BurmaNet News, February 28 - March 2, 2009

[Editor]

February 28 – March 2, 2009, Issue #3662


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burmese PM agrees to election monitors
DVB: NLD youth member transferred to remote prison
IMNA: Gas pipeline bursts after leak neglected for months
Kachin News Group: Kachins to register new party to contest 2010 elections
Xinhua: Myanmar to open new astrology museum in new capital

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar gov't to provide jobs for 10,000 returning unemployed workers

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Laputta villagers race water crisis

ASEAN
VOA: ASEAN urges Burma to release political prisoners
Straits Times: Asean must address Rohingya

INTERNATIONAL
Straits Times: Sanctions: Views of Myanmar's opposition criticized
New Zealand Herald: Burmese challenge minister over name

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima News: 14th Asean Summit: A reality check – Mungpi
Asian Tribune: The death of justice for Rohingyas – Ahmedur Rahman Farooq

INTERVIEW
Asia Times: US finger on the pulse



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 2, Irrawaddy
Burmese PM agrees to election monitors – Min Lwin

Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein reportedly said he would allow United
Nations officials and developed countries to monitor the
military-sponsored 2010 election during a meeting with his counterpart
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Asean Summit in Thailand.

The Burmese junta will allow United Nations officials to observe its
long-awaited general election next year, the Thailand-based Bangkok Post
newspaper said on Sunday.

The newspaper quoted Thai deputy government spokesman Suphachai Jaisamut
who said Thein Sein told PM Abhisit Vejjajiva that Burma would allow UN
special Burma envoy Ibrahim Gambari and the UN staff to observe the
election.

Burma also wanted observers from developed countries to monitor the
election, the newspaper reported. No countries were named.

The move was seen by some as an effort to move the momentum for the
election forward, in the face of strong criticism from democracy groups
inside and outside Burma.

“Before we even talk about monitoring the election, there has to be a
constitutional review; there has to be a release of [political]
prisoners,” said Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean
Network, speaking to The Irrawaddy on Monday. “There has to be freedom of
association and freedom of expression.”

“Otherwise, there is no free and fair [election]—there is no need to hold
an election,” she said.

Meanwhile, many Burmese opposition groups have said they will not take
part in the election unless the recently approved constitution is reviewed
and amended.

The National League of Democracy (NLD), Burma’s main opposition party, has
declared it will not take part in the election unless the regime releases
all political prisoners, starts a dialogue between pro-democracy advocate
Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta’s leader and reviews the 2008 constitution.

Recently, the NLD said it did not agree with a joint-statement by UN
special envoy Gambari and Japan Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, saying
international countries should encourage the Burmese junta to hold general
elections in 2010 in a form that would be accepted by the international
community.

Nyan Win, an NLD spokesperson, told The Irrawaddy that the joint statement
was not consistent with NLD positions as well as resolutions by the UN
General Assembly which honor the 1990 election results, which were not
implemented by the military regime.

____________________________________

March 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD youth member transferred to remote prison – Nan Kham Kaew

National League for Democracy youth member Thiha, who was sentenced to 22
years in prison in 2007 for treason and distributing leaflets, has been
transferred to a remote prison in northern Kachin state.

Thiha, from Meikhtila, was transferred on 24 February by train from Insein
prison to Pu-tao prison.

“He told a woman passenger and gave her the phone number and told her to
ring me that he was transferred to Pu-tao jail,” said his wife Theh Theh.

“The woman sympathised and rang me and said that he showed her his son's
photo,” she said. “My wife is in Meikhtila he told her.”

Thiha was arrested on 7 September 2007 while on his way home from a
meeting prior to the Saffron Revolution. Theh Theh was six months pregnant
at the time and their son is now 11 months old.

On the 17 September, he was summarily tried without a legal representative
and sentenced to 22 years in Mandalay Ohpo jail.

He was then transferred to Insein jail in Rangoon, where he was held for a
year and six months before being transferred to Pu-tao jail.

"I have not seen him for more than a year now,” said Theh Theh. “His
situation could get worse at Pu-tao."

Thiha was also arrested after Depayin incident in May 2003 in which Aung
San Suu Kyi and NLD supporters were attacked by regime-backed militias.

He was sent to Khandee prison in Sagaing division, where he was
blind-folded and imprisoned in an isolated cell for six months.

____________________________________

March 2, Independent Mon News Agency
Gas pipeline bursts after leak neglected for months – Arka

The Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline burst on February 18th. According
to local sources, the pipeline had been leaking for months. The gas did
not ignite and no one was injured, but a thundering rush of gas was
released for one hour.

At 9 pm on February 18th, the gas pipeline burst in between Lamine Town
and Hnitkayin village in Lamine Sub Township, Mon State.

