BurmaNet News, April 12-14, 2008

[Editor]

April 12-14, 2008 Issue # 3443


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Grenade injures five during Myanmar New Year: state media
AFP: Small taste of freedom for revellers at Myanmar festival
Kachin News Group: Junta includes underage people in voters' list
Kaladan Press Network: SPDC's referendum training concluded in Arakan
Narinjara News: 132 model village families arrive in Maungdaw

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: No light at end of Thai-Myanmar smuggling tunnel
Bangkok Post: Human smugglers fingered

BUSINESS / TRADE
Sri Lanka Daily News: 100,000 MT of rice from Myanmar

DRUGS
Mainstream Weekly: Tackling Narcotics in Myanmar, US Style

ASEAN
The Jakarta Post: ULK expects tough action from ASEAN on Myanmar

REGIONAL
Channel News Asia: FM Yeo says Myanmar's constitution will not be to the
liking of many

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: UN rights expert calls Myanmar vote plan "surreal"
New York Sun: Burma refugees relaunch lives in New York City
The Press Trust of India: Activists demand UN action to end 'suppression'
in Myanmar

OPINION
Mizzima News: Junta's U- turn and future Sino-Burma relation
Asian Tribune: A paradox of bulletocracy and representative democracy in
Burma
Asian Tribune: Burma's referendum and election woes : Is there a way out
for the opposition?
Guardian UK: Every trick in the book ¨C Benedict Rogers
Canberra Times: Blame for Burma must spread further than China

PRESS RELEASE
BIN: Flow of Japanese financial aid continued after Saffron Revolution,
government maintains investment in Yetagun gas field
HRW: Thailand: Migrants¡¯ deaths spotlight exploitation, government should
end discriminatory policies and improve protection



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 14, Agence France Presse
Grenade injures five during Myanmar New Year: state media

Five people have been injured in a grenade attack in eastern Myanmar,
state media reported Monday, after authorities accused ethnic insurgents
of trying to disrupt Buddhist New Year celebrations.

The Myanma Ahlin newspaper said four men and one woman were hurt when a
man, whom the paper claimed was a member of the Shan State Army (SSA)
rebel group, tossed the bomb into a gathering early Sunday.

"An insurgent threw a hand grenade while they were enjoying a traditional
party in southern Shan state," the Myanmar-language newspaper said, adding
that the assailant escaped.

State media in military-run Myanmar have over the past week accused ethnic
rebel groups of trying to upset New Year celebrations, which are known as
Thingyan and began on Sunday.

No other incidents have been reported so far.

Ethnic rebels in the SSA control swathes of eastern Myanmar, where they
have fought for autonomy for nearly 60 years.

Myanmar has been hit by a series of small bomb blasts and rebel shootings
since December, with most blamed on a different ethnic insurgent group,
the Karen National Union (KNU).

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, has signed ceasefires with 17
ethnic armed groups, but the KNU and the SSA are among the few yet to sign
a peace deal with the junta.

The military often justifies its long grip on power by citing the nation's
decades-long battles with a score of armed groups around the country.

____________________________________

April 13, Agence France Presse
Small taste of freedom for revellers at Myanmar festival ¨C Hla Hla Htay

Young women in miniskirts walk down the street, catching the eye of punks
with red and blue hair, as Myanmar lets loose for an annual festival when
the military allows a tiny breath of freedom.

The Thingyan water festival -- marking the Buddhist new year also being
celebrated this week across Thailand, Cambodia and Laos -- is the only
time of year when the ruling junta allows people to assemble freely.

In Myanmar, gatherings of more than five people are illegal, while the
government encourages people to dress conservatively in traditional
longyis.

But this week young people will literally splash out on halterneck tops,
blue jeans, and modern hairstyles as they turn the city into a
freewheeling water fight for six days.

Prominent families, major businesses, and nightclubs have built wooden
platforms called pandals along the sidewalks, where bands play music and
water pours down on passers by.

Families and groups of friends also hire cars to drive around the
country's main city, splashing water out the windows as they go.

The festival begins in earnest on Sunday, but on Saturday hundreds of
young people were already taking to the streets.

"People can't wait to be happy. That's why many cars are coming out to
enjoy the pandals. The authorities allowed many pandals this year," Lwin,
a young taxi driver told AFP.

"It's the first time that people can feel happy, that they can feel free,
since the protests," he said.

In September 2007, tens of thousands of people ignored threats from the
military and followed revered Buddhist monks in marches through Yangon,
protesting against the regime.

Security forces cracked down, killing at least 31 people according to the
United Nations. Since then, even street vendors have been pushed off the
sidewalks as security across the city has tightened.

The regime has issued repeated warnings of potential bombings or other
attacks during the festival, but has not taken any major steps to rein in
the celebrations.

State media have, however, issued warnings for people not to shout slogans
that would "create public unrest by destroying national solidarity."

Lwin, like many young people here, brushed off the warnings.

"We want to enjoy ourselves freely at the water festival every year. There
were some warnings of bomb alerts or something like that. But who cares?
It's our traditional festival," he said.

Plainclothes security forces are visible around the city, patrolling the
700 pandals that the government allowed this year.

"We are on duty all the time during water festival. We worry something
might happen and we don't want any problems," one police official said on
condition of anonymity.

Although Myanmar is one of the world's poorest countries, many people will
spend their savings during Thingyan to hire a car, buy new clothes, or pay
for access to the most popular pandals.

"The style and the clothing changes year by year," said Maung Maung, a
young vendor who planned to hire a jeep to drive around the pandals.

"We will start riding tomorrow. It costs 10,000 kyats (nine dollars) for
each day. I will spend all the money that I have saved," he said.

Of course some things don't change during the festival.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the more than 1,800 other
political prisoners in Myanmar will remain locked up.

The festivities will run near Aung San Suu Kyi's home on University
Avenue, where she has been confined for 12 of the last 18 years.

But police remain at the barricades blocking off her home from the passing
cars, and there will be no revellers allowed near her gate, which remains
locked shut.

____________________________________

April 14, Kachin News Group
Junta includes underage people in voters' list

The Burmese military regime has included thousands of underage people in
Northern Burma in the voters' list it has prepared countrywide for the
constitutional referendum on May 10, according to its draft figure.

The draft figure has listed a total of 213,000 voters including people
less than 18 years in Myitkyina Township the capital of Kachin State. The
list has been handed over to Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, Minister of Communication
and Post &Telegraph early last month by local members of the Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), USDA sources said.

Among the voters over 97,000 are from among members of the USDA and the
junta has included over 33,000 members under 18 years old, according to a
vote station member in Myitkyina.

Kachin capital Myitkyina Township has the maximum number of eligible
voters in Kachin State and the township has 13 sub-townships in the west
parts of the Mali Hka (Irrawaddy River).

The draft voters' list was prepared by local USDA members and 103 polling
stations were set up in Myitkyina Township, the local vote commission
said.

Of them, the highest number of 38 polling stations is being set up only in
Myitkyina downtown and the rest will be in other sub-townships and
villages including one polling booth in Myitkyina Prison, the sources
added.

All polling stations will be constructed in the same format and polling
booths will be divided into three sections such as for 1,000 persons, from
1,000 to 2,000 people and from 2,000 to 3,000, people according to the
Vote Commission.

Members of polling stations and the Vote Commission who were appointed by
the regime in Myitkyina assume that the regime may convert the current
voters' list of Myitkyina Township as pre-votes.

At the moment in Myitkyina Township, special representatives and
administrators of the regime's township to village level are busy with
meetings on the constitutional referendum, local sources said.

____________________________________

April 12, Kaladan Press Network
SPDC's referendum training concluded in Arakan

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has imparted training on
the referendum to family members of TPDC, United Solidarity and
Development Association, or USDA, People's militia, women's affairs, fire
bridge and township municipalities from April 9 to 11, said a local
teacher in Minbya.

The training on the referendum had to do with how to vote in the polling
booths and how to persuade the people to cast "yes votes".

They (authorities) have given training in townships of Mrauk-U, Kyauktaw,
Rathedaung and Minbya, but the training was coordinated by members of the
Township Peace and Development Council, or TPDC, District Peace and
Development Council, or DPDC and Village Peace and Development Council, or
VPDC.

Beside, the authorities collected the list of members who are 18 years old
and made lists in three categories, said a source close to DPDC from
Kyauktaw.

