BurmaNet News, October 30, 2008

[Editor]

October 30, 2008, Issue # 3588


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Defense lawyers sentenced to six month prison terms
DVB: Burmese regime plans major offensive against KNU
Kachin News Group: Junta restricts students' movement, accommodation in 
Monyein
VOA: US group says Burma detained opposition activists' lawyer
Narinjara News: Rats destroy paddy fields in Arakan
Irrawaddy: Than Shwe’s daughter goes shopping for gold

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Big brother serves warning to ceasefire armies
Calcutta News: ULFA eyeing China for shelter, says commander in
China-Myanmar border

BUSINESS / TRADE
Radio Australia: Gem traders to fight Burma ban
Business Wire: Chevron whitewashes its website of Burma

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Myanmar reiterates ban on cigarette, liquor advertisements

REGIONAL
DVB: Veteran politicians invited to Hong Kong seminar

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: 'Burma Day' not encouraging for BCUK

PRESS RELEASES
UNHCR: Concern about welfare of widows and orphans six months after Nargis


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 30, Mizzima News
Defense lawyers sentenced to six month prison terms – Huai Pi

Two defense lawyers who are representing National League for Democracy
(NLD) members were sentenced today by the Northern District Court to six
month prison terms for "interrupting judicial proceedings".

Defense lawyers Ko Nyi Nyi Htwe and Ko Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min, who represented
clients Ko Yan Naing Tun and two other Kemmendine Township NLD members
being held in Insein Prison, were themselves sentenced to prison terms
today. However Ko Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min failed to appear before the court.

Opposition sources said that they were given prison sentences for replying
to the court that their clients could behave as they wished during the
court's proceedings after the presiding judge had asked the defense
lawyers to tell their clients to sit down and stop talking back to the
court.

"Today Ko Nyi Nyi Htwe came alone. Ko Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min didn't come. The
Northern District Court judge sentenced them to six months imprisonment,"
lawyer Khin Maung Shein, who was present at the proceedings, told Mizzima.

The Northern District Court judge sent a summons to Ko Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min
on the 28th of October, saying that he had been charged under section 228
of the Penal Code and informing him to come and face trial on the 30th.

Similar pressure is being directed against other defense lawyers
representing clients in political cases.

Khin Maung Shein said he was also threatened by a judge to take care when
recently attending a political case at a Sanchaung Township court hearing;
otherwise he would be sentenced to a prison term.

"The Sanchaung Township court judge threatened me yesterday, saying I
could be sentenced to a prison term for interruption of judicial
proceedings and told me to take care in handling the case," he explained.

"These are just instances of framing wrongful charges in these political
cases," said Ko Tate Naing, General Secretary of the Thai-based
Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP) in Burma.

"They have seen defense lawyers representing clients in political cases as
enemies for a long time. They have held prejudices and hatred against
these lawyers for a long time too. They are trying to threaten other
would-be defense lawyers and to ward them off these cases," he added.

____________________________________

October 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese regime plans major offensive against KNU - Naw Say Phaw

The State Peace and Development Council is said to be planning an all-out
offensive against the Karen National Union, according to a source close to
the military.

The source said that a leaked confidential report from infantry
headquarters outlined the need to collect information on KNU positions,
resources and capabilities and to monitor the movements of the Thai army
along the border.

Heavy weapon stations in the area have been reinforced and provided with
extra shells, the source said.

KNU information officer major Saw Hla Ngwe said the offensive was part of
the regime’s usual strategy.

“It is not a one-year plan to completely wipe us out, this is their
strategic plan that they try to implement every year,” he said.

“This is nothing out of the ordinary; they have been doing it for a long
time.”

Major Saw Hla Ngwe said there had only been low-level clashes so far, but
added that the KNU is preparing for a larger scale attack.

“We are preparing for guerrilla warfare but we won’t know what will happen
until we start firing at each other,” he said.

“It is like this every year, so we are already prepared.”

