BurmaNet News, January 15, 2009

[Editor]

January 15, 2009, Issue #3632


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Six opposition party members freed
DVB: Daw Suu’s lawyer frustrated by appeal delays
Irrawaddy: Non-military pilots to be trained in Rangoon

ON THE BORDER
BBC News: Thais 'leave boat people to die'
Kaladan Press: Burma deploys army on Bangladesh border
Irrawaddy: Burmese schoolteacher and family repatriated

BUSINESS / TRADE
Reuters: Thai PTTEP to write off $27 mln for Myanmar M3 block
DVB: Farmers encouraged to join USDA to get loans
Reuters: Vietnam army phone firm seeks Myanmar, N.Korea work

REGIONAL
AFP: US probes Malaysian officials' link to human trafficking
RFA: Burmese labor activist describes kidnapping
Mizzima News: Indonesia may deport Burmese and Bangladeshi boatpeople

INTERNATIONAL
Variety (US): HBO picks up 'Burma VJ'

OPINION / OTHER
The Economist: Unequal struggle

PRESS RELEASE
CSW: CSW condemns crackdown on churches in Rangoon

INTERVIEW
Questions for the record, submitted by Senator Richard Lugar on the
nomination of Susan E. Rice for United States Permanent Representative to
the United Nations


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 15, Mizzima News
Six opposition party members freed – Phanida

Burma's military junta on Wednesday released six members of the opposition
party, who had been arrested and detained for two weeks, for staging
protests calling for the release of detained Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, a party official said.

Dr. Win Naing, spokesperson for the National League for Democracy said,
six out of nine members, who were arrested for demonstrating for the
release of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were released after they were
made to sign pledges that they would not protest again.

"They were detained in Insein prison and were released after signing
pledges that they would not protest. Their parents were also made to sign
the pledges at the local township office," Dr. Win Naing said.

However, he added that three others – Htet Htet Oo Way (female), Tun Tun
Win and Win Myint Maung – were still detained at the notorious Insein
prison of Rangoon.

The youth, on December 30, after attending a political discussion at the
party headquarters in west Shwe Gondine, marched through the streets
demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 13 of
the past 19 years.

Police arrested the activists, as they arrived at the old parliament
building (now defunct), and took them away to the 'Pan Wa' interrogation
centre and later detained them at Insein prison.

"I think the rest might not be released soon, because the authorities
would want to threaten them as well as others from conducting any more
protests," Dr. Win Naing added.

Those released on Wednesday were MIn Thein from Thakethah Township, Thet
Maung Tun, Pyih Pyih, Aung Phyoe Wai, Tun Tun Lin, and Kaung Htet from
Sanchuang Township.

____________________________________

January 15, Democratic Voice of Burma
Daw Suu’s lawyer frustrated by appeal delays – Htet Aung Kyaw

Kyi Win, lawyer for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has
expressed his frustration with the authorities' slow response to her
appeal against her house arrest.

Kyi Win’s recent requests to meet his clients have also been rejected by
the authorities.

"There has been no update yet apart from some government officials tell us
it was being processed,” Kyi Win said.

“The order to extend Daw Suu's house arrest, which we are appealing
against, will expire on 29 May. So we are worried that we might run out of
time."

Kyi Win said he was planning to write another official letter to
authorities complaining about the delays in the process.

He submitted a similar complaint letter at the end of December 2008 but
has not yet received any response.

____________________________________

January 15, Irrawaddy
Non-military pilots to be trained in Rangoon – Min Lwin

Military-ruled Burma is set to open a pilot ground training school at
Hmawbi Air Force Base in Rangoon Division that—for the first time—will
allow non-military applicants to obtain commercial pilots’ licenses,
according to sources at the base.

The pilot ground training school is due to be opened at the end of January
to young men and women between 20 and 30 years of age. The 30-week course
will cost 1.5 million kyat (US $1,300).

The January 5 issue of Rangoon-based weekly journal The Voice quoted a
senior official from the Department of Civil Aviation as saying that the
course will help develop civilian pilots and will be taught at the
Department of Civil Aviation in accordance with the regulations of the
International Civil Aviation Organization.

