BurmaNet News, February 5, 2008

[Editor]

February 5, 2008 Issue # 3395

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Suu Kyi's party invites pro-junta ethnic groups for talks
DVB: Monastery stops free education service
Mizzima News: Implement reforms or "Prepare for the worst": activists
Mizzima News: 88 student leader Mie Mie's health deteriorates in detention
AP: Missing blogger seen in detention, Opposition Party says
Khonumthung: Farmlands confiscated for tea plantation

ON THE BORDER
Inter Press Service: 'How many monks must die before the UN moves?'
Irrawaddy: More Karen refugees flee to Thai border
Irrawaddy: Thailand’s “Long Necks” face resettlement obstacles
AFP: Four Myanmar migrant workers found dead in Thailand: police

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Burma’s elderly turn to begging for a living
Kachin News Group: Kachin State commander's son to build new airport

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Drug abuse and HIV/AIDS rampant in Kachin State

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Activists call for Beijing Olympics boycott
Mizzima News: Burmese and Indian activists demand release of 34 ethnic rebels

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US expands sanctions on Myanmar regime family, tycoon
Mizzima News: Dangers for journalists in Burma on the rise

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: Naypyitaw paralyzed as an ailing Than Shwe clings to power -
Larry Jagan
Bangkok Post: Burma: Urgent need for reform [Editorial]
Irrawaddy: It’s Do-or-Die time for NLD - Kyaw Zwa Moe

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 5, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi's party invites pro-junta ethnic groups for talks

Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party on Tuesday invited ethnic minority
groups that support Myanmar's ruling junta to meet at its headquarters for
talks on resolving their differences.

The rare gesture by the National League for Democracy (NLD) came less than
a week after party leaders were allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, who
has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

Aung San Suu Kyi in November had released a statement through visiting UN
envoy Ibrahim Gambari, calling for national unity and saying she had a
particular duty to consider the opinions of Myanmar's dozens of ethnic
minority groups.

Many of the country's ethnic groups have waged armed struggles for decades
against the junta, seeking autonomy for their peoples.

Some of the groups that have signed ceasefires and aligned themselves with
the military government issued statements in state media saying that Aung
San Suu Kyi had no right to speak on their behalf.

In a statement Tuesday, the NLD invited those groups to gather at the
party's headquarters to work on resolving their differences.

"The NLD invites those ethnic national parties and organisations who had
different views on the statement (by Aung San Suu Kyi) to come and discuss
their opinions at the NLD headquarters in Yangon," it said.

Aung San Suu Kyi "has said dutifully and faithfully that the NLD is
focused on the welfare of all ethnic nationalities and the union (of
Myanmar) as a whole," the statement said.

"The NLD understands that their freely made opinions and denunciations are
part of democratic practise. Likewise, bilateral discussion is the essence
of democracy," it said.

Last week Aung San Suu Kyi also called for tripartite talks bringing
together the NLD, the junta and the ethnic minorities.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the junta never
allowed it to take office.

The military opened talks with Aung San Suu Kyi in the wake of a violent
crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September, but so far little
visible progress has been made.

____________________________________

February 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Monastery stops free education service

A free tuition service at Ngway Kyar Yan monastery in South Okkalapa
township, Rangoon, that provided extra classes to students from 10
townships in the surrounding area, has been suspended.

Ngway Kyar Yan monastery has been inviting respected tutors to teach extra
classes at the monastery every year for the past 14 years, and around
2,000 to 3,000 students have attended each year.

Burmese students often rely on outside tuition to supplement the low
standard of teaching in schools, but many are unable to afford a private
tutor.

The monastery was running its classes in the lead-up to the grade 10
exams, which are the level required for university entrance and take place
in February each year, and monks were able to get popular teachers to
provide their services to the monastery free of charge.

One student said that educational opportunities for poorer students would
suffer without the free classes.

“This is very bad for students who cannot afford to pay private tutors,
because the education programme at Ngway Kyar Yan monastery was taught by
well-known tutors and the monastery also provided all the teaching
materials, textbooks and notebooks,” the student said.

A monk who was involved in running the service also believed that it would
prevent some students from accessing a good education.

“This free education service is necessary for people who want to pursue an
education but can’t afford it,” he said.

“These services are helping our nation by building the capacity of our
students, and this is something the country should be happy about.”

It is not clear why the classes have been stopped, but students speculated
that it was due to the participation of monks from the monastery in last
year’s demonstrations.

Ngway Kyar Yan is a lecturing monastery, where over 1000 monks were
studying before raids on the monastery following the monk-led protests in
September last year.

Since the crackdown, only 40 monks have been left at the monastery.

____________________________________

February 5, Mizzima News
Implement reforms or "Prepare for the worst": activists - Nay Thwin

An activist group in Burma today called on the ruling junta to begin a
process of tripartite dialogue and warned the people of Burma "to prepare
for the worst" if the generals fail to kick-start meaningful dialogue by
Burma's upcoming Union Day.

The Rangoon division of the People's Movement, an alleged clandestine
activist group, today urged the Burmese military junta to begin a process
of tripartite dialogue, as demanded by the Burmese people and
international community, including the United Nations, by Burma's Union
Day, which falls on February 12.

The group, in a statement read out to Mizzima, said, "In order to avoid
the people experiencing further bitterness and to prevent a people's
movement, the ruling junta should begin a tripartite dialogue that
includes participation by the military, the National League for Democracy
and ethnic representatives, on the 61st anniversary of Burma's Unions
Day."

The group, whose members do not wish to reveal their identities for
security reasons, said it fully supports the NLD's Independence Day demand
to make "2008 the year of national reconciliation", and urges the junta to
respect the wishes of the people and the international community to
implement reforms.

The group, citing a statement made by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during her
meeting with NLD leaders on January 30, urged the people to stand in unity
and "hope for the best while preparing for the worst."

Similarly, on January 4, Burma's Independence Day, the Coordinating
Committee of the Peoples Movement, an alleged umbrella group of all
clandestine activist groups in Burma, called on the ruling junta to
release all political prisoners and kick-start a dialogue process before
Burma's Unions Day.

Following the Buddhist monk-led protests in September last year, which
were brutally suppressed by the ruling junta, the number of underground
activist groups in Rangoon and other parts of Burma has mushroomed,
occasionally making statements demanding the government implement reforms.

The statement read out today is the fourth made by the group and is the
first in 2008.

____________________________________

February 5, Mizzima News
88 student leader Mie Mie's health deteriorates in detention - Maung Dee

The health of a woman member of Burma's prominent 88 generation students
group, Mie Mie, is said to be deteriorating in the notorious Insein prison
because jail authorities refuse to provide adequate medical attention, an
opposition party official said.

