BurmaNet News, January 19-21, 2008

[Editor]

January 19-21, 2008 Issue # 3384

INSIDE BURMA
SCMP: Activists believe people power is still strong enough to topple junta
Winston-Salem Journal: Army of the Faithful: A Buddhist monk walks a fine
line to protest crackdown in Myanmar
BBC Burmese Service: Burma tightened the rules for INGOs
BBC Burmese Service: Journalist reveals the reasons to have resigned
Irrawaddy: Burmese regime attacks bloggers

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Chin families flee food shortages

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Western sanctions on Burmese gems and jades ineffective: expert
DVB: Local authorities demand extra taxes
Irrawaddy: Burmese authorities to relocate Mandalay gem market to Rangoon

ASEAN
AP: Asean won’t let Burma troubles slow regional integration

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: The China factor
Irrawaddy: India’s pro-junta stand unlikely to change, say analysts

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: Sasana Moli sets up 14 global branches
AP: US says more world pressure needed on Myanmar, claims regime refuses
to move forward
Mizzima News: Financial matters dominate British PM's visit to New Delhi

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation: Burma to free fuel imports?
JP: Initiatives for Myanmar must include China, India - Meidyatama
Suryodiningrat
Washington Post: A forgotten crisis [editorial]

ANNOUNCEMENT
Center for Burma Studies: Call for Papers - International Burma Studies
Conference

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 21, South China Morning Post
Activists believe people power is still strong enough to topple junta

Four months after the junta in Myanmar crushed the biggest pro-democracy
protests in nearly 20 years, activists haven't given up hope of
overturning the regime. In the first of a three part series, Graeme
Jenkins explores the challenges facing the underground pro-democracy
movement.

Myanmar's pro-democracy activists are weakened and on the run, but still
believe people power can overthrow the military regime.

Detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has met a government
negotiator four times since protests were violently crushed in September.

But in an interview this month, the most senior Myanmese democracy leader
to escape arrest so far called the UN-backed process a sham.

And he gave rare insights into the obscure world of Myanmar's underground
democracy movement.

The South China Morning Post met him at a secret location and can identify
him only by his code name, Phoenix.

He is the acting leader of the "88 Generation" group made up of people who
led the demonstrations in 1988, when 3,000 demonstrators were killed by
the military.

He claims to be instrumental in orchestrating the latest protests, when
thousands of monks took to the streets to demand political change.

"Many people thought I was behind this," he said.

After earlier demonstrations were disrupted by government thugs, "we
thought of getting more power, and that power we can get from the monks.
We started talking to the monks to show their support for our movement and
to back us up".

The talks between Ms Suu Kyi and the government were brokered by the UN
special envoy Ibrahim Gambari after the junta crushed the protests,
killing at least 31 people and arresting hundreds in night-time raids.

"It seems like a trap set by the government to buy some time from the
international community," Phoenix said. "Mr Gambari is trying to come
again, but I don't expect much of what he can do."

Last Thursday, the UN Security Council upbraided Myanmar for slow progress
on reforms since the protests, including dragging its heels on the release
of political prisoners and in pursuing a genuine dialogue with opposition
leaders. Mr Gambari said he had asked the junta if he could visit this
month, but had been told mid-April was better.

Phoenix said he welcomed international pressure on the regime, but
cautioned that it was not the solution. "The answer lies within us, within
the country. The problem is not that the government is strong, but the
opposite - we are not strong enough."

Yangon is a city gripped by fear. After the crackdown, locals try to avoid
a foreigner's eye. No one wanted to get into a conversation.

There are informers everywhere. Each neighbourhood has a government office
with photographs of every resident, and where guests must be registered.
"Even inside their families, people cannot talk loud," Phoenix said.

The first protest by monks took place in the northwestern town of Sittwe
at the end of August. Nearby, in a candlelit, windowless room, the Post
recently met the leader of the Sittwe monks. Many of his followers have
been dispersed by the clampdown and he shifts location on an almost daily
basis to avoid arrest.

"I am planning to try again to organise a demo. Wherever I go, I talk to
my people," he said. "Whether it is possible or impossible to beat this
government I don't know, but we must try. We will try very soon."

Outwardly at least, Phoenix is more optimistic. "We have to take time to
prepare for a big show sometime in the future," he said. "It may be six
months or in a year or two."

"With our movement, when it gets stronger and stronger, even some of the
top [government] leaders may co-operate with us. We have some reliable
information, some of the top government leaders are not very happy with
what the police have done to the monks."

But in a Yangon tea shop one of the many thousands of ordinary people who
marched through the streets in September took a less sanguine view. "Our
government are killers," he said. "The people are afraid again and they
won't protest. They know they can't make a difference. They know they can
pay with their life."

Additional reporting by Reuters

____________________________________

January 19, BBC Burmese Service
Burma tightened the rules for INGOs

Officials from the health ministry of Burma has summoned aid workers from
international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) to Naypyidaw, new
capital of the country, last week and warned to follow strictly the rules
and to report detail of their field trips to the government.

The new rules also required foreigners working for INGOs to accompany with
a liasion officer from the ministry when travelling around the country.

Government also further limited the rules on collecting data and surveying
in the country, it was said in the minutes of the meeting seen by the BBC.

The new rules prohibit collecting information other than those related to
public health.

