BurmaNet News, October 6, 2009

[Editor]

October 6, 2009 Issue #3813


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Ethnic Nationalities Council chair clarifies groups’ position
DVB: Education in Burma ‘propagandist’

ON THE BORDER
Kachin News Group: KIO trying compromise formula with Burma junta

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Experts warns against rumors on possible money inflation from new
currency

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: HRW urges Australia to review Burma policy

OPINION / OTHER
The Age (Australia): Sanctions on Burma have a role to play – Alison
Vicary and Sean Turnell
The National (United Arab Emirates): Thai refuge offers hope for Muslims
of Myanmar – Tom Spender



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 6, Mizzima News
Ethnic Nationalities Council chair clarifies groups’ position – Nem Davies

New Delhi – The Chairman of the Ethnic Nationalities Council in exile, a
coalition of ethnic political organisations, on Monday made it abundantly
clear that the Council’s position does not support the Burmese military
junta’s 2010 elections plans.

The clarification by Khu Hte Bu Phe, Chairman of the ENC, came days after
a letter sent in the name of the Council to US Senator James Webb, a
strong advocate of engagement with the Burmese regime, before hosting of a
Congressional hearing on Burma.

The letter, signed by the Secretary General of the ENC and dated September
28, explained to the US Senator of ENC’s position on the Burmese junta’s
2010 election plans saying, in principle the ethnics in Burma do not
accept the 2008 constitution and the forthcoming 2010 elections.

But since the citizens of Burma will be forced to cast their votes, the
ENC’s short-term policy is to support eligible ethnic groups in running
for office in the 2010 in order to ensure that ethnics will have a voice
in Burma’s politics and to allow ethnics to participate in governance and
development of their homeland, the letter said.

In the long-term, the letter said, ENC hopes to work on developing a civil
society that could hold an elected government accountable to the people.

But the ENC chairman, in his statement on Monday denied knowledge of the
letter sent to Senator Webb and said the Council does not accept the
junta’s 2008 constitution and 2010 elections.

“It [the council] has already adopted a position that it will not oppose
or attack ethnic organizations and individuals wanting to contest the
elections, or the people who will vote in the elections,” said Khu Hte Bu
Phe.

“This is, therefore, to let all know that the letter to Senator Webb is
not the position of ENC
” Khu Hte Bu Phe said.

Meanwhile, on Monday the National Democratic Front, a coalition of ethnic
armed resistance groups, in a statement said the group reaffirms its
position expressly rejecting the junta’s 2010 elections, which will be
based on the 2008 constitution that is adopted by force and fraudulent
means.

The NDF said, the junta’s elections will neither resolve the political
crisis faced by the Burmese people nor will it lead to national
reconciliation and democracy but is a process that will turn Burma into a
further ‘failed state’ and allow continuance of the junta.

“We regard the reactionary political wind blowing at home and abroad,
viewing the 2008 constitution and the 2010 elections as 'something that is
better than nothing' and promoting the attitude to "take whatever
opportunity is available' as merely an attempt to sanitize the SPDC and
perpetuate the existence of military dictatorship,” said the NDF,
referring to the junta by its official name – State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC).

The statement also said, the junta’s threat to use force on ceasefire
groups, which have rejected their proposal to transform into Border Guard
Forces, shows the junta’s unwillingness to solve ethnic issues peacefully.

“We the NDF would like to earnestly urge the entire people to explicitly
oppose the 2010 elections of the SPDC
,” the statement said.

Similarly, the Karen National Union (KNU), the longest surviving insurgent
group in Burma, on Monday issued a statement saying the ENC’s letter to
Senator Webb, which is “appearing to state that the SPDC's elections due
in 2010 could present some kind of opportunity for change, has caused some
confusion.”

“We would like to reaffirm our statement of April 24, 2009 that elections
due in 2010 do not represent any kind of progress towards democratization
in Burma,” said the KNU, which is also a member of the NDF.

David Takarpaw, Vice-Chairman of the KNU and also holding the Chairmanship
of the NDF, in an interview said, the KNU as well as the NDF are in a
position to reject the junta’s 2008 constitution and the forthcoming 2010
elections as the junta has made no progress to prove that the elections
would be free and fair.

“With the 2008 constitution not being amended, political prisoners still
remaining behind bars, and no freedom of association and campaigning, the
elections cannot bring any progress,” David Takarpaw said.

