BurmaNet News, October 29, 2010

[Editor]

October 29, 2010 Issue #4072

QUOTE OF THE DAY
“And I would like to underscore the American commitment to seek
accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma
by working to establish an international Commission of Inquiry through
close consultations with our friends, allies, and other partners at the
United Nations. Burma will soon hold a deeply flawed election, and one
thing we have learned over the last few years is that democracy is more
than elections. And we will make clear to Burma’s new leaders, old and new
alike, that they must break from the policies of the past.” – Hilary
Clinton, US Secretary of State (Department of State)

INSIDE BURMA
Independent (UK): Suu Kyi release would awaken Burma, says ally
Irrawaddy: Supreme Court hears final Suu Kyi appeal arguments
TIME: Burma's new breed
Christian Science Monitor: In Burma's rare elections, fresh faced
candidates run against the grain
DVB: News editor tortured, given 13 years

HEALTH
SHAN: Elections won’t fix Burma’s chronic poverty

ASEAN
DPA: Mekong countries, Japan call for fair elections in Myanmar
Bangkok Post: Asean and Burma must work to bridge expectation gap: Abhisit

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Clinton backs UN probe on Myanmar rights

OPINION / OTHER
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Myanmar: UN Human
Rights chief calls for “genuine elections that meet international
standards”
Slate: Why is Burma holding an election? – Sebastian Strangio
Irrawaddy: Locked in, locked out – Bo Kyi
Vancouver Sun (Canada): China and India move to insulate Burma’s junta –
Jonathan Manthorpe





____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 29, Independent (UK)
Suu Kyi release would awaken Burma, says ally – Phoebe Kennedy

Rangoon – The anticipated release from house arrest of Burmese democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi next month will stir a "political reawakening" in
the country after half a century of military rule, her close ally Win Tin
told The Independent.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's release will be like a great rain. When the monsoon
comes to Burma it brings the whole countryside to life. When she is
released the Burmese people will be reawakened," Win Tin, one of the
founding members of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), said
in Rangoon.

Ms Suu Kyi is due to be released from house arrest in Rangoon on 13
November. The date marks the end of an 18-month sentence for breaking the
rules of her detention when she offered shelter to an eccentric American
man who swam, uninvited, to her lakeside home.

The offence was simply the latest in a series of alleged misdemeanours
that the military has identified in order to keep the Nobel peace laureate
in detention for 15 of the last 21 years.

The most recent term of detention was carefully calibrated to ensure Ms
Suu Kyi would be kept out of the picture until Burma's first election in
two decades, to be held on 7 November, was safely wrapped up in the
military's favour.

South-east Asia's top diplomats yesterday demanded that Aung San Suu Kyi
be freed before the elections. Meanwhile, the UN secretary general Ban
Ki-moon said that by freeing its jailed dissidents, Burma could create a
"perception that this election will be more inclusive", even if it's too
late for the dissidents to run as candidates or to vote.

Like his mentor Ms Suu Kyi, the 81-year-old Win Tin has spent many years
imprisoned for his political beliefs.

After 19 years in jail, most of them spent in solitary confinement in
Rangoon's notorious Insein prison, he was finally freed in 2008 and
immediately resumed his dissident activities.

While his years of resistance mark him out as one of the most courageous
leaders of Burma's democracy movement, Win Tin still believes that the
only person who can oust the ruling generals is the charismatic Ms Suu
Kyi, the daughter of Burma's revered independence fighter General Aung
San.

"I can confront the junta personally but I cannot organise other people to
do the same," said Win Tin, bright and energetic despite the years of
beatings and abuse that he suffered in jail. "Only she can do that. She is
the only one who can uproot this junta."

Ms Suu Kyi was unable to stand in the election, and her party has called
for a boycott, citing gross unfairness in the electoral process. Despite
the participation of several small opposition parties, including a
breakaway group of NLD members, the pro-junta Union Solidarity and
Development Party is heading for a convincing win - mostly because it is
the only party with enough funds to put up candidates in all
constituencies.

"There are so many things that are unfair about this election. We don't
believe it's a real political solution. It will just help the military to
get what they want - to rule for a century or more," said Win Tin.

Even if things do go smoothly for the regime, Ms Suu Kyi's release is by
no means assured. Although government officials have acknowledged that she
will have completed her sentence on 13 November, the decision to free her
will be ultimately made by the country's top general Than Shwe, who could
come up with any number of excuses to keep Ms Suu Kyi, 65, behind bars.
Burma has confirmed that Than Shwe himself will not run in the elections
as the military regime attempts to present a new image to the world.

Win Tin himself can only hope. He has not seen Ms Suu Kyi since the
morning of his arrest on charges of treason in 1989, a year before the NLD
won a landslide victory in the last national elections, a result that was
ignored by the generals who refused to give up power. Despite the passing
years, Win Tin's memories of his political icon are still vivid.

"She drew crowds that were a mile deep. People could not see her, but they
came anyway. There was hope and expectation and I pray I will see this
again," he said. "She is great. She is wise and committed, hard-working
and far-sighted. We believe she can lead our country."

Win Tin: a life in brief: The poet devoted to democracy

When Win Tin went to prison, he was a poet, editor and close aide to Aung
San Suu Kyi at the tail end of middle age. When he came out again, he was
an old man - and an activist hero second only to Suu Kyi as a symbol of
the fight for democracy in Burma.

Win Tin was jailed in 1989 for three years - and then had his sentence
twice extended, once for "publishing anti-government propaganda" from
inside the infamous Insein prison. He had heart attacks, a slipped disc,
and lost most of his teeth in prison. Yet asked to resign from the
National League for Democracy in exchange for his release, he refused.

When he was finally freed in 2008, as part of a wider release of prisoners
the government termed "a gesture of loving kindness and goodwill", he was
the country's longest-serving political prisoner. But he immediately
returned to political activism, relaunching weekly meetings of his party
that had fizzled out after he and Suu Kyi were jailed.
____________________________________

October 29, Irrawaddy
Supreme Court hears final Suu Kyi appeal arguments

Burma's Supreme Court in Naypyidaw heard final defense arguments on Friday
in the appeal by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi against her
extended house arrest.

