BurmaNet News, September 18, 2009

[Editor]

September 18, 2009 Issue #3800

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Some Myanmar political prisoners receive amnesty
NLM: Series of bomb blasts in Hlinethaya, North Okkalapa and Mingaladon
townships
Mizzima: Court to give decision on Suu Kyi appeal on Oct 2
Xinhua: Myanmar official media stresses existence of single armed forces
in country
Irrawaddy: A country of fallen stars
IRIN:Myanmar: What if another Cyclone Nargis comes?

ON THE BORDER
The Washington Times: Waiting for new bloodshed

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: UN Rapporteur urged to probe nationality verification
Mizzima: Junta’s amnesty meaningless sans political prisoners: AI
HRW: Burma: Japan’s new administration should review Burma policy
AFP: Myanmar rally urges tougher line from new Japan govt

PRESS RELEASE
Human Rights Watch: Burma: Japan’s New Administration Should Review Burma
Policy
Public Pressure and Targeted Sanctions needed on Rangoon

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 18, Associated Press
Some Myanmar political prisoners receive amnesty

Yangon, Myanmar — At least 25 political detainees were released Friday as
part of an amnesty for prisoners in Myanmar, just over 1 percent of the
total number of political prisoners believed to be held by its military
government.

Win Naing, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy,
said the freed political detainees included 16 members of his party as
well as activists from other pro-democracy groups. Two journalists were
also freed.

Myanmar's junta announced Thursday that it was granting amnesty to 7,114
prisoners for good behavior and on humanitarian grounds. The country is
believed to hold roughly 65,000 prisoners, including more than 2,200
political detainees, according to estimates by human rights groups.

The amnesty did not include the country's best-known political prisoner,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is head of the National
League for Democracy and remains under house arrest.

"We don't know the exact number of political prisoners released under the
amnesty immediately. We will know gradually," Win Naing said. Many
prisoners are held in remote areas of the country where communications are
difficult.

Insein Prison director Zaw Win denied that Myanmar had any political
dissidents. He told a news briefing inside the prison that about 250
prisoners sentenced under security laws — under which many political
prisoners are convicted — would be released.

The junta has repeatedly denied holding any political prisoners, saying
all inmates have been found guilty of criminal offenses.

Win Naing said those released included two members of the 88 Generation
Students, a group at the forefront of a 1988 pro-democracy uprising which
has revived its struggle against military rule in the past decade. Most of
its members are in prison, in hiding or in exile.

Myanmar is due to have elections next year under rules set down by the
military.

Speaking after his release from Insein Prison, U Nine Nine — who was
elected to parliament from the National League for Democracy in 1990
elections which were voided by the military — said "I will continue with
my political activities but I have no faith in the elections."

Also released from Insein Prison were journalists Eint Khaing Oo, a
reporter for the weekly magazine Eco Vision, and Kyaw Kyaw Thant, a former
reporter for the Weekly Eleven journal, who were arrested in June last
year while covering a demonstration in front of a U.N. office by about 20
victims of a devastating cyclone. The protesters were seeking assistance
because the government was not helping them.

Kyaw Kyaw Thant said he would continue his work as a journalist.

Human Rights Watch launched a campaign Wednesday for Myanmar's military
government to release all political prisoners before the elections.

The New York-based rights group said the number of political prisoners has
more than doubled in the past two years, and more than 100 have been
jailed in recent months.

Among those imprisoned in the past two years include people involved in
peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in 2007 and some who assisted
victims of the cyclone in 2008. The group said some were handed
decades-long sentences.

It said the country has 43 known prisons holding political activists and
more than 50 labor camps.

____________________________________

September 17, New Light of Myanmar
Series of bomb blasts in Hlinethaya, North Okkalapa and Mingaladon townships

No causalities and injuries reported

Nay Pyi Taw —Two bomb blasts occurred in Hlinethaya Township at midnight
yesterday, one in the compound of Komatsu hydraulic bulldozer & excavator
Co, five yards from the fence, at 11.45 pm, and another in the compound of
Family United Power hydraulic bulldozer & excavator Co, five yards from
its fence at about midnight.

