BurmaNet News, September 3, 2009

[Editor]

September 3, 2009 Issue #3790


INSIDE BURMA
BBC News: Suu Kyi launches detention appeal
AFP: Myanmar arrests 51 after China border unrest: media
DVB: Burmese woman trafficked to China escapes
New Light of Myanmar: Stability, peace bounce back in Kokang Region, Shan
State (North)

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Thousands cross into Thailand for free food
SHAN: Junta demands Peng’s extradition

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar welcomes joint operation of garment industries within ASEAN

INTERNATIONAL
Inner City Press (US): At UN, Myanmar languishes in Council's footnotes,
those fleeing into China are UN protected

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Burma's rising toll: The junta widens a war on ethnic
groups – Chris Beyrer and Richard Sollom
Irrawaddy: Kokang conflict highlights Tatmadaw xenophobia – Wai Moe
VOA: Seeking a stable Burma – Editorial

PRESS RELEASE
SWIT: URGENT APPEAL Thailand: Right to travel denied to 12 years old
immigrant from Myanmar




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 3, BBC News
Suu Kyi launches detention appeal

Lawyers for Burma's pro-democracy opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
have launched an appeal against the extension of her house arrest.

Last month a court sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to a further 18 months for
violating the terms of her detention by allowing an uninvited US man into
her home.

The American, John Yettaw, was given a seven year sentence but freed at
the intervention of a visiting US senator.

Ms Suu Kyi's detention means she cannot take part in elections next year.

'Wrong law'

"We submit the appeal because the judgment against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
was wrongful," one of her lawyers, Nyan Win, said.

Daw is a Burmese term of respect for a woman.

Nyan Win said the divisional court in Rangoon would decide on Friday
whether to hear the appeal.

If the court does not accept the appeal, Nyan Win said the lawyers would
appeal to the High Court.

Ms Suu Kyi's legal team argued at her trial that she was not guilty and
that the law she was being tried under had been superseded by a new
constitution approved in a controversial referendum last year.

"Altogether there are 11 reasons for the appeal, but the main thing we
will point out is about the constitution," her chief lawyer Kyi Win said.

Her conviction was "not in accordance with the law", he added.

Her sentencing to a further term of house arrest in August drew widespread
international condemnation.

Ms Suu Kyi, 64, a Nobel Peace laureate, has spent nearly 14 of the past 20
years in detention.

Her National League for Democracy won the last elections in 1990 but was
never allowed to take power.

____________________________________

September 3, Agence France Presse
Myanmar arrests 51 after China border unrest: media

Yangon – Myanmar has arrested 51 people for theft in an area rocked by
clashes between government forces and ethnic rebels, sentencing almost
half of them to two years' hard labour, state media said Thursday.

Thousands of refugees poured across the border into China from
northeastern Myanmar in recent weeks as the ruling junta launched an
offensive in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Myanmar's troubled
Shan state.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said 25 people were each given two
years in jail with hard labour on Tuesday after being arrested on Sunday
with 12 Chinese motorcycles, a bicycle, a television, and two sacks of
rice.

Authorities were to take "deterrent action" against another 26 people
arrested in Shan state with stolen clothes, bags of rice and household
items, the English-language government mouthpiece said.

The paper also reported that 7,848 people who had fled to China had now
returned via border checkpoints by Wednesday as "stability and peace have
been back to normal" in Shan State since August 29.

China on Tuesday urged Myanmar to maintain peace in the region. The
fighting violated a 20-year ceasefire with Myanmar's various rebel groups.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and China is the
isolated state's sole major ally and trade partner.

Energy-hungry China is an eager buyer of Myanmar's sizeable natural gas
reserves and has in the past tried to shield the junta from international
sanctions imposed over its poor human rights record.

____________________________________

September 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese woman trafficked to China escapes – Naw Noreen

A Burmese woman who fell victim to human trafficking on the China-Burma
border has escaped from a guesthouse in China, while her friend who was
also kidnapped is reportedly being held for ransom.

