BurmaNet News, June 20, 2008

[Editor]

June 20, 2008 Issue #3496


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Police visit detained NLD members’ families
Irrawaddy: The thugs are back in action
AFP: Suu Kyi in good health after cyclone: party official
Mizzima News: Change of guard in Burmese junta
IMNA: Foreign monks help reconstruct school, after junta's cronies refuse

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Refugees observe International Refugee Day

BUSINESS / TRADE
Reuters: Thai PTTEP, Myanmar to sign deal on M9 gas field
Xinhua: China, Myanmar, Daewoo consortium sign gas pacts in Myanmar

REGIONAL
Narinjara News: Women's League of Burma demonstrates for Daw Suu Kyi in
Bangladesh

INTERNATIONAL
AP: UN issues urgent plea for Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Rice discusses Burma with Ban
AP: Cindy McCain blasts Myanmar junta on Asia charity trip

OPINION / OTHER
The Spectator (UK): Business as usual with the Burmese generals
San Francisco Chronicle: Firsthand tale of Burma relief frustrations
Mizzima News: Birthday present for Daw Suu: Waves of 'Saffron Revolution'




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Police visit detained NLD members’ families – Naw Say Phaw

Police officers and members of the Union Solidarity and Development
Association warned the families of National League for Democracy members
detained yesterday not to talk to anyone about the arrests.

Dr Win Naing, the NLD’s Rangoon division information coordinator,
confirmed the names of the 10 people arrested yesterday during an event
held to mark party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s 63rd birthday.

An NLD member who witnessed the incident yesterday named those detained as
Bahan NLD secretary Ko Htun Myint, Hlaing Tharyar NLD campaigning wing
member U Hla Aye, Ko Maung Maung Thein of Mingalardon, an unnamed woman
and a monk now identified as U Myint Swe.

Win Naing added the names of Bahan NLD joint secretary U Soe Oak, U San
Baw and U Chit Khin of Ton Tay, U Maung Sein of Insein and Wah Khe Ma NLD
deputy chairman U Htay Aung to this list.

The ten were arrested at NLD headquarters yesterday after members of Swan
Arr Shin and the USDA turned up at the event and began beating members of
the crowd.

Win Naing said police officers and USDA members had visited the detainees’
families later in the day.

"Police and USDA members went to the houses of those who were arrested
yesterday evening and informed their families of the arrests,” he said.

“They warned them not to talk to anyone about it."

The NLD coordinator blamed the government for the authorities’
heavy-handed actions in suppressing the event.

"Some of the people were not arrested in front of the NLD headquarters,
but while they were travelling to the event site," he said.

"This unlawful act of the USDA and SAS members who beat up and arrested
our members was under direction from the government."

____________________________________

June 20, Irrawaddy
The thugs are back in action – Wai Moe

After a welcome absence from the public scene in the past few months, the
ugly thugs of Burma’s two pro-government militia movements, the Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and its sister group, Swan
Ah Shin (“Masters of Force”), are back on the streets.

They turned out in force on Thursday for a birthday party—pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi was 63. They were in no mood to celebrate,
however. Their aim was to break up any display of popular support for a
courageous woman caged by the regime in her own home.

The thugs attacked a rally by Suu Kyi’s supporters outside the Rangoon
office of her National League for Democracy, detaining more than a dozen.

Although it’s not clear whether the unprovoked and brutal attack was
launched on government orders, the regime’s hand can be seen behind most
of the criminal activities of the USDA and Swan Ah Shin.

In a report to the UN Human Rights Council last December, the former UN
special rapporteur on Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said the “violent
actions” of the USDA and Swan Ah Shin are taken “with government
acquiescence or approval.” The report accused the regime of complicity in
the groups’ abuses and of negligence in failing to prevent them and punish
those responsible.

Suu Kyi’s current term of house arrest began after members of the group
ambushed a convoy of her supporters in May 2003, killing many of them. The
groups were also active in helping to suppress the popular demonstrations
last August and September.

“The USDA and Swan Ah Shin have played an increasingly important role in
suppressing civilian dissent”, Donald M Seekins, Professor of Southeast
Asian Studies at Meio University in Japan, wrote in a report. He accused
the two movements of involvement in the attacks on Suu Kyi and her
supporters in May 2003 and the suppression of last year’s demonstrations.

The regime often attempts to define the USDA and Swan Ah Shin as two
distinctly separate groups.

“After the September demonstrations, the authorities often explained
during meetings with businesspeople that the two groups are not same,
saying the USDA is a civic organization and Swan Ah Shin are people who
have the responsibility to prevent unrest,” said a Rangoon businessman who
has ties to the USDA.

He said Swan Ah Shin was answerable to both local authorities and the
USDA, relying on them for financing.

The two groups recruit their members from different social strata. While
USDA members tend to be civil servants, teachers, students and
businesspeople, Swan Ah Shin attracts a criminal class of membership.

Members of Swan Ah Shin were paid between 2,000 kyat and 3,000 kyat (US
$1.5 and $2.3) to help break up last year’s demonstrations.

Members of both groups receive basic military training and instruction in
crowd control from the army and police.

When demonstrations and popular protests arise, thugs from the two
movements are rapidly on the scene. But, like the Burmese army, they were
conspicuous by their absence when a real crisis, Cyclone Nargis, hit the
country.

"Last time [in August and September, 2007], they came here, just like
ants, from where I don't know," a Rangoon resident told Reuters in early
May. "Now I can't see any."

____________________________________

June 20, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi in good health after cyclone: party official

Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was in good health
when her personal doctor visited her after last month's deadly cyclone, a
senior official with her party told AFP on Friday.

