BurmaNet News, February 5, 2010

[Editor]

February 5, 2010, Issue #3891

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“"This morning, three Karen families returned to Myanmar, or 12 people,
but the military decided they would not allow any more to leave until the
Karens have talked to NGOs and verified that they want to return." –Thai
Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi to Deutsche Presse-Agentur

INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: A U.S. citizen’s curious journey to a Myanmar jail
IMNA: Rangoon electricity users frustrated after a decade of inconsistency
Korean Central News Agency: Kim Jong Il's birthday celebrated in Guinea
and Myanmar

ON THE BORDER
Bangkok Post: Karen being repatriated as planned
Independent (UK): Thailand to kick out Burmese refugees; Thousands of
ethnic Karen could face torture or death if 'voluntarily repatriated'

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar privatization move gets momentum

HEALTH
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs –
Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN): WHO warns of tolerance to
anti-malaria drug

REGIONAL
Kachin News Group: Kachins in India mark 49th Kachin Revolution Day

INTERNATIONAL
The Grand Rapids Press (US): Wrestlers travel long and dangerous road from
Burma to Middleville

OPINION / OTHER
Indian Today: N Korea role in Myanmar N-plot? – Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
Irrawaddy: Thailand must not repatriate Karen refugees – Editorial
New Light of Myanmar: Story-telling foreign radio station (2) – The Dabwin





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 5, New York Times
A U.S. citizen’s curious journey to a Myanmar jail – Thomas Fuller

BANGKOK — At last count there were more than 2,100 political prisoners in
Myanmar, according to human rights groups that track the opaque workings
of the penal system in the military-run country. Among them is the unusual
case of Nyi Nyi Aung, a naturalized U.S. citizen who gave up a 9-to-5 job
in the relative comfort of the suburbs of Washington to campaign for
democracy in his native Myanmar.

On Wednesday, a court in Myanmar is scheduled to announce a verdict on
charges of forgery, possession of undeclared foreign currency and failure
to renounce his Myanmar citizenship when he became a U.S. citizen. He
faces 12 years’ imprisonment.

For the administration of President Barack Obama, the case comes at an
awkward time, complicating U.S. efforts to try to engage the military
government after years of minimal contacts between the two countries.

But beyond the politics of the case is the personal journey of Mr. Nyi Nyi
Aung from teenage dissident in Myanmar to exile in the United States and
finally what some describe as his curious decision — others call it bold —
to travel back to Myanmar last September despite public warnings by the
ruling junta that he was a wanted man for his anti-government activities.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung had spent the past several years campaigning for
democracy in Myanmar from Thailand and the United States, and his work had
caught the attention of the junta, which mentioned his name in the
official media.

He had made four previous visits to Myanmar since becoming a U.S. citizen
in 2002. Each time, including for his current visit, he obtained a visa
from the Myanmar government, according to his lawyers. But the September
trip appears to have been the first time he visited Myanmar after the
junta publicly singled him out for inciting unrest.

“If any of us had known he was returning, we would have stopped him,” said
Aung Din, an acquaintance who is the executive director of the U.S.
Campaign for Burma in Washington, an organization that promotes human
rights and the end of military rule in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung kept his trip secret from his fiancée and most of his
friends. The few people he told tried to dissuade him from going, friends
say. They speculate that what made Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung fly to Myanmar was the
health of his mother, Daw San San Tin, who has thyroid cancer and is also
a political prisoner, serving five years for her involvement in the
Buddhist monk-led uprising in 2007, which was brutally suppressed.

“He felt guilty for his mother’s arrest,” said Bo Kyi, the co-founder of
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a group that tracks the
plights of jailed dissidents in Myanmar and organizes aid for them and
their families. “In his heart, maybe he was suffering a lot.”

Using his U.S. passport, Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung may have hoped that he could
visit his mother, who is being held in a remote prison in central Myanmar.

Human rights campaigners complain that Washington has not done enough to
fight what they say are bogus charges against Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung.

“Activists are frustrated by the lack of noise from the U.S, government
when he is a U.S. citizen,” Elaine Pearson, deputy director at Human
Rights Watch, an organization based in the United States that follows the
cases of dissidents in Myanmar.

His arrest and detention, she said, has had a chilling effect on the
Myanmar’s exile community. “Certainly those with friends and relatives
inside will think twice before attempting to quietly visit Burma again,”
she said.

Members of Congress and the consular affairs section of the U.S. State
Department have been doing a “wonderful job” pressing for his release,
said Wa Wa Kyaw, Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung’s fiancée, who works as a nurse in
Maryland. But like others involved with the case, Ms. Wa Wa Kyaw laments
that higher-level members of the Obama administration have not issued
public pleas for his release.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung flew to Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, on Sept. 3 and was
detained soon after landing in what friends say appears to have been a
trap.

