BurmaNet News, September 29, 2010

[Editor]

September 29, 2010 Issue #4052


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burmese parties promoting campaign slogans
Irrawaddy: Students arrested for urging election boycott
AP: Myanmar's prime minister issues election warning

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara: 32 Burmese held in Bangladesh

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Citizens bank on gold in Myanmar's troubled economy

DRUGS
IPS: Heroin trade tears social fabric of ethnic minorities

ASEAN
Jakarta Globe: Burmese youth activists make case in Jakarta

INTERNATIONAL
Brantford Expositor (Canada): Rights groups say election is a sham

OPINION / OTHER
Project Syndicate: Burma’s democratic charade – Vaclav Havel
DVB: The camera is mightier than the gun




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 29, Irrawaddy
Burmese parties promoting campaign slogans

“The people's suffering is mine!”  That's a political slogan for Thu Wai,
the chairman of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), which can be seen on a
yellow billboard hanging on a light truck campaigning in various
constituencies.

Such a scene is unusual in Burma, and it officially marks the opening of
the campaign season before the Nov. 7 election.

Recently, the activities of political parties has been increasingly seen
on the streets and among the general public across the country.

The DPM has gained increasing attention in constituencies where it's
fielding candidates due to the leadership of  three daughters of Burma's
former prime minister and ministers in the country's parliamentary
democracy era.

On Friday, the junta officially opened the election season by airing
political party's policies, opinions and activities on state-owned radio,
television and newspapers.

Thu Wai appeared on state TV to announce his party's election manifesto.
For Thu Wai, it was his second chance to campaign in two decades, when he
first participated in the 1990 election.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy, Than Than Nu, the general-secretary of the
Democratic Party, said: “In the 1990 election, political parties had more
freedom than they have now in announcing their policies in the state
media.”

Observers say political parties' strategy should be to campaign at the
grass roots level and to distribute campaign leaflets and slogans as
widely as possible.

In an election environment dominated by the Union Solidarity Development
Party, led by former generals and government ministers, another DPM
campaign slogan says: “If the people want real democracy, they should vote
for real politicians.”

Meanwhile Burmese prime minister warned citizens to protect the country's
image during November elections and to prevent anyone from derailing the
first polls in 20 years, state media reported Wednesday.

The Nov. 7 vote is a keystone of what the military-ruled country says is a
transition to civilian rule after five decades under the army, although
many see it as a means of prolonging its dominance.

"The success of the election is a matter of national dignity and concerns
every citizen. Thus, it is necessary to prevent those who are trying to
disrupt the election," Prime Minister Thein Sein was quoted saying in
comments carried by Myanma Ahlin and the two other state-run newspapers.

State media often accuse "terrorists" or anti-government groups of
plotting to disrupt the vote. It was first such warning from a senior
official.

Thein Sein did not elaborate on any alleged threat, though the junta's
biggest perceived threat is detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi. Her National League for Democracy opposition party is boycotting
elections and Suu Kyi has said through a spokesman that dissatisfied
voters have the right not to vote—stopping short of calling for a voter
boycott.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and governments around the world say that
restrictive rules governing the elections show it will be unfair and
undemocratic.

Thein Sein is the leader of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and
Development Party which was formed in April after he and 26 other Cabinet
officials resigned their military posts to make them eligible to take part
in politics.

The USDP is widely expected to win the most votes in the election because
its ties with the junta give the party access to easy funding and a
nationwide presence.

____________________________________

September 29, Associated Press
Myanmar's prime minister issues election warning

Yangon, Myanmar — Myanmar's prime minister warned citizens to protect the
country's image during November elections and to prevent anyone from
derailing the first polls in 20 years, state media reported Wednesday.

The Nov. 7 vote is a keystone of what the military-ruled country says is a
transition to civilian rule after five decades under the army, although
many see it as a means of prolonging its dominance.