Nyan Win, spokesperson of Burma's main opposition party – the National
League for Democracy – told Mizzima on Tuesday that Mie Mie, who was
arrested along with a fellow 88 generation student Htay Kywe on October
13, is suffering from a heart problem. She is being denied proper medical
treatment.

"She is suffering from a heart disease. And we heard she is being denied
medical attention," said Nyan Win adding that he was informed by a family
member about Mie Mie's health condition.

Nyan Win said, he was informed by a family member, who said Mie Mie had
earlier suffered from a heart problem and expressed concern over the
situation inside the prison precincts.

Mie Mie, a second rung 88 generation student group leader, was at the
forefront during the September protests exhorting and leading students and
civilians.

Due to her political involvement, she was arrested and detained in
Hantharwaddy prison in 1996.

Mie Mie is married to Hla Moe and has two children -- a son and a daughter.

Like Mie Mie, her colleagues – Thet Thet Aung, No No, and Ni Ni Oo – who
were arrested along with her for their involvement in the September
protests, are also contending with deteriorating health, Nyan Win added.

____________________________________

February 5, Associated Press
Missing blogger seen in detention, Opposition Party says

A blogger who was apparently picked up in an Internet crackdown by the
Burma military government has been seen in detention at a government
office, an opposition party spokesman said.

The blogger, Nay Phone Latt, disappeared on January 29.

Officials have declined to confirm his whereabouts—or his arrest.
Recently-released opposition party members said Monday they saw him in a
government office while they were briefly detained.

No reason for Nay Phone Latt's apparent detention has been made public,
but he disappeared amid tightening government control of the Internet.
Even in normal times, the ruling junta tries to block many Web sites it
considers subversive.

Reporters Without Borders said last week that Burmese authorities have
stepped up their surveillance of the Internet since the beginning of the
year, pressuring Internet cafe owners to register all users' personal
details and to program screen captures every five minutes on each
computer.

Bloggers played a major role in ensuring the free flow of information in
and out of Burma late last year during massive anti-government protests
and the violent crackdown that ended them.

They managed to post up-to-date news, photos and commentary that captured
the world's attention.

Three youth members of the opposition National League for Democracy party
were detained last week. They said after their release Monday that they
had seen Nay Phone Latt at the Home Ministry, which coordinates security
affairs, said league spokesman Nyan Win.

They also saw a woman believed to be a league member, he said without
elaborating.

The case of Nay Phone Latt, also known as Nay Bone Latt or Nay Myo Latt,
drew the concern of worldwide organizations that promote freedom of the
press, including the International Freedom of Expression Exchange and
Reporters Without Borders.

Reporters Without Borders said the only blog platform that remained
accessible within Burma, the Google-owned Blogger, has been blocked by the
regime since Jan. 23, preventing bloggers from posting entries unless they
use proxy Internet servers or other ways to get around censorship.

Nyan Win said Nay Phone Latt operates a legal internet business in
Thuwunna in Yangon's eastern suburbs but did not know why he was arrested.

Nay Phone Latt's Burmese-language blog at http://www.nayphonelatt.net/ was
still accessible Monday outside Burma, with visitors able to add comments.

Buddhist monks last September began leading anti-government protests, the
biggest in two decades. At least 30 people are believed to have been
killed when the government suppressed the demonstrations, and thousands
detained, though most have since been released.

____________________________________

February 5, Khonumthung News
Farmlands confiscated for tea plantation

For the Burmese military junta confiscation of land of the people is a by
word. The landowners seem to have no rights and all land is up for grabs
by the military. Over 1000 acres of farmland on the hill side in Chin
state, Burma has been seized for tea plantation.
Farmlands confiscated for tea plantation

Zaw Win Htey, Chairman of the Township Peace and Development Council
(TPDC) of Falam Township in Chin state on January 5 issued an order
confiscating over a thousand acres of farmland in Falam Township for tea
plantation. No compensation has been paid.

The confiscated farmland located on the Hakha–Falam road was owned by
locals in Taal village, 20 miles from Falam town.

After the local authorities seized the farmland the villagers became
unemployed and have no more land to cultivate the main crops such as maize
and beans.

With no option left to eke out a livelihood the affected villagers are
likely to move to neighbouring Mizoram state, northeast India in to search
of means of survival, a villager said.

"It is a ruthless tactic adopted by the regime to drive out Chin people
from their homeland," a villager from Chin state alleged his voice laced
with bitterness.

"The act of the regime shows that it does not care for the livelihood of
the people in Chin state," another villager complained.

The military regime in Burma initiated tea plantation projects under the
motto "Chin state must be a Tea State" in 2003.

Since then, the authorities had reportedly confiscated farmlands of locals
in Chin state and forcibly engaged the locals to spend most of their
working hours in tea plantations.

The authorities have planted 14188 acres of tea in Chin state.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 5, Inter Press Service
'How many monks must die before The UN moves?' - Marwaan Macan-Markar

Mae Sot, Thailand - For one Buddhist monk from Burma, the brutal crackdown
of peaceful street protests in the country last September was anything but
a victory for the military regime.

The force used by the junta exposed its true character to the world. ‘’The
international community really got to know how oppressive the Burmese
military regime is,’’ said the monk, leaning slightly forward on the chair
he was seated on as if to emphasise the point. ‘’That is one of the
advantages of our struggle.’’

‘’There were many people who were killed -- monks, students, the public --
when the military brutally attacked the people who were demonstrating,’’
he went on. ‘’It also showed why the military regime is responsible for
the way Burmese Buddhism has been treated. The history is ugly.’’

But the junta is not the only body that comes to mind as he reflects on
what has happened over four months after the crackdown of street protests,
the likes of which have not been seen in nearly two decades in that
South-east Asian country. ‘’I want to ask the U.N. Security Council how
many monks and people have to be sacrificed before the U.N. Security
Council intervenes,’’ he continues.

And the Ven. Ashin Kovida is the ideal candidate to speak out against both
entities. He was in Rangoon when the junta ordered its heavily armed
troops to fire at the unarmed demonstrators. He was also the head of the
committee of monks that helped shape the march of thousands through the
streets of Rangoon during that brief September cry for economic relief and
political freedom.

The march that the 15-member Buddhist Monks’ Representative Committee led
had over 100,000 people on to the streets of Rangoon, a large number of
whom were monks from the former capital wearing deep maroon robes.
According to the United Nations, 31 people were killed and hundreds were
arrested during the crackdown. But opposition and human rights groups
place a much higher casualty rate, with over 100 deaths and over a
thousand protesters arrested.

