BurmaNet News, June 9, 2009

[Editor]

June 9, 2009, Issue #3730


INSIDE BURMA
Financial Times (UK): Burmese court admits defence witness in Suu Kyi trial
Kachin News Group: KIO accepts junta's idea of transformation of armed-wing
DVB: Youth sold to Burmese army for $US20
IMNA: Army seizes villager’s rice paddy, demands money for pipeline security
Irrawaddy: KNU calls for tripartite talks

ON THE BORDER
VOA: Thailand confirms thousands of Karen villagers fleeing fighting in Burma
Khonumthung News: Junta extends military camps near Chin state border
DVB: Burma opens fire on Bangladeshi fishermen

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Junta No 3 reportedly in China

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Charges against Suu Kyi ‘Baseless’: Clinton

OPINION / OTHER
DVB: Burma's unraveling web of deceit – Francis Wade

ANNOUNCEMENT
Burma Centre Delhi: Indian Parliamentarians call for immediate release of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Intervention of the Indian Government for the
restoration of Democracy in Burma



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 9, Financial Times (UK)
Burmese court admits defence witness in Suu Kyi trial – Tim Johnston

In a rare legal victory for government opponents, a court in Burma has
partially granted an appeal by the defence team representing Nobel
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to readmit a barred defence witness, but
observers say the legal wrangling is unlikely to have a significant effect
on the outcome.

Mrs Suu Kyi’s defence team had asked the appeals court to reinstate three
barred witnesses. The court said that Khin Moe Moe, a lawyer, would be
allowed to give evidence, but upheld the bans on Tin Oo, the deputy leader
of Mrs Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, and Win Tin, who was
Burma’s longest serving political prisoner until he was released last
year.

Mrs Suu Kyi’s lawyers said they would re-appeal the decision.

"We will go to a higher court for the other two witnesses," said Nyan Win,
a member of her defence team.

Mrs Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest without trial for 13 of the
last 19 years, is facing a maximum sentence of five years for breaching
the terms of her arrest by allowing John Yettaw, an American, to stay the
night after he swam the lake behind her house.

The case has provoked condemnation from all sides: Hillary Clinton, the US
Secretary of State, called the charges “baseless” on Monday, and even
Burma’s Asian neighbours, which have been reluctant to voice criticism in
the past, have been unequivocal in their displeasure.

“It has been a disaster for them: it has raised her profile, it has
annoyed the neighbours, and it has called attention to the 2010
elections,” said Mark Canning, the British ambassador to Burma.

Observers say the fact that the appeal was allowed, let alone partially
granted, was an indication that pressure from overseas is having an
effect.

In a country where most opposition activists are denied access to lawyers,
let alone the right to appeal, the delicacy with Mrs Suu Kyi’s case is
being handled stands out, but few observers believe it is likely to change
the outcome.

“I think they are slowing the pace down because they were genuinely taken
aback but the international outcry,” said Mr Canning. “What you are seeing
is a back peddling, but its not going to change the outcome," he said by
telephone from Rangoon.

Mrs Suu Kyi, 63, won a landslide victory in elections held in 1990, but
the military never recognised the outcome. The authorities have now
re-written the constitution to, in their words, promote a
“discipline-flourishing democracy”, and are planning to hold new elections
next year.

Despite Mrs Suu Kyi’s long years of incarceration, she remains the
regime’s most formidable opponent, and most observers believe that the
government is using Mr Yettaw’s intrusion as an excuse to keep her out of
circulation until after the ballot.

____________________________________

June 9, Kachin News Group
KIO accepts junta's idea of transformation of armed-wing

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the largest ethnic Kachin
ceasefire group in Burma has accepted the idea of transformation of its
armed-wing proposed by the Burma's ruling junta, said KIO leaders.

The agreement, however, does not automatically mean that the KIO has
agreed to transform its armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) into
a battalion of the "Border Security Force" proposed by the regime,
according to KIO officials in its Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma
border in Kachin State.

KIO/A's Vice-president No. 1, Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng who leads the 7-member
committee of KIO to talk with Burmese regime on transforming KIA.

On the other hand, the KIO would like to maintain the ceasefire agreement
with the regime in the meantime because the ceasefire agreement will
automatically end and war will result between them if it rejects the
regime's idea of transformation of  the armed-wing, said Dr. Manam Tu Ja,
KIO's Vice-president No.2, who lives in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin
State.

