BurmaNet News, October 13, 2007

[Editor]

October 13, 2007 Issue # 3319

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Burmese junta dismisses UN statement: opposition demands reform
Irrawaddy: Prominent student leaders arrested
Mizzima News: Junta holds mass rally in Rangoon
CNN: Myanmar captives ' kept in squalor'
AP: Burma’s Prime Minister, “Butcher of Depayin,” dies after long illness

ON THE BORDER
Wall Street Journal Online: Desperate Burmese Labor in Thailand

REGIONAL
China Post: Voices from Taipei's Burmese community

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Despite poor human rights record, Myanmar easily finds foreign
suppliers for its military
AFP: UN's Myanmar statement not tough enough: RSF
AFP: UN envoy should head straight to Myanmar: White House

OPINION / OTHER
Time: Where are Burma's monks? - Kevin Doyle

PRESS RELEASE
NCGUB: Regular UN engagement, monitoring of Human Rights in Burma urged

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 13, Associated Press
Burmese junta dismisses UN statement: opposition demands reform

Burma’s military regime dismissed a UN statement calling for dialogue with
the pro-democracy opposition, insisting that it would follow its own
roadmap toward reform—a plan critics say is a ruse aimed at extending the
government's grip on power.

The main opposition National League for Democracy, however, hailed the UN
declaration and urged the ruling generals to comply with demands for
negotiations with pro-democracy forces and ethnic minorities, and the
release of political prisoners.

State-run TV and radio issued a statement Friday arguing that conditions
inside Burma—a reference to the anti-government protests that were
violently suppressed by troops on September 26 and 27—were not the concern
of the outside world.

“Myanmar's current situation does not affect regional and international
stability,” said the statement, attributed to Col Thant Shin. “However, we
deeply regret that the UN Security Council has issued a statement contrary
to the people's desires.”

“The government of Myanmar will continue to implement the seven-step
roadmap together with the people,” the statement said, referring to the
junta's plan that promises a new constitution and an eventual transition
to democratic rule.

The road map process is supposed to culminate in a general election at an
unspecified date in the future. But so far only the first stage—drawing up
guidelines for a new constitution—has been completed, and critics say the
convention that drafted the guidelines was stage-managed by the military.

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD endorsed the Security
Council statement.

“Since Myanmar is a member country of the United Nations and as the
government has declared it would work with the UN, we earnestly underscore
the need to urgently implement the demands made by the Security Council,”
the NLD said.

The 15-member Security Council issued its first statement on Burma on
Thursday in an attempt to pressure the military rulers—in charge of the
isolated country since 1988—to enter a dialogue with the opposition and
make moves toward democratic reforms.

____________________________________

October 13, Irrawaddy
Prominent student leaders arrested - Wai Moe

Prominent leaders of the 88 Generation Students group, who led protests in
August, were arrested at a hiding place in Rangoon on Saturday morning,
said dissident sources.

The leaders, who were arrested on October 12, were named as Htay Kywe, Mie
Mie and Aung Thu. A fourth person, Ko Ko, who helped them hide, was also
arrested last night, said the sources.

Another leader of the group, Soe Tun, told The Irrawaddy that he heard
news of the arrest today and has been trying several times to contact
them. “But I have not been able to reach them,” said Soe Tun from his
hiding place.

“We have asked the international community many times to help us and to
monitor the detainees’ situation at detention centers. Former student
leaders, such as Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi have spent more than 15 years
behind bars. At the very least, the International Committee of the Red
Cross should be able to visit them immediately,” said Soe Tun.

Thirteen leaders of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested during
an overnight operation on August 21, after they had led a march against
the junta’s increased fuel prices.

“The health of each of the former student leaders has already deteriorated
since their previous prison term. So I would like to request the
International Community again—please take real steps to stop the junta’s
brutal acts and help the victims,” said Soe Tun.

“The people of Burma have given their lives for democracy and hoped the
international community would really help; but nothing has happened yet,”
he added.

Bo Kyi, Joint Secretary of the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners (Burma), a human rights group, claimed that the arrested leaders
would be tortured at interrogation centers. Htay Kywe’s health is
reportedly not good and a concern. He had a stomach operation while he
served his 15-year imprisonment.

“These kinds of unjust arrests must be stopped. If not, the Burmese face
more suffering,” said Bo Kyi. “Only statements without action from the UN
Security Council will not stop the junta’s violent acts on Burmese
citizens. We want to see more practical action from the Security Council.”

Htay Kywe was first arrested in 1991 and was incarcerated in Rangoon’s
notorious Insein Prison for 15 years. He was transferred to Tharrawaddy
Prison in 1995 and finished his jail term in July 2001. But he was
continually detained by authorities under the “Protection of the State
from Threat” Act 10 A, which allows the military authorities the right to
detain suspects arbitrarily. He was released in October 2004, but had been
in hiding since August.

Mie Mie became involved in the movement when she was still a high school
student. During the 1996 student demonstrations, she was arrested and
sentenced to seven years imprisonment. She spent about one year in Insein
Prison and was then transferred to Tharrawaddy Prison in Pegu Division.

Aung Thu was arrested for the first time in March 1988. He was arrested
again in 1990 and was sentenced to five years imprisonment, according to
the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Meanwhile another activist, Aung Gyi, was arrested during an overnight
operation by soldiers on Friday.

