BurmaNet News, June 19-20, 2009

[Editor]

June 19-20, 2009, Issue #3738


INSIDE BURMA
New Light of Myanmar: Myanmar Human Rights Group issues statement
WSJ: Myanmar’s Reclusive Leader
NewsReview.com: A photojournalist reports on the Kachin freedom movement

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Thousands of Karen Seek Safety in Thailand

BUSINESS / TRADE
Dow Jones: China, Myanmar Ink Trans-Border Oil Pipeline Agreement
Lao News: Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam forge economic
pact

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Activists marking Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday arrested in India

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: PM's wife hosts film screening for Myanmar's Suu Kyi
VOA: Global Well-Wishers Commemorate Burma's Suu Kyi's 64th Birthday

OPINION / OTHER
EU Declaration on Myanmar/Burma
EPCB: European MPs call for a global arms embargo to release Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi
ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) Statement
____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 18, New Light of Myanmar
Myanmar Human Rights Group issues statement

NAY PYI TAW - The statement is as follows:

1.      Myanmar authorities have been putting American citizen Mr. John
William Yettaw, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her two aides on trial for their
offences in accordance with international standards and domestic laws.

2.      While doing as such, it is regretful to learn that five UN human
rights Special Rapporteurs issued a statement misleadingly on 16 June
2009.

3.      Court proceedings regarding the trial for American citizen Mr.
John William Yettaw, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her two aides are being
conducted only in accordance with legal rules and procedures, and the
accused have been permitted to hire lawyers of their choice and to call
relevant witnesses in order for them to enjoy the right to defend
themselves.

4.      Even though their cases have been handled by the Special Court for
security reason, reporting in the newspapers on court proceedings,
permitting United States Consul and a locally recruited staff to observe
court proceedings and observers, diplomats and reporters to observe every
major court proceedings testify to the prevalence of transparency of the
administration of justice.

5.      The politicization under the pretext of human rights of the action
being taken against those offenders in accordance with the existing laws
of the State is unacceptable, and the statement by those Special
Rapporteurs is hereby rejected.

Myanmar Human Rights Group

____________________________________

June 20, Wall Street Journal
Myanmar’s Reclusive Leader – Wall Street Journal Reporters

Few countries outside North Korea are more beholden to the whims of a
single man than Myanmar. But unlike Kim Jong Il, the subject of recent
Western biographies, very little is known about Myanmar’s paramount
leader, Senior General Than Shwe.

A reclusive hardliner who often refuses to speak with Western leaders, he
has presided over Myanmar’s disintegration into one of Asia’s most
dysfunctional economies and a nation plagued by human rights abuses,
including the use of forced labor to enrich the military and its allies,
according to human rights groups around the world. His hatred of Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi , Myanmar’s leading opposition figure, is said
to be so intense that he will not allow her name to be spoken in his
presence.

The general is rumored to suffer from a number of medical ailments, and
some analysts believe he may be looking for a way to retire without
exposing himself to international human rights judicial proceedings. The
regime unveiled a “roadmap to democracy” several years ago that includes
plans for a national election next year. That said, provisions in the
country’s constitution all but guarantee the military or its allies will
maintain control. Even so, some foreign observers are hopeful that a
change of power will at least bring some more reform-minded generals to
the fore, and create an opening for more engagement with the West.

His public appearances, mainly on state-run television, are stage-managed
and typically involve stiff greetings of visiting foreign dignitaries or
reviews of military parades; in photographs, he is seen as a slightly
portly figure with slick black hair in military uniforms draped in medals.

The few military personnel with access to “Number One,” as he is referred
to by some Myanmar residents, rarely bring up contentious issues for fear
of displeasing him, and his decisions in policymaking are final, say
people who work with the government including diplomats and aid workers.

That helps explain why it took so long for the government to allow foreign
aid after last year’s Cyclone Nargis, which killed 135,000 people, despite
support from a number of senior generals. In the days following the
disaster, letters and phone calls to Gen. Than Shwe from United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon went unanswered, though the two did
eventually meet several weeks after the disaster.

Borrowing the traditions of earlier powerful Myanmar emperors who
conquered large parts of Southeast Asia, Gen. Than Shwe built his own
capital, Naypyitaw, which means “Abode of Kings,” on a remote plain,
spending hundreds of millions of dollars. His wife, Kyaing Kyaing ,
regularly visits the country’s most prominent Buddhist monasteries to
curry favor with monks, and in March this year, Gen. Than Shwe and his
wife attended a ceremony to consecrate a huge, gold leaf-covered pagoda in
Naypyitaw, according to local news reports. At the event, Ms. Kyaing
Kyaing threw banknotes into the air and donated money to thousands of
local people, the reports said.

