BurmaNet News, July 19-21, 2008

[Editor]

July 19-21, 2008 Issue #3516


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Seven NLD members released after Martyrs' Day
DVB: Political prisoner dies in Mandalay prison
Irrawaddy: Police bars some press photographers from Martyrs’ Day ceremonies
Washington Post: A new generation of activists arises in Burma
Xinhua: Myanmar makes prompt delivery of rice for storm relief effort

ON THE BORDER
DPA: Thailand condemned for kicking out refugees
Kaladan News: Three more Rohingya refugees die of starvation in Lada camp

ASEAN
Mizzima News: Damage caused by Cyclone Nargis US$ 4 billion
Bangkok Post: Another Burma promise

REGIONAL
AP: Myanmar appeals for more foreign aid to help victims of Cyclone
Nargis, but gives no figure

INTERNATIONAL
DPA: UN welcomes Myanmar's post-cyclone recovery plan
BBC News: Burma aid effort 'requires $1bn'

OPINION / OTHER
Kachin News Group: Divided opinion among Kachins over Gen. Aung San's
promise of autonomy


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Seven NLD members released after Martyrs' Day

Seven National League for Democracy members who were arrested prior to
Martyrs' Day have been released now that the day has passed, according to
one of those held.

Five of the members – Rangoon NLD social welfare member Ko Myint Htay,
Shwe Pyi township member Ma Htet Htet Oo Wei, New Dagon township youth
wing member Ko The Han and social welfare member U Thein Myint Htun and
Khayan township youth wing member Ko Win Myint Maung – were released on
Sunday afternoon, three days after they were taken in by authorities, who
detained them in the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Two other members – private tutor U Aung Pe of Ton Tay township and South
Okkalapa NLD member Ko Kyaw Zeya – who were detained on Friday evening,
were released on Saturday evening.

Despite the timing of the arrests, immediately prior to Martyrs’ Day on 19
July, Ko The Han said that the officials’ questions had not focused on
political activities.

"While we were in detention, each of us was interrogated separately by
unknown government officials – the session I went through lasted for the
whole night,” Ko The Han said.

“They asked me nothing about my political activities – just about my
personal life, such as my family members' personal details and my
business."

Ko The Han said his interrogators had also asked him questions about drugs.

"They asked me if I had seen anyone who trades or uses drugs in my ward
and also if I had taken any of those amphetamine pills myself. I told them
I was only a political activist and that I didn't even smoke cigarettes,"
he said.

"Then they said they were only trying to get us to cooperate with them in
fighting drugs in the community. The session finished early in the
morning, before 7am."

Ko The Han said the interrogation team was from the Western Rangoon
Special Narcotic Force.

____________________________________

July 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Political prisoner dies in Mandalay prison – Khin Hnin Htet

Political prisoner Ko Khin Maung Tint has died aged 46 in Mandalay prison
after suffering from tuberculosis, according to the Assistance Association
for Political Prisoners.

Khin Maung Tint, also known as Htate Tin Maung Maung Yar Pyae and Yar
Pyae, died on 18 July.

AAPP offered its condolences to his family in a statement and said that
Khin Maung Tint was the second political prisoner to die in prison this
year, and the 137th since 1988.

According to AAPP, Khin Maung Tint joined the pro-democracy movement
around the time of the 1988 uprising and later joined the All Burma
Students’ Democratic Front (North).

After being mistakenly accused by the ABSDF (North) of being a government
spy and being detained and tortured, he escaped back to Mandalay.

He continued to fight for human rights and democracy, and in 1998 was
arrested and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for sedition.

U Myo Naing, a member of Mandalay NLD organising wing, said Khin Maung
Tint had been ill for some time.

"Before Ko Khin Maung Tint's death, we heard news from his colleagues who
were serving time in the same prison that he had been in the prison
hospital for quite a while," U Myo Naing said.

"He was suffering from lung and liver diseases and he needed to take
medication which would cost around 65,000 kyat,” he went on.

“After we learned that, we raised money for him and ordered the medicine
from Germany on 9 July. He had a chance to take the medicine but died on
18 July,” he said.

