BurmaNet News, February 20-22, 2010

[Editor]

February 20 – 22, 2010, Issue #3901


INSIDE BURMA
Independent (UK): Burma plans crackdown on monks as election nears
Irrawaddy: Junta bans reporting Quintana's comments
Irrawaddy: SDA promises big spending in Rangoon
DVB: New forced labour tactics adopted in Arakan
AFP: UN empty-handed again from Myanmar visit: Analysts

ON THE BORDER
The National (UAE): UN examines mistreatment of Muslims in Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Fears of mass deportation of Burmese migrants rise

REGIONAL
DVB: Mass Burmese hunger strike in Malaysian camp

OPINION / OTHER
Wall Street Journal: An American in Burma's gulag – Wa Wa Kyaw
ISN (Switzerland): Burma’s looming election sham – Simon Roughneen

STATEMENT
Amnesty International: Myanmar: End repression of ethnic minority
activists - Amnesty International written statement to the thirteenth
session of the UN Human Rights Council (1-26 March 2010)




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 22, Independent (UK)
Independent: Burma plans crackdown on monks as election nears – Andrew
Buncombe

Military authorities fear repeat of 2007 when monks led 'Saffron Uprising'

The military authorities in Burma are planning a crackdown on the
country's Buddhist monks to "discipline" them ahead of forthcoming
elections.

State media reported over the weekend that the senior abbot who heads a
government-controlled committee of senior monks is to call a meeting to
outline new regulations. While monks are not eligible to vote in the
election, analysts believe new restrictions will be imposed to further
prevent them becoming involved in anything considered "political".

The junta, which styles itself the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), has said that elections are to be held later this year as part of
a process of transforming Burma into a democracy. Most observers believe
the vote will be a deeply flawed process that further cements the role of
the military within the country's political establishment, and the main
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is widely expected to still be under
house arrest and unable to participate. But some analysts believe the
authorities remain nervous about a potential challenge from the monks, who
in the autumn of 2007 led major demonstrations.

"They are still very nervous about this election. They have done
everything they can do to control it, and the monks are the only possible
challenge to them," said Bertil Lintner, a Thailand-based analyst and
author of a recent Human Rights Watch report on the fate of Burma's monks.
"They are reining in the ethnic minority armies; they have controlled the
political opposition. The monks are the only potential threat."

There are an estimated 400,000 monks in Burma with perhaps a further
50,000 nuns. In September 2007, a group of monks seized on an incident in
which a clergy member in the town of Pakokku was badly beaten by a
junta-controlled militia to form the secret All Burma Monks' Alliance and
launch protests across the country – demonstrations that rapidly became a
vehicle for demands for democracy.

In the subsequent crackdown by the authorities, campaigners believe that
dozens of monks and demonstrators were killed. Many more were detained and
given long prison sentences. Scores of other monks who took part in the
"Saffron Uprising" were forced into exile in Thailand and other countries.

The official Burmese-language newspaper Myanmar Ahlin said that Ashin
Kumara, the chairman of a government-controlled sangha, or monks'
committee, was to call a meeting of senior abbots at which the new
guidelines would be announced. The move, said the newspaper, would help to
"safeguard Buddhism, which had been weakened by attacks on the state
monks' committee".

Many of those involved in the September 2007 uprising were younger members
of the Buddhist clergy who ignored the proclamations of their abbots not
to get involved in the demonstrations, which tapped into soaring public
disquiet over rising fuel and food prices. As part of the junta's
response, identification cards were introduced in 2008 to make the
monitoring of monks easier. "Monks from different divisions and states
were given different-coloured cards," monk Ashin Kaythira told the
Irrawaddy website.

____________________________________

February 22, Irrawaddy
Junta bans reporting Quintana's comments

News journals in Burma have been barred from carrying news about the
Feb.19 press conference of Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur
on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (Burma), sources said.

Quintana held a press conference in Rangoon's international airport on his
departure from the country at the end of his five-day visit that began on
Feb. 15.
Burmese read the newspapers on a street in Rangoon. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sources said after the UN envoy talked openly and criticized the Burmese
military government regarding the current situation, the military regime's
Press Scrutiny and Registration Board (PSRB) banned reporting his speech.

The UN special rapporteur told domestic and international reporters that
he was disappointed he could not meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, who remains under house arrest, and that without full participation
of the people including all 2,200 political prisons and an environment
that allows them to participate in the range of electoral activities, “the
elections to be held will not be credible.”

Nor did Quintana perceive the regime as having any will to release all
political prisoners, adding that the “military government does not accept
that there are any prisoners of conscience in Burma.”

He also expressed deep concern about the systematic discrimination against
Muslims in the country.

A Rangoon-based journalist from inside Burma told The Irrawaddy that PSRB
director Maj. Tint Swe attended the conference.”

“Maj. Tin Swe was there and he knows what Quintana said but he doesn't
allow us to publish it,” said the journalist, who is a news editor in his
40s.

Journals are only permitted to carry news about UN rights envoy's trip to
Burma and his visit to politicians, lawyers and prisons during his stay in
the country.

