BurmaNet News, June 19, 2008

[Editor]

June 19, 2008 Issue #3495


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: NLD members beaten and arrested
Irrawaddy: Arrested – Volunteers who bury the dead
BBC News: Suu Kyi birthday marked in Burma
AP: Myanmar cyclone threatens water birds in delta region

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Salt shortage adds to post-Nargis woes
Irrawaddy: In hard times, pawnshops thrive
The Economist: Crony charity

HEALTH / AIDS
Christian Science Monitor: Burma (Myanmar) boots medics, citing no need

DRUGS
Mizzima News: Maung Weik still under detention

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US marks Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, deplores her arrest
AHN: U.N. condemns ongoing human rights violation in Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy: Open Letter to Aung San Suu Kyi
The Nation (Thailand): Who will save Burma's women and children?
Boston Globe: An appeal for Burma's women
UPI: No show trials for Burma’s protestors
Irrawaddy: Did Nargis baptize Asean?

STATEMENT
AIPMC: 63rd Birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi – Celebrating yet another
Birthday Alone

PRESS RELEASE
BCUK: International community should do more about Burma - Prime Minister
Gordon Brown



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD members beaten and arrested – Naw Say Phaw

Activists and National League for Democracy members celebrating the 63rd
birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi today were beaten and arrested by
pro-government militias.

An NLD member who witnessed the incident said the group was set upon by
members of Swan Arr Shin and the Union Solidarity and Development
Association.

"An event marking Daw Suu's 63rd birthday was held in front of the NLD
headquarters this morning – activists released 63 birds and wished for her
freedom," the NLD member said.

"Just after they finished that, at around 11am, a truck loaded with USDA
and Swan Arr Shin members arrived,” he said.

“They got out of the truck and started beating up the crowd before
arresting about four or five people including Ko Htun Myint, Ko Maung
Maung and an unknown monk who was involved in freeing the birds."

An unidentified woman was also among those arrested, as was U Hla Aye of
Hlaing Tharyar, who is paralysed.

The NLD member said the activists were beaten and dragged onto the truck.

“We saw the government supporters still beating them up after they were
dragged onto the truck,” he said.

"It happened right in front of a large number of police and intelligence
officers who were watching the event – they were positioned at every
corner in the area and at road-blocks on nearby junctions."

At around 1.30 to 2pm, a group of influential township figures came to the
NLD headquarters and demanded to speak to senior party officials, the NLD
member said.

"They told the NLD officials they could continue with the event with no
problems and that they would open up the road blocks and release those who
were arrested," he said.

"The road blocks have been cleared but they still haven't released our
people."

NLD information coordinator and Rangoon division secretary Dr Win Naing
said he believed the authorities had staged the incident to make it look
like a brawl between NLD members and some civilians who did not support
them.

"We also sense that the riot police placed at the location were instructed
to get involved and to raid the NLD headquarters if the riot happened,"
Win Naing said.

"This happened under the watchful eyes of government officials in a
community hall near our event, and Swan Arr Shin members being able to do
such a thing in front of them is so unacceptable," he said.

"The officials were responsible for security issues, not the Swan Arr Shin
members. If there was an incident, they were the one who should have taken
action – not the Swan Arr Shin members."

____________________________________

June 19, Irrawaddy
Arrested: Volunteers who bury the dead – Min Lwin

Seven Burmese civilian volunteer aid workers, members of a team known as
“The Group that Buries the Dead,” were arrested on June 14, following
their efforts to bury victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Among those arrested are Lin Htet Naing, Hnin Pwint Wei, Hein Yazar Tun
and Aung Kyaw San, the group’s leader, according to Tun Myint Aung, a
member of the 88 Generation Students Group. Three unidentified volunteers
in the group were also arrested.

Aung Kyaw San, the chief editor of the Myanmar Tribune weekly journal, and
his volunteer team of several dozen people undertook the grim task of
removing some of the many corpses that still lie in the rivers and fields
throughout the Irrawaddy delta.

The bodies, which had badly decomposed since the cyclone struck on May
2-3, were given simple cremation or burial rites.

“They worked to clean up the bodies around Bogalay,” an aid worker close
to the group told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. "The authorities have not
done much about the corpses. They volunteered to do the government's job
on their own.”

Bogalay Township, one of hardest-hit areas, had tens of thousands of
corpses littering the rivers, streams and fields, according to the
volunteer aid worker.

“When they returned from Bogalay to Rangoon on June 14 their vehicle was
stopped at a checkpoint in Pyapon Township,” he said. “They looked at
their identity cards and arrested them.”

Two of those arrested, Lin Htet Naing and Hnin Pwint Wei, are leading
members of the All Burma Federation of Students’ Unions. They went into
hiding last year when Burma’s military government started its crackdown on
monks and political activists following the civil demonstrations in
September.

____________________________________

June 19, BBC News
Suu Kyi birthday marked in Burma

In Burma supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi gave alms to monks as they marked
the detained pro-democracy leader's 63rd birthday.

Security personnel watched as dozens of people handed out food at the
National League for Democracy headquarters.

Last month the military junta renewed Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest for
another year. She has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years in
detention.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed for her release.

"This deplorable situation must end," she said in a statement.

She accused leaders of backtracking on "modest steps" made in the wake of
last September's anti-government protests and of denying the detained
leader regular access to medical care and legal counsel.

The regime "should release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu
Kyi, and begin a genuine dialogue with her and other democratic and ethnic
minority leaders on a transition to democracy", she said.