“We can only hope that he didn't suffer a lot before he died because he
had taken the medicine."

U Myo Naing, who spent time in prison with Ko Khin Maung Tint, said he was
from the royal blood line of the Burmese monarchy and his full formal name
was Htate Tin Maung Maung Yar Pyae.

Ko Khin Maung Tint is survived by his wife Ma Htay Htay Yee, a son and a
daughter.

____________________________________

July 21, Irrawaddy
Police bars some press photographers from Martyrs’ Day ceremonies – Saw
Yan Naing

Several local press photographers were prevented by police and security
guards from taking pictures of an official ceremony in Rangoon marking
this year’s Martyrs’ Day.

The authorities sealed off the Martyrs’ memorial, near the famous
Shwedagon pagoda, and this year no foreign diplomats were invited to
attend Saturday’s ceremony.

Security was also increased at the Shwedagon pagoda and the offices of the
opposition National League for Democracy.

Several photographers who tried to approach the memorial were challenged
by police and plainclothes guards, who seized the cameras and press cards
of some of the media representatives.

One journalist was briefly detained by police. A photographer said he was
physically attacked.

“The police asked me to destroy all the pictures I had taken,” said one
Rangoon-based photographer. “They took my name and also took a picture of
me.”

Saturday’s ceremony, which included a wreath-laying, marked the 61st
anniversary of the assassination of Burma’s independence hero Gen Aung San
and eight of his comrades.

The Irrawaddy’s correspondent Kyi Wai in Rangoon also contributed to this
report.

____________________________________

July 20, Washington Post
A new generation of activists arises in Burma

They operate in the shadows, slipping by moonlight from safe house to safe
house, changing their cellphones to hide their tracks and meeting under
cover of monasteries or clinics to plot changes that have eluded their
country for 46 years.

If one gets arrested, another steps forward.

"I feel like the last man standing. All the responsibility is on my
shoulders. . . . There is no turning back. If I turn back, I betray all my
comrades," said a Burmese activist who heads a leading dissident group,
the 88 Generation Students, named for a failed uprising in 1988. He took
command after the arrest last August of its five most prominent leaders.

In a nearly deserted Rangoon coffee shop one recent morning, he spoke in
an urgent whisper, often glancing over his shoulder to look for informers.

The security apparatus of Burma's military junta was thought to have
largely shattered the opposition last August and September, in a crackdown
that included soldiers firing on an alliance of monks and lay people who
had taken to the streets by the thousands to protest a rise in fuel
prices. More than 30 people died. At least 800 were detained and many more
were forced into exile, according to the Thailand-based Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners.

But a new generation of democracy activists fights on, its ranks
strengthened both by revulsion over last year's bloodletting and the
government's inept response after a cyclone that killed an estimated
130,000 people two months ago. Largely clandestine, these activists make
up a diffuse network of students, militant Buddhist monks, social service
workers and leaders of the 1988 uprising.

Some activists express impatience with what they call the largely passive
policies of the National League for Democracy, the country's main
opposition party and one of the few anti-government groups that operates
legally. In 1990, the league won a national election by a landslide, but
the military prevented it from taking office. Its emblem, a fighting
peacock, endures as a symbol of resistance to the military for millions of
Burmese.


>From its closely watched headquarters in downtown Rangoon, a clutter of

dusty wooden desks and chairs, the league is led by three octogenarians
whom many people here call the "uncles." The men oversee the party while
its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, languishes under
house arrest.

"Their biggest goal in life is to return the party to the lady," the
honorific that sympathizers here use for Suu Kyi, said the leader of the
88 Generation. "They won't do anything. They are just guardians. . . .
Because of them, their party is divided."

One woman who is active in the new opposition said she thinks that "the
NLD has lost the trust of the people. They have been issuing many
announcements, that the government must do this. But the government has
not, and anyone who gets involved with the NLD gets in trouble."

Because of what it sees as an absence of clear direction from the NLD's
leaders, the 88 Generation has acted on its own, issuing statements with
the All Burma Monks Alliance and the All Burma Federation of Student
Unions. The most recent statements criticized the junta for holding a
referendum on a new constitution while the bodies of cyclone victims still
floated in the waterways of the Irrawaddy Delta.