Her doctor is one of the only people the military junta allows to see the
Nobel Peace Prize winner inside her lakeside home, where she has been
under house arrest for most of the last 18 years.

"Her doctor was allowed to visit her last month after the cyclone. It was
his first visit in four months," the party official said.

"As far as I know, her health condition is fine," he added.

Part of the roof of her house in the main city Yangon was damaged when
Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar seven weeks ago, killing more than 133,000
people and leaving 2.4 million in need of humanitarian aid.

Despite the devastation, Myanmar's junta last month extended Aung San Suu
Kyi's house arrest by another year, brushing off complaints from her
National League for Democracy (NLD) party that her detention is illegal.

Fourteen people were arrested Thursday after a small protest held to mark
her 63rd birthday, where her supporters shouted for her freedom on the
sidewalk outside NLD's headquarters.

Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide victory in 1990 elections,
but has never been allowed to govern.

____________________________________

June 20, Mizzima News
Change of guard in Burmese junta

In a change of guard, Burma's secretive military rulers have carried out a
major reshuffle in the cabinet and in key positions held by its military
commanders.

While the junta officially announced the reshuffle of its cabinet
ministers, the change of guard in its military command and Bureau of
Special Operations was not disclosed, as usual.

The junta's state-run radio and television on Friday announced that Major
General Maung Maung Swe, who earlier held two posts, has been left with
just one - Minister for handling Post-Cyclone Management, Resettlement.
One of his earlier portfolios, Minister for Immigration and Population,
was given to Maj. Gen. Saw Lwin.

Saw Lwin's earlier post, Minister of Industries (2), has been given to
Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Vice Admiral Soe Thein, a move viewed by
observers as shunting him from power.

Meanwhile, the Burmese junta not surprisingly made several other changes
among its military commanders, including promoting younger officers to
commanders and pushing effective commanders into higher ranks. This,
however, was not announced.

 Sources in the military establishment said the junta has ordered the
transfer of four of its key military commanders to positions at the
Bureau of Special Operations (BSO).

The four commanders - Maj Gen Aung Than Htut, Commander of the
Northeastern Military Command, Maj Gen Ohn Myint Commander of Northern
Military Command, Maj Gen Min Aung Hlaing, and Maj Gen. Ko Ko Commander of
Southern Military Command – were transferred to positions in the Bureau of
Special Operations.

According to the source, among the retiring BSO officers are seniors like
Junta's Joint Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, who
is number three in the junta's hierarchy.

The source said it was inconvenient for Shwe Mann to give orders to BSO
officers, as they were senior to him.

Burma's military establishment has a total of five officers in its BSO.
While Maj Gen Maung Bo, one of the five BSO officers was spared, the other
four – Maj. Gen. Ye Myint, Maj. Gen. Aung Htwe, Maj. Gen. Kyaw Win, and
Maj Gen. Khin Maung Thann - were made to retire, in order to make way for
the newly transferred officers.

Sources said Brig. Gen. Kyaw Phyo, Commandant of General Staff College in
Kalaw was promoted to Commander of Triangle Command, Brig. Gen. Yar Pyae,
former Defence Services Medical Academy (DSMA) to Commandant of Eastern
Command Commander, and Brig. Gen. Hla Min of the LID 11 has been promoted
to Commander of Southern Command.

While Brig. Gen Soe Win commandant of General Staff College in Than Daung
has been promoted to Northern Command Commander, Brig. Gen Win Myint of
the Light Infantry Division (LID) 77 was promoted as Commander of 
Strategic Command, Rangoon Division, which is crucial for maintaining
power.

The junta also switched two of its commanders' posts. Brig. Gen. Thaung
Aye was transferred from Eastern to Western Command, while Brig. Gen.
Maung Shein from Western to Northeastern Command.

Meanwhile, the junta also transferred Rangoon Commander Maj. Gen. Hla Htay
Win to Chief Military Training, a post held by Lt. Gen Aung Htwe, who will
now retire, sources said.

"Almost all commanders have been reshuffled, the only two who are not
transferred are [Snr. Gen.] Than Shwe and [Vice Snr. Gen.] Maung Aye," the
source in the military establishment said.

____________________________________

June 20, Independent Mon News Agency
Foreign monks help reconstruct school, after junta's cronies refuse – Lyeh
Mon

With a firm belonging to a henchman of the Burmese military junta refusing
to rebuild a middle school in Rangoon devastated by Cyclone Nargis, a
group of foreign monks have come forward to do the needful.

Although the Shwe Kabar Construction Company assured the school committee
that it would rebuild the No.4 Middle School in Thinkankyunt, the firm
failed to keep its promise given the high costs of reconstruction of three
buildings.

Teachers told local journalists that the township school committee
contacted the monk's group for funds for rebuilding.

 "The construction company was just trying to appease the generals with
the assurance to the school committee. After they realized that
rebuilding costs would be high, they avoided it. But teachers are happy
because they are getting support from the monks," a local journalist
said.

Monks from Thailand, China, Singapore, Vietnam and interpreters went to
the school last week and inspected the destroyed school building.

During the visit of the monks', journalists were barred from interviewing
them and teachers were afraid to talk about it.

"Don't ask me so much, if I give wrong answers, my higher authorities will
stop the rebuilding plan," a journalist quoted a teacher as saying.

The No.4 Middle School had four buildings of which three were destroyed by
the cyclone in May. Because the military government ordered reopening of
schools, the teachers are finding it difficult to take classes.

They divided the school time. Half the students are attending classes in
the morning while the other half come in the evenings. The teachers are
using a temple building near the school to take classes.

The Burmese military regime is sponsoring its crony companies, such as
Htoo company, Shwe Kabar and other firms to rebuild schools, markets and
other government department buildings in cyclone hit areas.


