BurmaNet News, January 29, 2009

[Editor]

January 29, 2009, Issue #3641


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi, Gambari likely to meet: NLD
Irrawaddy: Veteran Shan leaders plan new political party
AFP: Boat people arriving in Thailand not from Myanmar: official
Mizzima News: Junta speaks of possible split in NLD
AP: The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group from Myanmar

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Thailand grants UN access to Myanmar boat people

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: EU experts to help improve Myanmar marine products export quality

HEALTH / AIDS
Mizzima News: HIV/AIDS patients driven out from Rangoon

REGIONAL
Reuters: Rohingyas beg not to be sent back to Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
AP: Muslim group flees Myanmar but faces more woe – Fakhrurradzie Gade and
Robin McDowell
Asia Sentinel: Go, Gambari, but don't expect much – Nehginpao Kipgen
The Nation (Thailand): Burmese suffer at the hands of Asean and Asia –
Egoy N Bans

PRESS RELEASE
Reporters Without Borders: Petition launched for release of two Burmese
bloggers serving sentences of 20 and 59 years in prison



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 29, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi, Gambari likely to meet: NLD – Wai Moe

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will probably meet with
United Nations Special Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari during his
forthcoming visit to Burma, her party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), said on Thursday.

NLD spokesperson Win Naing told The Irrawaddy that the NLD expected its
leader to meet with Gambari, and it hoped the Nigerian diplomat would
discuss meaningful issues and perhaps achieve a tangible breakthrough of
some type during his visit.

“UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the UN envoy won’t visit unless
there is a sign of progress in Burma,” he said. “And then the UN announced
Mr Gambari’s trip—it seems there is something in hand for the envoy. In
this situation, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi could meet Mr Gambari.”

The UN said on Monday that Gambari would visit Burma at the end of this
month.

“What I can tell you about the reports you have been seeing is that I can
confirm that the secretary-general has asked Mr. Gambari to return soon,
and that the Myanmar [Burmese] Government has extended an invitation for
him to visit the country,” UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said. “At this
point, however, discussions are ongoing about the details of the visit.”

The visit will be the seventh trip to Burma for the special envoy since
2006. During his last visit, in August, he failed to meet with the Burmese
junta leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and Suu Kyi. He held two meetings with
NLD leaders.

According to diplomatic sources, the first meeting between Gambari and the
NLD was about 30 minutes. Gambari reportedly urged the NLD to join the
2010 elections. Gambari was criticized by the NLD for stepping out of a
purely mediation role.

Win Naing said that during the second meeting, the NLD did not talk with
Gambari about the 2010 election issue, but party leaders discussed four
issues which were needed for Burma’s national reconciliation process.

The four issues were: release of political prisoners including Aung San
Suu Kyi; holding a meaningful dialogue between the military regime and
opposition groups; forming an economic development committee; and opening
a liaison office in Burma for the UN secretary-general, Win Naing said.

Win Naing said the NLD was not optimistic about Gambari’s seventh trip.

“After the last six visits to Burma by the special envoy, we did not see
any concrete results for political development in the country,” he said.
“But we hope there may be a solution to start a genuine dialogue on this
trip.”

In regard to Suu Kyi, Win Naing said her lawyer, Kyi Win, was denied
permission to visit her by authorities, and a second lawyer, Hla Myo
Myint, was recently harassed by authorities.

The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, winning more than
80 percent of the constituencies. The military regime failed to honor the
election results.

____________________________________

January 29, Irrawaddy
Veteran Shan leaders plan new political party – Min Lwin

A group of veteran politicians, some of whom were active in Burmese
politics in the late 1940s, has announced plans to found a new national
party to contest the 2010 general election.

One of their leaders, Shwe Ohn, now in his late 80s, told The Irrawaddy on
Thursday that the group was waiting for the enactment of the election law
before announcing details of the new party’s mission. The new political
force would be called the Union Democratic Alliance Party and membership
would be open to all of Burma’s nationalities.

Shan ethnic leader Shwe Ohn said he hoped the party would be approved by
Burma’s military council and its head, Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

Shwe Ohn is one of six founding members, who include author Kyaw Win Maung.

Some of them worked for the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, the main
political party in Burma after World War II, and the League for Democracy
and Peace led by former Prime Minister U Nu in the late 1980s.

Shwe Ohn, a contemporary of Burma’s post-war leader Aung San, was a
journalist and observer at the 1947 Panglong conference that created the
Union of Burma.

During the regime of dictator Ne Win, Shwe Ohn stayed out of politics,
although he kept in touch with the veteran political community.

