BurmaNet News, December 15-17, 2007

[Editor]

December 15-17, 2007 Issue # 3364

INSIDE BURMA
DPA via The Nation: Burma quietly releases 96 monks
Bangkok Post: Military plane on test flight crashes in central Myanmar,
killing 2
Irrawaddy: Detained student leaders sharing cells with criminals
Irrawaddy: Monks expelled from Sangha University
DVB: Abbot jailed for government defamation
Irrawaddy: Than Shwe continues with his busy schedule
Narinjara News: Anti-junta graffiti in Arakan
Mizzima News: Daw Kyaing Kyaing breaks leg
Mizzima News: Burma inaugurate Second IT Park

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Karenni refugees clash with Thai authorities, one dies
Khonumthung News: Mizoram lifts ban on import from Burma

HEALTH / AIDS
Mizzima News: Burma's first human case of avian flu confirmed

DRUGS
Taipei Times: Daily reports drug seizure

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Burmese monks in India forms a group to protest Buddhism

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: Buddhist Monks start Japan tour to defend Buddhism

OPINION / OTHER
Times of London Online: Buddha’s irresistible maroon army
The Guardian UK: Spies, suspicion and empty monasteries, Burma today

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 17, Deutsche Presse-Agentur via The Nation
Burma quietly releases 96 monks

Rangoon - Burma's military regime has recently released from detention 96
monks who participated in September's marches, permitting half of them to
return to the Ngwekyaryan monastery in Rangoon, sources said Monday.

Authorities released the 96 monks, including Abbot Sayadaw U Yevada, last
Friday from the Kaba Aye detention centre, where they had been kept since
the government crackdown on monk-led protests on September 26-27.

Some 50 monks were permitted to return to the Ngwekyaryan monastery in
Rangoon, but the other 46 were ordered to leave the city, said sources who
visited the monastery over the weekend.

Burma's monkhood, which has a long history of political activism, took the
lead in organizing peaceful protests against drastic fuel hikes announced
August 15 and the country's deteriorating economic conditions.

The demonstrations culminated in ten-of-thousands taking to the streets of
Rangoon in increasingly aggressive protests against the military, which
has ruled the country for the past 45 years.

The junta finally cracked down on September 26-27 with batons and bullets,
killing at least 15 people and imprisoning more than 3,000.

The actual death toll and the number of people still in prison remains a
mystery in Burma. At a government press conference on December 3 in
Naypyitaw, the new administrative capital, Burma police chief Khin Yi
claimed only 21 monks and 59 laymen remain in Burma jails on charges
related to the protests.

Abbot Gambira, one of the top leaders of the monks' movement, was recently
sentenced to life imprisonment, according to a retired religious affairs
ministry official who asked to remain anonymous.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/12/17/regional/regional_30059304.php

____________________________________

December 17, Bangkok Post
Military plane on test flight crashes in central Myanmar, killing 2

A military plane crashed during a test flight in central Myanmar on
Monday, killing the pilot and co-pilot, government officials said.

The plane crashed near an international airport in Myanmar's second
largest city of Mandalay as it was trying to take off, a government
official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to the press.

The two pilots were the only people on board the plane, which experienced
engine trouble, he said. The type of the plane was not immediately known.

____________________________________

December 17, Irrawaddy
Detained student leaders sharing cells with criminals – Violet Cho

Members of the 88 Generation Students group have expressed deep concerns
over detained colleagues who have been in poor health since the Burmese
military authorities forced student leaders to coexist with criminals.

According to 88 Generation Students members, the prison authorities moved
student activist leaders from Insein Annex Prison to Insein main prison on
Monday night and detained some of the student leaders in the same cells as
criminals.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Nilar Thein, a prominent female
student activist, said, “Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Jimmy, Mya Aye, Kyaw
Kyaw Htwe and Htin Kyaw were sent to Insein main prison on Monday night.”

“Mya Aye is kept inside the same cell as a criminal who received the death
penalty for murder; Min Ko Naing is also sharing a cell with a criminal,”
she added.

Soe Tun, another member of the 88 Generation Students movement, said, “We
are really worried for Mya Aye’s health because he has been suffering with
heart failure for a long time. It is inappropriate to keep him with
criminals.”

The prison authorities do not provide nutritious food or medication for
prisoners, who usually rely on donations from family members.

Meanwhile, Ko Ko Gyi is reported to be suffering from serious backache
after accidentally slipping and colliding with a cement water container
just as he was recovering from dengue fever, said a close colleague.

Thirteen leaders—Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Win Aung, Min Zeya, Mya
Aye, Kyaw Min Yu, Zeya, Kyaw Kyaw Htwe, Arnt Bwe Kyaw, Panneik Tun, Zaw
Zaw Min, Thet Zaw and Nyan Lin Tun—of the 88 Generation Students group
were arrested during an overnight operation by security forces on August
21, after they had led a march protesting increased fuel prices.

The state-run media accused them of “breaking the law guarding against
acts undermining the efforts to successfully carry out peaceful transfer
of State power and facilitate the proceedings of the National Convention.”
[sic]

Other 88 Generation Student members, such as Htay Kywe, Mie Mie and Aung
Thu, were arrested in mid-October from their hiding place.

____________________________________

December 17, Irrawaddy
Monks expelled from Sangha University – Wai Moe

Twenty five monks from a Rangoon Buddhist university, including a number
of junior tutors, have been expelled from the campus, according to
reliable sources.

The authorities told the expelled monks to leave the campus of Kaba Aye
Sangha University and return to their home monasteries, the sources said
on Monday. The monks were told they were being expelled because of their
participation in the September demonstrations.

