BurmaNet News, July 30, 2009

[Editor]

July 30, 2009 Issue #3765


QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the
atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will
ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be
"no", and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.” –
Desmond Tutu

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar's Suu Kyi braces for worst ahead of ruling
AFP: Myanmar warns against protests ahead of Suu Kyi verdict
Mizzima News: Lawyers oppose sale of Suu Kyi’s plot
Mizzima News: Opposition lawyer hounded by authorities

ON THE BORDER
Bangkok Post: Burmese toddler locked up for a week

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Is China playing safe with its Burma pipeline plan?

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: A(H1N1) cases in Burma reach 10

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: World wants Suu Kyi free: Ban

OPINION / OTHER
Guardian (UK): Desmond Tutu: my tribute to Burma's opposition leader, Aung
San Suu Kyi





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 30, Associated Press
Myanmar's Suu Kyi braces for worst ahead of ruling

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is bracing for Friday's ruling
in Myanmar on whether she violated the terms of her house arrest by
harboring an American, a decision that could send the frail icon of
democracy to prison for up to five years.

The 64-year-old opposition leader was described by her lawyer Nyan Win as
"physically and mentally fine, and very alert" Thursday. But he said she
was also preparing for the worst, gathering medicine and several spy
novels and biographies should she be given a lengthy prison term.

"She is getting ready for any result," Nyan Win said. "She is preparing
for the worst."

Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest
when an American intruder swam across a lake and spent two nights at her
home in May. Her trial in a court at Myanmar's Insein Prison has drawn
international condemnation since it opened May 18 and many critics see it
as a pretext to keeping her behind bars through the country's planned
elections next year.

She is widely expected to be convicted, although there has been
speculation she may stay under house arrest rather than serve time in
jail. Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, since
leading a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 that was crushed by Myanmar's
military junta.

A verdict will also be given Friday for the uninvited American visitor,
John Yettaw, 53, and Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Ma Ma who stayed
with Suu Kyi during her house arrest. Yettaw is charged as an abettor in
violating her house arrest and faces up to five years in prison.

Threatened by a woman who remains the country's most popular politician,
the junta has repeatedly detained her. During her brief moments of
freedom, she was constantly hounded by the junta and a pro-government mob
attacked her caravan in 2003.

If convicted, the charismatic mother of two will return to a lonely life,
her days filled with mediation, reading books and getting the occasional
censored letters. Knowing she could be put behind bars, Suu Kyi provided
her lawyers with a list of requested items, which they were able to bring
her, Nyan Win said.

"She is collecting some medicine and many books in English, French and
Burmese," he said.

Suu Kyi's lawyers have not contested the basic facts of the case but
argued that the law used by authorities against her is invalid because it
applies to a constitution abolished two decades ago. They also say that
government security guards stationed outside Suu Kyi's compound should be
held responsible for any intrusion.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in New York on Wednesday
that he hopes the government will respond to his repeated appeals to free
Suu Kyi.

But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of better economic and
political ties with the West has deterred the ruling junta, which appears
determined to find Suu Kyi guilty and keep her out of the public eye.

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker and Michael Casey in Bangkok
contributed to this report.

____________________________________

July 30, Agence France Presse
Myanmar warns against protests ahead of Suu Kyi verdict

Military-ruled Myanmar's state media on Thursday warned citizens against
inciting protests as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began stockpiling
supplies ahead of a possible five-year jail term.

A prison court is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday in the Nobel
peace laureate's trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest by
allegedly sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a comment piece Thursday
cautioning against anti-government factions and saying that "we have to
ward off subversive elements and disruptions".

"Look out if some arouse the people to take to the streets to come to
power. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy
activists," the English-language article said.

"They don't believe in democracy, and they don't acknowledge the people's
reasoning power."

Security has been tight for all the hearings, with memories still fresh in
Myanmar of massive anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007 which
ended in a bloody crackdown.

A conviction is widely expected in the two-and-a-half-month trial, which
has sparked international outrage. It has been repeatedly delayed as the
junta fended off criticism and calls for the release of Suu Kyi.

The 64-year-old opposition icon has asked for English and French novels
and Burmese-language books including dictionaries and religious works to
help her pass the time if she is jailed, her lawyer Nyan Win said.

"I think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing for the worst," Nyan Win, who
is also a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP.
Daw is a term of respect in Burmese.

"She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has
only one thing to do and that is reading."

Nyan Win added however that "I hope Daw Suu will be released according to
the law."

