BurmaNet News, October 23 - 25, 2010

[Editor]

October 23 – 25, 2010 Issue #4069


INSIDE BURMA
Canadian Press: Cyclone kills 27 people in western Myanmar, 15 missing
after storm flattens thousands of homes
AFP: Fourteen dead in oil pipeline blaze in Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Security tight in Rangoon amid rumors of protests
Independent (UK): The faces of change in Burma

ON THE BORDER
Wall Street Journal: Tensions cloud Myanmar vote

BUSINESS / TRADE
DPA: Investors adopt wait-and-see stance on post-election Myanmar (Feature)
Xinhua: Chinese commodities account for 80 pct in Myanmar import

INTERNATIONAL
Bangkok Post: Social justice activists turn to UN chief to rally support

OPINION / OTHER
Jakarta Post: And the winner is 
 the junta – Editorial
Wall Street Journal: 'The generals' election' – Bertil Lintner
Guardian (UK): Burma's sham elections – Waihnin Pwint Thon
LA Times: No more charades – Jared Genser
Irrawaddy: Arakan’s woes – Editorial
DVB: As media runs wild, hot air stifles Rangoon – Joseph Allchin
Foreign Policy: U.S. push for Burmese war crimes probe hits Chinese wall

PRESS RELEASE
Committee to Protect Journalists: Burmese editor sentenced to 13 years in
prison



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 25, The Canadian Press
Cyclone kills 27 people in western Myanmar, 15 missing after storm
flattens thousands of homes

Yangon, Myanmar — A cyclone that struck Myanmar's western coast late last
week killed at least 27 people, damaging thousands of buildings and
displacing tens of thousands of people, state television reported Monday.

Cyclone Giri arrived from the Bay of Bengal on Friday evening with winds
of up to 110 mph (180 kph), lashing several coastal areas of western
Rakhine state that are home to poor families who live mostly in bamboo
huts. It later moved into central Myanmar.
Monday's report was the first announcement from the government on
casualties and damage from the category 4 storm. The military government
tightly controls information and also delayed reporting on — and asking
for help with — the devastating Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in
2008, killing 130,000 people. The junta was widely criticized for what
were called inadequate preparations and a slow response to the disaster.

This time, the government credited its preparation and warning system with
saving lives, saying the casualty toll was low because it had managed to
help 53,000 villagers evacuate before the storm.

In one coastal town in the country's centre, Kyaukphyu, three camps set up
by the Myanmar Red Cross and the Social Welfare Ministry were housing more
than 5,000 people, said Andrew Kirkwood, the resident representative of
aid group Save the Children.

A resident from Kyaukphyu, Chit Chit, who was contacted by phone, said
that many homes had their roofs blown off and that many areas remained
flooded. She said communications were cut over the weekend but had been
restored.

Other nearby towns also saw most of the buildings flattened, Kirkwood
said. In one, only seven homes out of several hundred remained standing.

The television report said that, in all, 4,000 houses, monasteries and
government buildings were destroyed in Rakhine state. It said 27 people
had been killed and 15 were missing.
____________________________________

October 25, Agence France Presse
Fourteen dead in oil pipeline blaze in Myanmar

Yangon — At least 14 people were killed and about 100 more injured after a
fire broke out at an oil pipeline in central Myanmar, a government
official said Monday.

Authorities were battling to put out the blaze, which appeared to have
been ignited accidentally by local villagers who were collecting oil
leaking from the pipeline near Pakokku town in the Magway region.

"At least 14 people were killed," said the official, who did not want to
be named. "There could be more casualties."

The blaze began after about 200 villagers started collecting oil from the
leaking pipeline on Sunday and lit a flame to see in the dark, according
to the official.

A local resident in Pakokku said "many people" were believed to have been
taken to two local hospitals.

The official said the authorities had shut down the 20-mile (32-kilometre)
long government-owned pipeline after the fire started.

Myanmar is rich in natural resources including oil and gas.

But nearly a third of the population lives below the poverty line,
according to World Bank figures, as the junta and its associates exploit
raw materials for their own benefit.

The resources are a major target for energy-hungry Asian economies such as
China, India and Thailand.

Oil giants Total of France and Chevron of the United States are two of the
biggest Western companies in Myanmar and have faced criticism from rights
groups for their dealings with the regime.

Myanmar is due to hold its first election in 20 years on November 7 but
Western nations have said the vote will not be credible unless detained
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition figures are freed.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won the last polls in 1990
by a landslide but the military never allowed the party to take power.

Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 20 years in jail or under house arrest
and is barred from standing in the next polls because she is a serving
prisoner.

The NLD has been dissolved by the authorities because it chose to boycott
next month's vote, saying the rules were unfair.

Myanmar has said foreign election observers and international media will
not be allowed into the country for the vote.

____________________________________

October 25, Irrawaddy
Security tight in Rangoon amid rumors of protests

The Burmese junta tightened security around downtown Rangoon on Saturday
amid reports that monks and activists planned to gather at the city’s
famous Shwedagon Pagoda to protest next month's election, according to
local sources.

“Since this morning, riot police trucks have been going around the city
and security forces are on standby near Shwedagon Pagoda and at
monasteries near Rangoon General Hospital in Pazundaung Township,” said a
source in Rangoon.

Saturday marked the end of the Buddhist Lent, a major event on Burma's
religious calendar, so temples and pagodas around the country were crowded
as normal. But the authorities in Rangoon were on high alert after monks
and activists reportedly issued a statement recently saying they would
organize protests against the Nov.7 election.

According to local journalists, there were unconfirmed reports that at
least two monks had been detained at Shwedagon Pagoda.

“Monks and other people started gathering around Shwedagon at about 11 am.
Witnesses told us that two monks were taken into custody by government
agents. Maybe they were detained briefly,” said a reporter for a local
private journal.

“They were handing out pamphlets that said they don't not accept the
election or the new flag that the government introduced a couple of days
ago,” he added.

Meanwhile, authorities attempted to deter some opposition politicians from
traveling to Kale in northern Burma's Sagaing Division, where ethnic
leaders are scheduled to gather for a meeting on ethnic minority rights
over the weekend.

“U Aung Thein, a lawyer for the National League for Democracy, was
questioned by the authorities while he was traveling to Kale,” said a
dissident source. “He is now safely in Kale with other opposition and
ethnic politicians for the meeting.”

