BurmaNet News, September 18, 2008

[Editor]

September 18, 2008 Issue # 3559


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Burmese activists protest on 20th anniversary of coup and Phanida
and Huaipi
Mizzima: Monk who attempted suicide in stable condition
Narinjara News: CNA ambushes SPDC troops
Irrawaddy: Red alert in Rangoon
Myanmar Times: FAO to distribute more agricultural inputs to the delta
CSM: Monks with guns? Burma's younger activists get bolder

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Food shortage forces 2,000 Chin into India

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Japan to give Burma aid to fight malaria

DRUGS
Irrawaddy: Chemical drug use increasing in Asia

REGIONAL
The Straits Times: Myanmar activists 'defied our laws'; That was why Govt
had to clamp down on them, says DPM Wong

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: Haul Generals before the ICC: rights groups

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: A day of shame and a day of hope – Editorial
Irrawaddy: The Burmese regime’s cyber offensive – Aung Zaw
UPI: Rangoon rent-a-witness – Awzar Thi

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 18, Mizzima News
Burmese activists protest on 20th anniversary of coup and Phanida and Huaipi

Anti-government leaflets were distributed in Myitkyina, Kachin State on
Thursday to condemn the 20th anniversary of the military coup in Burma.

Spokesperson of the 'All Kachin Students Union' (AKSU) told Mizzima that
activists distributed and pasted anti-regime leaflets elsewhere in
Myitkyina such as in high schools, university, colleges, government
offices and residential blocks.

"We want to show our solidarity with all the students and monks in Burma
while our second objective was to stage demonstrations on the 20th
anniversary of the military coup," AKSU spokesperson said.

The students, who distributed about 400 leaflets printed on A-4 size
papers, said they will continue to distribute the leaflets despite local
authorities removing and seizing the posters, one of them said.

"The authorities removed and seized the leaflets as soon as they found
them at about 9 a.m. today. We heard that the authorities announced cash
rewards for information leading to our arrest. However we will continue
what we have to do," he added.

On September 18, 1988, Burmese military made coup after brutally and
ruthlessly cracking down on a nationwide uprising which left at least
3,000 dead and many injured.

Meanwhile, to denounce the junta's brutal military coup, pro-democracy
activists in New Delhi, staged demonstrations near condemning the
generals, who has persistently cling on to power for the last twenty years
despite of international and internal pressures.

Dr. Tint Swe, Minister of the Prime Minister's Office (West) of the
National Coalition Government of Union of Burma (NCGUB), during his speech
at the protest, urges the people to remain resolute and unwavering in
their struggle for democracy.

"We must work for our cause. Democracy can be achieved and restored only
by the force of the people. All the people must continue their struggle
bravely and resolutely. We must fight," he said.

Similarly, Burmese activists and their supporters in various parts of the
world including Malaysia, United States, and Japan held demonstrations
condemning the junta for its military coup 20 years ago and call for the
immediate political reformation in Burma.

____________________________________

September 18, Mizzima News
Monk who attempted suicide in stable condition – Zarni

The Buddhist monk who on Tuesday attempted suicide at Burma's most sacred
shrine is in stable condition, though he is still receiving treatment at
Rangoon General Hospital, police sources said on Thursday.

On Tuesday afternoon, a monk slashed his throat at Shwedagon Pagoda
apparently in response to financial hardship.

A police officer in Dagon Police Station's Crime Branch told Mizzima, "He
[the monk] was immediately sent to Rangoon General Hospital by police from
the Dagon Police Station. We can only say that his condition is stable
now."

A doctor on duty at Rangoon General Hospital, when contacted by Mizzima,
said the monk is 52 years old and comes from Ye Township in Burma's
southern Mon State.

But the doctor declined to provide any further details in fear of reprisal
from authorities, who maintain strict control over people in Burma
speaking to the press.

"We don't' have authority to provide the name or detail the condition of
patients," said the doctor.

The Shwedagon Pagoda trustees, one of whose members reportedly witnessed
the monk's suicide bid, refused to speak of the incident when contacted by
Mizzima.

____________________________________

September 18, Narinjara News
CNA ambushes SPDC troops

The Chin National Army ambushed a column of SPDC troops on Tuesday on the
Indo-Burma border as the Burmese soldiers were patrolling the area, said a
local villager who fled to Bangladesh out of fear of action by the
authority.
He said, "The CNA started its ambush of the SPDC column in the early
morning near Shwe Late Wa Village under Paletwa Township, and I heard one
SPDC soldier received critical injuries during the battle."

The fighting only lasted for five minutes, but heavy fire was exchanged
between the two groups. According to an army source, the column led by
Captain Kywee Wa was ambushed by the CNA forces while the column was
serving its duty on the frontlines of the Indian border.

The column is from Light Infantry Battalion 550 based in Ponna Kyunt,
located 20 miles north of Sittwe.

The villager said that the SPDC army authority is conducting an operation
in the area after the ambush. It was also learned that many villagers in
the area are now avoiding the area out of fear the authorities may force
them to work as porters or otherwise mistreat them.