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 20, Irrawaddy
Refugees observe International Refugee Day – Saw Yan Naing

 “Life in a refugee camp is living like an animal in a cage,” said Myint
Swe on Friday, officially International Refugee Day.

Myint Swe, a Burmese refugee, and his family have lived in the Mae La
refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand, for 12 years

 “We can’t go out when we want,” he said. “If we go outside the camp, we
can be arrested. If you are arrested, you can be sent back to Burma.”

Myint Swe is among 148,000 ethnic refugees from Burma who live in nine
camps along the Thai-Burma border. Most fled to Thailand to escape armed
hostilities in their homeland.

Burmese refugees number more than 700,000, according to a 2006 survey by
the US Committee for Refugees. Worldwide there are 35 million refugees.
Burmese refugees comprise the largest group in Southeast Asia.

About 3,000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, took part in ceremonies
at the Mae La camp to mark International Refugee Day.

Regardless of the difficulties of refugee life, Myint Swe said he is
optimistic that he and his family will be accepted in a resettlement
program in Australia, which will lead to a better life.

Soe Lwin, another refugee at the Mae La camp, is already scheduled to
resettle in Australia. He decided to seek resettlement in a third country
because of the poor living conditions and the chance for his children to
receive a good education.

“My children will be able to study for their future,” he said.

According to the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), nearly
22,000 refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, departed Thailand to resettle in
third countries in 2007.

The USCRI says refugees’ rights in Thailand should be improved.

Dares Chusri, the USCRI country director, said Thailand’s ranking has
fallen recently, particularly in terms of refugees’ freedom and living
conditions, partly because of  the forced deportation of Burmese and Hmong
asylum seekers, The Bangkok Post, an English-language newspaper, reported
on Friday.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said improvements should be made
to allow refugees to develop self-reliance, access to labor markets and
opportunities for higher education, all of which are now severely limited.

Due to such restrictions, many refugees in Thai camps seek resettlement in
third countries, according to refugees.

Canada announced on Thursday that it would accept 1,300 Karen refugees
from Thailand. More than 2,600 Karen have already resettled in Canada
since a new resettlement program began in 2006.

“Canada continues to welcome Karen refugees who have been living under
some of the world’s most difficult conditions for many years,” said Diane
Finley, the minister of citizenship and immigration.

Tin Maung Htoo, a Burmese refugee in Canada who serves as the executive
director of the Canadian Friends of Burma, said life in refugee camps
offer few opportunities for self-improvement, especially for those who
grow up in refugee camps.

“This resettlement is of course a golden opportunity for the younger
generation to grow up in a land of opportunity,” he said.

The flow of Burmese refugees to Thailand continues due to the ongoing
military offensives against Karen villagers by the Burmese army. Many
Karen villagers become internally displaced persons and go into hiding in
fear of Burma’s army.

An estimated 1 million displaced persons live in primitive conditions o¬n
the Burmese side of the border, according to the Thailand Burma Border
Consortium.

Burmese military operations are being conducted by troops in Karen State,
according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).

May Poe, a CIDKP relief worker who recently returned from Papun District
in Karen State, said troops are now operating offensives in Papun District
and more than 3,604 villagers are in hiding in the jungle.

More than 2,000 houses were burned by the Burmese troops, said May Poe.

Saw Steve, a CIDKP team leader, said, “Human rights abuses are still
occurring in Karen state. So long as the Burmese army launches its
attacks, the flow of displaced people and refugees will continue. The word
should not ignore it.”


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 20, Reuters
Thai PTTEP, Myanmar to sign deal on M9 gas field

Thailand's PTT Exploration & Production PCL PTTE.BK will sign a heads of
agreement on Monday with the Myanmar government to develop the offshore
Block M9 natural gas project, a Thai ministry official said on Friday.

Thai Energy Minister Poonpirom Liptapanlop will fly to neighbouring
Myanmar on June 23 to sign the agreement, a senior ministry official
Kurujit Nakornthap told reporters.

"It will be a signing between PTT and Myanmar Oil and Gas along with
PTTEP," Kurujit said.

PTTEP would also sign a heads of agreement with top oil and gas firm PTT
PCL PTT.BK for a natural gas supply deal.

The company is expected to supply an early 300 million cubic feet per day
(mmcfd) from M9 of which 240 mmcfd would be delivered to Thailand and the
rest 60 mmcfd to Myanmar.

PTTEP owns 100 percent of Block M9, which is still under exploration in
the Gulf of Martaban, south of the main city, Yangon.

The project is expected to be in operation in 2012.

The gas supply deal was targeted to rise to 400 mmcfd in the future, he said.

PTTEP's subsidiary is also the sole operator of offshore Blocks M7 and M9
after signing production sharing contracts with the state-owned Myanmar
Oil and Gas Enterprise in 2003.

On Friday, PTTEP shares closed up 1.48 percent at 172.15 baht while the
main stock index .SETI rose 3.56 percent to 768.90 points. (Reporting by
Wilawan Pongpitak and Pisit Changplayngam; Writing by Ploy Chitsomboon;
Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

____________________________________

June 20, Xinhua
China, Myanmar, Daewoo consortium sign gas pacts in Myanmar

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Myanmar and a consortium,
led by the Daewoo International Group Corporation, signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) in Nay Pyi Taw Friday on sale and transport of natural
gas from the offshore blocks A-1 and A-3.

The Daewoo consortium comprises South Korea Gas Corporation and India's
ONGC Videsh Ltd and Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL).

