Burma Newscasts

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Conflict Threatens Karen Biodiversity

By KEYA ACHARYA / IPS WRITER
The Irrawaddy News
November 18, 2008

BANGKOK — on top of 60 years of military occupation, the Karen people of Burma are now facing severe impairment of their environmental and cultural foundations, say activists.

Burma’s incredibly rich and highly endemic biodiversity has a recorded 11,800 plant species including a species-collection of 800 orchids, 100 bamboos, 1,000 birds and 145 globally threatened mammals.

A great part of this biodiversity is found in Karen State in southeastern Burma bordering Thailand, now suffering heavily due to the ongoing conflict between the government’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the Karen National Union (KNU).

The conflict has displaced more than 500,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) within Karen State. Most are now living in the forests.

Civilians have become the target of the Burmese military as the SPDC aims to weaken the KNU by cutting off provisions and support from local Karen. And, according to Paul Sein Twa, director of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN), there is a toll on the environment as well.

In the forests, IDP families sleep in makeshift shelters on open ground. Healthcare and education are non-existent and the majority is severely malnourished.

In the northern Karen district of Mu Traw alone, 200 villages have been burnt or destroyed since 1997 and farmlands mined, leaving around 37,000 villagers hiding as IDPs in the hills, says a KESAN report, "Diversity Degraded" written by ethnic Karen researchers.

Marty Bergoffen, an American environmental lawyer helping KESAN develop a forest policy, told a gathering of journalists convened by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Bangkok, last month, that there were over 100,000 refugees on the Thai border and "literally millions of economic refugees in Thailand, Malaysia, India and elsewhere."

KESAN is a Chiang-Mai, Thailand-based organization of Karen activists working with indigenous Karen on both sides of the Burma-Thailand border.

Bergoffen says women are especially affected in the conflict, facing physical vulnerabilities and limited access to work because of border security issues.

"Thailand has no long-term refugee policy, so it’s hard for the Karen to plan any future", he says.

Bergoffen terms the Karen’s local biodiversity as the "lynchpin" of community-survival that the war is now threatening.

The military has mined the farmlands of those IDPs hiding in the hills, barring them from returning to cultivate crops.

The Karen had survived for centuries on a seven-year rotational cycle of cultivation that allowed fallow land to regenerate, but now with mined lands and military occupation, villagers make do with shrunken land space that is resulting in overexploitation of both biodiversity and land.

"In the past I didn’t cultivate on very sloped land or in old forest. But now I cannot survive if I don’t cultivate in the old forest. I know that these are not good places to use for cultivation but I have no choice," says a Ta Paw Der a villager in the KESAN report.

Besides the SDPC, the KNU have also been involved in unsustainable exploitation of Karen’s biodiversity, selling off timber for arms as they retreat from increased military offensives.

Increased militarization has already resulted in the loss of the severely endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros, says KESAN.

To add to the problem, indigenous knowledge, a tradition handed orally down the generations, is as threatened as local biodiversity, forests and traditional lifestyles disappear in the fighting.

Ta Paw Der village previously had over 150 kinds of edible forest products, including wild honey, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, gingers, tubers, roots, nuts and fruits, but it is now physically unsafe to collect such produce.

Another biodiversity survey of Karen’s arterial Salween River opposite Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province, undertaken by KESAN, has identified over 40 endangered plant and animal species which are being threatened by ongoing military action.

Over two dozen endemic and unknown species, including eight endemic fish species have also been identified by Dr. Chavalit Vidthayanon of WWF-Thailand.

KESAN’s report shows that the Salween River still contains amazing biodiversity, and deserves more attention from international scientists.

But a deal between Thailand and Burma for the first large-scale hydropower project on the Salween river could displace and negatively impact upon tens of thousands of poor and marginalized people from ethnic minorities in that country.

Five giant hydropower dams, of which the first is the Wei Gyi has been planned on the Salween river by the Burmese, Thai and Chinese governments, adding to the threat from the cumulative impact of cascading dams.

KESAN activist, Ko Shwe says: "The Karen people depend on a healthy Salween ecosystem, including fish, forest products, riverside gardens and transportation. The proposed dams will ruin the ecosystem and the free flowing river, kill the surrounding forests and destroy the lives of thousands of people.

Burma has several ongoing and proposed hydropower, gem-mining and natural gas projects countrywide with various nations, including China, Thailand, Korea and India.

In northern Shan district, a 600 megawatts Chinese hydroelectric project will give Burma just 15 percent of the electricity generated and the rest will be sold to China at an undisclosed price.

According to EarthRights International, there are 69 Chinese trans-nationals involved in 90 completed, current and planned projects in hydropower, oil, natural gas and mining.

Ka Hsaw Wa, executive director of EarthRights International says on its website: "We’ve repeatedly seen foreign companies coming into Burma with disregard for local people and the environment. Given what we know about development projects in Burma and the current situation, we’re concerned about this marked increase in the number of these projects."

The New York-based Human Rights Watch group has called for countries to boycott Burmese gems, deals for which are going to support the military, while environmental activists say that indiscriminate mining for jade and rubies is destroying the ecology and ecosystems of northern Burma.

But despite such calls and a US ban on the import of Burmese rubies and jade gem dealers say their lucrative trade has buyers from China, Russia, Thailand, India, EU and the Gulf countries.

Activist Than Nyein Undergoes Surgery

By MIN LWIN
The Irrawaddy News
November 18, 200

Burmese activist Dr Than Nyein, 71, an elected member of Parliament in 1988, recently underwent surgery on his liver in Singapore, according to a family member.

His son told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that Than Nyein is now in good condition. He was taken to Singapore on November 9.

“He has suffered with a tumor in his liver ever since he was a political prisoner,” he said.

On September 23, Than Nyein—the brother-in-law of Gen Khin Nyunt, a former prime minister and chief of military intelligence, who is now under house arrest—was released along with a group of other political prisoners including well-known journalist Win Tin.

After transferring from prisons at least four times in 11 years, Than Nyein was released from Prome Prison with liver problems and swollen lymph nodes.

In early 2008 during a medical examination, his doctor advised him to seek specialist treatment.

As a student of Rangoon Institute of Medicine, Than Nyein was elected chairperson of the Medical Students Union. He was involved the 1988 uprising. When the National League for Democracy (NLD) party was founded, he was elected vice-chairman of the Rangoon Division Organizing Committee.

Than Nyein was arrested in 1997 along with Dr May Win Myint and six other activists following an attempt to hold a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD youth members in Mayangone Township in Rangoon.

“When I became involved in Burmese politics, I prepared myself to be in prison at some point,” Than Nyane said in an interview in late September.

Than Nyein completed his original seven-year prison sentence in 2004. After that time, he was held without charge or trial on renewable detention orders under Section 10(a) of the State Protection Act, an administrative law that allows the authorities to detain anyone without charge or trial if it’s believed the person is a danger to the state.

Burma-Bangladesh Maritime Talks Fail

By WAI MOE
The Irrawaddy News
November 18, 2008

Burma and Bangladesh failed to resolve the simmering tension between the two countries over a disputed maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, according to Bangladeshi newspapers. Talks will resume in Burma in January.

The New Age newspaper said that the two countries ended the two-day maritime boundary delimitation talks inconclusively as both sides refused to change their positions on the method of marking the coastline of the exclusive economic zones in the Bay of Bengal.

“Myanmar[Burma] proposed a corridor in the Bay, and we have rejected it since we feel that equity should be the guiding method to settle the issue under the UN [United Nations] Convention on the 1982 Law of the Sea,” MAK Mahmood, Bangladesh’s additional foreign secretary, told reporters after the meeting on Monday.

He said the Burmese junta rejected the area claimed by Bangladesh. “So, Bangladesh’s plea is not acceptable to them,” he said.

Burma’s deputy foreign minister Maung Myint led the delegation to Bangladesh.

Dhaka’s The Daily Star reported that the next round meeting between the two countries will be held in Burma in January only four months ahead of the Burmese military regime’s deadline for maritime demarcation claims to the UN.

Burma will have to claim the maritime demarcation with Bangladesh by May 21 and the Bangladesh deadline is July 27, 2011 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS-1982).

Burma and Bangladesh talks over the disputed area started in 1974, but the talks were put on hold for more than two decades and only resumed in January. The Dhaka meeting was the fourth round of talks following recent tension in the Bay of Bengal involving maritime vessels from both countries.

In October, the Burmese authorities sent navy ships into the area and permitted a South Korean company to explore for nature gas in the disputed area, prompting Bangladesh to position naval ships in the area.

Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, the No. 2 high ranking general at the Burmese junta, visited Bangladesh in early October to attempt to resolve the tension, but the talks failed.

Burmese ruling generals reportedly discussed the dispute at a junta meeting in Naypyidaw which ended last week.