Opposition politicians and ethnic leaders have called for another
gathering like the Panglong Conference of February 1947, when Burma's
independence leaders agreed to a political formula that guaranteed the
rights of the country's many ethnic minorities.

____________________________________

October 25, The Independent (UK)
The faces of change in Burma – Phoebe Kennedy

Rangoon – Three women are standing up to the junta - by taking part in an
election they know they can't win

She has been described as a "princess" of Burmese politics, but for Cho
Cho Kyaw Nyein, the daughter of an independence hero, the pursuit of her
father's dream of democracy in Burma is far more important than the
trappings of her elite status. "I have sold all my gold, all my
jewellery," said the 62-year-old, who is standing as an opposition
candidate in Burma's 7 November election, the first in 20 years.
"Everything that I put aside for my old age, for my medical fees, I have
put into this campaign."

With her childhood friends Mya Than Than Nu and Nay Ye Ba Swe, Ms Kyaw
Nyein is joint-secretary of the opposition Democratic Party, which hopes
to field 50 candidates in the vote. The so-called "three princesses" are
all daughters of senior Burmese ministers who held office during the short
period of democratic rule that followed independence from Britain in 1948.

Despite their pedigree, the three have endured the same financial
hardship, constant surveillance and intimidation faced by all opposition
candidates, in order to fight an election they know they cannot win. Their
aim, says Ms Kyaw Nyein, after nearly half a century of military rule, is
simply to have their voices heard.

"Even though this election is very unfair, we want to be there in the
parliament with the army people. We will be fewer than them, but we will
raise our voices if we have to," said Ms Kyaw Nyein, who, like her father
and mother, served several years in Rangoon's Insein Prison for her
dissident activities.

Followed by plain-clothed special branch officers, she has been on the
campaign trail since early September in the rural constituency in central
Burma that she hopes to represent. "By motorbike, bicycle or on foot I am
getting to the most remote places to explain the meaning of the election
and to persuade the people to vote for us," she said.

The splintered opposition movement is running against the might of the
Burmese junta's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP), which is amply funded and stacked with ex-military candidates,
including its Prime Minister, Thein Sein.

The party has offered new members and potential voters sweeteners such as
cheap mobile phone access and gifts including spectacles, sarongs, food
and cash. "I say to people: 'Take the presents, but don't vote for those
lousy people,'" laughs Ms Kyaw Nyein, an energetic mother of five grown-up
children and three adopted teenagers.

Election rules drawn up by the regime gave parliamentary candidates just
two weeks to raise the £325 needed to register to stand, not a large sum
in the West but equivalent to an average annual wage in Burma. As a
result, cash-strapped opposition parties have only managed to put up
candidates in less than 20 per cent of all constituencies, leaving the
USDP an open field across much of the country. In some of the border areas
where ethnic insurgents have been fighting the government, and where
ethnic opposition parties were expected to do well, the regime has called
off the election altogether.

The many injustices have proved too much for Burma's most famous
opposition party, the National League for Democracy, led by detained
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. From her home in Rangoon, where she is
held under house arrest, Ms Suu Kyi urged her National League for
Democracy (NLD) party to boycott the 7 November vote, charging that the
process is unfair and undemocratic. As a consequence, the party that won a
resounding victory in the last elections in 1990 - a result which was
ignored by the generals - was disbanded by the authorities.

But confusing the picture for voters, renegade NLD members have formed a
breakaway party to contest the election, and have been joined by younger
political hopefuls who, having witnessed the failure of Burma's "Saffron
Revolution" in 2007, feel frustrated by the failure of the opposition
movement to break years of autocratic rule.

"We respect Aung San Suu Kyi's decision, but we think it is the wrong
one," said 38-year-old Myat Nyarna Soe, secretary of the Rangoon division
of the newly formed National Democratic Force (NDF). "How can we negotiate
if we are quiet? I want to go to parliament and persuade the government
that they need to change for the sake of the country."

A doctor and former civil servant in the department of health, Dr Nyarna
Soe only became involved in politics this year. "Things weren't getting
better, so I decided to quit as a government servant. I could not remain
behind the curtain any longer."

The NDF's campaigning ambitions are limited: they plan to print pamphlets
and posters, paid for by party members who have sold their cars and their
houses to support the cause. The party will be by far the biggest among
the opposition groups, fielding 163 candidates. The USDP, however, is
likely to fight nearly all of the 498 civilian seats in the two-chamber
national parliament. A further 166 seats will be reserved for unelected
military officers.

Dr Nyarna Soe accepts that there will be no need for the junta to tamper
with the election results this time. "There is a difference in manpower,
money, everything. It's a competition between them and us, and they've
already won," he said. "But I believe this is our only gateway. If there
is another way, please tell me."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 25, Wall Street Journal
Tensions cloud Myanmar vote

Mae Sot, Thailand—As Myanmar prepares for its first election in two
decades, many of its residents are unlikely to participate, adding to
growing doubts over the vote's legitimacy.

Election watchers increasingly are focused on Myanmar's restive ethnic
minority groups, which make up about a third of the population and control
large swaths of territory along its borders with China and Thailand, in
some cases backed by their own private militias.

Some of the groups plan to boycott the Nov. 7 national election or intend
to block election officials from visiting communities they control because
they believe it won't be fair, according to ethnic leaders and other
people familiar with their activities.

Other ethnic-minority residents will be prevented from voting by the
government, which has said it won't allow polling in some villages
dominated by ethnic groups because it won't be able to fully oversee
voting there.

Although a few ethnic leaders have publicly embraced the election, in one
of the world's most secretive nations, analysts say the number is far
smaller than the regime had hoped a few months ago.

Of the 37 political parties approved to participate by election
authorities, several represent ethnic-minority areas, though advocacy
groups say some are dominated by pro-government figures who don't
represent the minority residents.

The potential for low participation in some areas comes as the National
League for Democracy, Myanmar's best-known opposition group, now actively
campaigns for an election boycott, after initially refusing to register to
participate. The NLD, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, easily won
Myanmar's last election in 1990, but the government ignored the results
and imprisoned many of its top leaders, including Ms. Suu Kyi, who remains
under house arrest in Yangon.