____________________________________

September 18, Irrawaddy
Red alert in Rangoon – Min Lwin

Burmese security forces, including firefighters and members of the Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and Swan Arr Shin, have been
deployed around Rangoon’s main streets and landmarks, wearing red cravats
around their necks as a sign of a heightened state of alert.

It is widely believed that security has been tightened to prevent a
recurrence of the events of September 18 last year when an estimated 400
Buddhist monks marched from Shwedagon Pagoda to protest the military
authorities’ alleged use of violence against monks in Pakokku Township,
which led to mass demonstrations across the country.

According to sources in Rangoon, the security forces, including members of
the USDA and Swan Ah Shin, were posted around Shwedagon Pagoda and Rangoon
City Hall, two of the focal points for last year’s demonstrations.

“The USDA and Swan-Arh-Shin have set up road blocks in the outskirts of
the city,” a resident said. “They are stopping cars, buses, taxis and
passers-by, and checking everyone.”

She recalled that on this date last year, security forces had been wearing
blue cravats, signifying a mid-level alert, whereas today they were
sporting bright red cravats around the collars of their green uniforms.

Another resident said that riot police had been deployed around many of
Rangoon’s well-known monasteries.

He said that plainclothes police and members of the USDA encircled Ngwe
Kyar Yan monastery in South Okkalapa Township three days ago.

Meanwhile, Internet users found that connection speeds had been reduced
drastically as authorities stepped up monitoring of suspects.

“We cannot even sit in an Internet café in comfort,” a senior monk in
Rangoon said. “The authorities stare at us like we are terrorists.”

____________________________________

September 18, Myanmar Times
FAO to distribute more agricultural inputs to the delta – Aung Kyi

Workers load FAO supplies for transport to the delta last week.

THE United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is extending
its activities to assist vulnerable farmers and fishermen in the delta to
restore food production and livelihoods following Cyclone Nargis, said Mr
Rene Suter, the organisation’s senior emergency and rehabilitation
coordinator in Myanmar.

Mr Suter said FAO has played a key role in facilitating the coordination
of humanitarian partners active in the agricultural sector, including
Welthungerlife, UN Development Program, Cooperazione E Sviluppo,
International Development Enterprises and Mingalar Myanmar.

With funding support from the governments of Italy, the United Kingdom,
Sweden, as well as from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, FAO has
already provided 1085 tonnes of rice seed, 275 power tillers, 75,512
gallons of diesel fuel for power tillers, 340 water pumps, 600 buffaloes,
60 tonnes of concentrated feed, veterinary health supplies and other
essential inputs to meet urgent needs for the monsoon cropping season.

Further FAO assistance is scheduled to be dispatched in the coming weeks
and months, Mr Suter said.

“Distributions of more agricultural inputs to the most vulnerable farmers
and fisher household in the storm-hit areas are being prepared in
collaboration with FAO implementing partners,” he said.

FAO agricultural expert U Aung Kyi said the organisation is now
distributing 1117 tonnes of fertiliser to small-scale farming households
in Laputta,Mawlamyaingkyun, Ngaputaw, Dedaye and Bogale townships, in
addition to the 671 tonnes it distributed in most of these areas last
month.

“We have also sent 6 tonnes of insecticide and 1900 knapsack sprayers to
those areas and they will be handed over to farmers soon,” he said.

“For the upcoming planting season in October and November, we have also
been distributing 117,600 packets of vegetable seeds to landless
households in areas worst affected by the cyclone since August,” he said.

FAO fisheries consultant U Saw Lah Paw Wah said the organisation is
delivering fisheries packages – including fishing nets, lines and other
accessories – to 605 vulnerable fishing families in Bogale and Dedaye
townships.

“Until the end of the planting season for monsoon rice, much of the
assistance was focused on the crops sub-sector,” said Mr Suter.

“Since then priorities have started to shift towards the recovery of
fisheries-based livelihoods. Distributions of more inputs for the most
vulnerable fishers and fish farmers affected by Cyclone Nargis are needed
in the coming months,” he said.

He also underlined the importance of adequate donor support for
agricultural sector, including the crops, livestock, fisheries and
forestry sub-sectors.

“To achieve the sector goals outlined in the Revised Flash Appeal, it is
crucial that the projects of appealing agencies receive the required
funding support in time,” he said.

Mr Suter said that during the initial phase to the Nargis response, the
agriculture sector was the least-funded of all sectors.

“We hope that this will change during the early recovery phase,” he said.

____________________________________

September 18, Christian Science Monitor
Monks with guns? Burma's younger activists get bolder – Anand Gopal

If Ashin Zawta has his way, the next time the government of Burma
(Myanmar) clamps down on dissent it will have to deal with a new force:
monks with guns.

"Last September the Army proved too powerful for us and defeated our
nonviolent tactics," says the young monk, whose real name, like those of
other activists in this story, has been changed for security reasons. "We
need weapons. That is the only way we can bring down this regime."

