BurmaNet News, February 11, 2010

[Editor]

February 11, 2010, Issue #3895


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Karen villagers flee as Burma army escalates attacks
Irrawaddy: Ethnic leaders dismiss Union Day
New Light of Myanmar: Myanmar prepares compilation of Human Rights Report
New Light of Myanmar: Trial programmes of MRTV-3 begin today

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Landmine death in Karen ‘safe zone’

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: U.N. Rights Envoy asks Myanmar to allow Suu Kyi Visit
AFP: US lawmaker mulls Myanmar sanctions over sentence

OPINION / OTHER
The Economist: Jailed and tortured in Myanmar
Korea Times: Understanding the 'Union Day' of Myanmar – Nehginpao Kipgen
DVB: So much for US dialogue with Burma – Jared Genser
The Nation (Thailand): Image not compassion behind refugee stance
Wall Street Journal: Myanmar's colonial treasures threatened

PRESS RELEASE
European Parliament: Human rights: Venezuela, Madagascar, Burma
NCGUB: NCGUB condemns junta's 'blatant disregard for law' in jailing Nyi
Nyi Aung, political prisoners



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 11, Irrawaddy
Karen villagers flee as Burma army escalates attacks – Saw Yan Naing

Burmese government troops have stepped up their attacks on Karen
civilians, burning down dozens of houses and a clinic and forcing schools
to close and around 2,000 Karen villagers to flee into the jungle,
according to Karen relief groups.

The troops burnt down more than 70 houses in several villages in Kyaukkyi
Township in Nyaunglebin District, Pegu Division, as well as one mobile
clinic, said the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People (CIDKP).

Eleven schools—four nursery schools, four primary schools and three middle
schools—were forced to close and children are hiding in the jungle due to
the military activities, said the relief group.

Saw Steve, a CIDKP team leader, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “The
villagers cannot return home as long as the government troops are active
in the area.”

Troops from Light Infantry Battalions 362 and 367 and Tactical Operation
Command 3, under control of Military Operation Command 10, are still
patrolling in the affected areas, he added.

The troops separately entered six villages from Feb. 3 -7, burning down 46
houses in the Toe Hta area and 28 houses in the Ka Di Mu Der area,
according to the CIDKP. On Feb. 5, a villager, Saw Law Ray Htoo, was shot
on the Salween River and later died at a hospital in the Mae La Oo refugee
camp on the Thai-Burmese border.

The attacks are the latest in a series of raids targeting civilians in the
region. In January, government army troops raided ten villages in
Nyaunglebin District, killing four villagers and forcing about 2,000 into
hiding in the jungle, according to Aung Din, executive director of the US
Campaign for Burma.

“These attacks are further evidence of the urgent need for the United
Nations to take effective action to stop war crimes and crimes against
humanity in Burma, perpetrated by the regime with impunity,” said Aung Din
in a press release on Wednesday.

He said that mobile health clinics are always targeted by the Burmese
government troops because they provide life-saving services to Karen and
other ethnic minority villagers.

“This is a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the principal of
medical neutrality, further evidence of the regime's crimes against
humanity and war crimes,” said Aung Din.

____________________________________

February 11, Irrawaddy
Ethnic leaders dismiss Union Day – Lawi Weng

Several of Burma's ethnic leaders have dismissed the ruling junta's plans
to mark the 63rd anniversary of Union Day on Friday, saying that the
celebration lacks essence and any meaningful spirit.

During the 1970s and 80s, the Burmese military government held held a
military parade on Union Day and drove through the streets of Rangoon in
jeeps bearing the Union flag. Offices and schools are usually coerced into
bring their staff and schoolchildren out to line the streets and wave
flags as the regime chiefs pass by.

However, nowadays, the national holiday is largely ignored by the general
public and is derided by ethnic people for commemorating a broken
agreement, the Panglong Agreement, which was signed on Feb. 12, 1947, 
between Burmese independence hero Gen Aung San and leaders of the Chin,
Kachin and Shan ethnic groups.

The agreement essentially guaranteed government support for the ethnic
minorities' self-determination and offered a large degree of autonomy,
including independent legislative, judiciary and administrative
authorities.

However, the dream of equality and a federal union is far from realized
some six decades after the declaration and many ethnic groups are still
engaged in a conflict with the centralized government army that erupted
around the time Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948––one of the
longest running civil wars in modern times.

Zau Awng, a member of Kachin National Congress for Democracy, based in
Kachin State capital Myitkyina, told The Irrawaddy: “We don't have equal
rights. We feel we don't belong to the Union. The military owns this
union. The Union we wanted is as far from coming together as the sky and
the earth.

“In 1947, our Kachin leaders trusted Gen Aung San when he said: 'Burmans
one kyat, Kachins one kyat.' [signifying equality]” he said. “However,
after he was assassinated,  the Panglong Agreement was not honored.”

Lao Seng, a spokesperson for the Shan State Army-South concurred. “There
are no rights in the Union for ethnic people. The union has disappeared
under the barrel of a gun.”

He said that if the Panglong Agreement had been honored, “our Shan people
would not need to fight for their freedom today.”

"Our situation is worse now than it ever was before,” said Pu Cin Sian
Thang, the chairman of the Zomi National Congress who is currently the
spokesman for the United Nationalities Alliance. “There are absolutely no
advantages for the people of Chin State.”