____________________________________

October 13, Mizzima News
Junta holds mass rally in Rangoon

The Burmese military junta in Rangoon today mobilized over 10,000 people
for a mass rally in support of the recently concluded National Convention.
Ironically, the rallyists gathered despite the regime's order that
prohibits the assembly of more than five people.

More than 10,000 people on Saturday gathered at the Thuwana football
stadium in Thingan Kyun township of Rangoon, in support of the outcome of
military junta's 14-year long National Convention, which was wrapped up in
early September, local residents said.

The junta, as part of the massive crackdown on protests by monks and
people, imposed curfew on September 25 and banned the assembly of more
than five people in two of the countries largest cities – Rangoon and
Mandalay .

"We have not heard of any announcement saying that the curfew and ban on
gatherings have been withdrawn," a resident said.

A police officer in Rangoon said the imposition of curfew and ban on
assembly of more than five people, is likely to be withdrawn in the
ensuing week to show the international community that normalcy had
returned to Burma.

"We are told that the curfew will be lifted very soon. I think that is
because the government wants to shore up its image with Gambari, when he
comes again," the officer, who requested anonymity for security reasons,
said.

Ibrahim Gambari, special adviser to the UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Burma, who
on October 2, concluded a four-day visit to Burma, has called on the junta
to immediately withdraw the curfew and ban on gatherings.

The UN Secretary-General on Thursday said he will resend his special
adviser on Burma, to the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation in an
effort to facilitate dialogue between the ruling junta and opposition
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban Ki-moon said, his envoy will be begin consultations with key nations
in the region starting with Thailand on Monday and follow it up with
Malaysia, Indonesia , India, China , and Japan. Finally he will go to
Burma .

____________________________________

October 12, CNN
Myanmar captives ' kept in squalor'

Bangkok, Thailand -- Hundreds of political prisoners locked in a Myanmar
police compound are facing squalid living conditions following a massive
government crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations staged in
late September, a political activist leader hiding in Yangon told CNN by
phone Nilar Thein -- a key leader in the Myanmar-based group '88
Generation -- reported at least 900 detainees are being held in Mohbyee
police compound in the country's biggest city, Yangon.

Myanmar's secretive military government has placed restricted access on
journalists and CNN cannot independently verify the report.

Included among the detainees are members of the '88 Generation group and
National League for Democracy -- the party of detained Myanmar
pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, he said.

According to Thein, imprisoned 88 Generation members have described being
kept in cramped conditions in small rooms, with some standing shoulder to
shoulder, unable to lie down. Prisoners have also reported a lack of
toilets, clean water and adequate food supplies.

Some detainees have been locked up since Sept. 28, while others have been
picked up as recently as Oct. 1. The arrests were made after peaceful
protest marches led by widely respected Buddhist monks ballooned into mass
demonstrations.

The monks took to the streets in August to protest the increase in fuel
prices. Members of the '88 Generation group were involved in the marches.

In September, the opposition Web site The Irrawaddy -- which operates out
of Thailand -- reported Nilar Thein and other 88-Generation leaders and
prominent activists were being hunted down by the regime and have
retreated into hiding.

____________________________________

October 13, Associated Press
Burma’s Prime Minister, “Butcher of Depayin,” dies after long illness

Burma’s Prime Minister Gen Soe Win, who had been blamed with overseeing a
2003 attack against pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, died Friday after
a long illness. He was 59.

The fourth-ranking member of the junta, he had been ailing for months with
what relatives said was acute leukemia. His death was announced by state
media.

He had returned September 30 from extended hospitalization in Singapore
and had been warded at Mingaladon Military Hospital on the outskirts of
northern Rangoon, relatives said.

Soe Win's death on Friday came as the junta continued its crackdown on
democracy advocates, following more than a month of street protests in the
tightly controlled country.

His departure was unlikely to cause a ripple in the regime's grip on
power. Soe Win had little if any policy-making role as prime minister, and
was largely considered a figurehead for the junta.

Lt-Gen Thein Sein, who has been serving as acting prime minister since at
least May, was expected to succeed Soe Win. Thein Sein is known as a
fierce loyalist of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the junta's chief.

Soe Win was nicknamed the “Butcher of Depayin” for his role in the 2003
attack on Suu Kyi and her followers in the northern town of Depayin.

Details of the attack remain murky, but several dozen of Suu Kyi's
supporters were believed killed when a mob of government supporters
ambushed her motorcade. Soe Win is considered the mastermind behind the
attack, according to diplomats, rights groups and government critics.

He first achieved notoriety as one of the officers who brutally suppressed
a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, commanding troops around Rangoon
University—a center for demonstrations—and giving orders to open fire on a
crowd of protesters in front of Rangoon General Hospital.

Soe Win was also an air defense chief and a commander for the northwestern
military region of the country. He joined the junta's inner circle as
Secretary-2 in February 2003, and was promoted to Secretary-1 in an August
2003 Cabinet shake-up. He became prime minister in October 2004, replacing
then premier and intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt, who was removed on
corruption and other charges and is currently under house arrest.

