BurmaNet News, December 15, 2010

[Editor]

December 15, 2010 Issue #4104


INSIDE BURMA
Ashai Shuimbun (Japan): Myanmar junta ignores Suu Kyi signals for dialogue
Mizzima: Suu Kyi to meet young activists

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Junta ends border trade blockade after China protest

BUSINESS / TRADE
Independent (UK): Norway accused of funding abuse in Burma

REGIONAL
DPA: Indonesia backs Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in Myanmar political solution

INTERNATIONAL
AP: WikiLeaks: Singapore Lee says Myanmar 'stupid'
Irrawaddy: Former US Diplomats seek use of 'smart power' in Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Asia Times: US double talk on Myanmar nukes – Bertil Lintner
Mizzima: UK urges Ban to sack Nambiar, appoint full-time Burma envoy –
Thomas Maung Shwe

INTERVIEW
Deustche Welle (Germany): Suu Kyi calls on Europe and Germany to be more
supportive




____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 15, Ashai Shuimbun (Japan)
Myanmar junta ignores Suu Kyi signals for dialogue – Daisuke Furuta

Bangkok—Despite her many appeals for dialogue, Burmese pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi is getting only silent treatment from the
country's ruling generals.

Diplomatic sources in Myanmar (Burma) say the junta simply sees no reason
to make concessions to Aung San Suu Kyi after it pulled off an
overwhelming victory in last month's general election.

Since being released from seven and a half years of house arrest on Nov.
13, Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly indicated her willingness to engage in
dialogue with the junta.

She suggested that she won't go on a speaking tour of rural areas out of
consideration for the junta.

Speaking of economic sanctions imposed by the United States and European
countries, Aung San Suu Kyi showed flexibility toward the junta by saying
those measures should be reviewed if they end up causing suffering to
ordinary Burmese.

The junta is set to convene the parliament in February based on the
results of the vote.

In the Nov. 7 election, the first held in 20 years, the junta-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party emerged with about 80 percent of the
seats in both houses of parliament. Including seats already allocated to
military members, about 85 percent of the full legislature is in the hands
of the junta and its political proxies.

Western countries have questioned the validity of the polls amid
widespread reports that the election was rigged. However, China and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations have acknowledged the election
results.

Since her release, Aung San Suu Kyi has gone nearly every day to the
headquarters of her National League for Democracy party in Yangon
(Rangoon) for discussions with party senior officials. She has also met
with foreign diplomats and given interviews to media outlets.

However, Aung San Suu Kyi's only public oration since being freed was an
address on Nov. 14. She is trying to connect with the public by making
weekly appearances on Radio Free Asia, a U.S.-sponsored broadcast service,
and answering questions from listeners.

The pro-democracy leader does not directly criticize the military
leadership, but she has expressed her discontent with the junta's road map
to democracy.

____________________________________

December 15, Mizzima News
Suu Kyi to meet young activists

Chaing Mai – Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to meet
young activists from youth organisations on Friday, a party leader said
today.

She will meet the under-35 activists at National League for Democracy
headquarters on Shwegondine Road in Bahan Township, Rangoon.

“After 2007, some young activists did not join the NLD. They formed many
community organisations. Many [of them] 
 requested a meeting with Aunty
[Suu Kyi],” NLD central committee member Phyu Phyu Thin told Mizzima.

“Youth groups know each other well and created links. I don’t know how
many people will attend the meeting as we are only in contact the leaders
of the youth organisations,” Phyu Phyu Thin added.

According to Ministry of Immigration and Population figures released in
the middle of this year, Burma has a total population of 59 million, more
than 30 million of whom are over 18.

Although the authorities had been keeping a close watch on NLD
headquarters, there should be no problems, Phyu Phyu Thin said.

“I think we will not be in any danger. Aung San Suu Kyi and we [NLD] are
co-operating with the international community in social activities for the
youth. So, I think meeting the youth inside Burma won’t cause any
problems,” she said.

Since Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, she has met diplomats,
representatives of political parties and allied political organisations,
independent candidates and junior NLD leaders.

Currently, the NLD was preparing to file a further appeal over the
dissolution of the party, NLD spokesman and lawyer Nyan Win said, even
though the Supreme Court in Naypyidaw had rejected NLD’s appeal over its
dissolution on November 22.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 15, Irrawaddy
Junta ends border trade blockade after China protest – Wai Moe

The Burmese regime has allowed trade to resume at a Sino-Burmese border
crossing point in Kachin State after the Chinese embassy in Rangoon
complained recently about the closure, according to diplomatic sources in
the former capital.

The trade blockade, which had been in force since late November, affected
the movement of goods between the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina and
Laiza, on the state's border with China.

“Officials from the Chinese embassy met with Burmese Commerce Minister U
Tin Naing Thein a few days ago to protest the border closure in Kachin
State,” the source said.

In addition to complaints from the Chinese embassy, Chinese officials with
the Sino-Burmese border committee also raised the issue with their Burmese
counterparts, according to border-based sources.

As a result of the protests, the Burmese authorities have allowed goods,
including seasonal produce such as bananas, to enter China since Monday.

Observers said the Burmese regime's disruption of trade along this route
appeared to be aimed at the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), a
cease-fire group that has rejected the junta's border guard force (BGF)
plan, which seeks to put ethnic militias under Burmese military command.

