BurmaNet News, January 30, 2009

[Editor]

January 30, 2009, Issue #3642


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Monk U Arnanda dies in detention
Time: A closer look at Burma's ethnic minorities
New Light of Myanmar: Rohinja not included in national races of Myanmar

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: Poverty drives Myanmar Rohingyas into death traps
Mizzima News: Watch out for Bangladesh and Thailand: Military commander
IMNA: Flow of migrant workers to Thailand undaunted as Kingdom's economy
flounders

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade hit over $2 bln in eight months of
2008-09

DRUGS
Irrawaddy: Raids in Rangoon yield more heroin

REGIONAL
Xinhua: Indonesia to repatriate stranded Rohingyas refugees
AFP: Asylum seekers in Japan double: government

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Amnesty: Burma must respect Rohingya minority
Irrawaddy: US Envoy to UN signals support for ‘R2P’

OPINION / OTHER
Boston Globe: A mission to Burma – Editorial
The Canadian: Burma's governance operates reminiscent of George Orwell's
1984 – Kirk Duffin
Asia Times: Book Review: Merchants of Madness by Bertil Lintner and
Michael Black – David Scott Mathieson

PRESS RELEASE
BCUK: UK Government - Burma’s 2010 election will entrench military rule



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Monk U Arnanda dies in detention – Nan Kham Kaew

Monk U Arnanda, 61, of North Okkalapa township's Thitsa Tharaphu monastery
has died in detention in Insein prison, according to a relative of another
political prisoner.

The relative said U Arnanda’s nephew had told him the monk had died on 22
January of unknown causes.

"Insein prison informed North Okkalapa police station of his death, and
they called the National Head Monks’ Association who contacted Thitsa
Tharaphu monastery and they passed on the news to the family," the
relative said.

Several other monks and nuns held in the prison have been suffering health
problems due to the lack of provisions, the relative said.

"About 15 monks and nuns arrested from North Okkalapa monasteries, aged
between 32-70, are suffering from malnutrition as they were banned family
visits to accept food and necessary items," he said.

"About four of them are can’t even walk."

Fifteen monks and nuns from Thitsa Tharaphu monastery were sentenced to
four years and three months on 12 August last year, on charges of defaming
the Sasana and distributing pornographic material.

____________________________________

January 30, Time
A closer look at Burma's ethnic minorities – Hannah Beech

Living under the thumb of a brutal junta, the average Burmese hardly leads
an easy life. But the plight of the country's ethnic minorities, many of
whom once waged long and bloody insurgencies against the military regime,
is even worse. As a new human-rights report released on Jan. 28, as well
as the recent stories of destitute refugees who fled Burma attest to,
members of Burma's ethnic groups face persistent discrimination by the
military regime. They are the targets of unpaid forced labor campaigns,
scorched-earth policies that destroy farmland and relocation programs that
require entire villages to move at a moment's notice.

Called Myanmar by its military leaders, Burma derives its name from the
Buddhist Burman (or Bamar) people. The country's largest ethnic group, the
Burman historically lived in Burma's central and upper plains. But this
patchwork country of 55 million is made up of more than 100 unique
ethnicities. The isolation enforced by Burma's numerous mountains and
hills helped nurture these culturally discrete groups, making it one of
the most diverse countries in Southeast Asia, despite its relatively small
geographic size. Here are five ethnicities, some of who have
unsuccessfully waged long insurgencies against the central government and
others who have made news recently because of the abuses they have
suffered at the hands of the Burman-dominated regime.

Rohingya

Perhaps the most exploited minority in Burma, the Rohingya are a Muslim
group that has been refused citizenship by the Burmese government by the
Burmese government since 1982 when the junta implemented a citizenship
law. As a consequence, the stateless Rohingya, who number around 800,000
in western Burma and physically resemble Bengalis, are prime targets for
forced-labor drives by the junta. Since the military took power in 1962,
hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand,
where their illegal-immigrant status makes them vulnerable to labor
abuses.

In January, navy troops and fishermen in India and Indonesia discovered
dozens of Rohingya boat people drifting in their countries' territorial
waters. Some survivors alleged that their efforts to seek sanctuary in
Thailand were thwarted by the Thai Navy, which forcibly herded them onto
leaking boats without enough food or water and set them to sea. The
survivors also claimed they were beaten by Thai forces — and that several
of their fellow passengers were shot to death by the Thais. Although
plenty of Rohingya have found illegal and low-paid work on Thai fishing
fleets, the Thai government outwardly maintains a strict stance toward
these would-be immigrants: On January 28th, Thailand convicted more than
60 Rohingya of illegal entry and announced they would be deported.

Shan

Clustered in the northeastern hills of Burma, the Buddhist Shan were
accorded a measure of self-rule by British colonialists. When Burma became
independent in 1948, they agreed to join the fledgling nation in return
for autonomy. But the promise, say Shan opposition groups, was never kept
— and several militias were soon formed to fight against the Burmese army.
Although a ceasefire was signed in the mid-90s by most Shan groups, the
minority's resistance is still active in pockets. Over the past decade,
forced relocations by the Burmese military of tens of thousands of Shan,
who are thought in total to number at least 5 million, have garnered
condemnation by international human-rights organizations.