Rangoon-based journalists said the military regime's ban on reporting the
envoy's comments was abuse of freedom of expression.

“Even the rights of the UN special rapporteur on human rights were
violated. It becomes more obvious how brutal this regime is, which has
even beaten, tortured and imprisoned monks,” said an executive editor from
a news journal.

However, most Burmese people heard and welcomed Quintana's comments after
hearing them on exiled radio stations that covered his comments
exclusively.

“The rights envoy's speech has awakened those who have been indecisive
under the regime's deceptive stategy. What he said absolutely reflects
what is happening in Burma now,” said a Rangoon-based lawyer.

____________________________________

February 22, Irrawaddy
SDA promises big spending in Rangoon – Aung Thet Wine

Rangoon — The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Association
(USDA) will spend more than 12 billion kyat (US $12 million) this year to
implement public utilities and services in Rangoon, according to Rangoon
mayor Brig-Gen Aung Thein Lin.

Aung Thein Lin told local media at the Rangoon Municipal Office
headquarters on Feb. 16 that the USDA will be spending billions of kyat on
activities to support the public, including paving roads.

However, according to sources in the former capital, the large expenditure
is specifically aimed at boosting the USDA's image prior to this year's
election campaign.

Head of the USDA office in Rangoon Division, and also the chairman of
Rangoon municipal committee, Aung Thein Lin is widely tipped to run as the
USDA candidate in Rangoon at the election.

The USDA is focused on public utilities and services in Rangoon without
requiring the general public to contribute money to its activities, Aung
Thein Lin reportedly said, adding that people can bring complaints
directly to him if they were asked to contribute money while the
road-paving project was carried out in Rangoon neighborhoods.

“Under the banner of the USDA, the municipality is catering to a wide
range of activities such as roadworks, pipe-laying for waterworks, and
opening free health care clinics and free funeral service agencies,” said
a Rangoon journalist.

The mayor also reportedly said that Insein Government Technical Institute
is now being rebuilt as a USDA-financed public hospital. The building has
previously been the hotbed of anti-government student demonstrations and
was used as a detention center during the 2007 Saffron Revolution.

As the matriculation exams draw near, the USDA are also providing free
tuition to high school students, a Rangoon municipal source said.

The regime has repeatedly said that the election will be held this year,
though it has not set a date nor issued election laws.

Analysts say that the delay in promulgating the election law makes it
possible for the regime to continue to impose tight restrictions on
activities by political parties while allowing USDA members to run
pre-election activities all over the country.

“There is no doubt that the USDA will win the election,” said a retired
university lecturer in Rangoon. “It has now taken up the activities that
government departments are supposed to do.”

____________________________________

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
New forced labour tactics adopted in Arakan – Narinjara News

The Burmese military junta has adopted a new tactic for forced labour in
Arakan State to avoid pressure from the International Labour Organization
(ILO) and the international community, said a teacher from Buthidaung.

"Now the authorities have changed the way it uses forced labour cleverly
to avoid international pressure. Many villagers in our area were summoned
by authorities to work in government projects with payment. But in
reality, the authorities never pay money to them as wages," the teacher
said,

Recently, authorities began using this system in the construction of two
model villages in Buthidaung Township, 80 miles north of Sittwe. The new
villages are Shwe Natala and Shwe Hin Tha.

"Nasaka, Burma’s border security force summoned villagers and carpenters
to work on the construction of two model villages near Nyung Chaung
Village with wages. The Nasaka officials promised to pay 1,500 Kyat a day
to each worker. But villagers are yet to receive any payment since the
completion of the village construction," the teacher added.

Many villagers from Nyung Chaung and Do Den Villages in Buthidaung
Township were subjected to this new tactic to coerce them into working on
construction of the two model villages.

A villager from Nyung Chaung, who worked on the construction said, "The
authorities constructed two model villages near Nyung Chaung Village
quickly for Burman settlers. They summoned many villagers from the
surrounding areas to work on the construction of the villages with
payment. I was working there for about 20 days but have not received any
wages."

"When we went to the Nasaka camp to ask for our payment, the Nasaka
authorities refused us  and then abused and assaulted us. They told us if
we could go anywhere to complain. So many villagers, who had worked as
labourers on the construction gave up asking for money from Nasaka," he
added.

The Nasaka used many villagers in the area for nearly two months to
construct 180 houses in Shwe Natala and Shwe Hin Tha, located in southern
Buthidaung near the western bank of the Mayu River.

About 179 Burman families from Burma proper arrived to settle in the two
model villages on 15 February, 2010, on two ferry ships that travelled
from Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State. All the families came from
Rangoon.

The authorities allocated three acres of farmland and gave two heads of
cattle to each Burman family being settled in the village, after
confiscating land from local villagers. Besides the time that many spent
working without pay, many villagers also lost their land to the two model
villages.

____________________________________

February 21, Agence France Presse
UN empty-handed again from Myanmar visit: Analysts

Bangkok – A visit by a UN rights envoy to Myanmar has yielded little
progress ahead of elections, experts say, in the latest setback for the
world body's efforts in the military-ruled nation.