In the first category are members of USDA, TPDC, Fire Bridge, People's
militia, women's affairs and the members of township Municipal
Corporation. They don't need to sign a paper saying that they would cast
"yes votes". They have been provided a booklet detailing how to vote and
facts about the referendum.

The second category is for ordinary people, who do not have to sign on a
paper either that they would cast "yes votes" in the referendum. But, they
have to promise to cast the "yes vote".

The third category are the opponents of the government, like the National
League for Democracy, or NLD members, who need to sign on a form which
mentions that they would support the draft constitutional referendum. They
were not provided the paper which the authorities provided to the number
one category.

The training for the referendum was completed early in March, in Maungdaw
and Buthidaung Township with village elders and VPDC members who had been
selected as referendum commissioners by DPDC, said a VPDC member in
Maungdaw Township.

____________________________________

April 12, Narinjara News
132 model village families arrive in Maungdaw

132 families of model village settlers from Burma proper arrived on
Thursday at the western Burmese border town Maungdaw to settle in a
government-sponsored village, said a resident from Maungdaw.

He said, "We went to Du Shara Dan model village to receive and welcome the
model villagers when they arrived at the village from the neighboring
township of Buthidaung in government vehicles."

The model villagers arrived at Du Shara Dan model village, located on the
outskirts of Maungdaw, in the evening of Thursday and many government
civil servants and members of government-backed organizations went to the
village to welcome them.

"The model villagers came from Rangoon to Sittwe by ocean liner and they
proceeded from Sittwe to Buthidaung by ferry ship. After that, they came
to Maungdaw from Buthidaung in government vehicles," he said.

Within the 132 families there are about 500 people, mostly women and
children. They were given property, including farms, cows, and tractors,
for their livelihoods soon after they arrived in the model village.

Burmese military authorities have been setting up many model villages in
northern Arakan State with Burmese settlers brought in from Burma proper.

According to a government source, over 40 model villages have been set up
by the military government, with over 20,000 settlers, in the three
townships of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathidaung, in northern Arakan
State.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 13, Reuters
No light at end of Thai-Myanmar smuggling tunnel ¨C Nopporn Wong-Anan

Thailand beefed up its border checks this week after 54 illegal Myanmar
migrants died seeking a better life.

But the move will do little to stop economic refugees like Seng.

"We have a bad government. I cannot save anything from the crops I produce
because soldiers take most of it away," Seng, 44, told Reuters in the
southern border town of Ranong where the migrants were found suffocated in
a container truck.

Without the money he sends home from working on a small fishing boat,
Seng's three children would not survive.

"Only when Myanmar has a good government, will I return to live there,"
said Seng, who has not seen his family in four years.

The fate of the 120 people smuggled in a stifling hot 20-ft container
truck last week -- of whom 54 suffocated -- has again focused attention on
the migrant labour issue in Thailand.

Sharing a 2,400 km (1,490 miles) porous border with Myanmar, Thailand is
home to some 2 million migrant workers, mostly from its western neighbour,
and only a quarter of them are legally registered.

With Thais shunning mundane, dirty and dangerous work on farms, fishing
boats and building sites, and Myanmar's generals refusing to fix a
crippled economy, Thai officials say the influx of cheap, migrant labour
will continue.

"As long as people are struggling to find a better life, we cannot stop
them from entering Thailand," Ranong Governor Kanchanapa Keemun told
Reuters.

Ranong, which shares a 170 km (105 mile) water and land border with
Myanmar's fishing port city of Victoria Point, is one of the busiest
transit points for migrants, aid workers say.

"Ranong is the biggest supplier of migrant workers to the rest of the
country," legal aid worker Suwat Ongsomwhang said.

"If it were a contest, migrant workers would be Ranong's OTOP," he said,
referring to the acronym for a government programme promoting well-known
products from villages.

ORDERS FOR MIGRANTS

Employers across the country, from hotels on the resort island of Phuket
to factories in Bangkok and fishing boats in the Gulf of Thailand, place
orders for migrants through brokers in Ranong and Victoria Point, Suwat
said.

Once the brokers gather enough workers, they are smuggled across rivers or
through forested hills to Ranong from Victoria Point, he said.

Various tactics are used to evade border checks. The illegal immigrants
are jammed into container trucks, hidden under fresh produce in pickup
trucks, or in fishing boats.

The 54 who died last week were trapped for several hours in a 20-ft
container after the refrigeration system broke down.

The Migrant Worker Group, a coalition of NGOs, said it has documented 10
cases in which more than 100 people had died being transported to Thailand
in the past year.

Ranong, the least populated of Thailand's 76 provinces with 180,000 Thais,
is home to 50,000 registered and 20,000 unregistered Myanmar migrants,
Governor Kanchanapa said.

But Suwat said other estimates suggest the entire Myanmar population in
Ranong could be three times higher as most employers under-report the
number of migrants they hire.

Many migrants work in rubber plantations or confined at fishing piers
where their presence is not visible to law enforcers, leaving their
treatment a matter of employers' discretion.

Migrant workers, legal or not, do not enjoy the same minimum wage
guarantees as Thai workers, most earning about 3,000 baht ($100) a month,
half the payment required by law for Thais.

Only those who are registered, a quarter of the two million migrants
working across Thailand, are eligible for state health service through
insurance purchase, leaving the rest to fend for themselves or seek help
from international aid groups.

They also face restrictions such as a ban on using mobile phones or
driving vehicles on the pretext of security, which allow corrupt law
enforcement officials to exploit them, aid workers said.

"If Thailand's labour laws were followed across the board, fewer migrants
would resort to illegal crossings or be susceptible to trafficking, and
could travel and work with basic rights under law," Human Rights Watch
said.

"It's time for the Thai and Burmese governments to implement transparent
measures that protect the lives and basic rights of migrant workers," the
rights group said.

(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Jerry Norton)

____________________________________

April 14, Bangkok Post
Human smugglers fingered

The Je Ngor (elder sister Ngor) gang is one of the five most influential
groups bringing illegal Burmese job seekers into Thailand, according to
reliable sources in Ranong.

The Je Ngor gang is thought to have smuggled the 54 Burmese into the
country who died of suffocation in the back of a sealed cold-store truck
in Ranong last week.

These gangs are well-entrenched networks of Thai and Burmese job brokers
who use bribes to avoid arrest on both sides of the border.

The Je Ngor gang mainly supplies cheap labour from Mawlamyine (Moulmein)
in southern Burma to the coastal province of Ranong, the sources said.

Currently, there are at least five such groups of people in Ranong, a
coastal province bordering Burma, bringing in illegal Burmese workers, the
sources said.

The Je Ngor gang had probably brokered the arrival of the 121-strong group
of Burmese, including the 54 who died, who entered through Ranong and were
packed into the cold-storage 10-wheel truck on Wednesday night for secret
transport to Phuket. These job seekers picked up in Burma were taken by
gang members to Koh Song islet in Ranong by boat last week.

They were told to wait for a truck at a fish market, which picked them up
about 8pm on Wednesday.

"We were sandwiched in the truck, unable to move. There were far too many
people crammed inside," recalled Ko Hla, 32-year-old survivor.

Soon after the truck left the market, people began gasping for air and
then rapidly began suffocating because the ventilation system was not
functioning.

Driver Suchon Bunplong eventually stopped the vehicle, but fled when he
saw the dead bodies, Ko Hla said.

Police are still searching for him.

Ko Hla, who came from Tavoy, on the Burmese southern coast, with his
19-year-old girlfriend, said the tragedy had not discouraged him from
working here.

Life is too hard in Burma, he said.

He spent a lot of money on brokers in Burma and Thailand.

He and the other illegal migrants gathered in Moulmein where they were
contacted by Burmese brokers, who passed themselves off as bus drivers or
taxi motorcyclists.

The brokers hide them in large cargo boats, which travel to Ranong at
night, the source said.

Ko Hla said he paid 12,000 baht to the broker. This was just enough to
take him to a job in one of the southern provinces like Prachuap Khiri
Khan or Phuket. To work in Bangkok, illegal immigrants need to pay up to
15,000 baht.

The source said when the trucks are stopped for a check at roadblocks in
Ranong no one is taken into custody. "All you have to do is show a 500
baht note and you are allowed to go," the source said.

Police also arrested 51 illegal immigrants travelling in the cold storage
compartment of a truck in October last year.

Je Ngor and the other human trafficking gangs are scattered all over
Ranong province, the source said.