Chin

Overwhelmingly Christian, the Chin live in the impoverished mountains near
the India-Burma border. An armed wing of the Chin National Front, which
was founded in 1988, is one of the few remaining forces waging an
insurgency against the ruling junta, but it has been accused by
human-rights groups of mistreating its own people. Like the Rohingya, the
Chin claim the junta persecutes them in part because of their religious
beliefs. Most Chin are American Baptists, having been converted by
missionaries in the 19th century. Although tens of thousands of Chin are
believed to have sought refuge in India since the junta came to power, the
New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch claimed in a report released on Jan
28 that New Delhi has forcibly repatriated many Chin, essentially handing
them back to their persecutors.

Karen

The second-largest ethnic group after the Burmans, the Karen have also
waged a long rebellion against the Burmese junta seeking either
self-determination or even independence, depending on which insurgence
group. Both Christian and Buddhist, the Karen have been plagued by
internal strife between rival factions over the past couple of decades. A
general ceasefire framework with the central government is in place but
occasional flashpoints of fighting still occur. Karen villagers, who tend
to live in the Irrawaddy Delta and in the border region between Burma and
Thailand, have been victims of forced relocation and labor programs run by
the Burmese military.

Kachin

Mostly Christians, the Kachin live in northern Burma and were famous
during colonial times for their battle skills. Although they, too, waged a
decades-long armed struggle against the Burman-dominated regime, the
Kachin signed a ceasefire with the government in 1994. Despite a boom in
forestry and casinos in Kachin State, quality of life for many Kachin
remains poor, with forced-labor campaigns common, along with
human-trafficking to nearby China.

____________________________________

January 30, New Light of Myanmar
Rohinja not included in national races of Myanmar

Some foreign media recently reported and broadcast that some Rohinjas were
attempting to illegally enter Thailand in motorized boats from the sea;
that the Royal Thai Navy arrested them and forced them back to sea; and
that some of them were from Myanmar.

The Rohinja is not included in over 100 national races of the Union of
Myanmar.

Moreover, a statement released yesterday by Thailand did not mention that
those who made attempt to illegally enter Thailand from the sea were from
Myanmar.

Nevertheless, the departments concerned of the Government of the Union of
Myanmar will take necessary measures in connection with the above matter.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 30, Reuters
Poverty drives Myanmar Rohingyas into death traps – Nizam Ahmed

Mohammad Iqbal was one of a 250-strong group of stateless Rohingya who
left Bangladesh a month ago in a rickety wooden boat, lured by agents
promising a job in Malaysia.

Now his family is hoping he is one of those who survived brutal treatment
at the hands of the Thai military who have admitted to towing hundreds of
the Muslim boatpeople from Bangladesh and Myanmar far out in the Andaman
Sea before cutting them adrift.

"I am waiting and waiting. No one knows anything about my husband and the
others who were in the group," Iqbal's wife, Nur Kahtun, said in the
coastal village of Fadanardale, 400 km (250 miles) southeast of the
Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

Some people in the village said they had seen pictures of Iqbal, 30, in a
television footage of a detention centre for illegal migrants in Thailand.

"I don't know if it is true, we haven't heard from him since he left," she
said as her two-year-old son and her mother-in-law looked on.

More than 550 Rohingya, a Muslim minority group in pre-dominantly Buddhist
Myanmar, are feared to have drowned in the last two months after being
towed out to sea by the Thai military.

The Thai army has admitted cutting them loose, but said they had food and
water and denied the engines were sabotaged.

A group of 78 Rohingya are now in Thai police custody while another
boatload of 193 washed up on Indonesia's Aceh coast.

Myanmar's military junta does not recognize the Rohingya as one of the
country's around 130 minorities, and many have fled to Bangladesh alleging
persecution at the hands of the military.

Bangladesh says there are some 200,000 Rohingyas living illegally in the
country, in addition to the 21,000 housed in two UN refugee camps in the
Cox's Bazar district.

It is the men and women who are outside the camps who are fighting a
desperate struggle for survival

Many such as Iqbal have been lured by human traffickers offering them jobs
in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

"They (traffickers) take 30,000 taka (about $450) or more from each
individual looking for a life in Malaysia or neighbouring countries,"
Iqbal's mother Nurun said.

"But not many could afford this. Those who did are cheated by the
traffickers, like being dropped on unknown shores," she said.

The lucky ones have found work in Bangladesh, on fishing boats or
rickshaws. Others have taken to chopping wood in forests and some others
have taken to petty crime.

"These people take so much risks only because they need to survive, need
to keep their families well," said a government official in Cox Bazaar.

(Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

____________________________________

January 30, Mizzima News
Watch out for Bangladesh and Thailand: Military commander – Mungpi

Burma's military generals in a secret meeting warned commanders and
officers to beware of Bangladesh in the wake of a maritime dispute between
the two countries in November.

Maj-Gen Soe Win, commander of the Northern Military Command, during a
meeting held recently said that Burma considers Bangladesh a hostile
neighbour, and warned commanders and officers to keep an eye on
Bangladesh's military movements.

The minutes of the meeting held in Naypyitaw, a copy of which is in
Mizzima's possession, said while Burma was exploring for gas in its
territorial waters and in its economic zone, Bangladesh had strongly
opposed the activity that led Burma to withdraw.