Another bomb blasts occurred near the police outpost on Nawade Street in
Yeokkan village, Hlinethaya Township Industrial Zone-3 and outside the
compound of Fly Man finished wood factory on Min Theikdi Kyawswa Road
about 00:52 hours today. It was followed by another bomb blast outside the
fence of UNICEF medical store on Mingyi Maha Mingaung Street in Industrial
Zone-3 of Hlinethaya Township about 01:30 hrs today.

There were also bomb blasts in North Okkalapa and Mingaladon Townships
this morning, one occurred near a transformer at the back of John-A
garment factory on Gangaw Street in Shwepaukkan Industrial Zone in North
Okkalapa Township.

Another bomb blast occurred in the compound of Myanmar Asia Optical
factory in Mingaladon Industrial Zone about 4 am and members of security
forces, acting on a tip-off, were able to seize a time bomb made of table
clock packed in 6-inch long, 4-inch wide and 2-inch high cardboard about
9:20 this morning.

The incidents caused slight damages but no injuries were reported and
personnel concerned and members of security forces cleared the bomb-struck
places and are investigating to the cases.

Authorities concerned urge the public to cooperate with them by keeping a
watchful eye on terrorists and destructionists who are penetrating the
society in different disguised forms and informing the responsible persons
in time. - MNA

____________________________________

September 18, Mizzima News
Court to give decision on Suu Kyi appeal on Oct 2 -Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi - The Rangoon divisional court on Friday heard arguments on an
appeal against the verdict of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
scheduled October 2 for announcing its decision.

At the request of lawyers of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced by a
district court in August 11, the division court on Friday heard arguments
for review of the district court’s verdict.

Nyan Win, a member of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team,
said, “Arguments by lawyers on both sides was heard today and the court
scheduled October 2, 10 a.m. for announcing its decision.”

He said, the defence submitted an 11-point argument for the appeal with
the main focus stating that the 1974 constitution is no longer in force.

“Aung San Suu Kyi is being detained under articles taken from this
constitution. And if this constitution is no more in force, she cannot be
detained and naturally there can be no case against her,” Nyan Win added.

He expressed his expectation that the Burmese pro-democracy leader would
be freed as per the existing law and hoped that the judge on October 2
would make a positive announcement.

The Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate was sentenced to three years with hard
labour by a district court in Insein prison on August 11, but an executive
order by the junta supremo Snr Gen Than Shwe halved the sentence and
allowed her to serve time at her home.

She was sentenced on charges of violating her previous house arrest terms
by allowing an American, John Yettaw, who swam across a lake and entered
her house in early May to stay a few days.

Following the verdict, the Burmese democracy icon’s lawyers submitted an
appeal on her behalf on September 4 to the divisional court, which
accepted the case and scheduled the hearing to be held on September 18.

Earlier, Aung San Suu Kyi had made a written request to the Rangoon
Special Branch Police to allow her to attend the hearing on September 18
but she was denied permission.

The court hearing on Friday coincides with the junta’s release of
prisoners as part of an amnesty to over 7,114 prisoners across the
country. Sources in the opposition said, there were a few political
prisoners among those freed on Friday.

Opposition sources and analysts in Rangoon said only up to 250 political
prisoners will be included among the 7,114 prisoners to be released.

On Friday, Eint Khine Oo, reporter of the Rangoon-based Ecovision Journal,
Naing Naing, a Member of Parliament elected in 1990 elections, and a about
dozen other political prisoners were included among the more than 500
prisoners released from Insein prison.

Zaw Win, director of the Directorate of Prison, after a press conference,
told reporters that Burma has no political prisoners.

