BurmaNet News, August 14 - 16, 2010

[Editor]

August 14 – 16, 2010 Issue #4020


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Opposition parties spread election forces thinly
DVB: Drought depletes Burma’s second-largest lake

ON THE BORDER
AP: Old rebellion, harsh foe swell Myanmar exile camps

BUSINESS / TRADE
The Age (Australia): Radios aiding Burma army
Reuters: Chinese investment in Myanmar tops $8 bln this year – data

ASEAN
Jakarta Post: ASEAN unity ‘key to handling’ US-China rivalry in the region

REGIONAL
Jakarta Globe: ‘Burma could learn from Indonesia’s mistakes’

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Myanmar's military dons civilian mask before vote: analysts
AFP: Canada fears 'oppressive conditions' for Myanmar elections

OPINION / OTHER
Vancouver Sun (Canada): Burma's generals script fake civilian rule –
Jonathan Manthrope
Irrawaddy: Election date hasn't changed the screwed up political scene –
Kyaw Zwa Moe
New York Post: Burma's sham elex – Benny Avni
The Nation (Thailand): Burma: is a bad election better than none at all?
The Mercury (South Africa): Burmese fraud
NLM: Union of Myanmar, source of gems – Aung Min Min

PRESS RELEASE
SWAN: New rail link to eastern Shan State spells war escalation




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 16, Irrawaddy
Opposition parties spread election forces thinly – Ba Kaung

“Let's go to the polling station!” blares the election campaign jingle on
state-run TV and radio since the regime set the general election date.

Opposition political parties contesting the election, however, aren't
getting the same degree of encouragement.

The Election Commission called on political parties last week to submit
between Aug. 16 and Aug. 30 lists of the candidates they plan to field.
Opposition parties complain that, due to the short period allowed for
candidate registration and their lack of funding, they will be able to
compete for only a limited number of the 498 seats in the national
parliament.

The regime's election laws stipulate that if there is only a single
candidate in a constituency, then he or she wins the seat—meaning that the
junta's proxy parties are guaranteed victory in many constituencies.

Sai Hla Kyaw, a member of the Shan National Democratic Party (SNDP)
central executive, said the party will be able to field candidates for 150
seats in 50 constituencies although it had originally planned to compete
nationwide.

Sai Hlaw Kyaw said the party had lacked the time to properly check the
qualifications of its candidates, nor had it been able yet to prepare its
campaign.

The National Democratic Force (NDF) party led by renegade members of Aung
San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) will be able to contest
only in major divisions of Burma, renouncing seats in seven states.

The party has so far assembled a list of 100 candidates who will contest
constituencies in Rangoon, Mandalay, Pegu and Magwe divisions, according
to NDF political leader Khin Maung Swe.

“Our party is now only one month and six days old,” he said. “How on earth
can we find enough money and enough candidates for the election?”

Election rules require payment of a 500,000 kyat (US $500) fee for each
candidate. Parties would need to pay the equivalent of US $249,000 to the
Election Commission if they want to contest all the available seats in the
national parliament.

“[There's] not enough money and time, so we cannot contest the election
nationwide as we had planned,” said Thein Htay, vice-chairman of the Union
Democratic Party (UDP), whose leader Phyo Min Thein recently resigned from
the party because he said the election would be neither free nor fair.

Following his resignation, the UDP threatened to pull out of the election
if they see signs of foul play by the ruling military in the run-up to the
polls.

Leaders of pro-democracy parties in Rangoon, including the NDF,  recently
discussed the possible formation of an informal alliance to allow them to
distribute their candidates in as many constituencies as possible, thus
preventing an automatic victory for the regime's proxy parties—estimated
to be at least seven—including the Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP) led by Prime Minister Thein Sein.  But that idea has so far not
materialized.

“Parties are struggling with their own problems, but I heard that the USDP
candidates recently received 100,000,000 kyat (US 100,000) for election
activities,” said NDF leader Khin Maung Swe.

Some other party leaders say the election difficulties were not unexpected
and that they will only focus on maintaining the existence of their
parties and do what they can.

“In a multi-party general election, we will make sure that our party can
exist,” said Soe Maung, vice-chairman of the Rangoon-based Democracy and
Peace Party, which he said would only contest 20 constituencies.

____________________________________

August 16, Democratic Voice of Burma
Drought depletes Burma’s second-largest lake – Shwe Aung

Water levels have fallen by half in Burma’s second largest lake following
a severe drought this year that affected much of the country, with
temperatures hitting a record high.

Locals around Inle Lake, in Burma’s northeastern Shan state, fear that an
annual 18-day pagoda festival, that includes popular boat races, may have
to be cancelled this year unless the water level rises by some 1.5 metres
in the next two months.

The Phaung Daw Oo festival is southern Shan state’s most important
religious celebration, usually held in October each year, but with the
average water level now at 1.2 metres, instead of the normal 2.7 metres,
many of events may not take place.

The warning comes after a summer of intense heat and drought, in which
temperatures in some parts of the country reached 47C, causing hundreds of
deaths. Severe water shortages also hit major towns across the country.

Burma is also suffering the effects of intense damming of its major
rivers, some of which begin in China. The Mekong River, which separates
Shan state from neighbouring Laos, is a lifeline for around 60 million
people in Southeast Asia, but is being heavily dammed by China.

The Mekong is at its lowest levels in nearly half a century, but China has
strenuously denied any link between this and its hydropower projects along
the river. The same concerns have surrounded the Salween River, which also
begins in China but cuts through the centre of Shan state and forms one of
Burma’s major waterways.

Environmental groups have warned that rare species could be lost if Inle
Lake continues to dry up. The expanse of water is home to a number of
endemic species of fish and snail, which are not found anywhere else in
the world. Four urban areas also border the lake, and are home to some
70,000 people, many of whom rely on the lake for commercial fishing.

The recent drop in water levels feeds into wider concern about the health
of the lake, which has lost 32 percent of its water volume over the past
80 years. The effects of this have been compounded by increasing local
populations and an intensification of tourism and agriculture on and
around the lake, with slash and burn farming practices causing silting of
tributary rivers.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 16, Associated Press
Old rebellion, harsh foe swell Myanmar exile camps – Denis D. Gray

Mae Rama Luang Camp, Thailand — The weary, weather-beaten refugee, gently
cradling his sleeping son, gazes at the ceiling, bites his lips, but can't
hold back the tears.