In January, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, the No 2 ranking general in Naypyidaw,
said that Burma would “disintegrate” if the demands of the ethnic groups
for a federal system of government were granted.

The chairman of the Mon National Democratic Front, Nai Ngwe Thein,
disagreed. “We can live altogether in peace if we have a genuine federal
union,” he said.

On Thursday, Burma's state-run newspapers carried a statement from junta
chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe on their front pages urging the people of Burma to
commemorate Union Day.

“The entire national people are duty-bound to preserve the already
achieved national solidarity with Union Spirit so that the Union of
Myanmar will be able to stand tall as long as the world exists,” the
statement read in the New Light of Myanmar, which then mistakenly refered
to Friday as the 60th anniversary of Union Day.

Several ethnic leaders said that they don't have faith in the new
constitution and said it will not produce a genuine union in the future
because the Burmese military will take 25 percent of all seats in
parliament as per the 2008 Constitution.

Aye Thar Aung, the secretary of the Arakan National League for Democracy,
told The Irrawaddy the future Union of Burma under the current
constitution will not provide rights for the ethnic people of the country.
____________________________________

February 11, New Light of Myanmar
Myanmar prepares compilation of Human Rights Report

Nay Pyi Taw — In line with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN
Security Council, the Myanmar Human Rights Committee discussed the regular
matters of human rights and the compilation of the Human Rights Report of
Myanmar to be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, at the committee's
meeting 1/2010 taking place at the Ministry of Home Affairs, here, this
afternoon.

Judge Advocate-General Lt-Gen Soe Maung, the deputy ministers, the Deputy
Chief Justice, the Deputy Attorney-General, the Chief of MPF,
representatives of UN agencies and officials took part in the discussions
on compilation of the Human Rights Report of Myanmar.

The meeting ended with concluding remarks by Chairman of Myanmar Human
Rights Committee Minister for Home Affairs Maj-Gen Maung Oo. - MNA

____________________________________

February 11, New Light of Myanmar
Trial programmes of MRTV-3 begin today

Nay Pyi Taw – MRTV-3 television programmes currently broadcast by Myanma
Radio and Television under Ministry of Information will be aired in new
form and essence starting from 11 February. The channel named Myanmar
International is aimed at letting the international community know true
national trends, progress, beauty, nature and prevailing conditions of
Myanmar and helping Myanmar nationals abroad ease the pain of
homesickness.

The channel will be aired for trial run from 11 February to 26 March and
the regular broadcasts will begin on 27 March.

In trial period, well-edited television documentaries, programme trailers
and branding trailers in the current affairs, and greetings of foreigner
news presenters will be broadcast together with regular programmes.

When regular broadcasting begins, TV viewers may enjoy documentaries of
international level, current affairs and news presentation of foreigner
news presenters. Steps have been taken for viewers around the world to
watch Myanmar International television programmes around the clock whereas
local TV audiences can enjoy the programmes of Myanmar International
Channel from 9:00 am to 11:00 am after MRTV morning programmes. - MNA


____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Landmine death in Karen ‘safe zone’ – Francis Wade

A man has been killed after stepping on a landmine in an area of Burma’s
eastern Karen state flogged to foreign observers last week as a ‘safe
haven’ to return thousands of Karen refugees to.

Medical assistance was sent on 9 February to escort the man, reportedly
from the pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), across the Moei
river to Thailand but he died en route.

The incident is believed to have occurred very close to a site on Friday
shown to aid workers by the Thai army as a possible point of return for
the thousands of Karen refugees currently enmeshed in a dispute over
whether they should be forced back into Burma.

Human rights groups, including the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), who
documented the incident, have argued that the area is still littered with
landmines, and returnees run the risk of being forcibly recruited into the
DKBA and Burmese army.

According to KHRG observers in the area, the explosion happened 500 meters
from the Ler Per Har camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), from
which many of the refugees had fled last June, and to which they were due
to be repatriated last week.

The repatriation has however been suspended by Thai authorities following
widespread international condemnation, and talks are underway to determine
whether they will be moved to an official camp in Thailand, or whether
they will indeed return to Burma.

Thailand’s interior ministry convened a meeting yesterday in Bangkok to
discuss with the UN refugee agency, as well as Thailand-based NGO’s, the
situation surrounding the refugees, although no concrete decisions have
been made.

Thailand maintains however that the area of return is safe and that any
repatriation would be purely “voluntary”.

Rights groups have said on several occasions that Thai military personnel
manning the temporary shelters in Thailand’s northwestern Ta Song Yang
district have attempted to coerce the refugees into returning, whilst
warning them that they could be arrested if they speak to media.

Around 4000 refugees had fled fighting in Karen state last June between
the Burmese army, supported by the DKBA, and the opposition Karen National
Liberation Army (KNLA). A large group of those who arrived in Thailand
took temporary shelter in a cave.

IDP numbers continue to rise in eastern Burma, particularly in Karen state
where low-intensity conflict has steadily gnawed away at the Karen
population for more than 60 years. It is estimated that more than half a
million people are internally displaced in eastern Burma, whilst millions
more have fled across the border into Thailand.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 11, Reuters
U.N. Rights Envoy asks Myanmar to allow Suu Kyi Visit

Geneva – The United Nations human rights investigator for Myanmar called
on the ruling junta on Thursday to let him meet pro-democracy opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his third visit to the country next week.

Myanmar, once known as Burma, is preparing for its first elections in 20
years, the final step in a democratic "road map" it says will end almost
half a century of unbroken army rule.

