BurmaNet News, July 7, 2010

[Editor]

July 7, 2010 Issue #3995

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burma-North Korea ties: Escalating over two decades
Irrawaddy: NLD members not allowed overnight in Naypyidaw
DVB: Censor board loosens clamp on media
Mizzima News: NLD transfers 2.55m Kyats for political prisoners

ON THE BORDER
VOA: Thailand's new migrant labor laws spark fear, criticism

BUSINESS / TRADE
Christian Science Monitor: What Burma (Myanmar) needs to fill its rice bowl
UPI: Total, Chevron deny abuse claim in Myanmar
DVB: Private firms swoop on mineral sector

HEALTH
Reuters: Plague-infected rats reported in Myanmar's capital

REGIONAL
Right Vision News (Bangladesh): Dhaka approves project to set up rail
links with Myanmar, China

INTERNATIONAL
WXXI (US): How do you spell hope?: The story of Rochester's Burmese refugees

OPINION / OTHER
Jakarta Post: Challenge impunity in Myanmar – Yozo Yokota



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 7, Irrawaddy
Burma-North Korea ties: Escalating over two decades – Wai Moe

A recent New York Times op-ed article by Aung Lynn Htut, formerly a
high-ranking Burmese military intelligence officer who defected in 2005
while he served as an attaché at the Burmese embassy in Washington, shed
new light on the history of the still murky relationship between Burma and
North Korea, two of the world’s most isolated, secretive and oppressive
regimes.

Burma broke diplomatic relations with North Korea in 1983, when North
Korean agents attempted to assassinate the South Korean president on
Burmese soil. But according to Aung Lynn Htut, shortly after current
junta-chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe assumed power in 1992, he surreptitiously
moved to renew ties with Pyongyang.

Gen Shwe Mann (left) and Gen Kim Gyok-sik exchange copies of a memorandum
of understanding at the Defense Ministry on November, 2008.
“Than Shwe secretly made contact with Pyongyang. Posing as South Korean
businessmen, North Korean weapon experts began arriving in Burma. I
remember these visitors. They were given special treatment at the Rangoon
airport,” Aung Lynn Htut said in his June 18 article.

The junta kept its renewed ties with North Korea secret for more than a
decade because it was working to establish relationships with Japanese and
South Korean businesses, Aung Lynn Htut said. By 2006, however, “the
junta’s generals felt either desperate or confident enough to publicly
resume diplomatic relations with North Korea.”

In November 2008, the junta's No 3, Gen Shwe Mann, visited North Korea and
signed a memorandum of understanding, officially formalizing military
cooperation between Burma and North Korea. Photographs showed him touring
secret tunnel complexes built into the sides of mountains thought to store
and protect jet aircraft, missiles, tanks and nuclear and chemical
weapons.

According to Aung Lynn Htut, Lt-Gen Tin Aye, the No.5 in the Burma armed
forces and the chief of Military Ordnance, is now the main liaison in the
relationship with Pyongyang. Tin Aye has often traveled to North Korea as
well as attended ceremonies at the North Korean embassy in Rangoon.

In September 2009, The New Light of Myanmar reported that Tin Aye went to
the anniversary celebration of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(DPRK), held in a hotel in Rangoon. In February, Tin Aye, along with other
senior officials, attended the birthday event of the Dear Leader of North
Korea at the embassy.

Flights and ships from North Korea to Burma have been carrying more than
just Burmese generals. Analysts, including Burma military expert Andrew
Selth, say that for years Burma and North Korea have used a barter system
whereby Burma exchanges primary products for North Korean military
technologies.

In June 2009, a North Korean ship, the Kang Nam I, was diverted from going
to Burma after being trailed by the US navy. Then in April, another North
Korean ship, the Chong Gen, docked in Burma carrying suspicious cargo,
allegedly in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1874, which
restricts North Korea from arms deals and from trading in technology that
could be used for nuclear weapons.

In May, the seven-member UN panel monitoring the implementation of
sanctions against North Korea said in a report that Pyongyang is involved
in banned nuclear and ballistic activities in Iran, Syria and Burma with
the aid of front companies around the world.

According to the UN report, a North Korean company, Namchongang Trading,
which is known to be associated with illicit procurement for Burma's
nuclear and military program and is on the US sanctions list, was involved
in suspicious activities in Burma.

The report also noted three individuals were arrested in Japan in 2009 for
attempting to illegally export a magnetometer—a dual-use instrument that
can be employed in making missile control system magnets and gas
centrifuge magnets—to Burma via Malaysia allegedly under the direction of
another company known to be associated with illicit procurement for North
Korea's nuclear and military programs.

The UN experts also said that the Korea Kwangson Banking Corporation has
handled several transactions involving millions of dollars directly
related to deals between Burma and the Korea Mining Development Trading
Corporation.

With this string of events and the suspicions surrounding them as a
dramatic lead in, on June 4, Al Jazeera aired a news documentary prepared
by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) which was written by Robert Kelley,
a nuclear scientist and former director of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA). The DVB report claimed that the ruling military junta in
Burma is "mining uranium, converting it to uranium compounds for reactors
and bombs, and is trying to build a reactor and/or an enrichment plant
that could only be useful for a bomb."

