BurmaNet News, March 4, 2010

[Editor]

March 4, 2010, Issue #3909


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Women sent to remote prisons
Mizzima News: Junta forcibly acquires relocation consent for Myitsone dam

ON THE BORDER
AFP: 850,000 migrants register in Thailand: ministry
Narinjara News: US Navy trains near Burmese waters

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: India invests $1.35m in Burma gas

HEALTH
New Light of Myanmar: A (H1N1) flu outbreak under control in Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: Nobel winners push for Myanmar regime to face court
Washington Post: U.S. strives to check Burma's military trade with N. Korea
Mizzima News: Karen activist wins international acclaim

OPINION / OTHER
IPS: BURMA:  Amid threats, women dissidents stick to political beliefs –
Marwaan Macan-Markar
Bangkok Post: Young take little interest in Burma poll
Irrawaddy: How the US can get democratic reforms back on track – Editorial
Foreign Policy: Reality check: Burma's Oscar moment – Christian Caryl

STATEMENT
KNU: Statement requesting UN SG to call on SPDC to stop attacks against
Karen civilians




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 4, Irrawaddy
Women sent to remote prisons – Kyaw Thein Kha

Three women political activists sentenced to jail terms during the recent
visit of UN Human Rights Envoy to Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, were
transferred from Rangoon's Insein Prison to remote upcountry prisons at
the weekend, according to a source close to the prison.

Naw Ohn Hla, a former member of the National League for Democracy and a
prominent woman activist in Burma in her late fifties, was transferred to
Taungoo prison. Cho Cho Aye was sent to Yamethin prison, and San San Myint
went to an unidentified prison, the source told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

The prison authorities did not inform family members of the transfers, the
source said. Meanwhile, their lawyer, Kyaw Hoe, confirmed the women were
transferred to remote prisons but he did not know the details.

The activists were arrested when they returned from a Rangoon monastery
last year and charged with creating unrest.

Prior to their arrest, the women had made a weekly routine of praying for
the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners at the Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon, Burma's holiest shrine.

A court sentenced them to two years in jail in February, when Quintana was
visiting the country to study human rights conditions in Burma ahead of
the polls.

The Burmese regime has transferred many political dissidents to remote
prisons, making it difficult for family members to visit them.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma,
there are 2195 political prisoners in Burma.
____________________________________

March 4, Mizzima News
Junta forcibly acquires relocation consent for Myitsone dam – Salai Han
Thar San

New Delhi – Villagers in Tan Hte village near the hydropower project site
at the confluence (Myitsone) of May Kha and May Likha, tributaries of
Irrawaddy River, the main waterway and lifeline of Burma, have been forced
to give their consent to relocate by signing on a consent paper by
Myitkyina township officials, a Kachin social group said.

The Kachin Democratic Network Group (KDNG) said that Myitkyina Township
Peace and Development Council (TPDC) members forced Tan Hte Village PDC
Chairman U Aung Bahn to give his consent to be relocated by signing on a
consent paper on February 7.

"Myitkyina TPDC members told him that they acting on the orders of the
Home Ministry. He was threatened him with arrest and imprisonment if he
refused. He signed," KDNG Chairman Awng Wah told Mizzima.

This happened even as local authorities are preparing to relocate about 60
villages from the Myitsone Hydropower Plant project site in Kachin State.

Twenty two village elders from Tan Hte village signed and sent a 10-point
proposal including the right to choose their relocated site and right to
compensation on 28 September last year to Kachin State PDC Chairman.

"They rejected our demand and forced us to sign the consent paper. The
villagers have said that they will not abide by the relocation programme
in this way. The elders are extremely wary of moving from where they have
lived for many years," he said.

The hydropower project will be implemented by China Power Investment (CPI)
in collaboration with domestic company Asia World, which built quarters
for project workers in early December 2009 and conducted hydrology and
water survey tests in downstream Irrawaddy River. They also built houses
near Kyin Khan Lone Ka Zwap village, over 20 miles upstream from
Myitkyina, for relocated villagers.

Over 1,000 people living in over 200 houses in the villages of Tan Hte,
Myitsone, Kyein Kharan, Dawn Pang, Pa Khan Bu are to be relocated.

"This is gross violation of human rights. There is a way of getting
consent from locals. Forced relocation will have negative consequences
later for the project," Awng Wah said.

The CPI signed an agreement with junta's No. 1 Electric Power Ministry in
May 2007. The proposed dam site is in May Kha and May Likha confluence, 27
mile upstream from Myitkyina.

This project alone will generate 3,600 MW of electricity of a total of
seven dams –five on May Kha and two on May Likha tributaries.

Anti-dam activists estimate that about 20 villages between Myitsone and
Myitkyina downstream from the site will be flooded if the dams collapse.

Many Kachin people at home and abroad, Kachin Student Union, Kachin
Independence Organization (KIO) and Kachin in exile are protesting against
the massive and dangerous dam project.

Kachin people in exile signed a petition protesting against the dam
project and appealing to halt it on 28 January and sent it to Chinese
Prime Minister Wan Jia Bao through Chinese embassies in Thailand, India,
Singapore, Britain and New Zealand.

Only the Chinese embassy in Singapore responded saying that itwould
forward the petition. There has been no response from Chinese PM Wan Jia
Bao and other embassies.

The agreement between junta's No. 1 Electric Power Ministry and CPI is to
build a total of seven hydro projects in Kachin State including the
Myitsone project. State owned 'New Light of Myanmar' has reported that the
total power generated will be 13,360 MW from these power projects.