____________________________________

September 18, Irrawaddy
A country of fallen stars - Khin Nyein Thit

Stars shine by their own light and occupy the highest position in the sky.
On clear, unclouded nights, you can look up and see them sparkling as
bright as diamonds.

Some of the young people in my country are like those stars. They are
brilliantly gifted and elevated by their high moral standards. But one by
one, these stars are falling from the skies. That is why I call Burma “the
country of fallen stars.”

Whenever I recall the events of September 18, 1988—the day the army
declared an end to Burma’s long democracy summer and proceeded to launch a
bloody crackdown on protesters—my mind returns to a famous photograph that
captures the horror of that moment in my country’s history. In it, two
doctors in white coats are carrying a young girl in her school uniform—a
white shirt and green longyi. But the girl’s shirt is red, soaked in
blood. She is unconscious, or perhaps already dead, as the two doctors run
with her in their arms, desperate to save her life.

This photograph is one of the iconic images of that time, and even now, it
fills me with emotion and anger when I look at it. This is, of course, a
natural reaction; but unlike most people, I see more than just the
senseless murder of an innocent child, as horrible as that is. I also see
the tragic loss of two of Burma’s best and brightest, whose young lives
were snuffed out by the same ruthless forces that killed that girl, and
continue to kill good and decent people every day in Burma.

Few people know anything about Dr. Saw Lwin and Dr. Min Thein, the two
doctors in this photo. Saw Lwin, the one holding up the girl’s head, was a
gifted medical student who had graduated from high school with the highest
grades in Rangoon’s Thingankyun Township. He and his friend Min Thein were
both top students in medical school. Saw Lwin’s sister was also a doctor,
as was Min Thein’s brother. Min Thein’s father worked as a director in a
government department.

After the 1988 coup, Min Thein went to the jungle to become a medic with
the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), the student army that
was formed to resist the newly installed military regime. He later
returned to Rangoon on a mission for the ABSDF. At the time, many others
also returned, abandoning their struggle. In a press conference, Brig-Gen
Khin Nyunt, the junta’s secretary one, told these returnees that no action
would be taken against them if they reported to the authorities. Not
realizing why his son had come back, Min Thein’s father informed regional
military officials about his return. The next day, military intelligence
agents came to their home and took Min Thein to an interrogation center
for questioning. A week later, they sent him home.

At first, he seemed fine, but soon after his release, his body became
swollen and he couldn’t urinate properly. His younger brother, Win Thein,
told Saw Lwin and his sister about Min Thein’s condition. Min Thein, who
had earlier confided to Saw Lwin about his mission for the ABSDF, told his
friend and fellow doctor that he suspected his symptoms were caused by an
injection he had received while he was in custody. The intelligence agents
who questioned him refused to tell him what drug they had injected him
with.

Min Thein’s health rapidly deteriorated, as his bowels began to swell and
he started to have difficulty breathing. While his colleagues were
preparing to take him to the hospital, intelligence officers appeared at
his home again and told them he could only receive treatment at a military
hospital. Min Thein said he would rather die at home than go with them.
And so he remained there, treated by Saw Lwin, until he died the next day.

Troubled by the unexplained nature of his friend’s death, Saw Lwin asked
one of his professors to perform an autopsy. They discovered that Min
Thein’s kidneys had drastically shrunken in size. When the intelligence
officers learned about the autopsy, they warned the coroner not to reveal
his findings. Saw Lwin realized then that he might be in real danger
himself and decided to go into hiding.

At that time, I was working at Saw Lwin’s private clinic, so I could see
how his absence affected his patients, many of whom were poor people who
couldn’t afford to go anywhere else. They seemed quite helpless without
him. He was always reluctant to take money from patients who had very
little to give, and sometimes even paid for their medicine out of his own
pocket. Once, I saw him treat a seriously ill cancer patient entirely at
his own expense.

