BurmaNet News, February 4, 2010

[Editor]

February 4, 2010, Issue #3890


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Suu Kyi’s deputy ‘may be released next week’
DVB: US detainee ‘refusing food from family’
AP: Suu Kyi, brother in court over house dispute

ON THE BORDER
AP: Thai plan to return Karen to Myanmar draws protest
Irrawaddy: Indian rebel groups operating camps in Burma
Mizzima News: Thai security agencies raid Karen Information Centre

DRUGS
SHAN: Most drugs seized in Thailand come from the Burma Army: Businessmen

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Burmese monks stopped from joining renovation of U Thant’s
rest house

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Louisa Benson Craig dies aged 69

OPINION / OTHER
Independent (UK): Aung San Suu Kyi, a leaking roof, and the brother who
won't let her fix it – Andrew Buncombe
The National (UAE): Myanmar election date is uncertain, but not who will
win – Larry Jagan
New Light of Myanmar: Story-telling foreign radio stations – The Dabwint





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 4, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi’s deputy ‘may be released next week’

The detained deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party in
military-ruled Burma should be released next week and is set to resume
political activities, a party spokesman said Thursday.

Tin Oo, 83, vice chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has
been detained without trial since he was arrested with Suu Kyi after an
attack on their motorcade during a political tour in 2003.

"We are waiting and watching. They [the government] have to release him as
the continued arrest order finishes next week," NLD spokesman Nyan Win
told AFP.

"He will definitely come back to the office," he said, adding that the
detention should end on 13 February.

Tin Oo, a retired general, was transferred from prison to house arrest in
Rangoon in February 2004 under an anti-subversion law.

He has been allowed to leave his home for medical check-ups, and Nyan Win
said the detainee's health was "fine" after having an eye operation at a
private clinic a few days ago.

The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 but the junta never allowed them
to take office. The party leader and democracy icon Suu Kyi, 64, has been
detained for 14 of the past 20 years.

Analysts have said she faces an urgent challenge to shake up the party
leadership committee, as the majority are in their 80s and 90s and most
are said to be in bad health.

Suu Kyi's own house arrest was extended for 18 months in August when she
was convicted over an incident in which an American man swam to her house.

The sentence sparked international outrage as it is expected to keep her
off the scene for elections promised by the junta some time this year,
although a date has not yet been announced.

The opposition has been deeply suspicious of the planned polls, which it
sees as a plot to legitimise the junta's five decade iron-fisted rule.

Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo reportedly told a meeting of local
officials in central Burma last month that Suu Kyi would be released in
November.

Suu Kyi has described the comments as "unfair" as they pre-empt a court
decision on an appeal against her conviction, which is expected in the
coming weeks, Nyan Win said.

____________________________________

February 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
US detainee ‘refusing food from family’ – Khin Hnin Htet

The Burmese-born US citizen detained in a Rangoon jail has declined food
sent by his family, according to prison officials who spoke to a relative.

Nyi Nyi Aung, also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin, has been held in Insein prison
since arriving in Burma in September last year. In December he staged a
hunger strike in protest at prison conditions, and was subsequently moved
to the prison’s ‘dog cells’.

His aunt, Khin Khin Swe, the family has been sending him food through
prison officials in recent weeks following a ban on him receiving visits,
which has been in place since 6 January.

“[The official] told me to come and pick up the parcel we left for Nyi Nyi
Aung that morning. He said [Nyi Nyi Aung] refused to accept it,” said Khin
Khin Swe.

“I was already worried as [the family] hasn’t been allowed to see him.
This raised suspicions in my head that he was sick or on a hunger strike
like he did previously.

She added however that she thought it was neither of these, and instead a
protest against the ban on visitors.

“We heard that he was allowed to have one hour walk [outside of his cell]
everyday so can assume he has been healthy,” she continued.

Last month the court verdict on his trial was postponed until 10 February.
He has been charged with fraud and forgery, although observers believe his
arrest stems from activist work carried out since he fled Burma to the US
in 1993.

Shortly after Nyi Nyi Aung’s arrest, his wife wrote an article in
Thailand’s Bangkok Post claiming that he had visited Burma to see his
mother, who has cancer.

In December more than 50 US lawmakers wrote to junta chief Than Shwe,
urging him to release the Burma-born detainee from prison amid health
worries.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has also called for his release and said
the charges, which Kyaw Zaw Lwin denies, were "trumped-up" by the regime.