The three parties also inked an agreement on launching joint feasibility
study on onshore natural gas pipeline involving six companies of China,
Myanmar South Korea and India, and an agreement contract on entrusting the
planning department of the CNPC by the six companies to implement the
feasibility study.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win,
Chinese Ambassador Guan Mu, South Korean Ambassador Park Key-Chong and
other Myanmar ministers. They expressed support and concern over the
project representing the four countries.

The signing of the MoU signified the overall launching of cooperation in
natural gas project between Myanmar and the four countries, officials
said.

Natural gas deposits were found at block A-1 (Shwe field and Shwephyu
field) and block A-3 (Mya field) in the Rakhine offshore area in January
2004 and April 2005 respectively, explored by the consortium of oil
companies led by Daewoo with 60 percent-stake. Other companies go to South
Korea Gas Corporation (10 percent), ONGC Videsh Ltd of India (20 percent)
and GAIL (10 percent).

The Shwe field holds a gas reserve of 4 to 6 trillion cubic-feet (TCF) or
113.2 to 170 billion cubic-meters (BCM), while the Shwephyu 5 TCF and the
Mya 2 TCF with a combined proven reserve of5.7 to 10 TCF of gas being
estimated by experts.

Myanmar has abundance of natural gas resources especially in the offshore
areas. With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and 19 onshore
ones, Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012 TCF (510 BCM) out
of 89.722 TCF (2.54 TCM) 's estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas,
experts said, adding that the country is also estimated to have 3.2
billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserve.

According to the Central Statistical Organization, in the fiscal year
2006-07, Myanmar produced 7.707 million barrels of crude oil and 13.039
BCM of gas. Gas export during the year went to 13.028 BCM, gaining 2.03
billion U.S. dollars.

The latest figures indicate that in the first half of 2007-08, the
country's crude oil production amounted to 3.857 million barrels, while
its gas output 6.74 BCM. Gas export was registered at 9.17 BCM during the
period, obtaining 1.531 billion dollars.

More statistics reveal that foreign investment in Myanmar's oil and gas
sector had reached 3.243 billion dollars in 85 projects as of the end of
2007 since the country opened to such investment in late 1988, standing
the second in the country's foreign investment sector ally after electric
power.

Currently, 13 foreign oil companies, mainly from Australia, Britain,
Canada, China, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and
Russia, are involved in oil and gas projects in Myanmar, according to
official sources.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 20, Narinjara News
Women's League of Burma demonstrates for Daw Suu Kyi in Bangladesh

The Women's League of Burma in Bangladesh staged a demonstration in Dhaka
on the occasion of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's 63rd birthday, calling for her
immediate release from house arrest.

The demonstration started at 9 pm yesterday in front of the press club
frequented by journalists in central Dhaka, with 30 Burmese democratic
activists taking part.

During the demonstration, the participants shouted many anti-Burmese
military government slogans to protest their unlawful detention of Daw
Suu. Â The protesters also demanded that the military government release
the detained democracy leader immediately. Â The demonstration was
completed without incident at 11 am.

Ma Saw Mi Mi Than, who is in charge of the WLB (Bangladesh) said, "Today
is 63 years of Daw Suu's birthdays, but she can not celebrate her birthday
with her family because the Burmese authorities have detained her for her
efforts to promote democracy in Burma."

Daw Suu was last arrested in May 2003 during the Depayin massacre, after
which the authority put her under house arrest.

According to Burmese law, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should have been released
after five years, but the authority has continued to detain her in
contravention of the law.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 20, Associated Presse
UN issues urgent plea for Myanmar

The United Nations warned Friday that it will be forced to ground
helicopters that have been ferrying critical aid to Myanmar's cyclone
survivors unless the international community urgently provides more
funding.

The U.N.'s World Food Program said it was facing a critical shortage of
funds for its logistical operation in the country, including 10
helicopters that have so far delivered lifesaving materials to 60
locations in the devastated Irrawaddy delta.

The use of helicopters, trucks and boats will "grind to a halt by the end
of this month unless we get additional funding now," Chris Kaye, WFP's
country director in Myanmar, said in a statement.

The U.N. estimates that 2.4 million people were affected by Cyclone Nargis
and has warned that more than 1 million still need help.

The WFP issued an appeal for $50 million to fund its logistical operation,
of which the helicopters are the most expensive to run, but has so far
received pledges and funding to cover just 60 percent, the statement said.

Myanmar's junta faced worldwide criticism after the May 2-3 storm for
failing to speed aid to cyclone survivors and initially barring foreign
aid workers from the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta.

Two weeks after the cyclone hit, the reclusive regime authorized the U.N.
to use 10 helicopters inside the country.

The helicopters, which were chartered from South Africa, Uganda and
elsewhere, provided a crucial boost to aid workers who had been unable to
reach hundreds of remote villages in the Irrawaddy delta.

"Of those several hundred villages, we have now reached 60," said WFP
spokesman Paul Risley. "We still have many more villages to reach."

The cyclone killed 78,000 people and left an additional 56,000 missing,
according to Myanmar's government.

Separately, EU leaders appealed Friday for the regime to drop its
restrictions on international aid agencies seeking to help the victims of
the cyclone.

The declaration criticized Myanmar for holding a referendum on a new
constitution just after the cyclone hit.

It also called on Myanmar's military leaders to release pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

____________________________________

June 20, Irrawaddy
Rice discusses Burma with Ban – Lalit K Jha

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday to discuss the current
humanitarian crisis in Burma and the UN-led international efforts for
restoration of democracy in the country.

In New York for a day to chair a special meeting of the UN Security
Council on “women, peace and security,” Secretary Rice discussed Burma
with the UN secretary-general along with several other pressing issues, a
senior diplomat told The Irrawaddy. No other details of the meeting
pertaining to Burma were immediately available.

