BurmaNet News, April 22, 2009

[Editor]

April 22, 2009, Issue #3695


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Police arrest opposition members during prayers
Mizzima News: USDA prepares list of possible election candidate
Xinhua: Myanmar to allow opening of more public access centers

ON THE BORDER
Kachin News Group: Ethnic Kachins mark ‘Earth Day’ on Sino-Burma border

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar steps up cooperation with Malaysia on palm oil production

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Diarrhea outbreak worries Rangoon residents

INTERNATIONAL
RFA: Rights monitoring could increase
DVB: DVB television to reach millions via the internet

OPINION / OTHER
Huffington Post: Twin-track talks in Burma raise peace hopes – Russ Wellen



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Police arrest opposition members during prayers – Ahunt Phone Myat

Two opposition party members have been arrested whilst praying for the
release of political prisoners in Burma, including opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

During a National League for Democracy weekly prayer meeting yesterday in
Rangoon’s Twante township, police arrested the township’s vice chairman
Chit Pe and chief organizer Maung Soe Wai.

The brother of Maung Soe Wai said the two were likely to be charged for
defaming the Buddhist congregation.

"They prayed with respect in accordance with the Buddhist tradition at the
pagoda,” he said.

“They prayed for the welfare and release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
political prisoners.”

Around 50 people were present at the prayers.

A participant in the ceremony said that about six members of the
intelligence branch of the police showed up and said they had some
questions to ask the two members and took them away.

“They put him in detention without questioning him,” said Maung Soe Win’s
brother, adding that family and friends have been prevented from visiting
the two detainees.

Twante township police station refused to comment, saying that the issue
was in the jurisdiction of higher authorities.

____________________________________

April 22, Mizzima News
USDA prepares list of possible election candidate – Salai Pi Pi

The Burmese military junta-backed civilian organization, the Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) in Chin state, has completed
its list of members, who will contest in the ensuing general elections in
2010.

Sources in the opposition party – the National League for Democracy – in
Hakha town, capital of Chin state, said the USDA had completed preparing
the list of possible candidates from the nine townships in Chin state, and
were ready to submit the list to their central office.

“The USDA office from Hakha has already received a list of candidates from
all townships and are planning to submit it to their central office,” the
source said.

The source said, the USDA had nominated four candidates from Hakha
Township, five from Thangtlang Township and one from Falam Township.
However, he failed to describe the numbers selected from other townships.

Candidates who are nominated by the USDA to contest in the 2010 elections
include prominent figures such as That Mang and Tialhnin from Hakha town,
Dr. Hmuthang from Thangtlang town and Kap Tial from Falam town.

That Mang is a former chairman of People’s Council under the Socialist
regime ruled by Gen Ne Win and is a member of the junta’s handpicked
delegates to the National Convention. Tialhnin is a former secretary of
People’s Council in Hakha town and a retired officer of the Education
Ministry.

Dr. Hmuthang from Thangtlang town is a Member of Parliament elected during
the 1990 elections and was a delegate to the National Convention, which
the NLD had boycotted and called a sham. Kap Tial from Falam town is an
advocate and was also a delegate to the National Convention.

All of them are members of the USDA.

Even as the source from the NLD said, the USDA are sending their list of
possible candidates to their central office, Thatmang denied knowledge of
any such list.

That Mang said he was not aware of the USDA’s list saying, “Nothing is
sure until the electoral law is announced.”

But he did not rule out the possibility of contesting the 2010 elections.

Meanwhile, in Hakha town, the USDA led by its General Secretary San Cung
launched a fresh movement for recruiting retired civil servants as its
members.

“They [USDA] asked the people to fill up membership forms,” the source said.

A retired civil servant, who is also nominated to be a candidate in the
2010 elections, said, “I just filled the form as they asked me to do so.”

The USDA was established by the Burmese military supremo Senior General
Than Shwe in 1993, and the junta claims that it is the largest civil
society in Burma with a membership of over 20 million.