One year after monks led thousands in Burma's largest antigovernment
protests in 19 years, many activists say they are losing patience with the
slow pace of change. Up against a powerful regime, they are calling for
fresh tactics, from teaching human rights theory to stockpiling arms.

"The younger activists' frustrations are growing. They want to take up
arms because they were so brutally suppressed last September. They have
gone their whole lives without seeing change," says Win Min, an expert on
Burmese political affairs at Thailand's Chiang Mai University.

While the activists turning toward violence still form a minority, young
monks have never before openly advocated violence, and this may signal a
new phase in the evolution of the political opposition, says Mr. Win.

Burma's military government killed dozens of protesters and detained at
least 800 in August and September 2007 when a surge in fuel prices sparked
large demonstrations, led by Burma's widely respected monks. The stark
defeat of the uprising – which became known as the Saffron Revolution, for
the monks' deep-red robes – left many younger activists questioning the
prevailing political wisdom.

Though Buddhism is traditionally associated with nonviolence, Mr. Zawta
says the junta does not respect life or Buddhism, forcing some monks to
take this extreme position.

"The regime is like a rabid dog," Mr. Zawta says. "It bit us and infected
us with militancy. The old ways aren't working – the only solution is to
arm the people.

"Some of the old monks preach caution and tell us to focus on patience and
the Buddhist way," he continues. "But many of us are realizing that we
have to go out there and do something."

New tactics: teach rights, deliver aid

The younger monks are more active, Zawta says, adding that more are
learning English so they can communicate with international media and
expose conditions inside the country.

As with many young monks, last year's protests politicized Zawta. He
forged links with the All Burmese Monks Alliance (ABMA), an underground
network of activist monks that formed in the wake of last September's
crackdown. The Alliance, which has become a leading underground opposition
group, gives political sermons and organizes aid delivery to Burma's
south, which was devastated by cyclone Nargis in May.

Most monasteries in Burma provide free education to the community's poor,
including lessons in English, math, and Buddhism. But Zawta and other
Alliance-affiliated monks have supplemented the curriculum with a dose of
human rights theory and political history. "Most young people don't even
know about 1988," he says, referring to the failed uprising of that year.

Years ago such overt anti-regime talk in monasteries would have been
unthinkable. But members of the post-September generation say monks can no
longer play a secondary role in Burmese politics.

This new focus comes with a price, however. Authorities have cracked down
on the monk movement, arresting many of the leaders of last year's
protests. Earlier this month, intelligence agents raided a monastery in
Rangoon, Burma's main city, and arrested a senior monk. The government
also recently derobed ABMA leader U Ashin Gambira and plans to try him on
sedition charges.

Some leading monks have fled for Thailand, while others remain in country
and work underground, surreptitiously distributing leaflets and
facilitating other activists' work. The Monks Alliance has housed
activists being hunted by the government in their monasteries.

Older activists: too cautious?

The security dragnet is forcing some groups, such as the semi-legal
National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi, to operate with caution. During the September
demonstrations, NLD's central committee urged party members to avoid the
protests, though it verbally supported the monks.

"But the youth[s] started helping the monks anyway, and they defied party
orders and marched," says Nay Shi Shwe, a leader of the NLD's youth wing.

"There is definitely frustration with the leadership," he continues. Young
people "think that this is a good opportunity to fight the dictatorship,
but the old men are taking too much time. They want to wait until 2010" –
the year of scheduled elections – "but we want action now."

Older activists of the NLD, whose election win in 1990 was ignored by the
ruling junta, say that too open an association with proscribed groups and
illegal demonstrations may jeopardize the party's hard-fought semi-legal
status and disqualify them from the 2010 elections.

But to some, the party seems to be caught in suspension, without a
coherent policy to address the current political climate. "The NLD is
slowly losing relevancy," says a member of the underground group, the 88
Generation Students.

Still a unifier: Aung San Suu Kyi

But while the NLD stagnates, youths, monks, and underground activists
agree that Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past
18 years, is the only figure who can unite the opposition and revitalize
the party.

When Suu Kyi reportedly refused to meet the United Nations envoy to Burma,
Ibrahim Gambari, a few weeks ago, the hopes of many activists who are
frustrated with the UN and NLD jumped.

"The UN is no good. All they do is talk, and when they come here they are
focused on dealing with the regime [rather] than with fighting for
democracy," says Thaw Htun, an opposition sympathizer.

Mr. Gambari is mandated to help facilitate the release of Suu Kyi and the
reopening of NLD offices, but in six visits he has only met mid-level
government officials and no one from the junta leadership.

Suu Kyi's lawyer, U Kyi Win, suggests that her refusal may be a strategy
to convince authorities to alleviate the conditions of her detention
rather than a principled opposition to the UN's role in Burma. She'd also
refused food deliveries for almost a month until the government agreed
this week to some of her requests, including the right to receive mail
regularly and certain foreign publications.