____________________________________

February 4, Associated Press
Suu Kyi, brother in court over house dispute

Yangon – A lawyer for Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi says a court in Yangon
will hear testimony next week on a dispute between the detained opposition
leader and her brother over efforts to renovate her lakeside home.

Suu Kyi was forced to suspend repairs on her house in December after her
estranged brother Aung San Oo lodged his objections. Her brother, an
American citizen, has long fought for partial ownership of the home and
its nearly 2-acre (1-hectare) plot.

The dilapidated, two-story home serves as an unofficial prison for the
Nobel Peace Prize winner, who stays there under house arrest. She has been
detained 14 of the past 20 years.

Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said the Yangon Division Court has agreed to
hear the case Feb. 10.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 4, Associated Press
Thai plan to return Karen to Myanmar draws protest – Jane Fugal

Bangkok – A group of about 1,700 ethnic Karen refugees from military-run
Myanmar will be in danger if forced back to their homeland from Thailand,
rights groups said Thursday.

The Karen Women Organization said that Thailand plans to send back the
Karen, mostly women and children, in the next two weeks even though the
area around their village is believed to be infested with land mines due
to Myanmar's war with ethnic insurgents.

The group has issued an open letter to the Thai government, which they
plan to deliver Friday, calling for any repatriation plans to be
suspended. The letter has been co-signed by 75 Thai and Myanmar social
action groups.

According to the Karen Human Rights Group, Thai soldiers have been
visiting the refugees three times a day to pressure them with threats that
they must leave by Feb. 15.

In interviews with the group, the refugees said Thai soldiers told them
they would be forced to leave if they do not do so on their own. One
refugee interviewed by the group quoted a soldier saying: "If you do not
go back, we will ask big trucks to come pick you up and throw you all into
the sea."

Thailand has said the Karen will not be sent back against their will.

Col. Noppadol Watcharajitbaworn, the local military commander in the Thai
province of Tak where the refugees are sheltering, said a first batch of
30 families more than 100 people had volunteered to return to their
village and would be sent back Friday.

"There is no forced repatriation as it's not our policy," he said. "The
commander of Thailand's Third Army has given assurances that these
refugees are volunteering. We will not force them back if they don't
volunteer to go."

He said the area around their village was safe and land mines were not a
problem.

A London-based human rights group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, has
said the refugees could face abuses if they go back.

"There is a severe risk that if they return, the Karen refugees will be
subjected to severe human rights violations, including forced labor and
rape" by Myanmar government troops, Benedict Rogers, a spokesman for the
group, said in an e-mailed statement.

He said the situation was an urgent one requiring immediate international
attention, and called on Thailand to continue to provide the refugees with
shelter and protection.

"These people must not be returned until they can do so safely, and that
will only be possible when Burma is free and at peace," he said.

Myanmar has faced ethnic rebellions along its borders since the country,
then called Burma, became independent in 1948. The Karen insurgent group,
the Karen National Union, has been fighting for more than 60 years for
greater autonomy from Myanmar's central government, but its strength has
dwindled over the past decade due to army offensives and divisions within
its ranks. Critics accuse the Myanmar government of abusing civilians
during its insurgency campaigns.

There are about 160,000 long-term refugees staying at Thai camps along the
border with Myanmar.
____________________________________

February 4, Irrawaddy
Indian rebel groups operating camps in Burma – Ba Kaung

Members of United Liberation Front Assam (ULFA), an armed separatist group
from Assam State in northeast India, have established four camps inside
Burma and recently started moving camps deeper into dense forest areas,
according to news reports in India.

The ULFA activities were reportedly disclosed by a ULFA member who
recently surrendered to the Indian authorities. The ULFA has 500 troops
based in Hukong Valley of Chin state in northwest Burma, according to
Khaing Pray Thein, a correspondent based at the Burma-Bangladesh border.

According to a report in the Hindustan Times newspaper, the ULFA is
sending new recruits in small groups to the camps in Burma for training.
Its four major camps in Burma support 150 to 200 members.  Senior ULFA
officials reportedly have ties with Burmese military officials.

“The group has camps both in Bangladesh and in Khanti, Chin state,” said
Khaing Pray Thein, adding that the group moved around freely in Bangladesh
until 2001 when the Bangladesh Awami League party came into power.
According to the Indian Army sources, the total strength of ULFA is around
3,000, while various other sources put the figure ranging from 4,000 to
6,000.

In November 2009, Bangladesh launched a major crackdown on ULFA militants
operating from its soil by apprehending two top leaders and subsequently
pushed the ULFA into Indian territory.

