BurmaNet News, February 5, 2009

[Editor]

February 5, 2009, Issue #3646


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Young activist given 15-year sentence
DVB: Gambari’s visit sees no progress in Burma
IMNA: Electricity now flowing from monk-driven projects in Mon State
Myanmar Times: Japan gives $2m to FAO for Nargis aid

ON THE BORDER
AP: Angelina says help Burma
Irrawaddy: Burmese migrants in limbo
Thai News Agency: Mae Hong Son tightens Myanmar border measures to bar
Rohingyas

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Rangoon factories begin cutting jobs

REGIONAL
Jakarta Globe: Rohingya refugees receive medical treatment

OPINION / OTHER
New York Times: Sneaking in where thugs rule – Nocholas D. Kristof
Economist: Knock, knock
UPI: Breaking Burma’s official secrets – Awzar Thi
Sydney Morning Herald: Setting humanity adrift

STATEMENT
UK House of Commons: Early Day Motion 671: Closure of churches in Rangoon



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 5, Irrawaddy
Young activist given 15-year sentence – Saw Yan Naing

A young activist, Dee Nyein Lin, 20, was sentenced to a total of 15 years
and six months imprisonment on Wednesday, according to family members in
Rangoon.

Dee Nyein Lin, who is a leading member of the All Burma Federation of
Student Unions (ABFSU), received an additional 5-year sentence at a court
in South Dagon Township in Rangoon, said his aunt. Currently, he is
detained in Insein Prison in Rangoon.

His aunt told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, “I’m not happy because his
sentence is harsh for him because he is still young. But, he told me not
to worry about him. He said he works for the people. He asked me not to
feel sad.”

Dee Nyein Lin was charged with taking part in anti-government
demonstrations and establishing an illegal organization.

Dee Nyein Lin’s aunt said Burmese police tried to take photographs of his
relatives and Dee Nyein Lin’s colleagues.

A colleague of Dee Nyein Lin, Kyaw Ko Ko, has been hospitalized in Insein
Prison since January 5, suffering from jaundice.

Kyaw Ko Ko, also an ABFSU leader, was arrested in March 2008 following his
participation in the Buddhist monk-led uprising in September 2007 and has
since been detained in Insein Prison. He is scheduled to appear in court
again on February 9.

Meanwhile, sources in Rangoon said that six cyclone relief volunteers
including Nay Win, Aung Kyaw San, Phone Pyit Kywe, Phyo Phyo Aung, Shane
Yazar Htun and Aung Thant Zin Oo (aka) James appeared in the Insein Prison
special court on Monday. They are scheduled to appear again on February
10.

Recently, the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners (Burma) and the Burmese Women’s Union strongly condemned the
inadequate healthcare for political prisoners in Burma.

One detained female activist recently suffered a miscarriage.

Kay Thi Aung, 23, also an ABFSU member, suffered the miscarriage in Obo
Prison in Mandalay Division because of a lack of adequate medical care in
the prison, said the prisoner’s group.

According to human rights groups, an estimated 2,100 political prisoners
are behind bars in Burma.

In his recent visit to the country, the UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim
Gambari, asked the military government to release all political prisoners.

In response, Burma’s premier, Thein Sein, said: “The UN should make
efforts to lift economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar [Burma] if the
organization wants to see a prosperous Myanmar with political stability.”

____________________________________

February 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Gambari’s visit sees no progress in Burma – Aye Nai

The National League for Democracy has expressed disappointment that the
visit of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to Burma did not
bring about any progress.

The government account of the meetings between Gambari and senior regime
leaders was published in the state-run New Light of Myanmar yesterday.

The special envoy met prime minister general Thein Sein and several other
ministers during his latest trip, which ran from 31 January to 4 February.

Gambari also met detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and senior party
members during his visit.

Reporting on the meetings between the special envoy and junta officials,
the New Light article said Gambari had called for the release of political
prisoners, tried to encourage dialogue between the government and the NLD
and discussed a visit to the country by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Prime minister Thein Sein called on the special envoy to recognise the
government’s roadmap as the best way forward for the country, and said the
regime would respect the desire of the majority of people in the country
who had approved the 2008 constitution.