The monks were among the victims, too, states one group, the All-Burma
Monks Alliance. Three monks were killed, one of whom was beaten to death,
while another died after being tortured, it revealed in late January. The
fate of 44 monks and nuns who were arrested when the military raided 53
monasteries across Burma, also known as Myanmar, still remain unknown, it
added.

Such oppression appears to have enraged an already beleaguered population.
‘’The people have continued to suffer as they did before September,’’
Kovida said through an interpreter during an interview with IPS. ‘’The
struggle against the military regime will continue this year. There is a
strong desire among the people to do so.’’

Yet the likelihood of Kovida being in the forefront of new public protests
against the junta appears remote. For after the September protests, he had
to flee his country for the safety of Mae Sot, a Thai town on the
Thai-Burma border, to evade arrest.

It was a flight from oppression that took over three weeks. The thin,
24-year-old monk had to hide in a house some 40 miles out of Rangoon to
evade the Burmese forces searching for him, with copies of his photograph
in their hand. For his trip to the Thai border, Kovida had to let the hair
on his shaved head grow, then have it tinted gold, and to complete the
disguise of a hip teenager, he shed his robes for street clothes. He even
sported a bracelet for added affect during the bus-ride to the border.

Currently, there are 23 monks in this border town who have fled Burma
following the crackdown. They, like Kovida, are all young, in their 20s,
confirming a view that gained ground during the September protests that it
were the young angry monks from among the country’s 400,000-strong
Buddhist clergy who led the way to challenge the junta. And 10 of them,
including Kovida, have applied to the U.N. refugee agency to seek
political asylum.

But there is more to Kovida’s story than that of a young monk who dared to
take on one of this region’s brutal regimes. It is a tale of political
enlightenment of a Burmese who grew up in poverty in a small village of 20
houses in the western region of the country. When he arrived in Rangoon in
2003 to further his studies as a monk -- his only route to education -- he
was marginally aware of the military’s notorious record since grabbing
power in a 1962 coup.

‘’During my free time I began to learn English at the British Council and
at the American Centre, and through some friends I was able to see
videotapes of what happened in ’88,’’ said Kovida, referring to the bloody
crackdown of a pro-democracy uprising in Burma in August 1988, where some
3,000 pro-democracy activists were killed by the military.

That political education beyond the walls of the monastery soon led to a
new train of thought. ‘’I started to ask why there was such a big
difference between the poor people in my village and the rich in the
city,’’ he said. ‘’I wanted to know why there were so many poor people
when Burma has so much natural wealth.’’

Before long, his journey of inquiry had led him to the obvious answer. ‘’I
realised that the fault was with our military government,’’ he revealed.
‘’I felt very angry thereafter and felt I had to do something.’’

The junta’s decision to raise the price of oil by 500 percent overnight
with no warning, last August, added to Kovida’s growing rage. ‘’We began
to see more people suffering, children who could not afford to go to
school, more children begging for food on the streets,’’ he said. ‘’Many
monks could not ignore this because these were the people who always gave
the monks food in the mornings.’’

Then came the trigger that saw the transformation of Kovida from a Rangoon
outsider to the protest leader in the city. In early September, Burmese
soldiers clashed with monks who were protesting against the spike in oil
prices in the central town of Pakokku. The soldiers dragged away 10 of the
300 monks who had been protesting and beat them with bamboo sticks.

‘’The military regime failed to apologise for what was done in Pakkoku by
the deadline the monks set, Sep. 17,’’ said Kovida. ‘’We then start to
organise for a protest in Rangoon but realised there was no leadership. A
new committee had to be set up.’’

It was out of such an atmosphere of rage and uncertainty that the Buddhist
Monks’ Representative Committee was born. And young Kovida stepped forward
when the monks in Rangoon called for a leader to head the committee. ‘’Our
plan was for the monks to start marching and lead the crowds,’’ he said.
‘’We agreed that we had to be systematic. And the march had to be
peaceful.’’

____________________________________

February 5, Irrawaddy
More Karen refugees flee to Thai border - Shah Paung

Over 250 mostly Karen villagers from eastern Burma fled recently to the
Thai-Burmese border to escape forced relocation, according to a Karen
relief team leader.

Htoo Klei, secretary of the Karen Office of Relief and Development, based
at the Thai-Burmese border, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that 255 people
had arrived on February 1 at two villages about one day’s walk from Ei Tu
Hta camp on the Burmese side of the Salween River.

The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are now camped at the former
villages of Per Ler Der and Lay Ther Koh. The relief team is not in a
position to provide any food or other supplies for them at present, Htoo
Klei said. However, on February 2 the relief team was able to transport
some plastic sheets to the villagers to shelter them from the rains.

He said that the displaced villagers do not currently intend to seek
refuge at Ei Tu Hta camp— built in mid-2006 and currently housing some
4,000 refugees from northern Karen State and Pegu Division—however they
are not sure how long they can stay at their present locations because
they believe the tatmadaw (Burmese army) are planning to cleanse the area
of villagers.

“The main things that IDPs need are firstly security and secondly food,”
Htoo Klei said.

In late January, four IDP families arrived at the Salween River although
the exact number of persons had not yet been reported to the Karen Office
of Relief and Development, he added.

The four families are originally from Plaw Der Kee village in northern
Karen State. They were forced to relocate to Thee Mu Hta village by
Burmese government soldiers in early January, Htoo Klei said. However,
instead of relocating, the villagers fled to the jungle as they feared the
soldiers would use them as forced labor as there were no other villagers
nearby.

The Burmese military government commenced offensives against civilians in
northern Karen State and Pegu Division in late 2005. Since then, they have
consistently burned down homes and killed dozens of villagers.

According to a January 29 report by the Free Burma Rangers relief team,
more than 30,000 Karen villagers were violently displaced in 2006 and
early 2007. Of those, over 6,000 have since fled to the Thai-Burmese
border, it said. The other 24,000 villagers remain in hiding as they are
continually under attack by Burmese troops.

Villagers in the targeted areas told the Free Burma Rangers: “If the
Burmese army is not stopped or we do not get help, in the future when you
come to Karen State, there will no longer be any Karen people. Please tell
the rest of the world to help us.”

____________________________________

February 5, Irrawaddy
Thailand’s “Long Necks” face resettlement obstacles - Violet Cho

The Thai government is being accused of barring so-called “long-necked”
Padaung people from emigrating to Finland and New Zealand because they are
valuable tourist attractions.

About 20 members of Burma’s Padaung ethnic group living in Thailand were
offered the opportunity of resettlement in Finland and New Zealand. But
they are being denied exit visas, according to the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok.