Doves

In the main city, Rangoon, supporters gave food to monks at the main NLD
building.

"Later, we will release nine doves to bring peace and freedom to Daw Suu
Kyi," one party member told the French news agency AFP.

Aung San Suu Kyi led the NLD to a landslide victory in elections in 1990
but the party was never allowed to take office.

Last month the government said people had overwhelmingly backed a
military-drafted new constitution that bars her from political office.

Rights groups and Western diplomats have condemned the referendum as a farce.

____________________________________

June 19, Associated Press
Myanmar cyclone threatens water birds in delta region

Water birds in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta are under threat because much of
their habitat was destroyed by Cyclone Nargis, a report said Thursday.

The swamps and mangrove forests in the vast delta are home to a variety of
water birds, including cranes, cormorants and bronze-winged jacana.

But the birds, which feed on crabs, fish and shrimp, are being threatened
by the dramatic changes in their habitat caused by the May 2-3 cyclone,
said the Eleven journal, a weekly magazine.

It quoted naturalist Soe Nyunt, chairman of the Myanmar Bird and Nature
Society, as saying many birds, including cranes and wild ducks, perished
in the storm, which cut a swath of death and destruction through the
delta. More than 130,000 people were killed or are missing, according to
the government.

Soe Nyunt said 50 to 70 painted storks were spotted in Yangon, Myanmar's
largest city, in early June after migrating from their usual habitat in
the delta. He said the birds usually don't move to new habitats.

"We have to study if these water birds will remain in the delta. We have
to rebuild the damaged ecology once the rescue and relief work of cyclone
victims is over," Soe Nyunt was quoted as saying.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 19, Irrawaddy
Salt shortage adds to post-Nargis woes – Lawi Weng

Amid worries that Burma’s food security could be at risk if farmers in the
cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta don’t start planting rice soon, there are
growing concerns that the country is also facing a shortage of another
dietary staple: salt.

Merchants at the Bayintnaung wholesale market in Rangoon said that traders
have been turning to Mon and Arakan states to meet the demand for salt
since the Irrawaddy delta, the center of Burma’s salt industry, was hit by
Cyclone Nargis last month.

“Normally seventy percent of salt consumed in Rangoon comes from the
delta,” a salt trader told The Irrawaddy. “Now we are worrying that a
shortage will come very soon.”

Meanwhile, the price of salt has hit an all-time high.

A trader in Mudon, a town in Mon State, reported that salt now costs 600
kyat (US $0.50) per viss (a standard measurement of about 1.63 kilograms),
or six times the usual price.

“Even if you have money to buy salt, it is no longer available for
purchase in Panga,” he added, referring to a village in Thanbyuzayat
Township that is the main salt-producing center in Mon State.

A Panga villager who recently arrived on the Thai-Burma border told The
Irrawaddy: “Each day about ten trucks transport salt from our village to
Rangoon.”

As other areas struggle to make up for lost salt production in the
Irrawaddy delta, residents of Burma’s southernmost regions, including Mon
State, say they are now facing a salt shortage themselves.

This is a development that especially worries local fishermen, who say
that unless they have an adequate supply of salt to cure their fish, they
will be forced to watch them rot.

Although the United Nations recently distributed salt in the areas worst
affected by the cyclone, many fear that the local salt industry will not
be able to make up for the lost production due to the onset of the rainy
season.

Burma’s coastal areas are major sources salt for the whole country. The
Irrawaddy delta typically provides about half of the salt consumed in
Burma, while Rangoon Division and Mon State supply about 25 percent. The
remaining 25 percent comes from Arakan State.

Rangoon correspondent Kyi Wai contributed to this report.

____________________________________

June 19, Irrawaddy
In hard times, pawnshops thrive – Aung Thet Wine

A 13-year-old student wearing a school blouse and a faded green longyi
shyly approached the owner of the Yadana Pawnshop on Moe Kaung Street in
eastern Dagon Myothit.

Pale and very thin, the girl slowly removed a packet from her ragged
school bag and handed it to the woman pawnbroker, who unfolded a tattered,
faded, longyi. She inspected it carefully, before speaking.

"300 kyat [0.40 cents]," she said. The girl’s eyes turned sad.

"Aunty, please give me 500 kyat,” she said. “Today I have to pay school
fees."

Colorful longyi hang on a pawnshop wall and a stack of cooking pots sit on
the floor. (Photo: Aung Thet Wine/ The Irrawaddy)
The pawnbroker looked at the girl and then silently began folding the
longyi.  Finished, she carefully wrote out a receipt.

Through a small window, she handed the student 500 kyat and a crisp, white
receipt.

The girl smiled. She put the kyat and receipt into her school bag and
walked outside into the rain. She could remain in school for one more
term.

The men and women waiting in the pawnshop had watched the exchange with
sympathy. They were also customers with hopes of getting a few kyat to
meet their immediate needs. Some needed bus fare to get to work; some
needed money for rice; some needed medicine.

Many people in Burma go to pawnbrokers each day now carrying clothes or
cooking utensils to pawn for enough money to get through the day. They are
mostly day laborers who are paid small salaries at each day’s end. Some
would return that evening to buy back whatever they pawned in the morning,
only to return in a few days’ time to pawn the object again.

"After Cyclone Nargis, the most pawned items are clothes and cooking
utensils,” said a pawnshop owner in Hlaing Tharyar Township. “Mostly
women’s longyi and cooking pots. Most people who pawn things are daily
wage earners with low living standards or civil servants in low ranks." "

“Every morning, I have to find money for bus fares," a mason from Ward 21
in Hlaing Tharyar Township told The Irrawaddy. He was working regularly at
a construction site in downtown Rangoon and had to commute to work.

