BurmaNet News, December 21, 2010

[Editor]

December 21, 2010 Issue #4108

INSIDE BURMA
RFA: Red alert on political prisoners

BUSINESS / TRADE
Asia Times: A crony rises in Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Senior General's grandson orders attack on business rival
Mizzima: US sends Transocean a fresh subpoena over Burma conduct
Crain: U.S. lists countries that use child labor to make rubber goods
Narinjara: Kaladan Multimodal Transit Project hollow for Arakanese people

DRUGS
UN News: Myanmar major source and user of amphetamine drugs, says UN report

INTERNATIONAL
TamilNet: Nambiar, UN, undermine war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, Burma

INTERVIEW
Asia Times: A Nobel view on Myanmar

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 21, Radio Free Asia
Red Alert on Political Prisoners - Nyan Winn Aung

The plight of 2,200 political detainees languishing in Burma's jails is
highlighted to the Red Cross

Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, once the world's most celebrated
political prisoner, on Monday highlighted problems faced by the remaining
2,200 jailed activists and politicians to the International Committee of
the Red Cross.

"She requested for more support and help from the ICRC at the meeting,"
her spokesman Nyen Win said after the talks.

Political detainees in Burma have not received visits by ICRC staff aimed
at monitoring their treatment and living conditions since December 2005
after the ruling military junta disallowed the organization from carrying
out duties "in accordance with its standard working procedures."

But the ICRC continues to support family visits to political detainees,
who according to rights groups face torture and various other human rights
abuses and are held in harsh conditions with little or no access to
healthcare.

"The ICRC spoke to Aung San Suu Kyi about the difficulties they are
facing," Nyen Win said.

A key problem is that families of political prisoners have to travel long
distances to meet their loved ones, he said.

Many of the political prisoners are housed in the Insein, Mandalay and
Thayawaddy prisons. Others are spread out among the 44 prisons in the
country.

"Some families live in Rangoon (Burma's former capital) but they have to
travel far to the south to visit detainees, putting a heavy burden on them
especially in terms of travel costs," Nyen Win said.

Raising funds

 Map showing prisons where many of Burma's political prisoners are locked up.

Aung San Suu Kyi and the ICRC officials talked about the possibility of
raising funds to cover the high travel costs incurred by families of
detainees.

UN Special Rapporteur on Burma for Human Rights Tomás Ojea Quintana last
week called on the ruling generals to immediately and unconditionally
release all the 2,202 political prisoners ahead of forming a new
post-election government following elections last month.

He said "many" of them were "suffering serious health problems from the
harsh conditions of their detention.”

Quintana made the appeal following the Dec. 8 death of a 50-year-old
Buddhist monk in captivity.

The monk, U Naymeinda, was arrested for distributing leaflets supporting a
pro-democracy demonstration in 1999 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
He died after being trasferred to Moulmein prison, far from his family,
according to Quintan.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Burmese
rights group, charged that the junta's practice of transferring political
prisoners to jails across Burma made it "very difficult for their loved
ones to visit and provide essential food and medicines."

"The most high profile activists have been transferred to the most remote
prisons, which is a new psychological strategy by the regime designed to
cut them off from their family support system," it said.

Tight security

In previous years, the most high profile political prisoners were held
under tight security in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison.

"The release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is not enough. The military regime
must now release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally,"
said Bo Kyi, AAPP's joint secretary, said in a statement after the
65-year-old Nobel laureate was freed from house arrest on Nov. 13.

Aung Din, the executive secretary of the US Campaign for Burma, said the
ICRC should be allowed to visit prisons and talk to the detainees to gauge
the level of treatment they received and for the authorities to take steps
to address issues highlighted by them.

"Only then can they determine the abuses committed at the prisons and take
steps to end them," said Aung Din, himself once a political prisoner who
underwent torture in jail.

He also lamented on the difficulties faced by families of political
detainees.

"Some of them had to travel three to four days to visit their loved ones,"
he said.

Aung Din said that local authorities also harassed owners of hotels not to
house families who traveled from out of town to visit political prisoners.

Reported by Nyan Winn Aung of RFA's Burmese service. Translated by Soe
Win. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
___________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

December 22, Asia Times
A crony rises in Myanmar - Brian McCartan

Chiang Mai - With widely anticipated democratic elections completed and
the military's preferred candidates now firmly in power in Myanmar, the
prospects couldn't be brighter for the generals' business cronies. Atop
that exclusive list is U Zaw Zaw, the owner and managing director of the
Max Myanmar Group of Companies, and one of a clutch of Myanmar companies
to be targeted by United States financial sanctions.

The 44-year-old Zaw Zaw's business activities were closely examined in a
June 2009 US Embassy in Yangon cable recently released by WikiLeaks. In
the confidential document, he was mentioned as "one of several mid-level
cronies attempting to curry favor with the regime and to use his
government ties to expand his commercial enterprises".

By any assessment, Zaw Zaw has impeccable connections to the ruling junta,
including ties to former Lieutenant General Tin Aung Myint Oo, ranked
number four in the junta and recently elected to parliament. He is also
known to maintain personal relations with Senior General Than Shwe, the
country's authoritarian military ruler.