“We heard the sound of an explosion at 9 in the night,” said a woman from
Lamine Town. “I thought it was a bomb explosion. After that, we heard a
sound like thunder for about 1 hour. The sound disappeared at 10 o’clock.”
The explosion occurred about 60 feet from the nearby Ye to Moulmein
railway line and a local cart path.

According to another villager, the pipeline had been leaking since at
least the 2008 rainy season. The section of pipeline that exploded becomes
submerged during rains, said the source, who described seeing bubbles
rising from the pipe to the surface of the water.

A resident of nearby Kawdood village agreed. “The gas that exploded this
time was the gas that was leaking since the rainy season,” said the
Kawdood resident. “Nobody repaired the pipe even though the rainy season
finished. That’s why the pipe could not stay any longer. That’s why it
exploded.”

The woman in Lamine Town also agreed, and described the worry felt by
local residents who feared a large explosion. “We have been afraid since
the rainy season,” she said. “But the explosion was a little far from the
village, so this time we did not have to worry as much.”

The Kanbauk to Myaing kalay pipeline brings gas from off the coast of
Tenasserim Division to factories in Myaing kalay, Karen State as well as
electricity generation projects. Government officials often blame frequent
accidents on armed rebels, but area residents say the accidents are due to
poor quality joints linking sections of the pipeline.
____________________________________

March 2, Kachin News Group
Kachins to register new party to contest 2010 elections

Kachin leaders are all set to register a new political party of ethnic
Kachins in northern Burma to contest the 2010 general elections announced
by the Burmese ruling junta, the leaders said.

The political party representing the state, the Kachin State Progressive
Party (KSPP), or Jinghpaw Mungdaw Rawtjat Pati in Kachin was formed
recently in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State by the Kachin State
Interim Committee (KSIC), said KSIC chairman Dr. Manam Tu Ja.

The KSIC, or Jinghpaw Mungdaw Pranwan Komiti in Kachin was formed on June
20 last year by the leadership of the state-based Kachin National
Consultative Assembly (KNCA) and the three Kachin ceasefire groups---
Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K)
and Lasang Awng Wa Peace Group.

Dr. Manam Tu Ja, also Vice-president No. II of KIO, told KNG, the name of
the party KSPP was coined for the holistic development of people in Kachin
State in social, cultural, political, educational and economic sectors.

He added the KSPP will be registered as an official political party once
the ruling junta authorizes forming political parties in the country soon
to allow contesting  the 2010 general elections in keeping with the
junta’s seven-step roadmap to so-called disciplined-democracy.

At the moment, the KSPP is not an official political party. However the
KSIC members have travelled to different areas of Kachin State and
mobilised people to participate in the 2010 elections, according to people
in Kachin State.

Dr. Manam Tu Ja said, people of different races and political parties in
Kachin State can join the KSPP but they must leave their organizations.

The KSIC chairman Dr. Manam Tu Ja totally denied the news written by Yin
Yin (Naypyitaw) on January 26--- stating that he was a member playing a
leading role in the Canada-based United Democratic Party of Myanmar (UDP),
chaired by Kyaw Myint, also known as Michael Hua Hu which will contest the
2010 elections in Burma.

Dr. Tu Ja said, he was invited to join the UDP in November last year by U
Ye Htoon, vice-chairman of UDP based in Burma’s former capital Rangoon
over telephone but he rejected the offer.  Since then, he has had no links
or communication with the UDP, added Dr. Tu Ja.

____________________________________

March 2, Xinhua
Myanmar to open new astrology museum in new capital

Myanmar will open a new astrology museum in Nay Pyi Taw later this month,
aimed at drawing more visitors to the new capital, local media reported
Monday.

The new astrology museum is located at the Nay Pyi Taw Zoological Garden.

The opening of the museum will coincide with the first anniversary of the
establishment of the Nay Pyi Taw zoological garden and the two events will
jointly take place in the last week of this month, the Weekly Eleven said
without specifying the date.

The Nay Pyi Taw astrology museum will be second of its kind after Yangon's
which is under renovation to attract more visitors after the Yangon
municipal authorities took over the management of the museum from the
Ministry of Culture.

The renovation of the astrology museum, which lies inside the People's
Square, covers adding up-to-date astrological equipment such as sky
projector as well as beautifying the environment by growing
shade-providing trees and floral plants.

The Yangon museum, built by Japan to mark the Myanmar-Japan friendship and
cooperation, opened in 1987.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 2, Xinhua
Myanmar gov't to provide jobs for 10,000 returning unemployed workers

Myanmar government will provide jobs for 10,000 unemployed workers, who
have returned from abroad since last year-end due to global financial
crisis, sources with the labor authorities said Monday.

These unemployed workers will be arranged to take up jobs in agricultural
and fishery sectors, the sources said.

