BurmaNet News, September 2, 2010

[Editor]

September 2, 2010 Issue #4033

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: New Army chief supported massacre
Irrawaddy: Than Shwe fears snipers and suicide bombers
IMNA: NMSP refuses surrender but requests political dialogue
Khonumthung: USDP orders members to cast advance vote in Chin state

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Karen town eastern Burma’s ‘most deadly,’

ASEAN
DPA: US president plans ASEAN summit on sidelines of UN assembly

REGIONAL
RTHK: Burma leader to visit China
Xinhua: Chinese PLA escort warships conclude friendly call at Myanmar port

PRESS RELEASES / OTHER
CFOB: Canada is to support UN Commission of Inquiry on Burma
AI: UN General Assembly should call for commission of inquiry
Telegraph: Book Review: Everything is Broken
Economist: Book Review: Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant
NNT (Thailand): Registrations for alien labor workers must be in line with
Govt


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 2, Irrawaddy
New Army Chief Supported Massacre, Ko Htwe

Lt-Gen Myint Aung, the army's adjutant general, who has reportedly been
appointed as the future commander-in-chief in the recent reshuffle,
supported the decision to kill 81 innocent civilians on Christie Island
near Thai territorial waters, according to Aung Lynn Htut, a former
military intelligence officer and Charge d’ Affaires in Washington DC.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Aung Lynn Htut, who was a military
intelligence officer with the joint force involved in the operation, said:
“After [then Commodore and later Vice Admiral] Kyi Min, received the order
[to kill the villagers], he said he thought [Vice Snr Gen] Maung Aye might
have given the order when he was drunk and he would confirm it the next
morning."

"When Kyi Min discussed the order with [Lt-Gen] Myint Swe and [Lt-Gen]
Myint Aung, Myint Swe said nothing but Myint Aung supported the decision
to kill the victims, saying it was an order and they should just obey it
without bothering to confirm it," he said.

Myint Aung was then serving as Brig Gen Commander of No (13) Military
Operation Command in Bok Pyin in Tanintharyi Division.

In April 1998, after receiving reports about arms smugglers from the
Indian military, a joint Burmese air, navy and army operation took place
on Christie Island.

59 people from nearby villages including children, newly-born babies and a
pregnant women were arrested. One month later they were killed and their
bodies buried at the direct order of Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

Two days later, 22 Thai fishermen who were lost near Christie Island were
also arrested, killed and their boat sunk, according to Aung Lynn Htut.

“I had to follow orders and couldn't countermand them,” Aung Lynn Htut
said, remembering the victims and wanting to do whatever he could for
them.

According to a statement previously released by Aung Lynn Htut, Colonel
Zaw Min, now serving as minister for the No. 1 Electric Power Department
and former joint secretary general of the Union Solidarity Development
Association, Lt-Col Soe Tin, Lt-Col Win Swe and Navy Lt Commander Aung Gyi
were directly involved in the killings.

Lt Commander Aung Gyi was also the commander of the Burmese navy force
that killed the Thai fishermen on the order of Than Shwe.

Speaking of the recent military reshuffle, Aung Lynn Htut said moving top
military officials in the Burmese military leadership aimed at
perpetuating Than Shwe's power by removing officers close to his main
rival, Vice-Snr Gen Maung Aye, deputy commander in chief.

Recently, the junta's third and fourth ranking generals, Lt-Gen Shwe Mann
and Lt-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, both quit their military positions and new
officers close to Than Shwe below the age of 60 have replaced them.

Aung Lynn Htut said: “Than Shwe will remove anyone he thinks threatens
him. No one can oppose him. He can do whatever he wants in both political
and military spheres.”

He pointed out that two officers close to Maung Aye were replaced. Lt-Gen
Ye Myint, the former Chief of Military Affairs Security and the regime's
negotiator with the cease-fire armed ethnic groups who once served as
Maung Aye's personal assistant was replaced by Maj-Gen Kyaw Swe, and Air
Defense Chief Lt-Gen Myint Hlaing, who is close to Maung Aye, was replaced
by Maj-Gen Sein Win.

