BurmaNet News, October 20, 2009

[Editor]

October 20, 2009 Issue #3822


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: US Charge d’Affairs meets with opposition leaders

ON THE BORDER
Indo-Asian News Service via Hindustan Times: Dhaka to protest Myanmar Navy
attack on its fishermen
Irrawaddy: One hundred DKBA soldiers defect to KNU
Irrawaddy: Junta Secretary 1 visits China
DVB: Kachin group sends troops for border guard training

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar, Thailand to build second bridge to boost border trade

ASEAN
AFP: Myanmar blocks ASEAN appeal for Suu Kyi amnesty
AP: Southeast Asia to have rights monitor
Irrawaddy: Exile groups to be present at Asean meet

INTERNATIONAL
Financial Times (UK): €35m EU aid signals fresh approach to Burma
DVB: Burma drops in press freedom index

PRESS RELEASE
AHRC: Two men and a woman are illegally jailed for allegedly getting money
from abroad – Urgent appeal case: AHRC-UAC-137-2009




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 20, Mizzima News
US Charge d’Affairs meets with opposition leaders – Myint Maung

New Delhi – The Charge d’Affaires from the United States Embassy in
Rangoon on Tuesday met with leaders from Burma’s primary opposition party
– National League for Democracy – to discuss the US’s new policy vis-à-vis
Burma, according to the NLD.
NLD spokesperson Nyan Win said US Charge d’Affairs Larry Dinger, the
highest ranking US diplomat in-country, and two other officials from the
US Embassy in Rangoon visited their office on West Shwegondine Street to
go over the new US policy on Burma.

“They explained to us that the US plans to maintain sanctions but will
also directly engage the military government. He [Dinger] also asked us of
the NLD’s stand on the new policy,” Nyan Win explained.

The meeting with the NLD central executive committee (CEC) members lasted
for about an hour, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (local time).

The session came as a follow-up to the meeting between US, United Kingdom
and Australian diplomats and detained party leader Aung San Suu Kyi on
October 9.

“The NLD welcomes the meetings and has a policy of working together with
the international community,” Nyan Win added.

On October 9, the Burmese junta granted detained pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi her request to meet with diplomats from the US, UK and
Australia in order to debate the impact and appropriate extent of a
sanctions policy.

The Nobel Peace Laureate in September delivered a proposal to junta chief
Senior General Than Shwe, offering her cooperation in working together to
ease sanctions on the country. She also requested Than Shwe to allow her
to meet with diplomats from the US, UK and Australia, which are currently
imposing sanctions against the regime.

Following the proposal, the junta arranged two meeting between the
detained Burmese democracy icon and the junta’s liaison minister, Aung
Kyi.

“Aung San Suu Kyi, during our meeting on October 16, sent a message to the
NLD CEC that she will not take any crucial decisions without first
consulting them,” Nyan Win said.

Since Aung San Suu Kyi’s meeting with the three diplomats, the NLD CEC, on
October 14, has also been visited by a Sweden-led delegation from the
European Union.

Washington has not maintained an official ambassador to Burma since the
country’s aborted 1990 general election, in which Suu Kyi’s NLD claimed a
clear victory.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 20, Indo-Asian News Service via Hindustan Times
Dhaka to protest Myanmar Navy attack on its fishermen

Dhaka -- Bangladesh, which is locked in a border conflict with its eastern
neighbour, has alleged that Myanmar Navy Monday attacked its fishermen.
Dhaka plans to lodge a formal protest with Yangon.

Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), the border guards, said it will lodge a protest
with Myanmar authorities against snatching of a Bangladeshi fishing boat
and nets by Myanmar naval force Sunday evening.

Rescued fishermen alleged that at least 10 armed navy men of Myanmar took
away their boat and fishing nets and left them in the sea though they were
fishing in Bangladesh waters.

The land border has been tense as Myanmar has ignored Bangladesh's
protests and has gone ahead with erecting a barbed wire fence along the
300 km border.

As per reports in Bangladeshi media, quoting official and intelligence
sources, there has been deployment of troops on both sides, movement by
naval ships and even readying of fighter jets.