Activists with the underground groups say they are not banking on legal
strategies or UN visits. Instead, many are looking for new opportunities
in the current political climate.

"My vision is that through the development of local NGOs after Nargis, we
can start building community-based activist groups," says Hein Thein, a
longtime opposition member.

Mr. Thein says these groups can function like "urban guerrillas," rising
to protest when needed and blending back into society during times of
repression. If the whole community is involved in such work, he says, it
becomes very hard for authorities to crack down effectively.

Other sections of the underground, like some young monks, think armed
insurrection is the key. "We can't make the mistakes our predecessors
did," says Tha Kay, one such advocate. "We have to develop new leaders and
a new vision. For example, we are stockpiling arms. It's too early to use
them, but the time will definitely come."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 18, Irrawaddy
Food shortage forces 2,000 Chin into India – Lawi Weng

An ongoing food shortage in Chin State in western Burma has forced 2,000
ethnic Chin to cross the Indian border to Mizoran to find work, according
to the Chin Human Rights Organization in Thailand.

Victor Biak Lian, a board member of the Chin Human Rights Organization,
said that Chin refugees continue to cross the border every day. The exodus
started about two weeks.

About 50 village elders from different areas of Chin State traveled to
Mizoran to appeal for international aid to address the food famine, he
said. The Chin Human Rights group previously reported that 31 children
have died from a lack of food.

The food shortage was caused by a plague of rats, which ate rice stocks in
many of the villages.

Chin leaders say they have not received food relief aid from the Burmese
military government. Burmese authorities also have reportedly banned
ethnic Chin people from receiving food supplies donated by Burmese in
foreign countries.

According to a Mizoram-based Chin relief group, the Chin Famine Emergency
Relief Committee, about 100,000 of the 500,000 people in Chin State face
food shortages. The food shortage began in December 2007. Many people are
surviving on boiled rice, fruit and vegetables.

A famine occurs about every 50 years when the flowering of a native
species of bamboo gives rise to an explosion in the rat population, say
experts. The International Rice Research Institute has warned of
“widespread food shortages” in the region.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

September 18, Xinhua
Japan to give Burma aid to fight malaria

The Japanese government has provided 3.1 million US dollars more
assistance to Myanmar in fighting malaria under its grassroot grant
assistance scheme, the local Biweekly Eleven reported Thursday.

Medicines for effective treatment, medical care and prevention against the
disease as well as mosquito nets will be distributed to malaria-sensitive
divisions and state of Bago, Magway and Rakhine under the Japanese grant
aid agreed upon recently, it said
In February 2007, the Japanese government had extended similar grant aid
of 178,822 US dollars to Myanmar to help fight malaria in the country's
Bago division covering the region's eastern and western parts, according
to earlier official report.

Malaria is among the three diseases of national concern which Myanmar has
been encountering. The other two are HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB).

Myanmar treats the three diseases as priority with the main objectives of
reducing the morbidity and mortality in a bid to become no longer a public
problem and meet the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

In its prevention efforts against malaria, the Myanmar government has
distributed 50,000 long lasting insecticidal nets annually since 2000 to
hardly accessible areas of national races with up to 400,000 existing bed
nets also impregnated with insecticide annually since then.

____________________________________
DRUGS

September 18, Irrawaddy
Chemical drug use increasing in Asia – Violet Cho

The use of chemical drugs has increased considerably among youths in
developing countries with Asia leading the way, according to a recent
report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In its report, the UN drugs bureau warns that synthetic drugs, such as
amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy—which it calls “the drugs of
modern times”—are becoming more popular in developing countries.

“Asia, with its huge population and increasing affluence, is driving
demand,” said the UNODC report.

In addition, new forms of synthetic drugs are emerging in Southeast Asia,
such as highly pure crystalline methamphetamine, known as “crystal meth”
or “ice.”

“This is of concern,” says UNODC expert Jeremy Douglas. “Young people are
particularly vulnerable to methamphetamine use.”

The concerns were backed by community leaders in Burma who have seen drug
use spiraling out of control in recent years.

“More than 60 percent of the young people in Kachin State are using
drugs,” claimed Aung Wa, the chairman of the Kachin Development Network
Group (KDNG). “Our community has free access to all kind of drugs, such as
methamphetamine and heroin, so most young people—even the university
students—take drugs.”

Aung Wa added that as more Burmese youngsters try out drugs, an increasing
number are becoming involved in selling drugs as well.

“Poverty and a lack of jobs in Burma is a major factor that is forcing
young people to become involved in dealing drugs,” he said.

“The young generation in Kachin state is totally destroyed by drugs. I
don’t know what the future holds—so many of our young people are now drug
users, criminals and thieves,” he said.

“Both the local Kachin and the military authorities know about the
problem, but they don’t take action as long as the drug dealers give them
bribes,” he added.

According to a high school teacher at Three Pagodas Pass in Mon State,
most of the young people in the area are depressed by the instability of
the political and economic environment, so they take drugs as a way of
relieving their sadness. “About 8 out of 10 young people are using drugs,”
he said.