Ninety six monks arrested during and after the demonstrations were
released from custody on Friday. Half were from Nywekyaryan Monastery, in
South Okkalapa, Rangoon. including the abbot, U Yeveda.

UN Human Rights Rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro visited Nywekyaryan
Monastery during his November trip to Burma and reported that he found it
empty of monks.

The Nywekyaryan Monastery was raided by security forces on September 26,
and all the monks were arrested. Many were beaten and abused.

A school run by the monastery for children from poor families, the Pyanya
Dana School, had to close because of the raid.

Nywekyaryan’s deputy abbot, U Ottama, was released from custody on
December 14 and returned to the monastery.

The monks freed on Friday had been held at the Kaba Aye detention centre.
Others are still imprisoned in Rangoon’s Insein Prison. Some, including a
leading monk in the uprising, U Gambira, have been charged with high
treason, said a Rangoon monk.


____________________________________

December 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Abbot jailed for government defamation – Moe Aye

The abbot of Zantila Rama monastery has been sentenced to two years’
imprisonment for defamation after complaining about the seizure of money
from the monastery during a raid.

Zantila Rama monastery in South Okkalapa township, Rangoon, was raided by
government security forces in early October.

Officials seized 4.2 million kyat that belonged to the monastery during
the raid, according to a lay supporter of the abbot.

U Zantila, the monastery’s abbot, wrote a letter of complaint about the
incident to the minister of home affairs, minister of religious affairs
and State Peace and Development Council chairman.

The abbot was arrested at the monastery by security forces a few days
after he sent the letter and was charged with defaming the government.

He was disrobed and given a two-year prison sentence at the end of November.

The lay supporter was angered by the prison term, and is now trying to
find out the names of the officials involved in the raid.

He plans to take his complaints further and bring the case to the
attention of international Buddhist organisations.

____________________________________

December 15, Irrawaddy
Than Shwe Continues with his busy schedule – Saw Yan Naing

The September demonstrations and their aftermath haven’t disturbed the
busy schedule of Burma’s junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe. Despite the
international attention and condemnation attracted by his regime’s brutal
suppression of the demonstrations, Than Shwe is continuing with a round of
ceremonies invariably involving high praise for the soldiers who carried
out its shoot-to-kill orders.

 He told cadets the Tatmadaw had been formed “to protect the nation and
the people. National interests have to be protected, with our life if
necessary.”  He said the Tatmadaw needed to be built into a strong,
capable and modern patriotic army.

Than Shwe presented a Best Cadet Award to cadet Min Thu and an award for
excellence in training to cadet Soe Win Naing. He presented literary
awards to trainees Htoo Wai Yan Phyo and Soe Thu.

The same day, Than Shwe attended the opening of the Yadanabon Teleport and
visited a flower festival in Maymyo township, Mandalay division.

On December 12, he inspected the site chosen for the construction of
Pwegauk Dam in Maymyo, viewed the completion of Hsinlan Dam and visited
Maymyo General Hospital.

He was accompanied by Gen Thura Shwe Mahn and Lt-Gen Ye Myint


____________________________________

December 17, Narinjara News
Anti-junta graffiti in Arakan

A number of anti-military junta statements were spray painted were spray
painted on the streets of Taungup in southern Arakan State recently, said
a teacher from the town.

"Many townspeople saw the red writing in the early morning of Thursday at
several key places in our town, but we do not know who wrote them by spray
painting," he said.

The unidentified spray painters had written statements in Burmese that
translate as, "All people are living in a ready position because the
battle against the military government will be restarted very soon," and
"The power mad person Than Shwe must fall before 2008."

"Many walls and streets at the jetty, night market, cinema hall, hospital,
bridges, and a crowded place called 'Nyung Pin Gri tree' were used by
unknown persons to write against the military government," The teacher
said.

The police in Taungup, however, cleaned the graffiti soon after they
received information. Police reportedly spent at least two hours scrubbing
the words from the streets and walls of the town.

Additionally, a number of anti-government posters and pamphlets were hung
on walls and trees around town on the same day, in order to raise
awareness about possible anti-government demonstrations in the future.

The anonymous dissidents wrote that if the Burmese military government
does not change anything in regard to politics in Burma before 2008, they
would stage demonstrations again by sacrificing their lives.

The teacher said the police are looking for evidence and clues about the
anti-junta activists in Taungup, and most of the NLD members in the town
are being targeted by police after the incident.

Taungup is a small town in Arakan State, but is very much against the
military junta. During the monk-led demonstrations in September, nearly a
dozen protests broke out in the town and about 20 people were arrested by
the military authorities. Township NLD secretary Ko Min Aung was also
sentenced to nine and-a-half years in prison for his involvement in the
demonstrations there.

"The unity of people in Taungup is strong, and I hope the demonstrations
will surface again in Taungup if the military government doesn't usher in
democracy in 2008," the teacher said.

____________________________________

December 15, Mizzima News
Daw Kyaing Kyaing breaks leg

The Burmese first lady, Kyaing Kyaing, wife of Snr. Gen. Than Shwe, broke
her leg after she slipped and fell at her residence, a source close to the
military establishment said.

A senior military officer from Naypyidaw, the new capital, told Mizzima
that Kyaing Kyaing had undergone surgery about 10 days ago. The officer,
however,
declined to elaborate further.

As she has not yet fully recovered, she could not accompany her husband
Snr. Gen. Than Shwe to the 50th intake passing out parade of Defence
Services Academy (DSA) held in Maymyo (Pyin Oo Lwin) on Friday.

A military observer in Rangoon said that the news of the Burmese first
lady's emergency operation might have leaked out along with the rumor of
Snr. Gen. Than Shwe's mental disorder.