The other six power projects are Chi Bwe (2,000 MW), Pa Shi (1,600 MW), La
Kin (1,400 MW), Phi Zaw (1,500 MW), Khau Galan Phu (1,700 MW) and Lai Zar
(1,560 MW).

The Myitsone hydropower project is the biggest in Burma and the second
largest will be the proposed dam site in Tasan in Shan State, which is
expected to generate 7,100 MW of electricity.

The investment in the Myitsone hydropower project is not known yet but may
touch about USD 3.6 billion. The power generated is likely to be sold to
China and can earn about USD 500 million per annum, a KNDG report released
in October 2007 said.

The World Commission on Dams estimated that 40 to 80 million people were
relocated against their will because of worldwide dam building projects.

The tributaries of Irrawaddy River, May Kha and May Likha, originated from
the Himalayas. Irrawaddy is the biggest waterway in Burma and is about
1,450 miles long. Endangered river dolphins live in the river.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 4, Agence France Presse
850,000 migrants register in Thailand: ministry

Bangkok – Around 850,000 migrant workers in Thailand have met a deadline
to start a registration process, the labour ministry said Thursday, as
rights groups made renewed calls for a halt to the policy.

Thailand had ordered 1.3 million eligible citizens from neighbouring
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to begin the process of registering and
verifying their nationality by Sunday or risk deportation.

To enter the process migrants must pay registration and medical fees of
3,800 baht (116 dollars) -- a large sum for people who mostly have
low-paid jobs in the manufacturing, agricultural and domestic sectors.

The full registration process takes two years to complete and will
eventually entitle the migrants to claim temporary work permits.

"Some 850,000 migrant workers met the deadline" said Supat Gukun, a labour
ministry official.

The 1.3 million are eligible because they registered for different
one-year work permits last year.

Thai authorities estimate there are up to another 1.2 million unregistered
migrants in the country who will not be eligible for the new process.

Human Rights Watch said the registration system left migrants open to abuse.

Unscrupulous officials and employers will now be able to threaten
unregistered migrants with deportation in order to extort money, said the
group's Thailand expert Phil Robertson.

"The abuses against migrant workers will more than likely increase as a
result of more migrant workers becoming undocumented and therefore
vulnerable," Robertson said.

The New York-based rights group released a report last week that
documented a pattern of systemic abuse against migrant workers, from
extrajudicial killings to torture, arbitrary arrest and extortion.

Myanmar citizens are particularly fearful, rights activists said, as a
deal between Thailand and its military-ruled neighbour means they must
return home to register, where the workers say they could face
persecution.

Thailand's government said a task force would be dispatched to deport
unregistered workers but has not yet announced any firm plans to do so.

"Immigration police and labour officials will check at every factory, and
if they hire migrant workers without a permit then those people must be
repatriated," said another labour ministry official, Thanich Numnoi.

Thailand's economy relies on migrant workers from its poorer neighbours,
but in recent months the country has become tougher on immigration at its
borders.

"This process doesn't acknowledge the benefit or importance of these
people for the economy," said Andy Hall, a rights activist with the
Bangkok-based Human Rights and Development Foundation.

"They need these people but they are not willing to give them their rights."

Thailand, which is seeking a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, has been
heavily criticised in recent months for its crackdowns on migrants from
neighbouring Laos and Myanmar.

In December Bangkok sparked outrage when it defied global criticism and
used troops to repatriate about 4,500 ethnic Hmong from camps on the
border with communist Laos, including 158 recognised as refugees by the
United Nations.

Earlier last year hundreds of ethnic Rohingya migrants from Myanmar were
rescued in Indian and Indonesian waters after being pushed out to sea in
rickety boats by the Thai military.

____________________________________

March 4, Narinjara News
US Navy trains near Burmese waters

US naval ships started a three-day training exchange programme with
Bangladesh on Tuesday on the Bay of Bengal near Burmese territorial
waters, said  an official source.

"The training programme started yesterday on the offshore island of
Kutubdia in Cox's Bazaar District, located near the Burmese border. In the
training, 200 US naval personnel are participating," the source said.

US Navy Commander Adam J. Welter is conducting the training with an
estimated 200 naval personnel on board the USS Ingraham.

Commander Welter told journalists that the training is aimed at
strengthening the relationship with Bangladesh through mutual cooperation
and understanding.

The training is being conducted as part of a goodwill visit to Bangladesh,
and will be carried out as the ship travels to Singapore from Bahrain,
where it was engaged in anti-terror vigilance until two weeks ago.

The US and Bangladesh naval forces will share their experiences and
knowledge as part of the training, not just militarily but also technical
knowledge. Such joint military trainings are occasionally carried out by
Bangladesh and the US in the Bay of Bengal.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 4, Agence France Presse
India invests $1.35m in Burma gas

India is investing $US1.35 billion in gas projects in military-ruled
Burma, the two governments have announced, as the neighbouring nations
pursue closer economic and diplomatic ties.

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Ltd
(Gail) will spend SUS1.1 billion on rights to develop two gas field blocks
and $US250 million on a connecting pipeline, India's energy ministry said
in a statement.

Burma's military government confirmed the gas investment in a statement
following broader diplomatic talks held with an Indian delegation on 1
March in its remote capital Naypyidaw.

Burma “welcomed the additional investment of $US1.1 billion... for gas
field development and upstream projects”, it said in a statement,
referring only to the gas fields deal. “Both sides agreed to strengthen
cooperation in this field,” it said.