Critics say the trial is a ploy by the regime to keep Suu Kyi locked up
until after elections scheduled for 2010. She has already spent almost 14
of the last 20 years in detention.

The New Light of Myammar editorial pointed out that "people who are
serving their prison terms do not have the right to vote or to stand for
election".

The newspaper also launched an apparent attack on the NLD, which won the
country's last elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by
the ruling generals.

It said that "a handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and
conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished.
The people... are waiting for the time they mend their ways".

The article denied that the military government was "power-craving,"
saying it would not have called the elections next year or held a
referendum on the constitution in 2008 if that was the case.

The referendum was held just days after a cyclone devastated the south of
the country, killing 138,000 people.

On Wednesday the newspaper warned against predictions of a guilty verdict
in the trial and said that anticipating the ruling would amount to
contempt of court.

Fears that Suu Kyi will be jailed are proving too much for some of the
female supporters in her party, who said they had wept when the court
announced on Tuesday that it would deliver a judgement this week.

"We cried as we feel really sorry for her in our heart. But we will
remember her words that we should 'hope for the best and prepare for the
worst'," Aye Aye Mar, a senior NLD member, told AFP.

John Yettaw, the US national who sparked the trial by swimming to her
house, and two female assistants who lived with Suu Kyi are also on trial
and face similar charges.

Yettaw has said that he embarked on his mission to warn Suu Kyi of a
vision that she would be assassinated, while the opposition leader herself
has said she did not report him to the authorities for humanitarian
reasons.

____________________________________

July 30, Mizzima News
Lawyers oppose sale of Suu Kyi’s plot – Phanida

The sale of a plot of land in detained opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi’s house compound has been opposed by her lawyer through an official
letter on Thursday.

“We have sent our opposition to the two lawyers, whose names were in the
announcement. We said the plot of land cannot be sold as it is owned by
our client. We have sent a letter opposing it,” Nyan Win, Aung San Suu
Kyi’s lawyer told Mizzima.

The July 24, issue of the state-run newspaper “Mirror” carried an
announcement stating that a plot of land in the compound of House No 54 in
Rangoon’s University Avenue has been sold and anybody, who objects to the
sale, can oppose it within seven days.

The announcement said, a plot of land – 40 A, 41, 42, 42 A, 44 B, 44 C,
and 64 C – 200 feet in length and 70 feet wide in Rangoon’s Bahan township
has been sold-off by Khin Maung Aye and that any objection can be lodged
within a week.

But following the announcement, Khin Maung Aye’s wife Daw Tin Tin Oo,
living separately, made an announcement objecting to the sale of the plot
of land and the constructions on the land.

Khin Muang Aye is the foster son of late Thakhin Than Tun and Daw Khin
Gyi, who was the sister of detained Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Daw Khin
Kyi. He is a retired army officer and also a writer.

Though the announcement, signed by High Grade Pleaders Cho The May and Wai
Wai Aung said opposition to the transfer can be made, it made no mention
of the buyer.

“The plot of land mentioned in the notice is the area that has not been
divided. But the notice does not name the buyer. They have hidden the name
of the buyer. We are worried about the notice. We cannot divulge what we
will do but we have our plans,” Nyan Win said.

The sale of the plot of land comes at a time when Aung San Suu Kyi, who
lived in the compound, is awaiting a verdict at the Insein prison court.

Earlier, Aung San Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo, claiming to be the
rightful heir to the compound of House No. 54, filed a lawsuit.

____________________________________

July 30, Mizzima News
Opposition lawyer hounded by authorities – Myint Maung

Nyi Nyi Htwe, a lawyer belonging to the opposition camp, recently released
from jail and forced out of his profession, alleged he is finding it
difficult to continue with his present calling of selling government
lottery tickets because he is being hounded by authorities.

The 33 year-old lawyer from Pegu town has been selling government lottery
tickets to eke out a livelihood, after his bar license was revoked. He
alleged that authorities had warned lottery dealers not to franchise him
nor hire out a push-cart to him for selling lottery tickets.

“Since my bar license has been revoked, there is nothing that I can do to
survive. I have no other business, but my wife sells lottery tickets.
Since we lack capital, we have to procure tickets from bigger agents on
credit. We also cannot afford to hire a permanent push-cart. The
authorities have been creating obstacles,” he told Mizzima.

His business associates have been warned against dealing with him. He is
currently finding it extremely difficult to franchise government lottery
tickets and hiring a push-cart, given the harassment by the authorities.