Recently during two meetings between the KIO leaders and junta officials
at the regime's Northern Command headquarters in Myitkyina on April 28 and
May 21, the KIO was offered two political options by the junta, said Dr.
Manam Tu Ja.

The first option is that if the KIO accepts what the regime calls the
"Overall strategy of armed-wing transition," dialogues will follow between
them in what the regime calls the "Plan of Tactics".  Otherwise there will
be no dialogue between them and the ceasefire agreement will automatically
expire, which is the second option.

The junta is yet to explain clearly to the KIO on the follow-up dialogues
but it seems to be more focused on transition of KIA other ethnic
armed-wings in the country into border security forces, not politics,
according to KIO leaders.

KIO repeatedly has claimed that the KIA may transform to a "Defence Force
of Kachin Sate" not a "border guard force" someday in the future when it
gains autonomy for Kachin State in the Union of Burma.

At the same time, the KIO has just formed a special committee with seven
members led by the KIO's Vice-president No.1 Lt-Gen Gauri Zau Seng and the
committee will accept all suggestions from the Kachin public and its own
organizations. The results will be discussed with the regime, said the
KIO.

On the other hand, the KIO has again requested Rev. Dr. Lahtaw Saboi Jum,
former civilian peace mediator and General Secretary of the Kachin Baptist
Convention (KBC) to form a new civilian peace mediators' group for
mediating between the KIO and the regime, said officials in the Laiza
headquarters.

Meanwhile, Maj-Gen Gunhtang Gam Shawng, the Chief of Staff of KIA rejected
both the plan to disarm and transform KIA into a “border security force"
by the regime before the political problems are resolved between the KIO
and the junta.

At the moment, the KIA military headquarters in Laiza has ordered its army
battalions in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State to reorganize all
deserters. It also announced that all men and women of the KIO and KIA
have to join a possible war with the regime.  There are over 20,000 men
and women in KIO and KIA, according to KIO/A officials.

____________________________________

June 9, Irrawaddy
KNU calls for tripartite talks – Saw Yan Naing

The Karen National Union (KNU) has called on international bodies to
pressure the Burmese military government for tripartite talks on political
and ethnic military conflicts in Burma.

The move comes as ongoing attacks have been launched by the joint forces
of the Burmese army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a
ceasefire group, against the KNU.

 “We, the KNU, earnestly urge the United Nations, the international
communities, the regional and neighboring countries to concertedly
pressure the SPDC for immediate acceptance of [a] tripartite dialogue
process, for resolving the political and military conflicts in the
country,” said a KNU statement released on Monday.

Since early June, following attacks against Brigade 7 of the KNU military
wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), about 4,000 Karen
villagers have sought safety in Thailand, while experiencing insufficient
food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Some relief workers estimated
the number of Karen refugees has now reached 6,000 people.

On Monday, a Thai army commander, Lt-Gen Thanongsak Aphirakyothin, said
that a total of 1,741 Karen have entered Thailand from eastern Burma since
fighting started in early June, according to Reuters. The unit of
Thanongsak operates along Thailand’s western border.

“They fled because of danger and fear of capture and forced labor by the
Myanmar army, the commander told reporters in Mae Sot. “Most of the
refugees are women and children.”

Karen sources claim that about 20 soldiers from the joint force have been
killed during recent clashes. The number of KNU soldiers dead or injured
was not given.

The statement said the attacks against Karen villagers were an attempt to
eliminate the Karen people.

The Burmese regime’s recent order to the DKBA, an armed group that
separated from the KNU, to transform its troops into a border guard force
under the ministry of defense turns the DKBA into the regime’s “slaves,”
the statement said.

Instead of serving the Burmese regime, the DKBA should listen to the voice
of the Karen people and protect them, said the KNU.

“Accordingly, we earnestly urge all concerned to study the entire
condition and actively work for [the] prevention of [the] elimination of
the Karen, as a people, and uniting the entire Karen people under the flag
of Karen revolution,” said the statement.

The KNU urged the DKBA to assume the position of ethnic ceasefire groups
in northern Burma, such as the United Wa State Army and Kokang group, also
known as Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which are bonding with
the local population to take an independent role in opposition to the
regime.

“We would like to tell the DKBA that it is time for it to consider its
aims and the actual conditions objectively, to listen to the voice of the
Karen people and to stand for the Karen people’s interest,” said the
statement.