____________________________________

December 17, Mizzima News
Burma inaugurate Second IT Park - Maung Dee

In a progressive step towards information technology, Burma's repressive
military rulers have inaugurated a Cyber City near its second largest city
of Mandalay in central Burma.

The Yadanabon Cyber City, which is the second IT Park after the Myanmar
Information and Communication Technology (MICT) Park in Rangoon, was
inaugurated on December 14, according to state-run New Light of Myanmar.

During the week-long IT show, 14-20 December, at the Yadanabon Cyber City
near Pyin Oo Lwin town, over 100 domestic and foreign IT companies made a
show of computer peripherals, software and advance technologies, which
will enhance the software developing and other works at the new IT city,
the paper said.

A local resident, who attended the inauguration ceremony said, " As far as
I know, the new cyber city will have regular electricity and other
necessities to be used in developing advance software. And it will also
take outsourcing jobs from India."

A source close to the architecture of the Yadanabon Cyber City told
Mizzima, the main building to be known as Yadanabon Teleport, which is
currently the only completed building of the Park, will manufacture both
hardware and software.

The source said, Burma will secure Fiber links from China and India.
Currently, the Yadanabon Cyber City has a Cross Border Fiber Link from
China as it is the only one that is completed.

Burma, which is known to be notoriously filtering the internet for
civilian usage, has planned to connect the Park with a 2 GB bandwidth
fiber lines from China, Thailand and India, with the minimum speed of 45
MB to end users, the source added.

"This communication link is also a part of developing the border trade, as
they [the Burmese junta] will have to depend only on the border trade with
China and India, if the west [US,EU] up their sanction policy," the source
added.

India and Burma on December 12, sign a memorandum of understanding to
establish an IT enhancement centre in Rangoon. The MoU to set-up
India-Myanmar Centre for Enhancement of Information Technology Skills
(IMCEITS) in Rangoon with the help of India, was signed during the visit
by Burmese deputy foreign minister Kyaw Thu to India's capital city.

The Park will invite investments from both domestic and foreign IT
companies including Thailand's SHIN Satellite, China's ZTE, Alcatel
Shanghai Bell, Malaysia's IP Tel and Russia's CBOSS, and companies having
their offices at the Park will be handed projects and granted special
concessions in import and export of IT related materials.

Burma, which black-out internet connection during the crackdown on
protestors in September, also said the Park will enhance developing of
software for e-governance.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 17, Irrawaddy
Karenni refugees clash with Thai authorities, one dies – Shah Paung

Demonstrations by Karenni refugees in northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son
Province following the death of one of their community, allegedly killed
by a Thai security official, continued on Monday after a protest march
turned violent on Sunday.

A leader of the demonstration, at the Karenni Camp 1, told The Irrawaddy
that 4,000 refugees had marched to the office of the camp committee on
Monday and had called on the Thai authorities to respect refugee rights
and to refrain from using force to settle problems. About 3,000 refugees
participated in Sunday’s protest.

The Karenni refugees felt their rights had been abused on many occasions,
the demonstration leader said.

Kitty McKinsey, Senior Regional Public Information Officer of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, told The
Irrawaddy that the Thai authorities had been asked to determine what had
happened and “to make sure that justice in done.”

“We very much regret that a refugee was killed, and we send our sympathies
to his family, of course,” Kitty McKinsey said. “But really, I think, the
main information on that has to come from the Ministry of Interior because
they are the one who run the camp.”

Thai authorities met camp representatives and assured them that the death
would be investigated.

Tension mounted on Sunday after Thai security officials reportedly fired
into the air to disperse a crowd of young people protesting against the
arrest of a refugee after a dispute with a Thai official. One refugee,
aged 20, died in the confrontation.

Two vehicles and about 30 motorcycles belong to the Thai security
authorities were destroyed in Sunday’s clashes.

There are two Karenni refugee camps in northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son
Province, housing more than 21,000 refugees.

____________________________________

December 16, Khonumthung News
Mizoram lifts ban on import from Burma

The deadlock over importing goods from Burma to Mizoram northeast India
has been resolved. Mizoram authorities on Saturday lifted the ban on
import after the Zokhwathar Welfare Association and Champhai Transport
Union resolved the imbroglio over transporting goods for 25 days.

“Finally, both sides reached an agreement on the controversy over
transporting goods from Burma to Mizoram,” a local from Zokhawthar
district said.

“From now on, ZWA can also transport goods from Burma to Mizoram state.
Moreover, CTU also agreed to provide Rs. 10,000 per month for a school in
Zokhawthar”, a local said.

There will be also an evaluation programme to access the development of
transportation service in the next three months.

Yesterday, trucks loaded with goods from Burma proceeded to Aizawl from
the bank of ‘Tio’ stream, where goods from Burma were piled up for several
days after the ban came into effect, according an eyewitness from
Zokhawthar.

On November 19, Champhai DC issued an order prohibiting goods to be
brought into Mizoram from Burma for two months after Zokhawthar locals
demanded the right to transport goods and complained that the Champhai
Transport Union had monopolized transportation service from ‘Tio’ stream
on Indo – Burma border to Aizawl, capital of Mizoram state.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

December 15, Mizzima News
Burma's first human case of avian flu confirmed

The World Health Organization and Burma's state-owned media has confirmed
the country's first human case of bird flu which was detected in a girl.

Nan Khan Than, a seven year-old girl in Kyaing Tone township, Shan State
of eastern Burma was detected with avian flu and was hospitalized on
November 27 after she developed symptoms of fever, according to WHO
statement. She has now recovered.

