BurmaNet News, September 30, 2007

[Editor]

September 30, 2007 Issue # 3307

INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: UN peace envoy meets detained leader
AP: Myanmar's largest cities locked down during UN envoy's visit
DVB: Government cleans up damage to raided monastery
Mizzima News: KNU attacks retreating Burmese Army, kills four
DVB: USDA slams public protests at rally
AP: Junta detain reporter for Japanese newspaper
AFP: Internet link remains shut amid Myanmar's crackdown
Irrawaddy: Did Than Shwe’s wife flee to Dubai?

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Myanmar's abandoned children ending up in Thai border town

BUSINESS / TRADE
DPA: German business group criticizes Myanmar sanctions call

REGIONAL
AP: Japan's Deputy FM leaves for Burma following journalist killing
Irrawaddy: 'We want democracy,' say Burmese students in Bangkok universities

INTERNATIONAL
AP: World pressure unlikely to change military's harsh crackdown on dissent
AP: Pope expresses hope for peaceful solution in Myanmar
AP: McCain calls for tough stance on Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: The generals who would be kings - Bertil Lintner
Washington Post: Echoes of Tiananmen Square - Yang Jianli

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 30, Reuters
UN peace envoy meets detained leader - Aung Hla Tun

U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari met detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi on Sunday but had not held talks yet with the head of the junta on
ending a bloody crackdown on protests against 45 years of military rule.

"He looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the
State Peace and Development Council, before the conclusion of his
mission," the United Nations said in a statement.

It gave no indication of when Gambari might meet Than Shwe, who operates
out of Naypyidaw, the new capital carved out of the jungle 240 miles north
of Yangon, and whose government rarely shows signs of heeding pressure
from outside.

Gambari met Suu Kyi for more than an hour at a Yangon government guest
house near the lakeside villa where she is confined without a telephone
and requiring official permission, granted rarely, to receive visitors.

They met after Gambari flew back from Naypyidaw where he met acting Prime
Minister Thein Sein, Culture Minister Khin Aung Nyint and Information
Minister Kyaw Hsan -- all generals -- shortly after his arrival on
Saturday, the diplomats said.

There was no immediate word on whether he has made any progress in ending
the crackdown on the biggest anti-junta protests in nearly 20 years by
arresting hundreds of monks, barricading off central Yangon and putting
troops on the streets.

"Everybody is putting their hopes on Ibrahim Gambari, that he will solve
the problem," one retired sailor in Yangon said. "We hope that he will put
the generals under pressure, along with other political leaders."

There were no visible crowds on Sunday in central Yangon, where security
forces have squeezed the life out of the protests by barricading off the
two major pagodas at their heart and keeping away the revered Buddhist
monks who led them.

But troops and police were searching bags and people for cameras and the
Internet, through which people have fed the world images of the protests
and the crackdown, remained off line.

Soldiers were posted on nearly every street corner of the city of five
million people and groups could not coalesce without attracting attention,
witnesses said.

HUNDREDS ARRESTED

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said at least 700 monks
and 500 other people had been rounded up across the country.

The protests began with small marches against shock fuel price rises in
mid-August, but intensified when soldiers firing over the heads of
protesting monks caused the monasteries to mobilize.

In the last few days troops in Yangon were confining monks to their
monasteries, people in the neighborhoods said.

The crackdown, in which soldiers shot into crowds, raided monasteries and
hauled monks away in trucks, stirred up outrage from governments around
the world.

The heavy-handed suppression even prompted criticism from China, the
closest the junta has to an ally, and rare condemnation from the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a
member.

The generals habitually ignore outside pressure, but bowed to the
international outcry to admit Gambari at short notice.

The government has admitted 10 people were killed on Wednesday, the first
day of the crackdown, although western governments say the real toll is
almost certainly much higher.

One Japanese video journalist was shot dead when troops opened fire on a
crowd of chanting protesters, causing Tokyo to review the aid it gives to
the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, now under military rule for the
last 45 years.

Adding to the pressure on the generals, a Japanese envoy arrived on Sunday
to ensure a full investigation into the death of Kenji Nagai, 50.

Footage of his death appeared to show a soldier shooting him at point
blank range as security forces began to clear central Yangon of
protesters.

State-run media have proclaimed the restoration of peace and stability
after security forces handled the protests "with care, using the least
possible force".

But there have been no signs yet that the generals were prepared to make
concessions to the protesters and some to the contrary.

State television is publicizing marches around the country condemning the
Yangon protests and officials say there will be more during Gambari's
visit.

Suu Kyi's meeting with Gambari was a very rare excursion outside her home,
but the second in little more than a week.

Since she was last detained in May 2003, her fellow countrymen have seen
her just once -- when she appeared at the gates of her lakeside villa to
pay respects to monk allowed through the barricades sealing off her
street.

Riot police stood between the monks and Suu Kyi, whose National League for
Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power
by the generals.

There has been no explanation, or repeat, of the incident.

(Additional reporting by Bangkok bureau and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo)

____________________________________

September 30, Associated Press
Myanmar's largest cities locked down during UN envoy's visit

Thousands of soldiers and police locked down Myanmar's largest cities
Sunday, keeping even the most die-hard protesters off the streets. Scores
of overnight arrests further weakened an uprising to end decades of
military dictatorship.

The soldiers were deployed while U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari was in
Myanmar, trying to persuade its rulers to end a deadly crackdown on
demonstrators that has sparked international outcry.

China and Japan also have urged their political and economic ally to
resolve the crisis peacefully, but such international pressure has had
little impact in the past.

