BurmaNet News, July 3 - 6, 2009

[Editor]

July 3 – 6, 2009, Issue #3747


INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: With no clear path out of a diplomatic thicket, a push to
redraw the map
AP: NLD blames Junta for UN's failed mission
AP: Myanmar's frustrated generation looks abroad
DVB: Digging the tunnels, part two

ON THE BORDER
AP: Myanmar refugee numbers swell in Thailand

BUSINESS / TRADE
Financial Times: Burma starts to acquire veneer of wealth as elite enjoy
times of plenty

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Cover up in Rangoon

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: N Korea using Malaysian bank for Burmese weapons deals: Yonhap
Bangkok Post: Release prisoners, says PM

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: U.N. chief urges credible elections in Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Ban—empty-handed but wiser – Editorial
FEER: Allies in paranoia and repression – Kay Seok and David Scott Mathieson

PRESS RELEASE
US Campaign for Burma: Ban Ki-moon fails to obtain Aung San Suu Kyi's
release, focus shifts back to UN Security Council; President Obama urged
to seek Security Council action on Burma by U.S. Members of Congress






____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 6, New York Times
With no clear path out of a diplomatic thicket, a push to redraw the map –
Neil MacFarquhar

Some people from this country despair at the rigid choreography of what
might be called the Myanmar diplomatic minuet. United Nations
interlocutors come and go, declaring that the moment is at hand for the
military junta to release the endlessly prosecuted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
but the generals do not budge.

Over the weekend, it was Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary
general, who, despite the weight of his personal intervention, failed to
secure so much as a chat with Asia’s most famous political prisoner, much
less any concessions.

The fact that Mr. Ban emerged empty-handed after his two-day visit that
ended Saturday provides the strongest evidence yet that a different
approach is overdue, analysts of Myanmar said.

Rather than tying negotiations, not to mention sanctions, to the treatment
of just one figure, say policy analysts, humanitarian workers and exiles,
the world should engage the junta on a broad range of economic,
humanitarian and ethnic issues that will return electoral politics to its
rightful place as one concern among many. They admit that borders on
heresy, considering Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s virtual beatification in the
West, but they consider it a shift she would readily accept given her
lifelong commitment to solving Myanmar’s problems.

“People are angry with the U.N. because how many missions have we seen
over the past 20 years jetting in and out,” said Aung Zaw, who went into
exile after the bloody 1988 uprising and is now the Thailand-based editor
of Irrawaddy magazine. “Have they produced any progress?”

Mr. Ban took a stab at articulating a new policy toward Myanmar, formerly
Burma, in an unusual speech on Saturday to the humanitarian and diplomatic
community. He called on the government to respect human rights, address
the dire humanitarian needs in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that killed
about 130,000 people in May 2008 and try to join the rest of Asia’s
economic tigers.

But for the bulk of his visit, Mr. Ban focused on pushing for free and
fair elections, and the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and some 2,000
other political prisoners.

What is missing from this approach, analysts note, is a vision of Myanmar
as seen by Senior Gen. Than Shwe and the other four generals who together
make up the ruling State Peace and Development Council. General Than Shwe
views himself as having shut down a failed socialist system; opened up the
country to foreign gas companies that discovered reserves worth billions
of dollars; signed cease-fires with some 20 ethnic groups in guerrilla
wars that lasted since independence from Britain in 1948; and pushed
through a new Constitution that enshrines military control of the country
behind a civilian leadership.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s sweeping national following makes her a threat to
this plan. But analysts said they believed that as military men, the
generals worry far more about insurgent armies financed by
narco-trafficking, including the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army in the
north and the Kachin Independence Army, with 10,000 men.

Senior United Nations officials are dismissive about addressing the armed
conflicts, saying their General Assembly mandate covers only political
matters. But critics argue that they are being too timid.

“I think we need a more general view of the problems in the country,” said
Thant Myint-U, the author of a Burmese history titled “The River of Lost
Footsteps” and a former United Nations official. “Some new agreement
between the Burmese Army and its armed opponents is essential for new
elections. The opponents with the guns are in many ways more important to
them than the opponents who are locked up.”

Western attempts at isolation combined with the endless domestic civil war
have made the generals comfortable in their siege mentality, analysts
said. A prime way to bust through that would be humanitarian aid, though
analysts say the United Nations has failed to convince donor nations of
its importance. In Mr. Ban’s “Five Plus One” pillars for Myanmar,
humanitarian aid comes after various aspects of political freedom and
economic development.

Given Myanmar’s pariah status, countries have balked at providing aid for
recovery and reconstruction. Emergency relief after Cyclone Nargis came
quickly, but donors have pledged only about $100 million of the more than
$600 million sought for the next phase, said Catherine Bragg, the deputy
United Nations humanitarian coordinator.

A report last fall by the International Crisis Group said that aid should
be seen not only as a means to alleviate suffering, “but also as a
potential means of opening up a closed country, improving governance and
empowering people to take control of their own lives.”

It has worked that way at least in the Irrawaddy Delta — the area hit
hardest by the cyclone — where villagers have adopted a modicum of
self-governance through being consulted by foreign or local organizations
on issues ranging from divvying up donated tractors to revamping school
curriculums.

