BurmaNet News, September 5, 2007

[Editor]

September 5, 2007 Issue # 3285

INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Spontaneous demonstrations in different parts of Burma
Reuters: Myanmar troops fire warning shots at monk protest
AFP: Defiant protesters stage new rally in Myanmar
DVB: NLD leader arrested after Bogalay protest
Mizzima News: Junta meets mediator on Kachin's proposal
Narinjara News: Battalion commanders directed to listen to BBC, VOA, and RFA
AP: Leaflets at US, British embassies decry support for democracy movement
AFP: Woman arrested over prayer vigil in Myanmar
Irrawaddy: ID cards issued in ethnic ceasefire areas
Xinhua: Myanmar to introduce journalism degree course for first time
Mizzima News: Tha Ohn Computer University bars 84 students from exams
IMNA: Junta choosing candidates popular among people for ensuing elections

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar introduces e-payment system for import formalities
Irrawaddy: Burmese vessel suspected of smuggling diesel fuel from Malaysia
AFP: Thai firm says attack won't stop Myanmar dam

DRUGS
SHAN: Surge in opium and heroin prices across the border

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Bush blasts Myanmar junta for 'tyrannical' crackdown
Irrawaddy: Burma's National Convention a sham, says US State Department
KNG: Burmese in exile submit appeal to UN
Reuters: Laura Bush hopes China will join Myanmar pressure

OPINION / OTHER
Wall Street Journal Online: Gas attack - Sean Turnell
Wall Street Journal Online: Burma's military constitution
Irrawaddy: The walk towards democracy - Kay Latt

STATEMENT
Statement of Salween Watch regarding the attack on the EGAT workers’ camp
of the Hat Gyi dam site

PRESS RELEASE
CSW: CSW calls for EU action on Burma

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 5, Mizzima News
Spontaneous demonstrations in different parts of Burma [Breaking News - Live]

Indian Standard Time - 7:30 p.m - Tha Ohn Computer University bars 84
students from exams 84 students were barred from appearing for their
examinations by the Tha Ohn Computer University in Mandalay. The
ostensible reason is that they did not have the mandatory 75 percent
attendance. However, most of the 84 were earlier accused of assembling
people to demonstrate. The students will lose an academic year.

On September 2, the authorities barred the students for failing to have
the required 75 percent attendance. Last month, in a similar case, more
than 200 students were stopped from appearing for their examination for
not having the required attendance.

5:30 p.m - Over five hundred monks protest in Pakhokku, Magwe division

More than five hundred Buddhist monks today staged a demonstration in
Pakhokku town in Magwe division, central Burma. Soldiers fired gun-shots
into the air to disperse the monks and used bamboo sticks to beat nearly
10,000 onlookers, according to a report from the Democratic Voice of
Burma.

"Since we have no family or no children to care for, we have decided to
stand for the people and die if need be. We dare not continue to see the
difficulties of the people, the peoples' difficulties are our difficulties
too," a resident quoted a monk as saying.

4:50 p.m - Due to political instability, goldsmiths and jewelry shops on
Rangoon's Mugho Street have refrained from selling their stocks today.
Until yesterday, the price of gold in Rangoon stood at 495,000 kyat (US
$380) per 10 grams.

3:00 p.m - Electric bills double

The rates for electric bills in Burma have been doubled, sources in
Rangoon said. The new rates will go into effect starting September 10th.
Users will have to pay 50 kyat per unit for domestic electric bills, as
opposed to the previous charge of 25 kyat. For power line users the rates
have increased to 100 kyat per unit from 50 kyat. The monthly charge for
meter box maintenance has also increased to 1000 kyat from 500 kyat.

2:50 p.m - Interview with Ko Sithu, who was released this morning after
being arrested on August 31st during demonstrations in Taungkok town of
Arakan state.

"I was released this morning at about 6 a.m. (local time). I was not
arrested, but was held for a while. And they [authorities] did not ask too
many questions. It was the police who took me, but a lot of officials from
other departments came along with them. I don't know what happened but I
believe I was released because what I did was acceptable and supported by
the townspeople, my fellow countrymen and the world. At the moment I
cannot think. I am a member of the NLD, we plan to discuss, as a group,
further actions as well as the group's direction."

12:30 p.m - Public speech and discussion in Bogalay attracts hundreds

A public speech and discussion on fuel and food prices, held today in
Bogalay town in Irrawaddy Division, about 99 river miles (158 km)
southwest of Rangoon, attracted hundreds of people. As soon as the public
gathering began members of the junta-backed USDA and Swan Arrshin arrested
three key organizers of the event.

The crowd, however, did not disperse and demanded the immediate release of
those arrested.

"Since about 8 this morning, U Aung Khin Ko and a group held a public
speech and discussion on fuel and food prices in front of the main market.
It later attracted a lot of people and the crowd grew to about a thousand
people. When the crowd became large, members of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association and Swan Arrshin started rounding up people. They
arrested U Aung Khin Ko, Daw Myint Myint Swe and Daw Khin Lay. When the
USDA arrested U Aung Khin Ko, the crowd gathered around the USDA members
saying 'release U Aung Khin Ko and the others, or we will not disperse.'
The arrested are members of the NLD Township Organizing Committee and
Joint Secretary Group. Since the USDA has yet to release them, the crowd
still has not dispersed," a Bogalay member of the NLD told Mizzima.

12:10 p.m - Crowd gathers in Sittwe to protest

"In Sittwe, people are gathering to protest but the military, with 16
trucks full of fully-equipped soldiers, is making security rounds through
the town. Soldiers are placed along the fence of schools as security. Even
at Buddhist monasteries soldiers are placed. Everywhere in the town
fully-equipped soldiers are positioned, so as to frighten the people from
demonstrating. But we have plans to demonstrate in demand of the release
of the three people arrested earlier," a Sittwe resident told Mizzima.

____________________________________

September 5, Reuters
Myanmar troops fire warning shots at monk protest - Aung Hla Tun

Soldiers in army-ruled Myanmar fired warning shots on  Wednesday to halt a
protest march of 500 Buddhist monks, the first time troops have been
called in against a rare two-week outbreak of dissent, a resident said.

The monks in Pakokku, around 370 miles (600 km) northwest of Yangon, were
waving banners condemning last month's price hikes and reciting Buddhist
scriptures when the army broke them up by firing shots over their heads,
the woman told Reuters.

The Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a news service run by
exile dissidents, said some of the thousands of onlookers cheering the
march from both sides of the road were beaten.

There was no word on numbers of injured. Repeated phone calls to the town
did not connect.

One bystander told DVB the soldiers fired "10 to 15 bullets, before they
started to drag away the monks and beat up bystanders with bamboo sticks".

"The soldiers were in full uniform. Now they are clearing up slippers left
by the monks when they fled the scene," the bystander was quoted as
saying.

More than 100 people have been arrested in the two-week crackdown, one of
the harshest in the former Burma since the army crushed a nationwide
uprising of monks, students and government workers in 1988. Around 3,000
people were then thought to have died.

The Pakokku march is the first in this year's string of small protests
about declining living standards to have elicited major support from a
public normally too cowed to voice any sort of dissent against the ruling
junta.

The military has been loathe to put soldiers on the streets, perhaps
mindful of the bloodshed in 1988, a watershed moment in Myanmar's
post-independence history. Instead, it has relied on paid gangs to break
up marches in Yangon, the former capital.

Intervening against monks in Pakokku is particularly risky for the junta
as the town is only 80 miles (130 km) from the second city of Mandalay,
the religious heart of a devoutly Buddhist nation and home to 300,000
monks.