However, a KIO source said that the border tension could also be related
to a trip to Putao, in the far north of Kachin State, by a number of
senior Burmese military leaders in late November for the opening of a
bridge there.

Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the joint chief of staff of the army, navy and air
force, traveled to the area along with three Bureaus of Special Operations
chiefs—Maj-Gen Myint Soe, Maj-Gen Aung Than Htut and Maj-Gen Soe Win—as
well as Judge Advocate-General Maj-Gen Yar Pyae and the commander of the
Northern Regional Military Command, Brig-Gen Zeyar Aung.

Other VIPs on the trip included Construction Minister Khin Maung Myint and
Minister for Communications, Posts and Telegraphs Thein Zaw, who are both
senior leaders of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party.

Tensions along the Sino-Burmese border have grown steadily since the
regime proposed the BGF plan in April 2009, with some observers expecting
a complete breakdown in the coming months of a series of cease-fire
agreements that have been in place for the past two decades.

In August 2009, the Burmese junta launched an offensive against the
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, an ethnic Kokang-Chinese armed
group that refused to join the BGF. The resumption of hostilities in the
area forced about 37,000 Kokang-Chinese refugees to flee to China and
earned the Burmese junta a rare rebuke from its allies in Beijing.

According to a leaked cable from the US embassy in Beijing that has
appeared on the WikiLeaks website, a senior official of the Chinese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yang Yanyi, told US Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell in October 2009 that
the Burmese regime’s action against the ethnic Kokang had ramifications
for China, but Beijing hoped the junta was working out the situation
through dialogue.

Yang also said China opposed the use of force to resolve issues along the
Sino-Burmese border and “would not allow Burma to fall into chaos,” adding
that Chinese officials told their Burmese counterparts that China had
“legitimate interests” in dealing with the border situation.

The cable noted that Yang told Campbell that the Burmese regime had been
unable to realize true national reconciliation and economic development.
She also said the Burmese people were unsatisfied with the country's state
of affairs.

The regime itself appears to have a very different assessment of its
accomplishments over the past two decades. In a speech given at the elite
Defense Services Academy in Maymyo on Friday, the head of the Burmese
junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, said that the regime had successfully held a
national convention to achieve what he called “national reconsolidation.”

He also highlighted the country's economic progress under military rule,
saying that every sector of the economy has seen significant development
in the 22 years since the regime seized power.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

December 15, Independent (UK)
Norway accused of funding abuse in Burma – Andrew Buncombe

The Norwegian government has been accused of complicity in illegal land
seizures, forced labour and killings, by investing national funds in
international companies that operate inside Burma on projects where
widespread abuses are alleged to have taken place.

A state-controlled pension fund that is a repository for some of Norway's
own oil wealth has invested up to $4.7bn in 15 oil and gas companies
operating inside the South-east Asian country.

The companies are accused of participating in projects where various human
rights violations have taken place. Activists claim the pension fund is in
breach of its own guidelines for responsible investment. The allegations
come just days after Norway hosted the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.

Land confiscation, forced labour and other abuses are happening in
connection with several gas and oil pipeline projects in Burma, according
to Naing Htoo of EarthRights International, which is today publishing a
report detailing the alleged abuses being committed by the Burmese
government. "There's every indication abuses connected to these projects
will continue, and, in some cases, worsen," he said.

A number of those companies in which the Norwegian fund has investments
have previously been accused in relation to controversial projects in
Burma which has been controlled by a military junta since 1962. Among them
are Total Oil of France, in which the Norwegian fund has an investment of
$2.6bn, and the US-based Chevron Corp, in which the fund has $900m
invested.

EarthRights International insists that widespread violations continue to
be committed by the Burmese army in support of many oil and gas projects
that earn the regime millions of dollars. The group says that troops
providing security for the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines have carried out
extra-judicial killings.

"The Burmese regime has long demonstrated itself as an unsuitable business
partner," said Steve Gumaer, of the Norway-based aid group Partners Relief
and Development. "Business ventures conducted through official channels in
Burma directly support the regime's abuse of the ethnic populations and
pro-democracy citizens in Burma today."

He added: "It is said that villages in north-eastern Burma have benefited
by this sort of 'economic engagement'. I have seen the devastating
results; instead of schools, health and hygiene programmes, are the ashes
of villages that have been burnt down. I have talked to women who were
raped, men who were forced to serve as porters."

The Norwegian fund has a total of $3.6bn invested in companies involved in
these projects that transport offshore gas from the Andaman Sea. Total,
Chevron and other companies have denied claims that their operations
inside Burma encourage abuses such as forced labour and land seizure.

The report also claims the Norwegian fund has investments in companies
that are involved in projects in the Shwe gas fields, which have also been
linked to abuses such as forced labour.

The Norwegian fund, established in 1990, is the second largest sovereign
wealth fund in the world, with assets estimated at $512bn and investments
in 8,000 companies. It is forecast to double in size by 2020. Because of
previous allegations over unethical investments, the fund, controlled by
the Norwegian central bank on behalf of the ministry of finance, is
overseen by an ethical advisory council.

In 2007, the Norwegian authorities said they were withdrawing the fund's
investments from Vedanta Resources, the British company that was seeking
to mine bauxite on a mountain in eastern India many considered sacred .