The other $US250 million investment gives India a 12.5 percent stake in a
$US2 billion pipeline being built by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC),
China's top oil producer. The first gas is expected in early 2013.

ONGC will spend $US167.8 million while Gail will invest $US83.8 million in
the 771-kilometre (480-mile) pipeline which will transport gas from the
two blocks off the Burma coast to China.

The connected gas blocks are jointly owned by South Korea's Daewoo, Korea
Gas Corp, ONGC and Gail.

____________________________________
HEALTH

March 4, New Light of Myanmar
A (H1N1) flu outbreak under control in Myanmar

Nay Pyi Taw – There is no A/H1N1 death case in the country despite 63 were
infected with the virus in the country as of January this year.

Only two patients are now undergoing treatment at a hospital today and
they are now in good condition, the Ministry of Health said.

The outbreak of new flu A(H1N1) was controlled in the country within a
short time as the Ministry of Health, local authorities and the people
joined hands and stepped up preventive and control measures against the
virus. The Ministry of Health is on alert to monitor the disease and has
carried out the preventive measures against the disease.

The heath department has urged the people to follow the prescribed
measures against the virus in order to prevent the spread of the virus in
the public and to take part in the campaign to combat the disease. – MNA

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 4, Reuters
Nobel winners push for Myanmar regime to face court – Michelle Nichols

New York – Rutha was pregnant when she was forced to serve as a porter at
a military camp in Myanmar. There, she was raped nightly and her father
killed when he refused to allow soldiers to take his 22-year-old daughter.

Rutha's story was told to Nobel Peace Prize winners and rights
campaigners, who meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday to
push for Myanmar's leaders to be referred to the International Criminal
Court for crimes against humanity.

"The soldiers raped me at night after I portered for them during the day,"
said Rutha, whose family has since left Myanmar. "A soldier came to get me
and took me to a room. I told him I was pregnant and begged him not to do
any harm, but he did not listen. ... I could only cry."

Rutha's story was one of 12 heard by the International Tribunal on Crimes
Against Women of Burma, a panel formed by the Nobel Women's Initiative --
a group created by six female Nobel Peace Prize Winners -- and the Women's
League of Burma.

Along with acts of sexual violence and forced labor, there were stories of
imprisonment, torture and forced relocation.

The panel of Jody Williams, who won the 1997 Peace Prize for her work to
ban land mines, Shirin Ebadi, who won the prize in 2003 for promoting
rights in Iran, and rights campaigners Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand and
Heisoo Shin of South Korea, said the world needs to increase pressure on
Myanmar.

"Your searing testimonies of unimaginable brutalities, including sexual
violence, break the silence on behalf of thousands upon thousands of
Burmese women," Williams told a news conference on Wednesday. "You all cry
out for justice but have been met with impunity."

Myanmar has signed international conventions and treaties but has
consistently failed to honor pledges to improve its human rights record or
carry out democratic reforms.

The Myanmar mission to the United Nations was not immediately available to
comment.

MINORITIES PERSECUTED

Myanmar has long been the focus of global pressure for holding
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Rights groups say there are more
than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, but the country's regime says
they are not political.

The Myanmar junta has also been accused of persecution of the country's
ethnic minorities, sparking a continuing exodus. Some 140,000 refugees
live in camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, according to the United
Nations refugee agency.

The full list of recommendations made by the panel to Myanmar, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the United Nations can be seen
a www.nobelwomensinitiative.org.

Myanmar was formerly known as Burma and has been under military rule since
1962.

Another story heard by the panel was that of Chang Chang, who was 17 when
she was practicing songs at a local karaoke shop with three of her friends
and a group of soldiers forced them to leave and took them to a military
base.

"They came in one by one to rape me. I begged the soldiers not to rape me
and I pushed them back to protect myself. But, they forced themselves on
me and took off my clothes and they raped me all night," she said in a
statement to the tribunal.

"It was very dark, so it was hard to know exactly how many soldiers raped
us. I remembered seven of them. ... Seven raped me. There were many of
them," she said. "I could only cry."

(Editing by Todd Eastham)
____________________________________

March 4, Washington Post
U.S. strives to check Burma's military trade with N. Korea – John Pomfret

The Obama administration, concerned that Burma is expanding its military
relationship with North Korea, has launched an aggressive campaign to
persuade Burma's junta to stop buying North Korean military technology,
U.S. officials said.

Concerns about the relationship -- which encompass the sale of small arms,
missile components and technology possibly related to nuclear weapons --
in part prompted the Obama administration in October to end the George W.
Bush-era policy of isolating the military junta, said a senior State
Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the subject.

Senior U.S. officials have since had four meetings with their Burmese
counterparts, with a fifth expected soon. "Our most decisive interactions
have been around North Korea," the official said. "We've been very clear
to Burma. We'll see over time if it's been heard."

Congress and human rights organizations are increasingly criticizing and
questioning the administration's new policy toward the Southeast Asian
nation, which is also known as Myanmar. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.),
chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and generally a
supporter of the administration's foreign policy, recently called for the
administration to increase the pressure on Burma, including tightening
sanctions on the regime.

"Recent events have raised the profile of humanitarian issues there,"
Berman said Friday. "Support is growing for more action in addition to
ongoing efforts."

Thus far, the engagement policy has not yielded any change in Burma's
treatment of domestic opponents. On Friday, Burma's supreme court rejected
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest bid to end more than a decade
of house arrest. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate's National League for
Democracy won elections in 1990, but the military, which has ruled Burma
since 1962, did not cede power.