The number of troops in Yangon, the largest city, swelled to about 20,000
after reinforcements arrived overnight Sunday, ensuring that almost all
demonstrators would remain off the streets, an Asian diplomat said.

"The security forces are demonstrating their strength," said the diplomat,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. "I think the chance
of protesters coming to the road and mobilizing enough people to topple
the junta is zero."

The demonstrations began last month after the government sharply increased
the price of fuel, but the focus soon shifted to frustration with decades
of brutal military rule. Crowd sizes mushroomed to at least 70,000 in the
past week after monks, highly revered in this Buddhist nation, started
spearheading the marches.

The junta, which has a long history of snuffing out dissent, cracked down
Wednesday and Thursday, opening fire into a crowd of peaceful protesters
and chasing others down with batons. Though the official death toll is 10,
foreign diplomats say the number is likely much higher.

Most monks are now barricaded inside monasteries, which have been locked
from outside with soldiers bearing automatic rifles standing guard.

On Sunday, a few monks were seen, going around a neighborhood on their
customary morning round for alms.

"We are not going to protest any more. Rather we will conduct peaceful
protests. We Buddhist believe that dhamma (Buddha's teachings) will
finally win over evil," said one monk.

People suspected of leading or organizing this week's rallies continue to
be arrested, the Asian diplomat said, estimating the total number could be
as high as 1,000. They joined an estimated 1,100 other political detainees
who have languished in jails since before the current turmoil began.

With the main prison now overcrowded, people are now being detained in
university buildings and educational institutes, he said.

A resident who identified himself as Ko Hla wrote on his Internet blog
that troops in downtown Yangon were searching every bag.

"If someone got caught with a camera in it, they would arrest him. They
arrested anyone that they suspect," Ko Hla wrote.

The crackdown has triggered an unprecedented verbal flaying of Myanmar's
generals from almost every corner of the world even some criticism from
No. 1 ally China, which said it was "very much concerned about the current
situation."

It urged the ruling junta to "exercise restraint and use peaceful means to
restore its stability as soon as possible."

Gambari was taken on arrival Saturday to Naypyitaw, the remote,
bunker-like capital where the country's military leaders are based. His
schedule was not made public.

Groups of people gathered outside shops in Yangon listening to foreign
radio broadcasts for an update on Gambari's visit.

"We apologize to foreigners for feeling unsafe ... People in this country
are very nice and gentle, but the soldiers are very rough," said one
resident. Monks and residents spoke on condition of anonymity fearing
reprisals.

The White House urged the junta to allow Gambari to also have access to
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who
is under house arrest.

"We are not very hopeful, but it's the best shot we have," Singapore's
Foreign Minister George Yeo said at the United Nations in New York.

Many people see China, Myanmar's biggest trading partner, as the most
likely outside catalyst for change.

But China, India and Russia do not seem prepared to go beyond words in
dealing with the junta, ruling out sanctions as they jostle for a chance
to get at Myanmar's bountiful and largely untapped natural resources,
especially its oil and gas.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, a 10-member bloc
which includes Myanmar, also gave no indication that it is considering an
expulsion or any other action.

Activists from Myanmar and foreign countries also called for urgent action.

"The world cannot fail the people of Burma again," said the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile group based in
Washington. "Selfless sacrifices deserve more than words and lip-service.
They want effective intervention before it is too late."

____________________________________

September 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Government cleans up damage to raided monastery

Ngway Kyar Yan monastery, which was raided by government troops on
Wednesday, was quickly cleaned up and restored by the Ministry of
Religious Affairs in advance of United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim
Gambari's arrival in Burma yesterday, according to sources close to the
monastery.

The monastery, located in Rangoon's South Okkalapa towhnship, was
ransacked by government troops at midnight on Wednesday night during mass
raids on monasteries in Rangoon. Photographs showing the damage to the
monastery following the raids were widely disseminated soon afterwards.

"All the mess left during the army's raid in Ngway Kyar Yan monastery was
cleaned up by officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The
monastery was also renovated and now it looks like a new one," said a
South Okkalapa resident who lives near the monastery.

The clean-up and renovation was carried out yesterday within a few hours,
with soldiers on guard around the monastery while it took place. New monks
have also been placed at the monastery following the arrests of large
numbers of monks during the raid.

Local residents have assumed this action was an attempt to hide the
evidence of the violence committed by soldiers during the raid in advance
of Gambari's anticipated arrival yesterday afternoon, the resident told
DVB.

"They are just lying to try to hide the truth. They have lied this way
many times in the past. They are still lying in the present. And they will
keep lying in the future too," he said.

____________________________________

September 30, Mizzima News
KNU attacks retreating Burmese Army, kills four - Than Htike Oo

The Karen National Union, an ethnic armed rebel group, said it has killed
at least four Burmese soldiers when it attacked a Burmese Army convoy,
retreating from the frontline, early yesterday morning.

The KNU spokesperson, Pado Mann Sha, said a unit of Battalion 103 of the
Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of KNU, ambushed the
Burmese troops near the Phalu village in Karen State and killed at least
four soldiers.

"I don't know where this battalion will be posted as they have been
ordered to move back to base. I don't know if they will be deployed in
Rangoon to kill protesting monks and students. But it is a reinforcement.
That's why our people have attacked them," Pado Mann Sha told Mizzima.

He added that the Burmese unit's strength was about 40 and the half an
hour battle left three Burmese army officers and a private dead.

____________________________________

September 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
USDA slams public protests at rally

Burmese authorities were yesterday forcing local residents to join mass
pro-government rallies to show their support for the newly-completed
National Convention, according to local sources.