"Samples taken tested positive for H5N1 at the National Health Laboratory
in Yangon, and the National Institute of Health in Thailand. The diagnosis
was further confirmed at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and
Research on Influenza, National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo,
Japan." said the WHO statement.

The state-owned media New Light of Myanmar reported the outbreak saying
the situation is under control.

Earlier, the Burmese authorities concealed the information on the girl
despite detection of bird flu in Shan State which Mizzima reported on
September 29.

____________________________________
DRUGS

December 15, Taipei Times
Daily reports drug seizure

Myanmar, the world's second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan,
seized nearly 40kg of opium last month, the official New Light of Myanmar
daily said yesterday.

There were 239 drug-related cases last month, it said, but did not provide
the number of people arrested in those incidents. The military government
also seized 1.4kg of marijuana and 107,000 stimulant tablets last month,
the paper said.

The nation regularly burns drug hauls to show the world that it is
cracking down on rampant drug production. But the US has said that several
hundred million amphetamine tablets are produced in Myanmar every year and
shipped by gangs to neighboring China and Thailand.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 17, Mizzima News
Burmese monks in India forms a group to protest Buddhism - Htein Linn

In a view to uplift the Buddhist Sasana (religion) Burmese monks on Sunday
formed an organization at Buddhist sacred place of Gaya in India's Bihar
state.

The new Monks' organization, 'Sasana U Shaung', is aimed to uplift the
Buddhist religion in Burma, which according to the Monks, had been defamed
and demoralized by the Burmese military junta by killing, arresting and
torturing monks during a crackdown on protestors in September.

Sayadaw U Pyinyawara, Chair of the organization told Mizzima, "This group
is apolitical, it is purely for religious matter. In accordance with the
religious teachings, the group will seek for the peace of the people and
protect the Lord Buddha's religion. Monks will only be worth calling sons
of God only if we abide to the Lord's teachings. If we listen to the
rulers we would only be sons of the rulers. So, we will preserve the
Lord's teachings and work for expansion of the Sasana."

The group by following instructions from leaders of the International U
Shaung organization including Penang abbot Sayadaw U Pyinyawuntha and
Masoeyein abbot Sayadaw U Kovida will protect the Buddhist religion, and
work for expansion of the Sasana, U Pyinyawara said.

The group formed with 11 monks at the foot of the great Bodhi tree in
Gaya, will also serve the interest of Monks, and fight for freedom of
publishing Buddhist teachings, and in cooperation with other organizations
work for the peace of humanity, U Pyinyawara added.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 17, Mizzima News
Buddhist Monks start Japan tour to defend Buddhism – Phanida

December 17, 2007 - On the invitation of various Buddhist organizations,
the 'International Burmese Monks Organization' (Sasana Moli) led by
venerable U Pannavamsa started its tour of Japan from 7th December,
wrapping it up by the 16 th of this month. The Organization intends to
seek further support from the international community to immediately stop
hostilities and acts of repression in Burma and begin a genuine political
process of reformation by inclusive dialogue.

The International Burmese Monks Organization was formed on 27th October
this year in Los Angeles, US to work together with the international
Buddhist community in defending and protecting Buddhism.

We present here an interview of Ven. U Pannavamsa on his tour to Japan.

Q: What is the intention of your organizing a tour in Japan?

A: We are here to organize the Buddhist people to protect the Burmese
people from the junta's repression. And also we would like to start an
awareness campaign of what is going on in Burma such as expelling the
monks from the monasteries viz. Maggin, Ngwe Kyaryan etc.

Q: Where have you been? Whom have you met?

A: We shall visit Tokyo and Nagoya and meet Buddhist monks and
politicians. Then we will proceed to Maloto and meet 2 to 3 Monks
organizations there and will discuss Burma issues.

Q: How will you conduct your organizational tour, Ven.?

A: We are striving hard for this. We told them about the September
uprising regarding the monks. We told them how our Burmese Buddhist monks
have nowhere to go and asked them to help us. We discussed with them
administrative issues but not about financial assistance.

Q: When did you form your International Burmese Monks Organization?

A: We formed our organization on 27th October this year.

Q: What are your aims and objectives?

A: We didn't form this organization for ourselves. We formed this
organization for the monks in Burma who have nowhere to go and are
hapless, while some are injured. We consulted our senior abbots and the
respective governments worldwide and formed this organization to help
Burmese people and to talk about Burmese people.

Q: How many monks are there in your organization?

A: Over 50 monks.

Q: What would you like to say about your Japan tour, Ven.?

A: We would like to say especially that this tour is not for ourselves. On
behalf of all, I would like to say we are striving hard for the
perpetuation of Buddhist Sasana in Burma , because the junta is posing a
threat to Sasana in our country. Burma itself has been under threat for 45
years. We are persuaded by the pressure of Buddhism. We would like to
request all with due respect to do something that should be done, and not
to stay calm, indifferent and quiet. We shall do this task too and do our
organizational work.

Q: How important is the role of Japan regarding the democratic struggle in
Burma?

A: It's very important. We are under two menaces. This is our issue. The
first issue is the situation of the Buddhist monks in Burma . There are
many Buddhists in Japan , so we have come here to ask for their assistance
for their fellow Buddhist monks and Buddhist people.

Q: What is the achievement from your current tour?

A: We firmly believe they will provide us their utmost help as Japan is
also a Buddhist country. Similarly the former Foreign Minister, former
diplomats assured us help when we met them.

Q: What do you feel about the brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations
led by the monks during the September uprising?

A: As you know, the news of the brutal crackdown on the peaceful
demonstrations led by the Buddhist monks was spread on the international
media and on internet. Even the international community cannot tolerate it
anymore. As a responsible person, every Burmese citizen should show their
sorrow and sadness on this brutal crackdown and should do something for
it.

