BurmaNet News, October 17, 2008

[Editor]

October 17, 2008 Issue # 3579

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Woman activist jailed in Rangoon
Irrawaddy: Former youth members urge NLD to prepare for 2010
Narinjara: Army loots fuel and fish from Arakanese boats
DVB: Military officer injures two youths in Bago

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara: High officials visit western border

BUSINESS / TRADE
PNA (Thailand): Burma lifts ban on some goods trading in border areas
AP: Jade and gem sale earns Myanmar $175 million
Mizzima News: India, Burma agree to expand border trade
Mizzima News: Tourist arrival in Burma drops by over 33,000
Irrawaddy: Tougher tests in US to keep out Burmese rubies

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Consumers reject Chinese milk products

REGIONAL
AFP: Myanmar PM to visit China
Bangkok Post (Thailand): Thai gamblers head to safer Burma casinos

OPINION / OTHER
Guardian (UK): Burma's misery – Thaung Htun
Irrawaddy: A house divided - Kyaw Zwa Moe


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INSIDE BURMA

October 17, Irrawaddy
Woman activist jailed in Rangoon – Min Lwin

Accused of illegally handling foreign currency, Khin Moe Aye, 40, a
prominent social and political activist, was sentenced to three years
imprisonment, along with former student leader Kyaw Soe, at Rangoon’s
Insein prison court on Thursday, according to her lawyer, Khin Maung
Shein.

Former political prisoners Khin Moe Aye and Kyaw Soe were arrested by
military intelligence officers in Kyaikto Township in Rangoon’s
northeastern suburbs on December 12.

Khin Moe Aye has been imprisoned by the military junta three times before.
Her first arrest was in 1990 when she was jailed for one or two months.
She was rearrested in December 1991 for her role in leading student
demonstrations in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was sentenced to 10 years in jail, but was released in May 1992.

While continuing her pro-democracy activities, she was arrested again in
February 1998 and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for assisting
an author, Aung Tun, in documenting a history of the Burmese student
movement. She was released on May 4, 2003.

In recent times, Khin Moe Aye has worked to provide aid, food and
education to orphaned children and has founded an orphanage in Rangoon.

Tate Naing, secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), told The Irrawaddy on Friday that Khin
Moe Aye actively participated in the 1988 popular uprising as a student
leader of Rangoon University’s student union and was an active member of
the All Burma Federation of Students Unions.

“She was often pressured by the military authorities for her involvement
in social and political activities,” he said.

____________________________________

October 17, Irrawaddy
Former youth members urge NLD to prepare for 2010 – Saw Yan Naing

Leaders of Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for
Democracy (NLD), should prepare the party for the 2010 general elections,
according to an adviser for the youth members of the NLD who resigned on
Thursday.

Former youth adviser Khin Htun called on the NLD to hold regular meetings
and negotiations, and to discuss its political role ahead of 2010. The
people of Burma are not interested in the reshuffling going on within the
party at the moment, he said.

“The Burmese public only want to know how the NLD will approach the
election in 2010 and how the party intends to lead the country,” he said.

Khin Htun urged the NLD to air discussions on the junta-drafted
constitution as well as lobbying and campaigning for the support of the
people. He also called on the party to hold dialogue with ethnic leaders
and members of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP).

Htaung Kho Thang, a member of the CRPP and the United Nationalities League
for Democracy, said on Friday that he agreed with Khin Htun and said that
he and other ethnic leaders, including members of the CRPP, would
willingly cooperate with the NLD leadership.

Htaung Kho Thang also said that the resignation on Wednesday of more than
100 of the NLD’s youth members would have a negative impact on the NLD’s
followers.

“Young people are the driving force of a party,” he said. “If the youth
don’t support the party, the party will be weakened.”

However, a veteran Burmese politician, Thakin Chan Htun, insisted that the
constant restrictions imposed on the NLD by the military junta is the
reason why its leaders are unable to prepare successfully for democracy in
Burma.

More than 100 youth members of the NLD from about 19 townships in Rangoon
Division resigned on Thursday, complaining that they were being excluded
by the party’s top leaders from the decision-making process.

The resignations came a day after NLD Chairman Aung Shwe appointed six new
youth advisors and assigned 10 others to lead youth activities for the
party.