In recent months, the junta has also ramped up repression against
political dissidents and ethnic groups, although it has released one aging
dissident -- U Tin Oo -- after almost seven years in detention. Thousands
of people have fled Burmese military assaults, escaping to China,
Bangladesh and Thailand, in the months after the U.S. opening. A report
issued this week by the Karen Women's Organization alleged that Burmese
troops have gang-raped, killed and even crucified Karen women in an
attempt to root out a 60-year-old insurgency by guerrillas from that
ethnic minority.

On Feb. 10, a Burmese court sentenced a naturalized Burmese American
political activist from Montgomery County to three years of hard labor; he
was allegedly beaten, denied food and water, and placed in isolation in a
tiny cell with no toilet. Burma recently snubbed the United Nations'
special envoy on human rights, Tomás Ojea Quintana, denying him a meeting
with Suu Kyi and access to Burma's senior leadership.

"The bad behavior has increased," said Ernest Bower, an expert on
Southeast Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Nevertheless, U.S. officials argue -- and Bower and others agree -- that
talking with Burma remains the best way forward, especially given the
concerns about its deepening military relationship with North Korea. It is
also important to keep talking with Burma, said Sen. James Webb (D-Va.),
because China is more than willing to replace U.S. influence in that
country and throughout Southeast Asia. Webb's trip to Burma in August --
the first by a member of Congress in a decade -- has been credited with
giving the Obama administration the political cover to open up talks with
the junta.

Underlining the administration's concerns about Burma is a desire to avoid
a repeat of events that unfolded in Syria in 2007. North Korea is thought
to have helped Syria secretly build a nuclear reactor there capable of
producing plutonium. The facility was reportedly only weeks or months away
from being functional when Israeli warplanes bombed it in September of
that year.

"The lesson here is the Syrian one," said David Albright, president of the
nongovernmental Institute for Science and International Security and an
expert on nuclear proliferation. "That was such a massive intelligence
failure. You can't be sure that North Korea isn't doing it someplace else.
The U.S. government can't afford to be blindsided again."

Burma is thought to have started a military relationship with North Korea
in 2007. But with the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution last
June banning all weapons exports from North Korea, Burma has emerged "as a
much bigger player than it was," the senior U.S. official said.

In a report Albright co-wrote in January, titled "Burma: A Nuclear
Wannabe," he outlined the case for concern about Burma's relations with
North Korea. First, Burma has signed a deal with Russia for the supply of
a 10-megawatt thermal research reactor, although construction of the
facility had not started as of September.

Second, although many claims from dissident groups about covert nuclear
sites in Burma are still unverified, the report said that "there remain
legitimate reasons to suspect the existence of undeclared nuclear
activities in Burma, particularly in the context of North Korean
cooperation."

____________________________________

March 4, Mizzima News
Karen activist wins international acclaim

A young Karen woman has been included in the list of this year’s
recipients of the Young Global Leader award.

Zoya Phan, daughter of Padoh Mahn Sha, the assassinated former General
Secretary of the Karen National Union, is the sole Burmese recipient of
the honorific as recognized by the World Economic Forum.

In announcing the winners, the World Economic Forum issued a statement
reading in part, “The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique,
multi-stakeholder community of exceptional young leaders who share a
commitment to shaping the global future.”

Responding to the news, Zoya Phan said, “It is a great encouragement to
see such a respected body give recognition of the struggle for freedom and
justice in Burma. I am delighted and honored to have been chosen, and hope
that it will enable me to do more to raise the profile of the situation in
Burma.”

The annual award recognizes from 200 to 300 individuals under the age of
40 for “their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and
potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.”

This year’s winners are to gather in the first week of May in Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania. The World Economic Forum envisions the congregation as a
social networking opportunity for young individuals in positions to lead.

Americans dominate the 2010 list of recipients, with 32 winners, easily
outdistancing second-place China’s 13 recognized individuals. A majority
of those honored bring with them strong corporate resumes.

Annual World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland have drawn
strong protests from anti-globalization groups claiming the international
body is purely a gathering of the well-off for the well-off.

Zoya Phan was born in the former Karen National Union stronghold of
Manerplaw in 1980 and currently serves as International Coordinator at
Burma Campaign UK.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 4, Inter Press Service
BURMA:  Amid threats, women dissidents stick to political beliefs –
Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok – While Aung San Suu Kyi remains the most widely-known woman
suppressed for her political views in Burma, the jails in that
military-ruled country continue to be filled by lesser-known women
dissidents being held on a range of questionable charges.

Mid-February saw the latest group of female political activists thrown
into jail with a two-year prison term, including hard labour, for a
"crime" they committed four months ago – donating religious literature to
a Buddhist monastery, an act that the junta deemed as "disturbing the
peace."

At the time of their arrest in October 2009, Naw Ohn Hla, Myint Myint San,
Cho Cho Lwin and Cho Cho Aye had also been conducting regular prayers at
the landmark Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon, the country’s former capital, to
secure the release of opposition leader Suu Kyi, who has been under house
arrest for over 14 of the last 20 years.

"These women were very persistent with their religious activity no matter
the risks they faced, any oppression," says Khin Ohmar, vice chairwoman of
the Burmese Women’s Union (BWU), a network of democracy activists exiled
in Thailand. "It is a sign of their determination and political beliefs."

"Jailing female political activists is not going to silence them," she
revealed in a telephone interview from Mae Sot, a town along the
Thai-Burmese border. "The military authorities keep repeatedly making this
mistake."