As a result, the junta has grown wary, clamping down on visas for foreign
aid workers. There is a backlog of more than 200, and 100 recently granted
were just one-month extensions, Ms. Bragg said.

While some advocacy groups support lifting sanctions, they want it done in
a way that helps economically vulnerable groups like textile workers and
farmers. “It shouldn’t be about automatically repealing the sanctions and
giving a lot of money to the regime — that would be folly,” said David
Mathieson, the Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch.

United Nations members are deeply divided over Myanmar, with important
trading partners like Russia and China protective of the regime and other
Asian neighbors often mute. The United States is reviewing its own policy
of economic and other sanctions. At his confirmation hearings last month,
Kurt M. Campbell, the highest State Department official for East Asia,
said that the review had been enormously complicated by the fact that Mrs.
Aung San Suu Kyi was again on trial, but that Washington was looking for
“a more constructive approach.”

The hurdle, of course, is that the country’s star dissident has developed
a worldwide following. “Aung San Suu Kyi is the 800-pound gorilla in
Burma,” said Maureen Aung-Thwin of the Open Society Institute. “Everything
that happens — elections, the political process, reconciliation — is
inexorably linked to her.”

____________________________________

July 6, Associated Press
NLD blames Junta for UN's failed mission

The UN secretary-general's visit to military-ruled Burma was a failure but
it was not his fault, the opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi said
Sunday.

The failure was because of "a lack of willingness and genuine goodwill on
the part of the government," said Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy party.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon ended a two-day mission to Burma on Saturday, saying
he was "deeply disappointed" that the country's military ruler had
rejected his requests to visit Suu Kyi in jail.

"Mr. Ban's visit was not successful, as he was unable to achieve his main
goals and was not allowed to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," said Nyan Win.
"It is understandable that the secretary-general was disappointed."

"Daw" is a term of respect used for older women.

In two days of rare talks with Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the UN chief urged the
reclusive 76-year-old autocrat to release Suu Kyi and an estimated 2,100
other political prisoners and embark on democratic reforms ahead of
elections scheduled for next year.

The visit achieved no immediate results.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been under
house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. Her opposition party won
national elections in 1990, but Burma's generals refused to relinquish
power.

In May, Suu Kyi was charged with violating the terms of her house arrest
when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her lakeside home and
stayed for two days. Suu Kyi's trial was set to resume after a monthlong
delay on Friday, the same day the UN chief arrived. But the court met for
a brief session to adjourn until July 10.

"I pressed as hard as I could" to see Suu Kyi, Ban told reporters Saturday
after meeting with Than Shwe. "I had hoped that he would agree to my
request, but it is regrettable that he did not."

Burma has been ruled by a military government since 1962.

____________________________________

July 6, Associated Press
Myanmar's frustrated generation looks abroad

Armed with a law degree from the University of East Yangon, 22-year-old
Win is clear-eyed about his job prospects: Practically speaking, there are
none. For him, the future lies overseas.

Abroad there is "some hope, some opportunity. But in our country, there's
no hope left," said Win, who is applying to go to Australia for further
studies.

Unlike the students who hit the streets in 1988 in big demonstrations
against the military government, the generation now emerging from college
is focused on avoiding political activism, learning English and seeking
opportunities in a world they have come to know through TV and the
Internet.

Two decades ago, it was very difficult to emigrate from the country then
called Burma. Today it's much easier, and every day long lines of people,
many of them students, form outside the government office that issues
passports.

There are no solid statistics, but historian Thant Myint-U estimates the
number of emigrants over the past couple decades is in the millions.

"The main way young people express their unhappiness today is to leave the
country. Before there was no possibility of emigration. That is a huge
change. ... For more and more young people inside, their first desire is
find work abroad," said the historian, who lives in Thailand and is author
of "The River of Lost Footsteps: A Personal History of Burma."

"We are frustrated by the lifestyle, the opportunities and the politics
here. But we don't care too much about political things because we can't
do anything to change the situation. So we avoid it, we try to escape it,"
said Win, a thin lanky youth who spends his free time playing computer
games. Like most people interviewed in Myanmar, he chose not to give his
full name for fear of angering authorities.

The government has labored long and hard to disempower a university system
that once produced its strongest opponents. It was students who led the
August 1988 uprising that brought tens of thousands into the streets, only
to be crushed by military might.

Authorities set out to fragment the student body, moving colleges at least
15 kilometers (10 miles) out of cities and forcing students to find their
own housing rather than live together on campus and find strength in
numbers.

Elite Rangoon University, which nurtured independence leader Aung San and
the late U.N. Secretary General U Thant, was closed for several years and
reopened as Yangon University, the new name the generals had given to the
city of Rangoon.

Many of the university's buildings are in disrepair, and only a small
number of graduate and doctoral students attend classes; undergraduates
are not admitted.

Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, is Myanmar's modern-day symbol of
the democracy struggle. She has spent 13 of the last 19 years in
detention, and went on trial last month, accused of violating the terms of
her house arrest.