The two women, both residents of Burma’s northeastern Shan state, were
apparently tricked into traveling to the China border on 17 August on a
guarantee that well-paid jobs awaited them.

An official from an anti-trafficking organization in Shan state’s Muse
town said that the women were to be sold as brides.

According to a Burmese national in China who helped 32-year-old Thein Kyi
after she had escaped, the two were held in a house in the Chinese town of
Ruili awaiting the handover to traffickers.

Chinese citizen Som Yung, who owned the Ruili house and was allegedly in
charge of the deal, then took them to a guesthouse.

“Apparently Som Yung had already sold the two women and was going to hand
them to people in China by 5pm that day,” said the Burmese national.
“Thein Kyi realised what was going on then fled the guesthouse.”

The whereabouts of the other woman, Eh San, are still unknown. A neighbour
in her hometown of Moe Meik said that her husband yesterday received a
phone call from her claiming the kidnappers had demanded 400,000 kyat
($US400) for her release.

“She said [the abductors] had bought her for 400,000 kyat and asked the
husband to pay them back in a village called Naung Tauk near the border
with China,” said the neighbour. “She asked him to make it before
yesterday evening.”

A report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in June said that
human trafficking in Burma remains “a major problem”, particularly for
women trafficked into forced labour and sexual exploitation.

China, along with Malaysia, is the main destination for Burmese women
trafficked for forced marriage.

A United States report criticized the Burmese government for “not making
significant efforts to comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking”.

____________________________________

September 3, New Light of Myanmar
Stability, peace bounce back in Kokang Region, Shan State (North)

NAY PYI TAW — Stability and peace have been back to normal in Kokang
Region, Shan State (North), since 29 August. Up to 6 pm today, 7848 of the
inhabitants, who had fled to the neighbouring country, had returned to
Laukkai via Yanlonkyaing and Chinshwehaw border checkpoints.

Now, the administrative machinery has returned to normal in Kokang Region
in Shan State (North). — MNA

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
Thousands cross into Thailand for free food – Naw Noreen

Around 4000 Burmese crossed into Thailand yesterday to attend an annual
food donation event in the border town of Mae Sai, according to Burmese
residents in the town.

The event was held at a Chinese temple in the town, and about 5000 people
in total collected bags of rice, instant noodle packs, salt and canned
fish.

“A lot of poor people from both sides of the border came to get the
donation items and about 80 percent were from Burma,” said a Mae Sai
resident.

A Burmese national at the event said the donation items would help his
family survive for about two days.

“Two days is still not bad – I brought my kids along to the donation and
they were given 20 Thai baht (around $US0.6) each,” said the person,
adding that said he had been receiving the donation since 1997.

“There are three adults in my family so we got three bags of rice and the
cash the kids got paid covered the transportation fee.”

Burmese living close to the border often cross into Thailand for food and
medical treatment.

The Burmese government is estimated to spend only around 0.3 percent of
its annual budget on healthcare.

In 2000 the World Health Organisation (WHO) ranked Burma’s healthcare
system second worst in the world, above the then war-ravaged Sierra Leone.

Burma’s rice production industry was severely damaged by cyclone Nargis
last year, which destroyed more than one million hectares of rice paddy in
the southern Irrawaddy delta region.

The ruling junta was criticized in the wake of the cyclone for continuing
to export rice at the same levels as before, despite widespread food
shortages within the country.

The donation event in Mae Sai is sponsored supported by wealthy Thai
business owners.

____________________________________

September 3, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta demands Peng’s extradition

The leaders of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), following a heated morning
session, have decided not to respond to Naypyitaw’s demand that Peng
Jiasheng and three others be “returned” to junta authorities, said a
reliable source.

The letter was received yesterday by Panghsang, where the UWSA is based.
“It was written by the Burmese commander of Kokang,” said the source.

The Laogai Regional Operations Command is headed by Brig Gen Win Maung,
according to an information booklet compiled by a group in exile.