Khin Htun said that another NLD leader, Win Tin, who recently returned to
the NLD after 19 years in Insein prison, will unofficially help to
reconcile the former youth members with the party’s leadership.

Despite the resignations, Khin Htun said that the former NLD members would
not seek asylum in foreign countries, but would continue to support the
struggle for democracy in Burma.

____________________________________

October 17, Narinjara
Army loots fuel and fish from Arakanese boats

Many fishing boat owners in the coastal area of northern Arakan State have
been suffering at the hands of an army patrol team that is looting fish
and fuel from the boats while they are working at sea, said U Aung Ko, a
fishing boat owner from Sittwe.
He said, "Two days ago, the army patrol team from Ah Ngu Maw outpost
looted ten gallons of diesel and many lucrative fish from my boat while it
was at fishing at sea north of Sittwe."

The Ah Ngu Maw outpost is located on the Mayu Peninsula in southern
Rathidaung Township and one army team from the outpost has been patrolling
the area in a speed boat to prevent smuggling from Burma to Bangladesh.

"The army team looted fuel and fish very cleverly from the fishing boats,
and it is like a cold-blooded robbery abuse by the army team on the
fishing boats," he said.

He also added that the patrol team typically approach the boats and claim
that they had rushed from a far distance to catch the boat because they
thought it was a smuggling. They then claim that they used many gallons of
fuel to travel out to the boat and ask for fuel and fish as compensation.

"It is a new system for the army team to loot fuel and fish from us, and
many fishing boat owners have faced this style of the army asking for fuel
and fish," he said.

According to a local fishery source, the fishing boats have to provide the
fuel and fish to the army team whenever they ask because they are afraid
of retribution if they deny the request.

"If we refuse the army's request for fuel, they can arrest us and accuse
of being smugglers. So we give whatever the army team asks," he said.

Such a situation is not uncommon for fishing boats at sea, as many armed
forces, including the navy, army, and police, have looted fuel and fishes
from the boats all along the coast of Arakan.

____________________________________

October 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Military officer injures two youths in Bago

Two young people were seriously injured in Bago on Sunday when a military
officer knocked one of them down with his moped and beat the other,
accusing him of stealing his key.

Aung Aung Oo, an officer from the military administration department in
Bago, knocked down 13-year-old Maung Kyaw Zin Tun near an old bus station
on the night of 12 October.

When he stopped to check on Maung Kyaw Zin Tun, a policeman confiscated
the key to Aung Aung Oo’s moped.

Aung Aung Oo, who was said to be drunk at the time, then accused
23-year-old Maung Thaw Aung, who was standing nearby watching the
incident, of stealing his key and beat him unconscious, Maung Thaw Aung
told DVB.

"He knocked down a young boy with his motorcycle and they were sorting it
out,” Maung Thaw Aung said.

“A policeman confiscated his motorcycle key after the accident, but I
didn't know that at the time,” he said.

“Then he punched me and accused me of taking his key.”

Maung Thaw Aung was sent to a clinic for treatment after the incident.

“My face and head are swollen. Most of my injuries have not healed yet,”
he said.

“My teeth were broken. I can't eat rice, I can only drink rice gruel and
water."

When he got his key back, Aung Aung Oo shouted that he was from the army
and drove away.

A local resident said Aung Aung Oo had become known in the new town for
extorting money from local businesses.

"He has been demanding a monthly payment from motorcycle shops - 50,000
before and 80,000 now," the resident said.

Maung Thaw Aung said he reported the incident to police station no. 3 the
following morning, but his parents were paid 160,000 kyat to drop the
charges.

A local resident said Aung Aung Oo had been given preferential treatment
because of his military position.

"Had it been another person involved in that incident, that person would
now be detained in the police station and would have to pay about 300,000
kyat,” the resident said.

“He wouldn't be able to take his motorcycle home yet. If it is licensed,
he would have to pay another 150,000 to get it back, if not, he would have
to pay another 250,000-300,000 and he would also have to pay [the
victim’s] medical costs,” he said.