The prime minister said that opposition parties should work in unity with
the government, and encouraged Gambari to urge them to do so.

Thein Sein also made a particular point of requesting that the UN lift
economic sanctions against Burma to allow the country to develop.

Information minister brigadier-general Kyaw Hsan echoed Thein Sein’s
words, calling for political stability to allow a peaceful transition to
democracy.

Kyaw Hsan also said that Aung San Suu Kyi had refused two offers of
meetings with liaison minister Aung Kyi, and recalled her refusal to meet
Gambari during his last visit.

The information minister rejected Gambari proposal for a review of the
long-term prison sentences imposed upon political activists over the past
three months, stating that the sentences were given in accordance with the
law and all those jailed have the right to appeal.

NLD spokesperson Nyan Win dismissed this statement, highlighting the
unfairness of judicial processes in the country.

"Everybody can see that trials are not fairness in Burma when people are
given no chance to defend themselves and are subject to such severe
sentences,” he said.

“The government is trying to say that this is only the responsibility of
the courts. I would like to state that there is no truth in this."

Nyan Win also called on the government to respect the results of the 1990
election if it is serious in its commitment to the wishes of the people.

"I like it when the information minister talked about having respect for
the people's desire,” he said.

“If that is the case, then they should consider respecting the results of
the 1990 elections which were approved by the people."

Nyan Win said the NLD appreciated Gambari’s efforts, but did not believe
that any real progress had been made during his trip.

"From reading the newspaper today, it looks as though the government will
not accept any of the points made by the NLD regarding national
reconciliation,” Nyan Win said.

“But we noticed that Mr Gambari said what needed to be said during his
trip, so we appreciate the UN's work in fulfilling its duty,” he said.

“But looking at the situation as a whole, I would say we are not seeing
any progress."

____________________________________

February 5, Independent Mon News Agency
Electricity now flowing from monk-driven projects in Mon State – Rai Maraoh

Electricity is flowing from two monk-lead local development projects as
the government continues to leave much of the rest of southern Burma
without power.

The projects, in Chaung zone and Paung Townships, Mon State have both been
organized by monks or former monks, and are now bringing electricity to
over 600 households, with capacity for hundreds more.

“Our village has electricity now, because of the efforts of the monk and
monastery donors,” said a woman from Dare village in Chaung zone Township,
on Belukyn Island. “If we just hoped for electricity from the government,
our village would never have electricity.”

The project in Dare was spearheaded by the abbot of the Mingalala Thu Kat
Monastery, who organized a group of 15 laymen that purchased a generator
from Rangoon in December. About 120 of Dare’s 200 households are currently
drawing power.

“Paung Town has electrical wires from the government, but it is rare that
we get any power,” added a resident of Paung Town. “That’s why some
villages try to get electricity themselves. Even if they get electricity
from the government, it is not enough power to do anything.”

The project in Paung Township is centered in Mu Naing village, where
former monks from the local monastery raised money to buy a hydroelectric
generator in November. The project has capacity for more than 1,000
households, with 514 currently connected.

Less than a kilometer away in Moulmein, Mon State’s capital city,
residents have been complaining about the decreasing wattage of the power
they receive. Last week, Mon State officials extended electricity to
villages in nearby Mudon Township. They did so, apparently, without
increasing the power output from Ngante station at Moulmein.

The wattage from the project on Belukyn Island, meanwhile, has residents
raving. “The power supply is very good,” said the Dare resident. “We can
cook, we can iron. We can use a refrigerator, fill batteries or even watch
TV.”

Electricity in most parts of Burma is non-existent or inconsistent at
best, with even major cities like Rangoon suffering from limited supplies
and frequent outages. In Mon State, residents are often promised
electricity contingent on bribes, but still fail to receive power.
____________________________________

February 5, Myanmar Times
Japan gives $2m to FAO for Nargis aid – Nilar Win

CYCLONE-hit farmers in the delta region will receive more than US$2
million in aid, thanks to an agreement signed by the Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The $2.1 million agreement, signed on January 26, is designed to restore
food security and agriculture-based livelihoods in the areas devastated by
last year’s cyclone Nargis.