"In other words," Soe Win said, "Bangladesh is provoking us." Soe Win also
accused the United States, which has imposed financial sanctions on the
generals, of backing and inciting Bangladesh to oppose the exploration.

Besides, Soe Win, voicing the general's paranoia, said the army has
received information of movements of US Navy fleets using Thai and
Bangladesh waters as a base.

"Therefore, all must understand that there is a likelihood of foreign
invasion and we must carefully observe military movements," Soe Win added.

During the meeting, attended by several field officers and commanders, Soe
Win reminded them of the need to maintain vigilance along the border areas
as a preparation for any possible intrusion from foreign countries.

Though there seems to be no other verification for Soe Win's fears, the
Generals, however, are reportedly intensifying military presence in Arakan
state, which borders Bangladesh.

According to a Bangladesh-Burma border based Burmese journalist, the junta
is stepping up its military presence, particularly the artillery battalion
in the border township of Maungdaw in Burma's western Arakan state.

"The junta is shifting several of its battalions to a new military base in
Maungdaw. Particularly the artillery battalion," the journalist, who
requested not to be named, told Mizzima.

The journalist, citing local sources in the area said the Burmese Army is
being stationed in a long stretch of valley behind the cover of mountains
to conceal their presence.

"It looks to me that the army is preparing for an impending war or some
kind of conflict. But we don't know against whom," he added.

Similarly, an Editor of the Dhaka based Burmese News Agency Narinjara told
Mizzima that in recent months, at least 13 battalions of the Burmese Army
have moved up to northern Arakan state in Maungdaw Township.

"We also can confirmed that the army is building an airbase in Maungdaw
Township," Narinjara's editor Khaing Mrat Kyaw said.

He added that Burma's military leaders including Vice Snr. Gen. Maung Aye,
the junta's second strongman, and Prime Minister Thein Sein have paid
visits to Arakan state in recent weeks to check on the progress.

"Obviously it is some kind of preparation. And I think the junta wants to
make a come back in the Bay of Bengal to continue the gas exploration,"
Khaing Mrat Kyaw said.

"They seem to be really sore with Bangladesh over the last dispute,"
Khaing Mrat Kyaw remarked.

In early November, Bangladesh and Burma had a face off, when Bangladesh
objected to the exploration work of a South Korean company Daewoo, which
was accompanied by Burmese naval vessels in the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh said the block in which the Burmese vessel and Daewoo were test
drilling comes under its maritime boundary and immediately sent two Navy
vessels to the spot.

Burmese generals, though saying that the area belongs to the Burmese
economic zone, later moved out of the area.

During the stand off Bangladesh deployed two naval vessels in the Bay of
Bengal and reinforced its border security, but Burma was unable to bring
in timely reinforcements, Khaing Mrat Kyaw said.

"I think that's why they are now building their bases and even
constructing roads and railways, so that they can move their army anytime
quickly," Khaing Mrat Kyaw observed.

____________________________________

January 30, Independent Mon News Agency
Flow of migrant workers to Thailand undaunted as Kingdom's economy flounders

Dire economic circumstances continue to drive Burmese workers to seek
employment in Thailand, in spite of the country's worsening economic
situation and unusual numbers of unemployed workers leaving the Kingdom.

According to checkpoint officials and brokers responsible for smuggling
migrant workers into Thailand, the number of workers seeking employment in
the Kingdom has not changed, though the number of available jobs is
decreasing.

"The number of workers [leaving for Thailand] this year and last year is
the same," said a New Mon State Party official from the Tadein checkpoint
along the Three Pagodas Pass to Thanbyuzayat (Thanpyuzayart) road. The
road is the primary dry-season link between the Three Pagodas Pass border
crossing and interior Mon and Karen states.

"I think the number of workers entering Thailand is the same this year as
last year. I don't know exactly how many people, but my business is the
same as before," said a broker in Three Pagodas Pass. Two other brokers
also working in the Three Pagodas Pass area independently agreed.

Job prospects in Thailand, meanwhile, are at all time lows. The country's
overall economy is sliding backwards, with UBS, one the country's most
respected brokerage firms, recently estimating that growth rates will drop
to negative 2% in 2009. The slowdown is being felt amongst migrant
workers, and news agencies like the Irrawaddy began reporting in November
the layoffs of thousands of Burmese workers.

The number of workers returning to Burma appears to be on the increase. A
broker based in Mae Sot, Thailand, told IMNA that, in the past, he
regularly returned three groups of workers to Burma each week. Now, he
said, he is returning a group of workers every day.

Weak job prospects and the flow of unemployed peers heading home does not
seem to be daunting outward-bound workers, however. "People know in
Thailand there are fewer jobs than before. But there are jobs still
because there are things the Thai citizens do not want to do, so Burmese
people can find a job," a broker in Three Pagodas Pass explained.

Workers from Mon State describe an economy shell-shocked by plummeting
rubber and paddy prices. Rubber and paddy and Mon State's two primary
products, and with rubber worth just a 25% of its 2008 value and paddy
75%, the economy is in shambles.

"The economy is not good for our family. In our village, we just have the
paddy fields and the paddy price is down. So we have many problems. My
mother who is already working in Thailand called me to come work with her,
so I have to go," a 15-year-old boy from Mon State on his way to work in
Thailand told IMNA.