The Myanmar authorities initially charged Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung with violating
an internal security law. The New Light of Myanmar, the government’s
mouthpiece, accused him of creating unrest within the country and plotting
“internal riots and sabotage.”

Those charges were dropped without explanation in October, and prosecutors
announced the current charges.

Lawyers for Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung rejected all of the charges. They said he did
not possess a forged identity card, he was arrested before clearing
customs and thus never had the opportunity to declare any foreign
currency, and the Myanmar Embassy in Washington never instructed Mr. Nyi
Nyi Aung to renounce his Myanmar citizenship.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung, who is also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin, began his activism
young. He fled Myanmar more than two decades ago after the seminal
pro-democracy uprising in 1988. Only 18 years old at the time, he helped
organize high school students. He fled with many other organizers when the
military began a crackdown.

He traveled to the United States in 1993 as a refugee, obtained a computer
science degree there and worked as a technician at the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office.

But he was restless, said Ms. Wa Wa Kyaw, his fiancée.

“He really, really wants to do everything for freedom and democracy in
Burma,” she said.

Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung shuttled between Maryland and Mae Sot, Thailand, a border
town where many Myanmar exiles are based.

The family had no involvement in politics before the 1988 uprising,
according to Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung’s brother, Ko Ko Aung. But their role as
organizers of the demonstrations that came close to toppling the
military-led government two decades ago and their subsequent pro-democracy
activities have splintered the family. Mr. Ko Ko Aung is in exile in
Thailand. Two cousins are serving prison terms for their involvement in
the 2007 uprising, one of whom, Thet Thet Aung, was sentenced to 65 years.

Their mother, San San Tin, is serving her five-year term in the remote
town of Meiktila, several hundred kilometers north of Yangon.

Mr. Ko Ko Aung said he does not know whether her cancer has progressed or
is life-threatening. “She hasn’t received any treatment in jail,” he said.

____________________________________

February 5, Independent Mon News Agency
Rangoon electricity users frustrated after a decade of inconsistency – Kon
Chan

Electricity supplies in Rangoon have been fickle for the past decade, with
the exception of an annual 2 month-long period during rainy season, when
Burma is fueled by hydropower. Rangoon citizens say that the power
scarcity worsened after Burma’s capital was moved to Naypyidaw in 2005,
and many fear the situation will continue to decline.

City residents fretted over their powerlessness to IMNA’s reporter,
explaining that over the past 10 years, they have never had any way of
knowing how long an electricity outage might last, or when the shortage
situation might worsen. According to Rangoon residents, electricity
supplies hit an all-time low after the September 2007 Saffron revolution.

Following the upheaval, the Burmese government instituted a “rotation
system” for providing electrical power to city residents. After the
conclusion of the rainy season, power is provided to different sections of
the city in shifts. Section A of the city receives power for a few hours
starting at 6 am, Section B at 12 noon, and Section C at 4pm.
Unfortunately, power often fails to arrive at its allotted hours, but
residents informed IMNA’s reporter that they prefer the current system to
the totally unpredictable power supplies of the pre-2007 era, when
electricity would often appear and vanish without warning.

“Sometimes, families would be at work when the electricity would come.
They couldn’t use the electric pump to get water, because the electricity
would be out when they arrived at home. Then they would have trouble,
because there was no water to use, or electricity to cook with, so they
would have to buy charcoal. Many got tired of this, and sometimes people
would hire workers to get water for them when the electric pump was
working, and bring it to their homes” explained a 40 year-old trainer from
Tarmwe township in Rangoon.

Electricity, despite its central importance in national productivity, is
being denied to the less-developed nation of Burma. The State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) sells the country’s hydropower, instead of
using this resource to provide Burma’s people with electricity.

Newspapers owned by the Burmese government publish stories every day about
the number of hydropower plants and dams being built inside the country,
but often these news stories are only sign of such energy sources that
Rangoon’s citizens ever see. “Don’t touch newspaper. [It] will give you an
electric shock due to lots of megawatts”, joked a newspaper seller to
IMNA’s reporter, hawking his wares to a darkened teashop in Rangoon during
a power outage.

Irregular electricity supplies have a devastating effect upon a variety of
Rangoon businesses; internet shops and cafes have been particularly
victimized. Many rely on generators to keep their businesses afloat.
Unfortunately, poor internet connections in Rangoon often mean that
internet shops are unable to draw sufficient customers to earn back the
cost of a generator, and internet shops frequently go out of business
following an investment in a generator.

According to a staff member from an internet shop in Kyout-ta-dar township
within the city, “It is convenient when more customers use the internet to
use the electricity machine [generator], but often there are less than 3
customers using the internet [in the shop] because of the bad connection.
This internet shop is sorry that many times, we to have to say to the
customers to leave the shop, because we have only 1 or 2 customers. Many
internet shops are closed, because the cost of gasoline [for the
generators] is lost during times of bad connection.”

