BurmaNet News, September 18 - 20, 2010

[Editor]

September 18 – 20, 2010 Issue #4045


INSIDE BURMA
Telegraph (UK): Aung San Suu Kyi barred from Burma election
Irrawaddy: NLD continues boycott activities despite threats

ON THE BORDER
Indo-Asian News Service (India): Crackdown against illegal Myanmar
immigrants launched

BUSINESS / TRADE
Daily Mail (UK): The curse of the blood rubies: Inside Burma's brutal gem
trade

DRUGS
AFP: Drugs flood from Myanmar as rebels fear crackdown: experts

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Activists cry foul over NGO's Berlin talk
Mizzima: Britain condemns closure of NLD and ethnic parties, calls
election ‘a sham’

OPINION / OTHER
Wall Street Journal: Business as usual With Burma – Editorial
DVB: UN inaction on Burma war crimes ‘unjustifiable’ – Sir Geoffrey Nice
QC and Julianne Kerr Stevenson
New Light of Myanmar: I am worried – A Law Analyst

PRESS RELEASE
WLB: Statement on International Day of Peace: “To get genuine peace in
Burma, lets oppose the 2010 election!”




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 20, Telegraph (UK)
Aung San Suu Kyi barred from Burma election – Ian MacKinnon

Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been officially
barred from voting in the forthcoming general election, the first poll in
the military-run state in two decades.

Bangkok – The Nobel peace laureate’s name is missing from the electoral
rolls posted in the district of the commercial capital, Rangoon, where she
has been detained in a lakeside villa for 14 of the past 20 years.

Laws passed governing the election set for November 7 had already
effectively barred Mrs Suu Kyi, 65, from taking part, but the list’s
publication in Rangoon’s Bahan township are the first official
confirmation of her exclusion.

International criticism of the election has been mounting, with observers
denouncing it as the junta’s effort to consolidate its grip on power under
thinly veiled democracy.

Last week William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, joined the growing chorus
deriding it as a “sham process designed to keep the regime in power and
keep the Burmese people their right to freely choose their leaders”.

His remarks followed the announcement by Burma’s Election Commission that
Mrs Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party had been disbanded
for failing to register for the poll.

The NLD – which won by a landslide the last 1990 elections whose results
were ignored by the ruling generals – said it would not compete in the
forthcoming poll which would be neither free nor fair.

New election laws barred Mrs Suu Kyi from standing in the poll or evening
being a member of her own party, which has been threatened with fines and
lengthy jail terms if it continues to criticise the election.

The legislation, widely believed to be aimed at Mrs Suu Kyi, also barred
convicted persons from voting.

She is currently serving an 18-month sentence for violating the terms of
her house arrest by sheltering an eccentric American man who swam
uninvited across the lake to her house. Her sentence expires on November
13, six days after the poll.

____________________________________

September 20, Irrawaddy
NLD continues boycott activities despite threats – Ba Kaung

Members of the disbanded National League for Democracy party (NLD)
continued their election boycott activities despite the regime's warning
of jail threats on Saturday.

Referring to the boycott activities of the NLD, the regime media warned
that those activities can amount to disruptions of voting and those
responsible for the acts could be jailed for up to one year.

Undeterred by the warning, however, a group of NLD leaders in Rangoon
continue their tour of several towns in Central Burma, spreading the
message of their detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi that the Burmese people
have a right not to vote.

“We will not decrease or stop our activities,” said Han Thar Myint, a
central executive member of the NLD, speaking by phone from Yenanchaung, a
city famous for its oil industry. “If we care about what the government
said, we will not able to do anything.”

On Monday in Yenanchaung, he and a few other NLD leaders met with local
party members, briefing them about the party's boycott stance against the
Nov. 7 election.

“A boycott means that as NLD party members, we will not vote.
Simultaneously, we will monitor the election and make complaints about
irregularities on behalf of people,” he said.

Over the weekend, his group has already visited other towns such as
Aunglan, Taungdwingyi and Natmauk. The meetings also included party
members from nearby towns.

On Sunday, other NLD leaders also wrapped up similar tours to Mandalay,
Chin State and the northern part of Shan State while other leaders are
planning a trip to Myitkyina in Kachin State for the same purpose.

Suu Kyi urged the party to make the tours and the idea was implemented by
party members, according to party Vice Chairman Tin Oo.

“We are not telling people not to vote. We are telling them that they can
exercise the right not to vote,” Tin Oo said.

In the meetings, the party leaders have mostly met with party members
instead of directly reaching out to the local public in order to avoid
confrontation with the authorities which have not as yet taken any actions
against them.

“We are explaining to people that this election will make no difference
for the country. Under this Constitution the parliament cannot form a
government. Only the president is empowered to form it,” said lawyer Aung
Thein, a party member who came back for a similar tour from Chin State.

Former NLD members who formed the National Democratic Force (NDF) which is
contesting the election expressed concern that these NLD activities could
lead to a low voter turnout, making it more likely for the junta's proxy
party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), to win a
landslide victory.

“If people don't vote, the parliament will be filled with USDP
representatives. They [NLD leaders] don't know about that,” said Khin
Maung Swe, a NDF leader and a former NLD leading member.

But the voter turnout is the focus of current NLD activities.

“Our aim is to effectively de-legitimize the election which can be
achieved when less voters turn out,” said Han Thar Myint. “Whatever the
impact of our activities, we will speak out for the people who should not
take the injustices lying down.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 19, Indo-Asian News Service (India)
Crackdown against illegal Myanmar immigrants launched

Aizawl/Agartala -- The Mizoram government has launched a crackdown against
Myanmar nationals living in the state without documents, officials said
Sunday.

"The Mizoram Armed Police in the past two days have apprehended 52
Myanmarese from Aizawl and outskirts where (they) have set up colonies," a
police spokesman said.

The official said the illegal entrants would be pushed back soon to Myanmar.

The number of Myanmarese living in different parts of Mizoram has now been
estimated at around 50,000.

The Mizoram government with the permission of the union home ministry has
given entry passes and temporary stay permits to Myanmarese, who work in
jewellery shops, vehicular service centres, shops, restaurants and cloth
factories and at construction works.

"However, a large number of Myanmar citizens illegally took entry into the
state and have been staying in Mizoram," the police official said.

Aizawl Superintendent of Police Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said the home
ministry recently told the Mizoram government that the Myanmar-Mizo
nationals without valid entry permits could cross the Indo-Myanmar border
and travel a maximum of 16 km into northeastern state for trading.

