BurmaNet News, February 7 - 9, 2009

[Editor]

February 7 – 9, 2008, Issue #3648


INSIDE BURMA
AP: $700 million sought for Myanmar cyclone recovery
DVB: Monk and activists mistreated in detention
DVB: Man crushed during forced construction work
The Nation (Thailand): Burma agrees to attend meeting to solve problem of
Rohingya boat people
DPA: Rebels in Myanmar refuse to join polls
Khonumthung News: Junta recruits under age boys into army in Chin state

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara News: China does not want conflict between Burma and Bangladesh
Xinhua: Bangladesh to build road, railway links with Myanmar

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Indian Vice-President ends Myanmar visit

REGIONAL
Japan Times: Burmese junta fuels influx

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: U.S. wants Myanmar to stop persecution of Rohingyas
Mizzima News: Campaigners urge EU to tighten sanctions on junta
Kaladan Press: World organizations urge Burma to end persecution

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Burma’s man-made suffering – Voravit Swanvanichkij and Chris
Beyrer
Mizzima News: Last call for forests in Northern Burma – Phyusin Linn



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 9, Associated Press
$700 million sought for Myanmar cyclone recovery

Long-term efforts will soon begin to rebuild Myanmar after the devastation
caused by Cyclone Nargis but the country needs almost $700 million to help
accomplish the task, a multilateral group set up to coordinate assistance
said Monday.

The cyclone ravaged the Irrawaddy delta and Myanmar's largest city,
Yangon, on May 2-3 last year, affecting 2.4 million people and leaving
138,000 dead or missing. The total damage was estimated as high as $4
billion.

Myanmar's military government — which is shunned by the West as
undemocratic — was reluctant to accept foreign assistance and aid workers
immediately after the cyclone hit. It relented after appeals from U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 10-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations.

Nargis was the worst natural disaster in Myanmar's modern history and the
world's fifth deadliest in the past 40 years.

The Tripartite Core Group — representing Myanmar's government, U.N.
agencies and ASEAN — has drawn up a reconstruction plan to begin in early
2009 and last three years.

The group urged governments around the world and international donors to
provide the $691 million needed to fund the plan.

Representatives met Monday in the Thai capital, Bangkok, to discuss the
effort, which "is designed to support the rebuilding of livelihoods of
households and communities worst affected by the cyclone, while promoting
practices that increase communities' resilience and preparedness to future
disasters," said Kyaw Thu from Myanmar, the group's chairman.

He and other speakers emphasized the intention to "build back better" by
improving the safety of houses, schools, hospitals and roads. The plan
looks at ways to address the lack of income and earning opportunities
among the cyclone's victims.

"These include the rapid re-establishment of adequate livelihoods to
reactivate economic life," the group said in a statement.

The U.N. appealed soon after the storm for $477 million for emergency
relief and early recovery efforts, and about two-thirds of that funding
has been fulfilled, the group said.

____________________________________

February 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Monk and activists mistreated in detention – Nan Kham Kaew and Aye Nai

Buddhist monk U Kelatha from Mandalay, who is currently incarcerated in
Irrawaddy division's Henzada prison, was beaten up by a fellow inmate on
the orders of a prison official on 28 January as a punishment.

According to a relative of the monk, Irrawaddy division prison director
Tin Tun ordered a prisoner to beat up U Kethala when he discovered that
the monk was wearing his prison uniform in the style of monks’ robes.

"He told a prisoner to beat him 20 times and he himself punched and kicked
him," the relative said.

U Kelatha was arrested and prosecuted along with monk leader U Gambira and
is serving a 35-year jail term for his role in the September 2007
demonstrations.

Monks are routinely disrobed by the authorities when they are imprisoned.

Meanwhile in Mandalay's Nyaung-U prison, political inmates have been
denied basic rights, according to a relative of a prisoner.

Thi Thi Soe, sister of Human Rights Defenders and Protectors network
member Myo Thant, said her brother had told her about prison conditions
when she went to see him on 24 January.

"He said prisoners are not allowed to see one another freely and the
conditions in Insein are about the level of a dog kennel at the moment,"
she said.

Thi Thi Soe said prisoner wardens had monitored her conversation with her
brother.

Political prisoners are also barred from watching television and listening
to radio, unlike other inmates, and are kept awake during the night, Thi
Thi Soe said.