Making his third trip to Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana had his request to
meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi turned down and said he was given
no information about the polls promised for some time this year.

Myanmar authorities also continued to lock up dissidents during his stay,
gave no sign that it would free Suu Kyi, and even denied there were any
"prisoners of conscience" in the country.

"It clearly hasn't gone well," said Benjamin Zawacki, Myanmar expert for
the London-based rights group Amnesty International.

"Despite the fact that the government has claimed that cooperation with
the UN is a cornerstone of its foreign policy, it's quite clear it's not."

The UN's efforts to foster democratic reform in Myanmar have met with
little apparent success, with secretary general Ban Ki-moon also being
refused access to Suu Kyi, the world's only Nobel Peace laureate still in
detention.

Quintana, who was appointed in 2008, left Myanmar after a five-day visit
on Friday with a parting shot for the regime, saying that he "deeply
regretted" its denial of a meeting with Suu Kyi.

"I am disappointed that even this time I was unable to meet her at this
crucial time in this election year, the first national election in 20
years," Quintana said.

The UN rights envoy was also refused access to reclusive junta chief Than
Shwe and instead met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs minister
Maung Oo the chief justice, attorney general and police chief.

But he was allowed to meet some political detainees during visits to the
country's prisons, and called for their release before elections, which
analysts predict will be held towards the end of the year.

"It's good for Mr. Quintana to get in to see some prisoners and see how
bleak things are, but that doesn't mean any of them are going to be
released any time soon," said David Mathieson, Myanmar expert for Human
Rights Watch.

Myanmar authorities refuse to allow any international organisations access
to its prisoners. The United Nations says there are at least 2,100
political prisoners in Myanmar's jails.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years. She had her
house arrest extended by 18 months in August and is effectively barred
from standing in the upcoming elections.

"They've made no progress on human rights whatsoever in the past year,"
added Mathieson.

"They (the junta) manipulate the domestic and international scene to
create an illusion of some slow progress towards democracy, but it's still
the same repressive system leading up to an election," he said.

Quintana is due to report his findings to the UN's Human Rights council in
March, and then to the UN General Assembly.

The Argentinian diplomat did hold talks with key figures from Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy (NLD) party during his visit, including its
vice chairman, Tin Oo.

Tin Oo was freed on February 13 after seven years in detention.

But five other dissidents were imprisoned during Quintana's visit -- a
Buddhist abbot and four women activists.

"The timing suggests these jailings are a statement. It's a way of saying
'we're still in control, we are making the decisions here,'" said Zawacki.

"If anyone expects that fundamental human rights changes are going to come
about strictly through UN visits and efforts they're ignoring 20 years of
history. Change has got to come from within," he said.

The NLD has not yet said whether it will take part in the polls, the first
in Myanmar since 1990 when the NLD won by a landslide. The military
subsequently annulled the result.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 22, The National (UAE)
UN examines mistreatment of Muslims in Myanmar – Larry Jagan

Bangkok – A United Nations envoy has expressed deep concern about the
persecution of Myanmar’s Muslims by the authorities. “There is no doubt
that there is severe discrimination of Muslims,” the UN special rapporteur
for human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said after visiting the
west of the country where Muslims are concentrated.

During his five-day mission, Mr Quintana, an Argentine former labour
rights lawyer, visited Sittwe, capital of northern Rakhine state, and
Buthidaung, one of the state’s main towns and site of the most serious
allegations of persecution and repression of the Muslims, often known as
Rohingya.

This is the first time a senior UN envoy has been allowed to visit this
region although the UN and international aid organisations do have
projects and people in the area.

“There have been many allegations levelled at the authorities, so it was
important for me to be able to see the situation firsthand,” he said.

While he was there he also visited a prison, which was a real revelation,
he said during an interview on the weekend.

“The prison was full of women, some still nursing their young children,”
he said. Most had been charged with immigration offences and received
sentences of up to five years. But human-rights groups believe they are
victims of the government’s ban on Muslims marrying.

“Men are often jailed for illegal marriages, but many, especially women,
are arrested after travelling illegally [across the border] to Bangladesh
to get married,” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which
monitors the situation of Rohingyas in the region.

The UN envoy raised the issue of the alledged ban on marriage with the
authorities, both locally and in the Myanmar capital, Naypidaw, and
received the same answer. Muslims, like everyone, have the right to marry,
but they have to have the correct birth certificates and citizenship
papers.

This is the crux of the matter, according to human-rights groups and aid
workers who know the area and monitor the situation there.

“Myanmar’s Muslim minority are subject to systematic persecution: they are
effectively denied citizenship, they have their land confiscated, and many
are regularly forced to work on government projects,” said Benjamin
Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar researcher based in Bangkok.

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

More than 300,000 Rohingyas are in camps or hiding in neighbouring
Bangladesh to escape the persecution across the river in Rakhine,
according to the UN. More than 700,000 Rohingyas still live in Myanmar.