More than thirty INGOs are currently operating in Burma implementing
health related projects.

____________________________________

January 20, Winston-Salem Journal
Army of the Faithful: A Buddhist monk walks a fine line to protest
crackdown in Myanmar

Sagaing, Myanmar - In one of his most talked-about lectures, Buddhist monk
Ashin Nyanissara tells the legend of a king who ruled more than 2,500
years ago. The king believed that spitting on a hermit brought him good
fortune.

At first, it worked like a charm, but before long his realm was
annihilated under a rain of fire, spears and knives.

Today’s audiences easily find the hidden message: The assault by Myanmar’s
military government on monks leading protests in the fall looks like a
modern version of the ancient monarch’s abuse. And they hope that the
ruling generals will suffer the same fate.

In the recent crackdown, many monks were beaten and defrocked in prison.
Human-rights activists say that several monks were among the 31 people the
United Nations says were killed by the government.

It was a traumatic wound to a mainly Buddhist society, one that forced a
lot of soul searching among people who practice one of the oldest forms of
the religion, which emphasizes critical thought and reasoning over blind
faith.

The stern-faced Nyanissara, a 70-year-old monk in owlish glasses and a
maroon robe, is able to stare down generals with chests full of medals by
stepping carefully through the minefield that makes free speech lethal
here.

Shielding himself with allegory, he crisscrosses the country giving
lectures that draw on history and legend to remind people that rotten
regimes have fallen before. As the generals try to crush the last remnants
of resistance, he is cautiously keeping the fire alive.

But he knows it isn’t the first time in 45 years of military rule that the
government has attacked monks who challenged its absolute authority. In at
least four previous crackdowns, dating to 1965, the military rounded up
thousands of monks, killing some, defrocking others, while closing
monasteries and seizing property.

Each time, the brutal repression outraged many people, but in the end they
felt powerless to do anything about it, the crises passed and the generals
continued to oppress with an iron fist.

It’s the nature of any government’s leaders to “strongly test their
political power. They don’t want to lose it,” he said in a recent
interview at the International Buddhist Academy, which he founded in this
riverside town with forested hills that the faithful believe Buddha walked
on his path to enlightenment. “But in any faith, when politics and
religion come into competition, religious leaders always defeat anything.
Religion is the leader. Jesus Christ was killed, but which was more
powerful? Religion or politics?”

The institute sits in a valley beneath the Sagaing Hills, where hundreds
of golden spires, called “stupas,” rise like spiritual beacons from
monasteries and pagodas that dot the hillsides, 12 miles southwest of
Mandalay.

The first monks to demonstrate against the government last year took to
the streets in Pakokku, 60 miles southwest of Sagaing.

Still trapped in the latest cycle of political turmoil, many of Myanmar’s
people are looking to Nyanissara for more than spiritual guidance.

At midday recently, he had just returned from speaking to hundreds of the
faithful in a village pagoda and was hurrying to leave for an afternoon
lecture, a daily routine that keeps him on the move to meet the demand for
his wisdom.

Barefoot in a corridor of the university where student monks and nuns are
trained for missionary work, Nyanissara ran a disposable razor over his
tonsured head and down across his face and neck, removing the faintest
midday stubble as he spoke.

Then, flanked by young aides and walking as straight and sure-footed as a
man half his age, Nyanissara got into his black sport utility vehicle,
which sped on a 110-mile journey to his next stop.

He draws large, rapt audiences wherever he goes, whether they are poor
villagers crowded into small monasteries or city residents sitting in
orderly rows on a side street.

On a recent night, a few thousand people filled a street in Yangon,
Myanmar’s largest city, sitting quietly as they waited for Nyanissara to
arrive.

When he emerged from his SUV, people bowed their heads to the ground as he
made his way to a stage, where he sat cross-legged on a gilded chair as
big as a throne.

In large public gatherings such as these, when the generals’ spies lurk in
the audience and listen for any hint of trouble, his lectures often are
built around the same lesson: Cruel rulers create bad karma. And they will
suffer for what they have done.

That’s a moral not easily shrugged off by a government whose leader,
Senior Gen. Than Shwe, is intensely superstitious: He consults astrologers
to make important decisions.

The ruling generals also churn out propaganda images portraying themselves
as devoted Buddhists, receiving the blessing of sympathetic monks. If
their faith is true, they know their actions will determine their next
life in reincarnation’s endless cycle of death and rebirth.

“They have to be afraid they’ll be coming back as cockroaches,”
wisecracked one Western envoy.

Several of Nyanissara’s lectures have been burned onto DVDs, with titles
including “Last Days of Empire.” The generals have arrested people caught
selling them, but they are still widely available across Myanmar, also
known as Burma.

To most people here, the pain of seeing monks beaten up in the streets is
more than just an insult to religious faith. To many, it’s as if the
military had harmed their own family, and the anger does not ease quickly.

Almost any Buddhist with a son has watched with pride as his head is
shaved to make him a novice monk in an initiation ceremony called
shin-pyu, a moment as life-defining as a baptism, christening or bar
mitzvah.

It is a religious duty for Buddhist boys to become novice monks from 7,
and most in Myanmar answer the calling, Nyanissara said.

Nyanissara said that the region surrounding Sagaing is now home to one out
of every 10 of Myanmar’s 400,000 monks, robed legions that listen
carefully to his lectures to see the right path ahead.