In December last year, Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein asked the
country's citizens working abroad to come back home for jobs when they are
unemployed there out of the crisis.

"As workers are still in demand in teak plantation, timber extraction,
fisheries and salt industry, jobs are ready for Myanmar nationals who will
come back home when they are out of work abroad," Thein Sein then said.

"The impact of global financial crisis on Myanmar is insignificant. More
jobs will emerge if the entire national people make concerted efforts in
all seriousness, and this will undeniably fulfill the food, cloth, shelter
needs of the people," he said, adding that "as the nation has been able to
make progress on the basis of own strength, own capital and own education
and knowledge even though it has been subject to economic sanctions
imposed by Western nations, it will in no way ignore the interest of the
national people".

He assured that the government's three ministries of foreign affairs,
labor and agriculture and irrigation are ready to help those who come back
home on account of losing their jobs abroad.

He denied that the global financial crisis could affect the demand and
products that can be exported as much as it can produce, saying that the
main export markets of the country are neighboring ones in Asia and the
main export items are foodstuff -- rice, beans and pulses, and meat and
fish.

Pointing out that Myanmar has no contact with West bloc banks and monetary
organizations, he held that there will be no loss in the monetary sector
as the foreign loans are few compared with other countries.

He also denied economic effect on the country as the government is
building infrastructure on self-reliant basis with its own technology and
money.

There are reportedly two million Myanmar workers working abroad illegally
awaiting for returning home for employment.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

March 2, Irrawaddy
Laputta villagers race water crisis – Lawi Weng

More than 20 coastal villages in Laputta Township in the Irrawaddy delta
are facing freshwater shortages due to saltwater contamination in pools
and sources, according to a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based at
the Thai-Burmese border.

Mahn Mahn, a spokesman for the Emergency Assistance Team (EAT-Burma), said
a water crisis is pending as reserves of freshwater run out during the hot
season (March to May) while other sources of freshwater remain affected by
the surge of seawater from Cyclone Nargis last year.

At the moment, he said, many people were using water which is mixed with
seawater.

In December, Merlin, an international NGO that provides cyclone relief in
the Irrawaddy delta, warned that some 78,000 people will be affected by
water shortages.

A doctor currently working in Laputta told The Irrawaddy that a villagers
were allocated only two bottles of drinking water per day per family plus
one gallon of non-potable water for daily needs, such as cleaning clothes,
bathing and toilets.

The sources said the water crisis started last month and will continue to
get worse as there is no desalination project in the area.

“I treated several children with diarrhea at my clinic last month,” said
the doctor. “I expect many more as the season gets hotter and water runs
out.”

NGOs working in the delta currently hire trucks to transport water to
people in affected areas. The sources said that the NGOs are planning to
hire a ship to transport clean water to villages.

A local resident in Laputta said that locals were paying 600 kyat (US
$0.50) for a gallon of water that they could order from a public ferry.
However, local authorities allegedly ordered the ship to stop selling
water to villagers.

Save the Children, a UK-based NGO working with cyclone survivors, said in
December that they were worried about water shortages would be a threat to
survivors in the summer.

Save the Children said that when the dry season kicks in, people will have
fewer options to find clean water and there will be an increased risk of
disease.

Many ponds and wells were destroyed by seawater when Cyclone Nargis and
its subsequent tidal wave hit Laputta on May 2-3. At least 138,000 people
were killed in the disaster.

____________________________________
ASEAN

March 1, Voice of America
ASEAN urges Burma to release political prisoners – Daniel Schearf

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has ended its summit in
Thailand with a short statement encouraging Burma to release political
prisoners and allow democracy.

Host Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva officially ended the two-day ASEAN
summit.

At a press briefing, he told journalists the Southeast Asian leaders
agreed to work harder on regional cooperation and speeding up economic
integration.

He said the alliance also gave a message for their least popular member,
Burma, officially known as Myanmar.

"The ASEAN leaders encouraged Myanmar to continue cooperation with the
United Nations and to make sure that the roadmap continues according to
plan, and that the process would be as inclusive as possible, which
includes, of course, the continuation of the release of prisoners or
political detainees and also the participation of political parties in the
upcoming election," said Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Burma's military-run government has drawn out a "roadmap to democracy"
that critics say is designed to keep the generals in power.

They forced a constitution that will guarantee the military at least 25
percent of legislative seats in next year's election.

In the past week Burma has released about 20 political prisoners. But
rights groups say there are more than 2,000 in detention, including Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

The United States and other countries have sanctions against Burma for
suppressing Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy which won the
most seats in 1990 legislative elections.

The Obama administration says it plans to review the sanctions policy.

ASEAN's Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan on Sunday told VOA that Burma
should take the opportunity seriously.