Born in a central Myanmar town in 1933, the future supreme leader worked
briefly as a postal clerk before joining the army, according to a
biography published in the 1990s by Myanmar’s Ministry of Information and
translated for The Wall Street Journal. He trained in the military’s
psychological warfare unit and participated in its campaigns against
ethnic minority rebels. He entered senior ranks of the government by 1988.
Student riots rocked the country that year; after a change in leadership
and several years of political uncertainty, he emerged in 1992 as the
country’s top leader.

His government’s bloody crackdown on monks who led peaceful protests in
2007, and his refusal to hand power to Ms. Suu Kyi, whose party won
national elections in 1990, led the U.S. and Europe to impose
progressively tough economic sanctions over the past decade.

Myanmar citizens enjoy one of the lowest standards of living in Asia, and
many expressed outrage a few years ago when video of his daughter’s lavish
wedding leaked to outside news organizations. In the video, she is seen
decked out in diamond-encrusted jewelry while family and friends sip from
glasses of champagne.


____________________________________


June 18, NewsReview.com
A land the world forgot: A photojournalist sneaks into Myanmar to report
on the Kachin freedom movement – Ryan Libre

The car came to an abrupt stop. “Get out,” the driver said. My friend and
partner in journalism Tim Patterson and I stumbled in the moonless night
through an uneven, bulldozed field toward the sound of a river. When we
reached the river, we crossed a creaky bamboo footbridge and scrambled up
a loose-dirt hill to an older SUV with its lights off.

“Welcome to Free Kachin,” our contact said, smiling broadly.

Former KIO headquarters, high in the mountains near the Chinese border
It had been a long trip. After flying from Thailand to Kunmin, the capital
of Yunnan Province in southwestern China, where I had met Tim, we had
boarded a bus for a 20-hour overnight ride to western Yunnan, where we had
planned to meet our Kachin contact. It was November 2008, and with the
rainy season over, our trip stood a better chance of success.

After crossing the river from China, we finally reached northern Myanmar,
in the Himalayan foothills. We had come here to spend three weeks with the
people known as Kachins, an ethnic and religious minority that for decades
fought a war of independence against the brutal military junta that rules
Myanmar, or Burma. The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting covered the
costs of our trip so that we could tell the story of these remarkable
people.

We were among the only foreign journalists who in recent years have
reported from rebel-held territory beyond Myitkyina, the
Burmese-spy-filled capital of Kachin State. One was a freelancer who was
deported in just a day. Another was Mark Jenkins, an adventure columnist
at Outside magazine, who left under threat of death after being drugged
and beaten. Tim and I knew we had a rare opportunity—and a potentially
dangerous one.

We climbed in the SUV. Our driver then followed the river to a small but
lively town fueled by border trade. We drove though the central market,
our tinted windows up. We stopped at a building, where we were served a
delicious dinner of traditional Kachin spicy noodles and soups. Three
smiling men—the Kachins, we began to realize, were remarkably cheerful
people—joined us for dinner. We feasted, introduced ourselves and were
shortly brought to our room to get some rest.

The next day we remained confined to quarters, with armed guards standing
duty outside our door. Since we were planning a three-week trip, not a
three-day one, we remained patient.

We later learned that, in the very next room, the head of the Kachin
Independence Army (KIA) was meeting with Chinese authorities about border
issues. Fortunately, Chinese guards hadn’t spotted us crossing the river,
or the meeting might have been about whether we would rot in a Chinese or
a Burmese prison.

Finally, around dusk, we were driven to our new home overlooking the town
and border, where we would live for three weeks.

Soon after that we had a chance to talk at some length with our driver,
who turned out to be not only a Baptist minister, but also the head of the
Kachin National Library.

“Ninety percent of Kachins are practicing Christians,” the driver said. He
then pulled out a newspaper. “Here it says that most Kachins are
animists,” he said, in a serious tone. “Can I sue this author?”

It quickly became clear that much of the little amount of information that
gets out about the Kachins is incorrect.

Throughout our trip we could see how happy and optimistic the Christian
faith made them. It reminded me of the stories of early Christianity. Most
Kachin pastors don’t lend explicit support to the armed struggle from the
pulpit, but they aren’t shy about preaching of the many struggles for
freedom described in the Bible.

I had wanted to go to Myanmar since I first visited Southeast Asia in
2001, on a year-long leave from my teaching job, but only if the trip
would be more than sight-seeing and giving money to the junta.

An opportunity finally came seven years later, when I encountered a group
of about 20 Burmese students at the Wongsanit Ashram outside Bangkok, a
major hub for social and environmental work in Asia. During dinner, I
struck up a conversation with one of them. He immediately impressed me
with his curiosity, sincerity and politeness. Eventually he introduced
himself as a junior intelligence officer with the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), the civil and political arm of the independence
movement.

“I hate war, but we have to prepare,” he said.