Meanwhile, a rubber plantation owner in Three Pagodas Pass told The
Irrawaddy that many young people in her village are dealing drugs because
they can make more money from drugs than from working.

“It is very difficult for me to find people to work in my rubber
plantation now,” she said. “I can only afford to pay 150 baht (US $4.30)
per day. Young people aren’t interested.”

Chemical drug use started becoming popular in the mid-1990s in Burma.
Observers say it has now become fashionable and widely accepted by
youngsters.

The worldwide market for amphetamine-type drugs was worth about $65
billion, said the UNODC report. Drugs are now big business in Malaysia,
Indonesia, Cambodia and Burma.

The September 9 report would appear to contradict claims by Burma’s
Ministry of Home Affairs that drug abuse is declining in the country:
official government statistics claim that the number of drug users in
Burma has decreased from 61,455 in 2005 to 54,705 in January 2008.

UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said that unlike plant-based
drugs such as cocaine and heroin, the production of synthetic
drugs—estimated at 500 tonnes globally a year—was hard to trace since the
ingredients were readily available for legitimate industrial purposes.

“When one lab is shut, another opens. When one type of precursor chemical
is unavailable, producers switch to an alternative,” Costa said.

“This presents a challenge to law enforcement since production is so close
to retail outlets. Therefore, greater emphasis should be put on
prevention,” he added.

In 2006, almost half of Asian countries reported an increase in
methamphetamine use.

The UN report also noted “an increased involvement of organized criminal
groups in the trade.”

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 18, The Straits Times
Myanmar activists 'defied our laws'; That was why Govt had to clamp down
on them, says DPM Wong – Kor Kian Beng

PERSISTENT defiance of the laws, not political pressure from the Myanmar
government, was the reason why a number of Myanmar nationals working or
studying here were asked to leave when their immigration passes expired.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said this in
a written reply to a question tabled by Nominated MP Eunice Olsen at this
week's sitting of Parliament.

She asked if Myanmar's military rulers had pressured or requested the
Government to clamp down on anti-junta activists and deny them residence
in Singapore.

In his reply, released yesterday, Mr Wong said the Myanmar nationals
disregarded Singapore laws by staging illegal activities, like outdoor
protests, to pursue their political agenda.

This was despite repeated police advice to stick to lawful avenues.

Three Myanmar nationals left Singapore for countries of their choice after
their immigration passes were not renewed by the Immigration and
Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

When contacted for further details, the Home Affairs Ministry identified
the individuals as being members of the Overseas Burmese Patriots (OBP).

An informal grouping of activists, the OBP emerged in October last year to
raise awareness about the political situation in Myanmar.

Citing illegal activities that the group staged, the ministry said:

'The OBP is by no means the only patriotic group in Singapore or the only
group that has organised activities to express their concern about the
situation in Myanmar. However, unlike other groups which have conducted
their activities in a lawful manner, the OBP has chosen to do so in open
and persistent defiance of our laws.'

One such activity was a street protest on Nov 20 last year during the
Asean Summit. Some 40 people, carrying banners, walked down a pavement
outside the Orchard Parade Hotel to voice their discontent with the junta.

Citing the incident, Mr Wong said the group intentionally protested near
the summit's Shangri-La Hotel venue to court public and media attention.

'Their unlawful behaviour was an unnecessary distraction to our security
forces and could have compromised the security arrangements for the summit
delegates, some of whom were heads of Asean governments.'

Police investigated the incident and, after consulting the
Attorney-General's Chambers, 'exercised leniency and administered stern
warnings in lieu of prosecuting the offenders in court', he said.

Reports said the three Myanmar activists who left Singapore took part in
this protest.

Mr Wong said that while a vast majority of the 50,000-strong Myanmar
community had been law-abiding and expressed views in a lawful manner, a
small group 'chose to break the law and yet defiantly demand the right to
stay in Singapore as an entitlement'.

'They have tried to politicise the issue through the media and through
uninformed foreign groups, in the process distorting the actions to remove
them from Singapore as being politically motivated.

'They hope that political pressure will force the authorities to accede to
their demands to continue staying in Singapore. The ICA has rightly
decided that such persons are undesirable, and that they should leave.'

Foreigners are expected to respect the laws and local sensitivities in the
same way that Singaporeans abroad are obliged to do so, he said.

'Some of these Myanmar individuals have enjoyed education subsidies and
other benefits but have chosen to repay this with disrespect for our laws
and to defy the authorities,' he added.

When told of the latest government statements, OBP spokesman Myo Myint
Maung, a Singapore Management University third-year student, indicated
that there would be no change in his group's position:'We will continue
with our political agenda in the most appropriate way that will serve
justice and democracy without endangering Singapore society.'

kianbeng at sph.com.sg

Picture of contrasts

THE Home Affairs Ministry cited contrasting approaches that Myanmar
nationals here took when reacting to political developments back home.
Most of the illegal activities were organised by the Overseas Burmese
Patriots (OBP).