Myanmar has rejected allegations of troops deployment on its side, calling
it "routine work", New Age newspaper said Tuesday.

Bangladesh has intensified patrolling along the frontier with
reinforcements of border guards.

"We have beefed up our patrol along Myanmar border and reinforced our
outposts there," BDR director general Maj Gen Mohammad Mainul Islam told
the newspaper Monday.

Dhaka has rounded up 44 Rohingyas, the Muslim tribals who fled Myanmar as
the authorities in Myanmar's bordering region have launched a voter
enrolment drive.

Bangladesh has mounted diplomatic efforts and at the local level, sought
flag meetings by the army and border guards authorities.

However, Lt. Col. Mozammal Hossein, commanding officer of BDR's 42 rifles
battalion at Teknaf, said the Myanmarese border guards have "not yet
replied to BDR's proposal for a flag meeting to defuse border tension".
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Indo-Asian News Service.
For more information on news feed please contact Sarabjit Jagirdar at
htsyndication at hindustantimes.com

____________________________________

October 20, Irrawaddy
One hundred DKBA soldiers defect to KNU – Saw Yan Naing

More than 100 Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers have defected
to the Karen National Union (KNU) since June, following fighting and DKBA
forced recruitment, according to Karen sources.

About a dozen DKBA defectors returned to areas controlled by KNU Brigade 6
and Brigade 7 last week, according to KNU and DKBA sources on the border.

Some villagers in DKBA-controlled areas have also fled to KNU-controlled
areas to avoid forced recruitment by the DKBA, sources said.

Hsa Paw, a member of DKBA Battalion 5, said he was among a group of
soldiers who defected to the KNU because they do not want to fight against
fellow Karen in the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

The DKBA, now estimated to have some 6,000 troops, began a recruitment
campaign in June to increase the army to 9,000, prior to serving as a
border guard force under the military government.

Despite the agreement by DKBA leaders to transform into a border guard
force, some DKBA battalions have not yet agreed with the order, said Hsa
Paw.

He said many DKBA soldiers are unhappy about their leaders’ decision to
become a border guard force.

The DKBA is the largest ethnic cease-fire group to accept the regime’s
order to become a border guard force. It signed a cease-fire agreement
with the government in 1995.

The DKBA’s political wing, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Organization
(DKBO), has not yet said if it will participate in the 2010 elections.

“Once the DKBA split and defected to the Burmese regime, Khin Nyunt [a
former prime minister] told them not to become involved in politics. He
said politics is complicated,” said a DKBA businessman. He said he
believed the DKBA would focus on social development programs and business,
while serving as a border guard force.

“They [DKBA soldiers] will not all defect to the KNU at the same time,” he
said. “But there are many potential defectors.”

Meanwhile, the DKBA has increased its troops in Papun District where KNLA
Brigade 5 is based. Skirmishes have occurred almost daily, according to
Karen relief groups.

The Karen Office of Relief and Development (KORD) estimated that some
2,000 Karen villagers from six villages in Papun District have relocated
to a makeshift jungle camp known as Thapepan.

The DKBA has been recruiting at the camp, sources said, and it does not
allow villagers to leave the camp area in an attempt to sever their
connection with the KNU.

Many villagers want to escape from the camp, said Maw Law, a KORD relief
worker.

____________________________________

October 20, Irrawaddy
Junta Secretary 1 visits China – Wai Moe

One of the Burmese military government’s leading generals, Secretary 1 Gen
Tin Aung Myint Oo, flew to Nanning in southern China on Monday, the first
official visit between the two countries since the Kokang conflict in
August sent some 37,000 refugees flooding into Yunnan Province.

Burma’s state-run daily, The New Light of Myanmar, reported on Tuesday
that Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is quartermaster general of the Burmese armed
forces, and his delegation were seen off at Naypyidaw Airport by junta
chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, his No 2 Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and No 3 Gen Shwe
Mann.
Burma’s Secretary 1 Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo (left) meets Chinese
Vice-Premier Li Keqiang in Nanning, southern China, on Oct. 19, 2009.
(PHOTO: Xinhua News Agency)

China’s state-run press reported that Beijing had vowed to work with Burma
to ensure stability on the Sino-Burmese border.

