BurmaNet News, July 9, 2009

[Editor]

July 9, 2009, Issue #3750


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Aung San Suu Kyi meets legal team refuses comment on Ban visit
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi denied access to news
Kachin News Group: Jade tycoons distribute food, water to flood victims
SHAN: Hype heads off druglord from moving into new mansion

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: The junta hit men

HEALTH / AIDS
New Light of Myanmar: A (H1N1) infected girl discharged from hospital
after recovering from illness

ASEAN
Mizzima News: Thai PM proposes visit to Burma

INTERNATIONAL
VOA: G8 calls on Burma to release political prisoners
DVB: US ‘concerned’ about North Korea-Burma nuclear trade

OPINION / OTHER
Wall Street Journal: Burma and North Korea, brothers in arms – Aung Zaw
Irrawaddy: Russian mine to supply uranium to junta? – Khun Chan Khe
AP: Gloom in Yangon as Aung San Suu Kyi trial resumes – John Heilprin
Korea Times: Advocate Democracy in Myanmar – John Smith Thang



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 9, Mizzima News
Aung San Suu Kyi meets legal team refuses comment on Ban visit – Myint Maung

Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to comment
on the just concluded visit of United Nations Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon, after she was briefed by her legal team, who met her on
Wednesday.

Three members of the democracy icon’s legal team on Wednesday met the
detained Nobel Peace Laureate in Rangoon’s Insein prison to discuss
preparations for the final argument of her trial. During the meeting, the
legal team briefed her on the details of the visit by the UN Chief.

Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team and spokesperson for
her party said, “We briefed her about the visit of Ban Ki-moon. I told her
of the meeting between the NLD Central Executive Committee members with
Ban Ki-moon but she did not make any comment.”

Four CEC members of the NLD on July 3 met the visiting UN Chief for a mere
10 minutes and were able to highlight the party’s stand and aspirations.

The NLD urged Ban to call on the junta to release party leader Aung San
Suu Kyi and those of other political parties, to kick-start the process of
national reconciliation,  recognise the 1990 election results, and to
review the 2008 constitution.

The world body chief, during his visit, requested a meeting with detained
Aung San Suu Kyi but it was turned down by Snr. Gen Than Shwe.

Nyan Win said, on Wednesday he along with two of Aung San Suu Kyi’s
lawyers – Kyi Win and Khin Htay Kywe – were allowed to meet her for about
two hours in Insein prison to discuss the preparations for the final
argument of her case.

“We have drafted an 18-page final argument and shown it to Aung San Suu
Kyi. We will have to discuss it later. We met her to discuss the final
argument and she has approved the draft we have prepared,” Nyan Win said.

The district court in Insein prison has fixed July 10, for the hearing of
one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s witness Khin Moe Moe.

Khin Moh Moh along with veteran journalist Win Tin and NLD vice-chairman
Tin Oo were rejected by the district court as defence witnesses. But
following appeals by the defence team, Khin Moh Moh was reinstated as a
defence witness. But the divisional court as well as the high court
continued to reject Win Tin and Tin Oo.

____________________________________

July 9, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi denied access to news – Wai Moe

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is denied access to a radio
during her time in Rangoon’s Insein Prison, according to her lawyer, Nyan
Win.

Suu Kyi was able to keep in touch with world events by listening to the
radio during her house detention, but that possibility has been denied her
since she was removed to Insein Prison, where she is on trial for
transgressing the terms of her house arrest.

Nyan Win said Suu Kyi was allowed to read the state-controlled press, but
was denied the possibility of receiving “uncensored information via
foreign broadcasting.”

Nyan Win met Suu Kyi on Wednesday, and said afterwards that she was in a
good mood and healthy.

The meeting was to allow Nyan Win to prepare for Suu Kyi’s next appearance
in court, scheduled for Friday. He said he didn’t know if a verdict could
be expected then. She faces a sentence of up to five years imprisonment if
convicted of allowing an American intruder to stay at her home.

A scheduled session of the trial last Friday was postponed because of the
visit to Burma by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The UN chief asked for a meeting with Suu Kyi, but his request was
rejected by junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

“I believe the government of Myanmar [Burma] has lost a unique opportunity
to show its commitment to a new era of political openness,” Ban commented.

