BurmaNet News, September 27-29, 2008

[Editor]

September 27-29, 2008 Issue # 3566


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Students stage protest in Sittwe
DVB: Security tight in Sittwe after demonstration
DVB: Three more political prisoners released
DPA: Burma arrests three on NLD anniversary
Irrawaddy: Opposition must cooperate: Win Tin
Irrawaddy: Package tour available to Irrawaddy Delta in October
Guardian (UK): 'We are still angry, but we bury it'

ON THE BORDER
Thaindian News: Mizo students ask Myanmar migrants to leave
Xinhua: Myanmar-China border trade fair to be held in Muse this year

BUSINESS / TRADE
Guardian (UK): FO warns Lloyd's over Burma
Irrawaddy: China’s grip on Burma ‘cause for concern’

HEALTH / AIDS
AP: Myanmar bans Chinese dairy products

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: State violence in Thailand and Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Key nations call on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi

OBITUARY
DVB: Activist Han Lin dies in New York



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 29, Mizzima News
Students stage protest in Sittwe – Than Htike Oo

The local residents said that the students from Sittwe Technical College
staged demonstration by marching in procession on Monday morning in
protest of non-availability of school ferry.

About 250 Sittwe Technical College of Sittwe situated at Yechanpyin Ward,
Rakhine State came back from school by marching in procession.

This opposition movement arisen from the region filled with opposition
spirit and having high anti-government attitude, scared the authority.

"The school ferry followed the protesting students and met them at
Bandoola junction, about 8 miles from their college, but the students
refused to board the ferry and came back to their homes on foot", one of
the demonstrators said.

This is the exam period and the students staged demonstration in protest
of school authority's harsh treatment to them in dealing with them, he
said.

Sittwe Technical College responded by phone, “Nothing happened, everything
is over and OK", when contacted by Mizzima.

About 150 monks launched silent protest of marching in procession in
Sittwe on Saturday morning marking the first anniversary of Saffron
Revolution.

This demonstration erupted amid the tight security imposed in all major
cities in Burma to prevent the fresh monks-led demonstration again.

____________________________________

September 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
Security tight in Sittwe after demonstration – Yee May Aung

Security has been tightened again in Sittwe after 150 monks staged a
silent march on Saturday to commemorate last year’s Saffron Revolution,
according to local residents.

Armed security personnel, police and plain-clothes agents have been
deployed at hotels and guesthouses as there have been reports for ten days
that the regional commander is due to visit the town.

One local resident said the heightened security presence was visible
around the town.

“In the ward, authorities and Swan Arr Shin members are being positioned,
and the army has increased the number of camouflaged sentries in
residential areas and guesthouses,” he said.

Another resident said locals had been informed that the commander was
coming to town and so security personnel were working hard to make sure
they kept control of the situation.

____________________________________

September 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
Three more political prisoners released – Htet Aung Kyaw

Three more political prisoners have been released by the Burmese military
regime, bringing the total number of political detainees freed as part of
the recent government amnesty to nine.

Ko Aung Khin of Indaw and Ko Maung Kyaw of Mawlu in Sagaing division were
released from Kalay prison on Friday, along with criminal inmates,
according to National League for Democracy information committee member U
Nyan Win.

Formed major U Myint Lwin of Bago was also released from Insein prison on
23 September, the same day that U Win Tin and others were released.

Along with U Win Tin, U Khin Maung Swe, Dr Than Nyein, Daw May Win Myint,
U Aung Soe Myint and U Aye Thein who were released last week, this brings
the total of political detainees freed to nine.

Former army captain U Win Htein was also freed on Tuesday last week but
was re-arrested the following day and taken back to Katha prison.

The latest releases are believed to be part of the 9002 prisoners granted
amnesty for good behaviour by the regime in preparation for the 2010
elections.

Pro-democracy groups have been keen to downplay the significance of the
recent releases, stressing the high number of political prisoners who
remain behind bars.

____________________________________

September 28, Deutsche Presse Agentur
Burma arrests three on NLD anniversary

The military government arrested at least three National League for
Democracy (NLD) supporters Saturday before the opposition party celebrated
its 20-year anniversary, witnesses said.

Police detained two men and one women near the NLD headquarters before the
anniversary ceremony to mark the establishment of the party in 1988.

Before the ceremony about 10 people shouted slogans including "Free Aung
San Suu Kyi" and released birds from cages in front of the NLD
headquarters, but it was unclear if those arrested were part of that
group.

Journalist U Win Tin, 79, who was released from 19 years in prison last
Tuesday, attended the anniversary celebration for his first time, having
been in prison on all the previous anniversaries.