Despite the ongoing public demonstrations against the regime, local
authorities in Myitkyina and other townships in central Burma coerced
residents into joining the rallies organised by the government-backed
Union Solidarity and Development Council.

A resident of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state in northern Burma,
told DVB that authorities demanded that two people from each household
join a mass rally held early yesterday morning in Myitkyina stadium to
show support for the National Convention.
"We were warned that we would be punished if we didn't come to the rally.
So we attended it because we were afraid," said the resident.

Other sources in Myitkyina said the rally, which was organized by local
USDA officials under the direction of general Ohn Mya, commander of the
northern states' military headquarters, was attended by 1,200 high-school
students, 250 teachers and about 30,000 civilians.

A teacher who was at the rally said that a few USDA members gave speeches,
mostly criticising the recent public protests staged by monks and
civilians in different parts of Burma.

"I wasn't really interested in what they were talking about. I wasn't
really listening - I was only attending it because I was forced to. It was
the same for most of the people who were there," said the teacher.

The Burmese government's national broadcaster MRTV also reported yesterday
on another mass rally staged in central Burma's Taung Tha township in
Mandalay division.

____________________________________

September 30, Associated Press
Junta detain reporter for Japanese newspaper

Authorities in Burma were detaining a journalist reporting for a Japanese
newspaper for the third day Sunday, his family members said.

Min Zaw, a Burmese national working for The Tokyo Shimbun, was taken from
his home early Friday by plainclothes security personnel who said he would
be held temporarily for questioning.

Family members said his mobile telephone was taken away but he was allowed
to bring a change of clothing with him as well as medicine. Min Zaw, 56,
suffers from diabetes and hypertension.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar [Burma], which includes two
dozen Burmese journalists officially accredited to foreign media
organizations, Saturday sent a letter to the government asking for Min
Zaw's early release, citing his medical problems.

Family members said Min Zaw was reporting on the ongoing pro-democracy
demonstrations against the military regime in Burma, and was not involved
in any political activity.

Min Zaw is the son-in-law of Sein Win, one of Burma's most respected
journalists. The former publisher and editor of The Guardian newspaper,
Sein Win later worked for The Associated Press and now reports for Japan's
Kyodo News Agency.

Several Burmese journalists working for publications in Rangoon have been
beaten up by police and soldiers while attempting to cover the
demonstrations, but there have been no reports of other reporters being
detailed.

The month-long protests climaxed last week with as many as 100,000 calling
for an end to 45 years of military rule. The government says 10 people
have been killed in the demonstrations but some activist groups place the
death toll at 200 or more.

____________________________________

September 30, Agence France-Presse
Internet link remains shut amid Myanmar's crackdown

Myanmar's main Internet link remained shut for a third straight day
Sunday, as the ruling regime tried to curb the flow of information on a
bloody crackdown against protesters.

"I tried this morning again but it's failed again. I haven't been able to
check my e-mail since Friday," said one Yangon resident.

Internet cafés in Yangon also remained closed. Over the past week,
tech-savvy citizens used the cybercafés to transmit pictures and video
clips of the regime's clampdown taken on mobile phones and digital
cameras.

"People inside Myanmar can't send e-mails or news to outside
organizations," said Kho Win Aung from activist group Shwe Gas Movement.

"So they are losing their chance to express what's happening in Myanmar,"
the Thailand-based activist told AFP in Bangkok.

The government cracked down on protesters last week, killing at least 13
people and injuring hundreds more, in a campaign that has also intensified
pressure on media operating in the country.

In the main city of Yangon, soldiers shot dead a Japanese video-journalist
Thursday and beat people found with mobile phones or cameras, witnesses
said.

Myanmar's military rulers always keep a tight grip on information, heavily
censoring newspapers, blocking much of the Internet and rarely allowing
foreign journalists into the country.

Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders said that by
cutting Internet access, the regime was trying to operate "behind closed
doors."

It has condemned Myanmar as a "paradise for censors" and listed the
country as one of the world's most restrictive for press freedoms.

____________________________________

September 30, Irrawaddy
Did Than Shwe’s wife flee to Dubai?

Rangoon residents and the dissident Burmese community are trying to find
out whether Kyaing Kyaing, wife of the junta’s chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe,
fled overseas for safety reasons.

Unconfirmed news reports suggested that Kyaing Kyaing and her family
members left Burma on September 26, the day troops opened fire on Buddhist
monks and protestors in the streets in Rangoon.

It has been suggested that they went to Dubai. But Bangkok-based newspaper
The Nation earlier reported that Than Shwe’s wife had fled to Thailand.

However, a Burmese worker in Dubai who requested anonymity informed other
Burmese in exile that he saw Kyaing Kyaing and her family members checked
in at the most expensive hotel in Dubai and the tallest hotel in the
world, the Dubai Burj Al Arab.

Tay Za, a tycoon and close associate of Than Shwe’s family, was also in
the entourage at the hotel, unconfirmed reports said. He left Burma on
September 27 with his daughter.

Since street protests began in Burma, Tay Za asked his staff to keep one
airplane on standby at the airport in Rangoon, a local journalist said.

Tay Za is the CEO of Htoo Trading Company and owner of Air Bagan, which
has five fleets of airplanes, including A-310 planes. Air Bagan began
operating in 2004 and expanded its international destinations this year,
connecting to Singapore and announcing plans to fly to Kunming and Seoul
later this year.

But why would they flee to Dubai? And why not Singapore, the regime’s
favorite destination?