The four women prisoners bring to nearly 190 the number of female
activists among the estimated 2,200 political prisoners now in Burmese
jails. The women who are paying a steep price for their political beliefs
include Buddhists nuns, journalists, labour rights activists and members
and sympathisers of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party
that Suu Kyi heads.

Nilar Thein, a former university student leader, is among them. She was
condemned to a 65-year prison sentence in November 2008 for her prominent
role in a peaceful protest movement in September 2007 that saw thousands
of Buddhist monks come on the side of the oppressed and launch street
protests.

Hla Hla Win was given a 20-year-prison sentence on Dec. 31 last year for
her work as an "undercover journalist" who fed information from inside
Burma, or Myanmar, as it is also known, to the Democratic Voice of Burma
(DVB), an Oslo-based news organisation of exiled Burmese journalists.

Others such as the 54-year-old Cho Mar Htwe, who was released in September
2009 after languishing in jail for 11 years, was condemned for something
more simpler – bringing to the NLD office a faxed letter from Japan that
called for the release of Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

The trauma of a long jail term has not dimmed Cho Mar Htwe’s commitment to
remain politically engaged. "Even though I have been in prison for 11
years, I want to be involved in politics," she said through a translator
from Mae Sot, the Thai town she had fled to a month after being freed.
"Other female political activists I left behind feel this way. They want
to make a change even if there is a threat of jail."

Women in the border areas of the South-east Asian nation, which are home
to the country’s ethnic minority communities, have displayed a similar
spirit and have paid a heavy price for it, revealed the global rights
lobby Amnesty International (AI) in a recent report.

Buddhist nuns in western Rakhine State, a female activist protesting
against the flawed May 2008 referendum to approve the new constitution in
the eastern Karenni State and girls from the northern Kachin State accused
of having informed the international media about being raped by Burmese
soldiers are among the victims of repression, stated Amnesty in its
February report.

"A young Karenni woman told Amnesty International how she and her friends
in the Kayan New Generation Youth group were arrested by the authorities
for their peaceful anti-referendum activism on May 10 (2008)," notes the
66-page report, entitled ‘The Repression of Ethnic Minority Activists in
Myanmar’.

"We documented accounts of women in these ethnic areas taking a leading
role in political activity," says Benjamin Zawacki, the Burma researcher
for AI. "And there is evidence of these women activists being repressed
for it."

A woman from the Kachin minority was arrested after she led a signature
campaign against the construction of a dam in the Kachin State, Zawacki
said in an interview. "They (the junta) are not soft on women."

The prospect of more women going public with their political passions is
expected to rise in Burma as the regime has promised a general election
this year. It will be the first poll to be held since a 1990 vote that the
opposition parties won with a huge mandate, but which the junta refused to
recognise.

"The level of political activism among women is on the rise," says
Zawacki. "Leadership among women is also increasing."

This emerging trend comes even as the women know that a jail term brings
with it particular forms of abuse used against jailed female activists.
"Verbal and mental torture is the most common. The guards abuse us with
bad words," 35-year-old Lae Lae, who served a four-year term as a
political prisoner, told IPS. "We are also not given our needs when we are
menstruating and they humiliate us at such times."

Some women have indeed suffered worse during their menstrual cycle in
Burmese jails, says Khin Ohmar of BWU. "There have been cases of prison
authorities forcing women to stand with their stretched legs apart and
then kicking them in the abdomen."

____________________________________

March 4, Bangkok Post
Young take little interest in Burma poll

Burma is in the grip of election fever, even though a date for the polls
has yet to be announced. Most analysts and diplomats are now tipping
October or November as the election date.

The electoral and political parties laws, which will govern the process,
are expected to be published in May. But for the time being at least
everything to do with the election is shrouded in secrecy, though
potential pro-junta candidates have aleady hit the campaign trail.

Potential candidates, who hope to challenge the military government's
contenders, are urging every Burmese to take the elections seriously _ and
not boycott them.

``People don't like the current government of Burma,'' the leader of the
newly formed but unregistered Democrat Party, U Thu Wai said. ``Now we
have a chance to change it by voting in the forthcoming elections.''

``Everyone in Burma is talking about the elections,'' said the Australian
MP and Burma expert Janelle Saffin after a private visit to the country
earlier this year. ``But everyone is split on whether it's a good thing
and whether they should particpate _ even businessmen are divided.''

There is also growing nervous tension and anxiety amongst many average
Burmese, especially in Rangoon, because of the uncertainty surrounding the
elections, according to doctors and psychologists inside Burma.

But young people are less than enthusiastic, and remain apathetic towards 
the elections, said the social researcher and former political prisoner,
Khin Zaw Win. ``They are less aware and less interested than their
counterparts 20 years ago, who were at the forefront of the movement for
democratic change.''

People under 25 could care less about the elections _ they are more
interested in getting jobs and spending time on the internet, said a young
Burmese student visiting Bangkok recently.

Undaunted, the military regime is now quietly preparing for the
forthcoming elections, selecting candidates and launching its unoffical
electoral campaign. ``State controlled media _ newspapers and television _
are full of reports and photographs of government ministers inaugurating
community and development projects, shaking hands with local leaders and
handing out financial asssitance,'' observed a Rangoon-based diplomat.
``Clearly the military are now trying to win the hearts and minds of the
people,'' an Asian diplomat dealing with Burma said.

Little is being said publicly by the regime, though the junta's top leader
is clearly setting the ground rules for the election.