A pawnbroker with a shop near Insein Market, said: "When the houses
collapsed in the cyclone and a lot of people lost their jobs, they turned
to the pawnshops. I had roughly 60 to 100 customers before, but now about
200 to 300 people come regularly.”

A civil servant at the Defense Textile Mill said, "Twelve days after I’m
paid the money runs out, and then I have to run to the pawnshop for daily
food.”

Pawnshops are among the most successful businesses in Rangoon, according
to an official at the Yangon Municipal Committee. He said Rangoon had 137
registered pawnshops in 2000-2001; 169 in 2001-2002; 162 from 2002-2004;
189 in 2004-2005; 214 in 2005-2006; 250 in 2006-2007; and 256 pawnshops in
2008.

A pawnshop owner must bid for a registration license. Owners say the
winners are those who pay the largest bribes.

"The license fee is 5 million kyat [about US $4,237] and the bribe is 2
million kyat [$1,695], so totally it costs about 7 million kyat [$5,929]
for a license," said a pawnbroker in Hlaing Tharyar Township.

The license fee varies in each township, rising to around 8 million kyat
[$6,776] for a downtown township location, according to owners.

Pawnshop owners say you need about 200 million kyat [$169,500] to start a
top-line pawnshop, which essentially functions as a small loan business.
Many unlicensed pawnshops are springing up, they say, drawing many regular
customers away from registered pawnshops.

But for now—with the Burmese economy reeling from the cyclone’s impact and
more people out of work—pawnshops everywhere are thriving with customers
trying to get through one more day in a life of unrelieved hardship.

____________________________________

June 19, The Economist
Crony charity

BUSINESSES in Myanmar are not famous for their public-spiritedness. But
since last month's cyclone, several well-known companies have helped the
relief effort. Their role has been vital: the ruling junta has kept most
foreign aid agencies on a tight leash. Fewer than 200 visas have been
issued to United Nations emergency staff, who must then apply for
short-term permits to leave Yangon, the main city.

So some aid agencies have joined forces with well-connected companies.
Save the Children and Singapore's Red Cross have both turned to Serge Pun,
a businessman whose holdings include Yoma Bank. The aid groups are using
Mr Pun's boats and warehouses to channel food, shelter and medicine to
stricken communities in the Irrawaddy delta, where at least 2.4m people
are estimated to need help. Andrew Kirkwood, country director of Save the
Children, says he is “absolutely comfortable” with his relationship with
Mr Pun, whom one Western diplomat calls “the best of the lot” of Myanmar's
big businessmen.

More disquieting for foreign donors is the government's favouring of its
business cronies with contracts to rebuild flattened towns and villages.
In recent years America and others have slapped financial sanctions on
some of these tycoons (not including Mr Pun) in order to squeeze the
junta. This could complicate donor-financed reconstruction efforts. The
junta has asked for nearly $11 billion in long-term assistance. An
international assessment team is due to report on June 24th. But any aid
for the junta is a hard sell after its brutality towards peaceful
protesters and obstruction of aid workers. Opaque sweetheart deals for
blacklisted cronies hardly help. The UN says it is still short of its
target of $201m for six months' emergency relief.

Yet private business may offer the best hope of getting aid through. One
veteran exiled campaigner for tougher sanctions says she is holding her
nose and cheering corporate relief efforts—but only during the emergency
phase. Reconstruction, she says, is a “different ballgame”. Indeed,
critics say the conglomerates are already exploiting their role as relief
co-ordinators. In Bogale, a hard-hit township in the delta, villagers
promised replacements for tin roofs lost in the storm were asked to pay
for them, says Win Min, an exiled Burmese scholar with family in the area.

The company in question, Htoo Trading, is owned by Tay Za, a young
entrepreneur in the inner circle of General Than Shwe, Myanmar's supreme
leader. His other holdings include Air Bagan, a private carrier, whose
fleet of aircraft was reportedly moved on the eve of the cyclone to
Mandalay, out of the storm's path. Myanmar's rulers, however, did not
bother to warn ordinary Burmese of the approaching disaster.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 19, Christian Science Monitor
Burma (Myanmar) boots medics, citing no need – Simon Montlake

Authorities have ordered Asian doctors in the cyclone-hit south home. The
urgent need is for volunteers who bring basic care to far-flung villages,
some aid workers say.

Having led Thailand's first medical mission last month to cyclone-ravaged
Burma (Myanmar), Pichit Siriwan, a doctor, was on standby for another
two-week tour. But last week he got word that Burmese authorities no
longer needed the services of his 30-person team.

The notice came as part of a broad drawdown of Asian medics in the
disaster zone – another entry, perhaps, in the ledger of international
outrage against a junta whose deep suspicion of foreign influence has
slowed aid efforts since a May 2-3 cyclone killed tens of thousands of
people.

For weeks, aid agencies have warned of the threat of disease to survivors
and called for greater international assistance in affected areas, which
are under tight military control.

But another explanation for the exodus of Asian doctors, whose primary
role was in temporary camps, may be the shifting nature of the disaster.

As more people return to their shattered communities, aid workers are
trying to put in place village-level systems that can offer preventive
primary care and screen the population for any epidemic outbreaks.

These rely more on local volunteers and mobile clinics than on hospitals
and foreign doctors, who are usually primed to treat trauma patients.