He said he would help NLD and its leader Suu Kyi in the struggle for
democracy.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi remained under house arrest and
could not attend the ceremony. She has been under house arrest for 13 of
the last 19 years.

Before U Win Tin was released last Tuesday, as part of a broad amnesty
that freed 9,002 prisoners, he was Burma's longest-serving political
prisoner.

Two NLD members who were also released on Tuesday, U Khin Maung Swe and Dr
Than Nyein, also Saturday's attended celebration.

Missing from the ceremony was NLD member Win Htien who was one of the
9,002 released last Tuesday, but was arrested again less than a day later.

Win Htien was a founding member of the NLD in 1988.

NLD chairman U Aung Shwe issued a statement calling for the military junta
to immediately release Suu Kyi and NLD vice chairman U Tin Oo from
detention "because of their unrelenting efforts for the emergence of
democracy and human rights in the country."
U Aung Shwe also called for the release of all other political prisoners.
The United Nations puts that number at about 2,000.

While the junta holds absolute power in Burma, the international community
still supports Suu Kyi as the most credible leader of the country. The NLD
won the 1990 elections in a landslide, but the junta refused to recognize
the results.

____________________________________

September 29, Irrawaddy
Opposition must cooperate: Win Tin – Saw Yan Naing

Recently freed after 19 years in prison, Win Tin, who was on Saturday
reappointed secretary of the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) at an event marking the party’s 20th anniversary, used the occasion
to call for the NLD to cooperate with ethnic leaders and pro-democracy
groups in the fight for change in Burma.

“Win Tin said the fight for democracy hasn’t ended yet,” NLD spokesman Win
Naing told The Irrawaddy. “He said the NLD alone can’t work it out. He
said we need to cooperate together with ethnic and pro-democracy forces.”

Freed as part of a government amnesty, the NLD’s Win Tin and Khin Maung
Swe were appointed to the party’s Central Executive Committee, while
another released member, Than Nyein, was reassigned to his former position
as vice-chairman of the Rangoon Division Organizing Committee, according
to NLD spokesman Win Naing.

Prominent ethnic Arakanese leader Aye Thar Aung, who is secretary of the
Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP), welcomed the return
of the NLD members and said he believed that the CRPP should also be more
active in dealing with the NLD.

Aye Thar Aung told The Irrawaddy that the NLD had not been able to bring
about any tangible improvements in democratic reform in Burma within the
last 20 years as hoped.

Before his 19 years in prison, Win Tin served as a secretary of the NLD
and was senior advisor to detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was
arrested in 1989 and sentenced to a total of 20 years imprisonment on a
series of trumped up charges, such as “instigation to civil disobedience”
and “secretly publishing anti-government propaganda.”

He was released on September 23 along with 9,001 other prisoners, only a
handful of whom are considered political prisoners. According to a
Thailand-based human rights group, the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma), there are more than 2,000 political prisoners
still behind bars in Burma.

During the 20th anniversary ceremony in Rangoon, Win Tin called for the
release of all political prisoners, including the detained Buddhist monks,
Tin Oo of the NLD and leaders of the 88 Generation Students group—Min Ko
Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe.

That same day, several members of the NLD—including active youth member
Htet Htet Oo Wai—were arrested by security forces and later released, said
Nyan Win, the party’s spokesman.

On September 22, the NLD released a statement calling for a review of the
junta’s constitutional process. The statement urged Burmese authorities to
reconsider the state constitution, calling the draft constitution
“one-sided” and lacking the participation of the 1990-elected members of
parliament.

Then on Saturday at the anniversary ceremony, the NLD released another
statement calling for the ruling junta to release all political prisoners,
reopen NLD offices and convene a people’s parliament. More than 300
participants, including NLD members, veteran Burmese politicians and
foreign diplomats, attended the 20th anniversary of the NLD’s founding.

The NLD was later warned by the head of Burma’s police, Brig-Gen Khin Yi,
to withdraw its statement, because the authorities saw it potentially
motivating citizens to undertake activities critical of the military
government.
The NLD is the main opposition party in Burma and won a landslide
victory—392 out of 492 seats—in parliamentary elections in 1990. However,
the current Burmese government, led by Snr-Gen Than Shwe, ignored the
election results and refused to transfer power to Suu Kyi’s NLD.

Meanwhile, a monk in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan state in western Burma,
was briefly summoned and questioned by authorities after joining about 100
Buddhist monks marching in heavy rain on Saturday in protest against the
military government, according to another monk in Sittwe.

____________________________________

September 29, Irrawaddy
Package tour available to Irrawaddy Delta in October – Violet Cho

Tourists can visit the cyclone battered Irrawaddy delta and see the
devastated communities firsthand starting in October.