Q: What did you do in US before coming to Japan?

A: I met many organizations from various countries personally and also met
Congressmen and Senators, NGOs, and visited White House before coming to
Japan. There are many other Burmese monks from various Buddhist
Organizations in their respective countries and they are also working for
our organization. We are doing our utmost to make Burma free from all
repression and hardships. We will proceed to other countries too after
this Japan tour, but we have not yet fixed our itinerary.

Q: How have the Burmese people in Japan respond to your Japan tour?

A: We are not meeting only with the Buddhists here, but also met with
people from all faiths, Christians and Muslims too. We asked for them to
work together in unity for our country. All accepted this point.

____________________________________

December 14, Reuters
U.N. human rights body backs new probe of Myanmar – Laura MacInnis

The U.N. Human Rights Council told Myanmar on Friday to prosecute those
who committed abuses during a crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests and
free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.

In a resolution adopted by consensus, the United Nations forum called on
the ruling junta "to lift all restraints on the peaceful political
activity of all persons" and "to release without delay those arrested and
detained as a result of the repression of recent peaceful protests."

The 47-member-state Council said its special envoy for Myanmar, Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro, should revisit the country and report back in March on
the fall-out from the September suppression that captured international
attention.

Myanmar criticized the resolution, backed by 41 countries including
Britain, Germany, Canada and Korea, as "politicized."

"This clearly shows that Myanmar has been put under pressure by
influential and powerful countries who have their own political agenda,"
Wunna Maung Lwin, Myanmar's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the
Friday session.

Human rights groups welcomed the censure by the Council.


"This is a very positive thing," Juliette de Rivero of Human Rights Watch
told a news briefing in Geneva. She said it was important for Pinheiro to
return to the country "to do a more in-depth investigation of violations
he has already identified."

Amnesty International said a second and longer visit to Myanmar could help
Pinheiro carry out a full investigation of the circumstances before and
during the crackdown, as well as reported abuses against ethnic minorities
there.

EXCESSIVE FORCE

In a report presented to the Council this week, denounced by Myanmar as
"intrusive" and "misleading," Pinheiro said excessive force was used to
quell the demonstrations, triggered by a 500 percent oil price rise in the
former Burma.

The Brazilian professor, who visited Myanmar in November, said at least 31
people died and up to 4,000 were arrested in the clashes in which troops
and riot police used tear gas, live ammunition, rubber bullets, smoke
grenades and slingshots.

Pinheiro also reported accounts of bodies -- including those apparently of
monks -- burned in suspicious circumstances during the crackdown, possibly
in order to hide the total death toll.

Lwin said the independent envoy's report was based on unreliable sources,
and flatly denied Pinheiro's suggestion that 1,000 people arrested during
and after the clashes were still being detained, some in extremely
difficult circumstances.

"We have been able to restore peace and stability and the situation is
back to normalcy all over the country," he said.

Myanmar has repeatedly ignored calls for the release of Suu Kyi, whose
opposition party won an election in 1990 by a landslide but was denied
power by the military, which has ruled Myanmar since a 1962 coup. She has
been detained for 12 of the last 18 years and many of her supporters have
also been jailed.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 14, Times of London Online
Buddha’s irresistible maroon army – Michael W. Charney

The military junta in Burma came under fierce pressure from the UN
Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and from the White House, in the unusual
guise of Laura Bush this week. While the US First Lady was telling the
generals to introduce democratic reforms or to step aside, the All-Burma
Monks Alliance was agitating for a UN commission to establish how many
monks were killed in the September protests and how many are still
imprisoned.

The presence of monks in the anti-government marches may have confused
those who assumed that Buddhist monks do not involve themselves in such
secular affairs, but in fact the monastic role in Burmese politics goes
back centuries.

Theravada Buddhism is primarily practised today in Sri Lanka, Burma,
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. This school of Buddhism reached South-East
Asia in the 11th century. Among the stories about its introduction is that
of King Anawrahta (r. 1044-77) of the Kingdom of Pagan, who conquered the
Kingdom of Thaton in the southeast corner of present-day Burma. He brought
back to his capital of Pagan on the Irrawaddy River the three core
collections of texts (the Tipitika) of the Pali Buddhist canon.

Thereafter Burmese courts patronised Theravada Buddhism. Villagers,
however, continued to venerate local spirits, many of which were gradually
absorbed into Buddhism via the work of monks in a landscape increasingly
populated by monasteries. In time monks circulating between South-East
Asia and Sri Lanka pursued greater reliance on orthodox texts and
practices and urged the court to launch religious reforms based on them.
The most complete reform of Buddhism in Burma was launched under King
Bodawhpaya (r. 1782-1819). It established the main monastic sect in the
country today, the Thudhamma monks. Most Buddhist kings in SouthEast Asia
strove to uphold their responsibilities as dhamma-rajas (kings of the
Buddhist law), in ensuring monastic unity and thus the wellbeing of
Buddhism within their domains. They discouraged monks from involvement in
mundane politics as stipulated by the rules of the Vinaya, the monastic
code.

As most patronage came from these rulers, monks restricted themselves to
studying Buddhist texts, meditating, and providing for the survival of the
religion so that the populace could accrue merit through good works.

The role of monks changed as a result of the introduction of colonial rule
in the 19th century. The British, unable to provide officials to locally
administer villages, turned to the village headman. In the past the
headman had worked for both the State and the villagers, collecting
revenue, manpower and agricultural resources when the court required it
and voicing complaints of villagers up through the hierarchy. The headman
was thus an important intermediary who helped to ensure local social
stability, protecting as much as administering. Under the British the
headman became a paid agent of the State, who owed no obligations to the
people under his charge. This removed the protection against state demands
and the means for peacefully resolving local complaints. So the people
turned to the only remaining pre-colonial institution, the monastery, and
monks now came to provide community leadership.

