BurmaNet News, November 7, 2008

[Editor]

November 7, 2008, Issue # 2594


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Saffron revolution monks given lengthy jail terms
Irrawaddy: Two more join Burma’s list of detained journalists
Reuters: Myanmar cyclone survivors stuck in makeshift homes
Narinjara News: Workers boycott Sittwe factory over restrictions
Khonumthung News: Authorities begin checking hotels in Chin State
AP: Senior North Korean diplomat visits Myanmar

ON THE BORDER
Xinhua: Bangladesh wants peaceful resolution of dispute with Myanmar over
maritime boundary: official

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Weekly business roundup

REGIONAL
SHAN: Shan group assists Shan migrants in Malaysia

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: No decision yet on Gambari visit: UN

OPINION / OTHER
UPI: Burmese dissident deserves release – Zin Linn
Irrawaddy: Pushing the boundaries of intervention – Michael Vatikiotis

PRESS RELEASE
UNA: Ethnic leaders welcome the UN Secretary-General’s report on Burma to
the General Assembly, and call on Ban Ki-moon to ask the Security Council
to act




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Saffron revolution monks given lengthy jail terms

Two monks arrested in connection with last year's Saffron Revolution have
been given lengthy jail terms by Rangoon Kyauktaga township court
yesterday morning, according to legal sources.

Sayadaw U Indaka, abbot of Maggin monastery was sentenced to 16 and half
years imprisonment while another monk U Eindriya who was staying at the
monastery while it was raided by government officials in November 2007 was
given 8 years, a lawyer told DVB on condition of anonymity.

The lawyer said the sentences were only for one of the many charges piled
against the monks, and he also expressed concern over the remaining
charges which could lead them into receiving more sentences in the future.

____________________________________

November 7, Irrawaddy
Two more join Burma’s list of detained journalists – Wai Moe

Burma’s military junta arrested two Rangoon-based journalists on
Wednesday, bringing the number of reporters put behind bars since the
beginning of the year to at least ten.

Sources told The Irrawaddy that Khin Maung Aye, editor of the weekly
journal News Watch, and Tun Tun Thein, a reporter for the same
publication, were arrested at their homes on the evening of November 5 and
taken to an interrogation center run by the Special Branch Police.

Journalists in Rangoon said that the pair were probably arrested for a
report on corruption in the country’s courts that appeared in the July
issue of the journal. A journalist close to News Watch said that the
publication had come under pressure from the authorities to reveal
anonymous sources cited in the article.

Other sources suggested that the two journalists may have been targeted
for having contact with exiled dissidents, or for publishing an article
that had not been approved by the censorship board.

Staff at the News Watch office in Rangoon confirmed that the arrests had
taken place, but provided no further details.

According to sources, before their arrests, the detained journalists had
already been found guilty of unspecified offenses by a court in Rangoon’s
Bahan Township and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. They are
currently being held in Insein Prison.

Since the beginning of 2008, there have been at least 11 media-related
arrests in Burma, including the detention of a poet, Saw Wai, who
published a poem in January that contained the hidden message, “Snr-Gen
Than Shwe is crazy with power.”

In February, Thant Zin, editor of the Myanmar Nation, and the weekly
publication’s manager, Sein Win Maung, were arrested at their office in
Thingangyun Township in Rangoon.

Another journalist, Zaw Thet Htwe, was arrested along with two of his
colleagues while doing relief work for victims of Cyclone Nargis. Reporter
Ei Khaing Oo, of the journal Eco-vision, was detained while reporting on
the aid effort.

In September, Saw Myint Than, a journalist with Flower News Journal, was
arrested under suspicion of sending information to The Irrawaddy, an
exiled publication that is banned in Burma. He was released on October 20.

Ohn Kyaing, a veteran journalist and a member of the main opposition
party, the National League for Democracy, was arrested in early October.

According to the Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders,
the Burmese authorities have recently issued a set of ten rules that local
journalists must follow or face jail terms for disobeying.