"I cry for those who were killed and died of disease or went mad, for the
children who suffered," says Pawo Tu. "I cry for the food I had to beg for
but could not repay."

This 46-year-old orchard keeper is just one among half a million Karen
tribespeople driven from their homes by the Myanmar military, and his
story is typical of the sagas of suffering that emerge in this refugee
camp on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Aid workers call the regime's campaign against the Karen rebellion "the
hidden Darfur." To Christians who work with refugees from the country they
still call Burma, it's "the Calvary of the Karen."

The world's attention to Myanmar has focused largely on pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her struggle with the junta that has held her
under house arrest for 18 years in Yangon, formerly Rangoon.

Mentioned mostly parenthetically is the relentless war to eradicate a
60-year-old insurgency among the Karen, the country's second largest
ethnic minority, by cutting it off from the general population. Although
the regime denies it, the U.N. and international human rights groups have
documented executions, gang rape, torture, forced labor and mass
relocations of civilians after their communities are torched.

Pawo Tu's family fled when troops burned their village, Leka Deta, in
2006, suspecting it sided with the rebels who are fighting for an
independent state.

"For five years we lived in the jungle in makeshift shelters of bamboo and
banana leaves, always on the run, always afraid the soldiers would find
us," he said. Like most of the uprooted Karen, the family foraged, hunted,
traded, tended small vegetable plots and sometimes begged from villagers.
In their jungle hideouts, Pawo Tu's wife bore five children.

With the food run out and the soldiers getting too close, the family
risked land mines, cripplers and killers of countless escapees, to reach
the Thai-Myanmar border. Here, some 150,000 Karen and other ethnic
minorities live in nine camps.

"Once there were 100 families in our village, now only some ten are left,"
says a recent arrival, Khwe Say Hto. "We became slaves of the military."

Families are financially ruined, many refugees say, because the military
demands "taxes" — sometimes nearly half a villager's already minuscule
income — for avoiding the draft or forced labor, or for no reason at all.

Farmers are kept from their fields doing long stretches of unpaid labor,
hauling supplies, building military bases and repairing roads. Khwe Say
Hto says that in his village of Palodu, men and sometimes women also
served as human minesweepers. Two were killed and others wounded in the
most recent incident, a few months back.

The 38-year-old farmer said he was shanghaied as a porter 10 times and on
his last, grueling march three of his fellow villagers sank to the ground
in exhaustion. The soldiers kicked them and then ground their boots on
their throats until they died, he said.

"We could stand it no longer," he said, so he fled with his wife and four
children.

At another camp, Mae La, set up 21 years ago, so many refugees have poured
in that it has become a virtual city of bamboo shacks, primitive schools
and churches. It sits at the foot of soaring limestone cliffs in a remote
jungle valley inaccessible by road during the monsoon rains.

In an open-sided hall, more than 200 teenagers gather to hear Rev. Simon
Htoo talk about helping camp-born youngsters fight depression, drugs and
AIDS.

"When we were in Burma, we were like wild cats, wild cats that were
hunted, always fleeing the Burmese military," reads a poem by one refugee,
Toe Kro. "Living in the camp, we are like a wild cat that is being raised
in domesticity, cannot go out of the cage."

A sudden downpour erupts as the Protestant pastor leads the group in a song:

"We call our land Kawthoolei, the Land without Evil, a green and beautiful
land," the clear voices soar above the rain's heavy patter.

"But today this land is rife with killing, fighting, land mines, and
filled with evil. Widows, orphans are crying without help...We want peace.
We want to go home."

Some never will.

On a map of the U.S. in the camp, red dots from Seattle to Boston pinpoint
the Karen diaspora. Since 2006, 60,000 Karen, who include Christians,
Buddhists and animists, as well as other ethnic minorities, have left the
camps, three-quarters of them bound for the U.S.

Hsa Gay, the camp's deputy chief, says he is happy for those who find
happiness abroad, away from the disease that afflicts up to 40 percent of
camp-dwellers with bouts of malaria and 10 percent with tuberculosis at
any given time. The refugees live mostly on rice and beans.

But Hsa Gay says resettlement has its downside, because those selected are
usually the ones the tribe needs most — teachers, nurses, technicians.

Betrayed and forgotten: That's how David Tharckabaw sees his people.

The vice president of the Karen National Union, the insurgency's political
arm, says that Britain, the colonial ruler until 1949, broke its promise
to give the Karen a separate state. Today, the plight of the Karen, who
number about 4 million in a population of 43 million, has become a
sideshow.

"Most countries give lip service but it is economic interests which are
driving them. They see Burma as a market, a place with natural resources,"
he said.

The U.S. and European Union apply economic sanctions, but China, Thailand
and other neighbors trade with Myanmar, while the U.S., Tharckabaw says,
is "hooked" on engagement as a way of coaxing the 38-year-old junta toward
democracy.

The Karen insurgency, dating back to 1949, is considered the world's
oldest, and the adage that "old soldiers never die" seems true enough in
the figure of Lt. Col. Saw Doo, at 82 possibly the world's oldest recruit
still on active duty in an army with no pensions or retirement age.

The farmer's son joined the insurgency when it broke out, spent decades on
the front lines, was wounded and never managed to return to his parents
and native village.

Striding as erect as a young officer reviewing troops, Saw Doo still
serves "the Karen revolution" as head of training for the Karen National
Liberation Army, the military arm of the KNU.

Armed only with basic infantry weapons, the Karen have lost ground to the
Chinese-supplied Myanmar military, which has moved at least 200,000 troops
into Karen State. But still they hope their guerrilla skills, or the
junta's internal conflicts, or a general pro-democracy uprising, will turn
the tide.

"There is only one way we can lose — if we surrender all our weapons to
the enemy," says the old warrior, one of 16 who joined the rebellion at
the start.

Even older is 91-year-old Saw Tamla Baw, the KNU president.

Gravely ill from a lung infection, barely able to lift his head from a
pillow, he lies on a mattress in a small, sweltering room with bare cement
walls. A grandson fans his face with a scrap of yellow plastic.

