BurmaNet News, February 12, 2010

[Editor]

February 12, 2010, Issue #3896


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar urged to free Suu Kyi's 82-year-old deputy
DPA: Myanmar junta chief confirms election to be held this year
DVB: ILO to begin Burma child soldier campaign

HEALTH
Irrawaddy: Local medics respond to flu outbreak in Karen State

INTERNATIONAL
Deustche Welle (Germany): Tens of thousands of child soldiers in Myanmar

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation (Thailand): World must not be misled by Burma's sham elections
– Naw Zipporah Sein
Irrawaddy: Broken promises and a broken nation - Editorial
Mizzima News: Union of Burma remains a dream, as civil war rages – Phanida

PRESS RELEASE
BCUK: UK Government: ‘tangible progress’ needed before EU eases Burma
sanctions
CSW: Burma army burns over 70 houses & intensifies offensive over Karen





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 12, Associated Press
Myanmar urged to free Suu Kyi's 82-year-old deputy

Yangon – A human rights group and pro-democracy activists urged Myanmar's
military junta to free the 82-year-old deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi's
opposition party when his detention expires Saturday, shortly before a
U.N. envoy visits the country.

Tin Oo, who helped found the National League for Democracy with Suu Kyi,
has spent nearly seven years in prison and under house arrest. The junta
has renewed his detention on an annual basis since his arrest in 2003.

"Tin Oo has paid dearly for his courageous opposition to military rule,"
said Brad Adams, the Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
He urged the junta to set the tone for elections later this year the first
in two decades by freeing the democracy activist.

The United Nations' special envoy to Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, is to
arrive in Myanmar on Monday to evaluate its progress on human rights
issues.

Tin Oo was arrested along with Suu Kyi on May 30, 2003, when a
pro-government mob attacked their motorcade as they were making a
political tour of northern Myanmar.

Four people were killed and 50 injured in the incident, according to
official figures, but dissidents say the death toll was much higher.
Hundreds of members and supporters of Suu Kyi's party were arrested, but
none of the attackers was ever brought to court.

Tin Oo was initially held in Kalay prison, known for its harsh conditions,
about 430 miles (700 kilometers) north of Yangon. Since February 2004 he
has been under house arrest in Yangon. His telephone is cut off, he is not
allowed to receive visitors and relatives say he has been denied regular
medical checkups.

Suu Kyi's party also called Friday for Tin Oo's unconditional release,
saying he had been detained because of his "unrelenting efforts for the
emergence of democracy and human rights in the country."

Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo reportedly said last month that Tin Oo
would be freed in February and Suu Kyi would be released in November. His
comments were made during remarks to local officials in central Myanmar
and reported by the U.S.-government backed Radio Free Asia and other
media, and could not be independently confirmed.

The junta took power in 1988 after violently suppressing mass
pro-democracy protests. It held general elections in 1990, but refused to
recognize the results after Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, the party's secretary-general, has
been detained for 14 of the past 20 years. Her house arrest was extended
in August by an additional 18 months.

____________________________________

February 12, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar junta chief confirms election to be held this year

Yangon – Myanmar military supremo Senior General Than Shwe confirmed
Friday that the junta will hold a general election this year, honouring
previous commitments to the international community.

"A free and fair general election will be held this year in accordance
with the seven step road map," Than Shwe said in a speech commemorating
the 63rd anniversary of Union Day in the military capital of Naypyitaw,
350 kilometres north of Yangon.

The junta's road map lists a general election as one of the steps towards
a "discipline-flourishing democracy."

Burmese Union Day commemorates the signing of an agreement in 1947 among
various Myanmar ethnic groups and factions to create the independent
republic of Burma.

Now known as Myanmar, the country was granted independence from Britain
after a century of colonial rule in 1948.

In Yangon, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party used
the occasion to reiterate calls for the release of all political
prisoners, including Nobel laurate Aung San Suu Kyi, prior to the polls.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest, was
sentenced in May to another 18 months detention, effectively preventing
her participation in any elections in 2010.