Last month, the Indian Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai met with Burmese
generals in Naypyidaw to discuss border issues. The Indian delegation
reportedly asked the Burmese government to launch a search in the Kachin
area for Paresh Baruah, the ULFA commander-in-chief.

Sources in Chin State say that the Burmese army has not taken any action
against the presence of the ULFA inside Burma. Local residents accuse ULFA
members of committing acts of robbery, extortion and physical abuse.

Khaing Pray Thein said the Burmese army appears to be indifferent to the
presence of the ULFA, and it also seems unconcerned about another Indian
separatist group, the Manipur People's Liberation Front (MPLF), which has
a strong presence near Maungdaw Township in Arakan State.

He said the MPLF reportedly has 1,000 troops based in the jungle about 10
miles north of Maungdaw. MPLF leaders live in Maundaw and own several
businesses there.

“The local people are forbidden to approach the MPLF-controlled area,” he
said.

India and Burma share a 1,630-km border. Insurgent groups such as the
United National Liberation Front, the People's Liberation Army, and Naga
and Kuki insurgent groups are active in four Indian border states
including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. The Indian
authorities say the groups are involved in smuggling arms and drugs into
India from the Sino-Burmese border area.

Many of these groups had been operating in both Bangladesh and Burma.
However, since the Bangladesh government improved its relations with India
some years ago, rebel groups in Bangladesh began moving into Burma.
According to observers, the Burmese government views the groups as buffer
forces and also depends on them for information on Chin rebels and other
groups that oppose the  Burmese regime.
____________________________________

February 4, Mizzima News
Thai security agencies raid Karen Information Centre – Kyaw Kha

Chiang Mai – A surprise raid was carried out by Thai police and soldiers
on Thailand border town Mae Sot based Karen Information Centre (KIC) this
morning.

About 20 Mae Sot based armed policemen and soldiers searched the news
agency office for over an hour starting 6 a.m. and took photographs.

“There was no one in our office at the time. They entered and ransacked
it,” KIC editor Nan Phau Ge told Mizzima.

Before raiding and searching the news agency office, Thai security men
entered and searched the residence of Karen National Union (KNU) party
leader David Tharkapaw.karen-info

A family member present at the time said, “The police searched both
upstairs and downstairs. They found nothing in our house and took
photographs. They  carried service revolvers. The KIC office was closed
when they entered. So they forced open an upstairs window and three
policemen entered the building, took out KIC newspapers and dropped them
outside”.

This is the first ever incident of the KIC office being searched and
raided on suspicion of keeping drugs and arms, editor Nan Phau Ge said.
KIC is a news agency disseminating news related to Karen region and Karen
people.

She also said that personnel in a Thai army truck took photographs of the
KIC office on February 2 at about 9 a.m. from the front. They searched the
building with a search warrant today.

“They came looking for arms and drugs. It was just an excuse,” a KNU
leader said.

Since the former Thai PM Thaksin assumed power, KNU leader Pado David
Tharkapaw’s house has been raided and searched thrice, including this
time. Thai police and army personnel came and searched his house for the
second time on 27 October last year.

Following the assassination of KNU Secretary General Pado Man Sha in Mae
Sot on 14 February 2008, the homes of KNU leaders were searched. They were
warned not to live inside Thailand.

On 27 October last year, Thai police and army personnel searched for arms
and drugs in the homes of five top KNU leaders. They escorted the wife of
Col. Nada Mya of Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), Nan Hi Lar, to
their office but she was released later the same day.

Similarly the raiding team led by Tak Province Chief Col. Nonpathone,
comprising of policemen, border guard force and people’s militia
accounting for cover 100 personnel searched the residences of KNU leaders
in Naung Bwa village, Thar Saung Yan Township on 4 November last year for
illegal arms. But they found nothing.

After the Burmese PM assured his Thai counterpart of not allowing Thai
opposition forces on Burmese soil at the 15th ASEAN meeting held in
Thailand in October last year, a series of raid and search operations of
KNU leaders’ homes followed.

____________________________________
DRUGS

February 4, Shan Herald Agency for News
Most drugs seized in Thailand come from the Burma Army: Businessmen

Business people on the border SHAN has interviewed confirmed that most of
the drugs seized in Thailand originate in the Burma Army controlled
militia groups and not Wa as reported by several news agencies.

“The Wa are not out of the game yet, not by a long shot,” said a young
trader on the Tachilek-Maesai border. “But the political winds are
changing, so is the drug trade. The Wa used to be Number One. Now the
militias are Number One.”