"We have to rely on our plantations. Now rubber and betel nut prices have
gone down, but food still costs the same," said a woman from Mon State,
30, interviewed near Three Pagodas Pass as she and her husband made their
way to Thailand. "We cannot earn enough to eat. So even though we hear
that there are fewer jobs in Thailand, we still think it will be better
than here. We may not want to go, but we have to go."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 30, Xinhua
Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade hit over $2 bln in eight months of 2008-09

Myanmar-Thailand bilateral trade hit 2.21 billion U.S. dollars in the
first eight months of the fiscal year 2008-09 ending March, the local
Weekly Eleven journal reported Friday.

Thailand stands first in Myanmar's foreign trade partner line-up, followed
by China, Singapore, India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea,
Bangladesh and Vietnam.

In 2006-07, Thailand and Myanmar bilateral trade including both normal
trade and border trade amounted to 2.7 billion dollars, while in 2007-08
it reached 3.19 billion dollars.

Thailand exported to Myanmar textile, shoes, marine products, rice,
rubber, jewelry, motor cars, computer and electronic accessories, while
Myanmar exported to Thailand forestry products, marine products,
agricultural produces and natural gas.

The report also said China remained the second among Myanmar's foreign
trade partners with 1.8 billion dollars in the first eight months of
2008-09. In 2007-08, it was 1.6 billion dollars and 1.3 billion dollars in
2006-07.

Statistics show that in the first three quarters (April-December) of the
2008-09, Myanmar's foreign trade volume hit over 8.5 billion dollars up
21.95 percent from the same period of 2007-08 when it registered over 7
billion dollars.

Of the 8.5 billion dollars' foreign trade, 7.5 billion dollars were gained
through normal trade, while over 1 billion dollars were obtained through
border trade, up 24 percent and 8.32 percent respectively.

Of the three-quarter period's foreign trade, the exports amounted to over
4.5 billion dollars with normal trade and 500 million dollars with border
trade, increasing by 14.3 percent and dropping by 2.88 percent
respectively.

Of Myanmar's export items during the period, beans and pulses took over
900,000 tons in quantity, getting 500 million dollars, while rice
accounted for 200,000 tons, earning 60 million dollars, the report said.

Under the current status, Myanmar is trading with over 80 countries and
regions through normal trade with Thailand standing top as Myanmar's
trading partner traditionally without change.

____________________________________
DRUGS

January 30, Irrawaddy
Raids in Rangoon yield more heroin

Police and customs officers in Rangoon have confirmed that a special
anti-narcotics task force has seized substantial quantities of heroin in a
series of raids carried out in the former Burmese capital since late last
week.

Police said at least 28 kilograms of heroin were found last Sunday in a
container on the Singaporean-flagged ship Kota Tegap, which was docked at
the Asia World Port Terminal, located in Rangoon’s Ahlone Township.

The port is owned by Tun Myint Naing, the son of former drug kingpin and
militia leader Lo Hsing Han and one of those listed for sanctions by the
US Treasury Department.

According to a report by Washington-based Radio Free Asia, the container,
which was bound for Singapore, is owned by the Myanmar Timber Enterprise,
a government-owned business that is also under US sanctions.

Police told The Irrawaddy on Friday that in a subsequent sting operation,
the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) discovered another
large cache of heroin in FMI City, an upscale residential area in Hlaing
Tharyar Township. Further details were not available.

The CCDAC is a high-level task force chaired by Minister for Home Affairs
Maj-Gen Maung Oo. Brig-Gen Khin Yi, the director general of the national
police force, serves as secretary of the committee, which is based in the
junta’s capital of Naypyidaw.

According to sources at the customs department, the police special
intelligence department, known as the Special Branch, is now questioning
port employees, high-ranking government officials and prominent
businessmen in connection with the heroin seizure at the Asia World Port
Terminal last weekend.

Observers say that drug traffickers are increasingly using maritime routes
to smuggle drugs out of Burma due to a tough suppression campaign by
neighboring countries such as Thailand and China.

On Tuesday, the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma reported that Kyaw
Kyaw Min, a crab exporter in Bogalay Township, Irrawaddy Division, was
arrested for attempting to smuggle 32 kilograms of heroin out of the
country aboard a container ship.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau seized 44.2 kilograms of
heroin last year, up from 17.2 kilograms seized in 2007, the Straits Times
reported Friday.

A shipment of 11 kilograms of high-grade heroin, bound for the European
market, was seized in June, said the report, adding that it was the
biggest seizure of its kind in the last 10 years. The report added that
most of the heroin came from Thailand and Burma.

According to the 2008 World Drug Report, opium poppy cultivation in
Southeast Asia increased by 22 percent last year, mainly driven by a 29
percent increase in opium cultivation in Burma.

The Burmese regime seized 103.8 kilograms of heroin and 1,690 kilograms of
opium from January 2007 to June 2008, according to official figures.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 30, Xinhua
Indonesia to repatriate stranded Rohingyas refugees

Indonesia will send 193 Roohingyas refugees to their home country Myanmar
after their boat stranded on a small island off Aceh province early this
month, foreign ministry said here Friday.