The irregular distribution of electricity has led to increased reliance on
generators; often it is the noisy sound of generators echoing through the
city that welcomes travelers to Rangoon. Upped generator use has also
caused alarm among the international environmentalist community; increased
carbon dioxide levels, caused by machines used to support businesses, only
contributes to the growing problem of global warming.

As the new capital Naypyidaw, with its population of less than 1 million
people, stays alight with electricity for 24 hours a day, the electricity
supply in Rangoon only worsens.

____________________________________

February 5, Korean Central News Agency
Kim Jong Il's birthday celebrated in Guinea and Myanmar

Pyongyang -- A joint seminar on General Secretary Kim Jong Il's work
"Socialism Is a Science" was held in Guinea and a meeting and a film show
in Myanmar on Jan. 27 and 28 to celebrate his birthday.

Speeches were made there.

Riyad Chaloub, chairman of the Guinean National Committee for the Study of
the Juche Idea, said it was clearly proved through the publication of the
work "Socialism Is a Science" that the socialist cause is the just cause
of the popular masses' independence and humankind's advance toward
socialism is the irresistible law governing the development of history.

Abdoulaye Conte, chief of the Guinean Group for the Study of Kimjongilism,
said that the DPRK's is a most advantageous and powerful socialism
enjoying unquestionable support and confidence from the people as it is
based on the Juche-oriented standpoint and attitude toward the popular
masses.

Abdoulaye Diallo, chairman of the Guinean Society for the Study of the
Juche Literary Idea, stressed that the feats of Kim Jong Il who has
defended the socialist cause will shine forever in history.

The secretary general of the Union Solidarity and Development Association
of Myanmar lauded the leadership exploits of Kim Jong Il, saying that he
glorified 2009 as a year of great changes to be specially recorded in the
history of Korea and is making ceaseless journey of field guidance to
various fields of the national economy from the very start of 2010.

Appreciated at the film show was Korean film "Fireworks for a Thriving
Nation".

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 5, Bangkok Post
Karen being repatriated as planned

The military is beginning the repatriation of 161 Karen refugees from Tak
back to Burma as planned, despite a protest by human rights groups, Col
Noppadol Vacharachitbovorn said on Friday.

The commander of the 35th Rangers Task Force Regiment said he had
instructed his troops  help the Karen refugees  move across the Moei
river, which divides Thailand and Burma, to a Burmese village opposite Ban
Nong Bua and Ban Mae Usuthae in tambon Mae Usu of Tha Song Yang district.

He said the refugees wanted to return home because there had been no
fighting between Burmese troops and minority groups on the Burmese side of
the river for some time.

More than 3,000 Karen fled the fighting across the Moei river to Ban Nong
Bua and Ban Mae Usutha on June 2 last year.

About 1,500 of them had already returned to their home country voluntarity
and the rest would gradually be repatriated, Col Noppadol said.

About 40 local and international human rights groups on Thursday sent an
open letter to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva asking him to stop the
repatriation of the Karen refugees.

They said the refugees would be at risk in their home village because of
landmines.
____________________________________

February 5, Independent (UK)
Thailand to kick out Burmese refugees; Thousands of ethnic Karen could
face torture or death if 'voluntarily repatriated' – Andrew Buncombe

THOUSANDS of refugees who fled Burma for safety in Thailand after their
country's junta launched a military offensive could be forced to return
home where they could face torture or even death, campaigners believe.

Activists say that up to 3,000 ethnic Karen, who were forced from eastern
Burma last summer, could be "voluntarily repatriated" as early as today.
While the Thai authorities insist that no one will be forced to return to
Burma against their will, they have said that those who want to go home
could start returning immediately. It has been claimed that officials have
already been putting pressure on some of the refugees.

"Sending these refugees back to Burma is sending them back to possible
death, slave labour or forced recruitment as soldiers," said Zoya Phan, of
the Burma Campaign UK. "Over the past 25 years Thailand has earned the
respect of the international community by giving shelter to refugees
fleeing abuses in Burma. If refugees are now forced to return it will not
only be morally unacceptable, it will also damage the reputation of
Thailand in the eyes of the world."

The ethnic Karen of eastern Burma have long struggled, unsuccessfully, to
create their own federal state. They have faced sustained hostility from
the Burmese military, and also from certain Karen groups which have allied
themselves with the junta, most noticeably the Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army (DKBA).

Over the past two decades, about 100,000 Karen refugees have taken shelter
in camps strung along the Thailand-Burma border. One camp, Mae La, holds
more than 40,000 people. Aid groups believe that another half a million
Karen are displaced inside eastern Burma.

Human rights groups and the UN have for a long time accused the Burmese
government of torturing, killing and raping Karen civilians while trying
to crush those fighting for a measure of autonomy.