“Allowing a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important
symbol of the government’s willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful
engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen
as credible,” he said.

Ban is expected to brief the UN Security Council shortly on his Burma visit.

Analysts say the Burma issue is sure to be raised before the Security
Council in August, when the UK has the chair, and in September, when the
US takes over the position.

Burma has been able in the past to rely on the vetoes of two permanent
members of the Security Council, China and Russia, to block unfavorable
resolutions. But diplomatic sources say China is disappointed by the
Burmese regime’s treatment of Ban.

____________________________________

July 9, Kachin News Group
Jade tycoons distribute food, water to flood victims

In the aftermath of floods in the Uru River and landslides, jade tycoons
are distributing much-needed food and drinking water to victims in Hpakant
jade land in Burma's northern Kachin State, said local sources.   Massive
floods and landslides, one of the worst in recent memory, occurred on July
4 and 5.

The rescue and relief operations could start in the affected areas only
after the floods subsided and the heavy downpour stopped on July 7, said
residents of Hpakant.

Local Kachin jade tycoon Ze Lum and his colleagues are distributing rice
and fried eggs, which are packed in one-time use plastic bags as well as
one litre bottles of drinking water to hundreds of flood survivors and
victims in Hpakant jade mining city, said residents of Hpakant.

According to local people, the Burmese military junta is yet to begin
rescue and relief operations in the affected areas.  The junta earns its
third highest foreign exchange from gem, mainly from Hpakant jade mines
but the victims and survivors of the floods and mudslides are being
ignored by the regime, said locals.

Vehicular traffic has ground to a halt between Hpakant and areas outside
jade land because the road has been blocked by landslides in three places
between Nam Ya and Lonkin, also called Lawng Hkang in Kachin, according to
travellers.

Only motorcycles can cross the landslide hit areas and travel to Hpakant.
But motorcycle owners have to pay 30,000 Kyat per vehicle as carrier fee
at every landslide block, said travellers.

Eyewitnesses said they saw a bulldozer yesterday on the Hpakant Road
heading towards the blockages between Nam Ya and Lonkin.

Residents of Hpakant said, Uru River, the main river in Hpakant jade land,
inundated three major cities--- Hpakant, Seng Tawng and Lonkin but
Nga-Pyaw-Taw, Kala Jawng, Kalat Kone and Maw One quarters in Hpakant were
the most severely affected by floods and mudslides.

In Kala Jawng quarter in Hpakant, almost entire houses in the quarters
with over 60 homes, except one wooden two-storeyed house were wiped out by
the flood waters on July 4, said local people.

The death toll according to the City Administrative Office or City Peace
and Development Council of the junta, is over 100.

Following the flood and the consequent shortage of clean water in Hpakant,
many people are suffering from water-borne diseases like dysentery and
cholera, a resident of Hpakant told KNG today.

An outsider cannot estimate the total number of dead, the number of
victims and survivors in the flood affected areas because the roads have
over three-feet of mud and slush, said locals.

The government hospital in Hpakant is full of injured people as well as
patients suffering from dysentery, said residents

____________________________________

July 9, Shan Herald Agency for News
Hype heads off druglord from moving into new mansion

Wei Xuegang, wanted in Thailand and the US on drug charges, has decided to
give up his newly constructed maximum security mansion west of the Wa
capital Panghsang on the Sino-Burma border, according to local sources.

The Ұ 300 million ($ 60 million) complex, complete with underground
tunnels and bunkers, was instead “donated” to the Wa supreme command, said
an informed source, rejecting rumors that it was purchased by Bao
Youxiang, supreme leader Bao Youxiang’s younger brother and “finance
minister”.

Unconfirmed report says the complex will be inaugurated on 8 August (the
8th month), as 6 and 8 are auspicious numbers to Sinicized-Wa.

The obsessively security conscious Wei, deputy head of finance and
Commander of the Thai-Burma border-based 171st Military Region, was said
to have been upset by the much unwelcome media attention given to the
palatial mansion he had been building at Wankawng, some 4 km west of
Panghsang since 2005.

He is said to be still living in Pangpoi, a village further south and has
contracted a Thai-based constructor to build a new house in Mongmai, 170
km north of Panghsang near the Kokang border.

