BurmaNet News, July 18 - 20, 2009

[Editor]

July 18 – 20, 2009, Issue #3757


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar detains dozens of opposition members
Kachin News Group: Junta transports armaments to Puta-O district

BUSINESS/TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar private industries try to export more garments to East
Asian countries

ASEAN
VOA: ASEAN Foreign Ministers discuss challenges, Burma's human rights
Washington Post: Clinton returns to Asia without new policy

INTERNATIONAL
Seoul Times: U.S.-China strategic and economic dialogue to be held in
Washington DC

OPINION / OTHER
DVB: An enduring byproduct of war
IRIN: Taking bets on increased poverty



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 19, Associated Press
Myanmar detains dozens of opposition members

Authorities in military-run Myanmar detained dozens of opposition party
members today as they returned from ceremonies marking the death of the
father of jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, witnesses said.

The arrests came after riot police set up barricades around the Martyr's
Mausoleum where the official ceremony took place to commemorate the death
of Gen. Aung San, the country's independence hero.

At least 50 members of the opposition National League for Democracy party
were walking in small groups when they were arrested, witnesses said on
condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal.

It was not immediately clear why police detained them.

Some of the NLD members had been attending a ceremony at party
headquarters to mark Gen. Aung San's death 62 years ago, while others had
been at the official commemoration.

"Some members were roughly taken into trucks, and those who ran away were
chased," a witness said. Some who ran onto public buses were dragged out
and taken away.

Gen. Aung San and other government leaders were assassinated by gunmen
during a Cabinet meeting on July 19, 1947, shortly after Britain granted
independence to the Southeast Asian colony.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi marked the anniversary of her
father's death inside Yangon's Insein prison. She is on trial on charges
of violating the terms of her house arrest by giving shelter to an
uninvited American man who swam to her lakeside home in May.

If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison. Her trial is to resume
Friday.

Earlier today, hundreds of riot police erected barricades secured with
barbed wire and blocked streets leading to the Martyr's Mausoleum. More
than two dozen trucks carrying riot police and four prison vans were
parked near the monument, located near the famed Shwedagon pagoda.

Flags were flown at half-staff at the mausoleum as officials placed
flowers at the tomb, and families of the slain leaders joined the tightly
guarded wreath-laying ceremony.

Suu Kyi, 64, who used to attend the official ceremony, was absent for a
sixth consecutive year and instead marked the day by donating food to
patients at the hospital inside the prison, said Nyan Win, a spokesman for
her party.

Martyr's Day was an important event on Myanmar's calendar for years, but
has been gradually downgraded as Suu Kyi has become more popular,
particularly since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was crushed by the
junta.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.

Suu Kyi has been under detention for 14 of the past 20 years. Her
opposition party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals
refused to relinquish power.

Her trial has drawn condemnation from the international community and her
supporters within Myanmar, who worry that the ruling junta has found an
excuse to keep her detained through elections planned for next year.
____________________________________


July 20, Kachin News Group
Junta transports armaments to Puta-O district

Military hardware, including weapons and ammunition is being transported
to Puta-O (also called Putau in Kachin) district, Kachin State, in the
northernmost region of Burma since last year by the military junta, said
local sources.

Kachins in Puta-O said, local Burmese Army soldiers are transporting
weapons and ammunition to the two remote towns --- Nong Mong and
Khaunglanghpu, east of Mali Hka river by horses and in vehicles.

Both small and big weapons are being transported to the two small towns
from the Burmese Army's Infantry Battalion No. 137 based in Machyangbaw
(also pronounced Machan Baw in Burmese), 14 miles southeast of Puta-O
town, said residents of Machyangbaw.

At the same time, the junta is increasingly providing more weapons to a
local Rawang militia group called "Rebellion Resistance Force, RRF" led by
businessman Tanggu Dang, the owner of Mali Hka Recording in Kachin State's
capital Myitkyina, based in Shing Hkong in Khaunglanghpu, said sources
close to the RRF.

Rawang is one of six major tribes in Kachin nationals, and are mainly
settled in Puta-O district in Kachin State, Northern Burma.

The RRF leader Tanggu Dang, also called Ahdang, has been severely
condemned by his Rawang tribe in Puta-O for "selling Rawang tribe" because
he recruited hundreds of local Rawang young people for the Burmese Army on
the pretext of recruiting for the RRF during the last two years, say
native Rawang people in Puta-O.