``Democracy in Burma today is at a fledgling stage and still requires
patient care and attention,'' Burma's senior general Than Shwe told the
country almost a year ago in his annual speech to mark Armed Forces Day.

``Plans are under way to hold elections in a systematic way this year,''
he said in January. ``In that regard, the entire people have to make
correct choices.''

The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana,
tried to discuss these matters with senior representatives of the regime
when he visited last month but with little success. All they would say was
that the legal framework was being worked out and they would be finished
in time, he told the Bangkok Post.

Curiously, the attorney general who is in charge of drafting the election
and political parties law was no longer involved, he confided to the
envoy. ``That can only mean they are finished and sitting in Than Shwe's
in-tray,'' said a western diplomat who was briefed by Mr Quintana at the
end of his mission to Burma.

Until the election laws are made public, there is little potential
political players can do but bide their time. Until then no-one knows how
the election will be conducted, and more importantly who will be
competing.

Officially there are no political parties registered to stand candidates
in the election _ this can only happen after the political parties' law is
passed and an electoral commission established to oversee the campaign and
the polls.

``The political parties and election laws will be revealed at the last
minute even though we understand they have been completetd for some
time,'' said Win Min, a Burmese academic based at Chiang Mai University.

``They want to keep any potential opposition wrong-footed and not allow
them time to organise.''

While the main opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the National
League for Democracy (NLD) which convincingly won the last elections in
1990, insists it will wait for the electoral laws to be revealed before
deciding whether to field candidates or not, the Democratic Party leader U
Thu Wai is adamant that preparations need to be made now.

``The election is important, and if we don't seize the opportunity now, it
will be too late. We must decide before the law is passed and prepare,''
he said. He confided that after their inaugural meeting last year the
authorities warned him not to do it again, without prior permission, as
the law prohibits a gathering of five or more people _ the penalty is up
to seven years in jail.

In frustation, Mr Quintana left the regimes' top people involved in
preparing the ground rules for the forthcoming election _ the attorney
general, the interior minister and the chief justice _ a copy of the UN's
handbook on democratic elections.

``It was a vain hope _ they would not discuss the elections in detail with
him _ so he made the gallant gesture,'' said a diplomat at Mr Quintana's
briefing in Bangkok.

``I don't think he even thought they would open it, let alone read it.''

But it is the regulations controlling  the electoral process that will be
critical if the election is to be free and fair.

``We cannot speak freely, we cannot meet freely and we cannot discuss
freely,'' said Khin Zaw Win. ``That would have to change if the election
is fair.''

But the signs of this happening are far form encouraging. Diplomats and
senior UN officials who have had contact with senior memers of the regime
have been categorically told that people cannot be allowed to say anything
they want as that would be anarchy not democracy.

``Barring an election law that marks a radical departure from its past and
present laws and practices, it is more than likely that the Myanmar
[Burma] government will not allow political parties to participate  fully
_ and meaningfully _ in the election process,'' said Benjamin Zawacki, the
South-east Asia researcher for Amnesty International based in Bangkok.

Meanwhile the political activists in Rangoon who intend to run in the
elections believe it is too early to dismiss them as a farce yet.

``Than Shwe has promised free and fair elections,'' U Thu Wai said. ``So
we should take his words at face value because we don't know what will
happen in reality.''

``Darkness has already covered us,'' said Khin Zaw Win. ``We have already
lost more than 20 years and the people will only suffer more if we miss
this opportunity.''

____________________________________

March 4, Irrawaddy
How the US can get democratic reforms back on track – Editorial

Several months have passed since the Obama administration embarked on a
policy of engagement with the Burmese regime. During this time, the United
Nations, the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have all
been relatively silent on Burmese issues, apparently waiting to see how
the new US policy will play out.

Now we are finally getting our first glimpse of what has been going on
behind the scenes for the past few months. In an article published by The
Washington Post on Tuesday, a senior US official is quoted as saying that
so far four meetings have taken place between US and Burmese officials,
with a fifth planned for the near future.

Apparently, however, it is not only Washington's approach to Burma that
has changed, but also its focus. According to the senior official, “Our
most decisive interactions have been around North Korea.”

Of course, this does not mean that the US has abandoned its longstanding
position on Burma, which is to insist on political dialogue between the
ruling regime, the democratic opposition and ethnic minority groups as the
key to national reconciliation. But now that attention has shifted away
from domestic considerations into the realm of regional security, there is
a danger that resolving Burma's internal tensions will become a lower
priority for the US.

Although it has repeatedly called on the Burmese regime to make the
upcoming election free, fair and inclusive, the Obama administration has
been noticeably short on ideas about how to deal with Burma's democracy
deficit. But rather than simply urging the US to come up with alternative
approaches, perhaps it is time to offer some proposals of our own to
ensure that the democratic aspirations of the Burmese people don't take a
backseat to US efforts to contain North Korea.

One area that could be singled out for improvement is Article 436, Chapter
12 of the 2008 Constitution, which deals with amending the charter. This
is something that should be addressed in the first session of Parliament
after the election, before tackling any of the more contentious issues
that critics of this deeply flawed document have raised.

With the facilitation of an international body, the junta and the
democratic opposition, led by the National League for Democracy, should
sit together and seek an agreement to allow constitutional changes with
the support of two-thirds of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Union Parliament),
rather than the three-quarters now required.

With such a change, the amendment procedure would favor neither civilian
politicians nor the military-appointed representatives who hold 25 percent
of the seats in Parliament—effectively giving them a veto to oppose any
amendment bills they don't like.