Illegal activities

Aug 25, 2007: Procession without permit from Orchard MRT station to City
Hall MRT station by 29 Myanmarese to denounce fuel price hikes in Myanmar.

Nov 20, 2007: OBP-led street protest by 40 nationals with banners outside
the Orchard Parade Hotel to demonstrate against the ruling junta in
Myanmar.

Dec 9, 2007: An arts exhibition to protest against the situation in
Myanmar, organised by an OBP member without obtaining the necessary
licence. She did so despite police advice.

April/May 2008: A highly publicised anti-referendum campaign by OBP
outside the Myanmar Embassy. It drew up to 1,800 who sported red T-shirts
and caps with the word 'No'. They were at the embassy off Tanglin Road to
vote on a new Constitution, now in effect.

Lawful activities

July/August 2007: Regular prayer sessions and gatherings at the Burmese
Buddhist Temple in Balestier. These events, attended by more than 1,000 at
times, were held in support of protesters in Myanmar, at the height of
monk-led protests in Yangon and other cities.

Foreign Minister George Yeo attended one such prayer session to
expresssolidarity with the people of Myanmar.

August/September 2007: Fund-raising and a campaign at Peninsula Plaza
shopping centre to obtain signatures for a petition to the junta to stop
reported atrocities against monks and protesters.

October 2007: Indoor forums and candlelight vigils hosted by local
tertiary institutions, such as the Singapore Management University and
National University of Singapore.

Police also gave permits for an indoor assembly involving speeches and
prayers at the Peninsula Excelsior Hotel on Oct6. A police permit was also
given for another indoor event at the same venue on Nov17.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 18, Mizzima News
Haul Generals before the ICC: rights groups

The first anniversary of the commencement of monk-led mass protests in
Burma sees the launch of the latest campaign direct at rallying
international support and awareness around the continued rights violations
in Burma perpetrated by the ruling junta against its own people.

An initiative co-sponsored by Christian Solidarity Worldwide and Partners
Relief and Development UK, Change for Burma! seeks to bring the Burmese
regime's leaders before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on a wide
range of charges related to crimes against humanity.

Urging those in the UK, Europe and throughout the world in support of the
mission's goals to contact their local parliamentary representative,
Change for Burma! also calls for a universal arms embargo against the
Burmese armed forces.

Speaking in support of this most recent attempt to further bring pressure
upon Naypyitaw, British MP John Bercow, Co-Chair of the All Party
Parliamentary Group for Democracy in Burma, said, "We've got to have a
mass popular demonstration of discontent. We've got a personal and
collective responsibility to do something".

Though chronicling and raising awareness of rights abuses throughout Burma
and its varied communities, the project gives considerable attention to
the plight of Chin State in Northwestern Burma, where an estimated 90
percent of the population is Christian – the highest figure in Burma.

Chin State is currently facing a famine which is said to affect 100,000
people.

"Virtually unseen by the world, thousands of farmers have been reduced to
starvation in Chin State, the poorest part of Burma," laments the
movements founders.
"The regime won't permit food aid or aid workers into the devastated
areas.  Villagers are too weak Burma is one of the poorest countries in
the world," continues the organization's onslaught against the junta. "It
is ruled by one of the world's most brutal regimes, guilty of every
possible human rights violation."

Change for Burma! further accuses the Burmese regime of systematic
religious persecution, including the desecration of crosses and churches,
the forceful display of Buddhist propaganda during Christian services and
the denial of promotion within the government and armed forces to members
of the Christian community.

In contrast to Chin State, in the whole of Burma the Christian population
is estimated to be less than five percent, with nearly 90 percent of
Burmese being Buddhist.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 18, Irrawaddy
A day of shame and a day of hope – Editorial

Today, September 18, is the anniversary of two important events in Burma’s
political history. The first is the bloody coup that installed the current
regime in power 20 years ago, and the second is the start of last year’s
uprising by Buddhist monks who took to the streets to seek a peaceful end
to decades of brutal military rule.

The coincidence of these two anniversaries serves as a sad reminder of
Burma’s plight as a nation struggling for survival under rulers hell-bent
on holding onto power. In the 19 years that separate these two events,
Burma moved not one step closer to peace and political reconciliation. It
is as if the country’s history simply collapsed on this day.

As if to underline the futility of the Burmese people’s desire for
freedom, this September, too, has been a month of arrests, torture,
intimidation and trials that make a mockery of the law.

The streets of Rangoon are now monitored by soldiers, police and armed
thugs known as Swan Arr Shin, the Masters of Force, who are constantly on
the alert against any signs of potential unrest. In recent weeks, they
have arrested a number of prominent activists, including Nilar Thein, a
mother who has not seen her infant daughter since she was forced to go
into hiding after last year’s protests. She is now in prison and at risk
of torture, according to Amnesty International.