Spokesman of the Ministry Teuku Faizasyah said that the ministry had
concluded the investigation of the purpose of the boat people since the
beginning of their stranding and now it was strengthened by more
information gathered by a team from the ministry who were visiting the
refugees in Aceh along with the International Organization of Migrant
(IOM) at the recent days.

"The result of the collecting information since the beginning until today
is very strong that their motives are for economy," he told Xinhua over
phone.

"So, we will deport them," Faizasyah stressed.

However, the time for deportation had not determined yet, he said.

The Rohingyas are Muslims minority from Myanmar.

Indonesian authorities have sent the stranded refugees to Sabang naval
base in Sabang town of Aceh province.

____________________________________

January 30, Agence France Presse
Asylum seekers in Japan double: government

The number of asylum seekers in Japan doubled last year amid turmoil in
Myanmar but only a small number of them were granted refugee status,
government figures showed Friday.

Japan imposes tight restrictions on immigration and has faced
international criticism for not granting sanctuary to more asylum seekers,
even though it is a major aid provider to refugees overseas.

The number of asylum seekers in Japan rose to 1,599 from 816 a year
earlier, the immigration office said. Japan granted refugee status to 57
of them -- more than 90 percent of whom were from Myanmar.

Japan also gave a record 360 people permission to stay temporarily on
humanitarian grounds.

Japan late last year also agreed to accept a handful of Myanmar refugees
living in camps in Thailand, marking the first time it has joined a UN-led
resettlement plan.

The increase in asylum seekers follows a deteriorating situation in
Myanmar, where the military junta crushed pro-democracy protests in late
2007.

Impoverished Myanmar was also hit last year by Cyclone Nargis which killed
138,366 people, according to UN figures.

Of the asylum seekers, 979 were from Myanmar, followed by 156 Turks and 90
Sri Lankans, the immigration office said.

By comparison, the United States resettles up to 50,000 refugees a year.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 30, Agence France Presse
Amnesty: Burma must respect Rohingya minority

A leading human rights group Friday called on Burma to stop persecuting
its Rohingya people and urged its neighbours to meet their humanitarian
obligations.

London-based Amnesty International said in an open letter the mistreatment
of the Muslim minority from Burma's western Rakhine State was the "root
cause'' of a crisis which has seen thousands of migrants cast adrift in
open seas.

"Burma must immediately stop the persecution of the Rohingya minority,
which is the root cause of the crisis,'' said the letter, signed by
Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi and circulated to six Asian
nations.

"All governments should meet their obligations under the law of the sea
and provide assistance to those in distress at sea,'' it added.

Thailand's military was accused of towing hundreds of Rohingya people out
to sea in poorly equipped boats with scant food and water.

The accusations surfaced earlier this month after nearly 650 Rohingya were
rescued off India and Indonesia, some claiming to have been beaten by Thai
soldiers. Hundreds of the boat people are still believed to be missing at
sea.

"The Thai government must stop forcibly expelling Rohingyas and provide
them with immediate humanitarian assistance and cease any plans to proceed
with more expulsions,'' the letter continued.

Amnesty said it was "encouraged'' by reports that Thai premier Abhisit
Vejjajiva had invited the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) to
participate in a regional forum on the issue.

Meanwhile, UNHCR on Friday refused to comment on the condition of
teenagers from Burma being held in Thai custody out of "courtesy'' to
Thailand's government.

UNHCR on Thursday visited 12 teenagers being held in Thailand's southern
Ranong province -- part of a group of 78 migrants discovered off southern
Thailand on Monday.

They claim abuse at home but Burma's junta denies the existence of the
Rohingya as an ethnic group in the mainly Buddhist country and claims the
migrants are Bangladeshis.

On Friday Indonesia said it would repatriate the 174 Rohingya migrants
found off its coastline, currently being detained on an Indonesian naval
base.

____________________________________

January 30, Irrawaddy
US Envoy to UN signals support for ‘R2P’ – John Heilprin

US Ambassador Susan Rice signaled on Thursday during her first appearance
before the UN Security Council that President Barack Obama's
administration feels a "responsibility" to sometimes take on nations that
abuse their own citizens.

"As agreed to by member states in 2005 and by the Security Council in
2006, the international community has a responsibility to protect civilian
populations from violations of international humanitarian law when states
are unwilling or unable to do so," Rice told the council, without
elaborating, during a closed-door session.

"But this commitment is only as effective as the willingness of all
nations, large and small, to take concrete action. The United States takes
this responsibility seriously," she said, according to a transcript of her
remarks made available to reporters later.

During the past year the UN has debated whether it has a "responsibility
to protect" civilians in such cases.

Last May, for example, the council discussed a proposal by France to
authorize the UN to enter Burma and deliver aid without waiting for
approval from the nation's ruling military junta. Several countries,
citing issues of sovereignty, blocked the idea.

France had argued that the UN has the responsibility—and power—because of
language adopted at a UN summit in 2005 saying the world body sometimes
has a "responsibility to protect" people from genocide, war crimes and
ethnic cleansing when nations fail to do it. A Security Council resolution
adopted in 2006 reaffirmed that agreement.

Rice also emphasized, in keeping with the subject of Thursday's council
meeting, that the U. would work to strengthen protections for civilians in
conflict zones and support international prosecutions of war crimes.