"I hope that my request to the government to meet with Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi will be granted this time. It would be important for me to meet with
political party leaders in the context of this year's landmark elections,"
Tomas Ojea Quintana said in a statement.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi is one of more than 2,100 political
prisoners in Myanmar.

She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years and was sentenced to a
further 18 months of house arrest last August for harbouring an American
who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.

The guilty verdict sparked an international outcry, and was dismissed by
critics as a way of keeping her in detention for the elections, which many
observers expect in October.

The approach of elections makes this year a critical time for the people
of Myanmar, according to Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur on the
human rights situation in Myanmar.

The Argentine lawyer and human rights expert, who has served in the
independent post since May 2008, is making his third visit to Myanmar from
February 15-19 at government invitation. He was denied permission to visit
Suu Kyi during previous visits.

Ojea Quintana plans to meet senior government officials and press his
earlier recommendations, including the need to release political prisoners
and revise domestic laws to comply with international human rights
standards, the statement said.

He also plans to travel to Northern Rakhine state, home to hundreds of
thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group, to evaluate the human rights
situation there.

He will report his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council during its
next regular session in Geneva in March.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, editing by Tim Pearce)
____________________________________

February 11, Agence France Presse
US lawmaker mulls Myanmar sanctions over sentence

WASHINGTON — A senior lawmaker called Wednesday for the United States to
consider toughening sanctions on Myanmar for its jailing of an American
citizen whose fiancee appealed for his freedom.

A court in Myanmar handed a three-year sentence to Kyaw Zaw Lwin, who also
goes by Nyi Nyi Aung, on fraud and forgery charges. A democracy advocate,
he said he had returned to his native country to see his ailing mother.

Representative Howard Berman, who heads the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, called for President Barack Obama's administration to consider
tightening sanctions on military-ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"The sentencing of Nyi Nyi Aung is a serious impediment to improved
relations with the United States at a time when our country has embarked
on a new approach toward Burma," said Berman, a member of Obama's
Democratic Party.

The Obama administration launched a dialogue with Myanmar last year in
hopes of coaxing it out of isolation. It left wide-ranging sanctions in
place but said they could eventually be lifted in return for democratic
progress.

"Months after this new approach was announced, it is disappointing that
the junta has failed to respond to formal diplomatic complaints regarding
his reported severe mistreatment, including allegations of torture and
repeated, lengthy denials of access to consular services through the US
embassy," Berman said in a statement.

He was one of more than 50 US lawmakers who wrote to the junta warning of
repercussions if it sentenced Kyaw Zaw Lwin.

Nyi Nyi Aung's fiancee Wa Wa Kyaw, who works as a nurse just outside
Washington in the eastern state of Maryland, voiced hope that the United
States would push his case.

"I hope he can come home soon and we can be reunited. I can't wait," she
told AFP.

"If the Burmese regime is really moving towards democratic change, this
illegal imprisonment and oppression should stop. Keeping an American
prisoner can only impede the US-Burma engagement policy."

She said she was not surprised by the conviction in light of Kyaw Zaw
Lwin's political activities, but credited US and foreign pressure with
preventing an even harsher sentence.

"It's a shame that he was here last year campaigning for the release of
all Burmese political prisoners and now he has become a political prisoner
himself," she said.

The junta's most famous prisoner is democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, whose
party won 1990 elections but was never allowed to take office. The Nobel
laureate lives under house arrest.

The military regime plans to hold new elections this year, which democracy
advocates and Western governments fear will lack credibility due to
restrictions on the opposition.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 11, The Economist
Jailed and tortured in Myanmar

IT TAKES great courage and commitment to translate for a foreign
journalist in Myanmar. Two men who helped The Economist after Cyclone
Nargis, which killed some 140,000 people in 2008, were rounded up last
September for opposing the ruling junta.

The men are held in Insein prison in the main city, Yangon. Information
about their conditions and treatment is hard to come by. But the latest
reports are horrifying. Khine Kyaw Moe has reportedly been hooded,
half-suffocated, savagely beaten, half-starved and then fed contaminated
food. He is said to be very sick. There is no recent news of another
colleague, Tun Lun Kyaw. The two men were earlier seen together at the
prison. They were weeping, and looked emaciated and broken.

Both men are from the north-western state of Rakhine (formerly Arakan),
which is rich in natural gas yet very poor, and home to some of Myanmar’s
many oppressed ethnic minorities. Along with at least 13 other students
arrested around the same time, they are accused of belonging to the All
Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress, which the regime calls a terrorist
organisation, but professes belief in a peaceful struggle for democracy.
That they had helped the foreign press will have worsened their plight.

Myanmar’s best-known political prisoner, the opposition leader, Aung San
Suu Kyi, is detained at home in Yangon. Besides her, more than 2,100 other
political prisoners are held, all in squalid and brutal conditions. Many
are serving sentences of up to 65 years for peaceful political activities.
Former detainees say that torture is routine, and that medical attention
is often denied even when prisoners fall gravely ill.