Khine Myat Kyaw, a Burmese journalist who is based in Dhaka, said the two countries are still deploying army troops near the border.

Meanwhile, Burma and China agreed to construct a US $2.5 billion oil-and-gas pipeline project China, according to Japan’s The Nikkei newspaper.

Burma’s state-own Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise will own a 49.1 percent stake while the China National Petrol Corp will have 50.9 percent. A US $1.5 billion oil pipeline, and US $1.04 billion gas line will be built, as well as oil and gas storage tanks near Burma’s Kyaukpyu Port, The Nikkei said.

The Burmese regime earned an estimated US $2.5 billion by selling nature gas to Thailand last year.

Prominent Monk, Others Receive Lengthy Prison Sentences

By MIN LWIN
Mizzima News
November 18, 2008

Ashin Gambira, one of the organizers of a monk-led uprising that captured international headlines last year, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment on Tuesday by a special court convened behind closed doors at Rangoon’s Insein Prison.

A source close to the leading dissident monk said that the sentence did not include all of the charges against him, and would likely be much longer once the court reaches a final decision on the remaining charges.

“His case hasn’t been closed yet,” the source said. “There are still other charges being brought against him.”

The 29-year-old monk, who helped spearhead peaceful protests by thousands of Buddhist monks last September, was charged with violating a number of laws generally having to do with threatening the stability of the state.

These include Section 505 A and B of the State Offence Act, Section 13/1 of the Immigration Act, Section 17/1 of the Illegal Organization Act, Section 303 A of the Electronic Act and Section 6 of the Organization Act.

Intelligence agents arrested Ashin Gambira along with his father last November while he was hiding in Sintgaing Township, Mandalay Division. The authorities later forcibly disrobed him without consulting with the Buddhist monastic community, which alone has the authority to expel monks.

Ashin Gambira co-founded the All Burmese Monks’ Alliance, which led last year’s massive protests in Rangoon and other cities. The subsequent crackdown by the military claimed at least 31 lives, according to human rights groups, while thousands of monks and civilians were arrested and detained.

Besides Ashin Gambira, at least four other people received lengthy sentences today for their involvement in the protests, including fellow monk U Kaylar Tha from Mandalay Township, who was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment by the Kyimyindaing Township special court in Insein prison.

U Kaylar Tha was charged with violating Section 505 B of the State Offence Act, Section 13/1 of the Immigration Act, Section 17/2 of the Illegal Organization Act and Section 6 of the Organization Act.

Three ethnic activists were also sentenced today in connection with the monk-led protests. Ethnic Arakanese protester Tin Htoo Aung and Chin activist Kam Lat Hkoat were sentenced to 33 years imprisonment each, while another Chin activist, Kat Hkant Kwal, was given an eight-year sentence.

Protester Ko Htin Kyaw jailed for 12 ½ years

by Than Htike Oo
Mizzima News
17 November 2008

Chiang Mai – Ko Htin Kyaw, a protester who led demonstrations against rising essential commodity prices last year was sentenced to 12 and-a-half years in jail on Monday by a court in session in Insein prison.

Ko Htin Kyaw, hailing from North Okkalapa Rangoon, was arrested after he staged protests against rising essential commodity prices burdening common people in August 2007.

The judge U Kyaw Sein did not allow the accused to defend himself. The verdict against Ko Htin Kyaw was under charges, namely extortion, insulting Buddhist religion, joining unlawful assembly and inducing crime against public tranquility.

"Previously he was produced before a special court inside Insein prison. He refused to appear before the court as he had no faith in it. Finally, he was produced before the court sitting in session in the main gate of the prison. He was sentenced by this court," a person close to the judicial department told Mizzima.

The junta suddenly and drastically raised the price of fuel in August 2007 and as a consequence, essential commodity prices shot up. Ko Htin Kyaw staged protests against fuel price and essential commodity price rise at 'Theingyi' market in Rangoon. He was arrested for protesting.

Similarly the Insein court and Tamwe Township courts sentenced other protesters to imprisonment today.

Rangoon West District Special Court sitting in session inside Insein prison sentenced Kyi Phyu Maung (North Dagon Township), Ko Zin Lin Aung, Human Right Defender and Promoters Network (HRDP) member Ko Myo Thant a.k.a. John Norton (Hlaing Township), National League for Democracy (NLD) party members Ko Ye Min Oo, Ko Ye Myat Hein and Ko Thein Swe (Pyapon) to six and-a-half years in prison each for inducing crime against public tranquility.

Moreover Ko Sithu Maung and Ko Ye Myat Hein were sentenced to 11 and 10 years in prison respectively by Tamwe court for founding an unlawful association and inducing crime against public tranquility.

"Handing out long prison terms to political activists is contrary to their claim of 'marching towards a modern and developed new country'. I feel instead of marching towards a modern and developed country, our country is going backwards to the age in the reign of King Kyansitha and King Anawratha (c 12th century AD), " Daw San Aye, mother of Ko Ye Myat Hein, said.

No headway in Burma-Bangla bilateral maritime parleys

by Salai Pi Pi
Mizzima News
17 November 2008

The two-day bilateral delimitation talks between Burma and Bangladesh over the disputed maritime boundary, held in Dakha, capital of Bangladesh, failed to make any headway, according to a Bangladesh Foreign Affairs Ministry official.

"The talk was fruitful but there was no consensus on the methodology for delimitation of territorial water boundary," a Bangladesh official talked Mizzima over telephone.

Since the delegations from the two countries' could not agree on a methodology in demarcating the maritime boundary, the next bilateral meet is scheduled to be held in Rangoon in the New Year.

"It was a part of series of meeting. The talks will continue. The next meeting will be held in Rangoon in January," a Bangladeshi official said.

The talk between the technical committees of the two countries followed in the wake of Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win meeting Bangladesh's Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury on the sidelines of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Corporation (BIMSTEC) meeting held in New Delhi between November 11 and 13.

The Burmese Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint who led nine delegates, discussed with their technical counterparts from Bangladesh on setting up a methodology that will be applicable for delimitation of the disputed maritime boundary.

On the first day of talks, delegates from both sides' differed on the methodology for delimitation of the sea boundary. At the second round today, no concrete resolution evolved.

"They fundamentally agreed on the demarcation of the boundary but they were still arguing on how to do it," said an editor of Bangladesh newspaper today.

Burma proposed the equi distance method for delimitation of maritime boundary but Bangladesh preferred a method on the basis of equity.

"Burma proposed a method that would give more areas to them that Bangladesh did not agree to. Bangladesh also came up with another method that Burma did not agree to," the editor added.

The tension between two countries over the sea border was triggered early this month after Burma sent two of its naval ships to escort Daewoo vessels in its gas and oil exploration work in block AD-7 in the Bay of Bengal that Bangladesh claimed was in its territorial waters.

Bangladesh protested immediately against the move by Burma and despatched its naval ships to AD – 7 areas and sent a high level delegation to Rangoon for a diplomatic resolution.

However, Burma rejected the claim of Bangladesh and vowed to continue its work in AD-7.

The withdrawal of Burmese war ships followed Daewoo putting a halt to gas drilling and removing its rigs.

So far, there is no sign of the two countries scaling down their security forces along the land border, according to a Burmese journalist on the Burma-Bangladesh border.

"Burmese soldiers are still stationed in all border trade stations across the border. The villagers were forced to build bunkers in the stations," the Burmese journalist said.

Bangladesh security forces had also taken up position at the deserted stations on the Bangladesh side, he added.

White House deplores recent sentencing of Burmese activists

Mizzima News
18 November 2008

Stressing that the international community and United Nations Security Council can ill afford to remain silent, the White House on Monday issued a condemnation of the recent convictions of scores of Burmese pro-democracy activists.

In a statement issued through President George Bush's office, the United States decried the fact that, through the arbitrary actions of the Burmese junta, opposition figures in Burma are being denied the basic rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"Brave Burmese patriots such as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, and Htay Kywe, were among those who have been sentenced to 65 years' imprisonment for their peaceful participation in the August 2007 protests, in which Burmese citizens, including monks and activists, called on the regime to address the basic needs of the Burmese people," reads the missive from Washington.

At the center of the international storm enveloping the sentencing of the activists has been the issue of Burma's judicial system. Rights organizations, the United Nations and European Union have all voiced the need to reform Burma's judiciary, a call echoed on Monday by the words from the White House.

"We further deplore the complete lack of due process, as these men and women have been arrested, detained, charged, and tried behind closed doors without the benefit of counsel," states Washington.

According to the President's office, despite repeated calls from across the international community for the release of all political prisoners in Burma, Burma's military government has instead seen to the conviction of at least 86 dissidents since November 7th.