In September, Zaw Zaw was included in a select group of individuals chosen
to accompany Than Shwe on a state visit to China. The entourage included
the general's family and senior junta officials. He also accompanied Than
Shwe on a tour led by Chinese officials of the Shenzen Special Economic
Zone (SEZ).

This month, Zaw Zaw was granted a major state construction contract to
develop the new deep-sea port and future SEZ at the southern port of
Dawei. The project, which is being led by Italian-Thai, Thailand's largest
construction firm, is worth around US$8 billion.

Around the same time, Zaw Zaw attended a birthday party in Yangon for Than
Shwe's four-year-old granddaughter, also attended by many leading
high-society and military figures.

Until recently, Zaw Zaw owned the local Delta United professional football
club, where Than Shwe's grandson played. The businessman gave up ownership
of the company later in 2009 saying it conflicted with his presidency of
the Myanmar Football Federation. Zaw Zaw became the organization's first
head in 2008, along with that of the Myanmar Tennis Federation.

Zaw Zaw's connections to the military leadership were also apparent in the
concessions he received during the mass privatization of state-owned
enterprises and property that occurred in the early part of this year in
the run-up to the elections. The fire sale has been touted as the largest
sell-off of state assets in Myanmar's history.

In the process, Max Myanmar gained the right to operate eight fuel
stations, all of which opened on June 10, in Ayerawaddy, Bago and Yangon
divisions. The government has continued to set price limits, but observers
expect fuel prices to eventually rise under the private ownership of some
of Myanmar's most wealthy businessmen.

Zaw Zaw was also allowed to enter the financial sector through the
establishment of a new private bank. Permission was given in late May by
central bank chief Major General Tun Thein for the opening of private
banks by Zaw Zaw and other junta-connected tycoons, including Tay Za, Nay
Aung and Chit Khine. Max Myanmar's bank is known as the Ayerwaddy Bank and
opened in August.

Myanmar's banking system is in urgent need of reform, with a high level of
mistrust due to high inflation and negative interest rates, and the
involvement of more private capital is seen by some as a positive
development. That said, previous attempts at opening private banks were
unsuccessful - the Asia Wealth Bank and Myanmar May Flower were closed by
the junta due to widespread suspicions they were involved in money
laundering.

Along with other prominent businessmen, Zaw Zaw was given a prominent role
in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Along with Tay Za and Tun
Myint Naing, he accompanied senior generals on tours of disaster areas and
his donations to relief efforts were prominently featured in the local
media, which estimated he made US$1.6 million in contributions.

Zaw Zaw was also given government contracts for reconstruction of the
worst-hit areas, work which is ongoing. Max Myanmar's website says
philanthropy is part and parcel of the group's standard operating
procedures, including regular donations to educational, health, sports and
religious activities.

Rapid expansion

Zaw Zaw originally founded his conglomerate as the Max Myanmar Co in 1993
to import buses from Japan. The company quickly expanded and, according to
its website, later became known as the Max Myanmar Groups of companies
comprised of six independent enterprises. These include the Trading Co
Ltd, Construction Co Ltd, Hotel and Tourism Co Ltd, Manufacturing Co Ltd,
Services Co Ltd, and the Gems and Jewelry Co Ltd. Zaw Zaw also owns the
Singapore-based Max Singapore International Pte Ltd.

The Construction Co received contracts for some of the construction of the
new capital at Naypyidaw in the early 2000s. This included an eight-lane
highway and other parts of the remote capital's modern road network. Other
projects handled by the company included the repair of sections of the
Yangon-Mandalay road in 2009. Max Myanmar was later granted the concession
to collect tolls on the road. It also notched the contract to construct a
30,000 seat stadium in Naypyidaw as part of Myanmar's bid to host the 2013
Southeast Asia Games.

The company's construction operations in Naypyidaw were enhanced in August
2009 with a contract given by the Ministry of Mines to produce limestone
which supplies a new Max Myanmar-owned cement factory. According to the
leaked US Embassy cable, the cement is expected to be used for the
capital's newly expanded airport, now under construction by Steven Law's
Asia World Company. Law is another of the regime's favored businessmen.

Zaw Zaw's Hotel and Tourism Co operates the three-star Hotel Max, also
known as the Hotel Chaung Tha Beach Resort in the town of Chaung Tha in
Ayerawaddy division. The resort is a known favorite of the ruling generals
and their associated business elite. The posh Royal Kumudra Hotel in the
capital Naypyidaw is also operated by the company.

Max Gems and Jewelry is largely involved in jade mining with a concession
in the Hpakant jade mining area of Kachin State. It operates the Lone
Khine jade mine in conjunction with the Ministry of Mines. In 2009, the
company unearthed a 115 ton jade stone, the second-largest mined in the
past decade.

The company's Pinya Manufacturing Co Ltd, meanwhile, produces the popular
Max Cola as well as several other beverages for the domestic market. The
company began operating in 1998 with an initial investment of $41,000.
This followed the 1997 pullout of Pepsi Cola under strong international
activist pressure over the junta's human-rights record. The Pepsi
distributorship was held by U Thein Htut, Zaw Zaw's father-in-law.