The three-hour hearing took place before Burma’s Chief Justice, Aung Toe,
said Tin Oo, Vice Chairman of the disbanded National League for Democracy
(NLD).

Tin Oo said no judgment was delivered, but he expected it to come next week.

Suu Kyi's current term of house arrest is due to end on Nov. 13, less than
one week after the Nov. 7 election.

The Nobel Prize laureate first appealed against her 15-month sentence
before the Rangoon divisional court last September. The court rejected her
appeal.

On Dec. 21, Suu Kyi's lawyers lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Suu Kyi was initially sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor
after being convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest by
briefly sheltering an uninvited American intruder, John W. Yettaw, in her
home in May 2009.

That sentence was commuted to 18 months house arrest by junta chief
Snr-Gen Than Shwe who intervened personally at the conclusion of the trial
which most analysts labeled a farce.

Suu Kyi has been detained for more than 14 of the past 20 years.

In the defense appeal, Nyan Win argued that Suu Kyi's house arrest
extension was unlawful as it was based on provisions from the 1974
Constitution which was no longer in effect. But government lawyers
countered that the 1974 Constitution can still be cited since it was not
officially abolished, Nyan Win said.

____________________________________

October 29, TIME
Burma's new breed – Hannah Beech

Rangoon – MC J-Me is in the house. More specifically, he is in a house of
worship — crumbling St. Theresa Catholic Church in downtown Rangoon —
bleary-eyed and recovering from a late night. As the 25-year-old rapper
spins rhymes in English about his ambitions ("I'm gonna put Burma on the
map/ With a girl on my lap") an elderly nun strolls by. "Good morning,
sister," the churchgoing J-Me says, bowing his head like any other young
Burmese who knows how to respect authority while gently subverting it at
the same time. Bells toll as he describes how to "play it tight on the
mike" in one of the world's most cloistered countries — that is, how to
slip allusions to drugs or politics or sex past Burma's notorious but
often clueless censors. "I ain't saying I'm doing it," he cautions. "I'm
just saying if a brother wanted to do it, he could play it on four, five,
six levels, and the censors wouldn't know nothing about what's flying
above their heads."

Cut off from much of the world by a repressive junta that has ruled for
nearly five decades, and further isolated by international sanctions
against the regime, Burma (officially renamed Myanmar by the ruling
generals) might feel like the last frontier of hip-hop. But to sample
J-Me, "Burma is back in da house, yo." The hackneyed argot of Western rap
may sound tired to more worldly ears, but in Burma it is a startling
clarion call. Responding to it is a generation of urban Burmese youth that
is finding new ways to express itself — and hopefully change Burmese
society in the process. Conditioned to view politics as a dirty and
dangerous word, young people are flocking to rock and hip-hop concerts in
order to "say what we feel in a way that old people in the government
don't get," as one fan, Yadana, describes it. Contemporary galleries, too,
are filled with art that subtly — and not so subtly — critiques the
military regime. Even community theater groups are getting in on the act,
sneaking references to Burma's HIV-AIDS crisis and explosive ethnic
tensions into their traveling performances. The world may shake an
anguished head over pictures of bloodied monks and the silent suffering of
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but few outside Burma are aware of such
significant shifts in its youth culture. In a country where one-third of
the population is believed to be 15 to 24 years of age, these cautious
appeals for change could be truly transformational.

It isn't just artsy types who are driving the youthful revolution. A local
NGO network came of age after Cyclone Nargis killed some 130,000 Burmese
in 2008 and exposed the government's inability to care for its own people.
This so-called third-force, which is neither the government nor the
beleaguered political opposition, allows youngsters to directly aid the
third of the nation that lives under the poverty line. Given that Burmese
universities have banned nearly all humanities courses, lest students use
what they might learn in political-science or philosophy lectures to
advance agendas other than those laid down by the military regime, the
rise of an NGO sector is something of a watershed.

Through their varied channels, whether it's performing a rap anthem or
kick-starting an environmental campaign, Burmese youth are striving to
alleviate the misery of life in a country where pirated DVDs of The West
Wing serve as political guidance and Prison Break is viewed as a reality
show. "Hollywood usually has happy endings," observes Thila Min, a
33-year-old former political prisoner and playwright. "We have to write
our own."

It is safe to say that the happy ending young Burmese seek will not come
at the voting booth. Nationwide elections are scheduled for Nov. 7, the
first since the 1990 polls that the regime lost badly and duly ignored.
Most of the population knows that the elections will be neither free nor
fair. The military has reserved top leadership posts and a quarter of
parliament for itself. Voter intimidation or bribery, particularly in
rural areas, will likely hand the army's proxy Union Solidarity and
Development Party a fair chunk of the ballots, while another
junta-associated party, the National Unity Party, may also lure votes away
from a disparate political opposition that is contesting less than half of
the legislative seats.

The junta has spent the past two decades consolidating its power, having
violently crushed various democracy movements, including the 1988
student-guided protests and the peaceful monk-led demonstrations three
years ago. Meanwhile, the party that won a landslide electoral victory in
1990, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has been weakened by, among
other things, the imprisonment of its top leaders. Suu Kyi, who should
have become Prime Minister 20 years ago, will see her latest stint of
house arrest expire just days after the forthcoming elections. Loath to
contest polls in which its revered chief could not take part, the NLD has
decided to boycott them.

Dozens of other opposition parties are taking part, however, most notably
various ethnic blocs and a breakaway NLD faction called the National
Democratic Force that includes a number of young members. The reason is
plain: for many Burmese youth, a flawed poll is preferable to stasis. "For
20 years, we have not moved forward," says Moe Moe Yu, a 24-year-old
civil-society activist in Rangoon. "These elections won't build democracy
tomorrow. But people are expecting change to come, maybe in 10 years or
so, and for young people like me, this gives us hope."