He is survived by his wife, and their son and daughter. Soe Win's twin
brother died on September 19.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 13, Wall Street Journal Online
Desperate Burmese Labor in Thailand - Andrew Higgins

Myawaddy, Myanmar -- Shortly after dawn six days a week, scores of young
women scramble down a muddy track north of this border town and clamber
aboard metal boats for a short trip across the Moei River, the narrow,
cocoa-brown boundary between Myanmar and Thailand.

The women, victims of the economic ruin visited on this country by the
world's most enduring military dictatorship, are on their way to work in a
factory on the opposite riverbank in Thailand. In the late afternoon, they
cross back to Myanmar.

The commute serves a global textile industry driven by powerful forces.
One is the misery of the nation formerly known as Burma, home to legions
desperate for work. Another is America's appetite for low-cost lingerie.

The women work at Top Form Brassiere (Mae Sot) Co., a unit of a Hong
Kong-listed company, Top Form International Ltd. Most of the six million
bras it will sew at its plant along the Moei River this year will end up
in U.S. stores under names like Maidenform and Vanity Fair.

In the early morning, Buddhist monks go out on the streets of Mae Sot,
Thailand, to collect alms and say prayers.

The labels say "Made in Thailand." The workers, though, come mostly from
Myanmar.

"There is nothing over there for them," says Michael Lurer, boss of the
Top Form factory. The 32-year-old American argues that his jobs, providing
take-home pay of about $3 a day, offer an opportunity for the hungry from
Myanmar. "They have no food, no income, no nothing," he says, standing
outside his riverside plant, a few miles from the Thai town of Mae Sot.

Debate over globalization, particularly over locating production in
impoverished lands, has raged for years. Fans say it brings economic
opportunity and development. Critics say it drives down wages world-wide
and encourages exploitation.

Isolated Myanmar, where military rulers last month crushed peaceful
protests led by Buddhist monks, offers an especially raw example of the
border-crossing pressures and dilemmas unleashed by international trade.

Globalization is reaching into the most remote and politically toxic nooks
and crannies of the world economy. U.S. and European sanctions stop most
Western companies from setting up shop in Myanmar. But the long arm of
trade gets around the barriers in places like this border zone, by sucking
labor into neighboring countries.

Myanmar also poses an ethical conundrum for Westerners concerned about the
role multinationals may play in propping up rogue regimes. Myanmar is such
an economic wasteland that many of its roughly 56 million people lust for
jobs few others want to do. Cost-conscious factory bosses across the
border, while acting simply out of self-interest, end up providing jobs
that both the people of Myanmar and its military government need.

The former British colony was once the world's largest rice exporter, with
a promising economy. The military took power in 1962 and launched a
self-reliance drive, seizing businesses and booting out Indian
businesspeople.

Military rulers in the late 1980s began to court foreign investment and
trade, which developed with Asian neighbors, but repressive policies
continued to stymie relations with the West. In recent years, although
surging energy prices boosted Myanmar's revenue from natural gas, the
regime blew a large chunk of its cash on building a new capital and on
fuel subsidies.

Here in Myawaddy, a big frontier town, shops sell local garlic and other
produce, but are otherwise stocked almost entirely with goods from
Thailand and China. Myawaddy has only a handful of paved roads and few
cars. Electricity is erratic. Jobs are scarcer still.

The main employer, a big garment factory, shut down several years ago as
orders dried up, in part because of U.S. and European sanctions. The
biggest enterprise now is a distillery, Grand Royal Whisky, which churns
out rot-gut booze that sells for $1 a bottle. Smuggling across the river
is the principal growth industry.

The Moei is lined with small jetties, from which boats -- for a small fee
-- carry people and goods between Thailand and Myanmar.

Myanmar is "rotting like a dead fish," says Saw Sei, a penniless
39-year-old who last week walked across Friendship Bridge from Myawaddy to
the Thai town of Mae Sot. To start what he hopes will be a new life, he
borrowed the equivalent of $15 from friends -- at 10% monthly interest --
and says he'll take any job in Thailand that pays $1.50 a day or more.

Myawaddy was quiet during the protests in Myanmar's two largest cities,
Yangon and Mandalay, and the junta's crackdown on them. Still, security
agents monitor local monasteries and tail visitors through the town's
potholed backstreets.

Myanmar's economic desperation, which deepened in August with boosts in
the price of motor fuel and cooking gas, was a catalyst for the protests.
It has driven at least 100,000, and possibly two or three times this
number, to seek work over the border in and around Mae Sot. In all, more
than two million people from Myanmar are thought to work in Thailand,
though only a quarter of that number have Thai work papers.

The relatively fortunate get jobs in a few factories like Top Form, which
says it registers all of its migrant workers and pays the minimum daily
wage set by regional authorities: 147 baht, around $4.30. Mr. Lurer says
he employs 1,450 people, mostly women from Myanmar. The factory is clean
and well-ventilated. It has a staff nurse and works with a local hospital.

Some workers complain that they have to pay a third of their wages for
food and lodging on the premises, whether needed or not. Top Form says it
is required to provide lodging for migrant workers, and that the money
goes to an outside owner of the dormitory. Beds are in a ramshackle
temporary shelter made of metal sheets until builders finish a big new
dorm.