“Instead of being allowed to take office as the elected leader of Burma's
government, Aung San Suu Kyi is marking her birthday this very day under
house arrest,” Rice said.

Rice was referring to the general election in 1990 when Suu Kyi’s National
League for Democracy won an overwhelming majority of seats. Instead of
handing over power to her, the military junta detained her and she has
since spent most of her life under house arrest.

During her speech, Rice identified Burma as one of the countries where
“unimaginable brutality” is inflicted upon women.

In Burma, soldiers have regularly raped women and girls even as young as
eight years old, she said.

The continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi was raised by other speakers
during the UNSC meeting. British Attorney-General Patricia Scotland called
for her immediate release and that she be allowed to play a full part in
Burma's political process.

“It is fitting to remember her when discussing women, peace and security,
and to remember that many ordinary Burmese women had often borne the brunt
of violence, persecution and economic deprivation imposed on them by the
military government,” Scotland said.

Responding to the charges of member countries during the Security Council
meeting, the Burmese ambassador to the UN, Than Swe, said he
“categorically rejected” what he said were “unfounded allegations” of
sexual violence leveled against Burma’s armed forces by groups associated
with insurgents.

Urging Security Council members to “avoid politicization of the issue,”
Than Swe said his country's traditions, culture and values strongly
favored efforts to promote gender equality, and they contributed strongly
to the government's endeavors to protect women and girls from gender-based
violence, including sexual exploitation and abuses.

“Peace and stability now prevail in almost all corners of Myanmar [Burma],
significantly improving the daily life of civilians, particularly women
and children,” he claimed.

At the end of the day-long deliberations, the 15-member Security Council
passed a resolution, which noted that “rape and other forms of sexual
violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity or constitute
acts with respect to genocide.”

Expressing deep concern over violence and sexual abuse of women and
children trapped in war zones, the Security Council demanded “immediate
and complete cessation by all parties to armed conflict of all acts of
sexual violence against civilians.”

____________________________________

June 20, Associated Press
Cindy McCain blasts Myanmar junta on Asia charity trip

Cindy McCain blasted Myanmar's military junta and vowed to make improving
human rights there a priority if she becomes America's next first lady.

She traveled to Asia this week, far from the U.S. presidential campaign
trail and her husband, Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting Sen.
John McCain, to showcase her charity work and get a close-up look at
relief efforts for victims of last month's devastating cyclone in Myanmar.

She said she didn't even bother trying to get a visa to Myanmar, knowing
it would likely be denied by the secretive government. Instead, the U.N.
World Food Program in Thailand will brief her Friday about its work.

Cyclone Nargis killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000
missing, according to the government, which has turned away some
assistance offered by the United States and other countries.

"It's just a terrible group of people that rule the country, and the
frightening part is that their own people are dying of disease and
starvation and everything else and it doesn't matter," she said Thursday
in Vietnam, while working with a charity that helps children born with
facial deformities. "I don't understand how human life doesn't matter to
somebody. But clearly, it doesn't matter to them."

Current first lady Laura Bush also has been a sharp critic of human rights
abuses in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Cindy McCain said she would continue that push if she winds up in the
White House. She has visited Myanmar twice, including once when her
husband met with pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention for more than 12 of the past 18
years.

She also visited the Vietnamese coastal town of Nha Trang where about 100
children born with cleft palates and cleft lips were awaiting free surgery
provided by the U.S. charity Operation Smile. The procedures will take
place offshore on one of the U.S. Navy's hospital ships, the USNS Mercy.

She has made several trips to Vietnam, where her husband was shot down
during the Vietnam War and held for more than five years as a prisoner of
war.

"This is what I do, and this is what revitalizes me, personally," she
said. "The campaign is extremely important, of course, but this is also
important to me, and so you try to balance everything."

She also plans to visit Cambodia to participate in charity work there.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 20, The Spectator (UK)
Business as usual with the Burmese generals – Elliot Wilson

Elliot Wilson explains why international condemnation of Burma's brutal
military leaders is so ineffectual: because many other countries are eager
to do deals with them.

The satirist P.J. O'Rourke once noted that the more references to
democracy a country has in its official title, the greater the chance it
is run by a grubby totalitarian regime. Hence the People's Republic of
China and the Kim dynasty's heroically misleading 'Democratic People's
Republic' of North Korea.

Burma - or Myanmar, as its leaders prefer - has its equivalent in the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). This is essentially a rebadged
version of the less fluffysounding State Law and Order Restoration
Council, a name that was dropped in 1997 perhaps due to its unappealingly
Dungeonsand-Dragons-esque acronym: SLORC. For Burma's brutal military
junta, which has ruled with mediaeval barbarism since 1988, the 'Peace'
portion of the title signals the army's self-proclaimed right to maintain
internal stability by keeping a malnourished populace crushed underfoot
and holding the revered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi under
indefinite house arrest.

Even when Cyclone Nargis tore through the country's southern delta in
early May - causing damage estimated at £5 billion and leaving as many as
200,000 dead - the junta closed the door on foreign aid, apparently
preferring to see Burmese people die. The Economist Intelligence Unit
called it Burma's 'worstever natural disaster', with up to 2.5 million
people displaced and most of them still lacking adequate food, shelter or
drinking water.

That brings us to the 'Development' aspect of the SPDC: Burma could get
away with rejecting offers of assistance from, among others, the British,
French, Americans and Chinese, largely because so many countries,
including potential donors, are morally compromised in their dealings with
these tinpot dictators.