Since its founding in late 2006 by newly freed political prisoners,
including legendary student leader Min Ko Naing, the group has launched a
series of creative civil disobedience campaigns. Last year, people were
invited to dress in white as a symbol of openness; to head to monasteries,
Hindu temples or mosques for prayer meetings; and to sign letters and
petitions calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners. That effort resonated with so many that the group had to extend
its closing date.

The group was at the forefront of the protests in August and reached out
to monks, the 88 leader said.

"The struggle is still on," said a young lawyer who was sentenced to seven
years in jail for starting a student union at a university. Since his
release, four years early, he said, he has resumed regular contact with
several groups of politically active current and former students.
"Students will fight if they think it's just," he said, continuing a
tradition among young people here that dates to the era of British
colonial rule.

One group of young people, whose members gathered as a book club, decided
to organize votes against the proposed constitution, dismissing it as a
sham that reinforces the military's control of the country. So they
created hundreds of stickers and T-shirts bearing the word "no" and
scattered them on buses, in university lecture halls and in the country's
ubiquitous tea shops.

Another student said he and some of his peers acted as unofficial election
monitors during the referendum, taking photos and interviewing voters who
were given already marked ballots or coerced to vote yes.

The 88 leader said such efforts have given him a stock of evidence to show
that the vote was neither free nor fair.

Despite the obstacles, the group has not ruled out trying to become a
legal party to run for elections in 2010, he said. "People think that if
you accept to run, that means you accept the constitution. No! I want to
have a legal party to fight from within," he said.

Outside experts have compared the network to Poland's Solidarity movement
in the early 1980s, a broad-based coalition of workers, intellectuals and
students that emerged as a key political player during the country's
transition to democracy.

Just as Solidarity organized picnics to keep people in touch, some new
groups here meet as book clubs or medical volunteers but could easily turn
at key moments to political activity, said Bertil Lintner, a journalist
and author of several books on Burma.

Meanwhile, the devastation wrought by the cyclone has sometimes been a
trigger for more overt political activities. A handful of members of an
embattled activist group called Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
headed to the delta after the storm to hand out relief supplies as well as
copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to a
lawyer. They were subsequently sentenced to four years in jail, he said.

Monks remain politically active, too, in spite of increased harassment
from security forces since the protests.

Some have hidden pamphlets inside their alms bowls to distribute when they
go out to collect food in the mornings, according to a Mandalay monk. They
have smuggled glue and posters inside the bowls to stick on street walls.

Ten years ago, the monk said, he started a library that has since expanded
to 14 branches across the country. Under cover of membership, patrons take
classes in public speaking and pass around poems and pamphlets that are
often scathing about their rulers, he said.

"I told people to read lots of books, so they can start to know, and then
they can change the system," he said. "Because we want freedom. Because it
is difficult to speak and write in this country."

The cyclone's aftermath has also spurred vast new stores of anger,
sometimes among monks, who take vows of nonviolence.

"Now we want to get weapons," said a monk known to other dissidents by the
nom de guerre "Zero" for his ability to organize and vanish without a
trace. "The Buddhist way is lovingkindness. But we lost. So now we want to
fight."

In the dormitory of a monastery one recent afternoon, he sat among piles
of handwritten speeches and recent clandestine pamphlets stamped with
names of groups such as Generation Wave and the All Burmese Monks
Alliance. Two young monks listening from a tattered mattress nearby nodded
excitedly, and a third pretended to wield a machine gun.

Because of his role as a chief galvanizer of the monks in the protests,
the monk has been on the run since September, moving from one monastery to
the next. But since the cyclone, he has managed nonetheless to make about
20 trips to the devastated areas, where he buried more than 200 bodies and
coordinated with monks and lay people.

"In September, we lost because everywhere, every village did not follow,
because of fear," he said. But in the post-cyclone period, "we can do
more. Now I can grow and grow."