Mr Quintana singled out Rakhine for his visit after persistent stories of
persecution that included forced labour, extortion, land confiscation,
travel restrictions, banned marriages and unregistered children. On his
last visit to Myanmar, in 2009, his request to visit the area was denied.

Because the authorities refuse most Rohingyas permission to marry, many
live together after a traditional Muslim ceremony. The children born from
these couples are denied registration and citizenship – making them
non-persons.

Mr Quintana took up the issue of citizenless children in his last report
to the UN in November and pressed representatives of the regime on it
again during this visit, but with little result.

“The issue of unregistered children is serious as their numbers keep
growing,” Ms Lewa said. “What is the future of these children? Without
being registered, they won’t be able to apply for a travel permit,
marriage, and so on. They are all potential refugees.”

Mr Quintana’s visit to Rakhine was a significant concession by the regime.
“I received a lot of independent information from various sources before I
went there, and I find them very credible.”

The envoy said he did not have time to verify all the claims in the
reports, but from what he saw he believed they were relatively accurate.
“And I hope by visiting there I can help highlight the plight of Myanmar’s
Muslims,” he said.

Overall, the UN envoy was downbeat about his trip. “Political prisoners,
of which there are more than 2,100, will not be released anytime soon,” he
said. “The government continues to deny that there are any prisoners of
conscience in their jails.”

Mr Quintana wanted to impress upon the authorities that the release of all
political prisoners before this years planned elections was essential if
the electoral process was to be convincing.

“These are well-educated and capable people who could participate in the
election and help make the whole process credible, I told the
authorities,” he said.

Mr Quintana did not hold out much hope of change in Myanmar in the near
future.

Myanmarese officials would not discuss the elections in detail even though
it was evident that preparations for the polls were already in full swing.
All that the men in charge of the elections would say was that the legal
framework was being prepared and the electoral law would be finished in
time.

foreign.desk at thenational.ae

____________________________________

February 22, Irrawaddy
Fears of mass deportation of Burmese migrants rise – Suthida Malikaew

Bangkok — Dao, a migrant worker from Burma, is struggling to make a
decision that could affect not only her but her family as well. "There are
many things to worry about," sighed the Shan state native who works in the
northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Dao fears that she will have to go back to Burma to undergo the
nationality verification process that Thailand requires of the nearly 1.4
million migrant workers who currently hold temporary work permits. The
deadline is Feb. 28.

Nationality verification will legalize the status of migrant workers so
they could enjoy the same rights as other foreigners who hold valid visas,
according to Reudeerat Dejprayura of the Office of Foreign Workers’
Administration. Migrant workers who pass this screening, which involves
providing biographical information to their home governments, will also
get social security benefits.

But far from being a reassuring move, nationality verification – the Thai
government’s latest attempt to manage the large number of migrants in the
country – has triggered a firestorm of debate and drawn criticism from
human rights advocates.

In contrast with the governments of Laos and Cambodia, which have agreed
to have the verification process done in Thailand, Burma wants its
citizens to go back to the military-ruled country to undergo the process.
Many migrants from Burma left without papers and the government frowns on
the large number of overseas migrants in neighboring Thailand.

"I’m not sure what will happen to my parents (in Burma) if I present
myself to the government," Dao said. "They might face difficulties if the
government searches our home. I’m not so sure whether after crossing the
border for nationality verification, I will still have a chance to cross
back (to Thailand) or not."

There are but a few days left before the deadline, but Dao, like many
migrant workers in this South-east Asian country, have not decided whether
to go through the verification process. Like them too, she knows that
those who miss the Feb. 28 deadline risk arrest and deportation.

In the last few weeks, the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiya
has come under growing pressure due to the verification process that
critics say is loaded against migrant workers, and will mar the country’s
human rights record.

Last month, a letter signed by over 30 domestic, regional and
international rights groups and trade unions was submitted to Abhisit and
the International Labour Organization asking for the extension of the
nationality verification period and calling for an end to the threat of
mass deportation of undocumented migrants.

Other activists called for an extension of this month’s deadline and a
more honest look at how Thailand treats the migrant workers, mostly from
Burma, Laos and Cambodia, who provide cheap labour in its factories,
plantations, domestic work and the fishing industry.

"Mass deportations will serve only to harm both Thailand’s economy, which
remains heavily reliant on migrant labor, as well as Thailand’s
international reputation. But more importantly, sticking to this rigid
deadline means after 28th February, migrants will fall victim to gross
exploitation as they are forced underground at a politically sensitive
time for Thailand," argued Somchai Homlaor of the Human Rights and
Development Foundation. "Systematic corruption will then prosper."

Wilaiwan Saetia, chair of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, said at a
seminar on migration this month that while the nationality verification
process might have good intentions, it was not practical due to its short
period compared to the number of people who have to undergo it.

While Thailand has some 2 million migrant workers, the verification
process that the Thai Cabinet approved in January is targeted toward
nearly 1.4 million of them who have temporary stay status. More than
127,000 other migrant workers are registered but do not have work papers
and are thus ineligible for the verification process.