“Prepare for what?”

“Well, you know our [Burmese] government is crazy,” he replied. “Nobody
knows what they will do next or why, so we have to be prepared for
anything.”

We ate meals together for the next few days, sharing our stories. I
learned that, while a university student, he had attended a KIA boot camp
to become a reserve KIA officer. After university he decided to join the
KIO instead.

When he learned I had taught a two-day photography workshop for a group of
Myanmar activists and refugees through Earth Right International, we began
talking about how, when and where I could do that on the inside.

At the time, I was 30 years old, had a degree in Peace Studies from Chico
State University, and had been a soldier in the National Guard, a trail
builder for the national parks, and an environmental educator before and
during university. After I finished my degree, I landed a job as a
public-school teacher in Japan, which is where I met Tim and our
collaboration as journalists—he as writer (except this time), I as
photographer—began.

Being a teacher was a good experience overall, but the long hours indoors
and lack of freedom in what to teach and how to teach it had me thinking
of a new career soon after my contract started.

Freelance photography seemed to satisfy my desire to be outside, creative
and independent. The day my contract expired, I headed to Japan’s largest
national park, Daisetsuzan. For the next two years I called it home. I
enjoyed every minute of it and grew a lot as a photographer and as a
person.

But I was beginning to realize that photojournalism made better use of my
Peace Studies degree and could better accommodate my varied interests. So
I decided to head back to Southeast Asia, where interesting stories are
abundant, and the cost of living is low.

I worked on a variety of interesting projects there, including a book
series about intentional communities in Thailand, but spending a month
with an armed independence movement in Myanmar was the big chance Tim and
I were hoping for. Free Kachin is rarely reported on in the mainstream
media and gets very few mentions in any English-language source, so we
were intensely curious and eager to go despite my concerns about funding
and Tim’s fear of finishing up his 20s in a Burmese prison.

For months, we exchanged communications about the details, such as
authorization from the KIO leaders and funding from the Pulitzer Center.
The trip wasn’t fully nailed down until three days before I got on that
plane to Kunming.

Most oversimplified headlines about Myanmar suggest that all its people
are united behind Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in opposition
to the so-called State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military
junta that has ruled the country since 1962. The situation is actually far
more complicated. There are many ethnic groups and factions, each with its
own leaders and sub-factions reaching for a piece of the power and wealth,
and alliances are in constant flux. Even the head of the KIO was once a
powerful colonel in the junta.

“Myanmar politics are the most complicated in the world,” said Daw Kong,
director of the Kachin Research and Information Network and one of our
main go-to men for information, favors and access.

Within Kachin itself are six ethnic groups, all with unique languages,
traditional clothes and first names. However, they share family names, a
common origin myth, Christianity and the manuo, a large communal dance
festival in the dry, cool winter months. They use Jingpaw, the language of
the most populous tribe, as a de facto common language.

The combined population of the Kachin tribes is around one million. The
word “Kachin” is actually a term used by the lowland Shan tribe and the
Burmese. Kachins use the term “Wunpawng” when referring to the tribes
collectively.

The landscape of Kachin is as beautiful and diverse as the people, ranging
from subtropical lowland jungles to the glacier-covered peak Hkabororazi.
On one long, windy mountain ride to the Laisin KIA base with Daw Kong, we
stopped to stretch our legs and take in the scenery. “This land has never
been controlled by anyone but the Kachins. How beautiful is that?” he
said, choking up slightly. The oak-covered rolling foothills were indeed
beautiful, but the real beauty was that the Kachin people could call them
their own.

The Kachins don’t trust the SPDC, but they would feel only slightly more
comfortable with a democratic government of primarily ethnic Burmese
calling the shots in their homeland. The Burmese have never historically
controlled Kachin. It was not until 1947 that Kachins voluntarily joined
Burma by signing the Panlong Agreement, which clearly states they could
opt out at their discretion.

When the Kachins decided to exercise their right to revert to
independence, the Burmese military tried to stop them. The KIA fought an
armed insurgency for more than 30 years. Despite being outnumbered and
out-armed, the KIA was never fully defeated. Nor were they able to win
full autonomy for the Kachin people.

In 1994, the KIO leadership signed a cease-fire agreement with the SPDC.
However, the Kachins still demand the autonomy promised them in the 1947
agreement, or at least serious state rights. The junta insists that
Kachin, with its valuable natural resources, is part of Myanmar and that
the central government should reap the profits from Kachin’s jade, timber
and hydropower.

High-quality jade can be found only in the Kachin State. “The junta takes
it to Rangoon, sells it at the auctions and buys arms with the jade
money,” said Daw Kong. A single stone of the right color sells for $2.8 to
$4.2 million.