"It is in this spirit of cooperation and determination that we will seek
to use this body of international law to minimize human suffering and
protect vulnerable populations," Rice said.

She said the International Criminal Court "looks to become an important
and credible instrument for trying to hold accountable the senior
leadership responsible for atrocities committed in the Congo, Uganda and
Darfur."

The US opposed the court's creation and for the past decade refused to
join it. The court is not part of the United Nations, but the 107 nations
that ratified the 1998 treaty creating it, along with the UN, are
responsible for responding to its requests for cooperation.

As former president George W. Bush's administration wound down, the United
States became a strident supporter of bringing Sudan's president before
the court on charges of orchestrating atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region.

Rice, who began work at the UN on Monday, defended Israel while pressuring
it to account for its military actions. Much of Thursday's council
discussions revolved around Israel's three-week offensive and January 18
cease-fire in Gaza, diplomats said.

"Violations of international humanitarian law have been perpetrated by
Hamas through its rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in southern
Israel and the use of civilian facilities to provide protection for its
terrorist attacks. There have also been numerous allegations made against
Israel, some of which are deliberately designed to inflame," Rice said.

"We expect Israel will meet its international obligations to investigate,
and we also call upon all members of the international community to
refrain from politicizing these important issues," she said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 30, Boston Globe
Boston Globe: A mission to Burma – Editorial

THE UNITED NATIONS special envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, is now en
route for his seventh visit to that country, which has become a virtual
prison camp under its military junta. Gambari's UN mandate is to gain the
release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, along with all
other political prisoners, and to persuade the junta to include her
National League for Democracy in an effort toward political
reconciliation.

In his previous visits, Gambari failed to move the regime toward dialogue
with the league, an opposition party that won over 80 percent of
parliamentary seats in Burma's last free election in 1990 - a result the
junta refused to honor. Worse yet, during his last visit Gambari foolishly
asked the league to participate in the sham election that dictator General
Than Shwe wants to stage in 2010. Under a rigged 2008 constitution, Suu
Kyi would be prohibited from even voting, and 25 percent of Parliament
seats would go to the military.

On this trip, Gambari should stick to his orders, demanding Suu Kyi's
freedom and dialogue with her party. And if he is granted permission to
meet with her, he should insist that she be allowed to confer first with
party leaders who are not in prison.

In June, on the occasion of Suu Kyi's 63d birthday, Barack Obama saluted
her, saying: "She has sacrificed family and ultimately her freedom to
remain true to her people and the cause of liberty. And she has done so
using the tools of nonviolent resistance in the great tradition of Mahatma
Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King." Obama would be acting
within that tradition if he aligned America with Burma's democrats and
pressed Gambari not to deviate from his democratizing mission.

____________________________________

January 30, The Canadian
Burma's governance operates reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984 – Kirk Duffin

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell writes of a fictional totalitarian
regime that controls the masses through propaganda and government
institutions named as antonyms. For example, The Ministry of Peace wages
constant war, while the Ministry of Plenty is charged with rationing food
and goods. Albeit, being a novel aimed at warning about the dangers of
totalitarianism, of which Orwell witnessed during the Second World War,
its fictional account holds validity in our own era.

Through the use of an Orwellian antonym, the government of Burma is
officially known as the "State Peace and Development Council", LINK In
truth, Burma, also known as Myanmar, is ruled by a military Junta, who
controls the country through the oppression of its people.

The Junta has been accused of perpetual human rights abuses, namely forced
labour camps and suppressing democratic reforms. For example, the "State
Peace and Development Council" forces scores of citizens, through threats
of violence and imprisonment, to toil for a foreign company in the
extraction and production of oil. Furthermore, within the Southeast
portion of Burma, forced labour is being used to aid in the construction
of a large-scale pipeline, which is being constructed by a number of oil
corporations from various nations.

Unlike Nineteen Eighty-Four, the situation in Burma is not bound by page
numbers. Ending the oppression will take international action beyond the
efforts of the United Nations. The international community cannot depend
on the UN to issue continual resolutions against the "State Peace and
Development Council". Burma will be reformed through direct intervention.
Democracy will be given to the people of Burma through physical pressure,
as opposed to constant condemnation.

Make comments about this article in The Canadian Blog.

____________________________________

January 30, Asia Times
Book Review: Merchants of Madness by Bertil Lintner and Michael Black –
David Scott Mathieson

International drug experts and Myanmar's military regime have for years
trumpeted the terminal decline of opium cultivation in the notorious
Golden Triangle area. Self-congratulatory predictions of opium's last gasp
in Southeast Asia, however, were recently met with a harsh reality:
production actually increased by 46% in 2007, according to the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Alarming as this sounds, including the explosion of amphetamine-type
stimulants (ATS), better known as speed, there can be no confidence that
drug control in Myanmar will any time soon turn successful. Dramatic ATS
production from northern Myanmar (some estimates claim hundreds of
millions of pills a year) have since the mid-1990s enriched
narco-entrepreneurs and their ethnic insurgent allies and exposed the
ineffectiveness of Myanmar's United Nations-backed drug control program.

Bertil Lintner, one of the world's most-respected analysts of Myanmar's
Byzantine drug trade, with co-author Michael Black, a security writer with
Jane's Intelligence Review, have written a short, sharp book on the
dynamics of Myanmar's ATS trade. Merchants of Madness has the fast pace
and almost unbelievable dramatics of a thriller. That is, except that it's
all true.