Whenever any gang members are arrested, they get only light sentences and
resume their illegal activities once they are out of jail.

"We could say that most of them are on a blacklist, but no officials stop
them operating," the source said.


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 12, Sri Lanka Daily News
100,000 MT of rice from Myanmar

The Myanmar Government has agreed to provide 100,000 MTs of Rangoon Kekulu
with immediate effect to overcome the current increase in the rice of
price in the local market artificially created by hoarding.

The decision was taken during the visit made by Trade, Marketing
Development, Cooperative and Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardena
to Myanmar last week.

Minister Gunawardana told the Daily News that President Mahinda Rajapaksa
was directly involved to the matter through discussions with the Myanmar
Government.

¡°This is a big achievement. The Government was able to import 100,000 MT
rice from Myanmar at a time when many foreign countries have banned rice
exports due to the current global food crisis.¡±

The shipments are due to arrive after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year
holidays. The Minister said that 100,000 mts of Rangoon Kekulu will arrive
in the country within two months.

The Government has decided to provide Rangoon Kekulu at a fixed price of
Rs.55 per kilo as a relief to consumers. Rice will be distributed through
Cooperatives and Laksathosa branches countrywide with immediate effect to
meet the demand.

The move is expected to bring down the price of rice in the open market.
This will also help deal with the rice shortage in the market.

¡°This decision was taken to break the monopoly of the traders. We urged
them not to create an unnecessary rice shortage by hiding rice stocks.¡±

He said when the Government gets directly involved in the import of rice,
the prices in the open market would come down.

¡°It is useless hiding rice stocks unnecessarily and selling it at higher
prices with adequate stocks available in the market,¡± the Minister said.

Meanwhile private traders and the cooperative sector are engaged in
importing rice continuously by using tax relief provided by the Government
with the objective of providing rice at low prices to the consumers.

According to market sources, the price of rice will be reduced at least by
10 per cent over the current market prices once the stocks arrive in the
market. This would also prevent the artificial shortage created by black
marketeers.


____________________________________
DRUGS

April 13, Mainstream Weekly
Tackling Narcotics in Myanmar, US Style ¨C Benjamin Todd

Washington is currently focussing attention on the situation with regard
to drug production in Myanmar. By this it is trying to meet several
objectives: first, exaggerating the scale of Myanmarese ¡°narco threat¡±
and ignoring the steps taken by Yangon to counter the narcotics menace,
the US is seeking to undermine the political regime in the country (for
which purpose it is simultaneously levelling accusations of violation of
human rights, lack of freedom, growth of corruption, uncontrolled
migration¡ªof course, these allegations are by and large correct but
Washington has all these years done precious little to effectively fight
and isolate the ruling military junta on these fronts through the UN
forum, the contrast with its proactive role in Iraq with or without UN
endorsement does not bear emphasis); secondly, under the pretext of the
need to contain Myanmarese narco-traffic, the US is intensifying contacts
with the law enforcement structures and intelligence services of Thailand
to use its territory as a possible ¡°base¡± to conduct special operations
against Yangon; thirdly, the focus on the narco situation in Myanmar is
allowing Washington to partially distract the international community¡¯s
attention from its own dismal record on this score, the obvious failures
of the anti-narcotics ¡°mission¡± of the US and NATO in Afghanistan (since
the time the Taliban were driven out from Kabul in October 2001 the area
under opium poppy cultivation in the country has increased from 8000
hectares to 193,000 hectares as at present).

THE negative consequences of the cooperation with Americans in combating
the narcotics problem are so well known that they barely warrant
repetition. In August 2005 the Venezuelan media reported on the
aggravation of tensions in the relations between Caracas and Washington
precisely in the sphere of fighting narcotics; at that time Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez had disclosed that the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), which several years ago signed an agreement with
Venezuela¡¯s Anti-Narcotics Agency for jointly curbing the narco-traffic,
carried out its operation without any control and in general its
activities posed a ¡°direct threat to the defence capability and security
of the country (Venezuela)¡±.

In October 2006 Caracas informed that it had discontinued cooperation with
the DEA as the latter¡¯s main task was to discredit the political regime
of Venezuela particularly by the deliberate ¡°leakage¡± of materials
through which the US wanted to lay the blame for the growing narcotics
drug trade on the country¡¯s political leadership and power structures.
According to a statement of the Venezuelan leadership, the DEA
representation (along with the CIA, FBI and other special services of the
US) took a discreet part in the preparations for an aborted coup d¡¯etat
in the state in April 2002 and pursued active intelligence work in the
country.

What is noteworthy is that even while cooperating in the anti-narcotics
field with close partners at the inter-state level, the Americans prefer
not to inform the leadership of the country concerned about the operations
they conduct in this area. Thus at the beginning of this year the exposure
of two secret operations of the DEA caused concern in the Netherlands, as
these revelations showed that these operations had been conducted without
notifying the local authorities and intelligence services beforehand: the
first operation was reported after the DEA revealed in January the work of
its two operatives in Amsterdam as a consequence of which it allegedly
prevented the delivery of a large consignment of synthetic narcotics from
the Netherlands to the US; the local intelligence services came to learn
about the second operation after they discovered that the Americans had
implanted an agent inside the circle of a narco-dealer functioning in the
Netherlands¡ªthe Dutch authorities banned this operation before it could
be carried out. On this particular (second) operation the Dutch Minister
of Justice demanded an official explanation from the US, and several
parties in parliament characterised this incident as a clear case of
violation of the country¡¯s (the Netherland¡¯s) sovereignty.

In the light of these developments it is quite natural to expect
Washington to use its ¡°anti-narcotics cooperation¡± drive to influence
the internal politics of both Thailand and neighbouring Myanmar. Moreover
what cannot be ruled out is the US intelligence services carrying out
their secret operations (including their designs against Myanmar) without
informing the Thai political leadership. But in case of any failure of the
operations, the Americans will place all the responsibility on the Thai
authorities¡ªa tactics they have adopted elsewhere in the past. Hence
Bangkok will become a hostage to the American policy in the region.
Furthermore if the situation aggravates, it will negatively impact on New
Delhi¡¯s plans to develop cooperation with Yangon (casting a blind eye to
the pro-democracy movement in the country being led by Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi) primarily in the sphere of extraction and supply of hydrocarbons to
India.


____________________________________
ASEAN

April 14, The Jakarta Post
ULK expects tough action from ASEAN on Myanmar

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must take stern action
against member state Myanmar regarding its human rights situation if it
wants to avoid future problems, Michael Williams, UK special envoy for the
Middle East and special projects, said Sunday

Myanmar is included among the special projects being handled by Williams

Williams, who arrived in Jakarta on Sunday on a three-day visit, is slated
to meet with Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda, the President's special
envoy to Myanmar, Lt. Gen. (ret) Agus Widjojo, who visited Myanmar as a
government representative last year, and other officials to discuss
Myanmar and the Middle East

"(Myanmar) is a bad reflection on ASEAN. They need to talk to Myanmar, say
look, have a referendum. That's a good idea, but it has to be free and
open

"We just had elections in Nepal. International press was there, the UN was
there. It's not going to be like that in Myanmar. Otherwise, Myanmar will
continue to be a problem for Southeast Asia and ASEAN," said Williams

He added, "Because Myanmar's a member of ASEAN, it complicates relations
between ASEAN and the European Union. It could even poison the
relationship"

Myanmar is poised to hold a referendum on May 10 to approve a new
constitution, paving the way for 2010 elections

The constitution will, however, entrench military rule and bar opposition
leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from participating because she
married a British citizen

Williams, when asked if ASEAN should expel Myanmar, said, "That's for
ASEAN to decide .... It will be for historians to judge whether Myanmar
was admitted too easily to ASEAN. It does strike me that the initial
members of ASEAN have elections, parliaments, a rule of law. There are
shortcomings, but those things don't even exist in Myanmar." He went on to
say, "It's only a few months ago, ASEAN had its summit in Singapore. It
adopted anew charter, and ASEAN is going to establish a commission on
human rights. But people outside will ask what sort of human rights
commission is this when we see what's happening in Myanmar?" Williams said
he also would discuss with Minister Hassan plans for the UN Security
Council, of which Indonesia and the UK are now members, to pass a new
presidential statement on Myanmar

Asked why a UN resolution, which is legally binding, was not an option,
Williams said the Security Council believed the issue remained a domestic
affair

"A lot of countries would have reservations about that .... The issue is a
threat to regional security, I'm not sure (if it is one to global
security)