Historically, the monasteries have played a major role in political
uprisings, both in 1988 and in frequent sporadic outbursts against
colonial master Britain.

News reports from dissident organisations suggest the generals who first
seized power in 1962 have been pressuring the heads of Mandalay's
monasteries not to become involved in the fuel price protests.

"They seem to be more nervous. Once the monks in Mandalay start to rise,
they won't be able to control it," a Yangon-based politician said.

Most of the leaders of the 1988 protests, including Min Ko Naing, the most
influential dissident after detained Nobel laureate and NLD chief Aung San
Suu Kyi, have been arrested.

The generals are tightening the net on those still at large, stopping and
searching buses in the capital and on the road to Thailand, a major escape
route in 1988.

____________________________________

September 5, Agence France Presse
Defiant protesters stage new rally in Myanmar - Hla Hla Htay

Defiant pro-democracy supporters staged a new protest Wednesday against
Myanmar's military government, despite a crackdown on dissent that has
drawn sharp condemnation from US President George W. Bush.

The latest protest took place in the small town of Bogale, in the
impoverished Irrawaddy delta region, about 125 kilometres (75 miles)
southwest of Yangon, according to the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD).

"Hundreds of people were listening to the speeches in front of the main
market" in Bogale, NLD spokesman Myint Thein said.

The rally lasted more than four hours until authorities broke up the crowd
around 12:30 pm (0600 GMT), he added.

"The people participating in the protests are just expressing their
demands peacefully. They have no intention of causing unrest," he said.

The leader of the rally, the NLD's local chairman Aung Khin Bo, was
detained by local authorities, the spokesman added.

The arrest came one day after a woman was detained at Yangon's famed
Shwedagon pagoda for holding a prayer vigil to urge the military
government to free democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, activists said.

About 15 people had gathered for their weekly vigil at the golden
Shwedagon pagoda on Tuesday, when authorities arrested the leader of the
group, Mya Mya San, according to other activists at the service.

"The authorities didn't give any explanation," Naw Ohn Hla, who was at the
vigil, told AFP.

"They said she was taken to Kyaikkasan detention ground," she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a 62-year-old winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been
under house arrest for most of the last 18 years.

Her NLD won a landslide victory in elections held in 1990, but the
military has never recognised the result.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, deals harshly with any
dissent and maintains complete control over the nation's media.

But pro-democracy supporters across Myanmar have been staging a rare
series of anti-government demonstrations since August 19.

Exiled dissidents reported that hundreds of people had also staged a
protest Tuesday in the town of Taunggok along Myanmar's western coast.

Amnesty International said more than 150 people have been detained over
the protests against a massive hike in fuel prices, which has left some
unable to even to get to work.

Many of those held were initially taken to an improvised detention camp at
the Kyaikkasan sports ground in Yangon. Activists said some of the
detainees launched a hunger strike on Friday to demand medical treatment
for a wounded colleague.

Many of the detainees were transferred on Sunday to police stations around
Yangon, activists said.

"They were still on hunger strike at that time," one activist said.

"We haven't had any information on them since they were moved. Their
families are worried because they have not been allowed to visit since the
arrests," the activist said.

The latest crackdown on dissent has drawn international criticism, with
president Bush condemning the junta as he arrived in Sydney ahead of an
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting.

"It's inexcusable that we've got this kind of tyrannical behaviour in
Asia," he said at a news conference.

"It's inexcusable that people who march for freedom are then treated (this
way) by a repressive state. And those of us who live in comfort of a free
society need to speak out about these kinds of human rights abuses."

____________________________________

September 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD leader arrested after Bogalay protest

Bogalay National League for Democracy chairman U Aung Khin Bo was arrested
this morning after staging a protest against high fuel and commodity
prices with 14 other party members.

The protest, led by U Aung Khin Bo and party members U Khin Maung Chit,
Daw Mi Mi Sein and Daw Khin Lay, started at about 8:30am when the group
started marching through the town waving placards, according to
eyewitnesses.

But soon after the protest started U Aung Khin Bo was arrested by
government officials outside a teashop. The remaining NLD members
responded by giving speeches about the plight of political prisoners in
Burma to crowds of onlookers.

“There were between 800 and 1000 civilians watching . . . they started
giving speeches too and they handed out water and snacks to the NLD
members,” one onlooker said on condition of anonymity.

After an hour, the authorities reportedly returned with Union Solidarity
and Development Association and Swan Arr Shin members and ordered U Khin
Maung Chit to accompany them to the township peace and development council
office.

“But he refused and there were so many people that they were able to just
shoo the authorities away,” the eyewitness said.

“People started to put themselves between the NLD members and the
authorities to prevent them from being arrested.”

____________________________________

September 5, Mizzima News
Junta meets mediator on Kachin's proposal

In an ostensible move to broker peace with the Kachin Independence
Organization, the Burmese military junta had summoned the Kachin peace
mediator to Naypyitaw for discussions on the KIO's 19-point proposal
submitted at the recently concluded National Convention.

The junta summoned Saboi Jum, a Kachin reverend and former secretary of
the Kachin Baptist Convention, to Naypyitaw on August 14 to discuss the
proposals.

Speaking to Mizzima, Saboi Jum confirmed his visit to Burma's new jungle
capital in Naypyitaw and said, "We had discussions and negotiations on the
KIO's 19-point proposal and I carried the message to the KIO in Laiza."

He, however, declined to identify the military officials he met in Naypyitaw.

Saboi Jum, who played a key role in the KIO- junta ceasefire deal in
February 1994, said following his visit to Naypyitaw, he made a trip to
KIO headquarters at Laiza, on the Sino-Burma border, on August 17.

The KIO, however, denied discussing the matter as its delegation to the
National Convention is due back home, he added.

With the KIO delegation to the National Convention returning home this
week, he will pay another visit to Laiza for further talks with the KIO
officials as the mediator, he said.

"The 19-point proposal is what we have been demanding and we will continue
to demand but in a peaceful way through negotiations," said Saboi Jum.

The KIO delegation attending the junta's constitutional drafting
convention, which was wound up on Monday, submitted a 19-point proposal in
July. However, the junta turned a blind eye to the proposals which were
not discussed at the convention.

Among the crucial clauses, the KIO in the proposal suggested naming the
armed forces in Burma, including all ethnic nationalities, as the 'Federal
Armed Force' and demanded a federal system of government, where the
autonomy of the states and the rights of ethnic nationalities will be
guaranteed.

Critics however, have said that the junta following the conclusion of the
National Convention, will demand that the ethnic ceasefire groups abandon
armed conflict and join them as political parties representing their
respective ethnic groups.

U Mya Maung, a Sino-Burma border based military analyst, earlier told
Mizzima, "The junta is mounting pressure on the ceasefire groups, and it
will be clear once the National Convention is over as to what their exact
motive is."

____________________________________

September 5, Narinjara News
Battalion commanders directed to listen to BBC, VOA, and RFA

Akyab: All commanders of battalions under the Western Command have been
recently ordered to listen to foreign-based Burmese broadcasting services,
after a spate of protests against the increase in fuel prices broke out in
Burma, said a senior army clerk in Buthidaung.

General Maung Shin, Commander of Western Command, issued the directives
this week to the commanders in respective battalions throughout Arakan
State to listen to foreign-based Burmese radio programmes such as the BBC,
VOA, and RFA, the clerk said.

The general's intention is to have battalion commanders gather information
to assist in preventing potential protests by locals against the
authorities' fuel price hike. The commanders are expected to learn about
the current crisis in Arakan as well as the rest of Burma.