At a 1,500-strong ceremony commemorating the victims of the cyclone, 15
dissident monks and lay people pondered their options, he said. Should
they organize a strike in September to mark the first anniversary of the
protests? Hold one to coincide with the auspicious date of 8-8-08, twenty
years since the 1988 uprising?

Asked about prospects for an armed struggle, the 88 leader demurred. "We
are totally, from beginning to end, peaceful," he said. But the militant
monk, he said, chuckling, was a force to be reckoned with.


>From house to house, meanwhile, Burmese whisper a new slogan:


"Mandalay, pile of ashes" -- for a fire that the government was barely
seen to help extinguish.

"Rangoon, pile of logs" -- for city trees felled by the cyclone and still
cluttering the streets.

"Naypyidaw" -- the generals' new capital -- "pile of bones."

____________________________________

July 21, Xinhua
Myanmar makes prompt delivery of rice for storm relief effort

Myanmar has delivered a total of 21,183.85 tons of rice for the relief of
cyclone victims in the post-storm period as of July 14, official media
reported Monday.

The delivered amount of rice came out of 33,917.7 tons received through
government supply, donations from private companies and wellwishers as
well as the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP), said the New Light
of Myanmar daily.

The government supply from the state's reserve rice accounted for 6,184.3
tons or 55.7 percent, while private companies and wellwishers 11,658.35
tons or 34.4 percent and WFP 3,341.2 tons or9.9 percent, it said, adding
that the remaining rice stock of 12,733.85 tons will be continued to be
delivered to a certain extent.

"If the donations do not meet the demand, the government will have to
continue supplying the storm victims from the reserve rice," the report
quoted the authorities as assuring.

Meanwhile, international relief supplies, sent by 31 countries and one
region as well as 19 organizations for Myanmar cyclone victims, amounted
to 8,408 tons as of the end of June, according to officially compiled
statistics.

Of the total, 2,388 tons are foodstuff and medicine, while 206 tons are
construction and business materials.

The World Food Program (WFP) led the donated supplies quantity with 1,645
tons.

Other relief supplies, donated at home by governmental organizations and
wellwishers, amounted to 4,352 tons plus 308 tons of construction and
business materials which included 9,067 boats, 6,708 power tillers, 1,655
cattle and 3,237 fishing nets as well as 1.28 million baskets (25,600
tons) of paddy seeds.

The contribution of the government and local and international donors has
enabled storm victims to restore their agricultural farming and fisheries
undertakings.

According to official report, Myanmar has put 2.2 million acres( 891,000
hectares) of farmland under monsoon paddy update in cyclone-hard-hit
Ayeyawaddy division with nearly 1,400 domestically-donated draught
buffaloes and cows distributed to the cyclone-hit areas for the
recultivation as well as using powered tillers provided in place of some
of storm-swept draught cattle.

Myanmar is now entering into a second phase -- rehabilitation and
reconstruction out of its restoration program after claiming that the
first phase of relief has finished to a certain extent.

The government stressed the need for continuous donation giving priority
to items of construction material power tillers, paddy strains,
fertilizers, fuel, fishing boats and machines for the second-phase
restoration program.

According to official report, international aid supplies are still pouring
in until now.

Due to the cyclone storm, over 1 million acres (405,000 hectares ) of
farmland were flooded by sea water with more than 200,000 cows and cattle
killed, earlier statistics showed.

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit
five divisions and states -Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last
May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest
casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

Myanmar estimated the damages and losses caused by the storm at10.67
billion U.S. dollars with 5.5 million people affected.


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 20, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Thailand condemned for kicking out refugees

New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday blasted Thailand for forcing
52 Karen refugees to return to a conflict zone in Burma on Asarnha Bucha
Day.

On Thursday, paramilitary troops forced the Karen civilians, most of them
women and children, to leave two refugee camps in Mae Hong Son province
and cross back to Burma, where they had fled a military offensive early
this year.

''The Thai government cynically launched this illegal operation during the
first day of a major Buddhist holiday,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director at
Human Rights Watch.