Student activists from the '88 generation managed to make their voices
heard again in 2007 in the uprising led by Buddhist monks, and last fall
many of them were given prison sentences of 65 years.

Experts insist student political action has not died out, but has largely
shifted to "low-risk activism" or gone underground because of the military
government's repression.

There is still a "widespread dissident movement" inside the country that
includes student groups, bloggers, monks and others, but their activities
are much less centrally organized, said David Mathieson, a Myanmar
researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch.

There's no direct confrontation, but there are "still a lot of activities
by people who are either directly trying to challenge the government or
just by people who are trying to get on with their lives and do a whole
range of things," he said.

Students concerned with the country's politics know better than to voice
it publicly.

"I really care about politics and the future of the country but I feel I
am not free to participate. Sometimes we talk politics in cafes but we
have to careful. Even walls have ears," said Wai, a 23-year-old graduate
who majored in English.

Students today have much more exposure to the outside world through the
Internet, television and movies, said Naing, a 40-year-old teacher at a
private school in Yangon.

"They can see more of the world than during my time. They know their
country's problems. That's the big problem — everyone wants to leave," he
said.

Another teacher, 48-year-old Maung, runs a private English language school
and says most of his 85 students come wanting to learn enough English to
function abroad. They head for neighboring Singapore and Thailand, and
dream of the West, he said.

"They like America because it's so free," he said. "Even my son and
daughter, they both want to go abroad if they have the chance. The future
is so dark here."

Even with a college degree, most students have little hope of landing a
decent-paying job if they stay in the country, said Myat, 22, a Dagon
University graduate with spiky brown hair and a diamond ear stud.

The few jobs available are low-paid — $50-100 a month. International
non-governmental organizations pay double or triple, but only hire top
students.

Overall, the situation remains bleak, said Myat, so he too is applying to
study abroad.

"When we see students in other countries, we feel envy," he said. "They
can choose whatever they want to do in their life."

____________________________________

July 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
Digging the tunnels, part two

The tunnel project underway in Burma includes plans to build covert
ammunitions factories that will produce surface-to-air missiles controlled
from underground command bases, leaked intelligence documents reveal.

Last week DVB revealed that some 800 tunnels were under construction
throughout Burma, with sections of the project dating as far back as 1996.

The majority of tunneling and construction equipment for the project has
been bought from North Korea in a series of deals over the last three
years which total at least $US9 billion, according to two purchase orders
received by DVB.

Photographs released by DVB also show North Korean advisors in Burma
training their Burmese counterparts in tunnel construction.

There are suggestions that the project includes preparations to withstand
chemical and nuclear attacks, following reports last week that the tunnels
are lined with bomb-proof material. However there is no hard evidence to
verify this.

There will also be room to hold anti-missile batteries and tanks in
various sections of the tunnels.

The project, the name of which translates as People’s Militia Strategic
Operation, involves an extensive network of tunnels across the whole of
Burma.

Engineering documents reveal that close to the remote Burmese capital
Naypyidaw is a tunnel believed to house either military operational
command headquarters or an advanced weapons factory.

The tunnel site is near to the Pyinmana to Pinlaung road, between Kathedoo
North stream and Kathedoo South stream, and is designed to hold more than
1000 soldiers for several months.

The interior is divided into rooms that cater for varying amounts of
people. Earth refilling and tree planting projects outside the tunnels
have been carried out to camouflage their entrances.

Details about whom the transactions between Burma and North Korea are
being channeled through are not known.

Five Burmese companies – Htoo Trading, Kambawza, Asia World, Aden and Shwe
Thanlwin – are known however to have provided machinery for the digging of
the tunnels.

Htoo Group, the parent company of Htoo Trading, owns the Burmese airline
company Air Bagan.

The documents also reveal that security in Rangoon division has been
carefully reshuffled and reinforced over recent years to prepare for a
possible foreign invasion. It was largely for this reason that the capital
was moved in 2005 from Rangoon city to Naypyidaw, 350 miles north.

Six military regions have been developed in Rangoon division to counter
“foreign aggression”. Tunnels built throughout these regions are
camouflaged and capable of hiding troops in an emergency situation.

Inside the tunnels, there are plans to build ration stores and reserve
food supplies exist alongside factories, weapons and ammunition stores,
and hospitals.

These tunnels would be controlled by a series of underground command
centres linked via an elaborate fibre-optic communication network. The
network will connect military operational headquarters to other army units
stationed in the tunnels.

Based on intelligence documents, automatic shutting down facilities,
poison gas devices and smoke sensors will also be installed. There will be
regular power supply lines running throughout the tunnels, along with a
ventilation system that the purchase order shows comes from North Korea.

For security reasons, the nearest buildings around them are used as guard
posts. Residential buildings and governmental offices are built on top of
some tunnels, close to the entrances.

A secret visit by General Thura Shwe Mann, the Burmese regime’s
third-in-command, along with 18 other high ranking military officials to
North Korea in November 2008, is another indicator of how the two
countries have been cooperating.

During the visit, Shwe Mann and North Korean Army Chief General Kim
Gyok-sik signed an Memorandum of Understanding on further cooperation
plans. The Burmese delegation also visited an underground military
hardware factory near Pyongyang.