By working with the Burmese military government, the DKBA is helping to
legalize the military dictatorship through its general election in 2010
and its attempt to eliminate all ceasefire groups, said the KNU.

Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese analyst in Thailand, said the current offensive
is also a part of a process to convince all armed ethnic groups to
transfer their troops into a border guard force that would serve under the
Burmese military.

____________________________________

June 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Youth sold to Burmese army for $US20

Teenagers are being kidnapped and sold to the Burmese army for as little
as $US20, while those caught trying to escape are often shot or poisoned,
say young army deserters recently interviewed.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council has come under fire
recently as documented cases of forced recruitment of child soldiers
continue to emerge, with various international jurists, British MPs and
exiled Burmese lawyers labeling the practice a war crime.

Last week, Human Rights Watch criticised as “window dressing” a ceremony
in which child soldiers were handed back to their families, and said the
problem continues.

A report released by the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) last week
featured interviews with three teenagers, one 16-years-old, who recently
escaped from the army.

“When I returned from my grandmother's shop [in Rangoon], I went to Sule
Pagoda and a soldier who was there from Taw Boke army camp grabbed me,”
said an 18-year-old deserter.

“He told me that he would give me pocket money. Then that soldier sold me
for 20,000 kyat [approx US$18.80] to a military officer who was sitting in
a tea shop.”

He added that out of a monthly salary of approximately US$20, army seniors
stole $US18, leaving them with about US$2 for a whole month.

Another former soldier forcibly recruited into the army said that children
as young as 13 were taking part in military training, while treatment of
those caught fleeing was often brutal.

“They killed them. For example, they injected them with poison or shot
them with a gun,” he said.

“It [execution] was especially for the soldiers who escaped with a gun.”

Last week the International Labour Organisation (ILO) voiced concern about
a clause in the Burmese constitution that makes use of forced labour legal
when the government deems it necessary.

As well as recruitment of minors into the army, cases of forced labour
documented by the ILO include recruitment of civilians to walk in front of
army patrols as ‘minesweepers’.

____________________________________

June 9, Independent Mon News Agency
Army seizes villager’s rice paddy, demands money for pipeline security –
Kon Hadae

Burmese Army soldiers seized a villager’s rice paddy field by force in
Mudon Township, Mon State.

Three day ago, soldiers informed the Doe Mar villager that they would take
2.5 acres for themselves for rainy season rice cultivation. They offered
no compensation, said a source close to the farmer.

When he arrived at his farm, the soldiers, who are guarding the nearby
Myaing Kalay pipeline, informed him that they would be working in his
field and that he should go home. The villager’s property is located close
to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) base.

A land seizure of this type continues what has been called an “expansive
set of human rights violations,“ along the 180-mile pipeline since its
construction began in November 2000. A May 2009 report by the Human Rights
Foundation of Monland (HURFOM) found 298 acres of farmland seized and
nearly 12,000 acres in total.

A villager told IMNA that the soldiers said “[they] will work in his field
for the rainy [paddy season]. So that paddy field owner had to go back
home.”

Another Doe Mar villager added that, if the soldiers asked last year it
may not have been such an imposition; the farmer did not grow rice then,
due to the high price of rubber. This year, however, rubber prices have
dropped and the farmer needs the rice paddy to support his family.

Residents told IMNA that soldiers have abused their power and demanded
money from the villagers for a long time: “they try to take everything
from the villagers. Not just the paddy field, money as well. We have been
giving them [SPDC soldiers] money for a long time for gas pipeline
security.”

Since April 2006, when the gas pipeline exploded, villages in Mudon
Township have had to give 2,500 Kyat per family every single month to
local battalions for gas pipeline security.

A resident from Hnee Padaw village , Mudon township, added that “in our
village, not only do we have to pay money for pipeline security, but also
for the salary of the [SPDC organized] militia in the village.”

The May 2009 HURFOM report found that the most common of the numerous
human rights abuses by the SPDC surrounding the Myaing Kalay gas pipeline
were Land Confiscation, Forced Labor, Taxation, Extortion and
Commandeering.

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 9, Voice of America
Thailand confirms thousands of Karen villagers fleeing fighting in Burma –
Daniel Schearf

Thailand has confirmed reports that thousands of ethnic Karen villagers
have fled into the country to escape fighting in neighboring Burma.

