BurmaNet News, January 23 - 25, 2010

[Editor]

January 23 – 25, 2010, Issue #3882

“
Mr. Leno, Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Letterman and their ilk are the water-cooler
folly and they are neither removed nor benevolent
.  Mr. O’Brien who began
on a self-deprecating note, has turned more self-righteous in his
monologues, blaming the network and Mr. Leno for taking back the show only
seven months after he started. And his sense of betrayal is perhaps fanned
by the followers who have held protests outside NBC headquarters at
Rockefeller Center, as if the network is Myanmar and Mr. O’Brien the Daw
Aung Suu Kyi of late night comedy.”

– New York Times article by Alessandra Stanley reporting on the heated
competition between late-night talks shows in the U.S. (January 21)


INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: Myanmar minister says Suu Kyi to be freed November
AP: Myanmar party plays down Suu Kyi release report
Mizzima News: AAPP calls for release of poet Saw Wei
Xinhua: Myanmar imposes heavy punishment upon sales of unlicensed video discs

ON THE BORDER
Thai News Agency: Thailand to repatriate Karen villagers who fled Myanmar
army
Reuters: Bangladesh, Myanmar to resolve border dispute-Dhaka

BUSINESS / TRADE
DPA: Myanmar to privatize all fuel stations by March, source says

OPINION / OTHER
Reuters: China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar – Ben Blanchard
Irrawaddy: Burma and national 'plagiarism' – David I. Steinberg
Guardian (UK): Junta stuck in a Burmese daze – Andrew Ryvern
Asian Tribune: Higher education to control the country – Prof. Kanbawza Win

REGIONAL
Press Trust of India: India has turned blind eye to Myanmar movement,
feels activist

INTERVIEW
Irrawaddy: Labor pains

PRESS RELEASE
CSW: 2000 Karen villagers forced to flee Burma army attacks
Palaung Women’s Organization: Opium cultivation surging under junta's
control in Burma



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 25, Reuters
Myanmar minister says Suu Kyi to be freed November – Aung Hla Tun

Yangon – Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed when
her house arrest ends in November, according to a government minister
quoted by witnesses on Monday, but critics said that may be too late for
this year's elections.

Home Minister Major General Maung Oo told a January 21 meeting of local
officials the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner would be released in
November, a month after many observers expect the country to hold its
first parliamentary elections in two decades.

The information could not be verified independently but three people who
attended the meeting said the comment was made to an audience of several
hundred people in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 565 km (350 miles) north of
the former capital, Yangon.

The three witnesses requested anonymity.

Suu Kyi, detained for 14 of the past 20 years, was sentenced to a further
18 months of detention last August for harboring an American who swam
uninvited to her lakeside home, raising questions over whether the
election will be a sham.

That incident took place in May 2009, just before an earlier period of
house arrest was due to end. Taking into account the three months she
spent in a prison guesthouse after the incident, her 18-month sentence
would end in November.

The planned election would be the first since 1990, when Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD) party scored a landslide victory that
the country's junta refused to recognize.

Maung Oo also said detained NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo would be released on
February 13, and that the government would pursue an international-style
market economy after holding "free and fair" elections, including
loosening restrictions on car imports.

Tin Oo, 82, a former defense minister and retired general, has been in
prison or under house arrest for more than a decade.

ELECTION TIMING NOT YET SET

Senior NLD official Khin Maung Swe said it was crucial Suu Kyi and Tin Oo
were released before the election.

"The most important thing is they must be freed in good time so that they
can work for national reconciliation," he said.

The military junta has not set a date for the election but has promised
U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders the vote would be
free, fair and inclusive.

In recent months Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet the junta's liaison
officer and foreign diplomats.

The NLD has not yet said whether it would take part in the elections,
portrayed by the generals as a move to a multi-party democracy but derided
by opponents as a sham designed to let the army retain real power.

The United States and others are reviewing policy toward the former Burma
after years of sanctions and trade embargoes failed to get the junta to
improve its human rights record or relax its grip on power.

Obama has offered Myanmar the prospect of better ties with Washington if
it pursued democratic reform and freed political prisoners, including Suu
Kyi.

(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Paul Tait)

____________________________________

January 25, Associated Press
Myanmar party plays down Suu Kyi release report

Yangon – Reports that a top Myanmar leader said detained opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi would be released in November, when her house arrest
ends, have only served to lower hopes that she might be freed ahead of
this year's elections, her party said Monday.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy party, said
the comment purportedly made last week by Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo
was "nothing new or extraordinary."

"If the media reports were correct, hopes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's
earlier release under the executive order were dashed," said Nyan Win, who
is also a lawyer for the 64-year-old Suu Kyi. "Daw" is a term of respect
used for older women in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

News reports on U.S.-government backed Radio Free Asia and elsewhere cited
witnesses as saying Maung Oo in a Jan. 21 speech declared Suu Kyi would be
freed in November. The reports said he spoke at a meeting of several
hundred officials in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 350 miles (560 kilometers)
north of Yangon.

Reports also quoted Maung Oo as saying the elections would be "free and
fair."

Suu Kyi's party and pro-democracy activists have complained the
constitution that established the polls was undemocratic and unfair. It
includes provisions that bar the democracy icon from holding office and
ensure the military a controlling stake in government.

Suu Kyi's party has not yet decided whether to take part in the election,
the date of which has not yet been set.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years. She was sentenced
last August to 18 months' house arrest, with three months in detention
awaiting the end of the trial counted toward the total.