According to Bangkok Post, 6 July 2008 issue, his companion at Pangpoi is
none other than Surachai Ngernthongfu aka Bang Ron, also on the top wanted
list in Thailand.

Wei, born in 1946, The Year of The Dog, in Xuangjiang, Yunnan province,
fled with his family to Burma’s Shan State when he was 11. He joined Khun
Sa in 1964, became his radio operator and later his banker. Falling out
with Khun Sa, he joined the United Wa State Army. He was sentenced to
death in absentia by a Thai court in 1993. The United States also has an
“up to $ 2 million” offer for information leading to his arrest since
1998.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 9, Irrawaddy
The junta hit men – Saw Yan Naing

Col Chit Thu, the commander of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA)
Battalion 999 is now believed to be the most powerful man in the DKBA
administration.

According to Karen sources on the border, he ordered the week-long
offensive against the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) Brigade 7 that
ended on 21 June, and he has ordered his forces to move against KNLA
Brigades 6 and 5.

Though other commanders like Gen Kyaw Than, chief of the DKBA, and Thar
Htoo Kyaw, chairman of the DKBA’s political wing, are more senior, Chit
Thu is more popular because he gets things done, the sources said.

“Chit Thu is an active man,” said a DKBA source. “He is also popular for
his community development work in education, health care, and Karen
culture, and he is good at lobbying people.”

Chit Thu is now believed to the most powerful decision-maker in both the
DKBA’s military wing and its political administration.

DKBA sources report that Col Chit Thu owns large businesses dealing with
logging and auto trading, and is involved in drug trafficking. He
regularly flies to countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong to facilitate
his car importing business, the sources said.

The DKBA remains the only ceasefire group that has signed an agreement
with the military regime in June to transform its troops into a border
guard force.

Since April, Chit Thu has been overseeing the conscription, possibly
forced, of new recruits for the new battalions of the border force. Each
battalion must consist of 326 soldiers.

The DKBA has also been assigned the role of cleaning up the KNLA areas and
reinforcing troop strength along the Thai-Burmese border.

During the recent attacks against KNLA Brigade 7, the DKBA soldiers were
paid to take front line positions, and local Karen villagers were forced
to work as porters in the front line with them.

Some DKBA leaders realized that they were wrong to attack fellow Karen in
the KNLA and Karen civilians, Karen sources said.

“The DKBA leaders knew that they were being used by the Burmese regime.
But there is no possibility for DKBA leaders to rejoin the KNU [Karen
National Union] because of their business interests,” said one Karen
source on the border.

Many members of the DKBA get nothing while their leaders get richer and
richer, however.

“This inequality will just get worse,” the border source commented.

According to a DKBA businessman, the DKBA plans to join the Burmese
authorities in managing the border trade after they have destroyed the
KNLA bases along the Thai-Burma border.

The DKBA leaders are hoping to increase their business activities and
build a road connecting their headquarters at Myaing Gyi Ngu with the Thai
border, he said.

DKBA ventures involve logging, mining minerals such as zinc and tin, and
building factories and business enterprises.

However, the border trade will be controlled directly by the Myanmar
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the businessman said.

“Once they have become a border guard force, the DKBA soldiers will be
paid by the Burmese regime. So, I doubt they will be able to earn big
profits. Most of the money will go to the Burmese regime,” he said.

Among the DKBA leaders, Col Chit Thu is thought to have the best
relationship with the Burmese military, and he has been the most effective
in following junta orders, said border sources.

Chit Thu was reportedly given large sums of money by the Burmese
authorities for the attack on KNLA Brigade 7.

Meanwhile, disagreements are said to be growing among some of the DKBA
leaders. The latest victim was San Pyote (aka Soe Myint), the influential
commander of DKBA Battalion 7.

San Pyote was ambushed and killed by an unknown armed group while
traveling by longtail boat on the Moei River on June 26.

Karen sources speculated that Col Chit Thu was involved, but others said
that it might have been the result of a personal conflict.

“The attack looked intentional as they only shot at the boat carrying San
Pyote,” said a DKBA source.

Border sources say that the DKBA is not interested in politics, but only
in doing business, and will do anything for money.

After separating from the KNU and signing a ceasefire agreement with the
Burmese in 1995, the DKBA staged daring attacks on several Karen refugee
camps along the Thai-Burmese border with the help of Burmese troops.