“The leaders decided that whatever we would say to the Burmese generals,
either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, would only serve to justify their actions against
us,” he explained.

Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, reported yesterday that Peng
Jiasheng, for whom junta authorities have issued an arrest warrant, is
currently seeking refuge in the Wa region.

Others for whom Naypyitaw has issued warrants are Peng Jiafu (Peng’s
younger brother), Peng Daxun and Peng Dali (both Peng’s sons).

Peng Daxun is leading the remaining Kokang troops loyal to him in a
guerrilla resistance against the Burmese Army, according to a rebel
source.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 3, Xinhua
Myanmar welcomes joint operation of garment industries within ASEAN – Chen
Meihua

Yangon – Myanmar is welcoming joint operation of garment industries being
planned by member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) to expand its global market, saying that the country's domestic
garment industries could be benefited from the program as Myanmar
possesses a large number of labor force.

The Myanmar Garment Manufactures' Association (MGMA) said on Thursday that
under the joint operation program, it will work for the promotion of the
share of gaining technical knowhow and market within the regional members
and help garment manufacturing workers.

With 6 million workers in operation, the garment exports of ASEAN totaled
30 billion U.S. dollars in value, the association quoted regional figures
as saying.

According to the association, demands are being made to respective
countries' ministries to allow tariff-free trade and export through border
points.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar association is cooperating with entrepreneurs from
the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Association for Overseas
Technical Scholarship (AOTS) and Juki Corporation in quality garment
production to boost the export to Japan as well as to expand its foreign
market.

These Japanese organizations have been providing trainings for Myanmar
staff at all levels related to management, production and human resources
since February this year.

Myanmar's garment export to Japan has been increasing annually and during
last year, the prior's export hit 135 million U.S. dollars, up 38 million
dollars compared with 2007.

Moreover, Myanmar will boost its garment export to South Korea during this
year as the orders have risen 30 percent, the MGMA said, disclosing that
the garment export from Myanmar to South Korea in the first six months of
this year had fetched 14.4 million dollars, up 16.2 percent compared with
the same period of last year.

Workforce and productivity in the industries have been increased to meet
the demand, it also said.

Last month, the Myanmar garment entrepreneurs and the Tema textile group
of Turkey launched the cutting, manufacturing and packaging (CMP)
operation in Yangon to boost production line using local factories.

As the first phase of the project, the Tema group has set a target of
producing 1.25 million clothings in the first half of 2010 which cost
about 6.75 million dollars.

The group will ship raw textiles and accessories from China's Shanghai to
Yangon and provide designs and technical support to local manufacturers.

The MGMA estimated that Turkey is likely to become Myanmar's third largest
garment exporting country after the European Union and Japan in the near
future and it believed that such cooperation with Turkey will boost the
development of Myanamr garment industry.

Myanmar's garment export to Turkey fetched over 10 million dollars in 2008
and it is expected to increase to nearly 100 million dollars in next year.

Among the Myanmar garment exporting countries line-up, Japan topped with
one third of the total export, followed by England, Germany and Spain.

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

According to the official statistics, Myanmar garment export in 2008-09
fiscal year (April-March) hit 292.45 million dollars, while its garment
imports, including cotton fabric, artificial and synthetics fabrics and
special woven fabric, reached over 217 million dollars.

There are 120 garment factories in operation in Yangon industrial zone
with about 85,000 employees.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 3, Inner City Press (US)
At UN, Myanmar languishes in Council's footnotes, those fleeing into China
are UN protected – Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 2 -- Myanmar is in the footnotes of the UN
Security Council's agenda for September, during which U.S. Ambassador
Susan Rice will serve as Council president. On Wednesday at the UN, Inner
City Press asked Ambassador Rice why Myanmar is in the footnotes, to
confirm reports that she warned Ban Ki-moon against visiting the country
lest it just support Than Shwe, and to address Norwegian diplomat Mona
Juul's leaked memo that Ban lacks "moral authority" on Myanmar, like Sri
Lanka.