Thailand-based military analyst Htay Aung said the SPDC was seeking to
weaken the KNU to prevent them from providing support to ceasefire groups.

“Many ethnic groups have signed as ceasefire, while other major armed
resistance groups like the KNU, the Karenni National Progressive Party and
the Shan State Army-South have not yet reached a settlement,” Htay Aung
said.

“The SPDC plans to disarm these ceasefire groups, so some of them are
planning to revolt against this disarmament,” he said.

“The SPDC thinks these ceasefire groups are being influenced by the KNU,
KNPP and SSA-South to take up arms again,” he explained.

“That’s why they will launch some offensives against these three major
groups before they disarm the other groups.”

Htay Aung said a new offensive could lead to human rights abuses and an
increased number of displaced people.

“If heavy fighting breaks out, the people will suffer,” the military
analyst said.

“Based on past evidence, whenever heavy fighting has broken out, the first
thing they do is to burn down villages and carry our extra-judicial
killings,” he said.

“When their offensives start, people have to flee or go into hiding, and
usually they flee onto Thai soil.”

____________________________________

October 30, Kachin News Group
Junta restricts students' movement, accommodation in Monyein

Local authorities under Burma's ruling junta have compromised over
students' accommodation for the Distant University Education under Monyein
University in Burma's northern Kachin State, student sources said.

During the month-long special classes at the Monyein University before
examinations, all students have been restricted to staying in guesthouses,
relative's houses and school boarding in the Monyein township, without
officially identifying themselves as guests to the junta's Administrative
Offices (Ya-Ya-Ka) under Monyein Township Administrative Office
(Ma-Ya-Ka), earlier this month, school sources said.

According to Monyein residents, people in Monyein have also been warned
against denying any relative student guests, whether they are near or far
from the township by the Township Administrative Office through quarters
and villages Administrative Offices.

Meanwhile, the junta's authorities of Monyein have warned the students,
who live in rented houses and boarders in the township without any
reliable document related to residential permit, that action would be
taken against them, added students' sources.

The restriction came soon after small problems started between some
drunken students and the local policemen earlier this month, locals said.

Shadang Naw Awng, a student leader of the Kachin Students Union (AKSU), an
underground student organization based in Kachin State said, "The junta
seems to have cut all relations between Monyein students and students from
outside the township. The junta is worried over the students and wants to
prevent any possible students' demonstration in the township by Monyein
University students."

AKSU had pasted a series of anti-junta posters in the main townships in
Kachin State beginning last year, before the Buddhist monk-led protests
against Burma's ruling junta in September.

Currently, over 2,000 students of Distant University Education in Monyein
district including Phakant and Mogaung townships are attending special
classes in Monyein University before their examinations, according to
local sources.

Meanwhile, the young travellers in Monyein Township from outside the
township are being checked day and night by township authorities of the
junta, a young traveller, who was checked by the authorities of Monyein
told KNG today.

The Monyein authorities under Burma's ruling junta do not allow visiting
and distant university education students from other parts of Burma into
Monyein, a resident of Myitkyina added.

____________________________________

October 30, Voice of America
US group says Burma detained opposition activists' lawyer

A U.S.-based human rights group says Burmese authorities have arrested a
lawyer who is defending members of Burma's opposition party.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma says police detained Nyi Nyi Htwe in Rangoon
Wednesday and are holding him in the Hlaing Thar Yar police station.

The group says Nyi Nyi Htwe and another lawyer Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min are
defending 11 youth members of the National League for Democracy who were
arrested in September for inciting public unrest.

Authorities detained the activists for peacefully marching to Rangoon's
Shwedagon Pagoda on June 19, 2007 - the birthday of detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma says the activists were not given a fair
trial. It says when the lawyers submitted complaints about the process,
the judge allowed the prosecutor to sue the lawyers and three defendants.

Burma is ruled by a military government that suppresses any opposition to
its rule.