It is expected that Burma's courts will announce the further sentencing of activists over the course of the upcoming days and weeks.

Rights experts adamant that reform must predate 2010 elections

Mizzima News
18 November 2008

Five prominent rights experts associated with the United Nations have today let it be known that fundamental reforms in Burma are necessary prior to the scheduled 2010 general election, if the poll is to stand any chance of being recognized as free and fair.

Issued from Geneva, as Burma's courts continue to sentence waves of activists and dissidents to lengthy prison terms, the called for reforms take as their basis the four points urged upon the Burmese junta by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to the country, Tomas Ojea Quintana.

Identified by Quintana, the reforms include: a comprehensive review of national legislation to ensure its compliance with international human rights standards, the release of political prisoners of conscience and reform of the armed forces and the judicial system.

"The UN experts strongly urge the Myanmar [Burma] authorities to cease harassing and arresting individuals for peacefully exercising their internationally recognized human rights," iterate the United Nations representatives.

The five individuals especially pointed to the need for detainees to be granted open and fair trials with the right to defence counsel.

"The closed-door hearings are being held inside prisons by courts which lack independence and impartiality. Three of the defence lawyers have been sentenced to several months of imprisonment for contempt of court," note the rights experts.

Joining Quintana in the signing of the document, were Special Rapporteurs: Leandro Despouy – independence of judges and lawyers; Frank La Rue – freedom of opinion and expression; Margaret Sekaggya – situation of human rights defenders, and; Asma Jahangir – freedom of religion or belief.

The sudden surge of sentences handed down to opposition activists is widely understood to be a move on the junta's part to deflate and mitigate domestic opposition in the run-up to the 2010 general election – the first the country will hold in twenty years.

Making a prison out of Burma

Editorial
Mizzima News
17 November 2008

Gagging the voice of protests and imprisoning dissidents for an incredible 65 years, pairs Burma's governing junta with some of the most repressive regimes in the history of the modern world. The verdicts are making a mockery of the justice system and turning the judiciary on its head.

The regime is determined to push ahead with the 2010 general election and will resort to any measure at its disposal, a la the reported 93 percent approval in May's constitutional referendum, to emerge victorious. Laws regulating the election will soon be announced. But the writing is already on the wall, the opposition will struggle, under drastically curtailed opportunities, to contest the polls. A ban on Aung San Suu Kyi contesting the elections is already in force – as per the constitution pushed upon the people earlier in the year. In this context, the harsh sentences recently meted out to opposition figures are designed to discourage dissidents and anti-regime forces in contesting the 2010 poll.

To the civilized world, what is happening in Burma may seem like madness – a system gone horribly awry. But there is a method to the madness.

Burma's generals have unleashed terror in the run-up to its declared 2010 general election, the final phase of the so called "seven-step road map to disciplined democracy," that ostensibly promises to put an end to 45 years of what many people in the impoverished Southeast Asian country, and outside, call, "despotic military rule."

As has too often been the case with Burma, over the course of these four plus decades, caught in the eye of the storm are dissidents, political opposition leaders, party workers, ethnic leaders, human rights crusaders, journalists, literary figures, artists, bloggers, human rights activists and social workers. Their nomenclature means nothing to a regime fixated on a singular agenda -- to retain a stranglehold on power.

The unabated onslaught on the opposition in the aftermath of the 2007 Saffron Revolution is not new, what is new is the changed circumstances in the wake of the stage-managed constitutional referendum. Emboldened by the success of its countrywide deceit, the regime has gone ahead with preparations for the 2010 poll; the arrests and sentencing of numerous opposition figures and activists being yet one more calculated move by the junta in clearing and paving the way for victory through its civilian arm – Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

What has transpired following the sustained arrests of activists, monks and others, is a spate of sentences since November 11th, in which verdicts were handed down ranging from two to 65 years – making a mockery of the judicial system. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Human Right for Burma, following his initial visit to the county in August of this year, identified reform of the country's judicial system as one of four crucial elements to be addressed if the 2010 elections are to stand any chance of being widely accepted, both inside and outside Burma.

Astonishing as it may seem outside the bamboo curtain that encircles Burma; the youth arrested were sentenced to prison terms meaning they will be nonagenarians when released, should they even manage to survive the harsh and hostile conditions of Burma's notorious prisons.

Over the course of a single week this November, nearly 100 people have been cast behind bars in the wake of trials in which, in many cases, no defense counsel was permitted. Unfair trails and arbitrary sentences on trumped up charges are well designed to intimidate politicians, activists and the people at large in the run-up to the 2010 election, causing dismay and condemnation around the world.

The irony is that none of the activists did anything to deserve arrest, let alone be put on trial and made to languish in jails across the country. All they did was protest against tyranny, human rights abuses, spiraling prices and a deteriorating political and economic atmosphere in a nation which has sunk to abysmal depths.

In just about a year, the number of political prisoners has jumped from approximately 1,200 to 2,100, according to Amnesty International and other rights organizations. Heading the list of course is Aung San Suu Kyi, the only Nobel Laureate under detention – having now been detained for an astonishing 13 years.

The lessen apparently drawn by Burma's generals following last year's mass protests was certainly not that of the desperate need for dialogue and national reconciliation, rather, the junta has taken it upon itself to implement and escalate a campaign of repression and arrest throughout the country – in an attempt to maintain its position as unilateral arbiter over all affairs of the country.

Ban urged to forge ahead with Burma visit

by Salai Pi Pi
18 November 2008

New Delhi (Mizzima) — Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) yesterday urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to go ahead with his planned trip to Burma next month.

CSW called for the visit of the UN Secretary General to the Southeast Asian nation despite the Burmese regime recently meting out a spate of harsh sentences to over 80 political activists, and continuing human rights violations in eastern Burma.

"We are concerned that he might cancel his visit because of the lack of political development in Burma," Mervyn Thomas, CSW's Chief Executive, told Mizzima by phone.

Last month, Ban Ki-Moon had expressed the possibility that his visit to Burma next month would likely be canceled if there was no prior progress along lines of political reform in the country.

CSW said that the visit of Ban Ki-Moon is essential for addressing the deteriorating human rights condition in Burma, especially since Ban Ki-Moon's Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, has failed in facilitating change in the country.

"We all know that the visit of UN Envoys in previous years has not been successful. So, this time, the Secretary General himself shall go, with the office's weight behind him, to visit Burma and seek to facilitate change," stressed Thomas.

Meanwhile U Win Tin, a former political prisoner and central committee member of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, National League for Democracy, said the UN Secretary General must visit Burma on his own agenda, not the junta's, in order to solve the political problems in Burma.

"We will welcome him [Ban Ki-Moon] to visit Burma on his own agenda. But, we cannot agree with a program dictated by the junta," U Win Tin told Mizzima.

Recently, over 80 political activists, including a poet, a blogger and several Buddhist monks, have been given harsh sentences in prison. In addition, at least 23 student leaders, including Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, have also recently been sentenced to 65 years in jail for their roles in the non-violent struggle for democracy.

Some political activists have since been shifted to camps stationed in remote area of Burma.

CSW called on Ban Ki-Moon to pressure Burma's leaders to release political prisoners and cease military offensives against civilians in eastern Burma.

CSW, in its press release yesterday, mentioned that the Burmese Army continues to launch offensives against villagers in ethnic areas, particularly in eastern Burma. On November 4th, one villager was killed and over 1,971 people were displaced following attacks in Mon Township in western Karen state.

"At least 12 villages have been looted, destroyed and abandoned, rice fields and food stores destroyed, civilians shot at and villagers taken for forced labor," CSW quoted the Free Burma Rangers as saying.

Aid agency helps 100,000 Burmese children return to school

by Solomon
18 November 2008

New Delhi (Mizzima)— The international aid agency Save the Children claims they have assisted at least 100,000 Burmese children affected by Cyclone Nargis in returning to school.

The non-governmental organization (NGO), which has worked in Burma for more than a decade, released a press statement on Monday saying it has been instrumental in facilitating a hundred thousand Burmese children realize their current educational needs.

"The cyclone destroyed 50 to 60 percent of schools," said Save the Children in a press statement. "Yet over the past six months Save the Children has improved the quality of education for over 100,000 children including the construction of over 350 temporary schools."

However, Andrew Kirkwood, country director for Save the Children in Burma, said in the press statement that there remain hundreds of thousands of children in need of educational assistance in the wake of the storm.

"There's a huge demand for this, from communities and children - there were about 400,000 children who were not able to go to school because of the cyclone," said Andrew Kirkwood.

He added, "Now, we've managed to get 100,000 of those kids back into school through, for example, the rebuilding of temporary schools, using very inexpensive materials."

Cyclone Nargis struck Burma on May 2-3, 2008, and left more than 130,000 people dead or missing and over 2.4 million in need of aid.