The party also called for the release of NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo, who has
been detained in his home for the past seven years. His detention period
is due to expire on Saturday.

Rumours circulated in Yangon that Tin Oo, 84, is to be released late
Friday or Saturday.

"U (Mr) Tin Oo has paid dearly for his courageous opposition to military
rule," Human Rights Watch's Asia director Brad Adams said.

"His release on schedule will be an important test of whether Burma's
generals will allow even modest pluralism before the elections this year,"
he said in a statement issued from HRW's New
York headquarters.

Myanmar authorities arrested Tin Oo in May 2003 on politically motivated
charges of disturbing public order after pro-government militias attacked
the convoy carrying him and Suu Kyi near Depayin, in Upper Myanmar.

Tin Oo, a former military officer, was one of the founders of the NLD,
which won Myanmar's last election in 1990.

The military has denied the NLD power for the past 20 years.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.

____________________________________

February 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
ILO to begin Burma child soldier campaign – Nay Too

The International Labour Organisation will begin circulating leaflets on
forced labour and child solider recruitment across Burma, but not before
it is passed through the regime’s notorious censor board.

Burma is thought to have one of the world’s highest counts of child
soldiers, and the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the only
body officially mandated to tackle the problem in the pariah state.

Steve Marshall, ILO liaison officer in Rangoon, said that a draft of the
leaflet had been submitted to the government’s labour ministry for
approval.

The campaign, he said, was raised during talks in Burma last month between
ILO executive director Kari Tapiola and labour minister Aung Kyi.

The talks also resulted in an extension of the ‘supplementary
understanding’ between the government and the ILO, which acts as an
agreement that the Burmese junta will not avenge those who complain to the
ILO about forced labour and child solider recruitment.

“There will need to be an extensive printing of these [leaflets] in
various languages, with a wide distribution,” said Marshall.

Many complaints of forced labour and child solider recruitment come from
Burma’s border regions where the army has been fighting decades-long
conflicts with various armed ethnic groups.

“The first print run will clearly be in Myanmar [Burmese] language, but it
would be silly not to produce it in the major ethnic languages,” he said,
but added that the translation would take more time.

The ILO has struggled since the first supplementary understanding was
signed in February 2007 to curb the recruitment of child soldiers and use
of forced labour, which includes land disputes, by the Burmese government.

It has also expressed “serious concern” about the jailing of labour
activists and forced labour complainants.

A landmark Human Rights Watch report in 2002 found that an estimated
70,000 child soldiers made up around 20 percent of the Burmese army.
Another report last year by the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict
claimed that children as young as nine were serving in the military.

____________________________________
HEALTH

February 12, Irrawaddy
Local medics respond to flu outbreak in Karen State – Jane Lee and Withaya
Huanok

Mae Sot, Thailand — Naw Wah Wah didn't feel well. Worried that her fever,
cough, headache and diarrhea was malaria—common during Karen State’s long
monsoon season—she roused herself from her sick bed and trudged through
thick, red mud during a pause in a downpour, heading to the local clinic,
an hour’s walk away.

For many internally displaced persons (IDPs) such as Naw Wah Wah, the only
health care available is provided by mobile health workers from the Back
Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT) and the Karen Department of Health and
Welfare (KDHW).

In Karen State, International humanitarian assistance is strictly blocked
by the Burmese government. Health care teams are frequently forced to
adapt to rapidly changing conditions to provide basic care.

Recently, Karen health teams encountered a serious outbreak of flu that
could have been the common variety or the more feared H1N1 flu, or bird
flu.

On Feb. 7, government troops attacked two Karen villages, Htee Moo Hta and
K’Dee Mu Der, in Nyaunglebin District in northern Karen State, burning two
schools and a clinic. The medics there were forced to flee into the jungle
along with community members.

However, the health team continued to provide what basic services they
could, while planning alternate routes for re-supply and health care
delivery.

In a rough bamboo structure that served as the local clinic, Naw Wah Wah
found dozens of her neighbors ill with flu-like symptoms, awaiting
evaluation treatment.