Burma has two air force training schools—the Meiktila Flying Training Base
and the Ground Training Air Force Base in Meiktila, Mandalay
Division—exclusively for air force personnel.

The two training schools were also home to the Burmese air forces’
specialist training facilities, including administration, electronics
training and flight training.

According to sources, Burma’s first two female pilots are currently being
trained to fly in Malaysia.

Air Bagan, a domestic private airline owned by Tay Za, a crony of Burma’s
junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, reportedly sponsored the two female pilots,
who are staff members of Air Bagan.

Only state-owned Myanmar Airways, and three private airlines—Air Mandalay,
Yangon Airways and Air Bagan—operate domestic routes in the country.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 15, BBC News
Thais 'leave boat people to die' – Subir Bhaumik

Thai soldiers are detaining illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Burma and
forcing them back out to sea in boats without engines, survivors say.

Survivors say their hands were tied and they were towed out to sea with
little or no food or water.

About 500 migrants are now recovering from acute dehydration in India's
Andaman islands and the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Thai officials were not immediately available for comment.

But sources in the police and army confirmed to the BBC's Jonathan Head in
Bangkok that asylum seekers are being pushed out to sea. They did not
provide further details about the practice.

Thousands of poor Burmese and Bangladeshis try to reach south-east Asian
nations in search of work.

'Without food'

Survivors rescued by Indian coast guards say hundreds of other
asylum-seekers are still missing after leaving Bangladesh and Burma since
the end of November.

They told the BBC that they paid agents to take them to Thailand by boat
so that they could have a better life.

They said that the Thai authorities detained many of them in Koh Sai Daeng
island.

"Thai soldiers tied up our hands and then put us in boats without engines.
These were towed into the high sea by motorised boats and left to drift,"
said Zaw Win, a survivor rescued by Indian coast guards off the coast of
Little Andamans after drifting for 12 days.

"We were without food and water. The Thai soldiers clearly wanted us to
die on the boats," Win told the BBC by telephone from a camp where
survivors are being cared for.

Other survivors said that about 400 migrants were put on a huge boat by
soldiers. It was equipped with only two bags of rice and two drums of
drinking water.

"The food and water ran out in two days. After that we were starving for
nearly 15 days before we saw a lighthouse and jumped into the sea and
tried swimming ashore," Mohammed Said told the BBC.

This group of migrants was also rescued by the Indian coast guards and put
into relief camps.

"They have all suffered huge dehydration. We are taking care of them the
best we can," said Ratan Kar, deputy director of health services in the
Andamans.

'Dehydration and starvation'

Nearly all of those rescued have equally harrowing stories.

One Rohingya villager from Burma said that his son and seven friends had
left together on the same boat.

He said that after they were arrested by the Thai authorities, they were
forced onto the same large boat without an engine:

"Four of them, including my son, survived but four died," he said.

"My son told me that many died because of dehydration and starvation but
many also jumped into the sea.

"When the boat finally drifted close to an Andaman island, there were only
just over 100 still onboard."

The refugees say that hardly any of them escaped the Thai military
guarding the country's coastal islands.

Human rights activists have condemned Thailand's "inhuman and brutal
response" to this new wave of illegal migration.

____________________________________

January 15, Kaladan Press
Burma deploys army on Bangladesh border

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) of the Burmese military
junta has been increasing army deployment on the Burma-Bangladesh border
with heavy guns ahead of the bilateral meeting in January on the maritime
boundary in the Bay of Bengal. It is also restricting the movement of the
Rohingya community severely, said a close aide of the Nasaka.

The Burmese government is still tense over gas and oil exploration in Bay
of Bengal after failing to resolve the issue between the two countries.

According to sources, the concerned authorities, especially Nasaka  and
army called some Rohingya elders including village Peace and Development
Council  ( VPDC) members and  held a meeting in Nasaka area No.3 and 5 on
December 26. In the meeting they declared the following points. They are
as follows:

1. There is no permission to put up any fence surrounding the house.

2. There is no permission to keep women indoors and get out of the house
and doing work with male and  keeping the women indoor, the economic of
the country down falls day by day.