Nonetheless, the Burmese military government initially obstructed the flow of international aid into the country, as well as restricting the issuance of visas to international aid workers and impeding their freedom of movement to cyclone affected areas.

Save the Children has been working in Burma since 1995, focusing on providing services benefiting pre-school children, reducing the number of deaths from preventable diseases, helping those infected with HIV and AIDS and preventing child trafficking.

"It's hard to overstate how important getting children back to school is," stated Kirkwood.

"The best way to deal with trauma is to normalize the lives of children, get them back into a routine, enable them to pick up what they were doing before the cyclone," he added.

A local source in Laputta Township, one of the hardest cyclone hit areas of Irrawaddy Division, said there a lot of children in villages around Laputta that still are finding it difficult to return to school.

"In the town there is no more problem with children attending school, but in villages there is still a risk that children will be unable to attend school," said the local source, who wished to remain anonymous.

She said NGOs and companies inside Burma are continuing the work of rebuilding the region's outlaying areas.

"I saw some children received school bags and learning materials provided by a NGO, but in villages there are children studying in temporary classrooms and there might be a number of children still away from school," she added.

More than a hundred school teachers in Laputta Township also received training in October, though schools in some villages are already late in commencing classes for the year.

Stitching together a life (Feature)

Mizzima News
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 19:20

'Burma's garment workers and the struggle to survive '

On virtually any given morning, as the first rays of sun break through tropical foliage and illuminate the factory walls and gates of Rangoon's Hlaing Tharyar industrial zones, a familiar sight can be seen. Along the roads leading to the factories, seemingly endless streams of female workers, faces smeared with thanakha and lunch boxes in tow, make their way to Burma's garment factories for another arduous day of work.

Even after the debilitative toll of U.S.-led sanctions some five years previously, government statistics still sight some 100,000 young women as reliant upon the industry for their basic livelihood.

Without doubt, a portion of money invested in business in Burma finds its way into the generals' coffers. However companies sourcing garments from Burma are also helping in putting food on people's plates.

"I have no other options except to do this job," relates a worker at the MIT Garment Factory in Rangoon's South Dagon Industrial Zone. "Actually, it is tiring work, but I cannot get any other job."

Ma Nway, originally from Sagaing Division in central Burma, told of how she came to be employed in Rangoon's garment industry: "There are no assured regular income jobs in my village. I am the eldest of four siblings and have only a grade seven education. My aunt working here called me to work here, so I came. Now, occasionally, I can send 5,000 to 10,000 kyat (1 US$ = 1,250 kyat) back to my family.

Where then, if at all, can the line to be drawn between Burma's garment factories lining the golden pockets of Burma's military rulers and filling the lunch pails of the industries tens of thousands of domestic workers?

The "lack of" opportunity cost

Garment workers in Hlaing Thar Yar Industrial Zone of Rangoon. Long working hours but low pay are common. Photo: Mizzima

"For women, the garment factories of Rangoon offer very rare job alternatives," tells a young female employee in one of Hlaing Tharyar's factories. "If we don't want to work in these factories, we will have to sell things or work as masons."

"Most of the workers here share a similar problem, since they have no idea what to do if they lose this job, they have to do this work for their families," adds another of the industry's workers.

"I'd like to be a tailor at home when I quit this job, but I can't expect many orders from my neighborhood, people can hardly afford to buy one new dress per year," adds Ma Sein , a slightly older member of the garment workforce.

A majority of the industry's employees come from rural areas and lack a proper education – the average duration of a child's educational curriculum in Burma being eight years of schooling.

"I arrived from my village and have been here [in the garment factory] for over three years," says Khin Kyi, "I had no other choice, as I am without a good education or a job to do at home. I can easily get a job here from any of the garment factories. They don't ask for academic qualifications."

And even for those lucky enough to have gotten a chance to pursue their education at higher levels, opportunities for gainful employment are often still difficult to come by.

"Because of a contact and I happened to be jobless, I began working here," says Ma Yu, a 25-year old buyer in a garment factory and holder of a B.A. in History. In her position she earns 70,000 kyat per month – permitting her what she describes as a relatively comfortable life in Rangoon while also allowing her to support other family members.

However, for those looking or needing a level of income greater than what the textile factories can offer, difficult decisions regarding employment need often be made – decisions which can expose women to other means of exploitation.

"Although I am working here [in a massage parlor] just for the good income, there is no happiness and I am very much disappointed. We have to knead whoever is in the room according to their command. Sometimes when I have to be with drunkard, I become very annoyed," laments one of the throngs of women who have sought some form of economic security in the business.

Poverty, a domestically depressed economy and a dilapidated educational system are three of the factors that have merged to create the impetus for tens of thousands of women to seek work in Burma's garment factories.

The numbers game

Mizzima's research into the expected wages of hourly garment workers found a base monthly salary of 20,000 kyat for unskilled labor. However, the income that garment factory employees can expect to receive varies considerably, dependent upon both the job performed and the factory concerned.

"Lower level helpers can get 25,000 to 30,000 kyat per month, including overtime. An operator can get 40,000 to 50,000 per month, while graduated office staff can get about 70,000 kyat," says a worker at the MIT Garment Factory.

They are working here, she continued, because they have no other job to do. They do not want to work here since it is very exhausting, but they have no other job contacts. Helpers do not earn enough for their families with a salary of 20,000 or 30,000 kyat.

For those who contribute more skill to the manufacturing process, a higher income can generally be expected. Tailors are typically paid on an output basis and can often look to take home up to 50,000 kyat or more per month.

"Currently, the income of a female tailor is a minimum of 30,000 kyat to more than 70,000 kyat per month, according to the amount of work done and working period," relates an employee of the conditions in her factory in one of Rangoon's outlying communities. She contends that low-level employees are the minority in the factory, and these are the people who struggle to scrape out an existence.

At the extreme opposite end of the pay scale to that of unskilled labor, the highest salaried laborers, called "all supers" and "line supers," who supervise the workers, can take home from 100,000 kyat to 300,000 kyat a month, which, in Burma, places them firmly in the country's middle class.

When compared with the average wage of a daily laborer in Burma – estimated by the U.S. Department of State at between 500 and 1,000 kyat (or $0.40 to $0.80) – the earnings of a garment worker translates to 937 kyat per diem for lower-level employees, or hedging toward the upper limit of what the average laborer in Rangoon could expect to earn, but well shy of what is needed to ensure subsistence existence – a meal at a typical restaurant in Rangoon costing 1,000 kyat.

Yet for those who work as tailors, for example, a 40,000 kyat monthly income equates to an annual income of just over US$ 384, double the country-wide average and affording a modest level of economic standing.

This is not to say that the social existence of many Burmese garment workers is anything short of extreme hardship. But, what it also alludes to is the overall depressed nature of the Burmese economy, where a pair of earrings can be bought on the sidewalks for 50 kyat and a train ride to work for 20 kyat.

Suffering under the weight of sanctions

From a height of 829 million dollars earned from the export of garments in 2001, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, official statistics devalue earnings by 66 percent, to a total of 282 million dollars, for fiscal year 2007-2008.

The trend of the Burmese garment industry's decreasing relevance to the state sector is also borne out in Burma Economic Watch's 2008 study on the economy of Burma, which chronicles a garment exporting industry in decline since 2003, with the export value from the industry now ranking well behind that of gas, teak and other woods, pulses and beans.

The garment industry's significant drop in earnings in the first decade of the century is largely attributable to the impact of sanctions, which heavily effected export markets – especially to the United States.

In 2001 exports of garments to the United States accounted for 408 million dollars, or 49 percent of Burma's total export earnings from the industry. But, with the imposition of extensive sanctions stemming from 2003's Burma Freedom and Democracy Act, exports to the United States were nonexistent by 2005.

Burma scholar David Steinberg subsequently estimated the impact of sanctions to be the closure of some 64 textile factories and an eventual loss in domestic jobs totaling approximately 200,000, predominantly among young women.

Additionally, a 2005 study by the Japanese Institute of Developing Economies discovered that the garment factories most severely affected by boycotts and sanctions have been small and medium-sized domestic private firms and their workers.

Captive to failed policies

Economic and social innovations of recent decades have largely passed Burma by. It is within this context that the garment industry finds itself as one of preciously few venues striving to practice modern methods of mass production.

Hard fought, yet eventually won, battles for labor rights – and more – have before spawned from might have been thought unlikely breeding grounds. With their backs against the icy waters of the Baltic Sea, a strike of some 17,000 workers at the Gdansk Shipyard in 1980 realized ultimate victory on the political stage with the election, ten years later, of vocational school graduate and 1983 Nobel Laureate Lech Walesa to the Polish Presidency.