Kitty McKinsey, the UNHCR’s regional spokeswoman, said Padaung people
approved for resettlement should be treated in the same way as the 200,000
Burmese refugees who have left Thailand since 2005.

“If the Thai government do not want to issue exit visa for them, then it
should offer the same rights they would have in New Zealand, which means
they should have Thai citizenship and full rights as Thai citizens,” she
added.

New Zealand’s Immigration Department has asked Thai authorities to explain
why they have refused to allow the Padaung to leave Thailand. A department
official said no response had yet been received.

Kevin Third, director of the New Zealand Immigration Department’s Refugee
Division, told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the Padaung families were
included in the 2007/2008 resettlement programme.

“Due to forward planning processes the non-issue of exit permits has
resulted in their places being filled by other refugees,” he said.
“Further consideration of these families for resettlement will depend on
whether it might be possible to obtain the necessary exit permits.”

Some observers say the Padaung families are being kept in Thailand because
of the role they play as tourist attractions in northern Thailand.

Phedu, editor of the Karenni newspaper The Kandarawaddy Times, said: “I
think the Thai local authorities do not want to allow Padaung people to
resettle elsewhere because they do not want to lose tourist business.”

The largest Padaung village in Thailand, Nai Soi, is visited annually by
about 1,200 tourists, who pay 250 baht (about US $8) to view the
long-necked residents.

The governor of Mae Hong Son Province in the far north of Thailand,
Thongchai Wongrianthong, claimed the long-necked people living in the
region were happy where they were. He said they lived “like other
refugees, under the protection of Thai laws,” according to a report in
Thailand’s English language daily The Bangkok Post.

One Padaung woman living in Huay Pu Keng, Mae Hong Son Province, said,
however, that she was far from happy with life. She claimed Thai
authorities had stopped providing food aid, and tourists had stopped
coming to her village. “Our future is not certain,” she said.

About 500 long-necked Padaung live in Huay Pu Keng and two other Mae Hong
Son villages, Huay Su Htauk and Nai Soi.

The Padaung people, renowned for the coiled brass rings that many wear
around their necks, are native to Burma's Karenni State, but many fled to
Thailand in 1990 after reportedly being drafted by the Burmese military
for forced labour.

____________________________________

February 5, Agence France Presse
Four Myanmar migrant workers found dead in Thailand: police

Four Myanmar migrant workers have been killed execution-style on a rubber
plantation in southern Thailand, police said Tuesday.

Two men and two women were bound with their hands behind their backs and
shot at point blank range in Surat Thani, about 650 kilometres (400 miles)
south of the capital Bangkok.

Their bodies were found inside their living quarters on the plantation,
police said, declining to speculate on a motive or suspect in the
killings.

About 540,000 migrant workers are registered to work in Thailand, most of
them from Myanmar, according to the labour ministry.

But as many as one million undocumented workers are believed to be in the
kingdom, where they often face exploitation by their employers, according
to rights groups.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 5, Irrawaddy
Burma’s elderly turn to begging for a living - Min Lwin

A group of senior citizens is sitting and chatting together in a circle,
hoping for worshippers to appear at Mandalay’s famed Mahamyatmuni Pagoda
in Mandalay so they can beg for money. They are weak, feeble, and entirely
dependent on these small offerings from the pious and compassionate.

Burma’s elderly are finding it harder to make ends meet [Photo: AFP]

“They can be seen gathering and talking with each other, like pilgrims at
famous pagodas,” said Thura, a resident of Sagaing, a major Buddhist
pilgrimage center in Upper Burma. “When their children are unable to look
after them, they come here to beg for their daily survival.”

Increasingly, Burma’s elderly, including retired civil servants, are
turning to mendicancy to make ends meet. They can be seen near pagodas, in
teashops, and on the streets, seeking to supplement their meager pensions
with the spare kyat of passersby.

Residents of Rangoon and Mandalay say that senior citizens without support
from their families or a place to stay in a monastery face severe
hardship. Facilities for assisting those in their declining years are few,
and most have already reached their full capacity.

“We can accept new residents only after someone else has died,” said an
employee of the Shwe Than Lwin Home for the Aged in Rangoon. “We have only
enough room for 96 people,” added the staff member, who was contacted by
phone.

Kandawgalay Little Sister of the Poor, a Catholic-run organization in
Rangoon’s Mingala Taungnyunt Township, currently cares for 170 elderly
people, according to a senior nun who spoke to The Irrawaddy. “If we have
places for them to stay, we accept,” she said, adding that all funding
comes from local donors.

Rangoon’s Hninzigone Home for the Aged, a non-governmental organization
founded in 1933, is funded by donations from within Burma and abroad. It
is home to 220 elderly people who meet the minimum requirements of being
over the age of 70 and without any other means of support.

In Burma, there are estimated to be 4 million people over the age of
sixty, representing roughly 8 percent of the total population. There are
just 52 homes for the aged across the nation, with a combined capacity to
care for 2,196 senior citizens. All are run by charitable organizations
supported by donations.

Public funding for elderly care is conspicuously absent, with the military
government providing just 15 million kyat (around US $1,200) a year in
cash and medicine to meet the needs of the country’s oldest citizens,
according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar. This compares with the 40
percent of Burma’s national budget that the government spends on the army.

Inadequate care for the elderly has forced many to rely on others who are
also struggling to provide for themselves. “Some older people, leaning on
a healthier elderly person, go from car to car along U Wisaya Road,
because drivers in this area can afford to give money to beggars,”
according to Ma Naing, a resident of Rangoon.

Ma Naing added that insufficient pensions are one of the key reasons so
many have been reduced to seeking handouts.

“The pension I receive now is 800 kyat (60 cents) a month, not even enough
for a meal,” said a retired teacher in Rangoon. “We fulfilled our duty to
our country, but the government has failed to take sufficient
responsibility for retired civil servants.”

The former teacher added that the high cost of transportation since the
regime raised fuel prices late last year has been especially hard on
retired civil servants living in rural Burma, who must go into the city to
collect their pensions. Now, he said, much of the money they receive is
spent on traveling expenses.

“I don’t like to see old people, weak and shaky, asking for money,” said a
civil servant in Rangoon, watching a frail woman in her late seventies
with a plastic basket collecting money from shoppers on their way to the
market. “Life for them is tough.”

____________________________________

February 5, Kachin News Group
Kachin State commander's son to build new airport

Despite Burma being plagued by a steadily deteriorating economy, Ko Kyaw
Thura (Ko Pauk), son of the Burmese junta's northern commander Maj-Gen Ohn
Myint proposes to construct a new airport in Myitkyina, the capital of
Kachin State, a source said.