The IAEA wrote to Burma’s agency representative, Tin Win, on June 14 and
asked whether the information provided in the DVB report was true. Burma,
which is a member of the IAEA, a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty and a signatory to the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone
Treaty, responded with a letter stating that the DVB report allegations
are “groundless and unfounded.”

"No activity related to uranium conversion, enrichment, reactor
construction or operation has been carried out in the past, is ongoing or
is planned for the future in Myanmar [Burma]," the letter said.

The letter also noted that Burma is a signatory of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and the agency's so-called safeguards agreement.
"As stated in the safeguards agreement, Myanmar will notify the agency if
it plans to carry out any nuclear activities," the letter said.

The regime, however, has not signed the IAEA's Additional Protocol,
meaning that the agency has no power to set up an inspection of Burma's
nuclear facilities under the existing mechanism known as the Small
Quantities Protocol.

Previously, on June 11, Burma’s state radio and television news had
reported the Foreign Ministry's denial of the allegations in the DVB
report. The denial claimed that anti-government groups in collusion with
the media had launched the allegations with the goal of "hindering Burma's
democratic process and to tarnish the political image of the government."

The Foreign Ministry denial also addressed Nyapyidaw’s relationship with
Pyongyang. “Following the re-establishment of diplomatic relations,
Myanmar [Burma] and the DPRK, as independent sovereign states, have been
engaging in promoting trade and cooperation between the two countries in
the same way Myanmar is dealing with others,” the ministry said in its
statement.

The regime did acknowledge that the Chong Gen docked at Thilawa Port near
Rangoon in April. But the statement said the North Korean vessel was
involved in importing cement from North Korea and exporting rice from
Burma.

But in an article for Asia Times online, Burma analyst Bertil Linter noted
that, “if carrying only innocuous civilian goods, as the statement
maintains, there would seemingly have been no reason for authorities to
cut electricity around the area when the Chong Gen, a North Korean ship
flying the Mongolian flag of convenience, docked on the outskirts of
Yangon.”

“According to intelligence sources, security was tight as military
personnel offloaded heavy material, including Korean-made air defense
radars. The ship left the port with a return cargo of rice and sugar,
which could mean that it was, at least in part, a barter deal. On January
31 this year, another North Korean ship, the Yang M V Han A, reportedly
delivered missile components also at Yangon's Thilawa port,” Linter said.

Strategypage.com, a military affairs website covering armed forces
worldwide, said, “Indications are that the North Korean ship that
delivered a mysterious cargo four months ago, was carrying air defense
radars (which are now being placed on hills up north) and ballistic
missile manufacturing equipment. Dozens of North Korean technicians have
entered the country in the last few months, and have been seen working at
a military facility outside Mandalay. It's unclear what this is for. Burma
has no external enemies, and ballistic missiles are of no use against
internal opposition.”

In his Asia Times online story, Lintner noted that on June 24, the DVB
reported that a new radar and missile base had been completed near Mohnyin
in Myanmar's northern Kachin State, and he reported that work on similar
radar and missile bases has been reported from Kengtung in eastern Shan
State,160 kilometers north of the Thai border town of Mae Sai.

“Since Myanmar is not known to have imported radars and missile components
from any country other than North Korea, the installations would appear to
be one of the first visible outcomes of a decade of military cooperation,”
Lintner said.

Lintner also reported that Western intelligence sources know that 30 to 40
North Korean missile technicians are currently working at a facility near
Minhla on the Irrawaddy River in Magwe Division, and that some of the
technicians may have arrived overland by bus from China to give the
appearance of being Chinese tourists.

North Korea has also issued adamant denials with respect to allegations
regarding its relationship with Burma. According to the Korean Central
News Agency (KCNA), on June 21 Pyongyang said, “The US is now making much
fuss, floating the sheer fiction that the DPRK is helping Myanmar [Burma]
in its nuclear development.”

The KCNA often highlights the close relationship between North Korea and
Burma.

On June 20, the Pyongyang news agency reported that ex-Col Than Tun,
deputy chairman of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd., sent a
statement cheering Kim Jong Il’s 46th anniversary at the Central Committee
of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

On April 18, Korean state-run- media reported that Than Tun also issued a
statement cheering the 17th anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s chairing of North
Korea’s National Defense Commission.

“Kim Jong Il’s field inspection of KPA [Korean People’s Army] units served
as a main source that helped bolster [North Korea's] self-reliant defense
capability in every way,” the statement noted.

Military sources said the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd, managed
by the junta, is responsible for purchasing imported weapons for Burma's
armed forces, including transferring money to overseas banks such as Korea
Kwangson Banking Corporation.

Meanwhile, in addition to its escalating relationship with North Korea,
the Burmese military regime has recently boosted ties with Iran, which
according to the UN report is also allegedly receiving nuclear and missile
technologies from North Korea.