Most of the jade and other resources are exported to China, which is the
biggest provider of arms to the Myanmar military. The ceasefire has paused
the fighting, but there have been no attempts at a lasting peace.

In an effort to pressure the junta to relax its Orwellian tyranny over the
country, Congress passed the US-Burmese Jade Act, making it illegal to
import jade into the United States. The new law had little impact, since
most of the Kachin jade is sold to China. The Burmese junta may not have
many allies, but with China’s UN veto and growing economic and political
clout, they picked the right one.

We were never totally free in “Free Kachin,” but for three weeks we toured
the KIO-controlled areas of Kachin, had access to all KIA training
facilities, and conducted open interviews with commanders, soldiers,
teachers, students, civil servants, farmers and ministers. While our
contacts in the KIO and KIA clearly wanted to show us their best sides,
they were also quite honest about their mistakes and shortcomings.

On one occasion Tim asked a Kachin jade dealer where the KIO got its money
and whether there was corruption. The dealer’s expression became pensive.
He looked us up and down for a moment. Then his eyes went to the KIO
contact minding us, who nodded.

“Most of the jade mines have been taken by the junta, but the KIO still
owns a few of the lower-quality mines,” the dealer said. “Some of the KIO
leaders work closely with the junta and have their own jade mines, so they
can live well beyond their official salaries and send their children to
private schools and universities outside Burma.”

I was shocked by his honesty. The KIA and KIO genuinely want to improve
their micro-nation, and they seem aware that openness and honesty about
their shortcomings is the best way to achieve real progress.

In World War II the Kachins, then independent, were an indispensable help
to U.S. Army rangers fighting the Japanese. They provided security for
teams constructing the Stillwell Road, a military transport route linking
India and China that crossed Kachin State. While the Burmese accepted
Japanese occupation, the Kachins never surrendered.

Most Americans, except for a few military-history buffs, have forgotten
the Kachins’ support and sacrifice. The Kachins remember it like
yesterday, however, and believe now is a good time for the United States
to repay the favor. “We need moral support, legal support and financial
support,” an animated Baptist minister and Kachin cultural historian told
us.

During the 15 years of precarious peace since the 1994 cease-fire, the KIO
has been trying to build a civil society in addition to the army. Creating
it from scratch after a generation of war, isolated from the world at
large and with scarce resources, is a daunting task.

The Kachins know it will not be easy, so they are working extra hard and
making good progress. Free Kachin now has native-language schools, a TV
station, intensive English colleges, a civil-service academy, regular
native-language publications, a media center, several websites and a
national library. Most institutions, however, are still in their infancy.

For nearly a week of our stay, Tim and I tag-teamed, teaching 15 Kachin
youths everything from photography to journalism ethics to website tips as
part of my new nonprofit organization Documentary Arts Asia. When it was
finished the students made their own printed magazine and got
certificates.

Kachin youth are eager to learn, and we gave the two best students cameras
and left several others for community use. Documentary Arts Asia plans to
keep working with the Kachins by trying to publish their photos and
stories and teaching more media workshops.

The workshop was a success, but a whole lot more needs to be done. It is
possible to buy guns and train soldiers to fight in a matter of weeks. But
it can take much longer to forge a group of people who can fight
effectively armed with only laptops and cameras.

Before we knew it, our 30-day Chinese visas were almost up. Hong Kong,
four days by land travel away, seemed the best exit option.

Again we left under nightfall. It was nearly Christmas, and we could hear
the Kachins singing carols as we moved out.

The bulldozed field we had crossed entering Kachin was now a “mini-Great
Wall,” we were told, so this time we would have to wade across the river
farther upstream. The rainy season had ended, so water levels were low,
and everything went without a hitch.

As soon as we entered China, however, the atmosphere changed. The raw
materialism of “modern” China felt bleak and soulless. We could still see
the Christmas lights of Kachin, yet we were already missing it.

About an hour later we rounded a corner to find a huge house fire. The
area was crawling with soldiers. The police had stopped all traffic and
were checking cars while the soldiers searched for water.

“Pull your hats over your faces and don’t say a word,” our driver said
nervously. We could hear sobbing and screaming. Not everyone had made it
out of the house.

Two police officers approached our car. Our driver was ethnic Kachin but
had grown up in China and was able to quell the officers’ curiosity
quickly. We remained silent, with beanies pulled over our faces, as the
flames and screams continued to rage. Finally the roadblock was removed,
and we drove on through the night.

Now the real work begins. As part of the Pulitzer Center’s grant, Tim and
I have to make the Kachins’ story known to as large an audience as
possible. Dispatches and photos from Free Kachin have now been shown on
the BBC and published in the Washington Times, the Kyoto Journal, and the
Burmese exile magazine The Irrawaddy. A short documentary I filmed will
show on PBS in the near future.