Last year, a string of small, peaceful protests against the rising cost of
fuel turned into a rare massive anti-government movement calling for
democratic reforms.

The military crushed the demonstrations with force. 

____________________________________

October 30, Narinjara News
Rats destroy paddy fields in Arakan

Rats destroyed paddy fields in the mountains on the western Burmese border
as well as some fields in inner Arakan State recently, reported an
official from the agriculture department in Rathidaung.

He said, "We went to the area to investigate the incident after some
farmers informed our department that rats destroyed some paddy farms
there."

The farms that were affected are in Rathidaung Township, 20 miles north of
Arakan's State capital, Sittwe. The mountain range connects with mountains
along the border with Bangladesh.

"We saw nine acres of paddy farms in the plains area and 1.6 acres of
mountain paddy farms that were destroyed in the Kyauk Tan Village Tract
area north of Rathidaung. This is the first time in our township that rats
destroyed paddy farms after bamboo blossomed in the area," he said.

Last year, bamboo blossomed in forests on many of the mountains in Arakan
State, an event that is usually accompanied by an increase in rats.
However, no farms in Arakan were affected by rats last year.

The official said, "The rats entered Arakan looking for food after many
mountain paddy farms along the western Burmese border were picked clean by
the rats. We are closely watching what will be happening in the future."

A local farmer source said the officials from the agricultural department
sprayed insecticides in the paddy fields to prevent rats coming to the
area again to destroy the paddy fields.

Rats on the border area between Bangladesh and Burma are roaming in large
groups looking for food, and have destroyed many mountain paddy fields
along both sides of the border.

____________________________________

October 30, Irrawaddy
Than Shwe’s daughter goes shopping for gold – Min Lwin

A BBC radio report that a daughter of Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than
Shwe went shopping for gold worth more than US $80,000 is a hot topic of
discussion these days at teashop tables in Mandalay.

The London-based BBC’s Burmese service reported that an unnamed daughter
of Than Shwe visited the Aung Tharmarde gold shop on Mandalay’s 22nd
Street and bought gold worth 100 million kyat ($80,645).

“People were shocked to hear about the extravagance,” said a Mandalay gold
dealer. “I’d like to ask her where the money came from when most Burmese
people are poor and some are starving.”

The report reignited anger over the extravagance of the marriage in July
2006 of one of Than Shwe’s daughters, Thandar, who draped herself in the
precious metal when she married Maj Zaw Phyo Win. The bridal pair were
showered with expensive gifts estimated to have cost the equivalent of $50
million.

One Rangoon gold dealer suggested that Than Shwe’s family wanted to invest
in the precious metal at a time when the price of bullion had dropped.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 30, Shan Herald Agency for News
Big brother serves warning to ceasefire armies

Concerned with growing tensions between the Burmese military government
and the ethnic ceasefire groups along the Sino-Burma border, Chinese
officials have warned the latter not to force the hands of the former, say
sources close to the ceasefire groups.

Among those met by the Chinese authorities during the past two months
included National Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K), Myanmar National
Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) better known as Kokang, United Wa State
Army (UWSA) and National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State
(NDAA-ESS) better known as Mongla.

The 4 had formed the Union of Burma Peace and Democracy Front (PDF) on 30
November 1989.

The groups were reportedly told that Beijing had been doing its best to
prevent a military confrontation between the two sides and it was
imperative that the ceasefire groups did not start the fight.

The PDF members were said to have assured the Chinese that the alliance
would stand firmly by its founding mottos: We will not shoot first; We
will never destroy the country.

The Shan State Army (SSA) North that reportedly has a liaison office
inside China refused either to confirm or deny the report. The other major
group on the Sino-Burma border is Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).

The PDF’s political goals include: Perpetuation of the Union, Democracy,
Broadest alliance with other groups and Peaceful resolution of conflicts.