"I had read about the H1N1 flu and was familiar with the symptoms,” she
said.  When many villagers began to have symptoms similar to the H1N1 flu,
I became very concerned. At that time, several members of almost every
household experienced flu-like symptoms.”

Saw Nyunt Win, a clinic health worker, said he had also read about the
H1N1 flu.

The outbreak of illnesses was reported to the nearest clinic in Tah Oo
Der, and health care workers devised a plan for the best way to respond.

Networking with other BPHWT and KDHW medics, Saw Nyunt Win quickly
realized that Tah Oo Der was not alone. Other displaced people communities
were experiencing large outbreaks of flu-like illnesses.

The BPHWT coordination center in Mae Sot, Thailand, was notified. An
outbreak investigation and control team, headed by a senior medic based in
Papun District in Northern Karen State, was dispatched to the area.

“They conducted a workshop for health workers, on how the flu is
transmitted, how to prevent transmission, and how to protect ourselves
when we work with the affected population,” said Saw Nyunt Win.

Because the main flu symptoms were non-specific and common to many
infectious diseases, the investigation team worked with local health
workers to collect respiratory samples. They were stored in vials which
were placed in a battery-powered refrigerator and carried by medics on
foot and boat for 12 hours, until they reached the Thai border.

The samples, tested in a Thai hospital, showed the outbreak was seasonal
influenza—not the dreaded H1N1 virus.

But even before the test results were available, control procedures were
well underway in affected communities. Medics encouraged sick villagers to
stay home, distributed face masks, urged everyone to wash their hands
often with soap and water and provided education to prevent transmission.
Stepped up surveillance measures for influenza-like illnesses were also
instituted and, when the epidemic subsided in November, 490 patients or 13
percent of the population, including Naw Wah Wah, had fallen ill with
influenza. Four people died.

"Even during this difficult time, by working directly with the community,
we have been able to work together to educate villagers and attend to all
of the patients presenting with flu symptoms," said Saw Nyunt Win,
recalling the experience.

The region was lucky, for now. Under decades of military rule, Burma’s
health system has collapsed and the country has become “an incubator of
infectious diseases,” noted a 2007 publication by the University of
California and Johns Hopkins University titled “The Gathering Storm.”

In an age of influenza pandemics, Burma’s lack of health services
infrastructure poses a regional threat. The global spread of H1N1 began in
April 2009; on June 28th, Burma announced its first official case, a child
in Rangoon who had recently traveled to Singapore.

By September, Burma had 31 confirmed cases, and The New Light of Myanmar,
a regime-backed newspaper, announced preventive measures, including
"health screening at airports, seaports, and border gates to prevent the
virus from entering the country."

A new flu influenza outbreak now emerging in Rangoon underscores the
difficulty of providing effective health care in Burma, especially in
remote areas such as eastern Karen State.

For Karen internally displaced people, community-based health care
workers, forced to supply and coordinate their efforts across
international borders, remain the sole source of surveillance, treatment
and prevention of serious diseases and epidemics.

"While the flu outbreak [in eastern Burma] could raise fears about the
possibility of an outbreak that spreads into Thailand, we are not a
problem. We are part of the solution," said Nyunt Win.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 12, Deustche Welle (Germany)
Tens of thousands of child soldiers in Myanmar – Bernd Musch-Borowska

Feb. 12 is Red Hand Day. There are some 250,000 child soldiers according
to the UN fighting in armed conflicts. The junta and rebel armies in
Myanmar, also known as Burma, are notorious for recruiting child soldiers.


They are sometimes as young as 10 and they fight not only in the official
army but for various rebel groupings across the country.

NGOs such as Terre des Hommes and Human Rights Watch estimate that there
are up to 80,000 of them. Although it is difficult to acquire exact
figures, Human Rights Watch calculates that every fifth soldier is under
18.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:

Jo Becker, the Children’s Rights Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch,
co-authored a report entitled “Sold to be Soldiers: The Recruitment and
Use of Child Soldiers in Burma.”