Than Shwe’s family members have bought a luxury condominium in Singapore,
keep savings there and often fly there to receive medical treatment. It is
believed that—this time at least anyway—hiding on the island nation is too
risky. Burmese residents in Singapore would easily spot the first family
members could draw attention to them. The Singaporean government has also
condemned the regime’s violent crackdown on Buddhist monks. Thailand is
also considered an unsafe place for Burmese leaders: the junta family
members see Bangkok as a “risky place” as hundreds of active exiled
Burmese have been living there for decades.

A journalist working for Al Jazeera, who has been following the story of
Kyaing Kyaing and Tay Za, told The Irrawaddy that the hotel staff blocked
him when he tried to visit Room No. 709 of the Dubai Burj Al Arab Hotel
where an entourage of Burmese reportedly checked in.

“Security officials and hotel staff told me the room was vacant,” the
journalist told The Irrawaddy. “I am not sure they (Than Shwe’s family)
are there, but (if they were) they probably checked out.”

The Irrawaddy yesterday called the reception of the Dubai Burj Al Arab
Hotel and was told that the names of Tay Za and Kyaing Kyaing were not on
the guest list.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 30, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's abandoned children ending up in Thai border town - Charlie
McDonald-Gibson

The rows of children transfixed by cartoons in a wooden shelter near the
Thai-Myanmar border are probably too young to understand why they are all
now wearing matching rust-red clothes.

On the wall is a map of their homeland Myanmar, where the ruling junta
this week cracked down on anti-government protests and killed at least
three Buddhist monks, whose deep red robes the kids are unconsciously
honouring.

The four and five-year-olds are probably also too young to fully
understand why their parents left their impoverished country, formerly
known as Burma, or what forced their mothers and fathers to finally
abandon them in Thailand.

"A lot of Burmese people are working here," said Thant Zin Kyaw, deputy
director of local assistance group Social Action for Women (SAW), which
runs the safehouse for abandoned children.

"They come here for different reasons. Some are facing serious crisis in
Burma like forced labour, economic crisis, child labour."

Resource-rich Myanmar was once one of the most economically promising
countries in Southeast Asia, but 45 years of military rule have run
infrastructure into the ground.

Myanmar is now one of the world's poorest countries with per capita gross
domestic product (GDP) well below that of nearby Cambodia, Laos and
Bangladesh. UN figures show the junta spends just 0.5 percent of GDP on
health.

Seeking a better life for their families, many people from Myanmar
illegally cross the porous border to Thailand, but once here they lack
access to all social services, and are open to exploitation by employers.

Migrant workers may give up their children because the parents are HIV
positive or the child is disabled and they cannot afford to look after
them.

Some are not allowed to take the time off work to look after an infant,
said Thant Zin Kyaw, as toddlers dressed by the staff in red ambled around
a playhouse nearby.

Four-year-old Su Su Aung, who has cerebral palsy, will soon be joining the
32 abandoned children who are living at SAW's safehouse, even though it is
already over its capacity of 25.

Currently he lies alone under a mosquito net on the floor of the Mae Tao
Clinic, one of the few medical centres in Mae Sot where migrant workers
and people coming across from Myanmar can get free health care.

Su Su Aung's parents crossed the border a few months ago and came to the
clinic. His mother was treated for malaria, but died when she returned
home.

His father soon brought Su Su Aung back and he became one of 10 abandoned
children the clinic has treated since 2006. Staff say the man was probably
unable to care for a disabled child alone.

Just a few feet away from Su Su Aung lies another infant, now four months
old. She was abandoned at the clinic by her migrant worker parents when
she was just 13 days old.

"People have no money to look after another child ... Most of the time,
(the parents) wait for the staff to be busy, and they run away," said Eh
Moolah, a senior medic in Mae Tao Clinic's reproductive health department.

"They say 'I need to go to the toilet, take my baby', and then they run."

The clinic's founder Cynthia Maung says the decision to abandon a baby is
a final act of desperation that stems from a lack of access to services as
basic as family planning advice.

Humanitarian organisations estimate that there are up to two million
illegal Myanmar migrants working all over Thailand.

Although there are humanitarian organisations and clinics such as Mae Tao,
which is funded by foreign donors, to help the migrant workers, many are
unaware of their services, and fall through the cracks.

Some first-time migrant mothers are so desperate to get help delivering
their babies that they will commit a small crime to go to Thai prison,
where they receive basic health care, Cynthia Maung tells AFP.

Mae Tao Clinic also treats many migrant and Myanmar women who suffer side
effects after illegal abortions, which many undergo because they simply
cannot afford to feed another mouth.

Economic ills and the soaring costs of living were key reasons for recent
anti-junta rallies in Yangon, and people often risk an illegal border
crossing because they are too poor to afford even the paltry health care
on offer in Myanmar.

It was poverty that forced San Thaw Dar, now 17, to come from Myanmar's
Karen State to Thailand with her mother when she was 11 years old.

She was immediately put to work as a domestic helper, but accidently
smashed a doll belonging to her employers, who demanded 5,000 baht (142
dollars). Instead of paying the fee, her mother dropped San Thaw Dar off
at the SAW safehouse and left.

Surprisingly, San Thaw Dar does not feel any bitterness towards her
mother, but thinks about her homeland, especially as she is not a legal
Thai citizen.

"I would like to go back to Myanmar, but it depends on the situation," she
said, as the younger residents scrambled over her, as yet in happy
ignorance of life as a stateless person.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 30, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
German business group criticizes Myanmar sanctions call

The head of a leading German business organization said Sunday that calls
in the West for sanctions against Myanmar was the wrong approach.