The government in Burma continually publicises infrastructural
developments such as road and dam building but has kept the tunnel project
highly secretive.

Despite the extent to which Burma is bolstering its security – it is
thought to spend some 40 per cent of its annual budget on the military -
it remains without external enemies.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 6, Associated Press
Myanmar refugee numbers swell in Thailand

As the 50,000th Myanmar refugee to be resettled abroad recently left
Thailand for the United States, thousands of others fled their
military-ruled homeland to seek shelter under tarps and in temples along
the Thai-Myanmar border.
''We would be happier if we were back home as this is not our land, but we
will stay here because that side is not safe,'' said a 30-year-old medic
treating a child for malaria, pointing across an open field to Myanmar.

Escalated violence in rural Myanmar means despite the world's largest
resettlement program, Thailand's refugee population -- numbering more than
100,000 -- is not likely to diminish any time soon. More than 4,000 ethnic
minority Karen have crossed the border in the past month.

The exodus was sparked by fighting between the Karen National Union and
the Myanmar regime, a brutal conflict that has been going on for 60 years
as the Karen seek greater autonomy.

In addition to the refugees in Thailand, the aid group Thai Burma Border
Consortium estimates fighting has spawned nearly 500,000 internally
displaced people in eastern Myanmar and countless atrocities against
civilians.

Critics say Myanmar's army seeks to eliminate opposition from the Karen
and other ethnic minorities to seize control of the area's natural
resources, a valuable source of income for the impoverished country.

And with elections scheduled for July 2010, securing Karen State would
help the ruling generals claim the entire country was behind the vote and
their so-called ''road map to democracy.'' Critics have said the moves are
a sham designed to perpetuate military rule.

''The main thing is the election -- the government wants the Karen out of
the picture,'' said Ba Win, a teacher who worked as a government
veterinarian in Karen State for five years.

The latest round of fighting erupted in early June as government troops
and the allied Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, or DKBA, moved against
Karen military positions and a large civilian camp, sending villagers
across the border north of Mae Sot, a Thai border town 240 miles (380
kilometers) northwest of the Thai capital, Bangkok.

The Karen Human Rights Group says the government is also forcing Karen
villagers to join the DKBA and turn the group into a border guard force to
better control natural resources in Karen State.

Meanwhile, the thin tarps provided the refugees are not keeping the heavy
monsoon rains at bay, but they fear if the rain stops, fighting will break
out again.

No mosquito nets are available to stop the spread of malaria, and the
refugees depend on Mae Sot-based relief organizations and a nearby Thai
Karen village for food and supplies.

They won't return home unless land mines in areas surrounding their
villages are cleared. ''Fighting we can see and run away from, but land
mines can be anywhere,'' said the Karen medic, who like others declined to
give a name because of the refugees' precarious status.

A number of the displaced, living in tent clusters according to the
village of their origin, say they lost family members to mines during the
flight to Thailand.

Other newly arrived Karen refugees have taken shelter in temples and
schools along the border, but were wearing out their welcome as Buddhist
Lent celebrations began this week, said Kathryn Halley of the aid group
Partners, Relief and Development.

The new Karen refugees are to be moved into a single temporary camp, but
aid groups and the Thai military have yet to agree on an exact secure
location. Permanent camps in the area are too full to accommodate them.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says it will resettle 6,000 of the
112,000 registered Myanmar refugees in Thailand this year. The United
States, Canada, Australia and several Nordic countries participate in the
resettlement program that began in 2004 and is now the world's largest,
according to the agency.

Mae Sot-based aid groups say repatriation has slowed because of the global
financial crisis.

The newly arrived are unlikely to become candidates for resettlement
abroad and were not even aware of plans to move them to a new location
inside Thailand, a trip that will require climbing a muddy mountain pass
and crossing a river.

One 50-year-old Karen woman said she had traveled back and forth across
the Thai-Myanmar border three times in her life. ''I just want to stay
still now,'' she said. ''I am tired.''

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 6, Financial Times
Burma starts to acquire veneer of wealth as elite enjoy times of plenty –
Amy Kazmin

It's nearly midnight on Saturday and the dance floor of DJ's Bar in
Rangoon is packed with Burmese youth, grooving to throbbing house music as
red, green and yellow light beams flash and slice across the room.

The revellers - young men with hair gelled into modish styles and young
women wearing mini-skirts and clutching mobile phones - have each paid a
$10 cover charge to enter, a steep price in a land where university
lecturers earn just $80 (£50, €57) a month.

Yet the hefty charges are no barrier for these affluent, well-connected
members of an emergent Burmese elite with money to burn. "People are
spending money - and it's not just a half a dozen of the regime cronies,"
says one foreign diplomat in Rangoon.

Burma's resource-rich economy, a treasure trove of natural gas, precious
gems and valuable hardwood, has long been squeezed by the twin pressures
of western sanctions and a military junta with a weak grasp of economics
and little faith in civilian technocrats. That no-win combination has left
most of Burma's 52m people struggling to get by, with their frustration
boiling over into mass protests in 2007.