"It is a new beginning. Change or not change we do not know," said
Pitsuwan. "But, certainly there is a new beginning with the new
administration in Washington."

Former ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong told VOA the U.S. policy
review was the most important thing to happen on Burma since last year's
summit. He said Burmese authorities needed to respond positively or else
the opportunity would be missed.

“I am not optimistic that they are going to move very fast," said Yong. "I
am not sure how they are going to respond. But, I believe that all these
voices, all these conversations must be having an impact on them. Whether
we are going to see immediate reaction I am not sure."

Saturday at the summit, the Burmese and Cambodian Prime Ministers refused
to meet with rights activists from their countries, despite the dialogue
being on the official schedule.

A women's caucus representative told VOA that activists from Laos and
Brunei did not attend the summit for fear of reprisals from their
governments.

Despite the lack of engagement in what was billed as a "people's" summit,
Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan was optimistic that progress was being
made.

"But, I think we take comfort in the fact that at least they have begun to
accept the fact that they cannot keep out the people and the civil society
forever," he said. "So, that is a good beginning. And, let us move from
there."

Also at this year's ASEAN sunnit, a free-trade agreement signed between
ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand that could be worth tens of billions of
dollars. The agreement was hailed as one element in the fight against the
global financial crisis.

Other ASEAN members include Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and
the Philippines.

____________________________________

March 1, Straits Times
Asean must address Rohingya

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the first time addressed the
issue of stateless Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar yesterday, warning
that Asean must address it seriously or risk losing credibility.

While addressing leaders at the summit, he also made a pitch for Myanmar
to engage with the United States and the international community, saying
he saw a 'window of opportunity' for this now.

Some Western countries, he noted, have been questioning whether sanctions
against Myanmar were the best approach. US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, he observed, recently said that sanctions were not working, and
that US officials were looking at 'possible ideas'.

'We see a window of opportunity for Myanmar to engage the US and the
international community,' he said. 'Myanmar can capitalise on this
opportunity by cooperating with the United Nations.'

The PM also urged Asean to support United Nations special envoy Ibrahim
Gambari's mission to Myanmar, but added that Asean should not encourage a
visit by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon 'unless there are concrete
deliverables'.

'A visit will raise unrealistic expectations that cannot be met and would
be counter-productive,' he said.

The PM also raised the plight of Rohingya refugees.

The issue has raised some tension within the region as the refugees have
been fleeing Myanmar for countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and
Malaysia. Myanmar denies them citizenship, while the refugees say they
have been abused by the Thai military - which has denied this.

Mr Lee pointed out that media reports on the alleged ill-treatment of the
Rohingya had hurt Asean's image. He said: 'We must address this seriously.
Asean will lose credibility if we are unable to sort out a problem in our
own region.'

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 2, Straits Times
Sanctions: Views of Myanmar's opposition criticized – Nirmal Ghosh

Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) has run into
controversy over its Feb 12 statement, in which it referred to
international sanctions and the parlous state of Myanmar's economy.

Last week, it issued a clarification on sanctions - an increasingly
divisive issue for the international community. The party said the message
from their leader Aung San Suu Kyi  - who remains under house arrest in
Yangon - was that sanctions and pressure should be lifted only when
political settlement was reached through a meaningful and time-bound
dialogue between the military regime, the NLD, and ethnic representatives.

The statement was designed to stem a flurry of speculation based on the
earlier one which implied that sanctions had not helped the country.

In a commentary in the Chiang Mai-based journal Irrawaddy last Thursday,
writer-activist Maung Zarni - founder of the Free Burma Coalition and a
visiting research fellow at Oxford University - criticised the NLD's
'conflicting messages', adding that its leadership should 'come clean on
the impact of sanctions' and 'own up to the policy mess it has helped
create over the past two decades'.

He wrote: 'Originally our 'targeted sanctions' campaign was aimed at
hurting the generals through their pockets. Strategically, we had hoped to
compel the regime to enter into dialogue with (Aung San Suu Kyi), marrying
her non-violent campaign inside the country with international clamour for
change in Burma through Western sanctions, diplomatic isolation, media
campaigns and other punitive measures at the United Nations.?These efforts
were to be supplemented by the armed resistance along the Burmese-Thai
borders.'

'To any dispassionate analyst, this 'inside-outside' strategy has clearly
failed,' he added.

Myanmar scholar David Steinberg from the School of Foreign Service at
Georgetown University in Washington, DC - who has long been against
sanctions - in another commentary in Irrawaddy wrote: 'The NLD
leadership's initial open support for economic sanctions against the
country and continuation of holding the country's economy - and along with
it public welfare - hostage does nothing to advance the cause of either
freedom or development.'

The sanctions issue figures prominently in ongoing reviews of Myanmar
policy by the European Union and the new United States administration.