The looming elections have also created a climate of debate into which
young people are tentatively venturing. On the streets of Rangoon, barely
a palm frond sways in the tropical torpor; there is none of the energy of
a normal campaign season — few flyers, even fewer posters. (In the days
leading up to the polls, Burma's Internet service was also interrupted,
presumably to keep the country's citizens further in the dark.) But while
they may not be busy campaigning, young Burmese are scrutinizing the
government's failings in areas like education and health care, and
acknowledging the futility of waiting for official redress. "I was working
at a hospital and saw so many people die because there was no basic health
care," says Thei Su San, a 24-year-old medical graduate. "I wondered, Why
doesn't the government take care of them? But saying bad things about the
government doesn't do anything. We as part of society have to move things
forward ourselves. That's our responsibility."

Lessons in Change At the Myanmar egress conversation Club in central
Rangoon, young English-language students are dissecting the chorus of the
Black Eyed Peas song "Where Is the Love?" ("People killing, people dying/
Children hurting, you hear them crying/ Can you practice what you preach/
And would you turn the other cheek?"). In a country where the most
innocuous phrase can take on a dangerous political overtone, I wonder what
the students make of the lyrics and chat after class with a 20-year-old
woman wearing tight jeans and black nail polish. She gives me a knowing
look and talks about the government and the people and the "social
contract" that supposedly binds them. She recently learned the phrase in
another class she attends. (In Burma, English classes are often the
easiest places to sneak in political lessons.) "In other countries," she
says, "governments do things for their people. Here ..." She trails off
and shakes her head.

Since its inception four years ago, Myanmar Egress has served as an
incubator for a new generation of young activists. The educational NGO,
whose founders include businessmen with close relations to members of the
regime, is controversial. Members of the influential exile community view
Myanmar Egress as the democratic fig leaf of a junta creating an illusion
of tolerance. Certainly, its teachers preach the virtues of an election
that many dissidents want boycotted. "The military is getting stronger and
stronger. Our only alternative is the elections," says instructor Kyaw
Win, who has translated books on globalization into Burmese.

Still, there is no questioning the idealism of the thousands of young
students who have tromped up Myanmar Egress's worn stairs to study "Quick
Fix Political Leadership/Civil Education Training" or "The Art of
Blogging" — topics suspiciously similar to those that the junta has tried
to keep out of its universities. "In high school, we learned nothing about
real Myanmar history, there was no information about politics," says Su
San Win, a 16-year-old student from Mandalay. "Now I know what a
constitution is and what civil society is." (See pictures of Burma's
discontent.)

The advent of that society is the goal not only of the few dozen local
NGOs that officially exist in Burma, but the hundreds more that toil under
the radar. Young people, particularly those trained at Myanmar Egress, are
at the forefront of this boom in activism. In Rangoon, I met young women
committed to mangrove reforestation and young men who give free
acupuncture to the poor. Given the role of civil society in overthrowing
authoritarian regimes in places like Eastern Europe, the official latitude
given to such groups seems surprising, and the NGOs are constantly trying
to figure out where the lines are drawn. "Sometimes we are so excited that
we can do something to help that we overstep," says the 20-something
director of a health NGO. "Maybe it's the enthusiasm of being young."

The fact is that the regime, which goes by the Orwellian name of State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has so neglected its responsibility
to care for its people that it must allow domestic NGOs to operate, if
only to quell popular discontent. Right after Cyclone Nargis, most
international assistance was blocked for fear that Western notions of
democracy would flow in along with emergency aid. Thousands of young
Burmese spontaneously filled the gap, ferrying supplies to the ravaged
Irrawaddy delta. Doctors fresh out of medical school rushed out to treat
trauma victims. "I think, for young people, this was a real defining
moment," says a European diplomat in Rangoon. "For the first time, they
could see that what they were doing was making a real difference, and the
government was letting them do it."

Testing the limits in a country with 2,100 political prisoners might seem
foolhardy. A year ago, a crackdown on journalists, activists and aid
workers, including some who had helped in the Nargis effort, resulted in
dozens of arrests. But the spirit of youthful volunteerism is undeterred
and today extends beyond disaster relief. Take education. Because of
student protests in the 1980s and 1990s, the government closed most
universities for years at a time. Primary and secondary schools remained
in session, but dropout rates are high. Only around 1% of the national
budget is spent on education, one of the lowest investments in the world.
In the mid-'90s, the SPDC's Buddhist spy chief Khin Nyunt tried to
alleviate the situation — and perhaps burnish his karma — by funding
monastic schools that took in students too poor to afford public-school
tuition. But when he was deposed in a power struggle in 2004, money for
temple academies dried up. Today, private donations and young unpaid
teachers help keep those schools afloat.

Each Sunday, volunteers from Gita Meit, a Rangoon music school and
community center, travel to Hlaing Tharyar monastery school, near the
Irrawaddy delta, to teach music, art, theater and English. One rainy
afternoon, a young volunteer gathered the kids together to write a play.
"Think of your characters and the plot," he urged. "You have the freedom
to express yourselves and decide how their lives will go." Unused to
articulating their imaginations, the students at first squirmed and stared
into space. But soon, blunt pencils began scratching on paper.

The Art of Protest Her body shrink-wrapped in plastic, a suffocated woman
cradles her head in despairing arms. The title of Ma Ei's photo-art series
is Woman for Sale, and her exhibition is not exactly an understated
critique of Burma's male-oriented society. As always, a posse of officials
had evaluated the show — a group that included inspectors from the Home
Affairs Ministry, Special Branch, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
police and the Ministry of Culture — but the 32-year-old artist convinced
them that her work was an expression of traditional femininity and
Buddhist values. "They always look the art up and down, up and down," says
one of her peers, mocking the censors' gaping expressions. "They are
ignorant, so you play on that by saying, 'Oh, of course you understand
what this means, Mr. SPDC. It's about love and our good feelings for our
country, Myanmar.' And they say, 'Of course, yes, that's what it is
about.'"

The officials won't always be placated. One 23-year-old
installation-and-video artist withdrew from a group exhibition last month
because the authorities objected to the depiction of severed female dolls'
heads in her video piece, presumably taking them as a reference to Suu
Kyi. (The artist disputes that interpretation). And yet she remains
defiantly optimistic. "In Myanmar, the art world is an easier place to
express political ideas," she says. "You don't have to explain. You just
show it and people can see what they want." The contemporary-art scene is
even thriving, with new galleries opening up and young painters secretly
gathering to show off samizdat work or slipping political references into
their publicly exhibited art.