During the Second World War, many ethnic Karen joined forces with the
British to oppose Japanese troops seizing control. They were encouraged to
believe that the reward for their loyalty would be their own state. But
the promise was never fulfilled.

Activists say the area in Burma's Karen state to which the refugees would
be made to return is littered with landmines. Two weeks ago a pregnant
woman who had returned stepped on a landmine and was seriously injured.

They also warn that the area is largely controlled by the DKBA, which is
accused of carrying out widespread abuses against civilians, including
forced labour, executions and torture.

Speaking last night from the one of the camps, K'naw Paw of the Karen
Women's Organisation, a group working with the refugees, said: "We have
not yet received any update from the Thai authorities. The fear is that
the move to return people will begin tomorrow. People are very
frightened."

Colonel Noppadol Watcharajitbaworn, the military commander in the Thai
province of Tak where the refugees are sheltering, told the Associated
Press that a first batch of 30 families - about 100 people in all - had
volunteered to return to their village and would be sent back today.

"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."

But activists say the dangers are too high. Benedict Rogers, of Christian
Solidarity Worldwide, said: "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."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 5, Xinhua
Myanmar privatization move gets momentum

Myanmar's privatization move has been getting momentum with the
Privatization Commission announcing auctioning of 110 more state
enterprises this year under its privatization plan laid down 15 years ago.

The sale includes factories, warehouses and cinemas owned by 11 ministries
and government departments.

These state enterprises to be sold out are scattered mainly in Yangon,
Mandalay, Ayeyawaddy and Bago divisions and Rakhine state.

Closing date for the auction is set for Feb. 26 this year.

In a bid to turn the state-owned enterprises into more effective ones
under its market-oriented economic policy, Myanmar introduced the
privatization plan in 1995 which has been implemented through auctioning
and leasing or establishing joint ventures with local and foreign
investors.

The privatization plan also covers those enterprises nationalized in the
1960s.

The Myanmar authorities declared early this month privatization of some
port terminals' handling business, offering at least three port terminals
in Yangon for private enterprises to tender.

In addition, the Myanmar government planned to privatize all the state-run
gas stations in the country by March 31.

Meanwhile, the Fuel Importers and Distributors Association has been formed
to take over fuel trade formerly run by the state.

The move will pave way for free trade of petrol and diesel, putting an end
to a system of buying fuel with ration book under restricted quota.

Moreover, the Myanmar government has awarded contracts to seven private
companies to upgrade a highway connecting the two biggest cities of Yangon
and Mandalay.

The 707-kilometer highway will be built under a build, operate and
transfer (BOT) system by the seven companies.

____________________________________
HEALTH

February 5, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
WHO warns of tolerance to anti-malaria drug

Yangon – Tolerance to artemisinin, the most effective anti-malarial drug
available, is emerging in Myanmar and could pose a major challenge to
regional malaria control, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO, researchers and health officials are already trying to contain the
spread of resistant strains of the plasmodium falciparum parasite along
the Thai-Cambodian border.

The parasite causes the most deadly form of malaria .

Preliminary studies in 2008-09 by the Mekong countries of Cambodia, China,
Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, show tolerance elsewhere, with the
drug proving less effective and taking longer than previously to kill the
parasite.

The studies, presented late last year at a WHO regional workshop of health
officials, show tolerance may have extended to areas along the
Myanmar-Thailand, Myanmar-China and Cambodia-Vietnam borders.

WHO describes the Mekong countries as the epicentre of plasmodium
falciparum resistance to anti-malarial drugs in the world, and the
findings have prompted further studies over 2010 and 2011 to confirm
increasing resistance.

"In this globalized economy, people move from one place to another, so
parasite resistance can easily be spread to the rest of the world,"
Leonard Ortega, WHO's acting country representative in Myanmar, told IRIN.

"If those drugs are no longer effective, more people may die of malaria,"
he said.

Artemisinin is normally used in combination therapy (ACT) with other
drugs, although it can be prescribed on its own.

Ortega said the studies in Myanmar had shown that parasites were still
detected in some cases after treatment, taking more than a benchmark three
days to be cleared.

"This is an indication that there is resistance, but this year we will try
to confirm that," he said, adding that plans will soon be under way for
containment of the parasite, which is spread by mobile populations such as
migrant workers.

"We don't need to wait until we confirm. We know from history - and there
is now evidence at the Thai-Cambodia border - that there is resistance to
artemisinin, so we believe it is already here," he said.

Factors in resistance

In Myanmar, evidence of a tolerance to ACTs, with longer times for the
parasite to be cleared and decreasing effectiveness, has been seen in
Kawthaung town in the southeast, along the border with Thailand, and in
southern Mon State, said Ortega.