One of the rules requires the submission of all photos, drawings,
paintings, articles, novels or poems to the censorship board prior to
publication.

____________________________________

November 7, Reuters
Myanmar cyclone survivors stuck in makeshift homes

One month after Cyclone Nargis swept away his home and four children,
Myint Oo returned to a makeshift tarpaulin shelter in his obliterated
village in the Irrawaddy delta to try to rebuild his life.

Now, six months after the storm hit Myanmar, killing nearly 140,000
people, he is still there -- and still stuck in the same sweat-box hut
cobbled together with bamboo poles and bits of cyclone debris.

As with tens of thousands of others, there is little prospect of him being
able to build a proper house in the next year.

"We had no money to buy anything," Myint Oo told Reuters as he sat with
his wife in the corner of their bamboo hut, a tiny two-room shelter built
by aid agencies for returning villagers.

"If not for the donors, we won't even have a place to sleep."

Another man in the village, 140 km (100 miles) southwest of Yangon,
bemoans the bamboo matting on the floor of his hut, which has already worn
thin, and the stifling heat created by the tarpaulin roof.

"It leaks when it rains and it becomes unbearably hot when it doesn't,"
the villager, who did not wish to be named for fear of recrimination from
Myanmar's military rulers, added.

Normally, natural materials such as thatch from the palm trees and shrubs
that used to grow across the delta provided cheap, rainproof, and
relatively cool roofing.

But the May 2 cyclone destroyed all the trees as well as all the homes.

"The plants for thatch have only just started growing again so we will
have to wait until next summer before we can start using them," one
middle-aged woman in a village in Hlwa Zar, also deep in the delta, said.

"For now, we'll just have to live as is," she said, with a stoicism that
typifies the toughness of the 2.4 million people thought to have been left
destitute by the cyclone.

After one of the most violent storms ever to hit Asia, the task of
rebuilding is massive, with the Myanmar government estimating in July that
Nargis had completely destroyed 450,000 of 800,000 homes hit.

Aid agencies have gradually been given greater access to the delta -- the
Red Cross says it is planning to help with 10,000 new homes in January --
and the junta has made much in its official media of the "model villages"
that have been built for survivors.

Despite this, one in three families are still living in makeshift
accommodation, according to a report about to be released by U.N.-HABITAT
Myanmar, the United Nations housing agency.

"The majority of them expect to have no funds to upgrade their houses in
the next six months," U.N.-HABITAT acting director Bruno Dercon said.
(Reporting by Bangkok bureau; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Darren
Schuettler and Alex Richardson)

____________________________________

November 7, Narinjara News
Workers boycott Sittwe factory over restrictions

Demanding the removal of restrictions that had been imposed by factory
owners, about 200 workers in Sittwe boycotted a shrimp factory on October
27, a worker from the factory said.

"We boycotted the factory to demand removal of unnecessary restrictions
imposed on us by the owners as the restrictions are unacceptable to us
workers," he added.

The shrimp product factory, Yamin Thawda, is located in Do Wan Wra Ward in
Sittwe and has over 200 employees.

The owners of the factory began to cut 1,500 kyat per day from a worker's
pay if he or she was absent from work. They also cancelled the bus ferry
for the workers.

"A worker receives only 18,000 kyat as salary per month, but the owners
started cutting 1,500 kyat per day if the workers could not make it to
work, when they were sick. At the same time, the owners also cancelled the
ferry system for workers. So we boycotted the factory over these two
matters," he said.

The workers went to the factory on October 27 demanding the owners
withdraw the pay cuts for missed days and to arrange for a ferry again for
the workers.

"We went to the factory but we did not join work that day, and we demanded
the factory owners fulfill our basic rights. We boycotted the factory by
standing outside the compound," the worker said.

Afterwards, the workers refrained from working for three days.

According to a source, the factory owners eventually compromised with the
workers and agreed to fulfill their demands related to pay cuts, but did
not agree to the revival of the ferry system.