After the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, Shwe Ohn founded the Shan State
People’s Freedom League for Democracy, which forged a political alliance
with the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The party
was later deregistered by the junta.
Shwe Ohn was also a patron of the banned coalition of ethnic political
parties known as the United Nationalities League for Democracy.

In 1993, Shwe Ohn was arrested and detained for one year after criticizing
the military- sponsored National Convention.

In February 2005, he was arrested at a gathering of Shan leaders in
Taunggyi, Shan State, where the formation of a “genuine federal union,”
uniting all ethnic groups, was discussed.

Shwe Ohn was released, but several other Shan leaders at the meeting,
including Hkun Htun Oo of the Shan National League for Democracy, the
second most successful party in the 1990 election, were sentenced to
prison terms of between 75 and 106 years. Hkun Htun Oo, 64, was given a
93-year sentence.

____________________________________

January 29, Agence France Presse
Boat people arriving in Thailand not from Myanmar: official

A senior Myanmar official on Thursday denied that boat people from the
Muslim Rohingya ethnic group, who have washed up in Thailand claiming
abuse back home, originate from its shores.

Human rights groups have said the Rohingya come from Myanmar's western
region and often flee persecution by the junta, but the official told AFP
the group were from Bangladesh and had no historical connection with
Myanmar.

"There is no so-called Rohingya ethnic minority group in our history
before or after our independence," said the official, who refused to be
named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"It is totally unacceptable to say the Rohingya are from Myanmar," he added.

Thailand has been accused of mistreating up to 1,000 Rohingya migrants,
hundreds of whom were rescued off India and Indonesia last month claiming
they had been beaten by Thai soldiers and towed back out to sea.

The issue has cast into the spotlight a group believed to number about
700,000 in Myanmar but which has long been denied citizenship and faces
religious persecution and crippling poverty, rights groups have said.

A further 78 boat people were detained this week on arriving in Thailand,
supposedly from Myanmar, and await deportation.

Local press carried pictures of some of the men with welts on their backs
and the Bangkok Post newspaper reported that the migrants said they were
caned by Myanmar authorities and threatened with death if they returned.

The Myanmar official, however, claimed that such reports were untrue.

"These so-called Rohingyas are Bangladeshi who left their state for a
better life, trying to get sympathy from Western countries by claiming to
be Rohingyas from Myanmar," he said.

"(It's) not our problem. It's the problem of Bangladesh," he added.

Myanmar -- ruled by the military since 1962 -- is a predominantly Buddhist
country but is also home to more than 135 different ethnic groups, some of
whom are Christian and Muslim.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR has requested access to any
Rohingyas arriving in Thailand, saying there are legitimate concerns that
some could face persecution back in Myanmar.

The Thai foreign ministry Wednesday "categorically denied" reports that it
had mistreated any migrants.

____________________________________

January 29, Mizzima News
Junta speaks of possible split in NLD – Salai Pi Pi

In a major development the minutes of a leaked secret meeting of Burma's
Army Commanders said the leadership of the main opposition party – the
National League for Democracy – is likely to split and that a faction is
likely to emerge to contest the ensuing 2010 general elections.

The Commander of the Northern Military Command Maj-Gen Soe Win, during a
recent meeting, told his fellow army commanders and officers that a
faction is likely to emerge from a rift in the NLD to form another
political party under a different name to contest the election.

According to the document, a copy of which is in Mizzima's possession, Soe
Win made the comment while speaking positively of the junta's plan to go
ahead with its roadmap to democracy.

But Nyan Win, spokesperson of the NLD dismissed the possibility of the NLD
splitting saying, the junta is voicing its hidden wish.

"They [the junta] wishes that NLD would split," said Nyan Win, refuting
any possibility of a break.

Nyan Win further said, the NLD has not even taken up 2010 election as an
agenda in their meetings and does not consider it necessary as yet.

"We do not see the necessity of discussing the election," he added.

However, earlier on January 2, party members from Magwe Division branch in
a letter urged the NLD central committee in Rangoon to call a meeting.

Khin Saw Htay, vice-chairman of the Magwe NLD branch said they sent a
letter urging the central party executives to call a nation-wide meeting
to discuss the stance of the NLD for the forthcoming elections.

"The letter urged the central party to call a meeting of party members
from the whole country and to discuss how to face the period in 2010,"
Khin Saw Htay told Mizzima.

She said party members want to have a clear understanding of the NLD's
stand on the election.