On January 4, Myanmar's Independence Day, Zaw Zaw was honored along with
Tay Za and 16 senior military officials in a ceremony in Naypyidaw.
Although not mentioned in the domestic media, the exile-run Irrawaddy
reported he received the Thiri Pyanchi medal, one of the country's highest
honors for his "outstanding work" in developing Myanmar's economy and
contributions to the development of the country's professional football
league.

The honor, which was suspended under the rule of former strongman Ne Win
but restored recently by Than Shwe as part of his "roadmap to democracy",
was traditionally given to civil servants and individuals who had made an
important contribution to the country.

The US has also recognized his importance to the regime. In January 2009,
Zaw Zaw and the Max Myanmar Group were specifically targeted by the US
Treasury Department and placed on a list of sanctioned individuals and
companies in Myanmar. The Office of Foreign Assets Control targeted eight
of Max Myanmar's companies, including its Singapore-based Max Singapore
International.

The financial sanctions froze any assets Zaw Zaw may have held in American
banks and included a travel ban to the US. They also put pressure on
non-US banks, especially those situated in Singapore, for holding assets
of sanctioned individuals and companies. Zaw Zaw was added to the US
sanctions list because "Max Myanmar has provided important services in
support of the [Myanmar] junta, particularly in the form of construction
projects". Until now, Zaw Zaw has escaped much of the scrutiny and
criticism leveled at fellow junta crony and his rival for richest
businessman in Myanmar, Tay Za, the owner of the Htoo Trading Company.
This is likely due to Tay Za's more public involvement in the procurement
of weapons systems for the military and more recent revelations of his
involvement in the regime's alleged nuclear plans. Tay Za's close public
relationship to the top general has made him a favorite target of exile
activist and media groups.

However, Zaw Zaw's companies have been criticized for at least one of its
projects. Karen Human Rights Group, a grassroots organization which
monitors human-rights abuses in eastern Myanmar, alleges the Myanmar army
confiscated large tracts of land in northern Mon State in 2008 which it
then sold to Max Myanmar for use in its rubber plantation operations. The
project is listed on the company's website as beginning in 2005 and
expected to begin production of rubber for export in 2012.

With 25% of parliament's seats reserved for military men and the junta's
Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) overwhelming the rest of the
seats, junta-connected businessmen are expected to win the lion's share of
new government contracts doled out by the nominally civilian-led
administration. As such, Zaw Zaw is expected to be one of the bigger
business winners of the democratic transition.

Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist.
____________________________________

December 21, Irrawaddy
Senior General's Grandson Orders Attack on Business Rival – Yan Pai

Nay Shwe Thway Aung (also known as Poe La Pyae), the grandson of Burmese
junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe, recently ordered his personal assistants to
beat up the son of a former general for business reasons, according to
sources.

A businessman close to the military regime told The Irrawaddy that the
problem began when Win Htwe Hlaing, the son of former Maj-Gen Win Hlaing,
tried to take over a real estate deal that Nay Shwe Thway Aung had already
negotiated with a client.

“Poe La Pyae asked one of his friends to tell Win Htwe Hlaing to withdraw
from the land he had already reserved. But Win Htwe Hlaing, as a general's
son, replied that he didn't care who Poe La Pyae was,” said the
businessman.

He said the junta chief's grandson was angered by this response and told
his assistants to physically assault Win Htwe Hlaing. The attack was
carried out by army officers with the ranks of major and captain, he said.

Win Htwe Hlaing, 31, whose face was injured in the beating, is an
internationally recognized golf player and member of the Professional
Golfers' Association.

His father, Maj-Gen Win Hlaing, was a major when Than Shwe was serving as
the commander of Light Infantry Division 88, a position he held in the
early 1980s. He reportedly taught Than Shwe how to play golf and was known
as the senior general's second favorite subordinate after his current
personal assistant, Maj-Gen Ne Win.

Before his retirement from the army, Win Hlaing served as the director of
the Directorate of Procurement in the Ministry of Defense, the managing
director of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, Limited (UMEHL) and
the chairman of the state-owned Myawaddy Bank.

According to army sources, Win Hlaing asked his former colleagues in the
military to press the police to identify those who hit his son, but Ne Win
told him not to continue investigating the case as it was masterminded by
Nay Shwe Thway Aung.

Last year, there were reports of a similar incident, in which Nay Shwe
Thway Aung allegedly ordered some of his associates to destroy a coffee
shop called 7 Lekker, run by former captain Tay Zar Saw Oo, the son of the
regime's Secretary 1 Gen Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, and the son of
National  Planning Minister Soe Tha.

In another incident demonstrating Nay Shwe Thway Aung's overbearing
attitude toward those connected with other senior officials, he once spent
two hours chastising an army captain who served as the personal assistant
of the regime's Foreign Minister Nyan Win for blocking his parking space,
according to a UMEHL employee.

Nay Shwe Thway Aung has also been accused of making money by using his
grandfather's influence to help businesses claim illegally imported goods,
including vehicles, confiscated by customs officials at various seaports.