The National League for Democracy party swept the last elections in 1990,
but the results were never honored by the military, which has ruled the
country since 1962.
____________________________________

January 25, Mizzima News
AAPP calls for release of poet Saw Wei – Myint Maung

New Delhi – The Thai based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
- Burma  (AAPP-B) has called for the release of poet Saw Wei at the
earliest possible date, as his release was set for the 21st of this month.

Poet Saw Wei was arrested on the 21st of January 2008 after his poem
entitled ‘February 14’ which cryptically included the stanza ‘Power crazy
senior general Than Shwe’ appeared in the Love journal. He was later
charged with committing disaffection to the State and sentenced to two
years imprisonment along with his judicial custody term, AAPP-B said.

“In fact, his judicial custody term must be deducted from his prison term
starting from the date of his arrest. But the court counted his judicial
custody starting from the date of trial commencement. So, the previous
three months custody means unlawful custody. In this way he is losing his
lawful rights. We call for the immediate release of poet Saw Wei,”
exclaimed AAPP-B Joint-Secretary Bo Kyi.

Lawyer Soe Min added, “The Insein prison special court judge pronounced
his judgment to serve his sentence along with his custodial term
concurrently. His custodial period started from the 21st of January when
he was arrested.”

In hope of his being released, his wife Nan San San Aye visited Yemethin
prison in Mandalay Division where he is being held, though authorities
informed her she must return home.

Rangoon-based lawyer Aung Thein said, “The police and judicial custodial
term does not start from the arrest date. They usually count the custodial
period starting from the commencement of the trial. So there is a
discrepancy in the custodial period resulting from a counting method. In
fact, the Criminal Procedure Code clearly stipulates that the custodial
period must be counted from the arrest date.”

Advocate Aung Thein, who has represented many cases involving political
prisoners, has since had his advocate license revoked.

Nan San San Aye said that during her prison visit with her husband, she
further learned that the poet is suffering from dysentery and eye disease.

____________________________________

January 25, Xinhua
Myanmar imposes heavy punishment upon sales of unlicensed video discs

The Myanmar authorities have imposed heavy punishment starting this year
upon sales of unlicensed local and foreign VCD/DVD/EVD discs with a term
of imprisonment ranging from six months to three years instead of just a
cash fine previously, according to the Yangon City Development Committee
Sunday.

Surprise check will be carried out against video production companies,
video disc selling and leasing shops as well as individual residential
houses, the sources said.

In the past, the authorities imposed a fine of 100,000 kyats ( 100 U.S.
dollars) on such sale.

Meanwhile, the authorities warned that the illegally imported VCD/DVD/EVD
features may imitate wrong life style, pointing that some scenes appearing
in these records are against Myanmar culture and traditions and are
considered not suitable for public show.

Action is also being taken against violators, who pirated video features,
and VCD/DVD/EVD discs legally produced by local distributors to prevent
exploitation of those in the profession.

According to earlier local report, at least dozens of big and small
pirated-disc-selling shops in different townships were seized last year
during surprise checks with a fine of 200,000 kyats (200 dollars) each
imposed on the shops.

During the last few years, the Myanmar authorities occasionally seized and
destroyed large amount of local and foreign uncensored, pornographic and
pirated video tapes and discs valued at tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

January 25, Thai News Agency
Thailand to repatriate Karen villagers who fled Myanmar army

Bangkok – Thailand will repatriate more than 1,500 displaced Karen
villagers from Myanmar along the Thai Myanmar border, a population which
who escaped fierce fighting in Myanmar to Thai territory since June 2009,
according to Lt-Gen Thanongsak Apirakyothin, the 3rd Army Area Commander.

Gen Thanongsak said that the meeting of Thai security agencies and
representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) in the northern province of Tak on January 14 agreed that more
than 1,500 villagers who crossed into Thailand to escape the fighting in
Myanmar since mid-2009 would be sent back to Myanmar without seeking their
consent.

He said there is no fighting in Myanmar, therefore, all of them would be
safe when they return to their country.

Gen Thanongsak added that the government had no policy to provide
additional temporary shelter for these people.

He said that the government would gradually send them back to Myanmar. (TNA)

____________________________________

January 25, Reuters
Bangladesh, Myanmar to resolve border dispute-Dhaka

Dhaka - Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to resolve a maritime boundary
dispute that brought their forces face to face in the Bay of Bengal in
2008 after Myanmar began oil and gas exploration, a Bangladeshi official
said on Saturday.

"The important agreement was reached between the neighbouring countries at
a recent meeting," Foreign Secretary Mohammad Mijarul Quayes told
reporters.

He said officials from the two countries would meet soon to demarcate the
border in a way that would establish Bangladesh's rights on its off-shore
gas blocks.

Bangladesh sent a naval patrol to the disputed area in October 2008 after
Myanmar began oil and gas exploration. Both countries also concentrated
troops at strategic points along their 320-km (200-mile) border, partly
demarcated by the river Naf. Myanmar withdrew its exploration teams and
agreed to resolve the issue through talks.

Bangladesh had referred the issue to the United Nations for arbitration
under the convention on the law of the sea. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed;
Editing by Janet Lawrence)

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 25, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar to privatize all fuel stations by March, source says

Yangon – Myanmar plans to privatize its state-owned petrol and diesel
stations by end of March, according to business community source.