"We are now going to work after the factory owners promised to give us
full salaries without cuts, but the ferry system could not be revived as
the factory authorities cited high price of fuel," the worker said.

The Yamin Thawda factory is a joint-venture between a local businessman
and a Chinese businessman. Its products are exported to China and other
countries via Rangoon.

____________________________________

November 7, Khonumthung News
Authorities begin checking hotels in Chin State

Local authorities have started checking major Hotels in Chin state in
Myanmar recently, according to a report.

A source from Falam township said that a private hotel called 'Moon' in
Balai block, had been searched by local policemen at the unusual time of
midnight, recently.

"The local policemen came and checked the hotel at midnight and they asked
all the guests where they came from, what they were doing, and whether
they had identity cards," a local from Falam township said.

Last year hotels in Falam Township were checked once a week or once in two
weeks by the police. However, from October this year the hotels are being
checked every night.

Although they cannot figure out the exact reason for the checking of
hotels in Falam Township, the locals believe that the authorities want
money from the traders.

There are three hotels in Falam Township, two of which--- Taungzalat and
HlurHmung are owned by the government. The third one is a private hotel,
which in earlier years bore the brunt of the checking by the police. The
other two state-owned hotels had been exempted from such checking.

In the private hotel most of the guests are from rural areas as well as a
few government servants, who had come to stay in Falam for a while.

Checking of hotels is also being done by the local authorities in Hakha,
the capital of Chin state.

____________________________________

November 7, Associated Press
Senior North Korean diplomat visits Myanmar

A senior North Korean foreign ministry official is visiting Myanmar to
strengthen relations between the two countries' authoritarian regimes.

Myanmar officials, speaking anonymously because they are not authorized to
release information, say Vice Foreign Minister Kim Yong-il arrived
Thursday (6 Nov) on a five-day official visit.

Myanmar, which faces an arms embargo by the United States and European
Union countries, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

The two countries agreed in April 2007 to restore diplomatic ties and
Pyongyang subsequently sent an ambassador to Myanmar. Relations were
broken off in 1983 following a bombing in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon,
by North Korean secret agents targeting South Korea's then President Chun
Doo-hwan.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 7, Xinhua
Bangladesh wants peaceful resolution of dispute with Myanmar over maritime
boundary: official

Bangladesh wants a peaceful resolution of the current dispute with Myanmar
over its maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, but reiterats its firm
position in protecting its sovereign territory, an official said.

The tension between the two neighbors arose after Myanmar deployed warship
to help a South Korean company explore gas in the waters declared by
Bangladesh as its maritime zones.

Bangladeshi caretaker government foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
Thursday said according to information received from government sources of
the Republic of Korea, the Daewoo-Myanmar Company has already initiated
the process of withdrawal of the installation placed in areas claimed by
Bangladesh as its territorial waters.

"This is indeed good news, if true, and would mean that our initiatives
have paid off," Chowdhury was quoted as saying in a press statement of the
Bangladesh's foreign ministry released here on Thursday evening.

The statement said the Foreign Ministry also received a letter from Daewoo
Company stating that the dismantling process had begun which might take a
few days to complete.

Myanmar has discovered huge reserves of natural gas in the Bay of Bengal
and taken move to explore, saying that the resources are located in its
own territory.

Following Myanmar's move, Bangladesh has also deployed four warships to
the area and warned it would take "all possible measures" to protect its
sovereignty.

Myanmar and Bangladesh held a series of meetings in the past years to end
impasse over their common maritime boundary.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 7, Irrawaddy
Weekly business roundup – William Boot

Swiss Firm Hired by Regime to Help Hydroelectric Projects
A Swiss engineering company on a human rights campaign’s “dirty list” for
doing business in Burma has been commissioned again by the military regime
to provide consulting services for more hydroelectric dam projects.

Colenco Power Engineering AG was hired by the Ministry of Electric
Power-1, according to Burma's state media.