The signing ceremony was attended by Major General Htay Oo, Minister of
Agriculture and Irrigation; Mr Yasuaki Nogawa, the Japanese ambassador; Mr
Hideo Miyamoto, the JICA resident representative in Myanmar; Dr Shin Imai,
the FAO representative in Myanmar; and others.

“We all know that agriculture in the delta region forms an essential part
of the food security and economy of Myanmar,” Mr Nogawa said.

“The recovery of agricultural production is a task of extreme urgency, not
only for the people of the region but also for the whole country. The
government of Japan has decided to contribute to this process as a close
friend of Myanmar”

Expressing appreciation for the donation, Maj Gen Htay Oo said, “Although
we have made tremendous achievements since the cyclone in collaboration
with international organisations and bilateral cooperation, the tasks for
food security and restoration of sustainable livelihoods of the affected
people are far from complete.”

“The revitalization of the agricultural sector is the key issue for the
recovery of healthy livelihoods in the cyclone-affected areas,” said Dr
Shin Imai.

This two-year FAO program aims to restore crop production and food
security for the most vulnerable farmers and landless households in
affected areas and to rebuild their livelihoods in a sustainable manner in
order to reduce dependency on food aid.

“The project will cover four townships: Mawlamyinegyunn, Ngapudaw, Labutta
and Bogale. It targets small farmers and vulnerable rural households,
including landless families. Overall, at least 10,000 households will
directly benefit,” Dr Shin Imai said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 5, Associated Press
Angelina says help Burma

ANGELINA Jolie has called on Thailand's government to give more freedom to
tens of thousands of Burmese refugees it has kept locked inside camps for
up to 20 years.
The Academy Award-winning actress and goodwill ambassador for the UN
Refugee Agency visited Thailand's Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee center
Wednesday.

"I was saddened to meet a 21-year-old woman who was born in a refugee
camp, who has never even been out of the camp and is now raising her own
child in a camp," Jolie was quoted as saying by UNHCR in a statement
released Thursday.

She asked Thai authorities to give around 110,000 refugees in northern
Thailand greater freedom to move around and seek higher education, because
they are unlikely to be welcomed back anytime soon to Myanmar, also known
as Burma.

Myanmar's military junta has been accused of gross atrocities against
ethnic minorities, forcing thousands to flee to neighboring countries.

Jolie, 33, sat down in a two-room house on stilts and talked with a female
refugee. She then met orphans at a boarding school and heard from teenage
girls worried that they might be sent back to Myanmar.

"I hope we can work with the Thai authorities to speed up the government
admissions process and that you will not be forced to go back to Burma if
danger remains,' Jolie said.

UNHCR says Thailand has yet to give refugee status to 5,000 Burmese that
fled to Thailand in 2006-2007, when there was significant fighting across
the border in Myanmar's Kayah state.

Her visit comes amid an uptick in the arrival of migrants from Myanmar,
who often travel on rickety vessels to escape violence or harm.

____________________________________

February 5, Irrawaddy
Burmese migrants in limbo – Lawi Weng

The Thai Labor Ministry is delaying the issue of some 700,000 work permits
to migrant workers in order to accommodate up to 1 million Thai workers
who are expected to be laid off due to the global economic crisis.

According to a report in the English-language daily Bangkok Post, Thai
Labor Minister Paitoon Kaewthong said the registration of migrant workers
will be postponed until the end of March and that job fairs would be held
for unemployed Thais.

The Thai authorities are currently cracking down on unregistered migrant
workers in Mahachai, an industrial fishing port in Samut Sakhon Province,
southwest of the Thai capital, Bangkok. The vast majority of the migrants
in Mahachai are ethnic Mon from Burma.

According to a leading migrant workers’ rights advocate, hundreds of
Burmese migrants in the area have gone into hiding while many others have
been arrested.

Myo Thaw, a member of the Mahachai-based Labor Rights Promotion Network
(LPN), said, “Many people don’t dare sleep in their apartments. They are
sleeping rough in case of police raids.”

He said that migrants who get caught by the police generally have to pay
bribes of between 2,000 and 4,000 baht (US $60—$120) to get released.

In Mahachai, there are some 70,000 legal migrant workers with registered
documents, but there are more than 200,000 migrants who are illegal,
according to data collected by LPN.