He said, without such conditions being implemented, even if the ethnics
join the election, the nature of the 2008 constitution does not guarantee
the rights for ethnic groups.

The KNU also urged the international community not to be content regarding
the junta’s elections plans and not to “wait and see” as the election plan
will only escalate repression and instability.
____________________________________

October 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
Education in Burma ‘propagandist’ – Francis Wade and Htet Aung Kyaw

Burma’s education system focuses too much on testing and curriculum
material is strictly controlled by the military government, according to
an exiled Burmese education expert.

Burma yesterday took part in events to mark International Teachers’ Day,
with an award ceremony held for teachers and education officials in the
capital Naypyidaw. Events were also held abroad for exiled Burmese
teachers.

“We didn’t have a chance to celebrate something like this in Burma because
there was no teachers’ association,” said a teacher attending the event in
Thailand’s Mae Sot.

According to the National Health and Education Committee (Burma), the
Burmese government spends an estimated 1.5 percent of gross domestic
product (GDP) on health and education.

A report released last year by the Australia-based Burma Economic Watch
said that illiteracy in rural areas is now twice as common as it was under
British rule, which ended in 1948.

Teachers in Burma are forced to follow a strict policy on what they can
and cannot teach, according to the director of the Thailand-based Human
Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB), Aung Myo Min. Furthermore,
participatory learning does not exist.

“Students are not encouraged to create dialogue between themselves and
teachers,” he said. “It’s all about exams and being tested.”

“A lot of education material focuses on how good the government is. The
military claim to teach human rights, but what it ends up being is
teaching about the responsibility of citizens to respect the military.”

A teacher in Burma’s southern Irrawaddy delta, which was hit by cyclone
Nargis last year, said that teachers earn only around 40,000 kyat ($US40)
a month.

“It is impossible for a family to survive nowadays without having an
income of 150,000 to 200,000 kyat [$US150-200] a month,” he said.

“Under these circumstances, teachers are being forced to find sources of
income from other jobs such as private tutoring.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 6, Kachin News Group
KIO trying compromise formula with Burma junta

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), one of the largest ethnic
armed groups in Northern Burma is trying to work out a compromise formula
with the Burmese military junta over the issue of transforming its armed
wing, said KIO officials.

The regime is in no mood to compromise on its proposed Border Guard Force
(BGF). However, the KIO will continue negotiating with the military junta
through dialogue, Dr. Lahkyen La Ja, General Secretary of the KIO in the
Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State told KNG
today.

Since April, the KIO has been under mounting pressure to convert its
armed-wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) to the Burmese Army
controlled BGF on a battalion level by the junta.

The KIO, on the other hand has proposed to the junta that it wants to
transform the KIA to a brigade level self-governed Kachin Regional Guard
Force (KRGF). It also desires direct participation in administration, the
legislature and judiciary of the new Kachin State government to be formed
after the 2010 elections.

On the BGF, Dr. La Ja, one of the key policy makers of the KIO told KNG
that the highest level of compromise that the KIO is willing to make with
the junta is transforming KIA to KRGF.

If a compromise formula does not emerge, the KIO will not start a war
against the junta but will keep negotiations between them open, added the
KIO General Secretary.

For the moment in terms of self-defence, the KIA is prepared and on  high
military alert for a possible offensive by the Burmese Army in its
territory in Kachin State and Northeast Shan State, said Dr. La Ja.

The KIO, led mostly by educated Kachins supported the junta-run
Constitutional Referendum and approved the junta-centric new constitution
in May, 2008.

Dr. La Ja said, neither the junta nor the KIO compromised in the eight
meetings it had over either side’s demand. However they may meet before
the end of October.

According to the junta's deadline, all ethnic ceasefire groups in the
country have been given till October 31 for changing their armed-wings to
the junta-proposed BGF.

Given the deadline,  the KIO/KIA and other ethnic ceasefire groups in Shan
State--- the United Kachin Land Army (UKA), United Wa State Army (UWSA),
Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) and Mongla-based National Democratic
Alliance Army (NDAA), who rejected the BGF are preparing to defend
themselves against the Burmese Army, said their sources.

At the same time, China is also setting up new refugee camps for Burmese
in the country's northwest Yunnan province close to the Burma border since
last month.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 6, Xinhua
Experts warns against rumors on possible money inflation from new currency

Yangon -- Monetary experts in Myanmar Tuesday warned against rumors about
possible monetary inflation from recent introduction of a new denomination
of 5,000-Kyats currency, alerting the people not to follow the rumors to
affect the rise of commodity prices.