3. All the documents of lands will be handed over to concerned authority.

4. Within ten days, Rohingya Muslims must build a road of a length of 3.5
kilometer from Taungbro sub-town under the Maungdaw Township.

5. Three sacks of rice bag (a bag =50 kg) from every household will be
deposited to the concerned Nasaka camp within one month.

6. Besides, Rohingya villagers will pay toll when the concerned authority
asks them to pay.  If any one fails to abide by the above points, he/she
must leave the country. These are orders of the SPDC.

In 1991-92, many Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh due to persecution by the
ruling military junta. After an agreement between two countries, most of
the refugees had been repatriated with the commitment of returning their
lands. But, after arrival at Arakan State, the authorities did not return
their land and the returnees were severely persecuted. As a result, most
of the refugees returned to Bangladesh.

At present, the Burmese ruling junta have invited new Buddhist settlers
from Burma proper and settled them in north Arakan after seizing lands
from Rohingya villagers. For these reasons, Rohingya have become homeless
and land less in their own country, said a trader.

____________________________________

January 15, Irrawaddy
Burmese schoolteacher and family repatriated – Saw Yan Naing

A Burmese schoolteacher in Ranong in southern Thailand was arrested by
Burmese police in Kawthaung after he and his family were repatriated by
Thai officials on January 11, according to sources at the Thai-Burmese
border.

Ko Gyi, who had been living in Ranong since 1995, was reportedly sent back
to Burma with his wife, daughter and son-in-law, and is currently being
detained in a police station in the Burmese border town of Kawthaung.

Sources said Ko Gyi had become a target for Burma’s military authorities
because of his supposed links with Burmese opposition groups, as well as
allegedly providing information to exiled Burmese news organizations.

Ko Gyi has previously been interviewed by BBC Burmese Service and The
Irrawaddy.

Thai authorities also raided his home and school in Ranong and seized some
computers and his car.

Ko Gyi founded a primary school in Ranong with the help of Jesuit Refugee
Service, an international Catholic organization that provides assistance
to refugees, forcibly displaced persons and Burmese migrant workers.

Ko Gyi and his wife worked at the school, which has provided free
education to the children of Burmese migrant workers since 2003.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 15, Reuters
Thai PTTEP to write off $27 mln for Myanmar M3 block

Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production PCL <PTTE.BK> said on Thursday
it would write off 930 million baht in the fourth quarter of 2008 for a
dry well in Myanmar's offshore M3 block.
ADVERTISEMENT

The company said its PTTEP International Ltd subsidiary, the operator of
the block, in which it holds an 80 percent stake, did not find enough
natural gas in the Janaka-2 exploration well to make it commercially
viable.

CNOOC Myanmar Ltd owns the remaining 20 percent of the block in the Gulf
of Mataban.

Last month, PTTEP said it would write off 975 million baht in the fourth
quarter for a dry well in the M7 block in Myanmar.

At 0345 GMT, PTTEP shares were down 4.3 percent at 99.50 baht, while the
overall Thai stock market was 0.7 percent lower. (Reporting by Khettiya
Jittapong; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

____________________________________

January 15, Democratic Voice of Burma
Farmers encouraged to join USDA to get loans – Naw Say Phaw

Farmers seeking agricultural loans from the Union Solidarity and
Development Association are being encouraged to join the organisation and
charged fees for application forms.

Local farmer in Thonegwa township, Rangoon division, said villages with a
high level of USDA membership were most likely to benefit from the loans.

"Since 14 January, a group of USDA officials led by the township USDA
leader Dr Myint Thein have been visiting villages in the area and setting
up procedures for agricultural loans,” the farmer said.

“The process has already been completed in Aung Pan Sein, Min Ywar and
Phayagyi village," he said.

"Apparently their programme is only likely to benefit villages where there
are a lot of members.”

The farmer said local people viewed the loans as a propaganda effort ahead
of the 2010 elections, which the USDA will contest.

"They assured the farmers they would take care of their needs if they
joined the association and that the problems of those who did join would
not be their concern," the farmer said.