Under a “road-map for democracy”, Myanmar will this year vote in a
“multiparty election”. Miss Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for
Democracy, is deciding whether to take part. It is a difficult choice.
Joining in would add legitimacy to a process with a preordained
outcome—army dominance. But no other sort of change is on offer. This week
a court sentenced a Burmese-born American activist, Nyi Nyi Aung, to three
years in prison for forging an identity card and violating immigration
law. One League precondition to taking part in the election is the release
of all political prisoners. The regime, however, seems intent only on
adding to their number.
____________________________________

February 11, Korea Times
Understanding the 'Union Day' of Myanmar – Nehginpao Kipgen

Feb. 12, 2010 is the 63rd anniversary of Myanmar's ``Union Day.'' It was
this day in 1947 when 23 representatives from the Shan states, the Kachin
hills and the Chin hills, and Aung San, head of the interim Myanmarese
(Burmese) government, signed an agreement in Panglong (in the Shan states)
to form the Union of Burma.

The State Law and Order Restoration Council, the former name of the
military junta, changed the country's name from the Union of Burma to
``Union of Myanmar'' in 1989. However, the Myanmarese opposition and the
Western nations still continue to use Burma while the Eastern nations and
the United Nations use Myanmar.

The Panglong agreement was a turning point in the modern history of Burma.
General Aung San, father of Aung San Suu Kyi, played a pivotal role in
bringing together leaders of the Frontier Areas (ethnic nationalities) to
the negotiating table. Thereafter, the 32-year-old Aung San was
assassinated on July 19, 1947.

Not only was the Union Day a precursor to Myanmar's independence from the
yoke of British colonial rule in January 1948, but also the hallmark of
ethno-political conflicts in the country. The significance of forming the
Union Day was that Myanmar became a home to multiethnic nationalities.

When Aung San and his delegation went to London to negotiate Myanmar's
independence, no delegates from the Frontier Areas were present. During
the meeting, Clement Attlee, the British prime minister, insisted that
Myanmar proper should not coerce leaders of the Frontier Areas to join the
Union of Burma against their will.

Aung San, however, argued that it was the British who kept the peoples of
Myanmar apart. Aung San was quoted in The Times (London) on Jan. 14, 1947,
as saying: ``We can confidently assert here that so far as our knowledge
of our country goes, there should be no insuperable difficulties in the
way of a unified Burma provided all races are given full freedom and the
opportunity to meet together and to work without the interference of
outside interests.''

In an attempt to allay the doubts and lingering fears of the British
government regarding unequal treatment in the Frontier Areas in the future
Union of Burma, Aung San assured the Frontier peoples in his unforgettable
remark that: ``If Burma receives one kyat, you will also get one kyat.''
Kyat is the Myanmarese currency.

After receiving assurances from Aung San, leaders of the Chin and Kachin
hills, and the Shan states agreed to cooperate with the interim Myanmarese
government. The attending Frontier leaders believed that freedom would be
more speedily achieved by immediate cooperation with the interim
government.

The Shans, the Kachins and the Chins agreed to the formation of the Union
of Burma in return for promises of full autonomy in internal
administration and an equal share in the country's wealth. The Karens
still believed that the British would grant them an independent state.

One most notable agreement of the Panglong Conference was granting full
autonomy to ethnic nationalities, which has not materialized to this day.
The agreement was basically for establishing a unified country, and was
not aimed at putting an end to the traditional autonomy or self-rule of
the Frontier Areas.

Failing to implement this agreement has increased mistrust and
misunderstanding between the majority ethnic Burma-led central government
and other ethnic nationalities. Autonomy has been a core demand for
minorities since 1947, and continues to remain the fundamental issue.

The ongoing ethno-political conflicts, including armed confrontations, are
largely the consequences of the failure to implement the Panglong
Agreement. As long as minority concerns are not addressed, conflicts in
Myanmar are likely to remain even if democracy is restored.

Autonomy is a political solution that can serve the interests of the
erstwhile Frontier Areas. However, the military junta sees it as something
that would disintegrate the Union of Burma.

Political autonomy is not tantamount to secession. In other words,
Myanmar's ethnic minorities are neither secessionists nor separatists.
They believe that autonomy or self-determination will give them an
opportunity to preserve their culture, language and tradition.

The minorities occupy roughly two-thirds of the country's total land area,
and constitute over 30 percent of the population. They have long advocated
tripartite talks involving the military, the National League for Democracy
led by Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic nationalities, as endorsed by the
United Nations since 1994.

Had Aung San not promised political equality and autonomy to the Frontier
Areas, the Union of Burma might have never been born.

The Union of Burma/Myanmar can become a cohesive and vibrant society when
the rights of all ethnic nationalities, regardless of the size of
population, are treated equally. Each ethnic group must be given the right
to practice and promote its own culture and literature, among others.

Any deliberate attempt by the military junta to annihilate any group of
the multiethnic nationalities, militarily or culturally, is against the
spirit of the Union Day. Despite the observance of its 63rd anniversary,
the essence of the Union Day is still denied to Myanmar's ethnic
minorities.

Nehginpao Kipgen is a researcher on the rise of political conflicts in
modern Myanmar (1947-2004) and general secretary of the U.S.-based Kuki
International Forum (www.kukiforum.com). He has written numerous
analytical articles on the politics of Myanmar and Asia that have been
widely published in five continents.
____________________________________

February 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
So much for US dialogue with Burma – Jared Genser

Yesterday Burma told the world it had no interest in engaging with the US.
A Burmese court, dictated to by the ruling junta, sentenced an American to
three years of hard labor in prison on sham charges.

The junta, which professes to want to engage with the United States,
believes that this won’t have consequences for the Obama administration’s
engagement policy with Burma.