Thus far, 1.1 million of the 1.4 million eligible for verification are
from Burma, and they make up the largest number of migrant workers in
Thailand. Reports say some 400,000 migrant workers – including 200,000
from Burma – are thus far going through verification. There has been no
feedback yet on the results so far, but the rules say the migrants must
complete the verification process in two years.

In any case, Wilaiwan said she doubted whether the migrants who get proper
working papers would really receive similar benefits as Thai workers. For
example, she said, these migrant workers are supposed to have access to
social security, "but not many employers will be happy to contribute to
the social security fund for them."

Likewise, migrant workers do not receive attendance bonuses, which are the
extra pay that many locals get for working consistently without taking
leave or getting sick. "Such inequality occurs because migrants have no
negotiating power. They might be fired if they organize a group or bargain
(with employers). It would not be easy for them to find a new job," said
Wilaiwan.

She said she remains unconvinced that nationality verification can rid the
country of undocumented migrants, who will always be many employers’
preferred workers because they could give them lower wages and fewer
benefits.

Ruedeerat conceded that some of the Burmese migrants who have applied for
verification were asked sensitive questions such as ‘Do you support the
ruling regime of Burma?’ and ‘Are you Rohingya?’ in reference to the
refugees from Burma that have sought shelter in other Asian countries.

While such instances do take place, she said that not too many Burmese
migrants have so far failed in the nationality verification procedure.
"It’s about two cases as far as I know," Ruedeerat said.

"Among the groups who may potentially be deported, there may be some who
may be in need of international protection and should not be returned to
the country of origin," United Nations special rapporteur on migrants
Jorge Bustamante said in a Feb. 18 statement. "Thailand should respect the
principle of non-refoulement."

To others, measures such as the verification process address migrant labor
– whose mobility has become easier due to borders in the Mekong region
that have opened up in the last two decades – from a narrow perspective of
law enforcement and security.

But the factor that drives the mobility of people will continue to be the
demand for cheap labor that many locals do not wish to do.

Lae Dilokwittayarat, director of Chulalongkorn University's Centre for
Labour and Employment, said the need for cheap labour in a capitalist
economy would keep undocumented migrants in high demand. In
export-oriented countries such as Thailand, cheap labor is needed to
ensure lower costs so that investors can make more profits, he explained.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Mass Burmese hunger strike in Malaysian camp – Joseph Allchin

Up to one thousand detained migrants, mainly Burmese, in a Malaysian camp
are on hunger strike and demanding access to the UN refugee agency amidst
severe overcrowding.

The predominantly Burmese inmates in the Lenggeng camp have for a long
time been living in “terrible conditions”, according to Mie Ye Tun from
the Arakan Refugee Relief Committee (ARRC).

“It is very difficult to continue their life; they are ready to [hunger]
strike until whenever,” Mie Ye Tun told DVB after contacting detainees too
afraid to speak to the press.

The camp is said to have a capacity of 1,250; but as of August 2009 it had
a population of 1,430. Exact figures of the current population are
difficult to attain.

Aegile Fernandez, head of Tenaganita, a migrant NGO based in Kuala Lumpur,
said: “They have transferred detainees from other camps so it’s really
full to the brim. I think this is one of the reasons they are on this
hunger strike, because there is lack of water and it is so uncomfortable
being crushed into one place like that.”

She added that “we are asking Suharkam [the Malaysian human rights
commission] to go in immediately and get feedback”.

Fernandez also suggested that the protest had come amidst a crackdown by
Malaysian authorities on undocumented foreigners in the country.

“They have started the operations for nabbing the undocumented workers
after the Chinese New Year [last week] so the camps now will get even more
full up; they will just dump them in with or without water.”

Malaysia’s home minister last week was quoted in the press as saying that
the government intended to create an environment where foreigners without
legal status would feel “afraid and threatened”.

If there was any doubt therefore about the chain of command in Malaysian
policing, Mie Ye Tun relayed that: “One of the captains [elected
detainees] from the camp was beaten badly because he made a report to the
outside”. Another captain was “told to eat the food or [the police] will
become violent. They threatened them”.

The crackdown comes after Malaysia was reclassified as a Tier 3 country
for human trafficking by the US state department; the worst possible
classification on its scale.

The situation has been called into question by Tenaganita as the Malaysian
government looks set to register around 10,000 new migrant workers,
despite the large numbers of undocumented migrants already in the country.

“Our call is that they stop the intake of new migrant workers; we have
asked the government to register the ones who are already here,” she said.

“The ones who are here have not all come here illegally, [but] have become
undocumented as a result of the employers or agents”.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 22, Wall Street Journal
An American in Burma's gulag – Wa Wa Kyaw

Nyi Nyi Aung has been sentenced to three years hard labor for political
crimes.

On Feb. 10, a court inside Burma's notorious Insein Prison sentenced my
fiance, Nyi Nyi Aung, to three years hard labor in prison to punish him
for his democracy advocacy. The conviction of a political prisoner in
Burma is no surprise. What was a surprise was the U.S. State Department's
measured three-line response.