According to the war history of Puta-O after Burma’s Independence in 1948,
many Rawang people served in the Burmese Army and militias in Puta-O. They
fought against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in the district.

The response of local people to weapons being delivered to Puta-O district
is that the junta is planning a 'war between the Kachins'. The conflict
between KIA and RRF may restart after next year’s elections because of the
machinations of the junta, said local sources.

The junta is also secretly deploying more troops and transporting weapons
to the rest of Kachin State like Myitkyina district, Bhamo district,
Waingmaw Township and Hukawng Valley, said local sources close to the
Burmese Army.

The ruling junta’s actions indicate they are gearing up for an inevitable
war with the KIA, post elections, said local sources.

Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the political wing
of KIA is demanding self-determination of Kachin State from the ruling
junta in place of changing KIA to a battalion of the Border Guard Force
(BGF) proposed by the junta, said KIO officials.

____________________________________
BUSINESS/TRADE

July 20, Xinhua
Myanmar private industries try to export more garments to East Asian
countries

Myanmar private garment industries are trying to get more garment orders
from East Asian countries in the current fiscal year of 2009-2010 for the
export of them, a local weekly reported Monday.

Consumers in Japan and South Korea choose to buy Myanmar garments as they
are much cheaper than those produced in China, Vietnam and European Union
countries, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers' Association was quoted by
the Myanmar Times as saying.

Myanmar's garment export to East Asia has apparently risen in the past
three years with its earning hitting 135 million U.S. dollars for export
to Japan alone in 2008-09, up 39 million dollars compared with 2007-08
even amid global economic crisis.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar industrial authorities are cooperating with
Japanese entrepreneurs in quality garment production to boost the export
to Japan as well as to expand its foreign market.

The Japanese entrepreneurs including Japan External Trade Organization
(JETRO), Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) and Juki
Corporation, have been providing for Myanmar staff at all levels trainings
related to management, production and human resources since February this
year.

Myanmar is striving for the development of garment industry to help
overcome issue impacted by the international financial crisis. The Garment
Enterprises Association has told factory owners to continue to maintain
the production capacity and export quality garment to meet foreign demand.

Japan takes up one third of Myanmar's garment export standing as Myanmar's
largest garment exporting country, followed by England, Germany and Spain,
according to statistics.

Myanmar garments have obtained new markets in Brazil, Argentina, South
Africa and Turkey, reports said.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 20, Voice of America
ASEAN Foreign Ministers discuss challenges, Burma's human rights – Daniel
Schearf

Phuket, Thailand - Thailand's prime minister has defended the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations' plans for a human rights body. Abhisit
Vejjajiva made the comments at the opening of ASEAN's annual foreign
ministers meeting.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations needs to be a community of action.

"ASEAN must be able to act decisively and in a timely manner to address
both internal and external threats and challenges to the security and
welfare of its member states and peoples," he said. "Effective action must
replace extended deliberation. We must show to the world that ASEAN is
ready to meet any challenge and is well prepared to act decisively."

ASEAN has long been criticized as a talking shop because of its tradition
of acting only on consensus.

But in May Thailand, the current chair, issued its strongest criticism yet
of member state Burma for its prosecution of democracy and opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and jailing of political prisoners.

The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, on charges of violating the terms of her
detention, and Burma's rights abuses are in focus as the ministers agreed
on the terms of the region's first human rights body.

Full details of the body's functions have not yet been released, but
officials say it will not have the power to investigate or punish human
rights abusers such as Burma.

Mr. Abhisit told journalists Monday this does not mean that protection of
human rights will be ignored. He says while the body will first focus on
the promotion of human rights, protection will come later.

"But it's better to make a start than to leave this hanging with no
progress at all," he said. "So, we recognize the concerns of people who
work on this issue, we will take them on board and we will do what we
can."

Foreign ministers from ASEAN's 10 members on Monday began four days of
meetings on improving regional cooperation.

The ministers are expected to discuss challenges affecting the region,
including terrorism, the economic crisis, influenza pandemic, and climate
change, among other issues.

They meet later in the week with dialogue partners from 17 nations and
groups of nations, including the European Union, the United States, and
North Korea.

Thailand wants to arrange an informal meeting of the six nations involved
in talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programs. But, in a sign that
Pyongyang is not interested, the reclusive nation plans to send a
lower-level official rather than a foreign minister.