Krack Nai, a Mon worker in Mahachai, said that the Thai authorities raided
a fish-processing factory on Thursday morning, arresting more than 50
workers and taking them away in a truck.

Sources in Mahachai said that the crackdown on migrants has intensified
since Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on January 22 that
Thailand would deport illegal migrants.

Some international human rights groups—including Human Rights Watch and
Refugees International—have accused the Thai navy of beating ethnic
Rohingya boat people who had entered Thailand with hopes of finding
employment. The groups allege that the Thai navy towed the refugees’ boats
back out to sea and left them no food and water. It was also alleged that
the Thai navy took the engine out of a wooden boat carrying Rohingya
refugees.

Burmese authorities also stand accused of abusing Rohingya refugees.

There are some 2 to 4 millions migrants in Thailand, mostly from Burma.
Many are waiting to register to renew their work permits.

Observers have said that Burmese migrants in Thailand will face hard times
if, as expected, Thailand suffers from an economic slowdown.

However, many Burmese workers are expected to endure the hard times and
feel confident they can continue to work in Thailand because many Thais
refuse to do the poorly paid manual jobs that migrants are willing to
undertake.

____________________________________

February 5, Thai News Agency
Mae Hong Son tightens Myanmar border measures to bar Rohingyas

Mae Hong Son governor Thongchai Wongrianthong instructed two district
chiefs of Sob Moei and Mae Sariang bordering Myanmar to strictly monitor
the checkpoints in an attempt to bar the entry of illegal migrants,
particularly the Rohingyas.

The issue of the stateless ethnic migrants, the Muslim Rohingyas, surfaced
to gain international attention when foreign media reported alleged
maltreatment by the Thai armed forces of the intending migrants early in
January.

To cope with the problem of Rohingyas migration, Mr. Thongchai, who was
also a chief of the province's Thai-Myanmar Border Command Centre said he
ordered the district chiefs of Sop Moei and Mae Sariang to step up the
measures on crossing border of both land and water.

According to the geographic location, the Salaween River is a boundary
between the neighbouring Myanmar and Sop Moei and Mae Sariang districts.

Mr. Thongchai said that if numbers of the Rohingya Muslim minority group
find their way into Thailand, it will cause a greater economic burden to
Thailand.

Currently, he said, there are four camps in Mae Hong Son providing care
for over 40,000 migrants displaced by fighting in Myanmar.

Local residents also called on government officials to not allow the boat
people to find refuge in the kingdom.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 5, Mizzima News
Rangoon factories begin cutting jobs – Moe Thu

Claiming at least 3000 jobs last week, many of Rangoon's factories have
begun laying off a large number of workers, due to the effect of the
current global financial meltdown, which has resulted in lower orders by
overseas markets for businesses.

There are about 2500 factories, which work with about 120,000 workers, in
Rangoon and most of them rely on foreign orders, which are crucial for
their survival.

"More than two dozen garment and food processing factories in industrial
zones across the commercial hub of Rangoon have closed down, because
product orders have drastically declined since several weeks," a leading
industrialist revealed.

The industrialist also said some more factories scrambled to save their
businesses by reducing and sharing working hours among workers.

Roughly, the workers at the garment factory earn USD 30, per month.

"We no longer get such a monthly income, as working hours have been
reduced," said a male worker in a garment factory, who is the breadwinner
of a three-member family.

Meanwhile, the factories are continually facing a range of difficulties
that threaten their operations, including fluctuating currency exchange
rates, manufacturing cost increases, electricity shortages, and more
recently, storm damages.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 5, Jakarta Globe
Rohingya refugees receive medical treatment – Nurdin Hasan

Forty-nine of the 198 Rohingyas, a minority ethnicity in Burma, who were
found drifting on a boat in the Malacca Strait off East Aceh district on
Tuesday, are still receiving medical treatment in the local hospital, a
doctor said on Thursday.

“Up to 4 p.m. this afternoon, there are 49 people who are still being
treated,” said Edi Gunawan, the director of Idi Public Hospital in East
Aceh.

“Their conditions are weak and they are dehydrated, but they’re getting
better. We will continue to administer [intravenous] solution to restore
their bodily fluids.”