Nyi Nyi Htwe was sentenced to a six-month prison term on October 30, 2008
by the northern District Court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on
charges of ‘contempt of court’. He was, at the time, defending three
National League for Democracy members including Yan Naing Tun, who were
arrested and were facing trial for praying at the Pagoda for the release
of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

During the trial, the judge told Nyi Nyin Htwe to tell his three clients
to change their sitting postures, where they had turned their backs to the
judge. But the young lawyer said “they have their rights to sit the way
they want.”

The judge charged him with ‘contempt of court’ and under Article 288 and
sentenced him to six-months in prison.

While he served the prison term, authorities revoked his bar license. He
was released on April 28, after he completed his six-month term.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 30, Bangkok Post
Burmese toddler locked up for a week – Achara Ashayagachat and Wassayos
Ngamkham

A three-year-old Burmese boy has been released by immigration police after
being held for a week on suspicion he was working with a gang of beggars.

Police seized the boy at a market in Samut Prakan on July 20 and held him
at the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok's Suan Phlu area until yesterday.

The boy's mother, identified only as Momo, met police to claim her son but
officers refused to release him into her custody.

Momo then had to stay at the detention centre to take care of her son.

The arrest has drawn the attention of rights activists, who believe police
were preparing to deport the three-year-old back to Burma.

Surapong Kongchantuek, a member of the Lawyers Council's human rights
committee, appealed to the Immigration Bureau on Monday to release the
boy.

He submitted evidence from the Stateless Watch for Research and
Development Institute of Thailand (Swit), a Bangkok-based stateless people
advocacy group, to prove the boy was the son of a Burmese migrant working
in Samut Prakan.

The Swit report stated the boy was born to Momo, a Burmese worker who
holds a valid work permit, at Samut Prakan Hospital in February 2006.

A special birth certificate was obtained for the child which allows him to
stay temporarily in Thailand pending the nationality identification
process, Mr Surapong said.

The arrest violated the law which allows children of migrant workers to
stay here temporarily, he said.

"This [detention] was a harsh abuse of the basic rights of a
three-year-old boy, who should not have been deprived of the protection
and care of his mother," he said.

Pol Lt Col Sunthorn Arunnara, of the Immigration Bureau, said police
decided to release the boy after Momo was able to prove she was the boy's
mother.

"We had no plans to deport him," Pol Lt Col Sunthorn said. "We only wanted
to make sure the woman is the biological mother of the boy."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 30, Irrawaddy
Is China playing safe with its Burma pipeline plan? – William Boot

China appears to be making alternative plans in case its Middle East oil
transshipment port and pipeline project in Burma fails because of regime
change.

The Chinese state-owned oil and gas conglomerate China National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC) is spending at least US $1.5 billion to use Burma as a
conduit for oil shipments from the Middle East and Africa. But as a backup
in case this scheme has to be abandoned it is now also investing in a
multibillion dollar oil project in northern Malaysia.

The CNPC is to play a central role in a regional oil processing and
transshipment hub link between the Middle East and China on the northwest
coast of Malaysia facing the Indian Ocean just like the port development
at Kyaukpyu on Ramree Island on the central Burma coast.

Crude oil from Saudi Arabia and probably also Iran will be shipped to a
$10 billion refinery on reclaimed land at Yan in Malaysia’s Kedah state
close to the border with southern Thailand.

The refinery will have a capacity of 350,000 barrels a day and CNPC will
take at least 200,000 bpd.

The chief Malaysian developer, Merapoh Resources Corporation, says the
Chinese are likely to become major shareholders. Industry reports suggest
that one of the chief financiers of the Yan project, Hong Kong-based
equity procurers Beijing Star, is in fact acting as a proxy for CNPC.

This new plan involving Chinese investment revives a Malaysian idea that
rose briefly two years ago and then sank without trace, Bangkok-based oil
industry consultant-analyst Sar Watana told The Irrawaddy.

In 2007, Malaysia was looking for financial backing for a west coast
transshipment port and cross-country pipeline. The main beneficiary would
have been China, but the Chinese seemed to lose interest as the Burma
pipeline possibility grew.

The re-emergence of this project with China closely involved implies that
the Chinese are not going to rely solely on the Burma transshipment
scheme.

Both projects short-cut the long sea journey tankers heading for China’s
south and east coasts from north Africa and the Middle East currently have
to make via the Malacca Strait and Singapore at the bottom of the
Malaysian peninsula. More than 60 percent of China’s oil imports pass
through the strait.