“China and Myanmar should make efforts together to strengthen exchanges
and cooperation, as well as safeguard stability on the border areas for
the sake of the fundamental interests of the two peoples,” China’s
Vice-Premier Li Keqiang told Tin Aung Myint Oo, according to a report in
the Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.

Tin Aung Myint Oo seems to be handling the regime’s relations mission with
China. On September 28, he represented the junta by attending a ceremony
in Rangoon marking the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former communist rebel who observes Sino-Burmese affairs
from China’s Yunnan Province, said Tin Aung Myint Oo’s trip would appear
to be a regular diplomatic trip rather than a military one, judging by the
fact that civilian ministers rather than military officers traveled with
him on the delegation.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Aung Kyaw Zaw said that Beijing
would have higher expectations over the Burmese army’s treatment of Kokang
and Chinese civilians because of the high-level nature of Burma’s
delegation.

According to Aung Kyaw Zaw, tensions remain high between the Burmese army
and the ethnic cease-fire groups along with the border as Burmese light
infantry battalions maintain their positions.

Min Zin, a freelance Burmese journalist who focuses on Sino-Burmese
relations at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies at the University of
California, Berkeley, said that the Burmese junta needs to offer a
guarantee to China that the Kokang conflict was an exception and that it
does not intend to wage all-out war against the ethnic groups along
China’s border.

“Otherwise, they will be in big trouble with China,” he said. “Also, after
[US Senator Jim] Webb's visit, China is losing its cool with the junta.”

Webb visited Burma in mid-August and met with Than Shwe and other key
ministers in Naypyidaw. The US senator reportedly talked with Than Shwe
about China’s influence in Burma. About a week after Webb’s visit, the
junta captured the Kokang capital of Laogai, effectively ending a 20
year-long ceasefire with the ethnic Chinese militia.

Also on the delegation on Monday was hardliner Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the
minister of information, who went to Beijing to attend a radio and TV
workshop for developing countries on October 14-17, according to The New
Light of Myanmar.

It also reported that the chief of the junta’s Spoke Authoritative Team,
Kyaw Hsan, met with China’s propaganda minister Liu Yunshan.

____________________________________

October 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Kachin group sends troops for border guard training – Aye Nai and Htet
Aung Kyaw

A Kachin ceasefire group in northern Burma has sent a number of cadets to
train with the Burmese army in lieu of becoming a border guard force, a
former spokesperson said.

The National Democratic Army-Kachin (NDAK) in June accepted a government
proposal to transform into a border militia, one of the first ceasefire
groups to do so.

A former NDAK spokesperson, Nguyen Tawnghawng, said that 10 cadets had
been sent to the Kachin state capital, Myitkyina, to receive officer
training at a Burmese army base.

He said the NDAK is preparing to set up three battalions for its border
guard force and aims to initiate the transformation before the end of this
year.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has been urging
ceasefire groups to transform in border guards and re-enter what it calls
the “legal fold” prior to the elections next year.

The government hopes this will consolidate support for it from the
country’s numerous ceasefire groups, many of whom hold tenuous truces with
the regime.

Many of the larger groups have however rejected the proposal, claiming the
transformation will significantly weaken them and bring them under direct
control of the government.

Burma’s biggest ceasefire group, the 30,000-strong United Wa State Army
(UWSA) yesterday reiterated its stance that it would only negotiate with a
civilian government elected next year.

A UWSA official told DVB that members of the group met with government
representatives in the Pangshang region of Shan state last week.

“It’s been about five or six days since we told [the government] that, but
no response has been made so far,” he said, adding that government troops
in the Wa region had been “restless” since the group first made clear its
stance.

The region was the scene of fierce fighting earlier this year between
Burmese troops and an ethnic Kokang armed group, rumoured to have been
supported by the UWSA.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 20, Xinhua
Myanmar, Thailand to build second bridge to boost border trade

Yangon -- Myanmar and Thailand will construct another friendship bridge to
connect two border trade towns of the two countries to boost bilateral
trade, sources with the Union of Myanmar Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(UMFCCI) said on Tuesday.