“But because he was from the military administration department, the
matter was sorted out with 160,000. He just behaved as roughly as he
liked."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 17, Narinjara
High officials visit western border

A 50-member team of high officials, including ministers and army
officials, visited Maungdaw Township on the western Burmese border on
Thursday to initiate projects after recent trade agreements were made
during General Maung Aye's recent trip to Bangladesh.
The visit came about just one week after General Maung Aye's official
visit to Bangladesh.

An official from customs said," They started their tour to Maungdaw on
Thursday to inspect some projects that will begin very soon. The official
team is now visiting several important places along the border."

The team is led by General Thein Zaw, minister of post, telegraph, and
communications for Burma's ruling junta. Many other ministers are on the
visiting team, such as the ministers of livestock breeding and fisheries,
construction and commerce, as well as the western command commander.

According to a local source, the team visited Kyin Chaung Village north of
Maungdaw, soon after their arrival. Kyin Chaung will be the point of
connection for the first phase of the friendship road from Cox's Bazar in
Bangladesh.
The ministers on the team reportedly inspected the path where the
friendship road may be constructed between Bangladesh and Burma. They also
reportedly inspected a large number of farmland that was confiscated from
local farmers for the project.

After the visit to Kyin Chaung, the team visited Aung Sit Byint Village
nearby, where a vocational training school for repatriated refugee women
was opened by the UNHCR.

An official from the township construction department said, "There is a
plan to build a harbor in Maungdaw Township to promote border trade, and
it will be constructed in Kan Yin Chaung Village."

The team is expected to visit Kan Yin Chaung Village today to inspect the
location for the harbor.

The officials will also visit the newly constructed town of Taungbro on
the border today, to inspect the site where the friendship road bridge
will be constructed over the upper Naff River.

A source from Maungdaw entrance gate said the ministers have a plan to
visit along the Naff River in speed boats, and the authorities in Maungdaw
have arranged four speed boats for the ministers' tour.

An official from the border trade association said that the Burmese
military government is keen to promote border trade with Bangladesh
because there are no international markets for exporting maritime products
from Arakan after US sanctions on Burma.

Bangladesh and Burma have signed many agreements in the last seven years
but have been unable to implement such agreements because of lack of
cooperation by the military government. However, Burma is now eager to
promote its trade with Bangladesh through the border because the country,
especially western Arakan, has been hit hard by an economic crisis and
lacks markets for its export products.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 17, Popular News Agency (Thailand)
Burma lifts ban on some goods trading in border areas

Myanmar has lifted ban on some goods trading in the country's border areas
with neighboring countries under a new policy of liberalizing the border
trade, the local weekly 7-Day reported Thursday, quoting the Ministry of
Commerce. Of the 32 items of export goods prohibited before, rubber,
sesame, sugarcane, rice, garlic, onion, chili, turmeric have been
re-granted for trading across border.

Of the banned import goods previously, apple, pear, grape, cherry, sweet
tamarind, palm have been permitted again for buying in, with sweet honey
orange being limited to import only during non-harvesting season.

According to official figures, agricultural produces were Myanmar's second
largest exports (1.14 billion U.S. dollars) after natural gas in the
fiscal year 2007-08. The others are gem products, forest products and
marine products.

Myanmar exported most to Asian countries and regions, having border trade
with such neighboring countries as Thailand, China, India and Bangladesh.

Myanmar's foreign trade in 2007-08 stood at 8.851 billion U.S. dollars, of
which the exports accounted for 6.043 billion dollars with agricultural
produces contributing 18.8 percent of the total, while the imports
represented 2.818 billion dollars registering a trade surplus of 3.225
billion dollars, statistics showed.

Of Myanmar's 11 leading exporting countries and region during the fiscal
year, Thailand topped the list with 2.673 billion U.S. dollars, followed
by India (719.45 million dollars), China's Hong Kong (649.43 million
dollars), China (509.19 million dollars), Singapore (401 million dollars)
and Japan (186.21 million dollars).

Myanmar's main export goods are natural gas, agricultural, marine,
forestry and gem products, while its key import goods are machinery, crude
oil, edible oil, pharmaceutical products, cement, fertilizer and consumers
goods.

Myanmar's principal crops are paddy, beans and pulses, oil crops, cotton,
sugarcane and culinary crops.