____________________________________


July 18, Washington Post
Clinton returns to Asia without new policy; Clarity on U.S. stance toward
Burma was expected at regional meeting – Glenn Kessler

MUMBAI, July 17 -- Nearly six months after announcing a high-profile
review of U.S. policy to Burma during a trip to Indonesia, Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton is returning to Asia without a new policy.

Clinton will attend a gathering of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in
Phuket, Thailand, including the Burmese foreign minister, and many experts
had expected the Obama administration to make clear its intentions at the
gathering. But U.S. officials said the review was put on hold pending the
outcome of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's trial that began
in May -- and the military junta that rules Burma has repeatedly delayed
the court proceedings, apparently with an aim of pushing it past the
annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

U.S. officials are holding out hope that the court will release Suu Kyi,
opening up the possibility of dialogue. But the result has been that the
United States has been largely silent on Burma, even as the government
launched a military offensive against the Karen ethnic group that has
spilled over the border into neighboring Thailand, with thousands of
refugees fleeing the fighting as an estimated 3,300 villages were burned.

Clinton arrived here Friday on the first leg of a week-long tour of India
and Thailand but did not talk to reporters during her 16-hour journey. She
will attend the ASEAN meetings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is regarded as one of the world's most
oppressive nations, run by generals who have enriched themselves while
much of the country remains desperately poor. The National League for
Democracy, Suu Kyi's party, won a landslide electoral victory in 1990, but
the military leadership refused to accept it. Since then, she has been
under house arrest for most of the time, as have hundreds of her
supporters.

Sean Turnell, an associate professor at Macquarie University in Australia
and a specialist on Burma's economy, estimates that the government has
reserves of about $5 billion, largely from natural gas fields that bring
in about $2 billion a year.

"The financial position of the regime is very strong," he said, even as it
has pleaded poverty with international donors. "It is extraordinary they
are allowed to get away with it."

In May, just days before Suu Kyi's six-year term under house arrest was
due to expire, the government put her on trial for an incident involving a
U.S. citizen who swam across Rangoon's picturesque Lake Inya to reach Suu
Kyi's lakefront bungalow and allegedly stayed there one or two nights. Suu
Kyi was taken to Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison on charges of violating
the terms of her detention by hosting a foreigner, which could bring a
three- to five-year prison term, according to Burmese opposition
officials. Suu Kyi, 63, is said to be in poor health and has recently been
treated for dehydration and low blood pressure.

When U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Burma this month, the
government rejected his request to meet with Suu Kyi.

Indeed, few experts think the junta will show leniency toward Suu Kyi as
it is preparing for elections in 2010 to solidify its rule. The government
had revived a lawsuit seeking to take away her home at the time the
American intruder presented another opportunity to put her in jail. Before
the new charges were lodged, the National League for Democracy had issued
a statement saying it would consider participating in the election but
only if Suu Kyi was freed, the constitution was amended and the elections
were free and fair.

When Clinton announced the policy review in February, she indicated that
she thought years of tough sanctions on Burma had failed to have an
impact. "Clearly, the path we have taken in imposing sanctions hasn't
influenced the Burmese junta," she said during a news conference in
Jakarta during her first overseas trip as secretary of state, adding that
the route taken by Burma's neighbors of "reaching out and trying to engage
them has not influenced them, either."

But U.S. officials say the emerging policy review does not envision major
changes in the U.S. approach, though it had not yet been reviewed by
senior officials when Suu Kyi's trial began. Under the new policy,
meetings would have been authorized between Burmese and U.S. officials at
the deputy assistant secretary of state level, but sanctions would have
been maintained and humanitarian assistance would continue.

"The outcome of the trial will affect the policy review," said a senior
administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he
was discussing internal deliberations. "The Burmese have indicated some
interest in improving relations with us. If the outcome is bad, it makes
it harder."

With the policy review uncompleted and U.S. attention focused mostly on
Suu Kyi, diplomatic activity has continued without the forceful
intervention of the United States. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
called for new financial sanctions against Burma and the European Union
issued a tough statement calling for Burma to halt the military offensive
against the Karen.

At the United Nations, the U.S. focus on Suu Kyi's trial -- and failure to
speak out against the military offensive when it started -- has played
into the hands of Russia and China, which have long bridled at the Bush
administration's success in getting Burma on the Security Council agenda.
Chinese ambassador Liu Zhenmin said that the Security Council cannot be
about one individual, no matter how iconic. "The situation in Myanmar
poses no threat to international or regional peace or security," he said,
referring to the key factors that put a country on the Security Council
docket.