A leading tourist agency in Southeast Asia, Exotissimo Travel, plans to
introduce a “Heart of the Delta” tour which offers tourists access to
communities hit by Cyclone Nargis, which battered the delta in May.

“We will start to accept bookings from tourists who are interested in
visiting the Irrawaddy delta by the beginning of October,” said Su Su Tin,
managing director of Exotissimo Myanmar in Rangoon.

“The trip to the delta is possible now for tourists because there will be
less rain starting in October,” she said.

Tourist companies in Burma say they are starting ad campaigns to draw more
tourists to as the peak tourist season runs from October to February.

Following the cyclone, Exotissimo Travel established an emergency fund
that collected US $10,000 for survivors.

“We will take tourists to the storm affected areas to see the real
situation with the people there,” said Su Su Tin. “We will also have a
fund for tourists who want to make donations to the cyclone affected
communities they visit.”

The idea of creating tours to visit devastated communities drew criticism
from some in the travel industry.

A senior staff member at a tourist agency in Rangoon said, “It is
inappropriate and unethical to take tourists to visit disadvantaged people
from the cyclone affected areas for the profit of your businesses.”

Tourism in Burma fell to nearly zero following the civil uprising in 2007
and then again following the cyclone in May 2008 and the ensuing publicity
about the difficulties international aid agencies had in gaining access to
the delta area. Many tour agencies cut staff and salaries.

A Rangoon-based tour guide said, “Tourism declined in the last couple of
months because of the rainy season.” He said last year there tourists were
visiting the country even during the rainy season. Tour operators expect
tourism to increase steadily if there are no more uprisings or negative
publicity.

____________________________________

September 27, Guardian (UK)
'We are still angry, but we bury it' – Mimi Mardon

Around the ancient and celebrated temples of Bagan, a tour guide blandly
dispenses historical nuggets to tourists, his fury hidden beneath a bright
smile. Myint Win, a novice monk, is taking a break from his monastery to
earn some money in the town whose temples make it one of the country's
premier tourist destinations.

But times are hard. The protests against the Burmese regime that began a
year ago renewed awareness of the tourism boycott of the country, and only
the determined make it here these days. In Bagan, few hostels have more
than one guest, tour guides say they haven't had a client in months and at
the most celebrated temples there is a frantic edge to the hawkers as they
plead for custom from the occasional visitor.

The irony is not lost on Myint. "Protesting not good for business," he
says with a wry smile.

In Mandalay, the tourists have vanished. The nightly performance of the
Moustache Brothers, Burma's best-known comedians and renowned opponents of
the regime, is struggling. Allowed to play only to foreigners, their
audiences have dwindled. "Some nights we cancel," says Lu Maw, one of the
brothers. "We can't perform with no audience."

In the capital, Rangoon, a year after the protests the streets project an
eerie impression of normality. Brief chats with those who will risk
speaking to a foreigner reveal the fear that conditions everyone's lives.
Eyes flick round cafes and voices are lowered before any opinion is
expressed. Conversations in taxis or on rickshaws – anywhere an informer
might be listening in – are studiously avoided.

Today, Burma is back to the Orwellian paranoia that has passed for
normality here for years, where anger and dissent must be hidden and the
daily image of contentment maintained to ensure survival. The regime has
tightened its grip, Human Rights Watch reported this week, with the
continued arrest and detention of political activists.

Myint, the 29-year-old novice monk, first heard about the protests over
rising fuel prices at the end of August 2007. Within days, demonstrations
had spread across the country to become the largest Burma had seen in
decades. A monk in Rangoon phoned Myint. "He said, you have to help us,"
recalls the novice.

And so Myint began to march. In the high plains of Bagan, the sun blazed
down on the bareheaded protesters. Walking with thousands of other young,
angry men, Myint remembers the glare of the light and his bare feet
burning on the hot tarmac. "The people lined the streets to protect us,"
he says. "They made sure they were between us and the military and they
gave us water. I wasn't afraid because I knew what we were doing was
right."

Then the shooting began. Violating a core principle many believed even the
junta must hold sacred, the authorities turned their guns on the monks.
The images flooded out: soldiers shooting at unarmed, barefoot protesters,
amateur footage smuggled across borders, illicit photos shot on mobile
phones flashing around the world. The world reacted with shock; the
junta's response was to shut down access to the internet and carry on.

There was no shooting in Bagan, but Myint and his colleagues watched
satellite pictures of events in Yangon with mounting horror. "We watched
the other marches – and then the violence. Everyone was shocked. The head
of my monastery made the decision to stop the protests."