In 2005, the council was asked to consider the fund's investment in Total
and whether it breached guidelines. The council said it believed it likely
that Total was aware of human rights violations on projects in Burma
between 1995 and 1998, but this "did not provide a basis for exclusion
from the fund, as it is only the risk for present or future violations of
the guidelines which can prompt exclusion".

When allegations of forced labour were earlier levelled at Total in summer
2009, the company issued a statement saying, "local inhabitants around the
Yadana pipeline say they are happy to have us there; they are, above all,
grateful that there is no forced labour around our pipeline".

Last night, Norway's foreign ministry said it had not been made aware of
EarthRights International's report. "The Norwegian government is worried
about the situation for human rights in Burma," a spokesman said. The
fund,he added, was "a financial investor with investments in more than
8,000 companies. It is therefore difficult for the Ministry to make
comments related to a specific company in the fund's portfolio."

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 15, Deustche Presse Agentur
Indonesia backs Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in Myanmar political solution

Indonesia said on Wednesday that recently freed opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi needs to play a part in the solution of Myanmar’s ongoing
political problems.

Ms. Suu Kyi was released from seven years of house detention on November
13, a week after military-ruled Myanmar staged its first general election
in two decades.

Observers slammed the election as a sham designed to cement the army’s
rule over the country, which has been under military dictatorships since
1962.

The polls, held on November 7, seemed timed to exclude Ms. Suu Kyi from
the process and undermine her potential role in the post-election period.

But Indonesia, which will assume the chairmanship of the Association of
South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year, made it clear that it still
sees Ms. Suu Kyi as playing a pivotal part.

“Our vision from the start was that it would take the election and
national dialogue, inclusive of Aung San Suu Kyi, for further development
in Myanmar post-election,” said Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

“In short, what we are going to suggest in the most constructive way, is
that we need to see Daw (Madam) Aung San Suu Kyi and the authorities in
Myanmar as being part of the solution to the situation in Myanmar,” Mr.
Marty told a seminar on ASEANpolicy at Chulalongkorn University in
Bangkok.

Indonesia will chair two ASEAN summits and the East Asia Summit, which
includes ASEAN, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea,
Russia and the U.S.

Myanmar’s political problems promise to be a major subject of debate at
these forums, as they have been for the past two decades.

Western democracies slapped economic sanctions on Myanmar, in 1988 when
the army cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators, leaving an estimated
3,000 people dead.

ASEAN has traditionally followed a policy of “constructive engagement”
with the pariah state, even allowing it to enter its fold in 1997 despite
objections from the region’s main allies — the U.S. and European Union.

Indonesia, in its coming role as ASEAN chair, is advocating greater
cooperation between the two camps in pressuring Myanmar to become more
democratic, with the West easing some sanctions when appropriate and the
East being more critical of the military’s lack of progress.

“We hope that in 2011 many of the external sides of the Myanmar issue will
find some closure,” Mr. Marty said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 15, Associated Press
WikiLeaks: Singapore Lee says Myanmar 'stupid'

Singapore — Singapore statesman Lee Kuan Yew called Myanmar's junta
leaders "stupid" and "dense" in conversations with U.S. diplomats,
according to classified documents released this week by WikiLeaks.

The Singapore leader said dealing with Myanmar's military regime was like
"talking to dead people," according to a confidential U.S. briefing on a
2007 conversation between Lee and U.S. Ambassador Patricia L. Herbold and
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Christensen released by
WikiLeaks.

The 87-year-old Lee is known for his outspoken and blunt assessments of
world affairs, but avoids publicly insulting the leadership of foreign
countries. Lee was prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and remains a senior
adviser to his son, current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

A cable released by Wikileaks a couple of weeks earlier quotes Lee calling
North Korea's leaders "psychopathic types with a 'flabby old chap' for a
leader who prances around stadiums seeking adulation." The reference to
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is from a cable citing a May 2009
conversation between Lee and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James
Steinberg.

Lee has not commented on the releases, while Singapore's government has
dismissed them as "gossip" and cautioned against taking them out of
context.

In the most recently released cable, Lee said China had the most influence
over Myanmar's leadership of any foreign country and that Beijing was
worried the country would "blow up" and thus threaten Chinese investments
there.

"Lee expressed his scorn for the regime's leadership," the leaked cable
said. "He said he had given up on them a decade ago, called them 'dense'
and 'stupid' and said they had 'mismanaged' the country's great natural
resources."

Lee said India was engaging Myanmar's leadership in a bid to minimize
China's influence, but that "India lacked China's finer grasp of how Burma
worked," according to the cable.

Lee said a group of less 'obtuse' younger military officers could take
control and share power with democracy activists, "although probably not
with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was anathema to the military."

After more than seven years under house arrest, pro-democracy leader Suu
Kyi was released Nov. 13, a week after Myanmar's first election in 20
years, which were won overwhelmingly by a pro-military party. Critics have
slammed the polling as a sham aimed at cementing military rule.

Singapore has questioned the veracity of some documents purportedly leaked
by Wikileaks and published by some Australian newspapers. The reports
quote Singapore diplomats as making unflattering remarks about Malaysia,
India, Japan and Thailand during meetings with U.S. diplomats.

In a statement issued late Tuesday, Singapore's Foreign Ministry said
"what Singapore officials were alleged by WikiLeaks to have said did not
tally with our own records."

"One purported meeting (between Singapore and U.S. diplomats) did not even
take place," it said.

Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo told reporters earlier this
week that, in any case, such cables were interpretations of conversations
by U.S. diplomats, and therefore shouldn't be "over-interpreted."

"These are in the nature of cocktail talk," Yeo said. "It's always out of
context. It's gossip."
____________________________________

December 15, Irrawaddy
Former US Diplomats seek use of 'smart power' in Burma – Lalit K Jha

Washington — Observing that the policy of sanctions and open criticism has
yielded nothing in the last two decades, two former US diplomats who
served at its mission in Rangoon urged the Obama Administration on
Wednesday to use “smart power” to bring change to Burma.

“Perhaps it is time now, as Burma transitions to at least the trappings of
civilian rule, to seriously try a different approach where the United
States attempts to further its goals in Burma through 'smart power',” said
Franklin Huddle and Donald Jameson.
Huddle was US Chargé d'Affaires to Burma from 1990 to 1994, and Jameson
was Acting Deputy Chief of Mission to Burma from 1990 to 1993. The two
American diplomats expressed their views after US Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State Joe Yun visited Burma and had meetings with Aung San
Suu Kyi and Burmese officials last week.

Huddle and Jameson said the use of “smart power” by the US would include
engaging in an effort to open up the country to increased outside
influence that may enable nascent civil society groups now germinating to
take root with the assistance and example of Western governments and NGOs.

“One thing many closed-off regimes fear most is hordes of Western
assistance providers and tourists bringing in new ideas and values. This
approach has been taken in dealing with other authoritarian regimes such
as China and might be equally effective in Burma. Unless a serious try is
made we will never know,” they argued.

State Department spokesman P J Crowley recently said the United States is
willing to lift sanctions against the military regime but the ball is in
the court of the junta, which needs to create conducive conditions.

“We are prepared to have a different relationship with Burma, provided
Burma takes significant steps forward. There are very clear requirements
for Burma, and it’s not about the United States dictating to Burma. It’s
about what is in Burma’s best interest,” Crowley told reporters on Friday.

“Obviously, we welcome the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, but that doesn’t
solve the broader problem of the 2,000 political prisoners who still
remain in custody in Burma. It doesn’t solve the challenge of the fact
that the central government is still at war with many ethnic groups within
its borders,” he said.

“It doesn’t solve the challenge of having a political system that allows
broader participation so that you don’t have a faux election here that
just, in essence, takes generals and makes them civilians and pretends
that’s a different kind of government.  It is the same kind of
government,” Crowley said.

Huddle and Jameson said the US policy toward Burma over the past two
decades can only be described as ineffective. “Whatever the steps toward
liberalization taken by Burma's ruling generals in recent years—such as
the recent elections and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi—these mincing
steps have taken place on their own terms and at their own pace, not as a
response to admonitions by the United States and other Western countries,”
they wrote.

“Meanwhile, the Burmese people have been pawns in a political game that
has little relevance to their everyday struggle for survival,” they said.

The former US diplomats said the American policy toward Burma has remained
largely the same for 20 years, consisting basically of strongly worded
demands that the junta make major moves toward democratization and respect
for human rights, including the release of more than 2,000 political
prisoners now languishing in prison under harsh conditions.

“Our vehicles for bringing the generals to heel have consisted mainly of
public castigation and an increasingly tight array of economic sanctions
designed to isolate the ruling military junta and force their compliance,”
Huddle and Jameson said.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 15, Asia Times
US double talk on Myanmar nukes – Bertil Lintner

Bangkok – Is Myanmar truly trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability
and produce ballistic missiles with North Korean assistance, as alleged in
a controversial June documentary made by the Norway-based Democratic Voice
of Burma (DVB) and aired by al-Jazeera, or is it all poppycock, as claimed
in a November 12 report by United States-based ProPublica, an
award-winning US investigative journalism outfit?

The DVB report was based on testimonies from Myanmar army defectors who
had been scrutinized by Robert Kelley, a highly regarded former US weapons
scientist and former United Nations weapons inspector. ProPublica, on the
other hand, quoted an anonymous senior "American official" as saying that
the US Central Intelligence Agency had reviewed Kelley's report "line by
line and had rejected its findings".

Classified cables recently released by WikiLeaks from the US Embassy in
Yangon, however, reveal a wide discrepancy between what US officials have
said in public and the concerns they raise internally about Myanmar's
nuclear ambitions. Judging by these leaked documents, it appears that
ProPublica has fallen victim to manipulations by US officials who want to
hide the true extent of the intelligence that US agencies have collected
in order to enhance the political agenda of those who favor engagement
over further isolation of Myanmar's military regime.

The US currently imposes economic and financial sanctions against the
rights-abusing regime. Long before the Barack Obama administration
launched its new Myanmar policy and began sending emissaries to talk with
the generals, other US officials had tested a similar conciliatory tack.
By any measure, those diplomatic efforts completely failed. In February
1994, US congressman Bill Richardson, who later served as the US's
ambassador to the United Nations, paid a highly publicized visit to the
country.

Accompanied by a New York Times correspondent, he met with pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi - then under house arrest - as well as then
intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt. At the time, Richardson's visit was
hailed in the press as a major "breakthrough" - although he himself was
very cautious in his remarks. After a second visit to Myanmar in May 1995,
Richardson stated at a press conference in Bangkok that his trip had been
"unsuccessful, frustrating and disappointing".