Scot Marciel, deputy assistant secretary of state for Asia, rejected the
idea that the administration has been hampered by the uncompleted review.
"We're not left empty-handed or frozen, if you will, by the fact that the
review is not completed," he said. "We have been extremely active
diplomatically on Burma policy."

But Michael Green, top Asia adviser in the George W. Bush White House,
said the Obama administration "is stuck in a sense" because it has so
hinged the policy review on Suu Kyi's trial. Green said Southeast Asia is
waiting for an answer from Clinton because her comments in Jakarta left
the impression that the United States might lift sanctions. "She is going
to have to lay down some clear signals and clear principles" in Thailand,
he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 21, Seoul Times
U.S.-China strategic and economic dialogue to be held in Washington DC -
Charles W. Freeman

The United States and China will convene the first annual joint Strategic
and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Washington on July 27–28, 2009. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will lead
the U.S. delegation. Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai
Bingguo will lead the PRC delegation.

The S&ED represents the marriage under one umbrella of two earlier
high-level dialogues begun under the George W. Bush administration: the
Strategic Economic Dialogue convened by former treasury secretary Hank
Paulson and the Senior Dialogue first convened by former deputy secretary
of state Robert Zoellick and his successor, John Negroponte.[1] With
Secretary Clinton’s participation, the S&ED effectively raises the profile
of issues formerly discussed at the Senior Dialogue to the cabinet level
on the U.S. side (Dai Bingguo reprises his earlier role as the senior
Chinese interlocutor for “strategic” matters).

Q1: Is this the G-2 that we have heard so much about?

A1: No. The G-2 is a conceptual framework that recognizes the importance
of the United States and China as integral players in most if not all
global issues. The S&ED is a bilateral mechanism designed to achieve
greater mutual congruence on matters of shared concern. It isn’t a forum
for the United States and China to solve the world’s problems.

Q2: What is on the agenda at the S&ED?

A2: A dog’s breakfast of issues confront the two sides on July 27 and 28.
Dynamic and complex structural issues arising from the global economic
interest share the stage with urgent concerns over North Korean nuclear
weapons production and proliferation. Arriving at a coherent and
constructive agenda has been a challenge for both sides, particularly
given the varied and not entirely complementary portfolios of the two
principal U.S. agencies involved and the similarly separate and distinct
briefs of their Chinese counterparts.

The morning of July 27 has been set aside for a plenary session on
crosscutting issues, followed by separate breakout sessions on the
economic and strategic tracks. The prize crosscutting issue is climate
change, with some additional attention to overseas development assistance.

>From the U.S. perspective, management of these issues on the Chinese side

has been relatively stovepiped within competing agencies. Their elevation
to core agenda items by the United States at the S&ED is an effort to cut
across these stovepipes and begin to make genuine progress at real
decisionmaking levels. Whether or not such progress is achievable at this
month’s meeting is uncertain at best, particularly because neither Chinese
cochair has definitive decisionmaking authority on these issues.

The separate economic and strategic tracks that have emerged will cover
the gamut of critical issues facing the two countries. On the economic
side, these include a focus on practical efforts to work cooperatively to
address the economic crisis and find ways to encourage growth in its wake.
The U.S. side will be primarily focused in this regard on the structural
imbalances in both economies that should be addressed to reduce future
crises, including the current account deficit in the United States and
China’s excessive reliance on exports to fuel economic growth. Much of the
discussion will therefore center on efforts China is making to increase
domestic consumption. Some discussion will also take place on China’s
participation in institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the
International Energy Association, and others.

On the noneconomic side, the two sides will discuss a range of complex
bilateral and multilateral issues, including matters involving North
Korea, Iran, Pakistan/Afghanistan (and to a lesser extent, Sudan and
Burma), among others. The North Korean issue is clearly the focus here,
with the two sides increasingly enjoying reasonably good cooperation on
the subject, but much left undecided on the issue.

Outside of the main forum, the Chinese participants will meet with and be
addressed by President Barack Obama and will spend some time on Capitol
Hill meeting with members.

Q3: What is not on the agenda?