Khiangte said the police crackdown was launched as some immigrants
recently indulged in crime, including drugs related deeds.

Meanwhile, the Tripura Police have also apprehended seven Myanmarese,
including four women, in Agartala after they sneaked in from Bangladesh.

"They entered the Indian territory through Sonamura border in western
Tripura," a police official said.

"During preliminary questioning, the Myanmarese told police that they
tried to go to other parts of India through Tripura and Assam to find
jobs," the official said.

"Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing their country to escape atrocities by
members of the rival community in Myanmar," said one of the arrested men,
Tayub.

He told the police: "We are not allowed to travel from one village to
another without permission from the army. We are not even allowed to marry
without the permission of the authorities."

Since mid-1990s, over 225,000 Myanmarese have taken shelter in the Cox's
Bazar district of Bangladesh. They are believed to have taken shelter in
Bangladesh to escape religious oppression by the Myanmar government.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 18, Daily Mail (UK)
The curse of the blood rubies: Inside Burma's brutal gem trade – Dan
Mcdougall

They are the most expensive gems per carat on Earth  -  and Burma is
blessed with an abundance of them. The trade in Burmese rubies is banned,
but as a Live investigation discovers, the country's corrupt military
junta is forcing people to mine them in slave-labour conditions to line
their own pockets  -  and business is booming

Beneath a shroud of grey moonlight the road to Mandalay is as elusive as a
ghost as it twists and turns away from the plateau and plunges down into
the valley floor. Through the gloom, with our headlights dimmed to avoid
army patrols, our aged Datsun painstakingly crawls along the rough gravel
highway as we look for signs of life in the Burmese hinterland.

Suddenly, at a bend in a river, we see the dull glow from dozens of
kerosene lamps in the middle distance. Silhouetted against the night sky
men, women and children are silently clawing into loose rock with blunt
iron tools and bare hands.

Squatting along the rocky bank they are risking everything; scrounging for
deadly crumbs from the military junta's table. It is, by all accounts, a
suicidal mission, but in the fire of these villagers' eyes are dark,
brooding stones. They're scouring the earth for rubies.

Known for their strong fluorescence, Burmese rubies - the most expensive
gems per carat in the world - are cherished the world over for their
clarity, quality and above all their lush red 'Pigeon's Blood' hue. Rubies
like these exist nowhere else on Earth.

In literature, the stones, scraped from the dead earth at our feet, have
been used as symbol of virginity, but here in Burma, as a Live magazine
investigation has uncovered, nothing about this gem business is pure.

Over the past decade campaigns by Amnesty International and Global
Witness, together with high-profile Hollywood movie blockbusters starring
Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicolas Cage, have helped educate the public about
'blood diamonds', by loose definition stones mined in war zones and sold
secretly to finance insurgency or a warlord's army. But at the same time
precious gems mined to help fund military regimes seem to have escaped the
same level of international focus.

According to campaigners, nowhere is this oversight more apparent than in
Burma, where the world's most famous rubies continue to be mined in
slave-labour conditions and where almost every stone to emerge from the
earth ultimately represents a strengthening of the ruling military junta's
position.

Over the past four decades, the world has witnessed a nation that was once
considered the most economically promising in south-east Asia become one
of the most military oppressed and underdeveloped in the world.

According to the U.S. State Department, the mining of rubies, as well as
jade, not only helps fund the Burmese military junta, but is also at the
centre of innumerable and well-documented crimes against humanity that
include the implementation of forced labour in mines, the systematic rape
of women and young girls, and the ethnic cleansing of opposition minority
groups living near sources of mineral wealth.

Last month the international pressure against Burma increased as Barack
Obama's administration decided to support the creation of a United Nations
commission to look into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in
the country.

President Obama's move came as Burma's military junta announced that its
first open elections in two decades will be held on November 7. Critics
say the move towards democracy is a mere sham designed to perpetuate the
military's commanding role in politics and shut out most of the
opposition, including the imprisoned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

It was the latest of a number of strong-arm moves by the U.S. In 2008 the
U.S. Government created an effective embargo against the import of Burmese
rubies and jade into the country. A similar edict was later adopted by the
EU. Yet according to critics of economic embargos the prospects of Western
sanctions on precious stones forcing the Burmese military to give up power
is practically zero.

As Live has discovered during an undercover assignment in Burma, the trade
in rubies is, in fact, as strong as ever  -  and in the full glare of the
international community stones are being sold at auction in the Burmese
capital, Yangon, to raise desperately needed hard currency for the
military establishment.

The forbidden town of Mogok is an unbroken mass of decrepit clapboard
buildings and rusted corrugated tin roofs. Like many parts of Burma, it
has become a no-go zone for foreigners. Here the price of capture without
the correct papers is certain arrest. Above the valley where we stand,
small temples and shrines, some glistening marble white, nestle on the
hills that surround the town. Everywhere is silent.

For the past 50 years the mines have effectively been nationalised and
today are under the brutal control of the Burmese military. Along the road
to the town the stamp of military rule is everywhere, from road signs
warning travellers not to continue to abundant army patrols.

'There are rubies in Mogok as big as your fist but the route further into
the valley is impossible,' says our driver. He is resolutely refusing to
go any further. 'Mogok is closed sir. It has been closed for ten years.'

We have reached our impasse with the driver close to the village of
Namsèka, 15 miles south of Mogok in the narrow valley of the Nampai. Here
is where the ruby tract really begins and beneath our feet a complex
network of pits and tunnels leads to the finest rubies ever discovered by
man.

In this valley getting gems from the ground is incredibly hard work. Huge
bulldozers now plough deep holes in the earth but even today it is raw
manpower that achieves the final product. The most common method of
recovering gems is in the open-pit mines. Extraction requires
high-pressure water cannons, sometimes four firing at one time. The water
washes the gem gravel that is pumped into circular stone pits, where the
heavy waste is trapped in a series of long sluices from which rubies are
recovered by hand. Lighter waste is washed into the valley below, where
the residue is picked over further by hand.

Mogok's rubies actually vary in colour. Pure corundum, from which rubies
are formed, is colourless. Rubies actually get their colour from chromium.
The term ruby is used only for deep red gem stones, while other variants
are referred to as sapphires, which get their colour from iron and
titanium impurities. In the tunnels beneath us most are engaged in the
search for one stone only  -  rubies the colour of pigeon blood.