'US Republican Senator Richard Lugar, who chaired the Senate Foreign
Affairs Sub-Committee, has acknowledged the futility of 47 years of
economic isolation against Cuba,' Dr Zarni noted.

The latest voice to call for a review of international sanctions - driven
mainly by Western powers - is Timor Leste President Jose Ramos Horta who,
like Aung San Suu Kyi, is a Nobel Peace Laureate.

During a visit to Washington last week, President Ramos-Horta said: 'When
you look at the situation in Myanmar or Cuba, when you punish a country
for the perceived sin of the regime, the consequence is that you also have
collateral damage among the people.'

____________________________________

March 2, New Zealand Herald
Burmese challenge minister over name – Lincoln Tan

Burmese campaigners are lobbying the New Zealand Government to call their
home country by its former name of Burma - not Myanmar.

Murray McCully, now Foreign Minister, criticised the Labour-led Government
last May, when he was in opposition, for referring to the country as
Myanmar, and the National Council for the Union of Burma now wants him to
honour his call to recognise the country by its former name.

The name was changed from "the Union of Burma" to "the Union of Myanmar"
in 1989 by the military Government, and since then has been the subject of
controversy.

"This would be seen as a very important signal of your Government's
support for the restoration of democracy in Burma," the group said in a
letter to the minister.

Council director Naing Ko Ko said that representatives would be travelling
to Wellington to also seek a trade embargo and an extension of the visa
ban to include all businesses with links to the junta.

Mr McCully said last year: "After witnessing the appalling indifference of
Burma's military leadership to the welfare of its cyclone-ravaged
citizens, the question needs to be asked: just why would New Zealand's
Government leadership and media go out of their way to honour the wishes
of such a regime by referring to the country as Myanmar, when both the
political leadership and media of the UK, Europe and Australia do
precisely the opposite?"

Union director Naing Ko Ko said he was hopeful Mr McCully would take that
"symbolic action" now that he was Foreign Minister, and that the
National-led Government would press the military rulers to end their gross
human rights abuses.

Mr Naing said the campaign followed fresh reports on Myanmar's rights
record released last week by the United States and international human
rights groups such as the Centre for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

According to Immigration New Zealand figures, New Zealand received 397
refugees from there in 2007 - up from 174 the previous year, and two in
2005.

The United States lashed out at the Myanmar regime's human rights record,
accusing the military of "brutally" suppressing its citizens and razing
entire villages.

In its annual global report released on February 26, signed by US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department said Myanmar's
ruling junta carried out extrajudicial killings along with rape and
torture without punishing anyone responsible.

"The regime brutally suppressed dissent ... denying citizens the right to
change their government and committing other severe ... abuses," it said.

In 2007 the military crushed an uprising led by Buddhist monks, killing at
least 31 people, according to the UN. In May last year, a cyclone left
138,000 people dead or missing.

Pro- democracy advocate and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been under
house arrest for most of the past 19 years.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 2, Mizzima News
14th Asean Summit: A reality check – Mungpi

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ on Sunday concluded its 14th
summit leaving the United Nations to handle a political crisis of a member
state – Burma.

The 10-nation bloc, in its chairman’s statement on Sunday urged
military-ruled Burma to implement inclusive national reconciliation and
release political prisoners but at the same time agreed that the UN should
continue its facilitation.

“We underscored the necessity for and welcomed Myanmar [Burmese]
Government’s willingness to engage in active cooperation actively with the
UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy as well as the UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights in order to address the international community’s concern
about the situation in Myanmar [Burma],” the statement of the bloc said.

But Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi during a separate press
conference said in reply to a reporter’s question that Burma has indicated
its willingness to directly interact with the UN process rather than with
ASEAN on the country’s democratization.

Campaigners said Asean by leaving Burma’s political crisis to the UN to
solve is, washing its hands off and shrugging responsibility.

Debbie Stothard, coordinator of Alternative Asean Network on Burma, a
campaign group, said Asean is contradicting itself by refusing to take the
responsibility to intervene in Burma’s political crisis.

“This shows that Asean does not want to take responsibility. If so, they
should not protect the junta too,” she said.

Stothard said, the Asean, in any case should be responsible for its member
state’s affairs, but if it chooses not to take responsibility, then it
should be totally “Hands Off” and should not block or protect the Burmese
military junta from any form of pressure.

New name for Rohingya

The three-day Asean summit on conclusion gave a new name to Rohingya boat
people, who in recent months have been a hotly debated issue among the
regional countries after several hundreds of them, were rescued from the
sea.

The Chairman’s statement said Asean leaders had a productive discussion on
“illegal migrants in the Indian Ocean”, apparently referring to the
Rohingya boat people, and the issue would be taken up at the ‘Bali
Process’.