Ambassador Rice replied that "Myanmar -- which we call Burma... is in the
footnote because a number of members of the Council, including the United
States, felt it is timely to stay focused on events there." She said that
Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal of her sentence might result in an outcome that
the Council might want to consider.

Ms. Rice did not address the Juul memo's critique of Ban's performance,
and said that her "advice to the Secretary General, it would be wise for
me to keep it private." Video here, from Minute 23:47. Rather, she noted
that Ban said he received commitments by the Burmese leadership for "swift
positive political steps."

In fact, the military regime in Myanmar has gone on a Sri Lanka-like
assault into rebel held territory, resulting in people fleeing across the
border into China.

At Wednesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN Associate
Spokesperson Farhan Haq what the UN is doing, if anything, about these
flows, and if the UN considers those fleeing to be refugees.

Haq didn't answer, except to say that the UN refugee agency UNHCR had
answers. But journalists who have sought answers from UNCHR since Monday
on this Myanmar - China question have gotten nothing. The analysis is that
while UNHCR will criticize less powerful countries, for those who flee
into China, whether from North Korea or Myanmar, UNHCR and the UN offer no
protection. And given China's veto on the Security Council, that issue
will never make it only to the full agenda, and is not even among the
aspects of Myanmar which are in this month's agenda's footnotes. Watch
this site.


>From the U.S. Mission to the UN's transcript


Inner City Press: Myanmar's in the footnotes of your program, and it's
been reported that you warned the Secretary-General against going this
summer to Myanmar, that it might buttress the regime in some way. Could --
so Myanmar also shows up in this Mona Juul memo that many people have
spoken about, talking about where the U.N. stands in terms of what she
called a lack of moral authority on Myanmar, Sri Lanka and even Sudan. Can
you say, I guess, either -- you know, why is it in the footnotes? What do
you expect to come up? Do you -- can you confirm sort of your thinking on
the Secretary-General's trip to Myanmar?

Ambassador Rice: Let me begin with Myanmar, which we call Burma, in my
national hat. It's in the footnotes because members of the Council,
including the United States, felt it timely to stay focused on events
there.

We're aware that Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed her sentence, and that
could potentially result in an outcome that the Council might want to
consider. In addition, the Secretary-General has said, as a result of his
meetings there, that he received commitments from the leadership to take
very swiftly positive political steps, including the release of all
political prisoners. And so we think it merits continued inclusion in the
footnotes of the Council agenda for the month of September.

Just to finish the answer, with respect to my own advice or counsel
provided to the Secretary-General, I think it would be wise for me to keep
that private. So I'm not going to discuss press reports in that regard.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 3, Washington Post
Burma's rising toll: The junta widens a war on ethnic groups – Chris
Beyrer and Richard Sollom

It has been a good few weeks for Burma's dictator, Senior Gen. Than Shwe,
even though Sen. Jim Webb secured the release of an imprisoned American
during his recent visit and even though the sentencing of Burma's
democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, after this summer's sham trial was
roundly condemned. With all the media attention, Than Shwe got a dose of
what he appears to crave most: international legitimacy. And he is assured
that Suu Kyi, who won Burma's last free elections in 1990, will remain
under house arrest during the 2010 elections. Last month Burma's state-run
media even hailed the regime for its humanitarian nature and called for
targeted economic sanctions to be lifted.

But is there, in fact, a more humanitarian regime in Burma?

Distinctly negative answers come from Ho Lom village in Burma's Shan
State, where junta soldiers burned 62 houses on July 29. Or from Tard
Mawk, in the same district, where soldiers burned more than 100 homes. Or
from the 38 other Shan villages from which villagers have been forcibly
displaced in July and August, part of a systematic and brutal campaign
documented by the Shan Human Rights Foundation and the Shan Women's Action
Network and reported by Human Rights Watch last month. Eric Schwartz,
assistant secretary of the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees and
Migration, noted on Aug. 19: "We've been deeply concerned by very recent
reports of large-scale displacement, perhaps as many or more than 10,000
civilians . . . as a result of increased military activity in northeastern
Burma."