"And one also has to recognize certain realities. (Myanmar's biggest ally)
China is a (veto-wielding) member of the Council. Two ASEAN members are in
the Council now, Indonesia and Vietnam. I think they would not be happy
with a prospect of a resolution," said Williams

The Security Council passed a presidential statement, which essentially is
powerless, in October last year in response to Myanmar's crackdown on
peaceful demonstrators that, according to UN and human rights groups, left
dozens dead and hundreds missing

Asked if Western countries had been partial in responding to the human
rights situation in Myanmar and Iraq, Williams said Western countries had
always been suspicious about Iraq

"There were concerns about human rights in Iraq. But there were other
concerns historically. Iraq was the only country since 1945 to invade
another country and to annex it, which it did with Kuwait in 1991. That
prompted the first Iraq war

"The other thing, as we discovered as a result of that war, was that Iraq
had a program of weapons of mass destruction. But nobody thinks that
Myanmar has weapons of mass destruction. And although you can criticize
the junta for many things, they haven't invaded neighboring countries.
That's the biggest difference." Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 14, Channel News Asia
FM Yeo says Myanmar's constitution will not be to the liking of many

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo believes Myanmar's
proposed constitution will not be to the liking of many.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his Czech counterpart, Karel
Schwazenberg in Prague on Saturday, he noted that next month's referendum
will - unfortunately - not be supported by Myanmar's main opposition
party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

He said the military in Myanmar will continue to have a strong role to play.

Mr Yeo said while ASEAN's continued engagement of Myanmar may not be
viewed with favour by some European nations, it is absolutely necessary
and one which serves the long-term interest of the region, and also that
of Europe's.

The ministers also spoke about the ASEAN Charter and developments in North
Korea and Tibet.

On Tibet, they acknowledged that while their opinions might differ in
certain areas, they were united in the hope that China would be able to
reach a peaceful solution.

While in Prague, Mr Yeo also called on the prime minister of the Czech
Republic, Mr Mirek Topol¨¢nek.

They discussed opportunities to expand bilateral cooperation, particularly
in trade, education and research.

They also agreed to encourage more visits by business delegations so that
businesses can have a better understanding of opportunities in a
fast-expanding Central Europe.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 14, Reuters
UN rights expert calls Myanmar vote plan "surreal" ¨C David Brunnstrom

A United Nations investigator dismissed Myanmar's plans for a May 10
constitutional referendum as "surreal" on Monday and said he saw no
credible moves towards political transition in the military-ruled country.

"The government continues detaining people and repressing people who are
trying to do some campaigning for a 'no' in the referendum," Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro said in an interview.

Myanmar's main opposition party last week urged that there be
international observers of the referendum and said people campaigning
against a new, military-backed charter were being assaulted and their
materials seized.

"How can you have a referendum when you make repression against those that
are intending to say 'no'? This is completely surreal," Pinheiro, the U.N.
special rapporteur on Myanmar, told Reuters.

Speaking in Brussels, Pinheiro said Myanmar had seen none of the
liberalisation of political transitions in Asia, Latin America, Eastern or
Southern Europe.

"I don't see the most basic requirements," he said.

"If you say a real political transition process is taking place in
Myanmar, this would be almost offensive to countries in Asia like the
Philippines and Indonesia or Thailand that passed through a transition
process to democracy."

Pinheiro, a Brazilian law professor who has held his independent post
since 2000, will hand over to Argentine lawyer Tomas Ojea Quintana at the
end of the month.

"GLOOMY"

He said there had been some progress in his time in gaining access for aid
agencies, but his parting assessment would be "gloomy": "You don't have
freedom of association, freedom of expression, freedom of organisation, or
functioning of parties."

"You cannot have a political transition if you keep almost 2,000 political
prisoners and you continue the crackdown after the repression of the end
of last year," he said.

Pinheiro said he had not been allowed a visa to return to Myanmar since a
November visit and no response to requests for information on the
whereabouts of 700 people missing since a crackdown on monk-led
anti-government protests in September.

He estimated the number of people killed in that crackdown at at least 31,
against an official figure of 15.

The junta, which tightly controls Myanmar's media, has urged the country's
53 million people to back the charter, a key step in the military's
seven-point "road map to democracy" meant to culminate in multiparty
elections in 2010.

Pinheiro said the constitutional process could not be considered
democratic given that all delegates of the constitutional assembly had
been picked by the government.

He termed "a great mistake" provisions in the document excluding figures
like detained Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from
the political process and retaining 25 percent of parliamentary seats for
the military.

The charter, dismissed by Western critics as a ploy to entrench 46 years
of army rule, also gives the commander in chief the right to suspend the
constitution at will.

"I don't think the population knows what it will mean to vote 'yes' or
'no'," Pinheiro said, adding it would be a "very bad sign" if the junta
did not accept international observers.

"I will end my mandate saying that this is not a democratic political
transition," he said. (Editing by Charles Dick)

____________________________________

April 14, New York Sun
Burma refugees relaunch lives in New York City ¨C Sarah Garland

Groups of Burmese refugees ¡ª most of them from the Karen ethnic minority
that has been the target of Burmese military oppression for decades ¡ª
have been arriving nearly every day in recent months to start new lives in
the city, according to aid workers.

On a recent evening, the arrivals gate at John F. Kennedy International
Airport was in its usual state of chaos as women in African headdresses
and paunchy men in cowboy hats swirled around a group of Burmese refugees
huddled in a corner. Jamesteem Hla, 23, and his wife, Ku Paw, 26, who
despite the chilly temperature wore sandals and flimsy nylon pants that
left her legs bare to her shins, attracted only a few looks as their
2-year-old gleefully grabbed at a red fire alarm mounted on the wall.

Mr. Hla, in a donated blue sweatshirt, guarded their belongings: a
rainbow-colored plastic sack with items salvaged from their hut in a Thai
refugee camp, and a large flat bag of government documents.

For the moment, their exhaustion from a 13-hour flight was kept at bay as
they watched the lively scene with wide eyes. "Happy" is one of the few
English words Mr. Hla picked up at the refugee camp where he had lived
most of his life, and he uttered it shyly as the small family prepared to
step out into the cold of their first week in New York City.

Ms. Paw, Mr. Hla, and the baby, Hteenermoo, were not exactly pioneers. On
the night they arrived at JFK, another family of Burmese refugees pulling
a string of children in loose cloth turbans, flip flops, and matching
sweatshirts had been led away by refugee aid workers. An earlier flight
had deposited a different group that morning.

The number of Burmese coming as refugees to America has leapt more than
600%, to more than 1,300 in 2006 from 200 in 2003, according to the
federal government's Office of Refugee Resettlement. In 2007, the number
of refugees from Southeast Asia, which usually includes a large proportion
from Burma, was 7,619, according to the federal Refugee Processing Center.

The wave has launched Burma onto the list of top 10 countries from which
refugees flee, along with the likes of Russia, Cuba, and Iran.

Some Karen have settled in smaller cities around the country, where
churches, schools, and civic groups have jumped in to help them adjust.
New York receives the most, however, with as many as 1,000 Burmese
refugees settling here in recent years.

Many of the newest Karen arrivals are being scattered among some of the
poorest neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx. While they are moving to
a city of immigrants, where many of their neighbors are also from far-off
places, the extreme changes ¡ª coming to the urban clamor of New York from
the primitive conditions in Thailand's refugee camps ¡ª are especially
stark for them.

As they approached their new apartment in a rickety building near a rough
public housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Ms.
Paw said she struggled to picture what her new life would be like.

Collected from the airport by a pair of refugee caseworkers from the
International Rescue Committee, Amanda McDonald and a Karen translator,
Dah Thu Dee, the family had traveled in a rented van to their new home
with a four other men from the same refugee camp. They were greeted
outside by a large figure shrouded in a puffy jacket lounging on the
stoop, a fellow refugee from Burundi who has been in New York long enough
to pick up strategies for blending in.

Inside, Ms. Paw and Mr. Hla bounced the baby on the mattress of a new
crib, her first, and studied the microwave. Then the three clustered
around the caseworkers as they explained how to light a gas stove, what a
fire alarm is, the importance of stuffing the shower curtain inside the
bathtub, and how to flush the toilet.

The men snapped open garbage bags with concentrated expressions that were
replaced with large grins at the presentation of a pair of electric rice
cookers. In the refugee camp, rice had been cooked over campfires.