As we argue at the side of the road we are approached by an old lady
clutching a small battered tin. Inside, wrapped in a leathery cloth, she
produces four tiny colourless sapphires and rubs her fingers together to
suggest we make a bid.

She is toothless and bares an enormous scar along the side of her face.

'We are forbidden from mining now. My husband mined here, in the open-cast
mines,' she says through our translator. 'Now the army are here and they
are going deeper underground. They tell people in the valley that they
must dig for them. At night our children and young men dig for ourselves
and hope they can get stones to the Thai border, where they can escape
this place forever.'

Later, by foot, we reach a ridge close to Mogok's most productive gem pit,
the 'Safari' mine, which reputedly produces about 800g  -  or 4,000 carats
 -  per day.

Further along the road we encounter a family of six, including four
children under 14. Their faces speckled with mud and grey earth, they are
returning from an artisanal mining operation on the fringes of the main
mine. Behind them, emerging from the woods like shrews, dozens of other
artisanal miners stay clear of the roadside, avoiding our gaze.

'Some soldiers let us fight for scraps in abandoned gem pits,' says Kywa,
the father leading his children home from the pits.

'But they search our homes at night to frighten us. If we find any larger
stones we must pass them along. They belong to the government. In the
village next to ours, older children and all the young men were taken by
force. We believe they're working in mines deeper in the valley. Each day
their mothers camp outside the army barracks appealing for their return.'

He adds: 'I wasn't a prisoner but I worked in one of the larger mines,
owned by a military consortium, and the conditions were terrible. You work
with water every day, hosing down the ore and eventually your skin goes
grey and starts peeling. The water is filthy and in the rainy season many
people get pneumonia and suffer horrendous illnesses. I was paid less than
$5 a month.

'Deep in the valley there are army camps where prisoners, including
children, mine for the soldiers in the smallest pits  -  which is why they
need the youngsters. Nothing gets out of there onto the black market.
Nothing.

'We used to have commerce and passing trade here. We had some tourists
passing through, but now this valley is closed. We don't know what they
are hiding in the valley but it might not just be rubies. They are mining
for other metals down there, we are told.'

As we pass through villages, we find that talk of uranium exploration is
rife. The Myanmar (Burma) Ministry Of Energy recently listed five key
areas of the country with the potential for uranium mining: two of the
areas identified, Kyaukphygon and Paongpyin, are in the Mogok Valley.


>From our investigations in the Mogok Valley it is abundantly clear that

the military junta controls the lucrative mining activity with fear and
intimidation, leaving most of Burma's people poor and facing the threat of
imprisonment and forced labour.

Today the junta has a direct ownership interest in many mines, in some
cases through joint ventures with private entrepreneurs, themselves often
relatives of senior generals. Human rights organisations also claim that
generals arrange private sales of the finest gems and keep the proceeds in
accordance with agreed sweetener deals.

As dusk falls in central Yangon, thousands of Chinese, Thai and
Singaporean businessmen gather in the twilight for celebratory toasts to
signify the opening of another government gem and jade auction at the
Myanmar Convention Centre.

Here thousands of sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, jade and other gems
glitter in long glass display cases as government officials prepare to
haggle with the assembled professional buyers. This is where Mogok's
rubies are sold to the world.

Visiting the auction posing as potential buyers we were asked to give a
€2,000 deposit in cash to get through the doors. Taken for Russian
businessmen our presence, at least in the foyer, was barely registered.

Critics claim that these auctions, which are held up to four times a year
to raise hard currency for the junta, show not only the audacity of the
Burmese military but also the failings of economic sanctions by the west.

'Today it's Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, along with India and China,
that are Burma's major trading partners,' says Debbie Stothard of the
human rights group Alternative Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Network on Burma.

'Without them joining forces with the U.S. and EU, sanctions mean nothing.'

The international trade in gemstones is dominated by the Union Of Myanmar
Economic Holdings Limited, a consortium co-owned by the defence ministry
and military officers who hold the bulk of the company's shares.

Last year the state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise tacitly confirmed it
generated sales of nearly £400 million at auction, primarily through sales
of jade and rubies. That made the company the country's third-biggest
exporter by value.

According to the UK-based Free Burma Campaign, the money from the sale of
the gems flows directly into the generals' foreign bank accounts, through
companies like the Union Of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited as well as
companies of the family members of the junta. This cash is invested
overseas in Britain, Switzerland, Germany, the United States, Russia and
China.

'The buyers here are almost all from China, Russia, the Gulf, Thailand and
India,' one visiting businessman from Bangkok tells Live.

'We are not concerned by the U.S. embargo. Look around you - business is
booming.'

A fading saff‑ron sun is retreating from the bleached Sagyin Hills,
north of Mandalay. Outside a quarry, a sign had warned us 'Sagyin Military
Controlled Area'.

'This area is closed,' came the now familiar rebuke from villagers we
encountered on the way. 'Turn back.'

Beneath us is the reason for the apparent military cordon. In pits and
mineshafts 100ft below the surface I can just make out the whites of the
miners' eyes by faint candlelight.

Above ground, dozens of children are scraping through clay-filled hollows
and fissures in the crystalline limestone. Their hands are calloused and
bloody. At the quarry entrance lookouts keep a constant vigil for
soldiers.

'There are rubies here,' says Myint, who is no older than 12. 'We work as
a collective but we work illegally. When the patrols come we have a
lookout system and we hide underground.'

As we gradually gain more information from the adults supervising the
child miners, we determine that hundreds of people working the quarries
here and further north are survivors of Burma's notorious labour camps.

Over the past decade, up to a million people in Burma have been exiled to
military-run mines, 'satellite zones' and labour camps to build bridges,
military camps, irrigation systems and oil and gas pipelines. Forever
denying the extent of the slave camps, Burma's junta last year announced a
'historic deal' with the UN's International Labour Organisation, allowing
inmates of the camps over the past 40 years to seek compensation without
fear of retaliation, but locals remain terrified of taking up the
o‑ffer.

'Why do human rights abuses like forced labour camps continue to grow in
Burma?' asks David Mathieson from Human Rights Watch.

'Because the generals have become masters at turning mines and energy
deals into protection money. And where do you think the money is going?
It's not going to education or health programmes - it's going to the
military to build a better command centre in the mountains to repress the
population.'

'We built a camp for the army last year,' says one of the adults we
interviewed at Sagyin.