When we became Americans, Nyi Nyi and I took an oath to "support and
defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against
all enemies, foreign and domestic." And yet, to the U.S. government, Mr.
Aung might as well just be one of the other 2,100 political prisoners
languishing in a Burmese prison. He has been horribly tortured and
repeatedly denied access to both U.S. consular officials and his lawyers.

Still, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are
silent. The State Department's only statement came from Assistant
Secretary Philip Crowley, saying that his imprisonment is "unjustified,"
and urging his release.

Mr. Aung was arrested by Burmese authorities at the Rangoon airport on
Sept. 3, 2009. He traveled to Burma to visit his mother, who has cancer.
The junta imprisoned her after the 2007 protests because of her
pro-democracy activities, and is denying her medical treatment. Mr. Aung,
himself a peaceful democracy activist, was initially charged with
violating Burma's national security act because he was supposedly
"breeding hardcores." a suggestion that he was creating a new generation
of activists intent on violently overthrowing the junta. In fact, he has
worked independently for years as a non-violent activist supporting
numerous groups inside and outside Burma that were documenting and
publicizing human rights abuses and peacefully advocating for national
reconciliation between the junta, the National League for Democracy, and
ethnic groups.

The junta soon realized that even its kangaroo courts couldn't sustain
this accusation, so they dropped the charge and leveled a slew of more
minor charges against Mr. Aung. These include such supposed offenses as
failing to renounce his Burmese citizenship, something a junta official
admitted under cross-examination he hadn't seen anyone charged with over
his 20-year career in the foreign service, according to a U.S. Embassy
official observing the trial. He was also charged with illegally importing
currencies into the country—despite the fact that he was detained at
immigration before having the opportunity to declare currency at customs.

Mr. Aung was initially detained for 17 days before receiving consular
access. Over much of this time, the junta denied him food and water, kept
him awake around the clock and beat him repeatedly. Then, for four weeks
in December and January, the junta kept him in solitary confinement in a
cell, in the dark, without any bedding or a toilet, with dogs barking all
around him. My lawyers tell me that these are extraordinary violations of
Burmese and international law. All I know is that I cannot believe that
anyone is treated this way, let alone an American.

This, unfortunately, wasn't a new experience for Mr. Aung. Back in 1988,
he had been active as a high-school student organizing peaceful protests
of student groups and had even been detained briefly and badly tortured by
the military junta. He and I fled separately to the U.S. following the
violent military crackdown on student demonstrations in Burma.

We couldn't have been more grateful to be in the U.S. At last, we were
citizens of a country that cherished democracy, freedom and human rights -
everything that the Burmese junta stood against. We lived our own American
dream; Mr. Aung got his degree in computer science from Purdue University
and served in government at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. I became
a hospice nurse. And we fell in love and got engaged.

But over the past five months our government has betrayed us. Prominent
members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have repeatedly asked
Secretary Clinton to contact the Burmese foreign minister prior to the
verdict, but she ignored these requests. This is the same administration
that has also let a year pass without appointing an ambassador-ranked
special representative on Burma policy, despite being required by law to
do so.

So now I must speak for Mr. Aung, as he has so often spoken for others.
President Obama and Secretary Clinton, my message is simple. Neither your
words nor your actions show that you take my fiance's imprisonment
seriously. I beg you to stop ignoring his plight, and to help secure his
release from this illegal and unjust imprisonment. Just as Nyi Nyi
continues to live up to the oath we took to defend America, please, live
up to the promise America made to defend us.

Ms. Kyaw is a hospice nurse based in Maryland.

____________________________________

February 22, International Relations and Security Network (Switzerland)
Burma’s looming election sham – Simon Roughneen

Burma’s military junta puts on a show of democracy, freeing one opposition
figure while many others languish in prison, and contriving to set up
front parties to compete in what can only be a sham poll, Simon Roughneen
comments for ISN Security Watch.

When people in the West think of Burma, thoughts most likely turn to the
iconic opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been locked up for most
of the past 20 years, more or less spanning the time since Nelson
Mandela's release from jail in South Africa. Her crime: winning the
country's single election held since independence from Britain.

Burma is due to hold elections again this year, but Suu Kyi is not
permitted to run. The military regime in charge of the country since 1962
seems determined to hold onto power and looks likely to use the elections
to try to craft some form of civilian veneer for continued army rule.

The constitution reserves 25 percent of the seats in the proposed new
parliament for the army, which is enough to block any attempt to change
the law in Burma.

As for the rest, the army is setting up front parties, with officers and
civil servants resigning their posts, under orders from the top, to
‘compete’ in the elections.

But nobody knows when the elections will take place, other than sometime
in 2010. There are rumors that the astrology-prone generals will hold it
on the numerically auspicious day of 10 October (10/10/10), but nothing is
clear. There is no election law or framework in place yet.

As such, the opposition parties have not decided whether or not to run.
The regime would probably like it if they did, as it would give some form
of legitimacy to sham elections with a pre-ordained outcome.

One of the reasons why Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy will commit
to taking part in the election now is the continued detention of over
2,000 political prisoners in Burma. Despite calls from the US for these to
be freed as a necessary pre-condition for free and fair elections, the
number of prisoners has gone up since this time last year.