The United Wa  State Army (UWSA) and several other ceasefire groups have
since 2008 increasingly been under pressure to come into the fold of the
Burma Army The UWSA and 5 other groups say they would not give up their
arms until their autonomy demands are met.

“Since then, the militia’s stars have been on the rise,” agreed another
businessman. “The ceasefire groups’ trucks are searched, but the militias’
are not. The result is even the ceasefire groups have to turn to the
militias for the safe transit of their drug consignments.”

One businessmen earlier told SHAN that Thai entrepreneurs had been trying
to take advantage of the situation by investing with the militias. “They
are the ones who bring in precursors like caffeine and pseudo ephedrine
you have been hearing about,” he said. “They, unlike the Wa, like to churn
out the pills first and look for the customers later.”

The Wa, he says, “never make pills without order.” They also are choosy
with their customers: either they must pay cash on delivery or they must
be long standing loyal customers.

But why do most smugglers say they were carrying “Wa goods” and not
others’? “It’s to discourage rival groups from trying to hijack the
goods,” one businessman replied. “If you say you are carrying Wa goods, no
one will dare touch you. Also when you are caught on the Thai side and the
media ask you where it comes from, the answer “Wa” will shut them up.”

Most of the junta backed militia groups are said to be involved in the
drug production and trade. The most well-known is the group from Punako,
Mongtoom tract, Monghsat township, opposite Chiangrai’s Mae Fa Luang
district. The Burma Army’s Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) 553 and 554
are stationed near their village.

Yet despite their stars rising, their products are still low-quality
compared to the Wa’s. “But just give them sufficient time,” said the
source, “I think the Number One chemists from the Wa will be moving over
to the militias.”

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 4, Mizzima News
Burmese monks stopped from joining renovation of U Thant’s rest house –
Myint Maung

New Delhi – Burmese Buddhist monks have been stopped from being a part of
the renovation work of the U Thant’s memorial rest house in Lumbini, Nepal
by the Burmese embassy in capital Kathmandu.

Though two Burmese monks were keen to be part of the renovation of U
Thant’s memorial rest house into a library and museum by the trustee, the
Burmese embassy prevented them.

“The building is going to collapse so we consulted Burmese monks in
Lumbini. We heard that officials of the Burmese embassy in Kathmandu came
yesterday and yelled at them for involving themselves in our project,”
Nepali abbot Decruiser Karet Thanmar who is spearheading the renovation
project told Mizzima.

The abbot, who sojourns at the U Thant memorial rest house said, “The
Burmese embassy here does not want Burmese monks to be involved. In their
view, U Thant was a democrat so that they have no respect for him. Besides
they do not want anything related to U Thant publicised”.

One of the monks staying at the Burmese golden monastery in Lumbini, the
birthplace of Lord Buddha, and run by Burma Religious Affairs Department
said that the Burmese authorities also stopped them from talking about the
matter to anyone.

The reason behind the ban is still not clear and the Burmese embassy was
not forthcoming with its comments.

But the Nepali abbot said that they would go ahead with the renovation plan.

They plan to repair the damaged roof and build the library and an
information centre in the front along with a dining hall and two
guesthouses for visiting monks, it is learnt.

U Thant was UN Secretary General from 1961 to 1971. He died on 25 November
1974 in New York, USA.

The ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) government at that time
refused to honour him with a state funeral and planned to bury him at the
Cantonment Park. Rangoon University students refused to accept this and
forcibly buried his mortal remains on 8 December 1974 in the university
campus, in the former Student Union building compound.

The army raided the university campus on 11 December at about 2 a.m. and
killed many students and people who were guarding the tomb of U Thant and
arrested many. Then they bulldozed the tomb and reburied the mortal
remains of U Thant immediately at their pre-planned site in Cantonment
Park.

(Edited by Ye Yint Aung)

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 4, Irrawaddy
Louisa Benson Craig dies aged 69 – Saw Yan Naing

Louisa Benson Craig, an inspirational Karen community leader and former
Miss Burma, passed away after a long battle with cancer in California on
Feb. 2. She was 69.

Born in Rangoon in 1941 to a Portuguese and his Karen wife, Louisa became
renowned for her beauty and won the Miss Burma contest twice––in 1956 and
1958. She also acted in a number of Burmese films.
Beauty queen and rebel Naw Louisa (Photo: Karen Museum)

After studying in Boston in the USA, she returned to Burma and in 1964
married Lin Htin, the former Brigade 5 commander of the Karen National
Union (KNU's) military wing, the Karen National Liberation Army. Lin Htin
was responsible for an attack in 1961 on the Thai border town of Mae Sot,
but had surrendered with Saw Hunter Tha Mwe to the Burmese government in
1963.