Since the arrest of Nyi Nyi Aung, the Burmese junta has done nothing but
ignore US diplomatic pleas on his behalf and flout international law. The
junta arrested Nyi Nyi on 3 September last year at the Rangoon airport. He
travelled to Burma to visit his mother, also an imprisoned democracy
activist, who has cancer and is being denied medical treatment.

Instead of informing the US embassy of Nyi Nyi’s arrest, the junta spent a
week denying him food and water, keeping him awake around the clock, and
repeatedly beating him. These actions are clear violations of both Burma’s
obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the
international law prohibition against torture.

As if this flouting of its responsibilities under international law wasn’t
enough, the junta continued to regularly deny Nyi Nyi consular access over
the past five months. They also denied him access to lawyers and a public
trial. They placed him in military dog cell confinement for over a month.
And on 10 February, they sentenced him to three years at hard labor in
prison for sham charges to punish him for being a democracy activist.

Nyi Nyi’s treatment by the junta is shocking. But what is perhaps almost
as shocking is the junta’s complete disregard for US diplomatic efforts on
Nyi Nyi’s behalf. Instead of responding to requests for access to lawyers
for Nyi Nyi, the junta denied him a public trial. Instead of responding to
demands it stop torturing him and provide him regular consular access, the
junta moved Nyi Nyi into solitary confinement and said he would be denied
all family visits going forward.

The US and the international community appear satisfied to allow the
junta’s horrific treatment of its own citizens to continue with impunity.
In addition to Nyi Nyi and his mother, there are over 2,100 political
prisoners in Burma. Most famous, of course, is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
general-secretary of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD)
party and also the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

The litany of the junta’s crimes against its people matches few other
nations from any time period. The junta is waging a war against Burma’s
ethnic minorities. Since 1990, it has destroyed over 3,000 villages, and
rapes, tortures, and murders these minorities. The number of internally
displaced persons is overshadowed only by the more than one million
refugees who have fled to neighboring countries. The Burmese junta is one
of the most repressive regimes in the world.

This is why it is critical that the US, United Nations, and international
community engage with the Burmese regime to seek and secure national
reconciliation and a restoration of democracy. However, the junta must
first understand that engagement is only possible if it operates within
the international norms of acceptable behavior in how it treats its own
people and conducts its foreign relations.

The junta must realize that the torture and illegal imprisonment of an
American for his democracy advocacy will not be tolerated by the US and
the international community. If Burma wishes to engage with the US, or any
other nation, it cannot continue to act with impunity. The human rights of
foreign nationals, not to mention its own, must be respected.

We urge president Obama and secretary Clinton personally to call on junta
leader Than Shwe to immediately release Nyi Nyi Aung. We know that the
Burmese junta doesn’t care about the lives of its own people -- we can
only hope that the US government will be able to make Burma care about one
of its own.

Jared Genser is president of Freedom Now and international pro bono
counsel to Nyi Nyi Aung.
____________________________________

February 11, The Nation (Thailand)
Image not compassion behind refugee stance

First it was the Rohingya boat people who were pushed back out to the sea
to fend for themselves. Then there were the Hmong refugees who were sent
back to Laos - which gave the country another black eye in the
international community. Although Thailand is not a signatory to the UN
refugee convention, the forced repatriation of refugees goes against
international norms.

Now, in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Thailand is accused of
acting too slowly and not being sympathetic enough to the suffering of the
hundreds of thousands of people left homeless there. Only after a few
scoldings and embarrassing criticism did the government quickly find that
it actually had some compassion set aside somewhere.

Last but not least are the Burmese refugees - specifically the ethnic
Karen who have been fleeing civil war and taking refuge along the
Thai-Burmese border. It has been pointed out that the designated "return
zone" will place returnees at serious risk of human rights abuses and
death and injury from landmines.

Fierce fighting between the pro-government Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
and the rebel Karen National Union in May and June last year sent some
4,500 Karen fleeing into Thailand, where they were housed at Nong Bua and
Mae U Su, two temporary refugee camps in Tak's Tha Song Yang district.
According to Human Rights Watch, an estimated 2,400 refugees are living in
rudimentary quarters in these isolated sites close to the border.

Last Friday, Colonel Noppadol Watcharajitbaworn, the local military
commander in Tak province, said a group of 30 families who planned to go
back to Burma that day changed their minds after talking with
representatives from Western embassies and the UN.

Local NGOs said there was a lot of arm twisting by the Thai Army, but the
authorities decided to back off after strong pressure from the
international community.

While it is welcome that the Thai authorities backed down from their
preferred plan of repatriating refugees, it was unfortunate that they
chose to overlook an incident on January 18, when a 25-year-old Karen who
was nine months pregnant stepped on a landmine in the refugee return zone,
and had half her left foot blown off. She was carried back to the Thai
side and taken to a Mae Sot hospital, where she gave birth on the day she
was being treated.

According to the annual "Landmine Monitor Report", 721 victims died from
landmine injuries in 2008. Conflicting parties in Burma's Karen State
continue to lay anti-personnel mines around their military bases, on
jungle trails, and around civilian settlements and farms. Burma has not
ratified the Mine Ban Treaty and rarely participates in international
forums to ban the use of landmines. There are virtually no de-mining
operations going on in eastern Burma, and landmine education and awareness
is limited.