11 years old and only 1.3 meters tall

She said that children were recruited regardless of age or physical
capability. “We interviewed one boy who was recruited when he was only 11
years old. He was only 1.3 meters tall and weighed only 31 kilograms yet
the army still accepted him.

“They go through the same training as adults in most cases and they may be
deployed into combat situations from the age of 12. They are used to fight
against ethnic armed opposition groups in the country and they’re also
used to commit human rights abuses such as burning villages or rounding up
civilians for forced labor purposes.”

The conditions in the army are reportedly atrocious. One reason why
children are used is that there is a lack of adult volunteers and high
desertion rates. So despite Red Hand Day and countless other initiatives
campaigning against the use of children in armed conflict, in Myanmar the
number of child soldiers continues to rise.

Trapped by recruiters

Becker explained how easily boys were trapped into joining the army:
“Recruiters will typically approach children who are on their own; boys
who are in public places like the marketplace, train or bus stations.

“One of their typical tactics is to ask a boy to produce his identity card
and if the boy can’t produce his card the recruiter will say ‘Well you
have to go to jail or you can join the army.’ So in this way many boys are
coerced.”

The recruiters themselves receive cash payments for each new recruit. The
children’s records are then often falsified because the official minimum
recruitment age is still 18.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on the Myanmar
junta to do more to ensure that children are not recruited into the army.
He has also insisted that children should not be arrested and imprisoned
for deserting. So far, his demands have fallen on deaf ears.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 12, The Nation (Thailand)
World must not be misled by Burma's sham elections – Naw Zipporah Sein

THIS WEEK in 1947, our ethnic leaders signed the historic Panglong
Agreement, which envisioned a free Burma in which our people could live
together in peace. Within a year, Burma gained its independence from the
British. Yet, half a century later, Burma is still not free. Successive
military regimes have, over the past 50 years, attempted to achieve
"unity", not through dialogue, but with the barrel of a gun. This year,
while preparing for the 2010 elections, the junta is trying to achieve a
sham democracy through force.

There are those in the international community who believe the elections
will provide an opportunity for change. Even if there was the chance for
"free and fair" elections, the regime has guaranteed its hold on power
through its self-crafted 2008 constitution. The constitution, to be
enacted through the elections, will create a new parliament with a
civilian facade, while entrenching the current structure where the
non-elected commander-in-chief is the most powerful person in the country.
Any hope for change is made impossible with the military's approval needed
for constitutional amendments.

Most critically, the constitution and elections will provide no respite
from suffering for our people. While preparing for the first elections in
20 years, the junta has shown no desire to resolve conflicts through
peaceful means. Instead, it is taking extreme measures to destroy the
opposition - adding to the more than 2,100 political leaders and activists
already in prison and stepping up attacks to wrest power from ethnic armed
and unarmed groups. The new constitution will only further systemise this
discrimination against ethnic people.

These elections, the last step in the military's sham "roadmap to
democracy", are the biggest threat yet to the vision of Panglong. People
may ask, why can't we go along with the regime's plan and participate in
these elections? This is because they deny the things we have been
fighting for all these years - equality and federalism.

In the half century of military rule, it is our people who have paid the
highest price. This is why we cannot accept a false democracy that
legitimises the military's control and subjugation of the Burmese people.
Since independence, our myriad ethnic groups - which make up over 40 per
cent of Burma's population - have never enjoyed political or economic
equality with the majority. Since the first military coup in 1962, the
junta has systematically implemented a policy of "Burmanisation",
inundating our culture with the mainstream Burmese culture, and tightly
restricting the freedom to teach our languages in schools and practice our
traditions.

As leaders of Burma's ethnic resistance, we have seen the devastating
consequences of the regime's tactics against our people. Now, it is only
hastening efforts to wipe out any remaining resistance prior to the 2010
elections. Just last year, military offensives in eastern Burma forced
more than 43,800 ethnic people to flee the country, just the latest wave
of refugees streaming over Burma's borders. Some of these attacks were
part and parcel of the regime's ongoing policy of targeting ethnic
civilians in order to undermine its opposition. The junta's tactic, often
referred to as "draining the ocean so the fish cannot swim", has destroyed
more than 3,500 villages in eastern Burma in the last 10 years.