Several Burmese observers have speculated that the USDA is likely to
transform into a political party and contest in the elections.

However, an USDA official in Hakha earlier told Mizzima that his
organization would not convert into a political party.

“We will not nominate any one as a candidate for the USDA, but we cannot
rule it out if people want to choose anyone from our group to lead their
party,” he added.

____________________________________

April 22, Xinhua
Myanmar to allow opening of more public access centers

The Myanmar Teleport will allow opening of more public access centers
(PAC) in the country to facilitate communication links, the leading weekly
Yangon Times reported Wednesday, quoting the Myanmar Info-tech.

Although there has been many PAC in the biggest city of Yangon, it lacks
in the rural areas and such establishment will be priortized for those
areas, the country's biggest internet service provider said.

According to the Info-tech, the number of PAC went up from merely 20 in
2003 to 463 during the past three years with 44 townships having such
centers -- 355 in Yangon, 15 in Mandalay and 93 in other townships.

Myanmar has planned full coverage of PAC in every township in the future
to further the internet link.

According to the telecommunications authorities, the number of internet
users in Myanmar has reached over 300,000, up from merely dozens four
years ago.

Myanmar has been striving for the development of information and
communication technology (ICT) to contribute its part to the national
economic development. In December 2007, Myanmar's first largest ICT park,
also known as the Yadanabon Myothit Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo
Lwin, a northern city of Myanmar in Mandalay division.

The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4, 050
hectares), is located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67
kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and
20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.

The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but
also connects neighboring China, Thailand and India.

With the establishment of the cyber city, more and more local and foreign
IT companies have sought investment in the cyber city for the development
of IT business undertakings.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 22, Kachin News Group
Ethnic Kachins mark ‘Earth Day’ on Sino-Burma border

The 39th anniversary of Earth Day today was marked by Burma's ethnic
Kachins and environmentalists with solemnity and traditional Christian
prayer services at two places on the Sino-Burma border in northern Burma,
organizers said.

This is the first time that the Earth Day was marked on the border where
hundreds of trucks loaded with timber from Kachin State are crossing into
China's southwest Yunnan province through different border passes. The
anniversary service was organized by Kachin-State based Kachin Development
Networking Group (KDNG), said Awng Wa, chairman of KDNG.

Uru River (Uru Hka in Kachin) in Hpakant jade mining land in Burma's
Northern Kachin State.
The hour-long service was held at two different places between 9 a.m. and
10 a.m. where participants were told about the significance of Earth Day,
the current Earth's environment, global warming and ecological problems in
nature resource-rich Kachin State as well as in Burma by KDNG organizers,
participants said.

The services in the two places were concluded with prayers where
participants prayed for the continued existence of the Earth, a greener
Earth and that all living things on Earth live peacefully in the future.

Altogether over 40 participants joined the services and they included
Baptist Church goers, teachers, people from inside Kachin State and local
environmentalists, said organizers.

According to local environmentalists, Kachin State is now facing rampant
deforestation where the ecology is at high risk. No plants are growing and
rivers and streams have become polluted with Mercury due to mindless gold
mining.

As such several small streams are drying up every year and water levels in
several rivers are also dropping to half.  Burma's biggest Irrawaddy River
has problems with strange changes occurring compared to past years. The
water level significantly plummets in summer but soars dramatically during
monsoons, said local people.

Awng Wa told KNG today, "The Burmese ruling junta seems bent on destroying
the ecology of Kachin State because it is allowing rampant logging and
jade and gold mining permits to Chinese companies by demanding large
amounts of money."

The Chinese government is also indirectly destroying Kachin State's
ecology by buying timber from the state. However, it officially stopped
importing timber from Kachin State in 2005, he added.

Kachin environmentalists criticize both Burma's ruling junta and the
Chinese government for neglected the mounting ecological problems in
Kachin State.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 22, Xinhua
Myanmar steps up cooperation with Malaysia on palm oil production

Myanmar is stepping up cooperation with Malaysian entrepreneurs on palm
oil production, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported
Wednesday.