Yet amid the widespread hardship, Rangoon, the dilapidated former colonial
capital, is acquiring a veneer of wealth, as a privileged elite enjoys
unprecedented times of plenty, two decades after the military abandoned
its autarkic "Burmese way to socialism".

Today, Burmese with the right military connections are profiting from
access to natural resources, government construction contracts and
privileges including the right to engage in international trade, still
tightly controlled by the regime.

In the commodity boom, Burma's agricultural exports soared to $2bn, up
from $300m a few years earlier, doing little for farmers, but enriching
urban traders. "There is economic activity going on," the foreign diplomat
said. "The vast majority of trade is with Burma's immediate neighbours,
and there is a lot of investment and a lot of exports."

Growth in tourism and other forms of commerce has created a small cadre of
professionals. "More people are getting management roles and seeing
salaries rise," said the diplomat.

Meanwhile, signs of affluence are everywhere. Stylish-looking new
condominiums are sprouting near the city's lakes, and prime real estate
prices have tripled over the past five years. Colonial-era wooden
bungalows are being replaced by ostentatious mansions with Greco-Roman
columns.

Young men drive souped-up Jeeps painted lemon yellow or ultra-violet while
their elders display their wealth in expensive imported Land Cruisers and
Pajeros. Swanky boutiques proliferate, with names such as the Sky Princess
beauty salon, We and We interior design, and She Shines jewellery.

Yet some savvy Burmese business people say Rangoon's spurt of highly
conspicuous consumption reflects the economy's deep malaise - including
its dysfunctional banking system and rampant inflation - rather than its
fundamental health.

Although Burma has about a dozen private banks, they are hampered by
regime rules that cap their deposit-taking at just 10 per cent of their
paid-in capital, preventing them from channelling surplus household cash
into productive investment. According to the IMF, the ratio of bank
deposits, and credit to the private sector, to gross domestic product has
fallen sharply over the past eight years.

With inflation running at about 30 per cent, many Burmese are pouring
their surplus cash into hard assets that they feel will at least hold
their value - if not appreciate. "You can't put it in the bank so you put
your money in cars or a nice new house to keep the value of the money,"
said one business person.

But Burma's asset bubble may be about to burst. Many of the Rangoon condos
have been developed by companies that received prime urban land as part of
their payment for helping to construct the junta's new capital city far to
the north and its $3.5bn new airport. Many of the units are unsold,
leaving the companies struggling to recover costs.

Senior General Than Shwe, the junta's head, has apparently ordered the
government to balance its budget, which has been in deficit for years,
ahead of the regime's planned elections next year, which could create a
squeeze on liquidity and bring the spending spree to a halt.

"No one is getting any more money," said one economist. "Businessmen are
also quite fed up. They want change."

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 6, Irrawaddy
Cover up in Rangoon – Aung Thet Wine

It is somewhat surreal to see people walking around the streets of Rangoon
wearing surgical masks on a Monday morning.

But ever since the Burmese military government announced the first case of
A(H1N1) virus in the country on June 27, residents of Rangoon have been
quietly panicking.

Although the Health Ministry has offered advice through the media on
containing the A(H1N1) pandemic—widely known as “swine flu”—little is
truly known about the nature of the virus among the general public.

"Don’t eat steamed pork (Wet-Thar-Toke-Htoo)!” a 30-year-old mother warned
her children. “You could get flu. Don’t eat any pork!”

Other residents have no idea what swine flu is or what they should do.
They just see others wearing masks and start to worry.

Swine flu has officially spread to 113 countries and the World Health
Organization has declared the strain a “pandemic.” Current data says that
some 90,000 people have been infected worldwide and at least 382 people
have died.

Swine flu is an airborne disease which is generally spread from human
contact—not from eating pork or being in contact with pigs. Symptoms are
similar to regular influenza, with most sufferers experiencing fever,
coughing, headaches, diarrhea and sore throats.

Although only a minute percentage of people die from exposure to the virus
the sense of distrust with official announcements and a lack of faith in
the health facilities in the country have prompted many Burmese to
pre-empt the risk of infection by rushing to the local pharmacies to buy
surgical masks.

Unlike other Southeast Asian countries like Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan
where people wearing surgical masks are common sights on the city subways,
in Burma the custom is almost unknown until now.

Pharmacies are not well stocked with surgical masks. Most chemists report
selling no more than one or two masks a month.  However, since the news
broke about the A(H1N1) virus hitting Burma, pharmacies have all but sold
out of what few masks they had.

Mingla market, one of the main markets for buying and selling drugs and
medical supplies in Rangoon, is crowded with people asking for surgical
masks.

 "Ten boxes of masks, you say?” responds a medical shop vendor when I
phone to enquire about buying supplies of masks. “Sorry, that’s not
possible. I have only one box left."

Surgical masks were until recently selling for just 50 kyat (US $0.05)
each. This week, one mask can sell for up to 700 kyat ($0.70) depending on
supply.

 “The more severely sick the patient, the more earnings for the healer,"
goes an old Burmese proverb. And so it appears in Rangoon with the black
market ever alert to public demand.