The regime has also increased hostility against ethnic ceasefire groups,
to further consolidate control before the elections. It wants to force
them to join a new Border Guard Force under the command of the SPDC army.
Its strategy? A continuation of its divide-and-rule policy, which
mobilises proxy ethnic forces to help the military regime attack and
commit crimes against their own ethnic people.

Already, preparations for the elections have only served to aggravate the
explosive situation in Burma and the racist constitution will only foment
further chaos. Much like the 1983 apartheid constitution of South Africa,
the Burmese constitution aims to legitimise majority rule through the
token participation of ethnic people in a new parliament. Like its
apartheid South African counterpart, Burma's new constitution deprives
ethnic people of fundamental rights, and makes it virtually impossible for
them to have any real political representation. Instead of recognising our
demands for equality and federalism, the regime is trying to cement its
control over ethnic areas, to guarantee its continued profit from the rich
natural resources in these areas. And by providing the regime blanket
immunity for past war crimes and crimes against humanity, the constitution
sanctions the continuation of these atrocities.

As leaders of the ethnic resistance movement, we know that this election
is not a solution to the crises faced by our people. More than ever, we
are working closely together with our pro-democracy brothers and sisters
on the path to true national reconciliation. We believe that to even begin
to hope for democratic progress, three essential benchmarks must be met:

l The release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who
still commands deep respect and admiration from ethnic groups;

l The cessation of attacks against ethnic communities; and

l Dialogue with all stakeholders, including a review of the 2008
constitution.

These demands are in line with Suu Kyi, the NLD and other pro-democratic
forces inside and in exile and were echoed by the UN General Assembly in a
Christmas Eve resolution.

If the regime refuses to meet these benchmarks, we need world leaders to
take their efforts one step further, as they did when South Africa held
its apartheid elections in 1984. Back then, the UN Security Council
rallied to the cause of black South Africans, by declaring its racist
constitution "null and void", and calling on governments not to recognise
the result of the elections.

South Africa's road to freedom was a long and tortuous one, but a people's
movement, supported by the world, was able to bring the racist regime to
an end. Our struggle for equality and freedom in Burma has been long, but
we are more united than ever before. Instead of calling for "free and
fair" elections, which simply buys into the regime's plan, the
international community should call on the junta to meet the benchmarks,
and if they do not, denounce the elections and not recognise the results.

____________________________________

February 12, Irrawaddy
Broken promises and a broken nation - Editorial

Sixty-three years ago, Burma's independence leader Gen Aung San and
leaders from the country's main ethnic groups gathered at the city of
Panglong in southern Shan State to sign an historic agreement, determining
their future by achieving absolute independence from the British.

The representatives from the central government, known as the Executive
Council of the Governor of Burma at that time, met with leaders from the
Shan, Chin and Kachin minorities and signed an agreement to guarantee
equal rights for ethnic people. They were assured that Burma would be a
federal union with power sharing, and were even granted the right to
secede.

Ever since then, this event has been commemorated annually on Burma's
Union Day, an occasion for recalling the “Panglong spirit,” which
emphasizes the shared benefits of mutual trust between the Burman majority
and ethnic minorities.

However, this historic agreement has been largely ignored since Burma
gained its independence in 1948. The government in Rangoon assumed power
at the central, state and local levels, leaving non-Burman ethnic groups
with no power at all.

To mark Union Day, the leader of Burma's ruling military regime, Snr-Gen
Than Shwe, called on all of Burma's ethnic groups to renew their “sense of
Union Spirit” wherever they live in across the nation, “to ensure
perpetuation of the motherland, and independence and sovereignty will not
be lost again.”

Burma's successive military regimes have long acted on the assumption that
the federal system promised in the Panglong Agreement was a formula for
disintegration. In fact, Burma's era of military rule began when Gen Ne
Win seized power in 1962 to prevent ethnic leaders and members of
Parliament from carrying out constitutional reforms to create a genuine
federal union.

According to Than Shwe, the national and regional parliaments that will be
formed after this year's  election, to be held in accord with the 2008
Constitution and the “road map” to democracy, will satisfactorily address
all the legitimate needs of Burma's ethnic minorities. That is why he has
repeated his promise to go ahead with the election while continuing to
call on ethnic cease-fire groups to disarm or join a national border guard
force under Burmese military control.

Most of the ethnic armed groups have refused to accept the plan, however,
saying that they have nothing to gain from it. Several ethnic leaders have
also said that they don't have any faith in the new Constitution, which
was approved by a farcical referendum in 2008. They point out that real
power under the Constitution resides in the national parliament, where the
Burmese military will take 25 percent of all seats.

At the same time, Burmese military authorities have kept several key
ethnic figures in notorious prisons, including Sao Hso Ten, the president
of the Shan State Peace Council, and  Hkun Htun Oo and Sai Nyunt Lwin, the
chairman and secretary, respectively, of the Shan Nationalities League for
Democracy. The three Shan leaders are serving prison terms of between 75
and 106 years on charges that included defamation and high treason.

Even worse, the Burmese junta has not relented in its persecution of
civilians in ethnic minority areas. Some 140,000 ethnic refugees live in
official camps along the Thai-Burmese border, according to the United
Nations refugee agency, while many more cling to survival as internally
displaced persons. Last August, another 37,000 refugees fled into China
after Burmese regime forces routed an ethnic army in the Kokang region.
The potential for a further exodus remains amid the constant threat of
conflict in many areas around the country.

This is why Union Day is not an occasion to celebrate, but rather a time
to reflect on the legacy of decades of broken promises. What we find when
we look at Burma today is not unity or strength, but the misery of a
country constantly at war with itself. Only when all ethnic nationalities
enjoy genuine equality and self-determination can Burma hope to build a
stable and united nation.

____________________________________

February 12, Mizzima News
Union of Burma remains a dream, as civil war rages – Phanida

Chiang Mai – Today is the 63rd anniversary of the Panlong Agreement, which
envisaged a Union of Burma promising equality among all ethnic people in
the hills and plains.

But the Union that the architects of the Independence struggle wanted is
yet to take shape. Instead civil war rages. Now, the ruling military
regime is promising incentives to the ethnic people by way of autonomous
rights in its 2008 constitution.

The provisions in the 2008 constitution are quite contrary to the
historical Panlong Agreement which was signed on 12 February 1947, some
ethnic leaders and National League for Democracy (NLD) party said.

The Zomi National Congress (ZNC) Chairman Pu Tsian Cing Thang said, "The
Union must provide for equality among all ethnic people without
discrimination but in the 2008 constitution, there is not a single
provision which can guarantee the rights of ethnic people so it cannot be
called a Union".

In democratic countries, members of armed forces, who wish to join
politics, must resign from military posts, but in Burma, the 2008
constitution allows Burmese Army personnel to join politics in uniform. It
is ridiculous, he said.

He referred to Article (6) Basic Principles, sub-article 6(f) (of 2008
Constitution) which says 'enabling the Defence Services to be able to
participate in national political leadership role of the State.’

Similarly the 'Ethnic Nationalities Council' (ENC) in exile, Joint
Secretary Salai Sui Khar said that the 2008 constitution does not
guarantee autonomous rights and equality agreed and mentioned in paragraph
5 and 7 of the Panlong Agreement that ethnic people aspire for.

NLD party spokesman Ohn Kyaing said that successive governments of AFPFL
(Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League), BSPP (Burma Socialist Programme
Party), SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council) and ruling SPDC
(State Peace and Development Council) have ignored the Panlong Agreement
but the undemocratic provisions are included in the 2008 constitution.
These have to amend.

"The Panlong Agreement reportedly had nine points. The main point was
there has to be equality among all ethnic people. It guaranteed freedom of
religion and self-determination in local States and Divisions," he said.

On 12 February 1947, Bogyoke (General) Aung San got together with Shan,
Kachin, Chin ethnic leaders to have a Union and signed the historical
Panlong agreement in Panlong, Shan State.

But junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe refused to recognize the
efforts of national leaders in the independence struggle in his message
sent to today's Union Day celebrations. He chose to emphasize the proposed
general election this year.

Burma's democrats pointed out that holding elections within the framework
of the 2008 constitution, which will only legitimize military continuance
and will not guarantee equal rights to the ethnic people, cannot stop the
raging civil war.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

February 12, Burma Campaign UK
UK Government: ‘tangible progress’ needed before EU eases Burma sanctions

The Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a statement by Foreign Office
Minister Ivan Lewis MP that; “The UK will not support any easing of
sanctions in the absence of tangible progress on the ground.”

On Thursday the European Parliament also called on EU governments not to
relax sanctions until there is; ‘tangible progress on democratisation.’

The UK government statement came in a Parliamentary Written Answer in
response to a question by Stephen Crabb MP, Co-Chair of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group For Democracy in Burma.

The European Union has a joint foreign policy on Burma, known as the
Common Position on Burma. All 27 EU members jointly agree the policy,
which is renewed each April. Discussions will start soon about renewing
the Common Position.

The official EU policy is to increase pressure if there is no change in
Burma, and relax pressure in response to positive change. This is the same
policy as the USA, which has had a recent attempt to increase dialogue
with Burma’s generals rebuffed.

“The Burma Campaign UK welcomes the British government’s sensible approach
on EU sanctions,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator at Burma
Campaign UK. “EU sanctions need to start being used proactively as
leverage to extract concessions from Burma’s generals. To lift sanctions
at a time when the regime continues with horrific human rights abuses and
defies the United Nations would send the wrong signal to the Generals.
They would see it as encouragement to continue their rule.”

Some EU governments, such as Germany, Austria and Italy, have favoured
relaxing sanctions, as they put business interests in Asia ahead of human
rights in Burma. In addition, European Commission staff publicly and
privately undermine the official EU position on Burma.

The main EU sanctions include an arms embargo, visa ban, and ban on
imports of gems, precious stones and timber. However, Germany has
reportedly exported duel use technology (could be used for military
purposes) to Burma, and the import ban has no enforcement mechanisms, and
gems are openly exported to European countries.

“We appreciate that at the current time there is little hope that the EU
will finally introduce the kind of financial sanctions we have been
calling for, which would have a bigger impact on the generals,” said Zoya
Phan, International Coordinator at Burma Campaign UK. “However, it would
be nice if the EU would consider actually implementing and enforcing
sanctions that they do have.”

For more information contact Zoya Phan on +44(0)7738630139
____________________________________

February 11, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Burma army burns over 70 houses & intensifies offensive over Karen

Over 70 houses, a mobile health clinic and two schools in eastern Burma
have been burnt down by army patrols stepping up the offensive on Karen
villagers, according to the Committee for Internally Displaced Karen
People (CIDKP.)

Most recently, Burma army allied troops set fire to 46 houses in Toe Hta
area and 28 houses in Ka Di Mu Der area of Ler Doh township, Nyaunglebin
District. A vital mobile health clinic, a middle school, and a nursery
school in K’Dee Mu Der village and Tee Mu TaVillage were also destroyed by
soldiers on 8 February. Other schools have been forced to close.

Thousands of people have been displaced and are still in hiding following
the attacks, according to Free Burma Rangers (FBR), a relief organization
working in the conflict zones of eastern Burma.

Benedict Rogers, East Asia Team Leader at CSW, said: “These latest attacks
serve as clear evidence of a brutal plan of ethnic cleansing against the
minorities, instigated by Burma’s military regime. Karen villagers have
been subjected to severe human rights violations for far too long.
Governments need to respond to these crimes against humanity by working to
establish a United Nations commission of inquiry and an immediate and
universal arms embargo”.

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

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