"They keep on beating tom-toms at night and they have to listen to them
and can't sleep," she said.

Thi Thi Soe said a prison official had also refused to accept medicines
for her brother, who has been suffering from high blood pressure, claiming
they were unnecessary.

In Insein prison in Rangoon, Myo Nyunt was locked in a dark cell and
mistreated for staging a hunger strike.

Myo Nyunt, also known as John Nawtha, is a private English tutor and was
arrested at the end of September 2007 in connection with the public
demonstrations that took place that month.

Among the other political prisoners currently held in Nyaung-U prison are
Thiha Win Tin, Tin Myint, Khin Mar Cho and Zaw Win.

____________________________________

February 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Man crushed during forced construction work – Khin Hnin Htet

A 50-year-old man from Kyauktalone village in Bago division was crushed to
death on 6 February when the roof of a pit where he had been forced to
work collapsed on him.

According to lawyer Aye Myint of the Guiding Star legal aid group, Sarlu
was crushed while collecting earth from a pit in Thabyetan village tract,
Daik-U township, for the construction of a village school.

The government had given village authorities 5.6 million kyat for the
project, but 600,000 of this had to be given to the township’s chief
education officer and other officials to secure permission for the school
building.

Village chair Aung Thu and teacher Aung Tun ordered villagers to
contribute to the cost of the school, and forced those who could not pay
to work on the building site.

Aye Myint said 70 households in the village were each forced to pay
100,000 kyat, or 30,000 less for poorer families, and those who could not
afford to pay the money were ordered to carry sand, earth and stone on the
building site.

"On 6 February 2009, a Shan-Karen named Sarlu had to volunteer because he
was poor,” Aye Myint said.

“At 5pm, he went down to the pit to fetch earth, it caved in and he was
crushed by stones,” he said.

“His legs and ribs were broken and he died when he reached the clinic."

Sarlu’s family has received no support from the authorities since his death.

Aye Myint said he would continue to fight for justice for Sarlu and his
family.

____________________________________

February 9, The Nation (Thailand)
Burma agrees to attend meeting to solve problem of Rohingya boat people

The Burmese foreign minister has agreed in principle to attend a
six-partite meeting to solve the problem of Rohingya boat people, the Thai
ambassador to Rangoon said Monday.

Bansarn Bunnag said he met the Burmese Foreign minister to discuss the
problem of Rohingya boat people and the minister agreed to have the
Burmese government discuss the issue.

Bansarn said the minister also agreed to attend the meeting as proposed by
Thailand to have officials from Burma, Bangladesh, India, Malaysisa,
Thailand and Indonesia discuss measures for dealing with the problem
systematically.

____________________________________

February 9, Deutsche Presse Agentur
Rebels in Myanmar refuse to join polls

The Shan State Army (SSA) — an insurgent group in northeast Myanmar — has
opposed the junta’s planned general election next year, joining a growing
number of ethnic minority groups determined to upset the polls, media
reports and analysts said yesterday.

Shan State Army leader Colonel Yod Serk said the SSA was one of at least
10 ethnic minority rebel groups that have come out against the 2010
general election, the Bangkok Post reported.

“The junta announced the upcoming election, but never let the opposing
parties run in the race,” Yod Serk told the newspaper.

The rebel leader claimed even the United Wa State Army, a close ally of
the Myanmar junta, was opposed to the upcoming election.

Growing opposition to the planned general election may force Myanmar’s
ruling junta to delay the polls, analysts said yesterday.

“Besides the SSA, the New Mon State Party and Kachin Independence
Organization have also come out against the polls,” said Aung Din,
executive director for the US Campaign for Burma.

Myanmar’s military regime has fought more than a dozen ethnic
minority-based insurgencies in its hinterlands for decades, although
ceasefire agreements have been signed with most of them.

The junta included representatives of the ethnic minorities, representing
almost half the population, in its constitution-drafting process, which
took 14 years, but ignored their demands to establish a federation in a
post-election period.

Instead, under the new Constitution, all rebels groups will be required to
give up their arms and submit to the central government.
____________________________________

February 9, Khonumthung News
Junta recruits under age boys into army in Chin state

Under age boys are being recruited forcibly as soldiers in the Burmese
Army in Chin state, western Myanmar.