"We were told that we're no longer needed.... I think that they need help,
but in the right way," says Dr. Pichit, a physician at Chulalongkorn
Hospital in Bangkok and a member of the Thai Red Cross.

Healthcare shortages

Aid agencies say that cyclone-affected areas are reporting cases of
various diseases, as well as mental trauma from the tragedy.

But aside from the emotional trauma, all these conditions were long
prevalent in the Irrawaddy Delta and elsewhere in Burma, a grindingly poor
and insurgent-racked country that spends a minuscule proportion of its
income on healthcare.

In Laputta, a delta township of roughly 350,000 people, the main hospital
is said to have only one fully qualified doctor.

Last week, the UN warned of a shortage of trained midwives and clean
facilities for tens of thousands of pregnant women in the delta. William
Ryan, a spokesperson for the UN Population Fund, told reporters that
health kits designed for safe deliveries were being sent via Burma's
Ministry of Health to affected areas.

Burma's maternal mortality rate of 380 per 100,000 live births is four
times higher than that of neighboring Thailand.

Dispersed survivors hard to reach

Aid workers say the closure of displacement camps in the delta, which
international human rights groups have criticized as forced relocation,
has added to the urgency of rebuilding local health networks. The
dispersal of survivors to remote areas where water and food supplies are
uncertain is stretching local medical personnel, whose numbers were
already depleted by the tragedy.

But aid workers haven't received reports of any major disease outbreaks,
such as cholera and measles, as many had originally warned.

Infrastructure in the delta also took a hit. In a preliminary assessment,
the World Health Organization said last month that about half of rural
health centers and 20 percent of hospitals had suffered cyclone damage,
with many losing their roofs to the storm and a tidal surge.

Aid agencies are hoping to get a clearer picture of short- and long-term
needs, including the provision of health services, once a survey team of
250 UN and Association of Southeast Asian Nations experts currently
working with Burmese counterparts returns from the delta next week. They
are due to present their findings on June 24.

"If there are challenges, they will be in the villages," says John
Sparrow, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies (IFRC), which plans to set up 200 small health centers
that can offer preventive care and basic first aid. Burma's Red Cross has
about 10,000 volunteers in the delta, according to the IFRC.

Over the past two years, Merlin, a British medical charity, had trained
and equipped more than 500 community health volunteers in the delta and
had begun to scale down its program before the cyclone, says Jacqueline
Koch, a spokesperson currently in Laputta.

At least 80 volunteers died in the disaster and hundreds more are still
missing. Merlin is now helping to repair health facilities and is
operating mobile clinics, including one on a specially equipped boat, that
have treated about 10,000 patients.

Inured to government neglect

Such responses are common in international emergencies. But most ordinary
Burmese expect virtually no public services and are reliant on their own
families and communities for support, say aid workers and foreign
observers.

The junta's piecemeal response fits a pattern of neglect that has inured
many people to its shortcomings, while an outflow of private aid, at least
until recently, has helped tide over some of those left destitute by the
storm.

"Even before the cyclone, there were chronic shortages.... We're trying to
fill the gap for medical care," says Osamu Kunii, head of health and
nutrition in Burma for Unicef, which is supplying nutrition supplements,
vaccines, water purification kits, and other health supplies in the delta.

"Most of the affected people are now returning to the villages. It's quite
difficult for us to get access" to these far-flung areas, Mr. Osamu adds.

Burmese authorities have told aid agencies that doctors and nurses from
other parts of the country are being sent to the delta, though it's
unclear whether these are mobile teams or short-term replacements. Nor is
there any national plan yet for rebuilding wrecked clinics and hospitals.

Given these acute shortages, the decision to send away Asian doctors seems
perverse, even if their original deployment was in an emergency capacity,
says a Western diplomat in Bangkok.

But it fits the junta's pattern of asserting that the crisis is over and
that villagers must go back to rebuild their houses and farms, whatever
the state of the health system.

Pichit, the doctor, says that his team was grateful for the opportunity to
work in Burma, where they treated 3,700 patients during their two-week
stay. "I think many of the doctors were willing to help more, especially
with the children. But it's their country," he says.


____________________________________
DRUGS

June 19, Mizzima News
Maung Weik still under detention

The young business tycoon Maung Weik is still believed to be under
detention in allegedly connection with a drug trafficking case.  Maung
Weik (35) the Managing Director of 'Maung Weik & Family Co. Ltd.', was
arrested on May 31.

The Company, however, has denied that the police is investigating Maung
Weik saying "it is just a rumour". He has been carrying out health care
programmes and rehabilitation operations for Cyclone Nargis victims in
Kyaik Latt township in Irrawaddy delta when Mizzima contacted his office
in Lanmadaw over telephone.

Undercover reporters of Mizzima visited Kyaik Latt to find Maung Weik. But
a company staff member in Kyaik Latt said that their boss had not come.

A high ranking military source said that Maung Weik is being kept in a
place belonging to the Home Ministry and he will be charged. He refused to
give details.

Maung Weik was intimate with ousted former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt.
He divorced his wife Yin Min Khin, niece of the head of 'Military Affairs
Security' (Military Intelligence) Lt. Gen. Myint Swe recently by paying
Ks. 10 billion Kyats in alimony.
Myint Swe is a relative of junta supremo Senior. Gen. Than Shwe and his
wife Kyaing Kyaing. He became powerful after the former Prime Minister was
ousted.

Mizzima broke the news of the arrest of Aung Zaw Ye Myint, the son of the
head of the Special Operation Bureau (1) Lt. Gen Ye Myint on May 29.  It
is learnt that Aung Zaw Ye Myint has been sent to a drug rehabilitation
centre for de-addiction.