"We have been informed by authorities that private companies are to take
over all state-owned fuel stations by March 31," a prominent businessman
who requested anonymity said.

The military government has strictly controlled all fuel-related business
including filling stations since 1962.

"It was very surprising to learn the importing and selling of petrol and
diesel was to be transferred suddenly to the private sector," he said.

The ruling junta recently announced the privatization of more than 100
businesses and properties, but petrol stations were not included in the
list.

"We have just formed an association under the Union of Myanmar federation
of chambers of commerce and industries to take it over
from government and run this business," a businessman involved in the
discussions told the German Press Agency dpa.

Tay Za, a leading tycoon in Myanmar with close ties to top junta generals,
will head the new association, the source said.

"I think we will see more privatizations in various sectors before
election," he said.

There are more than 250 fuel stations nationwide, according to the
official website of the Energy Ministry.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 24, Press Trust of India
India has turned blind eye to Myanmar movement, feels activist – Wasfia
Jalali Jaipur

One of the many supporters of Aung Sang Suu Kyi who is waging a lonely
battle for greater rights in Myanmar, activist and author Ma Thida feels
that despite being the world's largest democracy, India has turned a blind
eye to its eastern neighbour.

As a doctor and activist, who spent months locked in a prison where she
came very close to death, Ma Thida finds the "ignorance" of the Indian
government and its people towards Myanmar as a sad experience.

In Jaipur to attend Literature Festival, she talked about her country's
expectations from India and how she feels the rich resources in Myanmar
turned out to be a "bad luck" for its people.

"India, especially the Indian government has turned out to be very
ignorant about what's going on in Myanmar," she told PTI in an interview.

"Besides the government, even the Indian media has also been ignorant, in
the sense they have failed to inform their people about the situations in
their immediate neighbourhood," she said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 25, Reuters
China casts nervous eye at erstwhile ally Myanmar – Ben Blanchard

Ruili, China - The giant red poster staring over China's Wanding border
crossing with Myanmar proclaims that their "brotherly feelings will last
forever."

A few kilometers away, just outside the dusty frontier town of Ruili, a
border village proudly tells its few visitors that Myanmar chickens cross
over the rickety bamboo fence to lay their eggs in China.

But behind the bonhomie and poems of friendship, China's relationship with
its impoverished southeastern neighbor and erstwhile ally formerly known
as Burma is deeply troubled.

This was bought sharply into relief last August when Myanmar's military
overwhelmed and disarmed the Kokang rebel group, triggering an exodus of
more than 37,000 refugees into China, prompting an unusual outburst of
anger from Beijing.

"I wouldn't characterize them as friends, in the way Britain and America
or Australia and New Zealand could be regarded as friends. It's often a
tense and difficult relationship," said Ian Storey, a fellow at
Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

"It's basically a marriage of convenience. The Burmese rely on China for
money and armaments, and China uses its position at the U.N. Security
Council to protect Burma to some extent, in return for which China gets
access to the country's natural resources, and it gets a voice in ASEAN,"
he added.

In 1997, despite fervent U.S. and EU opposition, Myanmar joined the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, set up in 1967 as a bulwark
against the spread of Communism in the region.

Logic may dictate that Myanmar and the generals who have run it for the
last five decades or so would give unquestioning support to China.

China backed Myanmar following the bloody suppression of pro-democracy
protests in then-capital Yangon, once called Rangoon, in 1988, and has
continued to stand by the junta and sell them arms in the face of sweeping
international sanctions.

In 2006, during a visit to China's southwest Yunnan province which shares
a long border with Myanmar, Myanmar's Commerce Minister Tin Naing Thein
thanked Beijing for being a "good neighbor" and offering "vigorous
support" after the 1988 events.

Yet profound suspicion of China in Myanmar, which dates back to before
independence from the British in 1948, has not changed despite Beijing's
overt support in the past 20 years or so.

For years, China backed the Communist Party of Burma's armed struggle
against the Myanmar government.

"Chinese soldiers wore Burmese Communist military uniform and they
participated in actual battles against the Burmese armed forces," said
Maung Zarni, a Myanmar expert at the London School of Economics' Center
for the Study of Global Governance.

"The current leadership is made up of people who cut their teeth in the
anti-communist/anti-Beijing operations in the 1950s and 1960s. It's
difficult to conceive of change of heart on behalf of the Burmese generals
toward Beijing."

FEAR OF UNREST

China's fear is that the kind of unrest seen last August in Kokang will be
repeated with any one of a number of different ethnic rebel militias, and
spill into its territory again.

The threat is especially acute as the generals gear up for an election
sometime this year -- a ballot rights groups call a sham -- by trying to
get rebel groups along the border to cooperate, by force if necessary.

The problem for China is most acute in Yunnan, where the long and in
places remote frontier is porous, and ethnic minorities on both sides
share close blood ties.

Activists say that Myanmar's army is preparing for another offensive
against these rebels, including the 30,000-strong ethnic Chinese United Wa
State Army (UWSA), denounced as a narcotics cartel by the United States.

That worries China, not only because of the potential for more refugees,
but because, simply stated, instability on the border is bad for business.

"Anything that causes the border to shut we of course do not welcome,"
said Chinese jade trader Lin Mingqi, sitting in his shop stuffed full of
jade bracelets, Buddhas and charms made from Burmese jade and overlooking
Ruili's border post.

"We're here to do business. We don't want to have to worry about politics."

Already drugs flow easily from Myanmar into China, fuelling an AIDS
epidemic in Yunnan driven by the sharing of dirty needles, as well as
prostitution.