“We had a productive discussion on the issue of illegal migrants in the
Indian Ocean.  To address this issue, cooperation among countries of
origin, transit and destination is of great importance,” the chairman’s
statement said.

It added that the issue would be addressed in a larger context, such as
the contact group of affected countries and the Bali Ministerial
Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related
Transnational Crimes.

“We also tasked the ASEAN Secretary-General to coordinate with the Myanmar
Government to obtain relevant statistics related to these illegal migrants
in the Indian Ocean,” the statement said.

Asean’s statement on illegal migrants in the Indian Ocean came up
following the Burmese Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein’s acknowledgement
of the Rohingya as a Bengali minority group.

Thein Sein reportedly said Burma is willing to take back the Rohingya
boatpeople if it can be verified that they are Bengali minority born in
Burma.

But Amnesty International’s Burma researcher Benjamin Zawacki said, it is
disappointing that the Rohingya issue was not formally discussed at the
Summit and the response of the Burmese Prime Minister does not solve the
problem.

“It doesn’t solve the problem in anyway, but it only postpones the
problem,” Zawacki said.

He said referring the Rohingya issue to the Bali Process, while it is
necessary, as some of the Rohingya might have been trafficked, does not
solve the root cause, which is persecution of the Rohingya in Burma.

Amnesty International on Wednesday issued a statement calling on the Asean
leaders to include the Rohingya issue in the formal agenda of the summit.

However, leaders from Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam decided to hold the issue
to be taken up at the Bali Ministerial conference on People Smuggling,
Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes.

Zawacki said, it is “Simple not accurate” to term all the Rohingya
boatpeople as migrants or trafficked people. There needs to be proper
determination of the root cause that led them to flee their country.

“The problem needs to be dealt at the beginning, which is in Myanmar
[Burma],” he added.

Reality Check

Asean, with a tradition of adhering to non-interference into the affairs
of member-states, has made it clear that Burma’s problems are internal and
the group would not interfere.

But the region continues to be affected with issues such as the Rohingya
boatpeople, and the flow of migrants and refugees, among others.

Zawacki said, Asean’s non-interference policy is not solving the problem
but is making the problem worse. It should take a more pro-active role in
solving human rights problems in the region.

“It is truly in Asean’s self-interest to scrap its non-interference policy
and to ensure that it is able to deal with Human Rights problems in
individual member states including Myanmar [Burma],” he added.

Similarly, Stothard said Asean should not rely on the United Nations to
solve the problem of its member state, Burma, but it should rather
pressure the military junta to respect the rights of the Burmese people.

Stothard said the 14th Asean Summit is a strong reality check for the
group because no amount of charters, resolutions or declaration without
action would solve the problems in Burma.

“It’s a strong reality check
 the Asean leaders should know now that if
they are not willing to do what is needed and take action, they are
prolonging the problem not only for the Burmese people but even for the
people of Asean,” Stothard said.

She added pressures do have impacts on Burma’s military government,
officially known as State Peace and Development Council, and they are
playing every way to avoid it.

“Honestly, the SPDC wants to let us think that they don’t care for
pressures, but the reality is that they do, and that’s why they are
lobbying so hard to get away from Asean pressures,” she added.

____________________________________

March 2, Asian Tribune
The death of justice for Rohingyas – Ahmedur Rahman Farooq

On Feb 27,2009, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said it
will send hundreds of Rohingya boat people back to military-ruled Burma.
Meeting at its 14th annual summit, the 10-member bloc agreed to compile
and pool information and interviews on the Rohingyas, who washed up on the
shores of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia having fled oppression in
Burma.

At the same time, quoting the Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win, the Thai
Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said, Burma is ready to take back the
Rohingya migrants if they can prove they are of Bengali descent, which is
a recognized ethnic minority there. Truly, there can be no appropriate
word in the vocabulary to denounce such farcical statement of the Burmese
Foreign Minister. The fact is, the Burmese military regime has snatched
away Rohingyas' right to citizenship of Burma simply branding them as the
descendants of the Bengalese and thus denied them of their ethnic status.

However, on March 28,2008, the then Prime Minister of Thailand Samak
Sundaravej said, the Thai Navy is exploring a deserted island to place all
the Rohingyas living in Thailand mostly as undocumented refugees. He made
the statement after emerging from a two-hour long meeting of the country's
National Security Council.

And in continuation of such policy, the Rohingya boat people have been
recently dumped into the deep sea so that they get perished there beyond
anybody's notice. But fortunately or unfortunately, they all did not
perish. Some of them survived to draw international attention and thus
cause a big headache not only for Thailand but for the ASEAN bloc. So, in
order to remove their headache, the ASEAN leaders found it the best way to
hand over the Rohingyas to the Burmese army so that they can solve their
problem of 'Rohingya headache' once and for all by cutting the heads of
the Rohingyas.