For a nation that cares so much about how other people perceive it -
probably more so than any feeling of compassion towards fellow human
beings - Thailand is quickly shooting itself in the foot. Bangkok loves to
talk about how millions of Indochinese refugees - particularly from
Cambodia and Laos - have passed through Thailand before being relocated to
third countries. To some extent, credit should go to this and previous
governments, although compassion may have not been the key motivation for
the official refugee policies.

We just didn't want to look bad in the eyes of the world. We wanted to be
seen as doing the right thing - but we didn't tell the world that the
reason for our policy was not genuine.

Today, with the Indochina wars and the Vietnamese boat people saga behind
us, we are still bogged down with refugees coming from the Burmese side of
the border. We often overlook the fact that our Burma policy also fuels
this conflict. Our craving for Burma's cheap labour and natural resources,
not to mention the lucrative gem trade, have fed into the ongoing conflict
there.

The strength of a society should not be gauged by the size of its roads
and height of its skyscrapers, or its armed forces, but by the degree of
its compassion and mercy. Have we forgotten how the world helped us during
the tsunami devastation of December 2004?
____________________________________

February 11, Wall Street Journal
Myanmar's colonial treasures threatened

Yangon—The colonial buildings of this once-grand city are scattered about
like tombstones in a neglected cemetery—unnoticed, and often unwanted,
relics of a lost era.

Yangon is home to one of the largest collections of undisturbed colonial
architecture in the world, with some neighborhoods left almost exactly as
they were when the country gained independence from Britain some 60 years
ago. But the buildings, already crumbling after years of neglect under a
repressive military regime, face an increasingly uncertain future.

A government decision to move Myanmar's capital from Yangon to a remote
redoubt named Naypyitaw in 2005 has left several of the most important
buildings almost totally abandoned, accelerating their deterioration.
Meantime, resurgent investment from China and other Asian neighbors is
triggering interest in development—including the possibility of building
shopping malls and apartment blocks where old structures now stand.

Pansodan Street, financial and commercial center of British Rangoon, has
many imposing buildings. This one (believed to date from 1906; details can
be difficult to trace in Myanmar) was home to China Mutual Insurance Co.;
tenants now include a small art gallery.

Buildings at risk include Secretariat, one of Southeast Asia's most
important modern historical sites. It was here that Aung San, Myanmar's
main independence hero, and father of famed dissident Aung San Suu Kyi,
was assassinated by political rivals in July 1947, setting off a series of
events that culminated in a military takeover in 1962.

Although Secretariat, with its gaudy red-and-yellow exterior and turrets,
was ridiculed by residents when it opened in 1905, it became a hive of
government ministries and, ultimately, a regional landmark. Today,
inhabited only by a few camped-out soldiers, the dilapidated structure is
hidden from the public behind a forest of trees and chain-link fence.
Photographing the building is prohibited. Some residents believe it is
already beyond repair.

A couple of blocks away, the multistory Railway Headquarters (1896), also
of bright red brick, was built with rows of ornate windows framed with
filigreed railings and matching awnings. Today, the awnings are collapsing
and some windows are bricked in, while others are covered in reed mats or
sacks. Weeds grow from walls and spill over ledges. The grounds are
littered with metal—scraps and what look like pieces of equipment—nearly
hidden by brush and vines.

Preserving Yangon's historic buildings rates low among social priorities
in Myanmar, which consistently ranks as one of the poorest and
most-corrupt nations in the world. The government is accused of widespread
human-rights abuses, including the imprisonment of political opponents
such as Ms. Suu Kyi. Some foreigners refuse on principle to visit Myanmar,
which is open to tourists, because of the regime's track record.

Still, historians are hopeful that at least some of Yangon's buildings
will be preserved.

"It's very hard to go around what was once the British Empire and see so
many buildings intact," says Ian Morley, an urban historian at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong who calls the city's center possibly "the last
example of a colonial core" still intact in Asia.

"I don't mean to come off as a raving colonialist," he says. But "we need
to be aware of where we come from," and the threats upon Yangon's
surviving buildings "are very, very great."

Myanmar's recent repressive history is one of the main reasons its
colonial buildings are still standing. The military restricted access to
the outside world after it came to power nearly 50 years ago, and in more
recent years, U.S. and European sanctions prevented many Western companies
from investing there. As a result, Yangon never went through the frenzied
development that remade Bangkok, Beijing and other Asian cities.

New development is still minimal. But parts of Myanmar's economy have
picked up in recent years, spurring construction. Trade between China and
Myanmar quadrupled in recent years, reaching more than $2.6 billion in
2008. While much of that money is being spent in other parts of the
country, a handful of new apartment blocks have popped up around Yangon or
are under construction. Crews are finishing work on a tower of 20 stories
or more in the center of downtown that was started, but left unfinished,
years ago.

"You'll probably see a lot more apartments," says Brian Agland, Myanmar
country director for the international relief agency CARE in Yangon. As
for the older buildings, "you're starting to see a lot more decay" as the
government spends more time in Naypyitaw.

Myanmar officials have made promises in the past to preserve Yangon's
colonial remains. The regime established a list of protected "heritage"
sites in the late 1990s that grew to include roughly 200 buildings,
including Secretariat as well as churches, schools and residences—largely
in recognition of their potential as tourist draws. Local residents,
though, say the government has for the most part ignored its list,
sprucing up a few buildings while leaving most others to rot.

During a recent visit, residents pointed to a block they said was supposed
to be protected but now is surrounded by fences and signs promoting a
future shopping mall. When asked about the site, a resident said she was
told the historic buildings there were "accidentally damaged" and
therefore no longer subject to protection.