The newly appointed officers have no information about how former
officials dealt with the ethnic armed groups nor about dialogue with
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, he said.

"Former dictator Gen Ne Win reshuffled his commanders in the military
every 3-5 years and Than Shwe is following in his footsteps," said Win
Htein, a former captain in the Burmese armed forces and personal assistant
to Suu Kyi.

“High ranking commanders who are left in their posts for too long can
build up power, so they are frequently rotated," he said.

"The reshuffle was not made out of state interests," he said, adding that
it also served as a redeployment in preparation for the election.

I don't detect any dissent in the army. They just have to follow orders
and let themselves be moved around,” he said.
____________________________________


September 2, Irrawaddy
Than Shwe Fears Snipers and Suicide Bombers

Burma's junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe is reportedly worried about possible
assassination attempts against him these days, according to military
intelligent sources.

“Our higher-ups have informed us that there are concerns about the senior
general being targeted by snipers and suicide bombers ahead of the
election,” a junior officer in military security affairs told The
Irrawaddy.

“So, we were told to increase security awareness,” he said, on condition
of anonymity.

The military officer said the reports speculate that an assassination
attempt might originate from the Myawaddy and Mae Sot area near the
Thailand-Burma border, and security has been beefed up along the
checkpoints on roads leading out of Myawaddy.

The reclusive 77-year-old dictator has never encountered an assassination
attempt since he came to power in 1992. Reports say that he lives in a
residence in the military headquarters in Napyidaw. He makes few public
appearances, and he rarely visits the former capital, Rangoon.

Instructions have been issued to scrutinize goods and to record the
identity cards of passengers entering Naypidaw, according to a bus driver.

“We have been told to cover any suspicious object with sand bags and to
report to the authorities,” he said. “But no one cares about the
instructions.”

In August, in an attempt to assassinate Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the regime's
former military intelligence chief, Karen National Liberation Army troops
ambushed a convoy of regime troops near Kawkareik Township in Karen State,
leaving at least five people dead and two wounded. All Burmese senior
military officials escaped unhurt. It was later learned that Ye Myint was
not in the convoy.

There have been no recent incidents of sniper or bombing attacks against
the junta's top generals, however.

Last week, there were reports of massive resignations of military
officials from the army and also that Than Shwe and his deputy, Gen Maung
Aye, resigned from their military posts as commander-in-chief and deputy
commander-in-chief.
____________________________________


September 2, Independent Mon News Agency
NMSP refuses surrender but requests political dialogue

The New Mon State Party (NMSP) has refused to surrender its armed wing,
the Mon National Liberation Army (MNLA) to the State Peace and Development
Council (SDCP), but has requested that political dialogue remain open
between the two groups.

The NMSP sent their refusal in a letter to the Southeast Command (SEC) in
Moulmein on September 1st, the decision deadline given to the NMSP  by SEC
Commander Maj. Gen  Thet Naing Win. The deadline was issued to the NMSP’s
Central Executive Command (CEC) during an August 23rd  2010 meeting
between the two groups at the SEC’s office in Moulmein. According to
reports, General Thet Naing Win informed the NMSP that a refusal would
result in the breakdown of the 15-year ceasefire between the two groups.

“We [the NMSP] reported the NMSP’s  final decision on September 1st . The
NMSP rejected their order [to surrender], but we do not know yet, what the
SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] will do to the NMSP,” an NMSP
CEC member reported.

A copy of the letter sent from the NMSP to the SEC in Moulmein stated that
while the NMSP refuses to submit its army to the SPDC at the current time,
it still desires a “discussion  of political issues with the current
government or the future government [of Burma] while maintaining the
ceasefire.”

Previous demands from the Burmese government in April of this year
involved orders that the NMSP transform the MNLA into a SPDC-controlled
Border Guard Force (BGF) or people’s militia. The demands issued in August
reportedly only stipulated that the MNLA be surrendered to the Burmese
government, and ordered the NMSP to refrain from interfering in  the
upcoming 2010 elections.