However, on Jan 27,2009, Thailand said Rohingyas do not face persecution
in Burma. They said the Rohingyas caught in Thai waters are illegal
immigrants, not refugees, and will never be let into the country.

"There is no reasonable ground to believe that these migrants fled from
their country of origin for well-founded fear of being persecuted," the
government said in a statement defending its treatment of the Rohingya
boat people.

The definition of 'persecution' might be different for the Thai authority.
But the Rohingyas have been fleeing Burma because of extreme human rights
violations unleashed by the Burmese military regime to annihilate the
entire Rohingya populations from Arakan which is a state under the Union
of Burma. They have been subjected to severe persecutions including denial
of their citizenship, a ban on marriage without government permission,
severe restrictions of movement, religious persecution, extortion, land
confiscation and restrictions on access to education. Arakan State is a
closed zone for the media and so there is no scope for the world media to
cover what is going on on the Rohingyas inside Arakan.

However, these unfortunate Rohingya refugee boat people have already
suffered a lot. They have come back to life from the mouth of death after
passing several weeks in the deep sea without food and water. And hundreds
of them have perished in the deep sea after the Thai navy has left around
1,000 Rohingya refugees adrift in the ocean in boats without engine or
food or water.

Being crowded in hundreds in rickety wooden boats, they have tried to
escape persecutions and grinding poverty and washed ahore in Thailand and
Indonesia. And again, while fleeing to Thailand, a group of these boat
people were intercepted by the Burmese navy and the navy sailed their boat
south toward Thailand. The survivors said soldiers from four boats boarded
their vessel with wooden and metal rods and beat them.

A group of 78 refugees who survived being at sea for a month, then being
beaten and burned, and later washed ashore in Thailand were having serious
burns and wounds after their boat had been attacked and detained by the
Burmese navy and then set on fire in the deep sea. There were many
injuries on their backs, legs and many other parts of their body.

Later, a Thai court convicted those barefoot, disheveled Rohingyas on the
charge of illegally entry to the country. A Ranong provincial court judge
fined each defendant 1,000 baht ($30) a sum that none of them could
produce. So he sentenced them to five days in prison. There were twelve
minors who were too young to be tried in the court.

It is also true that even though the Rohingyas have been continuously
mutilated by the Burmese regime from all sides of their life because of
their Muslim religion, but their Muslim identity has never been able to
draw minimum sympathy of the Muslim countries.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority-nation of the world. Thailand and
Brunei are two powerful Muslim countries of the world. They are also the
members of the ASEAN. In order to sign the capital punishment for the
Rohingyas for causing headache to them, they have also happily joined
their hand with other ASEAN leaders on their decision to hand over the
Rohingyas to the military regime.

Rohingyas are one of the most liberal Muslim communities of the world.
Therefore, they love and prefer to introduce themselves with their secular
ethnic name 'Rohingya' which does not bear minimum significance of their
religion.

But inspite of this, the Rohingyas have been continuously subjected to the
worst human rights violations and a systematic genocidal operations
because of their Muslim religion and also because of being majority in
many townships of Arakan Sate of Burma before (now Rohingyas are majority
only in two townships in Western Arakan ).

Through the century-long persecutions, the entire Rohingya community has
been reduced to a skeletal human group. Sub-human standard is the standard
of their living. Most of them live like packs of rats in a sewer with half
naked body which is full of hunger and grief. Most of them appear to be
haggard and emaciated. Every day they struggle to arrange two meals a day
for themselves and for their malnourished children. They leave their wives
and children behind while they set out on perilous sea journey to find
refuge and work in some other country.

Of course such wretched condition of the Rohingyas is a matter of great
amusement for the Burmese military regime. On Feb 9,2009, the Burmese
Counsel Ye Myint Aung in Hong Kong, in a letter to his fellow diplomats,
termed the "Rohingyas as ugly as ogres" meaning that the Rohingyas cannot
qualify as Burmese citizens because of their appearance.

"You will see in the photos that their complexion is dark brown," said the
Burmese Counsel, referring to the Rohingya boat people. He went on to
describe the complexion of Burmese as "fair and soft, good looking as
well."

Once the Rohingyas believed that it is only Burma which is a hell for them
and if they can some how escape to somewhere outside Burma or if their
luck can help them reach Thailand or Malaysia or Indonesia through the sea
route, then they will find sanctuary and will be able to save the life of
their hungry family. But the decision of the ASEAN leaders has clearly
demonstrated that those who will brave to go to them will be pushed back
to the mouth of death of the military regime.