____________________________________

October 17, Associated Press
Jade and gem sale earns Myanmar $175 million

Myanmar has earned more than $175 million (130 million euros) from its
latest government-sponsored sale of gems, despite a U.S. ban on their
import, an official said Friday.

Most of the revenue from the 13-day auction that ended Thursday was earned
from the sales of jade, which fetched more than $172 million (128 million
euros).

Gemstones and pearls were the other items offered.

An organizer of the gems emporium, speaking on condition of anonymity
because he is not authorized to release information, said 2,648 gem
merchants participated from nearly a dozen countries, including China,
Thailand, Japan and Canada.

In July, President Bush signed legislation banning the import of gems from
Myanmar, which already was the voluntary policy of retailers like
Tiffany's and Bulgari.

It is one of several economic sanctions Washington has applied to
Myanmar's military government because of its poor human rights record and
failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

U.S. officials said at that time that Myanmar has been evading earlier
gem-targeting sanctions by laundering stones in other countries before
they are shipped to the United States.

Myanmar gem sellers say the sanctions have very little impact on their
business because they rely on Chinese and Thai gem merchants, who are the
major buyers.

The largest contingent at this latest sale was the more than 2,200 gem
merchants from China, which is the main market for Myanmar jade. The
second largest contingent of more than 70 gem merchants were Thais, who
usually dominate the gems and jewelry bidding.

Due to U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in July 2003, which
froze all U.S. dollar remittances to the country, international business
transactions including the gem sales are done in euros.

Organized by the Mines Ministry, the events are major revenue earners for
Myanmar — one of the biggest jade and gem producing countries in the
world. Myanmar has held gem emporiums since 1964, and organizers launched
a midyear sale in 1992.

____________________________________

October 17, Mizzima News
India, Burma agree to expand border trade – Mungpi

Burma and India on Thursday announced measures to enhance border trade,
including the opening of a new border trading depot and an increase in the
number of eligible trade goods to 40, from 22.

The agreement was achieved during the two-day 'India-Myanmar Joint Trade
Committee' meeting between a visiting Indian delegation led by Minister of
State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh and the Burmese delegation led
by Minister for Commerce Brig. Gen. Tin Naing Thein – with talks held on
October 14 and 15, in Burma's second largest city of Mandalay.

During the meeting, both countries agreed to convert the present border
trade at the Tamu-Moreh and Rhi-Zokhawthar border points into normal trade
and to expand the list of items that can be legally traded, according to a
statement released by Indian officials.

It was further decided to open a border trading post at Avakhung-Leshi,
between India's Nagaland and Burma's Sagaing Division.

On Thursday, Ramesh and Burmese Prime Minister Lt.-Gen. Thein Sein
inaugurated the India-Myanmar Centre for Enhancement of IT Skills
(IMCEITS) in Rangoon, Burma's former capital.

The IMCEITS is set up by India's Centre for Advancement of Computing with
Indian assistance of US 2 million dollars. The Centre will be connected to
ten regional centres and is expected to train nearly 1,000 IT
professionals per year, according to the statement.

Burma, during the meeting, also agreed to submit a letter of intent to
join the Duty Free Tariff Reference scheme, which India has offered to
least developed countries.

Ramesh's visit, which is the third in 2008, is a part of Indian ongoing
efforts to expand their bilateral relationship with Burma.

"Myanmar [Burma] has, in recent times, become an important trade partner
of India," read the statement from India's Ministry of Commerce and
Industry.

Student activists in India's Northeastern states, which share a border
with Burma, said India's push to open more trade points is a part of its
'Look East' policy, which they argue is non-beneficial for the people in
the region.

Muanpuia, Vice-Chairman of the Northeast Students Organisation, the
principle student body in the region, said India's Look East policy
overlooks the interests of the people in the region while aiming only to
maintain a foothold in Burma as a counterweight to the growing Chinese
influence.

"India should not deal with the Burmese military junta, as it is not
beneficial for the people of India," Muanpuia told Mizzima in an earlier
interview.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India's exports to
Burma for fiscal year 2007-08 amounted to about $185 million.

In 2006-07, bilateral trade between India and Burma stood at a total of US
650 million dollars, falling short of the targeted US 1 billion dollars
but up from a figure of US 558 million the previous year, itself a 25
percent jump from corresponding statistics for 2004-05.