A five-member Malaysian delegation, led by Adviser to Malaysia Palm Oil
Council and Felda Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd Amir Alias, visited the
Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI)
and met with representatives from Myanmar Edible Oil Merchants and
Entrepreneurs Association recently.

Their meeting covered boosting trade between the two countries, holding
more seminar on edible palm oil and procedures on importing of items into
Myanmar, the newspaper said.

In December last year, a seminar and exhibition on palm oil base product,
jointly sponsored by the UMFCCI and the two Malaysian entrepreneurs, was
held in Yangon to boost bilateral trade and technological cooperation in
the sector.

Myanmar has focused on growing oil palm in the country's southern
Tanintharyi division with 35 private companies targeting to grow 202,500
hectares of the crop there in a bid to meet local edible oil demand and
reduce import, according to oil dealers.

So far, over 100,000 ha have been put under the crop in the region, said
the newspaper.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 22, Irrawaddy
Diarrhea outbreak worries Rangoon residents – Arkar Moe and Wai Moe

Residents of a working-class neighborhood in Rangoon say they are worried
about their health because an outbreak of diarrhea that has hit the area
since last week’s Burmese New Year’s holidays is still not under control.

According to residents of Ward 2 in North Okkalapa Township, medical
officials from the Ministry of Health have visited the area, but have so
far failed to stem the spread of the disease.

“Most cases have occurred in houses along the banks of Ngamoeyeik Creek,”
said a local resident. “Medical staff from the Ministry of Health came,
but the disease is still spreading. My family and neighbors are very
worried.”

There were unconfirmed reports that the outbreak had claimed the lives of
several people living on Metta, Mutida and Marga streets in North
Okkalapa.

“On my street, four people were hospitalized. Three of them died,” said a
local housewife.

A medical official from North Okkalapa Hospital declined to comment on
reports of deaths related to the outbreak or the number of diarrhea
patients being treated at the hospital. However, he confirmed that public
health officials were dealing with the situation in North Okkalapa.

People in the township said that the United Nations International
Children’s Fund had opened two emergency centers in the area to respond to
the epidemic. Meanwhile, Rangoon-based journalists also reported an
increase in cases of diarrhea in Thaketa and Thanlyin townships since the
New Year’s festival.

The Ministry of Health has not yet released any information about the
outbreak, but yesterday it issued a warning in two Burmese-language
state-run newspapers instructing people to take precautions against
diarrhea and cholera by avoiding food exposed to flies and boiling water
before drinking it.

Authorities also ordered the closure of roadside food stalls in areas hit
by the disease, according to journalists.

Although the government has not yet announced the outbreak, prices of
medicines for diarrhea and cholera have already jumped in response to
increased demand. According to a drugstore owner in Rangoon, a small pack
of mineral salts that was just 410 kyat (around US$ 0.40) before the New
Year now costs more than 500 kyat.

According to factory workers, some factories in Rangoon have told
employees who live on North Okkalapa’s Phone Gyi Road, one of the areas
most affected by the outbreak, not to come to work.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 22, Radio Free Asia
Rights monitoring could increase – Kyaw Kyaw Aung

The Burmese junta tortures 'a lot' of its critics, says a senior U.N.
official, who also says he expects human rights monitoring to increase.

The U.N. special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak says he expects to
increase human rights monitoring in Burma "in the near future," noting
that its military government routinely tortures citizens.

“I have always, again, received serious allegations, and what I do then is
to address them and send them to the Burmese government to conduct
investigations on the complaints and requested them to send back the
results and findings of these investigations,” Nowak told RFA’s Burmese
service.

“But the military government does not have the cooperation that one would
expect from a member of the U.N.,” he added.