Elsewhere, the crackdown was biting hard. Up in Mandalay, as tens of
thousands took to the streets of Burma's religious heartland, two
middle-aged men watched the monks go by. The authorities knew exactly who
they were: Moustache Brothers Par Par Lay and Lu Maw. Three days later
they came for Par Par.

"To be honest we had been expecting them. They came at night – as usual -
and said they wanted to ask questions," says Lu Maw. "They held him for
just over 30 days." "They kept asking who was organising the protests,"
adds Par Par. "But I actually wasn't involved this time round, so I
couldn't tell them anything."

By the time the protests had finally been extinguished, more than 4,000
people had been detained, according to Bo Kyi, of the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners, an organisation in Thailand that
helps political prisoners inside Burma. Many were tortured; monks were
forced to disrobe, beaten and some placed in solitary confinement. An
unknown number were killed.

Those who escaped jail were cowed, and the protest movement evaporated as
quickly as it had sprung up. The Burmese people who had dared to hope for
real change retreated as the regime reasserted its grip.

Four months ago came another devastating blow. In the early hours of May
3, Aung Thin was woken in the small, wooden house she shared with five
other family members in her village deep in the Irrawaddy delta by the
howl of the wind, then water pouring in. As the water rose, the family
scrambled on to the roof.

"We managed to climb into a banyan tree next to our house," she says.
"Then the roof began to float and became trapped in the trees. So we
climbed back on to it, like a raft. We could see children in the water. My
father tried to pull them out but the current was too strong." There they
clung for hours until day broke and cyclone Nargis, the worst storm to hit
the delta in generations, finally passed.

Aung tells her story outside the flimsy frame of the new, temporary house
her family has built. They were lucky: the storm claimed an estimated
130,000 lives.

Their problems are far from over. Four months on, they have a new fear:
starvation. The storm swept away not just their harvest but their precious
store of rice seeds, ploughing equipment and livestock. It dumped salt
water in the paddy fields, rendering them infertile. "We need to plant,"
says the village chief. "We have got rid of the salt from fields. We've
enough rice to live on for the moment – just," he says. "But we have to
plant."

The needs could not be more evident, yet the response continues to lag.
Money is short; the UN appeal has so far raised less than half of the
money needed - $196m of $481m. The critical agriculture sector is just 14%
funded.

Most cyclone survivors rely on the only support on which they can count:
each other. Within days of the cyclone, Myint's fellow monks stepped in to
coordinate the delivery of donations across the delta. In Mandalay, Par
Par Lay organised donations from the local theatrical scene and drove them
in a procession led by a float down to Rangoon. According to the UN, in
the first six weeks of the response alone the Burmese people raised a
staggering $11m worth of aid. "In the weeks afterwards, everyone was
asking why there hadn't been more secondary deaths," says one aid worker
in Rangoon. "The answer is simple: the local response was – and continues
to be – incredible."

What happens next? The outlook is grim. There are widespread fears that
the failure of the rice harvest will drive up prices of Burma's staple
food, and the global credit crunch is biting hard. Black market costs of
essentials such as fuel have gone up. Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest
shows no sign of ending. The initial protests may have been triggered by
such hardships, but the chances of this happening again are remote. Anger
at the inadequacy of the government response to Nargis has deepened the
hatred of the junta, but it has not lessened the fear.

"We are still angry," says Myint. "But we bury it here" – and he thumps
his heart. Myint says the monks are divided: some want more protests,
others do not. There has been talk of an armed uprising and a desire for
guns, but few see this as a real possibility. "The monks will never take
up arms," says Myint. "Ordinary people, yes. But not the monks."

A year on, would Myint protest again? It takes him a long time to answer
this question as he leans against the warm stones of the ancient temple
and looks out across the Bagan plain. In the peaceful light of the late
afternoon sun, it is hard to remember the awful realities away from this
serene temple plain: the hunger that clutches at Aung and many thousands
like her, the suffering of the hundreds still held in Insein and the sheer
courage of Par Par Lay, who survived years of hard labour and still will
not be silenced.

"I would," he says finally, "but we have no power, only our prayers and
our mouths. The government has guns. We must wait and hope. One day, our
time will come."

Names have been changed for this article.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 29, Thaindian News
Mizo students ask Myanmar migrants to leave

The Young Mizo Association (YMA), an influential students’ body in
Mizoram, has served quit notices to Myanmarese migrants for allegedly
harassing girls in a village, YMA leaders said Monday.”We have asked
Burmese migrant workers to leave by Oct 4,” YMA leader Lalrinsanga told
reporters.