In 1997-98, Huay Kaloke refugee camp, about 10 km (6 miles) from Mae Sot,
was attacked and burned down by DKBA soldiers.

After the assassination of the late KNU general secretary, Mahn Sha, in
February 2008, many border sources have reported that San Pyote was given
hundreds of thousands of Thai baht by the Burmese authorities.

The DKBA appear to be playing the role of junta hit men on the
Thai-Burmese border.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 9, New Light of Myanmar
A (H1N1) infected girl discharged from hospital after recovering from illness

A 13-year-old girl visited Singapore together with her family on 21 June
and arrived back in Yangon on 26 June at 1.30 pm. Although she was found
to have no fever while she was screened by health staff at the airport,
she had to be hospitalized at 9 pm on 26 June after her teacher had
noticed her having a persistent cough during the private tuition. She was
kept in a private room of Yangon General Hospital. After giving her a
check-up, the National Health Laboratory on 27 June confirmed that she was
infected with new influenza A (H1N1).

She became the first human case in Myanmar. As the medical superintendent
and specialists gave her a systematic medical treatment, she fully
recovered form her illness and was discharged from the hospital this
evening. The Ministry of Health kept under surveillance all the persons
who had come into contact 'with her; her family members, her classmates,
the teacher and her family members in order to prevent possible disease
spread and outbreaks. Moreover, officials of the Health Ministry took
surveillance measures against all the 91 passengers who were on board the
plane with her and the staff members (Foreign Arrival) of Yangon
International Airport in cooperation with officials of Yangon Division,
District and Township Peace and Development Councils. And now those
surveillance measures were stopped on 6 July as the 10-day period of
possible disease spread had passed.

Authorities concerned have urged the public to participate in the
preventive measures against the global human flu pandemic. —MNA

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 9, Mizzima News
Thai PM proposes visit to Burma

Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjejiva proposes to visit neighbouring
military-ruled Burma later this month, sources in the Thai Ministry of
Foreign Affairs said.

The PM, according to a ministry official, has sounded out the Burmese
junta on his visit as the current rotating Chair of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is also a member.

“It will be at a convenient date for both sides [Thailand and Burma]. It
is tentatively planned but so far there is no response from the Burmese
government,” the official told Mizzima on Thursday.

The official, however, declined from commenting on the purpose of the Thai
Premier’s proposed visit.

Meanwhile, sources said Burma’s military rulers are unhappy with Thailand
for its sharp reaction over the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi at a special court in Rangoon’s Insein prison.

Following the framing of charges and trial against the Burmese Nobel Peace
Laureate, Thailand, as the Chair of the Asean issued a statement
expressing ‘grave concern’ over the developments in its member state, and
said the ‘honour and credibility’ of Burma is at stake.

"The Government of the Union of Myanmar [Burma], as a responsible member
of ASEAN, has the responsibility to protect and promote human rights,"
Thailand said on behalf of the group.

In retaliation, Burma’s military regime ran commentary pieces on its
state-run newspapers accusing Thailand and the Asean of interfering in its
internal affairs and justifying its action of charging and conducting a
trial against Aung San Suu Kyi.

The visit of Vejjejiva could be diplomatic protocol as the new Prime
Minister, sources in the Thai government said.

Reporting by Solomon, writing by Mungpi

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 9, Voice of America
G8 calls on Burma to release political prisoners

Major industrialized nations have issued a call for Burma to free all
political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Leaders from the Group of Eight welcomed the United Nations
secretary-general's efforts to communicate the international concerns to
Burma's military government.

But the G8 statement said Burma's military leaders failed to take the
opportunity of Ban Ki-moon's visit to the country to respond to those
concerns.

The declaration said there is an urgent need for an inclusive process of
dialogue and national reconciliation that will lead to what it called
"transparent, fair and democratic multiparty elections."

G8 leaders said they remain prepared to respond positively if Burma
undertakes substantive reforms.

On Thursday, the U.N. chief discussed Burma with British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

Burmese leaders denied Mr. Ban's request to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi
during his visit to Burma last week.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19
years, is on trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.