The airport is to be of international standards and ground measurements
for the airport have already been done.  Some part of a quarter in the
town has been included in the measurement. The quarter needs to be
relocated, said a source close to the military.

He explained that the measurement of the ground has been done for the
third time. The measurements on the first two occasions did not take into
account the places where local residents live.

"From what I gather the measurement done the third has included the areas
where there are homes and compounds of locals who have to be relocated.
It's learnt that half of Shan Ywar (Shan village) and some houses from the
Aye Mya Thar Yar quarter have been included in the last measurement," said
a source close to the army.

Residents from Shan Village may be relocated to a place behind the
infantry Battalion (Kha-La-Ya) No. 21.  Aye Mya Thar Yar quarter is mostly
home to military officers and they too will be relocated to another place
but not the same place as the residents from Shan Village, he added.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

February 5, Irrawaddy
Drug abuse and HIV/AIDS rampant in Kachin State - Aye Lae

The prevalence of HIV in Burma’s Kachin State has reached such proportions
that 90 percent of the 400 prisoners held in jail in Myitkyina, the
capital, are HIV positive, according to the Thailand-based Kachin National
Organization (KNO).

An increasing number of the city’s young people also risk contracting
HIV/AIDS because of their reliance on drugs, said KNO Joint Secretary Uma
Tu in an interview with The Irrawaddy.

He said KNO research showed that 100,000 young Myitkyina people between
the ages of 10 and 40 had died from HIV/AIDS in the past 10 years. Eight
out of 10 young people were using drugs, he said.

Myitkyina residents report finding used hypodermic needles on the premises of
Myitkyina University. "Even teenage girls are now using drugs," said one.

The risk of contracting HIV/AIDS in Myitkyina prison was heightened by the
practice of sharing hypodermic needles, said Tate Naging, of the
Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

Tate Naging, a former political prisoner, said: “Myitkyina prison is
careless about basic health care. It is a place where HIV/AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria are prevalent.”

The high rate of drug-users among the young people of Kachin State is
ascribed by many to the hopelessness they feel in their lives. Corrupt
officials profit from their addiction, say observers.

"Kachin communities must take this issue seriously," said Uma Tu.
“Otherwise we cannot hope for a healthy and strong new generation."

The majority of the state's 1.2 million inhabitants are ethnic Kachin,
also known as Jinghpaw, Rawang, Lisu, Zaiwa, Lawngwaw, Lachyit. The state
is also officially home to other ethnic groups, such as Burman and Shan.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 5, Irrawaddy
Activists call for Beijing Olympics boycott - Wai Moe

As the Beijing Summer Olympic Games 2008 nears its opening ceremony on
August 8, human rights activists have launched a campaign to boycott the
games; one of the main reasons being China’s support for the Burmese
military junta.

A Web site, beijingolympicsboycott.com, lists ten reasons to boycott the
Beijing Olympics, including China’s involvement in Darfur and its human
rights record.

The Web site has cleverly remodeled the insignia of the Olympics—the five
interconnected rings—to read “NO” in each of the rings.

Regarding Burma, the Web site states: “China funds the Burmese regime,
arms it and protests it from international pressure. China builds Burma’s
roads and buys its oil, gas and timber, but China won't prod the Burmese
government to allow even basic reforms. China uses its veto power to block
the UN Security Council from doing anything meaningful for the Burmese
people.”

A lobby group based in Washington, DC, the US Campaign for Burma recently
said in a report titled “China’s Support Blocks International Diplomacy
and Keeps Burma’s Regime in Power,” that China is one of the largest arms
suppliers to the Burmese military junta. Since 1989, China has provided
the Burmese regime with weapons and military equipment valued at over US
$2 billion. “Arms shipments continue to this day,” said the group.

The group reported that in return for the Chinese government’s protection,
the Burmese regime discount natural gas from the world market rate of
around $7.30 per million BTU (British Thermal Units), to just $4.28 per
million BTU for the energy-hungry Chinese government.

“China is the only country with the ability to shield Burma’s military
junta from international intervention,” said the group. “China vetoed a
peaceful UN Security Council resolution— that had garnered enough votes to
pass—that would have strengthened the [UN] Secretary-General’s mandate to
resolving the crisis in Burma.”

Chinese intellectuals have also joined in the debate. A few days later
after the brutal crackdown on Buddhist monk-led demonstrations in Burma,
Chinese bloggers condemned their government’s support for the junta.

A Chinese pro-democracy activist, Fang Jue, said in an article on Web site
wenxuecity.com that “China is responsible for the Burmese
dictatorship—China is the only country who can speak to the Burmese
military regime, but the Chinese government chose to hold back the UN
Security Council’s action to Burma.”

Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New
York said at the time that China does not want Burma’s situation to get
more intensified and does not want the Burmese military government to be
overthrown by the protestors either.

On September 29, The Washington Post warned in its editorial of a
potential Olympic boycott over Chinese foreign policy, particular the
Burma issue. It noted that China must have realized that one unintended
consequence of hosting the 2008 Olympics is unprecedented global scrutiny
of Beijing’s retrograde foreign policy.

“The failure of President Hu Jintao’s leadership to forthrightly condemn
the repression [in Burma] has had the effect of giving the junta a green
light,” said The Post, concluding: “Burma’s saffron-robed monks will join
Darfur’s refugees in haunting the Beijing Olympics—which are on their way
to becoming a monument to an emerging superpower’s immorality.”

____________________________________

February 5, Mizzima News
Burmese and Indian activists demand release of 34 ethnic rebels - Nem Davies

India based Burmese activists today demanded that the Indian government
immediately release 34 Burmese ethnic rebels, who on February 8 will
complete 10 years in prison in India.

Over 50 Burmese activists and their Indian supporters today staged a
protest rally in Kolkata as the ethnic Arakan and Karen rebels, are
currently lodged in Kolkata's Presidency Jail, and are being tried in the
City Sessions Court.

At the rally activists demanded that India immediately release the ethnic
rebels, as they have been held for the past 10 years without a proper
trial that could ensure justice.

"They [the rebels] are not terrorists. They are freedom fighters of Burma,
who were fighting the brutal military regime. So, we are calling for their
immediate release. We are demonstrating here so that people coming to the
court will know about them," said Kim, a spokesperson of the Burmese
activists.

The 34 rebels, who were arrested on February 8, 1998, at Andaman and
Nicobar Islands, were initially held for eight years in the island,
without a proper trial.

Based on the appeal made by human rights activists, the Supreme Court of
India in October 2006 ordered the transfer of the rebels to Kolkata's
Presidency jail and to conduct a day to day trial at the City Sessions
Court.