As with the Thai-Cambodia situation, tolerance may be due to the use of
counterfeit or substandard drugs which expose the parasite to lower doses
of artemisinin, thereby enabling it to become resistant.

Malaria patients may also not be completing the full three-day ACT
courses, while health service providers, such as doctors, are not
following the national malaria treatment guidelines recommended by WHO,
said Ortega.

"On the part of the service providers, we have evidence that they don't
give the complete treatment," he said.

Instead of handing over a full course of drugs to patients, private
general practitioners are cutting up the medicine packs to dole out drugs
by the day, probably to increase their profits, he said.

This, in turn, deters patients from completing drug treatment courses,
many of whom are the rural poor and lack the means to travel for repeat
practitioner visits.

Containment challenges

Along with diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, malaria is a
leading cause of mortality in Myanmar, according to WHO.

Despite this, resources to treat malaria and to control its spread are
limited.

"People already own mosquito nets, but they are not treated with
insecticide, so it's not effective in preventing malaria," said Ortega.

"We estimate that around nine million mosquito nets are available at the
household level, but only 6 percent are treated with insecticides," he
said.

In addition, only around 500,000 ACT courses are available annually - a
fraction of what is needed to treat an estimated 8.5 million malaria
cases.

"There is a huge gap in terms of drugs available and prevention," he said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 5, Kachin News Group
Kachins in India mark 49th Kachin Revolution Day

Ethnic Kachins and Burmese protested today Burmese junta in Jantar Mantar
in New Delhi, India.
Organized by the Kachin National Organization (KNO), over 50 activists,
Burmese refugees and Buddhist monks assembled at the Jantar Mantar
demanding that the Burmese junta stop abuses and oppression in Kachin
State, immediately halt the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project, and release
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The rally was held on the occasion of the 49th Revolution Day of the
Kachin Independent Army (KIA) formed on February 5, 1961.

“Kachin people are fighting for freedom, since 1961. There were five armed
groups in Kachin State but now only two groups remain to fight for self
determination,” KNO member Andrewshin said at the rally.

KIA was set up in 1961 near Lashio in Northeast Shan State. The first
group, which split from KIA, was led by Zahkung Ting Ying in 1968.  He
formed the New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K). The second group was led by
Mahtu Naw, Kachin Defense Army (KDA) in 1990 and the last Lasang Awng Wa
Peace Group came about in 2004.

Buckling under pressure from the junta, the NDA-K, KDA and Lasang Awng Wa
Peace Group transformed to the Burma Army-controlled Border Guard Force
and militia groups.

KIO is still under immense pressure from the regime to change the KIA into
the BGF even as fruitless parleys continue between the junta and the KIO
officials. Ten meetings have already been held.

“People in Burma need to strive to work for achieving freedom and human
rights,” said Andrewshin from KNO formed in 1999 by overseas Kachin
people.

The rally was held with Kachin ethnic people living in New Delhi, from
3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. today.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 5, The Grand Rapids Press (US)
Wrestlers travel long and dangerous road from Burma to Middleville – Steve
Vedder

Middleville, Michigan -- When Mang Ling told friends he intended to
wrestle, they immediately envisioned him slipping between the ropes,
dusting off his sleeper hold and putting the hurt on Captain Charisma.

Considering Ling's history, that guess would be significantly closer to
the truth than where Ling has wound up.

While his friends thought he meant he was signing on with World Wrestling
Entertainment, the 18-year-old sophomore actually is on the Middleville
wrestling team.

"I tell people that I wrestle and they freak out," Ling said. "They're
like, 'Whaaaat, the WWE?'"

You can't blame Ling's friends for their surprise. One of three refugees
on Middleville's team who hail from Burma, now called the Union of
Myanmar, Ling has overcome the loss of both parents, worked as an
electrician to support himself at 15, had a brush with one of the
countless warring factions in Burma and survived a perilous boat trip to
Thailand to land on his feet in West Michigan.

Trojan teammates Steven Cung Bik, who at 20-3 has the best record of any
145-pounder in the OK Gold Conference, and Van Thang, who has a 19-10
record as a 119-pounder, have similar stories as Ling, a 112-pounder who
is called "Steve" by teammates.

All three were separated from their parents in Burma in their early teens
and barely supported themselves through a variety of odd jobs before
undertaking a dangerous journey to bordering Thailand and then to
Malaysia, where they made contact with Bethany Christian Services. The
agency helped settle them in Middleville.

The only time the three had watched wrestling before joining the Trojans
varsity team was seeing the WWE on television.

Now, each of them has a chance to win a league title at Saturday's
conference meet at Catholic Central.

The trio's unlikely story of fleeing a hard life in Burma to landing in an
American high school is nothing short of amazing, said Middleville
wrestling coach Tom Fletke, also a counselor at the school. The
youngsters' friends at Middleville encouraged them to try wrestling,
Fletke showed them a film of Olympic wrestlers and their natural athletic
ability quickly took its course.

