BurmaNet News, January 7, 2010

[Editor]

January 7, 2010, Issue #3871


INSIDE BURMA
BBC News: Burmese whistle-blowers sentenced to death
DVB: ILO to be ‘more proactive, not reactive’ in Burma
Narinjara News: Sittwe monks denied religious titles by authorities

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: Myanmar election could spark rise in refugees

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Regime privatizing to retain control of resources
Mizzima News: Sanction-hit Air Bagan keen to launch new routes

DRUGS
Khonumthung News: Burmese regime sets up opium factory on border

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Ban notes no election date set by Than Shwe
New York Times: The producers toss some wild cards into the mix

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Looking for an election in Burma's political fog – Ba Kaung

STATEMENT
RSF: Burma: Appalling 20-year jail sentence for Democratic Voice of Burma
woman video reporter



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 7, BBC News
Burmese whistle-blowers sentenced to death

Two Burmese officials have been sentenced to death for leaking details of
secret government visits to North Korea and Russia, the BBC has learned.

The officials were also found guilty of leaking information about military
tunnels allegedly built in Burma by North Korea, a source in Burma said.

A third person was jailed for 15 years, the source added.

The military rulers in Burma (Myanmar) have so far made no public comments
on the case.

The source told BBC Burmese that Win Naing Kyaw, a former army major, and
Thura Kyaw, a clerk at the European desk of Burma's foreign ministry, had
been sentenced to death by a court in Rangoon on Thursday.

They were found guilty of leaking information about government visits to
North Korea and Russia, which reportedly took place in 2008 and 2006.

The two men were also convicted of leaking details of a network of tunnels
reportedly being built in Burma.

It is thought the tunnels were built to house communications systems,
possible weapons factories and troops in the event of an invasion.

The third man, Pyan Sein, was given 15 years in prison on Thursday.

Burma still has capital punishment, but it has not carried out executions
in recent years.

____________________________________

January 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
ILO to be ‘more proactive, not reactive’ in Burma – Naw Say Phaw

The International Labour Organisation is looking to change its approach to
dealing with issues of child soldiers and forced labour in Burma, with a
top-level ILO official to visit the country next week.

The Burmese army has been accused by rights groups of being one of the
world’s leading recruiters of child soldiers, deemed illegal under both
international law and Burmese domestic law.

According to Steve Marshall, ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, the UN body
continues to receive complaints of child soldier recruitment, despite
holding a ‘Supplementary Understanding’ with the Burmese junta to stop use
of underage soldiers.

Last year the ILO received 83 complaints of child soldier recruitment,
Marshall said, while 46 children had been officially discharged by the
army. The total number of complaints received by the organization since it
began its complaints mechanism in February 2007 stands at more than 120.

The ILO deputy director general is due to visit Burma next week “with a
view to signing a 12-month extension of the supplementary understanding,”
Marshall said, adding that he will meet with the government’s Committee
for the Prevention of Underage Recruitment.

He also said that the ILO is looking to work with the Burmese government
“to get a joint action plan which would allow a more positive, proactive
approach to the problem [of child soldiers and forced labour], rather than
the current reactive approach”.

A grassroots legal advocacy group, Guiding Star, said last month that use
of child soldiers in Burma was increasing after incentives were offered to
troops to boost battalion numbers. The military-ruled country already has
one of the highest troop-civilian ratios in the world.

Another domestic group tackling child soldier recruitment in Burma, the
Human Rights Defenders and Promoters network (HRDP), told DVB yesterday
that two 16-year-old males were abducted by an army sergeant last month in
Irrawaddy division’s Bogalay township and sent to a military centre in
Rangoon.

The incident was reported to the ILO yesterday, Maung Maung Lay of the
HRDP said, adding that the group assisted in a total of 46 child soldier
cases in 2009, and managed to return home around 20 children.

“There is a greater chance of bringing a kid back home quickly while he’s
still in a recruitment centre but once the kid is posted in active duty in
the army then it becomes more difficult,” he said.

____________________________________

January 7, Narinjara News
Sittwe monks denied religious titles by authorities

Sittwe: Prominent monks from Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, have not
had any religious titles conferred upon them by the Burmese military
authority in 2010, said one abbot from Sittwe.

"In Sittwe, there are many prominent and senior monks but none can be
conferred religious titles this year by the military authority due to the
involvement of monks in Sittwe in the movement against the military
government in 2007," the abbot said.