Three boys, about 13 years of age in Paletwa town were forcibly recruited
in the army on January 28 by Commander Maung Than and seven soldiers from
the Lisin Army camp of IB (304). They are still at the military camp, a
local said.

He said the victims are NguiTheing (13) son of Pa Net, In Thawng (14) son
of Khipui, and Sawng San (13) son of Khan Kung of Lung Zaw Kung village.
They were taken from their homes..

"Ngui Theing was taken from his house. He was reluctant to go and cried
out but even village heads were afraid to stop the forced recruitment, he
told to Khonumthung News.

A report said that five boys from Matupi and Paletwa townships ran away to
Mizoram state between December 2008 to January 2009 as they were afraid to
join the army.

A local in Matupi said that if soldiers in Matupi IB (304) can recruit
children, they will be promoted to a higher rank. So army people are
searching for boys in the villages.

"When the authorities constructed the Matupi army camp in December 2008,
they were trying to persuade a boy who was not attending school to serve
as a soldier. But he refused and he was put in the lockup for a whole
night as punishment," he added.

Regarding this matter Terah of Chin Human Rights Organistaion(CHRO) said,
"Actually the government  should  protect children from forced recruitment
as child soldiers, but they doing this disgusting thing for their own
interest and it violates human rights,"

The military junta is a signatory to the International Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC) paragraph (38) which mentions that it has to
protect under 15 year-old children from forced recruitment to the
military.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 9, Narinjara News
China does not want conflict between Burma and Bangladesh

China does not want conflict between Bangladesh and Burma over the
maritime boundary dispute in the Bay of Bengal.
It was said by Shanghai Institutes for International Studies President
Yang Jiemian at a "meet the press" program at the National Press Club in
Dhaka on Friday.

"All kinds of debates should be solved through negotiation. China would
play a facilitating role to bring down any conflict between the two
neighbors," he said.

The press program was organized by the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and
Security Studies in partnership with the Shanghai Institutes for
International Studies.

According to a source, a six-member SIIS delegation led by President Yang
Jiemian and BIPSS President ANM Muniruzzaman attended the function.

China is a good partner of both Burma and Bangladesh and its concern over
the issue has increased after Bangladesh and Burmese relations became
colder by the day.

There remain some unresolved questions between the two neighbors after the
Burmese regime has building its military strength on the western border
recently. The Burmese military regime is setting up a military air base on
the western border and is stationing an artillery battalion that was
reassigned from Burma proper.

____________________________________

February 9, Xinhua
Bangladesh to build road, railway links with Myanmar

Bangladesh's communications minister said the government will build
connecting road and railway from the country's southeastern bordering part
to Myanmar, leading English newspaper The Daily Star reported on Sunday.

Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain said this on Saturday in the
country's southeast Cox's Bazar district after visiting the location of
the proposed China-Myanmar-Bangladesh friendship road and railway at
Myanmar border close to Myanmar's Ghum Dhum town.

Hossain told reporters there his government has sent proposals to Myanmar
government to this effect and is awaiting a response to start planning and
other physical mobilization.

The project to build the road and railway connecting Bangladesh's Ukhia to
Myanmar's Ghum Dhum point was initiated some 10 years ago, the newspaper
said.

The minister said the Bangladeshi government is looking forward to opening
a new horizon in the area of trade, people to people connectivity and
economic development of the southeastern region that will extend up to
China after the construction of the road and railway.

The country's southeast region will become a new economic zone to benefit
all three countries, Hossain said.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 9, Xinhua
Indian Vice-President ends Myanmar visit

Indian Vice-President Shri M. Hamid Ansari ended his four-day official
visit to Myanmar Sunday afternoon after inaugurating the first
cross-border optical fiber telephone link between the two countries in
Mandalay, Myanmar Radio and Television reported.

The 7-million-U.S.-dollar high-speed broadband link for voice and data
transmission connects Myanmar's second largest city Mandalay and India's
border town of Moreh, which are separated by a distance of 500 kilometers,
Indian sources said.

During his Myanmar visit over the last four days, Ansari met with Chairman
of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Senior-General
Than Shwe and SPDC Vice-Chairman Vice Senior-General Maung Aye separately
in Nay Pyi Taw.

Ansari and Maung Aye had bilateral talks on matters of mutually beneficial
cooperation and further strengthening of friendly relations between the
two countries.