“The NMSP rejected the BGF, for that [offer] the NMSP already gave its
decision on April 22nd to the SPDC, for this final deadline [for
surrender], we reject that cause as well” said NMSP foreign affairs
officer Nai Handar Pon Khaing.

Despite the party’s refusal of the SPDC’s latest commands, NMSP sources
claim that yesterday’s letter requested that political dialogue remain
open between the two groups, as a way of maintaining the ceasefire and
preserve peace in Mon areas. Instead of a surrender, the NMSP offered the
idea of a future compromise: the conversion of the MNLA into a federally
controlled “state defense” armed group, in charge of defending Mon areas.

The NMSP’s missive indicated that the party, despite its current refusal
to collaborate the SPDC, does subscribe to the current that Burma should
only contain one army:

“Even though it [the party] didn’t accept a changing of arms in the
current situation, it [the party] has accepted that, as in the
constitution, that only one army [should be] under a federal and
democratic system, it is appropriate within the constitution to  [have a]
change of arms. The party’s desire was reported that the ethnics armed
groups form to be included as a part of the federal army, and put under
the control of the state government as a state defense.”

The NMSP’s refusal letter has reportedly been sent from the SEC office in
Moulmein to the government center in Naypyidow; the SPDC has yet to issue
a response.
____________________________________


September 2, Khonumthung News
USDP orders members to cast advance vote in Chin state

In what could tantamount to a blatant attempt at flouting electoral laws
the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has ordered its members
and government employees, who have been transferred, to cast votes in
advance from August 21 in Falam constituency, Chin state western Burma.

“It is only meant for USDP members. They want to gauge how many votes they
have,” said a member of the township commission.

However, there is no certainty whether these votes will be officially
accepted on 7 November, the day of the election.

“There is no official order from the Election Commission to cast votes in
advance. It is being done following an understanding between the township
commission and the USDP,” said Pu Nang Thang, CPP candidate.

About 21 votes have been garnered till today. As the candidates’ names are
written on the card in Burmese language, the officer in-charge explained
and helped them.

“The voting booth is at the commission’s office. Each voting booth and
card is meant for the candidates of the National Parliament, People's
Parliament and State Parliament,” said a local.

For the USDP, Daw Sui Tluai is contesting for the National Parliament, Pu
Lalthiang Hlim is contesting for the People’s Parliament and Pu Ngun Lal
for the State Parliament from Falam township constituency.

“The commission and the USDP are in fact the current government. For us
they are re-enacting the 1990 general election period,” said a member of
the National Union Party (NUP).

The Election Commission office is operating from the Township agriculture
office in Falam Township, where candidates of USDP, CPP, CNP and NUP will
contest in Falam constituency.

Meanwhile, the USDP is trying to arrange advance casting of votes in
Tiddim, Tonzang, Hakha and Thantlang townships from September 25.

In the 1990 general elections, the Election Commission had allowed votes
to be cast one month in advance.

 ____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Karen town eastern Burma’s ‘most deadly,’ Gayatri Lakshmibai

Upland areas in northern Karen state demand urgent humanitarian aid
efforts in light of consistent and “intense” military attacks, a report
released by a local human rights group has said.

The study, conducted by Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) from January 2009
to April 2010 in northern Papun district, which borders Thailand, claims
that the atrocities faced by civilians in Lu Thaw township as a result of
army attacks in the past two decades is one of the worst cases in Karen
state.

Reports indicate that over 3300 villages have been destroyed by the
Burmese junta in eastern Burma alone, thereby making it Asia’s worst
internally displaced persons (IDP) crisis zone.

“The [Lu Thaw township] area was a site of a very intense offensive from
2005 to 2008. As of today, 27,000 people continue to live in hiding in the
forests, the mountains. Some have been displaced to urban areas or forced
relocation sites in lowland areas, while others have escaped to refugee
camps in Thailand,” Matt Finch, spokesperson for the KHRG, told DVB.