My Free Kachin photo essay has been shown in California and will possibly
be exhibited at the Visa L’image photojournalism festival in France this
summer. The fate of the Kachins remains up in the air. Burmese elections
scheduled for 2010 will most likely end the current delicate balance of
power in some way. State rights and semi-autonomy for the Kachins or a
renewed outbreak of war are two distinct possibilities. History and recent
events have shown the military junta will not just hand over power, no
matter how great the domestic demand.

“My generation thinks there will be a war,” said a young cadet at the
Kachin military academy.

Given how paranoid the junta is and how little the United Nations and the
world’s media and citizens are pressuring the junta, positive change from
the elections seems a long shot. The Kachins—and all Burmese people under
the boots of the junta—need international support.

View this article as it ran at NewsReview.com with all accompanying
photos: http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1010394

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 18, Irrawaddy
Thousands of Karen Seek Safety in Thailand - Larry Jagan

Mae Sot — Thousands of ethnic Karen villagers have been forced to flee
across the border into Thailand during the past few weeks as the Burmese
army launched a major assault on Karen military units.

Fierce fighting and constant mortar fire close to the Thai border by
Burmese forces has forced an estimated 4,000 ethnic Karen to leave their
villages since the beginning of June.

“Every day more people are arriving, looking for refuge,” Poe Shan of the
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) told The Irrawaddy. “We expect many more
to cross the border in search of safety in the coming weeks as the rainy
season sets in.”

So far, the refugees have mostly come from seven villages in Burma near
the Moei River; there are more than 40 villages in the area where the
fighting is intense.

“If the fighting continues, at least 8,000 more villagers will have to
escape across the border,” said Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of
the Karen National Union (KNU).

“The key thing now is to provide them with more adequate shelter,” said
Sally Thompson, the deputy head of the Thai Burma Border Consortium
(TBBC). “They have food and medical attention, but the flimsy, makeshift
homes they are now in provide inadequate protection from the weather.”

Local Thai authorities are drawing up an Action Plan, which would then be
discussed with the international aid agencies and local NGOs before
implementation.

Many recent refugees are crowded into the grounds of a Thai temple, a
couple of kilometers inside the Thai border, where they lack access to
basic necessities, aid workers said.
“They are in relatively good condition,” said Kitty McKinsey, the regional
spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Mae
Sot.

“They are not emaciated, though many have walked for more than seven days
to escape from the Myanmar [Burma] army,” she told The Irrawaddy. “They
hurriedly left with nothing but the clothes on their back.”

Ma Theingyi, 33, the mother of five children, said: “We desperately need
soap, toothbrushes and cooking utensils. More than anything though, we
need clothes for our children.”

Most refugees are women and children. Some of the men stayed behind to
look after the fields, aid workers said. Others were already in Thailand
as illegal immigrants working in foreign-owned textile factories along the
border. Others are soldiers in the KNU’s armed wing, the Karen National
Liberation Army (KNLA).

The mass exodus of villagers from inside Burma began after the Democratic
Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Burmese army launched a major offensive
against KNU strongholds. This recent assault began about two weeks ago
when the army started shelling the border area and terrorizing villagers
with the help of the DKBA, a breakaway Karen faction that signed a
ceasefire agreement with the military government.

Two weeks ago, the DKBA had called many village headmen to a meeting where
they said they would conscript more than a 1,000 soldiers—around 10 men
per village, which prompted the mass exodus. Headmen were also told that
each village had to buy two hand-held radios for the DKBA.

“We knew what that meant; all the able-bodied men would be used by the
army in one way or another and on top of that we would have to give them
money and food rations,” said 41-year-old Pa Naw Naw, who fled with his
wife and three children. He left his 11-year-old son behind to keep an eye
on their fields and livestock.

The UN says there are some 2,000 new refugees in Thailand. Some aid
agencies estimate the figure at 4,000—with many people secretly living
with friends or hiding in the jungle on either side of the border.

Refugees are receiving aid at five sites, including Noh Bo temple in Mae
Sot. Thai authorities have set up medical centers to provide health care
and medical examinations. The TBBC has distributed rice, beans, fish paste
and salt, while the Karen Refugee Council has provided blankets and
clothes. The UNHCR has provided plastic sheeting and tarpaulins for the
shelter.

The rain, which is already falling heavily on most days, is making life
more difficult. Most refugees are reluctant to be moved far from the
border.

“They all say they want go back as soon as possible, said McKinsey. “But
to what—they all said their crops and livestock had been confiscated by
the authorities. They are clearly traumatized. They have lived with this
kind of suffering all their lives.”

A 66-year old grandmother, Noh Thay May,  told The Irrawaddy. “I have been
on the move since I was five-years-old. My days are numbered. All I want
is not to have to move again.”