'We were rounded up from the mines and told we would now be working for
the military. We were also forced to build police stations and barracks,
all on one meal a day. Now we are here scraping a living in the old
mineshafts, trying to build our lives together again.

'We all dream of finding a ruby the size of our fists and escaping over
the border to Thailand. That is what keeps us going. If we get caught here
we will be sent to another camp or we will be shot, but what else is there
here?'

____________________________________
DRUGS

September 19, Agence France Presse
Drugs flood from Myanmar as rebels fear crackdown: experts

Bangkok – In the lead-up to Myanmar's first elections in two decades,
flows of narcotics from the country have become a flood as drugs-producing
rebels prepare for a showdown with the junta, experts say.

Thailand has seen the amount of illicit tablets seized surge this year and
observers say nervousness about a possible military crackdown in Myanmar
on armed minorities could be fuelling the increase.

Civil war has wracked Myanmar since independence in 1948 and the
"Tatmadaw" state army, which has ruled since 1962, has long fought to
control ethnic rebel groups, some of whom have waged decades-long armed
uprisings.

Thailand-based Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo said ethnic rebel groups use
profits from narcotics, among other resources such as teak and jade, to
fund their operations.

"The increased threat of a resumption of hostilities has led to the
increased activity of drug trafficking on the border, because you need
money," he said.

Methamphetamine -- known as "ice" in its crystalline form and "yaba" when
produced as tablets -- has been a booming industry in impoverished
Myanmar.

Chief among the traffickers, experts say, is the United Wa State Army
(UWSA), which has been able to use areas under its control to grow poppies
for opium and set up factories to produce methamphetamine with little fear
of interference.

The UWSA, which is the military wing of the ethnic Wa people, is one of
the major rebel groups to have rejected the junta's attempts to persuade
fighters to join a borderguard force, creating tension with the
government.

It also instructed citizens in its self-administered zone in Shan state to
boycott the November 7 election, a move that has now been followed by
Myanmar's decision apparently to completely block its area from
participating.

Trevor Wilson, an academic and former Australian ambassador to Myanmar,
said last year's military offensives, including against ethnic Chinese
Kokang rebels in the northeast, meant "ethnic militias would want to be
better prepared".

He said this may explain the upturn in the amount of narcotics being
trafficked, but added that secrecy in Myanmar and the isolation of the
groups meant it was difficult to really know what was happening.

Thailand-based Saw David Taw of the Ethnic Nationalities Council -- a
coalition of Myanmar ethnic groups -- said there was "a rumour going
around that people are preparing for war".

"The Wa don't want to start it from their side first but they will
prepare. I don't think it will affect the whole country but some areas
will be affected by this tension," he said.

On its website, the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said the UWSA has
about 20,000 soldiers and describes it as the "leading heroin and
methamphetamine trafficking organisation in Southeast Asia".

"A substantial portion of the UWSA's drug profits have been reinvested
into expanding UWSA military capabilities and areas of operation," it
said.

Thomas Pasquarello, DEA regional head in Bangkok, said it was difficult to
tell the scope of the UWSA's drug empire, but stressed "they have been a
threat and they remain a threat".

Thailand's northern branch of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board
(ONCB) reports a surge in seizures of amphetamine tablets to 10.8 million
between January and August 2010, from 2.9 million in the same period last
year.

However, figures from the Chiang Mai-based division show a reduction in
heroin finds, from 13 kilograms captured in the first eight months of 2009
to about four kilogrammes this year.

China has also complained of large amounts of amphetamine-type stimulants
entering Yunnan province through the border with Myanmar, according to the
UN.

Methamphetamine and heroin from Myanmar is believed to be trafficked to
countries including Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Australia.

Pasquarello said the appeal of methamphetamine is that it can be produced
in small, hidden laboratories.

Even within Myanmar, a military push into areas which had hitherto been
out of junta control helped a dramatic spike in methamphetamine seizures
-- up from one million tablets in 2008 to 23 million last year, according
to the UN.

But the country is by no means the drug giant that it was in the late
1990s when Myanmar along with Laos and Thailand as part of the so-called
Golden Triangle produced nearly half of the world's opiates.

Afghanistan now produces 85 percent of the world's heroin and morphine,
according to the UN's 2010 World Drug Report.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 20, Irrawaddy
Activists cry foul over NGO's Berlin talk – Lawi Weng

Pro-democracy activists in Germany and the Burmese opposition have accused
the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (also known as
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung—FES), a German NGO associated with Germany's
Social Democratic Party, of having “controversial relations” with Burma's
military governement as it held a round-table discussion about the Burmese
election in Berlin on Sept. 17

About 50 people including a pro-election group from inside Burma, German
academics and Burmese pro-democracy activists in exile joined the FES
event.

In an interview with The Irrawaddy, Aung Htoo, a Burmese lawyer and the
general-secretary of the exiled Burma Lawyers’ Council who attended the
discussion, said, “We talked about how to approach Burma's new parliament
after the election because the election is not legitimate yet.”

A pro-election group from inside Burma led by Khin Zaw Win, who is with
the International Development Enterprise, a US NGO, and three other
representatives from civil society groups attended the Berlin talk.

“Khin Zaw Win said he is optimistic on the current political situation and
that despite the restrictions in the election, it is providing an opening
for democracy,” Aung Htoo said. “He thinks political change will come
through the election.”

He also talked about the 2008 Constitution, which was accepted by the
majority of the people in  controversial referendum shortly after Cyclone
Nargis struck The Irrawaddy delta region in 2008.

About 15 pro-Burmese democracy activists in Germany protested about the
pro-election group during the discussion, accusing participants of being “
tools of the Burmese military regime.”

In a letter sent prior to the FES Berlin discussion to Andreas List, the
European Commission official responsible for Burma, Tin Oo, vice chairman
of the National League for Democracy (NLD), asked what evidence the FES
had for saying the “elections will bring about postive change in creating
more space for political action” when the previous day the Election
Commission had “deregistered five political parties that they themselves
had permitted to form very recently.”

In his letter questioning the impartiality of participants, Tin Oo asked
what “seditious writings and human rights work” by Khin Zaw Win had
bestowed on him the title of “prisoner of conscience,” and wondered
whether Nay Win Maung of Myanmar Egress, who was also invited to
participate, was independent or “a broker between the government's cronies
and the NDF [National Democratic Force] which it is touting as a subsitute
for the NLD.”