General Maung Shin also instructed Dasaka commander Major General Than Tun
Aung to compile daily Burmese-related news stories aired by the Burmese
broadcasting services and send him a copy of the reports daily, said the
clerk.

According to an army source, a meeting of army officials at the battalion
commander level is being held in the first week of every month at the
Western Command headquarters in Ann Town in order to exchange news and
information from each township in Arakan State.

Even though the Burmese authorities have instructed the commanders to
listen to foreign radio services, the army does not allow ordinary
soldiers to listen to the same news programmes.

Inside Burma , there is a broadcasting service called the "Voice of
Myanmar, which is run by the government. However, this radio service only
airs news favourable to the military regime and does not air stories of
people's interest. Because of this, the vast majority of Burmese people
listen to foreign-based radio programmes, mainly the BBC, RFA, and VOA, in
order to get accurate and unbiased news.

____________________________________

September 5, Associated Press
Leaflets at US, British embassies in Myanmar decry support for democracy
movement

Leaflets demanding that U.S. and British diplomats stop their "blatant
support" of pro-democracy protests in Myanmar were left in front of those
countries' embassies Wednesday, saying they should cease their
interference or be driven out.

Myanmar's government has detained scores of activists and used gangs of
hired thugs to suppress a rare wave of protests triggered by fuel price
hikes last month of as much as 500 percent.

Despite the pressure, protests have been have been continuing
sporadically, with one involving as many as 1,000 people claimed to have
taken place Wednesday.

"We, Myanmar people, are going to punish those Myanmar traitors who rely
on foreign countries," said one of several leaflets left in front of the
embassies. "Your blatant support and encouragement toward those scoundrels
amounts to insulting the Myanmar people. We demand that such actions be
stopped immediately."

Another, signed by the "New Generation Burma Students Union," vowed that
"All traitors, neo-colonialists and embassies that interfere in the
internal affairs of our country will be driven out."

The junta and the state-controlled press have frequently accused the U.S.
and Britain of colluding with pro-democracy activists in efforts to oust
the government. Both nations have imposed economic and political sanctions
against the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure to
hand over power to a democratically elected government.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he would raise the issue of human
rights violations in Myanmar, also called Burma, at a weekend summit of
the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The leaflets left in front of the embassies were copies of handwritten
pages and included several poems. All were critical of either the
pro-democracy movement or the embassies. They were signed by unknown
groups.

Asked to comment on the leaflets, Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat
in Myanmar, said, "We support free speech but it's something to which all
citizens of the country have the right, and should not be arrested."

She said she would not be surprised if the people who left the leaflets
had official encouragement.

A British diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with
diplomatic etiquette, said the embassy was concerned that the leaflets had
a threatening tone, so had lodged a request with Myanmar authorities for
protection.

About 1,000 people staged a protest march Wednesday in Bogalay, a town in
the Irrawaddy delta 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Yangon, the
opposition National League for Democracy party said.

The report could not be independently confirmed, and sometimes such
accounts exaggerate the number of people taking part. Many of the protests
in the past week have involved a handful of people, in one case two men
standing at a marketplace with placards. NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the
head of the party's local chapter, who organized the protest, was later
detained.

On Monday, Myanmar's government announced that a National Convention had
finished drawing up guidelines for a new constitution, said to be the
first step in a seven-stage "roadmap to democracy."

But U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Tuesday the results "do
not represent the will of the Burmese people, nor are they a step toward
democracy."

The guidelines give the military substantial unelected representation in
parliament, and also disqualify presidential candidates who are "entitled
to the rights and privileges of a ... foreign country" thereby barring
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, the detained head of the NLD, whose
late husband was British.

____________________________________

September 5, Agence France Presse
Woman arrested over prayer vigil in Myanmar

A woman has been arrested at Myanmar's famed Shwedagon pagoda for holding
a prayer vigil to urge the military government to free democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, activists said Wednesday.

About 15 people had gathered for their weekly vigil at the golden
Shwedagon pagoda on Tuesday, when authorities arrested the leader of the
group, Mya Mya San, according to other activists at the service.

"The authorities didn't give any explanation," Naw Ohn Hla, who was at the
vigil, told AFP.

"They said she was taken to Kyaikkasan detention ground," she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a 62-year-old winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been
under house arrest for most of the last 18 years.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in
elections held in 1990, but the military has never recognised the result.

NLD spokesman Myint Thein said that two other people were arrested at a
vigil last week at Shwedagon.

"They were also taken to Kyaikkasan ground and we haven't got any
information since then," he said.

The latest arrest came amid a rare string of anti-government
demonstrations that began on August 19 in protest at the soaring cost of
fuel.

Amnesty International said more than 150 people in Myanmar had been
detained over the protests against the fuel price hike, which has left
some unable to even to get to work.

Many of those held were initially taken to the Kyaikkasan sports ground in
an improvised detention camp. Activists said some of the detainees
launched a hunger strike on Friday to demand medical treatment for a
wounded colleague.

Activists said many of the detainees were transferred on Sunday to police
stations around Yangon.

"They were still on hunger strike at that time," one activist said.

"We haven't had any information on them since they were moved. Their
families are worried because they have not been allowed to visit since the
arrests," the activist said.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, deals harshly with any
dissent and maintains complete control over the nation's media.

The latest crackdown on dissent has drawn international criticism, with US
President George W. Bush condemning the junta as he arrived in Sydney
ahead of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum meeting.

"It's inexcusable that we've got this kind of tyrannical behaviour in
Asia," he said at a news conference.

"It's inexcusable that people who march for freedom are then treated (this
way) by a repressive state. And those of us who live in comfort of a free
society need to speak out about these kinds of human rights abuses."

____________________________________

September 5, Irrawaddy
ID cards issued in ethnic ceasefire areas - Khun Sam

The Burmese government has begun a census survey and household
registration, issuing national identity cards in the “brown zones”
controlled by ethnic ceasefire groups, according to local sources.

Residents of Laiza, near the Burma-China border, where the Kachin
Independence Organization’s headquarters are located, were summoned by
immigration officers to gather at a hall on Monday to apply for the first
time for household registration and national ID cards.

“The registration process has been carried out for three days,” KIO senior
official Seng Li told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. He said residents were
being helped to fill out forms by officials of the KIO, the police, and
immigration and administrative staff.

The census survey is being carried out in areas of military-ruled Burma
designated by the government as “brown zones,” controlled by ethnic
ceasefire groups. “Black zones” controlled by remaining armed groups such
as the Karen National Union and Shan State Army-South, where fighting is
still ongoing, are not being covered by the census.

The census is part of the Burmese junta’s seven-step road map’s provision
for a referendum. The junta announced that the referendum would be held
after the National Convention, which on Monday ended its work on adopting
basic principles for a new constitution. No date was set for the
referendum, however.

“Residents and KIO soldiers and officials are allowed to apply for
registration, as well as some regular soldiers,” Seng Li said.

Decades of fighting had held up plans to conduct registration for a
census. Many residents and KIO members consequently hold no identity cards
and travel only with KIO documents.

In Pang Wah, a border town in northeastern Kachin State controlled by the
ethnic ceasefire group New Democratic Army-Kachin, the registration
process for households and national identity cards is being carried out by
officials of the NDA-K.

The group’s chairman, Zahkung Ting Ying, said; “We are doing the
registration process for our residents with our staff and officials and
will submit [the information] to the government. We will make two types of
cards—national identity cards for our residents and different, residence
cards for Chinese who live here.”

In northern Shan State, Burmese immigration officials are carrying out the
registration process. A resident in Nam Tau Village, about 5 miles north
of Muse, said the registration for household and identity cards had been
going on for two months.