Throughout British rule, but especially from the 1920s, the so-called
“political monks” played an important role in mobilising opposition to
colonial excesses and forcing the administration to pay closer attention
to local complaints.

Even before British rule there had been a strong monastic contribution to
Burmese secular intellectual life. Important late-18th-century monks,
especially a clique from the Lower Chindwin River area in the northwest,
played a key role in shaping the standard texts still influencing Burmese
understandings of history today and introducing new strands of Indian
thought into Burma. This intellectual vigour persisted under British rule.
Shin Ottama, for example, introduced the anti-colonial thinking that
emerged out of the Indian National Congress, as well as information on
modernisation in Japan after the First World War.

Buddhist communalism also grew out of the fear that the combination of the
British reluctance to patronise Buddhism, the introduction of thousands of
immigrants, and the political incorporation of animist and Christian
converts in the minority hill areas would challenge the place of Buddhism
in Burmese society and as part of the Burmese national identity. Thus,
monastic organisations pushed Burma's postwar nationalist leaders to make
Buddhism the state religion. After independence this struggle continued
until the legislation was finally passed in 1962. At about the same time
the monastic order was mobilised in a nationwide anti-communist campaign.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962, formally or informally, and
in this time the relationship between the State and monks has been tense.
Attempts by the dictator General Ne Win in the 1960s and mid-1970s to
bring Buddhism under tighter government regulation met fierce resistance.
During the pro-democracy demonstrations that saw the rise of the
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, monks were involved in anti-government
protests.

Since 1988 the military has ruthlessly kept monastic involvement in
politics to a minimum. So the role of the monks at the head of the recent
protests in Burma took many, including the Government, by surprise.
Predictably, the State's reaction was delayed but harsh when it finally
came. Monks were defrocked, interrogated and beaten. The regime has since
closed monastic colleges and sent member monks back to their respective
villages.

Although it may appear that the State has successfully cowed the monks
into submission, they have survived perhaps more serious episodes of state
persecution in the past. Given their importance in Burmese society and
their resilience in past periods of political turmoil, it would be foolish
to assume that they will not rebound from current setbacks.

Dr Michael W. Charney teaches in the Department of History, SOAS

____________________________________

December 15, The Guardian UK
Spies, suspicion and empty monasteries, Burma today – Chris McGreal

The security policemen who snatched the young shop owner from his bed and
hauled him off to the bare interrogation room of Mandalay's police station
No 14 really had only one question - and just one answer - in mind.

But the interrogators had an array of techniques to extract the
"confession" they wanted to hear from him and the thousands of others
scattered in jails across Burma; an admission that the pro-democracy
demonstrations led by thousands of monks that shook the country's paranoid
military government in September were really a foreign-backed political
plot to bring down the regime.

"I was sitting on the floor of the interrogation room," said the man, an
art shop owner in his 20s. "There were five of them asking questions. The
first day I was beaten very hard and they asked: who organised the monks?
I told them we were following the monks, respecting the Buddha, they
weren't following us."

"I was interrogated all night for three nights. They kicked and punched me
on the side of my head with their fists. They asked me the same question
over and over. I told them: you can ask anything, my answer will always be
the same. I don't know who organised the monks. They didn't like that
answer."

So the interrogators forced the young man to half-crouch as though he were
sitting on a motorbike, made him put his arms out as if gripping the
handlebars and demanded he imitate an engine, loudly.

The initial humiliation gave way to intense pains in his legs, arms and
throat after several hours. When he fell over he was beaten again. He was
held for a month and is still not sure why he was detained. He suspects
the police identified him from photographs of civilians who marched with
the monks. But he was not alone in the cells of police station No 14.

Thousands of civilians have emerged from weeks in prison following the
protests with accounts of brutal torture aimed at extracting "confessions"
and at terrorising a new generation of Burmese into acquiescing to
military rule.

Crackdown


>From Rangoon to Mandalay and down the Irrawaddy river to the small town of

Pakokku, demonstrators and politicians were rounded up in the crackdown
against the greatest challenge to the 400,000-strong army's hegemony in a
generation. Scores were killed, including monks.

At the same time, hundreds of monasteries were purged of monks. Some were
arrested and tortured but mostly they were driven back to their villages
to prevent more protests which began over price rises but evolved into
demands for an end to 45 years of military rule.

What remains is a climate of terror in an already fearful land where
anyone who took part in the protests lives in dread of being identified.
Even the monks are suspicious of each other, believing the regime has
planted spies and agents provocateurs or coerced some into becoming
informers.

But the military has not emerged unscathed from its confrontation with the
monasteries. There are divisions over the brutal treatment of the monks,
and accounts that soldiers are fearful of the spiritual price they might
pay.

The monks of Pakokku are wary of unknown faces. Their monasteries were
among the first to be purged after the small town and seat of Buddhist
learning, about six hours downriver from Mandalay, became the crucible of
the demonstrations that spread nationwide.

Behind closed doors inside the largest of Pakokku's monasteries, the
Bawdimandine, two monks describe a confrontation with the army that on the
face of it the monks have lost, but which the Buddhist clergy believe
marks the beginning of the downfall of the regime - although none of them
are predicting that it will happen any time soon.

"All the monks here are very much against the government," said one.
"They're still against the government mentally but not physically because
we can't do anything. If we do they will arrest us. We don't want to kill.
We don't want to torture. The government takes advantage of this. The
government suppressed the protests but there's not really quiet. There's a
lot of defiance."