Voting isn't compulsory. But a recent commentary in state-controlled media
warned residents that inciting voters to skip the polls was against the
law, punishable by up to a year in prison.

The government officially disbanded the NLD this year. The party regrouped
as a social organization and is sending representatives to villages to
tell supporters not to cast ballots, its backers say.

"It's going to be a sham election, so we're trying to get that message
out," says Aye Kyaw, a vice chairperson of an NLD affiliate in the
Thai-Myanmar border town of Mae Sot. "People should stay away from the
polling stations."

It is unclear how many people will ultimately join the boycott, or if
their absence will be accurately reported in official results after
polling closes. Khin Ohmar, a coordinator of Burma Partnership, a
coalition of Myanmar-related pro-democracy groups, says she believes as
many as three million voters might not participate in elections in
ethnic-minority areas, though she added that some residents will likely be
pressured into voting.

Critics of the military regime, which has controlled Myanmar since 1962,
say it is impossible to hold a fair election in a country where the media
are censored and more than 2,000 government critics have been jailed,
according to human-rights advocates. The government, led by the aging Gen.
Than Shwe, has placed additional limits on organizing campaign rallies and
imposed hefty candidate registration fees that opposition leaders say made
it difficult to field contestants in most areas. It remains unclear
whether the general, who has ruled Myanmar since 1992, will retire after
the election or assume some new post that allows him to remain in power.

Some 25% of parliamentary seats will be reserved for the military, and
analysts widely expect the government-backed Union Solidarity and
Development Party and its allies to win.

"There is no sign that there will be legitimacy associated with this
process," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters
in September, adding "recent reports that balloting will be deeply
restricted in ethnic areas is worrisome."

Nevertheless, the vote is being watched carefully around the world for any
sign the resource-rich nation of 50 million people is inching toward
democracy. Political leaders in China, Singapore and other Asian nations
have expressed support for the process, which some Myanmar experts say
could at least result in greater public political participation, even if
the vote is flawed.

Boycotts could deprive ethnic groups of a chance to have a bigger say in a
new government after the election ends. But boycotts also could prove
embarrassing to the regime, which is keen to show a unified and peaceful
nation to the outside world.

Analysts say the regime called the vote largely to boost its legitimacy in
the eyes of foreign countries, including the U.S., which maintains tough
sanctions against the junta.

Myanmar's minority groups are among the vote's biggest question marks.
Although about 70% of Myanmar's population is Burman, the dominant
ethnicity, the rest is split between ethnic minorities including Wa, Shan,
Karen, Kachin and other groups, many of which have waged decadeslong
insurgencies against the government.

Tensions have intensified over the past year, as the government has
sought, and largely failed, to convert ethnic militia units into "border
guards" under the leadership of the Myanmar army so they can be subdued
before the Nov. 7 vote.

Underscoring the tensions in ethnic areas, Myanmar's military government
last week blamed ethnic Kachin insurgents in northern Myanmar for a
land-mine explosion that killed two people there. Myanmar's election
commission recently disqualified some Kachin leaders from running as
candidates without citing a reason, a move that will likely further reduce
the turnout in areas dominated by that minority group.

It wasn't possible to reach ethnic Kachin leaders for comment.

Attempts to reach the Myanmar government were unsuccessful. It has
previously said its election will be free and fair.

The government rarely speaks to the foreign media. Last week, the local
Election Commission said foreign journalists wouldn't be allowed into
Myanmar to cover the polling.

Many ethnic leaders, including some from Karen, Wa and other communities,
have refused to hand over arms or endorse the coming polls.

"We don't trust this election," says Dot Lay Mu, joint secretary of the
Karen National Union, an ethnic Karen political organization supporting a
boycott. He says Myanmar's leaders are using the vote to "consolidate and
prolong" their control over the country.

The government responded to problems in ethnic areas last month by saying
many townships in Kachin, Mon, Shan, Wa and other areas won't be allowed
to vote.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 25, Deustche Presse Agentur
Investors adopt wait-and-see stance on post-election Myanmar (Feature) –
Ko Ko and Peter Janssen

At Yangon airport, Min Aung shook hands with a South Korean businessman in
town to assess opportunities in the 'Golden Land,' Myanmar's slightly
misleading nickname.

'He said he would come back after the election. He wants to wait and see,'
said Min Aung, who did not want to be identified by his real name.

Myanmar's junta will hold an election for the first time in 20 years on
November 7, but few are expecting significant changes to either the
political or economic environment.

Western democracies and the United Nations have condemned the junta for
excluding the main opposition National League for Democracy party via
skewered election regulations.

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD head, will be under house arrest
until November 13, scheduled for release a week after the election.

The pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party is expected to win
the polls and, since it is packed with ex-military men, the new government
will amount to little more than a wardrobe change for the regime.

While Western democracies often accept the outcomes of sham elections in
one-party communist states such as China, Laos and Vietnam, they may be
disinclined to do so in Myanmar.

Western firms, at least multinational ones, a waiting for a go-ahead from
their governments before rushing in.

'A lot will depend on the reaction of Western governments,' said Stefan
Buerkle, director of the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce. 'If Western
governments say this was a 'sort of election' and we can work together in
the future, then presumably also businesses would change their policies.'

At present, most multinational Western firms do not venture into Myanmar
for fear of the stigma attached to doing business with the sanctioned
pariah state, which could prove bad for sales in markets such as the US
and Europe.

The Myanmar stigma, however, has not stopped Asian firms from going where
Westerners fear to tread.

Foreign investment approvals surged in the first seven months of 2010 to
16.1 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of National Planning and
Economic Development.

During the previous 20 years, Myanmar's total approved foreign direct
investment amounted to only 16 billion dollars, although only a fraction
of that was actualized.

As of mid-2010, Thailand maintained its position as top investor, with
10.3 billion dollars in projects, while China came second with 6.4
billion, followed by Hong Kong with 5.9 billion dollars.

Analysts expect China to overtake Thailand soon. South Korea is another
rising star with 2.4 billion dollars worth of investments approved in 2010
alone.

Most investments so far have been in petroleum, mining and
hydroelectricity projects.

'Now investors also explore opportunities in other sectors like
infrastructure and banking. Some came with the proposal of bullet trains
projects,' a Yangon-based diplomat said.

On paper, Myanmar's macroeconomic performance is looking good.