In several brisk chapters, the authors outline the history of global ATS
consumption, increased production in Myanmar from 1989, and its gradual
spread through regional trafficking networks. There is also a detailed
analysis of the main players, the business of making and distributing ATS,
and the connivance of the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) in allowing the illicit trade to flourish.

A 2003 study by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) argued that
ATS are attractive to criminal enterprises because of their differences to
agricultural drug production, such as opium, coca leaf or marijuana. As
the book puts it, "There is no dependence on growing seasons; no large
workforce is required; necessary chemicals are easily obtained; it is easy
to locate laboratories near consumer markets; and there is a high profit
return on their investment."

This could read like a template for the activities of Myanmar's major ATS
producers, including the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the Myanmar National
Democratic Alliance Army and other actors who are at least nominally
allied to the ruling military regime. There is an ironic symbiosis: the
main markets for Myanmar manufactured ATS - Thailand and China, and
increasingly India and Vietnam - also provide the essential precursor
chemicals needed to produce the drug.

Merchants conveys a strong message about the destructive effects that ATS
trafficking and consumption have had on mainland Southeast Asia and its
bordering states. According to UNODC's 2008 Global ATS Survey, 6% of the
world's population between the ages of 15 and 64 are regular ATS users.
Even though this figure has dropped since 2001, when 8% of the world's
population was estimated to habitually use amphetamines, it is still much
higher than other drug consumption figures: 3% for heroin, 4% for cocaine
and 2% for ecstasy.

Despite some optimism that a global epidemic has seemed to plateau in
recent years, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa recently
claimed that the situation in Asia had actually "worsened" and that
overall drug consumption in the region is on the rise. In Thailand, which
conducted a controversial "war against drugs" in 2003, consumption and
trafficking patterns are reportedly starting to reach levels not seen for
a decade.

The rise can at least partially be attributed to Myanmar drug merchants'
innovative marketing. There are more than 100 "brands" of ATS identified
by the Thai Office of Narcotics Control Board, appealing through variety
to everyone from dance club ravers to young teenagers. Syndicates inside
Myanmar have also expanded their product mix into MDMA, or ecstasy, which
is known in Thailand as yaa-ee.

The authors feature 16 major players from various ethnic non-state armed
groups and criminal syndicates, some of whom freely attend major state
functions in Myanmar. At the top of the trade, according to the book, is
ethnic Chinese drug-lord Wei Xuegang, scion, in narco-lineage terms, to
the country's biggest drug empire. He has worked as a drug trade
contractor for every known major narco-business in Myanmar, first with the
Kuomingtang, then in cahoots with Sino-Shan warlord General Khun Sa, and,
from 1989, the UWSA. Wei was indicted in absentia on heroin-trafficking
charges in 1993 by a New York federal court.

Wei has ingeniously leveraged his official and underworld contacts and
access to capital to run the finances for the UWSA's political wing, which
is currently controlled by Bao Youxiang and his four brothers. The authors
write that Bao and the UWSA appear to have a genuine desire to help their
own people, seen in their provision of public services and requests for
international assistance, but that in the final analysis those gestures
don't eclipse their pivotal role in the human destruction wrought by the
ATS trade.

Like any good illicit enterprise, drug production requires clearly defined
and well-protected territory. In urban settings this is usually negotiated
by gang violence or through local ethnic or clan hegemony in which family
crime groups operate and turn a profit within the protection of their
community. But in Myanmar, the authors contend, the government has sorted
it all out. Following the breakup of the Communist Party of Burma in 1989,
the heavily armed mutineers of the Wa and Kokang areas near the Chinese
border reformed into nominal political groups.

The regime, then situated in Rangoon, made the following arrangements:
hold your territory, get rich, don't fight us and we'll get back to you.
The result was the creation of various "special regions" in the remote
Shan State, which first became opium-cultivation havens and later evolved
into ATS production zones. Drug profits have been plowed into roads,
hotels and casino towns, giving rise to a sort of narco-development model.

The UWSA-controlled Special Region Two also happens to host a number of UN
drug eradication officials and other international aid agencies, somewhat
ironically considering the sustained export of narcotics from the area.
For countries and organizations pouring financial assistance into Myanmar,
or for any private company considering doing business in the
underdeveloped country, the rogue's gallery and their often hidden
neighborhood business empires outlined in this volume are certainly worth
a close read.
One of the most entertaining, if shocking, sections in Merchants is the
description of the town of Mong La, home to jungle casinos, glitzy
transvestite shows, Eastern European sex workers and an "anything goes"
frontier spirit. Run by one of the ATS trade's main players, Lin Minxian
(aka Sai Leun), a Chinese-born Red Guard volunteer who later became a
Burmese Communist Party cadre, Mong La became known as Shan State's
Special Region Four.

A mixture of Medellin and Las Vegas, Mong La's fortunes have over the
years waxed and waned. The town gained notoriety from 1999 as a surreal
manifestation of the free-wheeling, extra-legal, state-building
alternative witnessed in northern Myanmar's drug production zones, and was
simultaneously presented by Myanmar and Western drug eradication officials
as the supposed showpiece of progress in opium eradication. An estimated
500,000 Chinese vice tourists also visited annually to gamble, eat
endangered animal species and soak in the seedy night life.