She could face a five-year prison sentence if convicted of charges that
stem from allowing an American intruder to stay at her home overnight
after the man swam across a Rangoon lake to get there
____________________________________

July 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
US ‘concerned’ about North Korea-Burma nuclear trade – Francis Wade

The United States has expressed concern over the possibility of an
emerging nexus between North Korea and Burma that would see the two
countries trade in material for nuclear proliferation.

The issue of Burma’s nuclear ambitions, and North Korea’s role in
achieving these, has been thrown into the spotlight over the past month
following an incident in which a North Korean ship carrying suspect cargo
was thought to be heading toward Burma, before making a U-turn last week.

A network of underground tunnels constructed throughout Burma with the
help of North Korean advisers was also recently exposed by DVB, with
intercepted intelligence documents revealing the possibility of them
accommodating heavy weaponry.

A senior US State Department official during a press briefing yesterday
was questioned about whether strengthening ties between North Korea and
Burma were related to respective nuclear ambitions.

“I think we're concerned about trade and cooperation between countries
that have undertaken nuclear programs, but I don't want to go much further
than that,” he said.

On the subject of the North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, the official said
that its decision not to arrive in Burma was perhaps a result of “a
combination of sharing information with many of the countries in the
region” about obligations to inspect and warn on suspect ships.

The US navy had been closely monitoring the Kang Nam 1, which arrived back
in North Korea yesterday, following new UN sanctions on Pyongyang that
banned the export of any weapons material.

Burma is also under far-reaching sanctions from both the US and European
Union.

Journalist and North Korea expert Bertil Lintner said last month that the
two incidences are a sign that ties between the countries are
strengthening.

“Even China is reluctant to sell certain types of equipment to Burma but
North Korea will be willing to sell anything they want,” he said, adding
that “Burma has absolutely no interest in supporting an arms embargo”.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 9, Wall Street Journal
Burma and North Korea, brothers in arms – Aung Zaw

The North Korean ship that tried to steam to Burma last month isn't the
only problem facing the U.S. and its allies. There's a much broader
military relationship growing between the two pariah states -- one that
poses a growing threat to stability in Asia-Pacific.

A government report leaked by a Burmese official last month shed new light
on these ties. It described a Memorandum of Understanding between Burma
and North Korea signed during a secret visit by Burmese officials to
Pyongyang in November 2008. The visit was the culmination of years of
work. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were cut in 1983
following a failed assassination attempt by North Korean agents on the
life of South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan while he was visiting
Rangoon. The attack cost 17 Korean lives and Burma cut off ties.

One of the first signs of warming relations was a barter agreement between
the two countries that lasted from 2000 to 2006 and saw Burma receive
between 12 and 16 M-46 field guns and as many as 20 million rounds of 7.62
mm ammunition from North Korea, according to defense analyst Andrew Selth
of Griffith University in Australia. In exchange, Burma bartered food and
rice.

The two countries formally re-established diplomatic relations in April
2007. After that, the North Korean ship the Kang Nam -- the same ship that
recently turned away from Burma after being followed by the U.S. navy --
made a trip to Burma's Thilawa port. Western defense analysts concluded
that the ship carried conventional weapons and missiles to Burma.

This laid the ground for the MoU signed in November, when Shwe Mann, the
regime's third-most powerful figure, made a secret visit to North Korea,
according to the leaked report. Shwe Mann is the chief of staff of the
army, navy and air force, and the coordinator of Special Operations. He
spent seven days in Pyongyang, traveling via China. His 17-member
delegation received a tour around Pyongyang and Myohyang, where secret
tunnels have been built into mountains to shelter aircraft, missiles,
tanks and nuclear and chemical weapons.

The MoU he signed formalizes the military cooperation between the two
countries. According to the terms of the document, North Korea will build
or supervise the construction of special Burmese military facilities,
including tunnels and caves in which missiles, aircraft and even naval
ships could be hidden. Burma will also receive expert training for its
special forces, air defense training, plus a language training program
between personnel in the two armed forces.

Shwe Mann's delegation also visited a surface-to-surface missile factory,
partially housed in tunnels, on the outskirts of Pyongyang to observe
missile production. The Burmese were particularly interested in
short-range 107 mm and 240 mm multirocket launchers -- a multipurpose,
defensive missile system used in case of a foreign invasion. Also of great
interest was the latest in antitank, laser-guided missile technology.