Juergen Hambrecht, chief of German industry's Asia-Pacific Committee, told
the business daily Handelsblatt that he did not believe restrictions by
the EU and US would prod the country's military rulers to change course.

"We'll be doing the wrong thing if we cut back our support," Hambrecht
said in an interview released in advance of publication on Monday.

Hambrecht, board chairman of chemical concern BASF, also criticized calls
for the overthrow of government in the country formerly known as Burma.

Experience in Iraq has shown how important it is to know exactly what will
happen if the military junta is deposed, he said. "Is the country in a
position to manage a power vacuum?" he asked.

The business leader also hit out at critics of China's apparent
unwillingness to pressure the generals to stop their crackdown on
protesters calling for more democracy.

China had its own interests in the region and was keen to to see Myanmar
prosper economically and not become embroiled in a wider conflict,
Hambrecht said.

Some 150 people demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy in Berlin on
Saturday in a show of solidarity with the pro-democracy movement in
Myanmar.

The demonstrators also appealed to Beijing to persuade the junta to listen
to the people's demands and stop blocking a condemnation of the military's
actions by the UN Security Council.

On Wednesday, the German government summoned Myanmar's ambassador to the
Foreign Ministry to express its concern about what was happening in the
country.

Government spokesman Thomas Steg described the events in Yangon and other
centres as "shocking and cause for great concern."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 30, Associated Press
Japan's Deputy FM leaves for Burma following journalist killing - Chisaki
Watanabe

—A Japanese official left for Burma on Sunday to press the military
government to take steps toward democracy and to protest the killing of a
Japanese journalist during a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka was expected to arrive in Rangoon
by Sunday evening, according to a Foreign Ministry official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, citing policy.

Officials were arranging meetings with Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win
and Home Affairs Minister Maj-Gen Maung Oo, Kyodo News agency reported.
The ministry official could not confirm the report.

Yabunaka's visit comes after Kenji Nagai, 50, was killed Thursday when
soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of demonstrators.

A video broadcast by Japan's Fuji Television Network appeared to show a
soldier shooting him directly from the front.

Doctors at a Rangoon hospital briefed Toru Yamaji—head of APF News, which
Nagai worked for—after an autopsy. They said a bullet pierced his body
from the left side of his back and several ribs were broken, said the
APF's Sayaka Kobayashi.

During his visit, Yabunaka will press the junta to respond to concerns
raised by the international community over its crackdown and urge the
government make progress toward democratization, officials have said.

The generals have a long history of snuffing out dissent. The army and
police started cracking down Wednesday when the first of at least 10
deaths was reported. They let loose again Thursday, shooting into a crowd
and clubbing demonstrators with batons.

Japan lodged a protest over the killing of the journalist with Burma on
Friday when Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura met with his counterpart Nyan
Win at UN headquarters in New York.

Nyan Win said he was "extremely sorry" for Nagai's death, Komura told
reporters after the meeting.

____________________________________

September 30, Irrawaddy
'We want democracy,' say Burmese students in Bangkok universities - Htet Aung

Burmese students attending universities in Bangkok staged a demonstration
on Saturday at the Burmese Embassy to show their solidarity with fellow
countrymen who want an end to the military regime’s brutal rule.

More than 50 Burmese students marched with placards saying “Stop Killing
Right Now,” “Free Aung San Suu Kyi” and “We Want Democracy.”

“We totally reject the atrocious beatings and killings committed by the
military regime,” Zau Aung, a Kachin student at Assumption University,
told The Irrawaddy. “We demand the military regime stop the killing right
now.”

“They are a so-called government but they fail to be responsible to the
people,” said a senior marketing major at Saint John’s University. “Their
management style is that of a terrorist state. They are smart killers and
skillful liars who kill innocent people and make bodies disappeared.”

She urged Burmese soldiers who have opened fire on innocent people to
think before shooting people who are not their enemies.

"We don’t care about our security by demonstrating here in front of the
embassy while our people are being killed by the military regime," said
Soe Nyein, an organizer of the demonstration.

About a dozen security officers from the Thai Special Branch police
guarded the embassy which was cordoned off by iron barricades.

The students ended the demonstration after about one hour and then marched
to the Chinese Embassy where they held an afternoon demonstration.

“Now, we have to ask [China] what kind of people they are” said Yu Wadi.

China's support for the junta is unacceptable, he said, especially for a
country that wants to host the 2008 Olympics.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 30, Associated Press
World pressure unlikely to change military's harsh crackdown on dissent -
Denis D. Gray

Watching soldiers firing their guns and beating die-hard protesters with
clubs in the streets of Yangon, a distraught man shouted, "Bloodbath
again! Bloodbath again! Why don't the Americans come and help us?"

It was a familiar plea for intervention by the outside world, heard every
time the pro-democracy movement has dared stand up against Myanmar's 45
years of harsh military rule, only to be crushed.

Some now battling the regime in bloody, month-long protests still hope
such help even in the form of U.S. bombing may arrive. But others tell
reporters they're resigned to a repeat of the 1988 uprising when the world
community stood by as thousands were gunned down on the same Yangon
streets.

This week's crackdown on the demonstrators, dramatized by mass arrests,
killings and beatings, is triggering an unprecedented verbal flaying of
Myanmar's generals from almost every corner of the world even some
criticism from no. 1 ally China.

But little else that might stay the junta's heavy hand in the foreseeable
future.