About two dozen people close to the military regime including film actors
and actresses are being interrogated in connection with the consumption
and trafficking in illegal drugs, particularly methamphetamine pills.

The case came to light when a popular actress Nandar Hlaing and her groom
Zay Thiha invited Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, the number three man in the
military hierarchy, for their wedding reception held in May this year.
Mizzima contacted Zay Thiha at Mya Yeik Nyo Royal Hotel to clarify the
reports about the meeting with Shwe Mann, but he scolded the reporter and
hung up.

An Information Ministry source said that the actresses were released on
parole on a request made by the minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Sann. The
Ministry is shooting six video films on Cyclone Nargis for raising relief
funds.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 19, Agence France Presse
US marks Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday, deplores her arrest

The United States marked Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's June
19 birthday, noting that her continued imprisonment was a "deplorable
situation" that must end.

On Thursday "Aung San Suu Kyi will spend yet another birthday in custody,
denied her liberty and fundamental political and civil rights by Burma's
military rulers," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday,
using Myanmar's former name.

"This deplorable situation must end," she said in a statement.

Myanmar's military regime "not only continues to keep this distinguished
Nobel laureate under house arrest, but there are nearly 2,000 other
political prisoners currently in custody," Rice said.

Meanwhile, the junta "has backtracked on even the modest steps it had
taken -- naming a liaison to meet regularly with Aung San Suu Kyi and
allowing her to meet with her colleagues in Burma's National League for
Democracy."

"There have been no meetings with either since January, and Aung San Suu
Kyi has even been denied regular access to medical care and legal
counsel," Rice said.

Instead of risking further unrest "by its unjustified detention of
political prisoners and its holding of a rigged referendum in May on a
sham constitution," the junta "should release all political prisoners,
including Aung San Suu Kyi, and begin a genuine dialogue with her and
other democratic and ethnic minority leaders on a transition to
democracy," Rice said.

The Nobel peace prize winner's US lawyer Jared Genser filed a petition
Wednesday with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,
saying the junta's extension of her detention last month was illegal under
their own law.

Under Myanmar's State Protection Law, a person can be held without charge
or trial for only up to five years, renewable for up to one year at a
time.

She has been detained initially in May 2003 and despite the expiration of
her fifth year of detention last month, the junta continued to detain her,
said Genser, president of US rights group Freedom Now.

"It is deeply unfortunate that the Burmese junta continues to flagrantly
violate their own and international law," he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta's main challenger, was first detained in 1989,
and has spent most of the last 18 years as a prisoner at her sprawling
lakeside Yangon home, with only brief spells of freedom.

She led her NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but it was never
allowed to take office.

____________________________________

June 19, All Headlines News
U.N. condemns ongoing human rights violation in Myanmar – Siddique Islam

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday condemned "ongoing
systematic violations of human rights" in Myanmar.

The U.N. body also called on the government to stop making politically
motivated arrests and to release all political prisoners immediately.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, the council also called on the
Myanmar government to fully implement commitments it made to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers
"immediate, full and unhindered access" to people in need in the wake of
last month's catastrophic Cyclone Nargis, a U.N. press statement said.

It called on the government to refrain from sending victims of the
disaster back to areas where they would not have access to emergency
relief, and to ensure that any returns are voluntary, safe and carried out
with dignity.

The resolution, introduced before the Geneva-based Council by the European
Union, also condemned the recruitment of child soldiers by both government
forces and non-state armed groups and urged "an absolute an immediate stop
of this appalling activity."

Besides, it called for an independent investigation into reports of human
rights violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary
detentions, acts of torture and forced labor, and called for those
responsible for such crimes to be brought to justice.

On the other hand, Myanmar's representative U Wunna Maung Lwin described
the resolution as politically motivated and lopsided and said powerful
states were trying to influence matters through political interference.

The representative also said Myanmar was working with the international
community in the response effort to Cyclone Nargis, which struck the
country on 2-3 May, and was also making efforts on the political front,
such as with the recent holding of the constitutional referendum.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 19, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy
Open Letter to Aung San Suu Kyi

Dear Aung San Suu Kyi,

We wish to use this opportunity, on the occasion of your birthday, to
reaffirm our commitment to your lifelong struggle to achieve democracy and
humanity in Burma. You have sacrificed your freedom for the freedom of
others. You have shown exceptional courage and dedication to your people.

Your release from house arrest and your freedom to participate in Burma's
political future remain essential. We believe the recent referendum lacks
credibility as a genuine reflection of the people's will and the new
constitution cannot provide a sound basis for Burma's future political
development. We call on the Government of Burma to set in motion, without
delay, a fully inclusive political process which involves representatives
of the full range of civil opposition and ethnic groups.

We welcome your readiness to have a genuine and meaningful dialogue with
the military leadership to find a way out of the current stalemate. We are
convinced that this voice of humanity and reason will be heard, as people
must now realize that bold initiatives and compromises are required and
that the present situation is neither satisfactory nor sustainable.

We are very concerned by the humanitarian situation following Cyclone
Nargis, and greatly saddened that Burma's people, already deprived of
basic human freedoms and economic opportunities, have fallen victim to
such a major natural disaster. We were further deeply saddened that offers
of international aid were not taken up at a sufficient scale at the
outset, but we are pleased that ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretary
General were able to initiate a response, and that Ban Ki-Moon has given
his personal support to the process. The work of the regional and
international aid agencies has been encouraging, however more needs to be
done to ensure aid reaches all the people in acute need and to prevent
further suffering and loss of life. The UK and France have immediately
committed themselves to helping the relief effort and will support the
ASEAN mechanism for longer term reconstruction. The success of the
international effort will rely on the actions and conditions set by the
Government of Burma.