On the occasion, the two countries signed three memorandums of
understanding (MoU) on bilateral investment promotion and protection,
establishment of an English language training center in Yangon with Indian
assistance and setting up of an industrial training center in Myanmar's
Pakkoku.

Flying over to Yangon from Nay Pyi Taw, Ansari inaugurated the
Myanmar-India Entrepreneurship Development Center set up at the Institute
of Economics at the Hlaing University.

Ansari arrived in Nay Pyi Taw Thursday afternoon for the visit at the
invitation of Maung Aye.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 8, Japan Times
Burmese junta fuels influx – Jeff Kingston

In 2008 there was a sharp spike in the number of people seeking asylum in
Japan, and although only 6 percent of those processed were recognized by
the government as refugees, they totalled 57 compared with 41 the year
before.

Eri Ishikawa of the Japan Association for Refugees (JAR) attributes the
rise — which included many applicants from Burma (which the military junta
calls Myanmar) — to growing sympathy here following the brutal suppression
of the Saffron Revolution in 2007 and the military junta's woeful response
to the humanitarian disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.

Many Burmese in Japan now also report that, sensing a more welcoming
environment, they have filed applications for the first time, or
reapplied.

The Justice Ministry reports that 1,599 asylum seekers applied for refugee
status in 2008, up from 954 in 2006. Of last year's applications, 918 were
processed, resulting in 57 people being granted refugee status under the
terms of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees.

To date, since Japan signed the convention in 1981, it has accepted a
total of 508 so-called convention refugees from all over the world. In
comparison, since 2006 the United States has accepted 15,000 Burmese alone
from refugee camps in Thailand under the "third-country resettlement
program" — and in the 2007 financial year its overall refugee target was
70,000.

In Japan, about half the asylum seekers in 2008 were from Burma, and 38 of
those received refugee visas. In addition, 360 asylum seekers, most from
Burma, were granted humanitarian visas — up from 80 in 2007. However,
humanitarian visas do not confer refugee status, and so recipients don't
qualify for the same benefits and security of status as holders of refugee
visas.

But for the Japanese government, humanitarian visas are attractive because
its obligations are not as burdensome as for convention refugees. For
example, recipients only get limited social welfare assistance. Japan also
has the right to revoke such visas at its discretion.

In contrast, convention refugees have access to the full gamut of
social-welfare programs, and get assimilation help such as language
classes from the state-funded Refugee Assistance Headquarters.

Nonetheless, through refugee and humanitarian visas, the Japanese
government in 2008 boosted its "protection rate" (providing some legal
status and security to asylum seekers) to about 45 percent of applicants
(417 out of 918) — sharply up on previous years, when it languished in
single digits, at around 6 percent to 8 percent.

This shift is expected to attract a further increase in applications, as
asylum seekers — not only from Asia — will believe their odds have
improved in a country long virtually closed to refugees.

However, while Japan maintains its strict terms for granting convention
refugee status, its upturn in granting humanitarian visas primarily aims
to address the needs of asylum seekers with roots in Japan — including
many who have married here and are raising families. It is hoped that
this, too, will demonstrate to the international community that Japan is
not turning its back on such problems.

According to Yuki Akimoto, an attorney who serves as director of
BurmaInfo, an NGO that disseminates information about Burma and lobbies
Japanese politicians and officials, Japan has long been torn in its
approach to the country. Tokyo, she says, basically favors cozying up to
Burma's military junta, but also reluctantly supports international
sanctions aimed at pressuring the junta to improve human rights, release
political prisoners and engage in political reform.

However, since 2007's point-blank shooting by a Burmese soldier of a
Japanese news cameraman, Kenji Nagai, while he was working for APF
covering a demonstration led by unarmed monks in the capital Yangon, Tokyo
has taken a tougher stand toward the junta.

Now, following the junta's crackdown on all dissent, Japanese authorities
are taking a more sympathetic view of the plight of Burmese exiles here
and their claims of facing political persecution if they are deported back
home.

Ishikawa, who helped establish JAR in 1999, says, "It is important that
Japan can be relied on to do its part and truly help those who really need
help." She is encouraged that even though helping refugees doesn't draw
any votes, more politicians are becoming interested and understand the
value of assisting asylum seekers.

BurmaInfo's Akimoto also believes that sympathy for the people of Burma
has increased precisely because of the junta's unbridled brutality toward
them and its failure to help them raise their standard of living.