Louisa was among the Burmese beauty queens who were once reportedly
invited for a dinner with Gen Ne Win, the infamous Burmese dictator who
seized power in 1962.

After her husband was killed by Burmese soldiers in 1965, she led his 5th
Brigade back into revolution. In 1967, she married an American, Glen
Craig, and settled in California. She was a founder member of the Burma
Forum and a board member with the US Campaign for Burma. In recent years
she suffered from brain cancer.

Zipporah Sein, the general secretary of the KNU, said she met with Naw
Louisa three times in 2003-04, the latest meeting being in northern Karen
State. She described Naw Louisa as a very active person who loved her
Karen people and loved working for them.
“She encouraged us to work hard for the Karen people and was very active,”
Zipporah Sein said. “I believe she worried about the Karen in Burma until
the final days of her life.”

Louisa Benson Craig constantly lobbied for the Karen resistance movement,
raising the profile of the plight of internally displaced Karen people in
conflict zones in Karen State and encouraging unity among Burma's ethnic
peoples. She was known as a staunch supporter of federalism in Burma.

A statement by the US Campaign for Burma on Wednesday read: “It has been
an honor to have Louisa Benson Craig as part of the US Campaign for Burma
family. Her decades of service to the Free Burma movement and plight of
the Karen people has brought much needed attention, hope and inspiration
to those of us who will continue the struggle for a free and democratic
Burma.”

Maung Maung Hla, a Karen pastor in Rangoon who was close to Naw Louisa
during her youth, remembered her aloud: “She had a little mole on her left
cheek and she had a kind heart. She was also a very good singer.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 4, Independent (UK)
Aung San Suu Kyi, a leaking roof, and the brother who won't let her fix it
– Andrew Buncombe

In the time she has spent detained in her crumbling Rangoon home, the
Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has endured isolation,
frustration and grief.

Jailed or detained for nearly 14 of the last 20 years, she has watched
helplessly as the military regime that runs Burma has killed or
incarcerated her supporters and conjured up new reasons to keep her away
from ordinary people. The tireless efforts of her dedicated lawyers to
free her have always been in vain.

But tomorrow her lawyers will return to court for one of their strangest
cases yet, when they appeal against an injunction that has stopped Ms Suu
Kyi carrying out repair work to her increasingly dilapidated two-storey
house. What makes the case all the more remarkable is that the man seeking
to stop the Nobel Laureate from fixing her leaking roof is her estranged
brother who lives in the US.

Speaking last night from Rangoon, one of the democracy campaigner's
lawyers, U Kyi Win, confirmed: "First of all her brother went to the mayor
and got a temporary order to stop the repair to the roof. We have to go
tomorrow [to argue against it] and we already have our objections."

Few casual followers of Ms Suu Kyi and her decades-long struggle for
democracy in a country ruled by a fist of iron would even know she had a
brother, let alone one who is apparently being used by the junta to try to
undermine her. But the unlikely tussle between brother and sister has been
going on for many years and, say analysts, is part of the broader,
continuing struggle between the military junta and Ms Suu Kyi and her
National League for Democracy (NLD).

The dispute between Ms Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo, her elder brother and only
surviving sibling, dates back to 1988 when their mother, Khin Kyi, living
at the white, colonial-style building located in Rangoon's University
Avenue, suffered a stroke. As the health of their mother, the wife of
Burma's independence leader Aung San and a woman who served as Burma's
ambassador to India and Nepal, worsened, Ms Suu Kyi returned to Burma from
her home in Oxford to care for her.

Nine months later her mother suffered a second stroke and died in late
December, by which time the country's fledgling democracy movement had
already mounted fierce challenges to the government, in which up to 6,000
democracy activists had been killed.

Ms Suu Kyi, who had first encountered the protesting students when they
brought wounded comrades for treatment at the hospital where she was
caring for her mother, was swept up in the struggle. She began addressing
huge crowds, and was quickly acclaimed the legitimate heir to her father
as the champion of Burmese freedom.

According to her lawyer, Mr San Oo said that she could continue to live in
the family home for as long as she wanted, only stipulating that if she
sold it, he would receive half the proceeds. Nothing more was heard of the
matter until 2000 when Ms Suu Kyi's brother, who by this time had taken US
citizenship and emigrated to California with his Burmese wife, launched a
legal action in the Rangoon High Court for the house to be divided. On
that occasion, Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers were successful and defeated the
action but the following year, her brother, who is an an engineer, filed
suit again. The matter is still pending.