“Whether or not Naypyidaw had received the same message, the visit by Gen
Ye Myint, Director of the Military Affairs Security (MAS) last week to
Lashio where he met the groups’ representatives has resulted in some
relaxation,” said a local businessman. “He was said to have urged all
groups concerned to preserve the peace that was achieved between the two
sides since 1989.”

He quoted a ceasefire officer saying, “Nevertheless, we will maintain our
vigilance.”

Relations between Burma’s ruling military council and the ceasefire groups
that hold sway over border areas have never been easy. They have soured
further after the fall of their patron Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt in
2004.

____________________________________

October 30, Calcutta News
ULFA eyeing China for shelter, says commander in China-Myanmar border

The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is now looking to
China for shelter following mounting pressure from Myanmar and Bangladesh
with the outfit's top commander Paresh Baruah now believed to be somewhere
near the Myanmar-China border scouting for help to relocate its bases,
intelligence officials said.

Police and intelligence officials said there could be up to 50 ULFA
militants now holed up in China's Yunnan Province led by its 'Lt' Partha
Jyoti Gogoi.

'We also have a report that ULFA's commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah is now
in a temporary base of the outfit located somewhere along the
Myanmar-China border after he sneaked into the region from his permanent
base in Bangladesh,' a senior intelligence official said on customary
conditions of anonymity.

'ULFA is facing the heat from both Bangladesh and Myanmar in recent months
and that could be the reason for the outfit to think of alternative
bases,' the official said.

ULFA, a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland in Assam, has, of
late, been facing heavy reverses - more than 100 rebels have been killed
in anti-insurgency operations, while the outfit suffered a major setback
in June after two of its potent striking units, the Alpha and the Charlie
companies of the 28th battalion, declared a unilateral ceasefire with the
government.

'Reports of ULFA setting up bases in China's Yunnan Province cannot be
ruled out given the fact that the outfit's relation with most of the
neighbouring countries is good,' Prabal Neog, pro-talk leader and former
commander of ULFA's 28th battalion, told IANS.

The ULFA team in China, led by Gogoi, is apparently being patronised by
the Kachin National Organization (KNO), an ethnic armed group of Myanmar
now having some bases in the Yunnan Province. Most of the 50 member ULFA
rebels are from eastern Assam's Tinsukia district.

'We had bases in Bhutan and Bangladesh, we had been to Nepal before, and
then the Pakistani links are well known. In Myanmar we have our main camps
and bases and so having links with China is definitely not impossible,'
Neog said.

ULFA's China linkages are, however, not new, but such things were always
kept very secret. Paresh Baruah visited China in the 1980s, while ULFA
chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa put out an appeal to the Chinese leadership on
Dec 25, 2003 to provide safe passage to the rebels from Bhutan for
temporary shelter in China.

Rajkhowa in his fax communication to the Chinese leadership said: 'We have
come under massive attack of Indo-Bhutan joint forces and our combatants
have been forced to retreat up to the Sino-Bhutan border due to all out
air and artillery campaigns'.

Beijing, however, turned down ULFA's appeal.

'Logistically speaking it would have no impact on their military campaign
by setting up bases in China as the distance would be immense from the
Yunnan Province to Assam, probably about 40 to 50 days of trekking,' said
Sunil Nath, a well-known writer and former publicity chief of the ULFA.

Nath surrendered before the authorities in 1991.

It is not that China or sources in China have always maintained a distance
from Indian separatists. Indian insurgents had not only visited China in
the past for help, but had received assistance from sources within the
country.

Leader of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of
Nagaland (NSCN-IM) Thuingaleng Muivah is on record having said the Naga
rebels had earlier obtained arms from China.

'More than anything else, it would be a major boost to ULFA's sagging
morale if they manage to set up bases in China. They want to send a
message probably that they can extend their base to as far as China,' said
Wasbir Hussain, director of the Centre for Development and Peace Studies,
a Guwahati-based think-tank.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 30, Radio Australia
Gem traders to fight Burma ban

The world's gemstone traders have decided to fight back against a new US
law banning the sale of Burmese rubies and sapphires.