JAR is chronically underfunded, and in the current downturn is trying to
cope with falling contributions from some large donors just as ever more
asylum seekers are in need of assistance, ranging from legal advice to
accommodation and basic household necessities.

However, a visit to its offices reveals a conference room stacked high
with donated items, including a few men's suits hanging in the corner.
JAR's remit evidently extends well beyond advocacy and counseling, since
the suits are to help asylum seekers blend in by not looking like
stereotypical namin (literally, "those with problems," but also the term
for refugees), and so avoid harassment and arrest.

The government, too, is running out of money allocated for the support of
asylum seekers due to a near-doubling in their numbers over the past year.
Since asylum seekers are not allowed to work while their applications are
assessed — a process that takes two years on average — they depend
entirely on assistance.

Currently, a family of four is eligible for about ¥135,000 in living
expenses per month (¥1,500 per adult and ¥750 per child per day), plus a
monthly maximum of ¥60,000 in housing support. In principle, such support
is limited to four months, but since such people lack medical insurance
and are not permitted to work, that period is insufficient and is often
extended.

The unexpected problem is that the number of people receiving assistance
from the Refugee Assistance Headquarters jumped from 95 a month in 2007 to
more than 180 by the end of 2008.

In the 2008/09 financial year, the total budget for such assistance was
¥78 million. As that budget was exhausted by the end of 2008, though, the
government was left scrambling to secure supplementary funds to carry the
program through until the end of March, when the fiscal year ends.

Anxiety haunts a Burmese family left in official limbo Ishikawa expects
the number of applicants to continue rising, citing the ongoing problems
in Burma, the war in Sri Lanka and growing numbers fleeing violence in
war-torn regions in Africa.

In Ishikawa's view, the current official limit of four months' support is
unrealistic, and should be extended to two years — or as long as it takes
for the government to review the asylum application. Alternatively, the
government could allow asylum seekers to work while their applications are
processed. Certainly, from interviewing numerous asylum seekers, it's
clear that the limited government support forces many to work illegally,
which makes them vulnerable to unscrupulous employers and also
deportation.

Now, as Japan prepares for a new influx of asylum seekers, and is
launching a pilot program for the resettlement of refugees, advocates
believe there is a pressing need to have an open discourse about its
policies — and to improve conditions for those seeking, or already
granted, protection.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 8, Reuters
U.S. wants Myanmar to stop persecution of Rohingyas – Nizam Ahmed

The United States wants Mynamar to stop hounding Rohingya Muslims, a
stateless minority from the former Burma's northwest region, Assistant
Secretary of State Richard Boucher said on Sunday.

"It's a matter of concern and the U.S wants that Myanmar stops the
persecution of Rohingyas," Boucher said during a visit to Bangladesh.

He said attention had been drawn to the plight of the boat people landing
in Thailand and Indonesia over the past weeks.

"The U.S. was aware of the fleeing of Rohingyas from Myanmar for
persecution and economic reasons," Boucher told a news conference before
leaving Bangladesh after a two-day visit.

The plight of Myanmar's estimated 800,000 Rohingya, has been in the
headlines since reports of serial abuse of the migrants by the Thai
military.

According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 230,000
Rohingya now live a precarious, stateless existence in Bangladesh, having
fled decades of abuse and harassment at the hands of Myanmar's military
rulers.

Indonesia last week detained 198 Rohingyas after finding them floating in
a boat off the coast of Aceh. They had been at sea for 21 days.

Last month the Thai army admitted towing hundreds far out to sea before
abandoning them, but insisted they had food and water and denied reports
the boats' engines were sabotaged.

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

Boucher said he visited Dhaka to see how the new U.S. administration could
work with the new government and opposition in Bangladesh.

He met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, several ministers and Begum Khaleda
Zia, former prime minister and now leader of the opposition.

"The U.S. wants to work with Bangladesh against terrorism and corruption,"
he said. "We also want to see regional response to Bangladesh proposal to
form a South Asian task force to fight terrorism."

Hasina assumed power on Jan. 6 following a landslide win in the Dec. 29
election. She had floated the idea of a regional task force after the
terror attacks in Mumbai in November, in which 179 people were killed.

Boucher said the U.S. wanted democracy to flourish in this south Asian
country with parliament as a pivot.