In the meantime, Ms Suu Kyi, whose most recent spell of house arrest has
seen her confined almost completely incommunicado since 2003 after her
convoy was attacked and dozens of her supporters killed, has sought to
have repairs carried out to the property. Last December, the authorities
granted permission, given that the house was in an increasingly dangerous
state, but lawyers for her brother obtained an injunction, citing his
claim on the property. "The whole house will be drenched if it rains,"
another of Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers told reporters after meeting with his
client late last year. "But she did not grumble about her situation."

The behaviour of the 64-year-old democracy leader's brother has upset many
of her supporters. In a move with great resonance in devout Burma, a group
of Buddhist monks involved in the September 2007 democracy demonstrations
that brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets of Burma's
cities, this week announced that they had "ex-communicated" Mr San Oo,
banning him from making the offerings that, in the view of Theravada
Buddhists, allow lay people to gain the merit that leads to Nirvana.

The announcement by the Burma Monks Organisation that it is enforcing a
religious sanction known as pattani kuzanakan against Mr San Oo and his
wife renders them outcasts. In 2007, groups of monks enforced a similar
boycott on senior members of Burma's military regime and ordered all monks
to refuse to accept alms from them. The group said they had sent a message
to Mr San Oo demanding that he drop his legal action by 31 January. As he
had not responded they had decided to go ahead with the ex-communication.

An exiled Burmese monk now living in the US and involved in the action
against the democracy leader's brother, said last night: "We think he is
trying to evict Aung San Suu Kyi. He does not agree with her being there."

What is not clear is the motivation for the behaviour of Ms Suu Kyi's
brother, who yesterday could not be contacted. When he brought his first
case in 2000, it was widely reported that he was acting on the
instructions of the Burmese junta.

Mark Farmaner, of the Burma Campaign UK, said it was rumoured that Mr San
Oo benefited from bringing the cases against his sister. "He is an
American citizen but the regime use him to put pressure on her," he said.

One claim is that Mr San Oo has been given special privileges by the
regime, which terms itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
In 2005 it was reported that he was overseeing the construction of a house
near the ancient Burmese city of Bagan. While Burmese law prohibits
foreign citizens owning property in Burma, it was reported that Ms Suu
Kyi's brother had been given permission to build by senior government
officials and that he intended to spend winters in the property. When he
was not there, it was reported, the house would be used by the government.

Last year, a Burmese defector, Aung Lin Htut, the former deputy chief of
mission to the Burmese Embassy in the US, told the Washington Post that
the ambassador of the time had received instructions from Rangoon to
obtain Mr San Oo's signature in exchange for the promise of business
opportunities for his wife and her family. Some reports claim that Mr San
Oo's wife has political ambitions.

"When Aung San Oo returned these papers with his signature, the ambassador
checked them carefully, signed his signature to confirm and sent it back
to General Than Shwe through the diplomatic pouch," said the former
diplomat, who now lives in Maryland.

The legal showdown between Ms Suu Kyi and her brother comes as the SPDC is
preparing to hold a controversial election later this year as part of what
it claims is a move towards democracy - 20 years after the last election,
which the NLD won by a landslide, though the victory was never honoured.
Ms Suu Kyi has been barred from standing in the new election, which is
expected to further cement the army's position.

Ms Suu Kyi herself, whose house arrest was extended last year after a US
citizen swam across Inya Lake to her house uninvited, has given no public
hint of how she regards the legal challenges mounted by her brother. It
can be assumed, given all the other extaordinary privations of her life,
that it is a source of great sorrow and indignation; while this week's
ex-communication will give her the comfort of knowing that Burma's
second-most powerful institution after the army - the Buddhist Sangha, or
church, which led 2007's revolt - is still solidly behind her.

____________________________________

February 4, The National (UAE)
Myanmar election date is uncertain, but not who will win – Larry Jagan

Bangkok – The rumour mill in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) is working
overtime. In the past, the country’s military made many important
decisions on the basis of what astrologers had decreed as auspicious or
significant dates, including the 1990 election date and the mass move to
the new capital. The former ruler, Gen Ne Win, only allowed local kyat
currency notes to be printed that were denominations of nine – regarded as
an exceptionally lucky number in Myanmar.

“Everyone in Burma is quietly talking about the elections even though the
date is yet to be announced,” said Janelle Saffin, an Australian member of
parliament associated with the Burma Lawyers Council, after a recent
private visit to the country.