The refugee camp where Mr. Hla lived 18 years and Ms. Paw lived five years
had no electricity, and water to serve 60 houses trickled out of a shared
pipe only three hours a day, the refugees said. They lived in a one-room
bamboo hut with a thatch roof shared with 12 people, and bathed outdoors.
There was little work beyond gathering bamboo, as venturing out of the
crowded camp was not an option, what with Thai police officers known for
shaking down refugees lurking on the outskirts. On arrival night, the joy
of new appliances began to fade as apprehension took over. Another
difference between the refugee camp and their new home was the crime rate.
In the camp, there was no crime except for an occasional fistfight among
teenage boys, but their new neighbors had told them of thieves in the area
who preyed on newcomers.

Still, even the shadowy, hardscrabble streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant
couldn't be worse than Burma.

Mr. Hla was too young to remember fleeing his village after soldiers
tortured his parents, but Ms. Paw could not talk about her journey to
Thailand from Burma without tears filling her eyes.

When she was 21, her mother died of disease. Her father was killed soon
after; he was taken by the Burmese army and tortured over the course of
two months.

Ms. Paw was later kidnapped by the soldiers, working for them as a porter
until she escaped a few months later. She ran ¡ª alone ¡ª to the Thai
border several miles away, eventually making it to one of the sprawling
refugee camps that dot the area.

After breakfasting on Chinese takeout, the group set off for Manhattan the
next morning escorted by a 19-year-old Amherst College intern who was
still learning the subway system herself.

Ms. Paw, with Hteenermoo strapped in a sling around her shoulders, was
wearing her sandals after discovering the brown sneakers the refugee
agency left for her in the apartment didn't fit. With no concept that the
cool temperatures could correspond with the bright sunshine outside, she
had also left a hand-me-down coat hanging in a closet.

A MetroCard lesson momentarily distracted her from her numb toes, but the
whoosh of the train as it pulled into the station sent the whole group
jumping backward with startled cries.

New threats seemed to pop out at every corner.

Commuters jostled them, and uniformed police officers triggered memories
of their Thai counterparts. Ms. Paw clutched the baby close and took
intersections at a trot, glancing fearfully at the buses and taxis that
roared around her.

An escalator in Grand Central Terminal stopped her in her tracks, leaving
her blocking a crowd of rush hour commuters as she stared at the moving
stairs and gingerly stepped on.

At their destination, the IRC offices, they filled out a stack of forms
for Medicaid and food stamps, and each refugee received a check of $196 to
pay for a monthly MetroCard and food.

The generosity of their new home would only extend so far. The refugee
agency, strained by a tight budget, would pay their rent, teach them a
little English, and help them look for a job with a goal of making them
self-sufficient by the end of four months. When they stepped out onto 42nd
Street to head home, Mr. Hla turned his furrowed forehead up to marvel at
the skyscrapers. The dazzling sight loosened his frown and led him to
venture another English phrase: "It is wonderful to my mind."

At that, even Ms. Paw, now snug in a pair of second-hand snow boots, was
able to smile tentatively.

____________________________________

April 12, The Press Trust of India
Activists demand UN action to end 'suppression' in Myanmar

More than 500 activists led by four monks held a demonstration outside the
United Nations headquarters here, demanding that the world body act
decisively to end "suppression" in Myanmar and force the military
government to move towards democracy.

Shouting slogans and carrying placards calling for the release of all
"prisoners of conscience" including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
they accused the military regime of jailing several thousand students,
Buddhist monks and pro democracy activists.

"Those seeking democracy risk their lives in Myanmar", they chanted.

The demonstration held yesterday was spearheaded by Amnesty International
which organized a series of protests including one outside the Indian
consulate demanding a special commission to address the rehabilitation of
victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

In front of the Sudanese consulate, they demanded an end to the genocide
in Darfur, while outside the Libyan consulate they protested human rights
violations in that country.

They also demanded investigations into the killing of journalists, in a
protest held in front of the Sri Lankan consulate.

At each location, activist groups for particular causes joined Amnesty in
the demonstrations.

____________________________________
OPINION

April 14, Mizzima News
Junta's U- turn and future Sino-Burma relation ¨C Myat Soe

Dishonest Burmese rulers' decision to bar Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting
the elections shows that its process leading to a democratic transition in
the country is not convincing. The purpose of this decision was that the
military regime threatened to ban the NLD and its leadership completely.
This announcement evidently defied the international community by refusing
to pursue democratization and national reconciliation. It appeared to be
on the verge of a major U-turn, and it was aimed at undermining the
on-going regional and international efforts.

Since the September people's movement in 2007, no political tangible
result has been achieved. The regime did not free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
other political prisoners which the international community has been
urging for. The house arrest of U Tin Oo, the deputy leader of Aung San
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party was extended. More
political prisoners have been locked up. The UN special envoy was not
allowed to go back to Burma whenever he needed to follow up on the UNSC
resolution. Freedom of press has been prohibited, and citizens have no
space to express their views openly and peacefully. In addition, the
junta's referendum law released in February 2008 prohibits people from
criticizing or campaigning against the referendum process and imposes a
penalty of three years in prison. In fact, the regime's lip service to
political solutions, buying time, blaming the opposition, and attacking
its own citizens will not take the place of substantial reforms and will
not resolve the country's problems.

Why does the regime remain deaf to the rest of the world? The reason is
the regime had two trump cards in the form of Russia and China at the
UNSC. Indeed, China and Russia, as permanent members of the U.N. Security
Council, can promote or prevent meaningful U.N. action on Burma. Recently,
the Burmese military regime agreed to let Russia's Glory International Pte
Ltd search for gold and other minerals in the country's northern Kachin
State, which borders China. Later, Lt. General Evnevich Valery G from the
Russian Defence Ministry followed his visit to Burma. According to
reliable sources, the regime is trying to acquire knowledge and nuclear
technology from Russia to build nuclear reactors in the country for energy
purposes since dealing with North Korea and Iran has been criticized by
the neighbours and the international community. Another reason is that the
regime is trying to strike a balance with China and find out an
alternative source for military supplies. On the other hand, China's
interest in Burmese gas and building military bases in Burma's islands are
life supports for the ruling regime.

Indeed, Russia and China have ignored many thousands of people in the war
zones of Burma who are suffering growing humanitarian crisis for their own
self-interests. They never take the burden of the UN for this humanitarian
crisis. In doing so, the immoral self-interests will increase threats to
Burma's neighbouring countries and the entire region. Currently, more than
4 million people are living in neighbouring countries, and one million
people are suffering humanitarian crisis. The recent deaths on 9 April of
54 illegal migrant workers from Burma, who suffocated in the back of a
container truck while being smuggled to the Thai resort island of Phuket,
highlighted the vulnerability of foreign migrant labourers in Thailand,
said UN International Labour Organization (ILO) officials. This tragedy
underscored the need to for cooperation to fight against human
trafficking, and similar plights in Malaysia, Singapore, India,
Bangladesh, and other neighbours. These are obviously evidence that people
are suffering humanitarian crisis under military rule. China and Russia
should not prevent meaningful U.N. action on Burma. As a consequence,
Russia and China will have to pay a huge political price when building a
relationship with Burma's future generation.

Yet, Burma's prominent student activists group, widely known as '8.8.88
generation has called for a worldwide boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
in response to China's bankrolling of the military junta that rules Burma
with guns and threats. The group also joined a growing chorus of critics
urging an Olympic boycott over complaints ranging from China's human
rights record to its failure to press Sudan to end the Darfur conflict and
to resolve the Tibet issue. Certainly, the china involvement with the
oppressive military regime of Burma has largely been questioned at the
beginning of the Beijing Olympics. Now, the world leaders including
Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, UK PM Gordon Brown, German chancellor
Angela Merkel, Canada's PM Stephen Harper, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner
Wangari Maathai had considered not attending Beijing Olympics opening
ceremony. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is considering staying away,
and U.S. President George W.Bush has not yet committed to attending the
opening ceremony.
Certainly, China wants the Beijing Olympics to show off, and the
freedom-loving people of Burma, Tibet, and Sudan are not allowed to do
that. The voices of one world and one dream have loudly been heard, and it
can not be possible that China can continue help to oppress human rights
in Tibet, Burma, Darfur and elsewhere and still be considered untouchable
for economic reasons.