The hip-hop world, too, refuses to be cowed by persecution. Although J-Me
jokes about spinning rhymes with multiple meanings, a member of Burma's
first hip-hop band ACID is now languishing in prison. He was accused of
being a leader of Generation Wave, a secret collective of antigovernment
hip-hoppers and activists. But despite this, other rap stars have managed
to release underground albums that celebrate democracy and support the
regime's nemesis, Suu Kyi, "the lady on the lake" (so called because she
is serving out her house arrest in a decaying villa on a Rangoon
lakeshore). "You can choose how to fight, with words, or with art or with
music," says one rapper. "It doesn't matter what weapons you use. What
matters is that you fight strongly and bravely." But as an entire
generation of Burmese youth is now discovering, it also matters that you
fight with subtlety and intelligence, choosing the battles that you can
win.

____________________________________

October 29, The Christian Science Monitor
In Burma's rare elections, fresh faced candidates run against the grain

Burma (Myanmar) goes to the polls on Nov. 7, offering its citizens a rare
chance to defy its military rulers. Some believe it’s nothing more than a
show designed to legitimize another dictatorial regime.

Rangoon, Burma — Megaphone in hand, Yan Kyaw rounds the corner of another
soot-blackened city block. Ahead of him, a gaggle of young volunteers in
red T-shirts printed with their candidate’s symbol, a yellow lantern, pass
out leaflets in shops and teashops. Others attach leaflets to the colored
strings that dangle from apartment balconies, a combination of postbox and
buzzer in a city starved of electricity.

Yan Kyaw, a lecturer running as an independent for parliament, speaks
briefly into his megaphone, telling voters to cast their ballots freely
and without fear. More faces peer over the balconies, and some begin to
yank up their strings, eliciting smiles from the fresh-faced volunteers.
“A good response today, very good,” says the aspiring lawmaker.

Burma (Myanmar) goes to the polls on Nov. 7, offering its citizens a rare
chance to defy its military rulers. Some believe it’s nothing more than a
show designed to legitimize another dictatorial regime. Western powers
have heaped scorn on stifling restrictions that favor the junta’s
political proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), at the
expense of the opposition.
The biggest battle

For Yan Kyaw and hundreds of other candidates running against the junta’s
choices, the biggest battle is against a combination of apathy,
skepticism, and deep divisions within the opposition. The result could be
an even bigger than expected victory for the USDP, which is led by Prime
Minister Thein Sein, a recently retired general, and is stuffed with junta
allies.

Each party has been allotted time on state television and allowed to
advertise in private newspapers. But most lack the resources and reach of
the USDP, which relies on government spending to bolster its campaign. In
rural areas, government intimidation is common, say observers. But in
cities like Rangoon, the former capital, opponents have a freer hand to
win over voters by going door to door.

Still, opposition politics remains fractious, and leaders spend as much
time attacking each other as lambasting the government’s failings. The
most vicious infighting is within the former ranks of the National League
for Democracy (NLD) led by imprisoned Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
which has boycotted the vote, while a breakaway group has registered a new
party to contest the election.

Effect of a boycott?

It’s unclear what impact the NLD’s boycott may have on turnout. As the
election law doesn’t specify any minimum vote a low turnout is likely to
reward the USDP and another conservative party, the National Unity Party
(NUP), say analysts. The government has declined to invite international
monitors or foreign media for the election, the first in 20 years.

The NLD’s refusal to take part has left a varied field of opposition
parties and independents, as well as ethnic-based parties. But few have
the clout to challenge the USDP or NUP. Of 37 registered parties, only
four are contesting more than 10 percent of 1,163 seats in national and
local legislatures. The remaining 25 percent of seats are reserved for
military officers under a constitution passed by a referendum in 2008.

For every politician who wants to run against the regime, there are others
who reject the election as a dead-end road. “I don’t believe in these
elections because they won’t be free or fair,” says Phyo Min Thein, a
former political prisoner who formed a new party in May but later quit in
protest at the election rules. His party is contesting the poll without
him.
Push for reform

Opposition candidates argue that even if they are in a minority in
parliament, they can scrutinize government policy and push for reforms.
Under the constitution, the government’s budget must be passed by
parliament, marking a break from the opaque accounting of the current
junta.

“The government favors the USDP, while it suppresses the other parties.
But we want to contest. Participating in this election is an important
step,” says Nay Myo Wai, general secretary of Peace and Diversity Party.

Critics lament the failure of opposition figures to agree on a common
strategy. A six-party alliance recently fractured over allegations of
improper funding by a pro-junta donor. The grouping was already beset by
an overlap of candidates in many constituencies, petty rivalries, and
other problems.

Yan Kyaw, the independent candidate, says the squabbling is a distraction.
“We don’t want to fight the democrats, we want to fight the other guys.
That’s the real way,” he says.

Voters are torn between hope and cynicism. “I think the [opposition
parties] can change our lives
 we need better roads and electricity,” says
a young woman who runs a small store in Rangoon and intends to go to the
polls.

A businessman living the same neighborhood said he didn’t plan to vote. “I
don’t believe any of the parties. I don’t think they will make a
difference. In the parliament, they will turn into yes-men,” he says.

____________________________________

October 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
News editor tortured, given 13 years – Francis Wade

The editor of a Karenni state-based news journal has been given a 13-year
prison sentence after being convicted on a raft of media charges.

The sentencing of Nyi Nyi Tun, the editor of Kantarawaddy News Journal,
has drawn scathing condemnation of the Burmese junta from international
media groups. He had already been in detention for a year when the
sentence was passed on 14 October, with charges ranging from contact with
an exiled news group to using electronic media without permission.

Burma already has some of the world’s most draconian media laws, and the
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontiers – RSF)
ranked it 174 out of 178 countries in its latest Press Freedom Index,
released this month. Burma was also recently awarded the penultimate spot
in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Index.

Nyi Nyi Tun was convicted by a closed court inside Rangoon’s notorious
Insein prison, where the majority of Burma’s nearly 2,200 political
prisoners are tried. He had been held there since his arrest on 13 October
2009, when he was initially accused of “terrorist acts” in Rangoon,
although these charges were later dropped.