"It will be difficult," he says, struggling with every word. "But we can
regain our country. I believe one day we will have our own Karen state."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 16, The Age (Australia)
Radios aiding Burma army – Hamish McDonald

BURMA'S army has evaded Australian government sanctions to obtain radio
sets from a Perth manufacturer that allow it to scramble its
communications, gaining a new advantage in its wars against domestic
rebels and dissidents.

Prestigious British defence journal Jane's Intelligence Review reports
that Perth-based Barrett Communications has been selling its radio sets
directly in response to tenders by Burma's Ministry of Defence,
contradicting suggestions by the company it was selling the radios to
civilian agencies of the Burmese government.

When the military's use of the radios was first reported in January,
Barrett managing director Phil Bradshaw insisted the radios were used for
general communications and were not of a kind ''for military use''.

The company told Jane's that any Barrett 2050 radios sold to Burma did not
include the frequency-hopping option that makes monitoring all but
impossible and which would contravene Australian export controls on
sensitive military technology, including signals encryption, in place
since 1991.

Mr Bradshaw is quoted as saying the frequency-hopping option could only be
installed at the company's factory by authorised staff.

The Defence Department in Canberra backed this up. ''This could not be
done in-country [by the customer]'', the department told the journal.

But an industry source familiar with Barrett radios has said the processor
and software that hops messages across 500 frequencies is built into every
Barrett 2050. This and other extra functions could be enabled by input of
a random nine or 10-digit code generated by a computer at Barrett's office
and matched to the serial number.

''It wouldn't be impossible for an experienced department, especially in
the military, to figure out a way to bypass it,'' the source said. ''If
frequency hopping required an extra part or key to unlock, then it would
be far more secure to send overseas. However, since it's already built in,
it's just a matter of cracking that code.''

Jane's writers Samuel Blythe and Desmond Ball said the Barrett 2050,
costing about $3300 a set, was coming into growing use by the Burmese army
for communications between its headquarters and divisional commands.

____________________________________

August 16, Reuters
Chinese investment in Myanmar tops $8 bln this year – data – Aung Hla Tun

Yangon – China has pumped $8.17 billion into military-run Myanmar in the
current fiscal year, accounting for two thirds its total investment over
the past two decades, official data showed on Monday.

Energy projects formed the bulk of the investment, with $5 billion in
hydropower and $2.15 billion in the oil and gas sector of the reclusive,
resource-rich nation whose neighours include economic juggernauts China
and India, the data showed.

China also invested a total of $997 million in mining in the first quarter
of the current fiscal year (April 2010-March 2011).

Total foreign direct investment (FDI) for the 2009-10 fiscal year was
almost $315 million compared to nearly $985 million a year earlier,
according to data released by the State-run Central Statistical
Organisation (CSO).

Sanctions imposed by the West because of Myanmar's poor human rights
record, decades of mismanagement and graft at the hands of the military
rulers have crippled Myanmar's economy. [IDnSGE67C06D].

Myanmar will hold its first multi-party election in two decades on Nov. 7
in an attempt to gain legitimacy and lure investment. It is currently on a
privatisation drive and enjoys close trade ties with China, India and
fellow Southeast Asian nations, in particular, Thailand and Singapore.

However, official FDI data for Myanmar is notoriously unreliable, analysts
say, with the figures quoted referring only to investments announced by
the regime and often including pledges, rather than actual investments, in
the totals.

Many deals are done in secret with the government and are not included in
official data, which does not name the investing companies or the
projects. Some investment pledges never actually materialise, experts say.

Myanmar has attracted over $20 billion in FDI since becoming a market
economy in 1988, $12.32 billion of which came from China. That is followed
by Thailand, with total investment of $9.57 over the same period, the
statistics showed. (Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Jason Szep)

____________________________________
ASEAN

August 16, The Jakarta Post
ASEAN unity ‘key to handling’ US-China rivalry in the region – Abdul Khalik

Competition between the US and China in the Southeast Asian region has
been more apparent recently as the major powers tested each other — from
territorial conflicts in the South China Sea and Greater Mekong areas, to
lending a hand to ASEAN members to develop nuclear plans.

ASEAN officials have warned that the rivalry between the two powers could
divide members of the ASEAN bloc, potentially hampering their efforts to
work together as allegiances are torn in two directions.

In areas that could draw ASEAN members into open conflict, discussion with
good intentions must be prioritized between members, officials said
recently.

“There is no future of military solutions in each of the conflicts,”
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told visiting ASEAN journalist
in press conference last week.

“The key is ASEAN’s unity. If we are not united then there is a danger of
us being balkanized. We should not invite them into our own internal
affairs, because it will divide us,” Singaporean Foreign Minister George
Yeoh said earlier.

Yeoh cited the example of the interplay between China and India in Myanmar.

“If Myanmar was not a member of ASEAN then India and China would intervene
in self-defense. It would tear Myanmar apart,” he said.

However, Yeoh urged ASEAN countries to be open and more friendly toward
all major powers, quoting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s submission,
“A thousands friends, zero enemies”.

“They have their rivalry but we should be friendly, neutral and open with
them,” he said.

Apparent acrimony between the US and China emerged last month when US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated at the ASEAN Regional Forum in
Hanoi that the US was willing to mediate in territorial and maritime
disputes in the South China Sea. Many Southeast Asian countries see
Beijing increasingly views the contested maritime area as a Chinese lake.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi responded bluntly to Clinton’s
remarks, saying they amounted to “an attack on China”, before reminding
Southeast Asian countries that China is a big country, implying that
individually they were small.

In response, Cambodia and Vietnam are following countries such as
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines in trying to forge new links with
the US to counterbalance China’s rapid rise to power.

After meeting with Yudhoyono last month, US Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates announced that the US would re-engage with Kopassus, Indonesian
Army’s special forces unit.

In a move that will further increase regional tensions, the US is also
conducting negotiations with Vietnam over a deal to allow the purchase of
nuclear fuel, as well as American nuclear technology and reactors. The
issue became controversial as the deal would allow Vietnam to enrich its
own uranium to produce fuel for its power reactors, subject to monitoring
by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Zhai Dequan, the deputy secretary of the China Arms Control & Disarmament
Association, said the US negotiation with Vietnam was a “double standard”
in comparison to the UAE agreement. He said China was worried about the
potential for Vietnam to have nuclear enrichment capabilities.