____________________________________

February 9, Mizzima
Campaigners urge EU to tighten sanctions on junta – Salai Pi Pi

Burma campaign groups from 13 European countries have urged the European
Union to strengthen its policy of sanctions on Burma and to pressure the
junta to release all political prisoners.

Zoya Phan, International Coordinator of Burma Campaign UK, who attended
the Burma Campaign Meeting in Barcelona during the weekend, told Mizzima
that the meeting of campaigners has called on the EU to strengthen its
Common Position on Burma, which will be renewed in April.

"We will call on the EU to impose sanctions against the regime by
initiating a global arms embargo, financial transaction and in gas and oil
sectors," Zoya Phan said on Monday.

The campaigners also urged the EU to exert more pressure on the Burmese
military junta to release political prisoners including Nobel Peace
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and to expedite political reforms and to improve
the human rights situation in the country.

The Burma campaign groups from 13 European countries, under the banner of
'European Burma Network', held a meeting on February 7 and 8 in Barcelona,
Spain.

"As long as the regime commits human right abuses in the country, EU
should tighten the pressure on the Burmese junta," Phan said.

The EU in 1996 adopted a 'Common Position' on Burma which imposed
restrictive measures towards Burmese military rulers.

The Common Position, which banned member countries from investing in
Burma, was further tightened in areas of logging, mining and gemstone
industries and the import of related items, following the Burmese junta's
brutal crackdown on protestors in September 2007.

Despite the sanction, Phan said some companies from EU countries are still
investing in Burma and are contributing to the military's human rights
abuses.

"French company Total and other companies still remain in gas and oil
sectors" said Phan, adding that the campaigners called on the EU to
immediately tighten sanctions so as to force such companies to stop doing
business in Burma.

Despite the sanctions, the EU donated €22 million in December 2008 for
relief and recovery programmes after the deadly Cyclone Nargis lashed
Burma. The EU also said it will provide another €18.5 million in 2009 for
programmes targeting for the relief of highly vulnerable populations
inside Burma and Burmese refugees in Thailand.

However, Phan said, EU's direct relief aid provided to Burmese refugees in
Thailand is insufficient saying, "EU should also provide more cross-border
aid for the refugees in eastern Burma."

____________________________________

February 9, Kaladan Press
World organizations urge Burma to end persecution

Nearly 100 multi-organizations world wide have condemned Burma and urged
it to end the systematic persecution of the Rohingya ethnic minority and
recognize them as citizens with full rights and protection, according to
their joint statement.

The world multi-organizations also condemned the Thai government for
forcibly expelling the Rohingyas, which is in violation of international
law. It wanted investigation of the serious allegations of mistreatment by
the Thai security forces which may be in serious violation of Thailand's
obligations under the 1984 the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and bring those responsible
to justice.

The Rohingya have been rendered stateless in Burma and have experienced
systematic discrimination, exclusion, and human rights violations in Burma
for decades, prompting hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in neighboring
countries, most notably Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand.  Most are
without legal status and are vulnerable to arrest, imprisonment, detention
and deportation.

The US has also called on Burma to stop persecuting its Rohingya Muslim
minority, who have fled the country in hundreds of thousands, a stateless
minority from the former Burma's northwest region, Assistant Secretary of
State Richard Boucher told a news conference in Dhaka yesterday during a
visit to Bangladesh.

"It's a matter of concern and the U.S wants that Burma stops the
persecution of Rohingyas," Boucher added.

He said attention had been drawn to the plight of the boatpeople landing
in Thailand and Indonesia over the past weeks. Hundreds of Rohingya
recently fled to Thailand in boats, but were cast adrift by the Thai
authorities and many died. Burma's military rulers do not recognize the
Rohingya as Burmese.

Refugees who have been arriving in Thailand and Indonesia have narrated
how the military authorities there have beaten and abused them. Many have
shown scars on their bodies they claimed were caused by Burmese soldiers
whipping them as a warning not to return to Burma.

"The U.S. was aware of the fleeing of Rohingyas from Burma for persecution
and economic reasons," Boucher told a news conference before leaving
Bangladesh after a two-day visit.

According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) some 230,000
Rohingya now live in Bangladesh, having fled after decades of abuse by
Burma's military rulers. But, one of the Rohingya community estimated
about 500,000 Rohingyas are living in Bangladesh.