Saw Lwin’s family also suffered because of his involvement in this case.
His father was forced to retire early and died of a stroke in 1994. After
this, Saw Lwin returned to his home, believing that the intelligence
officers had probably forgotten about the incident. He applied for a
government job at a hospital and was assigned to a position at a
sub-township hospital in Bogalay Township, Irrawaddy Division.

For a while, he was able to go about his business quite freely, but
eventually, the authorities caught up with him. Intelligence agents
started summoning him for questioning, and continued harassing him in this
manner for several months. In 1995, it got even worse, and he was
beginning to feel deeply disturbed. He decided to go to Rangoon to speak
with Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been released from house arrest in July of
that year, but was unable to meet with her. When he returned to Bogalay,
he was immediately summoned by the secretary of the local Township Law and
Order Restoration Council and spent several hours being interrogated by
three intelligence officers.

By the time he returned home, he was completely drained of energy. After
this, his neighbors said that he became very withdrawn. He seemed very
troubled, but hesitated to burden others with his problems. Finally, he
decided to take leave from the hospital and packed his belongings as if to
go on a trip. But for the next two days, no one could hear any sound from
his room. When his neighbors forced the door open, they found that he had
hanged himself.

His death still fills me with immense sadness. He was a very talented and
kind-hearted person.

The stars are falling in our country. Who is responsible for this? How do
their mothers bear the pain of losing their precious sons and daughters?
How many more must we lose in vain? I have no answers to these questions.
But I would like to salute these lost heroes and pray that they are never
forgotten.

Khin Nyein Thit is a former political prisoner who recently fled to the
Thai-Burmese border.

____________________________________

September 18, Xinhua
Myanmar official media stresses existence of single armed forces in country

Yangon - Myanmar official media stressed on Friday that there shall be a
single Tatmadaw (armed forces) in the country to stand in accordance with
the new state constitution approved in May last year.

The 2008 new state constitution prescribes that all the armed forces in
the union shall be under the command of the Defense Services.

"If standing in rivalry that is against the constitution, doing illegal
livelihood, poppy farming, production of narcotic drugs and illegal import
and export of goods are rife, that will greatly harm the interest of the
whole country and the people," said a Friday's report on the New Light of
Myanmar newspaper.

"The Tatmadaw government is pursuing its strategies with the sharp
determination that the nation's economy must be strong by the time when it
hands over power to the civilian government to be formed under the
constitution," said the report.

It said "when these strategies are all realized, the Union of Myanmar will
become a land bridge country where not only local people but also a large
number of people from the neighboring countries engage trade activities."

It also urged the people to do their bit in the process of building the
"land bridge" to make sure that all the pillars of the bridge are strong.

Noting that Myanmar is home to over 100 ethnic minorities, the report said
"it gives first priority to consolidated unity among national brethren in
the national interest according to the geopolitics," adding that the
government focuses on equitable improvement of the socio-economic life of
all the national brethren.

The government has initiated a program for ethnic armed groups, which have
cease fired and returned to the legal fold, to be formed into frontier
forces under the control of the Commander-in-chief of the Defense
Services.

However, the report said although many ethnic peace groups have returned
to the legal fold, they have not surrendered their arms due to various
reasons.

The leaders of the peace groups are urged to form political parties and
stand for 2010 election.

After the present government took over the power of state on Sept. 18,
1988, 17 anti-government ethnic armed groups and over 20small ones
returned to the legal fold one after another.

Of the 17 peace groups which cease fired with the government, some were
allowed to retain arms, conditionally enjoying self-administration with
special regions designated for them since then.

Under the government's fifth step of its seven-step roadmap announced in
2003, a multi-party democracy general election is to be held in 2010 in
accordance with the 2008 new state constitution to produce parliament
representatives and form a new civilian government to which the state
power is to be handed over.

____________________________________

September 17, IRIN
Myanmar: What if another Cyclone Nargis comes?