Nay Shwe Thway Aung is known to be particularly close to his grandfather,
and has accompanied him on state visits on several occasions. In September
of this year, he joined Than Shwe on a high-profile trip to China along
with his grandmother and aunts.

According to US diplomatic cables revealed by Wikileaks, Nay Shwe Thway
Aung urged Than Shwe to buy the Manchester United football team for US $1
billion in January of last year. Than Shwe reportedly abandoned the plan,
however, because he decided “that sort of expenditure could look bad” in
the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which killed more than 130,000 people in
May 2008.

Than Shwe finally opted to create the Myanmar National League, the very
first multi-million-dollar soccer league in the country, financed by his
cronies who would in turn receive government incentives such as
“construction contracts, new gem and jade mines, and import permits,” the
cables revealed.

According to business sources in Burma, several top generals and leading
businessmen have told their children to avoid getting into any sort of
confrontation with Nay Shwe Thway Aung.

____________________________________

December 21, Mizzima News
US sends Transocean a fresh subpoena over Burma conduct - Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai – Transocean, the Swiss-American drilling firm being sued by
the United States for its role in the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico, has received a second subpoena over its activities in Burma, a
recent regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) shows.

Transocean International’s semi-submersible drilling rig, the Actinia.
Last year, the Actinia was contracted to drill in Burmese waters licensed
to a consortium that includes China’s CNOOC and Singapore-registered firm
China Focus Development – owned by junta crony and alleged narcotics
money-launderer Stephen Law, aka Tun Myint Naing. Photo: Mizzima
The administrative subpoena came from the US Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC), the branch of the Treasury Department that oversees
American trade and financial sanctions.

According to the filing submitted in September but made public last month,
Transocean informed its shareholders: “We have received and responded to
an administrative subpoena from the OFAC concerning our operations in
Myanmar [Burma] and a follow-up administrative subpoena from OFAC with
questions relating to the previous Myanmar operations subpoena response.”

“OFAC’s administrative subpoena authority,” according to the Treasury’s
website, “generally provides the basis for OFAC to require the production
of whatever additional information it may require to assess its
enforcement response to the apparent violation.”

Transocean received first Burma subpoena after Mizzima exposé

The first administrative subpoena Transocean received about its activities
in Burma came several weeks after Mizzima first reported in May that
Transocean’s SEC filings showed the firm was hired late last year to do
drilling work in Burmese waters co-owned by a company controlled by
Stephen Law, a junta crony businessman alleged by the US government and
analysts to be a major drug-money launderer.

Stephen Law, aka Tun Myint Naing, his Singaporean wife, and his “narco
warlord” father are all on OFAC blacklists, officially called the
Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. All three are also listed in
similar European Union travel bans and sanctions lists.

Transocean’s 8-K filing with the SEC on November 2 last year showed that
Chinese state-run energy company CNOOC hired Transocean’s semi-submersible
Actinia, a Panamanian-registered drilling rig, to operate in Burma from
October to December.

According to the CNOOC website, all of the firm’s stakes in Burma’s gas
industry are held in partnership with China Focus Development (formerly
known as Golden Aaron) and China Global Construction, with CNOOC as the
operator. China Focus Development is a privately owned
Singapore-registered firm whose sole shareholders are Stephen Law and his
wife, Ng Sor Hong, aka Cynthia Ng. The US and EU sanctions lists show Ng
Sor Hong to be the chief executive of the firm, which is also among more
than a dozen companies controlled by Law on the OFAC blacklist of banned
Burma-related entities.

Law’s Sino-Burmese father, Lao Sit Han, aka Lo Hsing Han, is believed by
US drug-trafficking analysts to have controlled one of Southeast Asia’s
best-armed narcotics militias during the 1970’s. In a deal with the
Burmese regime, Lao Sit Han moved to Rangoon where he reportedly used the
profits from his drug empire to expand into other areas including
operating ports through the family controlled Asia World Group, also a
US-blacklisted firm over which Lao Sit Han is chairman.

Stephen Law is the managing director of Asia World and is believed to be
the driving force behind what has become one of Burma’s largest
conglomerates. As well as running Burma’s largest deepwater port, the
group owns lucrative toll highways, hotels and is also involved in many
construction projects, including building Rangoon’s Traders Hotel and
refurbishing the Rangoon airport.

A February 2008 statement by the US Treasury said: “In addition to their
support for the Burmese regime, Steven Law and Lo Hsing Han have a history
of involvement in illicit activities.”

Mizzima’s report of Transocean’s ties with a blacklisted Burmese
narcotics-trafficking clan was picked up in a front-page story in The New
York Times, which also detailed the firm’s questionable practices in Iran,
Norway and Syria.

Activists call for Transocean to be punished for any violations of US
sanctions

Wong Aung from the Shwe Gas Campaign, an advocacy group strongly opposed
to the Shwe oil and gas pipeline project between western Burma and China
told Mizzima that US authorities must take a strong stand against firms
that wilfully violate US sanctions. He said: “The US must send a clear
message that it won’t tolerate firms like Transocean violating US
sanctions. There has to be full investigation of Transocean’s activities
in Burma. There needs to be full disclosure of what happened and what
Transocean is presently doing in Burma.”