''This, along with the Thai media's preoccupation with escalating border
tensions with Cambodia over the Preah Vihear temple, provides effective
cover for Thailand's serious breach of international law,'' said Mr Adams
in a statement issued from New York.

Thai media attention has been focused this week on the Thai-Cambodian
border, where both countries' troops have amassed over an escalating row
over the ancient Hindu temple, perched on the border and subject to a
territorial dispute.

Thailand, a magnet for hundreds of thousands of refugees and illegal
workers from its less developed neighbours _ Cambodia, Laos and Burma _
has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, but Mr Adams argued that
Bangkok is still bound by the principle of non-refoulement, a prohibition
in customary international law, from returning refugees to any country
where they are likely to be persecuted or their lives are at risk.

''The Thai government has ignored its obligations to protect refugees
fleeing violence in Burma,'' Mr Adams said.

''Sending these people back to conflict zones dominated by the Burmese
army is disgraceful. Forcing civilians back into an active war zone may be
an easy answer for Thailand, but it's brutal _ a completely inhumane and
unacceptable solution,'' he said.

Human Rights Watch called on the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), the European Union, the United States and other
countries to pressure the government to immediately cease the refoulement
of refugees and continue to provide sanctuary to people fleeing fighting
or persecution in Burma.

____________________________________

July 20, Kaladan News
Three more Rohingya refugees die of starvation in Lada camp

Three more Burmese Rohingya refugees in the unofficial Lada camp died of
starvation in July 2 to 19.  They have been facing severe food crisis
because incessant heavy rain and consequent lack of work to support their
families, said Olison Majee from the camp.

The dead were identified as Md. Hussain (77), son of Ullah Meah, A-Block
and Shed No.77, Mabia Khatoon (60), wife of late Mohamed, Block C, Room
No. 02, and Eman Hussain (35), son of Mohamed Siddique, Block E, and Room
No. 273. They were starving unable to go out to work as they had no bus
fare to go to Teknaf, said Hafez Md. Ayub from the camp.

Md. Hussain (77) died of starvation on July 19, Mabia Khatoon (60), died
on July 3, and Eman Hussain (35), died on July 2.

The situation in Lada camp is terrible. Though their living conditions
have improved a little compared to the Dum Dum Meah camp but they are now
facing acute food crisis and other problems relating to local villagers.
The refugees were going out in search of work without any problems when
they were in Dum Dum Mea camp and could walk to Teknaf. But, in Lada camp,
the refugees are facing myriad problems in supporting their families, said
another refugee on condition of anonymity.

The refugees have not been provided with rations from NGOs and other
organizations. But they got some ration from the Islamic Relief
Organization (IRO) when they were transferred to Lada camp. Since then
they have received no rations from any quarter. The refugees thus have
been trying to eke out a living by working outside the camp.

Besides, on July 15, a refugee Abdu Salam (45), son of Abdul Zabber, Block
C, and Room No.193 of Lada refugee camp died of starvation.

Currently the Lada camp hosts 1,972 families.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 21, Mizzima News
Damage caused by Cyclone Nargis US$ 4 billion – Mungpi

Cyclone Nargis that lashed Burma's southwestern coastal divisions on May 2
and 3 has resulted in damage to the tune of an estimated US $ 4 billion,
according to a new report by the UN and Southeast Asian Nations.

The Post Nargis Joint Assessment report, by the Tripartite Core Group,
formed with the United Nations, members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Burmese military government, was released on
Monday at the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Singapore.

According to the report the estimated damage of US$ 4 billion includes US
$1.7 billion in damage to assets and US $2.3 billion from loss of income
of the victims.

The report said the cyclone left 84,537 dead and 53,836 missing and
injured 19.359 people while impacting the lives of 2.4 million people out
of a population of 7.35 million living in the affected townships.

The report, which is the first comprehensive analysis of the damage caused
by the cyclone, said recovering from the cyclone devastation will require
more than US $ 1 billion.

While welcoming the release of the report, Human Rights Watch said, it is
imperative to turn the report into a mechanism to help the suffering
cyclone victims in Burma.