"The success of the election is a matter of national dignity and concerns
every citizen. Thus, it is necessary to prevent those who are trying to
disrupt the election," Prime Minister Thein Sein was quoted saying in
comments carried by Myanma Ahlin and the two other state-run newspapers.

State media often accuse "terrorists" or anti-government groups of
plotting to disrupt the vote. It was first such warning from a senior
official.

Thein Sein did not elaborate on any alleged threat, though the junta's
biggest perceived threat is detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi. Her National League for Democracy opposition party is boycotting
elections and Suu Kyi has said through a spokesman that dissatisfied
voters have the right not to vote — stopping short of calling for a voter
boycott.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and governments around the world say that
restrictive rules governing the elections show it will be unfair and
undemocratic.

Suu Kyi's party won the country's last election in 1990 but the junta
refused to let the party take power. Suu Kyi has been in jail or under
house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.

Thein Sein also urged voters to choose "patriotic persons and those who
will prevent the Union (of Myanmar) from disintegration" when casting
ballots. He made the comments at the opening ceremony of a hospital in the
Irrawaddy Delta, the area hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, which
left 140,000 people dead or missing.

Thein Sein is the leader of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and
Development Party which was formed in April after he and 26 other Cabinet
officials resigned their military posts to make them eligible to take part
in politics.

The USDP is widely expected to win the most votes in the election because
its ties with the junta give the party access to easy funding and a
nationwide presence.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 29, Narinjara
32 Burmese held in Bangladesh – Tun Tun

Chittagong: Some 32 Burmese citizens were arrested in Bangladesh in the
last two days for staying in the country illegally, according to an
official report.

According to a police source, the Burmese nationals were arrested from
different frontier areas in the Chittagong Hill Tract area near the
Burmese border.

An Arakanese who is living in the area said that the Bangladesh police
arrested many Burmese Muslims in Lama Township of Bandarban Hill District
on Monday morning and Sunday evening.

Most were arrested as they crossed the border to seek refuge in Bangladesh
territory. A police officer in Lama also said that a police team conducted
raids in the areas and arrested 18 migrants on Monday morning, on charges
of entering Bangladesh illegally.

On Sunday evening, another police team arrested 14 Burmese nationals from
the same township.

According to a police source, all of the arrested individuals hailed from
Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships in Arakan State.

On Tuesday, 15 Burmese nationals were pushed back to Burma through a
border pass of Bandarban hill district, close to Burma, the source said.

For the past two or three months there have been few arrests of Burmese
citizens in Bangladesh, but authorities are once again cracking down on
undocumented migrants.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 29, Agence France Presse
Citizens bank on gold in Myanmar's troubled economy – Rob Bryan

Yangon — Housewives huddle over jewellery counters in Yangon's bustling
Chinatown, but fashion is not foremost on their minds. This is banking in
Myanmar's dysfunctional economy.

On nearby Shwe Bontha Street, the heart of the gold market since colonial
times, Nyan Tun is more than just a trader: he is an unofficial banker in
the military-ruled country.

"Normally, the major buyers are farmers. They will buy gold with a little
bit of extra money to sell before the next harvest," he said. "Second are
the housewives, who love to buy jewellery as savings."

The global economic crisis may have reignited suspicion of banks
worldwide, but in isolated Myanmar such distrust has long run deep and
savers have no desire to put their money into the backward banking system.

Not that people have much to spare: decades of economic mismanagement by
the country's rulers, plus international boycotts and sanctions, have
generated a population struggling to get by and facing soaring consumer
prices.

Between 2005 and 2009 the annual inflation rate in Myanmar, formerly known
as Burma, averaged 20 percent, according to the Asian Development Bank.

"If you want to catch up with inflation, you buy gold. If you save money
in the bank you lose money," said Nyan Tun.

"People have much more trust in gold as a store of value," added the
trader, whose name AFP has changed at his request. In military-ruled
Myanmar, saying anything seen as critical of the junta can have serious
consequences.