In recent years, Burmese and Iranian officials visited their counterparts
homeland for the purported purpose of improving economic ties. Observers,
however, said Than Shwe has made a tactical decision to develop
relationships with other “pariah states,” particularly enemies of the US,
to relieve Western pressure on his regime.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Ali Fathollahi met Burmese
Foreign Minister Nyan Win and Minister of Energy Lun Thi during his trip
to Burma on June 15-17.

“The two sides reiterated their desire to further expand the ties of
friendship and economic cooperation and to increase cooperation in the
regional international forums such as [the] United Nations and Non-Aligned
Movement,” The New Light of Myanmar reported on June 18.

Fathollahi’s visit came three months after Maung Myint’s visit to Iran on
March 8-11, when he met Iranian Foreign Minister Manochehr Mottaki and
Deputy Minister of Petroleum H. Noghrehkar Shirazi.
____________________________________

July 7, Irrawaddy
NLD members not allowed overnight in Naypyidaw

Two representatives of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were not
allowed to stay overnight in government hotels in Naypyidaw and were
forced by Burmese police to leave the new capital, according to NLD
sources.

The NLD members, Khin Htay Kywe and May Win Myint, traveled to Naypyidaw
on Monday to submit a letter of complaint to the Union Election Commission
that protested the use of the traditional “bamboo hat,” which is displayed
prominently on the NLD logo, by the breakaway National Democratic Front
(NDF) on its logo.

The two NLD representatives planned to sleep one night in Naypyidaw and
return to Rangoon the following day. They were told by Burmese officials
from the municipal department that they would not be allowed to stay
overnight at government hotels in Naypyidaw, but could stay outside the
capital.

They were told that only government staff are allowed to stay in the
government hotels in Naypyidaw, according to Win Tin, a leading member of
the NLD.

Win Tin said he does not believe the move was intended to suppress NLD
member activities, adding that it may have been the decision of
low-ranking officials.

The two NLD members later decided to return to Rangoon the same day they
submitted the letter of complaint.

In addition, after leaving the EC office, the two NLD representatives were
asked by police officials to provide their biographical information and
sign an agreement saying they understood they would be charged if they
broke any rule or regulation.

They refused to sign the document.

The NDF was recently founded by former leading members of the NLD after
the NLD decided not to contest the upcoming general election and was
officially dissolved by the military government for failing to register.

____________________________________

July 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Censor board loosens clamp on media – Ahunt Phone Myat

News publications in Burma have welcomed a minor relaxing of regulations
by the country’s censor board which will see them no longer having to
allocate a page for government propaganda articles.

Magazines, journals and newspapers have long been required to republish
text from state-run outlets such as the New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Revised rules now state however that only on occasion will reprints be
necessary.

“This is good, we welcome it,” said one Rangoon-based journal editor, who
spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity. “Before we had to republish the
articles given by the censor board on one page; now we have one more page
to publish our own choice of content.”

But the move comes less than a fortnight after a wave of new rules were
enacted by the censor board that journalists said were “unprecedented” in
their severity. The regulations will implement uniform restrictions across
media outlets, meaning that some newspapers and journals which had been
able to operate comparatively freely will now be tightly controlled.

The Burmese junta resides over one of the world’s strictest media
environments, and consistently ranks at the tail-end press freedom
indexes. All material is required to pass through the censor board, known
as the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), prior to being
published.

The PSRD is overseen by the government’s information ministry and is
considered very much a wing of the military regime, which has ruled Burma
in various guises since a coup in 1962.

“It is unclear why [the censor board] does not require us to publish the
[government] articles anymore but we are very grateful for this,” said
another editor. “In the publication, even a 2×2 inch column space has a
lot of value. Now [the censor board] is giving us back the one page they
previously dominated previously by force.”

Some journalists speculated that the new procedure could signal a
realisation by the government that propaganda in the journals does not
work. Alternaitvely, it could be due to criticism of the draconian
regulations by the censor board.

Others however are sceptical about the shift, which may eventually turn
out to be a ‘one step forward, two steps back’ scenario. It comes as the
country gears up for its first elections in two decades, and the
government was expected to clamp down on media as the polls approached.

The Rangoon editor said that his journal “wants [its] audience to know the
facts about these parties [running for elections]. It is the audience’s
opinion to decide whether a party is good or bad. We want to suggest that
it would be better if the information we report is not being censored.”

Last year the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF)
ranked Burma 171 out of 175 on its annual Press Freedom Index, above Cuba,
North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea.

____________________________________

July 7, Mizzima News
NLD transfers 2.55m Kyats for political prisoners – Myint Maung

New Delhi – The National League for Democracy party headquarters has
transferred about 2.55 million Kyats to its state and division branches
yesterday for distribution to families of 605 political prisoners.

The funds donated by ordinary citizens were being distributed under the
party’s social aid programme for poor family members of some political
prisoners, among the more than 2,100 serving sentences across the country,
party vice-chairman and leader of the programme, Tin Oo, said.