Yet Myanmar is very good at hedging its bets, playing off friend and foe
alike to ensure the survival of the regime.

Luo Shengrong and Wang Aiping, two academics at Yunnan University, wrote
in last month's Chinese journal Contemporary International Relations that
the Kokang attack was deliberately designed to tell Beijing not to take
relations for granted.

"It was done to show the West that Myanmar's military government is
adjusting its foreign policy, from just facing China to starting to have
frequent contact with the United States, India and other large nations, to
have a balanced foreign policy," they wrote.

"(The attack) also seemed to be showing that they were reducing their
reliance on China."

They noted that the operation could be construed as Myanmar trying to
curry favor with the United States, by showing Washington what a useful
ally Myanmar could be against China, a country viewed with mistrust by
many on Capitol Hill.

The academics noted that as a "reward" for the Kokang operation,
Washington lifted a visa ban on Myanmar officials to let Prime Minister
Thein Sein address the United Nations in New York.

While it is hard to pinpoint exactly what Myanmar's secretive government
hoped to achieve more broadly with the Kokang move, the academics'
comments are a reflection of Chinese suspicion as to what their supposed
friend is up to.

The neighbors have significant business ties. Bilateral trade grew more
than one-quarter in 2008 to about $2.63 billion.

In late October, China's CNPC started building a crude oil port in
Myanmar, part of a pipeline project aimed at cutting out the long detour
oil cargoes take through the congested and strategically vulnerable
Malacca Strait.

RIVALRY

For China, any discomfort at its friendship with Myanmar may also be
outweighed by another strategic consideration -- India.

While relations may have improved considerably with New Delhi since the
brief border war in 1962 that poisoned ties for decades, China is a strong
supporter of India's traditional enemy Pakistan.

"From China's perspective, having a close relationship with Burma gives it
an additional pressure point on India because it has good relations with
Pakistan and increasingly with Nepal and also with Bangladesh," said
Singapore-based Storey.

"If you were sitting in New Delhi, you may see that as a policy of
encircling India with friends of China."

Myanmar's wily generals realize this, and see being friends with India as
an import foil to China.

"If you look at the patterns of their foreign relations, they're
constantly playing one off the other. If it's not China and the U.S., it's
China and India. It's a very simple but effective strategy, to keep
everyone coming after you," said David Mathieson, Myanmar researcher for
New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"You always see things balanced out. Say the Chinese come one month, and
then the Indians comes the next, or a senior Burmese official goes to
Delhi. It's just them being prudent, saying 'we don't have friends, we
just have partners'."

(Editing by Megan Goldin)

____________________________________

January 25, Irrawaddy
Burma and national 'plagiarism' – David I. Steinberg

Marcel Proust, in his monumental novel “Remembrance of Things Past,” noted
that people sometimes unintentionally reproduce their attitudes toward
past events when facing new trauma. He added that nations may do the same.

Each is, in effect, engaged in an emotional type of “plagiarism,” as he
termed it. Rather than stealing others' ideas, they rework the attitudes
they earlier formed. As people become psychologically rigid, so do
nations. This is a danger, for new circumstances may make previous views
or positions no longer tenable, and we may be deluding ourselves with our
responsive, unconscious uniformity.

Self-plagiarism is a type of consistency, and may be reassuring. But as
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of
little minds.”

Whether the United States is plagiarizing itself in Afghanistan, with
remembrance of things past in Vietnam, is something I leave to others at
this time. Wars are traumatic events and prompt the need for reassurance,
so when critics sometimes charge that the military fights the last war,
the latter may be guilty of inappropriate tactics, but more basically it
may be a product of a psychological fixation on the past.

Whether we might do the same in Burma is something on which debate might
be useful. And whether the Burmese might also submit to this illness
should equally be our concern.

The United States and other nations are seeking changes in the political
culture of Burma. It has made overtures to the Burmese indicating our
willingness to reconsider policies under certain conditions. If there is
no progress in governance in Burma as a result of our opening gambits, as
indicated by our willingness to have, and to have initiated, high level
dialogue and by our signing the Asean Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in
July 2009, and if the previous Burmese positive indicators by at least
some high-ranking military prove fruitless, then the US has mentioned the
possibility of the intensification of sanctions, which already are quite
severe, although not (yet) in the Cuba range.

In four stages, from 1988 to 2008, the United States has cut off Burma
from arms sales and training, anti-narcotics assistance, economic aid, new
investment, imports, banking facilities, visas for critical members of the
Burmese elite and their families, and dealing in various gems and precious
stones.

The military junta has complained about the sanctions, and in part blamed
the Burmese opposition—more specifically Aung San Suu Kyi—for encouraging
them as well as advocating a tourism and investment boycott. But sanctions
have proven to have been ineffective in changing patterns of authoritarian
governance and repression, and the Chinese have been the largest number of
tourists and perhaps (unofficially) the largest investors. The US has
called for regime change over the years, although this has recently
changed. Instead, through obstinate nationalism and the assistance of its
neighbors, the Burma authorities have outlasted their critics and have
even a stronger grip on the country.

For more than two decades, we have periodically heard from the exiled
Burmese community wishful thinking that the state and regime were on the
verge of collapse through inept mismanagement, and the people continue to
suffer. Although the charge of incompetence is true, the power of the
junta remains.