The protests began in August over fuel and food price rises but escalated
in September after the army broke up a demonstration in Pakokku by
shooting dead one monk and lashing others to electricity poles and beating
them with rifle butts. Pakokku's monks demanded an apology from the junta
and the reversal of price rises.

But they added two overtly political demands - for the release of the
opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest and the start of a
dialogue to end military rule - that changed the character of the
confrontation.

When the deadline passed, monasteries across Burma took up the cause and
poured tens of thousands of monks on to the streets in days of marches
that initially left the military paralysed. But the crackdown soon came.
In some cases it took no more than the threat of mass arrests to empty a
monastery. Lorryloads of troops herded the clergy away from others.

Fear of arrest

Almost half of the 1,200 monks at the Bawdimandine monastery fled. Those
who remain say they are afraid to venture on to the streets for fear of
arrest.

"Things have changed for us," said one monk. "The soldiers used to drag
the civilians off the buses to check their identity cards and leave the
monks in their seats. Now it is the monks they line up in the road to
check and they leave the civilians on the bus."

It is a similar story in monasteries from the former capital, Rangoon, to
Mandalay where 20,000 monks and their supporters turned out on the streets
of Burma's second city and religious heartland to challenge the military
regime.

The purges continue despite the government's assurances to the United
Nations. "The government has many spies among the monks," said one of the
chief monks of the Old Ma Soe monastery in Mandalay.

"During the demonstrations they pulled the prisoners out of Mandalay jail
and shaved their heads and put them among the monks to cause trouble. The
bogus monks were chanting aggressively. They are still trying to send
spies. When we have a new monk we do not know we test their knowledge of
Buddhist literature. If they don't know we send them away."

In some monasteries, the monks were given time to pack up and get out. But
in others, they fled without notice, leaving neatly made beds, books
lining the shelves of their cubicles and the single key that each monk is
permitted to possess. Cats and dogs wander the prayer halls.

Ask where the monks are and those that remain say they went back to their
villages. What has happened to them there? Some were arrested but most
have been left alone, provided they do not try to return to their
monasteries, according to the leading clerics. "It was all about silencing
them," said the monk at Old Ma Soe.

Fear is pervasive in Burma. There are not many soldiers on the streets but
the regime has many ordinary people believing that their every move is
being watched and that anyone might be an informer. .

The fear is underpinned by the sheer numbers of men who have been through
the regime's jails at some time or another, even if only for a few weeks.

The 1988 generation of protesters remembers the slaughter of 3,000 of
their number as the regime quashed the demonstrations and the mass arrests
afterwards.The latest crackdown has introduced a new generation to the
regime's use of terror against its own population.

"There were 85 others in my police cell, mostly young people," said the
young shopkeeper held in police station No 14. "Some were only 15 or 16
years old. One boy told me he was arrested for wearing an American flag on
his head. Some of the students had broken bones and head wounds.

"At the end of three days I still hadn't confessed so they gave up and put
me back in the cell and left me alone. Some of the others confessed under
the pressure but they weren't real confessions. I don't blame them. There
were people in my cell who were interrogated non-stop for 15 days."

Among those detained were politicians from Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) elected in the annulled 1990 parliamentary
election.

Last week, the government called diplomats to the new capital, Naypyidaw,
to lay out the results of all these interrogations. The military said it
had uncovered a longstanding plot involving "bogus monks", a little-known
exile group, the Forum for Democracy in Burma, and billionaire financier
George Soros's Open Society organisation to bring down the regime.

The junta outlined a complex conspiracy to infiltrate the monasteries, the
labour force and universities in an 18-page document filled with scores of
names of alleged plotters and their backers. Among others, it names U
Gambira, the 27-year-old leader of the All Burma Monks Alliance, who is
presently locked up in Mandalay prison. The government accuses him and
opposition politicians of using ordinary monks as a front for political
ends.

Foreign diplomats who have spoken to senior army officers since the
protests say the regime is blind to the growing discontent at deepening
economic hardship that underpinned the demonstrations.

The government maintains the illusion that Burma's economy is growing
faster than China's even though the World Bank has rubbished statistics
that claim to show double-digit growth. The reality can be seen in the
contrasts with the booming economies of much of the rest of south-east
Asia - Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia - particularly outside Rangoon. There's
hardly a new vehicle to be seen besides scooters and Chinese-made
motorbikes. The principal means of transport is old, underpowered buses
and horse and trap. Ploughs are pulled by cattle.

There is such a shortage of cars that 25-year-old vehicles worth a few
hundred pounds across the border cost £10,000 in Burma. A Sim card for the
government-run mobile phone network, the only one there is, costs about
£1,000.

Aside from a sprinkling of new hotels, there are few modern buildings to
be seen beyond Rangoon and the surreal new capital, Naypyidaw. Life
expectancy is well short of that in Burma's neighbours.

The chief United Nations representative, Charles Petrie, left Rangoon last
week after being expelled for a speech in which he observed that Burma's
per capita gross domestic product was less than half that of Cambodia or
Bangladesh, and that the recent protests "clearly demonstrated the
everyday struggle to meet basic needs. The average household is forced to
spend almost three-quarters of its budget on food. One in three children
under five are suffering malnutrition, and less than 50% of children are
able to complete their primary education".

Military elite

That is not the world the generals live in. They are cocooned in the new
capital or Pyin U Lwin, an army town 90 minutes' drive north of Mandalay.
It is home to the military's main barracks and the Defence Services
Academy training base. The grand, red-tiled entrance proclaims in gold
lettering that its officers are the Triumphant Elite of the Future.