“There are more than 200 such families across the Burmese states and
divisions and the rest are families in Rangoon Division,” he said. “The
money will be distributed to appropriate prisoners [via their families]
from their townships of origin.”

Recipients would also comprise human rights activists, those who took part
in protests over fuel-price increases in 2007, political activists,
students and young people, without them necessarily being affiliated with
the NLD, Tin Oo said.

NLD central executive committee member Win Tin added that, “Previously
headquarters managed this work but it has now been delegated to party
branches in the states and divisions 
 We give this money not only to our
party members but to other prisoners as well.”

“In the new programme, the fund-raising and distribution of money will be
carried out by each branch office,” he said.

Since 1996, the party has assisted family members of political prisoners
at the rate of 5,000 Kyats per month per prisoner, to enable them to visit
their loved ones in jail. The party had spent more than 3 million Kyats
each month, it said.

The scheme was suspended temporarily on May 6, the deadline for the party
to re-register or be annulled under the junta’s electoral laws, but it has
now resumed. Apart from the financial assistance for prison visits between
political prisoners and their families, the NLD has since 1996 also given
annual donations to students from these families towards education.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 7, Voice of America
Thailand's new migrant labor laws spark fear, criticism – Ron Corben

Bangkok – The Thai government is in the midst of implementing a new
migrant labor policy, one that has seen a rise in police sweeps and raids
on factories that employ workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia. But human
rights advocates say the arrests are creating fear among migrants, as many
try to meet the new legal requirements.

On a recent Sunday morning at a school in central Bangkok, Burmese migrant
workers gather to learn new skills such as languages and typing. It is
also a place for them to hear the latest news. The biggest news for many
is a recent crackdown on migrant labor, with raids on factories leading to
the arrest and deportation of hundreds of workers.

The Thai government says the raids are part of its new policy of ensuring
all migrants are registered and working legally. The government says, by
doing so, it can better protect the rights of the two million migrants in
the country.

Under the new policy, by last February migrants were to obtain proof of
identity documents - such as passports - from their countries and then
apply for new work permits. But tens of thousands who applied on time
still have not gotten their paperwork completed. The government says as
long as migrants can prove they have applied, they have until February
2012 to complete the process.

Migrants fear raids on workplaces even if their documents are fine,
according to Myint Wai, a director with Thai Action Committee for
Democracy in Burma.

"Even the legal worker fear because some are not finished work permit, not
finished passport process. Many employers (are) afraid because some are
using the illegal people in some factory. So there can be many things of
the human rights violations. I have told already to the students you must
have your work permit, original paper. If you have no paper or your
document (is) a problem, don't come," Myint said.

But Thai officials are defending their actions. Government spokesman
Panitan Wattanayagorn said putiing in place a long-term migrant work
policy is necessary.

"What we are trying to do of course is to make sure that we begin a
systematic regulation of migrant workers in Thailand 
. There is a well
laid-out plan and there are structures that will be imposed to regulate
that, " the spokesman said. "We do not want to leave the situation out of
control like in the past."

Thailand has long been a magnet for migrant workers especially from its
impoverished neighbors Burma, Cambodia and Laos. In addition, conflict in
Burma has driven tens of thousands across the border.

Many are employed in agriculture, construction and manufacturing. Others
are in service industries and work as household help. Rights groups have
accused employers of exploiting many of them.

While Cambodia and Laos worked with Thai officials to issue passports in
Thailand, Burma required its nationals to travel over the border. That
meant Burmese migrants faced not only hundreds of dollars in extra
expenses, but also physical risk at the hands of Burmese officials and
criminals along the border.

The Karen Human Rights Group reports that many Burmese faced special
taxes, forced labor, beatings, rape and murder when they crossed the
border to get their paperwork.

More than 1 million migrant workers either failed to renew work permits or
have not started the process at all, according to the migrant rights
group, Human Rights Development Foundation.  They are the target of the
government's crackdown, along with the leaders of trafficking gangs who
bring workers into Thailand.

The foundation reports as many as 3,000 migrants and six employers have
been arrested. The opposition National Coalition Government of the Union
of Burma estimates that up to 10,000 migrants have been deported.

Human Rights Development Foundation spokesman Andy Hall said while a labor
policy is necessary, the present strategy is failing.

"The need for labor is there; it's there and the workers need to be in the
country. But the system for managing that is a real failure at the moment.
It's not been well thought out," said Hall. "And when you have system
failures, you don't have good planning, you don't have sustainable
management of migration, then you're going to see human rights abuses like
we're seeing at the moment."

Rights groups say workers face police harassment if they are caught
without all their documents. But employers often hold workers' passports
and work permits. So workers are arrested for not having documents, and
either pay a bribe, or are deported, only to be smuggled back into
Thailand.

Jackie Pollock, from Migrant Assistant Project, said the new policy does
little to improve conditions for migrants.

"This whole process is not providing any further protection or rights than
the old system. So they are spending a lot of money and a lot of time
trying to follow the system 
 but it's not providing any benefit to them,"
said Polock.

Thai officials rebuff the criticism and say the policy upholds both Thai
law and human rights standards.