If their conditions improved on Thursday night, he said most of them may
return to the temporary refugee camp at a vacant house owned by the Idi
Rayeuk subdistrict chief.

“However, five of them must remain hospitalized and receive treatment due
to their weak conditions,” Edi told the Jakarta Globe.

Several of the refugees also have varying wounds on their bodies. Hospital
doctors are treating these wounds, which are believed to be the result of
torture when they were imprisoned in a Thai military detention center on a
remote island, prior to being crammed onto a boat without an engine and
left at sea with limited rations. It is believed that some 22 refugees
died from starvation.

“There are patients with bruises on their backs that apparently came from
a blunt object,” Edi said.

“Also on their chests and on the faces. They said they were whipped by
Thai soldiers. But our duty here is to treat them. We only focus on the
medical side.”

Some of them also have scars from sharp objects. One of the refugees has
no fingers and says that they were severed by the Thai soldiers.

In the refugee camp, a health care unit has been established by a team of
Indonesian Red Cross volunteers and doctors.

A team from the Ministry of Home Affairs has been identifying and
verifying since Jan. 29 a separate group of 193 Rohingyas who arrived in
early January. The team is being led by Kusuma Pradopo, the chief of the
subdirectorate for East and Pacific Asia of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.

“From the preliminary verification, it has been determined that 22 people
are Bangladeshi and the rest are Burmese. But we need to probe deeper into
this verification,” Kusuma told reporters.

After the team from the Foreign Affairs Ministry arrived at Idi Rayeuk,
the media was prohibited from interviewing the refugees.

Leaders of the Rohingyas, residents of Burma’s western Arakan State, have
long claimed persecution by the country’s military government, with tens
of thousands having fled to Bangladesh and other places in recent years.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 5, New York Times
Sneaking in where thugs rule – Nocholas D. Kristof

Before entering Myanmar from Thailand, you scrub your bags of any hint
that you might be engaged in some pernicious evil, such as espionage,
journalism or promotion of human rights.

Then you exit from the Thai town of Mae Sot and walk across the gleaming
white “friendship bridge” to the Burmese immigration post on the other
side. Entering Myanmar (which traditionally has been known as Burma), you
adjust your watch: Myanmar is 30 minutes ahead — and 50 years behind.

Already Myanmar’s government is one of the most brutal in the world, and
in recent months it has become even more repressive.

A blogger, Nay Phone Latt, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A
prominent comedian, Zarganar, was sentenced to 59 years. A former student
leader, Min Ko Naing, a survivor of years of torture and solitary
confinement, has received terms of 65 years so far and faces additional
sentences that may reach a total of 150 years.

“Politically, things are definitely getting worse,” said David Mathieson,
an expert on Myanmar for Human Rights Watch living on the Thai-Burmese
border. “They’ve just sent hundreds of people who should be agents of
change to long prison terms.”

A new American presidency is a useful moment to review policy toward
Myanmar, and the truth is that the West’s approach has failed. The Burmese
junta has ruled despotically since 1988, ignoring democratic elections.
Since then, sanctions have had zero effect in moderating the regime.

I have vast respect for Aung San Suu Kyi, the extraordinary woman who won
a Nobel Peace Prize for standing up to the country’s thugs. But the best
use of her courage right now would be to accept that the trade sanctions
she advocated have accomplished nothing more than further impoverishing
her own people. As with Cuba and North Korea, isolating a venal regime
usually just hurts the innocent and helps the thugs stay in power.

Instead, the best bet is financial sanctions that specifically target
individuals close to the regime — and, even more, a clampdown on Myanmar’s
imports of arms.

“It would be very difficult to get an arms embargo through the Security
Council, but that’s something that really goes to the heart of any
military regime,” Mr. Mathieson said. “You lock them out of the tools of
their own self-aggrandizement and repression.”

President George W. Bush tried to help Burmese dissidents, but he had zero
international capital. The Obama administration, in contrast, has a chance
to lead an international initiative to curb Burmese arms imports and bring
the regime to the negotiating table.

Myanmar’s weapons have come from or through China, Russia, Ukraine, Israel
and Singapore, and Russia is even selling Myanmar’s dictators a nuclear
reactor, Mr. Mathieson said.