She said an identify card cost 4,000 kyat (US $3) and household
registration up to 10,000 kyat ($7.50).

____________________________________

September 5, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to introduce journalism degree course for first time

Myanmar will introduce journalism degree course for the first time in the
near future to encourage the country's young generation to systematically
master the skill of journalism in line with the developing media sector,
local media reported Wednesday.

Jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of
Education, a three-year Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) degree course will
open at the National Administration College in Yangon, the Yangon Times
said, inviting matriculation-passed students to pursue the professional
education.

The draft journalism degree course will cover teaching of four major
media-related subjects of printing media, radio, TV and news interview
with geography, biology, psychology, international relations, history,
Myanmar and English in addition, it said.

Graduates with the degree will be offered on-job training, the report added.

In the past, journalism diploma course was once conducted in Myanmar
around 1982-83 only, according to the report.

In Myanmar, there is a News and Periodicals Enterprise (NPE) under the
Ministry of Information. Under the NPE, there are Myanmar News Agency and
three major official daily newspapers -- the Myanma Alin and the Mirror
(Myanmar language) and the New Light of Myanmar (English language).

The circulation of the Myanma Alin goes to over 100,000, while the Mirror
over 150,000 and the New Light of Myanmar over 10,000, according to the
NPE.

Meanwhile, the information authorities have been granting more and more
private publications for circulation in recent years, bringing the total
number of private news journals and magazines being sold in the domestic
markets to about 200 and 250 respectively as of the end of 2006, official
figures show.

The circulation of these private publications is not so large
comparatively with only some few thousands to more than ten thousands but
they attract a higher degree of concern from readers for their materials
contained.

Among the journals granted over the past two years, sports journals
dominated in number, followed by news journals which carry domestic and
international news, news related to arts, children, health and crime.

Myanmar has readjusted its press scrutiny and registration policy by
lifting some restrictions previously imposed upon news writing by journals
and magazines with the aim of enhancing the development of press society.

According to the ministry which has taken over the duties of the press
scrutiny and registration from the Ministry of Home Affairs since February
2005, the publication and distribution of journals and magazines are being
continuously granted as long as it conforms to the prescribed policy.

The ministry outlined seven-point press policy for writers to adhere to,
which include opening up to some extent to reporters of journals and
magazines on writing which shall be constructive and be in the interest of
the nation.

The number of journals covering domestic news has grown over the past
eight years in Myanmar, thanks to market demand and the emergence of more
such journals also contributes to the development of journalism, readers
said.

Leading private news journals include Yangon Times, Flower News, Kumudra,
Weekly Eleven News, Myanmar Times, Newsweek, Pyi Myanmar, Snap Shot,
Popular, 7-Day News, International Eleven, Voice, 24/7 News, Zaygwet and
Internet.

Meanwhile, there are a total of 20 foreign media stationed in Myanmar
including four world's leading ones -- AFP of France, AP of the United
States, Reuters of the United Kingdom and Xinhua of China. China's
Guangming daily was the latest allowed to open office in Yangon.

____________________________________

September 5, Mizzima News
Tha Ohn Computer University bars 84 students from exams

In what appears to be an act of vendetta, 84 students were barred from
appearing for their examinations by the Tha Ohn Computer University in
Mandalay. The ostensible reason is that they did not have the mandatory 75
percent attendance. However, most of the 84 were earlier accused of
assembling people to demonstrate. The students will lose an academic year.

On September 2, the authorities barred the students for failing to have
the required 75 percent attendance. Last month, in a similar case, more
than 200 students were stopped from appearing for their examination for
not having the required attendance.

Most of the 84 students facing the current ban were pulled up by
university authorities for organizing people in the University to protest.
They were cautioned. They were also forced to sign a document not to
assemble people in the University. The ban came in the wake of the
warning.

A father of a student from the Sino-Burma border town of Muse said his son
and others, barred from appearing for the examinations, have gone back
home.

"There are only about 20 students that are involved in politics, but the
authorities have forced all of them to sign a document including my son.
Since he has not been allowed to appear for the examinations, he will lose
a year," the father told Mizzima.

"My son was never involved in such activities. But when there was some
kind of unrest in the University, some of the students left for home. And
when the university reopened, authorities accused those who had gone home
to have also participated in the demonstrations and forced them to sign,"
the father added.

However, the information could not be independently confirmed with the Tha
Ohn University authorities.

____________________________________

September 5, Independent Mon News Agency
Junta choosing candidates popular among people for ensuing elections -
Chan Mon

Desperate to post a victory in the ensuing general elections and
legitimize military rule in Burma the junta has subtly begun to choose
people as its candidates who are well-known and respected by local people.

The junta has chosen seven people in each township from different
ministries, senior officers, members of the Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA), Maternal and Child Welfare Association
(MCWA), and Myanmar Women's Affair Federation (MWAF), according to a
government officer.

"The government is selecting well-know persons who are respected and will
be accepted by the people. The selected people will participate in the
elections to become people's representative," he told IMNA.

Currently the military regime has launched a campaign for people to for
vote it even as it detains opposition leaders and protesters leading the
demonstrations against the fuel price hike.

The junta is also training some top township USDA leaders for organizing
special campaigns. The training also includes assigning the USDA to lead
government employees in the regime's campaign.

"They told to us to vote for them for they are providing electric meter
boxes and connection for electric supply," a government employee in Karen
State told IMNA.

The military regime is offering electricity supply at cheap rates to USDA 
members and government employees while normal people continue to pay a
high  charge of about 600,000 Kyat for power supply in Karen State and Mon
State.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 5, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar introduces e-payment system for import formalities

Myanmar has introduced an e-payment system on acquiring import license
since the beginning of this month to replace payment in cash for the
purpose, the local 7-Day News reported Wednesday.

The system will facilitate importers in the country in seeking import
licenses without traveling from Yangon to 390-kilometer-far new
administrative capital of Nay Pyi Taw where the Ministry of Commerce's
Directorate of Trade is based, commerce officials were quoted as saying.

However, the commerce authorities authorize the only special private bank,
the Myanmar Citizens Bank, to undertake e- transactions regarding the
import matters as an initial phase.

Of the 3,000 import companies in Myanmar, over 100 have opened accounts
with the designated bank for the purpose, the bank sources said.

The Myanmar Citizen Bank, one of the 15 private banks in the country now
handling the export and import transactions, was transformed from a public
bank, in which the Ministry of Commerce holds a stake of 55 percent.

The ministry is also encouraging the exporters and importers in the
country to join shares of the Myanmar Citizen Bank.

There are 40,000 private companies registered with the government, of
which 10,000 are trading companies, the authorities said.

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

____________________________________

September 5, Irrawaddy
Burmese vessel suspected of smuggling diesel fuel from Malaysia - Saw Yan
Naing

Eleven Burmese nationals were arrested by Malaysian authorities on Tuesday
in Butterworth after anti-smuggling officers inspected a vessel they said
was loading subsidized diesel fuel to be taken to Burma, where fuel prices
have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

A Malaysian official said they seized 275,000 liters of diesel from a
Malaysian tanker at the Prai barter trade warf in Butterworth in northern
Penang State.

Barrels of diesel were being loaded into the Burmese-registered vessel's
cargo compartment. Two Malaysian were also arrested.

The Burmese vessel was detained. The seizure, the largest so far this
year, was valued at RM 500,000 (US $142,515), Guna Seelan, the chief of
enforcement for the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, told The
New Straits Times.

"Initial investigations showed that the local company had illegally
obtained the subsidized diesel and sold it to foreign vessels," Guna was
quoted as saying.