The US government had also agreed to help manage and develop the Mekong
river, which Washington had lost interest in soon after its defeat in the
US war in Vietnam, another sign that the Obama administration is engaged
in an aggressive strategy to counter Chinese influence throughout the
Asian region.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 15, Jakarta Globe
‘Burma could learn from Indonesia’s mistakes’ – Ismira Lutfia

Burma should take note of Indonesia’s failure to hold human rights
violators accountable for their actions as the junta-led country prepares
to hold its first elections in two decades, a human rights advocate has
said.

Jakarta. “Burma could learn to avoid making the same mistake Indonesia
did, which was its failure to bring military officials to justice for past
human rights abuses,” Rafendi Djamin, the director of the Human Rights
Working Group, said last week during a meeting with Tomas Ojea Quintana, a
UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma.

Rafendi, who is also the Indonesian commissioner for the Asean
Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission, said alleged human rights
violators in Indonesia continued to “occupy high-ranking positions as
government officials.”

Quintana was in Indonesia to consult with civil society organizations on
the country’s human rights enforcement and its transformation from a
military-run government to a democratic nation.

Before holding its first direct presidential election in 2004, Jakarta had
been under authoritarian rule for 30 years.

Burma is now preparing to hold its first election in two decades, on Nov.
7. Critics, however, say the polls will be less than democratic.

Quintana said in a March report to the UN Human Rights Council that in
order to have fair and democratic elections, Burma should first free
democracy icon and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi .

“It is critical that political prisoners be released,” he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 15, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's military dons civilian mask before vote: analysts

Bangkok – Two decades after the Myanmar opposition's stolen poll victory,
the junta is again gearing up for elections, but experts say years of
planning mean the cards this time are stacked in its favour.

The vote is widely seen as a way for the military to put a civilian face
on its iron-fisted rule, with 77-year-old junta head Senior General Than
Shwe likely to retain a crucial -- if perhaps lower profile -- role.

Myanmar's leader will want to ensure that the November 7 election produces
precisely the result he requires to shield himself from a slew of enemies
within the country, said Thai-based analyst Aung Naing Oo.

"Than Shwe has held the Bengal Tiger by the tail and he cannot let go, so
he has to make sure that everything goes to plan," he said.

Had democracy been allowed to take its course, the generals would have
been swept aside by the landslide victory of opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar's last election
in 1990.

But the party was never allowed to take power and Suu Kyi has spent much
of the intervening 20 years in detention.

Analysts say the ruling generals are taking no chances this time,
reserving a quarter of the seats in parliament for the military and
crafting election rules to ensure junta-backed parties have the upper
hand.

"The generals may be exchanging their khakis for civilian clothes, but
these polls are still a carefully arranged plan to keep power in the hands
of the military junta," said Elaine Pearson at New York-based Human Rights
Watch.

Suu Kyi, known as "The Lady" in Myanmar, is still seen as the most potent
threat to the military, which has ruled the country for nearly half a
century.

She is barred from standing in November because she is a serving prisoner
-- the election falls days before her current term of house arrest expires
-- while the NLD is boycotting the vote, citing unfair rules.

The National Democratic Force (NDF) -- an offshoot of the NLD created by
those in the party who wanted to contest the poll -- faces financial
difficulties and has a clear disadvantage without Suu Kyi at its helm.

So far 40 parties have been allowed to register for the polls, but some
are already expressing concerns, including intimidation of their members.

Election hopefuls face a formidable set of hurdles, including a tight
timetable for registering candidates as well as restrictions on
campaigning.

They will also come up against the Union Solidarity and Development Party,
formed in April by Prime Minister Thein Sein and other ministers who shed
their uniforms.

The USDP has merged with the Union Solidarity and Development Association
(USDA) -- a pro-junta group with deep pockets and up to 27 million
members, including civil servants compelled to join for the good of their
careers.

Bertil Lintner, author of several books on Myanmar, said the election was
a means to convert the junta into a civilian ruling class as part of
efforts to build an "entirely new country" along with the new capital,
Naypyidaw.

"They are creating a new capital, a new regime, a new dynasty and part of
that is having a rubber stamped assembly," he said.

But with the election widely dismissed as a charade by activists and the
West, some are questioning why the junta is even bothering to go through
the motions.

"Everything is controlled and managed by just one man so it is very
difficult to come up with a rational explanation as to why these things
are happening," Aung Naing Oo said.

Even if the generals and their associates do step back from the political
limelight, a recent flurry of privatisations suggests economic power will
remain firmly in their grasp.

Aung Naing Oo said one explanation could be an ingrained military idea
that power should be handed back to civilians -- under tightly managed
conditions.

He said the military also felt a paternalistic responsibility to hold
together a country repeatedly shaken by insurgencies and separatist
movements among its many ethnic groups.

The Karen National Union -- whose armed wing has been fighting the Myanmar
government for more than five decades -- doubts the vote will empower
ethnic minorities, who complain of neglect and mistreatment.

"Even though some people will win seats in this election, I do not think
they will have a voice," said spokesman David Thaw.
____________________________________

August 16, Agence France Presse
Canada fears 'oppressive conditions' for Myanmar elections

Ottawa — Canada has "serious concerns" that elections in Myanmar (Burma)
later this year will be held under "oppressive conditions," Foreign
Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday.

"While Canada welcomes the Burmese military regime's commitment to hold
democratic elections, we have serious concerns that the elections will be
held under oppressive conditions and that they will not be conducted in
line with international standards," Cannon said in a statement.

"The people of Burma deserve to have their voices heard without fear of
intimidation and violence," he added.

"Canada calls on the regime to live up to its commitments to hold free and
fair elections by unconditionally releasing all political prisoners,
including Aung San Suu Kyi, engaging in genuine dialogue with members of
the democratic opposition and different ethnic groups within Burma, and
enabling full democratic participation in the process."

Myanmar's junta said Friday it would hold its first election in two
decades on November 7, about a week before democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi's current house arrest is due to expire on November 13.

Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the past 20 years in detention and is seen
as the biggest threat to the junta, is barred as a serving prisoner from
standing.

Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide
victory in 1990 but was never allowed to take office. It is boycotting the
vote, saying the rules are unfair.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 16, Vancouver Sun (Canada)
Burma's generals script fake civilian rule – Jonathan Manthrope

Burma's ruling generals are belt and braces guys.

The junta announced last week that multiparty elections will be held on
Nov. 7 after more than a decade of trying to persuade the international
community -- so far unsuccessfully -- that this will be a shift to a
civilian administration after military rule dating back to 1962.

The generals hope this election will prompt the lifting of sanctions and
other exclusions from the international community.

But they have no intention of allowing the election results to lead to the
military actually losing power.

So they have constructed a charade aimed at pleasing the gullible without
putting their power at risk.

It's a caution the generals learned 20 years ago when they suffered the
electoral equivalent of finding their pants around their ankles.

In that election in 1990, the junta expected the voters among the 48
million people of Burma (which the ruling junta calls Myanmar) to show
respect for the then nearly 30 years of military rule, and pick the
generals' favoured candidates.

Instead, the voters marked the planned return to civilian rule by voting
overwhelmingly for candidates representing the National League for
Democracy, whose heroine leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the generals had
already locked up as a precaution. The NLD won 392 of the 492 seats in
Parliament, and the generals were so appalled they refused to acknowledge
the result.

The 12-member junta, now inaccurately called the State Peace and
Development Council and led by former postal clerk Gen. Than Shwe, was
shocked into several years of stunned silence.

Suu Kyi remained locked up in her crumbling lakeside villa in the then
capital, Rangoon (now Yangon), selling off her furniture to buy food.

In 1995, the generals figured that despite her having been awarded such
honours as the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, their persistent campaign of
vilification of "the lady" must have eroded her political currency.

They were wrong. When her detention was lifted in July 1995, tens of
thousands of people flocked every day to stand outside her house on
University Avenue and listen to her speak at her garden gate.

By 2000, Shwe and his boys had lost patience and arranged new excuses to
lock her up again.

But the regime felt increasing pressure to respond to international
sanctions, which forced Burma into the often uncomfortable investment
grasp of China to develop its bounteous natural resources, and the
embarrassing demands for political and human rights reform from the
junta's partners in the Association of South East Asian Nations.


>From the start, Suu Kyi and the NLD did not believe the generals were

sincere in wanting to draw up a new constitution that would bring in
genuine multiparty civilian rule.

They therefore refused to take part in years of talks that led to a
referendum held in May 2008, and which to no one's surprise endorsed the
new constitution by a margin that was almost mathematically impossible.

This document ensures that the military will remain in power behind a
facade of civilian rule.

The head of the armed forces, Shwe, will retain more authority than the
president, and will be able to dismiss any government.

All the most important and powerful ministries will be the exclusive
preserve of the armed forces, and a quarter of the seats in the 440-seat
parliament are assigned to the military.

At the same time, it will require a vote of more than 75 per cent of MPs
to change the constitution. So the military has a veto on any changes or
reforms aimed at extending civilian rule.

As a result of this sham reform and the accompanying restrictive election
rules, Suu Kyi and most of the NLD refused to register to take part in the
election.

Not that they would have been allowed any role anyway.

Most of the NLD leaders are ineligible because they have criminal records
as a result of the 20 years of intense persecution by the generals.

Suu Kyi is also ineligible to run because she was convicted of breaching
her detention order last year after the befuddled American John Yettaw
swam to her house to deliver a warning message that had been entrusted to
him by angels.

There's also a cunning little constitutional provision that says people
married to foreigners can't be candidates for parliament, and Suu Kyi is
the widow of a British university professor.

Some former NLD members have broken away to form the National Democratic
Front in the belief that, as flawed as they are, the new constitution and
the elections are a step toward reform.

But most of the 40 parties registered for this election are ethnically or
regionally based and will field limited numbers of candidates.

Only the junta's Union Solidarity and Development Party will contest all
non-military constituencies.

If the USDP does not end up with a clear majority, it will be easy to buy
or rent enough other MPs to create an unassailable government.

(This page, by the way, will continue to use the name Burma. In 1989, the
junta, an illegal government, ordered the name changed to Myanmar, but
without any consultation with the people. Burma remains the country's
proper name in English and it is the name Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's
legitimate, elected political leader, always uses.)

jmanthorpe at vancouversun.com

____________________________________

August 16, Irrawaddy
Election date hasn't changed the screwed up political scene – Kyaw Zwa Moe

Burma's election date has finally been announced and constituencies have
been designated. So, what has actually changed.? The blunt answer to that
question is that everything is screwed up.

“Multiparty general elections for the country's parliament will be held on
Sunday Nov. 7,” announced the Election Commission last Thursday.
Interestingly, one week later, on Saturday Nov. 13, pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi is due to be released after her latest, 18-month term of 
house arrest.
Kyaw Zwa Moe is managing editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be
reached at kyawzwa at irrawaddy.org.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 years of the past 20 years as a prisoner in her
own home, is likely to be released if the election goes as planned by the
generals. If junta leader Than Shwe still feels insecure about freeing her
so close to the election he will probably find some trumped up excuse to
keep her detained—perhaps along the lines of the stage-managed trial she
endured after an American trespassed on her lakeside property. So, whether
or not the 65-year-old Nobel laureate will be freed is still a big open
question.

How about the current pre-election situation? More than 40 political
parties  listed to contest the upcoming elections were already aware
before they officially registered that they will definitely be harassed or
abused by the government, the Election Commission, local authorities and
now the USDP. But what they are facing now is worse than expected.

Harassment, intimidation, dirty campaigning by the USDP, and heavy
censorship of election-related news are rampant throughout Burma.

The chairman of the Union Democracy Party, Phyo Min Thein, recently
resigned after deciding that things would not get any better, as he had
hoped when he formed the party a few months ago.

The 41-year-old former student activist who spent 15 years in prison from
1990 to 2005 could see no light at the end of Burma's dark road to
democracy.