Mr. Lurer says employees are supposed to sleep on the premises. Many do.
But, he says, he can't stop some crossing the river to Myanmar. Unlike
many factories, which keep staff virtually imprisoned, "We're not going to
lock the gates," he says.

Most Burmese, as everyone still calls them, who cross the river for jobs
toil illegally for a fraction of the minimum wage. They labor in
sweatshops, on building sites, in brothels or at other grubby work shunned
by most Thais. Hospital figures show that foreigners in Mae Sot who had
the health checks required by work permits totaled only 21,337 this year
-- no more than a fifth of the migrants.

Take S D Fashion Co., sealed off behind a high wall and big metal gate. It
employs hundreds of workers from Myanmar but hasn't had a single one
screened for health this year, according to hospital records. Its
human-resources manager says the factory has registered some but not all
of its workers, blaming bureaucracy.

Labor activists denounce what they say is systematic exploitation in the
border zone. They have had some success in curbing the worst abuses. A
Thai labor tribunal in May ordered an S D Fashion subcontractor to give
the equivalent of $36,000 to 134 underpaid workers. The case had begun
when workers, mostly unregistered, tried to negotiate better conditions
and were promptly fired.

Ma Naing, 43, crossed the Friendship Bridge from Myanmar 18 years ago and
has since labored at half a dozen Thai factories. Not one paid even half
the minimum wage, she says. She says her last boss had her handcuffed when
she refused to sign a form saying she received the legal wage. She later
escaped with help from a labor-rights organization tipped off about her
ordeal.

Despite rampant abuse, neither workers nor labor-rights activists want
foreign buyers to cancel orders from factories on the border. This, they
say, would merely leave migrants without work and shift the abuse to other
places with low labor costs.

"There is too much cheap labor in the world -- this is the big problem,"
says Than Doke, an activist in a 1988 student-led uprising in Myanmar
that, like the recent protests, was brutally suppressed. Now in exile in
Mae Sot, he helps run a group called the Burma Labour Solidarity
Organization.

In 2003, it and a Norwegian group compiled detailed evidence that a Mae
Sot factory was using underage and underpaid workers to produce goods
bearing the brand name Tommy Hilfiger. The U.S. garment company says the
production either was unauthorized or involved counterfeits. According to
labor activists, the factory fired 800 workers and closed.

"There is a real moral dilemma for everyone involved," says Kevin Hewison,
a scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has
studied Myanmar's migrant labor. Abuse needs to be tackled, he says, but
"if this leads to workers losing jobs and being sent back to Burma, a lot
of people will be hurt."

Sanctions present a similar dilemma. The U.S. barred investment in Myanmar
in the late 1990s and cut off trade in 2003. Europe imposed more limited
restrictions in 2004. Most major Western companies now avoid direct
involvement in Myanmar, except for a "grandfathered" investment by Chevron
Corp. in a Myanmar gas field and pipeline and a stake in the same project
held by France's Total SA. The White House wants to tighten the economic
squeeze in response to the regime's current repression.

The aim is to punish Myanmar's secretive leaders. But the sanctions hit
ordinary people hardest -- and help drive job seekers across the Moei
River.

Just before the military's assault on protesters Sept. 27, Mr. Lurer of
Top Form visited sewing workshops in Yangon. He says he went to figure out
why bra workers with years of experience kept turning up at his Thai plant
pleading for work. The reason, he says, is that Myanmar's bra factories
have nearly all shut down because Western markets won't take their goods.

After his return from protest-clogged Yangon, which he left just hours
before the army started shooting, Mr. Lurer faced a small protest of his
own. About two dozen of his Burmese workers took umbrage when a supervisor
criticized their production rate. During a lunch break, they marched off
to a Buddhist temple. The supervisor followed and asked them to sign
resignation papers. They refused and went back to the factory.

Mr. Lurer called in the workers and showed them a copy of Time magazine
with pictures of the turmoil in Myanmar. He says he told them they were
free to stay or leave and, whatever their decision, would "not get shot,
unlike over there."

One worker, Moe Moe, who lives with her husband and a child in a hut on
the Thai side, says she spoke up with complaints and was told to stop
making trouble. All of the workers except her returned to the job. Mr.
Lurer says he has checked the workers' production figure and discovered
that the supervisor was wrong to reprimand them.

For Asian bra factories, labor is a far smaller part of expense than
materials. But the availability -- and therefore the cost -- of labor
varies sharply from place to place. It's the labor variable that lures
underwear and other manufacturers to the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Amnart Nantaharn, head of the Mae Sot branch of the Federation of Thai
Industries, blames the spotty registration of migrant workers on
cumbersome Thai bureaucracy. He says labor activists -- several of whom
were attacked in the past by unknown assailants -- stir up trouble
needlessly.

Factory bosses shouldn't worry too much about formalities such as work
registration, Mr. Nantaharn says. "I tell them we can protect them" by
talking to soldiers, police and others. "You don't always have to pay
money."

Mr. Lurer at Top Form says his plant allows "no monkey business. None."
His biggest buyer is an intimate-apparel business, recently bought by
Berkshire Hathaway's Fruit of the Loom unit, which includes the brands
Vanity Fair, Lily of France, Bestform and Vassarette. No one at Berkshire
was available for comment, and several efforts to reach Fruit of the Loom
officials for comment were unsuccessful.