But Thailand faces great struggles to formalize its labor migrant policy.
Among them: porous borders, poverty and political uncertainties in
surrounding countries.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 7, Christian Science Monitor
What Burma (Myanmar) needs to fill its rice bowl

In Burma (Myanmar), once the world's leading rice exporter, indebted
farmers are losing their land or cannot afford quality seeds. More aid and
credit are available these days, but not nearly enough, say development
experts.

Bogalay, Burma — Under a stormy sky, the emerald fields of Burma’s rice
bowl seem to glow with vitality. Farmers stoop to replant seedlings in
waterlogged fields, part of the annual cycle of rural life in the
Irrawaddy Delta.

But the vital signs of Burma’s rice industry are less healthy. Declining
yields, indebted farms, and falling incomes have sown desperation among
farmers and stunted economic growth in the countryside, where 70 percent
of people live and work. The misery was compounded by a May 2008 cyclone
that killed more than 130,000 people and laid waste to the delta.

The cyclone opened the door to more humanitarian aid for Burma (Myanmar),
the poorest country in Southeast Asia. It also led to a rare debate
between its military rulers and foreign donors over how to tackle poverty
among farmers and fishermen left at the mercy of natural disasters.

The result has been tentative efforts to reform the dismal rice sector and
channel more assistance to rural communities. Development experts say much
more outside help is needed, including commercial bank loans, to boost
productivity and reverse a longtime trend of rice farmers falling into
debt and losing their land.

The end goal, say these experts and independent economists, should be a
vibrant rice industry that can underpin broader economic growth, as it has
in Thailand and Vietnam, the world’s largest rice exporters, a title that
Burma last held in the 1930s. By contrast, few buyers snap up Burmese
rice, which is grown from low-quality seeds and milled in rusted
factories.

“If you want to revitalize the country, you must look at the rural
economy,” says Noleen Heyzer, United Nations undersecretary general and
head of its Asia headquarters in Bangkok.
Farmers chained to debt

At the tumbledown house of Kyaw Myint, the prospects look bleak. He owns
20 acres of rice paddy along the riverbank and has set aside the seeds
from his last crop. But he will only plant some of his fields this year
because he can’t afford fertilizer, pesticides, or quality seeds. A rice
merchant who used to give him credit stopped after the cyclone, and the
government agricultural bank will only lend $20 per acre, much less than
the $100 or so that a farmer typically spends to produce a crop.

Even if Kyaw Myint, not his real name, did get a loan, he worries that he
won’t make enough from his harvest in November, leaving him in hock to
creditors. “We’re running in circles,” he says.

All of the adults in his extended family of 12 work in the fields. Burma’s
largest city, Rangoon (Yangon), lies six hours away by road, but has few
factories to absorb unskilled labor. Low wages and high costs in cities
make it hard to make ends meets, let alone save money. “For the masses of
unemployed rural people, there are no jobs to migrate to,” says an aid
agency official who asked to speak anonymously to avoid publicly
criticizing the government.

In one respect, Kyaw Myint has an advantage over many poor Burmese: he
owns land. A 2009 study by Harvard Kennedy School found that between 50
percent and 70 percent of families in the Irrawaddy Delta are landless,
usually due to foreclosure on unpaid loans. These families rely on jobs on
farms and fishing fleets, both of which took a huge hit from the 2008
cyclone.

“Farmers are employing fewer people and paying lower wages to those they
do hire. There’s not enough work to go around,” says Andrew Kirkwood,
country director of Save the Children, a British charity that works in the
delta.
Glimpses of growth

One sign of change is a new rice industry association set up last year. It
represents farmers, traders, millers, and agriculture companies, who can
band together to lobby the government. In a break from Burma’s autocratic
style, it elects its local officials in secret ballots, though its
chairman is a government appointee.

Traders are keen to unlock Burma’s potential to export more rice after
decades of erratic restrictions that deterred buyers, says Tin Maung
Thann, an adviser to the association. He said some millers are already
investing in new equipment in anticipation of a more market-based system.
“If you can integrate our rice economy into the world economy, then I
don’t worry (about the industry),” he says.

Some farmers also have access to new lines of credit. Up to 30 newly
formed agricultural lending companies have begun extending loans to
farmers at interest rates of around 2 percent a month, much less than that
of loan sharks or rice merchants. Experts say that this private lending is
still small, only applies to farmers with 10 acres or more, and isn’t a
substitute for an overhaul of the undercapitalized government agriculture
bank.

International aid officials say a turnaround in the delta’s rice industry
must be matched with attention to other rural areas, where poverty and
malnutrition is, if anything, even more acute. On average, 1 in 10
children in Burma die before they reach five, the fourth worst child
mortality in the world, according to the UN.

Vulnerable areas include war-torn ethnic border regions and the dry zone
in central Burma where farmers rely on cash crops such as beans, garlic,
and peas. As aid workers get more access to these areas, the extent of the
crisis has become clearer, says Chris Kaye, head of the World Food Program
in Burma.