“I had hoped that there would be a new order with the emergence of
political parties, entities and multi-social classes, which would help to
march toward democracy, and of course, that will also gradually help to
bring us to a new democratic nation,” Phyo Min Thein told The Irrawaddy in
an interview shortly after his resignation. “I simply expected there to be
that sort of political arena. That's why I decided to take part in the
election.”

It's likely that many of the leaders of the currently registered parties
shared Phyo Min Thein's hopes when they formed their parties after March
this year. Most didn't like the junta's 2008 Constitution, especially the
fact that the military will have an automatic 25 percent of the seats in
the parliament, but they decided to contest the elections for the rest of
the seats (330 seats out of 440 in the People's Assembly) in the hope that
the election would be relatively fair.

Now many of them are probably having second thoughts. Phyo Min Thein
correctly said that the USDP's actions, supported by the military
government, has created an election playing field that is far from free
and fair. The USDP is determined to win as many of the other 330 seats as
it can. Phyo Min Thein said opposition and ethnic parties would win a fair
portion of those seats, if the election were fair.

According to the junta's election laws, parties can not campaign
officially at this time. But the USDP has been aggressively campaigning in
towns across the country: giving out low-interest loans to farmers;
coercing people to become party members; indirectly threatening civil
servants to vote for the party; buying votes with incentives like
constructing or repairing roads in some communities, and offering
incentives to businessmen.

In some townships of Irrawaddy Division, the USDP even tried to win votes
for the party by allowing businessmen to operate illegal enterprises such
as gambling, lotteries, so-called massage parlors and other shady
operations, according to local sources.

In the face of such abuse, Phyo Min Thein decided to walk away from the
election.

Perhaps in a sign of what's to come, the Democratic Party, led by veteran
politician Thu Wai, sent a letter of complaint to the Union Election
Commission in Naypyidaw, saying members of the party had been intimidated
by security personnel. Ironically, even more intimidation followed. A list
of 1,400 party members had been sent to the commission as a requirement to
be eligible to contest the election. That list was forwarded to the
special branch police. Officers then appeared at the homes of selected
party members asking for personal information and photographs.

In fact, the whole country is being intimidated by the USDP and the
military government. Earlier this month, an article in one of the
state-run newspapers warned that anyone who “disrupts” the upcoming
elections could face up to 20 years imprisonment.

All of this is just the tip of iceberg. The huge disadvantage for all
pro-democracy parties is that the ruling military regime, the Election
Commission and the USDP are actually all one organism.

 As the election approaches, the political parties of the democratic
opposition, their members and the entire electorate will be subjected to
more intimidation, harassment, threats, vote buying and dirty
campaigning.

Everything will be even more screwed up than before.

____________________________________

August 16, New York Post
Burma's sham elex – Benny Avni

On Friday, the rulers of Burma -- that is, the na tion renamed Myanmar by
the junta that's run things since 1962 -- announced a general election to
take place on Nov. 7. To help democracy, the United States needs to oppose
this "election."

Myanmar competes only with North Korea for primacy in the Asian
evil-regime category. Both nations are led by isolated, ruthless paranoids
who apparently read George Orwell's "1984" as a how-to manual.

So far, the junta has mostly menaced its own people. But its ambitions run
higher -- and it cultivates ties to such rogue nations as Venezuela, Iran
and Zimbabwe. Call it a new Axis of Evil, whose members abet one another's
work from weapons proliferation to terror sponsorship to mundane
counterfeiting and smuggling.

The Obama administration has mainly ignored Myanmar/Burma. It let lapse a
Bush presidential order that imposed some sanctions, and let Sen. Jim Webb
(D-Va.) attempt "engagement." The heat went up a bit in June, when
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed "concern" over suspicions of
nuclear cooperation between Myanmar and North Korea, and Webb cancelled a
visit to Burma, giving up on his efforts at dialogue for now.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rightly calls the coming election a
"charade." In 1990, the junta nullified the result of a badly planned
election and arrested the landslide winner, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi. This time, it's leaving nothing to chance.

Suu Kyi, the charismatic but aging leader of the democracy movement, was
once married to a Briton -- so the regime made sure the new constitution
("approved" in a referendum amid the 2008 Cyclone Nargis crisis) bars from
running anyone who ever wed a foreigner. Also barred from participation is
any prisoner -- including the hundreds of jailed leaders of Suu Kyi's
party.

And everyone knows who's going to win: The junta's leader, "Senior
General" Than Shwe, will be elected president, then drop the uniform and
name a military chief from among one of his senior cronies. Little else
matters.

But the Obama administration, Burma's neighbors and the hapless United
Nations have so far mustered nothing more than muted criticism.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement coldly
saying he "takes note" of the election announcement. The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations has yet to comment. State Department spokesmen
answer inquiries with word that the US "remains concerned" about the
situation.

Outsiders can only guess why the aging Shwe and his cohorts do things when
they do them -- another similarity with North Korea's rulers. Regime
observers believe the decision to finally set an election date has to do
with succession rivalry inside the junta. Not good news for the
neighborhood: Generals competing for primacy often try to score points by
initiating outside aggression.

Burma has a solid, well-organized opposition, which is likely to win the
support of morally powerful monks who carry a lot of influence. As Aung
Din, the leader of the DC-based pro-democracy group US Campaign for Burma,
told me, "Change should come from the inside" -- though he added that
outsiders, especially America, can help.

The Obama administration must clearly end any illusion of engagement with
the generals and start a credible dialogue with Suu Kyi instead. It should
support her party's election boycott and push its friends in ASEAN to
officially end Myanmar's membership. And it's time to renew the Bush-era
sanctions that Obama dropped.

The election could be a good moment for poking the Burmese boil, or it
could solidify the junta's hold on power forever -- which is likely to
come back to haunt us one day.

beavni at gmail.com
____________________________________

August 16, The Nation (Thailand)
Burma: is a bad election better than none at all?

The Burmese junta has finally fixed November 7 for their much anticipated
election. No other poll in a developing country could receive such global
attention and scrutiny. The junta's sole objective seems to have been
trying to use this outcome for its own survival and perpetuating its
oppression. The regime has already succeeded in scheduling the election
date - indeed many feared it would be postponed or may not happen again.
Now that the election is going to take place, the world has to decide if
it is free, fair and inclusive. Indeed, the junta does not seem to care if
opinions elsewhere in the world are divided.