Another big customer is New Jersey-based Maidenform Brands Inc. It says it
requires all suppliers to comply with all labor laws and hires auditors to
review each factory.

Top Form International sells more than 55 million bras a year. It does
about 60% of its manufacturing in China. But the company said in a recent
annual report that it would continue moving production "from expensive
locations to low cost and labour abundant areas."

The result: staff cuts in China's increasingly expensive Guangdong
province and near Bangkok, coupled with expansion on the Moei River. Mr.
Lurer is building a new workshop and wants to add more Myanmar bra
stitchers. He has also opened a separate Top Form plant in the center of
Mae Sot. There, Myanmar workers make what he says are state-of-the-art
seamless panties, also for export.

Like many factory bosses on the border, Mr. Lurer takes a dim view of
labor activists, who have twice taken Top Form to labor tribunals over
compensation claims by workers who said they'd been fired. Top Form won
one case and lost one. Mr. Lurer says his plant gets "stabbed in the back"
because it employs only registered workers who have the right to complain.

Min Lwin, secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions Burma, an exiled
labor group, says Top Form follows the rules more than most companies.
While some workers are "upset with conditions" at Top Form, he says,
others "think Michael [Lurer] is their savior."

Mr. Lurer is a migrant himself, having grown up in Florida, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and Hong Kong and studied at a university in Dalian, China. He
learned multiple languages, including some Burmese. Frequently on the
road, he's had bad luck with transport. He totaled a car on a mountain
road and was in a plane crash at Mae Sot airport.

Before opening the riverbank plant in 2004, Mr. Lurer, Top Form's regional
director, had traveled across Thailand looking at sites. He checked out
the border with another impecunious neighbor, Laos, but concluded that
Laos, with only 6.5 million people, didn't have a sufficient number of
people so hungry for work they would cross the border into Thailand for
it. Myanmar had a population more than eight times as large as Laos and
was bursting with desperate people hunting for jobs.

It did have a few drawbacks. A big one was the presence of heavily armed
men in rugged areas nearby. The stretch of riverbank across from his Thai
bra factory is controlled by an outfit called the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army, an armed rabble from Myanmar's restive Karen ethnic group.
Members of the DKBA used to fight the Myanmar junta. Now they collaborate
with it.

Mr. Lurer, who has struck up a rapport with the group, says he
occasionally hears gunfire in the distance at night but hasn't had any
trouble. DKBA troops monitor river traffic from a rickety hut covered with
tropical foliage.

More menacing for Top Form, says Mr. Lurer, are copycats trying to break
into bra making. Last year, a knitting factory owned by Hong Kong and Thai
interests poached about 10 of his workers and tried to expand into the
lingerie business. The effort flopped. The border region, says Mr. Lurer,
"is a cutthroat place."

--Wilawan Watcharasakwet and James Hookway in Bangkok, Thailand,
contributed to this article.

___________________________________
REGIONAL

October 13, China Post
Voices from Taipei's Burmese community

Here in Taiwan, over spicy ginger salad, fish and tomato curry, coconut
noodles, pickled vegetables, and Indian chai, views and concerns can be
freely discussed.

One restaurant owner, "Miss Wu," arrived 20 years ago. Like many other
Burmese, she was drawn by Taiwan's prosperous economy of the 1980s. It was
easy to emigrate, she says. But no one wants to return to Burma now; there
are curfews, people can't go out at night. There's the worsening living
standards, rising inflation, and "the flies everywhere." She can hardly
read Burmese anymore.

One of her customers, a security guard, has a son there, a hotelier. He
visits Burma once a year and says the schools are all closed now. "Only if
you're a businessman can you enjoy the usual amenities." He spoke of the
wealth of national resources: gas, oil, jewels, timber and fishstocks
"like Taiwan in the 60s."

It's a police state, he says, and very unsafe to talk about politics --
"gambling and prostitution are okay, everything except politics." Most
people don't dare protest, he said, because of the cameras. Even military
generals are "arrested and taken away" if uncooperative.

As for politicians, "The only person that doesn't make false promises is
Aung Sung Su Kyi," he said. As for freeing her, "Forget about it. It will
never happen. Only when she's dead or 80 will they let her escape."

His five sons all wanted to "to get the hell out" of Burma. Three went to
the U.S. He compared overseas Burmese to Taiwanese living abroad: "Burma's
always in our hearts," he said, "We Burmese are good-hearted." And, "We
don't care about democracy." In his view, the real danger is minority
groups pursuing independence and the country falling into chaos.

Another man at first declined to speak. Third generation Fujianese, he
also arrived in Taiwan 20 years ago, and compared the occupation in Burma
to Suharto's Indonesia or the Philippines under Marcos: "Everyone is very
rich or very poor." The country's resources have been swallowed up, he
said, nationalized and prey to nepotism. The average salary is US$30 a
month "unless you're in with government circles," he said, citing the
"leader's daughter's husband" owning Asia Burma airlines. His elder
brother is in the military and doing well in the hotel business, catering
to Southeast Asian tourists.

To "invoke good luck," he was a monk three times -- at age 7, in high
school and after university. Entering a monastery is also common when
parents can't afford to raise or educate their children, he explained. He
described the recent crackdown as "the government irresponsibly suppresses
the monks."