With party leader Tin Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi imprisoned, Khin Saw Htay
said, the NLD has a record of suddenly changing its political stand in the
past.

"In the past, the party said it will not take part in the 1990 election
but it did. Again they said they won't attend the national convention but
it did," she said.

However, Khin Saw Htay said the request for a nation-wide meeting does not
mean a break up, rather the members want to stick to a single policy.

NLD, led by detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, posted a
landslide victory in Burma's last general election in 1990. But the ruling
junta refused to hand over power and detained several of its leaders
____________________________________

January 29, Associated Press
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority group from Myanmar

A look at the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority group from Myanmar who
are at the center of a controversy over Thailand's treatment of migrant
workers:

HISTORY: The Rohingya are believed to descend from seventh century Arab
settlers whose state was conquered by the Burmese in 1784. The group has
inhabited what is now western Myanmar for centuries.

CHARACTERISTICS: The Rohingya come from the Myanmar state of Rakhine, but
their physical appearance and language are more similar to the Bengalis of
neighboring Bangladesh.

CITIZENSHIP: Nearly 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, but have not been
granted citizenship.

STATELESS MIGRANTS: Faced with persecution because they are Muslims living
in a Buddhist country, the Rohingya have fled abroad for decades. As many
as 2 million have set up communities from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia where
most work illegally.

About a half-million Rohingya escaped during military crackdowns in 1978
and 1991, the majority of them moved to Bangladesh. Many remain exiled in
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Malaysia.

HIGH SEAS JOURNEY: Since 2006, Bangladesh has made it harder to get
passports, so the Rohingya began making the dangerous journey by boat to
Thailand and then overland to Malaysia for work.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 29, Agence France Presse
Thailand grants UN access to Myanmar boat people

The UN refugee agency said Thursday it had visited 12 teenage migrants
from Myanmar after Thai authorities finally granted access to some of the
Rohingya boat people washing up on its shores.

Thailand has recently been accused of cruelty toward the Muslim-majority
group, including beating new arrivals and sending them back to sea with
little food and water -- reports the government has denied.

Kitty McKinsey, Asia spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), said a team of four UN officials interviewed the
boys aged between 14 to 17 on Thursday in the southern coastal province of
Ranong.

"This was a fact-finding mission just to find out who these boys are,
where they came from and what protection issues they have," she told AFP.

"They appeared in good condition... it is really a step forward that we
have had this access," she added.

The visit came hours after Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya said he had
agreed "in principle" to allow the UNHCR to see some of the Rohingya.

Boatloads of the Rohingya wash up on Thai shores in rickety vessels each
month trying to escape poverty and hardship back home.

A Thai court on Wednesday convicted 66 of 78 Rohingya who arrived on the
western coast a day earlier to five days in detention for illegal entry.
The 12 teenagers were too young for trial.

McKinsey said that they were still working out the details for access to
66 adults, four of who remain in hospital after an arduous journey.

The UNHCR has for weeks been pressing the Thai government for access to
the Rohingya, and on Thursday the UN body's representative in Thailand,
Raymond Hall, met Kasit.

Hall said he hoped the government would carry out a transparent
investigation into reports the Rohingya were mistreated here, and
highlighted the plight of the Muslim ethnic group living in Myanmar.

"It is a population that lives under very difficult circumstances... it is
a population which I would say are stateless," Hall told reporters.

A Myanmar government official on Thursday denied that there were any
Rohingya in Myanmar, despite reports that up to 700,000 of the minority
live in its western regions near the border with Bangladesh.

"These so-called Rohingya are Bangladeshis who left their state for a
better life, trying to get sympathy from Western countries by claiming to
be Rohingya from Myanmar," the official who asked not to be named told
AFP.

Human rights watchdogs have said the group is largely shunned in
Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with the military junta long denying them
citizenship and committing religious persecution against them.

Kasit told reporters Thailand plans to bring up the Rohingya issue at a
summit here late next month of regional grouping the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is also a member.

"All levels will discuss how to solve this, as there is a human
trafficking group sending Rohingya to work in Indonesia, Malaysia and
Thailand," he said.

Accusations of mistreatment surfaced earlier this month after nearly 650
Rohingya were rescued off India and Indonesia, some claiming to have been
beaten by Thai soldiers before being set adrift on the high seas to die.

Hundreds of the boat people are still believed to be missing at sea.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 29, Xinhua
EU experts to help improve Myanmar marine products export quality

Experts of the European Union (EU) will examine Myanmar's marine products
to help improve quality of export products for the European market, the
local Yangon Times quoted the Myanmar Fisheries Products Producers and
Exporters Association as reporting Thursday.