“According to his family, Nyi Nyi Tun was tortured during interrogation,”
said a joint statement issued today by RSF and the Burma Media
Association.

“Based in the eastern border state of Kayah [Karenni state]
Kantarawaddy
News Journal was closed after his arrest. According to several Burmese
journalists, the authorities were glad to be rid of this influential
privately-owned magazine.”

Among the political prisoner population are nearly 20 journalists, 17 of
whom work for DVB. Like many others, Nyi Nyi Tun was also charged with
Article 505/b, which bans the dissemination of “false information intended
to disrupt public order”.

The two media watchdogs drew a parallel with the arrest of Oakkan Tha, a
Buddhist monk who was convicted of “anti-electoral activities” at the end
of September for sending information to the Thailand-based Mon News Agency

The clamp on independent media appears to be tightening as Burma’s
elections loom. Reports are already circulating of a major slowdown in
internet speed – a tactic used often by the junta during politically
sensitive times. Foreign journalists and observers have been banned from
entering the country during the election period.

____________________________________
HEALTH

October 29, Shan Herald Agency for News
Elections won’t fix Burma’s chronic poverty

A report released today by the Thai Burma Border Consortium accuses
Burma’s military regime of “gross economic mismanagement, massive
under-investment in social services and a climate where human rights are
abused with impunity.”

The TBBC says the ‘climate of instability’ has forced 29,000 people from
their homes during the past year. The report, titled “Protracted
Displacement and Chronic Poverty in Eastern Burma,” estimates there are
more than 128,000 internally displaced persons who remain in southern Shan
State.

Jack Dunford, TBBC’s executive director, said nothing will change in the
immediate future, regardless of the results from the Nov. 7 election.

 “Burma’s government has been indifferent to civilian suffering for
decades, and there is no indication the elections will change that,” he
said. “Regardless of the outcome in Burma’s first elections for 20 years,
the incoming government will inherit a legacy of widespread and chronic
poverty throughout the country.”
An eyewitness report from southern Shan State confirms the findings in the
TBBC report.

A Shan villager head says at least 100 villagers from four townships have
had enough of working for the Burma Army and militia groups aligned to the
regime and have taken
refuge in Thailand.

“We grew food to feed our families, but every year the Burma Army demanded
we give them rice at a 90 percent discounted price. If the land didn’t
produce enough rice for them [Burma Army] we had to buy paddy to give
them,” said one villager.

TBBC said in its report that the construction of a 361 kilometer long
railway between Mong Nai in southern Shan State and Keng Tung in eastern
Shan State means, “thousands of acres of farming land have already been
confiscated, including approximately 13 percent of the lowland fields
cultivated around Mong Nai.”

Government statistics disguise the extent of the suffering, the group
said, and the report findings are consistent with a recent report by
community based health organizations, that “
suggest public health
conditions in eastern Burma are amongst the worst in the world.”

In a TBBC media statement released today, the director of Mae Tao Clinic,
Dr. Cynthia Maung, said: “It is a crime that so many in eastern Burma,
particularly women and children, are dying of preventable and treatable
diseases.”

____________________________________
ASEAN

October 29, Deustche Press Agentur
Mekong countries, Japan call for fair elections in Myanmar

Hanoi – Japan and the five South-East Asian countries on the Mekong River
issued a joint statement Friday calling for free and fair elections in
Myanmar.

Myanmar's membership in the Mekong group - which also consists of
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam - indicated that the call for fair
voting was not intended as criticism of the actual preparations by the
ruling military junta for the November 7 general elections, the first in
20 years.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also urged Myanmar to make the elections
'more inclusive and participatory' by releasing all political prisoners.
'It's not too late, even now,' Ban said.

'ASEAN and the United Nations agree on the need for a credible democratic
transition and national reconciliation in Myanmar,' he said, referring to
the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

'We expect and hope that the elections will be credible, inclusive and
transparent,' he added.

The Mekong summit, which met on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in
Hanoi, concentrated on economic agreements for developing the Mekong
region.

It also called for the Korean Peninsula to become a nuclear-free zone.

An action plan issued by the group called for Japanese economic aid and
technical help to develop transportation and energy resources in the
Mekong River region while protecting its environment.

At the first Mekong-Japan summit last year, Japan's government pledged 500
billion yen (5.6 billion dollars) in fresh aid to the region. The pledge
was seen as a response to growing Chinese influence in South-East Asia.

____________________________________

October 29, Bangkok Post
Asean and Burma must work to bridge expectation gap: Abhisit

Hanoi – Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Friday that Asean and
Burma must work together to narrow the gap of expectation within the
international community concerning the scheduled election in Burma next
month.

He said that an election is a first step in democratic development.
Thailand, he added, looked beyond the election scheduled on 7 November,
which was condemned world-wide.

Abhisit's comment was in line with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty
Natalegawa, who said that Burma's election is suffering from the
creditability deficit. He also pointed out that Indonesia also looks
beyond the election to issues related to national reconcilliation and
dialogue.

The strongest view came from Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. He
said that Aung San Suu Kyi should be released and the election next month
is not free, fair or inclusive.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 29, Agence France Presse
Clinton backs UN probe on Myanmar rights

HONOLULU, Hawaii – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw her support
Thursday behind an international human rights probe in Myanmar amid
growing US frustration with polls planned by the military regime.

Activists have long sought an investigation into alleged crimes against
humanity in the country formerly known as Burma, with which President
Barack Obama's administration initiated dialogue last year.

Clinton, delivering a speech in Hawaii at the start of a two-week trip
across Asia, offered the most explicit US backing yet for a probe, which
could lead to international warrants for junta leaders.

"I would like to underscore the United States' commitment to seek
accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma
by working to establish an international Commission of Inquiry through
close consultations with our friends, allies and other partners at the
United Nations," Clinton said at the East-West Center in Honolulu.

Human rights groups say Myanmar has one of the world's worst human rights
records, with the regime detaining thousands of opponents, systematically
destroying ethnic minority villages and using rape as a weapon of war.

Several other countries, including Australia and Britain, also support a
UN commission, which could follow the lines of a probe on Darfur that
triggered an arrest warrant on genocide charges against Sudanese President
Omar al-Bashir.