Now, Burma's regime is going back to a major U turn again, and it is
driving the country down a dangerous road. In fact, Burma's military
rulers have announced they will hold a referendum on a draft constitution
on May 10 and a general election in 2010. However, the opposition groups
including 88 generation and the NLD called on the people of Burma to vote
'No' in the ballot boxes to prevent "the country from falling into the
depths as a result of the junta's one-sided road-map. By voting 'No' we
are not only against the junta's referendum, we want the junta and world
to know that the people of Burma do not recognize every step of its
road-map or their rule, a statement released by 88 generation group said.
The time of casting "No Votes" for the junta's U-turn is near and let us
see how the result will affect the Beijing Olympics in political terms.
China should not remain deaf to the people of Burma.

The question is: will China defend its policy for the notorious Burmese
junta at the UNSC again? Truth to be told, the more China supports Burma's
junta, the higher the future relationship of Sino-Burma will be at risk
and will cost China dearly in political terms.

(The writer Myat Soe is a former Central Executive Committee member of All
Burma Federation of Student Unions (1988) and currently serves as the
Research Director of Justice for Human Rights in Burma. He graduated from
Indiana University, and earned his MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University.)

____________________________________

April 14, Asian Tribune
A paradox of bulletocracy and representative democracy in Burma ¨C Naing
Ko Ko

Whilst in the post Saffron Revolution period the military regime in Burma
has announced referendum in May 2008, for a new constitution and an
election to be held in 2010, it is really a model for continuation of the
¡®bulletocracy¡¯ dominated by military generals for more than a decade.

Simultaneously, both pro and con debates on the referendum /constitution
have occurred in the horizon of Burma domestic politics, with statements
welcoming and rejecting from foreign policy elites, particularly from
neighboring countries of China, Thailand, India and Western liberal
democracies.

In addition, a polarization of views has also appeared among the democracy
activists: those who have applied a "VoteNo" approach and those who have
advocated a "NoVote" position towards the military plotted referendum.
Burma's "Wuthering-Heights-elites", branding themselves as a so-called
"third-force", will utilize "VoteYes" in this referendum. Some of them are
secretly importing a bulletocracy- transitional-model to the Burma
political landscape while ignoring the emancipation theory.

There is a point where questions and answers need to be formulated beyond
the referendum, constitution and upcoming election in 2010 by the
opposition movers and shakers of Burma. They must frame a strategic policy
beyond the referendum/election in 2010 rather than following with "the
waves of can't do approaches" and the "upper-structure-transforming"
paths.

Politics means a struggle over power. One of the key political dilemmas of
Burma is who should run the state political power? Will Burma political
power be run by democratically elected representatives or the military
dominated bulletocray? Technically speaking, how will a Burma transition
be achieved? Will it be a development-theory-based-regime shift,
neo-Gramscism based social entrepreneurs led mass movement, or Leninism
based bottom to top power-structure reform and army-struggle?

But whatever theories and school of thoughts we are debating, the reality
of present Burma politics is that the generals turned civilian-elites are
aiming to run the state power politics for more decades, instead of
transferring legitimate political power to the elected representatives. It
is an obvious fact that the regime wants to maintain the status quo, and
its power firmly based on army and economy. The opposition needs to
challenge and fragment the SPDC's power structure and domain both
domestically and internationally.

There are no comprehensive policy-platforms on how to apply a
regime-change model for Burma after the referendum and election, either
from within the SPDC military generals and democratic power-crusaders, or
from the multilateral and transnational agencies such as United Nation
Security Council (UNSC), European Union (E.U), World Bank (WB),
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asean.

Obviously, there is a little option for domestic challengers to voting
against the referendum, and thus go in line with "VoteNo" approaches.
However, transnational activists have a lot more choices of strategies to
counterattack the junta' plotted bulletocracy-model.

Power crusaders must think about the approaches beyond the referendum and
election on the processes of transitional regime. It is not an appropriate
time to claim "VoteYes", "dialogue" and "national reconciliation". As an
internal strategy it is time to focus on mass mobilization and
emancipation theory to achieve regime change in Burma and, on
international fronts, it is a strategically and essential to delegitimize
the SPDC' political legitimacy and sovereignty.

Even though the regime has formulated this military dominated constitution
to get "VoteYes", the mass mobilization and power of powerless can
override a constitution proposal which has no room for human sovereignty
or human dignity. The people of Burma are demanding genuine people freedom
and political liberalization, not century long military hegemonization and
bulletocracy. It is worth noting that General McArthur drafted the
Japanese constitution within a week at his desk on a warship, and there is
no written constitution in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Israel. It
is significant that the international businessman and transoceanic
investors are not interested in a regime run economy.

There are no economic incentives and interests for such multinational
business firms in Burma due to the junta's poorly designed monetary and
fiscal policy. Moreover, the Junta is losing leverage in their bargaining
relations with multinational firms, because of Burma's low standard of
transportation, out of date bureaucracy, poor communication
infrastructure, and its notorious political image as a military
dictatorship.

Both the military-driven-transitional style and the elite-driven-
transition model ignore the significance of emancipation theory, the
people participatory process and Neo-Gramscism in politics. What I would
especially like to point to the Burma' Wuthering Height' elites, is that
it is a time of human sovereignty, political freedom and human security,
not "something is better than nothing" and "can't do" approaches.

Moreover, I would like to say to the Burma' Wuthering Height' elites that
Burma is neither a talking-shop nor a business firm. Remember: the more
educated you are, the more moral responsibility you have to society. You
all have a moral responsibility to help the people of Burma get out from
under this military oppression and build a knowledge-based society. Those
who are modern intellectuals living in Burma or exile should not be a
simply talkers, but must be directors and entrepreneurs who assist
national-building, political liberalization, and society.

The mass mobilization and the emancipation approaches may take a long time
and it will not happen overnight in Burma. Grand revolution and regime
change, which occurred with the power of the people power and the power of
powerless, have changed many modern histories and political landscapes in
this world.

In order to stop the bulletocray and establish representative democracy,
it is an essential agenda that to deliver 'can-do-minded', 'human
sovereignty' to the people of Burma. Burma needs multidimensional
disciplines and theory approaches for the democratization process.

Naing Ko Ko is a postgraduate scholarship student in the Department of
Political Studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is a
former political prisoner.

____________________________________

April 14, Asian Tribune
Burma's referendum and election woes : Is there a way out for the
opposition? ¨C Sai Wansai

It shouldn't be a surprise for the Burmese military juntas exclusion or
barring of Aung San Suu Kyi from participation in the forth-coming
election, which is due to be held in 2010, following the constitutional
referendum targeted in May of this year.

"The Fundamental Principles and Detailed Basic Principles", adopted by the
National Convention, under chapter 3, The Head of State, sub-heading
Qualifications of the President and Vice-Presidents states, The President
of the Union himself, parents, spouse, children and their spouses shall
not owe allegiance to a foreign power, shall not be subject of a foreign
power or citizen of a foreign country.

They shall not be persons entitled to the rights and privileges of a
subject or citizen of a foreign country. It further stresses in the same
section, that The President of the Union shall be well acquainted with
affairs of State such as political, administrative, economic and military
affairs.

In other words, it is designed to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi for she wont be
able to meet the qualifications stated in detailed basic principles by the
junta.

It is not a secret that the junta is bent on monopolising the state power
by all means and barring Aung San Suu Kyi from the electoral process
becomes a necessity. And as an extension, obstructing her National League
for Democracy (NLD), Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and
other vocal political parties from participation in the election are
definitely in the juntas agenda. For they are considered undesirable, due
to the commitment to genuine federalism and are against the military
dominated, dictatorial rule. The NLD, together with SNLD and other ethnic
political parties, garnered 98 percent of the vote and won a landslide
nation-wide election in 1990. The junta-back National Unity Party (NUP)
received only 2 percent vote.


>From the junta perspective, this suppose to be an ideal solution to get

rid of all political opposition for good and install or hand over
political decision-making power to Union Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA), which is its brainchild and functions as
military-backed thugs to harass the opposition. Also there are indications
to transform it to a full fledged political organisation to stand for
election in 2010. This scenario would soon unfold, under the rubric of its
so-called disciplined and flourishing democracy, which actually could only
be termed as a military dominated rule.

This boils down to the point of what could the democratic opposition do to
counter this juntas go-it-alone stance, which predictably would be
endorsed by countries like China, India and most ASEAN states, perhaps
with the exception of Indonesia and the Philippines, which are quite vocal
against the juntas stalling tactics, undemocratic stance and
heavy-handedness against the population and opposition.