“It’s a very big army,” Nyanissara said, and he laughed a little. But he
wasn’t smiling.

____________________________________

January 20, BBC Burmese Service
Journalist reveals the reasons to have resigned

U Win Kyaw Oo, the former chief of staff in the Myanmar Times newsroom,
has told the BBC Burmese that he had to resign as his boss, Mr Ross
Dunkley, asked him to leave the office.The Burmese-language edition of the
weekly newspaper was suspended last week by the Press Scrutiny Board (PSB)
under the Ministry of Information for flouting censorship rules.

U Win Kyaw Oo said one of the reasons his boss asked him to resign was
that most of his news stories in the last two months were rejected by the
PSB.

Mr Ross Dunkley, editor in chief and CEO of Myanmar Consolidated Media,
told BBC last Thursday that the government did not force but just prod him
to make changes in the newsroom.

Mr Dunkley denied reports that the other three members of his newsroom had
also been sacked.

____________________________________

January 21, Irrawaddy
Burmese regime attacks bloggers

The Burmese military government has blocked blogger sites and redirected
links on such websites. According to the Niknayman Blog, the military
government has recently added more words in their Niknayman blog address.
The added words are: “This is Myanmar,” “NLD,” and “stupid sucking blog.”
If people click on the Niknayman blog its webpage pulls up pornographic
pictures and videos. The Niknayman blog was one of the most active blog
sites during the September uprising and put up several pictures of the
demonstrations and videos depicting how the military government cracked
down on the peaceful protesters and monks.

The Niknayman blog said that the military government has now also blocked
the website of www.blogger.com and was also trying to slow down Internet
speed so internet users could not access the blog and other websites.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Chin families flee food shortages

Food shortages in Chin state following a bad harvest have led around 150
people to leave Burma for India, according to residents of the Indian
state of Mizoram.

About 30 families have so far come to Mizoram state in northeast India,
mostly from Htan Talan and Palatwa townships.

A Chin source close to the families said that an infestation of rats on
their farmlands had destroyed the crops and left them with no food.

“The weather has been very dry this year so it has been difficult to grow
crops, and then this rodent infestation destroyed what little they did
manage to grow,” said the source, who thought that more people could
arrive from Burma.

The families have settled in small villages in townships in the southern
part of Mizoram state.

According to reports by non-governmental organisations in 1988, 50,000
ethnic Chin people had already settled in Mizoram state at that time.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 21, Mizzima News
Western sanctions on Burmese gems and jades ineffective: expert

Western sanctions which imposes a ban on Burmese gems and jades does not
seem to be working out. The recently concluded gems and jade auction in
Burma's former capital Rangoon has proved that the sanctions, particularly
a ban on import and export of Burmese gems and jade, have been
ineffective, a Burmese economist said.

Burma's ruling junta said it has sold off 357 lots of jade in an auction
concluded on Saturday, the state run media New Light of Myanmar said. The
25th auction was attended by 281 foreign businessmen, the paper added.

Dr. Khin Maung Kyi, a retired Burmese economist based in Singapore said
the auction only proves that the junta is squaring off sanctions against
the Burmese gems and jade import and export.

"It is easy for the junta to sell the gems and jades as there are always
prospective buyers or businessmen wanting them," Khin Maung Kyi said.

Despite the western sanctions, the Burmese junta will always find a way
out as the Chinese are keen to purchase these natural resources, he added.

"I think the sanctions have little impact because even if the west bans
import and export, the junta will always be able to sell it to China,"
Khin Maung Kyi said.

Though the US and EU hardened its stance on economic sanctions including
the ban on import and export of gems and jade following the Burmese
military regime's brutal crackdown on monk-led protests in September,
Burma has been regularly holding such auctions and is earning its much
needed foreign exchange.

The Burmese junta, however, did not reveal how much it has earned from the
five day auction. A similar auction in November earned an estimated US $
150 million.

____________________________________

January 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Local authorities demand extra taxes

Small traders in Twan Tay township, Rangoon division, have complained that
local officials have been imposing additional taxes on them which they
should not have to pay.

Grocery store owners in the township said that tax administration
officials have been demanding they pay an extra trading tax that should
only apply to wholesalers on top of the standard sales tax.

One store owner said that current regulations did not require small
businesses to pay the additional tax.

“According to tax law, you are only supposed to pay the trading tax if you
are a wholesaler dealing in large quantities of goods,” the store owner
said.

The store owner said that he knew another business owner who refused to
pay the tax and suffered harassment by the authorities.

“In the end, he told the tax administration officials that they could sue
him if they wanted to and then they backed off,” he said.

Another shop owner said that the tax was an added burden on businesses
that are already suffering.

“The prices for basic commodities are getting high and the shops are not
doing very good business, so these extra taxes are making our lives
difficult,” he said.

“Some business owners do not even realise that they’re not really supposed
to pay the trading tax.”

____________________________________

January 21, Irrawaddy
Burmese authorities to relocate Mandalay gem market to Rangoon - Min Lwin

The Burmese government is set to move the country’s biggest gem market
from Mandalay to Rangoon, according to local gem traders in Mandalay.