Invited and proposed by the association, the EU experts will visit Myanmar
early next month to inspect the export quality of fishery products from 22
fisheries-related cold storages.

Myanmar's marine product exports amounted to 353 million U.S. dollars in
the first three quarters (April-December) of the fiscal year 2008-09
ending March, a drop of 30 million dollars from 2007-08's 387 million
dollars correspondingly, according to earlier local report.

The report attributed the fall to the impact of the global financial crisis.

Myanmar's fisheries Department revealed that purchase order from abroad
was down by 50 percent compared with normalcy, while domestic purchase
power fell by 40 percent.

Along with the reduction of foreign market demand, price of fish also
dropped in the domestic market, the report added.

Of Myanmar's marine exports through both normal trade and border trade,
fish, prawn and crab are leading.

In 2007-08, Myanmar exported 352,652 tons of marine products, gaining 561
million U.S. dollars, according to official statistics.

In Myanmar's marine export country line-up, China stood atop, followed by
Thailand, Japan and Singapore.

The country's fishery sector remained as the fourth largest contributor to
the gross domestic product and also the fourth largest source of foreign
exchange earning during the past five years.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

January 29, Mizzima News
HIV/AIDS patients driven out from Rangoon – Ko Wild

HIV/AIDS patients being treated in Rangoon have alleged that the Health
Department has restricted their stay in the former capital Rangoon.

The patients, who have completed their treatment in Rangoon Division North
Okkalapa Township Wabargi Hospital, are being pressurised by the
department to go back to their hometowns.

"Some have been given discharge certificates from the hospital but they
could not go back to their hometowns as they are still being administered
injections as outpatients. Some are waiting for ARV drugs. It is available
only in Rangoon. But they don't accept this, driving us out from Rangoon
even though we stay in rented rooms at our own expense. They are doing
this on instructions from higher authorities," a patient, who wished not
to be named for fear of reprisal by the authorities, told Mizzima.

Patients from rural areas do not want to go back to their hometowns as
there are difficulties in procuring ARV and TB drugs, the patients said.

These HIV/AIDS patients were first forcibly transferred to this hospital
and then they are being driven back home.

The patients are believed to be targeted by the junta as they are
receiving the support and assistance from the 'National League for
Democracy' (NLD) party with its headquarters in Rangoon.

The Health Department officials accompanied by police of the Special
Branch came to North Okkalapa Ahthawka Rama Shwehintha Yele monastery on
January 19 where the HIV patients were staying while being treated. And
then they were forced to go to the Waybargi hospital opposite the
monastery. These patients had stayed in this monastery for about two
years.

A total of 24 patients were forcibly transferred to Waybargi hospital of
which 11 were men, seven women and 11 children.

The volunteer for HIV/AIDS education, counseling, arranging accommodation
and assisting them to get treatment is NLD party member and prominent
HIV/AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thin. She was arrested by the authorities in
May 2007 but the patients staged protest demonstrations for her release.

Medicines Sans Frontier (MSF) released a report recently which said that
25,000 HIV/AIDS patients died in 2007 alone due to the negligence of the
Burmese junta and the international community. About 75,000 patients badly
need ARV drugs, the report added.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 29, Reuters
Rohingyas beg not to be sent back to Myanmar – Olivia Rondonuwu

Sobbing in an Indonesian hospital, a Rohingya migrant from Myanmar said
Thursday he faced certain death if forced home, piling more pressure on
countries in the region to treat the Muslim minority as refugees.

"We have heard we'd be sent back to Myanmar," Noor Mohammad, one of a
group of Rohingya who washed up off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province
three weeks ago, told Al Jazeera English Television.

"In that case, we will ask the Indonesians to kill us. Better we die in
the hands of Muslims," he added. "If we go back, we'll definitely be
killed."

His testimony shines a harsh light on the plight of the former Burma's
estimated 800,000 Rohingya, and the Thai military's handling of the
hundreds who flee in rickety wooden boats every year in search of better
lives.

The Thai army has admitted to towing hundreds far out to sea before
cutting them adrift, but has insisted they had adequate food and water and
denied persistent reports the boats' engines were sabotaged.

Of 1,000 Rohingya given such treatment since early December, 550 are
feared to have drowned.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who has made much of his respect for
human rights in his six weeks in office, has also tried to paint the
Rohingya as illegal economic migrants rather than genuine asylum seekers.