Tin Oo said that participation by Andreas List “could create the
impression that the European Commission is trying to steam roller this
election which most see as a means to constitutionalize military dominance
in Burma.”

“We strongly urge that appropriate measures be taken by the European
Commission to make clear that it is not acting in concert with those who
are disseminating pro-junta propaganda,” he said.

The FES has been a partner with the Rangoon-based civic group, Myanmar
Egress, as well as the Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office led by well-known
lobbyist Harn Yawnghwe, the son of Burma's first post-independence
president.

At a farewell speech made by the  FES' former Burma project director, Paul
Pasch, at the Hotel Savoy in Rangoon on Nov.6, 2009, said beside
relationships with civic groups in Burma, the FES engaged with the junta
by organizing a study visit for Burmese officials to Brussels and
Strasbourg in November 2005 and cooperating with the Myanmar Institute for
Strategic and International Studies (MISIS) of Burma’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.

It was also involved in the partly state-run MRTV-4 and Mandalay City FM.

Speaking with The Irrawaddy on Friday, Aung Than Oo, a spokesperson of
Berlin-based Burma Bureau, which organized the protest against the talk,
said: “We support their working for civil society and for the people in
Burma. But we do not support their lobbying the German government to
support the election in Burma, which is being managed by the military
regime.”

The group accused the FES of funding political parties in the 2010
election as well as inviting regime “backbones” on a lobbying trip to the
EU they were offering the Burmese military.

The FES Malaysia office in Kuala Lumpur declined to comment on the
allegations when contacted by The Irrawaddy on Monday.

Regarding the round-table discussion in Berlin, independent candidates
Phone Win and Yuza Maw Htoon, who are also executives of Burmese NGO
Mingalar Myanmar and six other independent election candidates issued a
statement on Sep. 15, saying: “Such a process would result in growing
conflict leading to irreconcilable conditions among Myanmar [Burmese]
political community
Such interferences either directly or indirectly by
foreign organizations form a huge threat to Myanmar political future.”

Political observers in Rangoon said civic groups such as
foreigner-friendly NGOs like Myanmar Egress and Mingalar Myanmar have
become openly involved in politics in the run up to the election.

“NGOs such as Myanmar Egress and Mingalar Myanmar openly engage in
politics directly or indirectly. It is an open secret in Rangoon that
Myanmar Egress has influential close ties with the NDF (the National
Democratic Force) and even appointed candidates for it,” said a private
journal editor in Rangoon speaking on condition of anonymity.

He cited The Voice journalist, Tin Lin, who is now a candidate for the NDF
as an example.

He also said Mingalar Myanmar has close ties with the Democratic Party
(Myanmar) and has organized independent candidates.

While Myanmar Egress, which calls itself a “think-tank,” has relations
with the NDF, executives of the group are also close to officials of the
military government leadership and their cronies.

Hla Maung Shwe, an executive of Myanmar Egress who is brother of Brig-Gen
Hla Myint Shwe, commandant of the National Defense College, was honored by
the junta in Naypyidaw on Aug. 31 for constructing cyclone shelters in the
Irrawaddy Delta alongside US-sanctioned tycoons Tay Za, Zaw Zaw and Aung
Thet Mann.

Meanwhile, Harn Yawnghwe visited Tokyo, Japan recently. He reportedly met
Japanese officials including deputy foreign minister Masaharu Nakagawa
along with members of a Burmese group there, the Association of United
Nationalities in Japan (AUN-Japan).

The AUN-Japan announced on Monday that it does not associate itself with
Harn Yawnghwe’s pro-election policy and activities.

____________________________________

September 18, Mizzima News
Britain condemns closure of NLD and ethnic parties, calls election ‘a
sham’ – Khaing Kyaw Mya

New Delhi – British Foreign Secretary William Hague has condemned the
November 7 Burmese election, calling it “a sham” designed to keep the
military regime in power, even after the polls.

His comments were welcomed by the London-based National League for
Democracy (Liberated Area-UK) and rights monitor Burma Campaign UK. They
follow the announcement late on Tuesday by the junta’s electoral watchdog,
the Union Election Commission, that the National League for Democracy had
been abolished under controversial poll rules for failing to re-register
ahead of the vote in November.

It was the first time that authorities had formally announced the ban on
the NLD, along with nine other parties, although the party’s dissolution
had automatically taken effect in May.

The NLD led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in
the last national elections in 1990, but the military regime never
transferred power to her civilian government. She has spent at least 14 of
the last 20 years in detention and is currently under house arrest at her
home in Rangoon.

Hague’s comments yesterday were delivered in a statement from Britain’s
foreign ministry, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

He said: “These actions expose the elections in Burma for what they are –
a sham process designed to keep the regime in power and deny the Burmese
people their right to freely choose their leaders.”

“The elections should have been a chance for the national reconciliation;
helping to end decades of ethnic conflict and needless poverty in the
country,” he said.

“This opportunity is being squandered,” the statement said, quoting Hague.

“These latest developments should be greeted with dismay and condemnation
by the international community and a renewed determination to support the
people of Burma,” he added.

Opposition counterpart David Miliband agreed with Hague in comments to the
British Press Association.

“These elections will not be free, and they will not be fair. All these
elections will do is tighten the junta’s grip on the throat of Burma’s
people,” he said.

“Political opinions in Burma are effectively banned, and while the people
of Burma are prevented from being able to speak out, it’s important we do
so on their behalf,” Miliband said.

The National League for Democracy (Liberated Area-UK) and Burma Campaign
UK both welcomed the British support and urged other European nations and
countries around the world to cheer on Hague’s condemnation.

The chairman of the NLD-LA-UK Dr. Win Naing said it was very important for
leading European countries to reject what the military regime was doing.
He said the group strongly objected to the disbanding of the NLD and other
ethnic parties as the NLD was the official and leading opposition party
mandated by the people of Burma.

“It [the regime] can’t dismantle [the party] like this, as it is an
unofficial government and just a military regime,” he said, referring to
the fact that the majority of Burmese who voted in 1990 elections voted
for the NLD, not the regime.

Burma Campaign UK international co-ordinator Zoya Phan also welcomed
Hague’s statement, and said the British government had been very
supportive in promoting democracy and human rights in Burma.

She said the group believed it was time for other governments to join
Britain its condemnation of the regime’s action and to pressure it to
enter into genuine dialogue with the opposition, including the NLD and
representatives of ethnic parties.