The Burmese military government issued Notification No. 1/2010 to confer
religious titles on prominent monks inside and outside of the country on
the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of Burma's independence.

Many religious titles, including Ganthadhura Pariyatti Lecturer Sayadaws,
Vipassana Dhura Patipatti Kammathana cariya Instructor Sayadaws, and
Roving Dhamma Preachers were conferred to monks, but no one from Sittwe
was included on the list.

"Five monks from Arakan State have been conferred religious titles this
year, but no monks from Sittwe. Even though the military government
conferred the religious titles to the monks in Arakan State, they are just
lower level titles, not upper level," the monk said.

Among the monks conferred titles are two monks from Maungdaw and Minbya
who received the title Maha Thatdama Zawdiga for their missionary work in
the frontier areas, but these monks are close to the military authority.

A monk from Maungdaw said, "The title conferred by the military government
to the monks is not related to the Buddhist religion, it is related to
politics. Those who are working and supporting the military government can
get titles easily from the government. The monk from Maungdaw received the
title as he was working for the government."

The government authority has neglected to confer the highest religious
title on any monks from Sittwe since 2007, when the Saffron Revolution
protests took place in Burma.

In Sittwe, there are over 300 monasteries and at least one monk from each
monastery participated in the protests in 2007. Moreover, monks from
Sittwe continued to attempt to stage demonstrations against the military
government after the Saffron Revolution protests were stopped.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 7, Reuters
Myanmar election could spark rise in refugees – Ambika Ahuja and Jason Szep

Mae Sot, Thailand – The rubbish dump outside the Thai town of Mae Sot
steams with rancid rotting fish and other debris, a squalid haven for
hundreds of refugees from Myanmar that aid groups say could swell in size
this year.

Aid groups are bracing for a rise in refugees from military-ruled Myanmar
into neighboring Thailand and China ahead of its first parliamentary
elections in two decades this year, potentially straining ties with its
neighbors and worsening crowded refugee camps in Thailand.

Some who fled to Thailand are living in dire conditions. In one
settlement, about 300 migrants who crossed illegally into Thailand have
taken refuge next to mounds of garbage outside Mae Sot, about 5 km (3
miles) from the border.

Life amongst the rubbish beats what they had back home, they said. Some
ethnic minorities have faced a military campaign marked by murder, forced
labor, rape and the razing of villages.

"I want to stay here and save some money because I can keep what I earn
and no one harasses me, even if the job is hard and dirty," said Sen Sen,
a 38-year-old ethnic Karen.

People run out of makeshift shacks and line up neatly whenever garbage
trucks arrive, waiting to dig through the rubbish as it is unloaded in
search of goods for recycling. Barefoot boys and girls sort through piles
of trash, occasionally distracted by the broken toys and mud-caked dolls
they uncover.

Sen Sen earns about 100 baht ($3) a day selling plastic, which she said
was enough to live on. In Myanmar she had to give almost all the money she
managed to earn to military officers as "protection money" and taxes.

The Myanmar junta has long been accused of persecution of the country's
ethnic minorities, sparking a continuing exodus. Some 140,000 refugees
live in official camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to the
U.N. refugee agency.

An estimated 37,000 fled into China in August after government forces
routed fighters loyal to a Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group, earning
Myanmar's generals a rare rebuke from China, a crucial ally and investor.

Thousands fled into Thailand in June when the army clashed with the Karen
National Union (KNU), a rebel group that has been seeking independence in
the eastern hills bordering Thailand for the past 60 years.

REBEL FIGHTING

Aid workers say the number of refugees from the former Burma has slowed in
recent months but the situation is delicate, with continued low-intensity
fighting between KNU rebels and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA),
aligned with the military.

The fighting, they say, suggests little progress in resolving one of the
world's longest-running insurgencies, raising the prospect of more
instability and more refugees. It also underscores the fragility of the
government's ceasefire agreements with more than a dozen armed ethnic
groups.

"Up here there is fighting every week," said David Eubank, a relief worker
in Myanmar's northern Karen State and director of the Free Burma Rangers,
a Christian group that helps refugees inside Myanmar. He said there were
no large-scale offensives yet but that Myanmar's military was re-supplying
its camps.

Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, an exile
group in close contact with Myanmar's ethnic leaders, said forces loyal to
the government were also building up supplies after deadly clashes last
month.