The 1988 uprising was about democracy. "But this time what bothers people
is living conditions, rising prices," he said. Gas prices rose 600-fold,
bringing transportation to a halt. Further, "People are unhappy because
they have no influence on what happens. North Korea-style sanctions do
nothing." And if groups in society resort to violence, "there will be
slaughter."

He described two military factions. Neither is promoting democracy or
liberating Aung Sang; one is just more tolerant of the monks. He said "The
government is afraid she would open the markets to America and Europe --
and China would be unhappy, too."

He compared the military to the Taliban: "If you protest, you're arrested
and your family targeted. The only solution is military intervention,
using advanced weapons to assassinate people in the military. It worked in
the 1960s in America."

Additional reporting and translation by Nicholas E. Veitch.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 13, Associated Press
Despite poor human rights record, Myanmar easily finds foreign suppliers
for its military - Grant Peck

Military-ruled Myanmar is a pariah state to many because of its dismal
human rights record, slapped with an arms embargo by the U.S. and European
Union. But to some of the world's other top weapons dealers, Myanmar is
just another customer.

India, the world's most populous democracy, and North Korea, Asia's most
repressive dictatorship, are both suppliers to Myanmar's military, and
neither has signaled it would stop business after the junta's crackdown on
pro-democracy protests last month.

As is the case with the biggest suppliers to Myanmar Russia, China and
Ukraine such arms sales may be widely criticized for helping the regime
stay in power, but they don't clearly violate any laws, treaties or
international agreements.

"Together these countries can supply anything Burma could possibly want,
and they have more or less done so in the last 15 years," said Siemon
Wezeman, a researcher for the Arms Transfers Project of the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI.

Most known arms transfers to Myanmar are legal, and some are even reported
to the United Nations. But other transactions are murkier, as countries
more sensitive to international opinion apparently try to mask their
activities. Analysts say these include India, as well as Israel and
Singapore.

The only restrictions on selling military equipment to Myanmar, also known
as Burma, are self-imposed. The tightest embargoes are maintained by the
United States and the European Union, while several other nations, such as
South Korea, have less sweeping or informal sanctions.

The U.S. and European restrictions ban sales and re-sales of virtually all
military-related equipment to Myanmar. But it is difficult to stop third
parties from selling used equipment and licensed technology.

As a result, the junta has become the eager client of countries that "have
garnered reputations for being willing to supply almost any regime," said
Dr. Paul Holtom, another SIPRI researcher.

Myanmar's army of more than 400,000 is the second-largest in Southeast
Asia after Vietnam's, and bigger on a per capita basis. Because it is one
of Asia's poorest countries, its military has until recently operated
without much of the sophisticated weaponry of its neighbors, but has made
huge modernization efforts since 1988.

The reasons for selling to Myanmar are many and first among them is profit.

By far the largest amount of Myanmar's arms have been imported from China,
according to SIPRI's register of transfers of major conventional weapons.
Its database, which represents conservative estimates, shows Myanmar
importing US$1.69 billion (euro1.19 billion) in military goods from China
between 1988 when the current junta took power after violently crushing a
pro-democracy uprising and 2006.

Goods bought from China over the years have included armored personnel
carriers, tanks, fighter aircraft, radar systems, surface-to-air missiles
and short-range air-to-air missile systems.

Russia comes in second at US$396 million (euro279.4 million), then Serbia
and Ukraine.

Geopolitical considerations also play a role in weapons sales to Myanmar.

India, for instance, had been a harsh critic of the 1988 crackdown. But it
apparently overcame its aversion to dealing with the regime after watching
China gain a commercial, political and military foothold in Myanmar,
posing a potential strategic threat, especially as it opened up the
prospect of Indian Ocean access for Beijing.

India also sought to enlist Myanmar's cooperation in its long-running
struggles against separatist groups in its northeast.

India shows up on SIPRI registry beginning in 2005. India has confirmed
the delivery of two secondhand, British-made BN-2 Islander light transport
aircraft, but insists they are not fitted out for military use. Reports of
transfers of light artillery, armored personnel carriers and tanks remain
unconfirmed.

Most controversial has been the planned sale of Indian-manufactured ALH
attack helicopters. Various parts of the aircraft are supplied or made
under license from several countries that embargo arms to Myanmar.
Anti-junta campaigners insist the sale which is now in limbo would be in
violation of the EU embargo, and have put India on notice that it could
endanger commercial links with Europe.

India denies supplying weapons to Myanmar, but has acknowledged the two
countries have defense agreements to help fight rebels on their common
border.

Many countries are eager to unload aging equipment, and Myanmar is a
willing buyer. Russia, Serbia and Ukraine, for instance, all have large
Cold War-era defense industries and leftover hardware, and are intent in
wringing profit from them.

Israel is also considered by arms researchers to be a major supplier of
weapons and arms technology to Myanmar, though few details can be
verified. A 2000 report by the London-based publication Jane's
Intelligence Review detailed extensive alleged links, but the Israeli
government denies any arms sales.

The most mystery shrouds the junta's deals with North Korea, widely
believed to have supplied weapons such as Scud-type missiles that other
nations are unwilling or unable to provide.