“The authorities want to move the Mandalay gem market to Rangoon because
it would be easier to control and export large quantities of gems
legally,” Than Tin, a Mandalay gem dealer, told The Irrawaddy.

The buying and selling of gems and stones, especially the jade market, has
slowed drastically in Mandalay because of the relocation news.

The Mandalay gem market buys gems and stones, including jade, rubies,
sapphires and other precious stones, from six areas of Burma: Mogok in
Mandalay Division; Mongshu in Shan State; Khamti in Sagaing Division; and
Moe-Nyin, Hpakant and Namya in Kachin State.

A former gem market in Mandalay, known as Daw Net Wine, had functioned for
several decades at its location between roads 85 and 86.

The Mandalay City and Development Committee moved the market to a new
location, called Maha Aung Mye Kyauk Myat Wine, in late 1997, housing more
than 2,000 shops manufacturing, selling and buying gems between roads 40
and 38 in southwest Mandalay.

The Mandalay gem industry is one of the largest employers in the area. A
businessman who sculpts jade figurines said the relocation would be
difficult for hundreds of thousands of people.

Mandalay has seen a boom in jade sculpting for several years, and the jade
trade is the biggest source of jobs for local people.

“Most of the jade, rubies, sapphires and other precious stones in the
Mandalay gem market are purchased by local traders who are making gem
products," Than Tin said.

He said some precious stones are bought illegally by Chinese dealers and
sent to Hong Kong and Macau.

“Everyone is disappointed,” said Than Tin. “They don’t want their
businesses to move to Rangoon.”

The gem trade district to be located in Rangoon will include the Myanmar
Convention Centre and the Royal Ruby Jade Hotel in Mayangone Township in
Rangoon.

Meanwhile, the military government sold 600 lots of gems and jade in an
auction from January 15 to 19 organized by the Union of Myanmar Economic
Holdings Company Ltd, a Burmese military corporation, according to The New
Light of Myanmar. The gross sales figure was not released.

The United States and the European Union recently tightened sanctions
against Burma’s precious gems and stones industry.

____________________________________
ASEAN

January 21, Associated Press
Asean won’t let Burma troubles slow regional integration - Gillian Wong

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will not let
the actions of its troubled member Burma hamper the group's regional
integration efforts, a senior Singaporean official said on Monday.

"We should not and will not let the Myanmar [Burma] issue slow down the
integration of our region," Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond
Lim told the Singapore Parliament.

Lim was responding to Singaporean parliamentarians' questions on why Asean
leaders cancelled a scheduled address by UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari
at the bloc's annual meeting in Singapore in November, after Burma had
objected.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the chairman of Asean, had
invited Gambari to address the summit about the progress made in his
meetings with Burma’s junta. But Burma regarded the issue as a domestic
affair, Lim said.

"Myanmar [Burma] wanted to deal with the UN directly, and did not want
Asean to play any political role. Once Myanmar [Burma] took this position,
Asean could not proceed" as it is a consensus-based organization, Lim
said.

"It is obviously unsatisfactory that Myanmar [Burma] sees no role for an
organization of which it is a member, and on an issue which affects us
all. But this is not a matter of Asean's credibility," Lim said.

Lim also ruled out the possibility of expelling Burma from the regional
bloc, saying it was in Asean's interests to keep the country as "a member
of the family."

"I don't think that expelling Myanmar [Burma] from Asean is the solution,"
he said. "We still have channels of communication which hopefully can
influence the situation in Myanmar [Burma]."

"What happens in Myanmar [Burma] affects the well-being of the rest of
Southeast Asia. We do not want to see Myanmar [Burma] descend into chaos
or implode."

During the summit, Asean leaders signed a landmark charter to promote free
trade and human rights, formally turning the 40-year-old
organization—often derided as a toothless talk shop—into a rules-based
legal entity if ratified by all 10 members. It also adopted a blueprint to
transform the region into a European Union-style economic bloc.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 19, Irrawaddy
The China Factor - Min Zin

A few weeks after the September protests last year in Burma, a Chinese
diplomat approached an influential Burmese advocate in New York and asked
why the Burmese dubbed their protest the "Saffron Revolution."

"The diplomat was quite uncomfortable with this particular saffron name
while he whispered to me," said the Burmese advocate, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. "Chinese are very sensitive to the 'color
revolutions'," she said.

In the wake of successful "color revolutions," meaning the victories of
nonviolent democracy struggles in post-communist countries, such as
Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution and Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution,
Beijing is anxious to prevent similar movements at home or among its
neighbors.

Then, a country in its backyard triggered the "saffron revolution," and
the military's subsequent crack down captured the world’s attention. Along
with Burma's crisis, China was drawn into the spotlight in unflattering
coverage in international media and diplomatic pressure increased against
its support of one of the world's most odious regimes.

Public outcries have called on China to assume larger role in helping to
resolve Burma's crisis.

However, contrary to common perceptions, China has a limited sway with the
junta’s generals. China is not a patron that pulls the strings and the
self-isolated, delusive Burmese regime is not a puppet. The relationship
runs in both directions. This is what complicates Burma's problems and
their resolution.

Of course, China has more power and influence on the generals than any
other country. It also intends to use that leverage to its own benefit.

According to Chinese diplomats, Beijing has been gradually changing its
Burma policy since the removal of former Prime Minister Khin Nyut in 2004
and the recent deadly crackdown in Burma. However, they warn that the
policy shift should not be expected to be quick or dramatic. It will be
slow and well-calculated.