“Several psychologists told me that there has been a significant increase
in anxiety among many average Burmese, especially in Rangoon [Yangon],
because of the uncertainty surrounding the elections.”

China, Myanmar’s closest ally, believes the elections will be sometime in
the last three months of this year, according to Chinese diplomats. But
while the election seems certain now to be held in October or November –
after this year’s rainy season – the current favourite date may just be a
hoax, warned Justin Wintle, a Myanmar specialist and author a biography of
the political opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Perfect Hostage.

Although the election date has not been set, campaigning, at least by
supporters of the junta, is in full swing. “State-controlled media –
newspapers and television – are full of reports and photographs of
government ministers inaugurating community and development projects,
shaking hands with local leaders and handing out financial assistance,” a
Yangon-based diplomat said.

Myanmar’s top senior general, Than Shwe, told the country last year in his
annual speech to mark Armed Forces Day that “democracy today is at a
fledgling stage and still requires patient care and attention.” Since then
he has said little on the subject, except in January, when he warned
potential political parties and politicians not to be foolish and to
follow the rules.

“Plans are under way to hold elections in a systematic way this year. In
that regard, the entire people have to make correct choices,” he
cautioned.

No electoral commission has been established and, even more importantly,
the electoral and political parties laws that will control the process
have not been unveiled.

In the last elections, held in May 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the
National League for Democracy (NLD), won convincingly, but the military
rulers never allowed it to form a civilian government. This time the
generals are not planning to make the same mistake and are tightly
controlling everything to ensure they do not lose.

In the meantime they are deliberately keeping almost everyone in the dark.

“The election laws will be published at the last minute,” said Win Min, a
Myanmarese academic at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. “They want to
keep any potential opposition wrong footed and not allow them time to
organise.”

The last time elections were held the electoral law was made public 20
months before the elections.

“The electoral laws are now 97 per cent complete,” Myanmar’s foreign
minister, Nyan Win, recently told his Indonesian counterpart, Marty
Natalegawam, at a meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations
in Hanoi. “It will take another two or three months to make it 100 per
cent. So, I think the elections would be most probably in the second half
of the year.”

In the meantime, government ministers and civil servants have started
political campaigning.

“No decision is being taken that does not relate to the election
preparation,” a senior UN official in Yangon said speaking on condition of
anonymity. “We have been told by government ministers that some crucial
new projects can only start after the election,” another UN aid official
said.

Only 10 political parties will be allowed to run, Myanmar’s prime
minister, Thein Sein, has said. But he has not said anything publicly
about Ms Suu Kyi or the NLD.

The military junta plans to form a political party that will be under the
control of Union Solidarity and Development Association, set up by Than
Shwe nearly 15 years ago to generate popular support for the government,
military sources said.

The existing National Unity Party was the main pro-military party set up
to fight the last elections, but only won 10 seats.

These two parties will be expected to win the popular vote and make sure
the military remains in power, even if there is a nominal shift to
civilian rule. Twenty-five per cent of the seats have already been
reserved for serving soldiers in the new constitution, approved by a
referendum in May 2008 that was roundly criticised by the opposition and
the international community as a sham.

“In 2010, it will only be an election of the dictators – as they take off
their uniforms and pretend to be civilians,” said Soe Aung, a leading
Myanmarese pro-democracy activist based in Thailand.

“There’s no chance that any civilian government after the elections will
have real power,” the former British ambassador to Yangon, Martin
Moreland, said. “Than Shwe is unlikely to retire; more likely he will copy
his predecessor, Ne Win, and remain the ultimate authority behind the
scenes.

“But there is just a chance that the regime may miscalculate somehow.”

____________________________________

February 4, New Light of Myanmar
Story-telling foreign radio stations – The Dabwint

I am one of the ordinary people. I am complacent about my lifestyle:
leading a peaceful life with my private business. I read, listen to the
radio, and watch TV regularly on account of my habit of learning internal
and international affairs. So, I somewhat keep in touch with what is going
on at home, and in the world.

I have noticed that these days, BBC, VOA, RFA and DVB are stepping up
their broadcasts designed to break up the Tatmadaw. Besides, they have
begun to drive a wedge among the members of the Myanmar Police Force. The
nearer the 2010 election is drawing, the more the internal axe-handles in
complicity with certain foreign radio stations air a wide variety of
fabricated stories with the intention of disrupting the 2010 election,
peace, stability and national development. I believe that has posed a
grave danger to the nation and the people. Therefore, I feel I have come
under a responsibility to write this article in order that such groundless
news stories will come to the light of the people.