____________________________________
OPINION/OTHER

February 9, Irrawaddy
Burma’s man-made suffering – Voravit Swanvanichkij and Chris Beyrer

On February 3, UN Special Envoy Gambari concluded his seventh official
trip to Burma. He managed to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and senior
members of the NLD, who declared that the release of the over 2,100
political prisoners in Burma must occur before any meaningful political
reform is possible.

However, he failed again to secure a meeting with junta supremo Snr-Gen
Than Shwe, who was too busy accepting the credentials of newly posted
ambassadors from Cambodia, China and Vietnam.

Instead, Gambari had to make do with meeting Prime Minister Gen Thein
Sein, who demanded the lifting of international economic sanctions if the
UN “wants to see economic development and political stability,” calling
such measures a human rights violation which affects health.

In a further snub to the UN, following the conclusion of Mr. Gambari’s
visit, the regime abruptly transferred Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister
Kyaw Thu, the chairman of the Tripartite Core Group (TCG) for Cyclone
Nargis relief, to an inactive post.

And, in a response to increasing international concern over Rohingya
migrants fleeing Burma, declared it an “irrelevant issue” that has
“nothing to do with Myanmar, nor is [it] a human rights problem.”

The political impasse continues, and with it Burma’s ongoing health and
humanitarian crises, including a disease of “national concern”—HIV/AIDS. 
Last November, Medécins Sans Frontières (MSF) released a report, A
Preventable Fate: the Failure of ART Scale-up in Myanmar, decrying the
inability to provide treatment to HIV/AIDS patients in Burma. An estimated
76,000 Burmese need life-saving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) today.
However, fewer than 20 percent are getting it. Of those fortunate enough
to be treated, some 11,000 receive medications from MSF. The Burmese
government provides treatment for another 1,800.

“Having made an enormous effort to respond to the overwhelming need for
ART treatment during the last five years, MSF can no longer take primary
responsibility for ART scale-up in Myanmar,” MST noted. “Pushed to the
limit by the lack of treatment on offer by other care providers, MSF has
recently been forced to make the painful decision to drastically reduce
the number of new patients it can treat.”

The failure to provide life-saving medications is predictable, as is the
regime’s response to the report. Burmese Health Minister (and Than Shwe’s
personal physician) Dr. Kyaw Myint said, “Some big countries have accused
the country [Burma] of not giving effective treatment to the infected
patients and lacking funds for fighting the disease 
 Myanmar set aside
191.4 million kyat (US $180,000) to combat the infection of the disease in
2007.”

So the junta spent only about $0.70 per patient. This paltry sum, if used
to purchase a year’s worth of first-line ART, would provide treatment for
approximately 460 of the 76,000 patients who need it.

Yet the regime is awash with resources and has an estimated $4 billion in
currency reserves. For the 2007-2008 fiscal year, Burma posted a trade
surplus of over $3.2 billion, primarily from natural gas sales to
Thailand. The generals can afford to do much more.

But the refusal to expend public funds on the public is only part of the
problem.  Within the last month, dozens of activists, private donors and
community aid workers—including those providing HIV-related services—have
been sentenced to long prison terms. These brave persons are also
political prisoners of the regime.

U Eindaka, the abbot of Maggin Monastery, which provided housing and
treatment services for HIV patients, received a 16.5-year sentence. His
monastery was shut, the monks and patients turned out onto the streets.

Than Naing, of the group Friends with a Red Ribbon, which ran peer
education programs, was given 6 years. Many other activists and aid
workers have been threatened, harassed or forced to flee, including Phyu
Phyu Thinn, a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who
provided counseling, education and referral services for HIV patients who
referred to her as a “mountain of hope.”

She helped coordinate services for HIV patients from rural Burma who were
staying at the Shwehintha Yele Monastery while they received treatment.
Last month, the monastery was raided and the patients ejected.

Chronic divestment in health, alongside draconian restrictions, harassment
and the incarceration of relief workers, remain the root drivers of the
health and humanitarian crises in Burma. These are the real human rights
violations that affect health—not sanctions.

Donor aid should certainly be increased, but the junta must be pressured
to do their share and expend the revenues of the country of Burma on the
peoples of Burma. In the midst of multiple catastrophes, the Burmese
regime has chosen instead to import over $2 billion worth of arms from
China since the 1990s, purchase a nuclear reactor from Russia at a
reported cost of more than $50 million, fund a lavish wedding for Than
Shwe’s daughter (with gifts valued at an estimated $50 million), and build
a new capital, Naypyidaw (“Abode of Kings”), thought to have cost over $4
billion.