Nyan Tun said the value of a gold "tical" -- about half a troy ounce --
had increased more than 30-fold in the local currency, the kyat, since his
early days as a gold trader in the late 1980s.

Sean Turnell, a specialist in Myanmar's economy at Macquarie University in
Sydney, said rampant increases in consumer prices were largely a result of
the government's habit of simply printing more money to fund its spending.

An abundance of natural treasures -- including gold, gas, teak, oil, jade
and gems -- could make the country a rich nation as it once was before
coming under military rule in 1962.

But Myanmar remains one of the world's least developed countries, with
nearly a third of the population living below the poverty line, according
to World Bank figures, as the junta and its associates exploit these raw
materials for their own benefit.

"The fiscal situation should be good," said Turnell, on the basis that
earnings from gas supplies should fund government spending.

"But they (the military rulers) don't bring money they get from gas
properly into public accounts," he said. "These funds are not recorded."

Few believe Myanmar's controversial first election in 20 years, due on
November 7, will bring about much-needed economic reform, as the polls are
widely expected to simply cloak military rule with civilian clothing.

"The ruling class will still be the same, so there will not be big
changes," said Nyan Tun, now in his 50s.

However there have been some shifts in the economic landscape ahead of the
election, with the junta instigating a spate of privatisations of state
firms and properties.

Along with these sell-offs of assets including ports, factories and
cinemas, four conglomerates on international sanctions lists and run by
junta-friendly tycoons have been given licences to start up new banks.

Turnell said the cronyism apparent in these recent developments suggested
the country was "drifting in a really strange direction away from a
totalitarian system into one that works like a semi-criminal economy".

For the average Myanmar citizen, there is still no economic stability, or
decent alternative to their trustworthy treasure.

"Gold has been the ultimate reserve asset, the ultimate insurance against
bad government policy. It goes back to the colonial era -- it's seen as
being dependable and independent of the state," said Turnell.

With the precious metal playing such a key role, the regime keeps a close
eye on its trade. Nyan Tun said plain-clothed special branch police lurk
on Shwe Bontha Street and pressure traders to stop selling when prices go
up.

"Maybe the government thinks inflation is due to the price of gold, but
actually it's the other way round," he said.

"The gold price is the index of inflation to citizens," agreed a business
editor in Yangon who did not want to be named. "People don't know how else
to judge inflation. The government gives no explanation."

Myanmar's banking system has never really recovered from a major crisis in
2003, which saw three banks completely collapse and was exacerbated by the
policies of the Central Bank, such as recalling loans from borrowers.

People have also been hit hard in the past when the authorities scrapped
certain currency units as legal tender.

A mass uprising against the military in 1988, which was brutally crushed,
escalated from protests over a major episode of demonetisation by the
regime.

"That wiped out the savings of a huge amount of people," said Turnell. "I
have never come across a single Burmese person who saves money in the
banks."

For now gold remains the safest haven in Myanmar -- the reason why a
fishmonger will wear her savings around her neck.

"Gold: this is the only thing people trust," said the business editor.

____________________________________
DRUGS

September 29, Inter Press Service
Heroin trade tears social fabric of ethnic minorities – Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok – Dustbins in a university toilet rarely elicit a second look, but
those at one of the oldest universities in Burma’s Kachin State do offer
reason to pause. The bins, after all, collect a special form of garbage
disposed of by students – hypodermic needles and syringes they have used
to inject themselves with heroin.

The special bins were introduced to Myitkyina University as part of a
humanitarian gesture by two non-government organisations – the
French-based Medecins Du Monde (MDM) and Holland-based Artsen Zonder
Grenzen (AZG) – with the aim of reducing injuries that students often get
from stepping on used needles and syringes strewn around the campus.

It is normal to find "discarded bloody syringes, needles, and syringe
packets (that) are littered in latrines, under stairwells and bushes, and
even scattered on the football field", according to the Kachin News Group.