In the meantime, they are found desperate to unsettle the talks to
transform the peace groups into border guard forces for lasting, peace, by
airing complete fabrications. In like manner, they are airing news stories
on political prisoners, human rights, freedom of press, and affairs of
anti-government political parties very regularly and repeatedly. The theme
of their broadcasts remains unchanged: the government is bad; the nation
and the people are living below the poverty line; and the government is
oppressing a certain political party.

Here, I notice that there is no element of truth in their broadcasts about
the government. Apparently, why they are doing so is nothing more than
deceiving the people into misunderstanding the government, discouraging
the people, and creating public panic. With great relish, they are
entertaining and adding exaggerations to the stories provided by internal
axe-handles in spite of their knowledge that the stories are baseless. In
my opinion, they are pursuing a long-term plot to neo-colonize our
country.

To be honest, those story-teller radio stations are not happy with the
people leading a peaceful life with a prosperous future. They are anxious
to make the people stay in a state of panic under doubts; create public
outrage, stemming from crises; to weaken and eliminate the Tatmadaw which,
in collaboration with the people, guards the motherland against dangers;
to see the people taking to the streets under the leadership of some
people who rely on external elements, and even the nation facing an 88
unrest-like incident. So, the people are to notice the fact that behind
their broadcasts are clever schemes to achieve their goals and serve their
own interests.

Now, internal axe-handles and certain foreign radio stations are trying to
hinder the 2010 election. It has become clear that they are speeding up
their efforts to disrupt the important turning point of the nation and the
people. Only if they can disrupt the election will it be possible for them
to keep their hopes alive. So, they seem determined to make the election
unsuccessful. The people can visualize easily the point that the closer
the election is to its course the greater attempts they will make.

If my memory serves me correct such storytelling radio stations as BBC,
VOA, RFA and DVB have never ever aired authentic news stories. To be
frank, they have hardly stood the side of the truth since 1988. The true
stories they have aired in the period are not associated with Myanmar
affairs, such as news stories about other countries, and Champions League
football. The news stories on Myanmar affairs they have aired up to now
are all false. The people are well convinced of that point.

In general, news is a true, interesting story. Purported and made-up news
stories are black ones. I have learnt that black journalism is "reporting
fabricated news to mislead the people", and disinformation is "reporting
made-up stories, instead of true stories". According to my review, the
1988 unrest was completely due to story-telling radio stations such as BBC
and VOA with black journalism and misinformation in airing their news
stories about Myanmar.

Among the foreign correspondents, BBC's Christopher Gunness could rock our
country most. BBC and he used black journalism and misinformation methods
to the best of their ability to ravage the country. I believe there are so
many profound evidences that support that point, and it has come to the
knowledge of the majority of the people.

In fact, the 88 unrest was merely a political game well organized by BBC
and Christopher Gunness. Many people placed too much reliance on, and
danced to the broadcasts of BBC and Christopher Gunness, and in the end
the unrest grew into the 88 unrest. Thus, I would say that BBC and
Christopher Gunness killed a great number of innocent civilians and
destroyed a great deal of public property, without using any weapons.

While the unrest was gathering momentum, Christopher Gunness conducted a
made-up interview to fuel the riots of mobs. The broadcasts about the
interview are featured in detail in the book "Skyful of lies of, BBC, VOA,
AIR Broadcasts, and rubettals Against Them". The truth is that on 28 July
1988, BBC correspondent Christopher Gunness conspired an interview in
collusion with Nay Min, Htay Aung, Htay Kywe, and Ko Ko Latt who claimed
themselves as 88 generation students. They deceived and took student Ma
Aye Nyein Thu of Kamayut Township, who at that time was serving as a
voluntary Red Cross member at Yangon General Hospital, to Sangyoung and
introduced her to Christopher Gunness. Then, they pressured her to play a
role in the question and answer programme as they had already planned.

So, she had to comply with their wish, saying in the interview that she
was a student, and was put behind bars in Insein Jail; and that there
other female students and her were raped by jail warders. The well-planned
interview was aired on the evening of 6 August 1988 by BBC. The interview
was so effective that the mobs out of control, thus culminating in the
8-8-88 unrest, which absolutely tarnished the image of the nation. It is,
therefore, fair to say that the 1988 mass protest was completely due to
the fabrications manufactured by internal axe-handles and certain foreign
radio stations to disgrace Myanmar, and bring about untold miseries to the
nation and the people.

Translation: MS