Transocean resisted subpoenas in Gulf of Mexico spill case

Transocean, whose Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April in the Gulf of
Mexico, resisted responding to three successive subpoenas issued by US
authorities investigating the accident that killed 11 and caused an
environmental catastrophe after the explosion and subsequent fire.

Last Friday, US District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans ruled that
Transocean must abide by the subpoenas that sought safety inspection
information for all of Transocean’s rigs based in the gulf at the time of
the accident.

The judge reasoned that the requests were for a “proper statutory purpose,
seeking documents that are relevant, and that are in no way unduly
burdensome”. Transocean had argued that US authorities were asking for too
many documents and requesting files not directly related directly to the
accident. Barbier gave Transocean 15 days to deliver the documents.  It
was unclear if the firm would appeal.

Company’s rig caused tense naval stand-off between Burma and Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi government on November 2, 2008 revealed that the previous
day its naval vessel the BNS Nirvoy detected the Burmese navy escorting
four drilling ships, and a tug pulling the 100-metre-long drill rig
Transocean Legend in waters claimed by Dhaka. The announcement was the
first sign of a serious diplomatic spat that followed with a costly and
heated naval stand-off between two of the world’s poorest nations.

On November 3, Bangladeshi authorities in Dhaka summoned the Burmese
ambassador to issue a strong protest and Bangladeshi’s military-backed
interim government, furious at the Burmese regime’s actions, responded by
sending four of its own naval ships to the disputed area.

The Bangladesh Navy had caught Transocean’s Bahamian-registered rig and
its Burmese naval escorts in an area the Burmese regime had designated as
the AD-7 offshore gas block. Transocean’s SEC filing revealed that Daewoo
had hired the rig to conduct drilling exploration at a cost of US$424,000
a day. Daewoo and its partner firms Kogas, had bought rights to drill in
AD-7 despite the fact that Bangladesh claimed it was their territory.

The joint State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)/Transocean incursion
into the disputed waters came three weeks after Burmese Energy Minister
Brigadier General Lun Thi had assured his Bangladeshi counterpart that
Burma, the Bangladeshi daily newspaper New Age quoted him as saying,
“would not conduct gas exploratory work in the disputed maritime boundary
area until the issue was settled” between the two nations.

Lun Thi made this apparently hollow promise during an October 8, 2008
Dhaka meeting with Dr. M. Tamim, then serving as special assistant to the
chief adviser for Bangladesh’s Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral
Resources.

Immediately after the Bangladeshi government went public with their
complaints, forces from both sides mobilised along their shared land
border. The heightened tensions would prove deadly when on November 3, the
mutilated bodies of four Bangladeshi woodcutters were discovered by
relatives two kilometres inside Burmese territory. Bangladeshi military
authorities said the Burmese military had shot and killed the four men for
trespassing into Burmese territory.

Two days after the killings, an unidentified Burmese naval official told
Agence France-Presse on November 5: “We will try to solve this peacefully,
but we are also ready to protect our country if needed 
 we will not
tolerate being insulted, although we do want goodwill. We will continue
with exploration.”

Burma’s regime officially responded to the Bangladeshi complaints in a
belligerent tone through its mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar,
declaring it would continue to operate in the disputed territory because
Bangladeshi concerns were “mistaken and unlawful”. In an article published
November 7, 2008, the newspaper declared that “Myanmar [Burma] rejected
the mistakenly-made demand of Bangladesh” and therefore “in order to
protect the interests of the country in line with international laws,
Myanmar [Burma] will continue to do the work in Block No. AD-7 till its
completion”. In fact, international law dictates that territorial disputes
should be resolved first through peaceful means before drilling takes
place.

Two days later, Daewoo, Transocean and the Burmese regime withdrew their
vessels.  It was reported that the Korean and Chinese governments had
intervened to de-escalate the situation. China is set to be the
destination of most of the gas Daewoo and its partners extract from off
Burma’s Arakan coast.

Fortunately for Transocean, its equipment sustained no damage during the
stand-off.  Had a naval clash ensued, the exchange of fire could have
easily caused Transocean’s multimillion-dollar rig to sink.

On December 15, about a month after the stand-off, Reuters reported that a
senior Burmese energy ministry official had revealed that test results
from the disputed AD-7 block “not very encouraging”. The anonymous
official added that “we still need to dig four or five more test wells
before we confirm the deposit is not commercially viable”. A Daewoo
International report issued in March this year reveals however that the
firm increased its stake in the contested block after its three partners
pulled out.   The report failed to show any exploration activity taking
place in the disputed block since the standoff in November 2008.

____________________________________


December 21, Crain News Service report
U.S. lists countries that use child labor to make rubber goods

Washington — In its latest listing of goods produced using child labor,
issued Dec. 15, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) claims that rubber
goods from Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Liberia and the Philippines all use
child labor.
In addition, the report said rubber goods from Burma are created using
forced labor.