Fletke said the trio has more than made up for a lack of wrestling
technique with advantages in physical strength, plus incredible mental
toughness and a willingness to learn.

"They had no clue about wrestling. They're like cats -- powerful. Their
technique just isn't that good, but they have this driving force to be
better," Fletke said.

Wanting a better life drove them from Burma, a poor country of 50 million
people located in southeast Asia. Known to most of the world as Myanmar
since 1989, Burma is split by ethnic tensions and has been ruled by the
military since a 1962 coup. Life there, Thang said, is hard for everyone,
let alone parent-less teens.

"There are no jobs which pay money," Thang said. "It's hard to feed
yourself when you're young and can't do anything.

"You don't choose your job. You do anything you can find."

Ling was separated from his parents by the military, for which he
eventually ran errands. The military also hunted Bik's father, chasing him
to India. In an attempt to get his father to return, the police threatened
to jail Bik, whose first job at 12 was as an equipment packer.

Thang was a farmer and then a cook before he fled to neighboring Thailand.

The three teens, all of whom have physical scars from their life in Burma,
tell the same harrowing tale of fleeing to Thailand. All were packed
tightly into a boat and covered with a plastic tarp to avoid detection by
authorities on the four-day trip to Thailand. There, they trekked through
a pitch-black, snake-infested jungle for miles, with little food and in
constant fear of being discovered and sent to jail by police.

"I was really scared. Sometimes, I would cry. I didn't like the jungle,"
Bik said. "When they say run, you run."

Once in Thailand, the three made contact with Bethany Christian Services.
Thang and Ling, who enrolled at Middleville in 2008, live with host family
Scott and Lynn Pierce. Bik, now in his third year at Middleville, lives
with the Chad and Joanna Seeber family.

Fletke said he is amazed at what the teens have accomplished on the mat
with little wrestling experience. He said the primary driving force among
the three is identical. All have become good wrestlers because their
culture equates a loss with letting their teammates down. Driven by that
fear, the three will go to great lengths to improve as wrestlers.

"You have to give 100 percent and do anything you have to do to win," said
Bik, who dresses up at other Middleville sporting events as the school
mascot. "You keep fighting with everything you have. If that doesn't work,
I'll practice more and not get down on myself.

"In our country, when you play a sport, you're part of a team. You look at
yourself as (needing to be) better than anyone else. But if you lose, you
have to work harder."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 5, Indian Today
N Korea role in Myanmar N-plot? – Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury

Will India have to contend with another nucleararmed neighbour? A recent
report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS) suggests that Myanmar's military junta is nursing nuclear
ambitions and has tapped North Korea to realise them.

The reasons for these aspirations aren't hard to guess.

The generals who rule the country are under pressure from the
international community to restore civilian rule.

Their lesson from the politics of North Korea and Iran, and the experience
of Saddam Hussein's Iraq is that the best way to neutralise foreign
intervention is to possess a nuclear weapon.

The ISIS has published photographs of what it claims is construction work
on a possible nuclear reactor site near Mandalay.

The ISIS report, published a week ago, was written by leading
proliferation experts David Albright and Paul Brannan.

The document focuses on the Myanmarese junta's clandestine dealings with
North Korea and its apparent efforts to mislead overseas suppliers on its
attempts to obtain nuclear technology.

The reports is titled ' Burma: A nuclear wannabe; suspicious links to
North Korea; high- tech procurements and enigmatic facilities'. It says: "
For several years, suspicions have swirled about the nuclear intentions of
Burma's secretive military dictatorship… Certain equipment, which could
be used in a nuclear or missile programme, went to isolated Burmese
manufacturing compounds of unknown purpose." The report tempers these
findings with the proviso that there is no concrete evidence that Myanmar
is building secret nuclear reactors or fuel cycle facilities.

However, it states that because Myanmar is buying a wide variety of
suspicious dual- use goods, governments and companies need to be more
vigilant in examining the country's inquiries or requests for equipment.
In the past, Myanmar has harboured nuclear ambitions in a more open
manner. In 2007, it signed an MoU with the Russian atomic energy agency to
establish a nuclear studies centre, build a 10- megawatt nuclear research
reactor for peaceful purposes and train several hundred technicians in its
operation.

The ISIS report claims that Myanmar's military cooperation with North
Korea has increased over the past several years. It states that the
reported presence of officials from North Korean company Namchongang
Trading - the UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on it - in Myanmar
is proof of their collaboration.

But there is no definite evidence that Korea is supplying Myanmar a
nuclear reactor.

The document assumes significance in the context of the global nuclear
security summit in Washington in April, where India will be represented by
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The summit will provide an opportunity to discuss practical ways to block
illicit trade in nuclear materials. New Delhi is concerned over nuclear
proliferation by neighbouring Pakistan as well as North Korea and Iran.