"Then they charged 1000 kyat for photos and 1000 more as document fees
from those who agreed to join," he said.

"They are only giving loan of 5000 kyat per acre of farmland and we still
have to pay them 2000 kyat. So a lot of people who agreed to join are now
very disappointed."

____________________________________

January 15, Reuters
Vietnam army phone firm seeks Myanmar, N.Korea work

Vietnam's military-run telecoms provider, Viettel, is to open an office in
Myanmar and is also looking for business opportunities in North Korea,
Cuba and Venezuela, a state newspaper reported on Thursday.

Viettel, one of Vietnam's three main telecommunications firms, had
completed procedures to open a representative office in Myanmar, the
Saigon Giai Phong newspaper said.

It did not say when the office would open nor what Viettel's long-term
plans were in the impoverished country run by a military junta that shuns
outside contact.

Viettel had also been in touch with Pyongyang about investing in North
Korea and had plans to reach out to the authorities in Havana and Caracas,
the newspaper said.

All three countries could pose interesting challenges for the fast-growing
Vietnamese telecoms form, which has reported that gross profits last year
doubled to 8 trillion dong ($471 million).

The North Korean leadership has in the past shown little interest in
allowing its 23 million citizens access to any form of communication that
may escape the prying eyes of its large internal spy network.

Nevertheless, Egypt's Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA)(ORTEq.L) started up a
mobile phone service in North Korea in December.

Last April, Cuba started a cellular phone service for the public for the
first time, but the cost is prohibitive for most citizens of the communist
country. Still, Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC) said last month it was
interested in Cuba.

Venezuela poses almost the opposite problem, with cell phone penetration
of nearly 90 percent by the end of 2007, close to the highest in Latin
America.

Viettel recently started operating in Cambodia. It said it had about
100,000 mobile subscribers there, and in neighbouring Laos it has about
50,000, the newspaper said. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Alan
Raybould)

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 15, Agence France Presse
US probes Malaysian officials' link to human trafficking

The US Senate is investigating allegations that officials in Malaysia were
extorting money from foreign migrants and were linked to human
trafficking, American officials said.

The migrants, mostly from military-ruled Myanmar but also from other
countries, were allegedly taken by the government officials to the border
between Malaysia and Thailand, where they were extorted or sold to human
trafficking syndicates.

The probe is being conducted by the US Senate foreign relations committee
and the findings will be relayed to key US enforcement agencies and
Interpol for possible action, Senate officials said.

"US Senate foreign relations committee staff are reviewing reports of
extortion and human trafficking from Burmese and other migrants in
Malaysia, allegedly at the hands of Malaysia government officials," a
committee staff member told AFP. Myanmar's previous name was Burma.

"The allegations include assertions that Burmese and other migrants --
whether or not they have UNHCR documentation -- are taken from Malaysian
government detention facilities and transported to the Thailand-Malaysia
border," the official said.

At the border, they alleged, "money is demanded from them, or they are
turned over to human traffickers in southern Thailand."

Some of the immigrants from Myanmar and other countries are refugees
recognized by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR).

Since 1995, about 40,000 refugees from Myanmar have resettled in the
United States, many going through Malaysia.

US Senate foreign relations committee staff have travelled to Malaysia,
Thailand, and the Malaysia-Thailand border, collecting information as part
of the investigations, officials said.

"If all reports are accurate, then as many as a few thousand Myanmar
migrants in Malaysia may have been taken to the Malaysia-Thai border in
recent years," the committee staff member said.

"If they pay, they return to Malaysia. If not, they are sold to
traffickers, according to the reports," the official said.

Myanmar has been under international fire for years over human rights
abuses and many citizens had fled the impoverished nation to neighboring
countries, where they mostly stay illegally or apply for refugee status
and seek resettlement in the West.

____________________________________

January 15, Radio Free Asia
Burmese labor activist describes kidnapping

A Burmese labor activist in Malaysia describes how he was kidnapped and
intimidated for speaking out against human trafficking.

A leading advocate for Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia says he was
kidnapped by Burmese-speaking men and held in brutal conditions for more
than two weeks because of his outspoken criticism of human traffickers.