The International Labor Rights Forum said that as part of the Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act of 2005, DOL’s Bureau of
International Labor Affairs was tasked with developing and making
available to the public a list of goods from countries that the Bureau of
International Labor Affairs has reason to believe are produced by forced
labor or child labor in violation of international standards.
____________________________________

December 21, Narinjara News
Kaladan Multimodal Transit Project Hollow for Arakanese People

Sittwe - With the hope of promoting trade and regional development, India
and Burma laid the foundation for construction of a port and waterway
terminal as part of the Burma - India Kaladan Multimodal Transit Project
at a ceremony held in Sittwe on 19 December, 2010.

The foundation ceremony was opened in Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State,
during the morning when the cornerstone for the project was placed.

According to a Burmese official source, during the ceremony some high
officials, including Deputy Minister Mr. Jayant Prassad of External
Affairs of India, Indian Ambassador to Burma Dr. Villur Sundararajan
Sheshadri, and embassy staff attended with other officials from India.

On the Burmese side, Chairman of the Rakhine State Peace and Development
Council, Commander of Western Command Brigadier-General Soe Thein, and
Minister for Transport U Thein Swe attended the ceremony.

Officials from both sides delivered speeches at the ceremony regarding
their relations and regional development that they expect the project to
bring.

Replying to Narinjara on the issued over the phone, Ko Kyaw Zaw, an
educated Arakanese from Sittwe, said, "We Arakanese people have no right
to carry out the work and our people have no capital to run in the
project. How can Arakanese people benefit from the project? It is
beneficial for the Burmese government and India, not for the people. The
project can not bring our state development."

Moreover, he said that Arakanese will be facing more human rights
violations by the Burmese army because the authority has deployed more
troops to guard the projects.

The Burmese army does not respect the Arakanese people and has oppressed
them in many ways since the military gained power in Burma. Many villagers
have lost their farm lands and homes as authorities have confiscated
property for the projects, he added.

Burma and India claim that the Kaladan river project aims to promote trade
between the two countries, but many Arakanese doubt the project will bring
benefits to them. The projects are furthermore expected to damage the
environment and harm many cultural sites in Arakan.

The Kaladan Multimodal Transit Project is targeted for completion by 2013.

India stands as Burma's fourth largest trading partner after Thailand,
China, and Singapore. According to official statistics, Burmese - Indian
bilateral trade reached 1.9 billion US Dollars in the fiscal year of 2009
- 10, an increase of 26.1 over the previous year.

____________________________________
DRUGS

December 21, UN News Center
Myanmar major source and user of amphetamine drugs, says UN report

The manufacture, trafficking and consumption of synthetic drugs in Myanmar
is worsening, with methamphetamine and other amphetamine-type stimulants
smuggled from the country affecting neighbouring States and other parts of
East and South-East Asia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNDOC) says in a new report.
According to the “Myanmar Situation Assessment on Amphetamine-Type
Stimulants (ATS),” which was released yesterday in Bangkok, seizures of
ATS pills in Myanmar and countries bordering the country’s Shan state in
2009 tripled compared to the previous year, a trend which has continued
this year.

“In 2009, large seizures of high purity crystalline methamphetamine were
made in Myanmar,” said Deepika Naruka, the UNODC Coordinator of the Global
Synthetics Monitor, Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) programme in
East Asia and the Pacific region.

“Authorities in both Myanmar and Thailand confirm that the manufacture of
crystalline methamphetamine is now occurring in the Golden Triangle
[opium-producing Asian region],” she said.

Between January and September this year, more than 44 million pills were
seized in Thailand alone, while over 22 million pills were confiscated in
Laos.

Home to between 50 and 80 per cent of the estimated total number of ATS
users in the whole of Asia, the issue of amphetamine-type stimulants in
the East and South-East Asian region is a major concern, UNDOC says in the
report.

While most of the drugs produced in Myanmar – both opiates and
methamphetamines – are mainly destined for the international market,
domestic use of ATS in the country is increasing, the agency notes, adding
that the trend has been exacerbated by the lack of resources for drug
treatment facilities.

“This Situation Assessment is the first of its kind. It aims to provide a
clearer understanding of the ATS situation in Myanmar, in order to design
effective and evidence-informed responses,” said Gary Lewis, UNODC
Regional Representative for East Asia and the Pacific.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 21, TamilNet
Nambiar, UN, undermine war crimes investigation on Sri Lanka, Burma

Unchecked for the role he played in the genocide of Eezham Tamils last
year, Vijay Nambiar’s UN villainy is now targeting ethnicities struggling
in Burma. The Burmese military now plans to adopt the Rajapaksa doctrine
of military solution to the national question in Burma, with the backing
of the same establishments that backed Rajapaksa, and Vijay Nambiar is in
the scene again, facilitating the agenda and shielding the war crimes. A
few days ago, UK has urged the UN to replace Vijay Nambiar by another
fulltime envoy to deal with Burma. According to Mizzima News Wednesday,
the London-based Burma Campaign expressed extreme disappointment on the
approach of Nambiar befriending military generals and ignoring nations
struggling for liberation. Meanwhile, the UN panel on Sri Lanka meeting
Colombo’s LLRC has raised eyebrows in the human rights circles.