Citing scrutiny from U.N. human rights officials in Geneva, however, Nowak
said, “That is why I hope that the situation of human rights in Burma will
improve in the near future. Additionally, I expect that we will be able to
increase monitoring of human rights in Burma.”

Nowak didn't give comment further on why and how he expected human rights
monitoring to expand.

“I also want to have the opportunity to go and look at the prisons in the
country,” he said, but added: “Up until now, we have not seen any hint of
interest on this matter from the side of the Burmese government.”

'Quite bad'

He noted a recent visit to Burma by U.N. human rights envoy Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro, who has characterized abuses there as “quite bad.”

“The Burmese people are being unjustly and unlawfully arrested for
expressing their profound wishes with regard to politics. After being
arrested, a lot of them are tortured,” Nowak said.

In its most recent report on human rights around the world, the U.S. State
Department noted that while Burmese law prohibits torture, “members of the
security forces and other pro-government forces reportedly tortured, beat,
and otherwise abused prisoners, detainees, and other citizens.”

“They routinely subjected detainees to harsh interrogation techniques
designed to intimidate and disorient. As in previous years, authorities
took little or no action to investigate the incidents or punish the
perpetrators.”

Original reporting by Kyaw Kyaw Aung for RFA’s Burmese service. Service
director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and
produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
____________________________________

April 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
DVB television to reach millions via the internet

Democratic Voice of Burma television is now being broadcast globally via
the internet, aiming to reach 10 million Burmese across the world.

Viewers can access DVB TV by downloading the DVB application on the
Livestation platform.

DVB has been broadcasting into Burma via satellite since 2005, and remains
the only non-government-run television channel available in Burma.

Livestation, which streams live global news over broadband, has expanded
its remit in order to help broadcast the voices of those living in areas
where freedom of expression is suppressed or limited.

Watch DVB TV by clicking on the link to the right of the screen.

DVB would like to thank Livestation for helping us to reach a global
audience.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 22, Huffington Post
Twin-track talks in Burma raise peace hopes – Russ Wellen

Thailand seeks to mediate peace talks between Burma's ruling junta and the
Karen ethnic group that it's been trying to wipe out for 60 years. Norway,
meanwhile, hopes to heal the rift between warring Karen factions.

When we think of the face of the opposition to Burma's ruthless ruling
junta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi usually comes to mind.
Now in her fourteenth year of on-again, off-again house arrest, she
emerged as a national leader when thousands of protesting students and
monks were mowed down by the junta on August 8, 1988. The 8888 Uprising,
as it came to be known, was reprised, if on a lesser scale, in 2007 when
over 100 civilians and monks were killed during the "Saffron Revolution."

But the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council -- the predictably
Orwellian type of name that dictatorships tend to adopt) faces another
insurrection in Burma, one with which the West is less familiar. Minority
groups have been battling to establish their own states -- not to mention
escape ethnic cleansing -- for years. Eventually, cease-fire agreements
with the junta were signed by all, except for the Shans and the Karens.

The Karens, the largest such group, inhabit the Burma-Thailand border
region, as well as the Irrawaddy delta, the part of Burma hardest hit by
Cyclone Nargis. They're waging a war against what they call the three A's
-- annihilation, absorption, and assimilation -- in the form of the Karen
National Union (KNU) and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation
Army (KNLA).

In fact, just entering its seventh decade, it's the world's
longest-running war for independence. However, continually outnumbered by
the Burmese army and riven by internal division, it's showing its age. Why
hasn't the junta finished them off then? Apparently the Burmese army,
plagued by corruption, poor morale, and desertion, can't seem to summon
the resources to go in for the kill.

In fact, KNU vice chairman and spokesperson David Thackrabaw told us that
the Burmese army is a "paper tiger." He added, "In a way, the struggle is
a stalemate. We can see our situation half full or half empty....For the
death of one Karen guerilla, 20 SPDC soldiers die....In three years time,
SPDC have suffered 6,000 casualties." [Unconfirmed.]