Lu Thaw township has been subject to army attacks for the last two
decades. The military offensive tactics include shelling in villages,
burning down houses, schools, churches and food storage areas, and
planting landmines so villagers are unable to return home.

Such onslaughts have caused widespread displacement of people and
deterioration of humanitarian conditions. Health, food security and access
to education have been severely affected.

“There are a couple of inter-related reasons for attacks on civilians in
these areas. The civilian population here has been able to evade control
by the Burmese army. The attacks are therefore designed in such a way that
they can drive the civilians into areas from where they can be better
controlled,” Finch said.

According to Finch, the Karen people in the specified area provide the
Burmese army with “a crucial support base with respect to forced labour,
source of taxation, source of intelligence, and so on.”

Another reason for targeting populations in Papun district is their
affiliation with the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) – a rebel army
which has fought the Burmese forces for over two decades. It is a priority
for the army to keep civilians out of the KNLA’s reach.

Currently, there are no international humanitarian aid efforts undertaken
in the upland areas of Papun district. The majority of the external
support received by the population here is from local organisations based
in Thailand.

“Deliberate attacks on relief workers have kept away many humanitarian
organisations from continuing their work in Lu Thaw. For example, a member
of a mobile medical team was killed in an army attack in July earlier this
year. [Events like] this have significant impacts on other humanitarian
organisations’ decisions to work here,” Finch explained.

International aid workers also face many hurdles with the junta laying
down strict rules that make functioning increasingly difficult for them.
The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) is said to have stopped
working in the area in 2007 owing to harsh restrictions laid down by the
Burmese government regarding accessing civilian populations.

Finch said that any assumption that attacks would drop in the run up to
the 7 November elections in line with the junta’s move to warm to
civilians and their votes should be approached cautiously. “We do not
expect voting to be held in the upland areas of Karen state, so the
attacks will continue until, during and after the election,” he said.

The report recommends that immediate humanitarian aid begin in Lu Thaw
township. However, given the numerous constraints laid down by the Burmese
government – flushing out of humanitarian aid workers countrywide prior to
the election – will make it difficult for the recommendations to
materialise.


____________________________________
ASEAN

September 2, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
US president plans ASEAN summit on sidelines of UN assembly

Bangkok - US President Barack Obama has invited the leaders of South-East
Asia to a summit on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly,
reports said Thursday.

Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of South-East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), told The Nation online news service that Obama had set
September 24 for the meeting at a "special" venue in New York.

"The US recognizes the big shift from the West to the East after the
global financial crisis," Surin said. "So far, most of the ASEAN leaders
are positive" about the suggested meeting, Surin said.

He said the summit, which will last two hours, demonstrated the "growing
momentum" of US-ASEAN relations.

When Obama took power, he vowed to "re-engage" with South-East Asia, which
has been overshadowed by US interest in China and India over the past
decade.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 3, Radio Television Hong Kong
Burma leader to visit China

The head of Burma's military government, General Than Shwe, will visit
China next week. The Foreign Ministry says he will meet President Hu
Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing, see the World Expo in Shanghai
and also visit Shenzhen. While Burma is the subject of Western sanctions,
China is its main trading partner and a key ally.

____________________________________

September 2, Xinhua via People’s Daily Online
Chinese PLA escort warships conclude friendly call at Myanmar port

Two warships of the 5th Escort Task group of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army (PLA)- Navy left Myanmar Thursday after concluding a
five-day friendly call at Yangon's Thilawa Port .

The mission of the two warships -- "Guangzhou" and "Caohu", led by
Commander of the Chinese escort task group Zhang Wendan, was aimed at
promoting friendly relationship between the two armed forces of the two
countries and exchange between the two navies.
A grand see-off ceremony was launched for the two Chinese warships before
their departure, and was attended by high ranking Myanmar naval officials,
Chinese embassy officials as well as representatives of Chinese companies
based in Myanmar and local Chinese residents.