While major human rights organisations of the world have boycotted
Colombo’s LLRC, there are reports that Ban Ki Moon’s advisory panel on Sri
Lanka may have ‘meetings’ with it. According to SL government, since it
has said that anyone could come up with submissions to the LLRC, on that
basis the UN panel also could come to Colombo to meet the LLRC. This means
that the UN panel is treated as a party submitting before the LLRC.

Informed circles say that the UN panel has plans to meet the LLRC behind
the scene somewhere outside of the island, perhaps for exchanging notes.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited U.N. investigators to
share evidence gathered with his own reconciliation commission. Associated
Press cited Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella saying Saturday that "We
resisted the panel saying we can't allow a U.N. investigation
unilaterally. But in this case, the president has invited them not to
undertake any investigation but to share the evidence."

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon praised the move, AP said.

After collecting sensitive and trusted evidence from the affected, the UN
move of ‘sharing’ with LLRC is calculated to undermine the credibility of
the panel which had been set half-heartedly and the modus operandi of
which had already raised doubts, said human rights activists.

In Burma, Ban Ki Moon’s chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar sabotaged war crimes
investigations against Burmese military at the behest of the Chinese,
accuses the Mizzima article by Thomas Maung Shwe.

Indian and Chinese opposition to war crimes investigation in the island of
Sri Lanka and their backing to the war crimes accused regime of Rajapaksa
are well known.

The Chinese have told Nambiar that war crime inquiry in Burma would be
dangerous and counterproductive, and should not be allowed to proceed.
Nambiar appeared to have shared the view by omitting a proposal for war
crime inquiry in his report to the UN, despite the fact that UN officials
had earlier called for such an inquiry, Mizzima said.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma in his report in March
said that abuses were a state policy that involved authorities at all
levels of the executive, military and judiciary, and called for an inquiry
by the UN Human Rights Council.

Ironically, Burmese military offensive in August-September targeted ethnic
Chinese in the Kokang region that made thousands of them to flee to Yunnan
of China. The Chinese came out only with verbal protest.


Vijay Nambiar (left) mets recently released Burmese pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi on November 27, 2010 [Photo: Mizzima]After meeting Aung
Sun Suu Kyi in Burma, Nambiar commented that he found her “out of touch
and somehow too hard-line”, reports Matthew Russell Lee of the Inner City
Press.

Writing on the controversial role played by Nambiar in Sri Lanka, Mizzima
said: “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.”

Citing The Times, Mizzima said that Nambiar knowingly suppressed
information to the public, despite UN staff briefing him in Colombo that
at least 20,000 people had died in the final stages of the war.

But there are some other Indian names that not only suppressed information
but came out with misleading information on the civilians in the killing
zone, contributing to the ‘smooth progress’ of war crimes.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka connection is a key factor in the renewed ethnic war
in the regions of Burma, bordering Thailand, India and China, says Simon
Roughneen writing in The Irrawaddy, November 29.

According to the article, while Aung San Suu Kyi, released from her
years-long house arrest, has called for discussions on federal model
solutions, the Burmese military is gearing up for a military solution to
the ethnic issue in the model of Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa’s first visit outside after the Vanni War was to Burma. The
Burmese generals reciprocated in June 2009 by visiting Colombo and
thanking Rajapaksa for his support in combating “illegal activities
carried out by the LTTE in the past and in drug trafficking in the
region."

But most of the poppy-growing areas in the Shan State of Burma are under
the control of militia groups backed by the Burmese military, says Shan
researcher and journalist Kheunsai Jaiyen, cited by The Irrawaddy.

The Burmese military is now eager to learn from Sri Lanka and to borrow
methods from Sri Lanka’s COIN strategy used against the LTTE, The
Irrawaddy article said, citing a recent report by researcher Kim Joliffe.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s army commander Jagath Jayasuriya said Wednesday
that his military would be seeking UN ‘peace keeping’ missions abroad.
Revealing that Colombo would be negotiating with Russia for armoured
fighting vehicles, he said that his country was ready to take up foreign
assignments at short notice.

In Burma, the Sri Lankan-style strategy appears primarily to target the
Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), The Irrawaddy said.

“In total, an estimated 446,000 people are thought to be displaced inside
Burma and allegations that the army uses forced labour, forced
displacement and rape as part of its campaign in ethnic minority regions
are part of the campaign by rights groups to establish a Commission of
Inquiry into war crimes in Burma,” The Irrawaddy further said.

According to Joliffe's report, more violence looms in Karen-populated
regions in eastern Burma. The Sri Lanka-style strategy “would include the
assassination of key leaders, the pinpointing of key bases and the herding
of KNLA forces and civilians into kill zones using heli-borne forces.”
Ominously, Joliffe suggests, “the final phase of these hammer and anvil
tactics is the obliteration of everyone in kill zones using massed
artillery.”

But it seems too much importance is given to the military of these
terrorist states and their military ‘successes’ when the real problem lies
in the attitudes of some powers and in the criminal mind of some
individuals occupying establishments. The Sri Lankan state is increasingly
proving itself as a crucial test case where the backbone of state
terrorism should be crushed for the benefit of any fresh tide in world
affairs.