The United States, which exercises meager leverage, froze any assets that
14 Myanmar leaders may have in U.S. financial institutions and prohibited
American citizens from doing business with them. The leaders, including
junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, are believed to have few if any such
connections.

Special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was dispatched to Myanmar, also known as
Burma, by the United Nations, which has compiled a lengthy record of
failure in trying to broker reconciliation between the junta and detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Nobody is taking Gambari seriously any more. What can he do? He and other
special envoys have been here again and again, and nothing happened," said
one veteran Myanmar journalist in Yangon, speaking on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Like other international figures and institutions, including the Red Cross
and the U.N. International Labor Organization, Gambari had been
hoodwinked, snubbed and sometimes barred from entry by the ruling State
Peace and Development Council which has clearly signaled it won't give
into any foreign pressure that might lead to an erosion of its absolute
power.

"Unless and until Beijing, (New) Delhi and Moscow stand in unison in
pressuring the SPDC for change, little will change," says Thitinan
Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"The SPDC has virtually invented its own `great game' in which it has
become a masterful manipulator and has been winning to the consternation
of the wider world," he said.

However, none of the three powers seem prepared to go beyond words in
their dealings with the junta, ruling out sanctions as they jostle for a
chance to get at Myanmar's bountiful and largely untapped natural
resources, especially its oil and gas. The regime, Thitinan says, adroitly
plays one off against the other.

Japan, the biggest aid donor, has also said it would not impose sanctions,
even though one of its journalists was shot in the demonstrations.

The United States, Japan and others have turned a hopeful eye on China as
the most likely outside catalyst for change. Beijing is Myanmar's biggest
trading partner, largest military supplier and its closest ally, with a
cross-border oil pipeline already helping fuel its booming economy. A
stable, friendly Myanmar on its southern flank remains a geopolitical
priority.

But some Chinese academics and diplomats say the international community
may be overestimating what Beijing can do to shape events inside the
country.

"I actually don't think China can influence Burma at all except through
diplomacy. China's influence is not at all decisive," says Peking
University Southeast Asia expert Liang Yingming.

Despite its status as the world's largest democracy, India has switched
from a vocal opponent of the junta to one currying favor with the generals
as it struggles to corner energy supplies for its own rapidly expanding
economy.

With masses of demonstrators led by Buddhist monks swirling through Yangon
last Sunday, India's petroleum minister was in Myanmar signing gas and oil
exploration contracts with the government.

Southeast Asian countries potential agents for change in Myanmar last week
issued one of their toughest statements, expressing "revulsion" over
repression of the demonstrations and urging the military government to
seek a political solution.

But the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, a 10-member bloc
which includes Myanmar, has given no indication that it is even
considering an expulsion or taking any other action.

ASEAN has in the past chastised the West for confronting Myanmar rather
than pursuing a low-key "Asian-style" approach to political change in
Myanmar. But a series of such attempts including "constructive
engagement," "flexible engagement" and "enhanced interaction" have to date
failed.

And Myanmar has not repaid such a gentle touch in kind. During the ASEAN
Summit in 2004, the bloc's leaders stood red-faced before the
international community as member Myanmar announced it was extending Suu
Kyi's house arrest.

"Myanmar has been playing around them (ASEAN members) from day one. It has
always said, `Be patient ... in a matter of time we will restore
democracy.' ASEAN on its part has been saying `It's OK, we will give you a
chance.' It's all a play, like a puppet show," said a former senior ASEAN
official, who requested anonymity given his current sensitive position.

As governments from Australia to France heap criticism on the junta,
Myanmar and foreign activists have been calling for concrete, urgent
action.

"The world cannot fail the people of Burma again," said the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile group based in
Thailand. "Selfless sacrifices deserve more than words and lip-service.
They want effective intervention before it is too late."

Associated Press reporters Jim Gomez, Sutin Wannabovorn, Matthew Streib
and Tim Sullivan contributed to this report.

____________________________________

September 30, The Associated Press
Pope expresses hope for peaceful solution in Myanmar

Castel Gandolfo, Italy: Pope Benedict XVI expressed serious concern Sunday
about the situation in Myanmar and said he strongly hoped that a peaceful
solution would be found.

"I am following with great trepidation the very serious events" in the
Asian nation, whose military regime has violently cracked down on peaceful
pro-democracy protests. It was his first public comments on the
developments this month in Myanmar.

"I want to express my spiritual closeness to the dear population in this
moment of the very painful trial it is going through," the pontiff said
during an appearance to pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel
Gandolfo in the hills southeast of Rome.

While assuring the people of his "intense prayer" and inviting "the entire
Church" to also pray, Benedict said he "strongly hoped that a peaceful
solution can be found, for the good of the country."

Earlier, a U.N. envoy met with in Yangon, Myanmar's main city, with the
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after meeting with the junta's
leaders.

____________________________________

September 30, Associated Press
McCain calls for tough stance on Myanmar

Sen. John McCain said Saturday that the United States and Myanmar's
neighbors need to be tougher on the military junta responsible for this
week's brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

The Republican presidential hopeful said the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations should be told to "kick these guys out."

"We should be putting every sanction on them that we can think of," said
McCain. "We should have every place in the world talking about how this
kind of thing doesn't work anymore."

McCain, speaking outside a supporter's oceanfront home, described his
meeting 10 years ago with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate
who has been under house arrest for years. He called her the most
impressive person he has ever met and noted that she refused to leave
Myanmar to see her dying husband in England because she would have been
banned from returning.

"She is a woman that's so remarkable, it's hard for me to describe to
you," he said.