Ye Min Tun, secretary of the nongovernment Burmese Workers' Rights
Protection Committee based in Kuala Lumpur, said a woman phoned him
repeatedly late on Dec. 25 to say she had been injured at work and needed
his help.

“She called again and again in the evening. A few minutes before we
arrived at the hospital she called again and said, ‘I will be waiting
outside the hospital—I will come and look for you,’” he said in an
interview.

“I am very foolish. I shouldn’t have believed this.”

I regret that our own people would do this to me."

Ye Min Tun, who served seven years in jail in Burma for opposing the
government before fleeing to Malaysia a decade ago, said two colleagues
escaped as several men seized, bound, and gagged him and drove to an
unidentifiable area with huts and tents.

He was then repeatedly beaten, he said.

His captors spoke Burmese, he said, and he overheard one of them shouting
at the others, saying he was angry because two witnesses had escaped.

“‘Why didn’t you kill them? Why did you let them go?’” Ye Min Tun quoted
the man as saying.

Ransom demand

Ye Min Tun shows the bruises on his face at his home in Kuala Lumpur after
his release, Jan. 10, 2009. RFA During the two weeks he was held, Ye Min
Tun said, he overheard several people discussing him in Burmese, Malay,
and Thai.

“I heard a man saying in Thai, ‘We are running a business, not working in
politics, so I don’t want anything to come up that might harm our
business.’ I understood them clearly.”

A colleague received a phone call on Jan. 7 from a roadside phone with an
unidentified number, asking for 4,000 Malaysian ringgit (about U.S.
$1,100), to obtain his release, Ye Min Tun said.

His colleagues handed over the money, in a transaction he declined to
describe, and his captors released him, blindfolded and gagged, near his
office in Kuala Lumpur late on Jan. 9, he said.

“They said to me, ‘You are disappointing to us—you are talking too much
about the groups on the Malaysia-Thai border as human traffickers. We are
not traffickers. We are helping people who want to get into Malaysia to
work,’” he said.

“They beat and kicked me randomly, as in 
 movies. It was like someone was
beating me for revenge,” he said.

Media reports about his disappearance increased pressure on his captors,
who quarreled about his kidnapping, Ye Min Tun said.

“I am committed to this, to helping migrant workers in Malaysia. I regret
that our own people would do this to me. I must be very careful in the
future.”

Tens of thousands of Burmese

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cites the presence of more
than 30,000 Burmese refugees in Malaysia. In 2006, it said 9,186 persons
had active asylum cases pending in Malaysia, of whom 74 percent were
Burmese.

Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia live at the mercy of international
human-trafficking gangs who sell them back and forth as slave labor with
the full knowledge of Malaysian and Thai immigration officials.

Thousands of Burmese find themselves stuck in a human rights no-man's-land
after losing their legal status, often because employers withhold
passports or refuse to pay their return airfare.

Reports of mistreatment and substandard living conditions within
Malaysia's little-known immigration prisons are rife, as undocumented
migrants are detained for indefinite periods.

Conditions in the detention centers have sparked protests, complaints to
Malaysia's human rights body, riots, and breakouts.

Immigration officers often stage raids on suspected illegal immigrants
using volunteer security forces who have wide-ranging powers, the right to
bear arms, and little professional training.

Rights groups say children, pregnant women, and United Nations refugees
awaiting resettlement to a third country have all been recently detained
in such raids.

Human rights lawyers say that Malaysia's legal system lacks a clear
distinction between illegal immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and
that immigration officers can imprison anyone without papers.

Original reporting by Kyaw Min Htun for RFA’s Burmese service. RFA Burmese
service director: Nancy Shwe. Written and produced in English by Sarah
Jackson-Han.

____________________________________

January 15, Mizzima News
Indonesia may deport Burmese and Bangladeshi boatpeople – Solomon

Indonesia has indicated it is holding discussions to send back nearly 200
Burmese and Bangladeshi boatpeople, stranded off Sabang Island near Aceh
province in early January, a Foreign Affairs Ministry official said.