"The regime's troops in Karen State are gathering food and other
supplies," he said.

According to his sources, KNU troops ambushed a regime battalion on
December 16, killing a tactical commander and 14 solders and wounding 17.
This could not be independently verified.

Three days later, two government soldiers were killed and four wounded in
clashes in a rebel-held area controlled by the KNU's sixth brigade.

ELECTION CRITICISED

Myanmar is to hold its first parliamentary election in two decades this
year but critics already dismiss it as a ploy to legitimize and extend
almost 50 years of military rule.

The regime wants ethnic groups to take part, and their support would help
the junta claim the country was fully behind its elections. Critics also
say the regime is trying to forcibly recruit rebel fighters for an
army-run border patrol force.

They say Myanmar's army is seeking to neutralize the Karen and other
ethnic minorities, in part to seize rich natural resources for logging and
mining, a crucial revenue source for the impoverished country, Southeast
Asia's second largest.

Many of the ethnic groups, including predominantly Christian Karens, do
not trust the military and its ethnic Burman leaders who they have long
resented and feel they have nothing to gain by taking part in the
electoral process.

If they disarm and surrender hard-won autonomy, they could lose control
over lucrative trade in natural resources and, in some cases, in opium and
methamphetamines.

"The situation at the borders is expected to get worse as pressure will be
on the ceasefire groups to transform before elections," said Sally
Thompson, deputy director of Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an aid
agency that works at Thai government-run refugee camps.

"With the deadline looming for establishing border guard forces, we expect
to see an increase in new arrivals of refugees."

Tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar have been resettled in third
countries in recent years.

About two to three million migrants from Myanmar live scattered across
Thailand, many working illegally in low-paid jobs. Many may qualify for
refugee status, aid groups said.

Some are simply trying to escape grinding poverty.

"Things are bad there. They would rather live in Thailand on a rubbish
dump than return," said Ashin Sopaka, a monk who raises money to help
migrants at the border. "Sound sleep here, but not in Burma."

(Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja; Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by
Sugita Katyal)

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 7, Irrawaddy
Regime privatizing to retain control of resources – Wai Moe

As Burma gears up for elections to be held sometime later this year, the
country's military junta is moving ahead with plans to transfer ownership
of key industries to business firms closely associated with the ruling
generals.

On Wednesday, state-run newspapers reported that the No. 2 Mining
Enterprise, operating under the Ministry of Mines, signed a contract with
the privately owned DELCO Co Ltd on apportionment of tin and tungsten
quotas at the Kanpauk Mine in southern Burma.
Although little is known about the ownership of DELCO, the company is on
the UK’s financial sanctions list, along with 1,225 other businesses run
by senior military officials or their cronies. It is also one of four
private firms that recently received a Build-Operate-Transfer agreement
for hydro-power projects in Burma.

Some analysts have suggested that the junta has begun to privatize energy
generation as a way to address the country's electricity shortages.
Despite abundant energy resources, domestic power consumption lags far
behind neighboring countries due to a lack of infrastructure and decades
of economic mismanagement.

Increasing access to electricity is key to Burma's economic development.
At present, however, households in Rangoon and Mandalay receive just six
hours of electricity per day, while factories have power 12 hours a day.
People and businesses in other areas generally rely on their own
diesel-powered generators to meet their electricity needs.

On Dec. 31, the state-owned newspaper Myanma Ahlin reported that the
regime had awarded a major contract for construction of two hydro-power
plants to a company owned by Tay Za, Burma's richest businessman and a
close associate of Snr-Gen Than Shwe, head of the ruling regime.

On the same day, the official English-language mouthpiece, The New Light
of Myanmar, trumpeted the junta's far-sighted energy plans: “With the aims
of increasing the supply of more electricity and contributing to building
the industrialized nation, the Ministry of Electric Power No. 1 had
adopted the 30-year long-term electricity development strategic plan and
is implementing the hydro-power projects in line with the five-year
short-term plans.”

However, some observers say they suspect that the recent effort to
increase the country's energy capacity has more to do with the junta's
short-term goal of ensuring victory in this year's election.

“People are fed up with the electricity shortage. They can't even get
enough tap water because of the lack of electricity. If the military
government can solve this problem, people would appreciate it,” said a
Rangoon-based journalist who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Privatization of Burma's energy resources will also help to ensure that
the current elite is able to retain control of a key sector of the economy
after the election, when, under the new Constitution, elected local
governments will be allowed to manage and distribute electricity from
small- and medium-sized power plants.
By transferring ownership of these plants to companies run by leading
military figures or others closely connected with them, “the generals will
make sure that state firms are firmly in their grip before the election
and transition,” according to a Rangoon-based businessman.