It is these details, which expose the alarming level of heroin addiction
in the university of some 3,000 students, that Nawdin Lahpai of the Kachin
News Group cites when painting a grim picture of "the future leaders of
the Kachins being destroyed by drugs".

"The drug addiction was not as high as it is now in the university, which
is located in the capital of the Kachin State," the editor of the news
organisation, based in Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai, told IPS.
"It has changed since 2004. Now heroin is easily accessible everywhere."

Some estimate that over 50 percent of the male and female students seek a
narcotic fix. "Students can be seen openly purchasing drugs in shops,
cafes, billiard centres and houses near the university," with sales
beginning as early as 8 a.m. in some places, states a brief study released
Wednesday by Nawdin’s media group.

The leaders of the Kachin, an ethnic minority that has, like other ethnic
groups, been persecuted by the Burmese military, place the blame for this
situation of drug abuse squarely on the country’s junta.

They accuse the regime of promoting the narcotics trade to further torment
the country’s beleaguered minorities – and weaken their social fabric.

"The military government must bear responsibility for this spread of drugs
into the communities," Col James Lum Dau, deputy chief of foreign affairs
of the Kachin Independence Organisation, said in an interview. "But the
students being addicted to drugs also need to discipline themselves."

Such concern about heroin use in Burma, also known as Myanmar, is shared
in both the Kachin and the neighbouring Shan State, home to the ethnic
Shan, near the Chinese border. Both provinces are where most of the opium
– a thick paste extracted from poppy to make heroin – is grown in the
country.

The Kachin and the Shan are among the 130 ethnic communities in Burma,
majority of whose more than 55 million people are with the Burman ethnic
group.

Currently, 46 of the Shan State’s 55 townships are growing poppy, Khuensai
Jaiyen of the Shan Drug Watch told a press conference here on Sep. 29 to
launch the Chiang Mai- based organisation’s 2010 report. "This is
attributed to the Burma Army’s reliance on taxation of opium, and its
policy to allow numerous proxy militia to deal in drugs."

"Most of the poppy-growing areas are under control of the Burmese army and
the Burmese army’s local militia," he added. "The Burmese army needs the
drug trade to feed its own troops."

The continuing presence of poppy fields in the rugged, mountainous corner
of Burma over a decade after the regime announced it was determined to
eradicate the drug trade by 2014 troubles the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In a December 2009 report, the U.N. agency revealed that the area under
poppy cultivation had increased 50 percent since 2006 to 31,700 hectares.
"More than one million people are now involved in opium cultivation in
Myanmar, most of them in Shan State, where 95 percent of Myanmar’s poppy
is grown."

In fact, "2009 saw the third successive annual increase in cultivation,"
said Gary Lewis, head of the UNODC’s East Asia and Pacific office, in an
interview. "Our assessment convinces us that we need to remain very
concerned about the extent of opium cultivation in Myanmar."

This trend marks a reversal of the dramatic drop in Burma’s opium
production in the mid-1990s, when it enjoyed the notoriety of being the
world’s leading opium producer. The 1995-96 harvest season saw poppy
cultivation peak at an estimated 163,000 hectares, producing 1,760 metric
tonnes of opium, says the UNODC.

"At that time these figures were the highest in the world," said Lewis.
"By 2001-2002 however, domestic cultivation had declined to 81,400
hectares and estimated opium production had decreased to 828 metric
tonnes."

The Burmese regime’s 1999 announcement that it would eradicate the drug
trade in 15 years saw the country give way, in 2000, to Afghanistan as the
world’s largest heroin supplier.

But the junta’s continued support of opium production convinces the likes
of Khuensai that the regime’s ‘war on drugs’ is a "charade". "This is
evident from the junta’s local militias emerging as the new drug lords in
Burma."

The easy access to drugs in Kachin State exposes the junta’s plans "to
profit at the expense of the ethnic groups," adds Nawdin. "It is almost
like a Cold War to destroy the young."