During the first call of the Chinese naval warships at Myanmar port which
started on Aug. 29, the Chinese PLA escort task group launched a series of
exchange with the Myanmar navy.

Myanmar is the fourth country that the 5th Chinese PLA escort task group
called on after completing its escort missions in the gulf of Aden and the
waters off Somali coast.

Prior to Myanmar, the escort task group had called on Egypt, Italy and
Greece.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASES / OTHER

For Immediate Release

September 3, Canadian Friends of Burma

Breaking news! Canada is to support UN Commission of Inquiry on Burma

Ottawa – Canadian Friends of Burma has learned that the Government of
Canada is to support a UN Commission of Inquiry on Burma, according to a
spokesperson to the Canadian Foreign Minister.

“Canada supports both the UN Special Rapporteur’s work on human rights
abuses in Burma, and the idea of a UN Commission of Inquiry into human
rights abuses by the Burmese regime,” said Ms. Catherine Loubier, a
spokesperson, quoting Minister Lawrence Cannon. (Video clip of the
Minister’s statement will be available tomorrow Sept.3, 2010)

“We will work with our allies in the international community to develop a
common approach to support the recommendations that the Rapporteur will
present to an upcoming session of the UN General Assembly,” she added.

“We welcome this position from the Government of Canada,” said Tin Maung
Htoo, executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma. “Canada is indeed
responding to a mounting call from all corners - both domestic and
international community - to support a UN Commission of Inquiry into human
rights violations in Burma,” he added.

Recently, all three opposition parties: Liberals Party of Canada, New
Democrat Party (NDP) and Bloc Quebecois – supported the call, urging the
Conservative government to support it.

Moreover, 81 MPs and Senators also endorsed such call. And a number of
Canadian civil society organizations including labor unions and Burmese
dissident communities in Canada also requested the government t o support
this call.

London-based Burma Campaign UK and Washington D.C-based US Campaign for
Burma also requested the government to support the commission and
mobilized their relevant constituencies for campaigns and rallies. “On
behalf of Canadian Friends of Burma, I would like to thank all supporters
across Canada and around the world to work together to make this happen,”
said Tin Maung Htoo.

-30-

Media contact: 613-297-6835

The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) is federally incorporated, national
non-governmental organization working for democracy and human rights in
Burma. Contact: Suite 206, 145 Spruce St., Ottawa, K1R 6P1; Tel:
613.237.8056; Email: cfob at cfob.org; Web: www.cfob.org
____________________________________


PUBLIC STATEMENT

3 September, Amnesty International
Myanmar: UN General Assembly should call for commission of inquiry

AI Index: ASA16/011/2010

Amnesty International is calling on the UN General Assembly to adopt a
resolution ensuring the urgent establishment of an international
commission of inquiry into serious human rights violations committed in
Myanmar, including crimes against humanity and possible war crimes.

The establishment of such a commission was recommended by the UN Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar in March. 
Australia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK and the USA have since
voiced their support.

The General Assembly should request the UN Secretary-General to rapidly
establish a commission to investigate reports of violations of
international human rights and humanitarian law in Myanmar by all parties,
and to identify the perpetrators of such violations with a view to
ensuring that those responsible for the crimes are brought to justice.

In particular, the inquiry should focus on reports of widespread and
systematic persecution of civilian populations by government security
forces, especially against the largely Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority in
Rakhine State; the ethnic minority Shan in Shan State; and the ethnic
minority Karen in eastern Myanmar.  The commission should also investigate
reports of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law
by armed groups in the Shan State and in eastern Myanmar.

A June 2008 Amnesty International report, Crimes against humanity in
eastern Myanmar, documented unlawful killings, torture and other
ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, forced labour, arbitrary arrests,
and various forms of collective punishment, committed as part of a
widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population in
northern Kayin State and eastern Bago Division starting in late 2005. 
Amnesty International continues to receive reports of violations of
international humanitarian law and human rights law, committed with
impunity in Myanmar.

The report also highlighted the Myanmar government’s persistent failure to
implement the recommendations of the General Assembly, which has adopted
19 resolutions on Myanmar.