The immediate provocation for the quit notice was a brawl at Thanhril
village, about 20 km north of capital Aizawl, between villagers and
Myanmar nationals over the alleged harassment of some Mizo girls by
migrants.

There are about 30 Myamnar nationals living in Thanhril.

“The Burmese migrants also physically assaulted a local Mizo boy who came
to the rescue of the women,” Lalrinsanga said.

The YMA leader, however, said there were a large number of law-abiding
Myanmar migrants in various parts of Mizoram.

“We have to decide on whether or not to allow the other migrants to stay
in Mizoram,” the YMA leader said.

Most of the Myanmar nationals in Mizoram are engaged in stone quarries,
farms, road construction works and other odd jobs.


>From time to time the Mizoram government evicts migrant workers who enter

the state illegally although similar physical features makes it difficult
to identify them. There are no exact figures available about the number of
migrants residing in the state. Mizoram shares a 510 km long unfenced
border with Myanmar.

____________________________________

September 29, Xinhua
Myanmar-China border trade fair to be held in Muse this year

A Myanmar-China border trade fair will be held in Myanmar's border trade
zone of Muse in December this year involving four other neighboring
countries, the local Weekly Eleven reported Monday.

The three-day 8th border trade fair of the two countries, which will take
place in the second week of December with unspecified date, will comprise
224 booths -- 107 from host Myanmar and 108 from China as well as 9 from
Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Laos, the report said.

Displayed at the Myanmar booths will be products from the state sector
represented by Livestock Breeding and Fishery Department, Ministries of
Industry, Hotels and Tourism, and Agriculture and Irrigation as well as
the private sector represented by the Union of Myanmar Federation of
Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Cooperatives and Muse-Nanhkam Border
Trade Association, it said.

Myanmar products mostly cover agricultural produces such as various beans
and pulses, maize and sesame, marine products, rubber, furniture and gem
items.

Seminars on investment participated by entrepreneurs from neighboring
countries will also be attached, it said.

Since 2001, Myanmar-China border trade exhibitions have been held annually
and alternately in respective border towns and the last event was in
December 2007 in Jiegao, Ruili, a Chinese border town in Southwestern
Yunnan province linking Myanmar's Muse, which is also known as the Muse
105th Mile Border Trade Zone.

The Muse border trade zone covers an area of 150 hectares and stands the
first largest of its kind in Myanmar and the transformation of its border
trade with China into normal trade has been underway since early 2005.

Meanwhile, Ruili also remains a main border trade point of China with its
border trade volume alone accounting for 70 percent of Yunnan province's
border trade with neighboring countries.

China's Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar, has more trade relations
with the country than any other province of China and Myanmar-China border
trade accounted for larger proportion of the two countries' bilateral
trade. The trend of rising border trade was apparently up year after year
especially the Myanmar-Yunnan bilateral trade.

It is anticipated that in the future development, transit trade to the
third countries would be launched through the two countries' border points
to effectively implement the normal trade.

Main items that Yunnan imports from Myanmar are agricultural products,
aquatic products, minerals, rubber and its products, while main items that
Yunnan exports to Myanmar are electric and machinery, textile, chemicals,
steel, daily-used products, pharmaceuticals and so on.

Myanmar has a total of 13 main border trade points with its four
neighbors, namely Muse, Lwejei, Laizar, Chinshwehaw and Kambaiti
established with China since 1998, Tachilek, Kawthoung, Myawaddy and Myeik
with Thailand since 1996, Tamu and Reedkhawdhar with India since 1995 and
Maungtaw and Sittway with Bangladesh also since 1995.

According to Chinese official figures, in 2007, China-Myanmar bilateral
trade hit 2.057 billion U.S. dollars, up 40.9 percent compared with 2006.
Of the total, China's exports to Myanmar took 1.686 billion dollars, up
39.6 percent, while its import from Myanmar stood 371 million dollars, up
46.9 percent. China enjoyed a trade surplus of 1.315 billion dollars.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 27, Guardian (UK)
FO warns Lloyd's over Burma – Nick Mathiason

The Foreign Office has written to Lloyd's of London chairman Lord Levene
to outline its disapproval that Lloyd's brokers are trading with the
Burmese military dictatorship.

The letter has forced Levene to write to the insurance market's managing
agents last week 'urging them to consider' their involvement with the
repressive regime.

Levene's intervention has fallen short of suggesting an outright boycott
but is still a significant development. Lloyd's has historically been
involved in Burma, despite international boycotts. Its syndicates reinsure
the junta's aviation and shipping interests, and its involvement is
pivotal because it is a 'market maker' encouraging other reinsurers to
share risk on Burmese government interests. Without Lloyd's, campaigners
believe the repressive regime would be in economic turmoil.