The new law, which came into effect this week, makes it illegal for
American gem dealers to buy Burmese products - even if the stones have
been cut, polished and re-traded from a third country.

Previously the law banned gems bought directly from Burma but not those
traded via other countries.

Dave Mathieson from Human Rights Watch told Radio Australia that closing
the legal loophole was a small but important step.

"In terms of monetary value it's probably not huge, but in terms of
symbolic value and the fact that these counter-measures are in place and
being tightened up, it is important because it sends a signal to the
Burmese military government and their business associates that abusive
production of gems and other precious metals won't be accepted into the
United States," he said.

But the International Coloured Gemstone Association, which represents 600
traders in 40 countries, describes the law as "well-meaning" but
"misguided".

"The huge concern I have and many other people in the industry [have] is
that this was targeted to help the people of Burma and in fact there was
little or no collateral damage study undertaken and they've actually
forgotten about the very people they were trying to help," said Andrew
Cody, the association's president.

The production of opium poppies in Burma has decreased over the last
decade, but some farmers are choosing to go back to the lucrative drug
trade.

However, Dave Mathieson from Human Rights Watch disagrees with the gem
traders' argument - that those at the bottom of the industry will be
hardest hit.

"That's really not the case, because a lot of the miners around Mogok and
other places inside Burma get paid appallingly anyway, so they never see
any of the top end profits of the trade," he said.

"And the small traders, the ones that actually do mine and bring some of
the stones out, those guys don't actually make that much money and these
measures don't affect their low level sales."

Since the 1960s, Burma has held annual gem sales and at the trade fair
earlier this month, more two thousand dealers spent an estimated $US175
million on Burmese gems.

Human rights groups say this money funds Burma's repressive military, but
Andrew Cody says only around 5 per cent of the profits from gemstones
filters back to the Burmese regime.

____________________________________

October 30, Business Wire
Chevron whitewashes its website of Burma

Chevron has quietly removed from its website any reference to its
operations in Burma, a country where the oil giant has been implicated in
allegations of rape and murder connected to a lucrative pipeline project
that generates up to $1 billion annually for the country's brutal military
regime, the Amazon Defense Coalition said today.

The company has replaced the majority of substantive information on its
website with a short page glossing over their role in the country.

Chevron removed the references to Burma while it has been embroiled in
high-stakes legal case charging it helped orchestrate the deaths of two
Nigerian villagers protesting Chevron's operational practices in the
African country. The trial on those charges began Tuesday in federal court
in San Francisco.

Earth Rights International, a legal organization based in Washington,
D.C., has leveled withering criticism at Chevron for jointly operating a
natural gas pipeline with the Burmese military. Just in the last year, the
Burmese army has violently suppressed protesting monks and diverted
international relief aid after a devastating hurricane, and the country's
government is considered an international pariah.

The pipeline generates an estimated $1 billion per year in hard currency
for the clique of generals who rule Burma. Chevron has defended the
project on the grounds it exercises a liberalizing influence on the
country's government.

Just two years ago, Chevron's Burmese operations were featured prominently
on the company's website. This week, one could not find a single reference
to Burma on the website where Chevron boasts of its worldwide operations
and lists the dozens of countries where it has investments.

In a recent report, lawyers for ERI concluded that Chevron faces liability
for being complicit in murder, rape, and slave labor committed by the
Burmese Army in providing "security" for the pipeline. ERI is most known
for having settled a legal case against Unocal over the same charges
before Chevron bought Unocal in 2005 and inherited the pipeline project.

As ERI noted in their report "The Human Cost of Energy: Chevron's
Continuing Role in Financing Oppression and Profiting From Human Rights
Abuse in Military-Ruled Burma (Myanmar)": "Chevron and its consortium
partners continue to rely on the Burmese army for pipeline security, and
those forces continue to conscript thousands of villagers for forced
labor, and to commit torture, rape, murder and other serious abuses in the
course of their operations. Due to its involvement in the Yadana Project,
Chevron remains vulnerable to liability in U.S. courts for the abuses
committed by these security forces."