Detainees have been remanded for questioning and could be charged with
smuggling prohibited matter. If found guilty, they could be fined up to
250,000 Ringgit (US $71,257) or sentenced to up to three years in jail.

Officers said they believed the smuggling group had been operating for a
number of months, causing losses of millions of US dollars to Malaysia.

Meanwhile, a resident in Ranong Province in Thailand said Burmese vessels
from Kawthaung and Rangoon regularly bought illegal diesel from ships in
the area.

He said diesel smugglers covered their vessel with timber and put diesel
in the tank inside the body of the vessel.

"They transfer the diesel and sell it in the sea,” he said.

Following a sharp price increase on fuel inside Burma on August 15 by the
military government, Burmese citizens have staged repeated demonstrations
during the past week.

____________________________________

September 5, Agence France Presse
Thai firm says attack won't stop Myanmar dam

Thailand's biggest utility company vowed Wednesday to press ahead with its
one-billion-dollar dam project in eastern Myanmar, despite an attack by
ethnic rebels that killed a worker last weekend.

Karen rebels killed a Thai technician who was surveying the dam site on
the Salween River on Sunday, according to Myanmar's official media.

The state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT)
immediately evacuated the remaining 42 workers and announced it was
suspending the project.

But EGAT said Wednesday that it would send workers back to the site as
soon as Myanmar reinforces security.

"We will continue with the project after the Myanmar side promised to step
up security to ensure the safety of our staff," said EGAT official
Apichart Dilogsopon.

"The project is a joint venture between Thailand and Myanmar. We must go
ahead with it despite the risks," he told AFP.

Apichart said that Myanmar could send its own technicians to finish the
survey work, while the company reassures its staff about their safety in
Myanmar.

Another Thai man was killed last year when he stepped on a landmine while
surveying for the dam, which will produce 1,200 megawatts of electricity.

Thailand is increasingly turning to military-ruled Myanmar to meet its
growing energy needs, seeking to build hydropower dams while tapping the
country's natural gas reserves.

Critics say the dam projects will displace ethnic Karen villagers while
bringing few real benefits to the people living in the region.

____________________________________
DRUGS

September 5, Shan Herald Agency for News
Surge in opium and heroin prices across the border

The Golden Triangle may be almost opium free in the UN Office on Drugs and
Crimes (UNODC's), view, but areas along the Thai-Burma border appear to
have no inkling of it, says a report that recently reached S.H.A.N.

More people are leaving their homes inside forbidden zones to go to the
mountains and valleys too far from inquisitive eyes to grow poppy,
according to the report that covers drug activities in Monghsat district,
opposite Thailand's Maehongson, Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces.

The district of Monghsat, made up of three townships: Mongton, Monghsat
and Mongpiang, except for some 20 Thais involved in the Tasang dam
project, is virtually free from nosey outsiders, though it is just next
door to the kingdom that had waged a bloody war on drugs four years
earlier.

"To be sure, the Wa, since their declaration that they were drug free in
2005, has been tough on farmers residing in areas under their control,"
the report says, "but fields under the Burma Army control are strictly
left alone."

For instance, fields near Hpakhpem, under the control of the Burma Army's
Light Infantry Battalion 527, and those along the Namhsim, under the
control of Infantry Battalion 278, were left untouched, a Monghsat
resident was reported as saying.

One of the main incentives, apart from the alleged protection by the Burma
Army, was the surge in both the opium and heroin prices:

               2005-2006 season                               2006-2007
season
Opium -  8,000-10,000 baht/viss                   12,000 baht($325)/viss
up to 18,000 baht ($485)                  ($215-270)

Heroin-                       80,000-110,000 baht/kg                     
130,000 baht/kg

(block form)                ($2,150-2,970)                                
  ($3,510)

Heroin-                       120,000-130,000 baht/kg                   
160,000 baht/kg

(powder form)             ($3,240-3,510)                                  
 ($4,325)

The farmers paid 500-800 baht ($13.5-21.5) per viss to the pro-junta
militia. "It was understood that the Burma Army units had a share in it,"
says the report, "though no farmers we interviewed were sure how much."

The biggest refineries are said to be in the hills north of Punako,
Mongtoom tract, between Monghsat and Tachilek. Inner security is provided
by the militia led by Ai Long and Ja-Ngoi and the outer security by Light
Infantry Battalions (LIBs) 553 and 554, stationed in Mongtoom.

Another refinery is believed to be at a location east of Mongyawn, under
Wa control, opposite Chiangmai's Mae Ai district.

"The Wa no longer allow their people to grow poppies," said one of the
residents who makes his living as a trucker, "but some are still seen
buying opium for refining."

Some of the richest drug barons, little known to the outside world, live
in this area: Ai Long, Ja-Ngoi, Ya Derh, Ah Ji Hsi, Hsi Mon and Ja-Eu,
among others.

"I was born here," said a 30-year old native of Monghsat. "Everyday I see
people being caught and jailed for using drugs. But I have yet to see any
substitution project or even a treatment centre here in my whole life."

The availability of drugs, he adds, depends "only on whether or not you
can pay":

Opium             0.01 viss                    8,000-10,000 kyat ($6.2-7.7)

Heroin            1 penicillin bottle        10,000 kyat ($7.7)

Yaba(methamphetamine) 1 pill        500-700 kyat ($0.4-0.6)
One viss is 1.6 kg.

According to Janya Sramatcha, Director of Thailand's Office of the
Narcotics Control Board northern branch, opium output in areas opposite
northern Thailand during the coming season is expected to produce about
nine tones of heroin.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 5, Agence France Presse
Bush blasts Myanmar junta for 'tyrannical' crackdown

US President George W. Bush accused Myanmar's military rulers Wednesday of
"tyrannical" behaviour in cracking down on street protests, in his
strongest comments yet since rallies rocked the regime.

Piling pressure on the generals, Bush said he would be speaking out about
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, at a weekend summit of Asia Pacific
leaders in Sydney.

His comments follow US State Department criticism of a convention that
drew up guidelines for a new constitution, and a rare political foray by
First Lady Laura Bush who asked for UN condemnation of the crackdown.

"It's inexcusable that we've got this kind of tyrannical behaviour in
Asia," he said at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister
John Howard ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

"It's inexcusable that people who march for freedom are then treated (this
way) by a repressive state. And those of us who live in the comfort of a
free society need to speak out about these kinds of human rights abuses."

Bush had already last week criticised the junta's crackdown in a statement
but his comments in Sydney were more direct and used harsher language.

According to Amnesty International more than 150 people have been detained
in Myanmar since August 19, when activists began protests against a
staggering hike in fuel prices that left some people unable to afford even
bus fare.

The military regime has long dealt harshly with the slightest show of
dissent during 45 years in power, but the latest protests have spread
across the country, defying the threat of arrests and beatings.

Last week, Laura Bush urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to condemn
the crackdown and push the Security Council to act.

She has a record of activism on rights in Myanmar, having met with victims
as well as UN rights envoys and members of the US Congress on the subject,
but her top-level phone call to Ban was a rare move.

The US State Department earlier this week denounced the forum that drew up
the constitutional guidelines as a "total sham."

Myanmar's military rulers declared "victory" with Monday's conclusion of
14 years of constitutional talks that left out democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

Her party won elections in 1990, but the junta never recognised the result
and instead opened the convention in 1993. It has proceeded fitfully,
often purely to ease pressure on the generals to start promised democratic
reforms.

Among those arrested in the crackdown has been Min Ko Naing, Myanmar's top
democracy campaigner after Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than a
decade under house arrest.