____________________________________
ASEAN

September 26, Jakarta Globe
Burmese youth activists make case in Jakarta – Ade Mardiyati

Jakarta—A Burmese opposition youth organization is in Jakarta as part of
its efforts to get Asian governments to help pressure the regime in power
in Burma to allow democracy into the country.

Generation Wave, which has 50 members comprising various ethnic groups in
Burma, is in town for an international forum today at Hotel Nikko in a bid
to gain support from Indonesia.

“We want all Asian governments to take concrete actions to put pressure on
Burma,” said 23-year-old “Bo Bo,” who used a pseudonym for security
reasons.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, comprised of 10 countries in
the region including Burma, has fruitlessly called on the Burmese junta to
move toward democracy but has refrained from exerting stronger pressure on
the ruling military junta there.

The activist group, formed in October 2007 after the Saffron Revolution,
is dedicated to ousting the junta through non-violent youth mobilization.

The group encourages Burmese citizens, mainly youth, to fight for
democracy through leaflets, graffiti, art and music.

Two members of Generation Wave, in their early twenties, will perform
music and discuss their activities during the forum, called “Good
Neighbors? The role of Asian countries in bringing positive change to
Burma”.

The forum was organized by KBR68Hs radio network’s regional current
affairs program, Asia Calling.

The Burmese junta recently enacted election laws that barred hundreds of
thousands of people from meaningfully participating in the election,
including at least 2,200 political prisoners and leading pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta has also been accused of widespread political repression and
continuing armed conflicts in the run-up to the election.

For security reasons, Generation Wave members also declined to be
photographed. Generation Wave is outlawed by the junta and therefore all
members risk arrest.

Throughout its two-year history the group has seen 23 of its members
arrested and detained.

“We have no freedom of expression. The government chases us because they
want to know more about what we are doing,” said Bo Bo who escaped a few
times in 2008 when the military authority tried to detain him at his
parents’ home.

Bo Bo and some other members of Generation Wave currently live in a safe
house in a border town in Thailand.

The discussion forum will also feature Rizal Sukma, Executive Director of
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Harn Yawnghwe,
the executive director of the Brussels-based Euro-Burma Office who is also
the youngest son of Sao Shwe Thaike, the first president of Burma.
Activists from conflict-ridden Burma have been fighting for democracy for
years.

“We would like to overthrow the military regime then make our country
developed and peaceful,” Bo Bo said.

____________________________________

September 29, Irrawaddy
Students arrested for urging election boycott – Wai Moe

Eleven student activists were arrested last week for distributing leaflets
in Rangoon urging an election boycott, according to  a leading student
group.

Five of the arrested students were later released but the remaining six
are still in custody, said spokesman Zarni of the underground All Burma
Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) on Wednesday.

The ABFSU named the six as technology students Tha Htoo Aung and Zarni
Lin; Zin Min Htet, an extra-mural student; Kyaw Thiha and Kyaw Thu Soe,
who are studying geography; and economics student Ye Lin Phyo.They were
arrested for distributing the leaflets on the Dagon University campus.

Zarni said the leaflets reminded citizens of their right not to vote and
containing the messages: “If you vote the USDP [the junta-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party], monks and people will be killed again”
and “the 2008 constitution and elections guarantee that military rule will
be prolonged.”

Zarni told The Irrawaddy the authorities had acted illegally by arresting
the students because the election law allowed citizens to refrain from
voting.

State media reported in August, however, that anyone who “disrupts” the
election could face a punishment of up to 20 years imprisonment under the
State Emergency Act 3.

Dagon University’s rector, U San, declined to comment on the arrests when
The Irrawaddy contacted him on Wednesday. “I don’t have information about
it,” he said.

A junior official at the university, however, confirmed the arrests.

Dissident sources inside Burma said stickers and leaflets are appearing in
Rangoon and Mandalay urging an election boycott. The campaign is
reportedly organized by the ABFSU, the 88 Generation Students group and
Generation Wave.