A senior Obama administration official said in August that the United
States would support a probe.

But some analysts had expected the United States would hold off on more
overt support for an investigation until after the election as it tries to
preserve dialogue at a time of potential transition in Myanmar.

Jared Genser, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's international
counsel, welcomed Clinton's remarks and said it was now critical for the
United States to help set up a commission at the United Nations.

"The fact that she personally and publicly supported it is very help and a
step in the right direction," Genser told AFP in Washington.

"The real question is whether the administration is prepared to focus
concertedly on the diplomatic steps that will make this opportunity come
to fruition. It's not clear yet."

Clinton said the United States considered the November 7 election
organized by the military regime as "deeply flawed," but also indicated a
willingness to engage Myanmar.

"We will make clear to its new leaders that they must break from the
policies of the past," she said.

The elections are the first in Myanmar since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy won in a landslide. But the party was never
allowed to take power and the Nobel Peace laureate has spent 15 years
under house arrest.

Myanmar's Supreme Court was due on Friday due to hear Aung San Suu Kyi's
final appeal against her house arrest.

Facing criticism at a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in Vietnam,
Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win indicated the regime was ready to
release the pro-democracy figure soon but only after the elections.

In unusually strong remarks, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley
criticized the offer and renewed the US call on Myanmar to free all
political prisoners and allow Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in the
polls.

"This is a craven manipulation by Burma. How convenient that they are
hinting that she might be released after an election that is unlikely to
be fair, free or credible," Crowley told reporters in Washington.

"Burma knows what it has to do. It has to open up its political space for
Aung San Suu Kyi and others to participate fully in the politics of Burma.

"It has to release its political prisoners -- all of them -- and it has to
have meaningful dialogue with all elements of Burmese society," he added.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 29, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Myanmar: UN Human Rights chief calls for “genuine elections that meet
international standards”

The following statement has been issued by the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Navi Pillay:

Geneva – “On 7 November Myanmar’s electoral process will culminate in
voting and counting at polling stations around most of the country.
However, conditions for genuine elections that meet international
standards have so far not been reached.

The Government should release immediately and unconditionally all
political prisoners in order to make this process more inclusive. These
are the more than 2,000 persons in Myanmar who, in most cases, have been
convicted by laws that limit freedom of expression and freedom of
association and assembly and contravene international laws.

In presenting his report to the UN General Assembly last week, the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar remarked that the
freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association have been
further restricted through implementation of the election laws and the
directives issued by the Electoral Commission. In the final days before
the election, the Government should respect these freedoms.

I would like to impress upon the Government of Myanmar the need to
urgently take concrete steps for effective democratic transition to take
root in the country.

The UN Secretary-General in his most recent report on the human rights
situation in Myanmar to the General Assembly said that Myanmar must make
progress in overcoming its twin legacies of political deadlock and armed
conflict. Democratic transition in this context will require beyond
elections serious national reconciliation efforts that include all
stakeholders. Meaningful dialogue for national reconciliation with all
sides, particularly those who have been excluded from the electoral
process, needs to be undertaken for a successful transition. In addition,
measures to address the issues of justice and accountability are also
necessary for any transition following so many years of serious human
rights violations.

The people of Myanmar are clearly seeking a better future. Genuine
elections that meet international standards should be part of the
transition process towards that future.”

____________________________________

October 29, Slate
Why is Burma holding an election? – Sebastian Strangio

The military junta has no intention of surrendering power.

On Nov. 2, American voters will go to the polls to elect 435 members of
the House of Representatives and 37 senators. Just five days later, on the
other side of the world, a country of 56 million will hold elections for
just the second time in 48 years. As the campaigns in both countries heat
up, it's a fair bet that Burma's aging military dictator, Senior Gen. Than
Shwe, is sleeping more soundly than certain Democratic members of
Congress.

As predictable as Burma's election outcome might be, it is likely to
attract considerable international press coverage. The last time Burmese
politics made headlines, in 2007, thousands of monks were swarming into
the streets of Rangoon, the country's largest city and former capital. The
mass protests, which snowballed into the weeklong "saffron revolution,"
were put down with brutal force by the country's military junta, which
bludgeoned and gunned down dozens of unarmed protestors, including a
Japanese photojournalist.

Now, three years on, the government is seeking a mandate at the ballot
box. Why, after 48 years of autocratic misrule, are Burma's military
rulers holding elections?

One thing is clear: The junta is less interested in establishing a true
democracy than in making a bid for international legitimacy and buying off
dissent with cosmetic reforms. The junta's three-front war—against the
pro-democracy movement, ethnic minority unrest, and international
opprobrium—could all be advanced, if only marginally, by a stamp of
democratic legitimacy.

The elections are the culmination of a planned road map to
"discipline-flourishing genuine multi-party democracy," as the regime puts
it. Whatever that means in practice, a key concern is to win
convincingly—and at whatever cost. At the last election, in 1990,
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy routed the
junta, winning 392 of the 447 available seats. On that occasion, the
military brushed off the results and continued to rule through the
Orwellian-sounding State Law and Order Restoration Council, since
rebranded the State Peace and Development Council.

A new constitution, approved in 2008, ensures that even the worst-case
scenario will pan out for the generals. One-quarter of the seats in two
houses of parliament are reserved for hand-picked military candidates,
while electoral rules bar Suu Kyi and more than 200 jailed NLD members
from running. Members of the military brass have already shed their
uniforms and taken up posts in the Union Solidarity and Development Party,
a junta front. The USDP, along with other proxies, will field candidates
in every part of the country, more than three times as many as the other
35 parties combined.

While the West is unlikely to accept the outcome as legitimate—in March, a
U.S. State Department spokesman referred to the electoral rules as a
"mockery of the democratic process"—Burma's Asian neighbors, many of which
have questionable democratic credentials, may use the elections as an
excuse for getting the Burma issue—a perennial embarrassment—off the
agenda of international summits.