The government has signalled its intention to maintain this impunity for
its officials accused of past human rights violations.  Article 445 of its
2008 Constitution—which will come into force via Myanmar’s first national
elections since 1990 set for 7 November 2010—grants present and past
officials complete impunity, providing that “no proceeding” may be
instituted against officials of the military governments since 1988 “in
respect of any act done in the execution of their respective duties.”

With no possibility of justice, truth and reparations for victims at the
national level, the international community must take action now.

Background

In his March 2010 report to the UN Human Rights Council (A/HRC/13/48),
Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana stated that, “According to
consistent reports, the possibility exists that some of these human rights
violations may entail categories of crimes against humanity or war crimes
under the terms of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
[
] Given this lack of accountability, United Nations institutions may
consider the possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a
specific fact-finding mandate to address the question of international
crimes.”

A UN commission of inquiry into alleged war crimes, crimes against
humanity or genocide can be established by the Security Council, the
General Assembly, the Human Rights Council or the Secretary-General.

/ENDS
____________________________________


September 2, Telegraph (UK)
Review: “Everything is Broken: The Untold Story of Disaster Under Burma's
Military Regime,” Simon Scott Plummer

As we are discovering this summer, natural disasters can cruelly expose
the shortcomings of governments. Russia has tried to divert attention from
inadequate firefighting equipment by crude publicity stunts. In Pakistan,
the authorities have been overwhelmed by the flooding of the River Indus
under torrential monsoon rains.

If these ordeals by fire and water have confirmed failings that we
suspected, no such doubt should have surrounded the way in which the
Burmese junta would react to the cyclone that struck the Irrawaddy Delta
on May 2 2008. Over 40 years the regime has reduced a well-endowed land to
penury and crushed all resistance. In 1990 it ignored a landslide election
victory by the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The odium the stolen election incited left Burma’s generals isolated and
heightened their fear of being overthrown. Their first reaction when
Cyclone Nargis struck was, therefore, not to lose control. That meant,
initially, refusing entry to foreign aid workers and confining those
already in the country to Rangoon.

The supreme leader, Senior General Than Shwe, took more than a fortnight
to acknowledge publicly the catastrophe. And on May 10 he had the gall to
go ahead with a referendum on a new constitution designed to entrench
military rule, subsequently claiming that it had been supported by more
than 90 per cent of voters. This grotesque exercise took place while
Rangoon and the delta were being battered by wind and waves that could
have claimed more than 500,000 lives and devastated an area responsible
for 65 per cent of the nation’s rice output and 80 per cent of its fishery
products. The generals’ sole concern was their political survival.

One only wishes that Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, had
been able to persuade the UN Security Council to authorise the delivery of
aid by force: the means were there. Many lives would have been saved, and
the regime could even have been fatally undermined.

Emma Larkin is a pseudonym for an American writer based in Bangkok who has
been a regular visitor to Burma, slipping in on tourist visas, since the
early Nineties. As well as protecting her own name, she has given false
identities to her interviewees.

Her account of the 2008 disaster is both graphic and painstaking. She also
reminds us of the megalomaniac nature of the regime, seen in the building
of the new capital, Naypyidaw, and of its bizarre fascination with the
occult.

At the end of her book, Larkin recalls the collapse last year of the
ancient Danok Pagoda near Rangoon, shortly after it had been restored and
graced with a ceremonial visit by Than Shwe’s wife. “It was a fearful omen
for the regime; an irreversible and supernatural declaration of
dissatisfaction with Burma’s current rulers,” she writes.

But if celestial powers are angry, earthly ones are more tolerant. While
Larkin leaves no doubt about the nature of the regime, she fails to
mention its neighbours.

China would prefer a totalitarian entity on its south-western border, and
has helped the generals with military and economic aid. Its strategic
rival, India, has not wanted to be left behind. And the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member, has regularly pulled
its punches over the junta’s hideous human rights record.