The Burmese generals know full well the gullibility of the international
community, especially Western nations, when it comes to Burma and its
plight since 1988. So, they play along with the Western hypocrisy. On the
surface, all of them regularly condemn the upcoming poll as a sham because
it is not going to be free, fair or inclusive. Deep down, some of them
continue to work with the regime for business and other interests. They
have a new mantra to assist the regime by branding their assistance as
humanitarian.

Obviously, this time the regime has worked out a system whereby only its
own parties will win many votes. Lessons have been learnt from the
previous election two decades ago. At the moment, the junta has put in
place all mechanisms that will deliver an electoral triumph to its
cronies. And the opposition has been annihilated. Just look at the fate of
the now-defunct National League of Democracy, the party of Aung San Suu
Kyi, who still languishes under house arrest. The NLD used to be the most
credible political force in the country, having won the 1990 election in a
landslide. Lots of complaints of electoral discriminations are being
heard. As the election date draws near, there will be more.

The saddest part is that in the end, whatever the poll's outcome, the
world, and especially Asean, are likely to accept it after a period of
criticism. In case of Asean, it has no other option. After all, since its
admission 13 years ago, Burma is part of the Asean family. No wonder, the
grouping has protected Burma, even though it has constantly tarnished the
group's overall reputation. Ironically, Asean may be the first to
congratulate the regime for carrying out the poll, because its member
states are fading on this issue. The group no longer wants to the Burmese
mess on its annual agenda.

Since the international community has paid so much attention to the
election as an important ingredient in democratic development, the Burmese
regime will deliver just that. Never mind, if the poll is highly
orchestrated or rigged. Who really cares? Recent elections in Sudan and
Afghanistan have already provided us with very good examples concerning
how the West reacts as these polls served the overall purpose. The
convention wisdom still is and will remain the same: a bad election is
better than no election. That remains the biggest flaw in the mind-set of
the international community.

Of course, the Burmese voters could make a difference. Nobody should
underestimate their judgement. Unfortunately, they are not free to speak
out and pick their choices. In other Asian countries, voters are free to
exercise their rights! In Burma, they are under the regime's stringent
control. Everybody knows if the election is free and held in a fair
environment, there is no way the junta would win.

____________________________________

August 16, The Mercury (South Africa)
Burmese fraud

Now that Burma/Myanmar has announced that its first general election for
20 years will be held on November 7, many Western journalists will soon be
asking about voter preferences, profiling party leaders and ruminating on
the outcome.

So it needs to be spelt out in the most unequivocal terms that Burma's
coming election is a sham.

The party that won a landslide victory at the last election in 1990, the
National League for Democracy, was never allowed to take power. It has
been marginalised this time by a ruling that parties whose membership
includes political prisoners will not be allowed to register. This
effectively required it to expel its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and more
than 400 of its members who are in prison. Quite rightly, the party chose
to snub the entire process.

Meanwhile, 40 other parties have little room to manoeuvre. Those who
succeed in clambering through the regime's hoops and gaining election will
find 25 percent of the seats reserved for the military.

We must heed US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who wants
President Barack Obama to "renew his support" for Aung San Suu Kyi.

____________________________________

August 16, New Light of Myanmar
Union of Myanmar, source of gems – Aung Min Min

On the evening of 9 August 2010, I watched a news story on TV that there
emerged the forth white elephant in the Union of Myanmar. White elephants
usually emerge in only countries that see flourishing of Buddha Sasana,
heads ruling the countries in conformity with the ten precepts of a king,
and future prosperity. So, while I was watching the news on TV, my heart
swelled with joy.

In Myanmar tradition, a dream about a white elephant is an omen of
prosperous future. According to a treatise on dreams, if a person dreams
of an ordinary elephant, he will get a new friend or outside aids. If he
dreams of a white elephant, he will obtain worship from other people, he
will gain good reputation, and will be held in esteem and served choice
items of foods and drinks. When Queen Maya got pregnant with the
would-be-Buddha, she had a dream that a white elephant flied down in the
north from the sky, holding a branch of thabye (Eugenia) with his trunk,
and opened her abdomen on the right side and got into her womb. Then,
royal court Brahmins predicted that the queen got pregnant with a noble
son. This is one of the facts stated in treatises on life stories of the
Buddha to interpret the signs to predict the future.

The event is not a dream. By good fortune, I had a golden opportunity to
witness a white elephant. The white elephant, accompanied by her shed
mates, arrived at the precinct of the Uppatasanti Pagoda in Nay Pyi Taw on
9 August 2010 afternoon. Secretary-1 of the State Peace and Development
Council General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo and officials extended a
welcome to the elephant, sprinkling paritta water and scented water on it.
Her title is Baddawady.
In the Myanmar culture, white crow, white peacock, white goat, white cow,
white horse and white elephant are regarded as noble animals. White colour
represents being bright and new, cleanliness, nobleness, being free from
dangers and adoration. Therefore, Myanmar monarchs chose white cows in
royal ceremonies to plough fields to grow paddy.

According to treatises, emergence of a white elephant is in connection
with power and glory of the ruler of the nation. King Vesatara,
would-be-Buddha, was a king with a white elephant, and in his time, the
nation was peaceful and prosperous with abundant crops. According to
historical documents, King Anawrahta owned 38 white elephants apart from
his favorite white elephant. King Alaung Si Thu, grandchild of King
Kyansittha, owned 36 white elephants:King Bayintnaung, founder of the
Second Myanmar Empire, owned many white elephants including four offered
by Yodhaya king. So, he tookthe title "Hsinbyumyashin" (a king possessing
many white elephants). In his time, the nation was militarily strong and
free from dangers, and the people enjoyed economic growth and
prosperities.

Emergence of a white elephant is an omen that the nation will become
prosperous and peaceful and will enjoy greater development and will be
free from the three catastrophes namely famine, war and epidemic diseases.
In the course of Myanmar history, there were a great number of monarchs
who did not have any white elephants. Kings with white elephants were more
powerful than those without any white elephants. In addition, in the times
of the former, the nation was free from thefts, robberies and wars,
enjoyed economic development and remained peaceful with charities and
festivities.