Similarly, a string of UN special envoys have for over two decades
attempted and failed to engage the generals towards political change and
national reconciliation. Myanmar's partners in the 10-member Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have also long advocated a policy of
"constructive engagement" with the military regime, though so far with few
tangible results apart from increased trade and investment with the
impoverished nation.

The WikiLeaks cables and other internal US documentation show that
Washington is indeed concerned by reports of North Korea's shadowy
involvement in Myanmar as well as the military regime's nuclear ambitions.
Comparing the content of the recently leaked cables with what US officials
and other sources apparently told ProPublica shows that expressing such
concerns publicly would make it more difficult to entice Myanmar's ruling
generals to give up their newly established, cozy relationship with North
Korea's weapons-proliferating regime.

Myanmar's close relations with North Korea's main ally, China, is also a
concern, according to US senator James Webb, a staunch advocate of the
US's new and to date ineffectual engagement policy with Myanmar's military
government. At a breakfast meeting with Washington defense reporters in
October, Webb called on the Obama administration to be more active in
Myanmar and engage the country's military junta to prevent China from
making Myanmar a full-blown client state.

Downplaying perennial human-rights concerns and dismissing the
well-documented reports of Myanmar's nuclear ambitions are part and parcel
of this new policy departure. From the afore-mentioned breakfast meeting,
Foreign Policy magazine reported on its web site on October 27 that Webb
"criticized what he sees as a double standard in the administration's
approach toward human rights - and pointed to Beijing". "When was the last
time China had an election? How many political prisoners are there in
China? Does anybody know? What's the consistency here?" Foreign Policy
reported. Tellingly, the November 12 ProPublica report quoted Webb as
saying that the DVB report on North Korea and Myanmar's nuclear ambitions
"made such an [engagement] approach impossible".

Difficult truths

The US Embassy in Yangon stated in a report dated August 27, 2004 - which
has recently been made public by WikiLeaks - that one of their sources had
said that North Korean workers were assembling surface-to-air missiles at
a "military site in Magway Division" where a "concrete-reinforced
underground facility" was also being constructed. An unidentified
expatriate businessman had told the US Embassy that "he had seen a large
barge carrying reinforced steel bar of a diameter that suggested a project
larger than a factory".

While stating that these reports could not be "definitive proof of sizable
North Korean involvement with the Burmese [Myanmar] regime... many details
provided by [a confidential source] match those provided by other,
seemingly unrelated sources". According to those reports, the embassy
stated in its report, Myanmar and North Korea "are up to something of a
covert military or military-industrial nature".

The report added that, "exactly what, and on what scale, remains to be
determined" and that the embassy would continue to "monitor these
developments and report as warranted". Asia Times Online reported as early
as July 2006 (see Myanmar and North Korea share a tunnel vision, July 19,
'06) on North Korea's involvement in the construction of an extensive
underground complex in and around Myanmar's new capital Naypyidaw.

In another internal US document made public by WikiLeaks, a local Myanmar
businessman reportedly offered uranium to the US Embassy in Yangon. The
offer was not linked to any North Korean activity, but nevertheless added
to the mystery and speculation surrounding nuclear issues in Myanmar. The
embassy reportedly bought it and wrote in its cable to Washington: "The
individual provided a small bottle half-filled with metallic powder and a
photocopied certificate of testing from a Chinese university dated 1992 as
verification of the radioactive nature of the powder."

The unnamed businessman also said that "if the US was not interested in
purchasing the uranium, he and his associates would try to sell it to
other countries, beginning with Thailand". It was unclear where the
alleged uranium came from, but Myanmar is known to have several deposits
of the radioactive metal used in nuclear reactors and weapons. According
to a Myanmar government web site, there are uranium ore deposits at five
locations in the country, namely: Magway, Taungdwingyi (south of Bagan),
Kyaukphygon and Paongpyin near the ruby mines at Mogok, Kyauksin, and near
Myeik (or Mergui) in the country's southeast.

Perhaps even more revealingly, according to an August 2009 report from US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the US Embassy in Berlin marked
"confidential" (but not included in the documents released by WikiLeaks),
ambassador Susan Burk, special representative of the US president for
nuclear non-proliferation, discussed "concerns about Myanmar's nuclear
intentions" in a meeting with German officials.

The DVB documentary mentioned the involvement of German companies in
Myanmar's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs. But, in
ProPublica's version of events, the only noteworthy event related to
Germany was that "officials" had said "they were aware that Burma had
bought the equipment shown in the [Myanmar army] defector's pictures [some
of it was exported by German companies], but have concluded that it is not
being used to launch an atomic weapons program."

Furthermore, a UN report released in November alleged North Korea is
supplying banned nuclear and ballistic missile equipment to Myanmar, among
other countries. "China had blocked publication of the report which has
been ready for six months," the French news agency Agence France-Presse
reported on November 13. According to the report, drafted by experts who
answer to the UN Security Council's sanctions committee, North Korea is
involved with "the surreptitious transfer of nuclear-related and ballistic
missile-related equipment, know-how and technology to countries including
Iran, Syria and Myanmar".

The UN report went on to state that suspicious nuclear activities in
Myanmar were linked to Namchongang Trading, a state-owned North Korean
company known to have been involved in nuclear activities in Iran and
Syria and the arrests of three people in Japan who tried to export
illegally a magnetometer to Myanmar through Malaysia. In reference to the
disclosures by the UN experts, the Washington Times reported on November
10: "Magnetometers can be used to produce ring magnets, a key element in
centrifuges that are the basis of nuclear arms programs in Iran and
Pakistan. That transfer was linked to a North Korean company involved in
‘illicit procurement' for nuclear and military programs."