Schwartz said this even before the latest round of attacks -- against the
people of Kokang, an ethnic enclave of Chinese speakers in northeastern
Shan State, close to the Chinese border. The U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees estimates that the fighting has driven 10,000 to 30,000 Kokang
into China -- prompting a rare rebuke from the People's Republic, a
longtime trade and investment partner of the junta.

Other ethnic groups, including the Karen in eastern Burma, have faced
intensified fighting and egregious rights violations this summer. Some
5,000 Karen have fled into Thailand, according to Human Rights Watch. In
Karen State, large numbers of land-mine injuries are being reported as
untrained new conscripts, including children, are forced to fight their
own people in some of the world's most heavily mined jungles.

These systematic campaigns in Burma's eastern ethnic regions have been
marked by allegations of torture, extrajudicial executions and rapes of
ethnic minority women and girls. Such mass atrocities are not new. Our
collaborative team of medics conducted population-based health and human
rights assessments in 2006-07 among more than 2,900 ethnic households in
eastern Burma. We found that more than a quarter of all Shan families had
been forcibly relocated in the previous year, that in 24 percent at least
one family member had been taken by soldiers for forced labor and that in
9 percent of households at least one family member had been injured by a
land mine -- one of the highest rates ever documented.

The current assaults appear to be part of the junta's strategy for the
2010 elections. The generals are attempting to force their ethnic
opponents to become border patrol forces and to participate in their
showcase elections. Most of the larger ethnic groups and political parties
have rejected these offers, as did the leaders of Kokang. Most, along with
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, have also rejected the junta's
constitution, which was drafted without their input and approved in the
discredited referendum of May 2008.

Burma's ethnic peoples know they are not living under a new, more
humanitarian regime. Quite the opposite: The junta is creating
humanitarian emergencies in its quest for control. Shan, Karen, Kokang and
other civilians are losing their homes, livelihoods and lives. Their
suffering is directly linked to the detention of Suu Kyi and to the
crackdown against Burma's democratic forces: student leaders, journalists,
independent humanitarian relief workers and courageous clergy of all
faiths. Indeed, essentially all the progressive forces opposing the
generals are under attack.

Strikingly little international attention has been paid to this murderous
turn of events. Yet these ethnic peoples must play a role if Burma is to
have any sort of decent future. Suu Kyi knows this; in the only statement
her people have had from her in years, given to U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim
Gambari in late 2007, she highlighted the need for ethnic participation
for true national reconciliation. The Obama administration, which is
reviewing its Burma policy, would do well to heed Suu Kyi's advice: Don't
forget Burma's ethnic groups. Whatever the administration does about
sanctions, it must do much more to press the junta, Burma's neighbors and
the junta's supporters to stop the campaign of bloodshed against Burma's
ethnic peoples. China has a special role to play, first in providing
humanitarian relief to those seeking refuge across its borders and in
pressuring the junta to end its brutal campaign. Ethnic warfare and its
resultant instability are in no one's interest, except perhaps Than
Shwe's. He must not be allowed to continue killing with impunity.

Chris Beyrer is director of Johns Hopkins University's Center for Public
Health and Human Rights. Richard Sollom leads the Burma Project at
Physicians for Human Rights.

____________________________________

September 3, Irrawaddy
Kokang conflict highlights Tatmadaw xenophobia – Wai Moe

The Tatmadaw of Burma, one of the most nationalistic armies in the world,
demonstrated its xenophobia during the past two weeks following its
capture of Kokang-Chinese territory.

According to reports from the region on the northeastern frontier of
Burma, following the seizure of Laogai, the Kokang capital, on Aug. 24,
government soldiers questioned civilians about whether they were
Burma-born Chinese or immigrants from China.

“After answering, Chinese from mainland China were beaten by soldiers,”
said a source in Laogai.

Refugees who fled to China told reporters that shops, stores and other
properties owned by Chinese had been looted in various towns in the Kokang
region where an estimate 90 percent of businesses are owned by Chinese
businessmen.