Naypyidaw boasts luxuries such as 24-hour electricity, three golf courses
and a zoo, complete with a climate-controlled penguin house.

Meanwhile, official restrictions governing the work of international aid
agencies have been tightened, particularly the rules covering domestic
travel and data collection. Their priorities are clear: until the global
community has the moral fortitude to address this underlying reality, the
humanitarian crises of Burma will continue, especially for the 70 Burmese
HIV patients who will die today from lack of care.

Voravit Suwanvanichkij MD, MPH, and Chris Beyrer MD, MPH, are researchers
with the Center for Public Health and Human Rights of the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health.

____________________________________

February 9, Mizzima News
Last call for forests in Northern Burma – Phyusin Linn

Forests in Northern Burma, some of the last frontiers of Asia's rain
forests, are facing a chronic threat.

Logging is back in Kachin State under a new mask. Logging no longer will
be the illegal business in one of the world's biggest green regions that
houses most of the teaks left on earth. Logging this time has returned
into the region with bigger ambition and the safer shield under the title
of agro-forestry development projects.

For decades, deforestation in Kachin State was traditionally carried out
by agricultural farming industry of the local people and Asia's one of the
longest civil wars in the nation. High speed massive illegal logging was
introduced to the region only by logging companies from neighbouring
Yunnan Province only after China's economy started roaring in 1990s. And
it remarkably escalated in 1998 when China banned logging in its nation
after facing serious floods in their home land. Forests in northern Burma
were dwindling quickly in early 2000 and Kachin State became a hottest
target for all the international watchdogs. But, finally, loggers have
found a new and safest way to continue their business with a higher speed.

Everything started in 2006 when the government began promoting a nation
wide bio fuel campaign to grow a castor oil across the nation as a state
crop. Although state sponsored project of growing castor oil plants only
kept the people busy in other areas, but in Kachin State, it killed the
forests that once survived from the hands of the loggers in early 2000.
Companies cleaned the forests to grow the castor oil in a massive scale.
As a result, logs and other forest products, as usual, were brought and
sold to the Chinese logging companies.

Companies got enlightenment, copying the model of castor oil projects, to
expand the logging business in the region on a massive scale. They said
castor oil should not only be the state crop, there are several other
important crops that the state should focus on in a large scale in the
region. And the companies said they will dutifully serve those noble
endeavours to develop the region.

Under the forest regulations issued in May, 2008, companies who want to
run an agro-forestry project can rent the forest areas from the Ministry
of Forests with a 30-year deed.

Companies borrowed the loans from the banks in Yunnan Province. Banks and
logging people in Yunnan were enthusiastic to help their neighbouring
friends' decision to develop the massive farming industries.

More tractors, dozers of cars and other machineries were ambitiously
brought to the region. The roads between Kachin State and Yunnan were
reconstructed again. Roads became even much better than the
Yangon-Mandalay highway.

A Kachin local remarked, "the better road we have the more trees we lose".

And finally companies take their share dividing the forest areas in Kachin
state. There are four major crops that the companies are growing in
Northern Burma such as sugar cane, rubber, tapioca and castor oil. Each
company takes an average of 200,000 acres of forest land in the region.

Needless to say, they all cut the trees, again, to clean the forests
before they started growing the state crops. But this time the scale is
larger and lethal to the trees left in the region. A forest official said
that the major reason of deforestation in northern Myanmar is expanding
the agricultural projects. He concluded that the best way to maintain the
forests is to conserve the present forests rather than reforestation.
Because to see the success of reforestation in the future is not so
certain, he continued.

How good are the reforestation projects in Kachin State?

There are some reforestation projects in the region where forestry
officials are trying to grow teak and other trees to re-green the land.
But unfortunately the scale and the timing is no match to counter the
loggers' projects.

Forests in northern Myanmar were registered by the British government as
the Permanent Forests Estates (PFE) for the first time since 1895. But
after independence, the first time the Burmese government registered one
forest as PFE was only in 2005.

The speed of logging is far beyond the speed of reforestation.

Trucks loaded with Burmese logs are still passing the border to China.

Trees are dwindling in the region.

And the impact on environment has been escalated.

This is a call not only to the people in Burma but to everyone in Asia.