In 2009, Namchongang and its director, Yun Ho-jin, were formally
sanctioned by the UN for proliferation activities. According to a German
Customs Bureau report, the company uses its offices in Beijing and
Shenyang in China to place orders for the equipment, which is critical to
building the centrifuges required to enrich uranium. The arrival of
Namchongang Trading in Myanmar set off alarm bells in many Western
capitals and convinced several previous skeptics of Myanmar's nuclear
ambitions to take the recent reports more seriously.

At the same time, US officials continue to deny that such concerns exist,
as was reflected in ProPublica's November report that cited a supposed
Central Intelligence Agency assessment of the threat. ProPublica did not
reply to e-mailed questions from Asia Times Online about its November 12
piece. But, if their source's intention was to appease the Myanmar regime,
it clearly succeeded. On December 5, the state-owned daily newspaper
Kyaymon (The Mirror) ran a full translation of the ProPublica report that
trashed the DVB documentary and nuclear expert Kelley's assessment.

That response would seem to demonstrate that Myanmar's secretive military
regime is still in denial about its true intentions: it has repeatedly
stated that it has no nuclear ambitions and that there are no North Korean
technicians situated in the country. Meanwhile, Myanmar's government has
yet to publicly react to the recently leaked internal US documents
disseminated by WikiLeaks.

However, it is now clear that there is one version of US perceptions about
Myanmar's nuclear ambitions crafted for public consumption and diplomatic
effect, and quite another making the rounds among Washington's security
establishment. The recent disclosures of the latter cast the US's recent
engagement efforts towards Myanmar in a new strategic light and raise hard
questions about the policy's wisdom and sustainability.

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review and the author of Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North
Korea under the Kim Clan. He is currently a writer with Asia Pacific Media
Services.
____________________________________

December 15, Mizzima News
UK urges Ban to sack Nambiar, appoint full-time Burma envoy – Thomas Maung
Shwe

Chiang Mai – Britain has suggested to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
that a full-time envoy be appointed to replace Vijay Nambiar, Ban’s
interim Burma envoy, the country’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told
reporters in New York last week.

Nambiar, who also serves as Ban’s chief of staff, took on the position of
Burma envoy part-time following the departure of Nigerian diplomat Dr.
Ibrahim Gambari last December.

Grant made the comment following a UN Security Council meeting on Burma in
which Nambiar reported back on his recent two-day trip to Rangoon, during
which he met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The British calls for
a full-time replacement for Nambiar were echoed by Mexico’s ambassador to
the UN, Claude Heller.

Ban’s deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, informed Mizzima that Ban had told the
ambassadors “that he is considering the idea”, adding that Ban’s office
would make an announcement if there was any change of personnel.

Nambiar ignores Burma’s ethnic minorities, critics say

Mark Farmaner of the London-based advocacy group Burma Campaign UK,
responded to news that the British government had proposed replacing
Nambiar, stating that while his organisation had advocated that Ban and
his office take a greater role on the Burma file they were unimpressed
with the performance of his chief of staff as Burma envoy.

He said his organisation was “increasingly concerned by the approach of
Nambiar, who seems to be following the failed approach of Gambari,
thinking that befriending the generals will somehow buy influence. It
seems that the dictatorship has got lucky yet again”.

Burma Campaign was extremely disappointed with Nambiar’s handling of
Burma’s ethnic question, Farmaner said, adding that: “We are also
disappointed that yet again a UN envoy has gone to Burma, met with Aung
San Suu Kyi and the generals, and not with key ethnic representatives. The
mandate from the General Assembly which Nambiar is acting on is to secure
tripartite dialogue, not just dialogue between the generals and Aung San
Suu Kyi.”

NLD veteran Win Tin, in a phone interview conducted the night before
taking part in Suu Kyi’s meeting with Nambiar, told Mizzima that he would
use occasion to urge the UN diplomat to meet leaders of Burma’s main
ethnic groups so as to better understand their situation. Despite the
request, Nambiar failed to do so during his short trip.

Nambiar said to have let Chinese strongly influence Burma report

The Washington Post reported last month that in August Nambiar had met
Chinese UN ambassador Li Baodong days after the US announced its support
for the creation of a commission of inquiry to investigate possible war
crimes committed by the Burmese regime. The report said that during the
“confidential” meeting, Li relayed Beijing’s strong opposition to any such
inquiry.

The Post’s Colum Lynch wrote that three separate UN sources privy to the
details of the meeting said Li had told Nambiar the proposed Burma inquiry
was “dangerous and counterproductive, and should not be allowed to
proceed”.

Nambiar by omission appeared to share Chinese opposition to the commission
of inquiry. A report in September this year on the Situation of Human
rights in Burma, prepared with the assistance of Nambiar in his position
as Burma envoy and officially submitted by Ban to the General Assembly,
made no mention of the proposed inquiry.

The omission came despite the fact that UN special rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Burma Tomás Ojea Quintana had issued a report
in March to the UN Human Rights Council that called for such an inquiry.
The September report, while briefly mentioning Quintana’s report also left
out any discussion of his conclusion that in Burma there existed a pattern
of “gross and systematic” rights abuses which suggested that the abuses
were a state policy that involved authorities at all levels of the
executive, military and judiciary.