In its preliminary look at the 193 who washed up on Aceh, Jakarta came to
a similar conclusion.

Neither Thailand nor Indonesia are signatories to the widely accepted 1951
Refugee Convention which defines who is a refugee, their rights and the
legal obligation of states.

TRANSPARENT INVESTIGATION PROMISED

The view of Indonesia and Thailand that they are economic migrants is at
odds with Mohammad's testimony, as well as that of a group 78 Rohingya now
in Thai police custody with wounds on their bodies they say were inflicted
by Myanmar naval officials.

Mohammad said his group were intercepted by the Myanmar navy as they
chugged south towards Thailand and Malaysia, and were beaten but then
released.

"We were told by the navy not to come this way again and to tell others to
also not come this way," he said, adding they were then given some fuel, a
compass and directions to Thailand. "When we got to Thailand we were
tortured and detained."

Thailand promised a transparent investigation into the allegations of army
abuse, but said the probe would be led by the shadowy military unit at the
heart of the scandal.

More than two weeks after the reports first emerged, it remains unclear
why the army's Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), set up in the
Cold War to oversee anti-communist death squads, is now in charge of
stopping Rohingya migrants.

"It's our internal arrangement and if the military investigation is not
satisfactory, we can set up another group to do it," Foreign Minister
Kasit Piromyas told reporters after meeting U.N. refugee officials in
Bangkok.

Shortly after the meeting, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
officials were allowed access to 12 minors among the 78 in police custody
in the Thai province of Ranong. The group are due to be deported after
five days detention.

UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said the children, aged between 14 and
17, were in good condition, wearing clean clothes and able to talk freely.
She said she could not reveal details of what they said before approval
from the Thai government.

"They expressed their extreme gratitude to the Thai navy for saving their
lives," she said.

According to the UNHCR, 230,000 Rohingya now live in Bangladesh, having
fled their ancestral homes in northwest Myanmar after decades of abuse and
harassment at the hands of its Buddhist military rulers.

The junta does not recognise them as one of the country's 130-odd ethnic
minorities, and those in the northwest are restricted from travel inside
the country. Besides Bangladesh, there are large numbers of Rohingya in
Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Jeremy Laurence)

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 29, Associated Press
Muslim group flees Myanmar but faces more woe – Fakhrurradzie Gade and
Robin McDowell

The bearded farmer wept in his hospital bed as he recounted a harrowing
six-month journey that brought him from the isolated country of Myanmar to
this remote island in the Indian Ocean.

Nur Mohammad, a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority group, said he was
forced to work for the Myanmar army, after being detained and tortured
without charge. When he fled that country, he said he was exploited by
Bangladeshi human traffickers, beaten by Thai officials, and then forced
out to sea in an overcrowded boat that nearly sank off Indonesia's coast.

And his ordeal is not over.

The 37-year-old Muslim, who is being treated for internal bleeding and
trauma, faces possible deportation by the very people who plucked him from
the water.

"I would rather die here," Mohammad told The Associated Press, describing
the abuse in Myanmar against the Rohingya, who for generations have been
denied citizenship and reportedly face torture, religious persecution and
forced labor under the ruling junta.

"If I'm sent back, I am sure authorities will kill me."

The stateless Muslim ethnic group, which is not recognized by the military
regime, numbers about 800,000 in Myanmar. Their plight gained
international attention after several boats carrying around 1,000 migrants
were intercepted last month by the Thai navy. Human rights groups allege
Thai officers detained and beat them before forcing them back to sea in
vessels with no engines and little food or water.

Survivors recounted how four migrants were tossed overboard before the
rest were forced at gunpoint onto a makeshift barge in the middle of the
ocean, said Chris Lewa, coordinator of the Bangkok-based advocacy group
Arakan Project.

Hundreds are missing and feared drowned, according to human rights groups;
others have landed on remote corners of Indonesia and India, where they
are being kept well away from the media, making it difficult to
corroborate their stories.

Authorities in both Thailand and Myanmar have denied wrongdoing.

In the meantime, the harrowing accounts of victims like Mohammad continue
to trickle in from hospital beds and jail cells.

Mohammad said by the time his boat reached Thailand's southern coast on
Dec. 26 — after working for months on fishing vessels in Bangladesh — he
and other fellow Rohingya had been at sea for four days and nights.

They were dehydrated and hungry, he said, but given almost no food or
water when they reached land.

Authorities took the men to a hillside prison overseeing the Thai city of
Ranong, he said, where they were lined up and stripped down to the waist.
One by one, they were pummeled and taunted, with some officers scoffing at
them for being Muslim and threatening to burn their traditional beards, he
said.