"Than Shwe and Maung Aye are more intransigent than former dictator Ne
Win, and they often do incredibly silly things," said a Chinese official
during a meeting with a Burmese opposition activist. "China knows that
Burma will not prosper under their leadership."

China’s special envoy, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, was sent
to Burma in November. He met with the junta's top leader, Snr-General Than
Shwe, and asked the military "to resolve the pending issues through
consultations so as to speed up the democratization process."

However, the regime responded that it will go with its own pace for
unilateral implementation of its "Seven-Step Road Map," according to a
Western diplomat.

"The Chinese keep telling us that the international community is
overstating their influence over Burmese generals," said a European
diplomat. "Beijing said they don't have ability to tell the regime what to
do."

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst living on the China-Burma border,
disagrees with that interpretation.

"Persuasion, without power backup, will not work. The soft-soft approach
should be changed. China must show the ‘stick’ part of its diplomacy,"
said Aung Kyaw Zaw.

However, Beijing is clearly not ready to go that far. It still believes
that working to resolve Burma's problems is secondary to its principal
economic and strategic interests in its relationship with the junta.

But simultaneously, China would like to maintain its international role as
"a responsible stakeholder."

The time has come for concerted international diplomatic pressure on China
to tip the balance toward the “responsible” direction. China must take up
Thucydides’ advice: an amoral foreign policy is neither practical nor
prudent.
At the same time, the United States and the European Union cannot
outsource Burma's democracy reform to China, which itself lacks democracy.

The West’s most powerful countries should coordinate with China to
facilitate a real transition in conflict-ridden Burma.

However, diplomacy alone is not enough to compel China to play an
effective role.

Public action is needed.

"China was very annoyed to see the wave of protests taking place outside
its embassies in major cities of the world in the wake of the September
protests," said Aung Kyaw Zaw. "More importantly, they were really worried
when demonstrators linked Burma's cause with a 2008 Olympic boycott."

The vice mayor of Beijing warned in October 2007 that any move to link
China's role in Burma to a boycott of the 2008 Olympics would be
"inappropriate and unpopular." China is very much anxious to prevent any
negative effect on the Olympic Games. They might even accommodate their
Burma policy and give more support to the UN's Burma mediation role if
they sensed a real damage to the much-hyped gala this summer, even though
it might be a tactical and temporal accommodation.

However, the Burmese opposition has so far failed to seize and exploit
this opportunity effectively. During the peak of Burma's "Saffron
Revolution" in late September, The Washington Post labeled one of its
editorials the "Saffron Olympic," highlighting the dynamics of an
international campaign against Beijing's summer gala. But that effort has
run out of steam.

"The Burmese opposition in exile cannot accelerate the campaign in a
consistent manner,” said Nyo Ohn Myint, the head of the Foreign Affairs
Office of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area).  “Our
campaigners are going after ad hoc protests without a focus. We fail to
form a wider coalition with other Olympic detractors. Unless we can launch
a coordinated international grassroots action, China would not be swayed
to our direction."

Beijing plans to start its Olympic gala on 8/8/08, a date that is
surprisingly similar to the 20th anniversary of Burma's "Four Eight
(8/8/88) Democracy Movement."

Whether or not Burma can make the best out of this coincidence remains to
be seen.

____________________________________

January 21, Irrawaddy
India’s pro-junta stand unlikely to change, say analysts - Wai Moe

India’s “Look East” foreign policy favoring the Burmese regime is not
likely to change soon despite appeals by British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown and UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari, observers say.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (R) and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh at an official reception ceremony at the Presidential Palace in New
Delhi [Photo: AFP]
Brown met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday and told him
India has an important role to play in Burma’s transition to democracy and
an end to that country’s problems.

Brown told reporters on Sunday that China was “working resolutely” on how
to use its influence with Burma—“and we will be looking at how we can
persuade the Burmese regime.”

Gambari also told India’s television station NDTV recently that the UN
wanted India to do more, drawing attention to India’s signing of a huge
contract to build a port in Burma.

Gambari said India was “a democratic country with true commitment to human
rights. We also believe that a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Myanmar
[Burma] would be an even better partner for India than what the situation
is right now.”

Gambari said the best guarantee for India’s investment was a peaceful,
stable and democratic Burma. “What concerns us is not really their
bilateral relations, but to use that, in our view, as an opportunity and
leverage to help us by transmitting right messages.”

Win Min, a Burmese analyst based in Thailand, said India was second only
to China in the influence it had over Burma. After China called for
political changes following the September 2007 demonstrations, India then
also openly talked about Burmese democracy.

“Previously India did not talk about Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and
dialogue,” Win Min said. “But during the visit to New Delhi by Foreign
Minister Nyan Win India spoke out about her freedom and a meaningful
dialogue, including ethnic issues.”

However, Tint Swe of Burma’s government in exile, the National Coalition
Government of Union of Burma, based in New Delhi, said India’s Burma
policy did not appear to have changed significantly even after the
September demonstrations and regime crackdown. “So the international
community such as [British Prime Minister] Brown and the UN should push
India, as the biggest democracy, to press for real transition to democracy
in Burma.”