The 2008 Constitution contains similar provisions granting states and
divisions the right to manage their mining and forestry resources.
However, since 2006, a growing number of state-run enterprises in these
two sectors have been handed over to private businesses.

According to official statistics, 380 small gold mines have been partly or
totally privatized in recent years, while more than 500 ruby and jade
mines in Shan State, Kachin State, Sagaing Division and Mandalay Division,
including the well-known Mogok and Mongshu mines, have come under private
ownership.

“Generally speaking, releasing the state’s grip on business is good for
the market economy and a part of Burma's economic liberalization. But the
problem is that everything is going into the hands of military enterprises
and cronies of the generals,” said a Burmese economic researcher in
Rangoon who asked to remain anonymous.

By retaining control over major enterprises in the post-election period,
the generals will also be able to exercise a huge influence over their
political successors, he added.

“For example, if the companies of the generals and their associates can
manipulate the electrical power sector, it will give them a stranglehold
over future governments,” he said.

With the generals running everything from airlines and media companies to
mines and hydro-power plants, many Burmese observers are skeptical about
the regime's claims that it is liberalizing the economy. They also point
to a lack of transparency as a further impediment to any improvement in
the country's long-term economic prospects.

“There is no systematic law regulating privatization. In every case, the
generals have simply issued orders granting ownership to a junta crony,”
said Aung Thu Nyein, a Burmese economic researcher based in Thailand.

This has invited comparisons to the situation in Russia, where post-Soviet
privatization 20 years ago concentrated the country's wealth in the hands
of a few dozen well-connected oligarchs.

“Privatization in Burma? Who is getting these companies? We must learn
from the lessons of Russia,” said a well-known economist in Rangoon.

____________________________________

January 7, Mizzima News
Sanction-hit Air Bagan keen to launch new routes – Min Thet

Rangoon – Air Bagan, owned by Burma's business tycoon Tay Za, is keen to
launch new air routes.

Tay Za, close to the junta leaders, is one of the business tycoons under
US economic sanctions.

"Due to economic sanctions (imposed by the USA and European Union
countries), we could not operate on certain routes. But in 2010-2011
during the tourist season, we want to try to operate on new routes, though
it cannot succeed if sanctions continue," said an Air Bagan officer, who
did not want to be named. The new routes that it is keen on are:
Rangoon-Bangkok and Rangoon-Singapore.

Although he did not mention the effects of sanctions on the airline, he
admitted that there have been problems in buying spare parts of aircrafts
as well as paying salaries to the airline staff through foreign banks due
to the sanctions.

Tay Za was described by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control
(OFAC) as "an arms dealer and financial henchman of Burma's [Myanmar’s]
repressive regime". After the brutal crackdown on the monk-led democracy
protests in Burma in 2007, the United States and European Union expanded
targeted sanctions on individuals and companies associated with the
Burmese military regime. These include bank-related sanctions and visa
ban. Htoo Trading Company Limited also known as the Htoo Group of
Companies, owned by Tay Za, is one the business companies that is targeted
under the sanctions.

Tay Za had called the sanctions "wrongful action" which were "heedlessly
imposed" and denied any links with arms deals, drugs or the black market.

Air Bagan is the airline in Burma believed to be with the biggest
investments. The exact figure of investment is not available.

In 2007, Air Bagan claimed to have spent over USD 1.5 million in overseas
training for Burmese pilots, engineers and cabin crew.

Today it launched its new route - Rangoon-Chiang Mai (Thailand).

"There were more than 80 Thai passengers in the flight. This is the first
flight (but not a scheduled flight). But we cannot yet say whether it will
be a successful route or not," a sales staff at the Air Bagan Office told
Mizzima over telephone.

There are a total of six aircraft -- two Fokker aircrafts, two ATR 42
(twin-turboprop, short-haul regional airliner built  in France and Italy
by ATR company) aircrafts and two ATR 72 aircrafts. In the domestic
sector, it claims to operate to 17 destinations including the main tourist
destinations such as Rangoon, Mandalay, Sittwe and Putao.