Attempts to contact Myanmar authorities over several weeks to discuss
their plans for Yangon's buildings were unsuccessful. The regime rarely
speaks to foreign journalists.

Architectural historians who have studied the city say that lower-level
government employees have expressed enthusiasm for working with outsiders
to save the buildings, but calls to more senior officials typically go
unanswered. Even basic information—such as when structures were built—is
difficult to obtain. In some cases, records were destroyed.

Myanmar's government has "pretty much villainized the buildings as
colonial eyesores, as hateful reminders of the past," says one academic
who has researched Yangon's architecture and, like many experts on the
country, requests anonymity when discussing the regime.

Some Yangon residents say they believe the government truly does want to
renovate the buildings, preferably with help from foreign investors,
turning them into hotels or other businesses. But Myanmar's tourism
industry has struggled in recent years. And many of the buildings are in
such disrepair that they would be far cheaper to rip down than rebuild.
Some are empty, roofless shells, home to buckling staircases and sprouting
trees. Open sewers feed into some courtyards.

It's also hard, if not impossible, to persuade locals to restore buildings
on their own, in part because they lack financing in Myanmar's
cash-starved economy. Plus, some residents view the buildings as
uncomfortable eyesores and prefer the advantages of newer buildings with
modern amenities.

The preservationists who do follow the buildings have focused their
energies on publicizing them to foreign visitors in the hopes that
international attention will spur Myanmar officials. Historians are also
encouraging the many foreign institutions in Myanmar—especially
international aid agencies—to take over and repair historic structures.

The group CARE, for instance, moved into a two-story, early-1900s house in
Yangon's Embassy District two years ago and restored some of the interior
and two damaged verandas. "I just thought it had potential," says Mr.
Agland, the CARE country director. Now "we have big meetings out on the
verandas."

Other buildings that have been saved include the Strand hotel, built in
1901 by Armenian brothers whose chain included the famous Raffles Hotel in
Singapore. With teak-framed windows, tiled floors and vaulted ceilings, it
was for many decades a required stop for wealthy European travelers in
Asia. But by the 1970s, guests described a building filled with rats and
bats, with faucets that issued murky brown water. Refurbished with the
help of foreign investors in the early 1990s at a cost of several million
dollars, it has since hosted the likes of Mick Jagger.

But such high-cost projects are risky. A Strand official says the hotel
has barely broken even in recent years, since international sanctions were
imposed. And while there's talk that Secretariat or the Railway
Headquarters will be similarly restored with money from China or
Singapore, few locals believe it will happen anytime soon, if ever.

Built on an early Buddhist pilgrimmage site near a hilltop shrine called
Shwedagon, Yangon was little more than a small town until the mid-19th
century. The British seized the area in the 1850s as Britain conquered
what was known as Burma, and expanded the city—which they called
Rangoon—to become a strategic river port.

Led by a superintendent who had worked on city planning in Singapore and
an army engineer, Lieutenant A. Fraser, the British laid out the city on a
grid and drained swampy areas. Population tripled to about 135,000 in the
early 1880s, and by the early 1900s, Rangoon was one of the most
cosmopolitan cities in the British Empire, with streetcars, gaslights and
public gardens. It boomed further over the next several decades with
exports of rice, teak and other goods.

In the city's heyday, engineers added entire neighborhoods of
European-style buildings, blending Victorian architecture with more exotic
flourishes from West Bengal and other parts of the empire. Wealthy traders
built teak mansions topped with elaborate cupolas. Along Pansodan Street
downtown, businessmen created a miniature version of lower Manhattan, with
banks, insurance companies and trading houses graced by thick columns,
pillars and arches. Later buildings incorporated Art Deco designs.

The Rowe & Co. department store (1910), for example, became known as one
of the ritziest shopping centers in Southeast Asia, with its patterns of
red and yellow brick, topped with a tower reminiscent of Philadelphia's
Independence Hall. Although still used today—as an immigration office—many
of the windows are knocked out or covered with tarps, and dark black
stains cover the exterior.

Many of the grandiose British buildings confused or annoyed local
residents. A famous local joke held that Rangoon's High Court (1911), with
a clock tower rising above the nearby shophouses and plenty of the city's
ubiquitous bright red brick, was designed by "a convict with a grudge
against the judge." The building remains in relatively good shape, as it
is still used for some court proceedings, and during a recent visit
workers were seen repainting parts of the exterior.

In one case—the Rangoon City Hall (1936)—a Burmese architect (with Western
training) was called in to make the building more suitable to local
tastes. He visited the ancient city of Bagan and other sites around the
country to study pagodas and monasteries, elements of which he added to
the city-hall design. The cream-colored building includes Burmese spires
and mannered Asian arches, creating a unique West-meets-East mix, like a
British ministry doubling as a Buddhist temple.

Myanmar entered a period of tumult after independence in the 1940s, and
new development came to a virtual standstill after the military took over.
There was a brief flurry of new construction—including several high-rise
towers—in the 1990s, when the junta liberalized Myanmar's economy to
attract more foreign capital. But the miniboom ended abruptly with the
1997 Asian financial crisis and tough economic sanctions from the U.S. and
Europe.

It's still possible the recent increase in Asian investment in Myanmar
could help save some of Yangon's buildings, if companies decide to make
use of them. Some of the surge in foreign-aid money that followed Cyclone
Nargis in 2008 went to fix up houses like the one CARE now uses.