The country has enjoyed a trade surplus for the past eight years, thanks
to increasing exports of natural gas to neighbouring Thailand.

In the last fiscal year through March 31, Myanmar's exports amounted to
6.9 billion dollars, 38.4 per cent of which were gas sales to Thailand.

Deputy Commerce Minister Aung Tun said the country's gross domestic
product grew 10.4 per cent last year. Inflation was only 2.4 per cent and
the kyat currency has actually appreciated against the dollar to 920 kyat
on the black market compared with 1,000 in 2009.

The government's statistics are notoriously unbelievable. Also, the entire
state system will require a complete revamp if the country is to become
attractive to Western investors.

'Instead of functioning amidst formal rights and laws, economic activity
in Burma exists according to a set of parallel rules of the informal
economy - rules determined by arbitrary procedures for dispute settlement,
nepotistic patron-client relationships between the military, state and
business, extralegal allocations of natural resource concessions and of
licences to engage in external activity, and by a governing apparatus that
is as unpredictable as it is predatory,' Australian economist Sean Turnell
wrote.

With the election expected to bring the same generals back to power,
prospects for significant economic reforms are bleak.

'Investors expect that there may be changes after the election,' said one
Yangon-based economist. 'They will not invest until they see real change.'
____________________________________

October 25, Xinhua
Chinese commodities account for 80 pct in Myanmar import

Yangon – Chinese commodities accounted for 80 per cent of Myanmar
[Burma]'s import, varying from electronic devices, cement, paint, flour,
iron and iron products to raw materials for soap, the local Biweekly
Eleven quoted a trading company as reporting in this week's issue.

These commodities are also imported from Thailand, Malaysia, India, Japan
and Australia through sea-borne trade.

China's export goods possess high quality and available at reasonable
price, the report said.

Bilateral trade between China and Myanmar hit 2.907 billion U.S dollars in
2009-10, of which China's export to Myanmar stood 2.26 billion dollars,
while its import from Myanmar represented 646 million dollars, according
to official statistics.

Up to January 2010, China's investment in Myanmar amounted to 1. 848
billion dollars, accounting for 11.5 per cent of Myanmar's then total
foreign investment. In the month of May, China made a huge investment in
Myanmar with a total of 8.173 billion dollars including Hong Kong's 3.143
billion dollars, bringing China's total investment in Myanmar to 10
billion dollars up to May this year since the country opened to such
investment in late 1988, the Myanmar official statistics reveal.

China is also inviting Myanmar companies to establish a foothold in the
Chinese market to promote export and encouraging strong Chinese companies
to make investment in Myanmar for the economic growth of the country.

China is Myanmar's second largest trading partner for long and the third
largest investor now.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 25, Bangkok Post
Social justice activists turn to UN chief to rally support – Achara
Ashayagachat

Labour, human rights and political activists are expected to call on
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to look into alleged human rights abuses
by the government against Burmese immigrant workers and red shirt
protesters when he visits the country Tuesday.
The UN secretary-general is due in Bangkok as part of a four-nation tour
of Asia that includes Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

Mr Ban is expected while here for a brief working visit to discuss
regional issues and relations between Thailand and the world body with
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over lunch at Government House before
moving to the UN regional headquarters on Ratchadamnoen Avenue.

Mr Abhisit sought a meeting with Mr Ban during his visit to New York last
month to attend the UN General Assembly to discuss Thailand's role and
cooperation with the UN under the Asean framework and the UN Human Rights
Council.

The meeting did not take place because Mr Ban was tied up with other
business. The two met later at the opening at the UN headquarters of an
exhibition on the living conditions of female prisoners where Mr Abhisit
had the opportunity to extend an invitation to Mr Ban to visit Thailand.

Mr Ban is expected after meeting with Mr Abhisit to receive a statement
from representatives of the State Enterprise Workers Relations
Confederation, the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and the Human Rights
and Development Foundation calling on him to instruct UN agencies to
urgently investigate allegations of abuse committed against migrants
deported from Thailand to Burma.

Mr Abhisit signed an order in June this year ordering a crackdown on one
million migrants, mostly from Burma, who had failed or were ineligible to
enter the nationality verification programme by the Feb 28 deadline.

An agency, the Centre to Suppress, Arrest and Prosecute Alien Workers Who
Are Working Underground, has since been set up to carry on the crackdown
together with regional committees pooling police, army, navy and other
government officers.

The rights groups are demanding investigations into several allegations
made since July involving the centre and local officials. They say they
have received no response from the government and the abuses are
continuing.

Hundreds of red shirt sympathisers are also expected to rally in front of
the UN regional headquarters to call on Mr Ban to order an investigation
into the government's handling of the dispersal of the red shirt protests
in April and May.

A petition, initiated by freelance writer and blogger Rungroj Wanansut and
backed by several hundred supporters, is to be submitted to Mr Ban.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 25, The Jakarta Post
And the winner is 
 the junta – Editorial

No prize for guessing the real winners of the Nov. 7 election in Myanmar.
The junta’s decision to bar foreign observers and foreign journalists from
covering the polls came as no surprise. It confirmed what we knew all
along: There will be an election that is anything but free and fair — and
whose outcome has been decided long beforehand.

The junta has done everything to make sure it retains control of the
government. Myanmar’s military will automatically receive 20 percent of
the seats in the parliament. The junta also barred political figures and
parties that might upset their desired outcome. Nobel Peace Prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi remained in detention and her National League for
Democracy (NLD) party, which was robbed of its victory in the country’s
last election in 1990, was dissolved.

The generals must have taken a page from the history of Indonesia’s
elections under Soeharto in the 1980s and 1990s. The junta-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will be the civilian face of what
is essentially a military-controlled party, in the same way that Golkar
was used by Soeharto and his generals. Myanmar’s junta learned from the
best, and then improvised by barring foreign monitoring.

Since Soeharto is now dead and the nation has moved on to become a
democracy (or some would say, a semi-democracy), it is unlikely that the
Indonesian government will be blamed for inspiring Myanmar’s generals. But
Jakarta will still have to take a stand on the electoral process of a
fellow ASEAN member state. With Indonesia set to chair ASEAN next year,
the region and the world are waiting to see how Jakarta responds.