McCain said later that he was not trying to conjure up the more than five
years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

McCain does highlight his war-hero biography in new ads being aired in New
Hampshire that show him as a wounded Navy pilot answering questions from
his prison bed and returning to the United States from Vietnam.

Such heavy advertising would not have been possible a few months ago,
before McCain's broke campaign underwent major political, financial and
organizational upheaval. A day before the end of the third financial
quarter, McCain said he is satisfied with his fundraising levels.

The demonstrations in Myanmar, also known as Burma, began last month,
sparked by anger over massive fuel price hikes. The government admits to
10 deaths in the crackdown that began Wednesday, though opposition groups
say up to 200 people were killed.

President Bush has imposed sanctions on key leaders in the Myanmar regime.
The Southeast Asian organization to which McCain referred issued its
sharpest-ever condemnation of the regime, calling the crackdown
"repulsive."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 30, The Washington Post
The generals who would be kings - Bertil Lintner

To understand the unrest wracking Burma, consider a new town built in the
lush hills northeast of Mandalay. It's near the British-built hill station
of Maymyo, where Burma's old colonial masters went to escape the heat and
dust of the plain. Maymyo still boasts red-brick mansions covered in ivy
and pleasant gardens with roses, which flourish in the almost alpine
climate of the hills.

The new town is also a kind of refuge -- but for the Burmese military.
Instead of the British Victorian-style mansions of the old Maymyo, you'll
find gaudy luxury villas in the new one. The town is also home to the
Defense Services Academy, Burma's West Point, which trained many of the
generals who ordered last week's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations
led by saffron-robed Buddhist monks. When construction on the officers'
town began in late 2005, the Irrawaddy, a magazine published by Burmese
exiles in Thailand, reported that "no expense has been spared to allow the
generals to live in what basically is a resort, complete with an
artificial beach and a man-made stretch of water to lap onto it." The
theme-park retreat will also include replicas of a famous pagoda in
Rangoon, the old royal palace in Mandalay and a popular beach resort --
which, the magazine dryly noted, "is probably where the fake beach comes
in."

Thanks to a newly upgraded airport, the retreat is a quick plane ride to
Burma's new capital, Naypyidaw, built in the wasteland and jungle 200
miles north of the old capital, Rangoon. Naypyidaw means "Abode of Kings,"
and kings are precisely what the Burmese generals see themselves as --
even as they face the largest uprising in 20 years. On the capital's
parade ground stand newly erected, larger-than-life statues of three
famous pre-colonial warrior kings whom the junta's leader, Senior Gen.
Than Shwe, sees as his role models.

As such delusions of grandeur suggest, Burma is no ordinary military-ruled
country. When the army first seized power in 1962, the country underwent a
transformation entirely different from that of nearby countries such as
Thailand, South Vietnam, Indonesia and Pakistan where the military was
also in control.

That's because the Burmese army seized not only political but also
economic power. What the generals branded "the Burmese Way to Socialism"
meant that most private property was confiscated and handed over to
military-run state corporations. The old mercantile elite, largely of
Indian and Chinese origin, left the country -- as did many of Burma's
intellectuals. Before the 1962 coup, Burma had one of the highest living
standards in Southeast Asia and a fairly well-educated population.
Afterward, its prosperity fled along with its best and brightest.

The Burmese military became a state-within-a-state, an insular society in
which army personnel, their families and dependents enjoy far more
privileges than their counterparts ever had in, say, military-ruled
Thailand or Indonesia. In both those countries, some degree of pluralism
hung on even during the darkest years of uniformed dictatorship. But in
Burma, the military is the only elite.

The new generals' town and their heavily fortified new capital are only
the most extreme examples of how isolated Burma's military men are from
the population. The officers live in secluded, subsidized housing, and
their families have access to special schools, hospitals and shops larded
with goods unavailable in ordinary stores. An army pass assures the holder
of a seat on a train or an airplane, and no policeman would ever dare
report him or her for violating traffic rules.

The Burmese Way to Socialism was abolished after a massive pro-democracy
uprising in 1988, following years of misrule. At the time, even larger
crowds than last week's took to the streets in Rangoon and other cities to
vent their frustrations with a cruel regime that had done nothing to
improve the lives of ordinary people. Then as now, soldiers were sent out
to disperse the demonstrators, but using far deadlier force than we've
seen in the current crisis. At least 3,000 people were gunned down by an
army bent not on seizing power but on shoring up a bankrupt regime
overwhelmed by popular protest.

After the bloodshed of 1988, perhaps to appease the international
community, which condemned the carnage, and perhaps because the military
saw that there was money to be made, the junta permitted private
enterprise and foreign investment. But in essence, there's not much
difference between the Burmese Way to Socialism and the Burmese Way to
Capitalism: The military is still involved in every aspect of the economy,
and few enterprises escape the direct or indirect control of the men in
green.

The rise of military power in Burma began soon after the country won its
independence from Britain on Jan. 4, 1948. Burma's army was only 15,000
strong then. By 1955, because of an ongoing civil war with communist and
ethnically based rebels, it increased to 40,000. The military was already
involved in businesses such as shipping, banking and publishing. When the
state-within-a-state finally gobbled up the state outright in 1962, it had
some 104,000 men under arms. By the time of the 1988 uprising, that number
had risen to nearly 200,000. And today, the monks and protesters backing
the incarcerated pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi face a military
whose total strength is estimated at 400,000.

This latest expansion comes at a time when the junta has managed to strike
cease-fire agreements with most of the country's rebel groups, which, over
the past decade, has meant only scant fighting in Burma's traditionally
volatile frontier areas. The enemy now is the Burmese population at large.
And the military is far better equipped now than at any time in Burma's
modern history, mainly due to its massive procurement of arms from China.