Take France, which parked a naval vessel off the Burmese coast throughout
May, laden with aid destined for the battered Irrawaddy Delta. After
repeated refusals to allow the boat to dock, the French government was
left with no choice but to reroute its life-saving cargo to Thailand.
Paris declared itself shocked at the Burmese military's recalcitrance,
saying that nothing could justify cyclone victims being 'denied the basic
right' to aid. Yet the best way for the French to help Burmese people is
to stop funding their rulers. In 2005, Burma Campaign UK noted that the
Paris-based oil giant Total had for many years been the 'largest European
funder of the regime', allowing the junta to pocket between £100 million
and £225 million in tax revenues every year.

In late 2007, just months before Nargis tore through southern Burma,
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner rejected allegations that Total
was a de facto ally of the Rangoon regime, or that Total's presence
prevented the EU from imposing cohesive sanctions. French touchiness on
the issue is palpable: spokesmen defend Total's ethically untenable
position by claiming that if Total abandoned Burma, it would simply be
replaced by Chinese energy giants such as PetroChina and CNOOC, which
would not bat an eyelid at sucking out Burma's vast gas reserves to power
China's booming economy.

To its (relative) credit, China has at least been upfront about its
support for Burma's leaders - however amoral this stance may be. China
does not have a conscience to be salved by offering aid at the front door
while sucking valuable natural resources out the back. Beijing imports
gems, precious metals and timber across its vast land border with Burma,
and has long been an active supporter of the junta, propping it up with
diplomatic aid - including the threat of a veto at the UN should sanctions
ever be seriously considered - and financial support.

China has pumped billions of dollars of investment into Burma over the
past decade.

It is currently building a huge blue-water port in the Bay of Bengal - a
potential docking facility for China's increasingly powerful navy - and an
oil and gas pipeline that will snake from offshore fields at Sittwe across
the country to the Chinese province of Yunnan.

The big loser in all this has been India, which is even more conflicted
over Burma than France. Democratic Delhi's heart demands that it at least
superficially condemns its despotic neighbour. But its head warns that it
needs access to Burma's energy reserves.

India also fears the rising influence of China across South Asia. Beijing
is in cahoots with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which is allowing
China to build yet another blue-water port at Gwadar, west of Karachi.
India's fear of being surrounded by Chinese naval facilities protected by
Beijing-friendly administrations means that the Indian urge to condemn
Burma is severely circumscribed.

Other investors in Burma's energy sector include corporations from
Australia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Russia and - inevitably, for all
its impotent sabre-rattling at the Burmese regime - the US. But the two
nations most complicit in aiding Burma's generals, and maintaining their
lavish lifestyles, are Thailand and Singapore.

On the one hand, the Thai capital, Bangkok, is the key meeting point for
expatriate and exiled Burmese as well as foreign journalists who cover
Burma; and the Thais provide millions of dollars of humanitarian aid to
their neighbour each year. Yet Thailand's hugely powerful military - which
basically runs the country - continues to line the pockets of senior
Burmese officers. In September 2006, Thai commander-in-chief Sonthi
Boonyaratkalin visited Burma with a view to strengthening military
co-operation. By happy coincidence, the Thai government chose the same
week to announce Burma's largest ever inward 'foreign direct investment'
deal - £3 billion for a hydroelectric dam on the remote Thanlwin river, to
which China will contribute a further £1 billion. The dam, set for
completion in 2009, will flood the homelands of the besieged Karen, Shan
and Karenni minorities who are struggling for independence in the wild
east of the country.

More odious still is the position of Singapore, a city-state that likes to
present itself as a haven of transparency, untainted by corruption. Yet
analysts and spooks consistently highlight the depth of Singapore
corporate involvement in Burma. In 2001 Matthew Sim, a Singapore diplomat
who had served in Rangoon, published Myanmar on My Mind. Nominated by the
Far Eastern Economic Review as 'the most politically incorrect book of the
year', it counsels any Singaporean who kills a pedestrian while at the
wheel of a vehicle in Burma to 'pay a local citizen to take the blame by
declaring he was the driver'.

As The Spectator's respected Jarkartabased contributor Eric Ellis has also
pointed out, more disturbing still is the almost complete
institutionalisation of Singaporean investment in the country. William
Ashton, an authority on Burma's military, has described in Jane's Defence
Weekly how a group of corporations collectively known as 'Singapore Inc'
have shipped all manner of military equipment to the junta. The brains of
this operation is provided by the state investment firm Temasek, together
with arms suppliers such as Singapore Technologies. The gaggle of
corporations comprising Singapore Inc has an estimated £1.5 billion
invested in Burma. Credit cards used in Burma are almost always routed via
Singapore for authorisation.

And the door opens both ways. In exchange for allowing unfettered access
for Singaporean hoteliers and tour operators, Burma uses the Lion City as
its window to the world. Singapore has aided Burma's top brass in all
sorts of ways: for example, providing the ailing leader, Senior General
Than Shwe, with medical help as he battles cancer. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
with so much illicit cash flooding into and out of Burma, urban myths
easily take root. One - concerns cash coming from China via Singapore and
Thailand to fund testing of new drugs and medical equipment on
unsuspecting and unwilling Burmese peasants, mirroring the situation in
Africa portrayed in John le Carré's The Constant Gardener. Given the
junta's cavalier disregard for the lives of its own people, anything seems
possible.

Meanwhile, things just seem to get worse for Burma's 55 million citizens.
The Economist Intelligence Unit has tipped GDP growth to fall from 3.3 per
cent in 2007 to 1.5 per cent this year, while a post-Nargis fall in
agricultural production could push inflation to 42 per cent. Meanwhile
domestic consumption, such as it is, will continue to fall, with the
Burmese preferring to keep their savings locked up in gems and precious
metals. That's due to the junta's predilection for disguising the ruin
they have wrought by periodically knocking a couple of zeroes off the
local currency, the kyat. Presumably, to this loathsome regime, that
embodies their cock-eyed devotion to 'peace' and 'development'.