Two new and vast mansions sit on distant hilltops, and a neighbourhood of
spacious, colonial-style homes is spreading in all directions, all
apparently reserved for the military elite.

Few outsiders penetrate this closed world where career officers and their
families live mostly cut off from the rest of Burma. Inside that world,
the junta portrays itself as all that stands between order and
disintegration into ethnic conflict. It says it is committed to a roadmap
to a "disciplined flourishing democracy" that will lead to a "golden land
in future".

But it has taken 14 years to complete the first two stages of the map
which means that at the present rate of progress the end of the road will
not be reached until well into the second half of the century.

The military's view that it is central to Burma's very survival is
displayed on the front of all the heavily censored newspapers, where each
day appear the 12 "political, economic and social objectives" of the
military government. These include "uplift of the morale and morality of
the entire nation" and "uplift of dynamism of patriotic spirit".

A senior monk who teaches at Pyin U Lwin's military academy said there was
disquiet among some soldiers over the assault on the monks. "Soldiers are
telling their relatives not to go into the army. Many soldiers are unhappy
with what has happened. Some of them are my pupils. Even some of the
colonels tell me they don't agree with what has happened," he said.

"We are educating the new generation about what is right and what is
wrong. Evolution is better than revolution. We have no weapons. They have
the weapons. All we have is loving kindness. Who wants to be killed?
People are very peaceful, very passive. No one wants to die, no one wants
to kill. They are not like the Muslims. You never heard of Myanmar people
suicide bombing. But it will not be quick. Maybe another 10 years."

Many people in Burma are patient, but not that patient. The frustration
and sense of helplessness is reflected in the self-delusion among some
that the United Nations will invade and overthrow the regime.

Others draw strength from the widespread practice of interpreting what are
seen as auspicious signs. Near Bagan a small pagoda has become the site of
pilgrimage after a colony of bees settled on the face and chest of a
Buddha. Bees are considered particularly auspicious and their choice of a
Buddha has been widely interpreted as siding with monks.

Sitting atop a centuries-old pagoda nearby, a politician who has gone into
hiding said many Burmese drew strength from the belief that the military
leaders will pay for their crimes in the next life.

"They will have an amazing surprise in their afterlife. By killing monks
they will come back as dogs who eat shit with many diseases, not the ones
that eat good food and look nice; ugly dogs," he said. There are not many
who would dare say such things openly but Thet Pyin is among them. The
army first threw him into prison 45 years ago for his opposition to its
rule.

"The problem the government has created for itself is that the conflict is
no longer between the government and the people, it's between religion and
the government. That's important because 80% of the population is Buddhist
and the government is Buddhist. All the army is Buddhist. That will be its
downfall," he said.

Occupation

"I'm 81 years old. I've never in all my life seen as bad a government as
this, as unqualified as this. Even the Japanese occupation was not as bad
as this. These military people don't have a clue what they are doing and
their treatment of the monks is the latest evidence of that."

Pyin, a member of a small party that won three seats in the annulled 1990
election, said that the army duped people back then with promises of
democracy but that it will not be able to get away with that again.

"This regime managed to pacify people after the 1988 demonstrations with
promises of multiparty elections and an open economy and that the military
would return to the barracks. The army reneged on that but it was forced
to make the promise. The regime is going to have to do something to pacify
the people again but they will not believe its promises now," he said.

"There are divisions in the army. The core of the dictatorship is small,
it is at odds with the military in its larger role. This government will
fall."

Burma's most renowned female writer, Ludu Daw Ahmar, is also outspoken
against the regime. Arrested in 1978 at the age of 63 on suspicion of
links to the Communist party, which she denies, Ahmar spent a year in
Mandalay jail. She has just celebrated her 92nd birthday and no longer
fears what the regime might do to her. Frail and hard of hearing, she
remains vigorously defiant.

"People are very much afraid of the government but this can't go on
forever. There will be a day when the people break this," she said.
"People will have to sacrifice their lives. There is no choice. We can't
go on like this. We must get arms to resist them. I can't say how, but the
people must find arms."

That is not the view of most Burmese, or the monks who have taken up a
low-key but symbolically significant protest against the regime by
refusing alms from the government. Some monks turn their bowls upside down
when offered food by soldiers, interpreted as a form of excommunication.

At the Old Ma Soe monastery the monks refused to invite government
representatives to celebrations to mark its 100th anniversary.

The clerics have also declared a boycott of government exams they are
expected to take every year. But the monasteries hold their own exams in
April, and some senior clerics are predicting that will mark the beginning
of a new campaign of protest.

"The monasteries will be full again. They will not be silent. No one has
changed their mind about this government," said a senior cleric in
Mandalay. "But we know it will not change tomorrow. It might take five
years, it might take 10, but it will be go. It has no solutions."

Atop the pagoda near Bagan, the political activist who is now in hiding
said the military was wrong to believe it has cowed another generation.

"Nobody won in September because it's not finished," he said.

Resource-rich but with faltering economy

Burma is a resource-rich country but its economy is crippled by
overbearing government control and ineffective policies. It is the world's
biggest exporter of teak, a principal source of precious stones, has
fertile soil and significant offshore oil and gas deposits but the
majority of its people live in abject poverty. Steps in the early 1990s to
liberalise the economy after decades of failure under the programme
Burmese Way to Socialisation, a large-scale attempt at central economic
planning, were largely unsuccessful. The US imposed fresh economic
sanctions in August 2003 in response to the junta's attack on Aung San Suu
Kyi and her convoy. A banking crisis in the same year saw hundreds of
Burmese lining up outside banks to withdraw their savings after the
government shut down several institutions. The average household spends
three-quarters of its budget on food and one in three children under five
are suffering malnutrition.