Meanwhile, in Burma many villagers are bracing themselves for more
fighting and shelling. The next few days are likely to see the Burmese
military substantially step up military operations, a Thai military
officer told local journalists a few days ago.

As fighting continues, more Karen refugees are certain to seek safety
across the border in Thailand.

“We want an end to all this fighting,” said Pa Kyaw, 30, who found shelter
at Noh Bo monastery. “All we want is to be left alone in peace and to be
able to return to our homes.”


____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 19, Dow Jones
China, Myanmar Ink Trans-Border Oil Pipeline Agreement -CNPC

Beijing--China National Petroleum Corp. and Myanmar's Ministry of Energy
earlier this week signed a memorandum of understanding to build a crude
oil pipeline with designed annual capacity of 22 million tons, or 442,000
barrels a day, CNPC said in its official newspaper Friday.

The project includes a 1,100-kilometer pipeline that connects Myanmar to
Kunming city, Yunnan province, a large-scale crude oil unloading port and
a terminal at an island not far from Sittwe in western Myanmar, with
nearby oil storage and transportation facilities.

CNPC will be responsible for design, construction, and operation of the
project.

A 300,000-deadweight ton crude port and an oil tank with storage capacity
of 600,000 cubic meters will be built in Myanmar by 2010, the China
Securities Journal reported earlier this week. Construction on oil and gas
pipelines will start in September, it said.

Wan Xu contributed to this story: wan.xu at dowjones.com
____________________________________


June 19, LaosNews.Net
Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam forge economic pact

Ministers from the six Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) nations have
endorsed a comprehensive plan of action to expand and strengthen
cooperation in key areas, including energy and human resource development.

In a joint statement delivered at the 15th GMS Ministerial Conference in
Petchburi province, Thailand, the ministers, from Cambodia, China, Laos,
Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, noted that despite current economic turmoil
the six countries are making significant progress on a wide range of
initiatives to advance economic development in the sub-region.

In the energy sector, the ministers endorsed a road map for the expansion
of the existing cross-border energy trade, and for broader integration in
the power sector, beyond electricity. The plan seeks to extend modern
energy access to all GMS communities, not just through rural
electrification schemes and off-grid power systems, but by enhancing
cross-border energy integration, allowing countries to tap the
sub-region’s diverse energy resource base that includes hydro, oil, gas
and coal.

A more integrated energy system will help lower investment costs, reduce
external dependence, improve energy security, diversify supply, and lower
carbon emissions. The road map calls for supply side actions such as
promoting energy efficiency and accelerating the development of renewable,
environmentally friendly energy sources.

The ministers also endorsed a new human resources development plan that
includes measures to promote safer labor migration; to strengthen
communicable disease control; to bolster education and skills development
across the subregion, and to combat human trafficking.

"The agreement to accelerate action on cross-border power trade and the
development of renewable energy resources will boost energy security,
through improved efficiency of energy use, while contributing to reduced
greenhouse emissions in a subregion which is especially vulnerable to the
effects of climate change," said ADB Vice President C. Lawrence Greenwood.

Mr. Greenwood congratulated the ministers for the progress made to date in
controlling the spread of communicable diseases, and for strengthening the
capabilities of the subregion to respond to the threat of disease
outbreaks. He noted that improvements have been made against a backdrop of
increased physical connectivity in the world, and the emergence of new
global health threats.

Mr. Greenwood also noted that ADB would continue its support for improving
the capacity of mid and senior-level civil service officials, and for
strengthening subregional research institutions, both of which are
critical to the GMS development agenda.

Over the next three years, GMS ministers said they will aim to implement
the GMS cross-border transport agreement and other transport and trade
initiatives, turn transport corridors into full-fledged economic zones,
and target environmental improvements.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 19, Mizzima
Activists marking Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday arrested - Mungpi

New Delhi – Thirty-one Burmese activists were detained on Friday by Delhi
police for holding a demonstration in front of the Burmese Embassy marking
the 64th birthday of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Prior to their detention, activists submitted a memorandum signed by
27,400 Indian and Burmese supporters calling for the release of Burmese
Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in
Burma.

Demonstrators also held a small birthday celebration for the pro-democracy
leader by lighting 64 candles, cutting cakes and singing birthday songs in
front of the Embassy. Posters and placards reading “Happy Birthday”, “Long
Live Aung San Suu Kyi” and “Free Aung San Suu Kyi” were also prominently
displayed.

“We submitted a memorandum to the Embassy along with 27,400 supporting
signatures collected since March,” Salong, one of the protestors, told
Mizzima while under detention at the Chanakya Police Station.

The protest, which lasted for a brief 15 minutes, was shut down after
police from the nearby Chanakya station came and took away the protesters.

“We were informed by our police control room, which received calls from
the Burmese Embassy informing them of the demonstration in front of their
office,” a Chanakya police officer told Mizzima.