A3: The S&ED is designed less as a vehicle for achieving “deliverables” in
the relationship than as a means for the two sides to develop mutual
confidence. While the United States and China have developed an
increasingly close relationship over the years, there still remains a
fundamental sense of mutual strategic mistrust. On the U.S. side, concerns
remain unanswered over China’s strategic intentions in the Pacific, the
direction and pace of its military modernization, and its long-term role
in international institutions of which the United States is a champion.
China worries about U.S. acceptance of its rise as a fellow global power.
These fundamental questions, in particular those related to military
matters, are not on the agenda, regardless of their relative strategic
importance.

By and large, commercial issues or matters of immediate trade and economic
friction are similarly not on the agenda. Most of the heavy lifting on
those issues will be left to the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade
(JCCT), a nominally semiannual dialogue that is cochaired on the U.S. side
by the secretary of commerce and the U.S. trade representative (Vice
Premier Wang Qishan gets double duty as the Chinese chair of the JCCT in
addition to his role as cochair of the S&ED). Therefore, issues such as
respect for intellectual property rights, discriminatory procurement
provisions such as the “buy America” or “buy China” provisions of the two
countries’ respective stimulus plans, and other matters will be left for a
later date. That said, some pressing issues, such as China’s insistence on
implementing installation on all personal computers of so-called Green Dam
universal personal computer filtering and tracking software, will
undoubtedly be raised by the U.S. side, given their urgency.

Certain other issues of considerable sensitivity will also not be raised
as centerpiece issues, except in passing and without significant exchange.
These include matters related to China’s currency valuation and the
desirability of augmenting its dollar reserves; and also issues related to
ethnic tension in China because of the recent bloody upheavals in Xinjiang
(and the 2008 troubles in Tibet).

Q4: What is the bottom line?

A4: Previous high-level dialogues between the United States and China have
taken place amid high expectations. The S&ED enjoys the blessing of low
expectations, which is a good thing given the complexity of the
bureaucratic process involved; the mismatch on issues of the key U.S. and
Chinese players; and the wide sweep of issues on the agenda. With 28
minister-level officials coming from Beijing and a legion of prominent
personages taking part on the U.S. side, both sides will be as focused on
managing the logistics of a bureaucratic circus as achieving concrete
results. Ultimately, the S&ED will formally launch what is certain to be
an intensive and sometimes intimate dialogue between the Obama
administration and the Chinese government on a wide variety of critical
issues. Absent some dramatic gaffe or diplomatic incident, its success on
that score is assured.

Charles W. Freeman holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center
for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Critical Questions is produced by the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing
on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and
nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly,
all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should
be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
An enduring byproduct of war - Daniela Nayu

For half a century, Burma’s jungles and mountains have hosted a conflict
where conventional weaponry has been traded for tactics designed to
forever scar the ethnic population of the country.

The byproducts of the world’s longest running internal conflict, grossly
underreported, have been so severe that international lawyers and rights
groups believe that the ruling junta in Burma could warrant investigation
for war crimes. Perhaps most chillingly, young girls have been subject to
appalling sexual violence at the hands of a military bent on creating a
means of intimidation that will far outlast the brandishing of a gun.

System of Impunity, a 2004 report by the Women’s League of Burma (WLB),
describes the case of a 13-year-old Shan girl, Nang Ung, who was detained
by Burmese troops on false charges of being a rebel. “She was tied up in a
tent and raped every day for 10 days [by five to six troops each day]. The
injuries she sustained from the repeated rapes were so severe that she
never recovered. She died a few weeks after her release.”

Naang Ung’s story has been echoed in every ethnic region of Burma for
generations. Burmese rights organisations suggest that military rape of
ethnic women has been rife in the country for the last five decades since
the consolidation of military rule, and shows no signs of abating.

“It can happen in homes, in the villages, in the forests, in the paddy
fields, whether the woman is working alone or whether they are going to
their villages,” said Cheery Zahau, an activist from the India-based
Women’s League of Chinland (WLC). “In some circumstances they just rape
the women in front of the men.”

Sexual torture and violence often accompanies such acts. Testimonies from
victims show cases of both old women and young girls being gang-raped by
up to 20 men, while others report that women who have endured days of rape
are then shot in the vagina or have their breasts cut off. Crimes in
Burma, a report released in May by the Harvard Law School, said that on
many occasions there had been “no attempt to conceal the bodies of dead
women who were raped and subjected to other acts of violence.”