Reduced to fielding an army that compensates for its weaknesses with
numbers, it would be natural for the junta to seek a ceasefire. But the
last time both sides agreed to stop fighting, in 2004, the junta took
advantage of the occasion to reinforce its front lines.

The primary reason the junta seeks ceasefire talks is to pave the way for
the entire country to participate in next year's elections. The junta
hopes that by making a token attempt at democracy it can convince the West
to ease the sanctions it's imposed on Burma and re-open economic
relations. But, writes the Karen insurgency's most stalwart chronicler,
Daniel Pedersen, "If they cannot bring the country's largest ethnic
minority into the fold, their chances of selling legitimacy on the back
these elections are slim, to say the least."

Still, the junta already receives assistance in economic development from
China, as well as Thailand, not to mention, the KNU alleges, European
interests trying to dodge economic sanctions. Even before elections and
open economic relations with the West come to pass, ensuring the success
of these projects provides plenty of incentive for all parties concerned
to neutralize the KNU and KNLA. For example, the junta has begun to
construct the first of a number of dams on the untamed Salween River,
which slices through Karen territory.

The Salween, with 80 species of endangered fish and animals, was
designated a World Heritage Site five years ago. But, from another point
of view, it offers the prospect of employment, as well as hydroelectric
energy, for the Karens, right? Not exactly.

The first problem that the dam presents, Pedersen tells us, is that "it
requires building a road to bring construction in. The roads in themselves
are a form of oppression in themselves. Crossing a road in Karen State is
a bloody big deal -- you can very easily find yourself shot." They're
strictly for the use of the junta, which uses the road roads "to
sectionalize areas of Karen State" and service base camps.

As for jobs, sure, they're provided for the Karens -- if you consider this
employment: "The SPDC picks a village easily taken and then establishes a
base camp," explains Pedersen. "The village head will be told there are so
many people required for labor efforts." But the workers aren't paid, nor
even fed, and "they are often first forced to build a bamboo compound in
which they are locked at night." The point that turning a people into
slave labor provides them with little incentive to sign a treaty seems
lost on the junta.

As for the dams, they'll not only be of no benefit to the Karens, but to
any citizens of Burma. In fact, they're intended to provide electricity to
Thailand and China. Worst of all, explains Pedersen, by "signing deals for
years in advance," the 12 generals of the junta become "time bandits."

This project, however unsavory, along with other deals such as for deep
sea ports, is obviously enough to motivate Thailand to mediate the latest
round of ceasefire talks. Besides, Thailand is the current chairman of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the country could use an image
makeover after the way it's been treating its own protesters, not to
mention the Rohingya boat people.

Worse in a way, Thailand has been averting its gaze as the junta sends the
DKBA across the border into Thailand, where it attacks Karen refugees. The
DKBA, or Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (its use of "Buddhist" is even
more Orwellian than the SPDC's use of "State" and "Peace"), splintered off
the KNU and, bought off by the junta, preys on its own people.

When a people turns on its own people, the tendency is to attribute it to
ancestral rivalries. But, according to Pedersen, DKBA's members turned on
the KNU either to profit from business with the junta or simply to hold on
to their livelihoods and keep their families from becoming refugees.

Nevertheless, an attempt is under way to graft the KNU and DKBA back
together again. The Karens used to host hunts for important Norwegians,
who are now returning the favor and offering to chair peace talks between
the warring factions. Even though the DKBA has assassinated key members of
the KNU, possibly including its revered general secretary Mahn Sha in
February 2008, the KNU is willing to attempt a reconciliation. Should that
come to pass, a new improved KNU would hold a stronger hand than it
previously has in talks with the junta.

As the world's longest-running insurgency, the Karens may think they've
proven that they can outlast the junta. But the junta, in office since
1962, is nearly as enduring. Though once talks begin, it's not hard to
understand why the KNU might stick to one of their founding principles and
an avowed non-negotiable -- retaining their arms.

Under the circumstances, wouldn't you?