____________________________________
INTERVIEW

December 21, Asia Times
A Nobel view on Myanmar - Haseenah Koyakutty

Bangkok- Amartya Sen, who won the 1998 Nobel economics prize, is leading a
call for a special "global initiative" on Myanmar, styled after the
Afghanistan conference held in London earlier this year when the
international community came together to support that war-torn country.

Sen, a Myanmar expert who spent part of his childhood in the Southeast
Asian country formerly known as Burma, argued in a Bangkok interview that
the newly freed opposition icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung Sang
Suu Kyi's ability to work towards national reconciliation would depend on
what other countries do.

"My concern is they're not doing much at all," said Sen, an Indian who
pointed out that if the rest of the world does nothing, Suu Kyi would be
forced to return to past populist practices which would risk her
re-arrest.

According to Sen, the military government's strategy is to present an
image of moderation without actually being moderate. He contends that
people tend to underestimate the extent to which the military government
is "unbelievably different" to other military dictatorships, save those of
Sudan and North Korea.

"To the general public, it looked as if they [the ruling junta] have had
an election, they've released Suu Kyi, how could you describe them to be
extremist?" said Sen.

He believes the military regime, led by General Than Shwe, would like to
be more like North Korea, even though Myanmar is not yet close to
acquiring a nuclear bomb. He thinks the regime has not succeeded because
Myanmar's people are more resistant and have revolted in the recent past.
Nor does North Korea have a successful opposition leader like Suu Kyi.
"She's kept the issue alive," Sen said.

Sen proposes several ways to move Myanmar forward. For starters, he
believes an internationally led "commission of inquiry" could bring out
the true extent of the military regime's brutality and internal
suppression and that this could encourage its neighbors, especially China,
India and Thailand, to re-examine their self-interested positions towards
the regime.

Sen reckoned the ongoing economic and financial sanctions against the
regime should hit the generals more than the people, and urged the West to
end its hypocrisy by completely withdrawing from the country's petroleum
and gems trades. The West, he said, should also lead an arms sale ban to
the country.

"The opportunity of a hard-headed talk [with the junta] will arrive only
if China, Thailand, India, as well as the most powerful international
players, namely the European Union and America, do enough to make the
lives of the junta unviable. Then it would be possible to talk."

In his proposed global initiative, Sen believes these powers should begin
thinking of an "ideal exit" for the generals, including exile options,
even though the mismanaged government is not yet close to collapse. In an
interview with Asia Times Online contributor Haseenah Koyakutty, Sen
outlined his vision for change in Myanmar. Excerpts follow:

Asia Times Online: Why should Myanmar's neighbors consider changing policy
towards the military regime?

Amartya Sen: The incentive is this: the dictators will ultimately fall,
they always do ultimately. But no matter, when the memory of the
collaboration with the military regime would remain. When Americans
supported the [Augusto] Pinochet regime in overthrowing [Salvador] Allende
[in Chile], it would have been hard to predict how long Pinochet would
last. What was easy to predict then is that America's support for Pinochet
and all other military dictatorships within Latin America would
consolidate the anti-Americanism which is one of the gut reactions in
Latin America today. There's a lesson there for China, for India and for
Thailand.

ATol: What are the prospects for internal change?

AS: There's very little freedom the way the country is run. What do you
advocate? You ask the monks to rise and revolt again to be clubbed down?
You ask the students to go out in their agitation as they did 15 years ago
to be brutally treated? I think these things don't make sense.

The freedom of action is very limited inside Burma [Myanmar], as it is in
North Korea. And in that context, much depends on what other countries in
the world would do, and that's why the responsibility of European Union,
America, India, Thailand, China, among other countries is really very
large.

ATol: What could be General Than Shwe's future role after the elections?

AS: We have to see, but it is very important to keep this issue in the
public domain and as a high agenda item in the public global dialogue that
is taking place right now.

ATol: How do you see Suu Kyi's future role?

AS: Regarding what part she can play in the end of the regime, if the
international community gets its act together, then Suu Kyi will have a
much bigger voice in the negotiations with the military regime. And she
can show the kind of generosity that [South African icons] Nelson Mandela
and [Desmond] Tutu did in allowing people who practiced apartheid, or in
this case military butchery, to escape.

Penalizing isn't a very intelligent way of conducting political policy,
even when you're dealing with butchers. You have to let the butchers go,
and they have to know they can go, so that it is not the case that they
can't get off the back of the tiger because the tiger would eat it.

ATol: In what ways do Myanmar's generals resemble Indian maharajahs?

AS: None of them had anything like the power that [Myanmar's] military
dictators have. I mean the maharajahs have a lot of things to explain and
answer for, but they were not about systematic murders and rape. They were
not making minority communities pushed away from their local residences
and chucked in some forest or other. They were not carrying out systematic
imprisonment of every dissident.

I think Indian maharajahs were not great at introducing great systems, but
to compare them with the military junta I think really is deeply illusory
given the fact that the military junta is effective, determined and brutal
in a way that the maharajahs by and large didn't manage to be.

Haseenah Koyakutty is freelance Southeast Asia correspondent based in
Bangkok.