Sean Turnell, a Burma expert based at Macquarie University in Sydney,
Australia, says the elections are geared toward creating "a fig leaf of
international legitimacy" for the embattled junta. "The election will be a
farce—but this might be the sort of farce some countries can use to
exploit economic opportunities and the like," he says. It might also be
used as a pretext for the transition of power from the current generation
of generals—most of whom are in their 70s—to a new coterie of military
officers.
On the face of it, the junta's recent behavior—leavened by paranoia and a
certain surrealistic twist—suggests few reforms are on the horizon. Gen.
Than Shwe, the junta's primus inter pares, is an obscure figure, appearing
behind sunglasses in uniforms dripping with medals. In a recent biography,
one diplomat describes him as having "no evident personality," but he is a
master of political manipulation dedicated to preserving his grip on
power.

Since his appointment in 1992, Than Shwe's rule has followed the eccentric
blend of traditional superstition, repression, and realpolitik that is the
hallmark of Burmese politics. In November 2005, at a time and date
recommended by astrologers (who may also have determined the Nov. 7
election date), Than Shwe shifted the country's capital from Rangoon to a
patch of uninhabited scrubland in central Burma. The empty new city,
dubbed Naypyidaw, or "seat of kings," was supposedly chosen for its
remoteness, out of range of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Lacking a city center
of any kind, it also provides something of a geographic prophylactic
against domestic unrest, what one journalist described as a "the ultimate
insurance against regime change." The hills around Naypyidaw are thought
to be threaded with miles of underground tunnels, reportedly built with
the aid of North Korean engineers.

In May of this year, reports surfaced about Burma's plans to develop
nuclear weapons technology, also with North Korean help. Unsettlingly,
Burmese leaders may be looking to Pyongyang for more than just nukes,
viewing it as a model for long-term autarky and isolationism.

Despite Burma's seemingly inexorable drift into rogue-state status,
observers are divided over what might result from the election. Some say
that despite being carefully stage-managed, it could prompt gradual
reforms, comparing Burma with countries such as Chile, Egypt, and Taiwan,
which have slowly liberalized away from autocratic rule.

Others hold fast to the idea of a boycott. Aung San Suu Kyi—under house
arrest and barred from participating in the election after John Yettaw, a
Mormon from Falcon, Miss., swam to her secluded lakeside residence in
Rangoon in 2009—has urged Burmese citizens to stay home on Election Day,
and international activists are running a campaign to ensure a low voter
turnout.

The divide is also mirrored in the Burmese opposition movement: The
largest opposition party, the National Democratic Force, is made up of
ex-NLD members who refused to take part in a boycott. A raft of other
opposition groups—many ethnically affiliated—are also contending the
elections in the hope that they can gain some leverage over the direction
of government.

But Burma's long-term stability may depend on the very thing that has
troubled it most since it won independence from Britain in 1948: Its raft
of simmering ethnic conflicts. In September, exile media outlets reported
an increased flow of illicit drugs into Thailand from areas controlled by
the United Wa State Army—thought by many to be one of the largest
drug-trafficking organizations in the world—in anticipation of clashes
with the Burmese army. The 20,000-strong UWSA, one of a number of ethnic
militias to have signed cease-fire agreements with the government in
exchange for local autonomy, has been ordered to join a centralized border
guard force. So far, the UWSA and several other groups have refused,
setting the stage for a possible return to open conflict.

It's too soon to say what a "democracy with Burmese characteristics" might
look like in practice, but the signs so far are not especially promising.

Sebastian Strangio is a journalist based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
____________________________________

October 29, Irrawaddy
Locked in, locked out – Bo Kyi

Violence, intimidation and arbitrary detention have no place in free, fair
and credible elections.

Where violence and intimidation are routine or accepted as a fact of life
then the ruse of a “free and fair” election must be exposed for what it
is. Rather than bettering the lives of Burma’s 50 million people, the
November election is increasing the threats that people face, on a daily
basis, from the regime.

Rather than bringing them closer to freedom, the election is taking them
further away, narrowing the already confined space in which people live.
Added to the list of oppressive decrees and directives—which ban
gatherings of more than five people, outlaw debates or discussions about
the Constitution and criminalize peaceful opposition parties—is the
recently announced decree 2/2010 which prohibits the display of flags,
chanted slogans and marching to and from an assembly venue.

Freedom of assembly and association are fundamental components of
democratic elections. All parties must have the right to campaign freely
in the lead-up to the election. Parties and candidates must be free to
hold meetings and rallies to explain their policies to potential voters
and persuade voters to elect them to power. Voters need to be confident
that they will not face persecution or punishment before or after they
vote because of their choice.

The people of Burma have no such confidence, and understandably so. For
the past 20 years, the regime has waged a war against the Burmese
population, not only in the ethnic areas but also in the cities, where it
suppresses peaceful dissent. Burma’s more than 2,000 political prisoners
are evidence of this violence.

If the crime of political prisoners is essentially voicing their opinions,
a main function of imprisoning them is to isolate them from their
potential audience. Those considered prominent political leaders are
isolated even further, often sent to prisons in remote areas, far from
their families, where access to the outside world is particularly
difficult.

However, many continue their activities, at great risk, while in prison.
Another function is to instill into the wider population the fear that
engaging in politics or activities deemed in opposition to the regime
comes at a cost: you pay with your freedom and sometimes your life.

Through Burma’s state-run media, the regime warned that anyone who
disrupts the country’s election could face up to 20 years in prison. It
reminded people that the 1996 Law on the Transfer of State Responsibility,
providing up to 20 years imprisonment for anyone who “incites, delivers a
speech or makes oral or written statements that undermine the stability of
the state, community peace and tranquility and prevalence of law and
order,” is still in force.

The violence and imprisonment facing those who speak out against the
current regime makes a mockery of the credibility of the election, when a
cornerstone of any election is criticism of the incumbent party.

The military regime has ensured its victory through its proxy, the Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP); and in the pursuit of victory, it
is encroaching ever further on people’s fundamental freedoms. A
fundamental principle of free and fair elections is that the voter is free
to support or to oppose government, without undue influence or coercion of
any kind, which may distort or inhibit the free expression of the
elector’s will. Voters should be able to form opinions independently, free
of violence or threat of violence, compulsion, inducement or manipulative
interference of any kind.

The USDP is guilty of blatant vote buying—handing out free medical care,
identity cards and building wells for clean water, if villagers commit  in
writing to vote for the USDP.