Now, the US has mentioned the need for quick progress in changes,
including the holding of elections this year that are “free and fair,”
terms that have not been defined and that will be individually and
differently interpreted by a wide swath of observers and participants in
the policy field. If these variously designated reforms fail to occur,
there will be, as important administration voices say, strong
consequences. These might include even more stringent sanctions.

Sanctions, admittedly and by all accounts, have failed in Burma, but if
the extensive series of sanctions previously imposed did not “work”—that
is, bring about regime change according to the U.S. Or even regime
modification as Asean has called for—then what evidence exists that
additional sanctions will bring more than bitter fruit? At the same time,
simple elimination of sanctions would effectively dilute chances for
reform and be politically unacceptable in the United States.

If the US is to avoid national plagiarism and abandon previously
demonstrated ineffective means to achieve its policy goals, then the
Burmese need also to reconsider their negative positions toward the well
being of their own people and their inordinate suspicions toward the
international community.

Their goals of national unity and military domination (through a planned
civilianization of military leadership) may be held hostage to their
continuing erroneous positive interpretations of the efficacy of their
rule, and thus prove elusive. Their xenophobic leadership has undermined
the very aims they say they want. They are deluding themselves about their
past as the US may delude itself about the future.

Proust did not consider whether such plagiarisms might not only be a
product of a single mind or nation, but might also be reinforced by the
interactions of more than one actor, perhaps intensifying the problems and
making them less soluble. We might do well to note the danger. Both Proust
and Emerson may well have been right.

David I. Steinberg is Distinguished Professor of Asian Studies in the
School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His
latest book is “Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know” (Oxford
University Press).

____________________________________

January 24, Guardian (UK)
Junta stuck in a Burmese daze – Andrew Ryvern

Although Burma's leader has pledged to hold the country's first elections
since 1990, there still seems little hope of democracy.

With imagination and willpower, ordinary Burmese have managed to survive
an oppressive military government that openly condemns them to poverty and
isolation.

Yangon, Burma's commercial hub and until recently its capital, is a case
in point. With its boulevards lined with fading colonial buildings and
streets filled with vintage automobiles, the city once known as Rangoon
looks like it belongs in the previous century. But these are not the only
things out of date.

Yangon's street hawkers sell bootlegged copies of Burmese Days, Orwell's
stinging indictment of British rule, along with a wide range of
international newspapers and magazines that have somehow escaped the
government censors. But just as the military government has ensured the
country remains several decades behind the rest of Asia, the copies tend
to be several days or months old. Thanks to a thriving black market,
everything from foreign currencies to Scotch whisky and the latest English
and Hindi films are available. It is one of several reminders that
ordinary Burmese are steadfastly connected to the outside world in every
way they can.

The military junta has its international links too. "Burma could not
function without Chinese support," says one longtime Burmese activist who
requested anonymity. Like Asean, the emerging superpower has generally
been happy to avoid criticising its fledgling neighbour. China is busy
transforming Burma into a satellite state. But China is not alone.
Although Burma has been placed under a raft of international sanctions,
multinationals such as Unocol and the Russian Aircraft Corporation
(producers of the MiG jet fighter) are happy to do business with the
junta.

Tourism is another source of foreign investment and there are few signs of
the junta in cities frequented by foreigners, although state security
covertly surveils the local population and tourists lest they stray off
the beaten track.

In the garrison town of Kalaw, for example, one local told me of his
surprise on discovering that many of the regular patrons at his favourite
noodle shop were young officers at the local military college. Although
they looked and dressed like every other civilian, he explained, on
graduation day they all appeared in full army dress.

Despite attempts to mask the regime, it doesn't take much to notice the
vast inequality that condemns most to squalor while the generals and
favoured businessmen hold court in imposing if garish mansions that line
the wealthy parts of Burma's major cities.

Since 1962 the military junta has stifled an ethnically diverse and
broadly popular democracy movement popularised internationally by Aung
Sung Suu Kyi, daughter of modern Burma's founding father, Aung Sung.

When in 2007 protests against fuel price hikes transformed into a
street-level pro-democracy movement, riot police fired live rounds into
the largely peaceful crowds and imprisoned thousands including hundreds of
leading monks.

Yet even with this history, observers were still stunned when the regime
refused to allow international assistance to the millions left destitute
by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Even private citizens were punished for trying
to help. Zarganar, one of Burma's most famous actors and comedians, was
sentenced to 58 years jail, later reduced to 35 years, for criticising the
government's inaction in the face of the disaster. Many locals believe
Zarganar's real crime was embarrassing the generals with his philanthropy
– he personally paid for humanitarian aid to be bused to cyclone-affected
areas of the Burmese coast.

Many Burmese continue to risk imprisonment for similar acts of
benevolence. In the remote hills of central Burma, I watched in awe as
local businessmen and farmers, themselves struggling to make ends meet,
quietly delivered medicines, toothbrushes and blankets to the elderly and
infirm in villages far from their own homes.

People may remain cautious of speaking about the political situation, even
in the most remote areas. But beneath the surface there are deep
frustrations towards continued economic stagnation, cronyism and the lack
of freedom.

In response to these frustrations, the junta has promised parliamentary
elections later this year. But dates have yet to be set and it is unclear
whether several of the largest independent political parties like Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy will contest them.

Judging from past experience, however, the proposed elections are likely
to be a whitewash. The junta refused to honour the NLD's landslide
election victory in 1990 and a new constitution passed in 2008 gives the
military 25% of all seats in parliament regardless of any vote.