In crossing from Thailand to Myanmar, you pass through a time warp. You
leave the bustle and dynamism of Thailand and encounter a stagnating
backwater of antique cars and shacks beside open sewers.

I found it difficult to interview people in Myanmar, because I was
traveling as a tourist with two of my kids (and my wife is sick of me
getting our kids arrested with me in dictatorships). But we dropped in on
the Myawaddy hospital, which was so understaffed that no one stopped us as
we marched through wards of neglected patients.

The most flourishing business we saw on the Burmese side belonged to a
snake charmer who set up temporary shop outside a temple. The moment a
crowd gathered, an armed soldier ran over in alarm — and then relaxed when
he saw that the only threat to public order was a cobra.

In Mae Sot, Thailand, I visited with former Burmese political prisoners,
like the courageous Bo Kyi. They are at risk of being killed by Burmese
government assassins, yet they are campaigning aggressively for change.

Equally inspiring are the Free Burma Rangers, who risk their lives to
sneak deep into the country for months at a time to provide medical care
and document human rights abuses.

One gutsy American working with the group, who asked that his name not be
used for security reasons, communicated with me by satellite phone from
his hiding place deep inside Myanmar. He knows that the Burmese government
will kill him if it catches him, yet he stays to gather photos and other
evidence of how Burmese soldiers are drafting ethnic Karen villagers for
forced labor and are raping women and girls. One recent case described by
the Free Burma Rangers involved a 7-year-old girl who was raped, and then
killed.

The courage of these people seeking a new Myanmar is infectious and
inspiring. In this new administration, let’s help them — and see if with
new approaches we can finally topple one of the most odious regimes in the
world.

____________________________________

February 5, Economist
Knock, knock

AT LEAST he tried. That is probably the best that could be said for
Ibrahim Gambari’s latest mission to Myanmar, which ended on February 3rd.
The four-day visit was the Nigerian’s seventh as the United Nations’ envoy
to the country, a job whose history is strewn with past failures.

On this trip, unlike his visit last August, Mr Gambari was able to see
Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the opposition. He spent over an
hour with her and with executives from her moribund National League for
Democracy. General Than Shwe, however, the junta leader, was unavailable,
as so often when the agenda is political reform. Instead, the job of
stonewalling Mr Gambari fell to General Thein Sein, the prime minister.
State television reported that the prime minister had asked for the
lifting of sanctions on Myanmar as a precursor to “political stability”.

The next envoy to take tea with the regime may be Mr Gambari’s boss, Ban
Ki-moon, the UN’s secretary-general. He went to Myanmar last May, in the
dreadful aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, and managed to wring some
concessions from the junta that helped to get foreign aid flowing more
freely. Nobel peace-prize winners (Miss Suu Kyi is one) and others have
since urged him to go back to push for greater political freedoms. Mr
Gambari’s task was, in part, to test the waters for Mr Ban.

By that yardstick, Mr Gambari may still be out of luck. Late last year Mr
Ban aborted a planned trip when it became clear that far from heeding his
demands for the release of Miss Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, the
regime was busy locking up more. Over 2,100 dissidents are shut away,
their ranks swollen since the suppression in 2007 of monk-led protests. In
her meeting with Mr Gambari, Miss Suu Kyi repeated her own plea for their
release (and her own) to be made a precondition for Mr Ban’s proposed
talks with the generals. With no signs of progress on this issue, Mr Ban
may find it hard to justify a visit.

The Bush administration’s answer to Myanmar’s bad behaviour was to tighten
economic sanctions. Indeed, two more of the junta’s cronies were added to
a Treasury blacklist days before Mr Bush left office. Few expect the new
administration to change tack. Myanmar’s exiled democracy camp may point
to the prime minister’s complaint to Mr Gambari as evidence that sanctions
are biting. But Western diplomats in Asia are sceptical of their leverage
over Myanmar, as long as Asian powers stand by their neighbour.

Western donors had hoped that international cyclone relief would crack
open the door to broader co-operation on aid, and perhaps a dash of
glasnost. There is little sign that it did. The World Food Programme
recently reported that Myanmar will need 185,000 tonnes of food aid this
year, after the cyclone and a rat infestation have ruined crops. But its
ability to deliver grain to the needy is strangled by the junta’s
controls, particularly in desperately poor western Myanmar.