There are huge nice and promising words in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and also in different international laws or conventions which
have been adopted to ensure justice and protection of the persecuted human
beings. But for the Rohingyas those words are something like dreams. Their
experience has made them clearly understand that those caluses or law or
by-laws are not meant for the Rohingyas. They also clearly understand that
their cry for justice and human rights will never save their life.
They also understand that they were born to live as parasites of the human
society. Today, they are forced to believe that it is only 'Pity'..only
'Pity' which can save their life. And that is why one Rohingya boat
tragedy survivor Mamoud Hussain, pleaded to the Thai court: "Have pity on
us. They [Burmese army] will kill me and my family if I go back."

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

March 2, Asia Times
US finger on the pulse – Charles McDermid

Lunch break has ended at Saturday's 14th summit meeting of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations and United States ambassador of ASEAN affairs
Scot Marciel is struggling to pay his check.

Marciel rummaged through his pockets and pulled out five different
currencies - just one of the myriad complexities of being America's point
man to a fractious, 10-nation bloc that has some 570 million people and
its fair share of challenges.

Marciel joined the US State Department in 1985 and is now serving as
deputy secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific. He was appointed
as the first-ever US ambassador to ASEAN in 2008, amid mounting regional
criticism that Washington had neglected the grouping.

Marciel spoke to Asia Times Online's Charles McDermid about the US's role
in Southeast Asia and Washington's latest views on military-run Myanmar.

Asia Times Online: What is the perception today of the United States in
Southeast Asia?

Scot Marciel: It's pretty good. In general, I think most nations like us
to be engaged and active in the region. They tell us the economic ties are
important and there is benefit from the US being present.

ATol: Do you encounter any residual animosity over the US military's past
role in Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines?

SM: Not really. I lived in Vietnam in the 1990s, and it was striking to
find that we didn't - we expected to - but didn't. There was some
animosity, but it wasn't based on the war.

ATol:: Did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton give you specific directions
for this visit?

SM: First and foremost, Secretary Clinton wants to intensify her
engagement in the entire region, including ASEAN. The theme of her trip
[to Asia] was that Asia is an indispensable partner, and we want to affirm
and echo that in ASEAN. We want to engage and be active; we're exchanging
ideas and looking for ideas on how to do that.

ATol: Do you have a message to ASEAN on Myanmar?

SM: That Myanmar is a problem for ASEAN and the region; and that we
understand it's a difficult situation because nobody has the influence to
bring about change; and we're willing to work with ASEAN to bring about
change.

ATol: Do you believe that ASEAN can pressure Myanmar to halt its alleged
human-rights abuses and continue on the so-called "roadmap for democracy?"

SM: At this point, no. As I look at Myanmar, they have a military
leadership facing problems on the political front, with health care,
education, food security. When you have no input from society and your
past policies aren't good, realistically the only way to move forward -
politically, economically, socially - is to reach out to their own people
and opposition.

ATol: There's been much positive spin at this summit about Myanmar's
national elections in 2010. Do you have faith that the elections will
bring about democracy or a change of government?

SM: At this point it's hard to have faith. Pretty much all the opposition
is in prison. If the government wants to make progress politically it has
to include the people - all the people. If no one else is involved, the
problems will continue. What's needed is a genuine political process
that's inclusive. We [the US] love elections, but not false elections.
Those don't get you anywhere.

ATol: How do you see the situation playing out in Myanmar?

SM: There are two scenarios and I don't know which to put the most weight
on. The first is that the regime continues on its path of suppression and
bad governance. As a result, the economy declines, there are more severe
health problems and more refugees and narcotics leave the country. This
path will only lead to more tragedy and injustice.

The second of what could be one thousand other possibilities is that they
- the leaders - recognize they're moving in the wrong direction and decide
to turn things around and some kind of dialogue begins with the opposition
and ethnic groups with the participation of the UN [United Nations]. The
junta becomes more willing to listen and realizes that all the jailed
activists aren't a threat - and they turn the boat around. This way won't
be easy, or fast.

ATol: What scares you the most about the situation in Myanmar?
SM: That the suppression of liberties and bad policies over time will
create irreparable damage to the society and its people.

ATol: Do you think that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will
ever be released from house arrest?

SM: I hope so. I think so. It's certainly not easy to predict when. I do
think it would be an enormous positive step.

ATol: At this summit there's been a big push against protectionism - and
in some cases that call is clearly directed at the US. Is the US being
blamed for the global financial crisis?

SM: We haven't seen that at this meeting. But in the region there are some
people who have put the blame on us. By far, the preponderance of opinion
is not who started this but how we can work to get out of it.

ATol: What do you tell people - and there are many - who believe Southeast
Asia is caught in a US versus China battle for influence?

SM: We don't think so. Countries in this region wisely want good relations
with both the US and China. That's fine by us.

Charles McDermid is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.