Unfortunately, this junta's orchestral show is the only game in town,
where the United Nations could get involve and also exert some influence,
if there is ever a chance to change the hard-line attitude of the Burmese
junta. The same is also true to the democratic opposition camp and the
ethnic political and resistance groups. It goes without saying that it
takes two to tango, but the junta is determined as ever to carry it out
alone. Its logic is that the main opposition groups were invited to
participate in the National Convention (NC), but had thrown away their
chances and walked out of the ongoing process. Thus, it is not the juntas
fault to have to continue it with available individuals and groups, which
readily agree to go along with the junta. Little does it mention or admit
to the public that almost all participants of the NC are hand-picked and
actually are not allowed to deviate from juntas prescribed road map. With
the few exception counter proposals from cease-fire group quarters and
some vocal non-Burman ethnic groups, which however were rejected, the
juntas draft constitution was programmed to be adopted.

The stage is now set for constitutional referendum in May, which is just
three months away and peculiar enough, the public has still not seen the
draft. Some Burma watchers reasoned that the junta might not be confident
enough to publicise it immediately, for fear of international backlash and
public scrutiny. The juntas blue print is known to be fatally flawed, when
one goes through its publicised basic principles or guidelines for
constitutional drafting.

Against this backdrop, the opposition in general have only two choices:
One is to reject the constitutional referendum with no vote or totally
boycott the process; and the other would be to demand, preferably through
the UN General Secretary's good office and international mediators, for a
more favourable political climate. This would include an unconditional
release of all political prisoners, nation-wide cease-fire, and lifting of
all restrictions imposed on existing political parties. If such an
atmosphere could be negotiated, the reviewing of juntas constitutional
draft leading to reasonable adjustment or amendment, in all-inclusive and
open manners, could become a possibility, which will encompass the peoples
aspiration in a wider sense. The draft will then be credible enough, at
least, as an acceptable, transitional one and would be ready for
referendum.

On Wednesday, the United States national security spokesman Gordon
Johndroe urged the ruling junta to "start from scratch." He said, "That is
- meaning: the barring of Aung San Suu Kyi from entering the election -
hardly the definition of free and fair elections. The junta needs to start
from scratch with a real draft constitution that actually passes the laugh
test,"

Whether the junta would hold on to its hard-line position against all
odds, coupled with such critical view and refuse to accommodate the call
for democratic change or make sensible concession according to wish and
aspiration of the people is anybodys guess.

Sai Wansai is the General Secretary of the Shan Democratic Union (SDU)

____________________________________

April 13, Guardian UK
Every trick in the book ¨C Benedict Rogers

Next month, the people of Burma will vote in a referendum on a new
constitution - the first opportunity to go to the polls since Aung San Suu
Kyi and her National League for Democracy overwhelmingly won elections 18
years ago. But in 1990 Burma's military regime was shocked that despite
all its efforts to undermine the opposition and intimidate the voters, it
still lost the election. This time, the junta is determined to get its way
- and is using every trick in the book and more.

A more blatant sham is hard to imagine. When the regime rejected the UN's
request for international monitors during the referendum, it abandoned any
iota of credibility. What kind of referendum is it where those who
campaign against the process can be jailed for at least three years?

Millions of Burmese are disfranchised. Buddhist monks and nuns, who number
500,000, are denied the vote - a price for their courageous demonstrations
last September which were brutally crushed. Religious leaders from other
faiths are also excluded. More than 500,000 internally-displaced people on
the run in the jungles of eastern Burma, as well as the 700,000 Muslim
Rohingyas, treated as non-citizens and therefore stateless, are banned
from participating. Millions living in conflict zones in the ethnic
states, as well as refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries and
exiles further afield, will also be excluded.

The junta's game-plan is clearly to rubber-stamp its new constitution
which, in turn, will enshrine military rule. The constitution drafting
process completely excluded Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD and major
representatives of the ethnic groups. Most of the members of parliament
elected in 1990 are in prison or exile, and Suu Kyi is in her 12th year of
house arrest. The National Convention, which drafted the guidelines for
the constitution, involved no debate among the handpicked delegates, and
none of the proposals made by the few ethnic representatives who did
participate were adopted. Law 5/96 imposed prison terms of up to 20 years
for discussing the constitution process.

The end product is a constitution which offers no improvement in human
rights and democracy - and simply enshrines military rule. The
commander-in-chief of the army will appoint 25% of the national
legislators. He will also appoint the defence minister, who will report to
him. The army chief can seize power at any point if he happens to believe
that national security is threatened. There will be no independent
judiciary, and the constitution cannot be amended for 10 years.

Political prisoners will be barred from contesting elections, and the
president must be a person with military experience who has not married a
foreigner. Suu Kyi, therefore, is by definition ruled out.

The junta hopes this charade will lull the international community into a
false sense that it is reforming, and so pressure for change will ease.
The international community, including Burma's neighbours, must not fall
for this. If the regime continues to ignore calls from the UN for dialogue
with the democracy movement, tough action should follow. The UN
secretary-general himself should take charge of Burma policy. Burma's best
friends - China, India, Russia, Thailand and Singapore - should end their
policies of appeasement. A universal arms embargo should be imposed. And
the UN security council should refer the generals to the International
Court for investigation into crimes against humanity.

This is a regime guilty of every possible human rights violation,
including a campaign of ethnic cleansing involving the widespread,
systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the use of human
minesweepers and the destruction of more than 3,200 villages in eastern
Burma since 1996. More than 70,000 children have been taken off the
streets and forced to join the Burma Army - the highest proportion of
child soldiers in the world. More than 1,800 political prisoners are in
jail, subjected to horrific torture. It is time to bring this catalogue of
horrors - under-reported and overlooked for too long - to an end.

____________________________________

April 14, Canberra Times
Blame for Burma must spread further than China

The protesters who disrupted the Olympic torch relays in London, Paris and
San Francisco last week are not only aiming at China for human- rights
abuses in Tibet and elsewhere in the world's most populous nation. Some of
the mare calling China to account for its actions in Sudan and Burma as
well. But in Burma, at least, the blame game reaches far beyond China.

The United Nations special envoy to Burma is coming under fire from some
human-rights activists for failing to nudge the country's military rulers
in the direction of real political reform. But it is wrong to blame the
envoy, Ibrahim Gambari. After all, his mandate is from the UN and he
reports to the UN Security Council.

The responsibility should fall squarely on others. First, on the
recalcitrant and incompetent junta in Burma. Second, on Burma's three key
immediate neighbours China, India and Thailand which are vying for
influence in the country. And third, on the international community for
being at cross- purposes over how to handle Burma.

The result of this disarray is obvious. Free of any effective pressure,
the Burmese military regime can continue to thumb its nose at the world.

Gambari was rebuffed by the generals when he visited Burma last month for
the third time since the bloody crack down on peaceful protests in
September drew widespread international condemnation. The regime's
strongman, General Than Shwe, refused to see him.
The visit came in the wake of the regime's announcement in February that
it would hold a national referendum next month on a controversial new
constitution, to be followed by general elections in 2010. Critics say the
constitution will entrench and validate military rule. Gambari suggested
the draft be changed to ensure that opposition rights were protected and
that credible election observers be allowed into Burma. These and other
proposals were rejected.

After his visit, Gambari gave a glum report to the UN Security Council,
where the military regime is shielded by China and Russia from pressure
that might be effective. Both argue that what is happening in Burma does
not constitute a threat to international peace and security, and should
therefore not be a concern of the Security Council. The other three
powerbrokers on the council, the United States, Britain and France, have
imposed a range of measures designed to hurt and isolate the Burmese
regime.

The Association of South-East Asian Nations, and Burma's other neighbours
do not support sanctions, arguing that they harden the resolve of the
Burmese Government to resist outside pressure. Underlining this stand,
Thailand's Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, led a delegation to Burma
last month and signed bilateral investment and trade deals.

China, Thailand and India the three countries with extensive shared
borders with Burma have strategic interests to pursue and protect there.

China got from the regime the rights to buy natural gas from a giant
Burmese field in the Bay of Bengal, despite alternative offers from India
and South Korea. The gas will be piped north through Burma to land- locked
Yunnan province in south- western China. A parallel pipeline will carry
Chinese oil shipped from the Middle East and Africa, while a highway will
provide a trade route connecting Yunnan to a deep-water port on Burma's
coast. Construction is expected to start this year.