The bridge linking Myanmar's Myawaddy and Thailand's Maesot is estimated
to cost 400 million bahts (11.9 million U.S. dollars), the sources said.

About 5 km away from the old one, the new bridge, on completion,is
expected to raise bilateral border trade from 20 billion bahts (597.5
million dollars) to 40 billion bahts (1.195 billion dollars)once a special
economic zone on the Myanmar side is opened, the UMFCCI quoted the Thai
ministry of Commerce as saying.

Meanwhile, Myanmar and Thai businessmen met in Yangon last month to seek
ways of boosting trade between the two countries, proposing to cooperate
in some industrial sectors.

The areas of cooperation between the UMFCCI and the Thai Ministry of
Commerce cover the sectors of textile, pharmaceuticals, paper plant,
printing, agriculture, plastic and rubber, the sources said, adding that
some Thai counterparts would move to setup factories on the Myanmar side
and run their businesses with local staff.

Myanmar-Thailand bilateral trade hit 3.05 billion U.S. dollars in the
fiscal year 2008-09 which ended in March, according to the latest figures
of the government's Central Statistical Organization.

Of the total, Myanmar's export amounted to 2.655 billion U.S. dollars,
while its import stood 398.28 million dollars, enjoying atrade surplus of
2.25 billion dollars.

Thailand stood the first in Myanmar's foreign trade partner line-up during
the year, followed by Singapore, China, India, China's Hong Kong region,
Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

In 2007-08, Thailand also led as Myanmar's top trading partner as well as
top exporting country.

Thailand exports to Myanmar textile, shoes, marine products, rice, rubber,
jewelry, motor cars, computer and electronic accessories and vice versa,
while importing from Myanmar forestry products, marine products,
agricultural produces and natural gas.

____________________________________
ASEAN

October 20, Agence France Presse
Myanmar blocks ASEAN appeal for Suu Kyi amnesty

Singapore – Myanmar has scuttled a plan by fellow ASEAN members to issue a
public appeal seeking amnesty for detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu
Kyi, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.

"They rejected it two months ago. They rejected the idea," the Southeast
Asian diplomat told AFP just days before the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders hold their annual summit in Thailand this
weekend.

The source, who asked not to be named, said that while Suu Kyi's plight
could not be put on the formal ASEAN agenda, Myanmar could still be
discussed during a closed-door "retreat" in which some of the leaders
could call for her release.

They could also ask that her party be allowed to contest elections planned
for next year, the diplomat added.

The diplomat said he understood that a number of other countries backed
Myanmar's position that a public appeal for amnesty for Suu Kyi would
amount to interference in its domestic affairs.

Myanmar had vetoed previous efforts to use ASEAN meetings to openly
discuss Suu Kyi's fate.

ASEAN senior officials who met in Jakarta in August had agreed to work on
an amnesty call for the Nobel Peace laureate convicted in August for
allowing an American man stay in her lakeside home after he swam uninvited
to the compound.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi, who has spent around 14 of the past 20 years in
detention, got an extra 18 months' house arrest, which provoked
international outrage.

Last month, Myanmar judges rejected Suu Kyi's appeal against the sentence.

Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in
elections in 1990, but the junta has refused to recognise the result.

Myanmar's military rulers are planning elections next year as part of
promised democratic reforms, but critics have demanded that Suu Kyi and
her party should be allowed to participate.

As well as Myanmar, ASEAN also groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
____________________________________

October 20, Associated Press
Southeast Asia to have rights monitor – Denis D. Gray

Bangkok — Southeast Asian nations unveil a landmark human rights watchdog
this week, but critics charge that it will be both toothless and include
in its membership one of the world's worst human rights offenders —
military-ruled Myanmar.

Myanmar is sure to prove a burden again as the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations holds its annual summit, undermining the bloc's
international standing and efforts to forge free trade areas with the
United States and Europe.

"While ASEAN may try to move ahead, Burma remains the elephant in the
room. It absolutely undermines the spirit of what ASEAN could ever do,"
says Debbie Stothard, an activist with the Alternative ASEAN Network on
Burma, as the country is also known.

The new body, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, is
unlikely to set free Myanmar's 2,000 political prisoners, including
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, or curb other violations: It cannot
punish member nations, and focuses on promotion rather than protection of
human rights.