"They tied me and beat me with sticks and kicked me with their boots until
I was vomiting blood. They only stopped because I was about to die," said
Mohammad. A doctor who treated him at an Indonesian navy base on Sabang
island told the AP the wounds appeared to have been caused by a blunt
object.

Soon after, he said, the migrants were crammed back into their boats and
sent adrift in stormy seas.

Brad Adams of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the story of the
Rohingya has been made all the more tragic by the consistent lack of
compassion shown by some regional governments, which appear to have
ignored the suffering of the ethnic minorities or played a direct part in
it.

Thai authorities insist repeatedly that they do not forcibly evict
migrants but only detain and repatriate people entering the country
illegally.

On Wednesday, a Thai court convicted more than 60 migrants on the same
charge, raising the prospect that they could be kicked out. The men
alleged they were abused by Myanmar navy officials

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, facing growing criticism from
rights groups, said last week the government would investigate claims of
abuse. The Foreign Ministry also said it would convene a meeting with its
neighbors to find a solution to the growing illegal migrant problem.

A spokesman for Myanmar's military government was not available for comment.

The ruling junta does not officially recognize the existence of a separate
Rohingya group in the country's western areas and sometimes refers to them
as "Bangladeshis."

Restrictive citizenship laws enacted in 1982 make many Muslims living in
the area stateless; "'Rohingyas' do not exist in the Union of Myanmar and
are not one of Myanmar's indigenous national races," the government told
the U.N. Human Rights Council last year.

At the same time, it rejected as untrue "allegations of discrimination and
harassment" toward Muslim refugees returned from Bangladesh — meaning the
Rohingya.

In addition to the Rohingya, the military regime has brutally repressed a
number of groups and millions have risked their lives fleeing the country.

The Rohingya, who are believed to descend from 7th century Arab settlers
whose state was conquered by the Burmese in 1784, face religious
persecution because they are Muslims in a Buddhist-majority country. Human
Rights Watch said in its latest annual report they faced forced
relocation, land seizures, and denial of citizenship and identity papers,
among other things.

The State Department agreed, saying they "experienced severe legal,
economic, and social discrimination."

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have ended up in neighboring Bangladesh
— some getting illegal jobs and others living in crowded, squalid refugee
camps — after borrowing huge sums of money from family and friends to pay
smugglers.

Others have settled in impoverished communities in Malaysia and Thailand,
which depend on migrant labor; even more have braved the sea to go as far
as the Middle East.

"It is a horrible humanitarian crisis unfolding, the fairly large numbers
of people leaving in these boats, either drowning at sea or finding
themselves in exploitative, abuse situations on arrival," said Chris Lom,
a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

Like other stateless people, the Rohingya are especially vulnerable to
human trafficking because they provide cheap labor and are not protected
by the law, he said.

"The issue of people in poor countries trying to reach richer ones it not
going to stop," he said. "It's going to become more serious and it needs
to be addressed, not just regionally, but globally."

In describing his persecution in Myanmar, Mohammad said his village placed
under a curfew and the Rohingya were unable to marry and often had their
land confiscated.

He said he was forced to work as a laborer for the army after being
detained and tortured without charge.

He decided to cross the border illegally into Bangladesh, where he worked
as a fisherman until he was able to earn enough money to pay for a boat to
Malaysia — around $430. He and others set off in their rickety wooden
boats on Dec. 16 with a captain who seemed not to know the way.

The men were picked up and beaten by the Myanmar navy who held them for
two days, he said.

When they reached Thailand, they were again taken into custody and
pummeled before being cast adrift in a boat that had been stripped of its
engine and emptied of fuel, Mohammad said.

"The boat was leaking badly," he said. "The water started rising inside.
Finally, it was a foot deep and we started to sink. We prayed to Allah, we
asked him to save us."

A fishing boat spotted them off Indonesia's westernmost coast and alerted
the navy, which brought 193 men to shore on Jan. 7 as it was on the verge
of sinking. All the men were from Myanmar except for 17, who said they
were from Bangladesh.

Many were too weak to stand and were hospitalized.

Now the Indonesian government is threatening to send them back to where
they came from.

Gade reported from Sabang; McDowell from Jakarta. Associated Press writers
Michael Casey, Grant Peck and Ambika Ahuja in Thailand; Parveen Ahmed in
Teknaf, Bangladesh; and Anthony Deutsch in Jakarta contributed to this
report.