“It’s a chronic slow burn,” he says. “The fundamental problems in the
rural economy, the lack of access to credit and inputs, and the erosion of
livelihoods, are really coming home to roost.”

[Editor's note: Correspondent's name withheld for security reasons]

____________________________________

July 7, United Press International
Total, Chevron deny abuse claim in Myanmar

Washington -- Oil and gas companies working in Myanmar do so with respect
to good governance and humanitarian law, a spokesman for French energy
company Total said.

Total and its partners at U.S. supermajor Chevron are defending themselves
against allegations they are tacitly funding an oppressive government and
using forced labor in the region.

EarthRights International in a report published Monday blames both
companies for human rights abuses in Myanmar. The group claims Total and
Chevron are using soldiers linked to killings and are using forced labor
to keep pipelines operating smoothly.

EarthRights also accuses energy companies of supporting an oppressive
military regime.

Operations by Total in the country brought in about $9 billion for Myanmar
over the last decade.

Both of the supermajors reject the claims raised by EarthRights, saying
their operations support community programs and healthcare in the country.

Total Vice President Jean-Francois Lassalle told Time magazine that his
company was "shocked" by the allegation, blaming the non-governmental
organization of bias.

"We work daily for the respect of human rights in our operations and
beyond our operations for better governance," he said.

EarthRights say both companies could face legal challenge if residents of
Myanmar choose to take action.

____________________________________

July 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Private firms swoop on mineral sector – Francis Wade

The privatisation of Burma’s extractive sector took another step today as
one more company signed a contract to mine lead in Shan state, maintaining
a trend that has permeated the breadth of Burmese industry.

A wholesale shake-up of the Burmese economy is underway: the agreement
between Burma’s mining ministry and the Top Ten Stars Manufacturing Co
Ltd, announced today in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper, follows the
auctioning off of swathes of state-owned businesses to private enterprise,
and increasing foreign investment in the pariah state.

Top Ten Stars’ venture follows profit-sharing contracts signed at the
beginning of this year by two other companies, DELCO and Ngwe Chinthae, to
mine tin, tungsten and granite. The projects will be jointly shared with
the Burmese government’s State Mining Enterprise-2 and -3.

The US-sanctioned Asia World Company already operates several mines in
Kachin state, while a controversial deal struck last month will see the
Chinese weapons giant, Norinco, mine copper at the lucrative Monywa site
in Sagaing division.

Mining is one of the largest sources of income for the Burmese government,
and the sector was given a boost last year by the privatisation sweep,
which has appeared to favour Burmese companies with ties to the ruling
junta, as well as Chinese, Indian and Thai firms.

Since the sector first opened to foreign investment in 1988, overseas
companies have generated some US$1.3 billion, or around eight percent of
the country’s total foreign investment. This comes despite US and EU
sanctions that target Burma’s mining industry.

The deal with Norinco was shrouded in controversy after it emerged that
the Burmese government had undertaken an apparent ‘arms-for-copper’ deal;
Norinco had sold Burma heavy artillery prior to the deal, which was
overseen by Burmese prime minister, Thein Sein.

At its peak, the Monywa mine had been producing some 39,000 tonnes of
copper per year, and was among Burma’s most profitable assets. Meanwhile,
coal mining in the north of the country last year produced some 234,000
tonnes, Xinhua reported, and is dominated by Chinese and Indonesia firms.

Despite Burma being a resource-rich country, poor infrastructure and
mismanagement by the government has meant that the extractive industry had
so far failed to realise its full potential.

____________________________________
HEALTH

July 7, Reuters
Plague-infected rats reported in Myanmar's capital

Yangon – Myanmar's health ministry has circulated a warning among
government departments about rat-borne plague after finding infected dead
rodents in a compound of a government office, an official said.

Half a dozen dead rats were found in a ministry in the new capital,
Naypyitaw, an official told Reuters on condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to speak to the press.

The warning called on other ministries to look out for dead rodents at
their offices and at living quarters, urging civil servants to report
cases to the nearest health office.

Villagers and motorists between Yangon, the former capital, and Naypyitaw
reported seeing thousands of field mice on the move and squashed on the
highway in what could possibly be a mass migration away from an affected
area.

"I saw hundreds of dead mice killed after being driven over by vehicles
scattered on the highway when I drove back to Yangon last week," Min Kyaw,
a Yangon-based travel agent, said.

Thai-based Irrawaddy magazine said an unspecified number of Yangon
residents had been diagnosed with plague in June, citing an
epidemiologist. The report said all were treated and had since recovered.

A senior health ministry official told Reuters the authorities were alert
to the dangers of the contagious disease primarily transmitted by rodents
and had taken measures, but insisted there had been no humans affected.

State-owned Myanmar language newspapers carried a public notice about the
danger of bubonic plague spread by infected rat fleas on July 1, calling
on civilians to report cases to the nearest health department.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 8, Right Vision News (Bangladesh)
Dhaka approves project to set up rail links with Myanmar, China

Dhaka – Bangladesh has approved a project to set up 128 kilometres long
rail links between two southeastern districts of Chittagong and Cox's
Bazaar, which will eventually be stretched to the Bangladesh-Myanmar
border finally linking China.