Teuku Faizasyah, spokesperson of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry told
Mizzima on Thursday that the ministry had sent an official to investigate
into the boatpeople's situation and are now organizing a series of
meetings with different government ministries on what to do with them.

"We sent an official last week to investigate and to verify their (the
boat people) identity and the official has returned on Monday. We are now
arranging meetings with several ministries to discuss what to do" said
Faizasyah.

"Based on the information received I think the meetings will submit a
recommendation on what to do with these people," he added.

On January 7, a wooden boat carrying 193 Burmese and Bangladeshis was seen
stranded off the Sabang Island in northern Aceh province. They were then
taken in by local authorities and an investigation was conducted to find
out their identities, the official said.

The official said that all the boat people remain on the Island and are
being taken care of by local people and the authorities.

"They [officials] had a meeting yesterday and the day before and I believe
that there is sufficient information and we are just waiting for their
recommendation," said Faizasyah, adding that a decision could be made by
the end of the week.

The official said the foreign ministry had sent their staff members along
with someone who can speak in Burmese because the boatpeople do not speak
Indonesian or English.

The official said so far there has been no response from the Burmese Embassy.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 15, Variety (US)
HBO picks up 'Burma VJ' – Michael Jones

HBO has nabbed the U.S. TV rights to Anders Ostergaard's docu "Burma VJ"
ahead of its North American preem at Sundance. A chronicle of the 2007
uprising of Burmese monks through underground video journalists, pic won
top prizes at Int'l Documentary Festival Amsterdam and CPH: Dox fest.

Lisa Lense-Moller produced the docu through her Magic Hour Films.

Submarine Entertainment's Josh Braun and First Hand Film's Esther van
Messel negotiated the deal with HBO.

Braun, who sold the doc "The Black List" early to HBO at last year's
Sundance, will be looking for a theatrical distributor. "Burma VJ" will
unspool at New York's Film Forum prior to its TV preem.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 15, The Economist
Unequal struggle

ONE of Asia’s longest-running wars gets no less vicious as it gets older.
For six decades the Karen National Union (KNU) has resisted the government
in Yangon—inaptly known, these days, as the State Peace and Development
Council or SPDC, a brutal junta. The biggest of Myanmar’s myriad insurgent
groups not to have reached a truce with the SPDC, the KNU’s armed wing is
now fighting desperately for survival in the mountainous Thai border
region around the town of Umphang.

This month SPDC soldiers razed the base camp of one of its seven brigades:
a newish settlement equipped with solar power, piped water, fish-holding
tanks and medical facilities. Soldiers are now sleeping rough in dense
jungle. Several hundred civilians, their homes in ashes, huddle under
makeshift shelters.

Fighting alongside the SPDC are soldiers ostensibly belonging to a rival
Karen militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)—a loose coalition
of KNU defectors, drug-runners and freelance thugs. The armies often mount
attacks from Thai soil. That side of the border is more navigable, and is
not strewn with landmines. The KNU’s David Thackrabaw accuses the SPDC of
pursuing a scorched-earth policy against both fighters and the civilian
population. Another KNU commander, Nerdah Mya, his base in cinders, says
his army has no “location” any more and is “always on the move”. But he
denies the war is in a critical stage. The KNU has been coping with such
hardships for years.

Umphang was once home to one of Thailand’s finest teak forests, logged by
the KNU, in the days when Thailand tolerated it as a useful buffer to
Myanmar. The region is also rich in antimony, gold, zinc and tin. The
latest phase of the war began last June, with a concerted battle for
control of the area. At times the Thai army has resorted to lobbing
mortars at SPDC battalions, whose stray shells have forced the evacuation
of Thai villages. Local farmers are “taxed” by both sides to get their
produce to market.

Of some 140,000 refugees from Myanmar in camps in Thailand, more than 60%
come from Karen state. They may be the lucky ones. Reports from western
Karen state say that villages and crops there are often torched. The DKBA
is much loathed, and many of its soldiers might join the KNU if it had any
scent of victory. But at the moment, it has none.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 15, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
CSW condemns crackdown on churches in Rangoon

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has received reports of a serious
crackdown on churches in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma.