In early 2007 – well before monk-led protests captured the world's headlines – there was a large strike in the Taw Win Garment Factory over insufficient salaries. And only last month, workers at the MP Garment Factory went on strike over long hours and low pay.

Yet, ultimately, the situation that Burma's garment industry laborers find themselves in is but one more commentary on the depressed nature of the Burmese state and infrastructure, as well as the battle being waged over Burma in international forums well above the heads of the helpers and tailors of Hlaing Tharyar and the other industrial parks.

Garment jobs, with their long hours and low pay are far from what Burma's work force needs and deserves. Yet, the question has to be asked: Are they the best in a list of poor options available to those who staff the factories, people trying to do their best to be able to live one day at a time?

Mizzima reporters in Rangoon, Burma, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, contributed to this report. All names in the write-up have been altered as a precaution to protect the identity of the individuals concerned.

NLD MP Dr. Hla Aung passes away

by Phanida
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 18:54

Chiang Mai (Mizzima)– National League for Democracy (NLD) MP-elect, Dr. Hla Aung, suddenly passed away today at his residence, it is learnt.

Dr. Hla Aung, one of the 398 NLD MPs elected in the 1990 general election, he is the 99th to have since died.

Wandwin Township NLD Joint Secretary Aung Thu told Mizzima that Dr. Hla Aung passed away at his home within an hour after suffering trouble breathing while meditating at Wandwin Township's Panpingyi meditation camp.

Dr. Hla Aung (68) joined the popular 8-8-88 uprising and contested the 1990 general election, representing Wandwin constituency No. 2.

He earned a B.A. from Mandalay University and a Diploma in International Relations from Rangoon University, later receiving a PhD in Economics and a Diploma in Russian language following five-years of study at Moscow University.

"His demise is a loss for the people of Burma as he was a smart and honest intellectual, capable of doing much for the country," his colleague U Aung Thu said.

He is survived by his wife Aye Nuu and four children.

According to the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma (NCGUB) and the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), 34 NLD MPs-elect are now in exile and 17 MPs-elect are still behind bars.

Myanmar courts imprison ethnic minority activists

YANGON, Myanmar (IHT): A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced three ethnic minority activists and a well-known Buddhist monk to prison Tuesday, continuing a crackdown that began last week with pro-democracy activists.

Meanwhile, five United Nations experts issued a statement in Geneva strongly condemning the "severe convictions and the unfair trials of prisoners of conscience in Myanmar." At least 70 activists were sentenced to prison terms last week, and another seven on Monday.

Chin leader Chin Sian Thang said a court inside Yangon's Insein Prison on Tuesday sentenced his son, Kam Lat Khaot to 33 years in prison and his nephew, Kai Kham Kwal, to eight years.

Chin Sian Thang said a member of the Arakan minority was also given 33 years. The Arakan, like the Chin, are clustered in western Myanmar.

Ashin Gambira, one of the most prominent monks leading pro-democracy protests in September 2007, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and still faces further charges, he said.

"The judicial system in Myanmar has collapsed and the courts are passing down sentences in contravention of the law. These secret trials are blatant violations of human rights," Chin Sian Thang said.

Chin Sian Thang is a prominent politician who won a parliamentary seat in elections in 1990, the results of which were never recognized by the ruling junta. He said he received information about the sentencing while waiting outside the prison.

The Chin leader said he was detained for about a month during last year's pro-democracy demonstrations, while his son and nephew were arrested in October. The junta's repression of the protests resulted in at least 31 people being killed and thousands detained, according to U.N. estimates.

The statement from the U.N. experts said they "strongly urge the Myanmar authorities to cease harassing and arresting individuals for peacefully exercising their internationally recognized human rights."

"They further demand that all detainees be retried in open hearings respecting fair trial standards and the immediate release of their defense counsels," it said. Three defense lawyers have been sentenced to several months imprisonment for contempt of court, while several others have been barred from representing their clients.

The U.N. experts are Tomas Ojea Quintana, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; Leandro Despouy, rapporteur for the independence of judges and lawyers; Frank La Rue, rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression; Margaret Sekaggya, rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; and Asma Jahangir, rapporteur for freedom of religion or belief.

BURMESE DISSIDENT DESERVES RELEASE

Zaw Myint Maung, who has endured 18 years as a prisoner of conscience in Burma.

By Zin Linn
Column: Burma Question
November 07, 2008

Bangkok, Thailand (upiasia)— Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be a prisoner of conscience for a few days in the Burmese military junta's infamous Insein prison? The military authorities confine you in an undersized cell, 8.5 by 11.5 feet, with only a bamboo mat on the concrete floor. Sleeping, eating, walking and going to the bathroom are all done in the same place.

You cannot see the sun, the moon or the stars. You are intentionally barred from breathing fresh air, eating nutritious food and drinking pure water. Books, periodicals, radio and television are out of the question. If you get sick, no medical worker will check on you until you have lost consciousness.

Under such harsh conditions, Zaw Myint Maung, an experienced physician who never committed even a small crime, has been languishing in prison for nearly two decades. As a one-time cell mate of his, each moment I think about his situation in the junta's atrocious dungeon, I feel uneasy.

It was 1994, in the cell compound of the infamous Insein Prison. I was in cell No. 10 of cell block No. 3 with Zaw Myint Maung, a healthy and handsome man of short stature with tan skin. He was very kind and helpful not only to inmates, but also to wardens and prison officers, who consulted him in health matters. Because of his calm, warm manner as an experienced medical doctor, the prison staff paid him respect behind the military intelligence officers’ backs.

Hence, he managed to form a medical assistance committee in prison, smuggling medicines and disposable syringes into prison cells. He treated his fellow inmates’ various sicknesses and even did minor surgeries with the help of the wardens who respected him. Many wardens regarded the doctor as their health consultant in those days.

A graduate from the Mandalay Institute of Medicine in 1979, he became head physician of Ywar-thit-kyi District Hospital in Sgaing Division in 1982. He worked in the biochemistry department of the Mandalay Institute of Medicine for eight years. During the 1988 People's Uprising, he was elected secretary of the Mandalay Doctors' Association.

Then he became a member of the National League for Democracy and was later elected as a member of Parliament from Mandalay’s Amarapura township in 1990. After the junta refused to honor the election results, he and some members of Parliament held secret meetings to find a political way out. As a result, Zaw Myint Maung was arrested on Nov. 22 and put on trial for allegedly participating in meetings to form a parallel government. He was charged with treason against the nation and sentenced to 25 years in prison at a military tribunal with no legal representation.

He has been languishing in the junta's hellish prison for 18 years, or one-third of his life. While in Insein Prison, he underwent many interrogations by intelligence officials about his views on the military regime and political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. The authorities tried to persuade him to collaborate with them, but they could not win over his strong political aspiration of building a democratic Burma. As a staunch supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi, he is on the top of the junta's blacklist.

I remember one noteworthy vision of the doctor. He said, “Democracy is on the march around the world, including Burma. But we need commitment to work selflessly with grassroots people until the day that a free Burma emerges. The struggle for freedom may need more time. But it will not be beyond measure. It’s a war between the just and unjust. The just will prevail at last."

In 1995, fellow political prisoners from various organizations actively worked to collect valid facts and figures on human rights abuses experienced in prison, for a report to be sent to the United Nations on the situation of human rights in Burma. Zaw Myint Maung was one of the coordinators of this effort.

On July 15, 1995, the report, "Human Rights Abuses in the Junta's Prisons," together with a petition of over 100 political prisoners, was successfully smuggled out. Within weeks, the report was sent to Yozo Yokota, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Burma.

The release of both the report and the petition hurt the junta’s image and made the generals extremely angry. Consequently, the prison cell compound was searched, and many inmates were thrown into dark cells and interrogated while being deprived of food and sleep.

Zaw Myint Maung was one of 24 political prisoners who were given further prison sentences on March 28, 1996, in connection with their circulation of news journals within the prison and their efforts to report human rights violations to the United Nations. The doctor was alleged to have written politically agitating poems and to have signed a petition for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

During the investigation, he and seven others, including U Win Tin, a famous journalist and senior member of the NLD, were held in cells designed for military dogs, made to sleep on concrete floors without bedding during winter and left without food and water.

Maung was held in a dog cell between Nov. 1995 and May 1996. The group of 24 had no attorneys to defend them against the charges they faced. They were charged with threatening prison security and forming anti-junta organizations in prison. The doctor was then sentenced to an additional 12 years’ imprisonment under both charges.

On April 3, 1997, he was transferred to the Myit-kyi-na prison in the state of Kachin, which is in the north of Burma and has extreme weather. Harsh prison conditions are still commonplace in Burmese prisons, and many prisoners suffer from serious mental disorders resulting from long periods of solitary confinement.