Several Western journalists also visited the area and published stories
that often contradicted the "opium free" zone claims made beginning in
1997 by Myanmar and UN officials. This writer visited Mong La in early
2003, when it was still run as an extreme version of the ribald film
Porky's for Chinese day-trippers. The town declined dramatically beginning
in 2005, after Chinese border security guards raided the area and forced
Chinese citizens back across the border. They also shut off the town's
main electricity source. But as Lintner and Black argue, the town has
recently experienced a resurgence and is now complimented by a satellite
facility at the nearby town of Mong Ma, which has emerged as a sort of
Internet gambling hub.

Drug-lord Wei bid to carve out his own little zone of drug-fueled peace
and prosperity at Mong Yawn in Eastern Shan State. From 1999 to 2001, more
than 100,000 ethnic Wa and Lahu were forcibly relocated from the northern
Special Region Two to new settlements straddling the Thai border. This
ill-conceived opium eradication project displaced nearly 50,000 original
inhabitants in the area, creating a displaced population that died in
droves from malaria, starvation, anthrax and extra-judicial killings.

It was all a disastrous cover for Wei's mobile methamphetamine labs, which
around then started to crank out millions of pills for the burgeoning Thai
market. The destitute and desperate civilians around Mong Yawn were also
used as convenient "ants" to carry the drugs into Thailand, an incredibly
perilous task as Thai border security capabilities were beefed up with
United States' counter-narcotics assistance.

By 2001, Mong Yawn had become so notorious that Wei eventually decamped to
build a massive new mansion near Panghsang. Lintner and Black claim the
reclusive drug merchant actually prefers the quiet life: he apparently
likes to watch television, doesn't drink or smoke and often works all
night protected by hundreds of bodyguards. He is also an enterprising
investor in new areas of vice in Laos, including the massive Boten complex
on the Chinese border, a haven of gambling, prostitution and smuggling.

The book's detailed exposure of the Wei-controlled Hong Pang Group and its
various subsidiaries makes for disturbing reading and raises hard
questions about whether the current international approach to pushing for
change in Myanmar can succeed as long as the ruling regime benefits from
the drug trade. Its release is also well timed: on January 15, the US
Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identified and
sanctioned two individuals and 14 companies linked to the SPDC and drug
trade. They included businesses close to Steven Law, son of infamous drug
lord Lo Hsing Han, and his Asia World company, as well as 10 affiliated
companies operated by Law's wife, Cecilia Ng, of which at least one is
registered in Singapore.

For the full review, visit:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KA31Ae01.html

David Scott Mathieson is the Myanmar consultant for New York-based Human
Rights Watch.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 30, Burma Campaign UK
UK Government - Burma’s 2010 election will entrench military rule

British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell MP has strongly criticised
the Burmese military regime’s elections planned for 2010, saying that they
are “designed to entrench military rule behind a facade of civilian
government.”

The Burma Campaign UK welcomed the statement from the Minister, and called
on other governments to follow the British lead in recognising that the
2010 elections do not represent progress towards democracy.

“The 2010 elections could be the freest and fairest in the world, but it
would make little difference as the constitution they bring in keeps the
dictatorship in power”, said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK.
“The British government is right to condemn them. The United Nations
should focus on the release of political prisoners as a first step towards
genuine negotiations and a transition to democracy. We hope UN Envoy
Ibrahim Gambari will make this his top priority, and not be duped by the
regime’s 2010 election con.”

UN Envoy Ibrahim Gambari is due to visit Burma later this week.

Bill Rammell’s written statement came in response to a Parliamentary
Question by Jim Cunningham MP on 12th January 2009, and was published in
Hansard. The Minister also stated that; “We will continue to give our full
support to the UN Secretary General and his efforts to break the current
deadlock.”

The United Nations had been trying to broker tri-partite dialogue between
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, ethnic groups, and the
regime. The regime has defied the UN Security Council and General
Assembly, and instead pushed ahead with its so-called road-map to
democracy. Among the many undemocratic measures in the new constitution,
the military have an effective veto over decisions made by the new
Parliament and government.

Full statement from the Minister:

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment the Government have made of
the political situation in Myanmar.

Bill Rammell: The military regime in Burma is determined to maintain its
hold on power regardless of the cost and suffering of its people. The
junta's 'Roadmap to disciplined democracy', including a new constitution
and elections planned for 2010, is designed to entrench military rule
behind a facade of civilian government. The process excludes the
opposition and meaningful participation by the ethnic groups. Fundamental
rights are consistently ignored. Since early November, over 200
pro-democracy activists have been given sentences of up to 65 years in
prison. These severe sentences are clearly designed to silence all dissent
ahead of the 2010 elections. There are now over 2,200 political prisoners
in detention, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and other
pro-democracy leaders. Ethnic minority groups have been methodically
marginalised.

Against this backdrop, we will continue to do all we can to generate
international pressure for a peaceful transition to democracy and respect
for human rights in Burma. In particular, we will continue to give our
full support to the UN Secretary General and his efforts to break the
current deadlock.

For more information contact Mark Farmaner on 447941239640, or
66856495839, or call the Burma Campaign UK office on 44 2073244710.