The way the election has been managed is a gross violation of the values
enshrined in the ASEAN Charter. While ASEAN continues to uphold the
principle of non-interference, Myanmar’s junta is making a complete
mockery of the charter’s provisions on freedom, human rights and
democracy.

Since we already know how the election will run, and what its outcome will
be, the Indonesian government may as well form its opinion now instead of
waiting until Nov. 7, and start sounding out support for the prospect of
expelling Myanmar from ASEAN. Anything less will only serve to undermine
Indonesia’s chairmanship next year.

____________________________________

October 25, Wall Street Journal
'The generals' election' – Bertil Lintner

Western countries are naive to think Burma's junta is taking steps toward
a competitive democracy.

Burma's elections will be held on November 7, and the optimistic scenario
goes something like this: Nearly 40 political parties will compete for
more than 1,000 seats in the national legislature as well as regional
assemblies. The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party will
win, and a quarter of the seats in the national assembly's lower and upper
houses will be reserved for the military. But there will be some space for
opposition voices, and besides, there is a younger generation of more
reform-minded army officers lurking in the wings.

This scenario, posited by diplomats from the United States to the European
Union, is dangerously uninformed. Rather than being "the first step toward
democracy" the upcoming election is the final step in the military's
consolidation of its absolute grip on power, and a way for the regime to
acquire the legitimacy it desires.

Even before the election has been held, the military has scored some
remarkable victories. Pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been
effectively marginalized and even seen by some foreign observers as an
"obstacle" to the democratic process because she has announced that she
will boycott the election. The regime also dissolved her party, the
National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in the 1990
election. People inside Burma jokingly refer to Nov. 7 not as a "general
election" but as "the generals' election." The Burmese have been through
this before and are not as easily fooled as Western diplomats and other
outsiders.

The country's ethnic former rebel groups—which have had cease-fire
agreements with the government for nearly two decades—have also been
co-opted by the ruling junta. The regime has pressured them to convert
their respective armies into "Border Guard Forces" under the command of
the military. Their political wings can then participate in the election
or other activities "within the law." Some smaller groups have acquiesced
while others, such as the Wa, Kachin and Shan armies, are resisting. The
Karen and a faction of the Shan never agreed to a cease-fire. Recent troop
movements in northeastern and northern Burma suggest that a military
offensive against these armed ethnic minority groups may follow after the
election. Thus a political solution to Burma's decades-long ethnic strife
seems now, with a new military-drafted constitution in place, more remote
than ever.

Burma's immediate neighbors are likely to welcome the election, even if it
means just a continuation of military rule under the guise of a partly
civilian cloak. China wants stability, not any dramatic change, to secure
vital trade links and other economic and strategic interests in Burma.
India wants to keep China at bay by trying to be equally friendly with the
Burmese regime, not by trying to export its democracy to a weak neighbor,
a policy which the Indians fear would push the Burmese military even
further into the arms of the Chinese. The 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations is openly welcoming the election in what is
arguably its least democratic member state.

These countries' policy makers all echo their Western counterparts in
arguing that this election is better than nothing. Be patient, and things
will change in due course. In the meantime, criticism of human-rights
abuses in Burma should be toned down so as not to upset "the process." But
this thesis presupposes that a younger, more liberal generation of army
officers, exists. The bitter reality is that it doesn't. Lower and
middle-ranking army officers remain immensely loyal to the leadership,
knowing full well that they can only rise to prominent and privileged
positions by showing that they are even more hardline than their
superiors. The only alternative is to defect, and so far very few have
chosen that option, which, anyway, doesn't affect the political order in
Burma.

As for the MPs-to-be, constitutional safeguards are already in place to
make sure they don't cause any trouble after they are elected next month.
Article 396 of the new constitution ensures that they can be dismissed for
"misbehavior" by the Union Election Commission, which is indirectly
controlled by the junta. And, if the "democratic" situation gets really
out of hand, Article 413 gives the president the right to hand over
executive as well as judicial powers to the commander-in-chief of the
armed forces.

In other words, the military has already won the "election." Rather than
close their eyes to this reality, the best way forward for democratic
nations would be to back a United Nations' enquiry into the junta's
alleged crimes of humanity. That is the only way to force some of the
younger military officers to think twice before blindly following their
superiors. After all, the only hope for Burma's future is that some
officers, young or old, question their country's path. Until that happens,
nothing is likely to change.

Mr. Lintner is a Thailand-based correspondent for the Swedish daily
Svenska Dagbladet and author of several books on Burma.
____________________________________

October 25, Guardian (UK)
Burma's sham elections – Waihnin Pwint Thon

Next month's elections won't be free or fair, and the international
community must take action to end the dictatorship in my country

In May I finally experienced a free and fair election. Unfortunately, I
was thousands of miles from my homeland – Burma. I witnessed the UK's May
elections as a refugee in the country.

Next month, there will be elections in Burma and the eyes of the world
will briefly turn upon the country. But these elections will be neither
free nor fair. The polls are a masquerade designed solely to appease
global opinion. The only winners will be the corrupt and brutal elite who
rule the country. Dictatorship will continue.

Yet, the mere fact that elections are taking place offers a glimmer of
hope. Although, on the surface, the picture suggests that the generals are
beyond fear, and entirely confident that they will continue to get away
with their blatant disregard for the rights of the population, I believe
there are signs that they are scared.

Burma is a country where freedom of association, assembly and expression
are severely limited, and torture, child labour and illegal detentions are
commonplace. Sadly, they are all human rights violations I have witnessed
firsthand.

My father is one of the famed Generation 88 leaders. On 8 August 1988, he
and his fellow activists led thousands of students on to the streets of
Rangoon as part of a wave of a million people who gathered to peacefully
protest against the ruling military junta. The protests were put down by
the most brutal means, and organisers such as my father were beaten,
tortured and jailed.

He was released in 1996; I was eight years old. I was so happy to see him
as a free man, and although I was still shy around him because of his
absence throughout my younger years, I was glad to be able to hug him and
talk to him whenever I wished to.

Even though he was home with us, I worried about him constantly. He
continued his political activities – of course that is something I now
admire profoundly, but at the time I lived in constant fear that the
military intelligence would storm into our home in the middle of the night
and take him away.