During the year-long trial at the City Sessions Court several key
witnesses from the prosecutor's side failed to appear to testify, the
defense counsel for the 34 rebels told Mizzima.

The trial, however, stopped abruptly when the City Sessions Court judge
Ashim Kumar Roy was suddenly transferred. The trial was last held in
September 2007.

"Actually there is no trial being held today. We moved an application
before the court that the trial should restart or if this court has no
power of holding the trial then the case should revert back to the
concerned court for trial," Akshay Kumar Sharma, one of the defense
counsels told Mizzima.

Sharma added that the court had ordered February 8 as the next date for
argument on the application and for the Central Bureau of Intelligence
(CBI), the main prosecutor, to reply.

"It has been 10 years that they [the rebels] are languishing in jail and
again the trial is halted because of lack of a judge. The trial has been
halted for three to four months now. We are demanding the immediate
resumption of the trial by appointing a new judge," Kim an activist said.

"Or else the case should be transferred to the high court," Kim added.

Despite submitting the application today, the defense counsel said the
actual resumption of the trial may still take time.

Analyzing the hearings conducted throughout 2007, Sharma said with key
witnesses from the prosecutors failing to appear, the case is in favour of
the rebels, who claim to be freedom fighters and not gunner runners. They
are unfortunate victims of India's Intelligence agency.

According to the rebels, they were double crossed by Indian Intelligence,
who promised them the use of Landfall Island of Andaman and Nicobar as a
base to fight the Burmese military junta in return for monitoring and
sharing information on Chinese naval bases in Coco Island in the Bay of
Bengal.

However, the rebels said, upon arrival on Landfall Island, the Indian
intelligence killed their leaders and arrested them claiming that they
were gun runners, who were supplying weapons to Indian insurgents
operating in the Northeast India.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 5, Agence France Presse
US expands sanctions on Myanmar regime family, tycoon

The United States said Tuesday it was tightening financial sanctions
against a network tied to Myanmar's military junta, citing continuing
human rights violations and political repression.

The Treasury Department said its action targets the financial network of
Tay Za, identifying him as a "Burmese business tycoon and regime henchman"
who is an arms dealer with "close ties" to Myanmar's military junta.

Also affected are family members of regime leaders and key additional
individuals and businesses that are part of Tay Za's financial network,
the department said in a statement.

"We are tightening financial sanctions against Tay Za, an arms dealer and
financial henchman of Burma's repressive junta," said Adam Szubin,
director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

President George W. Bush "has made clear that we will continue to take
action against the military junta and those who prop it up so long as
human rights violations continue and democracy is suppressed," Szubin
said.

Bush recently warned the United States would spearhead a global campaign
to step up sanctions against Myanmar's military regime if it continues to
ignore calls for a democratic transition.

The Treasury said that the action targets Tay Za's Htoo Group of
Companies, which carries out key projects on behalf of Myanmar's junta,
including the purchase of military equipment and aircraft for the its
military.

Among the individuals named Tuesday is Aung Thet Mann, a director of Tay
Za's Htoo Group of Companies.

Aung Thet Mann is the son of General Thura Shwe Mann, a senior official in
the government and a member of the State Peace and Development Council,
the Treasury said.

"Tay Za has used his business relationship with Aung Thet Mann to win
favorable business contracts from the Burmese junta," the department said.

OFAC also designated Thiha, Tay Za's brother and business partner, and U
Kyaw Thein, a director of Tay Za's business ventures in Singapore.

The companies designated include Myanmar Avia Export Company Ltd., Ayer
Shwe Wah Company Limited and Pavo Aircraft Leasing Pte. Ltd. in Singapore.

Four spouses of senior government officials have also been named: Khin Lay
Thet, the wife of General Thura Shwe Mann; Myint Myint Ko, the wife of
Construction Minister Saw Tun; Tin Lin Myint, the wife of
Lieutenant-General Ye Myint; and Myint Myint Soe, the wife of Foreign
Affairs Minister Nyan Win.

The deparment's designation action against the individuals and firms
freezes any assets they may have under US jurisdiction and bars Americans
from conducting business with them at the risk of heavy fines and prison
time.

____________________________________

February 5, Mizzima News
Dangers for journalists in Burma on the rise

An annual report on press freedom around the world by a leading watchdog
organization concludes that there was no improvement in 2007 in the
working conditions of journalists in Burma. In several respects, the
report adds, the situation has worsened in the aftermath of last year's
protests and subsequent government response.

Released yesterday, the Committee to Protect Journalist's (CPJ) report,
entitled Attacks on the Press in 2007, states that 2007 has the potential
to be the deadliest year on record for journalists, with the death of
Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai on the streets of Rangoon in September
contributing to the tally.

Though Nagai's death is the only journalist fatality chronicled in Burma
in 2007, the report emphasizes that the pervading atmosphere of
censorship, threats and arrests contribute to Burma being "one of the
world's most repressive media environments".

"Censorship of the media was pervasive, with no improvement since CPJ
ranked Burma as the world's second-most censored country, after North
Korea, in a May 2006 special report," CPJ says of the situation in Burma.

According to CPJ, six journalists were arrested in Burma for their
chronicling of September's protests and the military's response, with one
of those detained still remaining in custody. However, inclusive of the
continued detention of 77-year old U Win Tin, CPJ ranks Burma as the sixth
leading jailer of journalists in the world.

During last year's turmoil, the report states that journalists were
subjected to ever increasing forms of repression and intimidation by the
state sector. These measures are said to include the cutting of phone
lines, pulling the plug on the Internet, the closure of independent
journals and news outlets and the arbitrary confiscation of photographic
and recording equipment.

CPJ maps an expanding and darkening cloud for media freedom encompassing a
large swath of Eurasia and extending from Russia in the west, covering
much of South and Central Asia and culminating with China in the east.

The report is highly critical of China, with regard to both the domestic
environment and China's influence abroad.

China is often viewed as the dominant foreign actor inside Burma, and
several governments and activists are urging the international community
to pressure China on foreign policy and human rights reforms or risk an
embarrassment at this summer's Beijing Summer Olympics.

"If the Olympic Games occur while China is still the word's leading jailer
of journalists, still censoring and controlling access to the Internet,
still restricting the global media, then it will have demonstrated that
it's possible to join, even lead, the international community without
honoring the basic right to express ideas and circulate information
freely," reads the report.

However a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. told
reporters in October that "irrelevant issues should not be linked to the
Beijing Olympic games."