Experts in India are, however, sceptical about such reports emanating from
Washington. " While the junta may have such intentions, it is not yet
clear whether they are trying to develop a nuclear power plant or making
weapons," says Dr Udai Bhanu Singh of the Institute for Defence Studies
and Analyses. Sources in the Indian embassy in Yangon also say they have
no proof about Myanmar's nuclear facilities.

STIRRING THE NUCLEAR POT

A report by US proliferation experts says the junta in Myanmar is building
a nuclear reactor at a site near Mandalay with North Korea's help.
However, there's no foolproof evidence.
____________________________________

February 5, Irrawaddy
Thailand must not repatriate Karen refugees – Editorial

Tomorrow Thailand will start its repatriation of more than 3,000 Karen
refugees who are staying in Tha Song Yang in Tak Province. The refugees,
including many women and children, entered the country last June to seek
safety after weeks of heavy fighting between a joint force of Burmese
government troops and their local allies, the Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army (DKBA), and their traditional foe, the Karen National Liberation Army
(KNLA), in Karen State.

This is the second largest repatriation of refugees from Thailand ever,
and comes just months after the Thai government decided to send thousands
of ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers back to Laos despite international
objections.

These developments are doing nothing to improve Thailand's already
tarnished reputation. According to a survey by the US Committee for
Refugees and Immigrants, Thailand is one of the world's worst places to be
a refugee. This scathing assessment is due in part to reports early last
year that the Thai Navy had pushed Rohingya boat people out into the open
sea with little food or water to prevent them from coming ashore.

For the Karen, the situation is hardly any better. Under current Thai
policy, displaced Karen fleeing from conflict are permitted to stay only
temporarily. When the fighting stops, they are expected to go back.
According to the Thai authorities, the DKBA and some KNLA leaders have
assured them that hostilities have ceased in the area that the 3,000 Karen
fled from last year. And so they must return.

However, the refugees themselves are well aware of how precarious any
semblance of peace can be in their homeland. This is why they don't want
to go back, and why groups such as the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium and the Karen Women's
Organization say they should be allowed to stay. They are all urgently
appealing to the Thai government not to forcibly push the refugees across
the border into a heavily mined conflict zone.

Thailand should also remember that conflict in eastern Burma is about more
than just armed combat. Many of those who fled were seeking to escape
forced army recruitment and forced labor by the DKBA, carried out partly
in order to reinforce troop levels in preparation for its transformation
into a border guard force battalion under Burmese military command.

The offensives in Karen State last year appeared to be part of an effort
by the Burmese regime to force ethnic cease-fire groups to accede to its
border force plan or face military action. In August, the junta launched
an attack against another ethnic army in the Kokang region of Shan State.
That fighting sent 37,000 refugees fleeing to China. Thailand should also
be concerned about the implications of this new offensive, as many other
armed cease-fire groups hold territory bordering Thailand.

Meanwhile, Burmese regime forces are reported to be preparing to take more
KNLA territory in the coming months. Border-based sources say that there
has been a buildup of Burmese army battalions in the area the refugees
will be repatriated to. This will allow the regime's DKBA allies to
control more of the border area and trade with Thailand once they become a
border guard force—a development that could also result in thousands of
new refugees seeking shelter in Thailand.

For the refugees who are already here, there is no desire to return to a
life of fleeing conflict and massive human rights violations. All they
want is to remain in a country where they are safe. To Thailand's credit,
it has already sheltered hundreds of thousands of refugees from Burma over
the past 25 years. But this is not the time to start taking a tougher line
with refugees. Until Burma is finally free of civil war, Thailand should
be prepared to continue helping those who have suffered most in this
deadly, decades-old conflict.
____________________________________

February 5, New Light of Myanmar
Story-telling foreign radio station (2) – The Dabwin

Nevertheless, the whole truth was discovered some time thereafter. After
the unrest, Aye Nyein Thu admitted with repentence that she just did as
asked by Christopher Gunness, Htay Kywe and Ko Ko Latt; that she was
neither jailed nor raped; and that she made a silly mistake under the
persuasion and pressure of the group of the axe-handles.

Attempt to break up the Tatmadaw has been going on on a large scale since
the 1988 unrest. It seems to me that the axe-handles and those foreign
radio stations are fully committed to their scheme of breaking up the
Tatmadaw with whatever ways and means they have sought, because they are
well convinced of the fact that they will be in no position to exploit the
nation and the people so long as the armed forces remain cohesive and
strong. That is why they stick to their plot of breaking up the Tatmadaw.
It has been over a couple of decades or since 1988. In the end, the good
shall triumph over the evil. The people of us notice that none of their
attempts has come to fruition, whereas the Tatmadaw is getting more and
more united and strong and strengthened.