Activists there said Wednesday that police had arrested a woman leading a
prayer vigil for Suu Kyi's release, while three pro-democracy supporters
were detained Monday as they tried to march to the commercial capital
Yangon.

Bush is expected to raise his criticism again at a lunchtime meeting
Friday with the seven members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) which are also members of APEC.

ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, has also put pressure on the junta but has
been accused of not doing enough to bring about change.

Bush also raised the Myanmar situation at last year's APEC summit in
Hanoi, calling it "totally unacceptable," but those remarks were behind
closed doors with other leaders.

____________________________________

September 5, Irrawaddy
Burma's National Convention a sham, says US State Department - Lalit K Jha

Burma's National Convention to draft a new constitution was a “total sham”
and any political process without the participation of the National League
of Democracy and Aung San Suu Kyi is “not legitimate,” a US State
Department spokesman said on Tuesday.

Tom Casey
The proposed document is “of, by and for” the junta, said Tom Casey, a
state department spokesman.

Following the conclusion on Monday of the 14-year process to draw up
guidelines to draft a new constitution, Casey said, “The results of this
illegitimate convention clearly do not represent the will of the Burmese
people, nor are they a step toward democracy.”

Responding to queries about his tough language, such as “total sham,”
Casey said: “Well, I think that's pretty harsh. I think, unfortunately,
it's a justifiable characterization of the process, though.

“The delegates to this convention were handpicked by the regime. They
haven't been allowed to engage in any open debate. And of course, they
also excluded the National League for Democracy, which is Burma's largest
political party.”

The opposition party's leader, Suu Kyi, is under house arrest.

Referring to the on-going demonstrations in Burma over price hikes in
commodities and fuel, he said: “It's also somewhat ironic that the
conclusions of this supposedly open political process coincide with a
crackdown on citizens for peacefully protesting and trying to exercise
their freedom of expression.”

Noting that the guidelines to draft a new constitution suggest a more
powerful role for the military, Casey said: “This is not at all a step
forward for Burma. It's not at all a step towards democracy. And I think
the international community and certainly the United States is going to
continue to call for a genuine and real and inclusive dialogue between the
regime and the legitimate forces of democracy in the country.”

Casey said there was no way to salvage the process that took 14 years to
reach this point.

“It's hard to see how this kind of document is salvageable unless you
actually have free and open participation on the part of all the various
political players involved and you actually have an honest debate and
discussion. At the moment, this is an 'of, by and for' the junta
document.”

Meanwhile, the US will continue to press for a resolution before the UN
Security Council.

“I expect that there will be a lot of discussion about Burma in the
Security Council in the coming weeks,” he said.

Casey said the US was supportive of the efforts of Ibrahim Gambari, the UN
secretary-general's special representative on Burma who may visit Burma in
the near future.

____________________________________

September 5, Kachin News Group
Burmese in exile submit appeal to UN

The spate of protests across Burma by disgruntled people, sore over the
near unprecedented rise in petroleum prices, has found extensive support
from several groups of Burmese people in exile.  The latter have appealed
to the international community to reach out and help people in the
beleaguered country.

A letter of appeal addressed to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-Moon and 10 other organizations under the aegis of the UN was sent by a
labour organization yesterday. The campaign to submit the letter was
orchestrated by the Bangkok branch of the labour organization (Yaung Chi
Oo) and people willing to get involved, according to U Kyaw Thaung, an
organizer. The letter was signed by 2,230 Burmese people in Thailand.

"We collected the signatures for the appeal as of September 1 and
despatched it yesterday", said U Kyaw Thaung.  "People from inside Burma
are in no position to seek help from the international community. So we
are representing them and asking for help from the international
community," he added.

Despite international pressure, the Burmese military and its sponsored
Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and the group called
Swan Arr Shinn are using muscle power to arrest those involved in the on
going protests.

Last week also, 60 people from different organizations demonstrated in
front of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok and urged the junta to roll back
fuel prices and to release Noble Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and all
other political prisoners including recent detainees -- the 88 generation
leaders.
____________________________________

September 5, Reuters
Laura Bush hopes China will join Myanmar pressure - Tabassum Zakaria

First lady Laura Bush waded into international diplomacy on Wednesday by
calling for the United Nations to step up pressure on Myanmar over human
rights with a resolution, and said she hoped China would join in.

After taking the unusual step of personally telephoning U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week to express concerns about a
crackdown on political dissidents, Bush said she wanted to bring more
international attention to human rights abuses in Myanmar.

She told a small group of reporters in an interview at the White House
that she hoped to raise the issue's profile at the U.N. General Assembly
later this month.

"I would like a resolution, another chance for the (U.N.) Security Council
to vote on a resolution on Burma and to give the countries who voted
against it another opportunity to join us as we see a situation that we
think is deteriorating," Bush said, using the former name of the Asian
country.

China and Russia earlier this year rejected a Washington-backed draft
resolution pressing Myanmar to stop persecuting minority and opposition
groups.

The first lady said her husband, President George W. Bush planned to raise
concerns about Myanmar with China's President Hu Jintao during the
Asia-Pacfic summit in Australia this week.

She said that while China views Myanmar's political troubles as a domestic
issue and does not want to be involved in international efforts to
pressure the Asian country, it was in Beijing's interest to have a stable
trading partner.

"I also have some, a small amount of optimism that China will work with us
on this issue," she said. "They didn't want to work with us before, but I
think they will."

Bush cited China's leading involvement in talks on North Korea's nuclear
program and its arranging a meeting between the United States and Myanmar
in China as signs that Beijing may be open to changing its stance on
Myanmar.

She did not express the same hope about Russia, which along with China is
a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Long-standing U.S. sanctions against Myanmar are mainly "symbolic" because
there is not a major economic relationship between the two countries, so
it was important to get China, Russia and India involved in efforts to
pressure Myanmar, Bush said.

"That is the question, what can we really get this regime to do?" she
said. "As far as we can tell they thumb their nose at the rest of the
world, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world shouldn't continue to
speak out about the issue."

She said one reason she became involved in the plight of political
dissidents in Myanmar was the detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi, with whom she has not communicated.

The first lady said she was briefed several times by Ibrahim Gambari, the
U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, most recently in
June, and met members of the country's ethnic minority.

She did not see her increasingly public voice on Myanmar as a departure
from her role as first lady, noting that she has traveled around the world
without her husband including to the Middle East and Africa.

"I think this is sort of one of those myths that I was baking cookies and
then they fell off the cookie sheet and I called Ban Ki-moon," she said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 4, Wall Street Journal Online
Gas attack - Sean Turnell

Recent protests over gas prices in Burma raise a complex question: Why is
Burma -- which sits atop a massive reserve of natural gas -- such an
economic basket case? Look no further than the military government's track
record of abysmal economic management.

Formally classified as a "least developed" country by the United Nations,
Burma is mired in deep poverty. Annual per capita GDP is around $1,800 in
terms of purchasing-power parity ($300 at the market exchange rate).
That's considerably below the income of the next poorest members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Cambodia and Laos, which boast per
capita purchasing-power parity GDPs of $2,700 and $2,100, respectively.
Burma's unemployment rate is officially just over 10%, but the real figure
may be closer to 30%, with many people in the labor force either
underemployed or engaged in activities of very low productivity, such as
subsistence farming.

Add to that a moribund financial system. At a time when even Vietnam is
enjoying a booming stock market, Burma boasts all of about 400 bank
branches (most of which are decrepit agencies of state-owned
institutions), and only 20% of the population have bank accounts.
Inflation is rampant -- averaging between 30% and 40% per year over the
past five years (it's currently around 50%) -- thanks to a government that
for years has financed extraordinary fiscal deficits by running the
printing presses.