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) played a useful role
last year in channelling cyclone aid into Myanmar. But ASEAN is not
prepared to cause a political controversy, despite its recent adoption of
a charter that pays lip-service to human rights. Not all its members,
which include autocratic regimes such as Vietnam and Laos, are convinced
that political freedoms are such a good idea. Myanmar’s frustrated
democrats face the choice of holding their nose to contest elections due
to be held next year under a constitution entrenching the army’s political
role, or sticking to their principles and boycotting a poll that may well
be a sham but the only hope of change on offer.

____________________________________

February 5, United Press International
Breaking Burma’s official secrets – Awzar Thi

When some villagers in Natmauk, central Burma, made a complaint last year
that the army had illegally occupied land they had been farming, they
probably hoped for a more sympathetic response than what they received.

The army unit concerned – which had set up an arms depot and allowed the
farmers to return to their fields only upon payment of special fees –
promptly detained and interrogated four of those who complained. After it
got what it wanted from them, it illegally arrested another four, keeping
them at its base and allegedly torturing them.

Two were also later released, while the other two were brought to court to
be charged. One of them became a witness for the prosecutor, and in the
end only one person had a case brought against him.

That person is Ko Zaw Htay, a 43-year-old man who had previously been
detained over an accidental death on a road being built with forced labor
– in breach of a government agreement with the International Labor
Organization to stamp out the use of unpaid conscript workers on state
projects.

Evidently, the local powers-that-be had it in for Zaw Htay. What really
annoyed them was not the new complaint, but the fact that he had
supposedly sent video footage of the confiscated land abroad,
two-and-a-half minutes of which were broadcast on an overseas news
website.

For this, Zaw Htay was charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act
with approaching a prohibited place and making a record that might be
useful to an enemy; or rather, with having someone else do that, even
though the law is supposed to apply only to the person committing the act,
not an accomplice or backer.

Watching the video – which can be viewed with narrative in Burmese at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_m-nZQoYAQ from the four-minute mark – it is hard
to see anything that might be useful to an enemy, other than for
agricultural purposes. There are farmers tilling their fields, a couple of
them describing what has happened since the army turned up, and a
red-and-white signboard marked “Army Land: No Trespassing.”

What mattered to the embarrassed officer and local authorities was not
that some remarkable military secret may have snuck out from under the
crops, but that the bubble in which their world is contained had been
broken open, its contents made visible to the outside. A little bit of
rural Burma, which no one who didn’t live there had known or cared about,
had been projected to the world without their prior approval.

This fear of enclosed spaces being penetrated and made knowable and
understandable to people in other places is one of the features of the
police state mentality. It is a fear in which that which is done is more
disturbing than that which is revealed. Never mind what is shown or said,
it is the fact of showing and saying that is offensive.

This fear has governed Burma for half a century. Throughout the 1960s and
1970s General Ne Win presided over what was characterized as a hermit
state, where all types of movement inside and outside the country were
extremely limited and any unauthorized contact with the world beyond could
conceivably be punished.

When a young man was imprisoned for his role in anti-government rallies in
1974, for instance, the court handing down the verdict emphasized that his
crime was to have sent a letter about it, in English, to the United
Nations. If the act of protest was bad, telling someone in New York about
it in a foreign language was worse.

Similarly, people who allegedly sent news abroad during the 2007 protests
have been pursued and imprisoned with equal vigor as those who led the
marches. And comedian Zarganar and human rights defender Myint Aye are
facing long jail terms for talking too openly and too truthfully about the
official indifference they saw in the wake of last year’s cyclone.

Some commentators who don’t know Burma have talked about it as if it is
still sealed off, trapped on another planet beyond email, digital
recording devices and the tiny objects on which people now store libraries
of data. That land does not exist.

With thousands of Internet cafes around the country crammed with
teenagers, periodicals full of news about the latest products from Japan
or Korea, and even places like Natmauk coming onto computer screens, the
bubble in which Burma is enclosed is psychological, not technological. It
persists because of official fear about people like Zaw Htay.

As the authorities struggle to keep track of adversaries armed with new
gadgets, there are certain to be many more cases brought to the courts in
which all the prosecutor can say is that the accused is somehow to blame
for sending something somewhere.