We admire your strength in reconciling the hopes of Burma's many groups
and dedication to the country's national integrity. We will not forget you
or your people in this struggle.

Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy
____________________________________

June 19, The Nation (Thailand)
Who will save Burma's women and children? – Nilar Thein

I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night. I was with my daughter,
playing in a small garden.  We were playing hide and seek. I was looking
at her from behind a tree. She was so beautiful, with the prettiest smile
on her face, looking for me happily. I couldn't hide anymore. I wanted her
to find me. I wanted to hold her in my arms and kiss her face gently. I
started to show myself to her, but, suddenly I saw three men -with black
coats and ugly faces - watching from the shadows near my daughter. I
stepped back. I wanted to be found by my daughter, not by them. I still
saw my daughter, still looking for me with her innocent smile. I didn't
want to hide anymore. I wanted her to find me, but these men would take me
away and put me in hell. Then I woke up, with tears on my cheeks.

I have been separated from my daughter for nearly ten months. A midnight
knock at our door in August last year changed our lives dramatically. The
military junta's security forces took my husband Kyaw Min Yu (also known
as Jimmy) on the night of August 21, 2007. He is a leader of the prominent
dissident group, the 88 Generation Students, comprising former student
leaders and former political prisoners. He and other leaders were taken
from their homes that night by the authorities. As a former student
activist and a former political prisoner myself, I knew very well how my
husband and friends would be treated in the junta's interrogation cells.
Therefore, when they came back to arrest me, I went into hiding.

But I must continue to lead the 88 Generation Students with my other
colleagues, so that Burma may realise its freedom, and find justice and
democracy someday. I must avoid being arrested. However, there are so many
difficulties and hardships in moving secretly from one hiding place to
another, and I didn't want my daughter to share these hardships.
Therefore, I decided to send my three-month-old baby to my parents. Now, I
miss her so much.

My mind wanders to University Avenue, where "the Lady", Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi, has been detained under house arrest for so many years. Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, will
have to spend her 63rd birthday today alone in detention. She will be
missing her two sons, too. Her strength and determination helps me and
many women in Burma stand up for justice. I thank her for being with us
and leading our movement. She is a great reminder to the world that the
military junta that rules our country forcibly separates mothers and
children.

Coincidentally, the UN Security Council will hold a debate in New York
today on "Women, Peace and Security". This debate is a discussion of UNSC
Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously in October, 2000. Resolution
1325 "Calls on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to
protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and
other forms of sexual abuse, and all other forms of violence in situations
of armed conflict." It also "Emphasises the responsibility of all States
to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide,
crimes against humanity, war crimes including those relating to sexual
violence against women and girls, and in this regard, stresses the need to
exclude these crimes, where feasible from amnesty provisions."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to chair the debate,
with many world leaders discussing the development of women, peace and
security. Will they discuss Burma? Will they remember Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and the women of Burma who are suffering all forms of abuse by the
military junta?

Burma is now in the midst of two conflicts. One is the 50-year-old civil
war, raging between the Burmese military and the minority resistance
forces, predominately in the eastern part of the country. Burmese troops
are raping with impunity tribal women and girls, some as young as eight
years old. Burmese soldiers use women in conflict areas as porters to
carry their military equipment and supplies during the day, and use them
as sex slaves at night. Many women have been brutally killed to erase the
evidence of these crimes.

The other conflict is a 20-year old war, waged by the Burmese junta
against its own unarmed citizens, who are calling for freedom, justice and
democracy. Women activists are beaten, arrested, tortured and then put in
prison for many years. Many female activists are mistreated and sexually
assaulted by their interrogators and jailers. Children are used as bait by
the authorities to get their mothers arrested. Of the 2.5 million people
severely affected by Cyclone Nargis - many of whom the military junta
simply left to die through starvation and disease - at least a million are
women and girls. Recently, a UN expert said that up to 35,000 pregnant
women, all cyclone survivors, are at extreme risk of death. However, they
will never receive any care from the military.

I hope that Secretary of State Rice and other leaders at the UN Security
Council will give consideration to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the women of
Burma during their debate. Resolution 1325 is a great development, but
implementation and enforcement is still in question. When the government
itself is the abuser of human rights and the perpetrator of rape and other
forms of gender-based violence, who will protect the victims? Who will end
their tragedy? Who will secure the joyful reunion of mothers with their
children?

The appeasement policy of some bureaucrats is shameful. Effective and
urgent action from the UN Security Council is necessary to help the women
in Burma. No more debate. Take action. Please let me be happily reunited
with my daughter.

Nilar Thein is a former student leader in the 1988 democracy uprising in
Burma and spent more than nine years in prison.

____________________________________

June 19, Boston Globe
An appeal for Burma's women

IN A FRAUGHT coincidence, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be
chairing a United Nations Security Council session on violence against
women in conflict situations today, on the 63d birthday of Burma's Nobel
Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. That devotee of nonviolence has been
kept under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years by a military junta
that has committed the vilest crimes against women.

more stories like thisSince early May, the regime of General Than Shwe
kept supplies and aid workers from reaching more than 2 million victims of
Cyclone Nargis. Among the uprooted, UN officials say, are 35,000 pregnant
women in need of medical care. The junta's disregard for those women is
emblematic of what Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called the regime's
"criminal neglect."

