Foreign Ministers meeting, and to raise Burma in other EU
and UN forums as a matter of urgency. We call on the United Kingdom to put
pressure on China, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) to use their influence with the regime to stop the crackdown on
protestors and demand the release of those activists who have been
arrested.”

For more information, please contact Penny Hollings, Campaigns and Media
Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329 0045, email
pennyhollings at csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.

CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom,
works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and
promotes religious liberty for all.

____________________________________

August 28, Conservatives
Conservative Party Human Rights Commission calls for action on Burma

Stephen Crabb MP, Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights
Commission, today condemned the Burmese junta’s crackdown on protestors
and urged the British Government to call for an emergency meeting of the
UN Security Council to address the crisis in Burma.

Following some of the biggest demonstrations in Burma in a decade, the
Burmese military regime has arrested almost all the leading pro-democracy
activists and launched violent assaults on demonstrators. Over 100 people
have been detained. According to reports from sources in Burma, thousands
of police and members of the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA) have been deployed throughout the country, and there
are reports of a significant build up of troops in Rangoon. Protestors
were “brutally attacked, kicked and beaten” by members of the USDA, before
being “dragged” into trucks and brought to “unknown locations for
detention, interrogation and torture”. The USDA is the junta’s civilian
proxy organisation which in 2003 launched an assassination attempt on
democracy leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at Depayin in which
over 100 of her supporters were beaten to death.

The protests were sparked by the regime’s decision to raise fuel prices by
500 per cent. The organisers of the demonstrations included leaders of the
“88 Generation Students” who led the pro-democracy movement in 1988 when
thousands of peaceful demonstrators were massacred by the regime. Those
arrested include Min Ko Naing, who has already spent 16 years in jail for
his role in the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, and Ko Ko Gyi, who was
imprisoned for 15 years. It is believed they will be charged with
disrupting the stability of the state, a crime which carries a sentence of
up to 20 years in prison. A former political prisoner, U Ohn Than, staged
a solo protest in front of the US Embassy in Rangoon on 23 August and has
been arrested.

Stephen Crabb MP said: “The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission
joins with Governments and international human rights organisations around
the world in condemning this brutal crackdown. We urge the Burmese regime
to release all those arrested immediately. We welcome the statement this
week from the Foreign Office Minister Meg Munn, but we believe the British
Government’s response to the crisis in Burma has so far been woefully
inadequate. We know what the Burmese regime is capable of. We have the
lessons of 1988, when the military turned its guns on peaceful
demonstrators in their thousands. We urge the British Government to bring
this crisis to the attention of the UN Security Council, other UN forums
and the European Union as a matter of urgency, and to act now to prevent
another mass slaughter.”

Notes to Editors:
Burma is ruled by one of the world’s worst violators of human rights, a
military regime which took power in a coup in 1962. Now known as the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the regime held elections in 1990
which were overwhelmingly won by the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The regime refused to accept the results, and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi
remains under house arrest.

Over 1,200 political prisoners are in jail, subjected to some of the worst
forms of torture.
The military regime is committing crimes against humanity against Burma’s
people, including the widespread and systematic use of rape as a weapon of
war, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, forced labour, the use
of human minesweepers, and the forcible displacement of over a million
people.

Since 1996, over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma have been destroyed by
the Burma Army.

For more information please contact Ben Rogers, Deputy Chairman of the
Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, on 07823  329664 or email
brogers50 at hotmail.com

____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

August 28, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC Monitoring
Burmese opposition radio announces satellite tests

Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) radio will begin test transmissions via
satellite on Monday [27 August].

Test broadcasts of the regular DVB programme will take place between
1400-1630 and 1730-2100 Burmese time [0730-1000 gmt and 1100-1330 gmt].

The tests will use [DVB's] regular frequency of 4,000 MHz, symbol rate
28125 [FEC 3/4], audio PID 2314, on AsiaSat 2 [at 100.5 degrees east:
Lyngsat - www.lyngsat.com - lists this outlet as being used by the
UK-based World Radio Network, WRN, for its multilingual Asia-Pacific
service].

News from Burma will be broadcast, as well as discussions about current
affairs, question-and-answer sessions, interviews, songs and repeats of
regular DVB programmes.

The programme can also be heard via www.dvb.no.

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma website, Oslo, in Burmese 0000 gmt 27
Aug 07