Colenco, based in the Swiss spa resort of Baden, has in the past provided
technical services for several regime-promoted hydro systems, including
the controversial huge planned at Tasang on the River Salween adjacent to
Thailand.

Switzerland is not a member of the European Union and is thus not
committed to support EU economic sanctions against the Burmese regime. But
Colenco is on the “name-and-shame” list of 154 foreign firms operating in
Burma compiled by the London-based human rights group Burma Campaign-UK.

The group separately identifies Colenco as being involved with the Yeywa
Dam which it alleges has “caused forced displacements of local
populations.”

On its Web site, Colenco lists eight countries where it operates,
including Thailand, but makes no mention of Burma.

Human rights campaigners say this is a growing tactic of foreign firms
doing business with a Burma military junta that is increasingly sanctioned
by some Western governments in a bid to trigger regime change.

The US oil giant Chevron, which continues to do business in Burma despite
pressure from the US Congress to withdraw, has recently dropped all
references to its Burma operations, human rights groups say.


China is Now Burma’s Second-largest Trading Partner

China has climbed into second place among Burma’s chief trading partners,
according to official figures just published.

Trade between the two countries grew by 60 percent in the 2007-8 financial
year that ended in March, said the Ministry of Commerce, quoted by the
official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Previously, China ranked behind both Thailand and Singapore.
Now, only Thailand has more trade with Burma than China—mainly as a result
of large gas purchases.

The value of Burma-China trade in the last full financial year was US $2.4
billion, compared with $1.5 billion in the previous year.

The latest figure represents almost 25 percent of Burma’s total annual
foreign trade, said the ministry.

But there is a huge imbalance in the two-day trade, which is mostly in the
form of imports from China of machinery, electric goods, processed food,
and other consumer items.

Burma’s exports to China are mainly natural resources such as timber,
gems, fish and farm produce.

However, the trade imbalance—which currently stands at $500 million—is
expected to lessen in coming years when China begins importing large
quantities of gas via pipeline from the Shwe offshore field in the Bay of
Bengal.
Burma’s natural gas sales already account for more than 40 percent of
total exports.


Lloyd’s Under Increasing Pressure to Halt Burma Business

Tens of thousands of emails and telephone calls have been bombarding key
staff at Lloyd’s of London in the latest bid to get the international
insurer to halt its business with the Burma military regime.

The messages and calls follow an attempt by the British government to also
persuade Lloyd’s to give up its Burma business in line with Western
economic sanctions against the regime.

The bombardment is being orchestrated by two international human rights
groups, Burma Campaign-UK and the Avaaz group.

Avaaz was established in 2007 and has supporters not only on Britain, but
also mainland Europe, the US, Australia and South America.

Lloyd’s remains tightlipped about its Burma business but its member
syndicates are believed to provide the vital insurance that keeps
important junta businesses afloat.

Burma Campaign-UK’s Johnny Chatterton said the current campaign hoped to
also persuade ordinary employees of Lloyd’s to question their bosses over
the Burma links.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 7, Shan Herald Agency for News
Shan group assists Shan migrants in Malaysia – Hseng Khio Fah

Myriad difficulties, notwithstanding, the Shan Refugee Organization (SRO)
based in Malaysia is struggling to assist Shan refugees suffering the
consequences of a lack of status in Malaysia, according to the leader of
the group, Sai Lao Hseng.

"We are not supported by any organization and we don't have camps as in
Thailand, but we try our best to help our people with some private
donations," said Sai Lao Hseng.

The group helps refugees obtain healthcare, find protection in times of
crisis, and networks with the local police, government, and NGOs to
increase awareness of services available to the community, according to
its statement.

"But we can't ensure their security totally, if they are not officially
confirmed as refugees," he added.

There are currently around 2,000 Shan refugees in Malaysia including Wa,
Lahu, Pa-O and Palaung who are from Shan State, according to the source.