Anti-Chinese elements among government soldiers are not new. In 1967, an
anti-Chinese riot in Rangoon and other cities caused led to dozens of
deaths. Observers said late dictator Ne Win’s Burmese Socialist Programme
Party used the Chinese as a scapegoat to deflect public anger at the
government over a rice shortage in the country.

Anti-Chinese sentiment among Burmese has increased after the Chinese and
Burmese governments signed border trading agreements in 1988, and the
military junta signed ceasefire agreements with ethnic militias on the
Sino-Burmese border in 1989.

After the opening of border trade and the ceasefire agreements, Chinese
business interests and immigrants moved into Burma in large numbers,
observers said. From the northern Shan State capital of Lashio to Madalay,
the second largest city, to Rangoon, Chinese migrants and businesses along
with the ethnic ceasefire groups, such as the Kokang and Wa, have taken on
a higher profile among Burmese.

“They say they are Wa or Kokang, but we know they are actually Chinese,”
said a businessman in Mandalay, citing his experience.

During two decades, Chinese have taken over businesses owned by Burmese in
northern Shan State and Mandalay. Signs on many department stores,
restaurants and shops in Mandalay and Lashio are printed in the Chinese
language.

Intentionally or unintentionally, the special favors granted ethnic groups
by Gen Khin Nyunt, the former Burma spy chief, produced a backlash against
Kokang-Chinese and other ceasefire groups among the Tatmadaw’s soldiers.


>From 1989 to 2004— before Khin Nyunt’s downfall—the Kokang and Wa were

allowed to take their weapons to Rangoon and Mandalay. Kokang and Wa
soldiers were untouchable under Khin Nyunt’s instructions even though they
committed crimes.

When vehicles from Wa and Kokang groups passed army and police
checkpoints, they were not searched.

In one incident in 1999, a member of the Wa army killed a businessman in
downtown Rangoon after a business conflict. The police arrested the man
but he was not charged, and later Wa officials took the man from police
custody.

According to Mandalay residents, members of ceasefire groups such as the
Wa and Kokang were known to use pistols in personal conflicts with local
people in the early 2000s.

Chan Tun, a former Burmese ambassador to China, said that after ceasefire
agreements were signed, the Wa and Kokang caused many problems in cities
such as Rangoon and Mandalay, and many officers and soldiers in the
regime’s army have developed a negative image of the two groups as a
result.

The recent military conflict between the government and ethnic groups has
divided public opinion in Rangoon and Mandalay, according to journalists.

“Some people here say it is the government bullying the Kokang-Chinese.
But most people support the government,” said an editor of a Rangoon-based
private journal.

____________________________________

September 3, Voice of America
Seeking a stable Burma – Editorial

Burma, the scene of much suffering from last year’s devastating Cyclone
Nargis as well as long-running political repression and egregious human
rights abuses, saw more turmoil last week when fighting broke out along
the northeast border with China between an armed ethnic group and
government troops deployed to secure the region.

United Nations officials estimate that as many as 30,000 civilians have
been forced to flee the area, home to a large number of ethnic Chinese.
The tensions add a new element to concerns over stability in the region,
both among Burma’s neighbors and the greater international community.

The United States is conducting a broad review of its policies toward the
government in Rangoon, in an effort to find the best way to bring
democratic transition and respect for human rights for the Burmese people.

World attention has focused on the continued detention of pro-democracy
activist Aung San Suu Kyi and 2,100 other political prisoners, but the
review has multiple dimensions. Ethnic conflicts exploited by Burmese
authorities pose challenges for the future of Burma, not only the recent
fighting in the Kokang region but also as seen in the plight of Burma’s
Muslim Rohingya minority and others.