To suppress ethic insurgents and urban dissent, the regime doesn't need
such sophisticated weapons. Burma's desire for missiles, airborne warning
and control system, air defense systems, GPS communication jammers and
defensive radar systems indicates that the generals envision both
defensive and offensive capabilities.

North Korea's military buildup is often viewed primarily as a security
threat to Northeast Asia. But its burgeoning relationship with Burma is a
reminder of how easily one rogue regime can empower others. Burma's
burning ambition to acquire modern missile technology, if left unchecked,
could pose a dangerous destabilizing threat to regional stability.

Mr. Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Chiang Mai-based Irrawaddy
magazine.

____________________________________

July 9, Irrawaddy
Russian mine to supply uranium to junta? – Khun Chan Khe

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s controversial two-day trip to
military-ruled Burma to discuss the continued detention of Aung San Suu
Kyi and conditions in the country prior to the 2010 elections has been
widely criticized as a failure. Eight previous diplomatic visits by UN
envoy Ibrahim Gambari also failed to dent the intransigence of the
military regime.

However, the reason for the UN’s inability to effect positive change in
Burma has less to do with these failed diplomatic visits than with the
remaining obstacles at the UN Security Council.

Conventional wisdom suggests that China’s permanent seat on the Security
Council and its policy of non-interference in Burma, a policy no doubt
underscored by Chinas well-documented interest in maintaining access to
Burma’s natural resources, has prevented effective UN action on Burma.

Much less attention, however, has been paid to the obstacle posed by
Russia. Like China, Russia has a permanent seat on the Security Council
and also blocked a 2007 UN draft resolution that would have applied
enormous pressure on the regime. Russia also has interests in Burma’s
natural resources, and perhaps in cooperating with the regime’s
increasingly public nuclear ambitions.

Since 2006, I have been monitoring an iron ore mining project unfolding
around my village in a remote ethnic Pa-O area in war torn Shan State, led
by the state-owned Russian company Tyazhpromexport.

The company has invested upwards of US$150 million and is constructing an
iron processing plant only 10 kilometers from the Burmese Army’s Eastern
Command. This command is responsible for fighting in several areas of Shan
State, and Burmese army soldiers have raped, beaten, mutilated, tortured
and murdered civilians in their ongoing suppression of ethnic minorities.
I, my colleagues, and other organizations have documented these abuses.

The Russian processing plant, which is sited in the Hopone Valley located
at the east of the Shan State capital of Taunggyi, is expected to be
completed by the end of the year. It is equipped with underground bunkers
and is surrounded by two ten-feet-high cement walls and barbed wire.

The direct impact of the project has already been severe: 55 people have
been forcibly relocated out of three villages to make way for the factory,
and 11,000 acres of farmlands have been confiscated by local authorities
on behalf of the company. Complaints by the villagers to local government
offices were summarily dismissed.

Preparations for the first of a series of open pit mines in the area by
Tyazhpromexport have also begun. Barring a radical change in the way the
regime and its corporate partners do business, the forced relocation of
approximately 7,000 ethnic Pa-O people living directly around the site is
all but certain.

Erosion and the release of mining waste into our main water source, the
Thabet Stream, is also a serious concern. This would affect 35,000 people
downstream. The company is already diverting the stream to their factory,
leading to unusually low water levels this year.

However, there is an even more serious aspect to this operation. In May
2007, one year after Tyazhpromexport declared its involvement in the iron
ore project, Russia’s atomic energy agency Rosatom announced that it had
reached a deal for cooperation with the Burmese regime on a nuclear
program. No further information about this nuclear cooperation has been
made public, but suspicions are rife that it is linked to the Hopone
Valley mining project.

Local people in my community are worried. Uranium occurs naturally
alongside iron ore and the military regime’s Ministry of Energy has
acknowledged the existence of uranium deposits in Burma. Extreme travel
restrictions have been imposed against local people by the Burma Army
around the iron project, and there has been an almost complete lack of
public information about the project, to a degree unusual even for the
reclusive Burmese regime. Local villagers have quietly heard from staff
insiders that the factory will be used to process both iron and uranium.

The Burmese regime’s nuclear ambitions are no secret. For years it has
been sending students to Russia to study nuclear technology, and it has
normalized relations with North Korea, the world's problem child playing
with nuclear arms, despite a problematic history between the two nations.
Recently, The US tracked a North Korean ship that was thought to be headed
for Burma’s shores with arms and ammunitions, in violation of a UN
Security resolution against Pyongyang. The vessel turned around and
returned to North Korea.