Rights groups and aid organizations were the first to report as many as
3,000 ethnic Karen villagers fled from Burma to Thailand, in the past
week. The groups say villagers crossed Thailand's western border to escape
escalating fighting between Burmese forces and Karen rebels.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn confirmed the reports for
VOA. He says it was not the first time fighting in Burma had forced
villagers to flee to Thailand and would not be the last.

"We believe that, with the experience of Thailand handling this situation
in the past two decades, where at times there were several hundred
thousand came over the Thai borders - this is, on one hand, serious
issue," said Panitan. "But, on the other hand, I think Thailand is capable
of handling this.  And, there shouldn't be any problem."

Panitan says the Thai authorities have emergency procedures to handle
large flows of villager refugees. He says they will be given temporary
shelters and medical care, while immigration authorities decide what to do
with them.

Thailand has tens of thousands of refugees living in camps along its
borders. Many of them fled fighting in Burma.

This latest flood of villagers came as Burmese forces moved in on rebel
fighters from the Karen National Union.

Burma has been increasing pressure on Karen rebels to end decades of
fighting, ahead of next year's controversial Burmese elections. Burma's
military-run government wants the country's many ethnic groups to support
the elections.

Thailand has been acting as a go-between for the Burmese authorities and
the KNU to try to end the fighting, but with little success.

Burma's last elections were in 1990, when the party of democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi won by a landslide. The military ignored the results and
placed her under house arrest.

Aung San Suu Kyi is now on trial for allowing an uninvited guest to stay
in her house without official permission and is expected to be sentenced
to up to five years in prison.

____________________________________

June 9, Khonumthung News
Junta extends military camps near Chin state border

The Burmese military junta has been extending its military camps in
Paletwa, in Chin State, Western Burma.

According to local reports, Sittwe based IB 34 battalion in Rakhaing state
and Paletwa based LIB 289 battalion have extended tow military camps at
Kintalin, and Utalin villages during the first week of April 2009.

"They have extended military camps for security concerns. The reasons
maybe to prevent the opposition party’s activities like the No Vote
Campaign, objections to hanging posters in Chin state, for the forthcoming
2010 general elections. The government therefore is getting ready to
prevent such activities before the 2010 elections, by extending military
camps," a local person said.

In fact, earlier the authorities had arrested at least two people, who had
pasted posters regarding objections to the Referendum in 2008, just before
it was held in Shinletwa village, Paletwa Township.

Currently, the total number of military camps is about 20 in Paletwa
Township. These camps are located in Meihwa, Suilaingpui, Ungtiwa,
Duchawngwa, Ngapui, Shinletwa, Kuantaung, Tru Aing, Daletme, Lapahwa,
Tawngpyo, Sepitpin, Kuwah, Sami, Pikung, Sin u wa and Kuantaung villages.
Besides, the government is constructing a helipad in Tru Aing village.

Due to this extension of military camps, the local people are being forced
to work as labourers for digging the ground, fencing and constructing
military camps.

The Burmese military government has highlighted Chin State as a black area
after the revolutions in 1988, so they have plans of extending military
camps to about 50.

Meanwhile, the military personnel are torturing the local people in
different ways and they are also violating human rights, so that most of
the Chin people are fleeing to neighboring countries daily.

____________________________________

June 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma opens fire on Bangladeshi fishermen

Bangladesh’s border security force has sent an angry letter of protest to
the Burmese government after Burmese border patrol troops last week opened
fire on Bangladeshi fishermen, injuring six, one critically.

A Burmese national living in Bangladesh, Khaing Pray Thein, told DVB that
government border troops in a patrol boat opened fire on three Bangladeshi
boats off the coast near the Naff River opening on 4 June.

Eleven fishermen were on the boats; six of them were injured while one was
left in a serious condition. Burmese troops confiscated two of their boats
and released the fishermen on the third.

He said Bangladesh’s border security paramilitary group, the Bangladeshi
Rifles, have sent a letter to the Burmese authorities protesting the
attack.

“So far we haven’t heard of any response made from the Burmese
government,” said Khaing Pray Thein.

“[The Burmese] are not returning the boats either. Apparently the
Bangladeshi were fishing in Burmese territory.”

A similar incident occurred in mid-April this year which left one
Bangladeshi fisherman dead.

And last November a maritime dispute erupted between the two countries
over a disputed stretch of the Bay of Bengal, with both countries
gathering within striking distance of one another in a face-off that was
eventually settled.