But to make this idea work, it must be broached as soon as possible. This
is where the US can help. If US officials raised this proposal at their
next meeting with their junta counterparts, they could set the stage for a
dialogue between the military and the democratic opposition to gain an
agreement before the election.

This negotiation could end the current political deadlock because it won't
talk about review of the Constitution before the election—something the
regime has already said is completely off the table at this point. On the
other hand, it will keep the door open for the opposition to address many
other constitutional issues—such as the military's leadership role in
politics, the right of military leaders to independently administer and
adjudicate the Armed Forces, and the right of the military to seize power
in coup—sometime in the future.

Most importantly, perhaps, it could set a precedent for genuine
cooperation between the junta and the opposition, allowing them to
identify areas where they can compromise without giving up their basic
positions.

By agreeing to a modest change in the way amendments are made to the
Constitution, both sides could find that they have more to gain from
working together within a parliamentary framework than by perpetuating
their decades-old enmity.

____________________________________

March 3, Foreign Policy
Reality check: Burma's Oscar moment – Christian Caryl

Forget Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and all the rest for a minute. Here's the
story of the film that deserves to win big.

Over the next few days we're going to be hearing a lot about big blue
aliens and George Clooney and bomb-disposal experts in the Iraq war. But
there's another film you should be rooting for when they hand out the
little gold statues on March 7.

Burma VJ hasn't been in the headlines much. It has been making its way
around the global film-festival circuit, garnering its share of awards.
Still, its U.S. box office receipts to date are measured in tens of
thousands of dollars, not hundreds of millions.

Let's hope that's about to change. The film is up for best documentary
feature, and to be honest, I can't imagine what could possibly compete.
You certainly can't beat the story line. In August 2007 a few thousand
red-robed Buddhist monks took to the streets of Rangoon, Burma's biggest
city, to join a nascent protest against the military dictatorship that has
been crushing the life out of their country for nearly the past 50 years.
Burmese culture is deeply rooted in traditional Buddhist belief, so the
monks' sally represented a particularly potent challenge to the regime.
What would happen next?

Ordinary Burmese have risen up before. A student-led nationwide protest
back in 1988 had the generals on the run -- until the Burmese Army
retaliated with a bloodbath that took thousands of lives. (The exact
number will probably never be known.) When the government grudgingly
responded to popular pressure by allowing an election in 1990, Burmese
voters handed a solid victory to the party of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi. The junta suppressed the results, threw Aung San Suu Kyi back
into house arrest, and forced the country, at gunpoint, back into decades
of stagnation.

News of the 1988 uprising trickled to the outside world in a few snippets
of grainy film and a clutch of photographs, all precariously
hand-delivered over the border to neighboring countries. The events of
2007 would turn out differently. As the monks' revolt that autumn took
off, every moment was being filmed by a small squad of guerrilla video
journalists -- the "VJs" of the film's title -- working for an opposition
group, Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), that had spent years training them
for just such an occasion. The camera-wielding activists used cell phones
and the Web to smuggle out their footage almost as fast as they shot it.
The images they recorded didn't only generate international interest by
keeping the outside world apprised of events; their video was also beamed
back into Burma via satellite, thus adding fuel to the protests.

This is the story told by Burma VJ. Although the Danish filmmakers who
crafted the documentary rely primarily on original footage shot by the
DVB's on-scene journalists, they don't stop there. We watch events unfold
through the vantage point of Joshua, a DVB cameraman who has been forced
to leave Burma because he has attracted the attention of government goons.
When the monks' protest begins, he's coordinating coverage from Thailand,
keeping up with his colleagues back home by online chat and mobile phone.
Like us, he's at once involved and remote -- a device that turns the
unfolding story into an arresting mix of cinéma vérité and political
thriller.

"I feel I want to fight for democracy," Joshua informs us in a voice-over
near the start of the film. "But I think we had better make a longer plan.
We cannot go out into the streets again and get shot because we have no
more people to die." The protesters of 1988, he muses, "were so brave, but
sometimes I feel like they died for nothing." He wants, he says, to remind
the world that "Burma is still here."

That's exactly what Burma VJ manages to do. The generals have kept their
hold on Burmese society through the depressingly familiar mix of fear,
force, and propaganda -- and there are the handycams of the DVB reporters,
cutting through it all. We exult as ordinary citizens overcome their
nervousness and join the monk-led processions. We cheer as the crowd
swarms in to protect the VJs from the white-shirted government thugs who
try to drag them off to jail. We marvel at the demonstrators'
unforgettable chant: "May all beings living to the East be free; all
beings in the universe be free, free from fear, free from all distress!"
And we choke up, with Joshua, when the monks finally dare to march down
the road past the home of a certain Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The VJs
aren't there, so all we manage to see is a blurry snapshot of Aung San Suu
Kyi standing in her gateway, almost unrecognizable as she greets the
monks. "It's not a great photo," Joshua muses. "You can only see a small
lady. But we couldn't see her for a long time."

Images, in short, aren't just about their literal meanings; they're also
powerful conduits of emotion. And, yes, they can also lie -- as we see at
the very beginning of the film, as Joshua contemplates government
television broadcasts that depict a country happily united under its
heroic leaders. No question, the film reminds us of the overwhelming power
of the unadulterated image, such as the video footage of a monk's corpse
floating in a creek on Rangoon's outskirts, just after the moment when the
regime finally decides to crack down on the monasteries. Yet Burma VJ also
touches upon the ambiguities that linger behind even the clearest images.