Ayeyarwady Delta, - Nine-year-old Chit Lin Nwe owes her life to a tree. As
Cyclone Nargis swept away her home, family and friends in Aung Chan Thar
village in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady River Delta, she clung to its sturdy
trunk.

"As the water came up, I had to climb higher," she said. The storm surge
that accompanied Nargis was more than three metres high.

Not everyone was lucky enough to find a tree or shelter in the flat,
mostly exposed terrain of the southern delta. Village headmen IRIN spoke
to recited the death toll in their small communities: "500 died", or
"1,000 died". Often it was almost everyone they had known, and more than a
year later many people still seem traumatised.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said about 14,000 hectares
of the delta's 275,000 hectares of mangrove forests had been destroyed,
but Chit Lin Nwe's tree is still standing. "Should another cyclone come
around, I know what to do," she grinned.

Nargis killed more than 140,000 people and ruined countless lives and
livelihoods; cyclones, tropical storms and storm surges are likely to
become more frequent and intense as a result of climate change in the
region, yet the survivors and returnees still living in the delta seem
unprepared.

"The people in those flimsy huts with hardly any tree cover, working in
flat paddy fields, remain exposed and vulnerable," said an aid worker. A
villager remarked, "We listen to the storm warning on the radio more
closely [since Nargis], but we don't know what to do."

Preparing the 3.5 million people of the delta, where population density
reaches 100 per sq km - the highest in the country - for future disasters
will not be easy. It will also be difficult to evacuate those living on
the banks of a complex river system comprising many streams and estuaries.

"As many villages are island villages, evacuation is quite tough," said a
local disaster expert. "Moreover, the delta is flat, so storm surge due to
cyclone compounds the problem."

Building cyclone shelters and scaling up early warning systems are among
the most feasible solutions, and the government has announced plans to
build 20 shelters in coastal areas. In the village of Oak Pho, IRIN saw a
cyclone shelter under construction. The shelter will accommodate 500
people and is being constructed by the Forest Resource Environment
Development and Conservation Association (FREDA), a semi-official NGO
formed by retired personnel from the Ministry of Forestry, but at least
3,000 live in the village.

It is all in the communication

A local disaster expert said the bottleneck in early warning dissemination
was between urban townships and villages. "What does 130 miles per hour
[about 210km per hour] of wind speed mean to a villager? Also, not many
people have a radio, which is the only source of warning."

Warnings should be clear, with directions on what needs to be done: that
could involve enlisting one or two persons in each village with a mobile
phone as part of the early warning team; monasteries often have
loudspeakers, which could be used to disseminate warnings; monasteries are
usually built of brick and cement or stone, and could also be used as
cyclone shelters.

It would also be a good idea to restore the mangroves destroyed by Nargis.
Coastal trees and forests cannot prevent storm surge flooding but a dense
mangrove cover can act as a windbreak, take the brunt of the surge waves,
and slow them down. Mangroves also trap soil, counteracting shoreline
erosion.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=86191

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 18, The Washington Times
Waiting for new bloodshed - Michael Standaert

Qingshui Town, China - Lin Jinhua was making an excellent living selling
and repairing motorcycles until a few weeks ago. Now she's a refugee. A
Chinese expatriate businesswoman living across the border in Myanmar, Mrs.
Lin, 58, was forced to flee late last month when troops sent by Myanmar's
military junta attacked her village in its campaign to crush an ethnic
Chinese militia in the Kokang region of northeastern Myanmar bordering
China's Yunnan province.

Mrs. Lin, who fled with just a few possessions and the clothes on her
back, returned home after the attack to survey the damage. Both her house
and her motorcycle business were looted, she said, and she lost up to
$73,000 in merchandise.

"The Burmese troops took everything away," said Mrs. Lin, trying to
control her anger. "Who is going to compensate us for this? Will the
Chinese government? Will the Burmese government?"