“We have arrested 31 Burmese people as they were demonstrating at a
restricted area. We are registering their names and will soon release
them,” said the officer, adding that there were no other legal problems
concerning the protesters.

The protest in front of the Burmese Embassy in New Delhi is a part a
global campaign for the release of the Burmese democracy icon on her 64th
birthday, which she will be spending in solitary confinement in Rangoon’s
notorious Insein prison.

A separate demonstration led by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), an
umbrella Burmese women organization, was also held today along New Delhi’s
Parliament Street in commemoration of Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday.

The protestors, including women and children, came mostly attired in
yellow in recognition of the sacrifices Suu Kyi has made in fighting for
freedom and democracy in Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in solitary
confinement and just before completing her latest period of confinement
was charged for violating her the terms of her detention for which she is
currently facing trial in a special court inside Insein Prison.

The charges and trial against her have sparked international outcry and
condemnation, with activists, world leaders and celebrities all lending
their voices in opposition to the actions of Burma's military rulers.

Campaigners across the globe set Friday, June 19th, the birth date of Aung
San Suu Kyi, as a time to demostrate worldwide solidarity for the plight
of Burma's opposition leader. Activities across the globe range from
protests to solidarity concerts.

Meanwhile, in Rangoon, Burma’s former capital and commercial hub, the
occasion of Suu Kyi's 64th birthday went largely unremarked upon except
for a few activists at the National League for Democracy office who held a
small celebration for their detained party leader.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 18, Agence France Presse
PM's wife hosts film screening for Myanmar's Suu Kyi

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife hosted a private screening of a new
film on Myanmar Thursday, on the eve of detained democracy icon Aung San
Suu Kyi's 64th birthday, officials said.

Sarah Brown hosted the first-ever film screening at the prime minister's
Downing Street offices to raise awareness for a campaign calling on
Myanmar's military junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi before elections next
year.

At least one minister and various charity bosses were to attend the
showing of "Burma VJ", which a Foreign Office spokesman said "exposes the
atrocities and injustices that have been taking place under the military
regime."

It is comprised largely of footage filmed over a number of days by an
undercover network of video journalists -- VJs -- using concealed cameras.
It is due to be released nationwide on July 14.
Brown was in Brussels for a meeting of European Union leaders.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the
junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's (NLD)
landslide victory elections in 1990.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is set to spend her birthday on Friday at
Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where she is being held on charges of
having violated her house arrest after an American man swam to her
lakeside house.

The Downing Street screening is in aid of the campaign '64 Words for Aung
San Suu Kyi', in which world leaders including Brown and celebrities such
as George Clooney and Julia Roberts sent her messages of support.

____________________________________


June 20, Voice of America
Global Well-Wishers Commemorate Burma's Suu Kyi's 64th Birthday – Julia
Ritchey
By Julia Ritchey

Washington - Burma's famous opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, spent her
64th birthday Friday at a high-security prison outside Rangoon. The
pro-democracy leader has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest
by the military junta and is currently awaiting the re-opening of her
trial on charges of violating her house arrest. Yet for all the
government's attempts to silence Aung San Suu Kyii, her resilience has
become the symbol of the movement to bring democracy to Burma.

Human rights advocates around the world are commemorating Aung San Suu
Kyi's 64th birthday. It is a time of little celebration for the
pro-democracy leader, who spent the day in Burma's notorious Insein prison
outside Rangoon.

Aung San Suu Kyi is charged with violating her house arrest by providing
shelter to an American visitor who trespassed on her property in May.
Human rights groups consider the trial a pretext for keeping her detained
before the country's 2010 elections.

Rusty Dalizo is with the Free Burma Coalition Philippines, whose group
staged a protest Friday in front of the Burmese embassy in Manila.

"We are calling on the brutal and bloody military dictatorship in Rangoon
to immediately release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,000 political
prisoners still detained in jails all across the country today," he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of a prominent figure in Burma's
independence who was assassinated when she was just two years old. She was
educated abroad and upon returning to care for her ailing mother in the
late 1980s, became politically active in the National League for Democracy
party.

She went on to win a landslide victory in elections held by the military
regime in 1990. But the military junta, which has run the country since
1962, refused to hand over power and put her under house arrest, where she
has spent 13 of the last 19 years.

In Washington Thursday, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission brought
supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi together to renew pleas for her release.

Kenneth Wollack, who heads an organization that promotes democracy
worldwide, recalls meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995 and being struck
by her sense of humor.

"During my visit, her only request is that I send her books on political
humor. 'If you lose your sense of humor,' she said, 'you lose everything.'
I could never have imagined at the time that 14 years later that she would
still be held captive in her own country," he said.

Dr. Sein Win is the prime minister of the Burmese government in exile and
a first cousin to Aung San Suu Kyi. He says the government is still afraid
of the influence she has over the Burmese people.