Meanwhile, the tension is being compounded with both sides increasing
troop numbers on the border.

In April the Burmese government suspended construction of a controversial
border fence, with Bangladesh claiming it would run too close to the
border.

Locals living on the Burmese side of the border have said the fence will
impact on those reliant on Bangladeshi services, such as medicine and
food.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 9, Irrawaddy
Junta No 3 reportedly in China – Wai Moe

The Burmese junta is busy making diplomatic approaches to neighboring
countries after the crisis in international relations over the charges
against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Burmese military junta’s third highest ranking general, Thura Shwe
Mann, the joint chief of staff, is reportedly visiting China, while
Singaporean former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong is in Burma for an
official visit.

According to intelligence sources, Shwe Mann visited neighboring China
accompanied by Lt-Gen Tin Aye, who is chief of ordnance production.

Neither Beijing and Naypyidaw have made an official announcement about
Shwe Mann’s trip to China. Shwe Mann, however, has made three unannounced
visits to China, the junta’s closest ally, in the last two years. His last
visit was in April 2009.

“He [Shwe Mann] can make unannounced trips to China anytime, as he has
done in the past,” said Win Min, a Burmese researcher in civil-military
relations, who is based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. “According to Burmese
military sources, he reportedly went to China for more than 10 days in
April. Then he flew to North Korea.”

Burma observers say that there could be three reasons behind of Shwe
Mann’s trip to China. These concern ongoing political conditions in Burma,
in particular Suu Kyi’s trial.

“The Burmese junta has to brief its ally China on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s
trial,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst who lives on the
Sino-Burmese border. “Gen Shwe Mann also went to Beijing following mass
demonstrations in September 2007.”

After the September mass protest in 2007, the junta sent Foreign Minister
Nyan Win to brief Beijing about the situation. Nyan Win went there as the
special envoy of the junta head, Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

The second reason for Shwe Mann’s trip could be to discuss the situation
on the Sino-Burmese border. Since late 2008, tension between the junta and
ethnic groups has been rising as the generals push to disarm ethnic groups
ahead of the 2010 elections.

In April, the junta outlined its plan to disarm ethnic groups by
transforming them into “border guard forces.” Under the outline, the
Burmese military will also manage the day-to-day work of the armed ethnic
groups. The deadline for the ethnic groups to respond is at the end of
June.

Although some armed ethnic groups agreed to follow the junta’s outline,
many groups including the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the biggest
non-state armed group in Burma, disagreed with the disarmament plan.

This week, Lt-Gen Ye Myint, chief of the Military Affairs Security of the
Burmese armed forces and secretary of the transformation committee for
ceasefire armed groups, is now in northern Shan State.

In the previous few days, he visited the headquarters of the UWSA and the
Kokang armed group called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army
(MNDAA), but he failed to convince Wa and Kokang leaders to accept the
junta’s disarmament plans.

Today, Ye Myint is reportedly in Mongla, Shan State, to talk with another
ceasefire group, the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA).

Aung Kyaw Zaw said the third matter on Shwe Mann’s trip could be China’s
concern about the closer relationship between Burma and North Korea in
recent years.

In a notice on the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Chinese language
Web site, the junta’s Deputy Chairman Maung Aye is scheduled to visit
China in the near future.

Officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have
also been visiting China recently. According to China’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak visited China
last week and met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on June 4.

Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya is also scheduled to go to China
in the near future, said diplomat sources.

In recent years, the international community has been making increasing
efforts to bring about positive changes in Burma by trying to get Burma’s
neighboring countries such as China, India and Asean members to put
pressure on the junta for change.

Meanwhile, Goh Chok Tong is scheduled to meet with the head of the junta,
Than Shwe, in Naypyidaw today along with Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye. Goh will
also meet with Thura Tun Tin, a former prime minister under Ne Win’s
Burmese Socialist Program Party regime.

Analysts say Goh’s agenda in Burma includes talks on Asean’s concerns on
Suu Kyi and the Burmese political situation.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 9, Irrawaddy
Charges against Suu Kyi ‘Baseless’: Clinton – Lalit K Jha

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said that the charges
against Aung San Suu Kyi are “baseless.” The visiting Indonesian Foreign
Minister, Noer Hassan Wirajuda, joined her in demanding the Burmese junta
immediately release the popular Burmese pro-democracy leader.