Vote-buying among desperately impoverished people is a cheap trick.
Villagers are also forced to join the USDP. Members of opposition parties
contesting the elections have their houses raided by the Special Branch
and their families are questioned and photographed. Members of the
National League for Democracy (NLD) are repeatedly detained and
interrogated.

USDP member Dr. Sai Mawk Kham, while campaigning in Lashio, Shan State,
told his audience to “use your heads rather than your hearts.” If they
were bent on only using their hearts, he said, “there will be two options
for you to choose—jail or the jungle”—leaving people little choice but to
vote for the USDP.

The cumulative impact of long-term repression and ongoing systematic
rights violations can be staggering. Where, then, can people turn in
seeking inspiration to rouse them from their apathy?

Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi are two brave men who spent the 1990 election
in a prison cell. Twenty years later, they will spend the next election
behind bars.

Offered the choice of freedom on condition that they publicly accept the
junta’s election process, they refused.

Instead they hold fast to the “Maubin Declaration”—an accord they reached
in Maubin Prison in 2008 stating that the 88 Generation Student group will
not support an election without the unconditional release of all political
prisoners and unless the regime engages in an inclusive dialogue between
all the political stakeholders.

Imprisoned 88 Generation leaders are resolute in their position that the
conditions for the November election are unacceptable and, as a
consequence, they are prepared to sit out the remaining 63 years of their
65-year prison sentences.

What can Burma’s political prisoners expect from the upcoming election?
When the newly “elected” military regime is formed, it is likely that it
will release a number of political prisoners in an attempt to promote a
new, more humane image.

Such an amnesty, if it happens, should not be accepted as an act of
compassion or the promise of things to come. A number of political
prisoners who received sentences of two or three years after the September
2007 demonstrations are anyway due for release early next year.
Unfortunately, the small act of “kindness” represented by an amnesty will
allay the conscience of some in the international community who support
the election. It will reinforce the voice that elections, no matter how
fraught, can bring about change.

If the international community is serious about change in Burma, then it
must denounce the election as devoid of legitimacy without the release of
all political prisoners.

If the regime is genuinely interested in change it would have already
released Aung San Suu Kyi, Min Ko Naing and other political prisoners,
allowing them to freely contest the elections.

The past two months have seen the release of more than 200 prisoners, but
no political prisoners were among them. This is hardly surprising and only
indicative of the threat political prisoners pose to the regime.

We should not underestimate the power and beauty of words. Vaclav Havel, a
former political prisoner who went on to become the first president of the
Czech Republic, once described the world he lived in as “a system in which
words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where
words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”

Bo Kyi is co-founder and joint secretary of the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners, based in Mae Sot, Thailand.

____________________________________

October 29, Vancouver Sun (Canada)
China and India move to insulate Burma’s junta – Jonathan Manthorpe

Election ‘farce’ likely to raise international outcry, but the military
dictatorship has powerful allies.

Burma’s first elections in 20 years, to be held on Nov. 7, will be, as
Philippines’ President Benigno Aquino put it with brutal honesty, “a
farce.”

The military regime led by “Senior General” Than Shwe has crafted a new
political system that gives the illusion of civilian rule. But in reality
the military will continue to run the country as it has since 1962.

There will be a lot of international squawking and rejection of the fake
democracy, especially if, as Burma’s foreign minister Nyan Win has
indicated, detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released when
her current term of house arrest expires on Nov. 13.

But if history is any guide, Than Shwe and his boys are still too scared
of Suu Kyi to allow her to give free voice to their sham end to military
rule.

She remains the only legitimate political leader in Burma, based on the
overwhelming victory of her National League for Democracy in the 1990
elections that the junta ignored.

The generals can’t afford to have her free to become a public focus for
domestic and international opposition to their regime and its puppet
parliament.

Some excuse will likely be found to lock Suu Kyi up again, as has always
happened since she was first detained in 1989.

And even though an increasing number of Burma’s partners in the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) — such as the Philippines’
Aquino — are heartily sick of Than Shwe and his goons, they will do little
or nothing.

The problem of Burma, which the junta calls Myanmar but whose proper name
remains Burma in English, is high on the agenda for the ASEAN summit now
meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam.

But it will be extraordinary, and cause for dancing in the streets, if the
ASEAN leaders find the stomach to impose any serious sanctions on the
junta.

An indication of their deference towards Than Shwe is that when the ASEAN
covenant on human rights was created a couple of years ago, it was
fashioned so the junta could sign it.

Given that the junta has a long record of the brutal suppression of
minority groups, routine use of torture, the conscription of forced labour
akin to slavery, the mass imprisonment of political opponents, and pretty
much every other known abuse of human and civil rights, the credibility of
this covenant can easily be guessed.

The generals need not fear. Burma is far too important a repository of
natural resources and oil and natural gas for any serious pressure on the
junta to be effective.

Indeed, Than Shwe is in the happy position of being courted with equal
vigour by the two big rivals for authority in Asia: China and India.

Beijing has for years seen Burma as not only an essential source of
natural resources, but also an easily protected pipeline route for oil
shipped from the Middle East and Africa.

So China has been working hard to turn Burma into a vassal state, even to
the extent of hedging its bets by developing positive relations with hill
tribes mounting separatist insurrections against the junta such as the Wa,
the Shan and the Karen.

India, whose own border with Burma is in the region of another rebellious
minority people, the Rohinga, took the moral high ground and refused to
have anything to do with the junta until 2001. Then New Delhi came to the
conclusion that China’s influence over the junta and its increasing
domination of the Burmese economy was too important to be ignored.

China’s establishment of an electronic spying station in Burma to keep
tabs on the Indian navy meshed with Beijing’s militarization of the
borders with India in Tibet and other parts of the Himalayas, and its
construction of a port to be used by the Chinese navy at Gwadar in
Pakistan. To India it looks like encirclement.

So New Delhi has swallowed its qualms about consorting with thugs. It is
investing mightily in developing Burma’s oil and gas industry as well as
building pipelines and a new port at Sittwe, providing trade access to
India’s landlocked northeast.

And to its abiding shame, India has even provided the generals with
military aid, including tanks, helicopters and missiles.

jmanthorpe at vancouversun.com