The picture appeared to have brightened, though, with Burma's emergence as
a significant regional energy supplier. Burma's natural resources would
provide a more prudent government with enough cash to plug its fiscal
holes, bring inflation under control, and start making infrastructure
investments. Large and exploitable natural-gas fields in the Gulf of
Martaban and the Bay of Bengal could deliver income of around $2 billion a
year for the next 40 years. Most of that gas is exported to Thailand, but
supplies about to come online are currently subject to a three-way bidding
war between China, India and South Korea.

But the deal is already starting to go downhill. China thus far has not
offered the highest price for the resources but is likely to win the
bidding anyway. The junta apparently is prepared to sacrifice desperately
needed revenue to thank China for vetoing sanctions against it this year
at the U.N. Security Council.

Nor would the regime know what to do with the money if it received market
price. Current inflows of resource money have been splurged on vanity
projects for the generals, including construction of a new capital city
called Naypyitaw (which translates as "seat of kings") and pay raises of
up to 1,000% for civil servants and military personnel. In 2006, tax
revenues amounted to little more than 40% of government spending, with the
yawning finance gap being filled by borrowings from Burma's central bank.
Such borrowings increased a further 20% in the first six months of 2007,
illustrating that Burma's public finances are continuing to deteriorate.

Even when the junta tries to do the right thing, at least nominally, the
results are absurd. Earlier this year, the State Peace and Development
Council -- the junta's name for the country's governing body -- announced
an agreement to buy a nuclear reactor from Russia for $250 million. The
SPDC claims the reactor will be used to produce medical isotopes. This in
a country whose current annual health budget amounts to less than $1 per
capita. It is unlikely then that Burma's reactor will truly be used for
medical purposes, but nor is it likely to be of much use in alleviating
Burma's chronic electricity outages -- the cause of which is an
electricity distribution network than cannot cope with even existing
(inadequate) electricity generation. Burma is not yet a viable nuclear
weapons state, but the real reason for the purchase of the reactor would
seem to be strategic, stemming from a belief among the country's leaders
that a nuclear reactor will confer some vague military prestige.

Beyond these extravagances, an important drain on Burma's foreign reserves
also comes via its need to import processed fuels. Though a net producer
of raw energy through its extraction of natural gas, Burma's worn-out and
obsolete refining infrastructure means that it must import much of its
usable fuel.

This shortage is especially acute in the case of diesel, the power source
for the bulk of Burma's economy. About 60% of Burma's cars and -- more
importantly -- buses run on diesel, and the fuel is also used heavily for
electricity generation in the generators many businesses must have on hand
to cope with numerous electricity outages. But Burma's domestic refineries
can process only crude oil containing a limited amount of sulphur into
diesel fuel. When the right kind of crude is not available, as is often
the case, the country must import. And global prices have risen
approximately 300% over the past five years (nearly 30% in 2007 alone).

Nothing in Burma is ever entirely clear, but the pressure from the SPDC's
recent profligacy, and the drain this and rising processed-fuel imports
have imposed on the country's foreign reserves, is the most likely cause
of the increase in fuel prices announced last month. The Burmese people
are used to the erratic and irrational decision-making of their rulers,
but these latest increases in fuel prices hurt. Most people in Burma
subsist on very small margins, and it takes little to imperil their basic
survival. The protests on the streets of Burma last month are not
primarily about abstract principle, but are the act of a people pushed to
extremis.

They've been pushed before. In 1987 Burma's military leaders suddenly
declared that whole denominations of the country's currency were no longer
legal tender. No compensation was offered. Months later, to add insult to
the original injury, the demonetized currency was replaced by a bizarre
series of notes denominated in values (multiples of nine) that astrologers
told Burma's then leader were auspicious. Impoverished Burmese citizens
took to the streets back then too. Many were killed, some were imprisoned
and countless more fled the country.

A subsequent internal coup changed some of the faces of the military
regime, but Burma's disastrous trajectory continued. Last month's dramatic
fuel price rises are not as bizarre as the episodes of two decades ago,
but they might prove as destructive. If so, a deserving victim of all of
this could well be Burma's military regime itself. And from that, at
least, might return hope to Burma.

Mr. Turnell is a senior lecturer in economics at Macquarie University in
Sydney.

____________________________________

September 5, Wall Street Journal Online
Burma's military constitution

Any lingering hope that the generals who run Burma are genuinely
interested in democratic reform has now been dashed. The long-delayed
guidelines for a new constitution that were reported on Monday make clear
their ultimate goal: the enshrinement of their power.

The national convention that produced the guidelines -- a key step in the
junta's "road map to democracy" -- first met in 1993, three years after
the junta held a set of elections in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy won by a landslide vote. The junta rejected those
election results on the grounds that Burma needed a new constitution. Now,
17 years later, we're finally getting a look at the promised document --
and democracy is nowhere in sight.

For a start, the constitution ensures that the military will retain
near-total control of the government. Military officers must occupy at
least 25% of the seats in Parliament (where many votes require 75%
approval); the ministers of defense, security, home affairs and border
affairs must be military officers as well, nominated by the military
commander-in-chief. In the event of a vaguely defined "national
emergency," the commander-in-chief, not the president, will assume control
of the state.

The constitution provides for an elected president, but the system is
rigged so that he is likely to be from a military background too. An
electoral college will nominate three candidates, one of whom must be a
military officer. These candidates will then be voted on by Parliament,
where the military officer is practically guaranteed 25% of the vote.

That provision may not seem an insurmountable obstacle to real democracy,
until you consider that Burma's largest "political parties" today are all
pro-military groups. The two parties with the most support in the 1990
election -- the National League for Democracy and the Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy -- have been disbanded and their leaders imprisoned.

The judiciary is equally corrupted. The new constitution sets up three
separate judicial systems to ensure that military and police officials
don't have to answer to civilian law. Military officers will be tried only
in military courts, and the police only in police courts. Retroactive
punishment for crimes committed in the past is specifically forbidden.
Other parts of the constitution provide varying degrees of economic and
political autonomy for different parts of the country, largely based on
cease-fire agreements the State Peace and Development Council has reached
with various ethnic groups.

It's unclear why the regime released the guidelines now. Pressure from the
U.S. to bring Burma's human-rights abuses in front of the United Nations
Security Council could have played a role; so, too, could pressure from
China, which doesn't need another rogue nation it does business with put
under an international human-rights spotlight. Even the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, historically a supporter of the Burmese junta,
has turned wary.

It could be tempting in some quarters (think United Nations) to hail
Monday's announcement as a sign of change. That would be a mistake. If
anything, Monday's guidelines reveal the true character of the Burmese
junta. The generals have been running Burma since 1988, when they seized
power after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. They're not about to let
any constitution change that.
____________________________________

September 5, Irrawaddy
The walk towards democracy - Kay Latt

The true desire of the Burmese people, illustrated forcefully in the 1988
nationwide campaign of civil disobedience, is for genuine democracy and
human rights. But after two decades of struggle they haven’t yet seen
their dream come true.

Countless numbers of people have sacrificed their time, property and even
their lives. Hundreds have been killed, thousands imprisoned and millions
have fled to neighboring countries.

Most people may have also dreamt that democracy and basic rights would
come effortlessly after they had performed their citizen’s duty and voted
in the 1990 election.

It is not wrong to have a dream. But history has provided us with many
lessons illustrating the difficulty of achieving civil and political
rights for all citizens in the military-ruled country. Just standing aside
and dreaming about possibilities will bring the people nothing but further
oppression.