____________________________________

January 29, Asia Sentinel
Go, Gambari, but don't expect much – Nehginpao Kipgen

The seventh visit of the United Nations Secretary General’s advisor
Ibrahim Gambari, which tentatively is scheduled for Rangoon this Saturday,
is yet another attempt to resolve the political crisis in Burma. This is a
standing invitation Gambari received from the military junta, although
given the junta’s past intractability, little is expected from the visit.

Gambari’s last visit to Burma, in August, was considered a failure mainly
due to two reasons: first, he was not allowed to meet the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) chairman Than Shwe or the National League for
Democracy general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi, Nor was he able to convince
the generals to start a serious dialogue with the opposition.

The result will probably be the same. Although it is difficult to predict
how the leadership will respond, it appears unlikely that Than Shwe will
see the visiting envoy. Prime Minister Thein Sein or other cabinet
ministers are expected to meet him, however.

The meeting does take place against the backdrop of a statement by the
newly sworn Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, who in a speech to the
press corps at the Foreign Press Club in Bangkok on January 14, t said:
"The goals of Western countries and the countries in this region for
[Burma] are not different - we all want to see some changes."

That is a slightly different approach from the appeasement policies of his
predecessors Thaksin Shinawatra and Samak Sundaravej. Nonetheless,
geographical proximity and cultural affinity make Thailand one of Burma’s
major stakeholders in the entire region. Their shared economic interest
and membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bring
the two countries even closer. And Thailand’s need for gas and other
resources from Burma makes any real movement highly unlikely.

Due to the continued arrest and sentencing of political dissidents,
coupled by other pressing demands in the run up to the 2010 general
election, there is more probability that Aung San Suu Kyi might meet
Gambari this time.

In his previous visits, the U.N. special envoy was armed with a gun
without ammunition. The international community, including the five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, expressed their support
for the role of the good offices of the secretary general, but with little
commitments.

Other than releasing presidential statements and formally discussing the
situation of Burma at the UN Security Council, the highest world body has
not taken any concrete steps. Resolutions at the General Assembly were
also symbolic and not legally binding.

Binding resolutions proposed at the Security Council have consistently
been shot down by China and Russia, which contributed to a strengthened
relationship between the military regime and the two permanent powers. The
Council’s unequivocal support and backing is what Gambari and Ban Ki-moon
need to arm themselves with.

In the absence of a firm and resolute commitment from the Security
Council, Gambari needs to find alternative strategies. Regardless of what
the international community says, the SPDC is determined to go forward
with the scheduled 2010 election. Unlike the 1990 election, the military
is well prepared this time.

The new constitution guarantees a win-win situation for the military
junta. Even if Gambari is successful in convincing the military to let in
international election observers, though still unlikely, the 25 percent
seats reserved for the military in the parliament are enough to block any
attempt to amend the constitution.

There is no doubt that different political parties, if allowed to contest,
will participate in the upcoming election. The military regime learned a
lesson from its humiliating defeat in the 1990 election -- so much so that
it will not let that happen again, and the international community must
understand this.

In light of all these challenges, Gambari needs to equip himself with
alternative strategies and carry a new message to the military leaders
when he visits Burma. It would be naïve to expect the U.N. to consider any
form of military intervention. Even if Gambari and Ban were to consider
it, no country will be willing to accept such offer at this time. The
office of the secretary general could recommend a Security Council’s
tougher action, including a binding resolution, but it will again be
rejected by China and Russia.

If the UN decides to leave the Burmese people to resolve their country’s
problems themselves, the crisis will drag on for many more years under the
military leadership with little reform. Any popular uprising, unless the
military splits in rank and file, will again be brutally crushed.

What Gambari and Ban need to now do is to emphasize the mission of the
“Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar” by bringing
together the conflicting Eastern engagement group and the Western sanction
group to engage in an effective and coordinated international approach.

One other pragmatic strategy will be pushing the new Obama administration
to pursue the Congress-created special envoy post for Burma. Sanctions
hurt but it alone is not effective in resolving Burma’s political problems
especially when there is engagement on the other end.

While sanctions are in place, the new envoy should start initiating a
'carrot and stick' policy by working together with key international
players. The one similar to the North Korean six-party talk model should
be given emphasis on Burma. It was not only the stick that worked but also
the carrot. The US offered energy and food assistance to the North Korean
leadership. A similar initiative should be taken by both the U.S. and U.N.
in dealing with the Burmese military generals.