Details of Pyongyang's dealings with Myanmar are hard to verify, because
the two nations are among the world's most secretive. Impoverished North
Korea is cited by researchers as a "source of last resort" for arms buyers
who cannot obtain what they want elsewhere.

Pyongyang is also hampered by the low quality of its arms.

"Burma does not (yet) need North Korea to supply rather inferior weaponry
when it can get better stuff from Russia, China or a host of other
nations," Wezeman wrote in an e-mail response to questions.

Still, SIPRI lists Pyongyang as delivering 16 large artillery pieces to
Myanmar in 1999, but reports in such publications as Jane's Intelligence
Review and Far Eastern Economic Review suggest much more extensive
dealings.

Myanmar is said to have sought to purchase submarines from Pyongyang a
deal believed to have fallen through and surface-to-surface missiles such
as Pyongyang has supplied to other nations.

____________________________________

October 13, Agence France Presse
UN's Myanmar statement not tough enough: RSF

Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Saturday the UN
Security Council should have issued a tougher statement against Myanmar,
where it says 13 journalists are detained.

The group said in a statement issued with the Burma Media Association that
it feared for the safety of the detained journalists and writers,
including eight who were arrested during last month's crackdown on
pro-democracy protests.

"The UN Security Council statement which deplored the crackdown is to be
welcomed, but it did not go far enough," the groups said.

"We regret that the Security Council did not call for the immediate and
unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners,"
they added.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18
years under house arrest, is the most famous of the more than 2,000
political prisoners that Myanmar is believed to be holding.

A prisons watchdog in Thailand said last week that a member of Aung San
Suu Kyi's party had died after being tortured during interrogation while
in a prison outside the central city of Mandalay.

The media rights groups said the announcement of that death "makes us fear
the worst" for the detained writers and journalists, who include video
directors, reporters, columnists, photographers and a poet.

The UN Security Council on Thursday issued a statement deploring Myanmar's
crackdown that left 13 dead last month, but stronger language proposed by
Western countries was watered down by the junta's top ally China.

____________________________________

October 13, Agence France Presse
UN envoy should head straight to Myanmar: White House

The White House called Friday for UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari to head
directly to Myanmar for new talks instead of first visiting other
Southeast Asian nations as planned.

"Given the continuing abuses of the junta on Burma, we urge UN Special
Advisor Gambari to return to Burma as soon as possible," said White House
spokesman Tony Fratto, using Myanmar's former name.

"We would like to see advisor Gambari visit Burma before he visits other
regional capitals."

Gambari met junta leaders and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
in a first mission to Myanmar at the beginning of the month after the
junta brutally cracked down on days of mass rallies, leaving 13 dead.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is sending Gambari back to the region this weekend to
prepare the ground for a return visit to Yangon amid international concern
over the situation in the isolated Southeast Asian nation.

Gambari, a seasoned UN troubleshooter, is first to go to Thailand and then
head to Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China and Japan, before hoping to
return to Myanmar.

The UN Security Council on Thursday slammed the ruling junta for the
crackdown, in its first formal action over the crisis, and urged it to
open talks with Aung San Suu Kyi.

It deplored the repression and called for the release of political
prisoners, amid mounting concerns for nearly 1,000 demonstrators still
being held.

The White House said on this trip Gambari should "meet with government
officials, as well as Aung San Suu Kyi, so that Burma can move toward a
peaceful transition to democracy."

On October 2, Gambari met Myanmar's leader General Than Shwe in the
nation's remote capital Tuesday after waiting for days to see the
reclusive general.

On his return, he warned that the turmoil in Myanmar could have serious
repercussions for the regime as he briefed the UN Security Council on his
talks.

He also said that the protests were an expression of a deep-seated
discontent across the Southeast Asian country.

The protests started with a trickle in mid-August after a massive
overnight hike in fuel prices meant many people in the already
impoverished nation were suddenly unable even to afford the bus fare to
work.

But the movement took off nationwide when Buddhist monks joined in,
drawing up to 100,000 onto the streets of Yangon in successive days before
the regime cracked down.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 12, Time
Where are Burma's monks? - Kevin Doyle

For much of late September, the road to the eastern gateway of Rangoon's
revered Shwedagon pagoda was a sea of maroon and saffron robes, as
hundreds of Buddhist monks gathered to march in protest against Burma's
military government.

Now, two weeks after the junta brutally cracked down on the pro-democracy
demonstrations, the small monasteries that line both sides of the road are
mostly locked and empty, while wooden barricades and bales of rusted
barbed wire that police used to seal off Shwedagon are stacked on the
pavement. Police and soldiers armed with automatic weapons sit on stools
outside the mostly silent monasteries. More are stationed at the entrance
of the hilltop temple, the spiritual center of Burmese Buddhism. As many
as a thousand monks lived and studied at these small monasteries in the
shadow of Shwedagon. But troops now far outnumber the handful of monks
that are still seen at Shwedagon and the downtown Sule pagoda, another
focal point of the pro-democracy protests.