Like many Burmese who have a history of opposing the military regime, Bo
Kyi now must live in exile. Based in Thailand, he heads up the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners in Burma. He told ISN Security Watch
that most of the prisoners were rounded up after the 2007 fuel price
protests, which then mushroomed into the monk-led pro-democracy
demonstrations now known as the Saffron Revolution.

Many were given 50-year-plus sentences with hard labor and are held in
remote, dilapidated prisons far from family, often in solitary confinement
and without medical treatment.

Last week, UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana made a 5-day visit to assess the
human rights situation in the country. He was not permitted to meet Suu
Kyi and concluded his visit by saying it would be difficult to see how
free and fair elections could be held in Burma this year.

The envoy did get to meet Suu Kyi's number 2, 82-year-old Tin Oo, who was
released from house arrest by the regime over the weekend (the weekend
just before the envoy arrived). Tin Oo is a former leading army figure who
grew disaffected with military rule and helped found the NLD. He was
originally detained in 2003 for the apparent crime of surviving an
assassination attempt on Suu Kyi and other opposition figures in which
dozens of their supporters were killed.

Tin Oo's son, Thant Zin, believes his father’s release is part of a regime
show to lend credence to illusions of democratic elections this year.

However, despite releasing the NLD vice chairman, the regime has locked up
a number of other political prisoners in recent weeks. In January, a young
female reporter received a 25-year jail term for giving recordings to
foreign media highlighting the problems and dangers faced by journalists
who want to cover Burma. The same day the UN envoy arrived, four women
were sentenced to two years in prison and hard labor after being accused
of offering alms to Buddhist monks - alms that included religious
literature.

The Obama administration has begun talks with the military regime,
offering to reduce sanctions if the generals respond by releasing
prisoners and holding free elections.

The response? When Nyi Nyi Aung, a Burmese-born US citizen came to Burma
late in 2009 to visit his sick mother, he was tortured and then jailed on
hazy passport and foreign currency charges. His mother languishes in
prison for taking part in the 2007 Saffron Revolution. His Burmese fiancé,
now working as a nurse in Maryland, last week penned an impassioned plea
for the Obama administration to do more to free Mr Aung, carried in the
Wall St Journal. She concluded bluntly: "President [Barack] Obama and
Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton, my message is simple. Neither your
words nor your actions show that you take my fiancé's imprisonment
seriously."

Simon Roughneen is an ISN Security Watch senior correspondent, currently
in Southeast Asia. His website is www.simonroughneen.com.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not
the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).

____________________________________
STATEMENT

February 22, Amnesty International
Myanmar: End repression of ethnic minority activists - Amnesty
International written statement to the thirteenth session of the UN Human
Rights Council (1-26 March 2010)

Amnesty International’s February 2010 report “The Repression of Ethnic
Minority activists in Myanmar” reveals that there are real reasons to fear
that the 2010 elections in Myanmar will intensify the already severe
repression of political critics, in particular those from the country’s
large and diverse population of ethnic minorities. The report covers the
two-year period from August 2007, six months before the government
announced that it would stage national elections, through July 2009.  It
draws on testimonies and information provided by or about some 700 members
of ethnic minorities who faced human rights violations as a result of
their actual – or sometimes, merely perceived—opposition to the Myanmar
government or its policies.

Amnesty International’s research demonstrates, with greater detail than
previously available, that Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have played an
integral role in much of the political opposition against the government’s
repressive conduct. Myanmar’s government has imposed a heavy burden on
peaceful critics from ethnic minorities: including arbitrary arrest,
imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial executions of activists are
documented among other human rights violations.

CONTEXT OF APPROACHING ELECTIONS

Later this year, Myanmar is set to hold its first national and local
elections in 20 years against a backdrop of political repression and
unresolved armed conflicts. In the context of the upcoming elections, the
government has alternately encouraged and warned ethnic minority political
organizations to take part. Most of them have remained undecided or
noncommittal. Myanmar’s Government is struggling to ensure that those
organizations represented by armed groups still fighting against the army
are either defeated or “brought back into the legal fold” before the
elections. The army and its allies have waged concerted offensives against
several armed groups (and civilians), from the Karen, Shan, and Kokang
ethnic minorities. As a result nearly 5,000 Karen, 10,000 Shan, and over
30,000 Kokang were displaced during 2009 and the Kokang’s armed militia,
the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), was defeated.

The authorities have arrested and imprisoned ethnic minority activists, in
some cases torturing or killing them. Minority groups have also faced
extensive surveillance, harassment and discrimination when trying to carry
out their legitimate activities. With the elections as the political
context in Myanmar for the past two years, and the government thus
preparing to pit its own candidates against an opposition, it has not
tolerated any group, including ethnic minorities, challenging its
legitimacy, policies, and practices.