Due to the sanctions, Air Bagan withdrew the from Bangkok-Rangoon route
and in 2008, it stopped its Singapore route. Two of its aircrafts have
been grounded at Rangoon (Mingaladon) Airport for some time now.

____________________________________
DRUGS

January 7, Khonumthung News
Burmese regime sets up opium factory on border

The Burmese military regime has set up an opium factory in the
Indo-Myanmar border area as of November 2009.

“The opium factory has been built 30 miles from Tamu town, Sagaing
division. It is located on the Indo-Myanmar border area and all the
materials for construction were transported from eastern Myanmar in
military vehicles. It was monitored by an Indian insurgent group based in
the country’s northeast, who also used their own vehicles to go to the
place,” said a local in Tamu town.

After the factory building was put up 10 Burmese Army personnel are
guarding the area to prevent trespassing by civilians.

“Those 10 men were talking to each other in Chinese and Shan languages
while the construction was on. Soldiers stood guard to prevent outsiders
from entering the factory premises,” he added.

The factory can be seen from Tamu town. There are 10 houses around the
factory and 300 men of an Indian ethnic insurgent group along with 50
soldiers of the Burmese Army around the factory.

“We can see about 10 houses from our place.  An Indian ethnic rebel group
and an unidentified Burmese Army battalion are providing security,” said a
local in Tamu town.

The military government had started opium cultivation in Tidim Township
and Tawnzang Township last year, forcing some villagers to leave their
villages.

“The total area under opium cultivation in Tawnzang is about 2000 acres.
Now the regime is planning to have other opium fields in Phaisap village.
This is forcing villagers to leave their village for Tamu and Kaley
areas,” said a villager in Phaisap, who has already shifted to Khampat,
Tamu Township.

According to a report although the people in Tamu Township had known about
the opium factory coming up, they did not want to have it in their
township. But they could do nothing about it. They can only watch and try
to abstain from opium.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 7, Irrawaddy
Ban notes no election date set by Than Shwe – Lalit K Jha

Washington – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that he is
closely monitoring the situation in Burma, and Snr-Gen Than Shwe should
set clear deadlines and dates for the 2010 election.

Than Shwe recently was quoted in the Burmese media that a general election
would be held, but no date was announced.

“I have taken note of that report, and this is an encouraging one,” Ban
said. “But at the same time, I expect that there should have been a clear
and firm date when this election would be held.”

Ban was responding to question on Burma after his address to the Security
Council on Afghanistan.

“As I have made it quite clear in my meetings with Snr-Gen Than Shwe, and
other senior government officials of Myanmar [Burma], I have urged them to
first of all make it clear about all the electoral systems, and there
should be clearly set deadlines for the election,” he said.

Ban was asked about the selection of a new UN special envoy for Burma, a
post which has been vacant since Ibrahim Gambari was transferred to a new
position.

Inner City Press—a UN watchdog—had earlier reported that this post would
be shared by Ban's Chief-de-Cabinet, Vijai Nambiar, a former Indian
diplomat.

“I am also in the process of identifying a candidate who can take Mr.
Gambari's responsibilities,” Ban said. “I am not leaving this position
open.”

“Even during this time, either Mr. Gambari, or some other senior officers
within the Secretariat, are taking this job, and the responsibilities. You
should not worry about a gap, or vacancies, of our responsibility and our
commitment to see through the democratization process of Myanmar,” Ban
said.

____________________________________

January 7, New York Times
The producers toss some wild cards into the mix – Paula Schwartz

The Producers Guild of America, which like the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences jacked up the number of best picture nominees to 10 this
year, announced its picks Tuesday morning and the tea leaves are
immediately being read across Hollywood. Its choices, which usually go
mainstream, included the big studio releases “Avatar,” “Up in the Air,”
“Up,” and “Invictus,” and the smaller fare including “An Education,” “The
Hurt Locker,” “Inglourious Basterds” and “Precious.” “Star Trek” and
“District 9″ — two movies that picked up good reviews and good
returns at the box office but are considered long shots for Oscar
nominations — also made the cut.


The winner of the P.G.A.’s big trophy — the Daryl F. Zanuck Producer of
the Year award — has dovetailed with that of the Oscar best picture in 13
of 20 years, including “Slumdog Millionaire” last year. The finalists for
best animated movie are “Up,” “9,” “Coraline,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and
“The Princess and the Frog.” The documentary nominees are “Burma VJ,” “The
Cove,” “Sergio” and “Soundtrack for a Revolution.”