In Zaw Htay’s case, the police and army never found the video recorder
that he allegedly gave to his friend to record the confiscated farmlands,
and the CDs shown in evidence against him were not brought from his house
but downloaded from a website. Still, for official fear, he was sentenced
to 10 years in prison for his two-and-a-half minutes of video.

As technology and its users get further and further ahead of the people
responsible for keeping Burma’s official secrets, the struggle to contain
them is going to get harder and more dangerous for everyone determined to
break them. But they are going with the tide, and they will succeed
eventually.

(Awzar Thi is the pen name of a member of the Asian Human Rights
Commission with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights
and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma. His Rule of Lords blog can be
read at http://ratchasima.net)

____________________________________

February 5, Sydney Morning Herald
Setting humanity adrift

THE Rohingyas are one of the Asian minorities no country wants. About
750,000 in number, of Indian race and Muslim faith, they live in poverty
on the Arakan coast of north-western Burma. The Burmese military regime
doesn't want them: they don't fit into its mental picture of a nation of
South-East Asian ethnicity, Buddhist religion, and Tibeto-Burman language.
Bangladesh doesn't want any more mouths to feed, however culturally akin.
When 250,000 Rohingyas fled across its border in 1992, they ended up in
refugee camps and squatter slums, where about 120,000 remain in misery.

Those who stayed in Burma and those who returned live as non-citizens,
tightly watched by the army, obliged to seek permission for even local
travel around Arakan state. Not surprisingly, some opt for the third
option of seeking work and shelter in other countries. Many slip through
Thailand to work illegally in Malaysia. But Malaysia is cracking down to
protect jobs for locals; Muslim unrest in Thailand's south leads to
foreign Muslims in transit regarded as potential jihadists.

How two South-East Asian countries now treat the Rohingyas is a stark
contrast. In Thailand, there is mounting evidence that the army and navy
have been rounding up Rohingya illegal migrants, forcing them into
unpowered barges and boats, and setting them adrift at sea with minimal
water and rice. Hundreds have died of thirst and exposure, or drowned in
desperate attempts to swim to land. Survivors have been picked up by
India's coastguard and the Indonesian Navy. Earlier in the process,
tourists on the Thai coast saw military personnel whipping and beating
Rohingya men who were forced to lie on a beach with their hands bound. In
Indonesia, which doesn't want them either and regards them as economic
migrants, not refugees, there is a humane reception for the rescued men,
although it ultimately wants to repatriate them.

The Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, categorically denies his
military mistreats refugees, but seems to have tacitly admitted the
possibility by transferring the problem to the police. This nasty story
has sullied the Thai defence forces, as have allegations of torture in the
campaign against Muslim insurgents. In particular, they raise questions
about the need for the military's Internal Security Operations Command,
blamed for the policy of setting refugees adrift, although the original
mission against communist insurgency seems to be over.

Combined with the ongoing politics of coup and unpunished street violence,
they suggest a kingdom with slipping standards. Thailand should live up to
its humanitarian duty, and with Indonesia go to the heart of the problem:
the appalling abuses of their Association of South East-Asian Nations
partners in Rangoon.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

February 5, UK House of Commons
Early Day Motion 671: Closure of churches in Rangoon

Bercow, John

That this House expresses deep concern at recent events in Burma with
authorities in Rangoon ordering that services cease in at least a 100
local churches with a threat of prison for non-compliance; notes the
concern of some of the local Christians who believe that the immediate
cause of the crackdown is church involvement in providing relief for
victims of Cyclone Nargis; further notes continued widespread
discrimination against religious minorities and in some places violent
persecution of Christians and Muslims in other parts of Burma; calls on
the Government to raise concerns about religious freedom with the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC); urges the United Nations Special
Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion and Belief to investigate violations of
religious freedom in Burma; and calls on the United Nations Secretary
General to increase and intensify efforts to urge the SPDC to cease its
widespread violation of human rights, including violations of religious
freedom, to release all political prisoners, to open all parts of the
country to unhindered access for international humanitarian organisations
and to engage in meaningful tripartite dialogue with the National League
for Democracy and the ethnic nationalities.