For now, residents are skeptical. One bookshop owner in central Yangon
says he doubts officials "will do their job" and protect buildings on the
government's own heritage list. And without proper restoration, says
another Yangon resident, "they will soon disappear."

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

February 11, European Parliament
Human rights: Venezuela, Madagascar, Burma

Three human rights resolutions, on the media in Venezuela, the political
crisis in Madagascar and the situation in Burma, were approved by
Parliament on Thursday.

Venezuela

In a resolution tabled by the EPP, ALDE and ECR groups, MEPs voice concern
at the drift towards authoritarianism shown by the government of President
Hugo Chávez.  In January 2010, RCTV International (RCTVI) and five other
cable and satellite TV channels (TV Chile, Ritmo Son, Momentum, America TV
and American Network) were ordered off the air.

These channels were criticised for failing to broadcast the presidential
speech delivered on the occasion of the 52nd anniversary of the overthrow
of Perez Jimenez.

MEPs call on the Venezuelan authorities to review this decision and the
obligation to broadcast fully all speeches made by the Head of State. This
new shut-down triggered a further wave of student protests, which were
harshly suppressed by the police.

The 'National Telecommunications Commission' should show itself to be
independent of the political and economic authorities and ensure equitable
pluralism, says the European Parliament.

Madagascar

MEPs condemn Mr Rajoelina's seizure of power in Madagascar, "in flagrant
violation of the provisions of the Madagascan Constitution", which they
describe as "an outright coup d'état".  They call for implementation of
the accords signed in Maputo and Addis Ababa, which provided for
power-sharing between the main political movements in the country.

Parliament also condemns Mr Rajoelina's plan to hold legislative elections
in 2010, in violation of the accords signed under the auspices of the
African Union.

The African Union and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
have suspended Madagascar from their leading bodies.  The European Union
has decided to suspend funding from its various development programmes for
Madagascar, with the exception of humanitarian aid.

The EP strongly condemns the decision by Mr Rajoelina to cancel the
appointment of Eugene Mangalaza as Prime Minister, installed after a
power-sharing deal between all political parties in October 2009.  They
also strongly condemn the decision by Mr Rajoelina to withdraw from
power-sharing talks on 18 December 2009.  The Maputo Agreement and the
Addis Ababa Additional Act on Madagascar constitute "the only possible
framework" for a solution to the political crisis in Madagascar, says the
resolution.

Parliament expresses deep concern at the disappearance of several hundred
people, including around 100 children and adolescents, and condemns the
systematic repression of the opposition, censorship of the media and the
intimidation and systematic arrest of journalists.  It also calls for the
disarmament and dissolution of the militias with a view to restoring a
republican army.

Burma

Parliament calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and criticises the
ban which prevents her standing at the next election, whose date has yet
to be officially announced but is due to be held some time in 2010.

MEPs urge the Burmese authorities to ensure a free, fair, transparent and
inclusive electoral process consistent with international standards. 
These are the first since the 1990 elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD).

The resolution also urges the ruling junta to put an immediate end to the
recruitment of child soldiers.  MEPs condemn the ethnic cleansing
campaigns against minorities, in particular those seeking refuge in
neighbouring countries.  They also call on the Thai Government to continue
providing shelter and protection to Karen refugees fleeing abuses.

The governments of China, India and Russia are asked to use their leverage
with Rangoon to bring about substantial improvements in the country and to
stop supplying the Burmese regime with weaponry.  Lastly, Parliament calls
on the Council to maintain the restrictive measures targeted against the
Burmese regime until there is "tangible progress" on democratisation. At
the same time, the Council is asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the
restrictive measures.

____________________________________

February 10, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
NCGUB condemns junta's 'blatant disregard for law' in jailing Nyi Nyi
Aung, political prisoners

In a blatant display of disregard for law and justice, a Burmese court has
sentenced US citizen and democracy activist Nyi Nyi Aung, who is born in
Burma, to three years' imprisonment.

The charges filed against Nyi Nyi were hastily concocted and falsified in
order to obtain his conviction and jail him because the initial charges
leveled against him were of a more serious nature under the State
Protection Law and Emergency Act but there was lack of proof to back the
charges.  Nyi Nyi was jailed for committing forgery of a Burmese ID (which
he did not need), for possession of over $ 2,000 (for which he was not
permitted to declare because he was arrested on arrival), and for
violating local immigration law for not informing the authorities about
losing his Burmese ID card and/or renouncing the Burmese citizenship.

His arrest had been politically motivated even from the very beginning. 
Nyi Nyi went to Burma to visit his democracy activist mother who has
cancer and serving time in prison.  Even though a Burmese Embassy had
issued him entry visa, he was immediately arrested on arrival at the
airport in September 2009.  While in prison, he underwent food and sleep
deprivation, beaten, and denied medical treatment and consular access for
more time.

Such blatant injustices committed against a US citizen like Nyi Nyi belie
the impression that the junta wants better relations with the United
States.  They also show that the Burmese generals have no qualms about
contorting the law to keep pro-democracy leaders and activists in prison
for many years in order to serve their interests.

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma calls on the US
Government to use all means to urgently secure Nyi Nyi's release and to
work with the United Nations and the international community to gain
freedom of all political prisoners in Burma who are unjustly being
detained by the Burmese generals.