The removal of any mention of Burma is the latest in a long series of
controversial moves by Charles S. James, Chevron's General Counsel, to
hide or divert attention from Chevron's growing human rights problems.

"James has shown a repeated willingness to tolerate unethical practices by
Chevron to hide its growing reputation as a global human rights violator,"
said Jeremy Low, who monitors the company's human rights record for the
Amazon Defense Coalition, which has sued Chevron for environmental damage
in Ecuador. "What we're seeing is hard information replaced by absolute
fluff or just blank space," he added.

Just last week, Chevron was accused by the environmental group Amazon
Watch of paying journalists to write favorable editorial content without
disclosing their financial relationship to the company. One of the
journalists, San Francisco writer Pat Murphy, has not denied he accepts
fees from Chevron to write one-sided articles in his online newspaper that
mysteriously get "Google bombed" to the top of search engines.

Undisclosed payments to journalists for favorable coverage are considered
highly unethical, yet James has not denied that the company engages in the
practice.
The Nigeria case, being tried before Judge Susan Illston, has created a
lengthy record of charges that Chevron paid Nigerian military officers to
shoot local villagers who had staged a peaceful protest on one of the
company's oil platforms. The trial, expected to last five weeks, began on
Tuesday.

In the Amazon region of Ecuador, where Chevron faces a potential $16.3
billion liability for dumping more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste,
local lawyers have long accused the company of paying uniformed Ecuadorian
army officers to provide "security" designed to intimidate members of
indigenous groups.

"I am sure James wishes Chevron could erase its human rights problems as
easily as it can erase mention of Burma from its website," said Low. "But
as the company is now finding out, that's not so easy."

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 30, Xinhua
Myanmar reiterates ban on cigarette, liquor advertisements

Myanmar has reiterated ban on advertisements of cigarette and liquor,
warning that such advertisement billboards erected in the Yangon municipal
area, will be removed if found, the local Myanmar Newsweek reported
Wednesday.

Quoting Yangon Mayor Brigadier-General Aung Thein Lin, the report said the
ban aims at preventing immature youths from being absorbed in smoking and
drinking, and from leading a wrong path of life.

Myanmar has prohibited smoking in university campuses in the country since
December 2006 in an effort to create tobacco-smoke-free environment for
the health of the university students.

The ban also applies to a wide range of public accessible areas such as
school, stadium and mart but not in some specific areas under a smoking
and tobacco product consumption control law promulgated in May 2006.

The law introduces some strict restrictions with regard to sale and
production of cigar and totally bans all forms of tobacco advertisement
including advertising through sponsoring sports matches.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar health authorities have stressed the need to expand
the country's anti-tobacco campaign to rural areas where smokers,
especially women, are high in number.

Noting that most women smokers are poor and uneducated, health officials
pointed out that smoking is more prevalent among women in rural areas than
in urban ones.

Myanmar has been committed to controlling tobacco consumption by ratifying
the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It became a
signatory to the convention in September 2003and was the 11th out of 192
countries to ratify the convention.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Veteran politicians invited to Hong Kong seminar - Htet Aung Kyaw

Veteran politicians Thakin Tin Mya, Thakin Hla Kone and U Shwe Ohn have
been invited to attend a seminar in Hong Kong to discuss the current
political situation in Burma.

The seminar has been organised by academics Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing and Dr
Robert Taylor, and the politicians said it was the first time veteran
political figures had been invited to take part in this kind of event.

Shan politician U Shwe Ohn said it was not yet clear whether the three
would be able to attend the seminar.

“We would like to go but it is difficult to say whether it will work out
or not,” U Shwe Ohn said.