Like North Korea, the generals have learned how to make the best of a poor
diplomatic hand.

____________________________________


September 2, Economist
Myanmar's Than Shwe, A tyrant nobody knows

Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant. By Benedict Rogers.

“Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after” wrote W.H. Auden in his
“Epitaph on a Tyrant”. Perhaps it is this ambition that moves Than Shwe,
the “senior general” in the junta which has run Myanmar into the ground.
It may explain an inexplicable folly: building Naypyidaw (“Seat of
Kings”), a grand new capital in a remote malaria-ridden area 320km (200
miles) from Yangon, Myanmar’s main city and former capital.

The project seems to obsess him. In this biography, Benedict Rogers
recounts an anecdote from a former American military attaché in Myanmar,
who approached Than Shwe at a reception to introduce himself. Before he
could utter a word, Than Shwe recited: “Canberra, Sydney; Washington, DC,
New York; The Hague, Amsterdam; Ottawa, Toronto. Many countries have an
administrative capital separate from the major economic and population
centres.” Then he sauntered away.

At least the American recognised the general. If Than Shwe were to take
his place in a line-up of war criminals and tyrants, few outside his own
country would know either the face or the name. Yet Than Shwe has for two
decades misruled a country of more than 50m people. So Mr Rogers’s attempt
to analyse his life story is a valiant bid to do what is clearly needed.

Sadly, however, his search for the truth is doomed. Even if Mr Rogers, a
writer and human-rights activist, knew Burmese, he would grapple with the
secrecy that surrounds the junta. As it is, he has had to rely on gossip,
anecdote, dubious official reports, speculation and extrapolation. Even a
detail as basic as where the general was born is carefully attributed to
“a source close to a businessman reputed to be close to Than Shwe”.

Worse, Than Shwe seems to be several different people. A senior United
Nations envoy thinks him “quite a vain guy”, who “dresses well, sits
straight and looks good.” To a former Thai diplomat, however, he is “a
stout man with glasses and teeth covered in red spots from betel nut”.

Some things were already known about him: that he outraged public opinion
when leaked video footage showed his daughter’s astonishingly lavish
wedding, in one of the poorest countries in the world. It is also no
secret that he is superstitious. It is less known perhaps that a favourite
soothsayer is “a tiny, hunched deaf-mute in her mid-forties”, widely known
as “ET”. And it may not be general knowledge that one explanation for
another folly—forcing farmers to plant jatropha for biofuels—was that an
astrologer had advised this method to neutralise the powers of his
nemesis, the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

But if the book adds little to what we know for certain about Than Shwe,
it is nevertheless a timely account of the awfulness of the regime he
heads, whose leaders seem sure to continue to hold real power even after a
stage-managed election in November. As Mr Rogers points out, Than Shwe’s
predecessor, Ne Win, also gave his dictatorship a civilian mask.

But Than Shwe himself remains a mystery: not least because few people seem
to think him very bright. His tactical nous and staying power have been
consistently underestimated, perhaps because of the consensus
characteristic that emerges from Mr Rogers’s biography: in the words of a
Western diplomat whom he quotes, Than Shwe is “a bit of a thug”.

____________________________________

September 1, National News Bureau of Thailand
DoE: Registrations for alien labor workers must be in line with Govt policy

Bangkok - Addressing the request from non-governmental organizations and
the national human rights commission of Thailand that it hold another
round of registrations for alien workers, the Department of Employment
(DoE) says it is ready to do so, if it is in line with the government’s
policy.

According to DoE Director-General Jirasak Sukonthachart, the department
would have to discuss the matter with the Labor Minister. It would also
hold discussions with Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia on the issue, asking
those countries to instruct their respective citizens to register with the
Department, which will enable them to be legally and gainfully employed in
Thailand; should the Thai government give the Department a nod to go ahead
with another round of registration of alien workers.

The Director-General added that businesses wishing to employ legal alien
workers could do so by notifying the DoE, or its provincial offices
nationwide, of their needs, so the Department could proceed with the
applications in accordance with the law.