Prisoners cannot get essential medical treatment even in Insein Prison, which is the model prison in Burma. Even worse is the fact that when political prisoners face a fatal illness, they will not be hospitalized unless they abandon their dissident beliefs. Hundreds of deaths are due to the authorities' unnecessarily negligence in medical treatment. Currently, there are more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma, including 18 members of Parliament, 178 female prisoners and 213 Buddhist monks.

The valiant, imprisoned physician has constantly refused to sign a confession promising to abandon his political beliefs as a condition for his release. Zaw Myint Maung is the father of two sons and one daughter. He has not been able to show fatherly love to his children for nearly two decades. He himself has been suffering from hemorrhoids and stomach pain. With his 57th birthday approaching on Dec. 11, the doctor deserves freedom as a birthday present for his contributions to society.

Burma has been called "the world's largest open prison for prisoners of conscience." There are over 2,100 political prisoners still languishing in Burmese prisons, among whom Zaw Myint Maung may be Burma's longest-serving prisoner of conscience.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." But Zaw Myint Maung has been suffering from torture and three unjust prison sentences for almost 37 years.

It would be great if international NGOs launched a concerted effort to free political prisoners in Burma, since this situation not only involves regional politics, but is also connected with global humanitarianism. For that reason, the United Nations, ASEAN, the European Union and China should consider pressuring the State Peace and Development Council to free all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.

--

(Zin Linn is a freelance Burmese journalist living in exile. He currently serves as information director of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma in Bangkok, Thailand. He is also vice-president of the Burma Media Association, which is affiliated with the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers. He can be contacted at uzinlinn@gmail.com. ©Copyright Zin Linn.)

Burma supporters urged to lobby 40th Canadian Parliament MPs

Dear friends and supporters:

40th Canadian Parliament has reopened today with newly elected Members of Parliament (MPs). You might wonder the status of those MPs who were part of Parliamentary Friends of Burma (PFOB).

Good news is that 23 out of 29 are re-elected. Those who re-elected are alphabetically listed below:

Bryon Wilfert (Liberal) – Richmond Hill, Ontario
Bruce Stanton (Liberal) – Simcoe North, Ontario
Christiane Gagnon (Bloc Québécois) – Quebec, Quebec
Deepak Obhrai (Conservative) – Calgary East, Alberta
Derek Lee (Liberal) – Scarborough-Rough River, Ontario
Diane Bourgeois (Bloc Quebecois) – Terrebonne-Blainville, Quebec
Gary Goodyear (Conservative) – Cambridge, Ontario
Geoff Regan (Liberal) – Halifax West, Nova Scotia
Irwin Cotler (Liberal) – Mount Royal, Quebec
Irene Mathyssen (NDP) – London-Fanshawe, Ontario
Jack Layton (NDP) – Toronto-Danforth, Ontario
Jason Kenney (Conservative) – Calgary South-east, Alberta
Jean Crowder (NDP) – Nanaimo-Cowichan, British Columbia
Judy Wasylycia (NDP) – Winnipeg North, Manitoba
Keith Martin (Liberal) –Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, British Columbia
Larry Bagnell (Liberal) – Yukon, Yukon
Olivia Chow (NDP) – Trinity-Spadina, Ontario
Patrick Brown (Conservative) – Berries, Ontario
Paul Dewar (NDP) – Ottawa Center, Ontario
Paul Szabo (Liberal) –Mississauga South, Ontario
Rob Anders (Conservative) – Calgary West, Alberta
Stockwell Day (Conservative) –Okanagan-Coquihalla, British Columbia
Wayne Marston (NDP) – Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, Ontario

Those who not re-elected or run in the last election are:

Alex McDonough, ( veteran NDP MP who did not ran in the election)
Blair Wilson (Green Party)
Garth Turner (Liberal)
John Maloney (Liberal)
Lloyd St. Amand (Liberal)
Rahim Jaffer (Conservative)

In addition to MPs, PFOB has eight Senators. They are as followed:

Sen. David Smith
Sen. Joseph Day
Sen. Mira Spivak
Sen. Mobina Jaffer
Sen. Nancy Ruth
Sen. Percy Downe
Sen. Raynell Andreychuk
Sen. Vivienne Poy

Colleagues and supporters across Canada are urged to lobby your MPs to join Parliamentary Friends of Burma (PFOB). PFOB was founded in December 7, 2006, as part of Canada’s effort to support democracy movement in Burma.

-Canadian Friends of Burma-
__________________________
The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) is federally incorporated, national non-governmental organization working for democracy and human rights in Burma since 1991.
Contact:
Suite 206, 145 Spruce St.,
Ottawa, K1R 6P1;
Tel: 613.237.8056;
Email: cfob@cfob.org;
Web: www.cfob.org

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Myanmar Constitution 2008

By MMMan

2 Nov 2008 ... The constitution gives 25 percent of the parliamentary seats to the military. English 2008 constitution

Myanmar Constitution 2008 English version

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Win Tin praises NLD prayer meetings

Oct 15, 2008 (DVB)–Women and youth members of the National League for Democracy offered prayers for the release of political prisoners and gave donations to monks and nuns at party headquarters yesterday.

Aye Aye Mar of the NLD central women’s committee said that the party members were under close watch by the authorities as they made their offerings.

Similar activities were carried out at pagodas in Bago, Meikhtila and elsewhere in Burma.

Senior NLD member Win Tin, who was released from detention last month after more than 19 years behind bars, praised the women and youth members for their activities.

"It's very, very good because we cannot just keep our heads down everywhere,” he said.

“We have to do what we can, including things like prayer meetings, to show that we are still active.”

Win Tin also condemned the intimidation of NLD members by the authorities and restrictions preventing them from offering prayer for the release of prisoners at the pagodas.

"This kind of restriction is very oppressive,” Win Tin said.

“Why can't we pray for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the pagoda? We have the right to demand the freedom of someone,” he said.

“It is not a rebellion, it is not a protest, and the pagoda is not theirs. It belongs to everyone and everyone has the right to pray there."

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet

Monday, October 6, 2008

Burma's Muslim Rohingya Minority Dwell at the "Brink of Extermination"

Rohingyarefugeecamp

By Benedict Rogers
Cutting Edge Burma Desk

It is not often you meet someone who tells you that he is from “a people at the brink of extermination.” But the testimonies from refugees in a remote corner of southern Bangladesh, on the border with Burma, justify that assessment. For the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in northern Arakan State, western Burma, are a stateless people whose very identity is denied.

All the people of Burma are suffering at the hands of one of the world’s most brutal, and illegitimate, military regimes. From time to time Burma’s crisis hits the headlines, as it did with protests led by Buddhist monks last September, and Cyclone Nargis in May this year. In between such events, however, Burma fades from the world’s attention.

If Burma as a whole is under-reported, the people on its western borders are almost unknown to the world. Journalists, activists and aid agencies who visit the region tend to head for the Thailand-Burma border, where access to refugees, displaced people and democracy groups is greatest.

Few visit Burma’s borders with India, where a famine is unfolding, or with China, where women are trafficked into prostitution, and fewer still make it to the Bangladesh border where a slow, forgotten genocide is taking place.

The Rohingya people are ethnically and culturally closely related to the Bengali people in the area surrounding Chittagong, but have lived in Burma for generations. While their precise history may be debated, there is no doubt that they are not newcomers to the country. Yet unlike all the other ethnic groups in Burma, which although severely persecuted by the regime are at least recognised as citizens, the Rohingyas are regarded as “temporary residents” and denied full citizenship status. They are required to obtain permission before marrying, and a permit can take several years to secure. Movement is severely restricted – Rohingyas must obtain permission to travel even from one village to another, impeding access to medical care and education. As ‘non-citizens’, Rohingyas cannot be employed as teachers, nurses, civil servants or in any public service, and in Rohingya areas teachers, mostly from the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, sometimes fail to turn up for an entire year, disrupting educational opportunities for the Rohingyas. Rape and forced labour are widespread, and Rohingyas are singled out by the authorities for extortion. Soldiers demand money from them, and when they cannot pay they are arrested and tortured.

On a visit to the Bangladesh-Burma border, I heard numerous accounts of these violations from Rohingya refugees. And they were confirmed by three defectors who had escaped from Burma’s military. The defectors, who had served in the Burma Army’s border security force known as the ‘Na Sa Ka’, said that the Rohingya were specifically targeted for extortion. One said: “Throughout my life in the Na Sa Ka, I was used to this system of arresting Muslims, asking for money, torturing them, every day. We only arrested Muslims, not Rakhines.”

The Rohingyas face religious persecution as well. It is almost impossible to obtain permission to renovate, repair, rebuild or extend mosques or other religious buildings. In the past three years, 12 mosques in northern Arakan have been demolished, and a large number were closed in 2006. Since 1962, I was told, not a single new mosque has been built. Religious leaders have been jailed for illegally renovating mosques.