According to the news agency Mizzima, local authorities in Rangoon have
ordered at least 100 churches to stop holding worship services. Mizzima
also reports that the order could affect as many as 80 per cent of
churches in the city, and that 50 pastors were forced to sign at least
five documents promising to cease church services. The pastors were
reportedly warned they could be jailed if they disobeyed the order.

The campaign appears to be particularly targeted at churches meeting in
apartment buildings, rather than churches that own their own building and
land. According to a report by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB),
officials from the local branch of the Ministry of Religious Affairs
summoned the owners of buildings in which churches were meeting, and
issued them with an order prohibiting the use of private property for
religious purposes. “Christians are worried that they will not be allowed
to worship anymore, even in their own house,” said one pastor in a report
received by CSW.

One pastor in Rangoon, who cannot be named for security reasons, claimed
in a report received by CSW that several churches have now been locked and
sealed, including three churches in South Dagon Township: the Evangelical
Baptist Church, the Karen Baptist Church and the Dagon Joshua Church. An
eyewitness said that in one church, the pastor presented his Legal
Registration Certificate provided by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to
the authorities when they came to inform him of the new order. In
response, officials told him his registration certificate had been
withdrawn.

Some Christians believe that the immediate cause of the crackdown is
church involvement in providing relief for victims of Cyclone Nargis,
which devastated the area in May 2008. According to Shwekey Hoipang, a
Chin pastor from Burma living in exile, the regime does not like the fact
that Buddhists have been receiving help from churches, and fears this may
possibly result in conversions. “The regime does not want Buddhists coming
in and out of churches. It does not want Christianity to grow in Burma,”
said Shwekey Hoipang. “Ultimately, the regime seeks the destruction of
Christianity. This is part of a top-secret plan by the military to stop
Christian growth.”

Burma is categorised as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ by the US State
Department, for its violations of religious freedom. In 2007, CSW
published a report, Carrying the Cross: The military regime’s campaign of
restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma,
which revealed a 17-point document allegedly from an organisation
affiliated to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, titled “Programme to
Destroy the Christian religion in Burma”. The first point states: “There
shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised.”

Benedict Rogers, East Asia Team Leader at CSW and author of Carrying the
Cross said: “There is no doubt that the regime is hostile to minority
religions in Burma, particularly Christianity and Islam, and seeks to
restrict and suppress them. This recent crackdown is an extremely worrying
development and a serious violation of religious freedom. We urge the UN
Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion and Belief, and the US
Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, to put pressure
on the Burmese junta to end these violations and to permit churches and
other religious institutions to operate freely, in accordance with
internationally-accepted norms of religious freedom.”

For further information contact Benedict Rogers, East Asia Team Leader at
Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329 0041 or 07823 329664, email
ben at csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk <http://www.csw.org.uk/>

CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom,
works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and
promotes religious liberty for all.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

January 15, Questions for the record, submitted by Senator Richard Lugar
on the nomination of Susan E. Rice for United States Permanent
Representative to the United Nations

Question: The deteriorating situation within Burma and the potential
consequences for regional stability have remained on the agenda of the
United Nations in recent years largely because of U.S. leadership.  What
is your strategy to ensure continued United Nations’ focus on matters
related to Burma including its growing relationship with North Korea?

Answer: Burma, and its reclusive and repressive regime, may represent one
of the most intractable challenges for the global community.  This is as
much, if not more, a challenge for key regional players – Russia, China,
India and the ASEAN countries – several of whom sit on the UN Security
Council and have limited the UN’s ability to do more.  I believe that
there is scope for greater regional and international action to pressure
Burma’s dictators, including by ASEAN countries.  Multilateral sanctions
should be pursued, despite the opposition that such measures have faced in
the past.  This will require creative strategies that push the key
regional states to support tougher action.  I also want to recognize the
important work of Members of Congress in highlighting abuses and keeping
faith with the democratic opposition in Burma.  If I am confirmed, I look
forward to working with the Committee and other interested Members to
develop initiatives and strategies.