Mrs. Lin, along with her husband and two other couples who worked at her
business, are now sharing a small apartment in the nearby county of
Mengding. Interviewed earlier this month, they were trying to figure out
what to do next. They said they were too afraid to return home and had
nothing to go back for.

About 37,000 people initially fled the fighting in Myanmar, which is also
known as Burma. While many have returned, a number have remained including
ethnic Chinese such as Mrs. Lin, soldiers from the shattered ethnic
militia and Burmese afraid that fighting will start again soon.

Zeng Guanyou, 38, one of Mrs. Lin's workers, expressed a common view here
when he said he expects the Myanmar military to attack the United Wa State
Army, a militia of between 20,000 and 30,000 soldiers whose territory
begins just across the river from Qingshui.

Zhen Wei, 32, another refugee now living in a small garage in Qingshui
Town with his wife and three children, said he also thinks the fight
against the Wa will start very soon.
"We are worried about more fighting, but we don't really know when it will
happen," Mr. Zhen said.

Members of a smaller defeated militia, the Myanmar National Democratic
Alliance Army (MNDAA), are also predicting a new and bigger fight.

Asked what he will do next, Su Bao Bao, the former office director at the
headquarters of the MNDAA, said he would likely go to the Wa region and
prepare to fight again.

"There is news that the Wa State Army is preparing to fight, but whether
that will happen depends on the Burmese government," said Mr. Su. "If [the
Burmese military] fires first, there will be a battle."

He spoke from the city of Nansan, where a large number of refugees crossed
over in late August and a few remain scattered around the region staying
with relatives and friends.

Mr. Su, 58, said he crossed into China on Aug. 29 with around 1,000 other
soldiers after they ditched their weapons and put on civilian clothes.

Mr. Su, an ethnic Kachin who also goes by the name of Bo Bo, said the
first clashes started Aug. 8. Three days later, the militia withdrew to a
place called Xi'e in the Kokang region.

On Aug. 12 Myanmar's army attacked a militia military school in town of
Laogai and took over a weapons factory the government said was producing
drugs, something that Mr. Su said was propaganda.

The Myanmar military put out an arrest warrant for Peng Jiasheng, the
leader of the Kokang region, as well as for his three sons, and
established a new government in Kokang under the leadership of a rival
faction within the militia, Mr. Su said. Mr. Peng fled to the
Wa-controlled areas, and is now reportedly being protected by the United
Wa State Army.

Mr. Su said major fighting began Aug. 26 and lasted five days. The militia
forces split, with the majority dropping their weapons and crossing the
border into China at Nansan, while perhaps 800 more crossed near the
Qingshui border crossing, he said.

"The Burmese government was trying to eliminate the threat posed by the
ethnic militia by forcing them to come under the control of the border
security guard forces, which will be controlled by the Burmese
government," Mr. Su said. "But the alliance didn't agree with that. The
reason why the Burmese government did this is to strengthen power before
next year's election."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 18, Mizzima News
UN Rapporteur urged to probe nationality verification - Usa Pichai

Chiang Mai – The Thai Labour and Human Rights Groups have submitted a
petition to the United Nations Special Rapporteur Jorge A. Bustamante
demanding an urgent investigation of the ‘Nationality Verification of
Burmese Migrants’ in the Kingdom.

The State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation (SERC), the Human
Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) and the Thai Labour Solidarity
Committee (TLSC) on Wednesday submitted the petition to Bustamante calling
for an urgent inquiry into the commencement of a nationality verification
process for Burmese migrants.

The groups in their petition, submitted through Mr. Homayoun Alizadeh,
Regional Representative at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Regional Office for Asia-Pacific, Bangkok, said they are concerned
over the confused and complicated process, which involves migrants having
to pay ‘unreasonably high costs’ saying it could lead them to become
victims of human traffickers.

“In the past weeks, the nationality verification process has begun. Tour
buses carrying migrants to border processing centres are leaving main
migrant population centres in Thailand and migrants are then crossing
borders to Burma and returning at varying costs with temporary Burmese
passports and visas,” the group noted in a press statement.