The Women's League of Burma, an umbrella organization of women's rights
groups in the country, has called for a binding UN Security Council
resolution exposing the junta to criminal prosecution for its abuses
"against people in Burma, particularly women and girls." These abuses have
been worst in minority ethnic areas where, the league said, soldiers have
been "conscripting women as sex slaves and committing gang rape,
mutilation, and murder."

So it is fitting that Senator John Kerry sent a letter this week to Rice,
decrying the junta's "widespread and systematic effort to restrict the
flow of international aid" and asking the State Department to determine if
"the junta's inexcusable response to Tropical Cyclone Nargis constitutes a
crime against humanity under international law."

Kerry's letter goes to the heart of the matter. Than Shwe ought to be
arraigned at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for crimes that
rival those of numerous other mass murderers who have wielded political
power in the past half century. Until then, and until Suu Kyi and all her
fellow political prisoners are freed, the nations of the world should
treat Than Shwe's regime as the outlaw it is.

____________________________________

June 19, United Press International
No show trials for Burma’s protestors – Awzar Thi

Nearly a week ago, the Asian Human Rights Commission issued an appeal on
behalf of U Ohn Than, who is imprisoned in Kanti in upper Burma. The
60-year-old was among the few who protested last August against the
government’s unannounced dramatic increase in fuel prices, precipitating
the historic monk-led revolt in September.
Ohn Than went out alone, standing opposite the U.S. Embassy in the center
of Rangoon with a placard that called for United Nations’ intervention and
pleaded for the armed forces and police to join in efforts to topple the
junta.

His protest did not last long. Within a few minutes an unidentified
vehicle pulled up and a group of men threw him inside and drove away. For
the public, that was it. For Ohn Than, it was only the beginning.

Ohn Than was not taken to a police station, as required by Burma’s penal
code, but to a special army barracks that was used to house thousands,
similarly detained without charge or procedure, in the coming days and
weeks. He was kept there, a non-detainee in a non-prison.

Several months later, at the end of January, Ohn Than was finally charged
with sedition, which requires that the prosecutor prove that Ohn Than had
provoked “hatred or contempt” for the government, or had attempted to
“excite disaffection” toward it.

Under other circumstances, this may be a difficult task, but Ohn Than was
tried in a closed court, unable to present witnesses, and was denied a
lawyer, making the prosecutor’s job less onerous.

Still, Ohn Than did his best to argue a case, cross-examining nine
witnesses, all of them state officials and government thugs, and asking
questions that were consequently struck from the record when the judge
found them impertinent.

In his defense, Ohn Than said that he had not intended to incite hatred
toward the state and pointed out that the wording of his silently-held
placard was simply calling for democracy instead of dictatorship, and for
the armed forces to uphold their dignity by siding with the people.

He also noted that a government-backed group had held a rally near the
same spot in February. None of the hundred or so that had gathered had
been charged with any offence. He had assumed that he had the right to do
as they did.

In the end, it seemed Ohn Than’s words were of no import. The judge
skipped lightly over the facts and handed down the required sentence.

Dictators have long relied upon pliable judiciaries to deal with political
opponents or former allies, and in this respect Burmese courts are
unremarkable. Still, whereas in many countries the courts have been used
for rehearsed public performances of justice, it is not the case in Burma.

In Moscow, show trials under Stalin were highly scripted; in Beijing, the
Gang of Four trial was an important part of a public and political
catharsis. In each case, the performances were paramount. The law mattered
little.

What is striking about the trials in Burma today is that neither the
performance nor the law matters. They go on without fanfare or outside
interest other than the illegal imprisonment of persons who were already
illegally imprisoned, without anyone to witness their parodies of justice
other than the performers themselves.

Ultimately, it is this lack of audience that makes these trials
particularly disturbing. Unable to operate with integrity, Burma’s courts
do not even serve as a locale shaping and exhibiting state propaganda.
Their judgments, having been stripped of both coherence and relevance, are
disinterested in the police’s attention to the law, the presence of the
prosecutor’s evidence, or the defendant’s defense. There is no sound, no
fury, and no significance.

The significance of U Ohn Than’s case, then, is its absence. For a few
fleeting moments, Ohn Than was visible on the streets outside the embassy.
There was no other opportunity: no television camera recorded his
testimony to the court; no newspaper declared in print the passing of his
life sentence. His was the role of an actor in an uncelebrated farce, a
farce repeated daily.

--

(Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights
Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights
and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be
read at http://ratchasima.net)

____________________________________

June 19, Irrawaddy
Did Nargis baptize Asean? – Aung Zaw

If Cyclone Nargis baptized the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean), as the organizations’s secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan has
claimed, the strong will and resilience of the Burmese people must be
commended.

The Asean chief said during the 5th Asean Leadership Forum in Singapore
that a new Asean had emerged from its achievements in responding to the
challenges of the cyclone.

"We are being baptised by Cyclone Nargis," he declared.

The former Thai foreign minister said that, “with 2.4 million people
teetering between survival and death," Asean became the mechanism for
getting aid to the worst-hit areas such as the Irrawaddy Delta, helping
sort out official objections to the use of helicopters and sending in
nearly 300,000 volunteers.

"The teams have been given full support and reached the areas where they
wanted to go," Surin said. "That's a new Asean ready to take on
responsibility."

A new Asean? Let me hold my breath.

The Asean chief's hard work since the catastrophic cyclone slammed Burma's
delta region in early May is to be recognized, but not the
self-congratulatory tone.