Such descriptions are perhaps indicative of a military which has been
partially brutalized by debasement, poverty and high levels of
institutionalized corruption. Yet this cannot account for all cases.
During an interview, Cheery relayed an account of a woman from Chin state
whose son had just been killed by the military. After she was gang-raped,
the mother was strung up on a wooden cross: “She was hanging outside of
the camp the whole night in the freezing winter weather,” said Cheery.
“Why would they make the cross to hang the women? The cross is the symbol
of Christianity in Chin state; it’s one of the mockeries against their
beliefs.”

Religious persecution adds weight to a belief common among ethnic groups
that the generals are attempting an ethnic cleansing campaign to strip
non-Burmans of their identity. The regime’s suspected policy of
‘Burmanisation’, as referred to in a number of official reports including
one by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), could also help to explain
such widespread attempts to impregnate non-Burmese women. While some are
convinced on ‘Burmanisation’, the UN’s torture rapporteur for Burma in
2006 reported that state-sanctioned violence against women was used as a
control mechanism, and as “punishment” for allegedly supporting ethnic
armed groups and “a means of terrorizing and subjugating the population”.

According to Ben Rogers, the Southeast Asia advocacy officer for CSW, it
is important to note that “these incidents documented are not simply
isolated acts by individual, badly behaved frontline soldiers”. Reports
have shown that a high percentage of rapes committed by the Burmese
military have been orchestrated by officers. Furthermore, an alarming
number have been gang rapes. Moan Kaein, from the Thailand-based Shan
Women’s Associated Network (SWAN), stated that 83 percent of the rapes
SWAN had documented in Shan state were committed by officers, while 61
percent of all military rapes were gang rapes. Furthermore, there have
been reports of officers ordering their men to rape ethnic women on threat
of death. “Those who refuse to rape will be shot and killed,” Captain Ye
Htut from Pah Klaw Hta army camp was quoted as telling his men in the
Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO) report, Shattering Silences.

“When we document all these cases, none of the perpetrators are punished,”
says Cheery, referring to WLC’s 2007 Unsafe State report. Despite
international publications of reports that specifically name high-ranking
officials and officers involved, no actions have been taken by the Burmese
government to punish perpetrators even though such crimes are illegal
under Burmese law. “This impunity suggests it is a deliberate policy, and
is condoned by the regime,” says Rogers.

While the consequences of rape can be horrific – they include unwanted
pregnancy, contraction of HIV, and psychological damage for both victim
and family – support for victims is virtually non-existent. Even women who
manage to flee to the borders have no real hope of any professional
psychological assistance, given that they are often not officially
recognised by their country of arrival. While some women have been pushed
to suicide, others are forced to keep their rape a secret in order to
avoid social stigmas.

“The only solution for them is silence, and often they get rejected by
their communities,” says Cheery, while Moan Kaein claims that “some
husbands will not accept their wives after they have been raped”. Some
women also get accused of “sleeping with” Burmese troops and are told to
leave their villages.

There is also the real chance of retaliation from troops and government
officials. Rape victims and their families have been the most severely
punished when such sexual crimes have been reported. According to press
releases from the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), four girls aged 14 to16
from a village in northern Kachin state were arrested and jailed after
they relayed to independent Burmese media about having been gang-raped by
three army officers and four soldiers from a local military base.

Reports of state-sanctioned rape have been consistently met with a tide of
public smears within Burma, as well as mass intimidation and deliberate
distraction by the military. The problem has been further aggravated by
callous retorts from the Burmese government, including the release of a
report, License to Lie, attacking authors of License to Rape.

Perhaps more worrying are threats of violence and even death against those
who report such cases. System of Impunity describes how the local military
officers threatened to “cut out the tongues and slit the throats” of
villagers who had dared speak out to the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) during their visit to Shan State in January 2003. On 1
June this year, Kachin News Group reported that Kachin youths had been
“brutally assaulted” for having prevented the gang-rape of a Kachin girl
by four soldiers.

Inaction following international condemnation has also served to dampen
hope that ethnic women and campaigners will see change in their lifetimes.
On the 24 June, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that “If we ignore
sexual crimes, we trample on the principles of accountability,
reconciliation and peace. We fail not just women but all people." The
statement coincided with the one-year anniversary of the Security
Council’s adoption of resolution 1820 (2008), which notes that “rape and
other forms of sexual violence in conflict zones can constitute war
crimes, crimes against humanity or a constitutive act with respect to
genocide”.

The irony of Ban’s proclamation is that sexual crimes in Burma were
ignored on his recent visit to Burma earlier this month, just as they are
ignored by countries like China and Russia who supply weapons to the junta
and by neighboring countries which provide no support for the raped women
pouring over the borders. “We call and call,” says Blooming Night, joint
secretary of Karen Women’s Organisation, “but nothing happens”.