Sometime after my father was released, I came to the UK to study. While
here, I watched international coverage unfold of the 2007 "Saffron
revolution", where people took to the streets of Rangoon once more, with
renewed optimism, and persistent courage, that this time democracy would
be achieved. It was not, and the junta violently suppressed the protests
once more. My father was sentenced to 65 years this time, a death sentence
for him.

Over the last months, I have attended the party conferences of the three
largest UK political parties with Amnesty International, and spoken about
Burma and the obligations of the international community toward the people
of that country, who are being kept hostage in their own land.

Like my father before me, I consider it my duty to let the world know what
is going on. While he instigated pressure within the country, I hope to
amplify the pressure on the regime from outside – and the two forces
combined may help make inroads into the seeming confidence they portray.

Some argue that the generals are immune to international pressure,
ignoring calls for free and fair elections and banning the National League
for Democracy, and continuing to detain Aung San Suu Kyi and the more than
2,100 other political prisoners. But I see November's elections as a sign
of how scared the generals are of strong international pressure.

The world has forgotten that these elections were announced back in 2003
as part of a so-called seven-stage road map to democracy. They were
announced then because the world was outraged after the regime-sponsored
attempt to assassinate Suu Kyi. At last it seemed like the international
community would introduce tough, targeted sanctions.

Burma's generals hoped the promise of elections would avoid strong
pressure. It worked. For seven years the international community has told
us to wait and see what happens. Our suffering has continued.

Once these elections are over there must be no more excuses, no more calls
for us to "wait and see". We cannot allow these elections to masquerade as
part of a progress towards democracy that legitimises the junta's ongoing
persecution of the people. The idea that we might, scares me.

____________________________________

October 25, Los Angeles Times
No more charades – Jared Genser

Myanmar will hold 'elections' on Nov. 7, but they will be neither free nor
fair. The U.S. should denounce them and continue to press for real change.

Sunday was an important anniversary for Burmese democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi. But there were no celebrations. There was little to commemorate.
Not her husband's funeral, her children's weddings or the birth of her
grandchildren; she has missed all of these. As of Sunday, Suu Kyi has
spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest. Burma's military junta,
which renamed the country Myanmar, has kept the Nobel Peace Prize laureate
imprisoned and isolated in her decaying, whitewashed house for the last
seven years, and eight sporadically before that.

But even if Suu Kyi — the elected leader of the country since 1990 — were
allowed outside her house, she would see that she is not the only one who
has been isolated for much of the last two decades. The 50 million Burmese
people in the crumbling country are also living in poverty, cut off from
much of the world and under the thumb of the military dictatorship.

The junta's latest ploy to cement its power is the general "elections"
scheduled for Nov. 7, the first since 1990, when Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy and its allies won more than 80% of the seats in parliament.
The junta refused to ratify those results. There is no reason to believe
the junta will be any more inclined to relinquish power next month than it
was 20 years ago. The so-called elections will be neither free nor fair.

These elections are based on a new constitution that provides the
military, which is immune from prosecution, with the right to overturn any
decision of the other branches of government. The leader of the military
has the power to appoint one-quarter of both houses of parliament — all
that is needed to veto any constitutional amendment. Perhaps most chilling
is the constitution's establishment of a National Defense and Security
Council, a vague institution that appears to be merely a new moniker for
the State Peace and Development Council, otherwise known as the Burmese
junta.

The elections themselves also will be deeply flawed. Suu Kyi and her more
than 2,000 fellow political prisoners are prohibited from being candidates
for office. And the cost to register as a candidate exceeds the country's
annual per capita GDP, and most attempting to register are turned down.
The last time Burmese went to the polls, just days after the devastation
of Cyclone Nargis in 2008 to vote on the constitution, military agents
stood watch over ballot boxes — when they were not stuffing them — and
threatened citizens with fines and prison sentences if they didn't vote
the way the regime demanded.

As a kind of olive branch to the world, intended to quiet condemnation of
the elections, the junta claims it will free Suu Kyi on Nov. 13, the date
she should be released under her sentence. Ultimately, however, her
release is a necessary but far from sufficient condition to achieve
progress.

Regardless of Suu Kyi's release, the United States must not recognize
these elections as anything but a charade. Anything less than a
full-throated condemnation of the elections will buy the junta another
reprieve from having the spotlight on its practices. President Obama must
fully implement the sanctions adopted by Congress and investigate, expose
and sanction the junta's bankers in Singapore and Dubai for laundering the
funds the regime has pillaged from its people. He must appoint a special
coordinator on Burma policy, a position that has been empty since he took
office. And U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice should take the lead in the United
Nations in pressing for a commission of inquiry into the junta's
atrocities.

At the same time, the United States should also press U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to restart direct talks with the regime. It
is only through a facilitated process of tripartite dialogue among the
junta, Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy and the country's
disparate ethnic groups that any real reconciliation and progress toward
democracy will be made. All of these efforts must have specific
benchmarks, time frames and consequences for a lack of progress.

There is another imposing whitewashed building that sits just half a mile
west of Suu Kyi's home, on the very same street. Here too the Burmese
junta keeps a close eye on who goes in and out. It is the U.S. Embassy.
The United States is, all too literally, sitting on the sidelines. It is
time to get in the game.

Jared Genser is president of Freedom Now and serves as international
counsel to Aung San Suu Kyi. The views expressed here are his own.

____________________________________

October 25, Irrawaddy
Arakan’s woes – Editorial

Last week, the regime staged a lavish ceremony to welcome a white elephant
to Naypyidaw. Snr-Gen Than Shwe himself was on hand to feed the elephant.
The people in cyclone-hit Arakan State should be so luck.

Burma now has five white elephants, almost all captured in Arakan State.
The latest white elephant will bring prosperity, peace and good luck to
the nation, said the generals.

However, the people in Arakan State are not so lucky, and they are now
suffering. On Friday when Cyclone Giri struck, 26 people died and
thousands were left homeless, according to preliminary estimates.

Many villages were washed away in the storm, and the damage to property
and infrastructure will be large. The full extent of damage will not be
known until later this week.

But will we ever really know, given that the media is heavily censored
whenever natural disasters hit the nation?

Of course, political news is always censored too. The category III cyclone
slammed into Burma's lower coast 16 days ahead of the country's general
election.

Like in the past, monks, students and private donors will come to the aid
of local residents, while regime officials ponder how to respond.