The meeting between Clinton and Wirajuda at the headquarters of the State
Department was used as an opportunity for the two leaders to discuss the
current situation in Burma, in particular the ongoing trial of Suu Kyi, on
flimsy grounds that she violated the terms of her house arrest.

“Let me again reiterate that the charges against her [Suu Kyi] are
baseless, and we call for her immediate release,” Clinton told State
Department reporters after her meeting with her Indonesian counterpart.

“Indonesia, like other Asean countries, have also spoken out about her
plight and urged her immediate release, and we greatly appreciate that,”
she said.

Terming the decision of the military junta to bring Suu Kyi to trial, the
Indonesian Foreign Minister said they were actually expecting a review of
her case last month and her release as the term of her house arrest
expired in May.

“So that’s why we issued a very strong statement on the current case of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and we remind Myanmar [Burma] of its obligation
under the new Asean charter, and likewise through the previous calls  made
by our leaders to immediately release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Wirajuda
said.

Traditionally Asean, a regional block of 10 countries, has been reluctant
to weigh in on any issue relating to the “internal affairs” of one of its
members. But Asean has issued a statement, expressing "grave concern"
about recent developments relating to Suu Kyi given her fragile health.

Wirajuda also said that Burma's elections next year must be credible and
include Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy.

However, Indonesia believes Burma's neighbors should engage with the junta
even more closely and the US approach of harsh sanctions causes hardship
among Burmese, he said.

Wirajuda said that sanctions "make the local people suffer even more." He
called on the world to help alleviate the hardships for daily survival for
Burmese. "This would encourage Myanmar to be more open," he said.

Meanwhile Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong will visit Burma from June 8-11
and is scheduled to meet the country's leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and
second top vice Snr-Gen, Maung Aye, on Tuesday in Naypyidaw, the capital.

During his trip to Burma, Goh is expected to talk about Asean’s
perspective on the Burmese political situation.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma's unraveling web of deceit – Francis Wade

The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi has made transparent the ease with which the
ruling junta has sculpted Burmese law into a framework in which war crimes
are legal and dissent is the most heinous of offenses.

If any positive can come of current events, it is that the hermit state
has been pitched onto the world stage, the full extent of its corrupt
system plain to see and, we hope, ever vulnerable to mounting pressure.
Even prior to the trial the country ranked at the tail-end of virtually
every political freedom barometer in circulation, its media environment
suffocated by some of the world’s strictest censorship laws and its
citizens placed under the crippling watch of a Soviet-style surveillance
system. Perhaps most frighteningly, its courts of law, the very
institution in which citizen and state crimes are supposedly scrutinized
and punished, are under the direct control of the country’s paranoid
generals.

Despite regular statements from the government suggesting otherwise, the
Burmese courtroom is little more than the junta’s legal wing, with judges
usually handpicked by the generals. Those who aren’t are regularly subject
to intimidation by higher authorities: in March the brother-in-law of the
All Burma Monks Alliance (ABMA) leader, U Gambira, was sentenced to five
years imprisonment with hard labour under immigration laws after marking
the anniversary of the founding of ABMA. The judge had told his sister
there wasn’t enough evidence to sentence him, but was forced by Burma’s
chief judge to hand down the guilty verdict.

Trials, particularly those of would-be political prisoners, are often held
inside closed prison courts, with no access granted to media. Lawyers who
present an articulate case in defence of pro-democracy individuals have
been threatened with allegations of contempt of court - indeed, 16 of the
country’s 2,100 political prisoners are lawyers. In March a renowned
activist lawyer, Pho Phyu, was sentenced to four years after helping
farmers file complaints of land confiscation by the army to the
International Labour Organisation (ILO). He was charged under the Unlawful
Associations Act, despite belonging to no organization.

Such spurious charges are common under Burmese law. Earlier this year six
students were sentenced under charges of sedition for collecting and
burying the rotting corpses of victims of last year’s cyclone Nargis.
Numerous aid workers and journalists who reported on the disaster were
imprisoned in a wave of sentencing following the cyclone.

It is in this context that we once again find ourselves penning the
verdict of Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial even before the courts announce their
decision, so foregone is the conclusion. That in the same breath they will
sentence John Yettaw for trespassing and Suu Kyi for sheltering a
foreigner, two ‘crimes’ that, despite their obvious ridiculousness, surely
anyway contradict one another, shows the extent to which Burmese law is
itself unlawful.