In the time of the State Peace and Development Council, the nation has
seen four white elephants including Baddawady. The first white elephant
was discovered in Upper Nanya Village-tract, Yathedaung Township, Rakhine
State, in the third week of October 2001. It arrived in Yangon on 15
November. According to the wise in successive periods, a white elephant
has many characteristics including a pair of eyes with pearl colour, white
soles, back as curved as a banana, grey fur, a tail of door bolt shape,
and a pair of larger size of ears. The first white elephant has a pair of
pearl coloured eyes; its back is slightly curved, and grey fur and he
meets the characteristics of a white elephant. It was titled Yazagaha
Thiri Piccaya Gazayaza. The nation saw the second white elephant in April
2002. It arrived in Yangon on 5 April. She was named Theingi Marlar. The
third elephant titled Yati Marlar arrived in Yangon on 6 December 2002.

>From that time on, the nation had not seen any other elephant. Only in the

time of shaping the nation into a democratic one in accordance with the
State's seven-step Road Map, did the forth white elephant emerge.

I would like to present some facts about white elephants. Originally,
elephants (wild elephants) are native to Africa, India in South Asia, and
Thailand, Cambodia and Laos in South East Asia. However, I have never
heard that there emerges a white elephant in those regions. Ancient
treatises say that not one in every 1000 elephants can be a white
elephant. No doubt, emergence of a white elephant is a good omen.
Therefore, white elephants emerge with good signs and omens. It is
impossible to discover a white elephant however long a nation is in search
of a white elephant. Only when the ruler and a nation are of great power
and glory and auspicious occasion has come, does a white elephant emerge.

According to some treatises relating to times of monarchs, a white
elephant's whole body is white and adorable with fair complexion, good
looking and fine characteristics. Such elegant, graceful elephants are
smililar to white elephants belonging to would-be-Buddhas. If an elephant
is white the whole body with good looking and is adorable, it has all
characteristics of a white elephant. If an elephant is all white, it has
all characteristics of a white elephant. That is to say, the whole body of
an elephant is white colour, it has all characteristics of a white
elephant.

The forth white elephant Baddawady has better complexion than the other
three. Her all toe nails are white. She is gentle, calm and serene. Her
eyes are pearl colour. She has a back as curved as a banana. Needless to
say, she meets all the characteristics of a white elephant enumerated in
ancient treatises.

According to 15 treatises including Gazabada Treatise on Elephants,
Gajaviniccha Treatise by Venerable Kyaukye Monk, Treatise on
Characteristics of White Elephant by Venerable Maunghtaung Monk, and
Yodhaya White Elephant Paper by Mingyi Maha Zeya, a white elephant
possesses 64 characteristics in general and 305 characteristics in detail.
Of the 64 characteristics, 35 are related to head and face, and 29,
related to rear part of the head. According to Pitaka Treatise, white
elephants are of 10 colour, greenish blue, reddish, green, golden, cupper
and silver.

Although an elephant is not white colour, it is deemed to be a white
elephant if it possesses characteristics of a white elephant. White
elephant Baddawady is completely white with all the characteristics, thus
indicating good omens to the nation.

In the Myanmar history are records of significant events, poems of epic
proportions, classical songs, classical songs sung to the accompaniment of
harp, and songs featuring white elephants. To my knowledge, there are 13
records of significant events, six lyrical ode on the seasons, and three
verses on white elephants. So, such literary works depict that the king,
royal servants and the people adored and valued white elephants greatly.
According to Pitaka Treatise, white elephants are of 10 types: Kalawaka,
Gingayya, Pandaya, Peingala, Ganda, Mangala, Hayma, Upawthahta and
Hsaddan. White elephant Nibbana Pissa Nagayaza belonging to King Bodaw
possessed the characteristics of a Hsaddan elephant. So, he took the title
"King Master of Hsaddan Elephant". In his time, the nation was prosperous
with very strong forces and literature, music and mundane affairs thrived.

The emergence of white elephant Baddawady coincides with the nation's
transition to democracy. So, it is an omen of prosperous future of the
nation and the people. White elephants emerge only in regions where
Buddhism flourishes, the people take refuge in the Dhamma (the Teachings
of the Buddha), and the head rules the nation in consistence with the 10
precepts of a king. From 2001 to date, there have been four white
elephants, thus reflecting the fact that the Union of Myanmar possesses
those characteristics. In conclusion, I would say the Union of Myanmar
will soon become a peaceful, modern and developed land.

Translation: MS
Myanma Alin, Kyemon: 15-8-2010

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 17, Shan Women’s Action Network
New rail link to eastern Shan State spells war escalation

Shan rights groups today launched a campaign against the new Mong
Nai-Kengtung railway, denouncing it an expansion of the Burmese regime's
war apparatus in Shan State.

In recent months the regime has accelerated construction of the planned
361-km railway, the first rail link across the Salween River to eastern
Shan State. The Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) and Shan Human Rights
Foundation (SHRF) have documented how thousands of acres of farmlands have
been confiscated along the route. Farmers complaining have been told the
railroad is an “army project” and threatened with prison.

The railway cuts strategically between the northern and southern
territories of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the biggest ceasefire
group, which has resisted pressure by the regime to become a Border Guard
Force. The new line will enable rapid deployment of heavy artillery into
this remote mountainous region in the event of an offensive against the
UWSA or other ethnic resistance forces.

"This is not a passenger railway, it’s for the army’s tanks and
howitzers,” said Ying Harn Fah of SWAN.

The railway will also pass through the Mong Kok coalfields, opposite
Thailand’s Chiang Rai province, where the regime and Thai investors are
planning to excavate millions of tons of lignite and build a power plant
to sell electricity to Thailand.

"The regime is telling the world that their 2010 elections will bring
change to Burma, but on the ground they are digging in for war," said SHRF
researcher Puen Kham. "Burma's neighbours should think twice about
investing in these war zones.”

SWAN and SHRF are demanding an immediate halt to construction of the railway.

Contact persons:

Ying Harn Fah             089- 262 7848
Puen Kham                 085-6375521
Charm Tong               081-603 6655