Unsubstantiated rumors about swine flu are spreading among the population,
among them exaggerated doomsday predictions.

"It is said that two people from Thanlyin are hospitalized in Rangoon
General Hospital,” some people whisper at a tea shop. “I saw security
forces arriving there.”

“I heard there are 16 swine flu patients,” another resident asserts.
“North Okkalapa Hospital has also taken in the victims.”

State-run television has shown Deputy Health Minister Dr Mya Oo walking
around the wards at Rangoon General Hospital wearing a surgical mask over
his face.

Under the tight restrictions of Burmese regime censorship, many of the
so-called newspapers have remained tightlipped about the scare. Whenever
officials from the Ministry of Health are questioned by reporters for
updates on the pandemic, they are more often than not told: “I can't
answer you without approval from my superiors.”

"If you respond slowly to an infectious disease, it could spread widely
and rapidly,” said an information officer from the Myanmar Red Cross
Society. “You must organize a mechanism to update the public about the
disease. You must feed the population the correct information; otherwise,
you can't control the rumor mills."

Meanwhile, the Burmese Health Ministry has decided to call the new virus
"World human influenza" in Burmese.

Whether an underdeveloped country like Burma has enough anti-viral drugs
to combat the disease or has taken steps to acquire vaccines for fighting
swine flu remains to be seen.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 6, Irrawaddy
N Korea using Malaysian bank for Burmese weapons deals: Yonhap – Arkar Moe

North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for a suspected
shipment of weapons to Burma being carried on a freighter tracked by the
US Navy, according to a source quoted by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Yonhap reported on Saturday that the source said a US envoy would visit
Malaysia this weekend to focus on ways to cut off the payment to North
Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

“Kim will have a hard time collecting his money,” said the high-level source.

The revelation comes as the North Korean freighter Kang Nam 1 is
apparently returning home after being tracked by a US Navy destroyer that
suspected it of carrying cargo banned under UN Security Council Resolution
1874, which toughened sanctions imposed after North Korea conducted its
first nuclear test in 2006.

Philip Goldberg, the US coordinator for the implementation of the
resolution, which was passed on June 12 to punish North Korea for its May
25 nuclear test, is scheduled to arrive in Malaysia on Sunday. Goldberg is
in China ahead of his visit to Malaysia.

The White House said that US President Barack Obama discussed North Korea
and financial regulations with Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razakon by
phone late last month.

According to another source in Seoul, the Kang Nam 1 is believed to be
carrying small Soviet-era arms such as AK-47 rifles and RPG-7 anti-tank
launchers manufactured in North Korea.

Adm Gary Roughead, the chief of US Naval operations, told reporters on
Saturday that the Kang Nam 1 was being closely watched and is now in the
East China Sea.

“I believe we are seeing the effects of the UN Security Council
resolution,” he said.

On Friday, South Korean news channel YTN quoted an unidentified diplomatic
official as saying that Burma requested that the Kang Nam 1 turn around.

The US State Department announced on Tuesday that it had frozen the US
assets of Namchongang Trading Corp and Iran-based Hong Kong Electronics to
curtail North Korea’s ability to trade in missiles and nuclear materials.
Namchongang Trading Corp is allegedly connected to the Burmese arms
industry.
____________________________________

July 6, Bangkok Post
Release prisoners, says PM – Anucha Charoenpo

Thailand wants the Burmese government to release opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as part of its national
reconciliation process, acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn
says.

The position was conveyed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to United
Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon in talks on Saturday.

Thailand is chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations until the
end of the year.

Mr Ban made a stopover in Bangkok on his way from Burma. The Burmese junta
refused his request to meet Mrs Suu Kyi who is on trial for violating her
detention conditions.

Although Mr Ban's request was rejected, Thailand supported the UN in
playing a role in attempts to bring about national reconciliation in
Burma, Mr Panitan quoted the prime minister as saying.

The 10-member Asean will try to address the problem of Burma at meetings
of Southeast Asian foreign ministers and the grouping's coming summit, he
said.

Asean foreign ministers will hold talks on July 20 in Phuket followed by
talks until July 23 with their dialogue partners. Their leaders will
gather at the resort island in October.

Mr Ban told the prime minister he was disappointed with Burma for not
allowing him to meet the National League for Democracy leader.

The prime minister will pay his first official visit to Burma at the end
of the month, the acting spokesman said.

It was uncertain whether he would raise the issue of Mrs Suu Kyi at
meetings with Burmese leaders, he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 6, Reuters
U.N. chief urges credible elections in Myanmar

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for
Myanmar's generals to prepare for credible multi-party national elections
next year.

Ban was speaking to a news conference in Geneva after a two-day trip to
Myanmar, where he was denied a visit to detained opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

"It is up to the leadership to set in place the elements necessary for
elections to be credible and legitimate," he said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 6, Irrawaddy
Ban—empty-handed but wiser – Editorial

Although he left Burma empty-handed without any visible sign of progress
or concession from the Burmese junta, United Nations Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon’s visit was by no means pointless.