Even before Suu Kyi was brought to the courtroom, the government had
broken both international law and its own stated law by keeping her in
detention beyond five years. There is little else they can do with the
lady, her stubborn non-violent ideology stumping a regime whose method of
governance only works when dialogue is reduced to the level of thuggery.
In the face of Suu Kyi the generals have proved themselves almost
impotent, forced to rewrite their own words in a desperate snatch at
retaining power.

Yet they do this all too easily. The constitution, the bedrock of the
country’s legal system, was ratified last May barely two weeks after the
cyclone, one of Asia’s worst recorded natural disasters. With 140,000
people dead, and the southern region of the country in tatters, the
government rejected a call from the UN to postpone the referendum.
Somehow, despite being scathed by international leaders for its antipathy
towards victims of the cyclone, the government claimed 92.4 per cent
approval of the constitution, with a 99 per cent voter turnout.

But it is in this forest of legal jargon that the discrepancies between
what is supposedly right and wrong in Burma come flooding out. The authors
make no bones about the fact that what is essentially deemed a legal
activity is one that props up authoritarianism, while a ‘crime’ attempts
to counter, or even merely question, it.

Thus, what is ‘illegal’ is for the daughter of Burma’s founding father,
whose party won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, to run for
government office because she was married to a foreigner. Paradoxically,
the ILO last week voiced concern about a clause in the constitution that
makes use of forced labour legal when the government deems it necessary.
Cases of forced labour documented by the ILO include recruitment of child
soldiers and recruitment of civilians to walk in front of army patrols as
‘minesweepers’, ensuring that it is not government troops who take the
full force of a mine exploding at their feet. International jurists,
British MPs and exiled Burmese lawyers have all said in recent months that
such cases amount to war crimes.

Corruption, absence of judicial independence, and state-sanctioned human
rights abuses are perhaps all-too predictable byproducts of military rule
left to fester behind closed doors. One silver-lining Suu Kyi’s trial has
generated is that Burma has been brought out of reclusivity, dragging
behind it the entrails of its pitiful legal system for all the world to
see. While the generals will no doubt breeze into the next decade on the
back of a fraudulent election victory, their behaviour is being recognized
as quite shocking, even by its hardened Asian neighbours, and they are
showing increasing signs of unease.

The head of the regime, Than Shwe, is well-known to be fearful of being
indicted by the International Criminal Court, and his minor concessions,
such as allowing journalists sporadic entry to the Suu Kyi trial, are seen
by some observers as a tactic to placate his demons. There are few methods
of intimidation that have made headway in Burma - sanctions have achieved
little, while engagement has proved futile - but it is with this tool,
with this threat that he will be brought to a court whose rule of law is
unfamiliar to him, that the international community could start to
influence change in Burma.

____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

June 9, Burma Centre Delhi
Indian Parliamentarians call for immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and Intervention of the Indian Government for the restoration of Democracy
in Burma

Dear friends,

As you are well aware, the Burmese democracy leader and winner of
Jawaharlal Nehru International Outstanding Award, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
was moved to the notorious Insein Prison from her house to face trial on
trumped-up charges by the military authority on 14 May 2009.

The people of Burma recognized her as genuine democratic leader of Burma
who won landslide victory in 1990 general elections by more than 80 %
votes. She and her party NLD has never been allowed to rule the country.
The military junta crushed the people’s mandate and put her under house
arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

The Indian Parliamentarian Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB) formed by
late Ms. Nirmala Deshpande initiated “Indian MPs Call for Immediate and
Unconditional Release of Burmese Democratic Leader Aung San Suu Kyi”.

The Statement endorsed and supported by the Indian Parliamentarians will
be submitted to the Honorable Prime Minister of India, External Affairs
Minister and Burmese Embassy in Delhi on 10th June 2009.

A press conference will be organized on the same day as per schedule given
below

Program Date:	10th June 2009
Time:		11:00 am
Venue:		Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) 5, Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001

Speakers

·	Shri. Sharad Joshi (MP), Rajya Sabha
·	Shri. Abani Roy  (MP), Rajya Sabha
·	Dr. Tint Swe, Elected MP, Burma

We look forward to your kind solidarity and support by sending news
reporters/ photographers to cover the events.

Sincerely,

Kim
Burma Centre Delhi

For More Information:
Ms. Thin Thin Aung (9891-252-316)
Mr. Kim (9810-476-273)