She told Mizzima: “It is the principles of human rights and democracy that
the British government is upholding and we appreciate that, in comparison
with other countries, the British government is one of the strongest
supporters of democracy in Burma.”

The NLD-LA-UK said it would raise the issue at the European Burma Network
meeting next Thursday and Friday, and that it would urge the European
Union to object to the regime’s dismantling of the NLD.

The offshore wing of the NLD party and other Burmese opposition party
representatives in Britain, comprising a group of 100 protesters, planned
to demonstrate in front of the Burmese embassy in London this afternoon
against the regime’s attack on the NLD, it said.

Reached for comment about the issue, Khin Maung Swe, a leader of the
National Democratic Force (NDF), which broke away from the NLD in order to
contest the elections, said the party had nothing to do with the NLD
disbanding.

He told Mizzima the issue was far from his party because members were no
longer part of the NLD, and that the NLD itself had wanted it to stay out
of NLD affairs, he said, referring to a speech by NLD leader Win Tin.

“We have no regard for U Win Tin, which is why we don’t want to say
anything about NLD anymore, we are striving to be different from our
political friends, which is why we have no comment about Win Tin’s group,”
Khin Maung Swe said.

Apart from commending the British foreign secretary’s comments on the
abolition of the NLD, he said the matter was not his party’s concern.

Britain is one of the strongest supporters of political reform in Burma,
and along with the United States, has imposed financial and travel
sanctions against the military regime, families of junta members and junta
cronies, their companies and relatives. It is also enforcing a global arms
embargo against the regime.

It was also one of the first supporters of a United Nations commission of
inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated
by the Burmese military regime. The British backing came in the wake of a
recommendation by the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma,
Tomas Ojea Quintana, for such an inquest in his report to the UN Human
Rights Council in March.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 20, Wall Street Journal
Business as usual With Burma – Editorial

U.S. policy ahead of elections isn't working.

The State Department's top official for Asia scored points for honesty and
U.S. political leadership last week when he admitted Burma's upcoming
elections "will be without international legitimacy." Too bad he ruined
the moment by continuing to push for "dialogue" as "among all the
difficult options, the best way forward."

Kurt Campbell is an astute diplomat who has pressed for closer engagement
with Japan, Australia and other U.S. allies in the region. Yet he's also
one of the architects of State's policy of "pragmatic engagement" with
Burma that has manifestly failed.

Consider the evidence: Since the U.S. announced a "new" Burma policy of
engagement coupled with sanctions last September, the generals have
imposed onerous requirements for contesting seats, banned Aung San Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy party and violently intimidated
nonestablishment candidates. Last week, the election commission excluded
hundreds of villages in ethnic minority-dominated states from voting.
These groups have long opposed the regime, sometimes with violence.

Mr. Campbell admitted that he has been "disappointed" with the current
dialogue but hit an upbeat note at a speech at the U.S. Institute for
Peace Thursday. "The period after the election might create new players,
new power relationships, new structures inside the country, so we think we
need to stand by and see how that plays out."

He'll be standing by for a long time. A quarter of the seats in the new
parliament are set aside for military appointees. Many of the junta's top
brass have resigned from the military in the last few months, allowing
them to vie for seats reserved for civilians. Nothing suggests the
generals want to give up power.

State's back-up plan seems to be a United Nations Commission of Inquiry
into the regime's humanitarian abuses, which the U.S. announced last month
it would support. But beyond naming names, it's hard to see what the U.N.
can achieve. Meanwhile, India, South Korea, Thailand and other U.S.
partners continue to do a brisk business with the regime.

President Barack Obama will attend a summit in New York next week of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member. If he
continues to push dialogue above all else, the generals will get the
message that it's business as usual.

____________________________________

September 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
UN inaction on Burma war crimes ‘unjustifiable’ – Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and
Julianne Kerr Stevenson

It is time for the UN to investigate the consistent reports of mass human
rights violations in Burma to enable the identification of those
responsible. The failure to take this step is unjustifiable. For decades
NGOs and UN actors have documented reports of extrajudicial killings,
sexual violence, torture, mass internal displacement, sexual violence, the
use of child soldiers and forced labour, and the list goes on. The scale
and gravity of the violations reported strongly suggests that they amount
to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Yet, although it is undeniable that mass violations have been, and
continue to be, perpetrated primarily by the Burmese military junta but
also by armed ethnic groups, those who commit these alleged international
crimes do so with absolute impunity. This impunity will not end without a
UN initiated investigation specifically aimed at obtaining evidence in
order both to clarify the true extent of the atrocities, but also to
obtain evidence linking an individual to a specific crime in order to
establish accountability. Once such evidence has been obtained, it will be
a question of whether the UN and the international community will have the
necessary political will to bring the perpetrators to justice.

There is strong evidence of mass human rights atrocities in Burma. In May
2009 the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law released the
report, Crimes in Burma, which highlighted the fact that for fifteen
years, numerous UN actors, such as the Special Rapporteur for Burma, the
General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights had raised considerable
concern over the perpetration of grave human rights violations in the
country. A former Special Rapporteur for Burma reported that he had
received information indicating the military regime had destroyed,
forcibly displaced, or forced the abandonment of over 3,000 villages in
eastern Burma where ethnic minorities predominate. Further, that at least
one million people fled their homes because of the attacks, escaping as
refugees and internally displaced persons.

Reports of mass human rights atrocities have continued since the release
of the Crimes in Burma report. Just one of the many examples available is
provided by the Special Rapporteur’s comments on the situation in the Shan
state in his report of March 2010:

“The Special Rapporteur is alarmed by the dire human rights situation in
Shan State. Since 27 July 2009, it is reported that the military have
burned down over 500 houses and scores of granaries, and forcibly
relocated almost 40 villages, mostly in the Laikha township. According to
reports, over 100 villagers, both men and women, have been arrested and
tortured. At least three villagers have been killed. This would be the
largest forced relocation since 1996–1998, when over 300,000 villagers in
southern and central Shan State were displaced.”

UN actors have also highlighted the pervasive culture of impunity that
perpetrators enjoy, observing a general failure to investigate allegations
of abuse, the threat of reprisals for those who report abuses, the failure
to prosecute those responsible, and the lack of an independent judiciary.