The back-door energy shipments into China will ease its dependence on
South-East Asia's shipping straits, which China fears may be vulnerable to
closure in a crisis.

The interests of China and Thailand in Burma appear to overlap to an
increasing degree. Once the pipeline is operational, China will overtake
Thailand as the biggest buyer of Burmese gas. But both countries are
working together to develop Burma's gas and hydropower potential. Each
will take substantial parts of the new gas and electricity that Burma will
export, adding more revenue to the regime's coffers.

Not to be outdone, India recently hosted a visit by the second-most senior
officer in the military government, General Maung Aye. India has been more
critical of the junta's crackdown than either China or Thailand and put
arms sales to Burma on hold in November. But it is anxious to find more
gas in Burma's offshore zones and has proposed deepening the west coast
Burmese port of Sittwe and the Kaladan River to make a transport and trade
link with India's isolated, underdeveloped and restive north- eastern
states. The Kaladan River flows through India's Mizoram state into Burma.
Once completed, the project will enable cargo vessels to travel between
Mizoram and Sittwe.

Australia and many Asian countries want Gambari to continue his seemingly
fruitless mission to Burma. It supports their engagement policy with Burma
and holds out hope that things will eventually change for the better. But
for some, it is also a diplomatic veil behind which hard-nosed games of
national interest can be played.

The writer, a former Asia editor of the International Herald Tribune, is a
security specialist at the Institute of South-East Asian Studies in
Singapore.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

April 12, Burma Information Network
Flow of Japanese financial aid continued after Saffron Revolution,
government maintains investment in Yetagun gas field

Research by NGOs has found that Japan¡¯s financial aid to Burma has
continued after the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in August ¨C
September 2007.  Japan has also maintained its investment in the offshore
Yetagun gas field.

Official Development Assistance£¨ODA£©

Following the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Burma in
August-September 2007, during which hundreds were killed, injured, or
detained, the Japanese government announced that it would cut down on the
amount of assistance to Burma.  At a press conference, Deputy Press
Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi stated:

¡°There is a strong possibility¡­that the Japanese Government is going to
cut the amount of assistance to be given to Myanmar, probably by
one-fourth, or something like that.¡±  (Press Conference, October 5, 2007)

Thereafter, Japan announced that it would cancel a grant aid for the
¡°Human Resources Development Center.¡±  This project was still under
negotiation and the exchange of notes (formal agreement) between the two
countries had not been signed.  For this reason, it is unlikely that the
¡°cancellation¡± had any impact on the Burmese junta.

On the other hand, the two grant aid projects that were already under
contract at that time (¡°Human Resource Development Scholarship¡± and
¡°Afforestation in the Dry Zone¡±) appear to have been implemented as
planned.  Moreover, Japan agreed to provide 204 million yen (about 1.79
million USD) for ¡°Improvement of Maternal and Child Health Care Services
(Phase VIII)¡± in January 2008.

At the end of the fiscal year (March 31, 2007), Japan had given grant aid
for three projects totaling 672 million yen.  Both the number of projects
and the total amount of grant aid surpassed those in fiscal year 2006,
during which Japan gave 640 million yen for two projects (see Table 1).

With regard to grassroots grant assistance (form of ODA different from the
grant aid above), Japan had signed contracts for 9 projects by September
20, 2007.  After a three-month suspension, Japan resumed this form of aid,
signing contracts for an additional 17 projects by the end of the fiscal
year.

This brought the total number of grassroots grant assistance projects to
26 in fiscal year 2007.  This is fewer than the previous fiscal year 2006,
but many more than in fiscal year 2005, when Japan gave grassroots grant
assistance for 18 projects.  The contents of the projects did not change
(see Table 2).

Japan¡¯s Investment in Natural Gas

In addition to official development assistance, Japan remained a 50%
investor in a subsidiary of Nippon Oil Exploration, which in turn holds a
19.3% stake in the Yetagun natural gas field in Burma (see Table 4). 
Income from the export of natural gas is the largest source of foreign
exchange for Burma and provides vital support for the regime.

For further information, contact:
Yuki Akimoto (Burma Information Network)  
yuki at burmainfo.org¡¡+81-80-2006-0165

________________________________

April 12, Human Rights Watch
Thailand: Migrants¡¯ deaths spotlight exploitation, government should end
discriminatory policies and improve protection

The suffocation deaths on April 10 of 54 Burmese migrants is a somber
wake-up call that should prompt Thai authorities to end discriminatory
policies and improve protection for migrants, Human Rights Watch said
today.

Thai policies to date have done little to protect the rights of migrant
workers. With few avenues to migrate legally and safely for work, many
Burmese migrant workers living in Thailand are vulnerable to arrest and
extortion by corrupt officials, and risk exploitation, abuse, and death.

On April 10, 2008, 37 women and 17 men suffocated in an unventilated truck
while traveling in the Ranong province of southern Thailand not far from
Kawthaung town in Burma. They were allegedly moving to an unspecified work
site. Sixty-seven migrants survived the journey, and are now being held in
prison for illegal entry. The driver of the truck fled the scene.

¡°These preventable deaths are the tragic result of people fleeing
repression and poverty in Burma, only to find abuse and exploitation in
Thailand,¡± said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights
Watch. ¡°Thai policies denying migrants basic rights contribute to such
tragedies and urgently need to be revised or scrapped. These deaths put
Thai authorities squarely on notice that reform cannot wait.¡±

Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government to immediately
investigate the deaths in Ranong province and the serious situation of
trade in human smuggling across Thailand¡¯s border. It also called on the
Thai government to provide assistance to the victims on humanitarian
grounds rather than detaining and deporting them back to Burma, and to
ensure that all migrants enjoy basic rights such as freedom of movement,
association, and assembly.

The death of the 54 Burmese migrants is only the latest in a series of
serious incidents involving migrants. Since the start of 2008, scores of
Rohingya Muslims from Burma have drowned in the Andaman Sea trying to
reach southern Thailand, a gateway to Malaysia. Instead of offering
protection, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej has recently announced he
will detain them on a deserted island to deter more arrivals.

Despite the fact that the Thai economy depends heavily on the availability
of cheap labor from Burma and other neighboring countries, in the past two
years, Thailand has been increasing restrictions on the rights of migrant
workers.A series of provincial decrees in Ranong, Rayong, and Pang Nga
provinces have made it unlawful for migrants to go out at night, carry
mobile phones, and ride motorbikes. Thai authorities have indicated the
decrees may be extended to other provinces which are home to many Burmese
migrants.

Prime Minister Samak has called migrant workers from Burma a ¡°national
security¡± issue, especially in those provinces such as Ranong, Tak, and
Chiang Mai where Burmese workers constitute a high percentage of the
population. This position has been put in place since the time of Thaksin
Shinawatra¡¯s administration.

¡°These deaths show what a deadly mishmash of illegality and regulation
Thailand¡¯s migrant labor law regime is,¡± Pearson said. ¡°It¡¯s a
pressing humanitarian issue but it¡¯s also in Thailand¡¯s own interests:
these workers are vital to the country¡¯s economy.¡±

Last year¡¯s nationwide protests and brutal crackdowns by the ruling State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) increased political and economic
hardships in Burma. The difficulties forced millions of Burmese to seek a
better life in Thailand. However, only a fraction of an estimated 2
million Burmese migrants living in Thailand are legally registered to
work.

According to Thailand¡¯s Migrant Assistance Program in Chiang Mai, at the
end of 2007, a total of 616,272 migrant workers from Burma, Laos, and
Cambodia were registered to work in Thailand. Of that number 367,834 were
from Burma. Registered workers have access to basic health care and carry
registration cards to avoid arrest by police, but must also restrict
themselves to one employer and location in Thailand. Unregistered migrant
workers often face poor working conditions, low wages, exploitation by
employees, and are prey to extortion by authorities and deportation to
Burma if caught. While there is a bilateral agreement between the Thai and
Burmese governments on managing labor migration, it has yet to be fully
implemented, and the formal process is slow, expensive, and restrictive to
certain occupations.

¡°If Thailand¡¯s labor laws were followed across the board, fewer migrants
would resort to illegal crossings or be susceptible to trafficking, and
could travel and work with basic rights under law,¡± said Pearson. ¡°It¡¯s
time for the Thai and Burmese governments to implement transparent
measures that protect the lives and basic rights of migrant workers.¡±