India’s “Look East” policy is based on economic ties with Southeast Asian
nations, including Burma, a geo-politically important country for New
Delhi.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese political observer based on the Sino-Burmese
border, said he didn’t think India would change its pro-junta policy in
view of its rivalry with China.

“India might think the Burmese regime has become pro-China because India
adopted a strong stand for Burmese democracy after the 1988 uprising,” he
said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has, meanwhile, convened the first
meeting of a group of 14 countries, including China and India, to help him
in his efforts to advance political change in Burma.

The “Group of Friends of the UN Secretary-General on Burma” is a
consultative forum for developing a shared approach in support of the
implementation of the Secretary-General’s good offices mandate.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 21, Mizzima News
Sasana Moli sets up 14 global branches - Phanida

Formed to highlight the brutal suppression of monks by the Burmese
military junta in September, Burmese monks worldwide have set up 14
branches of the Sasana Moli International Burmese Monks Organization.

With over 300 members the 14 branches of the Sasana Moli, were formed in
various countries including the European countries, Eastern and Western
parts of the United States, England, Canada, Bangladesh, New Zealand,
Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

U Pinya Wuntha, Chairman of the Sasana Moli International Burmese Monks
Organization, which was formed on October 27, 2007 in Los Angeles, said
the organization would chiefly work to highlight the situation in Burma,
where flow of information is under the scrutiny of the authoritarian
junta.

"In Burma , people live in the dark and do not have access to information.
All they have to listen to is the Junta's propaganda and the international
community is also cut-off from what is happening. So, we will serve as a
window and tell the world what is going on in Burma," the Chairman said.

U Pinya Wuntha added that the organization was formed on the request of
the people following the brutal suppression of the monk-led protests, when
hundreds of Buddhist monks in Burma are believed to have disappeared.

According to the Chairman, the organization was formed with the aim to
uplift the Buddhist religion, to publish and distribute religious
publications, to protect the interests of the religion and to bridge the
relationship with other religions and to spread love and peace to all the
people in the world.

____________________________________

January 21, Associated Press
US says more world pressure needed on Myanmar, claims regime refuses to
move forward

A senior U.S. official urged the international community Monday to put
more pressure on Myanmar's military rulers, saying the junta has made no
progress in opening a dialogue with the pro-democracy opposition.

Last week the United Nations Security Council said its envoy, Ibrahim
Gambari, should return to Myanmar, also called Burma, to help push for
national reconciliation. Gambari wanted to visit later this month, but
received a letter from Myanmar's government requesting that he come in
April.

Scot Marciel, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Southeast
Asia, told reporters in Hanoi that the U.S. has asked China to try to help
push for Gambari's visit to occur earlier. He said Beijing was helpful in
arranging access during the envoy's first trip in November. China is one
of Myanmar's biggest trading partners and closest diplomatic allies.

"The regime in Burma is just absolutely refusing to take any positive
steps at all, either in response to its own people or to the international
community," Marciel said.

"The way Burma is going under this regime with its policies is downhill on
all fronts," he said.

In October, the Security Council called on the regime to release political
prisoners and improve human rights after a military crackdown on peaceful
protests in September, when civilians and Buddhist monks were beaten and
arrested after pro-democracy demonstrations following a sharp fuel price
hike. The government said 10 were killed, but diplomats and dissidents put
the toll much higher.

Marciel said India, another Myanmar ally, recently agreed to stop selling
arms to the country.

Washington has placed economic sanctions on Myanmar that include a
complete ban on the import of the country's products and the freezing of
some junta officials' financial assets in U.S. territories.

Marciel said there are plans to expand the list of officials, family
members and cronies whose assets will also be targeted.

Marciel who was on a trip to Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos
is pushing countries in the region to continue pressuring Myanmar to
release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and to
take steps toward a real political dialogue with opposition leaders.

"They've got no popular support, no legitimacy and, frankly, not very many
good ideas," Marciel said of the ruling junta.

"Our belief is that if they hear consistently from the international
community from everybody that they need to move, then that gives us the
best progress."

The junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by
Suu Kyi. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a
landslide election victory. Suu Kyi has since been in and out of
detention, usually under house arrest.

____________________________________

January 21, Mizzima News
Financial matters dominate British PM's visit to New Delhi

Less than four months after the Burmese junta violently suppressed
protests on the streets of Burma, the question of Burma appears only in
the background of talks between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and
leaders of India.

While stating that he intends to raise the subject of Burma with Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in private talks, Brown's message on his
inaugural visit to the sub-continent as Prime Minister makes clear that
his administration's chief concern in bilateral relations is the
furthering of economic integration and interests.

Earmarking the positive role that a more entrenched India can play on both
the regional and worldwide stages, the British Prime Minister yesterday
expressed his support for India's joining both a reconfigured permanent
United Nations Security Council and the European-based Financial Action
Task Force (FATF).

China, a much maligned supporter of the generals in Naypyidaw, was invited
and welcomed as a member of the FATF in 2007.

Brown also extended an offer to increase the transfer of anti-terrorist
technology to the New Delhi government to abet in the ongoing fight
against drug trafficking and illegal armed actors. India's northeast,
abutting Burma, continues to be a flashpoint between competing groups,
several of which are armed, from either side of the border. At various
times each country has sought the support of the other is suppressing
fringe movements in the region.