Kudos and credit must go to cyclone survivors who endured a massive
natural disaster and put their lives back together despite the regime’s
slow response to their needs. They are the drama’s true heroes, who
resisted hardship and did not give in easily to Cyclone Nargis.

Surin and Asean leaders can, however, learn more from the experience of
the cyclone.

Nargis erased the already thin borderline between Burmese in exile and
those living within the country. Aid groups, volunteers, NGOs and civil
society groups outside Burma have been working with many Burmese groups at
home to help Nargis survivors and to rebuild communities and individual
lives.

Buddhist monks, who faced the violent crackdown in last September’s
uprising, immediately emerged as aid volunteers and damage clearance
workers in the absence of the troops who were so active in shooting
unarmed monks and activists last year. More importantly, several prominent
abbots or Sayadaw traveled to the delta region to help save many lives.

What Surin and the Asean leadership have failed to mention, or perhaps
have been afraid to bring up, is the ongoing crackdown on and harassment
of aid workers.

Ten aid volunteers have been arrested this month alone, including the
country’s popular satirist Zarganar, who was detained two weeks ago. Zaw
Thet Htwe, a journalist and private aid worker, and Ein Khine Oo were the
latest to be arrested.

While private aid volunteers critical of the regime face arrest, the
junta's cronies and apologists have been given free access to the delta
region to deliver aid and coordinate with international NGOs and UN
agencies and to receive assistance from them.

The irony here is that it is the regime which insisted on not politicizing
the humanitarian crisis and that went ahead in holding a sham national
referendum, continuing to arrest and detain aid workers and insulting
survivors by saying they could live by scavenging in the wrecked
countryside.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon echoed the regime's official line, saying
the humanitarian tragedy should not be politicized while avoiding any
criticism of the regime's current crackdown on local aid workers, perhaps
fearing that aid operations could be put in jeopardy.

Politics is, however, hard to separate from the tragedy.

On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council condemned "ongoing systematic
violations of human rights "in Burma and called on the regime to stop
making politically motivated arrests and to release all political
prisoners immediately.

In a resolution adopted without a vote, the Council also called on the
regime to fully implement commitments it made to Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon that it would grant relief workers "immediate, full and unhindered
access" to cyclone victims in need.

It called on the regime to refrain from sending victims of the disaster
back to areas where they would not have access to emergency relief, and to
ensure that relocation is voluntary, safe and carried out with dignity.

If Surin and Asean leaders want to witness a "new Asean," they should look
into these matters.

I wonder where they are today—the birthday of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, alone in her Rangoon home that has become her prison.

In a statement on the occasion, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
said: "Sadly, the regime not only continues to keep this distinguished
Nobel laureate under house arrest, but there are nearly 2,000 other
political prisoners currently in custody. Burma's rulers should release
all political prisoners and begin to move in earnest to transform Burma
into a democratic society."

Burmese people doubtless expect a similar message from Surin and Asean.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

June 19, Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus
63rd Birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi – Celebrating yet another Birthday Alone

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) extends its birthday
wishes to Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she
celebrates her 63rd birthday on June 19th 2008.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be a beacon
of hope and inspiration for those who yearn for freedom in her country and
throughout the world. Despite the Myanmar military regime’s misguided
efforts to silence her, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s message of freedom,
democracy and human rights has only become stronger as she continues to
stand up to Myanmar’s oppressors.

While we celebrate her birthday, there is little to celebrate in Myanmar
itself with news of the obstruction of aid to survivors of the Cyclone
Nargis disaster who are vulnerable and continue to face the risk of death,
disease and hunger.

On this auspicious day, we again condemn Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s ongoing
detention and reiterate our call for her immediate and unconditional
release. She has now spent more than five consecutive years under house
arrest and has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years in detention.

We strongly urge ASEAN leaders to use this opportunity to out-rightly
deplore her continued detention and ensure her timely release. Only with
her release can Myanmar move towards inclusive national reconciliation,
the restoration of democracy, and full respect for human rights. Only with
her release can ASEAN claim that it is committed to the protection of
human rights in the region and it operates true to its charter.

AIPMC looks forward to the day when Aung San Suu Kyi will not have to
celebrate her birthday alone but in a democratic and free Myanmar.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

June 19, Burma Campaign UK
International community should do more about Burma - Prime Minister Gordon
Brown

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today told a delegation of six women
from Burma that the international community should do more to address the
problems in Burma. The meeting took place on Aung San Suu Kyi¹s 63rd
birthday. The delegation called for more pressure to be placed on the
regime to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma.
They also called for stronger targeted sanctions from the European Union,
and a global arms embargo. Foreign Office Minister Meg Munn MP also
attended the meeting, along with Glenys Kinnock MEP, and Ann Clwyd MP.

The delegation was made up of young women from Burma from 5 of Burma¹s
main ethnic nationalities, Burman, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, and Chin,
demonstrating the unity of the people of Burma in their struggle against
dictatorship.

Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her 63rd birthday in detention on Thursday
19th June. She is allowed no visitors, her phone line cut and her post
intercepted. On this day she will have spent a total of 12 years 239 days
in detention. Her current period of detention began on 30th May 2003,
following the Depayin Massacre in which at least 70 people were killed. On
27th May 2008 the regime again extended her detention.

³We are very encouraged by this meeting,² said Zoya Phan, International
Coordinator of Burma Campaign UK. ³The Prime Minister has taken strong
position on Burma, pushing it up the international political agenda. He
said he would continue to push for more action on Burma.²