However, NGOs and UN actors face tremendous difficulties in obtaining the
evidence from victims and others in Burma, which would establish the full
extent of the atrocities committed and allow for the identification of,
and obtain evidence against, individual perpetrators. For example, the
Special Rapporteur’s last visit to Burma on 15 January 2010 was limited to
a mere five days, and he was provided with his programme on a daily basis
by the government. Such a limited and controlled investigation cannot hope
to establish the true extent of the situation. Further, it is unable to
provide the detailed evidence directly linking a perpetrator to an alleged
crime, which is required to establish individual responsibility.

This reality has been recognised by two former Special Rapporteurs for
Burma, who have come out in support of the call for a Commission of
Inquiry into the issue of international crimes in Burma, as well as the
current rapporteur, Tomas Ojea Quintana. He stated in March this year
that:

“Given the gross and systematic nature of human rights violations in
Myanmar [Burma] over a period of many years, and the lack of
accountability, there is an indication that those human rights violations
are the result of a State policy that involves authorities in the
executive, military and judiciary at all levels. 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.

The mere existence of this possibility obliges the Burmese government to
take prompt and effective measures to investigate these facts. There have
clearly been cases where it has been necessary to establish
responsibility, but this has not been done. Given this lack of
accountability, UN institutions may consider the possibility to establish
a Commission of Inquiry with a specific fact-finding mandate to address
the question of international crimes.”

Thus, on the issue of whether the reported mass violations amount to
international crimes, the Special Rapporteur’s statement that the evidence
he has received of the incidents of sexual violence, extrajudicial
killings and torture suggests that they are widespread, systematic and
part of a deliberate strategy to terrorise and subjugate civilians,
clearly supports such a conclusion.

Although such statements may in of themselves be insufficient to bring
individuals to trial, it should be recognised how strong the supporting
evidence for war crimes and crimes against humanity actually is in the
Burma context. In addition to the assessments by the various reliable UN
bodies referred to in the ‘Burma Report’ much information has been
provided by various NGOs, not all of whom are dependent upon second hand
sources for what they report (however cautious they may have to be about
explaining how they obtain first-hand ‘in-country’ intelligence and
providing anonymity to the victims and witnesses spoken to).

There has been no effective counter from the regime to the allegations
made and no effective and independent inquiry of any kind has been
published that suggests the allegations reported by the UN and other
bodies are wrong. It is, of course, a reality that those applying the
(international) rule of law and who therefore proceed on the basis of
evidence are at a disadvantage in comparison to those who resist the
provision of information about crimes, supported as they may be in this
approach by the political interests of patron states.

We have little, if any, doubt about the strength of the underlying
evidence and thus of the fact that very serious crimes have been and are
being committed in Burma.  This is the reason we – and many others – are
pressing for political action that will render impossible the continued
blocking of truth by political action or inaction.

It is therefore imperative that a Commission of Inquiry is established by
the UN. Such a Commission could be established directly by the UN
Secretary General, which was the route adopted in the case of the Bosnian
war crimes commission in the early 1990s. It could also be established by
the Security Council, though this procedure is obviously susceptible to a
veto by permanent members such as China.

The necessity of such a step has been recognised by some members of the
international community. These include the USA, Canada, Australia,
Slovakia and the Czech Republic. It is to be hoped that other nations, in
particular those on the Security Council, will adopt the same stance.

In the event that a Commission of Inquiry was established there is every
reason to believe that it would obtain evidence of mass international
crimes. Moreover, a properly functioning commission should be able to
gather evidence establishing the accountability of both the perpetrators
in the field and those exercising command and control over the strategy of
terror.

The inevitable question that would arise once the Commission identified
the perpetrators at all levels of command and obtained sufficient evidence
against them would be: will the international community bring the
perpetrators to justice? It is impossible to answer this question
conclusively. Whether the perpetrators of the mass human rights atrocities
would be brought to trial is entirely dependent upon the will of the
international community.

At this time, there is no indication that the Burmese government will take
any genuine and effective steps to end the prevailing culture of impunity
in Burma. Further, Burma is not a State Party to the International
Criminal Court, and so for alleged perpetrators to be tried by this
institution the Security Council would have to refer the situation to the
Court. It must not be under-estimated how difficult this would be to
achieve. Again, such a procedure is susceptible to a veto by a permanent
member of the Security Council – the most obvious concern of course being
China. It must be hoped that the political will demonstrated by a future
establishment of a Commission of Inquiry would carry through to
prosecution of those it identified.

It seems clear, therefore, that if a UN Commission of Inquiry was
initiated it would not be a lack of evidence that would prevent trials of
alleged perpetrators of mass human rights atrocities in Burma; rather a
lack of the necessary international political will by the UN and its
member states.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC is co-Commissioner of the Harvard International Human
Rights Law Clinic Report Crimes in Burma. Sir Geoffrey worked in the
Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia, and was the lead trial attorney in the prosecution of
Slobodan Milošević.

Julianne Kerr Stevenson is co-author of the Harvard International Human
Rights Law Clinic Report Crimes in Burma and Member of the Bar.
____________________________________

September 18, New Light of Myanmar
I am worried – A Law Analyst

The State Peace and Development Council devotes itself to the State’s
seven-step Road Map it has adopted for democratization as aspired by the
people. Now, the Road Map is in its fifth step: holding election for the
formation of hluttaws (parliaments) in accordance with the State
Constitution (2008). As groundwork, the government has promulgated Union
Election Commission Law, Political Parties Registration Law, and Election
Law and Rules.

Political parties that have been formed, following the adoption of
Political Parties Registration

Law have to apply to the Union Election Commission before the date
prescribed in the law to register for political parties, and old political
parties for continued existence. Political parties will play a major role
in shaping the nation into a democratic one. It is, therefore, obligatory
for political parties to put in the fore “Non-disintegration of the Union,
Non-disintegration of national solidarity, and Perpetuation of
sovereignty”, to remain loyal to the nation, and to exercise the
multiparty democracy system.

The Union Election Commission issued Notification No. 1/2010 dated 18
March 2010, announcing that political parties that wish to stand for
election may apply in line with the law for registration. Notification No.
18/2010 dated 9 April 2010 says that if political parties that came into
existence under Article 25 of Political Parties Registration Law wish to
continue to exist may apply to the commission within the designated period
of 60 days.

Article 25 of Political Parties Registration Law says that if a political
party that exists according to Political Parties Registration Law
(Ordinance No. 4/88 of the State Law and Order Restoration Council) wishes
to continue as a political party, it shall apply to the Union Election
Commission within the period of 60 days after the date this law comes into
force. After being granted permission by the commission, it may go on in
accordance with the provisions of this law. It shall be deemed to have
been dissolved automatically as a political party if it does not apply.