According to a Burmese human rights group in Thailand, the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP), 282 student activists
are currently in custody in Burma.

Among them is ABFSU leader Kyaw Ko Ko, who is serving an eight year
sentence in Taunggyi Prison imposed in March 2008 because of his
involvement in the September 2008 demonstrations.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 29, Brantford Expositor (Canada)
Rights groups say election is a sham – Louis Charbonneau

United Nations – The foreign minister of Myanmar vowed Tuesday that the
country's ruling junta will do its best to ensure that a Nov. 7 general
election, which rights groups have declared a sham, is "free and fair."

Speaking at the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, Foreign
Minister Nyan Win insisted that the vote in the country formerly known as
Burma will be "inclusive" -- even though Nobel Peace Prize laureate and
democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners are not
allowed to run.

"Whatever the challenges facing us, we are committed to do our best for
the successful holding of the free and fair general elections for the best
interest of the country and its people," Win told the 192- nation
assembly.

He added that Myanmar has "ample experiences and lessons learnt in holding
multiparty general elections in its past history," according to the
English text of his remarks.

Suu Kyi last month advised members of her now-defunct National League for
Democracy (NLD) party not to vote in the election, the first since 1990
polls the NLD won in a landslide, a result the junta refused to recognize.

The NLD was effectively dissolved on Sept. 14 after failing to register
for the polls because of what it said were "unjust and unfair" electoral
rules and the junta's refusal to release thousands of political detainees.

Human rights groups have derided the elections as a sham designed to
entrench military power in the isolated state, the biggest in mainland
Southeast Asia.

Win characterized the election differently in his speech.

"The people will exercise their democratic right to elect the
representatives of their own choice who can serve their interest better,"
he said.

He added that Myanmar looks forward to strengthening ties with the
international community after the election.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's so-called "Group of Friends" on
Myanmar met Monday to discuss the upcoming election. After the meeting,
Ban said that the group called for the release of Suu Kyi and other
political prisoners.

"This is essential for the elections to be seen as credible and to
contribute to Myanmar's stability and development," Ban told reporters.

Ban's Group of Friends includes Australia, Britain, China, France, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the
United States, Vietnam and the European Union.

Although Ban said group members voiced concerns about preparations for the
election, he did not specifically mention worries about alleged human
rights violations by the junta.

The United States, Britain and France have long wanted the U.N. Security
Council to take action to pressure Myanmar's military rulers to
democratize the country and release all political prisoners. But council
diplomats say China and Russia have made clear they would veto any such
action.

China has close commercial ties to Myanmar. Both Moscow and Beijing,
diplomats say, have adopted their usual stance of not interfering in the
country's internal affairs.

The United States has said the polls will not be credible if Suu Kyi, who
has spent 15 of the last 21 years in some form of detention, is not
allowed to take part.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 28, Project Syndicate
Burma’s democratic charade – Vaclav Havel

Prague – On November 7, when Burma’s first general election for almost two
decades is to be held, a well-rehearsed script will play out. The
country’s ruling generals will twist what is meant to be a democratic
process, whereby the people get to express their will, into a mockery of
free expression in which people vote in fear and without hope.

The international community must judge Burma’s generals by their actions,
not their words and promises. The facts on the ground in Burma speak the
truth more loudly than all the proclamations from the generals about a
free ballot and a democratic transition.

More than 2,100 political prisoners remain in jail in Burma. Many have
been tortured, kept in horrific conditions, and denied medical care.
Attacks against the country’s ethnic minorities continue, with the
deliberate targeting of civilians, including children, by the Burmese
military and police. The country’s media remains censored, freedom of
expression denied, and the most popular political party in the country,
the National League for Democracy, which won elections in 1990, has been
forced to disband because it decided not to register for the November
elections.