The regime has also apprehended at least 14 other activists in recent
weeks. One of the detained activists is the younger brother of the
prominent activist-monk U Gambira, who is also in prison for his leading
role in last year’s “Saffron Revolution.”

There is also growing concern over the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s
most famous torchbearer for the democratic cause. For four weeks from the
middle of August, she refused to accept food deliveries to her home, where
she has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. This prompted
fears that she had gone on a hunger strike—something she hasn’t done since
1989, when she was first refused permission to leave her home. These fears
have been confirmed by reports that she is now malnourished and receiving
intravenous fluid to help her recover her strength.

Despite claims that it is moving towards democracy, the Burmese regime
continues to hold more than 2,000 political prisoners. And even after
signing numerous ceasefire agreements with ethnic insurgent groups, forced
labor, rape and mass killings are still commonplace in border regions.

Burma’s rulers have succeeded only in placing the country near the bottom
of every human development index. Burma is now among the worst countries
in the world in terms of poverty, education, healthcare and corruption.
The result of decades of economic mismanagement has been dire: more than a
third of children in Burma are malnourished, the average household spends
up to 70 percent of its budget on food, and more than 30 percent of the
population lives under the poverty line, according to United Nations
estimates.

It is difficult to believe that Burma’s economy was once regarded as one
of the strongest and most promising in the region. But now the country’s
immense natural wealth serves only to enrich the junta and a handful of
cronies.

The regime is quick to blame its Western critics for Burma’s precipitous
economic decline, but it refuses to acknowledge that the US and the EU
have imposed sanctions for a reason. Burma’s human rights record is
appalling, and the junta’s refusal to engage in meaningful reconciliation
talks with the democratic opposition has sent a strong signal to the West
that the ruling generals have no interest in moving the country forward.

All of this has earned Burma a place among the world’s pariah states. But
the junta doesn’t seem to mind that Burma now stands alongside North
Korea, Zimbabwe and Sudan as a country that routinely brutalizes its own
population.

Burmese people, however, are keenly aware that their country has been
dragged down to this shameful state. More than anything else, the two
anniversaries that we mark today show that Burma is a nation divided
between those who have no shame, and those who, despite their fear and
their past failures to liberate their country, still nurture some hope for
the future.

____________________________________

September 18, Irrawaddy
The Burmese regime’s cyber offensive – Aung Zaw

Marking the anniversaries of the student uprising on September 18, 1988,
and the Buddhist monk-led demonstrations last year, the Burmese junta has
launched another offensive—a cyber attack—on The Irrawaddy and several
other Burmese news agencies in exile.
We at The Irrawaddy quickly learned the attack was linked to the
anniversary of the “Saffron Revolution.” Burma’s military authorities
obviously did not want any similar sentiments this year and, once again,
shot down their enemies.

Exiled media groups, bloggers, reporters inside Burma and citizen
journalists played major roles in September 2007 in highlighting the
brutal suppression of the monks and their supporters in the streets of
Rangoon.

Live images, eye-witness reports, updates and photographs landed on our
desks every few seconds. The outside world was able to witness the terror
of the Burmese regime on TV and on the Internet.

And so the military regime struck back. On September 27, all connections
to the Internet were closed down for four days as the authorities tried to
conceal their crimes.

So it was no surprise that they attempted the same tactic this year.

On Tuesday, we received reports that the Internet in Burma was running
slowly, suggesting a concerted effort to prevent information from going in
or out of the country.

Then on Wednesday, our colleagues and subscribers in the US, Japan and
Malaysia notified our Thailand-based office that they were unable to
access our Web site.

A few hours later, I-NET, the largest host server in Thailand, confirmed:
“Your site has been under distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack
since around 5pm.”

I-NET finally decided to shut down our server.

Singlehop, which hosts The Irrawaddy’s mirror site, explained: “Your
server is under a major attack. Due to the size of the attack our network
engineers had to null route the IP to negate it. When the attack has
subsided we will remove the null route.”

Singlehop told us that the cyber attack was very sophisticated.

Currently, our Web site is disabled and we have been forced to launch our
daily news in blogs. Fellow exiled news agencies Democratic Voice of Burma
and New Era were also disabled.

The attack on our Web sites is persistent and believed to be manually
launched from various locations - the attacks on our site including mirror
site continue.

It is no secret that in recent years Burma’s regime sent an army of
students to Russia for cyber warfare training. They also enjoy a large
budget to hire cyber criminals overseas to attack exiled media Web sites.

Burmese dissidents believe that some of the cyber criminals working for
the regime are based in the US, Japan and Europe. One IP address
identified in the current attack was in The Netherlands.

In Burma, Internet cafes are not safe. They are the substations of
subversive activity. In some Internet cafes, users have to provide ID,
informers observe students playing video games, and Buddhist monks
complain they are treated like criminals if they ask to the Internet.

In this increasing climate of fear where Internet users are frequently
suspected of working for exiled media, people in Burma there are naturally
afraid to communicate.