A senior UN official, who has served in Darfur, Somalia and other humanitarian crisis situations and, in the words of a foreign diplomat, “knows misery when he sees it”, recently described the situation in northern Arakan State, western Burma, as “as bad as anything he has seen in terms the denial of basic human freedoms”.

For these reasons, it is estimated that at least 200,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh. In 1978 and 1991, there were significant influxes of refugees fleeing across the border, and even today Rohingyas trickle out one by one, in the hope of finding security in Bangladesh. However, even in Bangladesh, they are vulnerable. Only 27,000 are recognised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and live in two official camps. Thousands more are unrecognised, and live either in Bangladeshi towns and villages or in temporary ‘makeshift’ camps where conditions are dire. In the makeshift camps they receive no access to health care or education, and no rations. Even in the official camps, there is no formal education beyond the age of 12. One 18 year-old is teaching in one of the schools, but has no opportunity for further study himself. “I am compelled to teach, but I would prefer to learn first,” he told me. “If I stay like this, with no further education, my future life will be ruined.”

A few years ago, the UNHCR forcibly repatriated at least 230,000 Rohingyas back to Burma, but many have returned, unable to survive in their homeland. One refugee said: “As long as human rights abuses continue in Burma, we cannot go back. We are caught between a crocodile and a snake. Where can we go?” Another expressed their dilemma, and statelessness, equally starkly: “The Bangladesh authorities say we are from Burma. The Burmese regime says we are Bengali. Where should we go?”

As part of its campaign against the Rohingyas, the junta regularly stirs up anti-Muslim sentiment among the Buddhist Rakhine and Burmans, with some success. “The regime uses the Rakhine against us as part of a divide-and-rule policy,” said one Rohingya. And so in addition to facing persecution from the regime, the Rohingyas face discrimination from Burma’s democracy movement too. Many Rakhine and Burmans in the democracy movement refuse to recognise the Rohingyas as an ethnic group, and they have been denied membership of the opposition Ethnic Nationalities Council. There is a dispute even over the term ‘Rohingya’, and many Rakhine prefer to call them “Arakanese Muslims”, “Burmese Muslims” or “Bengalis of Burma”.

Some Rakhine, however, have recognised the need to work with the Rohingyas against their common enemy, the regime. After all, the Rakhine are also victims of the junta. In schools, teachers use Burmese and the Rakhine language is banned. Forced labour is widespread. “The regime is carrying out an attack on our language, identity and culture,” said one Rakhine. The National United Party of Arakan (NUPA) has an alliance with the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO). One NUPA leader told me: “When a people have been living this long through history, why should they be deprived of their citizenship rights?”

“The regime is trying to take away our identity,” a Rohingya leader told me. “We will not be there in the very near future. The disintegration of our society will take place. Our prime concern is that we must not be eliminated.” With that context, it is perhaps not surprising that some Rohingyas have been radicalised, feeling they have few allies in the world. Militant Islamist groups have preyed on their vulnerability. There are even suggestions that some Rohingyas have been linked to al-Qaeda. All the more reason, it seems, why it is essential to speak up for them, and encourage Burma’s democracy movement to be more inclusive. Not only is there a strong moral case to speak out against their persecution, but a powerful strategic incentive to do so as well. As one moderate Buddhist Rakhine told me: “We have to reach out to moderate Rohingyas, and work with them, because if we don’t, they will have nowhere else to go but radical Islamism.” Burma is troubled enough as it is, without that prospect to add to its woes.

Benedict Rogers is the author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People (Monarch, 2004), and has visited Burma and its borderlands more than 20 times. He also serves as Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission.

See a full report on the situation here

For further information, see here

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Spring before Khin Nyunt’s Fall

By AUNG ZAW
The Irrawaddy News
OCTOBER, 2008 - VOLUME 16 NO.10

For a while, the Burmese junta looked like it might be ready to meet the West halfway. The ouster of the regime’s spy chief ended all that

IN early 2000, Maj Aung Lynn Htut began his new assignment as the deputy chief of the Burmese embassy in Washington, DC, with a mission to improve ties with the incoming administration of President George W Bush.

It was not his first time in the US capital. In 1987, the graduate of the elite Defense Services Academy spent three months in Washington receiving training from the CIA.

Then Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt waves to the media while heading to a summit in Pagan in 2003. (Photo: AFP)

When he returned to the US in 2000, Aung Lynn Htut served as an officer in the counter-intelligence department of the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence (OCMI). His boss was Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, secretary 1 of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and head of the junta’s powerful intelligence apparatus.

Khin Nyunt was also the architect of a series of ceasefire agreements with domestic insurgent groups that had strengthened the regime’s hold on power over the course of the preceding decade.

By the time Bush took office, Khin Nyunt appeared to believe that a détente with the junta’s staunchest international critic was also possible, according to Aung Lynn Htut.

“We waited until Bush came to power and then we started lobbying in DC,” said the former major.

In an extensive interview with The Irrawaddy, Aung Lynn Htut provided an inside look at this pivotal time in recent Burmese history, when the ruling regime seemed to be ready to turn a new page in its relations with the West.

As he revealed, however, it was also a period of intensifying rivalries within the junta.

Before Khin Nyunt could begin his experiment in reshaping ties with the US and other Western countries, he had to get a green light from the SPDC’s top leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

As the strongman who called all the shots, Than Shwe was an inveterate hardliner who did not always take kindly to Khin Nyunt’s conciliatory overtures. But the intelligence chief’s success in sidelining former insurgents had allowed the regime to focus on its war of attrition against democratic forces; so, in a nod to Khin Nyunt’s proven ability to neutralize opponents through guile, Than Shwe gave him the go-ahead to work his magic on Washington.

Aung Lynn Htut’s assignment to Washington was one of the first tentative steps towards ending the regime’s isolation from governments it had long regarded as hostile.

Another part of the charm offensive was the launch of a colorful English-language newspaper, The Myanmar Times, which would present a more sophisticated image of the regime than the stodgy, Stalinistic fare offered by the state-run press.

As a further step, the regime hired DCI Group, a Washington-based lobbying firm, in 2002. The firm was paid US $348,000 to represent the junta, which had been strongly condemned by the US State Department for its human rights record. US Justice Department lobbying records show that DCI worked to “begin a dialogue of political reconciliation” with the regime.

The firm led a PR campaign to burnish the junta’s image, drafting releases praising Burma’s efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims that the regime had used rape as a weapon in its military campaigns against ethnic insurgents.

By this time, the regime was becoming genuinely concerned that Bush’s policy on Burma was getting tougher. “We thought we had to counter it,” said Aung Lynn Htut.

He and his senior officers gathered information about who they could approach to ask for help. Khin Nyunt’s office started to reach out to Burma scholars who were sympathetic to the regime and who disagreed with the US government’s sanctions policy. Disgruntled prominent dissidents were also approached in a bid to persuade them to switch sides.

The regime also invited senior UN officials to come to Burma.

Joseph Verner Reed, the UN undersecretary and special adviser to former UN chief Kofi Annan and now to Ban Ki-moon, arrived in Rangoon to attend an event marking United Nations Day in 2002.

The high-ranking UN official was known to be close to some senior officers of the Burmese regime. Interestingly, he was listed on the board of the U Thant Institute in New York. U Thant, a Burmese, was the UN secretary-general from 1961 to 1971.

In a speech to commemorate the founding of the UN, Khin Nyunt said that Burma had always considered the world body to be of fundamental importance for the preservation of international peace and security and for the promotion of the economic and social development of mankind.

Former intelligence officer Maj Aung Lynn Htut

“I wish to express our sincere appreciation and thanks to the United Nations and to the Honorable Under Secretary General Mr Joseph Verner Reed in particular for making this possible,” Khin Nyunt said in his speech, praising his special guest for attending.

But why did Khin Nyunt approach Reed in the first place?

“We gathered information that he didn’t like Aung San Suu Kyi,” Aung Lynn Htut, who acted as a liaison officer between Reed’s office and Khin Nyunt’s, said with a laugh.

In Washington, Burmese intelligence officers knew that it wouldn’t be so easy to find a sympathetic ear. They were up against US-based campaign groups and exiled Burmese activists who had considerable influence in forming US policy on Burma. They realized that it would not be easy to convince State Department officials, let alone Congress and the White House, that the regime was not as reprehensible as it had been portrayed.

Reports of forced labor, child soldiers and systematic rape committed by Burmese troops were thorny issues, and Khin Nyunt and his senior officers who handled foreign affairs realized that it would be an uphill battle.