It all may be theatre, but as the nightmare continues ordinary Burmese
still find ways to slip the cage.

• Andrew Ryvern is the pen-name of a journalist who recently visited Burma.

____________________________________

January 21, Asian Tribune
Higher education to control the country – Prof. Kanbawza Win

Sanskrit says that: 'Education leads to liberation' – Liberation from
ignorance which shrouds the mind, Liberation from superstitions, which
paralyze efforts, liberation from prejudice, which blind the vision of
truth”.

However successive military regime believes that universities are the
birth place of dissent against autocratic rule. And so since the military
coup in 1962, rather than developing a quality education system as a means
of building Burma's human resource base, the Burmese generals have sought
to subvert education in Burma for their own purpose - to remain in power
at any cost.

It is not a surprising to witness that people in Burma are being blinded
by the various military administrations, even though the ‘thirst for
vision of truth' is very much apparent. The current regime has bonded the
rights to education as a hostage to be always held in captivity and so the
international community became a mere spectator pining in sorrow for the
Burmese people’s hope.

Since the 7th July incident in 1962, where for the first time the Tatmadaw
(Burmese Army) shoot into the crowds of demonstrating students killing 137
students instantly and since then the Universities in Burma has been
closed off and on until 1988 revolution when all the university education
was closed down for nearly a decade.

After reopening, the regime pursued a policy of separating and isolating
students so that they could to contact each other. Iron fences have been
built around universities in and around Burma and campuses were close
again and again at the slightest sign of any trouble.

The prolonged closure of schools has affected the future of almost all the
young people of Burma and only those with political influence, such as the
children of the generals, and those rich enough enjoy uninterrupted and
quality education. The regime, in addition, has lowered the academic
standards by reducing school terms; four year degree courses have been
lessened to a year or a year and a half hence the students are unable to
study out of the formal education system. The closing down of universities
for seven years in the past decade resulted in most students not able to
complete their undergraduate courses. Many secondary schools also suffer
from poor funding and shortages of materials.

The woes of teachers are no less. They can earn on an average less than
US$ 30 a month. Many earn ten times their salary through private tutoring
which again lead to the infiltration of mass unfair means during
examinations and in academic terms or partiality.

The teachers who cannot bear such conditions leave the country; those
teachers who do not get much privilege or are patriotic try their best
against the military regime and serve the country within the constraints.
Ethnic nationalities teachers are the ones to suffer gross human rights
violation. The teaching or research of any ethnic language is not
permitted in any secondary school or tertiary institutes. Critics of the
system allege that the policy of teaching only Burmese and no other
languages in government schools is simply a means of imposing discipline,
control and Burmanization.

The Tatmadaw during its attempts to unify the country by force enforce a
law that schools near areas of conflict that teach in ethnic languages are
the first to be "dismantled" and many children are thus denied education
in their own language and culture. Two other groups in Burma that have
historically been denied educational opportunities have been children of
Chinese and Indian ancestry. Under a strict 1982 Citizenship Law, people
of Chinese and Indian ancestry must prove that their ancestors have
resided in Burma since 1824 during the first British annexation, a
requirement which is almost impossible to fulfill. As university entrance
is only open to Burmese nationals, this bars many from studying for a
university degree despite having lived all their lives in Burma.

Another factor that shows there is no freedom of choice in education is
that those who finished high school cannot choose any subject of their
interest. The condition is the students have to take the subjects
according to their matriculation marks whether they like it or not.

Students have no rights to speak, or discuss matters that will affect
their educational life. The example is the repeated changes of curriculum
and the phase of trial education. The students have no right to criticize,
to complain, to question. Sometimes they don't even have the right to know
that such things are taking place.

In most of the affiliated schools, villagers themselves have to build the
schools and hire teachers at their own expense. In some places there is
only one primary school for five villages. There are no schools in the
border areas and the only choice of the poor is the Monastic schools which
only give primary education. In these schools not to mention teaching,
even stationery is not enough and so the students have to use slate and
slate pencils.

If so one can ask of where have the educational aids given by the
international organizations gone? This aid goes to Military Medical
University, and the Military Engineering University. These military
universities are not closed as ordinary universities.
The aid is abundant in military universities. Modern technology is
provided in these universities. When internationally well-known scholars
come to visit Burma, they are allowed to give lectures only at these
universities. This is but one way of controlling the country in the coming
future. While in Burma the educational aid's given by international
organizations goes to military schools and universities. The annual budget
allocated by the government was low; only about 2 % is spent per year on
education.

A closer look at different aspects of the current state of Burma’s
military governance and civil military relations indicates that the
generals do not underestimate the potential for political processes to
develop by their recent actions.

The Tatmadaw has established its identity as über-nationalist, superior
institution solely capable to safeguard, build and form state and nation.
The National Defence College publication from 2005 reveals that the
officers are expected to become knowledgeable in economic and other
matters to be able to fulfill their extended political and military tasks
in building a strong military force and a wealthy and technologically
developed nation.

It is evident that Burma’s military defines its professionalism within the
notion of “new professionalism” and thus as a military with extended
competencies and skills that go far beyond the management of violence. As
self-assigned state and nation-builder who has to run state and economy,
the military developed an expanded concept of its professional role and
accordingly tried to equip its officers with a variety of expertise in
political, economic, and social matters.