Japanese authorities arrested three men in June for allegedly attempting
to send weapons-making technology to Burma at the behest of North Korean
agents, and photos have been distributed showing an intricate tunnel
system throughout Burma being constructed with North Korea’s help. The
idea that a Russian firm might be quietly mining uranium in the country is
by no means so far-fetched.

Whatever the case, the widespread human rights abuses connected to the
project are no less worrying.

We don’t expect Ban Ki-moon’s visit to change our plight in any
significant way. What is really needed is a way to subvert the so-called
policies of “non-interference” at the UN Security Council so it can do its
job to protect against the military regime’s ongoing threats to
international peace and security.

Khun Chan Khe is an ethnic Pa-O and the General Secretary of the
Thailand-based Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO). Recently the PYO released
firsthand documentation on the Russian-led mining project in a report
entitled “Robbing the Future.”

____________________________________

July 9, Associated Press
Gloom in Yangon as Aung San Suu Kyi trial resumes – John Heilprin

Along the shores of artificial Inya Lake, the empty compound of Aung San
Suu Kyi lies within plain sight as couples stroll the path. Her home also
is a curious attraction to onlookers from a hotel a minute's walk away.

But it is her absence from it that has been on people's minds lately in
and around Yangon — a hub of commerce and scholarship and the epicenter of
anti-government sentiment — with the trial of the pro-democracy leader set
to resume Friday.

The failure of visiting U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to gain a
meeting with the opposition leader last weekend or win her release seems
to have only intensified widespread feelings of gloom and frustration,
though only brief interviews were possible without raising suspicions in
this police state.

The trial of Suu Kyi, who turned 64 in the city's Insein Prison last
month, had been postponed during the U.N. chief's visit.

There had been some hope that intervention by the international community
might have avoided the continuation of the Nobel Prize laureate's trial.
She faces trumped-up charges that resulted from a bizarre incident
involving an American who swam to her home across the artificial lake, a
popular place for leisurely walks and sailing.

"I will never see real democracy flourish in Myanmar. Not in my lifetime.
We live in a hopeless situation where even the U.N. secretary-general
fails to nudge the stubborn regime," said U Hla Shwe, a 72-year old
retired lawyer.

The New Light of Myanmar reported on July 5 that junta leader Senior Gen.
Than Shwe denied the U.N. secretary-general's request for a prison visit
because "the case is being heard freely and fairly, so they have no right
to arrange a meeting between the UNSG and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi." "Daw" is
a term of respect.

Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail on charges of violating the terms
of her long-standing house arrest, after the uninvited American man, also
imprisoned at Insein, swam to her tightly guarded lakeside home and stayed
two days. He made the same swim last year.

Her defense will call a second witness Friday. Then Suu Kyi's defense
plans to ask the court to give it sufficient time — about a week — to
prepare for closing arguments. A separate date is expected for the court
to deliver the verdict, which could still be appealed.

Her supporters and human rights groups see the trial as an excuse for the
government to throw her back in jail, now that they've reached the legal
limit on detaining her. She has spent nearly 14 of the last 20 years in
detention, mostly under house arrest.

It has been two decades since the military refused to hand over control to
a civilian government despite Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
winning an extraordinary landslide victory in May 1990. Myanmar, also
known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.

An editor of a local news magazine, who did not want to be named for fear
of retaliation, said, "I had thought that the government was eager to hold
all inclusive elections at least to give some credibility to the
elections. But after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was put on trial, I realize that
the government was not sincere with the intention."

Since the referendum last year, when the junta pushed through a 92 percent
vote to affirm a new constitution despite the devastation and disorder of
Cyclone Nargis, despair set in that anyone's vote would ever count. Ban's
visit did nothing to alleviate that.

"The government is going to hold the elections to cement their power and
they will see to it that they get what they want, so my vote won't make
any difference," said a 44-year old school teacher named Lei Lei.

Ban said Than Shwe indicated he might finally hand over control and become
a civilian himself next year after an election is held. Some people hold
out a glimmer of hope that might actually happen.