"The important thing is getting aid and assistance for development to the
affected people," David Scott Mathieson, HRW's Burma consultant, told
Mizzima.

During a press briefing, the UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes, told
reporters that despite all the developments that aid groups including the
UN had made the relief phase is not yet over.

"While significant progress has been made to date, we are still in the
relief phase in this aid operation," reports quoted Holmes as saying.

Holmes, the highest ranking UN humanitarian official in-charge of relief
operations in Burma's cyclone devastated areas, is scheduled to return to
the Southeast Asian country to see for himself the progress made so far in
cyclone affected areas.

George Yeo, Singapore's Foreign Minister, reportedly told the media that
it was a relief to know there are no starvations and no major outbreak of
diseases. "But there is need for help -- we need money, we need
assistance," Yeo was quoted as saying.
____________________________________

July 21, Bangkok Post
Another Burma promise

Burma ratified the charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Monday and vowed to uphold its democratic ideals, but dashed hopes of
releasing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi within the next six months.

The country, vilified for its dictatorial government and human rights
abuses, became the seventh of the 10-member regional grouping to ratify
the document, which was signed by the leaders in November last year.

"Myanmar's ratification of the charter demonstrates our strong commitment
to embrace the common values and aspirations of the peoples of Asean,"
Foreign Minister Nyan Win said, using the military dictators' new name for
Burma.

"It is my honest hope that with the growing momentum of ratification, our
common goal and commitment to complete ratification of the charter by all
member states will be realized at the time of our leaders' summit in
Bangkok" in December, he added.

While foreign ministers attending the 41st Asean Ministers Meeting
watched, Nyan Win handed over the document to Asean Secretary General
Surin Pitsuwan, to the applause of observers.

Burma was also among the Asean countries which unanimously set up a
high-level panel on an Asean human rights body, and endorse its terms of
reference.

"We urged Myanmar to take bolder steps towards a peaceful transition to
democracy in the near future," and work towards the holding of free and
fair general elections in 2010," said the minister's communique at the end
of the meeting.

"We reiterated our calls for the release of all political detainees,
including Suu Kyi, to pave the way for meaningful dialogue involving all
parties concerned."

In a separate statement, Singapore Minister for Foreign Af`fairs George
Yeo said Ngan Win had clarified that Suu Kyi would not be released in the
next six months, but six months from May 2009, the expiry date of the
existing one-year detention order.

Yeo, who is also Asean chairman, and other foreign ministers
"misunderstood the point made by the Burmese foreign minister on the limit
of the detention period," a statement said.

The "clarification" was made at the ministers' meeting Monday afternoon.

Suu Kyi has spent 13 years in detention since 1989. Her house arrest was
recently extended.

Surin said he was sure the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia would soon
ratify the charter and that he expected the ratification process to be
completed by December.

"The charter will help us building an Asean community we can all be proud
of," he said.

The document, which will turn the 41-year-old regional grouping into a
legal entity, was initially opposed by the ruling junta because of its
inclusion of human rights.

Several Philippine senators said they would oppose the ratification of the
charter until the military junta that has ruled Burma since 1962
institutes democratic reforms.

In opening the meeting, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said
Asean had decided to press on with the charter's implementation without
waiting for all 10 members to ratify it.

"The internal processes of member countries are different and some will be
more difficult than others, Lee said.

The Burmese ratification occurred a day after Asean ministers expressed
their "deep disappointment" over the continued detention of Suu Kyi and
undetermined numbers of political prisoners.

Asean comprises Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 21, Associated Press
Myanmar appeals for more foreign aid to help victims of Cyclone Nargis,
but gives no figure

Myanmar is appealing for more foreign aid to help victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win said more assistance would shorten his nation's
recovery time, but didn't say how much money was needed.