ASEAN leaders realize it's just a start but say the commission can be
given more teeth later.

And while members of the 10-nation bloc have recently escalated their
criticism of Myanmar, the ASEAN summit will again act by consensus, avoid
confrontations and maintain that the group's engagement approach to
Myanmar works better than the West's sanctions and threats.

The three-day conference, which begins Friday, will also include talks
with leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New
Zealand. Preliminary meetings begin Wednesday.

On the agenda are discussions on how to achieve a European Union-style
community by 2015, cooperation on education, food security and bio-energy
development and the signing of an ASEAN Declaration on Climate Change.

The Thai government has thrown a security cordon around the summit venue,
a beach resort 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Bangkok, to prevent
anti-government demonstrations.

Government spokesman Supachai Jaisamuth said Tuesday that about 18,000
policemen and soldiers would be deployed during the summit.

In April, protesters stormed an Asian summit in the seaside city of
Pattaya, shutting down the meeting and forcing the evacuation of several
leaders by helicopter and boat.

This time around, security forces have been empowered to impose curfews
and restrict freedom of movement around Cha-Am resort and Bangkok.

Myanmar, which joined the 42-year-old bloc in 1997 despite international
outrage, comes to the summit having recently released some political
prisoners and allowed Suu Kyi to meet with Western diplomats and a
government minister.

In a sharp break with former policy of shunning Myanmar, the U.S.
government has announced it would engage the junta in direct, high-level
talks while continuing its longtime economic sanctions.

But the ruling generals have also arrested more dissidents in recent
weeks, and made it clear that nobody will dictate their course, not even
its staunchest ally China, with which relations have soured since August
when the junta launched an offensive against ethnic minorities along the
Chinese border.

"Some powerful nations are resorting to various ways to pressure and
influence our nation under various pretexts. However, the (military)
government does not get frightened whenever intimidated," said junta
leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe last week.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month urged ASEAN to take a
tougher line with Myanmar. But in the end, ASEAN leaders are only likely
to prod their fellow member to accelerate its so-called "road to
democracy," which includes elections in 2010.

"It is obvious that ASEAN is incapable of making any positive political
change in the country. I don't have any high hopes," said Nyan Win,
spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party in Yangon,
Myanmar.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________

October 20, Irrawaddy
Exile groups to be present at Asean meet – Lawi Weng

Burmese exile Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will have their own
representative at the 15th Asean Summit to be held at Hua Hin this weekend
after pro Burmese government NGOs said they did not wish their
representative to discuss human rights issues, according to participants
at the final day of the Asean People’s Forum in Cha-am on Tuesday.

Debbie Stothard, the coordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma
(Altsean), said Burmese exile CSOs nominated their own representative
because the groups from inside Burma would not dare discuss human rights
issues and would withdraw their representative from such meetings.

Thailand will lead the inauguration of the Asean Intergovernmental
Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and representatives from all
participating countries are expected to discuss the human rights
situations in their countries, she said.

Khin Ohmar, the exile Burmese chairwoman of the Network for Democracy and
Development, confirmed that she has been chosen to represent the exile
CSOs at the summit.

The Burmese’s junta sponsored 15 members of NGOs, including the Union
Solidarity and Development Association, the Anti-Narcotics Association and
the Federation of Women’s Affairs at the nominating meeting yesterday.

The junta intends to nominate their personal representative at the Asean
meeting.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Kyaw Lin Oo, an exile CSO activist and
participant at the Asean People’s Forum said: “The Burmese government
wants to show the US and EU that it has its own representative for all the
people of Burma. But, they are afraid of being questioned by the US and EU
about whether their NGOs truly represent all the people in Burma.

“Thailand encouraged Burma to nominate a representative who can discuss
the field of human rights and help bring the Asean human rights charter
[AICHR] alive,” he said.

The Asean summit will be the first occasion the Burmese junta’s Prime
Minister, Thein Sein, can meet exile Burmese CSOs. Thein Sein will meet
with nine other Asean leaders on October 23.

Thein Sein threatened to boycott the last Asean meeting if Thailand
proposed Burmese exile groups have a representative at the Asean summit in
February.