Reporters, editors and publishers based in Rangoon are under increasing
pressure. Earlier this month, police apprehended some reporters for
allegedly working for The Irrawaddy, though they were not.

Our stringers remain undetected, though they say they are nervous.

My friend, a foreign journalist who just came out of Burma, said that the
mood was very tense. “It is hard for our Burmese colleagues to report,”
she said. “But they are very brave.”

Over the last 20 years, the ongoing battle between Burma’s regime and the
pro-democratic forces has shifted from the streets to the jungle and now
to the computer.

The Burmese junta will not give in—rather, they will equip themselves and
become more sophisticated.

Acknowledging the magnitude of the cyber attack against us, we at The
Irrawaddy have to build stronger firewalls and more effective systems to
prevent inevitable attacks in the future.

However, the junta is mistaken. Ultimately, the flow of information is
unstoppable. The Burmese regime’s cyber criminals cannot penetrate the
strongest firewall of all—the spirit of desire for change.

____________________________________

September 18, United Press International
Rangoon rent-a-witness – Awzar Thi

Win Maw was always running a risk by sending news from the protests in
Rangoon to an overseas radio station last year. But when the police caught
up with him in November, they had a problem. He hadn’t actually done
anything illegal.
As it is not an offense for someone in Burma to contact a foreign
broadcaster, the investigating officer in Win Maw’s case had to stretch
the law quite some distance to come up with an alleged crime. In the end,
he chose a highly malleable section of the criminal code on upsetting
public tranquility, one that has been used against many people in Burma
since last year and one that can be stretched very far indeed.

But this decision should have introduced some new problems. The section on
public tranquility requires the police to show that the accused either
intended to or did in fact upset public tranquility through his behavior.
It is not enough for them to merely prove that Win Maw was sending news
abroad. They have to demonstrate that he did so with a specific intent or
desired result.

In March, the Special Branch officer handling the case, Police Major Ye
Nyunt, submitted his complaint to the court. In it, he claimed that Win
Maw had upset public tranquility specifically by sending false news
overseas that would alarm the public. So it follows that this is what
would need to be proven in court, through evidence revealing the contents
of what he sent and its conceivable consequences.

Or so it would be if Burma had a sane legal system. That it does not is
apparent from what was brought to the court in lieu of the requisite
proof.

First, there was the material evidence, or rather, the lack of it. Among
the items seized from Win Maw were some legally-published books, some
pictures of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, which are also legal, and a computer
hard drive.

The hard drive should have helped the police case, right? After all, if
Win Maw was to have committed an offense of the sort with which he was
accused, then surely there would be some evidence of it in the contents of
the computer drive. But no, the police have not yet submitted the hard
drive’s contents to the court, just the drive itself.

Then there were 18 suspicious-sounding “political” texts. What were these?
Diabolical tracts urging overthrow of the state? Draft federal
constitutions? Again the answer is no. When pressed in court, the police
admitted that they were nothing other than English-language learners from
the American Center, where the accused had in the past gone to study.

So much for the material evidence. Secondly, there were the prosecution
witnesses. Eight were listed, of which six were police. That leaves two
witnesses who were ordinary civilians. Who were these people and what was
their part in the case against Win Maw?

In fact, they were procedural witnesses, required by law to verify that
they had seen the police search Win Maw’s house and seize the items that
they recorded.

The purpose of having two persons witness a search is so that if there are
inconsistencies or uncertainties in the police account, then they can
later be called to testify and verify what was or was not done.

But in the inferior criminal justice system operating in Burma today, this
purpose has either been completely misunderstood or has been reduced to a
point of mere formality and irrelevance, at least for Police Major Ye
Nyunt.

That’s because he has apparently decided to dispense with the difficulty
of finding witnesses in the vicinity of a search at the time it is
undertaken, which is what the law envisages, and instead just brought his
own people along with him.

The two listed as witnesses of the search of Win Maw’s house are, it
seems, rent-a-witnesses whose names appear on the lists in cases against
other people that the same officer has been responsible for investigating:
different cases, different suburbs, different dates and sometimes even
different charges, but always the same two witnesses.

The concept of an independent judiciary has long since been erased from
Burma’s courts, and with it has gone the hope of any other sort of
independence. Even an independent witness, let alone a witness that
actually has anything to say, is too much to expect. The police officer
bringing the case has also lost all sense of what evidence consists;
either that or he has lost all respect for it. In either event, the
outcome is the same.

Burma’s justice system was not built upon fine sentiments or noble ideals.
It was, from the start, a device for strict control; before 1948, it was
used by a foreign regime, now it is being use by an indigenous one. But
whereas it has never stood for lofty principles, in the past it at least
recommended itself through some minimum procedural safeguards for human
security.

It is the stripping of these measures from the system that has caused the
greatest harm and made the lives of people all around the country more
uncertain than at any other time in modern history. More than in any
oppressive law, it is in the easy capacity of a policeman to rent his
witnesses that the defeat of the system of justice is most pronounced.

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