Through his official visit to the military-ruled country he should have
discovered a deeper understanding of how far the international
community—under the name of the United Nations—can expect to go in its
current mission to facilitate democratization in Burma through national
reconciliation.

Ban's talks with the Naypyidaw regime—and primarily junta chief Snr-Gen
Than Shwe—focused on three important issues: gaining the release of all
political prisoners including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi; resumption
of dialogue between the military government and its opposition; and
creating the conditions for credible elections.

The UN secretary-general’s hopes were quickly dashed. He was even refused
a visit with detained opposition leader Suu Kyi.

However, in forcing Than Shwe to show his cards, Ban is left in no doubts
as to what degree of flexibility the regime might be prepared to go
to—none.

The UN chief had no qualms about publicly criticizing Burma’s military
rulers before he left from the country. "I believe the government of
Myanmar [Burma] has lost a unique opportunity to show its commitment to a
new era of political openness," he said in an emotive speech at Rangoon’s
Drug Elimination Museum to 500 state officials, diplomats, INGO staff and
local pressmen.

Of course, no one expected much from the visit, and observers noted once
again that the junta would manipulate it for propaganda purposes. But at
least Ban should have earned the respect of the international community
for confronting the junta and for speaking the truth.

Now the gloves are off and Ban can concentrate more forcefully on what he
has called "a very tough mission."

At a pit stop in the Thai capital, Bangkok, Ban met with Prime Minister
Abhisit Vejjajiva, and told reporters that to show his commitment to
moving the Burma issue forward, his special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, will
shortly convene the so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar, a gathering of
countries supporting greater dialogue.

However, Ban must now know that words without teeth will not worry the
Burmese generals.

Naypyidaw has proved to the world that no matter how many resolutions the
UN passes—even dragging Burma before the 15-nation UN Security Council—the
junta will not willingly release the 2,100 political prisoners in the
country, least of all Suu Kyi.

We will all be closely watching the UN secretary-general’s next step.

Ban’s visit may not have achieved any visible outcome, but the people of
Burma will remember what he promised: "I have come to show the unequivocal
shared commitment of the United Nations to the people of Myanmar. I am
here today to say: Myanmar – you are not alone."

____________________________________

July 6, Far Eastern Economic Review
Allies in paranoia and repression – Kay Seok and David Scott Mathieson

http://www.feer.com/international-relations/20098/july53/Allies-in-Paranoia-and-Repression

The U.S. Navy shadowing a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying
weapons bound for Burma is the stuff of potboiler thrillers. Yet for two
of the world’s most reclusive and repressive states, the only unique
feature of these events is the fact that anyone is taking notice. For
several years, Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
and Kim Jong Il’s government in North Korea have been slowly strengthening
their diplomatic and military ties, largely beneath the international
radar. U.S. monitoring of the North Korean freighter Kang Nam, as part of
newly introduced United Nations Security Council sanctions, comes on the
heels of recent allegations that North Korean engineers have been
assisting the Burmese military with the construction of underground
bunkers, either for a nuclear program or as the result of paranoia over a
feared but illusory future U.S. invasion. Indeed, there might be no other
country better positioned to offer such know-how, as North Korea has a
long history of building underground bunkers and tunnels, including a few
across the inter-Korea border that have since been discovered and sealed
by South Korea.

That the freighter has now turned around and is heading back to North
Korea doesn’t resolve the issue of what is on the ship and what its
purpose would be in Burma. It raises more questions about bilateral
defense links between the two countries.

North Korea has earned notoriety and opprobrium for misallocating vast
sums of money in one of the world’s poorest countries to develop nuclear
weapons and ballistic missiles. Its nuclear ambitions hit the headlines
again last week, with media in South Korea and Japan reporting that the
Kim Jong Il regime may be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic
missile across the Pacific. Apparently as part of its effort to grab
attention, North Korea also reminded the world of the depth of its
repressive apparatus when it sentenced two American journalists to 12
years of “reform through labor” for illegal entry and another unspecified
“crime against the state” after a closed-door trial.

Burma’s nuclear ambitions are far murkier and less developed. Burma’s arms
suppliers have always been eclectic, ranging from predictable sources like
China, Russia, and Singapore to others such as Ukraine, South Africa and
Serbia. North Korea has entered the frame in the past few years as it has
provided multiple launch rocket systems, artillery and military advisors,
including the tunneling experts. Relations between the two countries have
improved since 2007, when formal diplomatic ties were reestablished for
the first time since they were severed in 1983 after North Korean agents
assassinated several members of the South Korean government in a bomb
blast in Burma’s then capitol Rangoon.

The specter of two reclusive and repressive regimes moving closer together
would hardly be worth mentioning if not for the fact that one has nuclear
weapons – and the other seems to want them. Heightening the security
concerns is the fact that both dictatorships can operate in the dark as
neither has a free press, civil society or public opinion to hold them to
account. Both governments use the basic tactics of violence, censorship,
fear, poverty, privation, and isolation to remain in power – and make it
hard for outsiders to know what is happening in the country.