____________________________________

October 17, Mizzima News
Tourist arrival in Burma drops by over 33,000 – Zarni

Tourist arrival from Mingalardon airport in the mid-year period has
recorded a sharp decline by more than 33,000 compared to the corresponding
period last year, according to an official report.

The report prepared by the Burmese Ministry of Tourism available with
Mizzima reveals that there has been a decrease of 33,192 tourists in the
last count of visitors coming to the cash-strapped country through the
main international gate way in Rangoon.

During the period April to August, 2008, the highest number of visitors
was 40,671 from Asia while West Europe accounted for 4,076. The third
place was occupied by North America at 8,053 whereas Africa had the lowest
figures at 209.

The report suggested that the number of tourists visiting Burma in 2007
fell after the monk-led uprising in September 2007. The figures decreased
by over 20,000 a fall of 5.9 per cent compared to 2006.

In 2006, over 2, 63,000 tourists visited Burma thorough the Mingalardon
airport.
The situation in the tourism industry is going from bad to worse as more
travel agencies
complain of reservations becoming rare for November from the European
market although the tourism season in Burma starts from mid-September.

"Some Asian tours are still operating but the numbers are few," said an
agent targeting Asian and European visitors.

A tour operator of a travel agency targeting the French market said 'We
only have a package tour in mid-October this year. Last year we were
booked for the whole month".

____________________________________

October 17, Irrawaddy
Tougher tests in US to keep out Burmese rubies – William Boot

The United States is intensifying its monitoring of imported rubies, using
high technology to ensure that the precious stone do not slip into the
country from Burma.

Burmese mined rubies are prohibited in the U.S. under a new law which
widens sanctions against the Burmese military regime.

The law gives new powers to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency
to require verification that imported rubies were not originally mined in
Burma.

In addition to strict documentation on origin, rubies coming into the
country will be subject to random laboratory analysis, using technology
which can help identity place of origin.

Until enactment of the Tom Lantos Block Burmese Jade Act, only about 1
percent of rubies imported into the U.S. were subject to laboratory
analysis. But the analysis firm American Gemological Laboratories said in
a statement this week that, “We expect the enforcement of this new law
will have a significant influence on the manner in which rubies are
documented for trading across our borders.”

The firm is one of three major laboratories engaged in gemstone analysis
in the U.S. and which use spectrographic technology to check stones.

The U.S. has in the past been a significant market for Burmese rubies. The
U.S. Geological Survey reported that Americans imported 3.68 million
carats of rubies from all foreign sources in 2006, the latest year for
records.

The Burmese government has increased the number of gemstones auctions per
year in a bid to raise profits.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Consumers reject Chinese milk products - Naw Noreen

Milk powder from China is being sold on street stalls in Rangoon at a
discount after shops were unable to sell it due to consumer fears of
contamination.

Sixteen brands of Chinese-produced milk powder were banned by the
government and withdrawn from sale by shops after they were found last
month to have been contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

Although the milk powder being sold is not one of the contaminated brands,
a local resident said consumers had lost confidence in Chinese milk
products in general.

"People are not buying powder from there, so they are selling them on the
streets at a discount," the resident said.

"Sales are not good and the importing power is too strong. Some merchants
are selling it at a discount and the people on the roadside stalls are
buying and reselling them,” he said.

They are piled up on roadside areas, not the usual places."

A market stallholder said that goods that previously cost 1500 kyat were
now selling in roadside stalls for 1300-1400 kyat.

“Only those who don't know buy them – those who know avoid them," he said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 17, Associated Foreign Press
Myanmar PM to visit China

Myanmar’s Prime Minister Thein Sein will visit China for two regional
economic summits, state media said on Friday, looking to extend ties with
its closest ally.

The junta-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Mr Thein Sein would
attend the meetings between China and its neighbours in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) later this month.

Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is under
sanctions by the United States and Europe because of its human rights
record and long-running detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as neighbours such as
China spend billions of dollars on Myanmar's vast natural resources
including natural gas, timber and precious stones.

China is particularly close to Myanmar, and has in the past vetoed United
Nations Security Council resolutions against its isolated neighbour.