The educational institutions of the military have enormously expanded thus
indicating an attempt to extend further the skills and expertise of the
officer corps in order to be able t rule the country in perpetuity. While
the national education system suffers chronically from lack of funds, the
military has established well-funded and exclusive higher education
institutions. In Maymyo, the regime has built several schools of higher
education to cultivate its academic offspring.

Cadets enter with full pay into the Defence Services Medical Academy,
Defence Services Technological Academy, Technological College, and Defence
Services Institute of Nursing and Paramedical Sciences to become
engineers, technicians, economic experts, medical doctors, male nurses,
pharmacologists, and the like. The graduates of these institutions join
the ranks as something we could call “hybrid professionals.” It is
remarkable that these officers are not only military professionals but
also highly specialized in civilian professions, thus taking “new
professionalism” to another level. It seems like another distinct step of
the military class to become independent from civilians and civilian
experts and foster its power position in a future “military control
Burma.”

In 2000, the Junta laid down a 30-year education plan focusing on
improvements in the basic education sector but the failure to reopen the
universities continues as does the increasing number of jobless graduates
and mass migration to foreign countries for job opportunities. The
misplacement of job seekers, show that the education system cannot
guarantee job opportunities. The military Junta highlights the number of
universities and schools rather than the quality of education given. In
fact, most universities in Burma lack teaching aids, laboratory materials
and human resources. These days there is still no significant development
in education and the dropout rate is still high. The elimination of an
education system that supports political monism is still very much there.

Democracy and freedom is a universal human aspiration. Democracy evolves
according to the needs and traditions of diverse political cultures and
education is the basic of democracy for democracy survived best in the
educated people. Democracy & Education is a partnership that can be traced
to the heart of education. Education provides especially students with
experiences through which they can develop democratic attitudes and
values.

Only by living them can students develop the democratic ideals of
equality, liberty and community. The concept of Democracy, which we value
in our classrooms and later in our lives is encouraged by providing
information, sharing experiences and reviewing resources is absent in
Burma. In fact all educators share a larger purpose - to foster democracy.

The regime-controlled education system has resulted in sub-standard
education, critical lack of teaching facilities, unskilled teachers, and
lack of job opportunities after graduation, corruption and bribery. The
vastly deteriorating economic situation also forces students to leave
schools even when they are functioning. Given the high drop-out rate of
children in primary school, fewer students continue their education at
middle and high school levels. Till now the military junta has not been
able to solve the basic problems of students. They are constantly using
closure of universities as a weapon to stop students' demonstrations for
their rights. To immediately reopen all the schools and universities in
the country unconditionally and at the same time maintain a free and
unbiased educational program all over Burma still remains a dream for the
people of the 'Lost Hostage'.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

January 25, Irrawaddy
Labor pains

Finnish-born Kari Tapiola is the executive director of the International
Labour Organization (ILO) and has been with the Geneva-based group since
1996. Last week, he paid a visit to Burma's administrative capital
Naypyidaw to renew a one-year agreement which allows the United Nations to
monitor complaints of forced labor.

During his stay in Burma, he discussed with Burmese Labor Minister Aung
Kyi and other officials the issues of freedom of association and the
rights of workers to organize freely. He visited locations where incidents
of forced labor had been reported and met with family members of
individuals imprisoned for reporting cases of forced labor to the ILO.
Kari Tapiola

Question: What were the main topics of discussion between ILO officers and
Labor Minister Aung Kyi? Did you reach any new agreements with the Burmese
government?

Answer: The main topics were the functioning of the mechanism of
complaints on forced labor and awareness-raising activities. We also had
specific discussions on preventing the recruitment of minors into the army
as well as on freedom of association.

We signed an extension of the trial period of the Supplementary
Understanding, which in February 2007 established the complaints mechanism
operated by the ILO liaison officer. This was the third extension, again
for one year––from now until 2011––and is in unchanged form.

Q. What is the latest situation regarding forced labor in Burma? Could you
also comment about underage recruitment in the army?

A. The use of forced labor remains a problem throughout the country. There
are no figures available and currently there is no way of measuring it.
Awareness of the need to abolish forced labor has increased among civilian
authorities. However, we cannot say the same about the military. We have
had complaints involving both civilian and military authorities. The
military also runs large-scale business activities.

The forced recruitment of children into the military is a problem which
has been recognized at a high level. We met with the authoritative
committee on the prevention of underage recruitment, and we discussed
concrete measures such as age verification, discharge procedures and
punishment of perpetrators.

An increasing number of the complaints that we receive are on under-age
recruitment which by definition is forced labor. In the first two years of
the mechanism (2007-08), altogether 42 children were released within an
average of 145 days. In 2009, the total was 30 children released in an
average of 106 days. The number of these cases has increased and the time
to find a resolution has shortened. Last week, while I was in the country,
three new cases of under-age recruitment were received. The government has
in practice reacted relatively rapidly and with positive action. Other
forced labor cases are more complicated.

Q. Did the number of complaints from the public increase during the past
year? To what extent is the ILO helping victims of forced labor in Burma?

A. The overall number of complaints has increased. They are mainly
centered on under-age recruitment. There have been less complaints on
other forms of forced labor, and I believe that this is because there have
been arrests and imprisonment of complainants and their
facilitators––people who have acted on their behalf. These events are
widely known and obviously discourage the lodging of complaints.

Q. Did you call for the release of victims of forced labor who sent
complaints to the ILO office in Rangoon? And how did the government
respond to discussions on the “right to free association?”