"The putting into circulation of the new higher-value currency banknotes
would not bring about inflation but to facilitate trading transaction in
higher value," the experts said in a bid to ease the public worry.

The experts urged people to trade with awareness and keep normalcy to
prevent the commodity prices from rising.

The experts cited the lesson that unscrupulous businessmen raised sharply
the prices of construction materials after storm last year, creating
inflation in the post-Nargis period.

According to market survey, daily trading is running normally after the
introduction of the new currency notes.

The Central Bank of Myanmar started on last Friday to put a new
denomination of currency notes of 5,000-Kyats into circulation, which is
five times higher in face value than that of 1,000 Kyats last introduced
in November 1998, adding to the existing currencies in use in the public.

The bank authorities' move is said to facilitate high-value transactions
as trade volume of the country grows along with the momentum of its
economic growth and boost its flow of the existing currencies.

Myanmar is a country with its people using cash more than cheques.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 6, Mizzima News
HRW urges Australia to review Burma policy – Mungpi

New Delhi – In the wake of the announcement by the United States of its
new Burma policy, Human Rights Watch on Monday urged Australia to review
its policy towards the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation.

Australia currently has an arms embargo, targeted financial sanctions for
selected military generals and their relatives. However, the HRW in its
letter to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith urged Australia to effectively
continue in its engagement approach – Diplomacy, Sanctions, and Aid.

“Australia already has a very good policy on Burma, but we are urging them
to take an initiative on a multilateral level like in the United Nations
and other international arena,” David Scott Mathieson, Burma researcher at
the HRW, said.

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of the HRW in his letter said, in order
to have effective and meaningful engagement with Burma, Australia must be
principled and should not be used by the junta to buy time.

The HRW also urged Australia to appoint a special envoy to Burma, so as to
be able to enhance dialogue with the Burmese generals as well as other
regional and international stakeholders.

On sanctions, HRW said Australia needs to make it more effective by
updating and enlarging the list of individuals targeted for financial
sanctions.

“The current Australian sanctions, like the arms embargo is really good.
But the targeted financial sanctions need to be updated and should be
enlarged to include companies and business enterprises that are supporting
the junta,” Mathieson said.

But the HRW said while sanctions are imposed on the military generals,
Australia should increase its humanitarian aid to the Burmese people as
they are facing a humanitarian crisis.

However, the HRW cautioned that as the Burmese military junta is making a
lot of profit from the sale of the country’s natural resources,
humanitarian assistance should not undermine the ability of the Burmese
junta to contribute to the needs of the people.

“Donor discussions with the SPDC over the provision of humanitarian
assistance should not come in the way of the government's ability to
contribute substantially to such assistance,” Roth said referring to the
Burmese junta with its official name of State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC).

To make matters simple and clear, the HRW said humanitarian assistance
should not have any political agenda as the purpose of humanitarian aid is
“to keep people alive and healthy”.

“No one should expect humanitarian aid itself to have a significant
political effect in opening up the country or changing the government's
policies,” the HRW said.

But donors should stress on the importance of transparency and
accountability in delivering humanitarian aid, including the need for
approaches that strengthen civil society that respond to the views and
needs of ordinary people.

The HRW’s letter came days after the US announced its new policy on Burma.
Under the new policy, the US said its fundamental objectives have not
altered, but it will use a different tactic using both ‘engagement’ and
‘sanctions’.

The US said it will directly engage the Burmese regime while maintaining
the existing sanctions with a provision to scale down or tighten it
depending on the Burmese regime’s response to the US’s concerns.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 6, The Age (Australia)
Sanctions on Burma have a role to play – Alison Vicary and Sean Turnell

Burma's sorry state is the fault of the regime, not economic sanctions.

IN RECENT times, much debate has taken place in Washington, Canberra and
elsewhere on the issue of economic sanctions on Burma. It is an issue that
tends to polarise opinion, but lately something of a groundswell of
opposition to sanctions has gained momentum. Much of this opposition is
sincere, some of it is self-serving, but the sum of it is wrong.

The opposition to sanctions coalesces around a number of issues, one of
which is the implicit idea that somehow sanctions are responsible for
Burma's poverty.

Once the richest country in South-East Asia, Burma is now by far the
poorest. But this disastrous turnaround has nothing to do with the
sanctions imposed on Burma's military regime by the United States, the
European Union, Canada, Australia and a number of other like-minded
countries.