The positive and encouraging language of Brown during his south Asian
stopover comes despite recurring voices accusing New Delhi of sacrificing
support for democracy and human rights inside Burma in lieu of financial
interests.

"India has shamelessly put its own economic and political interests before
human rights and democracy in Burma," according to a 2007 report issued by
Burma Campaign UK. "India's current policy towards Burma is devoid of any
moral or ethical considerations. The world's largest democracy has
shamelessly abandoned Burma's democracy movement."

In one indication of the growing economic interests between India and
Burma, bilateral trade between the two neighbors for fiscal year 2006/07
was estimated to top the $1 billion mark for the first time, with New
Delhi's involvement in the Shwe gas fields topping the list.

Meanwhile, according to a commentary today in The Times of London, the
conciliatory approach of the visiting Prime Minister toward the interests
of India is said to be evidence of Britain needing India (and China) more
than the burgeoning Asian economies need Britain; bringing into question
just how far Britain may be willing to push the regional superpowers over
the issue of Burma.

Prior to arriving in New Delhi, Brown paid respects to Chinese leaders in
Beijing, where he also broached the subject of Burma amidst an
economically dominated agenda. As with New Delhi, Brown says he is
convinced of the positive role China can assume toward Burmese reform and
reconciliation.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 21, The Nation
Burma to free fuel imports?

The Burmese government is thinking about allowing private enterprise to
import fuel.

The Xinhua News Agency quoted the Burmese weekly Myanmar Times reporting
that private businesses would ask the country's Trade Council, its top
export and import-regulator, to allow them to directly import fuel.

The council's supervisory committee said: "Under the existing procedures,
only government-affiliated organisations and private companies, the Union
of Myanmar Economic Holdings and Htoo Trading may import fuel directly."

Norse flights to Surat Thani

Tui Nordic, a subsidiary of the world's largest tour-operator,
Germany-based Tui, is operating direct, weekly charter flights from both
Stockholm and Helsinki to Surat Thani.

The charters will help the Tourism Authority of Thailand diversify its
range of beach destinations of-fered to European holidaymakers to keep
them coming back.

The Boeing 757 charters began in December and will continue until April,
the peak travel season for outbound Scandinavians. The inaugural
Stockholm-to-Surat Thani flight took off on December 13 and the Helsinki
charter eight days later.

Shrimp slump on the cards

Total shrimp production this year is expected to fall 20 per cent to
500,000 tonnes, according to the Fisheries Department of the Agriculture
and Cooperatives Ministry.

The decrease is a result of falling domestic prices following oversupply
last year. Total shrimp production jumped 11 per cent to 530,000 tonnes in
2007.

Lower production will ensure prices stabilise.

Total world production is expected to increase 6.76 per cent to 2.1
million tonnes. International demand is for larger, disease-free shrimp,
the department's director-general Somying Piumsomboon said.

____________________________________

January 21, Jakarta Post
Initiatives for Myanmar must include China, India - Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo emerged from the last ASEAN
Summit as "little Miss Sunshine" for her jibe against the Myanmarese.
Other ASEAN leaders including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were
labeled 'evil realists' for their approach to the junta.

In hindsight, Arroyo's enlightened appearance -- threatening to stall the
ASEAN Charter if Myanmar did not release Aung San Suu Kyi -- appears more
to have been grandstanding than actually making a stand.

The junta cannot be bullied by words, least of all from a country
insignificant to its political agenda. Failure to ratify the Charter hurts
Manila, not Naypyidaw.

Neither do sanctions alone work on a boorish regime unfettered by
international norms. Megaphone diplomacy pushes the ruling State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) further into a hermit like existence.

Hypocrisy rules since nations who criticized ASEAN for engaging SPDC, had
companies operating or investing in Myanmar's oil and gas sector. These
included Australia, France and the United States.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda in Jakarta last week reiterated
Indonesia's intent to help "solve Myanmar's problems". His remark follows
President Yudhoyono's initiative launched during the Summit.

Jakarta should not condone continued repression in Myanmar, but neither
should it abandon quiet diplomacy, the edifice of ASEAN diplomatic
culture.

Hassan in his remarks touched on the most important elements for a
productive diplomatic effort: the inclusion of 'major regional powers' --
namely China and India -- into the fold.

No initiative on Myanmar could succeed without their full, active support.

Instability brought on by sudden political change is unacceptable to
neighborhood powers China and India.

Beijing has visions of making its southern neighbor a client state.
Myanmar is China's backdoor to the Indian Ocean, an energy deposit and a
bypass to the Malacca Straits.

India instinctively needs to counterbalance China.

Delhi is quietly concerned that Beijing's influence is a precursor to
outflanking India's North-Eastern defenses. Indian dominance in the Bay of
Bengal will be challenged if China gains free access to Myanmar's southern
coast.

Hence without their support, Beijing and Delhi are as much of an obstacle
to change in Myanmar as the ruling SPDC.

There is room to convince both that rather than competing for the favors
of a regime which is ultimately untenable, their long term interest is to
work together for gradual change.

China can be reminded of the growing spill-over of drug related issues
affecting Yunnan province.

Bringing Beijing into this initiative could in turn assuage Delhi's fears
of Naga insurgency along the Myanmar border.