The true number of those killed and detained in Burma last year, due to
the lack of transparency inside the country, remains uncertain. The
problem of an accurate estimate for journalists is further obfuscated by
the role, and classification, of citizen journalists during and after the
uprising.

Thus far CPJ recognizes the deaths of 64 journalists in 2007, with 22
additional cases still under investigation. The current high water mark
was in 1994, which witnessed the confirmed killings of 66 journalists in
the line of work.

The U.S. War on Terror is largely responsible for the spike in journalist
deaths around the world since 2002, with CPJ documenting 31 deaths of
journalists in Iraq alone for 2007. Somalia places a distant second, with
seven journalists killed for their work last year.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 5, Mizzima News
Naypyitaw paralyzed as an ailing Than Shwe clings to power - Larry Jagan

Burma's junta is in trouble as it faces the future with an ailing general
in charge. Senior General Than Shwe is sinking fast, according to sources
close to him. "He's losing his mind – forgetting who has been cashiered in
the past, becoming increasingly reclusive and trusting no one around him,"
said a senior military source in Naypyitaw, Burma's new capital – four
hundred kilometers north of Rangoon.

At the same time tension within the army is beginning to show. Many
officers are resentful that there have been no military promotions for
more than eight months because the governing State Peace and Development
Council has failed to meet due to Than Shwe's health and mood swings.

Continuous intelligence failures have also forced the senior general to
reappoint Major General Kyaw Win, his former deputy intelligence chief
under General Khin Nyunt, to a 500,000 kyat salary posting to run the
training school. Several other former intelligence officers have also been
reappointed, according to sources close to former intelligence officials.

Than Shwe is worried that current military intelligence operations, set up
after Khin Nyunt and most of his military intelligence officers were
sacked and many given stiff jail sentences, may not be up to the task.
They have been unable to find those behind several recent bombings,
including one in Naypyitaw. They also failed to predict and prevent last
year's mass demonstrations.

But the senior general's woes don't stop there. The economy is continuing
to deteriorate rapidly while the international community steps up pressure
on the regime to reform. The European Union is expected to increase
selective sanctions against the generals in the next few months while U.S.
President George Bush vows to keep the Burma issue as a high priority in
the dying days of his administration.

In the meantime a group of prominent lawyers in Europe and the United
States are preparing in the coming months to lodge a petition against the
junta at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, alleging the
crackdown on the monks in September was a crime against humanity.

"There's total inertia in Naypyitaw, no one dares make a decision, even in
regard to the smallest matters, without approval from the top, which is
rarely forthcoming," a senior government official confided to a Western
diplomat recently.

"Nothing is happening at all, everyone is waiting for Than Shwe to die,"
according to a senior Asian government minister, who recently met his
Burmese counterpart at an ASEAN function outside the country.

Than Shwe's health is rapidly worsening, according to diplomats, who have
seen him recently. "He may be getting Alzheimer's – he periodically
forgets things; he recently asked where several officers were, all of whom
were sacked last year during the mass retirements of middle ranking
officers," according to a government source in Naypyitaw.

"He's rapidly going senile, and now has increasing heart problems,"
according to another government source. He already suffers from chronic
diabetes and has regular bouts of hypertension. Several years ago he also
suffered a mild stroke. Now with heart coronary problems and dementia, he
is becoming increasingly incapacitated.

Singapore doctors have been making regular visits to Than Shwe's residence
in Naypyitaw over the last few months, according to Southeast Asian
diplomatic sources.

"For almost a decade now Than Shwe has refused to have his annual medical
check-up done by Burmese army doctors for fear that this would leave him
vulnerable and in danger of being ousted as he did to General Saw Maung
[some fifteen years ago, on the pretext of suffering a nervous
break-down]," a former military doctor told Mizzima on the condition of
anonymity.

Last month he had a minor cardiac operation, in Naypyitaw. Singapore
doctors went to the capital to perform a balloon angioplasty. A major
quadruple heart bypass operation though has been scheduled for later this
month in Singapore – as the facilities in Burma are too primitive.

This latest health problem has caused Than Shwe to postpone the quarterly
meeting of the junta until the end of the month -- the first meeting they
will have had since the brutal crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations
last August and September in response to price rises.

"The generals have not met for more than eight months, since before the
August and September protests, so during that time, apart from the
appointment of three regional commanders, there have been no promotions,"
a Chiang Mai-based Burmese analyst, Win Min, told Mizzima.

That is going to be the first order of the day. Than Shwe also realizes
that most senior generals, including regional commanders, actually owe
their personal allegiance to Maung Aye and Thura Shwe Mann and not him.
This is beginning to trouble him as he fears that his immediate
subordinates may be planning a putsch against him.

"For the past twelve months, Than Shwe has been preoccupied with
sidelining Maung Aye," a military source told Mizzima. "He has been
relatively successful in this, but Maung Aye constantly manages to harass
him, block promotions, or disrupt decisions in a fit of spite," he added.

In the latest show of strength, he ordered the Mayor of Rangoon to take
down billboards across town urging people to "oppose those pessimistic
axe-handles who are relying on America" because he objected to the use of
America, preferring instead not to distinguish between foreign enemies.

After the promotions Than Shwe plans a major cabinet reshuffle with many
of the old guard being forced to retire, to allow the regional commanders
to be appointed to some of these senior posts, and to allow younger
officers their chance to become commanders in the field. Until that
happens, government administration is at a standstill, according to
diplomats in Rangoon.

To make matters worse, many Burmese astrologers are predicting black times
for the senior general. The solar eclipse later this week is seen as a bad
omen for Than Shwe's health and family fortunes. While the wily old
general has survived previous astrological predictions of doom, his grip
on power is being increasingly weakened by ill-health and inertia.

"Burma remains a social volcano about to erupt," a major Burmese
businessman told Mizzima on condition of anonymity. "It's a cauldron
boiling away underneath," according to a senior European diplomat based in
Bangkok who has followed Burmese affairs for more than a decade. "Sooner
or later it's going to explode," he predicted.

____________________________________

February 5, Bangkok Post
Burma: Urgent need for reform [Editorial]

The latest weaseling actions of the ruling Burmese military dictators have
been widely condemned, and rightly so. The regime specifically broke a
solemn promise to the United Nations by secret arrests of people it
considers to be dangerous dissidents, known in most countries as
democrats. It further cut off a beaten-down population from the
information and cross-border contacts of the internet. It has completely
stalled the talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after promising
they would lead to reconciliation. Any of these is a shameful act. Taken
together, they show that the Burmese regime has no intention of reform.

All of this presents a difficult problem for the United Nations, the
decent members of the world community and especially for Burma's
neighbours.