In such conditions, free and fair elections will be impossible. This
so-called democratic transition, a process designed solely by dictators
and with input only from the regime’s loyalists, will result in continued
dictatorship.

Before Burma’s fate is sealed in a new-model dictatorship, the United
Nations must immediately and vigorously embark on a fresh process designed
to deliver national reconciliation and democracy to that troubled country.
The international community, East and West, must unite behind a UN-led
initiative to start genuine dialogue.

But, for this dialogue to have any real legitimacy, it must include the
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has endured decades
of house arrest, and her party, the NLD. Other democratic opposition
groups, and genuine ethnic-minority representatives, also need to be given
a voice in the process.

Pressure must be brought to bear to bring Burma’s generals to a
negotiating table where real negotiations take place. All the tools at the
disposal of the international community should be used to bring this
about.

But responsibility for assisting Burma does not lie solely at the door of
the UN. The pressure on Burma’s generals must also be bilateral and
multilateral – and should be reinforced by carefully calibrated economic
measures, including targeted financial and banking sanctions.

Action must also be taken to end the impunity with which the Burmese
generals have ruled. The dictatorship stands accused of committing war
crimes and crimes against humanity, mostly against the country’s
minorities, who chafe at decades of oppression, ostracism, and military
misrule. The UN General Assembly should follow the UN Special Rapporteur‘s
recommendation to establish a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and
crimes against humanity in Burma.

Moreover, the UN Security Council should impose an arms embargo against
Burma, as it has in other countries similarly afflicted by conflict and
serious human rights abuses. Those countries supplying arms to Burma
expose themselves to charges of complicity in the war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed by the dictatorship.

Dictatorship and human rights abuses will continue in Burma after November
7. We do not need to wait until after the election to know this. So there
is no excuse for continued inaction. Now is the time for the world to
unite behind the people of Burma, and to help bring them peace and dignity
at last.

Václav Havel is a former President of the Czech Republic, His Holiness the
Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, HRH El Hassan Bin
Talal is Chairman of the Arab Thought Forum, André Glucksmann is a French
philosopher and essayist, Vartan Gregorian is President of the Carnegie
Corporation, Michael Novak is a Roman Catholic philosopher and diplomat,
Karel Schwarzenberg is Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, Desmond
Tutu is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Grigory Yavlinsky is Chairman of the
Russian United Democratic Party, Yabloko.

____________________________________

September 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
The camera is mightier than the gun – Francis Wade

Several weeks after the body count from 2008’s cyclone Nargis had topped
100,000, an article in the Burmese state-run New Light of Myanmar led with
the headline, ‘The enemy that is more destructive than the cyclone’, and
posed the riddle: “The enemy that is worse than thieves and robbers is
fire. Who is the enemy that is more destructive than Nargis?”

Lo and behold, the article wasn’t a lament of the rampant cholera that
swept across the delta, turning thousands of survivors into statistics,
nor the countless bloated bodies that still littered towns and villages
weeks, even months, after the storm. It was about foreign journalists – in
fact a single broadcast by a single radio reporter – who painstakingly
unravelled the horror stories that emerged from one of Asia’s worst
recorded, but most underreported, natural disasters, one that eventually
claimed 140,000 lives and left 2.4 million destitute. It was these scenes
that undercover video reporters had secretly documented, knowing full well
the ramifications for anyone caught with a video camera in the country.
But as the article explained, in Burma, and perhaps only in Burma, what is
worse than countless square miles of submerged towns, farmland and
families is a foreign or exiled journalist.

The venom with which the junta continues to attack media workers –
particularly Burmese who act as a counterweight to the government
propaganda spouted on state-run outlets – is quite shocking: one DVB
reporter who spent the latter half of 2008 filming a group of children for
Channel 4’s award-winning ‘Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone’ documentary was
tracked by Burmese intelligence and is now serving a 13-year jail
sentence. He joins 26-year-old fellow DVB video journalist Hla Hla Win,
who last year began a 27-year sentence after she was caught with video
interviews of monks critical of the junta – the two bring the number of
journalists in prison to around 15.