Two exile Burmese representative organizations and Khin Ohmar were barred
from attending the February meeting.

Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia have nominated delegates who work in
the field of human rights to be their representatives at the Hua Hin
summit. The seven other countries including Burma have refused to nominate
delegates from the field of human rights, according to Kyaw Lin Oo.

Meanwhile, 10 CSOs have criticized Asean members for their lack of
transparency in nominating national representatives to the AICHR.

“While Asean may try to move ahead, Burma remains the elephant in the
room. It absolutely undermines the spirit of what Asean could ever do,”
Stothard told the Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday.

AP also quoted Nyan Win, spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy party in Rangoon, who said: “It is obvious that Asean is
incapable of making any political change in the country. I don’t have any
high hopes.”

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 20, Financial Times (UK)
€35m EU aid signals fresh approach to Burma – Tim Johnston

Bangkok – The European Union has announced an expansion of its aid
programme to Burma, reinforcing a western trend towards engagement with
the country.

The EU has pledged €35m towards a fund called LIFT – the Livelihoods and
Food Security Trust fund – a sum they hope that other donors, including
Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark will eventually
increase the total to some €100m.

For years, the west tried to isolate the Burmese regime in an attempt to
force it to improve its dismal human rights record and move towards
democracy, but the sanctions and the calls for the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi created little change inside the country.

A hint earlier this year that the United States was rethinking its
hard-line isolationism has provoked a cascade of new policies. The move
gathered momentum last month when Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of
State, said that although they were leaving their sanctions regime in
place, it would be accompanied by talks with the generals who run Burma.

The renewed willingness of the European Union to expand its assistance to
Burma also marks a significant change. In August, when a Burmese court
sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to a further 18 months of house arrest, the EU
reinforced its sanctions.

The EU has been the major source of funding for recovery after Cyclone
Nargis hit Burma in May 2008, providing some 60 per cent of the funds so
far, but that money has been overwhelmingly concentrated in the
worst-affected delta area, ignoring the terrible hardships that exist in
other areas of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Excluding LIFT, which is to run for five years, the EU’s Burma aid budget
for the year is $177m, down from $205m last year when aid was rushed out
for cyclone victims.

David Lipman, the EU regional ambassador, who has just returned from a
five-day visit where he met senior government and opposition figures, said
he had detected a new mood among the generals.

“I think the government is being a lot more cooperative than in the past.
They are basically engaged,” Mr Lipman told journalists on Tuesday.

The new fund will assist non-governmental organisations to expand the
assistance they have been providing to victims of Cyclone Nargis which
killed 140,000 people in the Irrawaddy delta.

“This covers more or less the whole country,” said Mr Lipman, including
such sensitive areas as Rakhine, Shan, Kachin and Chin States.

He emphasised that under the strict regulations governing EU aid to Burma,
none of the money would go directly to the government.

At $4 per head per year, Burma ranks alongside North Korea as the
recipient of the smallest amount of aid in the developing world, according
to the United Nations. Neighbouring Cambodia at $46 per head per year, and
Laos at $68 per head per year receive substantially more despite concerns
over their human rights records.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. Print a single copy of this
article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to
distribute to others.

____________________________________

October 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma drops in press freedom index – Francis Wade

The sentencing of Burmese journalists and bloggers in September last year
has pushed the country another spot lower in an annual press freedom
index.

Burma has ranked 171 out of 175 countries in the World Press Freedom Index
2009, released today by Paris-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans
Frontiers (RSF).

Vincent Brossel, from the RSF Asia desk, told DVB today that there had
been no evolution in Burma’s media environment over the past year, with
journalists still facing similar levels of intimidation, imprisonment and
censorship.

“It’s quite worrying because we are just one year before the elections and
there is no positive improvement,” he said. “Apart from the voting system,
getting access to media so that people can campaign is the most important
thing for us.”

He said however that reports published yesterday by DVB that revealed that
several interviews with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
party had been printed in weekly journals inside Burma was “an intriguing
development”.

Another brief interlude in the restrictions came earlier this year when
foreign journalists, along with domestic reporters, were allowed inside
the Rangoon prison courtroom where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was
standing trial.