All refugees from Shan State receive assistance, said Sai Lao Hseng.
"Among them, there are even 12 per cent ethnic Chinese people."

"We also collaborate and communicate with other ethnic communities in
order to find solutions of various problems encountered by all refugees in
Malaysia," he said.

On October 13, there were eight Shan migrant workers from Thailand who
arrived in Malaysia. Again on October 31, there were another 11 people
including two children who arrived.

"Some people have got jobs while some are still jobless," said Sai Lao Hseng.

As the consequences of the global financial crisis continue, the
livelihood of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand has also been affected
badly, with a growing shortage of employment expected next year, according
to a Mizzima report on November 2.

SRO was established in 2006. It has been issuing SRO cards since 2007.
Currently, there are approximately 2,023 SRO members. SRO advocates not
only for protection but also for the registration of Shan refugees with
the UNHCR and assist individuals with the registration process, according
to its statement.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 7, Irrawaddy
No decision yet on Gambari visit: UN – Lalit K Jha

No decision has been taken yet on the Burmese military junta’s invitation
to Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy on Burma, to visit the country, a
UN spokeswoman said on Thursday.

UN Secretary-General spokesperson Michèle Montas told reporters at the UN
headquarters in New York that an invitation from the Burmese junta was
received a few weeks ago.

"Gambari has not yet made a decision on whether he is going," Montas said
in response to a question.

She said the decision would be taken by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
in consultation with Gambari. "They decide together," she said.

It is understood that the delay in taking a decision is mainly because the
UN envoy wants to ensure his next visit to Burma does not end in
humiliation as happened in August.

Before accepting the invitation and announcing the exact date of his trip,
the UN wants assurance from the Burmese regime on certain issues, which if
taken, would be considered a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, two prominent pro-democracy groups in Burma, the All Burma
Monks’ Alliance and the 88 Generation Students, issued a joint statement
calling on the UN Security Council to reinforce Ban’s mandate for
realizing democratic change in Burma.

"We fully agree with the conclusion made by the Secretary-General
[submitted to the General Assembly on October 20, 2008] that 'there is no
alternative to dialogue to ensure that all stakeholders can contribute to
the future of their country,'" the groups said.

However, the statement added: “Without strong enforcement from the
Security Council, the military junta that rules our country of Burma will
continue to undermine the Secretary-General’s good offices mandate and the
United Nations, and more and more people of Burma will die unnecessarily."

The statement was backed by the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), a
coalition of 12 ethnic political parties that won 67 seats in the 1990
election. In a statement released on Friday, the UNA said it “strongly
welcomes and supports the report of the UN Secretary-General on Burma 
 on
Oct 20, 2008.”

The UNA called on the UN Security Council to “take effective action
against the Burmese regime if it fails to release all political prisoners,
including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and start a meaningful and time-bound
dialogue by the end of December 2008.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 7, United Press International
Burmese dissident deserves release – Zin Linn

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be a prisoner of
conscience for a few days in the Burmese military junta's infamous Insein
prison? The military authorities confine you in an undersized cell, 8.5 by
11.5 feet, with only a bamboo mat on the concrete floor. Sleeping, eating,
walking and going to the bathroom are all done in the same place.

You cannot see the sun, the moon or the stars. You are intentionally
barred from breathing fresh air, eating nutritious food and drinking pure
water. Books, periodicals, radio and television are out of the question.
If you get sick, no medical worker will check on you until you have lost
consciousness.

Under such harsh conditions, Zaw Myint Maung, an experienced physician who
never committed even a small crime, has been languishing in prison for
nearly two decades. As a one-time cell mate of his, each moment I think
about his situation in the junta's atrocious dungeon, I feel uneasy.

It was 1994, in the cell compound of the infamous Insein Prison. I was in
cell No. 10 of cell block No. 3 with Zaw Myint Maung, a healthy and
handsome man of short stature with tan skin. He was very kind and helpful
not only to inmates, but also to wardens and prison officers, who
consulted him in health matters. Because of his calm, warm manner as an
experienced medical doctor, the prison staff paid him respect behind the
military intelligence officers’ backs.