____________________________________

June 20, San Francisco Chronicle
Firsthand tale of Burma relief frustrations – Tyche Hendricks

Nearly two months after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Burma's Irrawaddy
Delta, humanitarian relief groups are still struggling to get government
permission to deliver life-saving aid to 2 million survivors, said Richard
Jacquot, a San Francisco resident and emergency program manager for Mercy
Corps.

In a conversation with The Chronicle, Jacquot, who returned Sunday from a
month in Burma, detailed the enormous frustrations and the modest triumphs
of helping cyclone victims recover under the watchful eye of an
authoritarian regime.

Although Burma's military leaders promised U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon a month ago that they would admit aid workers of all
nationalities, they continue to restrict aid delivery, he said.

The French-born Jacquot has spent 24 years working in some of the
hardest-hit war zones and disaster areas on the planet - from Sarajevo to
Sudan and Congo to the Kurdish area of Iraq. He managed Hurricane Katrina
recovery for Mercy Corps, an Oregon aid agency working in three dozen
countries. Trained in international relations and economic development,
Jacquot has worked for several humanitarian organizations coordinating
emergency food, shelter, water, sanitation and health care.

The risks of providing aid in the midst of a war are manageable compared
to the obstacles he confronted trying to deliver aid in Burma, said
Jacquot, 58.

"You have to make contact with all the groups ... it's dangerous but you
know the players," he said of his experiences in battle zones.

By contrast, in Burma, renamed Myanmar by the governing junta, "there's no
rhyme or reason. You don't know why you can go here today and tomorrow you
can't," said Jacquot. "It's the way an authoritarian regime works: It puts
you off balance. That's the way it controls its population."

Jacquot spent a month in Rangoon, coordinating with colleagues in the
delta town of Laputta over government-issued cell phones. He was not
permitted to leave the city and they were unable to travel out of the
delta. Satellite phones and Internet access was blocked by the government.

Mercy Corps has only been able to operate in Burma because it affiliated
itself with a British medical aid group, Merlin, which had already been
working in Burma and had a memorandum of understanding with the government
to equip health centers in the Irrawaddy Delta. Like other aid groups,
Mercy Corps and Merlin have relied heavily on Burmese staff and associates
who have been able to move more freely.

The greatest frustration, said Jacquot, was watching millions of dollars
worth of aid and hundreds of skilled relief workers stay bottled up in
Rangoon while hundreds of thousands of survivors subsist on almost nothing
after the May 3 storm, which took an estimated 134,000 lives.

"Imagine Katrina: it was already a pretty difficult challenge for the U.S.
to handle," he said. "Now imagine the government has shut the area
completely. No one is allowed inside and no aid is allowed to get in. The
result is a population that needs assistance and cannot get it."

Mercy Corps and Merlin managed to install three large barges loaded with
supplies on rivers in the delta, then used smaller boats to ferry food,
plastic sheeting and other materials from the barges to the villages.

Jacquot's team has employed Burmese health workers to serve the remote
communities along the rivers and hired local people to drain salt water
and clear corpses out of rainwater reservoirs and prepare them to catch
the monsoon rains again for drinking water.

Jacquot said he was moved by the ingenuity and initiative of Burmese
people in reaching out to their countrymen in spite of government-erected
obstacles.

"One of the side effects of a controlling government is that it triggers
human creativity," he said. "What is extraordinary there is the response
by local organizations. We have to admire them because they are taking a
lot of risk."

The United Nations, along with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
and the Burmese government, is conducting a comprehensive disaster
assessment to be complete next month. Early reports indicate that a feared
wave of disease and death has not materialized. But that doesn't mean that
all is well in the Irrawaddy Delta, where families still huddle in
shelters with their livestock and scrounge for food and fresh water, said
Jacquot.

"The fact that there isn't secondary death doesn't mean they are not
suffering," he said. "You hear people say, 'It's amazing how resilient
they are.' But what choice do they have?"

Meanwhile, aid workers like Jacquot debate how best to proceed in the face
of continuing government resistance to foreign aid.

"Some say providing a little bit of help is better than no help at all,
others say we should challenge the government further," said Jacquot, now
back in his San Francisco living room. "I don't know the answer but it's a
dilemma everybody has to deal with."

____________________________________

June 20, Mizzima News
Birthday present for Daw Suu: Waves of 'Saffron Revolution' – Nay Than Maung

I didn't realize that the article that I wrote last fall would be
significant and be a precious moment in my life. After retiring from the
media world and living as a student in North Carolina State, Mizzima
editor Sein Win who was a classmate in media training conducted in
Cambodia seven years ago, pressed me to write an article for his media. It
was no doubt  Sein Win created a remarkable opportunity for me to write a
Burma related article after a three-year lull.

At that time, hundreds of monks were marching in procession by reciting
Metta sutra in Rangoon's monsoon rain and wind. The monk-led protest,
tirelessly and assiduously striving for sweeping compassion across Burma,
in rain soaked robes, was the most thrilling and exciting moment for me as
well as to the modern history of Burma.

As I was watching this Metta (Love) reciting movement in full excitement
at my home, the protesting monks met pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi who was under house arrest at her residence-turned-prison with Metta
in the environment of incarceration. The monks saw her standing at her
door step on that very day 23rd September 2007. At that moment, I realized
that I'd got enough inspiration to write an article.