The Executive Committee of the highest decision-making National Economic
Council (ECNEC) approved the 18.52 billion taka project, said the Planning
Minister.

"The ultimate goal to extend this single-line railway track to the border
point of Gundum in Myanmar is to connect with China as well as to keep
corridor for the Trans-Asian Railway," AK Khandker told the press after
the ECNEC meeting.

Of the total projected cost to build the railway network, 6.7 billion taka
will be funded from the state coffer while the remaining 11.82 billion
taka would come from foreign aid.

Khandker said that the Asian Development Bank is interested to fund this
project.

"However, talks are also going on with China for funds. Beijing has
expressed its keen interest in the project", the Minister said.

Broad gauge line will be set up along with the metre gauge in near future
as there was no broad gauge line in eastern part of Bangladesh as well as
in Myanmar, Khandaker said.

Replying to a query, the Planning Minister said that the project's initial
stages, like land acquisitions would start despite no commitments from the
development partners yet on the project.

The project titled 'Dohajari - Ramu via Cox's Bazar, Ramu to Gundum of
Myanmar Metre Gauge Rail Line'(MGRL) aims at linking the Trans-Asian
Railway (TAR), with the country's rail system to a 14,000 -km network
stretching from Europe to East and South-East Asia.

The ECNEC meeting at Planning Commission was held with Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina in chair.

The project is expected to be implemented by July 2014

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 7, WXXI (US)
How do you spell hope?: The story of Rochester's Burmese refugees

ROCHESTER, NY – A wave of refugees from Myanmar, the former Burma, is
resettling in Rochester.

Most come with little formal education, and have lots of health problems.
That's creating some serious challenges for the refugees, as well as local
educators and healthcare providers.

WXXI's Carlet Cleare introduces us to one Burmese refugee and explains how
he, and many others, got here.

Nay Thorn is a Burmese refugee living in Rochester.

"It's like yesterday for me."

Petite in frame, he calmly sits across from me, with his folded hands
resting on the table. Smiling every once and while, he tells me - - in
broken English - - about his escape from Burma 17 years ago. His family
was fleeing the military junta that took over Burma, changing its name to
Myanmar.

"My parents, we had run and hide in the jungle for years, when our village
was burned down. It was really hard."

Nay Thorn says he and his family survived for nearly 4 years in the
forest, eventually crossing into Thailand.

"When we arrive in refugee camp we think 'awe this is better than hiding
in the jungle.'

For the next 13 years, Nay Thorn lived in a cramped space with more than
one hundred-thousand other refugees. He couldn't leave, or get a job.
Education, medical care, and even food were scarce.

"Food like, can you imagine eating the yellow bean for 20 years?" Nay
Thorn says. "Nobody can eat that. Being a refugee in really, is really
hopeless, and a very difficult life."

Jim Morris is the assistant director of the Refugee Assistance Program at
the Catholic Family Center.

"The refugees that are in the refugee camps in Malaysia and Thailand, they
will, if they'd like to be resettled in a third country like the United
States will register with the UNHCR."

That's the United Nations Higher Committee for Refugees, which places
refugees around the world. Hundreds of them end up at the Catholic Family
Center in Rochester every year.

"The UNHCR will work with the U.S. government to identify an appropriate
resettlement site. And sometimes that'll be determined by whether or not
they have relatives in the city in the U.S. already present."

Nay Thorn did not have any relatives living in Rochester when he and wife
came here a year ago. It was a random placement, but they joined 600 other
Burmese refugees living in Monroe County. In all of New York, only Erie
County has more Burmese. Nay Thorn says he considers himself lucky.

"Here we have opportunity, opportunity and hope," Nay Thorn says" And this
is the main thing for me, and the rest of the refugee[s] too. You work
hard here. You have opportunity. You can go, you can walk. You can have a
better life here."

Morris says Nay Thorn is fortunate.

"There's 12-million refugees in the world, and only about a half of one
percent will get resettled in another country," Morris says. "So to
maintain your hope and faith that things will get better is difficult."

When Nay Thorn arrived in Rochester, someone from the Catholic Family
Center picked him up at the airport, put some food in his belly, and found
him a house to stay in. Morris says within his first week here, Nay Thorn
received a health screening and school placement.

"We help them get social security cards, we plug them in to service
providers like the Rochester City School District for adults and children.
We help them get in to health care in coordination with the Monroe County
Department of Public Health as well as our refugee healthcare provider,
which is Rochester General Hospital. We get the food stamps and Medicaid.
And some times wealth fare from the County Department of Human Services."

The Catholic Family Center helps refugees with basic resettlement needs
for 3 to 6 months. After that, they receive occasional employment
assistance or legal support from the agency until they become eligible to
apply for U-S citizenship five years later. It's not much time when you
consider how fundamentally different Rochester is compared to the place
they came from.