Hence, he managed to form a medical assistance committee in prison,
smuggling medicines and disposable syringes into prison cells. He treated
his fellow inmates’ various sicknesses and even did minor surgeries with
the help of the wardens who respected him. Many wardens regarded the
doctor as their health consultant in those days.

A graduate from the Mandalay Institute of Medicine in 1979, he became head
physician of Ywar-thit-kyi District Hospital in Sgaing Division in 1982.
He worked in the biochemistry department of the Mandalay Institute of
Medicine for eight years. During the 1988 People's Uprising, he was
elected secretary of the Mandalay Doctors' Association.

Then he became a member of the National League for Democracy and was later
elected as a member of Parliament from Mandalay’s Amarapura township in
1990. After the junta refused to honor the election results, he and some
members of Parliament held secret meetings to find a political way out. As
a result, Zaw Myint Maung was arrested on Nov. 22 and put on trial for
allegedly participating in meetings to form a parallel government. He was
charged with treason against the nation and sentenced to 25 years in
prison at a military tribunal with no legal representation.

He has been languishing in the junta's hellish prison for 18 years, or
one-third of his life. While in Insein Prison, he underwent many
interrogations by intelligence officials about his views on the military
regime and political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. The authorities tried to
persuade him to collaborate with them, but they could not win over his
strong political aspiration of building a democratic Burma. As a staunch
supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi, he is on the top of the junta's blacklist.

I remember one noteworthy vision of the doctor. He said, “Democracy is on
the march around the world, including Burma. But we need commitment to
work selflessly with grassroots people until the day that a free Burma
emerges. The struggle for freedom may need more time. But it will not be
beyond measure. It’s a war between the just and unjust. The just will
prevail at last."

In 1995, fellow political prisoners from various organizations actively
worked to collect valid facts and figures on human rights abuses
experienced in prison, for a report to be sent to the United Nations on
the situation of human rights in Burma. Zaw Myint Maung was one of the
coordinators of this effort.

On July 15, 1995, the report, "Human Rights Abuses in the Junta's
Prisons," together with a petition of over 100 political prisoners, was
successfully smuggled out. Within weeks, the report was sent to Yozo
Yokota, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Burma.

The release of both the report and the petition hurt the junta’s image and
made the generals extremely angry. Consequently, the prison cell compound
was searched, and many inmates were thrown into dark cells and
interrogated while being deprived of food and sleep.

Zaw Myint Maung was one of 24 political prisoners who were given further
prison sentences on March 28, 1996, in connection with their circulation
of news journals within the prison and their efforts to report human
rights violations to the United Nations. The doctor was alleged to have
written politically agitating poems and to have signed a petition for the
release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

During the investigation, he and seven others, including U Win Tin, a
famous journalist and senior member of the NLD, were held in cells
designed for military dogs, made to sleep on concrete floors without
bedding during winter and left without food and water.

Maung was held in a dog cell between Nov. 1995 and May 1996. The group of
24 had no attorneys to defend them against the charges they faced. They
were charged with threatening prison security and forming anti-junta
organizations in prison. The doctor was then sentenced to an additional 12
years’ imprisonment under both charges.

On April 3, 1997, he was transferred to the Myit-kyi-na prison in the
state of Kachin, which is in the north of Burma and has extreme weather.
Harsh prison conditions are still commonplace in Burmese prisons, and many
prisoners suffer from serious mental disorders resulting from long periods
of solitary confinement.

Prisoners cannot get essential medical treatment even in Insein Prison,
which is the model prison in Burma. Even worse is the fact that when
political prisoners face a fatal illness, they will not be hospitalized
unless they abandon their dissident beliefs. Hundreds of deaths are due to
the authorities' unnecessarily negligence in medical treatment. Currently,
there are more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma, including 18
members of Parliament, 178 female prisoners and 213 Buddhist monks.