Brossel said however that the coverage inside Burma was ineffective
because reporters “were mainly giving the government version” of
proceedings.

Burma is subject to draconian censorship regulations, and all printed
material is required to pass through the government’s Censorship Board
before publication.

The public airing of opposition views is a rare occurrence, and can often
lead to harassment of both the publisher and the interviewee.

The news followed shortly after Suu Kyi was granted a rare meeting with
foreign diplomats, perhaps signaling a shift in policy from a notoriously
intransigent government.

The ruling junta appears to have warmed to the idea of dialogue between
itself and opposition groups, as well as what could turn out to be
unprecedented engagement between itself and the United States following a
recent review of US policy to Burma.

Brossel said that a signal of positive change from US engagement would be
for the junta to issue foreign journalists with visas “so they don’t have
to go in like tourists, which is the only way they can now work in Burma”.

The four countries that ranked below Burma in the idex were Iran,
Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

October 20, Asian Human Rights Commission
Two men and a woman are illegally jailed for allegedly getting money from
abroad – Urgent appeal case: AHRC-UAC-137-2009

While the government of Burma was releasing a few wrongly detained persons
from its jails in September, authorities were arresting and prosecuting
more. In this appeal the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) brings you
the details of the case against three persons who have been illegally
detained for allegedly receiving money from a group based abroad, and who
were being tried without evidence, even as the prisoner release was going
on.

CASE DETAILS:

In September the government in Burma released thousands of people from the
prisons, including a number of persons for whom the AHRC had previously
issued appeals (UAU-025-2009, UAU-023-2009). But at the same time other
cases were going on in the courts, including a case against Sein Hlaing,
Shwegyoe and Myint Myint Soe under the Unlawful Associations Act.

The Special Branch police arrested the three detainees back in March on
the grounds that they had received money from someone at a group based in
Thailand – someone who has been prosecuted in absentia. However the police
didn't have any firm material evidence against the accused. Instead they
held them in custody for almost six months and allegedly tortured them to
extract so-called evidence, which they presented to the court.

Even then, all that police presented was that about USD15,000 had
supposedly been transferred to the detainees from abroad – not for
political activities but for social welfare. This includes assisting the
families of people who had been imprisoned and transferred to jails in
remote parts of the country, so that the families could visit and take
them food and medicines, which are essential for long-term survival in the
jails of Burma.

When the case finally came to court in September, the lawyers for the
defendants pointed out that their clients had been kept in custody
illegally. Police could give no explanation. The investigating officer
refused to even say where he had interrogated them, on the grounds that it
is 'secret' information. Neither could he explain why it had taken more
than five months to lodge a case in the court, even though, as he
acknowledged, the accused should have been brought before a judge within
24 hours, then kept on remand.

The police could not, or refused to answer other basic questions about the
case, such as the date that it had been opened or who the officer was who
gave the order to start the investigation. They could not give any details
about the person in Thailand who had sent the money, even though these
facts are very important to the trial because he is the one who allegedly
belongs to the unlawful group on which the case hinges.

The case is continuing. Full details are provided in the sample letter
below, as usual.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

The AHRC has been documenting numerous cases that speak to what it has
described as Burma's 'injustice system'. Recent cases include that of a
man jailed for complaining about the electricity supply (UAC-133-2009), of
underage girls jailed after the police allegedly presented false evidence
about their ages to court and the judge failed to inquire after contrary
evidence was given (UAC-131-2009) and other cases including: UAC-125-2009,
UAU-024-2009, UAC-110-2009, UAC-107-2009UAU-018-2009.

Many more cases can be accessed by going to the appeals homepage and
typing 'Burma' or 'Myanmar' into the search box:
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/. Two special reports have also been issued in
the article 2 periodical, 'Saffron Revolution imprisoned, law denied'
(vol. 7, no. 3, September 2008) and 'Burma, political psychosis and legal
dementia' (vol. 6, no. 5-6, December 2007). There are also a number of
related sites, including the AHRC Burmese-language blog, Pyithu Hittaing,
and the 2008 AHRC Human Rights Report chapter on Burma.

For more information, visit: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3292/