In Burma, although the military government is more open to U.N. agencies,
relief groups, tourists and investors, the suppression of all forms of
domestic dissent is nearly total. Aung San Suu Kyi’s bizarre trial after
an American swam across a lake and entered her home should remind us that
there are 2,100 other political prisoners in the country. Each time
Burma’s leaders launch military operations against domestic armed ethnic
groups, its record of widespread and systematic attacks against civilians
comes into view. Living standards inside Burma continue to deteriorate for
the majority of the population.

In North Korea, political repression is so severe that there is no
prominent opposition leader such as Aung San Suu Kyi. Indeed, since the
foundation of the North Korean state in 1948, there has been no
large-scale public rally known to the outside world that called for
freedom, democracy and protection of basic human rights. North Korea is
the world’s expert on collective punishment: If one member of a family
commits an offense of a political nature it is the norm for three
generations of the entire family to be sent to a prison camp for life or,
if they are more fortunate, to a remote, mountainous area where food is
scarce and life unimaginably hard.

The world’s security concerns and the need for human rights improvements,
particularly freedom of expression and information, are therefore
inextricably linked in both countries. Instead of only dealing with each
country when it commits outrages or hits the 24-hour news cycle, the world
needs to make the plight of some of the world’s longest suffering citizens
a consistent priority.

Burma and North Korea share one other key dimension. China is the central
external player in both countries. China is the biggest trading partner
for each country and has long provided crucial political support. It is
now frustrated with both: with North Korea for breaking its commitments in
“six-party talks,” and with Burma for embarrassing it by failing to make
even minimal attempts to discuss reform with Aung San Suu Kyi and other
political opponents.

China should use its diplomatic, political and economic tools to press
Burma’s ruling generals and North Korea’s Kim Jong Il to rethink the
destructive and dangerous paths that each is on. It should support efforts
to uncover the full extent of military links between Naypyidaw and
Pyongyang, from nuclear technology right down to the small arms that form
the backbone of the tyranny to which the people of both countries suffer.

China should also empower the United Nations and its Secretary General,
Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, to play an active
role. Mr. Ban will visit Burma this week to press for political reform and
the release of political prisoners. As a South Korean, he has a deep
understanding of North Korea that should be deployed by the rest of the
world. But without clear support from China, in public as well as in
private, his efforts will fail. If China wants to be seen as a responsible
global citizen, it must lead efforts to tackle the brotherhood of paranoia
and repression that threatens people in both Burma and North Korea – and
the rest of Asia.

Kay Seok and David Scott Mathieson are the North Korea and Burma
researchers at Human Rights Watch.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

July 6, US Campaign for Burma
Ban Ki-moon fails to obtain Aung San Suu Kyi's release, focus shifts back
to UN Security Council; President Obama urged to seek Security Council
action on Burma by U.S. Members of Congress

Two days after the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon not only
failed to obtain the release of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace
Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi or even a single political prisoner (out
of the country’s 2,100) in the Southeast Asian country of Burma, but he
also failed to even secure a meeting with her, a leading human rights
organization declared the United Nations strategy for promoting change in
Burma "fundamentally flawed" and urged immediate action by the UN Security
Council.

Said Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma: "For
over a decade, the UN Secretary-General has sent envoys to Burma seeking
changes in the country, a policy used by China and Russia as an excuse to
avoid action on Burma at the UN Security Council. Finally, the world can
see how this process is fundamentally flawed -- without strong action by
the UN Security Council, even the UN Secretary-General himself has
failed."

Ban Ki-moon, the most powerful executive in the United Nations system,
spent two days in Burma pleading with the country's military dictator Than
Shwe to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in the
country. Not only did Than Shwe refuse -- but he even refused to allow the
UN chief to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The United Nations must not allow its credibility to be destroyed by a
two-bit dictator like Than Shwe," added Aung Din. "It is time for Ban
Ki-moon to ask the UN Security Council to pass a global arms embargo
against Burma's military regime while at the same time initiating an
inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Than
Shwe's regime.

The United Nations has used arms embargoes in numerous cases to press for
change in particular countries, notably against apartheid-era South Africa
in the 1970s and 1980s. At the same time, a recent report commissioned by
5 of the world's leading judges and jurists found widespread evidence
suggesting that Burma's military regime has been carrying out crimes
against humanity and war crimes against its own civilians. Two weeks ago,
nearly 60 members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to President
Obama urging him to take action on crimes against humanity in Burma at the
UN Security Council.

“We urge you to urgently seek support at the UN Security Council for a
Commission of Inquiry to investigate the Burmese regime’s war crimes,
crimes against humanity and system of impunity. The regime must be held
accountable, on behalf of the millions of people of Burma who have no
other course for redress,” said U.S. Representatives, led by Congressmen
Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL) in the letter to
President Obama. (Please see the letter attached)

In October 2007 the Security Council issued its first-ever Presidential
Statement on Burma, which called for the release of all political
prisoners in the country.  Yet, a previous, stronger move in the form of a
resolution was jointly vetoed by Russia and China.  In recent weeks, news
has leaked out of Burma that the country's military regime is seeking
nuclear weapons technology from North Korea -- possibly setting up a
scenario in which two of China's close allies and immediate neighbors
would be armed with nuclear weapons.