There is only so much pressure that can be put on a brutal dictatorship
without harming the innocent people it is repressing. US and European
government sanctions have proved to be largely tokenism. The generals who
rule Burma have little need for US bank accounts, and little taste for
visiting Europe. Still, it is discouraging when governments openly aid the
Burmese dictators in search of profits, influence or both.

China has long been a master at supporting Burma and providing aid, even
as Beijing claims it does not interfere in any country's internal affairs.
No other government has quite matched the hypocrisy of the Chinese, but
several Asean neighbours have come close. Singapore has long provided
financial services to highly questionable Burmese businessmen known to be
close to the ruling regime.

The Thaksin government contracted to install satellite communications that
benefited Shin Corporation, while supplying sweet loans to Burma to
finance the deal.

Now New Zealand has joined the enablers of Burmese dictatorship. Prime
Minister Helen Clark argued unpersuasively yesterday about a Thaksinesque
cellphone project by state-owned Kordia. It may have been a small project,
but the New Zealand firm installed mobile phone equipment for Myanmar Post
and Telecommunications. Mrs Clark argued that the facilities would be used
by democrats to get the news of anti-regime actions out to the world. It
is difficult to believe Mrs Clark is so isolated from reality that she
thinks a regime that closed down the entire system of internet blogs to
stop one democratic writer, would allow others to send photos and images
on their own cellphone system.

Daw Suu Kyi, who has long supported commercial boycotts even if they
ultimately harm Burmese people, said her sham talks with government
liaison minister Aung Kyi have gone nowhere. This should not surprise
anyone, but it should serve as a warning. The word of the regime has
little meaning.

As reported last Saturday in these pages, Burma ''is playing hardball''
with the United Nations. It has expelled a permanent representative,
refused permission for UN officials to travel _ and of course it has lied
to UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari about talks, about Daw Suu Kyi and about
arresting dissidents.

The way forward is difficult. But it is increasingly hard to credit calls,
such as that by Australia's ex-foreign minister Gareth Evans last week. In
a report for the International Crisis Group (ICG), Mr Evans played down
further sanctions, emphasising the need for incentives to the Burmese
generals to reform.

Burma may hate megaphone diplomacy, but there is evidence it works. For
example, the regime stopped killing monks when the murders attracted world
attention last year. Deserving support is the ICG call to hold an
international meeting in Indonesia, along the lines of the one that
kick-started talks on Cambodia in 1988. Pro-democracy neighbours like
Thailand have a responsibility to support diplomatic pressure on Burma.
But democratic countries like Japan, the United States and members of the
European Community have a duty to keep the pressure. Most especially, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must use the bully pulpit to urge the
dictators to change. Without all this, the generals simply will not
reform.

____________________________________

February 5, Irrawaddy
It’s Do-or-Die time for NLD - Kyaw Zwa Moe

My heart sank last week when I heard the words of pro-democracy icon Aung
San Suu Kyi: “Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

It’s a discouraging, inconvenient truth that Suu Kyi shared with her
National League for Democracy colleagues when the regime allowed her to
meet with them briefly last week.

The words of the detained opposition leader indicate that the political
state of Burma is moving from bad to worse to the worst.

Her words came out of her frustration with the ongoing “talks” with the
ruling military regime. The regime appointed a liaison officer to deal
with Suu Kyi after it faced mounting internal pressure following its harsh
crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations last September.

Since then, the liaison officer, ex-Maj-Gen Aung Kyi, has met with Suu Kyi
four times, but the meetings haven’t gone beyond trivial topics.

According to the NLD, Suu Kyi requested to meet with the head of the
military junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, but she has received no response.

Suu Kyi also “is not pleased with the talks” mainly because of the lack of
a time frame, NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said after he met with her last
Wednesday. According to one NLD member, she does not want to give false
hope to the people of Burma.

Yes, it’s important for a leader not to give false hope to the people.

The Burmese people heard her statement, and they appreciate her candor.
But they also have a right not to lower their expectations of her and the
NLD leadership.

Specifically, the people have a right to hear what type of substantive
strategy Suu Kyi and her colleagues have to break the current political
stalemate with the stubborn generals. Most Burmese would support a more
pro-active NLD policy with its own guidelines, strategy and deadlines for
taking the struggle for democracy to a higher level.

Such expectations from the public are only fair. The NLD is the main
opposition party. It received about 82 percent of the vote in the 1990
nationwide election. The party has a clear mandate to carry out its
mission to implement democracy in Burma.

The NLD has tried, but it has failed to create a unified policy that the
people can rally behind. The party has suffered from a sustained, brutal
assault waged by the generals ever since the 88 uprising.

The senior NLD members are in their 70s and 80s. Many have served time in
prison. They have earned the people’s respect and sympathy. The leaders
have a strong commitment to the movement.

However, to be frank, this does not of itself qualify them to be the
leaders of the party and the democracy movement at this time. A large
segment of the public is frustrated, searching for new ways to break the
impasse that has gripped Burma for years.

In its 20-year-hisotry, the NLD has been more political than practical,
especially during the years when Suu Kyi has been under house arrest; she
has been detained for 12 years of the past 18 years.

Some observers believe many of the NLD’s senior leaders regard themselves
as “caretakers,” rather than freedom fighters whose goal is to keep the
party alive in the absence of its real leader.

Meanwhile, the junta has effectively destroyed or impeded the work of the
broader pro-democracy movement to the point where the 2007 uprising
occurred more or less without the active participation of the NLD
leadership, although the party’s rank and file membership took part in the
demonstrations.

The NLD, despite the brutality of the generals, must work harder to
formulate new, meaningful policies that can rally the Burmese people.
Otherwise, despite its past accomplishments, it has failed.

NLD critics take the line: “Without Suu Kyi, the party is nothing.” It
should not, and must not, be like that. The party, its members and the
public need a broad reliable leadership within an effective opposition
party.

As an example, look at South Africa’s apartheid struggle. When the head of
the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, was in prison, other
leaders carried on the movement. So should the NLD.

Last week, Suu Kyi told her colleagues to move forward without her,
according to a senior NLD member. He quoted her as saying: sometimes she
will lead; sometimes she will follow others’ leadership in the party.

Suu Kyi also said sometimes the party needs to push and sometimes it needs
to pull, and if it is necessary, everyone needs to be ready to give up
everything.

Golden words! It’s time for the NLD leadership to take her words to heart.
It’s time for bold ideas and action. The party must be in the forefront of
the pro-democracy movement. The party’s mission is not to keep itself
alive, but to keep the country alive.

It’s a do-or-die time for the NLD leadership and the Burmese people.