The voting is by the P.G.A. membership of 4,200 (as compared with the
Academy, which is about 6,000). The winners will be announced at the
organization’s gala on Jan. 24.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 7, Irrawaddy
Looking for an election in Burma's political fog – Ba Kaung

Burmese military supremo Than Shwe's reaffirmation in an Independence Day
speech on Monday of his plan to hold a general election this year failed
to clear away any of the political fog that has shrouded Burma for months
past.

Beneath the surface gloom, however, the dynamics among different political
camps inside the country is in motion, even if it is only barely palpable.

While elections seem inevitable this year, many opposition groups still
view them as a regime maneuver to further entrench military rule.

“If no change takes place before the election, the miseries of the country
will continue for the next 20 or 30 years,” said Win Tin, the outspoken
leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

This week, other NLD officials reiterated their commitment to the 2009
Shwegondaing declaration as a prerequisite for the election. The
declaration calls for a review of the controversial 2008 Constitution,
political dialogue and the unconditional release of all political
prisoners, including the party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

On Monday's Independence Day, thousands of families waited in vain for a
possible prisoner release. Not one was freed.

Echoing the NLD's political stand, ethnic leaders are also stressing the
importance of political dialogue aimed at national reconciliation prior to
the election.

“If the election is unilaterally held without national unity, then the
future of the country will remain bleak,” said Aye Thar Aung, an Arakanese
leader who is secretary of the opposition umbrella group, the Committee
Representing People’s Parliament.

In the absence of electoral laws and an election time frame, Than Shwe's
declaration that “the entire population has to make the correct choice”
rings hollow, even for some political groups who have announced their
willingness to participate in the election.

“Anyone expecting to contest the election is not allowed to do anything
yet,” said Thu Wai, a veteran politician and leader of the Democratic
Party, who last year announced his intention to participate.

Formed a few months ago without any registration, his party has the
support of three daughters of past political leaders of Burma: Mya Than
Than Nu, the daughter of Burma's first prime minister, U Nu; Nay Yee Ba
Swe, whose father was the late Prime Minister Ba Swe; and Cho Cho Kyaw
Nyein, the daughter of late Deputy Prime Minister Kyaw Nyein.

After the 1988 uprising, Thu Wai served as the chairman of the Democracy
Party, which was later abolished, and in the mid-1990s he was jailed for
his political activities.

Thu Wai's Democratic Party is one of the few political groups in Burma
that believe that calling for political dialogue with the regime is a pure
waste of time.

“If discussions are possible, it is good. But if they are not possible,
why should we be wasting time?” Thu Wai said. “Only in a legal parliament
can we secure the right to criticize what we don't like and to engage in
politics.”

Despite tight restrictions on political movements, a few other individuals
have been treated with tolerance by the military regime.

An opponent of economic sanctions, Aye Lwin, a 46-year-old former
political prisoner, started his own political group in 2005, together with
his two younger brothers, who also served jail terms for their views.

Diminutive and uncharismatic, Aye Lwin opened his office in the compound
of Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein in Rangoon in 2005. He now  claims to be carrying
out nationwide campaigns with a membership of 4,000 organizers, calling
for an end to economic sanctions and a smooth transition toward civilian
rule. Political dissidents inside Burma regard Aye Lwin as a close
political partner of Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein.

Asked why he is treated with favor by the regime, Aye Lwin said he enjoyed
his special position because he avoids criticism of the country's negative
aspects.

Aye Lwin said he wants the election to take place as planned this year,
but shrugs off as unrealistic the demands by other opposition groups for
political dialogue and the release of the more than 2,000 political
prisoners.

Aye Lwin is known to be widely disliked among detained 88 Generation
students and young activists alike, some of whom accuse him of having a
cozy relationship with high-level military officials and enjoying their
substantial financial support—allegations that Aye Lwin denied in a
telephone interview with The Irrawaddy.

He does, however, admit having close contact with regime officials. After
a meeting with Maj-Gen Aung Thein Lin, mayor of Rangoon, three months ago,
Aye Lwin said he was warned to conduct his political campaigns in a
controlled way because his group is not a registered organization. Aung
Thein Lin pointed out that other, registered organizations were not
allowed to campaign politically.