There have been no reports of senior regime officials organizing or taking
part in a relief effort.

On Sunday, two days after the cyclone struck, a ceremony to mark the 65th
Anniversary of United Nations Day was held at Myanmar [Burma]
International Convention Centre In Naypyidaw.

Prime Minister U Thein Sein, who is also head of the regime Union
Solidarity Development Party, mentioned Cyclone Nargis that struck lower
Burma in 2008.

“After Cyclone Nargis, we have managed to overcome the emergency situation
with assistance from the UN, Asean and the international community. We
have successfully managed to rehabilitate the cyclone affected areas,” he
said.
He made no mention of Cyclone Giri, the dead, the scope of the disaster or
whatever, if any, relief effort the state would launch.

Also on Sunday, according to Rangoon sources, Prime Minister Thein Sein
made no response when the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in
Rangoon, Bishow Parajuli, told him that the international community was
ready and willing to help the cyclone victims.

Sources said the UN's international staff and international NGO staff are
being prevented from entering the cyclone-affected areas and are
restricted to Sittwe, the state's capital.

“Only the local staff are allowed to go to all the affected areas.
International staff need special traveling permits,” sources said.

Like Cyclone Nargis, the warning given to local residents before the storm
was irresponsibly slow. Throughout the past week, the official Burmese
meteorology department repeatedly denied the reports of an approaching
storm, trying to assuage public fears.

The generals who ordered the capture of the white elephants in Arakan
State have little understanding of the calamity and suffering of the
people there, a region that has long distrusted the regime.

The generals' lack of concern for the people's welfare, the slowness of
emergency aid and the shortcomings of the public warning system will
surely lead the victims to take some revenge and punish the regime's USDP
party in the upcoming election.
____________________________________

October 25, Democratic Voice of Burma
As media runs wild, hot air stifles Rangoon – Joseph Allchin

Hot air is a fact of life in most of Burma, but is the country’s first
elections in 20 years anything more than hype for people around the old
capital Rangoon, and elsewhere?

Broad perspectives are hard to gauge, for despite regular promises of
“free and fair”, it is “fear and fear” that seems a more appropriate
description of people’s approaches to discussing ‘their’ voice in
politics.

Nor does the paraphernalia of the process seem to reflect much. In Rangoon
today it is hard to find posters of any parties other than those of the
military’s latest creation, the Union Solidarity and Development Party
(USDP). Its golden lion, judiciously chosen unilaterally while most
parties had to lump with a prescribed symbol from the Election Commission,
is ubiquitous on lampposts and posters, even regal-looking head stones at
the entrance to townships.

The somewhat ironic symbol of the National Unity Party (NUP), the husk of
rice, can be seen fluttering around town now and then on their aged
campaign car. But as for the others, good luck.

In the market, as one surveys the wreckage of the military’s economy
through torturous money-counting exercises done to avoid the absurd
“official exchange rate”, the money changer jovially makes a noose round
his neck as he moans about the government. When asked about the election
he does not pause, but thunders on about the price of a car permit, let
alone the price of the vehicle.

One magazine editor is determined however that people voice their opinion
as much as possible through the ballot. While concerned that any boycott
will simply maintain the status quo, he is at pains to explain that even
should the “democratic forces” win all their seats – not impossible – they
would still not have a majority in the parliament.

For as Khin Maung Swe, leader of the opposition National Democratic Force
(NDF), explains, “we are the poor party”. He adds that without funds and
the time to raise those funds, the party, which in any normal circumstance
would be looking at a landslide, cannot contest most seats.

As for context, one taxi driver’s words run: “this is not my election,
this is the military’s election”, indicating he wants no part of it; as if
the process were so stained by ill intent and corrupted by poisons unknown
to most democracies that mere participation would infect.

In any case, foreign journalists working in Rangoon indicate a belief that
“things have changed already”; that their publication was getting more
lenience than before.

In the quiet pot-holed roads of Mandalay division there are also more
signs of pluralism in the polls, as the red poster with the golden hat of
the NDF appears on shops and elsewhere. It must seem mildly revelatory,
after some 20 years in which many of the party members were locked up and
had no chance of displaying any sort of political appendage in public.

This area is considered “more lively” by the magazine editor, who believes
that the combination of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) and
the NDF will be a victorious and defining team.

But in a mosque back in suburban Rangoon, the Imam says of the election
that he will “back the government side; under pressure, you understand?”
Little else of the elections or politics can be gleaned from the quiet
priest who has previously elaborated how his minority is the most down
trodden – “not by the Burmese, by the government”.
____________________________________

October 24, Foreign Policy
U.S. push for Burmese war crimes probe hits Chinese wall – Colum Lynch

Just days after the Obama administration decided in August to support the
prosecution of Burma's top military rulers for war crimes, China's U.N.
ambassador, Li Baodong, paid a confidential visit to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff to make his opposition
clear: The U.S. proposal, he said, was dangerous and counterproductive,
and should not be allowed to proceed, three U.N.-based sources familiar
with the exchange told Turtle Bay.

Li's meeting with Vijay Nambiar, who also serves as Ban's Burma envoy, was
the beginning of an all-out campaign by Beijing to thwart a key American
initiative that was designed to raise the political costs for Burma's
military junta for failing to open its Nov. 7 election to the country's
political opposition. In recent months, China has mounted a high-octane,
Western-style diplomatic effort, lobbying European and Asian countries to
oppose the measure on the grounds that it could undermine the country's
fragile political transition, according to diplomats and human rights
advocates.

In contrast, the United States has pursued a more measured diplomatic
strategy, sounding out top U.N. officials and potential allies about their
willingness to support the prosecution of top Burmese officials, but not
offering a clear plan on how to do it, these officials said. For the time
being, China appears to have the upper hand, leaving the United States
with little public support for the initiative from Asian and European
governments, or the U.N. leadership. Even some U.S. officials are
pessimistic about the prospects for establishing a commission of inquiry
for the time being.

"What we are seeing is the Chinese practicing American-style diplomacy and
the Americans practicing Asian-style diplomacy," Tom Malinowski, the
Washington, D.C.-based director of advocacy for Human Rights Watch, told
Turtle Bay. "The Chinese are making it clear what they want, and they are
using all the leverage at their disposal to get what they want. And the
Americans are operating in this hyper-consensual, subtle, indirect way
that we associate with Chinese diplomacy."