“The only information publicly disseminated is from the Burmese government
about the processes on its side of the border. However, private brokers
are springing up and providing answers and services at ‘unreasonably high
costs’,” the group said.

While this information has been spreading among migrants, the Thai
Government has not yet conducted any public relations campaigns with
migrants, NGOs or labour organisations.

Sawit Keawan, General Secretary of the SERC, said, “We are increasingly
concerned as a result of these developments. We fear for the safety of
Burmese migrants in Thailand and are disturbed at what appears to be
another wave of exploitation affecting them.”

“Nationality verification, which we view as a positive yet sensitive
issue, is beginning at unreasonable costs to migrants, and just weeks
after a previous registration period ended and migrants endured high costs
related to this,” he added.

Gothom Arya, President of HRDF, said the group will call on the UN Special
Rapporteur on the ‘Rights of Migrants’ to urgently set up an inquiry into
the commencement of this nationality verification process.

“We will also send a set of recommendations to the Thai government,
including a request that the Thai government should continue to strongly
urge the Burmese government that the process take place here in Thailand.
This will reduce the unreasonable costs being borne by migrants, speed up
the process, and importantly increase the safety of migrants whilst
reducing unnecessary use of exploitative brokers,” he added.

The majority of migrant workers in Thailand are from Burma.

In 2004, the Thai Government and the Burmese military junta signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to provide nationality verification for
these migrants so they could become legal.

However, the process was stalled as the Burmese junta insisted nationality
verification take place in Burma in three major border towns. The Thai
government then announced that all registered Burmese migrants must
undertake nationality verification before February 2010.

____________________________________

September 18, Mizzima News
Junta’s amnesty meaningless sans political prisoners: AI - Mungpi

New Delhi - Unless the over 2,200 political prisoners languishing in
prisons across the country are included among the prisoners being freed,
the amnesty announced by the military rulers on Thursday would be
meaningless, Amnesty International said.

Benjamin Zawacki, Burma researcher of the AI on Friday told Mizzima,
“Unless the more than the 2,200 political prisoners are released, any
gesture like this would be meaningless as far as Human Rights is
concerned.”

Amnesty International’s stand came following the Burmese military junta’s
announcement on Thursday evening about the release of 7,114 prisoners
across the country in an amnesty based on ‘humanitarian grounds’ and to
enable them to serve national interest.
Zawacki said, the junta in the past 18 months has twice made similar
gestures where a tiny portion of prisoners of conscience were included.

“Unless the 2,200 political prisoners are included among the more than
7,000 prisoners released, it certainly does not meet the expectation of
the international community articulated by Ban Ki-moon,” Zawacki said.

The United Nations Chief, Ban Ki-moon, during his visit to Burma in July
urged the government to release all political prisoners including detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as a step to begin the process of
national reconciliation in the country.

Following Ban’s visit, Burma’s UN Ambassador Than Swe told the Security
Council that his government is preparing to release prisoners to allow
them to participate in the forthcoming 2010 elections.

Burma has been persistent in its denial of having political prisoners
saying all prisoners are charged with violating the existing law.

On Friday afternoon, the initial release of about 100 prisoners from
Mandalay prison does not include any political prisoners.

Meanwhile, in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison, authorities are holding a
press briefing on Friday afternoon and opposition sources said they expect
a few political prisoners including some prominent student activists to be
among those freed.

____________________________________

September 18, Agence France Presse
Myanmar rally urges tougher line from new Japan govt

Myanmar activists Friday called on Japan's new government to take a
tougher stance on the military junta as they rallied in Tokyo on the 21st
anniversary of the coup that brought the regime to power.

Some 100 demonstrators rallied outside the Myanmar Embassy demanding the
release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners being held in the country formerly known as Burma.