China has not disclosed how much crude oil it plans to transship through
Burma, but the deep-draught port on Ramree Island will be able to handle
the biggest bulk tankers. Oil will be pumped 1,200 kilometers in
unprocessed form to a refinery in Kunming, capital of neighboring Yunnan
province.

There has been speculation that further pipelines inside China will move
some of the oil deeper into China to other provinces.

Work on the Burma oil pipeline is supposed to begin before the end of this
year, according to Chinese media reports, and be operational by 2012.

The Malaysian refinery at Yan is scheduled to be completed in 2014.

Another Chinese state company, China National Overseas Oil Corporation,
had reportedly been involved in Malaysia’s 2007 oil transshipment plans.

According to Malaysia’s Merapoh Resources Corporation, 40 percent of the
Yan project will be owned by Beijing Star of Hong Kong.

Beijing Star chairman Li Feng Yi was quoted by The Star newspaper in
Malaysia as saying his firm will sell its share in the finished Yan
refinery to CNPC.


>From a commercial point of view it doesn’t seem to make sense for China to

be involved in two major oil transshipment schemes in fairly close
proximity of Southeast Asia, says Collin Reynolds, another industry
analyst in Bangkok.

But these Chinese state oil-gas giants have very, very deep pockets, and
their primary purpose is supply, not cost, Reynolds told The Irrawaddy.

It begins to look as though China is hedging its bets. Burma is very much
a client state right now, with Beijing able to manipulate the military
junta for its own ends.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
A(H1N1) cases in Burma reach 10 – Francis Wade

The Burmese government today confirmed the tenth case of the A(H1N1) swine
flu virus, that of a 57-year-old man who had recently returned from
Singapore.

The latest victim was transferred to Rangoon General Hospital on Tuesday
after he displayed flu-like symptoms, and was confirmed as carrying the
virus.

The case mirrors that of Burma’s first A(H1N1) victim who was hospitalized
after returning from a trip to Singapore last month. The 13-year-old girl
has since been released.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper today said that 13 people
related to the latest victim have been quarantined, while health
authorities are keeping a close eye on the 74 passengers who were on the
flight returning from Singapore.

Only six of the ten cases remain in hospital, and no deaths from the virus
have yet been reported in Burma.

“So far, the National Health Laboratory has examined 107 suspected
patients and only ten were found A (H1N1) positive,” said the newspaper.

In its most recent update, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on
Monday that 816 deaths from the virus had been reported worldwide, a 50
percent increase from the three weeks prior.

The total number of cases worldwide has reached 134,503, with the United
States reporting the most.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 30, Irrawaddy
World wants Suu Kyi free: Ban – Lalit K Jha

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday said the world wants Aung
San Suu Kyi free and that by sentencing her to another five-year prison
term, the Burmese junta would miss another opportunity to engage the
international community.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
“They will have missed a very important opportunity, first of all, to
engage with the international community, and they will be betraying the
expectations and wishes of all the international community who really want
to see Myanmar fully integrated as a member of the international
community,” Ban said at a news conference held at the UN headquarters in
New York.

The international community, Ban said, wants to see Suu Kyi freed to enjoy
freedom and liberty like anybody else in the world.

Responding to questions, Ban said he has been closely following the
developments in Burma since his recent return from the country.

“I hope they will keep their pledges which were conveyed to the [UN]
Security Council a few days ago, officially—that at the request of the
secretary-general of the United Nations—they would be taking necessary
procedures to grant amnesty to political prisoners,” Ban said.

“Detailed information has not been given, and I am concerned that they are
continuing this judicial process on Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said.

“When I was there, I made it quite clear repeatedly that all the charges
should be dropped and she should be freed. We will continue to press on
this issue,” Ban said.

Meanwhile, a US State Department official said he hoped that US mission
officials in Rangoon would be able to attend the final court hearing
related to Suu Kyi. “You know there’s an American citizen who is also on
trial. We expect the final verdict Friday,” State Department spokesman Ian
Kelly said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 30, Guardian (UK)
Desmond Tutu: my tribute to Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi

In the week when Amnesty International awarded Burma's opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi its highest accolade, Ambassador of Conscience, a fellow
Nobel laureate pays tribute

This article was written in response to a feature about Aung San Suu Kyi
by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark which was published on 11 November
2008

I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her
picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of
miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I
done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma?
And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For
if they did, the answer would be "no", and perhaps their conscience will
finally force them to act.

Humankind has the ability to live in freedom and in peace. We have seen
that goodness has triumphed over evil; we have witnessed political
transitions in South Africa, and elsewhere, evidencing that we live in a
moral universe. Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership
or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead.

Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 13 years.  She
recently passed her 5,000th day in detention. Every one of those days is a
tragedy and a lost opportunity. The whole world, not just the people of
Burma, suffers from this loss. We desperately need the kind of moral and
principled leadership that Aung San Suu Kyi would provide. And when you
add the more than 2,100 political prisoners who are also in Burma's jails,
and the thousands more jailed in recent decades, the true scale of
injustice, but also of lost potential, becomes heartbreakingly clear.

Like many leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi has had to make great personal
sacrifices. It is cruel enough to deprive an innocent person of her
freedom. Burma's generals are crueller still. They try to use her as
leverage to make her submit to their will. They refused to allow her
husband to visit one last time when he was dying of cancer. She has
grandchildren she has never even met. Yet her will and determination have
stayed strong despite her being kept in detention for so many years.

More than anything, the new trial and detention of Aung San Suu Kyi speaks
volumes about her effectiveness as a leader. The only reason the generals
need to silence her clarion call for freedom is because they fear her and
the principles she stands for. She is the greatest threat to their
continuing rule.

The universal demand for human freedom cannot be suppressed forever. This
is a universal truth that Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, has failed to
understand. How frustrated must he be that no matter how long he keeps
Aung San Suu Kyi in detention, no matter how many guns he buys, and no
matter how many people he imprisons, Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of
Burma will not submit. The demands for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and
all political prisoners of Burma grow louder and echo around the world,
reaching even his new capital hidden in central Burma. Words, however, are
not enough. Freedom is never given freely by those who have power; it has
to be fought for.

The continuing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's other political
prisoners is a crime and an indictment of an international community that
often substitutes the issuance of repeated statements of concern for
effective diplomacy. The UN treats the situation in Burma as if it is just
a dispute between two sides, and they must mediate to find a middle
ground. The reality is that a brutal, criminal and illegal dictatorship is
trying, and failing, to crush those who want freedom and justice. The
international community cannot be neutral in the face of evil. That evil
must be called what it is, and confronted.

Change is overdue to the framework within which the international
community approaches Burma. Twenty years of trying to persuade Burma's
generals to reform has not secured any improvement. Forty visits by UN
envoys have failed to elicit any change. The warm embrace of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) did not improve the
behaviour of the regime towards Burma's citizens whether Christian,
Buddhist or Muslim. The regime rules with an iron fist and those under its
rule have suffered long enough.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters have time and again offered to
dialogue with the regime. They offered a path of reconciliation and
non-violent transition. Even as Aung San Suu Kyi stood before the regime's
sham court, facing five years' imprisonment, we heard her voice loud and
strong. She said:  "There could be many opportunities for national
reconciliation if all parties so wished."

Burma's generals must now face the consequences of their actions. The
detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is as clear a signal as we could get that
there will be no chance of reform and that the regime's "road map to
democracy", including the call for elections, in 2010, is an obstacle to
justice.

A new report from Harvard Law School, Crimes in Burma, commissioned by
some of the most respected jurists in international law, has used the UN's
own reports to highlight how Burma's generals have committed war crimes
and crimes against humanity.

Burma's generals are criminals, and must be treated as such. Than Shwe
should be held accountable for abominable atrocities: his soldiers rape
ethnic women and children, they torture, mutilate and murder at will. In
eastern Burma, more than 3,300 ethnic villages have been destroyed, more
than in Darfur. Civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight.

Than Shwe spurned the compassion of those willing  to provide assistance
following Cyclone Nargis. Instead, he conducted a referendum and he
declared his undemocratic constitution the victor while victims perished
from the cyclone's devastation. These are war crimes and crimes against
humanity. Than Shwe and the rest of the generals cannot be allowed to go
unpunished. The UN must establish a commission of inquiry, with a view to
compiling evidence for prosecution. Failure to do so amounts to complicity
with these crimes.

An international arms embargo must also be imposed immediately. Those
countries supplying arms to Burma are facilitating these atrocities.
Countries across the world must declare their support for a global arms
embargo, making it impossible for China to resist such a move at the
Security Council.

Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma deserve nothing less than our
most strenuous efforts to help them secure their freedom. Every day we
must ask ourselves: have we done everything that we can? I pledge that I
will not rest until Aung San Suu Kyi, and all the people of Burma, are
free. Please join me.

Desmond M Tutu is the former Archbishop of Cape Town and recipient of the
Nobel peace prize.