"What is interesting about the Burmese is that they are not a homogenous
group," Morris says. "They are very, they're numerous different language
dialects ...there's different ethnicities within the Burmese population.

There are literally hundreds of dialects within the Burmese language,
which makes it very hard, if not impossible, to find interpreters to help
teach these refugees how to speak English. Not knowing how to read, write,
or communicate makes building a new life in the Flower City a daunting
task.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 7, Jakarta Post
Challenge impunity in Myanmar – Yozo Yokota

Tokyo – Last month, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar,
Tomas Ojea Quintana, told the United Nations that Myanmar’s ruling
military junta may be committing war crimes and crimes against humanity,
and that these international crimes should be investigated. I agree.

The past three years have drawn the world’s attention to the humanitarian
and human rights crisis in Myanmar as never before.  Now Myanmar’s
dictator Than Shwe is hoping the world has a short memory; he plans a
façade of an election later this year, to put sheen of legitimacy on
dictatorial rule.

The courageous protests led by Buddhist monks in September 2007, and the
regime’s shocking crackdown, including the killing of Japanese
photojournalist Kenji Nagai, exposed more clearly than ever before the
regime’s cruelty.

Eight months later, Cyclone Nargis ripped through the country, leaving
death and devastation in its wake, and the regime’s initial refusal to
accept international aid workers evidenced its inhumanity.

The continuing military offensives against civilians in ethnic areas,
particularly in eastern Myanmar, the assassination of at least one
prominent ethnic leader and attempts on the lives of others and a callous
disregard for a famine in Chin State all expose once again the regime’s
agenda of ethnic cleansing.

As the regime prepares to hold elections this year, the world must
remember the backdrop of the past three years. Last year, a report was
published by Harvard Law School called Crimes in Myanmar.

Commissioned by some of the world’s leading jurists, including Judge
Patricia Wald (US), Hon. Ganzorig Gombosuren (Mongolia), Sir Geoffrey Nice
QC (UK), Judge Richard Goldstone (South Africa), and Judge Pedro Nikken
(Venezuela), the report concludes that the regime’s violations of human
rights may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that
these should be investigated by the United Nations. As a former UN special
rapporteur, I agree.

During my period as UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, I
received incontrovertible evidence that forced labor, the forcible
conscription of child soldiers; torture and rape as a weapon of war are
widespread and systematic in Myanmar. Since that time, the evidence has
grown stronger. It is claimed by the Thailand-Myanmar Border Consortium
that as many as 3,500 villages have been destroyed in eastern Myanmar
since 1996. Villagers have been used as human minesweepers, forced to walk
through fields of landmines to clear them for the military, often
resulting in loss of their limbs and sometimes their lives in the process.

I visited prisons and heard many testimonies of cruel forms of torture.
Today, over 2,100 political prisoners are believed to be in Myanmar’s
jails, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s
democracy leader, remains under house arrest. She has spent over 14 of the
past 20 years in detention.

Religious persecution is widespread. The regime is intolerant of
non-Myanmarese ethnic minorities and non-Buddhist religious minorities.
The predominantly Christian Chin and Kachin peoples, as well as the partly
Christian Karen and Karenni, face discrimination, restriction and
persecution, including the destruction of churches and crosses. Christians
have been forced to tear down crosses and built Buddhist pagodas in their
place, at gunpoint. The Muslim Rohingyas face similar persecution, and are
denied citizenship in the country despite living in Myanmar’s northern
Arakan state for generations. As a result they face unbearable
restrictions on movement and marriage, and have almost no access to
education and health care.

The United Nations has been documenting these crimes for many years. My
fellow former rapporteur, Rajsoomah Lallah, concluded as long ago as 1996
that these abuses were “the result of policy at the highest level,
entailing political and legal responsibility.” A recent General Assembly
resolution urged the regime to “put an end to violations of international
human rights and humanitarian law”. The UN has placed Myanmar on a
monitoring list for genocide, while the Genocide Risk Index lists Myanmar
as one of the two top “red alert” countries for genocide, along with
Sudan.

Non-Governmental Organizations have made similar assessments. Amnesty
International described the violations in eastern Myanmar as crimes
against humanity, while the Minority Rights Group ranks Myanmar as one of
the top five countries where ethnic minorities are under threat. Freedom
House describes Myanmar as “the worst of the worst”.

Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Transitional Justice
draw similar conclusions.  With “elections” looming and an increase in
crimes against humanity already prevalent in Than Shwe’s attempt to end
all ethnic minority resistance to his rule, now is the time for concerted
international action before more lives are lost.

Impunity prevails in Myanmar and no action has been taken to bring an end
to these crimes. That is why we believe the United Nations has an
obligation to respond to the current rapporteur’s recommendation and
establish a commission of inquiry, to investigate war crimes and crimes
against humanity and propose action. The UN Security Council should also
impose a universal arms embargo on Myanmar’s regime. The regime has been
allowed to get away with these crimes for too long. The climate of
impunity should not be allowed to continue unchallenged.


The writer was UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in
Myanmar from 1992 to 1996 and a member of the UN Sub–Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights from 2000-2009.