Myanmar would push ahead with its own limited resources if additional help
was not forthcoming, Nyan Win told reporters in Singapore on Monday
following the release of a report assessing relief efforts compiled by the
10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

ASEAN has helped facilitate exchanges between Myanmar's governing military
junta and international donors, who have demanded full access to storm-hit
areas and an independent assessment of aid to ensure it was not being
wasted or stolen.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 21, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
UN welcomes Myanmar's post-cyclone recovery plan

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday welcomed an assessment for
future international humanitarian assistance to Myanmar following the
devastation by cyclone Nargis in May.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) presented the
assessment for medium-term recovery needs in Myanmar at a meeting in in
Singapore on Monday, attended by John Holmes, the chief UN humanitarian
affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

The cyclone left 140,000 people dead or still missing while an estimated
2.4 million people were in need of relief assistance. International relief
groups have been able to reach 1.3 million people since the cyclone struck
in early May.

The UN last week renewed an appeal for a total of 482 million dollars
needed to provide aid to victims of the natural disaster through April
2009.

"The report (by ASEAN) offers a comprehensive, credible assessment of the
humanitarian and medium-term recovery needs in the affected areas," Ban
said in a statement, praising the effective partnership between ASEAN, the
UN and Myanmar in rebuilding the country.

Holmes was scheduled to visit Myanmar on Tuesday to study progress in
relief efforts in that country. He first visited Myanmar in late May with
Ban after the military government there allowed international relief
workers greater access to areas affected by the cyclone in the southern
delta.

He said in Singapore that the ASEAN assessment will be used to "not only
identify the needs of the vulnerable, but also as a tool to judge the
effectiveness of our joint response in meeting those needs."

____________________________________

July 21, BBC News
Burma aid effort 'requires $1bn'

Relief and reconstruction work in Burma after Cyclone Nargis will cost at
least $1bn (£500m), according to the UN and the regional body Asean.

The figure is in a report released at Asean's annual meeting in Singapore.

It is the first comprehensive assessment of the damage caused by the
cyclone on 3-4 May, which is believed to have killed 130,000 people.

Burma's ruling generals were criticised in the wake of the cyclone for
being slow to accept international aid.

Asean has already played a key part in helping to facilitate exchanges
between Burma's ruling junta and international donors.

Enormous task

Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told a news conference that the
three parties involved in the report - the UN, Asean and the Burmese
government - needed at least $1bn to deal with "a tragedy of immense
proportions".

The estimated figure covers the most urgent needs such as food,
agriculture and housing for the next three years.

"The task ahead is clearly enormous and will take a lot of time, a lot of
effort," Mr Surin said.

"While significant progress has been made to date, we are still in the
relief phase for this aid operation," added the UN humanitarian chief John
Holmes.

The report outlines the scale of the cyclone - Burma's worst ever disaster
- and estimates that it destroyed 450,000 homes, damaged 350,000 others,
flooded 600,000 hectares of agricultural land and destroyed 60% of farming
implements.

About 75% of hospitals and clinics in the area were destroyed or badly
damaged.

'Deep disappointment'

Burma's military rulers are under the spotlight as delegates convene at
the Asean meeting.

On Sunday, delegates issued a rare statement criticising the isolated
nation, urging it to release political prisoners.

They expressed "deep disappointment" over the junta's one-year extension
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention.

In the past, the bloc has been accused of being too reluctant to speak out
about the internal affairs of its member states.

The other issue on the agenda at the Asean meeting on Monday was the
escalating tension between two other member states - Thailand and Cambodia
- over ownership of the area around the ancient temples of Preah Vihear.

"The situation has escalated dangerously, with troops from both sides
faced off on disputed territory near the Preah Vihear temple," Singapore
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told delegates in his opening speech.

He added that he had received assurances from both countries that they
would exercise "utmost restraint" and abide by international laws to
resolve the issue amicably.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 21, Kachin News Group
Divided opinion among Kachins over Gen. Aung San's promise of autonomy

Sixty one years after Burmese General Aung San's assassination opinion is
still divided among ethnic Kachin leaders on autonomy arrived at by Gen.
Aung San before Burma's independence. July 19 marked 61st year of the
general's assassination.