The exile media last month reported that his group had been attacked in
Rangoon with stones and bamboo sticks by 200 members of the
military-backed Union Solidarity Development Organization (USDA). Some
activists inside Burma suggest that Aye Lwin had staged the attack, with
the connivance of local authorities, in a ploy to win a better public
image.

One of Aye Lwin's brothers claimed, however, that the clashes had occurred
after “local authorities misunderstood us.”

Another former political prisoner, Phyo Min Thein, whose views differ from
those of the mainstream political opposition, recently met with a military
officer sent by Lt-Gen Ye Myint, Chief of Military Affairs Security, and
he received permission to hold a pre-election political forum with a
number of different political parties.

“The government seems interested in topics related to elections,” said
Phyo Min Thein. “We don't take the line of confrontation, but that of
negotiation.”

Both Phyo Min Thein and Aye Lwin took part as students in the 1988
anti-government demonstrations. Many of their 88 Generation political
colleagues, including Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, are now serving long
sentences in remote prisons throughout Burma.

An editor of a magazine in Rangoon said “old grievances” between the 1988
students had led to differing political approaches. Phyo Min Thein admits
having had a disagreement with Ko Ko Gyi in the early 1990s over reforming
a student union.

Pyo Min Thein said he invited many ethnic and NLD leaders, including Win
Tin and Khin Maung Swe, to his political forum. More than 50 political
activists have promised to join the forum, he said.

Others within the NLD are not expected to join, however.

“I said I don't condemn his idea of a political forum,” said NLD spokesman
Khin Maung Swe. “But I told him we are still committed to our demands of
political dialogue.”

As the first week of 2010 comes to an end, the political and economic
uncertainties in Burma remain unchanged. “The blind are groping in
darkness,” is how Khin Maung Swe described the political scene in  
Rangoon.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

January 7, Reporters Sans Frontières
Burma: Appalling 20-year jail sentence for Democratic Voice of Burma woman
video reporter

Reporters without Borders and the Burma Media Association are appalled by
the 20-year jail sentence that a court has just imposed on Hla Hla Win, a
freelance video reporter who provided material to the Burmese exile
broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma. Detained since September, she was
already given a seven-year sentence in October.

"People had been expecting signs of an opening and goodwill gestures from
the military junta in this election year, but this extremely severe
sentence on a 25-year-old video maker and the junta chief’s recent
threatening comments leave little hope that the elections will be free,"
the two organisations said. "We are outraged that this young woman has
been given a 20-year jail term."

The two organisations added: “The very dangerous work carried out by
Burma’s video reporters, made famous by the documentary Buma VJ, is
crucial for the dissemination of independent, propaganda-free information
both domestically and abroad. ASEAN and the rest of the international
community should make press freedom one of the conditions for recognising
the 2010 elections.”

A senior representative of the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma told
Reporters without Borders that the sentence imposed on Hla Hla Win was
“unjust” because all she did was “gather information about the situation
in Burma, nothing more.”

At least 13 journalists and bloggers are currently detained in Burma, most
of them in very harsh conditions.

The 20-year sentence was imposed on Hla Hla Win by a court in Pakokku (30
km north of the central city of Bagan) on 31 December for an alleged
violation of the Electronic Act. A person who was accompanying her at the
time of her arrest, Myint Naing, was given a 26-year sentence. The exile
media Mizzima said Pakokku-based lawyers were reluctant to defend them in
a case of a political nature.

Hla Hla Win was arrested on 11 September after visiting a monastery in
Pakokku (Magwe Division) and was given a seven-year sentence the following
month under the Export Import Act for using an illegally imported
motorcycle. In all, she will now have to serve a combined sentence of 26
years in prison.

Following her arrest, she went on hunger struck for several days in
protest against her detention and had to be hospitalised because her
health deteriorated rapidly.

Born in 1984, Hla Hla Min studied economics and then began working as a
teacher.

Ever since the September 2007 Saffron Revolution, the security forces have
been cracking down on Burmese who send photos and video abroad to exile
news media and opposition groups. Around 20 journalists and bloggers have
been arrested since then by police or soldiers.

In an Independence Day speech yesterday, junta chief Gen. Than Shwe asked
his compatriots to make the “correct choice” in the elections due to be
held this year. So far, the authorities have given no kind of guarantee
that citizen journalists and journalists employed by foreign news media
will be able to work during the elections. As things stand, they continue
to face prison sentences under article 33 (A) of the Electronic Law if
they use the Internet to send information abroad.