The September report, which is supposed to cover the period from August
last year to August this year also left out any mention of the significant
Burmese military offences in ethnic areas that occurred during this time,
leaving many in the Burma movement deeply concerned.

In a previous interview with Mizzima, senior NLD leader Win Tin said that
it was totally unacceptable that the September report neglected to mention
the continuing attacks against villagers in eastern Burma. He also said he
was deeply disturbed that the report ignored the Burmese Army’s military
offensive in the Kokang region of Shan State in August-September last year
which the UN itself had estimated forced 37,000 refugees to flee into
China.

In response to questions about the glaring omission of rights abuses in
ethnic areas, Ban’s spokesman Haq said at a press conference in New York
on November 26: “I have no comment on the SG’s [Secretary General] human
rights report, which speaks for itself.”

Nambiar allegedly called Suu Kyi out of touch, too hard-line

The calls to replace Nambiar came just days after a widely circulated
report by Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee that sources in
the UN had said that after returning from Burma “Nambiar’s internal
reporting to UN officials was critical of Aung San Suu Kyi, characterising
her as out of touch and somehow too hard-line”.

Haq told Mizzima that Russell Lee’s report “is not accurate”, and that
according to Haq, “Mr Nambiar has considerable respect for Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi”.

Responding to Haq’s denial, Russell Lee told Mizzima he stood by his
story. He said in an e-mail message: “Having spoken with people privy to
Mr Nambiar’s report – back within the UN Secretariat – which again was
different on the point from what Nambiar said in the Security Council and
Group of Friends meeting, Inner City Press stands by its story 100 per
cent. Now with the UK, Mexico and others having asked that Nambiar be
replaced by another full-time envoy, this double game or doublespeak
diplomacy may be less relevant. Mr Haq’s denial gives rise to the
question: did Haq even ask to see the internal report before denying it?”

Envoy upbeat on Burma’s election

While Nambiar certainly had not condemned Suu Kyi or the NLD in public, he
had made positive statements about Burma’s recent and much criticised
elections. In an interview with the BBC Burmese langue service conducted
after the election, Nambiar claimed that in Burma “Government formation is
taking place. I think there will be new spaces, new slots in the
parliament which will open up for by-elections”.

Nambiar also told the BBC that by-elections, held for a single seat or a
small number of seats usually held when a politician retires or dies in
office would give “small opportunities for increasing the political space
for a broader, inclusive involvement”. As Burma’s national election was
just held last month it is hardly likely will be any by-elections in the
near future.

Role in Sri Lanka during height of civil war still controversial and
unresolved

Nambiar remains surrounded in controversy over questions regarding his
actions in May last year during the final days of Sri Lanka’s war with the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), aka Tamil Tigers, while he was in
the country on behalf of Ban as part of an apparent effort by the UN to
stop the bloodshed. Ban sent the former Indian diplomat to Sri Lanka
despite that his own brother, retired Indian army general Satish Nambiar,
had served as an adviser to the Sri Lankan military for several years.

Marie Colvin, a reporter with The Times of London, wrote that on Monday,
May 18, 2009, at 5:30 a.m. she personally called Nambiar in Colombo to
relay a message she had received from members of the LTTE leadership, who
were surrounded in a bunker with 300 loyalists including women and
children, that they were ready to give themselves up to Sri Lankan
government troops. According to Colvin the leaders wanted “Nambiar to be
present to guarantee the Tigers’ safety”.

Nambiar told Colvin that he had been assured by Sri Lankan president
Mahinda Rajapaksa that those who gave up would be safe if they were to
“hoist a white flag high”.

When Colvin suggested that Nambiar go personally to witness the surrender
he told her it would not “be necessary” and that “the president’s
assurances were enough”.

Hours later the lifeless bodies of dozens of members of the LTTE
leadership including the two men who told Colvin they were ready to give
up, were put on display by a triumphant Sri Lankan government. General
Sarath Fonseka, head of the Sri Lankan military at the time, told an
opposition newspaper last December that Gothabaya Rajapaksa, the Sri
Lankan defence minister and brother of the president had been “given
orders not to accommodate any LTTE leaders attempting surrender and that
‘they must all be killed’”.

Foneska, now jailed and facing charges of sedition for making the
allegations, said the president, the defence minister and their brother
Basil Rajapaksa, a senior presidential adviser were all guilty of war
crimes for ordering the summary executions of rebel forces during the
final days of battle.

The Times also reported that after arriving in Colombo to survey the
situation, Nambiar was briefed by UN staff that they estimated at least
20,000 people had died “mostly by army shelling” during the final stages
of the war against the Tigers. The report said Nambiar “knew about but
chose not to make public” the UN estimates. When the British Foreign
Office revealed the UN estimate, human rights groups demanded an inquiry
into the conduct of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

December 15, Deustche Welle (Germany)
Suu Kyi calls on Europe and Germany to be more supportive

In an exclusive interview with DW, Burmese civil rights activist Aung San
Suu Kyi talks about the changes in Myanmar (Burma) she has experienced
after her release and her future plans.

Aung San Suu Kyi was released on November 13 after more than seven years
of house arrest. In 1991, the pro-democracy activist received the Nobel
Peace Prize. The 65-year old has spent 15 of the last 21 years in
detention.