Johnny Chatterton of the Burma Campaign said: 'This is totally humiliating
for Lloyd's. For years it has refused to accept that its members are
helping to fund the Burmese regime. We welcome the British government's
intervention. Lloyd's is now under colossal pressure to cut its links.'

The US government has also recently placed pressure on American insurers
to cease trading with the regime. The EU's existing sanctions against
Burma do not extend to financial services or energy.

____________________________________

September 29, Irrawaddy
China’s grip on Burma ‘cause for concern’ – William Boot

China’s grip on Burma’s natural resources has grown considerably in a
short time, says a detailed investigation by a US-based human rights
organization, EarthRights International (ERI).

The survey identifies 69 Chinese companies engaged in oil, gas, hydropower
development and mining—a 250 percent increase on the number thought to be
operating in Burma when a similar study was made one year ago.

But the survey says there could be more than 70 Chinese companies
operating across Burma because the mining sector is particularly difficult
to assess.

“Given what we know about development projects in Burma and the current
situation, we’re concerned about this marked increase in the number of
these projects,” says ERI in a report published on Monday.

Washington-based ERI says Burma has become “geopolitically significant” to
the Chinese as their mushrooming economy demands ever more natural
resources, notably energy related.

Having a compliant neighbor rich in gas, oil, minerals and timber is a big
plus for China, but Burma’s position on the edge of the Indian Ocean also
makes it a “particularly desirable partner in China’s pursuit of energy
security,” says ERI.

This is in reference to Chinese plans to develop ports and pipelines in
Burma to transship large volumes of oil and gas from the Middle East,
Africa and elsewhere.

“We’re concerned about the lack of information about these projects
available to the public domain,” said Alek Momi, the report’s principal
researcher.

The survey identifies the most firms in hydropower developments—at least
45 companies actively engaged or planning 63 projects, ranging from small
dams to the massive scheme on the River Salween at Tasang.

In Burma’s mushrooming oil and gas sectors, at least 16 Chinese companies
are named, including all three of China’s biggest transnational
enterprises, Sinopec, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and China
National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

ERI pinpoints the Arakan coast as one of the most significant strategic
locations for China’s long-term plans for vacuuming up global oil and gas
reserves.

“CNPC has signed a MoU with MOGE [Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise] for a
detailed assessment of the potential construction of a crude oil terminal
off the coast of Arakan State,” says the report.

A terminal for oil shipped in from the Middle East and Africa, plus
pipelines across Burma into southwest China, would “increase the
efficiency of China’s oil and gas imports by providing an alternative to
the problematic Straits of Malacca.”

ERI names ten Chinese companies involved in mining for minerals—a sector
“difficult to assess as many mining projects are small, therefore less
visible and attracting less publicity.”

The ERI report comes just a few days after the Burmese junta confirmed
that Chinese state-controlled China Non-Ferrous Metal Group will proceed
to mine nickel in the Mandalay region.

Few details of the agreement have been disclosed. The Burmese ministry of
mines claimed that the project would provide more than 1,000 jobs for
local people. The nickel will be exported to China.

ERI says this will become one of the largest mining projects in Burma,
with investment of US $600 million, financed by Chinese state banks, to
mine and export up 40 million tons of nickel ore.

The lack of clarity on this particular project at Tagung Taung—land
acquisition, environmental impact and displacement—underscores ERI’s
concerns.

The group has also unearthed evidence of plans by another Chinese company,
Jinbao Mining, with a convoluted ownership, to investigate prospects for
mining a 10-million ton nickel deposit at Mwetaung in Chin State.

ERI, with Southeast Asia offices in Chiang Mai, Thailand, campaigns for
human rights in a number of areas but especially where transnational
companies seek to trample on land rights and damage the environment.

ERI brought a successful legal action in the US against oil company
Unocal—now part of Chevron—to compensate Burmese villagers for the Yadana
gas pipeline through southeast Burma into Thailand.

In China, there is no public consultation on industrial developments and
land is often illegally confiscated and people forcibly evicted. China has
one of the worst polluted environments in the world due to uncontrolled
development.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

September 29, Associated Press
Myanmar bans Chinese dairy products

Myanmar authorities have suspended imports of all dairy products from
China amid a widening scandal over melamine-tainted milk, a newspaper
reported Monday.

Myanmar's commerce ministry said it has barred entry of all dairy products
from China since last Tuesday, said the Myanmar Times, a
government-affiliated weekly newspaper. It was the government's first
public announcement of the suspension.

The report said the decision was reached in a meeting of officials from
various ministries, the Food and Drug Administration and dairy producers
and importers.