A. As on all earlier occasions, we called for the release of all those who
are in prison who have wanted to use the complaints mechanism and be in
touch with the ILO. These cases are very serious.

As the Governing Body of the ILO has pointed out, solving these cases is
fundamental to the operation of the complaints mechanism. We had a
discussion on the concepts and principles of freedom of   association and
the rights of workers to organize freely. The exchange was active. It
involved several ministries, the Attorney-General's office and the Supreme
Court. There are fundamental issues, not least of which is the complete
absence of legally functioning workers' organizations.

Q. Are you satisfied with the government's collaboration with the ILO
office in Rangoon? Do you see the government becoming more cooperative
with the ILO office?

A. We have a good working relationship with Minister U Aung Kyi, the Labor
Ministry and the Director-General level representatives of other
ministries who are in the Working Group which follows up the complaints
from the government's side. Cooperation has generally improved, but we are
still not reaching all the levels needed for a sustained abolition of
forced labor. I certainly hope that the cooperation will increase. The
reasons for forced labor are complex and call for a broad engagement by,
and joint efforts between, various groups, both civilian and military.

Q. What are the ILO's plans for 2010 in improving labor conditions in Burma?

A. It is to be remembered that as things are today, the ILO's mandate is
to assist in the abolition of forced    labor. The aim was set through the
recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry in 1998 and the related
decisions by the ILO since then. Our plans for 2010 are to try to further
secure that the complaints mechanism is fully operational and its rules
are fully respected. If there is to be a significant decline in forced
labor, more awareness and education are needed.

The [Burmese] government has now agreed to the production of a simply
worded brochure which can be used as a tool in this process. Of course we
will follow the political situation and respond positively to
developments.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 25, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
2000 Karen villagers forced to flee Burma army attacks

More than 2000 Karen villagers have been forced to flee their homes in the
past week following attacks by the Burma Army, according to the Free Burma
Rangers (FBR), a relief organization working in the conflict zones of
eastern Burma.

At least four villagers have been shot and one body has been found
decapitated.

FBR reports say these recent attacks began when two villagers were shot in
Keh Der village on 17 January in Ler Doh Township. Ten houses were burned
down causing many villagers to flee for their lives.

On 18 January, more villagers were shot at by Burma Army troops in Hti Aw
Top, Mon Township. Two women and one man on their way to sell goods were
taken captive by patrolling troops and tied up. The following day, Burma
Army soldiers from Naw Soe camp shot at three villagers from Kaw Htoo Toe
while they were harvesting bamboo. One tried to help his badly wounded
co-worker, but was chased and shot at again. A decapitated body has since
been found by relief workers.

Mervyn Thomas, CSW’s Chief Executive, said: “These latest attacks are yet
another example of the military regime’s war crimes and crimes against
humanity.  With the regime’s sham elections planned in Burma this year, it
is now more vital than ever to highlight the plight of the Burmese people,
especially the oppressed ethnic nationalities. It is now high time for the
international community to impose an immediate universal arms embargo, and
the UN to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate Burma’s crimes
against humanity, without further delay”.

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Theresa
Malinowska, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0) 20
8329 0045 / +44 (0)78 2332 9663, email theresamalinowska at csw.org.uk or
visit www.csw.org.uk.

CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom,
works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and
promotes religious liberty for all.

Notes to Editors:

1.        For a copy of the Free Burma Rangers report, please contact
CSW’s press office on 0208 329 0045.

____________________________________

January 25, Palaung Women’s Organization
Opium cultivation surging under junta's control in Burma

A new report released today by Palaung researchers reveal that opium
cultivation in Burma's northern Shan State has been increasing rapidly
over the past three years in areas under the control of the ruling
military government.

Poisoned Hills by the Palaung Women's Organization documents that areas
under opium cultivation increased up to five-fold in Mantong and Namkham
townships between 2006 and 2009 to almost 4,500 hectares. This is far
higher than estimates in the annual opium surveys of the United Nations
Office of Drugs and Crime.

Local authorities, army battalions and pro-government militia are
profiting from "taxation" of opium farmers. Official "anti-drug teams",
instead of eradicating poppy fields, are extorting large sums from local
farmers and leaving the crop intact. The report documents that bribes
totaling at least 37 million kyat (US$37,000) were collected in Mantong
Township during the 2007-8 season.

These areas were under the control of the resistance forces of the Palaung
State Liberation Army (PSLA) which had a ceasefire with the regime until
it was forced to surrender in 2005. Since then the regime has expanded its
forces and pro-government militia to maintain control.

"Today more of the regime's troops and militias are everywhere. For us
this has meant more drugs and more addiction" says Lway Nway Hnoung,
principal researcher of the report.

Community assessments found addiction rates soaring in these areas. In one
village surveyed in Mantong Township, 85% of males over age 15 were
addicted to either opium or heroin.

"In our area, if we don't marry a drug addict, we have no one to get
married with because everyone is a drug addict. The only men who aren't
using drugs are the monks who stay in the monastery" said one woman
interviewed for the report.

The report emphasizes that a negotiated resolution to the political issues
at the root of Burma's civil war and political reform are needed to
address the drug issue.

"As long as this regime remains in power, drugs will continue to poison
people in Burma and the region" said Lway Nway Hnoung.

The full report can be viewed on: www.womenofburma.org and
www.palaungland.org

Contacts:
Lway Nway Hnoung- 66-08-21648115
Lway Aye Nang -66-08-01159598
Lway Moe Kham -66-08-33302304