Deutsche Welle: What is your daily routine these days?

Aung San Suu Kyi: My daily routine is very, very hectic. If I look back at
today, I had about two, three appointments this morning and two in the
afternoon, and I still haven't finished my work yet. So, it is extremely
hectic.

What kind of appointments are these?

I am meeting diplomats, I am meeting political parties, I am meeting
individuals, we have our National League for Democracy (NLD) office
meetings. Then I am speaking to people on the phone. And there are
individual journalists and correspondents, who have managed to come to
Burma, and I have to meet them as well.

What was the biggest change you noticed in your city after your house
arrest was lifted?

I think the number of hand phones! The moment I was released, I saw all
those people with their hand phones which they were using to take
photographs. I think what it means is that there is an improvement in
communications.

And what about the Burmese society? Did you find any other changes?

Prices have gone up sky-high, and people are very concerned about it.
Everybody talks about the rise in prices. Also, the attitude of the young
people has improved considerably. They want to be involved in the
political process, and they are much more outgoing and proactive than they
were seven years ago.

When you were released, it was striking that many young people turned up
to greet you. What are your expectations from the youth of Burma?

It is for them to understand that it is up to them to bring change to our
country, and that they should not depend on me or the NLD or anybody else.
We will do our best, but in the end I want them to have this
self-confidence to believe that they can do it for themselves.

How do you see the future of your party, the National League for Democracy?

We are going to stand as a political force because we have the full
support of the people. Of course, the authorities are trying to deregister
our party, and I am contesting that at court, but that is a legal matter.
The real political truth of the situation is that we have the confidence,
the trust and the support of the people, and that will keep us going as
the most important opposition force in Burma today.

Have you tried to get in touch with the government after your release?

No, not yet. I have, of course, been sending indirect messages through
almost every speech I have made, every interview I have had, that I would
like to have dialogue. I think we should discuss our differences and come
to an agreement that we should be prepared to compromise on both sides.

But why haven't you taken any concrete step to initiate this kind of a
dialogue?

We are waiting for the right time, which I hope is not too far off.

Burma is a country with many ethnic minorities, whose relationship with
the majority has been rather tense over the recent decades. What do you
plan to do to reach out to these groups?

We have been reaching out to these groups for a number of years, and I can
claim that we have had a certain amount of success. Not only do we have
very strong allies among the parties which contested the 1990 elections,
we also have the support of other ethnic groups, including the ceasefire
groups along the frontiers, who have expressed an interest in what we are
trying to do - to revive the spirit of true union.

Last week, the Nobel Peace Prize for the Chinese democracy activist Liu
Xiaobo turned into a major international controversy. What is your
reaction, being a Nobel laureate yourself?

I have a great respect for the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and I believe
they must have sound reasons for choosing to give him the award this year.
I personally don't know much about Liu Xiabo because I have been under
house arrest for about seven years, and all I know about him is that what
I heard on the radio. But I do believe that the Nobel Committee must have
sound reasons for selecting him.

In Europe, people are wondering what they can do to support Burma. What is
your advice?

First of all, it would be very helpful if all the countries of Europe
could speak with one voice. Even within the European Union there are
different attitudes and different voices, and I think that weakens the
[Burmese] opposition. It would help us a great deal if all European
countries called for certain steps to be taken in Burma - the release of
political prisoners, inclusiveness of the political process, specifically
with the NLD, and negotiations.

Do you have any specific European countries in mind, which you want to see
more active in this?

As I am talking to you in Germany - I would like Germany to be more active.

You said in previous interviews that you will need time to form an opinion
about international sanctions against the Burmese regime. What is your
impression so far on this matter?

So far, I have not got the impression that economic sanctions have really
hurt the public, but of course there are other voices that are perhaps
still waiting to be heard, so we have yet to find out. I have been
released just for over a month, and I haven't had time to go into this
issue; I am waiting to read the latest report of the IMF, and perhaps the
ADB and other economic institutions.

How influential is the West in Burma? Compared with that, how do you see
India's and China's role?

I think the role of the West in Burma and the role of India and China are
quite different. I would not like to think of them as competing for
influence, or competing for ascendancy over Burma. It is not as though we
were not able to shape our own destiny. But certainly, because India and
China are very close neighbors, they have a certain advantage over those
countries that are situated very far away.

Does this mean that what the West does with regard to Burma is not so
important?

No, it has its importance, depending on how and what actions the West is
taking, which is why I said earlier that it would be good if all the
Western nations could coordinate their efforts. Not just the Western
nations, it would be good if the whole international community, including
the United Nations, coordinated its efforts. That would help us very
greatly indeed, and if it called for the same basic steps, that would mean
progress.

What are your expectations from India and China?

We would like them to engage with us. To begin with, we'd very much like
India and China to give us the opportunity to explain our point of view to
them. We have very little contact with China and India. We have more
contact with the Indian government than with the Chinese government, in
fact I don't think we have any contact with the Chinese government at all.
We would like to have contact with them, we would like them to listen to
our side of the story, and make them understand that we look upon them as
neighbors, and that we would like to be friends with them. We are not
hostile to them even if we are working for democracy in Burma.

What are your plans for the coming weeks?

The man that I fear most in the world is the man who keeps my appointment
book. I haven't gone through next week's appointments with him...

Interviewer: Thomas Baerthlein
Editor: Shamil Shams