The valiant, imprisoned physician has constantly refused to sign a
confession promising to abandon his political beliefs as a condition for
his release. Zaw Myint Maung is the father of two sons and one daughter.
He has not been able to show fatherly love to his children for nearly two
decades. He himself has been suffering from hemorrhoids and stomach pain.
With his 57th birthday approaching on Dec. 11, the doctor deserves freedom
as a birthday present for his contributions to society.

Burma has been called "the world's largest open prison for prisoners of
conscience." There are over 2,100 political prisoners still languishing in
Burmese prisons, among whom Zaw Myint Maung may be Burma's longest-serving
prisoner of conscience.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "No one shall
be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment." But Zaw Myint Maung has been suffering from torture and three
unjust prison sentences for almost 37 years.

It would be great if international NGOs launched a concerted effort to
free political prisoners in Burma, since this situation not only involves
regional politics, but is also connected with global humanitarianism. For
that reason, the United Nations, ASEAN, the European Union and China
should consider pressuring the State Peace and Development Council to free
all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.

____________________________________

November 7, Irrawaddy
Pushing the boundaries of intervention – Michael Vatikiotis

It is ironic that just as the much-heralded Asean Charter received its
final approval through ratification by Indonesia, two Asean member states
faced off across a disputed patch of land and started shooting at each
other.

It was an inauspicious start for what the charter's preamble refers to as
"a region of lasting peace, security and stability". The Thai-Cambodian
border isn't the only faultline that threatens peace in Southeast Asia.

In recent weeks, Malaysia has rattled Indonesian nerves with the
threatened exploitation of disputed waters off the island of Borneo. The
reaction in Jakarta? Instead of requesting the good offices of the Asean
secretary-general to mediate, as envisaged in Article 23 of the charter,
security agencies hurriedly planned a military exercise to practise
confrontation with the Malaysian navy.

Why worry? Southeast Asian nations have lived in relative peace and
harmony for the past half-century, but have been reluctant up till now to
formalise the mechanism by which peace is maintained.

Asean member states have displayed an allergy to formal security
cooperation that draws on memories of colonial rule. They have preferred
instead to use informal channels and personal connections to resolve
disputes.

This was a fine arrangement when Southeast Asia was a more clubbable
place, its leaders more or less on the same authoritarian political plane,
sharing the same demons (communist insurgency and uppity peasantry).

But today, Southeast Asia has become a patchwork of rather different
political landscapes.

In Indonesia, a vibrant democracy has injected nationalist stridency to
the country's diplomacy; in Thailand, bitter domestic political conflict
is doing the same as one side seeks to undermine the other by questioning
its nationalist credentials. In the Philippines as elections approach,
congress holds the threat of impeachment over the president's head and
makes it hard for the country's chief executive to follow a consistent
foreign policy agenda.

Pluralism, therefore, is making it hard for Asean officials to knit
together the much-vaunted regional consensus that has always been
proffered as an excuse for the lack of formal diplomatic structures and
processes.

Now more than ever, Asean needs to build a framework for dispute
resolution that will allow the collective security of the region to trump
domestic politics and nationalist breast-beating. The Asean Charter lays a
good foundation for doing so and has now been ratified by all member
states.

But despite the charter's ratification, there are few signs this is
happening. When Thai and Cambodian troops started trading fire, Asean
officials were at a loss to know how to intervene.

Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan asked regional leaders such as
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to appeal for restraint,
which he did. Foreign ministers from Indonesia and Malaysia fell over
themselves to offer mediation, but no invitation came from either of the
parties. The Asean chairman, Thailand, is a party to the dispute.

Eventually, calm was restored when it emerged that the Thai and Cambodian
leaders would meet on the fringes of an Asia-Europe meeting in Beijing,
which they did. That's hardly an endorsement of Asean's ability to resolve
disputes.