During the civil disobedience campaign of 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi, winner
of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Noble Peace Prize,
appealed to youth leaders of her National League for Democracy to create
ways for participation by people from all walks of life.

“Try to get as many people as possible involved in your circulation of
papers [political pamphlets] no matter how small the work is,” Suu Kyi
told them.

Civil disobedience is not a novel idea and is rooted in history. Thomas
Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are the most famous names
associated historically with civil rights and the theoretical groundwork
of democracy.
In the 20th century, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela also
followed the way pioneered by India’s proponent of non-violent protest.
Mahatma Gandhi. Suu Kyi and Min Ko Naing have now joined them.
The Burmese people now suffering unbearable economic hardship need a
leader to speak articulately on their behalf.  A leader can’t achieve
anything, however, without the support of the people.

Although he already spent more than 14 years in solitary confinement, Min
Ko Naing again risked his life to show people the ways in which they could
bring attention to their suffering.

He led the people on a campaign of civil disobedience, showing them how to
express themselves through peaceful means and such initiatives as the
“white” and “open heart” campaigns.

The most important thing in staging a civil disobedience campaign is not
to lose sight of the central cause. The late NLD leader Kyi Maung
exemplified this when asked why he had stood his ground when attacked by
mounted colonial police during Burma’s third student boycott in 1938. If
he had fled the scene, he said, he would have “lost the cause.”

His student comrade, Bo Aung Gyaw, also stood firm, but died when police
charged the demonstrators.

Burma’s longest serving political prisoner, the journalist Win Thin, now
in his 19th year behind bars, put it this way: “If there is no struggle,
there will be no gain
Struggle is a spirit of the movement. Where there is
no struggle, there will be no movement at all.”

Win Tin has won international recognition for his stand, and was awarded
the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2001 for his
efforts to defend and promote freedom of expression.

In late 2004, Win Tin was informed by the prison authorities that he would
be freed soon and his release seemed imminent when he was taken to the
office of the prison authority. But hopes were dashed when he was sent
back to his cell.

Far from expressing disappointment, Win Tin joked about it, saying he had
in fact been released on a train that took a circular route back to
prison. In reality, the Burmese people are all riding a circling train
going nowhere.

Nevertheless, the people must steadfastly walk ahead if they are to free
themselves from fear and oppression.

Kyi Maung’s walk for freedom and democracy lasted 65 years longer than Bo
Aung Gyaw’s.

In a symbolic coincidence, it was after walking from Kyi Maung’s home on
August 19, after participating in the commemoration of the third
anniversary of the activist’s death, that Min Ko Naing began with other
members of the 88 Generation Students group the demonstrations against the
regime’s attack on living standards. He and more than 100 other protesters
were subsequently arrested.

The walk towards freedom is a long distance slog full of unpredictable
obstacles. South Africa’s Nelson Mandela completed it, however, after many
years in prison. There are some Nelson Mandelas in Burma.

Democracy may be a dream. Like Martin Luther King Jr, the Burmese people
had a dream, of living peacefully in a country encompassing all sectors,
including the military.

The dream can still come true, but only if the people are prepared to walk
towards its achievement, even if that involves going to prison. Walking is
a struggle, but it can bring freedom and democracy. Let’s walk together.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

September 5, Statement of Salween Watch regarding the attack on the EGAT
workers’ camp of the Hat Gyi dam site

Following the September 2 blast at the workers’ camp at Hat Gyi in Karen
State,
resulting in the death of another EGAT worker, Salween Watch would like to
express
our regret at this tragic event, and raise our concerns as follows:

1.. We, the Salween Watch coalition, do not support the use of violence to
solve
problems. This tragic event has happened because EGAT’s operations until
now have
been shrouded in secrecy. They have totally disregarded voices from civil
society
warning about the lack of security and extensive human rights abuses in the
Salween River basin, where civil war between ethnic forces and the Burma
Army has
been continuing for over five decades.

2.. EGAT’s investment in dam projects has never taken into account the
real costs
and risks of operating in areas where fighting and human rights abuses are
taking
place. The price of the Salween projects now includes the lives of two EGAT
workers, in addition to uncountable casualties among local people.
Hundreds of
thousands of people have been displaced, many to Thailand, resulting in
considerable health, social and economic burdens. If these costs were
genuinely
counted, the five hydropower projects on the Salween River in Burma would
be found
to be unacceptably high and unjustifiable.

3.. These dam projects in Burma will pose a risk for Thailand’s energy
security,
since the power plants will be located in exceptionally volatile areas, where
numerous armed forces are in conflict. There is a constant risk of attack
from
various forces at any time.

4.. To increase security for the construction of the dams, this incident
is now
being used to justify the increased deployment of Burmese troops in the area,
directly contributing to the conflict. In the past decade there has
already been
an increase of 50 Burma Army battalions in Karen State alone, contributing
to the
displacement of over 500,000 people in Eastern Burma. Increased deployment
will
make the vulnerability of the internally displaced even more extreme.

This incident should serve as a lesson for EGAT. They must take
responsibility for
their failure to transparently and comprehensively consider the risks of
operating
in a war zone.

Salween Watch calls on EGAT to abandon all energy projects in Burma until
genuine
democracy is restored, conflicts are resolved and basic rights are respected,
including the right to informed participation in decision-making processes.

Contact: Khun Pianporn Deetes 081 422 0111

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

September 5, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
CSW calls for EU action on Burma

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) will present a letter to the European
Union Presidency today, calling for a strong EU response to the current
situation in Burma. The letter will be delivered following a demonstration
to be held in Brussels.

The letter urges EU Foreign Ministers to discuss the crisis in Burma at
their meeting this week, and calls on the EU to support moves to bring
Burma before the United Nations Security Council. It also recommends the
creation of an EU Special Representative on Burma. Action Birmanie, a
Belgian NGO who co-signed the letter, and the Euro-Burma Office, an
organisation which promotes democracy in Burma, will participate in the
demonstration which will take place in front of the Commission and Council
buildings.

Since 19 August, hundreds of people have joined some of the largest
demonstrations held in Burma in a decade. The protests were initiated
following 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 150 people have been arrested in the last two weeks,
including almost all the leading pro-democracy activists, and
demonstrators have been savagely attacked by police and hired mobs. At
least one protestor, Ye Thein Naing, has been denied medical treatment in
detention for a broken leg sustained during one such attack. At least 41
other prisoners have gone on hunger strike in protest the poor treatment
he has received.

On 28 August, the Portuguese Presidency issued a declaration on behalf of
the European Union condemning the detention of the activists who were
exercising their right to protest peacefully.

CSW's National Director, Stuart Windsor, said: "Although we welcome the
statement from the EU's Presidency, the situation in Burma merits a far
stronger response. Over the years, the EU has reiterated its concern and
its hope for a democratic future for Burma. The time has come now to
replace words with action."

"We urge the European Union to demonstrate its serious concern by putting
the issue of Burma on the agenda of the EU Foreign Ministers meeting to be
held this weekend, and to raise Burma in other EU and UN forums as a
matter of urgency. We call on the EU to support action at the UN Security
Council, and to appoint an EU Special Representative on Burma.  We urge
the EU to use its influence to encourage China, India and the Association
of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to put pressure on 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
<file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\Penny%20Hollings.CSW1\Local%20Set
tings\Penny%20Hollings.CSW1\Local%20Settings\Temporary%20Internet%20File
s\OLK5E\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.

Notes to Editors:
aThe protest will be held from 12noon until 1pm in front of the Juste
Lipse building, Rue de la Loi, 175.