The monks had perhaps told Hla Hla Win about their memories of the
September 2007 uprising, whose three-year anniversary was marked by the
generals on Monday with a mass cyber-attack on exiled media websites,
paralysing perhaps the only window into Burma for the outside world. Their
weapon of choice is DDoS, or distributed denial-of-service, which they
drag up to the ramparts on politically sensitive dates and pepper
so-called ‘subversive’ outlets, extinguishing any ‘foreign meddling’ or
‘sowing of hatred among the people’, as it’s branded. The same attack was
launched in 2008 on the one-year anniversary of the uprising, overloading
websites with information requests and thus crashing them. Ironically, the
only major non-state Burmese news website still standing on Monday was the
BBC’s service, highlighting how despicable the threat of its closure by
the UK government is.

While the BBC’s defensive walls are considerable, those of exiled media’s
are not, and as Burma’s first elections in 20 years loom it’ll be the
technically savvier and resource-rich side that triumphs. Unfortunately,
this may not be ours. The consequences of a blackout are hard to grasp in
much of the Western world, where access to comparatively objective news is
a given, for while in Downing Street and elsewhere the debate over the BBC
is essentially one of balancing finances, its repercussions 5000 miles
away will be intensely personal.

What Monday’s cyber attacks demonstrate is both the threat that
independent media is to the paranoid rulers of Burma – and thus its
fundamental importance in the push for democratic transition – but also
the realisation that media operating within and along the borders of
closed countries around the world is an extremely fragile and vulnerable
industry, its fate pinned to the draconian mindset of those it challenges.
Moreover, the tactics and abilities employed in cyber warfare are
strengthening, and in Burma the art is being refined by training
programmes for its Information Warfare (IW) troops in Russia, China,
Singapore, and perhaps elsewhere.

So the counterweight also needs support, otherwise it will fall victim to
the many obstacles littering the road to the 7 November elections, another
politically sensitive date where “the enemy that is more destructive than
Nargis” will again “rear its ugly head”. The free flow of information
within and outside of Burma is not an option for the junta, and a
crackdown on media is expected by all, with Monday marking the latest step
in a move to lock the country’s physical and virtual borders.

The silencing could well be brutal, for again – perhaps only in Burma –
the laws of the land are reversed and journalism becomes a heinous crime,
the video journalist forced to plan his escape from a filming session like
that of a drugs or gun smuggler. Another cameraman for ‘Orphans of Burma’s
Cyclone’ who fled to Thailand described how at the end of every period of
filming they had to disassemble their cameras, hide each part in different
locations around the town, and assign several people to carry the
individual part back to Rangoon, sometimes weeks apart from one another to
avoid suspicion. It is only a camera, you may say, but in this day and age
the camera is mightier than the gun, and for a hermit regime like the one
cowering in Naypyidaw, you shoot the truth, and it hurts.

Unfettered access to media becomes a human rights issue in a closed
country, and what Burma does not need, especially now, is the closing of
one of these lifelines because a government on the other side of the world
cannot bridge the gap between an abstract scenario and the cutting of a
drip feed. The economic recession is also biting, and funding is being
pulled in crucial areas in exiled media around the world; not just for
Burma, but for Zimbabwe, which is also facing the spectre of elections,
and a raft of other countries.

That observers are eyeing the coming polls with the same cynicism that
they now look back on cyclone Nargis with speaks volumes for the state of
affairs in the pariah: an election becomes a time when the generals draw
the veil over Burma and shrink back into their secretive capital, their
henchmen left to scour the streets for the camera or pen-wielding warrior.
It’ll be a flashpoint, no doubt, and with that the game changes for media
and the risks heighten exponentially. But it’ll also be a test of how
innovative journalism in the 21st century has become, and what weapons it
can deploy itself to evade decades in a jail cell.