It does, however, have everything to do with the chronic economic
mismanagement by the military regimes that have ruled Burma since 1962.
For nearly five decades now, Burma's military apparatus has controlled and
plundered the country's economy and natural resources, while it has
simultaneously dismantled, blocked and undermined basic market
institutions.

Most of Burma's leading corporations are owned by the military, and the
country is ranked in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions
Index as the second-most corrupt in the world. Burma's military regime has
created an environment in which genuine transformative economic growth —
of the sort that has transformed its neighbours and peers — is not
possible.

Many of Burma's neighbours are not shining liberal democracies as we know,
but they are mostly governed by rulers who at least recognise that their
own advantage grows with that of their countries. These governments are
not above behaving as predators, but they avoid killing the economy upon
which they feed. Burma's Government, by contrast, is a simple-minded
looter, destroying what it can neither create nor understand.

Burma attracts little in the way of foreign investment, and what does
enter is strongly concentrated in the gas and oil sectors, and other
extractive industries. Burma has recently emerged as a significant
regional exporter of natural gas, but so far this windfall has done little
good for the country.

Indeed, it has fuelled something of a "resources curse" of the sadly
familiar pattern — financially entrenching Burma's regime (which keeps
the gas revenues offshore for its own use) and generating an array of
"national prestige" projects. These include Burma's new administrative
capital (called Naypyidaw — Burmese for "abode of kings"), the purchase
of a nuclear reactor from Russia and, perhaps most worryingly of all, the
recent purchases of arms and unknown capacities from North Korea.

The arguments against sanctions on Burma are routinely based on the idea
that the encouragement of business will support an alternative centre of
power beyond the regime, and the emergence thus of a "business class" as a
force demanding change. But an alternative base of power via business
clearly depends upon who controls this business — and in Burma this is
none other than the state itself.

Significant export earners such as gas, petroleum, precious stones and
metals, teak and seafood products are all controlled by the state. Simply,
the military state's careful control over the investment of private
capital in these sectors precludes their emergence as challengers to the
political status quo.

The financial sanctions levelled against Burma by the US, EU, Canada,
Australia (which limits access to our financial systems by Burma's
military regime, and named individuals connected to it) are
extraordinarily well-targeted.

The average person in Burma has no access to a bank account, much less a
need or desire to engage the international financial system. This is not
true for the senior members of the military or the rent-seeking elite
connected to them. As such, the denial of access to Western financial
systems to this group sends precisely the right signal, to precisely the
right people.

However one might agree or disagree over their original imposition, the
economic sanctions now in place constitute potent "money in the bank" that
can be spent in response to genuine reform in Burma in the period ahead.

Lifting economic sanctions now would not only embolden Burma's present
reform-shy regime, but also greatly deleverage the ability of the US,
Australia and like-minded countries to influence future events.

Changing Burma's circumstances will primarily be a function of events
internal to the country, and at the hands of domestic constituencies that
recognise the incentives for change. In the meantime, the rest of the
world can best promote these incentives, and best allow their realisation,
by promising to reward the eventual emergence of the policies and
institutions that underlie our own liberty and prosperity. The people of
Burma deserve nothing less.

Dr Alison Vicary and Dr Sean Turnell are co-editors of the Macquarie
University journal Burma Economic Watch.
___________________________________

October 6, The National (United Arab Emirates)
Thai refuge offers hope for Muslims of Myanmar – Tom Spender

Mae La Camp, Thailand – Spread along a series of hillocks under a huge
rocky outcrop, the Mae La refugee camp presents a peaceful panorama of
closely-packed thatched roofs amid the dense jungle.

But Mae La’s mellow aspect belies both the trauma suffered by its
Myanmarese inhabitants and its changing ethnic composition as growing
numbers of Myanmar’s Muslims, fed up with their position at the bottom of
the pile in the poverty-stricken country, seek a new life in Thailand –
and preferably further afield.

Mae La is the biggest of the nine camps for Myanmarese refugees on the
Thai border and, since a sweeping UN resettlement programme was launched
in 2005, has become the departure lounge for thousands of Myanmarese
heading for new lives in countries such as the United States, Australia
and Canada.

Amid the camp’s humble dwellings built by the refugees from tree trunks
and bamboo poles, Mae La’s main mosque stands out. The big two-storey
structure has painted concrete walls and a corrugate iron roof, and
Muslims in white robes, some of whom physically resemble Bangladeshis or
Indians, walk down a wooden staircase from the upstairs prayer hall
following lunchtime prayers.