At the heart of the problem is the reluctance of Asean member states to
yield an inch of sovereignty in the interests of collective security. The
past few months have seen a number of attempts to gently push the
boundaries of acceptable intervention, but it has not been easy.

Witness how brashly Indonesia has volunteered its mediating services to
Thailand in resolving the conflict in southern Thailand, or how easily
domestic politics derailed a Malaysia-brokered deal between Manila and the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao.

Often, when regional mediation does get under way, jealous or competitive
neighbors seek to sabotage or hamper these efforts. Not only has Bangkok
been reluctant to embrace Jakarta's good offices as a mediator in the
southern Thailand conflict, Malaysia appears to be unhappy to see Jakarta
involved in a dispute along its border with Thailand.

Aspiring regional mediators also need to be mindful of allowing domestic
politics and personal ambition to spoil the delicate task of peacemaking.
Ever since the high-profile resolution of the long-running conflict in
Aceh on the back of the devastating December 2004 tsunami, many in the
region see the so-called "Aceh model" as a path to peacemaking glory
easily replicated elsewhere, which is not necessarily the case.

Without a more formal mechanism to channel and regulate conflict
management, with the implicit role of third-party intervention, Asean's
efforts to forge a region of peace and lasting security will fall on stony
ground.

For while the primary purpose of the charter as set out in Article 1 is
"to maintain and enhance peace, security and stability and further
strengthen peace-oriented values in the region", there is something of a
built-in contradiction between bedrock principles in the charter, which on
the one hand, stress respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and
on the other, a "shared commitment and collective responsibility" for
peace and security.

How can Asean ensure the peaceful resolution of disputes when the charter
insists on non-interference in the internal affairs of member states?

This contradiction needs resolving, for when neighbours can't settle
quarrels among themselves, outsiders will be called on to do so. The irony
of not allowing more space for regional mediation is that it leaves the
door open for larger powers, like China in the case of the current
Thai-Cambodian dispute, to act as the mediator.

Michael Vatikiotis is Asia regional director for the Geneva-based Centre
for Humanitarian Dialogue. This article was first published in the New
Straits Times recently.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

November 7, United Nationalities Alliance
Ethnic leaders welcome the UN Secretary-General’s report on Burma to the
General Assembly, and call on Ban Ki-moon to ask the Security Council to
act

(1) The United Nationalities Alliance (UNA), a coalition of 12 ethnic
political parties that together won 67 seats in the 1990 election,
strongly welcomes and supports the report of the UN Secretary-General on
Burma, submitted to the UN General Assembly on Oct 20, 2008.

(2) In his report, Secretary-General indicated his clear understanding of
the position of “key stakeholders in Burma, including the National League
for Democracy party, a group of 92 persons elected as Members of
Parliament in the 1990 elections, and the United Nationalities Alliance,
as well as other relevant groups, such as the 88 Generation Students’
group, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance and the All Burma Federation of
Student Unions,” who all “formally announced their rejection of the new
constitution and the process by which it was adopted and reasserted
long-standing demands for the release of political prisoners and an
all-inclusive national dialogue”.[1]

(3) The Secretary-General also admitted that “specific suggestions of the
United Nations to improve the credibility and inclusiveness of the
political process have thus far not been taken up by the Government.”[2]
The Secretary-General insisted that “it remains the primary responsibility
of the Government of Myanmar to genuinely demonstrate its stated
commitment to cooperating with the United Nations by working
constructively through tangible results with the good offices process”.[3]

(4) We wholeheartedly support the assertion made by the Secretary-General
in his report that “there is no alternative to dialogue to ensure that all
stakeholders can contribute to the future of their country. In this regard
the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners will be
the key for the resumption of an enhanced, all-inclusive, substantive and
time-bound dialogue”.[4]

(5) We request the Secretary-General to call on the UN Security Council to
take effective action against the Burmese regime if it fails to release
all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and start a
meaningful and time-bound dialogue by the end of December 2008.