Cheap dairy products from China, the country's largest trading partner,
are widely sold in impoverished Myanmar, but there have been no reported
cases of illnesses.

The health ministry is testing samples of dairy products, especially those
from China, Health Minister Kyaw Myint said, according to the report.

Products that are found to be safe will be given a "melamine-free" stamp,
it said.

Products that cannot be tested locally will be sent to Singapore for
further analysis, the report said.

The health ministry will import additional testing equipment from Europe,
Kyaw Myint was quoted as saying.

Myanmar's military-ruled government said it would destroy 16 tons of
powdered milk made by one of the 22 Chinese dairy companies that were
found to have produced melamine-tainted products. The milk was confiscated
in Yangon last week.

Earlier this month, melamine, which is used to make plastics and
fertilizer, was detected in milk powder in China and linked to kidney
stones in children. Melamine-tainted milk has been blamed for the deaths
of four infants and has sickened more than 54,000 children in China.

In 2006-2007, Myanmar imported more than US$995 million of goods from
China, according to government figures. –

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 29, Irrawaddy
State violence in Thailand and Burma – Htet Aung

The Thai military’s recent refusal to use force to crack down on the
current demonstrations staged by the People’s Alliance for Democracy has
become the subject of an academic debate about whether this signals a real
change in the Thai military, and whether it could give a positive lesson
to Burma’s military rulers that could have an effect on the country’s
democratic transition.

At a recent seminar entitled “State Violence against Popular Protests:
Thailand and Burma,” Thai and Burmese academics and activists exchanged
views in a discussion comparing how the governments of the two countries
have used violence against citizens struggling for democracy in their
respective countries.

The seminar was held on September 26 and hosted by the Center for Social
Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University and the Peace for Burma
Coalition to commemorate the first anniversary of last year’s monk-led
Saffron Revolution in Burma.
The seminar also served to show Thai civil society’s solidarity with the
defenseless people of Burma, who have been living under repressive
military rule for over four decades.

The two Southeast Asian nations both have a history of bloody military
coups and violent crackdowns on protesters. “Thai and Burmese states are
not different, because they always use violence against popular protests,”
said Dr. Naruemon Thabchumpon, director of the Master of Arts Program in
International Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

“In Thailand, an historic popular protest which was brutally suppressed by
the Thai military happened on October 14, 1973. Thailand, like Burma, also
used similar violent methods, resulting in the deaths of many
demonstrators, including the assassinations of more than 20 farmer leaders
at the time,” she added.

Dr. Naruemon, who specializes in comparative democratic studies and the
politics of civil society and grassroots movements, also analyzed
important changes in civil society movements under the repressive Thai
military governments of the 1970s.

“During 1973 -1976, Thailand experienced more than one thousand
demonstrations, which came from the working class and the rural farmers.
It was the time that Thailand began to form the Farmer Federation of
Thailand, labor unions and democratic organizations like the Union for
Civil Liberty.

“In 1976, Thailand experienced another bloody coup, resulting in many
students and protesters fleeing to the jungle to join the Communist Party
of Thailand. The event is very similar to the 1988 democratic uprising [in
Burma] and the consequent fleeing of Burmese students to the border area.”

But she pointed out one important difference between the two countries. As
the Thai economy became much more integrated into the global market in the
1970s and 1980s—something that did not happen in Burma—it generated a
middle class which began to feel that the military could not run the
country’s economy.

“The Thai military regime and elites understood that whatever happened in
Thailand also had ramifications externally,” noted Larry Jagan, a veteran
journalist and Burma watcher.

He pointed out that this economic factor also played a major part in the
Thai military’s decision to refrain from using force against the current
popular protests, citing the possible impact on international aid and
trade if the army had responded to the unrest with violence.

Members of the panel agreed that Thai military leaders are more
business-minded than their counterparts in Burma. According to Jagan, the
Burmese regime always takes the attitude that “We never negotiate, but we
can discuss.”

“The Burmese army doesn’t understand a win-win situation. They have the
military mindset that there is no such situation in the battlefield. If
you win, somebody loses,” said Jagan.

Even former prime minister and intelligence chief, Gen Khin Nyunt, who was
considered by the international community to be the only Burmese military
leader with an understanding of international politics, subscribed to this
view, said Jagan.

“It is in the mind of the Burmese army and the military leaders that the
army is the only institution which can save the country from being split,”
said Zaw Min, who is in charge of foreign affairs for the Democratic Party
for a New Society, a Burmese opposition party. He told the panel that the
Burmese army’s core belief is that “it is the savior of the nation in
history.”

“We can see the political changes after each popular protest in Thailand.
But after every popular protest in Burma, there has been no progressive
change but more oppression and restrictions,” said Zaw Min.