Malinowski said the problem is less about Chinese or Russian opposition,
which was to be expected, so much as a failure of U.S. leadership. "One
should recognize why the Chinese are against this: They recognize it would
be a consequential measure," Malinowski said. "If you allow Chinese
opposition to deter you then what you are saying is that you are only
going to take steps on Burma that are inconsequential."

Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, has one of the most appalling human
rights records in the world. The ruling junta has detained more than 2,100
political prisoners who endure torture, inadequate medical care, and
frequently death. The Burmese military has also imposed abuses on ethnic
minorities, including the forced relocation of villages, forced labor, and
systematic human rights abuses, including rape. The country's Rohingya
Muslim community in northern Rakhine state are subject to severe
bureaucratic restrictions that limit their ability to travel or marry, and
which deny citizenship to Muslim children.

"There is a pattern of gross and systematic violation of human rights
which has been in place for many years and still continues," the U.N.
special rapporteur for human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, wrote
in a March report, saying such crimes may amount to war crimes or crimes
against humanity. "There is an indication that those human rights
violations are the result of a state policy."

In August, the Obama administration separately briefed Turtle Bay and the
Washington Post's John Pomfret on its plan to support Quintana's call for
a commission of inquiry to investigate such abuses. Such commissions in
other parts of the world, including Sudan and the Balkans, have led to
war-crimes trials.

The decision reflected frustration that U.S. officials' effort to engage
the regime had failed to produce democratic reforms or the release of
political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who serves
under house detention. The most likely venues for pursuing the creation of
a commission of inquiry is through the passage of resolutions at the U.N.
General Assembly's human rights committee, which is currently in session,
or the U.N. Human Rights Council, which will convene early next year.
Washington could also appeal to Secretary-General Ban to do it under his
own authority -- although Ban, who is seeking reelection, needs China's
support for a second term.

At the time, a senior U.S. official told Turtle Bay the United States
anticipated the effort could take years, comparing it to the decades-long
struggle to hold Khmer Rouge leaders accountable for mass killing in
Cambodia in the 1970s. The official said the U.S. supports an
investigation in actions perpetrated against ethnic groups and dissident
organizations by Burma's senior leadership, including Burma's top military
ruler Than Shwe. "Responsibility lies clearly at his doorstep," the
official said.

In the first major test of the strategy, the annual debate on human rights
at the U.N. General Assembly, the Obama administration was the only
country that explicitly called for consideration of a commission of
inquiry -- though Britain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia signaled
support for holding human rights violators accountable for crimes. In
contrast, China, Russia, Singapore and other members of the ASEAN nations
voiced firm opposition to the proposal. Ban's report to the General
Assembly on Burma's human rights record made no reference to the
controversial proposal.

Rick Barton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Economic and Social Council,
told the General Assembly's 3rd committee, which deals with human rights,
that the U.N. consideration of a commission of inquiry was "significant."

"After carefully considering the issues, the U.S. believes that a properly
structured international commission of inquiry that would examine
allegations of serious violations of international law could provide an
opportunity for achieving our shared objectives of advancing human rights
there," he said.

But another top U.S. official interviewed by Turtle Bay last week appeared
more tentative about the prospects for success. The official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, characterized the U.S. diplomatic effort as
"exploratory."

"We have been and continue to consult with others," the official said.
"It's on the list of things that are good ideas that we want to discuss
and explore, but we don't run the resolution in the General Assembly. So
that's not our call. My sense is there is not much momentum right now in
the General Assembly to add this new element to the resolution. But the
dynamics could change over time."

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

October 23, Committee to Protect Journalists
Burmese editor sentenced to 13 years in prison

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the 13-year prison sentence
handed down last week by a Burmese court to Nyi Nyi Tun, editor of the
Kandarawaddy news publication.

On October 13, the Seikkan Township court attached to Rangoon's Insein
Prison found the journalist guilty of "crimes against the state." He was
convicted of violating the Unlawful Associations, Immigration Emergency
Provisions and Wireless Acts and other laws, according to Mizzima News, a
Burmese exile-run news agency based in New Delhi.

"The bogus charges and harsh sentencing of Nyi Nyi Tun make a mockery of
the ruling junta's professed transition towards democracy," said Shawn
Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative. "A free press is
essential to a functioning democracy -- a reality Burma's
journalist-jailing junta still hasn't grasped."

Nyi Nyi Tun was first detained in Rangoon on October 14, 2009, according
to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma, a
Thailand-based advocacy organization. Authorities originally tried to
connect him to a series of bomb blasts in the old capital city,
allegations that were apparently later discarded. Nyi Nyi Tun told his
family members that he was tortured during his interrogation, Mizzima News
reported.

Nyi Nyi Tun was convicted on charges similar to those used to jail other
Burmese journalists, including association with exile-run news groups and
unauthorized use of electronic media.

After Nyi Nyi Tun's arrest last year, Burmese authorities shut down
Kandarawaddy, a local-language news journal that operated out of the Kayah
special region near the country's eastern border, according to the Burma
Media Association, a press freedom advocacy group.

Nyi Nyi Tun's jailing is the latest in a series of harsh sentences for
journalists. On December 30, 2009, Hla Hla Win, an undercover reporter
with the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), was sentenced to 27
years in prison on charges related to the Electronic Act, which bars the
unauthorized use of electronic media, including the Internet, to send
information outside of the country.

On January 27, a Rangoon-based prison court sentenced DVB reporter Ngwe
Soe Lin to 13 years in prison on charges related to the Electronic and
Immigration Acts. Ngwe Soe Lin was first arrested in June 2009 after
taking video footage of children orphaned by the 2008 Cyclone Nargis
disaster. Two other DVB reporters, Sithu Zeya and Maung Maung Zeya, were
arrested in mid-April this year and remain behind bars while awaiting a
verdict in their respective trials.

CPJ research shows that Burma has at least 12 journalists behind bars, the
second-highest tally in Asia. (Only China exceeds this number, with more
than 24 journalists jailed.) DVB told CPJ that about a dozen of its
undercover reporters are also being held by Burmese authorities on various
charges, but that they must remain anonymous because their sentences could
be extended if they were revealed to be DVB journalists.