The Burma talks, also a six-party negotiation involving the United States,
European Union, ASEAN, China, India, and Burma should be initiated. In the
beginning, the junta and some countries might resist the proposal, but we
need to remember that the North Korean talks were also initially not
supported by all parties.

The international community must understand that Burma’s problem is
ethno-political, and not just political. The present Union of Burma was
formed by different independent nationalities at the Panglong agreement in
1947. Any democracy, without addressing the country’s multi-ethnic
problems, will lead to another crisis. As much as the military regime is
core of the problem, it is also an indispensable part of the solution.

Nehginpao Kipgen is the General Secretary of US-based Kuki International
Forum (www.kukiforum.com) and a researcher on the rise of political
conflicts in modern Burma.

____________________________________

January 29, The Nation (Thailand)
Burmese suffer at the hands of Asean and Asia – Egoy N Bans

The ill treatment of Rohingya refugees at the hands of the Thai
authorities is horrific and lamentable, but not surprising. I appreciate
the action of Prime Minister Abhisit in investigating the situation, but
it is time that Thailand and other Asian nations looked at their treatment
of migrants. There is a necessity to investigate the overarching blindness
and inhumanity of regional politicians towards the people of Burma. It's
not just Thailand. This past week came news about Malaysian involvement in
the trafficking of migrants from Burma.

People act as if this is a one-off event, forgetting the daily occurrences
throughout Asia of people from Burma being stomped upon under the boots of
businesses and governments. Millions have fled, only to take up "3D" jobs
- dirty, dangerous, and demeaning. Moreover, it seems that many in Asia
are afraid to truly ask why these people are leaving Burma, what is
spurring them to risk their lives to escape their home.

I once heard a Thai politician say that Burma is Thailand's Mexico,
comparing the wave of migrant workers from Mexico to the US. This
horrendous comparison shows that leaders do not want to recognise the
extremity of the violence in Burma, the deep brutality that the military
junta uses to dominate and erase its people. It is not just a situation of
poverty, but widespread social, political, economic and physical violence
that Burma's military junta inflicts on its people.

These are not just cases of inhumanity, it's Asia hiding its head in the
sand. Chinese, Indian and Asean leaders proclaim their motto of
non-interference while their companies enter Burma to extract Burma's
natural resources; and while reaping the benefits of industry, support
systematic human rights violations.

Weak and infrequent statements asking Burma's junta to take steps towards
democracy are not enough, and courage must be taken by Asian leaders to
make bolder measures.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 29, Reporters Without Borders
Petition launched for release of two Burmese bloggers serving sentences of
20 and 59 years in prison

Reporters Without Borders urges the international community not to forget
Nay Phone Latt (http://www.nayphonelatt.net/), a Burmese blogger who was
arrested exactly one year ago today and was sentenced on 10 November to 20
years and six months in prison, or Zarganar, one of Burma’s best known
comedians, who is serving a 59-year jail sentence in appalling conditions
for criticising the military government online.

“On this sad anniversary for Nay Phone Latt, we are launching petition for
his and Zarganar’s release,” Reporters Without Borders said. “They did
nothing to deserve these punishments and must be freed. Nay Phone Latt’s
only crime was to be caught in possession of a film regarded as subversive
by the military government. Zarganar was convicted solely for expressing
his views.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Their trials were farces organised
by special courts that take their orders directly from the government. The
international community, especially UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon’s
special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, who is due to visit Burma shortly, need to
pay close attention to what is going on.”

Aged 28, Nay Phone Latt was arrested on 29 January 2008 with several
members of the opposition National League for Democracy, who were released
a few hours later. He received a combined jail sentence of 20 years and
six months on 10 November from a special court inside Insein prison that
was headed by judge Daw Soe Nyaam.

The sentence consisted of two years for violating article 505 (b) of the
Criminal Code (which punishes defamation of the state), three years and
six months for violating article 32 (b) of the Video Act and 15 years for
violating article 33 (a) of the Electronic Act. He is suffering from eye
problems but has not been allowed to see a doctor. He is due for release
in 2028.

Zarganar, who kept a blog that was widely read by Burmese Internet users
both in Burma and abroad, was arrested on 5 June 2008 for writing in his
blog about the widespread criticism of the government’s relief efforts
after the country was devastated by a cyclone the previous month.
Sentenced to 45 years in prison under the Electronic Act by the Insein
prison court on 21 November 2008, he was given an additional 14-year jail
sentence for unspecified “offences” six days later. He is due to be
released in 2067.

Nay Phone Latt and Zarganar were awarded a special press freedom prize by
Reporters Without Borders on 4 December.