To make his point, he listed the many occasions that the Burmese military
has violently responded to protests since it seized power in 1962. These
include the crackdown on student demonstrations on July 7, 1962; the
violent suppression of unrest at the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games in
1967; the crushing of student protests during the funeral of former UN
Secretary-General U Thant in 1974; the crackdown on workers’ protests in
1975; the bloody coup that ended the nationwide student-led democratic
uprising in 1988; and the ruthless assault on Buddhist monks during the
Saffron Revolution in 2007.

The last panelist to speak, Dr. Buranaj Smutharak, a member of the Asean
Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), said the Thai military’s
decision to refrain from using violence to end the standoff in Bangkok
could indicate “the positive change towards the openness of the societies
in the region.”

However, while the Thai military has learned to avoid using violence
against citizens involved in popular protests, the Burmese army has shown
no such willingness to act with restraint. Whether Burma’s rulers are
prepared to follow more positive regional trends remains an open question.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 27, Associated Press
Key nations call on Myanmar to release Suu Kyi – Carley Petesch

Nations concerned about Myanmar called on its military government Saturday
to release all political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, and to start talking with the opposition.

The so-called Group of Friends, which includes the United States, Britain,
China, Southeast Asian countries and the European Union, also called on
the junta to cooperate with the United Nations, which has tried with
little success to nudge the regime toward engagement with its opponents.
The nations met at the United Nations on the sidelines of the U.N. General
Assembly's ministerial session.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who called the meeting, said in a
statement afterward that it "is a clear signal of the importance that the
international community attaches to the situation in Myanmar."

The Security Council and Ban had hoped Myanmar's ruling generals would
respond to international pressure to embrace national reconciliation
following its violent suppression of massive, anti-government protests in
Yangon last year, but so far they have not.

The Security Council has demanded that the military regime release all
political prisoners, talk with the opposition, open the political process
and end human rights abuses.

Ban and his special U.N. envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, have actively pursued
talks with leaders of Myanmar's government.

"The people have not been forgotten by the international community,"
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said. He said, "The truth is the
regime holds onto their power jealously and guards the power that they
have."

Friday marked the first anniversary of the military junta's brutal
crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks. The U.N. estimated at least
31 people were killed when the army fired on peaceful protesters Sept.
26-27, sparking global outrage.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in detention, mostly
under house arrest. In 1990, her party won a landslide victory that the
junta refused to acknowledge. Instead, the regime stepped up arrests and
repression of dissidents.

Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo, who is also the chair of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said the U.N.'s critical role in
helping the Myanmar people after Cyclone Nargis was a positive sign.

"In that cooperation there is hope," he said. "And some progress is better
than no progress."

Little progress was made in releasing prisoners and promoting dialogue
between the government and Suu Kyi when the U.N.'s Gambari visited Myanmar
from Aug. 18-23.

"The key is to continue to strengthen Gambari's role and to push the U.N.
agenda," Yeo said.

He said that Ban will be going back to Myanmar at the end of the year.

On Tuesday, Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner, Win-Tin, was
among more than 9,000 inmates freed, days before the first anniversary of
the junta's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

But analysts suspect the junta timed the release as an attempt to fend off
international criticism on the anniversary.

____________________________________
OBITUARY

September 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
Activist Han Lin dies in New York – Htet Aung Kyaw

U Han Lin, who led the “long march to freedom and democracy” campaign in
2005 to highlight the plight of Burma, died from lung cancer on 26
September at the age of 57.

He died at Ithaca hospital in New York State where he was receiving
treatment, according to his colleague and brother U Min Aung.

“My brother U Han Lin died of lung cancer at 2.43am on Friday, 26
September. He had been diagnosed in January 2007,” Min Aung said.

“He had been receiving treatment for more than a year, and now he has
died. How could I feel good when he was my comrade and brother?”

His funeral was held at noon yesterday at a community hall in Ithaca and a
separate ceremony to honour him was held by his comrades at 3pm.

Han Lin was a graduate of Moulmein college and became a middle school
teacher at Shatpon village in Pulaw township, Tenesserim division.

He took part in the 8888 uprising and when the army staged the coup in
September of that year, he fled to Karen National Union brigade-4
territory with 100 students.

He attended the first All Burma Students’ Democratic Front conference in
Kawmura in December 1988 and served as information officer at ABSDF
Battalion-201’s Minthamee camp until 1996.

He left for the US from Maneeloy refugee camp in 1997 and settled in
Ithaca, where he continued to work to raise awareness of the situation in
Burma.

Han Lin is survived by his wife Daw Htay Htay Yi and their six children.