It is imperative that SPDC is assured this initiative is not designed to
encourage regime change, but instead creating space for, among other
things, social (apolitical) organizations.

This could ultimately be beneficial to the SPDC itself. Gradually widening
the political space would create an air of legitimacy to the regime.

In the initial phase, the United States and the European Union should not
be engaged since SPDC's overriding suspicion is that Western criticism is
geared towards a change of government in Myanmar.

Political change must grow from within.

Do not underestimate the role of social movements in Myanmar even in such
a repressive political arena.

The Four Eights democratic upheaval in 1988 gained momentum because social
groups emerged to join protesting students. These groups survived despite
military repression since 1962.

Creating space for social groups in politically benign areas such as the
environment, health and women's education, helps nurture civil society and
keeps grassroots political consciousness alive beyond the politically
antagonized opposition party (for example the National League of
Democracy/NLD).

It is time to hedge our bets beyond Suu Kyi's NLD which stands too close
to the extreme for any negotiations for internal evolution (not
revolution) to occur within Myanmar.

A diplomatic initiative that works together with the SPDC, to carve out a
greater space for social groups to conduct independent activities, will do
much to alleviate the political impasse. The underlying outgrowth could
widen the political discourse which slowly undermines the ideological
foundations of authoritarianism.

The collapse of dictatorships are not solely the result of human courage.
Political and structural antecedents, namely a civil society, need to be
created beyond simple elections and freeing political prisoners.

Remember, it was not vaunted rights activists who brought down the Soviet
Union, but the enlightened self-interest of politicians and empowered
civic leaders.

The author, a staff writer with The Jakarta Post, is studying at Harvard
University as a research fellow with the Weatherhead Center for
International Affairs.

____________________________________

January 20, Washington Post
A forgotten crisis [editorial]

The United Nations pledged to act on Burma. Instead, it has allowed itself
to be bullied and shamed.

WAS IT only four months ago that the world was pledging to stand by the
brave thousands who were marching peacefully for democracy in Burma? Was
it so recently that the United Nations Security Council was proclaiming
its readiness to promote reconciliation after those same thousands were
swept off the streets and into prisons or unmarked graves?

As the U.N. effort sputtered to a complete stall last week, it was
impossible not to wonder whether those brave pledges were anything but a
summer dream. While the movement of Buddhist monks and hundreds of
thousands of sympathizers held the world's attention, the odious regime in
Burma, a Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people, promised to engage
in dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader living under house
arrest and in near total isolation. It promised, too, to permit U.N.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send his special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari,
any time he wanted. But no dialogue has taken place, and the regime won't
give Mr. Gambari a visa until April, if then. And the Security Council's
response to this extraordinary insult to its mandate and prestige? Last
week, it mustered, not without controversy, a statement of "regret" at the
"slow pace of progress."

Progress? Here's what's happened since Mr. Ban put his, and the United
Nations', prestige on the line. More monks have been arrested. The death
toll from the fall has yet to be made known. The regime raised the fee for
satellite dish licenses from $5 per year to $800, or three times the
average annual salary, so that its people -- already impoverished by
economic mismanagement and corruption -- will be further cut off from the
world. And meanwhile, Mr. Gambari flies from Asian capital to Asian
capital, hoping that someone will put in a good word for his visa.

Bush administration officials are pushing China, India and the Europeans
to pressure the Burmese, but without much luck. China didn't even want Mr.
Gambari to brief the Security Council. Japan, ever attuned to its
commercial interests in Burma, recently resumed aid. South Africa, which
has emerged under President Thabo Mbeki as a leading opponent of human
rights in other countries, has sought to stymie U.N. involvement. There
are options beyond pleading: arms embargoes, stricter banking sanctions
aimed at the junta members and their relatives, and more. Whether they
come into play depends on whether the secretary general and and leaders of
nations that claim to respect the United Nations object even a little to
its humiliation by a band of Burmese bullies.

____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

January 18, Center for Burma Studies, Northern Illinois University
Call for Papers - International Burma Studies Conference -October 3-5, 2008

The Board of Trustees of the Burma Studies Foundation, the Burma Studies
Group and the Center for Burma Studies cordially invite you to participate
in the 8th International Burma Studies Conference, at Northern Illinois
University, DeKalb, Illinois from October 3-5, 2008.

Established at Northern Illinois University in 1986 by the Burma Studies
Group, within the Association for Asian Studies, the Center will also be
hosting a series of cultural events in conjunction with the Conference.

We invite papers on all aspects of Burma Studies, including, anthropology,
art history, environment, health, history, literature, linguistics, music,
political science, popular culture, religions, and area studies. Panels
and papers would be devoted primarily to new research, including recent
events in Burma.

Interested participants are asked to organize and submit panel proposals
with 250-word abstracts by April 15, 2008.  Please provide your name and
affiliation, your address, a title for your paper, list of equipment that
you need for your presentation, time required for presentation of your
paper (15-20 minutes) and an email address.  Send this information to:

Center for Burma Studies
520 College View Court
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL  60115

Or via email:  bsc2008 at niu.edu

For further information regarding the conference visit our website:
www.grad.niu.edu/burma
Tel:  (815) 753-0512
Fax:  (815) 753-1776

Sponsored by the Center for Burma Studies, the Graduate School and the
College of Visual and Performing Arts of Northern Illinois University.

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