“The number of Muslims arriving in Mae La is increasing,” said Kamal,
president of the mosque, a thin 43-year-old in a white T-shirt and dark
blue longyi, the sarong-like garment worn by Myanmarese men.

“Before Muslims were just coming here from Karen state. Now they also hail
from Rakhine, Mon and Yangon. Many of the young Muslims do not want to go
back. Here in the camp they discover more about the world and see a better
future for themselves and their children outside the country.”

Many among Mae La’s estimated 10,000-strong Muslim population have fled
not just the repressive Myanmar junta but also the hopelessness that
accompanies persistent persecution.

For Hassan, a 29-year-old from the former capital Yangon with dark skin
and thick black hair, the final straw came when he was arrested in the
wake of the failed monk-led “saffron” uprising in September 2007. A street
peddler of Thermos flasks and aluminium pots, he earned about US$1 (Dh3.7)
a day for himself, his wife and two children.

“Life was very hard and what I earned was not enough,” he said. “After
saffron, there was an 8pm curfew and anyone caught outside after that time
would be arrested. I was returning to my home one night and the train was
late so I was caught. I decided life was impossible and we left.”

He and his young family trekked along the Thai border, scurrying into the
jungle to avoid soldiers, before reaching Mae La.

“It was a terrible journey,” he said. “Now I just want to go abroad. I
will go anywhere the UN sends me.”

Shamsuddeen, 28, was a fisherman in the Ayeyarwaddy delta region until
Cyclone Nargis struck in May 2008, wiping out his village.

“After Nargis we had no idea what to do or where to live,” he said. “At
last I met a friend and he said the best place to find shelter was
Thailand. We just crossed the forest. We were afraid of encountering armed
groups and being shot. When we saw them we just had to run and go without
food.”

Now Shamsuddeen is one of 10 Muslims living in the mosque. He and Hassan
are among about 6,000 Mae La residents who have not yet been registered by
the UN, a vital first step on the path to resettlement.

Myanmar’s repressive ruling generals say the military government is
necessary to prevent different ethnic groups, which make up about a third
of the country’s population of 50 million, from declaring independence.
Its army, the Tatmadaw, has battled ethnic guerrillas in an off-and-on
civil war for decades, with the first refugees arriving in Thailand from
Myanmar’s neighbouring Karen state in 1984. Overall, about 2m Myanmarese
are thought to be living in Thailand, most illegally.

In June this year, Karen state was the scene of renewed fighting as the
Tatmadaw and its armed allies the Democratic Karen Buddhist Association
(DKBA), attacked Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) guerrillas. Some
5,000 villagers fled the fighting according to the Thailand Burma Border
Consortium (TBBC), which dishes out rations and other assistance to 76,000
Myanmarese in Thailand.

“The army makes people work for them so they cannot work for themselves,”
said Kamal. “We carry the army’s food and if we have no more power, they
just kick us off the edge of the mountain. If we get sick they leave us in
the forest. There are big problems in Karen state.”

In Myanmar, Muslims have been targeted by successive Myanmarese regimes to
divert attention away from its own failings, according to clerics and
rights groups.

“They incite anti-Muslim violence and then say Buddhists and Muslims are
fighting so the country needs the military junta to keep the peace,” said
a senior Myanmarese Muslim cleric, speaking in Bangkok on condition of
anonymity.

The government also refuses to issue national identity cards to many
Muslims, making it difficult for them to travel even within Myanmar,
graduate from university, set up businesses, buy property or find a job,
the cleric said.

The biggest Muslim populations in Myanmar are in Rakhine state on the Bay
of Bengal, where they form a centuries-old community known as the
Rohingya, and in Karen state.

“Rohingyas are perceived as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are not
accepted by the bulk of the Myanmarese population,” said Chris Lewa, the
director of the Arakan Project, which monitors the situation of Rohingyas
in Rakhine.

The refugees’ hopes for a new life are not unfounded. More than 50,000
Myanmarese refugees have been transferred out of Thailand since 2005,
according to Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok.

For Shamsuddeen, a high school graduate, he said the taste of life outside
Myanmar had rekindled his ambition. “There are fewer troubles in Mae La
and less fear,” he said. “I’m still young and I want to start my life. I
want to become an educated person and I definitely do not want to go back
to Myanmar.”