To a large extent, the military government has already cemented its
position ahead of the elections, as the country’s 2008 constitution
ensures that the military will continue to dominate the government. The
constitution contains strict requirements on the eligibility of
presidential candidates (ruling out Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, for instance,
due to the fact that her children hold British citizenship); reserves
legislative seats for the military, effectively giving it veto power over
constitutional amendments; leaves the military in control of key security
ministries; and affords the military the authority to administer its own
affairs.  This constitution was “approved” in a 2008 referendum, held a
week after Cyclone Nargis left nearly 140,000 dead or missing and
displaced hundreds of thousands, devastating much of the Ayerawaddy
(Irrawaddy) delta. Amnesty International has documented some of the
government’s repressive tactics against ethnic minority activists who
opposed the approval of the 2008 constitution through the referendum. They
included arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, and even extrajudicial
executions of activists.

ROLE OF ETHNIC MINORITIES WITHIN THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION

Observers outside Myanmar frequently distinguish between two groups in
opposition to the Myanmar government, identifying Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and
the NLD as a political force pitted against the government on the one
hand, and on the other a variety of ethnic armed groups fighting against
the tatmadaw, Myanmar’s army. In fact, much of the peaceful opposition to
the country’s repressive government is actually composed of ethnic
minorities, living in areas where particular ethnic minorities form the
predominant population. Many NLD leaders, for example, as well as NLD rank
and file members, are from ethnic minorities. The clearest illustration of
this phenomenon is the so-called Saffron Revolution, whose first stirrings
occurred not in Yangon, but among ethnic minority monks and nuns in
Rakhine State.

Understanding the role of ethnic minority political opponents and
activists in Myanmar prompts a rethinking of the human rights situation in
the country and the appropriate strategy for improving it.

First, attention to ethnic minority opposition reveals the wide extent of
popular opposition to the Myanmar government, and emphasizes the need to
ensure that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD, and other political opposition
groups—including those founded by ethnic minorities—are able to
participate meaningfully in the coming elections.  As illustrated in
Amnesty International’s report on “The Repression of Ethnic Minority
Activists in Myanmar”, among the government’s political opponents are
ethnic minorities who perform similar work, toward similar aims, as their
ethnic majority Burman counterparts in the country’s urban centres and
central regions.

Second, understanding the role of ethnic minorities among the opposition
should expand the international community’s understanding of the
aspirations of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities beyond the oft-cited context of
armed groups, and refocus international attention on addressing the needs
of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities in any discussion of the country’s human
rights situation and any relevant resolutions.

REPRESSION OF ETHNIC MINORITIES

The government of Myanmar violates the human rights of ethnic minority
political opponents and activists in many ways, including torture and
other ill-treatment; discrimination on the basis of religion and
ethnicity; unlawful killings; and arbitrary detention for short periods or
imprisonment.   All of those detained or imprisoned were or remain among
Myanmar’s large population of political prisoners (hovering around 2,100
prisoners)—detained because of their political, religious or other
conscientiously held beliefs, ethnic origin, language, national or social
origin, birth, or other status.  Most are prisoners of conscience; they
have expressed their beliefs peacefully.  Many such political opponents
and activists told Amnesty International that they faced government
repression as part of a larger movement, as in Rakhine State during the
2007 Saffron Revolution, while others said that the authorities pursued
them for specific actions, such as organizing a small anti-dam signature
campaign in Kachin State.  Even relatively simple expressions of political
dissent faced repression, as when Karenni youths were detained for
floating small boats on a river with “No” (to the draft constitution)
written on them.

Government repression predates and extends beyond the scope of the
elections, especially where the authorities have feared a challenge to
their rule. Myanmar’s ethnic minority activists also have interests,
concerns, and grievances distinct from both those of the majority Burman
population and electoral politics. These are no less critical to the
defence and realization of their human rights.  Amnesty International has
found and reported on clear evidence that Myanmar’s authorities often
target members of ethnic minorities on discriminatory grounds, such as
religion or ethnicity, or to attempt to crush their opposition to major
development projects that adversely affect their lands and livelihoods. 
Though outside the formal political sphere, this activism and its
repression have implications for the coming elections insofar as they
illustrate the desire among ethnic minorities to ensure that their voices
are heard and respected, as well as the lengths to which the government
will go to stifle and deny them.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S RECOMMENDATIONS

•	Amnesty International recommends that the UN Human Rights Council
include, as a matter of priority in its deliberations and actions on
Myanmar, a specific focus on the human rights of ethnic and religious
minorities;

•	Further, Amnesty International recommends that the UN Human Rights
Council urge the government of Myanmar to:

•	Cooperate fully with the Special Procedures, including the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and implement the
recommendations of the human rights treaty bodies;

•	Engage constructively in the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic
Review when Myanmar is scheduled for review in early 2011.

•	Lift restrictions on freedom of association and assembly in the run-up
to the elections, including by refraining from penalizing peaceful
political activities;

•	Release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners arrested
solely on the basis of their peaceful political activity, ethnicity, or
religion;

•	Remove restrictions on independent media, including international
journalists, to cover the campaigning and election process;

•	Ratify and effectively implement international human rights treaties,
including the International Covenants on Human Rights and their Optional
Protocols; the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol; the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination; and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.