Chinese fighter planes and frigates may be of little use in quelling the
current urban uprisings, but the modernization of Burma's armed forces
since 1988 was also intended to ensure the loyalty of the military,
without which the present regime cannot survive. For all the monks'
gallantry and Suu Kyi's heroism, nothing will change in Burma so long as
the military remains united, and so far, no credible reports have emerged
of splits in the ranks. The Burmese military, with its privileges and its
history of atrocity, has everything to lose from more openness and
transparency and nothing to gain. Foreign-based opposition groups like to
talk about "dialogue" and "national reconciliation," but these buzzwords
have little relevance inside Burma, where the military talks to no one but
itself.

As one Rangoon-based Western diplomat once told me, "They fear that if
they don't hang together, they'll hang separately." In the Philippines,
"people-power" uprisings have driven two presidents from power: Ferdinand
Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001. But given the Burmese
military's extraordinary powers and unique position astride the state,
anything similar seems impossible in Burma.

The warrior kings who had those luxury mansions built for them in Maymyo
-- the hard men who make their own decisions regardless of what their own
people say and think, let alone the outside world -- may well be beyond
redemption. So Burma's only hope is the younger generation of army
officers, who might come to understand the need to negotiate with the
pro-democracy movement. But for now, no one has been able to identify any
"young Turks" lurking in the wings. At most, the protests could help
sections of the army realize that there is no future in supporting the
present regime. If change does come to Burma, it will come because of
actions taken by younger army officers, not by monks on the streets.

lintner at asiapacificms.com

Bertil Lintner, a former correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic
Review, is the author of "Outrage: Burma's Struggle for Democracy" and
four other books about Burma.

____________________________________

September 30, Washington Post
Echoes of Tiananmen Square - Yang Jianli

In the early hours of June 4, 1989, I was on Chang'an Street, just west of
Tiananmen Square in Beijing, when I saw Chinese soldiers open fire and
kill many of my fellow protesters. I barely escaped the same fate. The
horror of that day is seared in my mind like it was yesterday.

In recent days, my memories of Tiananmen have come rushing back as I have
watched the mass demonstrations in Burma and the junta's bloody crackdown.
After decades of military dictatorship, hundreds of thousands of the
people of Burma -- a diverse outpouring of Buddhist monks, democracy
activists and ordinary civilians -- are standing up to confront the
country's brutal regime.

All of us in the Chinese democracy movement stand in solidarity with the
Burmese people, who are engaged in a life-or-death struggle to free their
country from years of oppression and decay. Everything is at stake for the
Burmese, but the outcome in Burma will also have a major impact on our
struggle in China.

The Burmese junta has chosen to face the uprising with violence because it
is losing its grip on power and because it is convinced that China will
come to its aid in the U.N. Security Council and suppress any meaningful
international response. So far, those calculations have proved correct.
Last week, China, together with Russia, prevented the Security Council
from even condemning the violence inflicted on the protesters. In January,
the two countries had vetoed a non-punitive Security Council resolution
urging national reconciliation.

China has a parasitic relationship with Burma. Beijing sucks out Burma's
natural resources -- especially oil, gas and timber -- at heavily
discounted prices, which it obtains because so few countries are willing
to do business with a regime that manages its own economy so poorly and
that has such a terrible human rights record. China views the junta's
preservation as in its own interest, to ensure that competition for those
resources remains minimal. To this end, China is the principal arms
exporter to Burma, providing 90 percent of its weapons. Without $1.6
billion in past military assistance from China, Burma would not have been
able to create a 400,000-member army, the second-largest in Southeast
Asia, behind only Vietnam. And this Chinese support is provided despite
the quiet complaints of Yunnan province officials about the massive
outflow of drugs and HIV-AIDS from Burma into China.

While China's initial response to the protests has been to defend the
junta vigorously, it is unclear how long that support will last. The more
that the international community highlights the blood on China's hands --
for arming the junta and steadfastly defending the regime's tactics, which
include systematic rape and murder -- the less likely it is that Beijing
will stand firm. Particularly when combined with activists' efforts to
highlight China's role in funding the Sudanese regime and thus the
atrocities in Darfur, China's culpability for the violence in Burma will
only reinforce attempts to brand the 2008 Olympics in Beijing the
"Genocide Games."

There is a bright side to China's communist government being driven not by
values but by pragmatism. Not only does its support for the Burmese junta
contradict the image of a responsible power that China has tried to
project in recent years, but if the junta falls, Beijing will want to be
on good terms with a new democratic government lest it try to cancel or
renegotiate China's massive contracts for natural resources. While Beijing
will hold on as long as preserving the junta seems possible, it will also
abandon the Burmese generals the moment preserving its own interests
requires doing so.

The stakes in Burma are huge. The Burmese people peacefully elected a
democratic government years ago, and the junta has not allowed those
leaders to take office. The U.N. Security Council needs to demand the
cessation of violence and a return to a meaningful, U.N.-supported
dialogue between the junta, the National League for Democracy and ethnic
groups. Such a dialogue must have benchmarks to measure progress and must
result in the restoration of democracy to Burma. Until the Security
Council acts, the United States and other freedom-loving countries should
provide China with a stark choice: either use its leverage on Burma to
ease a democratic transition or be held publicly responsible for its
failure to do so.

Yang Jianli is president of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century.
He was released last month after completing a five-year prison term in
China, where he was sentenced for attempting to observe labor unrest in
2002.