Increased militarization in many ethnic regions in lieu of the 2010
elections has led to increasing concern for the safety of women living
there. “When we documented Unsafe State [in 2007], there were about 33
army camps. Now there are 55 camps, so they’re spreading” says Cheery,
adding that “as long as [Burmese] troops are there, there will be sexual
violence”. Burma shows no sign of abating its aggressive expansion of the
military. If, as it would seem, rape of ethnic women is a byproduct of
this, perhaps we should expect the stories of Naang Ung and the thousands
of other women and children to continue echoing throughout Burma.

___________________________________

July 20, Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) of the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
MYANMAR: Taking bets on increased poverty

Yangon - Illegal lotteries are growing in popularity in Myanmar, fuelled
by a sense of hopelessness and exacerbating the widespread economic
hardship, say aid workers.

On the streets of Yangon, the former capital, the so-called "two digits"
illegal lottery is so popular that development workers call it one of the
most serious problems facing the children of poor families. It is
especially popular among the poorest, who can least afford to lose their
daily wages of US$1-$3.

Agents willing to take bets are everywhere - in cities, market towns and
rural areas across Southeast Asia's second-largest nation of 58 million.
But there is no social safety net, nothing to stop a family from going
under when the betting losses add up.

"They bet because they think they'll get a big win, and then their
troubles will be over," said a Burmese community worker, who runs
self-help groups for poor women living in temporary shelters around
Yangon.

"When they've lost everything they must give up their house, take their
children out of school and send them to work. Often they will end up
begging."

Economic burden

''When they've lost everything they must give up their house, take their
children out of school and send them to work. Often they will end up
begging.''

Myanmar's citizens are no better off now than 20 years ago, and most
subsist on an average annual income of less than $200 per capita, the US
State Department reports.

According to a 2005 UN Development Programme (UNDP) household survey,
one-third of Myanmar's population lives below the poverty line.

Inflation is adding to the economic burden, with the price of rice, for
example, up by 30 percent over the past year alone.

In an extensive survey by an international NGO, Myanmar children cited
gambling as one of their biggest problems.

"Children said gambling happens everywhere, at home, at school, in the
village. They also said everyone gambles: fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles,
grandparents," said a child protection expert at the NGO, who did not want
to be identified because illegal gambling is a sensitive political issue.

"The children said the gambling drained the family economy, created an
unhappy household and led to domestic violence."

Paying with child labour

Photo: Contributor/IRIN
Keeping tabs on illegal lottery earnings in Myanmar

Children also said they could be used in negotiations over debt - parents
often sell their children's labour in return for credit.

"In Mandalay, some teashop owners told us that children who came to work
in their restaurants usually came from families who had lost their assets
betting on the two digits and three digits lottery," the child protection
worker told IRIN.

It is common for gambling addicts to lose their homes, or be forced to
mortgage their houses to the government, burdening them with a monthly
debt, aid workers say.

The two digits lottery is an illegal scheme based on the last two digits
of the closing price of the Bangkok stock exchange, unpredictable numbers
that appear each day on the Thai television news, beamed into Myanmar by
satellite.

The higher-risk, and higher-reward, "three digits" lottery is based on
numbers from Thailand's own national lottery.

Kyaw Kyaw, 35, is a typical gambler. He lives in the rundown Yangon
township of Daubon, repairing small motors and generators on the ground
floor of his small brick house. He bets about a third of his daily income
of some $3. Like all Myanmar's small-time betters, he usually loses.

But he does not see it that way: "Twice a day I have hope," he says.

Saleswomen for the betting agents come round to the house every day,
collecting cash. They take a 10 percent cut and will often offer credit -
pushing families dangerously into debt.

Awareness raising

The business is illegal, and anyone caught gambling or taking bets could
receive a prison sentence of between three months and two years.

But gamblers say a bribe will get rid of most policemen, who will also
expect a cut if someone in the neighbourhood has had a big win.

NGOs say they want to start to tackle the problem at community level, by
raising awareness in education, child protection or micro-finance
programmes. This would give community members an opportunity to share
experiences and to recognize how gambling affects their lives.

"Only the bookmakers get rich," said the community worker. "But if they
could see what we see, how it ruins people's lives, then I hope they would
stop."

contributor/ds/mw

IRIN is the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs