BurmaNet News, February 18, 2010

[Editor]

February 18, 2010, Issue #3899


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: UN envoy meets freed Suu Kyi aide in Myanmar
Irrawaddy: UN Envoy visits Insein as prisoners demand better conditions
DVB: Authorities seize NLD members property

ON THE BORDER
New York Times: No refuge for Myanmar's forgotten people
IRIN: Myanmar: Political uncertainty pushes out ethnic minorities

BUSINESS / TRADE
Wall Street Journal: India OKs ONGC, GAIL Investments in Myanmar
Mizzima News: Slow Internet speed cripples Rangoon businesses

OPINION / OTHER
Asian Tribune: Burma’s junta pulls the wool over the UN's eyes – Zin Linn

PRESS RELEASE
MSF: Stateless Rohingya victims of violent crackdown in Bangladesh
The Arakan Project: Tens of thousands of Rohingyas from Burma at risk of
starvation in an unprecedented crackdown in Bangladesh
Burma Partnership: Burma Partnership launches new website





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 18, Agence France Presse
UN envoy meets freed Suu Kyi aide in Myanmar

Yangon — The freed deputy of Aung San Suu Kyi's party met a UN rights
envoy in military-ruled Myanmar Thursday and said the release of the Nobel
Peace laureate was vital before elections, the opposition said.

UN special rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana held talks in the former capital
Yangon with Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy (NLD), and six other leading party members.

Myanmar's junta freed 83-year-old Tin Oo from house arrest at the weekend.
He was detained along with Suu Kyi in 2003 after a pro-regime mob attacked
their motorcade, killing dozens of people.

"We met for about one hour. We discussed the release of Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi and the political prisoners," Tin Oo told reporters. Daw is a term of
respect in Myanmar.

"We also spoke of our request for a meeting between the Senior General
(Than Shwe) and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and for a meeting between (her) and
our central committee members so that we can continue our work for the
future," he said.

Suu Kyi wrote to government head Than Shwe in November to request a
meeting with him. The pair last met in 2002.

Quintana told the NLD members that he had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had
had no answer yet from the junta, Tin Oo said.

"Regarding (whether to participate in) the elections, we told him that we
stick to our declaration," Tin Oo said.

The NLD signed declaration calls for a review of the country's 2008
constitution, brought in after a referendum held days after a devastating
cyclone in Myanmar that left an estimated 138,000 people dead.

The constitution bars Suu Kyi from standing in elections promised for this
year and reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for the military.

Myanmar's generals have not yet set a date for the polls, adding to
international fears that they are a sham designed to legitimise the
regime's hold on power.

The NLD won by a landslide in Myanmar's last national polls in 1990 but
the military prevented them from taking power. The latest elections are
part of a "roadmap to democracy" announced by the junta.

Suu Kyi has been detained for most of the last two decades and her house
arrest was extended by 18 months in August after an incident in which a US
man swam to her lakeside house.

Among the other NLD members who also attended the meeting with Quintana
was Win Tin, a dissident journalist who was Myanmar's longest serving
prisoner until his release in September 2008.

Quintana, an Argentinian diplomat, arrived in Yangon Thursday from the
northwestern town of Sittwe and went to the notorious Insein Prison, where
dozens of dissidents are held.

On Wednesday, Quintana travelled to a prison in Rakhine state on the
northwestern border with Bangladesh and met several political prisoners,
sources said.

They included Htay Kywe, a prominent student activist serving a 65-year
jail sentence for his role in mass protests led by Buddhist monks against
the regime in 2007.

Myanmar's generals have also continued a crackdown on dissent launched
after the protests. The United Nations says there are around 2,100
political detainees in the country.

Quintana is set to travel to the remote new capital Naypyidaw on Friday,
the final day of his five-day trip, to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win and
other officials.

The UN envoy is not, however, scheduled to meet reclusive junta leader
Than Shwe.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.
____________________________________

February 18, Irrawaddy
UN Envoy visits Insein as prisoners demand better conditions – Ba Kaung

In a letter leaked ahead of a visit by the UN human rights envoy to Burma
on Thursday, political prisoners at Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison
demanded improved conditions, including access to reading materials and
better food and health care.

The UN envoy, Tomás Ojea Quintana, went to the prison at noon on Thursday
as part of a five-day visit to the country to examine the Burmese
authorities' treatment of political prisoners.
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi last year. (Photo: AP)

According to the letter, rice given to prisoners is stale and mixed with
small stones. It also said that although prisoners are allowed to receive
books and newspapers from relatives, all reading material is heavily
censored.

“Books and journals our families gave to us have been cut out and torn
apart,” the letter reads.

Of the more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma, nearly 400 are
detained in Insein Prison, the country's largest prison. Around 300 of the
political prisoners currently serving sentences at the prison were
arrested in the aftermath of monk-led mass protests in September 2007.

The authenticity of the letter was confirmed by the Assistance Association
for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Thailand-based Burmese human rights
group.

“We can only confirm that the letter did come from the political
prisoners,” said Bo Kyi, the AAPP joint-secretary. “But we cannot tell you
how it came out for security reasons.”

On Wednesday, Quintana traveled to northwestern Arakan State, where he met
several political prisoners at Buthidaung Prison, including Htay Kywe, a
prominent student activist serving a 65-year sentence for his role in the
2007 uprising.

After his prison visit, Quintana will meet with Tin Oo, the vice-chairman
of the opposition National Leagues for Democracy, who was released from
six years of house arrest last weekend.

The UN envoy has asked the ruling military junta to release all political
prisoners and ensure that elections to be held later this year are fair
and transparent.

____________________________________

February 18, Democratic Voice of Burma
Authorities seize NLD members property – Khin Hnin Htet

Authorities in Mandalay have auctioned out a shop space owned by a
National League for Democracy member currently in prison in connection
with 2007 monk-led protests.

Win Mya Mya, organising wing member of the NLD in Mandalay was arrested
during the so called ‘Saffron Revolution’ in Burma in September 2007. She
was later sent to detention in remote Putao prison in Kachin State,
northern Burma.

In October, 2008, a court in Mandalay’s Aungmyaythasan township sentenced
her to 12 years’ imprisonment with charges including sedition. In April
2009, authorities reduced her term to 8 years.

Recently, the municipal government in Mandalay announced the auction of
the fabric shop owned by Win Mya Mya’s family in the town’s renowned Zay
Cho Market which was confiscated in June 2007 for displaying the NLD’s
flag.

Her family has previously made several pledges to ruling State Peace and
Development Council’s leader Than Shwe via letters to have it back but
they received no response.

Win Mya Mya’s brother Ba Soe said the municipal council at the auction
yesterday sold the shop to a Chinese business man for a 50 million Kyat
bid.

“There is nothing more we can do – I just feel that we have lost,” said Ba
Soe.

“This is a regular scenario in Burma where members of the opposition are
being crushed under the government’s justice system.”

Win Mya Mya was known to be suffering from a nerve disease which was
reportedly caused by pro-government Swan Arr Shin, Union Solidarity and
Development Association mob beatings in the 2003 Depayin Massacre.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 18, New York Times
No refuge for Myanmar's forgotten people – Seth Mydans

Bangkok — Stateless refugees from Myanmar are suffering beatings and
deportation in Bangladesh, according to aid workers and rights groups who
say thousands are crowding into a squalid camp where they face a
“humanitarian crisis” of starvation and disease.

In a campaign that seems to have accelerated since October, the groups
say, ethnic Rohingya refugees who have been living for years in Bangladesh
are being seized, and beaten and forced back to Myanmar, where they had
fled persecution and abuse and which also does not want them.

“Over the last few months we have treated victims of violence, people who
claim to have been beaten by the police, claim to have been beaten by
members of the host population, by people they’ve been living next to for
many years,” said Paul Critchley, head of mission in Bangladesh for the
aid group Médecins Sans Frontières.

“We have treated patients for beatings, for machete wounds and for rape,”
he said, quoting a report issued Thursday. Some had escaped after being
forced into a river that forms the border with Myanmar. “This is
continuing today.”

Since October, he said, the unofficial Kutupalong Makeshift Camp with its
dirt paths, flimsy shacks and open sewers has grown by 6,000 people to
nearly 30,000, with 2,000 new arrivals in January alone.

They are among about 250,000 Rohingya in Bangladesh, a Muslim minority
from neighboring Myanmar, where they do not have citizenship and are
subject to abuse and forced labor, and cannot travel, marry or practice
their religion freely.

Despite the hardships, people are continuing to flee repression and fear
in Myanmar, and when they are deported, many return, several people said.

About 28,000 of them have been recognized by the government and documented
as refugees. They receive food and other assistance in a camp administered
by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and have not been
subject to the abuses and forced returns described by other Rohingya, said
Kitty McKinsey, a spokeswoman for the agency in Bangkok.

The government has not allowed the agency to register new arrivals since
1993.

Most Rohingya in Bangladesh have no documentation and struggle to survive,
evading the authorities and working mostly as day laborers, servants or
pedicab drivers. They have no rights to education or other government
services.

“They cannot receive general food distribution,” Mr. Critchley said. “It
is illegal for them to work. All they can legally do in Bangladesh is
starve to death.”

The current crackdown is the worst they have ever suffered, according to
aid workers and the refugees themselves.

“Over the last month and in Cox’s Bazaar District alone, hundreds of
unregistered Rohingyas have been arrested, either pushed back across the
border to Burma or sent to jail under immigration charges,” said Chris
Lewa, referring to Myanmar by its other name. Ms. Lewa closely follows the
fate of the Rohingya as director of the Arakan Project, which also issued
a report this week.

“In several areas of the district, thousands were evicted with threats of
violence. Robberies, assaults and rape against Rohingyas have
significantly increased,” she said.

A risky route to a better life, by sea to Thailand and then to Malaysia
for work, has been cut off after the Thai Navy pushed about 1,000 Rohingya
boat people out to sea last year to drift and possibly to drown.

More than a year later, more than 300 are known to be missing and more
than 30 are confirmed to have died, Ms. Lewa said. No boats are reported
to have landed in Thailand in the recent post-monsoon sailing season.

“The brutal push-backs and the continuous detention of the survivors seems
to have stopped the Rohingya from doing it again,” Ms. Lewa said. “That
horrible action has had the effect of basically stopping people from
leaving.”

In Bangladesh, the situation in the unofficial camp is becoming desperate,
both aid workers and refugees said.

“We cannot move around to find work,” said Hasan, 40, a day laborer who
lives with his wife and three children in a dirt-floored hovel made of
sticks, scrap wood and plastic sheeting. He said he had no way to feed his
family.

“There is a checkpoint nearby where they’re catching people and arresting
them,” he told a photographer who visited recently. Like other refugees
here, he asked that his last name not be used for fear of reprisals.

“We aren’t receiving any help,” he said. “No one can borrow money from
each other. Everybody’s in crisis now.” People do what they can to
survive.

“When I visit the camp,” Mr. Critchley said, “I see small girls going out
in the forest to collect firewood, and we have treated young girls and
women who have been raped doing this.”

In the Thursday report, Médecins Sans Frontières said that a year ago 90
percent of people in the makeshift camp were already “severely food
insecure,” in other words, that they were running out of food.

“Malnutrition and mortality rates were past emergency thresholds, and
people had little access to safe drinking water, sanitation or medical
care,” the report said.

The overcrowded camp has become an incubator for disease, Mr. Critchley
said, and with the monsoon season peaking in late March and early April,
medical workers fear a lethal spread of acute diarrhea.

“International standards would assume that a latrine is shared by 20
people,” Mr. Critchley said. “With the number of latrines in the camp,
over 70 people share each latrine. I’ve seen small children using piles of
human feces as toys.”

The Rohingya know that they live at the very bottom of human society, that
they are not wanted anywhere and that they are outsiders without legal
standing or protection.

Abdul, 69, who has lived in Bangladesh for more than 15 years, said that
these thoughts disturb his dreams.

“When I sleep I think that if someone kills an animal in the forest they
are breaking the law,” he said. “They are caught and punished. But as
human beings it isn’t the same for us. So where are our rights? I think to
myself that we are lower than an animal.”

____________________________________

February 18, IRIN (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)
MYANMAR: Political uncertainty pushes out ethnic minorities

BANGKOK, 18 February 2010 (IRIN) - A restive political situation in
Myanmar has prompted thousands of Burmese refugees to flee to neighbouring
countries, and the numbers are expected to grow as uncertainty continues,
analysts and aid workers warn.

More than 30 ethnic armed groups have been involved in insurgencies
against the central government since 1948, when Myanmar - previously known
as Burma - gained independence from British colonial rule.

In the past 20 years, more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups have signed
peace agreements with the ruling State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC).

But there are fears of renewed fighting as the government tries to force
the ethnic armies to surrender their weapons and form a special Border
Guard Force under Burmese military control before long-awaited elections
this year.

"If the political situation in Burma deteriorates further and fighting
erupts, we can expect more than 200,000 new refugees, mainly Shan and Wa,"
the head of Thailand's National Security Council, Bhornchart Bunnag, told
IRIN.

Many of the signatories have resisted this move, including the largest
organizations representing the Kachin, Mon and Wa, although some smaller
groups have accepted it.

Estimates are rough, but the Wa say they have 20,000 armed soldiers, while
the Kachin and Mon have 6,000 and 3,500 respectively.

"At a time when we are trying to accomplish everything through politics,
the SPDC wants to do something else," said James Lum Dau, a spokesman for
the Kachin Independent Organization (KIO).

Aid workers and analysts say they are bracing for a further influx of
thousands of Karen and Mon refugees if fighting resumes.

"The political instability in Burma - with the elections due some time [in
2010] - and pressure on the ethnic armies to disarm, will drive more
refugees to seek safety across the border, especially in Thailand," said
Win Min, a Burmese academic based in Chiang Mai, in Thailand's north.

Signs of conflict

In August 2009, the Burmese army attacked the ethnic Chinese Kokang, who
call themselves the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA),
near the Chinese border.

The clashes resulted in more than 40,000 Kokang fleeing to China's
southern Yunnan Province; activists say most have yet to return, even
though the fighting has stopped.

Fierce fighting in eastern Karen State at the border with Thailand in June
2009 forced more than 3,000 refugees to flee across the border for safety,
according to the regional office of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in
Bangkok.

Nearly all of these refugees are still in Thailand, said UNHCR regional
spokeswoman, Kitty McKinsey.

"Right now, UNHCR does not feel conditions exist for the Karen or any
other refugees in the nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border to return
to their homes in safety and dignity," she said.

Fresh Burmese army offensives are expected against the rebel Karen
National Union (KNU) in eastern Myanmar. They have been fighting for
autonomy from the central authorities for more than 60 years, and so far
have not negotiated a truce.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) - which broke away
from the KNU more than a decade ago and agreed a ceasefire pact with the
Burmese army - has been forcibly conscripting civilians into its militia
in preparation for the new border police force, according to KNU leaders.

"The press-ganging of Karen villagers started early this year and is
continuing now the wet season is over," KNU general secretary, Zipporah
Sein, told IRIN. "Every village has to provide two soldiers and money for
equipment like walkie-talkie radios," she said.

Fleeing conflict

"Successive military regimes have tried to eliminate all the ethnic
minorities inside Burma in an effort to purify the population," David
Thakerbaw, a Karen spokesman, said.

Muslim ethnic Rohingya in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State, who are
considered stateless, typify the extent of systematic persecution faced by
ethnic minorities, and have fled in their hundreds of thousands to
Bangladesh, rights groups say.

"They are effectively denied citizenship, they have their land
confiscated, and many are regularly forced to work on government
projects," Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Burma researcher,
told IRIN.

"The regime creates conditions and circumstances that make it clear to the
Rohingyas that they are not wanted or welcome in the country," he added.

Genuine political solution needed

Analysts say the plight of Myanmar's ethnic minorities will not be
resolved until there is a genuine political solution, and their rights are
recognized.

"The first thing that needs to be done is to allow ethnic people to be
educated in their own languages," Suboi Jum, a former Kachin Baptist
bishop in Myanmar, told IRIN.

A new constitution pushed through in 2008 guarantees a substantial number
of seats for the military government and its allies in national and local
parliaments, while marginalizing other political groups, rights
organizations say.

And the 2010 national elections - the first to be held for 20 years - are
not expected by observers such as the International Crisis Group to be
free or fair.

The polls are unlikely to help the process of assimilation or integration
of Burma's ethnic minorities, experts say.

"Burma's ethnic nationalities will find it difficult to achieve lasting
peace and security without a settlement that guarantees their social and
political rights," said Ashley South, a historian of the Mon and an ethnic
specialist.

"Socio-political transition in Burma is likely to be a drawn-out process,
rather than a one-off event."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 18, Wall Street Journal
India OKs ONGC, GAIL Investments in Myanmar – Mukesh Jagota and Prasanta Sahu

New Delhi -- India Thursday approved investments by an Oil & Natural Gas
Corp. unit and GAIL India Ltd. in gas field development projects in
Myanmar.

ONGC Videsh Ltd., the overseas arm of Oil & Natural Gas Corp., will invest
an additional $832.54 million in the project, taking its total investment
in the project so far to more than $1 billion.

Gas transporter GAIL will invest $502 million in a gas field development
project and an onshore pipeline project in Myanmar, a government statement
said after a federal Cabinet panel approved the investments by the two
state-run companies.

The government also approved an equity injection of 8 billion rupees ($173
million) in National Aviation Company of India Ltd., which runs
loss-making flag carrier Air India.

____________________________________

February 18, Mizzima News
Slow Internet speed cripples Rangoon businesses – Khai Suu

New Delhi – Businesses in Rangoon reliant upon the Internet in the conduct
of their daily activity are facing increased hardship with the slowing
down of connection speeds since late last month.

Traders, those in the media business as well as students have been hard
hit by the downturn, which the complaint department at Myanmar Teleport,
under Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), told Mizzima is being
caused by ongoing maintenance work on their BMF server.

"Online business is the economy for us. We work with the time sensitive
inflow and outflow of goods and fluctuations in price quotations. In
international business, communication must be accurate and precise. When
the Internet connection slows down, we have to use faxes and phones, which
delays our business and sometimes even causes business activity to fail,”
a beans and pulses exporter in Rangoon explained to Mizzima.

Rangoon-based magazines and journals are also suffering, as the Internet
is critical in their timely reporting of news and events.

"We have to find the latest sports news on the Internet for our journal.
Our work is much delayed due to this slow Internet connection, as we
cannot write news and reach our audience on time,” a reporter from a
weekly sports journal told Mizzima.

An international news reporter added, "We are in trouble with this slow
connection. It takes much time to open news websites. Sometimes we cannot
open them at all. In downloading pictures too, it takes much time. We have
to report this news to our audiences on time. Now we are in much trouble.”

And students too are facing difficulties in the pursuit of their education
stemming from slow Internet speeds.

"Most of the Internet users in Burma use the Internet for chatting and
social websites for communication with their lovers. But we are using the
Internet for our study. We search papers on the net and read reference
books for our theses. When the connection is slow, we have to wait. It
wastes our time and money," said a female zoology student from Rangoon
University.

Additionally, some Internet cafes have been forced to limit hours or close
doors due to a decline in the number of users owing to slow connectivity.

"Many users don't come when the connection is slow. And at the same time
power failures are frequent and long. It is uneconomical for us to run the
generator for only a single user. So we close our cafe when the power is
out and reopen when power is restored," remarked a staff person from an
Internet cafe on Pansodan Street.

Similarly, an Internet user in Mergui, Tenassarim Division, said, "We use
IP Star. It's totally not working. It frequently gets dropped every five
minutes. The users don't come when the connection is slow. The Internet
cafes are hard hit in their revenue.”

MPT provides various Internet services in ADSL, dial-up, Wi Max, IP Star
and broadband services to nearly 60,000 customers, according to estimates
from the Burmese Ministry of Communication.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 18, Asian Tribune
Burma’s junta pulls the wool over the UN's eyes – Zin Linn

Burma’s junta sentenced four women activists to two years imprisonment
with hard labor on the same day U.N. special envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana
arrived for a five-day visit to evaluate progress on human rights in the
country.

The four women were arrested on 3rd October 2009, after being accused of
offering Buddhist monks alms that included religious literature, said Nyan
Win, spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy headed by
detained Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. “When passing the
sentence, the court could not provide strong evidence against them as
there is no (reliable) witness,” their lawyer Kyaw Ho said. The women used
to hold prayer services at Rangoon's Shwedagon pagoda for release of Suu
Kyi.

The current visit of U.N. envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana started a day after
the regime jailed an American human rights activist Kyaw Zaw Lwin, to
three years in prison on fraud and forgery charges, despite demands from
the United States for his release. This will be the envoy's third visit to
the country after a previous mission last year was postponed.

The U.N. envoy’s visit comes two days after pro-democracy leader Tin Oo
was released following seven years in prison. Tin Oo, vice-president of
the NLD was released from prison on 13 February 2010, having been in
prison since 30 May 2003. As he visited NLD headquarters on 15 Feb, he
said he was optimistic that "things can be resolved" through Mr Quintana's
visit.

Former political prisoner who spent 19 years in junta’s jail and NLD’s
central executive committee member Win Tin called on Mr Quintana to "be
decisive and perform his duties in the strictest manner without falling
prey to the lies of the government".

Present sorrowful affairs in Burma confirm that the military junta is
determinedly marching along its anti-democracy course. The junta continues
to detain and incarcerate approximately 2,200 political prisoners,
including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined
to her residence for 14 of the last 20 years.

For instance, on 30 December 2009, 15 political promoters from three
townships in Mandalay Division were given various prison sentences ranging
from 2 years to 71 years by a court sitting inside the prison. The special
branch of the police arrested the political activists from Myingyan,
Nyaung Oo and Kyauk Padaung townships last September and October without
attributing any reasons, held them incommunicado, and did not let them to
meet their family members during their incarceration period. They have
been given thoughtless imprisonments by an arbitrary court in jail without
having a lawyer on 6 January.

Besides, a military-controlled township court in Burma has handed down a
20-year jail term to a freelance reporter Hla Hla Win, a young video
journalist who worked with the Burma exile broadcaster "Democratic Voice
of Burma" based in Norway, as the ruling junta continues its crackdown on
the dissent. She was arrested in September after taking a video interview
at a Buddhist monastery in Pakokku, a town in Magwe Division, the
Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres and the Burma Media Association said
in a joint statement. For that she was given a seven-year prison sentence
in October 2009. Burma ranks alongside nine other countries in the “worst
of the worst” category in Freedom House’s ‘Freedom in the World 2010’
report, which includes Libya, Tibet, China, Eritrea, North Korea and
Equatorial Guinea.

The 47-year-old musician Win Maw was convicted for “sending false news
abroad”, even though it wasn’t false, and there wasn’t any evidence
against him to match up with the elements of the charge.

On November 11, 2008, the Mingalar Taungnyunt Township Court sentenced, a
leading Burmese musician Win Maw to 17 years in prison for sending news
reports and video footage to the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma
radio station during the protests in August and September 2007. Win Maw
was arrested in a Rangoon teashop on November 27, 2007 and charged under
article 5 (j) of the penal code with “threatening national security”. He
was held in the notorious Insein prison during trial, and was transferred
to a remote Katha prison, following this year’s trial. He won the 2009
Kenji Nagai Memorial Award for his commitment as a freelance journalist in
Burma.

Another Reporter of the Norway-based opposition radio station Democratic
Voice of Burma (DVB), Ngwe Soe Lin was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment
on 28 January 2010 by the Rangoon Western District Court sitting inside
Insein prison. Sources said Ngwe Soe Lin, 28, who lives in Rangoon's South
Dagon Township, was charged under section 33(a) of the Electronic Act and
section 13(1) of the Immigration Emergency Provisions Act, receiving terms
of 10 and 3 years imprisonment respectively.

Ngwe Soe Lin had been recently honored with the Rory Peck Award for his
work in documenting orphan victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma
in the first week of May 2008.

Moreover, two officials have been sentenced to death by a court in Burma
for leaking information, official sources say, in a case reportedly
involving secret ties between the ruling junta and North Korea. The men
were arrested after details and photos about a trip to Pyongyang by the
Burma regime's third-in-command, General Shwe Mann, were leaked to exiled
media last year, the website of Thailand-based Irrawaddy News reported.

“Two officials received death sentence and another one was jailed for 15
years for leaking information. They were sentenced at the special court in
Insein Prison on Thursday,” a source said. The two men sentenced to death
were Win Naing Kyaw and Thura Kyaw, while the imprisoned third person was
revealed just as Pyan Sein, with no further details of the case. Win Naing
Kyaw is a former military officer and Thura Kyaw and Pyan Sein worked at
the ministry of foreign affairs, Irrawaddy said.

Many leaders of the '88 Generation Students, who led a pro-democracy
movement in 1988, remain imprisoned with sentences up to 65 years. Ethnic
Shan political leader Hkun Htun Oo and prominent comedian Zarganar are
still in prison despite their medical conditions.

Su Su Nway, a member of the National League for Democracy, has been in
custody in the notorious Insein Jail since November 2007, following a
peaceful demonstration. She received the 2006 Humphrey Freedom Award from
the Canada-based group Rights and Democracy for her human rights
activities. She was arrested in 2005 and 2007.

Many political prisoners are reportedly seriously ailing and receiving no
regular healthcare. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been
denied free access to conduct confidential prison visits since December
2005. Arrests and intimidation of political activists and journalists in
Burma have been going on for two decades.

In 2009, there were three known political prisoner deaths. Salai Hla Moe,
Saw Char Late and Tin Tin Htwe all died in prison due to lack of proper
medical care. According to the AAPP’s documentation, at least 143
political prisoners have died in prison since 1988. But the list is
incomplete, as the military authorities black out information from the
prisons.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International warned Burma’s military regime in a major
report released on 16 February 2010. The 58-page report - The Repression
of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar - draws on accounts from more than
700 activists from the seven largest ethnic minorities, including the
Rakhine, Shan, Kachin, and Chin, covering a two-year period from August
2007.

The military authorities have arrested, imprisoned, and in some cases
tortured or even killed ethnic minority activists. Minority groups have
also faced extensive surveillance, harassment and discrimination when
trying to carry out their legitimate activities.

Amnesty International urged the government to lift restrictions on freedom
of association, assembly, and religion in the run-up to the elections; to
release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of conscience; and
to remove restrictions on independent media to cover the campaigning and
election process.

Amnesty International called on Burma or Myanmar’s neighbors in the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as China,
Myanmar’s biggest international supporter, to push the government to
ensure that the people of Myanmar will be able to freely express their
opinions, gather peacefully, and participate openly in the political
process.

“The government of Myanmar should use the elections as an opportunity to
improve its human rights record, not as a spur to increase repression of
dissenting voices, especially those from the ethnic minorities,” said
Benjamin Zawacki, AI’s Burma (Myanmar) specialist.

But, the mood of the junta shows clearly that it has no plan to pay
attention to international concerns, release political prisoners or
commence a dialogue for reconciliation. According to a Burmese analyst, it
is baseless to believe that the military dictators are going to build a
democratic country by means of the 2008 constitution.

Zin Linn is a freelance journalist in exile. He is vice president of Burma
Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans
Frontiers.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

February 18, Medecins Sans Frontieres
Stateless Rohingya victims of violent crackdown in Bangladesh

MSF report calls for an immediate end to the violence and increased
protection for these highly vulnerable people.

A violent crackdown against stateless Rohingya in Bangladesh is forcing
thousands of people to flee in fear. Driven from their homes throughout
Cox's Bazaar district by local authorities and citizens, many have sought
refuge at Kutupalong makeshift camp. Here, medical organisation Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF) is treating victims of beatings and harassment,
including people the Bangladeshi Border Force has attempted to forcibly
repatriate to Myanmar. As camp numbers continue to swell, conditions pose
a significant risk to people's health.

In a report released today, February 18, 2010, MSF calls for an immediate
end to the violence, along with urgent measures by the Government of
Bangladesh and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to
increase protection to Rohingya seeking asylum in the country.

"More than 6,000 people have arrived at the makeshift camp since October,
2,000 of those in January alone," explained MSF Head of Mission for
Bangladesh Paul Critchley. "People are crowding into a crammed and
unsanitary patch of ground with no infrastructure to support them.
Prevented from working to support themselves, neither are they permitted
food aid. As the numbers swell and resources become increasingly scarce,
we are extremely concerned about the deepening crisis."

For decades, thousands of Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority from
Myanmar, have sought refuge in Bangladesh. However, a mere 28,000 are
recognised as prima facie refugees by the government, and live in official
camps under the supervision of UNHCR. In sharp contrast, more than 200,000
people struggle to survive unrecognised and largely unassisted. In a
densely populated country in which strong competition over work, living
space and resources is inevitable at a local level, the stateless Rohingya
are left highly vulnerable.

"It is imperative that the Government of Bangladesh act immediately to
stop the violence and provide these people with the protection to which
they are entitled," Mr Critchley concluded. "The UNHCR also needs to take
greater steps toward developing a clear policy to tackle the issue, and
must not let the terms of its agreement with the government undermine its
role as international protector of those who have lost the protection of
their state, or who have no state to turn to."

As the Thai boat crisis of 2009 made clear, regional solutions are needed
to the situation of the stateless Rohingya. The international community
must support the government of Bangladesh and the UNHCR to adopt measures
to guarantee the unregistered Rohingya's lasting dignity and well-being in
Bangladesh.

MSF has been providing healthcare in Bangladesh since 1992. Currently, as
well as the basic healthcare programme in Kutupalong, MSF has opened a
kala azar treatment programme in Fulbaria Upazila, and runs a basic
healthcare programme in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. MSF also assisted tens
of thousands of people affected by Cyclone Aila, which struck Bangladesh
in late May, 2009.
____________________________________

February 18, The Arakan Project
Tens of thousands of Rohingyas from Burma at risk of starvation in an
unprecedented crackdown in Bangladesh

A new report released today by The Arakan Project states that an
unprecedented crackdown by the Bangladesh government on Rohingyas from
Burma is creating a grave humanitarian crisis for tens of thousands of
refugees.  The report “Unregistered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh:
Crackdown, forced displacement and hunger” calls on the Bangladesh
authorities to immediately cease mass arrests and forced displacement of
unregistered Rohingya asylum seekers and ensure that they are adequately
protected and provided with access to food.

One year after Thailand cast adrift hundreds of boat people on the high
seas, stateless Rohingya asylum seekers desperately seeking international
protection face untold misery in Bangladesh.

The crackdown by Bangladesh law enforcement agencies has targeted
unregistered Rohingya refugees who had settled outside the two official
refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District since 2 January 2010, while a
similar campaign which had begun in Bandarban District in mid-July 2009 is
still ongoing.  Concurrently, anti-Rohingya movements among the local
Bangladeshi population and the local media are fuelling xenophobia,
calling for Bangladesh to rid itself of the Rohingya.  Over the last month
and in Cox’s Bazar District alone, hundreds of unregistered Rohingyas have
been arrested, either pushed back across the border to Burma or sent to
jail under immigration charges.  In several areas of the District,
thousands were evicted with threats of violence.  Robberies, assaults and
rape against Rohingyas have significantly increased.

After eviction or in fear of arrest and assault, thousands of self-settled
Rohingyas have been forcibly displaced and most flocked to the Kutupalong
makeshift camp for safety.  The makeshift camp population has now
increased to over 30,000.  They do not receive food relief and cannot
leave the camp to look for work or they could be arrested.   30,000
refugees in this camp go hungry and are now at risk of starvation.

“Hunger is spreading rapidly among the already malnourished population in
the makeshift camp and a grave humanitarian crisis is looming.  Bangladesh
must end this crackdown at once or these refugees will start dying from
starvation,” said Chris Lewa, Director of The Arakan Project.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution[1] last Thursday (11
February) calling on Bangladesh to recognise that the unregistered
Rohingya are asylum seekers who fled persecution in Myanmar and are in
need of international protection.  This week, a delegation of 8 European
Parliamentarians is conducting a fact-finding mission to examine the
Rohingyas’ situation in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority in North Arakan State in
Burma/Myanmar, rendered stateless and subject to restrictions of movement
and on permission to marry, arbitrary arrest, forced labour and other
abuses.  Today 28,000 registered Rohingya refugees are housed in two
official camps assisted by the UNHCR, but an estimated population of
200,000 survive without assistance and protection in villages and slums in
south-eastern Bangladesh.  These unregistered Rohingyas are the target of
the crackdown.

The new Arakan Project report can be accessed at:
http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs08/Bangladesh-Crackdown.pdf or at:
http://refugeerightsasiapacific.org/wp-content/tmp/Arakan-Project-Bangladesh-Rohingya-11Feb10.pdf

For more information, please contact Chris Lewa at: chris.lewa at gmail.com
____________________________________

February 18, Burma Partnership
Burma Partnership launches new website

Burma Partnership launched a new website today, designed to be a useful
tool for governments, journalists, researchers, and especially activists
from Burma and all over the world. The site is available at
www.burmapartnership.org.

The new website brings together voices from inside Burma, especially those
that are heavily restricted, and presents activities and opinions from
groups working along Burma’s borders and international solidarity groups,
especially in the Asia-Pacific region. The campaigns, activities, and
content on the website represent not only the work of Burma Partnership's
Working Group members, but also the efforts of groups working on many
important issues facing Burma today.

“We envisioned this website to show the diversity of all groups working
for genuine democratic change in Burma, and to show that there is strength
in this diversity,” said Khin Ohmar, Coordinator of Burma Partnership. 
“It is in working together that we will be able to bring about real
development, democracy and national reconciliation in Burma.”

“We strive to make this website an important resource for all people
interested in Burma, especially by bringing information and voices from
inside Burma and on the border, and sharing them with the world,” added
Soe Aung, Deputy Coordinator.

The website contains the latest reports, press releases, and statements
from organizations inside Burma and internationally, and highlights four
of the major campaigns in the movement: the 2010 Elections, ASEAN, Ending
Crimes Against Humanity, and Environmental and Economic Justice. The Blog
section has opinions, actions, and analysis of the situation in Burma. For
activists, there are tools on advocacy, campaigning, using social media,
secure communications, and more.

Burma Partnership is a network of organizations throughout the
Asia-Pacific region, advocating for and mobilizing a movement for
democracy and human rights in Burma. To learn more about Burma Partnership
and its Working Group members, please visit
http://www.burmapartnership.org/aboutus/ (this page is also available in 8
regional languages, including Burmese).

Contact:
Khin Ohmar, Coordinator: +66 (0) 818840772
Soe Aung, Deputy Coordinator: +66 (0) 818399816
Jessica Stevens, Media and Communications Officer: +66 (0) 851366702