"We are all very much affected by her courage, by her commitment, and also
her readiness to stand up and talk for the people," he added.

The United States and the EU have imposed strict sanctions on the Burmese
government, but with limited effect.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 of her birthdays in detention, but her
supporters hope she will spend her 65th birthday in freedom.


____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

ANNEX 6
June 19, EU Declaration on Burma/Myanmar
Annex 6

The European Council calls for the immediate unconditional release of Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has tirelessly defended universal values of freedom and
democracy. Unless she is released, with all other political prisoners, the
credibility of the 2010 elections will be further undermined. The EU will
respond with additional targeted measures. We urge Burma/Myanmar to embark
on a genuine transition to democracy bringing peace and prosperity to its
people.

In this regard the European Council welcomes the clear calls from
neighbouring countries for a free, fair and inclusive political process.
Moreover, the EU reiterates its strong support for the UN Good Offices
Mission and for the personal engagement of the Secretary General Ban Ki
Moon, including his early visit to Burma/Myanmar.
____________________________________

June 19, European Parliamentary Caucus on Burma
Media Release: European MPs call for a global arms embargo to release Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi

Parliamentarians from 16 European countries, members of the European
Parliamentary Caucus on Burma (EPCB), today called on United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) to immediately impose a global arms embargo
against the military regime in Burma to pressure the dictatorship to
release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in Burma.

In a letter to all Security Council members, the EPCB expressed its deep
concern over the continued detention of Burma’s democracy leader Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi saying; “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma’s democracy
movement, is now spending her 14th birthday in detention, and a sham of a
trial will ensure she will remain detained when elections take place next
year.”

The EPCB pointed out that three statements by the Security Council calling
on the dictatorship to reform have been ignored by the ruling regime, the
State Peace and Development Council.
“This defiance cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. The time is long
overdue for a global arms embargo against Burma, and we call on your
government to publicly commit itself to such a step” the letter said.

The European Parliamentary Caucus on Burma was founded in June 2008 to
raise awareness on Burma in Europe and promote human rights and democracy
in Burma.

For more information contact:
UK: Zoya Phan at +44 (0) 773 863 0139, zoya.phan at burmacampaign.org.uk
CR: Marie Zahradnikova at +420 739 220 248,
marie.zahradnikova at peopleinneed.cz

____________________________________


June 19, ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC)
Yet another birthday, yet another unwanted ‘gift’ from ASEAN to Aung San
Suu Kyi and her fellow Burma citizens

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) calls on ASEAN
leaders to urgently meet to deliver new and effective policies and
mechanisms that are desperately needed vis-a-vis Myanmar’s military junta
that will enable a tangible and lasting solution to the country’s crisis.

Members of Parliament from various ASEAN countries, at a forum
co-organised and co-hosted by the AIPMC, ‘Friends of Burma’, the Regional
Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development, and the Centre for
Ethnic Studies and Development of the Chiang Mai University delivered
strong messages to ASEAN leaders calling for change in the dire situation
in the military ruled nation.

“There has been a considerable increase in military offensives and armed
fighting in ethnic states especially in the Karen State over the past few
weeks. Ethnic communities are fleeing their villages into Thailand while
some remain as internally displaced persons in Burma,” said AIPMC
President Kraisak Choonhavan.

“Where is the intervention and assistance by ASEAN’s leaders? Recent
reports indicate soldiers in Eastern Burma have recruited up to 200
civilians as slave labourers and more than 4,000 civilians have been
forced to abandon their homes while 4,000 more are at risk.”

AIPMC Senior Adviser Loretta Ann P Rosales added that in the Shan State,
acts amounting to systematic sexual violence are used by Myanmar’s
military as weapons of war.

“Testimonies and documentation by Shan people, fleeing their homes,
indicate that women and children are subjected to rape and torture by
soldiers,” said the former Philippines Congresswoman adding that since
2001 till now, there have been 297 rape cases in Shan State alone.

“This is outrageous and unacceptable. AIPMC condemns such acts by the
regime and armed groups. We insist that ASEAN uses its human rights
charter to investigate and put a stop to such atrocities,” stressed
Loretta at the sidelines of the event marking Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th
birthday.

Parliamentarians M. Kulasegaran and Charles Chong, from Malaysia and
Singapore respectively, reminded ASEAN that its ‘constructive engagement’
with the military regime has failed.

“It’s all about dollars and cents at the end of the day for governments
such as Malaysia whom invest with a military that uses the money to
repress and harm its leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi and its citizens and
not help them at all,” said Kulasegaran.

Participants at the event, primarily from Chiang Mai University’s
academia, delivered messages of support and solidarity to Aung San Suu Kyi
who celebrates her birthday once again in detention.