For example: Is the aspiration to objectivity a luxury of people who live
in healthy societies? The VJs in the film don't even pretend to be the
usual journalistic bystanders. They're perfectly happy to step in and
strategize with the demonstrators. We even see one journalist literally
issuing marching orders: He recommends a more effective route to a monk
who's leading a procession, and the monk happily complies. The fact is
that there are no easy choices when you're trying to defy a regime as
vicious as the one that rules Burma. Just to take one example: The
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions accuses the country's
military rulers of forcing hundreds of thousands of people -- men and
women, children and the elderly -- to work against their will on
government projects: "Refusal to work may lead to being detained,
tortured, raped, or killed."

Here's a cell-phone dialogue between Joshua and one of the activists on
the other side of the border:

"People have to get arrested. They have to die. Monks, too."

"Don't say that."

"Our country is different from the rest of the world."

"I don't understand politics. But I don't want to see monks and people
dying. I can't stand it anymore."

"Be strong, my dear."

That conversation, like many others in the film, is a reconstruction. Jan
Krogsgaard, one of the Danish filmmakers behind Burma VJ, explains that
certain key moments in the narrative weren't actually captured by the DVB
journalists, so scenes were shot to fill in the gaps. He insists that the
makers of the film were careful not to stray too far from the bounds of
authenticity; some of the phone conversations in the film are based on the
saved texts of online chats, for example. In some cases identities had to
be protected. Director Anders Ostergaard even used actors in two episodes
that are seamlessly presented as part of the DVB journalists' original
on-location footage -- a sleight of hand that has generated understandable
controversy. Time correspondent Andrew Marshall has taken the filmmakers
to task for mixing authentic footage with acted scenes. In an interview
with me, Krogsgaard defended the reconstructions as "entirely legitimate,"
saying they depict events that actually occurred but weren't caught on
camera, such as a secret police raid on the DVB's Rangoon headquarters as
the government crackdown escalates. (There is a corresponding disclaimer
at the beginning of the film.) This is an important discussion. But I
don't think it ultimately invalidates the film.

Burma VJ winds down just the way the story did in real life: The regime
ultimately succeeded in tamping down the protests by arresting the
rebellious monks en masse. Many of them remain in prison today. The rest
of the world may have moved on, but Burma continues to suffer. At the end
of February, the Burmese Supreme Court refused an appeal by Aung San Suu
Kyi, who is struggling to be released in time for next year's scheduled
general election. The court's move was criticized even by Singapore, which
has often been reluctant to scold the generals. The outlook isn't
promising.

Even the small moral victories sometimes come at a depressing cost. As
Krogsgaard told me, the regime has been known to use DVB footage as an aid
in identifying and arresting members of the opposition: "It's this
unpleasant paradox -- that every time you succeed, someone in Burma gets a
harder time." For the moment, Burma is silent once again. But the DVB's
trainers haven't given up. They're hard at work, in Thailand and
elsewhere, preparing the next generation of video journalists. It will
take as long as it takes.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

March 4, Karen National Union
KNU statement requesting UN SG to call on SPDC to stop attacks against
Karen civilians

While we, the Karen National Union (KNU), welcome UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's expression of concern regarding new attacks on the Karen people,
we do not believe that this alone is an adequate response to the current
crisis.

We would like to remind the Secretary General that these attacks have been
taking place for more than 60 years, and that numerous requests and
expressions of concern, and even resolutions from the United Nations
General Assembly, and a Presidential Statement from the United Nations
Security Council, have failed to halt these attacks and persuade the SPDC
military dictatorship to enter into genuine dialogue.

We note that a UN Special Rapporteur report on human rights in Burma has
described the attacks by the SPDC Burmese Army against Karen and other
ethnic peoples in eastern Burma as being in breach of the Geneva
Conventions. They are, therefore, war crimes. We also note that at least
two former Special Rapporteurs on human rights in Burma have said that
human rights abuses by the Burmese Army taking place in eastern Burma
should be investigated as potential crimes against humanity.

The Secretary General's call for 'all concerned' to work towards a
peaceful resolution misrepresents the true situation in our country, and
in so doing amounts to protecting the dictatorship, which is guilty of
perpetrating these heinous attacks.

What is happening in Karen State is not a civil war with two sides
fighting each other. The reality is that the Burmese Army is attacking and
deliberately targeting civilians, and this has been verified by the United
Nations’ own reports. The KNU cannot end hostilities as we are not engaged
in active hostilities against the regime. Our soldiers in the Karen
National Liberation Army (KNLA) are protecting civilians from attack and
providing humanitarian assistance.

We have repeatedly tried to enter into dialogue for a peaceful resolution
of the problems in Burma. The dictatorship refuses to enter into genuine
dialogue, and instead demands what amounts to a total and unconditional
surrender that would lead to an increase in human rights abuses against
Karen people.

It is time for the United Nations Secretary General to lay blame where it
belongs, and stop portraying the situation as if two sides of equal
strength are in dispute. It is the military dictatorship and its proxy
allies who are solely responsible for the attacks and abuses taking place
in the Karen State. It is the military dictatorship, which refuses to
enter into genuine dialogue and seek a peaceful solution to the problems
in Burma.

In conclusion, we would like to request earnestly the Secretary General to
use his good offices to apply real pressure on the dictatorship to end
attacks against ethnic peoples, and enter into genuine dialogue with all
stake holders, for national reconciliation and peace. He should also seek
a resolution from the United Nations Security

Council to reinforce this effort.

Supreme Headquarters
Karen National Union
Kawthoolei