As far as I remember, broadcasts on announcements intended to break up the
Tatmadaw were aired repeatedly on 12 September 1988. Fake announcements
with fake signatures were rampant around the nation. They said that an
interim government had to be formed by 1 pm on 13 September 1988, or the
Air Force would launch air strikes, and the Navy had set its targets at
many certain places; and that the Tatmadaw had collapsed into pieces.
Actually, such announcements are very destructive, and that reflects their
selfishness. Under the negative impact of the announcements, the majority
of Yangon dwellers came to be in a state of panic, and they placed some
Tatmadaw members in a dilemma, thus accounting for to how much extent
their plot was effective.

Today, whether those announcements are true or not has been clear to all.
However, at that time, many people withstood all the stresses and strains
caused by the announcements. So, an evening TV news on rebuttal was
announced by Myanma Radio and Television that the announcements were fake
ones in order to allay anxiety of the people. In addition, copies of
letters were dropped from Tatmadaw aircraft in order that the people and
Tatmadaw members would come to know the truth. Yet, some artless Tatmadaw
members fell into the snare of the announcements, and took the wrong path
after turning their back to the Tatmadaw. That was a costly lesson. The
number of such soldiers was very small. The whole Tatmadaw (Army, Navy and
Air Force) showed its consolidated unity and managed to save the nation
that was at that time standing on the edge of the abyss.

Since 1988, such story-telling foreign radio stations as BBC, VOA, RFA and
DVB have manufactured fabrications one after another with the intention of
causing wholesale death and destruction to the nation and the people. They
cling on to their subversive plots, airing distorted news, news based on
rumours, and invented news stories day in, day out. In fact, Western
neo-colonialists heavily aid and abet those radio stations and give
directions to absconders, perpetrators and axe-handles from their targeted
countries to harm their mother countries concerned, calling them as
democracy activists. The cohorts and axe-handles under the influence of
the neo-colonists are too naïve to notice that their acts harm none except
them and their country. Therefore, they and such foreign radio stations
work hand in glove.

The internal West-looking groups provide the West Bloc radio stations with
exaggerated news stories in abundance based on personal dissatisfactions,
grudges associated with political issues, and impossible hopes for their
party to come to power. Those radio stations fail to honour the code of
press ethic by exaggerating the provided news stories to contribute
towards their neocolonialism at the expense of the interests of any other
country. The Western radio stations can constantly give the people a real
earful about fabricated news stories as they keep in touch with the
West-looking axe-handles. They air groundless broadcasts at will, taking
full advantage of the tool of the media, and showing total disregard for
the code of press ethic. Personally, they are like a fool with a gun.

As to their objectives and acts, Minister for Information Brig-Gen Kyaw
Hsan in a press conference said that today the government has to seek the
most appropriate ways and means in line with the objective conditions in
the interest of the nation and the people; and that but, pessimists at
home and from abroad, those encouraging subversive acts, and some foreign
media groups that are behind their plots are constantly entertaining
rumours, and airing distorted news, and news stories designed to drive a
wedge among the people, news stories to persuade the people to take to the
streets, and misinformed stories with the intention of undermining the
State stability and peace, national unity, creating public panic,
misleading the people, and stirring up mass protests. What he said is
totally right, and reflects the nature of the West radio stations.

The made-up stories they have aired since 1988 are uncountable. A news
story they aired is still fresh in my mind that they exploited the
situations and invented Tadani (red bridge) affairs, regarding the event
in which security forces prevented student protesters at Tadabyu (White
Bridge) on the embankment of Inya Lake on 16 March 1988. In reality, none
of the students fell in the event, but they aired as if many of them were
killed, describing the protest as Tadani Affairs. Similarly, after the
Tatmadaw had assumed State responsibilities, some persons in the country
and certain foreign radio stations masterminded a plot to force student
protesters to go underground, which is still in the mind of the people.
Surely, the painful memories are always with the students who faced untold
miseries there and their parents in their life.

Those foreign radio stations are, indeed, media enterprises doing media
services. So, they have to follow the code of press ethic strictly.
Instead, they have violated the code of press ethic so many times that
they are merely black media. Therefore, they are brazen enough to air such
harmful, groundless news stories.

In my opinion, they should not manufacture a fabrication about a person.
In spite of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in good health, BBC and VOA in their
broadcasts have said on purpose so many times that she is not in good
health; that they are deeply concerned over her health, and she does not
have access to good health care. Accordingly, the government has to
occasionally issue news in order to get rid of the people's concerns and
doubts.

Again on 23 August 2005, BBC aired an evening news story, which posed
grave danger to the nation, which was related to the Head of the State and
the nation. To make things worse, they added some comments to the news. At
that time, the Head of State was doing his duty in good health. Although
they knew that well, they aired unreliable, baseless news story
deliberately.

Translation: MS