Dr. Manam Tu Ja, the Kachin Independence Organization's (KIO)
Vice-president No. 2, Head of Political Consultative Committee and former
KIO delegate to Burma's ruling junta's National Convention said, “After
Aung San's assassination, the U Nu led Anti-fascist People’s Freedom
League (AFPFL) redrafted the country's constitution as a unitary or
centralized system which was opposite to Aung San's promise of genuine
federal union for hill tribes. Unlike General Aung San's promise, autonomy
of all hill tribes was neglected by Prime Minister U Nu led AFPFL
government after Burma was given independence by the British on 4 January,
1948.”

“If General Aung San was not assassinated, I think the country would have
headed for a genuine federal union including autonomy of ethnic Kachins in
keeping with General Aung San's promise to ethnic Kachins, Shans and Chin
hill tribes,” Dr. Tu Ja told KNG.

Maran Di La, chairman of Kachin Refugee Committee (KRC) based in Malaysia
said, "In my opinion, Burman leader General Aung San just came and
organized ethnic Kachins during Burma's independence together with Kachins
and Burmans.  This was cheating and he wanted to depress the Kachins and
all Burma’s hill tribes with Burmanization."

But, Ma Tu, a modern Kachin political study said, “The death of Aung San
directly led to a loss of the cause for ethnic Kachin's autonomy because
Kachin leaders signed a concrete agreement only with General Aung San.  If
Aung San was alive, the autonomy of Kachins was partly or fully guaranteed
in the constitution as Aung San had promised.”

88 generations Kachin students' leader Awng Wa said, “The question, 'Would
Kachins get autonomy, if General Aung San was alive?' had arisen after
Aung San's assassination.  It is uncertain that Kachins would have got
autonomy whether Aung San was alive or dead.  This is because the 1947
constitution was similar to the constitutions of former Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) and Yugoslavia ruled by dictators.”

Duwa Bawmwang Laraw, vice-chairman of Thailand-based Ethnic Nationalities
Council (ENC) and, chairman of Kachin National Council (KNC) and Kachin
National Organization (KNO) warned, “If Burmans want ethnic Kachins as
well as all other Burma's ethnic nationalities in a union, the country's
constitution must be drafted based on equal rights and identity.  If it is
not so, secession would be better.”

Agreement between General Aung San and Kachin leaders before Burma's
independence

Before the Panglong Agreement was signed between ethnic Kachins, Chins and
Shan leaders and Burman leader General Aung San on 12 February, 1947,
Kachin leaders met General Aung San separately twice in Myitkyina
Township, the capital of Kachin State in 1946.

During the meeting from November 28 to December 1 in 1946 in a school in
Manhkring village in Myitkyina, about 30 Kachin hill rulers (Bum Du or
Duwa) in Bhamo and Myitkyina districts met General Aung San.

Major agreements on the issues were:

1.      Kachin territories must be ruled by Kachins themselves.

2.      Burmans must not rule Kachins.

3.      Kachin hill areas can be ruled under any system by Kachins.

4.      Union level economy, security and foreign diplomacy sectors must
be governed by the Union Administrative Council formed by Kachin leaders
and  representatives.

5.      Practice their-own religion freely.

6.     All Kachin hill areas must be ruled by Kachin Duwas.

The agreement was crucial for a Burman leader Gen. Aung San before he made
second or final journey to England on Burma’s independence issues.  Gen.
Aung San’s first journey was failed because he demanded Burma’s
independence without consensus of hill tribes--- Kachin, Chin and Shan.

Kachin struggle for secession

After Kachins and Burmans got independence from the British on 4 January,
1948, Kachins felt the autonomy was degrading and armed struggle began.
The political-wing of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and the
armed-wing Kachin Independence Army (KIA) were officially formed on 5
February, 1961 demanding secession by Kachins.

Following the situations in the world and neighbouring counties, KIO/A
changed its secessionist policy into one of autonomy as a state in the
Union of Burma from 1976 to now. It even it signed a ceasefire agreement
with Burma's ruling junta in 1994.

At the moment, the KIO/A have clearly declared that it will support till
the end the junta's seven-step roadmap for disciplined-democracy in the
country.

However, KIO/A leaders said, they will solve the political problems by
political means through a meaningful dialogue on the table between the
KIO/KIA and military rulers of Burma for Kachin State's autonomy.