The U.S. has a great interest in seeing Burma promote stability by heeding
the UN calls for Burma to free its political prisoners and hold a genuine
dialogue among the Burmese authorities, representatives of the opposition
and ethnic nationality leaders on a shared vision for the way forward in
Burma. Taking positive steps toward a true, representative democracy would
do much to end the isolation and conflict that has caused so much
suffering there.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

September 3, Stateless Watch for Research and Development Institute of
Thailand
URGENT APPEAL Thailand: Right to travel denied to 12 years old immigrant
from Myanmar

Mong Thongdee, a national origami airplane champion, was selected to
attend the Origami Airplane contest in Chiba, Japan, from Sept 19-20.
However, his hope of to attend the competition to represent Thailand and
his fundamental right to travel was denied by Ministry of Interior.

Duangrit Petima, the school director, sent an early request to Ministry of
Interior (MOI) to grant a traveling permit and a re-entry visa in May 2009
but receive no official respond. The request was subsequently denied, on
the ground that it could be a threat to national security.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said there were at least two
cases of stateless/nationality-less persons that received a permit to
travel out of the Kingdom and a re-entry visa to return to Thailand. The
ministry will issue a traveling document for aliens to Mong, if he
receives the permit to travel from MOI.

On 2 September 2009, Mong flied from Chiang Mai, with a school director
and a teacher, to meet Ministry of Interior officials, to seek permission
to leave and re-enter Thailand after the competition. Minister of Interior
gave an interview to the press and mentioned that the boy could only
represent Myanmar, because he had Burmese origin. He appointed Provincial
Administration Department to oversee the case.

Later, Wongsak Sawaspanich, Provincial Administration Department director
general, said in a press interview that Mong might not be allowed to
return to the country after the leave. The decision of Wongsak was based
on a recommendation by Foreign Affairs Bureau, Permanent Secretariat
Office, Ministry of Interior (a Memorandum No. Mor.Thor. 0204.2/ 1184,
date 1 September 2009), stating traveling out of Kingdom is not permitted
for migrant workers.

Upon hearing the decision, Mong and teachers were unable to suppress their
tears.

A legal opinion of Bangkok Legal Clinic for Right to Legal Personality
stated that Mong could be granted Thai nationality because of his
contribution to Thailand. However, the most urgent agenda is to grant the
right to travel, which is possible under Section 17 of the Immigration
Act. The law authorizes Ministry of Interior to allow an alien residing in
Thailand to travel and return to Thailand.

The right to travel is enshrined in Article 12 of the ICCPR, in which
Thailand is a state party to the convention. Compliance to the
international and domestic laws with respect to child’s right and right to
travel freely is anticipated.

Background information

Mong Thongdee was born on 2 May 1997 in Thailand. He received an
identification paper by the Thai state. Mong’s parent, Yun and Moy
Thongdee, migrated to  Chiang Mai, Thailand from Baan Nam Chang, Shan
State. Thus, they may not have Burmese nationality, because they belong to
an ethnic group that has been being persecuted by Burmese military regime.
Mong as his family remain nationality-less.

Mong’s parents were registered as migrant workers in Thai civil
registration system in 1995 and received work permit to legally work and
temporarily reside in Thailand. Mong was granted temporarily residential
status as an accompanying family member. He currently attends Huay Srai
School in Chiang Mai.

Suggested action

Write a petition/letter to MOI, the Prime Minster of Thailand, The
National Human Right  Commission of Thailand and international human
rapporteurs.

Contact:
ปิ่นแก้ว
อุ่นแก้ว
ผู้จัดการ
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437/37
ซ.จรัลสนิทวงศ์
35(วัดมะลิ)
ถ.จรัลสนิทวงศ์
แขวงบางขุนศรี
เขตบางกอกน้อย
 กรุงเทพฯ 10700

Stateless Watch for Research and Development Institute of Thailand (SWIT)

437/37 SoiJaransanitvong 35 (wadmali) Jaransanitvong Rd. Bangkhunsri
Bangkoknoi Bangkok 10700
Tel/Fax (66)2-864-9009

ติดตามข้อมูลข่าวสารโครงการได้ที่

http://statelesswatch.wordpress.com
http://gotoknow.org/portal/statelesswatch-swit