"Now everybody wants to have democracy — most of the people," said a
27-year-old Burmese man who, like many under the watchful eye of the
military regime, did not want to be identified for fear harm would come to
his family. "Maybe it will take two to three years."

Even as hopes dim for Suu Kyi's release and for a freely elected
government, some people won't give up trying.

"I am skeptical that we will ever see change in the country. I will
continue fighting for our rights working as a citizen journalist," said
25-year-old Zaw Zaw, who said he reports for an exiled anti-government
media group. "It is dangerous working as a CJ and I am fearful all the
time when I might get caught."
____________________________________

July 9, Korea Times
Advocate Democracy in Myanmar – John Smith Thang

Members of the Chin Democracy and Human Rights Network staged a rally
against the Myanmar government in front of the Myanmar Embassy in Korea on
July 5.

The protest was in memorial of a pro-democracy leader ― an ethnic
Chin student, Salai Tin Mg Oo, who was killed by Myanmar's military
government on June 24, 1976.

Salai Tin Maung Oo was popular among university students in 1974-75 for
his dedicated fight against the brutal military regime in Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma.

He and his colleagues organized a ``U Thant Uprising'' there in honor of U
Thant, a former U.N. secretary general. After the military government
prohibited the public from holding an honorable funeral for U Thant, Salai
Tin Maung Oo and students led demonstrations to protest the dictatorial
military rule.

Apart from the uprising, Salai Tin Maung Oo organized a ``labor strike
anniversary day'' and ``Mai-yar-pih events.'' The military arrested him
for his role in the uprising and pro-democracy movement.

Before Salai Tin Maung Oo was executed, military intelligence officers
tried to persuade him to pledge to follow their authority in exchange for
freedom. But he refused to do so and shouted, ``I shall never kneel down
under your soldiers' boots.''

And he continued to shout in jail, ``Comrades, they are killing me
secretly.'' Finally he was secretly hanged at Insein Jail on June 24,
1976.

His death brought great shock and anger to the whole country and
particularly to ethnic minorities who were yearning for freedom and
democracy. Salai Tin Maung Oo belonged to one of these groups.

In Myanmar, oppressing activists is routine. Since, the Myanmarese
military government massacred student activists on July 7, 1962.
Subsequently there were several repressive acts against Salai Tin Maung Oo
and students in 1974.

And then there was a nationwide mass uprising in 1988 when the government
forces brutally fired on the crowd ― killing about 3,000 innocent
people. The Depayin massacre took place in May 2003 when the military
alleged killed hundreds of people.

Again in September 2007, the military attacked and killed innocent people
and monks who peacefully protested ― and many more people have
``disappeared.''

Allegations have it that the military regime still continues to arrest
pro-democracy and human rights activists. In recent days, the military
took into custody pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Su Kyi after 13 years of
house arrest, without honoring the Nobel Peace Prize she won.

There are around 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar. And many ethnic
minorities and Christians continue to be persecuted by the military
regime.

At the moment, Myanmar's military government is escalating its war in
peripheral ethnic regions using weapons supplied by its closest allies,
China and North Korea. Innocent people are suffering and tormented, and
thousand of refugees have had to flee their homeland due to the military
government's policy,

The military regime is preparing for 2010 elections in order to tighten
its grip on power, which is ostensibly supposed to be transferred to a
democratic government.

A democratic government should have the following basic elements: a
people's constitution, judicial independence, free media, and free and
fair elections. But the military government has failed to introduce any of
these elements.

The government is reluctant to acknowledge the multiethnic fabric of
Myanmarese society. There should be guaranteed ethnic-civil rights through
mutual agreement, however, the military regime has adopted an ethnic
cleansing policy.

The military government has neither guaranteed civil rights nor ethnic
rights. It will never bring true democracy to Myanmar.

The military government should stop oppressing pro-democracy activists.
The international community, particularly the United Nations, must make
concerted efforts to ensure free and fair elections next year.

Also it is necessary for China to stop supporting Myanmar's military
regime. Additionally, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
should do more to promote democracy in Myanmar, and not support the
military government.

Finally we urge the international community to work to advocate democracy
and freedom in Myanmar.

John Smith Thang is executive director of Chin Democracy and Human Rights
Network based in Korea. He can be reached at cdhrn.kr at gmail.com.