When the military and police moved to crush the demonstrators, they first
went after the monks. Under cover of darkness, say several sources who did
not want their names used, doors of monasteries were kicked in and the
monks around Shwedagon, including some nuns, were bundled onto trucks and
taken away. When asked where the monks had gone, one 30-year-old man who
was at Shwedagon in the early days of the protests puts his wrists
together in the sign of locked handcuffs. According to Burma's state-run
paper, The New Light of Myanmar, raids on 18 monasteries netted the
authorities some 513 monks, one novice, 167 men and 30 women. The monks
were summarily defrocked and interrogated and those found to be innocent
were re-ordained and sent back to their monasteries. While the paper said
that only 118 monks and laymen were still in custody, Rangoon's pagodas
remain empty and quiet; many say the figures are much higher than the
state has reported. One Rangoon resident told me that the remaining
prisoners will probably be released once the situation calms down, which
he believed would be at least a couple of months.

Many who eluded the authorities have fled the city for the relative safety
of their home villages, where they remain, still fearful of arrest for
their roles in the protests. One man who helped shelter a young monk who
had suffered a deep gash on the head while escaping from a monastery raid
told me the monk had later fled for the provinces. He believes the attack
on the clergy of this devoted Buddhist nation and the imprisonment of
monks will come back to haunt the junta. "We believe that if you do good,
you receive good," he says. "If you do bad things you receive bad things.
This will be the same for the military."

To head off such an outcome, the generals are waging a propaganda war to
win back Burmese hearts and minds. Burma's state-run television broadcast
footage over the weekend of military officers and their wives presenting
gifts of rice and cash to an assembly of forlorn-looking, elderly Buddhist
patriarchs in Rangoon. On Sunday, The New Light of Myanmar assured readers
that the military was only targeting "bogus" monks and demonstration
leaders with its purges. "Although authorities and security members pay
respects to the real monks, they had to take action against those bogus
monks trying to tarnish the image of the Sasana [religion]," the paper
announced.

But many, even some members of Burma's own oppressive security forces,
remain unconvinced. On Monday evening, a 26-year-old member of the
plainclothes security apparatus knelt to pay a final homage to the Buddha
at Shwedagon before fleeing for the Thai border. The officer had taken
part in the nighttime roundup of monks, and it still weighed heavily on
his conscience. "I have had enough. I have to leave," he said as he rose
from his knees and started his journey to the border. Still, the nightly
roundup of suspects continues under the darkness of a 10 p.m. curfew. One
source with friends in the security forces says police are still trying to
put names to faces on video footage of those who took part in the
demonstrations. Police apparently carried out a nighttime arrest on Monday
night near the guesthouse where I stayed, according to the manager, who
whispered that to me after watching a story about Burma on the BBC the
following morning.

As I traveled to the airport on Tuesday I noticed two elderly Buddhist
nuns accepting alms at a large house on the outskirts of the city, the
first adult clergy members I had seen doing this all week. But my line of
sight was momentarily blocked by an image that better sums up a week in
Rangoon in the aftermath of the pro-democracy protests. A fast-moving
police wagon passed the two nuns; the arms of the detainees inside
protruded through gaps in two iron grills along the vehicle's side.

For just a moment I could see the frightened faces of the prisoners
inside: Dozens of young teenagers, boys and girls wearing brightly-colored
T-shirts, packed cheek-to-cheek, their outstretched arms and hands
grasping at the world passing by outside.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1670876,00.html

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

October 12, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
Regular UN engagement, monitoring of Human Rights in Burma urged

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) warmly
welcomes the Presidential Statement of the United Nations Security Council
of 11 October 2007 and the formation of a "Core Group for Burma" which
reflect concerns of the international community over the Burmese
military's use of brute force against peaceful demonstrators, which left
many people, including monks, dead and injured and thousands imprisoned
without due process of law.

The NCGUB humbly salutes the people of Burma whose courage, determination,
and sacrifice have helped expose to the world the true deplorable features
of the Burmese generals who would resort to all means, including the
killing of religious leaders, to maintain their power.  The UNSC
Presidential Statement, endorsed by all 15 member nations of the UN
Security Council, therefore constitutes a tribute to these heroes of Burma
as well as a warning to the Burmese generals to change their ways.

The statement also highlights the most serious concerns of the people of
Burma:

1. An "early release" of all political prisoners and detainees
2. "Genuine" dialog between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, all concerned parties,
and ethnic leaders "with the direct support of the United Nations"
3. National reconciliation and peaceful solution

For the people of Burma to achieve these aspirations and progress made
according to the UNSC Presidential Statement, UN engagement with the
Burmese junta needs to be consistent. This can only be attained by the
institutionalization of UN facilitation process and continuing presence of
the UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser or his representative in Burma.

Furthermore, since NCGUB believes that political progress can never be
assured unless human rights conditions improve, the UN Human Rights
Special Repporteur for Myanmar must be able to perform his mandate of
human rights investigation and monitor the implementation of the
resolution adopted by the Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council
on Myanmar.

Most importantly, it is imperative to ensure that the Burmese military
junta complies with the framework of conditions set and at a pace expected
by the people of Burma and the UN Security Council.  The clock should
start ticking now and the world must be prepared to act if otherwise.

The NCGUB wishes to express its deep appreciation to all UNSC member
nations, countries that have persistently shown concern over the
injustices being committed in Burma, and all individuals who have gone out
of their way to empathize with the plight of our people. The special
adviser to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Gambari, will soon embark on
another mission of peace for Burma and the NCGUB wishes him every success
in his endeavors.  The people of Burma will prevail!