“But if we are able to go over there we will give a true reflection of the
current situation.”

U Shwe Ohn has been a longstanding campaigner for a federal union and
rights for ethnic nationalities, and his books have been banned by the
Burmese regime.

Thakin Tin Mya has published books about the struggle against colonial
rule and has been able to publish some of his writings in Rangoon-based
journals.

Thakin Hla Kone has also had opinion pieces published in journals inside
Burma.

Another prominent politician, Thakin Chan Tun, said it was a surprise that
the three had been invited and noted that they were not members of the
veteran politicians’ group led by Thakin Thein Pe.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 30, Mizzima News
'Burma Day' not encouraging for BCUK – Zarni

Activists have accused a symposium on 'Burma Affairs' held in Belgium in
recognition of 'Burma Day' of substantially ignoring human rights
violations committed by the Burmese junta. Burma Campaign UK (BCUK)
criticized the meeting, held on the 29th of October in Brussels, for
almost singularly discussing issues on the current and future humanitarian
needs of Burma and neglecting the subject of human rights.

"They have just spoken on humanitarian issues. They did not significantly
speak of the human rights abuses of the regime, political issues or the
2010 election. The European Commission must not neglect the Burmese
pro-democracy movement when dealing with Burma," director of the group,
Mark Farmaner, told Mizzima.

The closed-door meeting, sponsored by the European Union Commission,
emphasized providing humanitarian assistance to Burma. European Union
Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner explained in a statement, "Burma/ Myanmar
should remain in the centre of our attention as a country that is in dire
need of democratic reforms, release of political prisoners and good
governance. In addition the people of Burma/Myanmar are still suffering
from the devastating consequences of cyclone Nargis".

The Director of Euro-Burma Office (EBO) in Brussels, Harn Yawnghwe, who
attended the meeting, said, "They mainly discussed humanitarian assistance
by the EU for Cyclone Nargis victims."

The meeting was attended by over 200 people, including UN officials, EU
representatives, human rights organizations and Burmese opposition
representatives.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASES

October 30, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Concern about welfare of widows and orphans six months after Nargis

The UN refugee agency has helped some 200,000 people with essential
plastic sheets and mosquito nets in the six months since Cyclone Nargis
hit the Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta, but remains concerned about the welfare
of many widows and orphans.

"UNHCR is a protection agency and our monitoring in the villages affected
by Cyclone Nargis has found a number of vulnerable people such as women
who lost their husbands and children who lost their parents to the
cyclone," said Marc Rapoport, Operations Manager of UNHCR's office in
Yangon.

"UNHCR's concern is that without adequate shelter, these vulnerable
survivors could be at risk of displacement, which could put them in danger
of exploitation, forced labor, prostitution and trafficking."

Rapoport said UNHCR needs to raise U.S.$1.2 million "to ensure a field
presence, to be able to carry on our work helping those vulnerable
people."

Although the aftermath of natural disasters – such as Cyclone Nargis,
which hit Myanmar on the night of 2-3 May, 2008 -- is not part of UNHCR's
mandate, the agency took a quick decision to be involved in the emergency
response, focusing on shelter, distribution of non-food items and
protection in the Delta.

UNHCR had the first land convoy to reach Myanmar last May (carrying
emergency supplies from its stockpiles in neighboring Thailand) and also
airlifted emergency supplies from Dubai to Yangon. The UN refugee agency
has helped some 200,000 people with nearly 88,000 essential plastic
sheets, more than 117,000 blankets, 113,000 mosquito nets, nearly 50,000
sets of pots and pans, nearly 100,000 jerry cans and almost 400,000 bars
of soap.

As of 24 Oct. 2008, UNHCR and its partners had provided shelter for 93.5
percent of families needing it in the Laputta area of the Delta and for
87.9 percent of the families needing it in the Bogale area of the Delta.

The agency still needs money to be able to build shelters for up to 15,000
vulnerable people in Bogale and Laputta.