"We want the new government to apply pressure on the military regime
through harsher sanctions and to push for the release of Suu Kyi," said
one of the protestors, Win Myint.

Many carried pictures of Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who has spent most of
the past two decades under house arrest since her party won the last
elections.

Japan's new centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took power on
Wednesday, is known for his interest in human rights and has in the past
led a group of parliamentarians that support Suu Kyi.

Japan's previous conservative government of the Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) "did not show a clear stance toward the military junta and therefore
did not apply sufficient pressure," said another protester, Haw Thar.

The LDP, which ruled Japan almost without break since 1955, promoted trade
and dialogue with Myanmar, fearing a hard line would push the junta
further into the clasps of China, its main political and economic partner.

New-York based Human Rights Watch called on Japan to undertake an urgent
policy review on Myanmar and to consider supporting targeted sanctions.

"Now is the time for Japan to revise its foreign policy and make promotion
of human rights a central pillar," wrote director Kenneth Roth in a letter
to new Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. "Burma is a very good place to
start."

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

September 18, Human Rights Watch
Burma: Japan’s New Administration Should Review Burma Policy
Public Pressure and Targeted Sanctions needed on Rangoon

Tokyo,– The new Japanese government should undertake a thorough review of
Japan’s policies designed to promote human rights in Burma, Human Rights
Watch said in a letter today to the newly inaugurated foreign minister,
Katsuya Okada.
“The past Japanese government promised to promote human rights, but that
didn’t really happen in terms of concrete and visible actions,” said Kanae
Doi, Tokyo director at Human Right Watch. “The new government should make
human rights a central pillar of Japanese foreign policy, and Burma is a
good place to start.”

In the letter, Human Rights Watch said that Japan’s current policy toward
Burma, focusing on dialogue and aid, has done little to improve human
rights and in some cases has even been counterproductive. To help bring
meaningful changes in Burma, the letter says, Japan should reconsider the
idea that conciliatory talk alone will somehow change the Burmese military
leadership’s plans, and instead make more effective use of diplomacy,
sanctions and aid.

On diplomacy, Human Rights Watch recommended that Japan consider
establishing a Burma Contact Group or some form of multilateral grouping
in close contact with the United States, to meet and discuss regularly
diplomatic engagement with the Burmese government on a range of issues.
Such a group could help converge views and policies of China, India,
Thailand, Indonesia, and others, gradually minimizing the ability of
Burma’s military government to play states off against each other.

On sanctions, Human Rights Watch urged Japan to impose targeted financial
sanctions as part of a coordinated approach to put maximum pressure on
Burma’s leaders, in line with those imposed by the US, the European Union,
Switzerland, Australia, and Canada.

Regarding humanitarian aid, Human Rights Watch called for increased
humanitarian aid to meet the acute needs of the Burmese people, but also
urged Japan to realize that the Burmese government should use its
extensive revenues from oil, natural gas, gems, and timber to meet the
needs of its own population. Donors should stress the importance of
transparency and accountability in the delivery of humanitarian aid,
including taking approaches that strengthen civil society rather than the
existing corrupt power structures, and that respond to the views and needs
of ordinary people.

“Japan has long been reluctant to exert pressure on Burma’s senior
leadership,” Doi said. “Now is the time for Okada to consider a stronger
principled approach. Coordinated, targeted pressure with other states can
bring about human rights improvements in Burma.”

To read the letter from Human Rights Watch to Japanese Foreign Minister
Katsuya Okada, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/17/letter-japan-foreign-minister-katsuya-okada-burma-policy-review

more information, please contact:
In Tokyo, Kanae Doi (Japanese, English): +81-3-5282-5160; or +81-3-5282-5162
In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1-212-216-1213; or +1-646-291-7169
(mobile)
In Washington, DC, Tom Malinowski (English): +1-202-612-4358; or
+1-202-309-3551 (mobile)
In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-20-7713-2767; or +44-7908-728-333
(mobile)