Nevertheless, Khin Nyunt’s intelligence unit managed to reach a few US State Department officials with its message, including Matthew Daley, then head of the Southeast Asia Department. Daley once said that the US sanctions policy on Burma had failed and was not moving the country in the right direction.

Then, in May 2002, the regime took a bold step by releasing Suu Kyi. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was allowed to go on political organizing trips to the countryside. In return, she agreed to inspect the regime’s development projects.

That same month, despite a visa ban and active US sanctions, senior intelligence officer Maj-Gen Kyaw Thein was given a visa to enter the US to brief some senior government officials on the Burmese regime’s efforts to eradicate illicit opium production.

Meanwhile, as Suu Kyi began to travel around the countryside meeting her supporters, intelligence officers were engaging in behind-the-scenes negotiations with the opposition leader. Maj-Gen Kyaw Win, deputy head of OCMI, his deputy, Brig-Gen Than Htun, and Minister of Home Affairs Col Tin Hlaing were involved in the talks with Suu Kyi.

News of this “secret dialogue” was leaked to then UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail by Foreign Minister Win Aung, a loyal follower of Khin Nyunt. Razali, who played no part in facilitating this dialogue, released this information to the world, which welcomed the first signs of political progress to come out of the country in many years.

The “kinder and gentler” image of the junta was further enhanced by The Myanmar Times, which faithfully propagated the regime’s agenda. The newspaper gave extensive coverage to the regime’s fight against HIV/AIDS and its increased cooperation with the UN, and even highlighted a visit to Burma by the family of U Thant as evidence of a changing political climate.

As all of these developments were unfolding, Khin Nyunt gave briefings to Than Shwe to attempt to persuade the junta’s supreme commander to open up more space for international agencies such as the International Labor Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

In his efforts to convince Than Shwe of the need for greater openness, Khin Nyunt often turned to the senior leader’s deputy, Kyaw Win, for help.

Kyaw Win was a specialist in psychological warfare who had served under Than Shwe since he was a junior officer in the army. It was known that he could freely enter Than Shwe’s office at any time. He often came late at night, offering tea or a massage, to talk about the need to allow more international agencies to operate in Burma and to tackle sensitive issues such as forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers.

But it wasn’t easy. Than Shwe was stubborn and completely indifferent to the opinions of his foreign critics, said Aung Lynn Htut, who had met the top general on a number of occasions.

“He was a bulldog,” recalled the former major. “He didn’t really care about international pressure.”

On the child soldier issue, for instance, Than Shwe completely dismissed criticism, telling his subordinates, “Don’t worry. In two or three years, these kids will be adults.”

“He didn’t understand that this was a serious issue which we had to deal with at the UN,” said Aung Lynn Htut.

People who have worked with Than Shwe said that he is slow to make up his mind and rarely gives clear yes or no answers to questions, forcing officers to carefully decode his vague replies.

But if Than Shwe often seemed indecisive, he also had very definite ideas about what really mattered as far as world opinion was concerned. To his mind, the regime had no reason to worry about international pressure as long as Burma could maintain good relations with China, India and Russia.

What about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)? Aung Lynn Htut said that the senior general didn’t even take the regional grouping into consideration.

Even Thailand—the largest source of foreign investment in the Burmese economy—was powerless to influence the regime. Indeed, Than Shwe always insisted that Thailand’s dependence on Burmese gas and border trade gave the junta significant sway over Thai politicians.

But Than Shwe was not as complacent about other potential challenges to his hold on power. While the intelligence camp was making real headway with its overseas PR offensive, hardliners close to Than Shwe were growing increasingly wary of the influence of two people at home—Suu Kyi and Khin Nyunt.

Suu Kyi was considered the greater immediate threat. Her travels around the country had attracted huge crowds of supporters. The hardliners decided to strike back with a vicious attack on the pro-democracy leader’s entourage as they traveled near Depayin in May 2003. Suu Kyi was arrested and detained soon after the massacre, which claimed the lives of dozens of her followers.

According to Aung Lynn Htut, the intelligence unit, which had been tailing Suu Kyi’s motorcade around the country, had no forewarning of the attack.

“We knew they were planning something, but we didn’t know the real plan,” he said. (JEG's: last minute surprises..)

Suddenly, all of the regime’s PR gains were erased. The Bush administration stepped up its pressure on the junta and imposed tough new sanctions.

But Than Shwe wasn’t finished. Next he turned his attention to Khin Nyunt.

The senior leader was not alone in his mistrust of the intelligence chief. Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, the army chief, also saw a need to contain Khin Nyunt.

Than Shwe didn’t confront Khin Nyunt directly, but made some surprise moves at the Defense Ministry to undermine his influence. Most importantly, he brought in a few new faces: Gen Shwe Mann, Gen Soe Win, Gen Myint Swe and Gen Ye Myint.

Shwe Mann was being groomed to take over the commander in chief position and Soe Win was to take charge of the intelligence department. Khin Nyunt suddenly felt the heat. He was now accused of underestimating the potential threat of “the enemy”—Aung San Suu Kyi.

For the first time since 2001, when Than Shwe placed Khin Nyunt’s mentor, former dictator Ne Win, under house arrest after his daughter and grandson were accused of plotting a coup, Khin Nyunt found himself precariously close to becoming yesterday’s man.

Than Shwe’s next move was to name Khin Nyunt prime minister. According to former military intelligence officers, both Than Shwe and Maung Aye then urged Khin Nyunt to hand over control of the OCMI to either Myint Swe or Ye Myint. Khin Nyunt refused.

News of the SPDC’s internal conflict began to leak to the foreign press through senior military intelligence officers. Foreign Minister Win Aung hinted to his Asean counterparts that there was a bitter power struggle among the top leadership.

According to Aung Lynn Htut, strong business and personal rivalries added to the political tensions. Khin Nyunt’s wife and her circle of friends used to refer to Than Shwe’s wife, Kyaing Kyaing, and her closest friends as the “uneducated wives club,” he said.

Corruption was another key issue. Cases were being built targeting the spy chief. Several of his subordinates were arrested in northern Burma on corruption charges. Khin Nyunt’s name was also implicated when the authorities seized a fishing boat in Mergui with 500 kg of heroin on board.

After returning from a trip to Singapore in September 2003, Khin Nyunt had a heated argument with Than Shwe at the Defense Ministry and offered to resign. But Than Shwe told him he had a new assignment to offer him.

In October, Khin Nyunt called a secret meeting with his top intelligence officers and ordered them to provide documents as evidence of corruption against Than Shwe and top army leaders. Shwe Mann heard about the meeting and immediately informed Than Shwe.

On his way back from a trip to Mandalay, Khin Nyunt was arrested and charged with corruption and insubordination.

The regional commanders and army officers who believed that Khin Nyunt was building a state within a state hailed the purge. In fact, Than Shwe succeeded not only in consolidating his power base but also in gaining even more support within the armed forces.

“The army all hated us [the intelligence unit] because we had information about them, and even I, as a major, could reprimand a regional commander,” said Aung Lynn Htut.

The mission to win hearts and minds was over. Asean, China and Khin Nyunt’s allies in the West and the UN were disappointed to see the “moderate force” arrested and locked up.

Than Shwe did not want to release Suu Kyi, although secret negotiations between her and the regime were resumed just before the government revived its National Convention in December 2004. Suu Kyi, in a spirit of compromise, even sent a letter to Than Shwe to show that she bore no grudges over the Depayin ambush.

During these meetings, Suu Kyi and her party leaders agreed to return to the convention if the regime released her.

Aung Lynn Htut, who was still in Washington at this time, received daily phone calls from Rangoon. He was told that it was almost 95 percent certain that the NLD was going back to the convention. At the last minute, however, the deal fell through. Than Shwe did not keep his promise to free the iconic pro-democracy leader.

Ironically, it was Khin Nyunt who had announced, in August 2003, that the National Convention would be resumed as part of a seven-step “road map” to “disciplined democracy.” Now, however, he and his family were under house arrest, and most of his closest subordinates—with the notable exceptions of Kyaw Win and Kyaw Thein—were serving long prison sentences.

Four years after the removal of Khin Nyunt and his entire secret police department, many in the armed forces still believe that he had a plan to stage a coup against Than Shwe and wanted to become commander in chief of the armed forces.

For Aung Lynn Htut, his former boss’s downfall spelled the end of his career in military intelligence. In March 2005, he sought asylum in the US.

Since then, he has been an outspoken critic of Than Shwe. Through overseas Burmese radio stations, he has called on the junta leader to step down and urged soldiers to remove him from power.

Aung Lynn Htut said he believed that many senior intelligence officers who are now in prison felt the same way.

Referring to the pro-democracy movement, he said, “We wanted to see the revolution succeed.”

Also recorded at:
http://please-help-burma.blogspot.com/2008/10/spring-before-khin-nyunts-fall.html

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