____________________________________

October 17, Bangkok Post (Thailand)
Thai gamblers head to safer Burma casinos – Theerawat Khamthita

As Thai and Cambodian villagers living near the border conflict zone have
fled the area, Thai gamblers too have escaped to safer casinos _ in
Burma.In the aftermath of Wednesday's clash between Thai and Cambodian
soldiers in the border area of Si Sa Ket province, gamblers are switching
from casinos in Cambodia to those in Burma.

Bookings are reportedly up at luxury casino resorts like the Allure Resort
and Regina Hotel & Golf Club in Burma's Tachilek opposite Mae Sai
district.

There were few parking spaces available in Ban Sob Ruak village of tambon
Wiang in Chiang Saen district yesterday as Thais crossed the border to
another casino resort, the Golden Triangle Paradise Resort.

Pol Col Surachai Thienchai, Chiang Saen district police chief, believed
the arrival of gamblers in the North was a result of the border clash with
Cambodia.

Chiang Rai police have been instructed to keep a close watch on the influx
of gamblers, he added.

Col Chalongchai Chaiyakham, commander of the third unit of the Pha Muang
Task Force, which supervises the Thai-Burmese border, said the hostilities
on the frontier with Cambodia would not increase the amount of drugs
smuggled into Thailand through its northern border.

He ruled out the possibility that drug smugglers would shift their
trafficking routes from the eastern border to the North, saying
anti-narcotics operations would prevent this happening.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 16, Guardian (UK)
Burma's misery– Thaung Htun

Supporters of world food day can find in Burma a case study in the lethal
combination of climate change, poverty and politics

Today, the Food and Agriculture Organisation's World Food Day obliges the
world and its leaders to consider the issue of global hunger. A particular
theme this year is climate change and its impact on poverty and hunger.
While the role of climate change is significant, the matter of political
will casts a broader shadow across world hunger. This year's World Food
Day is, as a result, somewhat hollow.

Burma stands as a case study for the combined effects of poverty and
hunger, climate change and politics. In short, the stresses created by
these dynamics have created a collapsing system in which the majority of
Burmese are in danger of being crushed.

The actions of Burma's military regime represent a situation whereby
climate change and its impacts on hunger are actively utilised for
political gain. Currently, for instance, there are reports that the regime
is creaming off 10% of post-cyclone aid coming into Burma in the wake of
this May's disaster as "exchange transfer costs". It's a clear case of
profiting from the effects of climate change and hunger.

Under the military, rural communities have been decimated by being forced
to destroy vegetable and other staple croplands and to replace them with
the regime's designated exportable cash crops, such as tea and biofuels.

A life-threatening famine is emerging in Chin state, western Burma, for
instance, while the junta does nothing. Plagues of rats gorging on a rare
crop of bamboo flowers are razing community plots and destroying any
remaining semblance of food security. Again, politics stands in the way of
necessity.

As the government elected in Burma's last free and fair elections, the
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma is committed to
raising Burma's understanding and action on climate change issues, both
domestically and regionally, in direct contrast to the current regime.

We will seek to aim funding, such as that which we may be able to attract
from foreign donors and investors, to better manage Burma's exposure to
climate change and to alleviate hunger. We would look to develop rural
investment opportunities as a means of improving the sector's
sustainability profile and to help rural communities develop strategies
and technologies designed to better manage climate change.

We aim to develop trade relationships that incorporate sustainability
issues and would target 100% self-sufficiency in staple crops where
sustainable. We would investigate options for improving regional trade
exchanges and would discuss the implementation of early warning systems,
identifying and tracking climate change focal points and developing joint
disaster risk management strategies.

Our approach to climate change and hunger in Burma would essentially be to
focus on Burma's farmers – around 65% of the country's workforce – to help
them understand climate change and how they might better manage their
surroundings, while looking to energise the agricultural sector and
industrialise and modernise the economy in environmentally and socially
sustainable ways.

Such goals might be well attuned to the World Food Day programme. The FAO
have looked to encourage such agendas. We are making the connections
between hunger and climate change the world community is encouraging.

We might expect to be held up as a positive case for the World Food Day.
Yet, our policies remain trapped in the black hole of Burma's untenable
military regime and are themselves starved by the failure of international
political will.