Article 27 of the law says that Political Parties Registration Law (Law
No. 4/88 of the State Law and Order Restoration Council) is repealed with
this law.

As to repeal of a provision with another law, Article 14 of 1973
Interpretation Law says that provided that a statement is someway
prescribed in the repealed law, it shall be as stated.

Article 25 and Article 27 of 2010 Political Parties Registration Law are
consistent with the provisions in the exception of Article 14 of 1973
Interpretation Law. So, it is required to abide by the provisions in
Article 25. As prescribed in Article 25, old political parties have to
apply to the Union Election Commission before the deadline to continue to
exist. However, Notification No. 97/2010 dated 14 September 2010 of the
Union Election Commission says of the 10 parties stated in Paraghaph-1,
the following five parties have become null and void according to the laws
as they did not apply to continue to exist.

Article 12 of the Union Election Commission Law says that the commission
and relevant sub-commissions formed under this law shall take over
existing proceedings of the Multiparty Democracy General Election
Commission and sub-commissions at all levels

So, Notification No. 1/2010 was issued for old political parties to apply
in accordance with Article 25 of Political Parties Registration Law
(2/2010) to continue to exist. Regarding political parties that failed to
apply to survive within the due period, Article 25 says the Union Election
Commission shall announce the list of the political parties that have been
granted permission to register as political parties, and the list of the
political parties that have been revoked from the list of electoral
registration and that have been revoked as political parties. On the
ground of that fact the Union Election Commission issued Notification No.
97/2010 dated 14 September 2010, announcing, “Of the 10 parties stated in
Paragraph-1, the following five parties have become null and void
according to the law as they did not apply for continued existence as
political parties within the prescribed days. As those parties no longer
have the right to continued existence as political parties, their
registrations have been revoked and they have been dissolved.”

Nonetheless, a party that did not apply within the prescribed period to
continue to exist is claiming that it has not been null and void; and that
the Union Election Commission does not have any authority to announce the
dissolution of an old political party. Indeed, the party is turning a
blind eye to the provisions of the law and is just attempting to mislead
the people into misunderstanding the law.

It has come to the knowledge of the people that the party is abetting the
people to protest against the elections by boycotting the elections. The
right to vote and the right not to cast votes in elections if a citizen
does not want to are prescribed in Article (b) of Criminal Law 171-A, and
in Hluttaws Election Law say that electoral right means the right of a
person to stand, or not to stand as, or to withdraw from being as a
candidate or to vote or refrain from voting at an election. If a person
cheats people to protest against elections, he uses undue influence to
prevent a person exercising the voting right and the right to stand for
election. So, such a person violates Article 57 of Hluttaw Election Law.
Article 57 of Hluttaw Election Law says, “Whoever is found guilty of
violence, threat, undue influence, cheating, taking or giving of bribes to
prevent a person from exercising the right of voting and the right to
stand for election, shall, on conviction be punishable with imprisonment
for a term not exceeding one year or with fine not exceeding one hundred
thousand kyats or with both.” Article 58 (d) of Hluttaw Election Law says
that whoever is found guilty of giving speeches at meetings, instigation,
writing, distributing or using posters or attempting by other means to
disturb the voting or such acts shall, on conviction be punishable within
imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or with fine not exceeding
one hundred thousand kyats or with both.

In reality, attempting to disrupt elections designed to introduce
multiparty democracy system to satisfy the aspiration of the people means
showing disregard for the people’s desire. Doing such acts without or with
knowledge is associated with breach of the provisions of the law. So, the
people are urged to abide by the law.

Translation: MS

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

September 21, Women’s League of Burma
Statement on International Day of Peace: “To get genuine peace in Burma,
lets oppose the 2010 election!”

September 21, 2010 is International Day of Peace. In 2001, the nations of
the world came together at the UN General Assembly and jointly agreed on
Resolutions 55/282, marking September 21 as the International Day of
Peace. Combined with the objective to strengthen peace between and among
nations, this special occasion also recognizes links with other aims of
the UN, including development, elimination of poverty and prioritizing
equality.

In regards to the above aims and objectives, the governments of the world,
non-government organizations, civil based organizations, together with
United Nations implement a wide variety of peace activities on
International Day of Peace. Nowadays, people are also giving priority in
their activities to the peace, security and development of individual
nations.

In Burma, due to the atrocities of military dictators, people have
continued to suffer from the effects of civil war for over half a century.
Currently, the Burmese military targets civilians in ethnic areas
resulting in thousands of dispossessed people who then to flee to
neighboring countries as refugees. The recent incident in Pegu on
September 5 where the military shot dead two young people, demonstrates
the military’s use of armed violence to control and subjugate the people
of Burma.

Not only ethnic groups suffer under military oppression. The majority of
people in Burma suffer political, economic and social oppression, which
worsens day by day. The thousands who seek refuge in neighboring countries
from this type of oppression currently live work in unsecure conditions.

As it stands, the aims and objectives of International Day of Peace are
far from reach in such a country. The Women’s League of Burma believes
that it is high time the military started to pay attention to the problems
and hardships of the people and step-up to political change.

However, the junta continuously deviates from the route to peace,
suppressing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and political forces striving for
democracy and ethnic equality, abolishing ten political parties including
the National League for Democracy, and detaining thousands of political
prisoners. It is also evident that by using the restrictive and biased
electoral laws enacted for the upcoming election, the military plans to
hold power by any means. At this current stage, the military is stubbornly
going their own way to implement the election on November 7, which is
based on their misguided 2008 constitution. These factors do not work
toward peace but create a more unstable country and present an ongoing
challenge for the people of Burma. The Women’s League of Burma realizes
that if a government were to be formed from this shamed election, the
people of Burma would face increasing difficulties and atrocities.

Therefore, we would like to urge the people of Burma to oppose the
military planned 2010 election, which will not bring stability and peace
to our country in any form. To concerned parties, such as governments of
the world, non-government organizations and members of the international
community who support genuine peace and democracy in Burma, we urge you to
put more pressure on the oppressive regime.

Contact information:
Saw San Nyriem Thu     +66 80 792 0445
Lway Moe Kham     +66 83 330 2304
Thin Thin Aung     +91 9891252316
Saw Mra Raza Linn     +88 1732 649 007