The compassion clad movement was the climactic moment in the 19-year long
non-violent democratic movement led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi which seemed
to be the prelude of forthcoming surging tidal wave of our democratic
movement. I couldn't help recollecting the images of peaceful democratic
transformation movement in East Europe, (countries once under the now
defunct USSR).

The monks led protest calling the rulers to stop violence was the sequel
of incidents where the regime brutally beat up monks, the most revered in
Burmese society, in Pakokku two weeks ago. This incident sparked the
nationwide movement drawing all the people in joining the protest, calling
for sweeping political change and writing the modern history of Burma, was
in fact, compassion head-butt against the brick wall.

The 2003 Red Rose revolution in Georgia, 2004 Orange Revolution in
Ukraine, 2005 Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan are the sequels of the famous
1989 'Velvet Revolution' in Czech Republic, transforming to democratic
states from totalitarian regimes.  All these movements are firmly
impressed in my head. Then I realized we need to symbolize our movement
also with the images of flowers and colours, soon after that, I wrote my
article.

In that article, I wrote,

"

Colours and flowers revolutions have started from systematic and
peaceful defiance by the student movements and anti-communist movements
."

"The successful Velvet Revolution in Czech Republic was the encouragement
to the newly emerged republics of former USSR to free from the yoke of
communism.'Red Rose Revolution' in 2003 in Georgia compelled the corrupt
President Eduard Shevardnadze who led the country to total economic chaos,
had to enter into negotiations with the opposition leader brokered by the
Russian government, and had to step down. The people were supporting the
opposition leader, holding the red roses in their hands, and protesting
against the rule of the existing government. Finally the peaceful red rose
revolution succeeded. After one year, the pro-democracy forces in Ukraine
started their struggle to topple the pro-Russia President by wearing
orange ribbons which was later popularly known as 'orange revolution'. The
electoral crisis created by controversial vote counting and massive
electoral fraud made opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko an overwhelming
success.

"In 2005, the Tulip Revolution which toppled the President Askar Akayev
occurred in Kyrgyzstan. Like other colour or flower revolutions, the
dictator President and his family was toppled and had to flee to Russia.
At first, the world media referred this popular movement as Pink, Lemon,
Silk and Daffodil revolutions. But the toppled president himself referred
this movement as Tulip revolution and warned the people not to wage colour
revolution against his administration."

"The reason why we referred this movement of democracy loving and
democracy longing people as 'saffron revolution' because it was
representing the faith (Sasana) of most monks, laity, students and people
in Burma; young and brave fighting peacock; the conscious citizens who own
yellow paddy fields across the country which will make our country
prosperous and free from the current crisis.

Mizzima posted my article the same day, 23rd September. I wrote the same
in English under the title 'Yellow Revolution' and was posted in Irrawaddy
and Mizzima websites consecutively. After two days, London Times first
referred the series of this movement as 'Saffron'. On 25th September,
former US Charge d affaires in Rangoon Ms. Prescilla referred this
movement as 'Shwe Wa Yaung' in VOA Burmese Service.

During these days, the people and students joined the monk-led movement
actively and enthusiastically. The number of demonstrators increased to
hundreds of thousands from tens of thousands who took to the streets. The
international media such as Boston Globe, United Press International,
Washington Post, Economics magazine and Burma expert columnist Larry Jagan
first referred this movement as 'Saffron'.

But until that time, the Burmese media had not yet referred the movement
as 'Shwe Wa Yaung'. Mizzima first used the headline 'The Shwe Wa Yaung has
started' on 24th September. Then 'New Era' followed suit on 1st October,
Saya Maung Swanyi on 2nd October in Moemakha, and BBC Burmese Service
first referred the movement as 'Shwe Wa Yaung Revolution' on October 4th.
Since then, the people have accepted their September movement as 'Shwe Wa
Yaung Revolution'. Though the words 'Yellow' and 'Saffron' are different
in English, it is the same in Burmese and it is more appropriate to use
'Saffron'.

A friend of mine in Thailand warned me that the Chinese government was
very much concerned over the christening of this movement as 'Saffron
Revolution'. It is not surprising to see the Chinese government was
worrying about coining the term with another colour revolution in the
backyard of their country while they are still licking the wounds left by
the Great Cultural Revolution and its nightmares. The colour revolutions
occurred in Central Asia toppled the communist governments which made the
Chinese government understandably nervous and cautious. But this is the
serious mistake of the Chinese government not able to comprehend clearly
about the nature and phenomenon of Burma.

It is time to continue the struggle to fulfill the unfinished task of the
Saffron Revolution. Some are reluctant to use 'Saffron Revolution' as the
movement died down due to the brutal suppression of the regime on the
halfway to 'democracy' goal. Some preferred to use the term 'revolution'
only after complete victory. But we should understand one thing very
clearly that we could have laid the foundation of a 'peaceful and
non-violent movement' firmly through love and compassion, which firmly
believes in compassion and refused to see opponents as an enemy, need
striving together for establishing a new era filled with democracy,
justice and equality.

In fact, this movement follows the doctrines of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma
Gandhi, follows the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's doctrine of peaceful democratic
transformation which could deeply impress the peaceful non-violent way in
the hearts and heads of many pro-democracy forces. This is the hallmark of
this movement. This is the great success for all of us.

We have crossed the 20-year long journey. We have covered a great distance
in this long journey. We are still marching towards our goal through
various experiences and different encounters in these 20 years. We are
building our future democratic state with compassion and knowledge based
on our tears and sweat.

This is the sole birthday present we can give to our beloved leader Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi. The lone candle we can light on her birthday cake is the
eternal truth for all of us. If she is the icon of Saffron Revolution, we
must be the saffron flames so that our future will be bright.