Rather than emerging as a positive case study of a nation's approach to
hunger and climate change, Burma is something of a black mark. Today,
Burma stands as an example of how climate change and hunger, rather than
being being tackled by the international community, are actually being
substantiated by inherent political weaknesses and shortcomings of the
current methodologies.

The global community remains thwarted by the military junta's
stonewalling. As our country's rightfully elected government, we are
denied government even as our people starve and climate change, one of
hunger's creators, is ignored.

While the broad agendas of World Food Day are worthy of support, no one
can deny the political barriers which act as obstacles to activism around
climate change and hunger alleviation. Were World Food Day instead focused
on questions of political will and global political dysfunction, we might
begin to get to the crux of the issue. It's a point the case of Burma
proves only too well.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/16/burma-food-climate-change-world-food-day

____________________________________

October 17, Irrawaddy
A house divided - Kyaw Zwa Moe

Now the issue isn’t just about Burma’s oppressive military regime. Or, the
stand off between the junta and the opposition. It’s now about the
internal politics of the country’s most popular opposition party founded
by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The resignation of 109 youth members of the main opposition National
League for Democracy is one of the most significant events since the
formation of the party in 1988.

It throws into question the democratic workings of the party itself and
further weakens the image of the party’s aging leadership.

The resignation came after younger members’ publicly voiced complaints
that they aren’t allowed to participate in decision-making. The move
followed a statement by NLD chairman Aung Shwe naming six new youth
advisers and ten others to lead youth activities without accepting
nominations or suggestions from youth members.

It’s awkward and embarrassing to see the leading pro-democracy group
facing problems of democratic principles within its own membership.

“Our organization is a democratic one,” said Khin Htun, who has loyally
worked for the NLD youth wing during the past two decades but was among
those who resigned. “We must respect the basis of democracy. If we don’t
respect the rules of democracy, it will be very difficult to work out the
process of democratic reform in Burma.”

Khin Htun has spent years in jail as a result of his dedication to the NLD
since its formation in 1988. Like him, many of the 109 members who
resigned are former political prisoners.

NLD leaders should allow youth members to play a role in decision-making
and genuinely consider their views when deciding on policy issues.

“Youth is our future,” said Kin Htun. “I want to urge our leaders to
include the viewpoint of the youth members.”

In fact, the NLD has faced this issue since the early 2000s, especially
during times when Suu Kyi has been detained—she has been under house
arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

The current top NLD leaders generally regard themselves as caretakers of
the party rather than innovative visionaries crafting a philosophy and
strategy that will move the entire pro-democracy movement forward.

The current NLD leadership has been repeatedly challenged and questioned
regarding its capability to lead the pro-democracy movement. Segments of
the general public and groups within the core circle of activists and
politicians have been disappointed that the NLD seems to be floating along
aimlessly on automatic pilot and is in danger of becoming irrelevant.

Last year, Suu Kyi herself talked about party leadership. When she was
allowed to meet with her party’s senior members, she counseled them to
move forward without her. She said the party sometimes needs “to push and
pull.” Sometimes she would lead and sometimes she would follow others’
leadership in the party, she said.

In fact, this issue seems to be exacerbated by a generation gap. Party
chairman Aung Shwe and U Lwin are respectively in their early 90s and late
80s. Some activists don’t fully trust them because of their backgrounds as
former army commanders who held high-ranking positions under Ne Win’s
authoritarian government.

A popular exception is Tin Oo, the NLD’s vice-chairman who is currently
under house arrest. In his early 80s, he’s gained great respect from the
public even though he served as commander-in-chief under New Win’s
government.

The youth members who resigned represent a critical core of the
party—indeed it’s very future. A mass resignation is a significant signal
that shouldn’t be ignored or discounted.

This is a critical moment for the NLD leadership. It makes little sense to
criticize the authoritarian military regime when the opposition party’s
own house is in danger of collapse.

Unity within the NLD and unity within the entire pro-democracy movement is
critical to the country’s future.

It’s time for the country’s pro-democracy groups to unite under simple,
clear policy goals. The NLD can show the way by quickly repairing the
distrust and division within its own party.