BurmaNet News, March 12-15, 2004

[Editor]

March 12 - 15, 2004 Issue # 2438


INSIDE BURMA
BBC Monitor: Burma: Karen party delegation to hold cease-fire talks soon
Irrawaddy: Karenni Insurgent Attack Kills One
AFP: NLD members in Myanmar pray for vice-chairman's release on his 77th
birthday
Xinhua: Over 4,700 Myanmar villages benefited from water supply project
NPR: Biggest-Ever Tiger Reserve in Myanmar

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Migrants Flee Arrest, Go Home

DRUGS
BBC Monitor: Burmese authorities find heroin, opium during drug raids in
January, February

BUSINESS / MONEY
AFP: Myammar grants Thai firm exclusive fisheries deal: report
AFP: Myanmar puts millions in gems, jade and pearls up for sale
Statesman: North-east looks for more official trade with neighbours
Business Standard: Myanmar not to get Indian diesel

REGIONAL
IHT: Case stirs other asylum seekers

INTERNATIONAL
Scoop: UN & Myanmar Strike Deal Possible Refugee Returns

OPINION / OTHER
Kao Wao: In Times Like This
The Independent: Point of no return
Irrawaddy: War of Attrition


INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

March 14, BBC Monitor
Burma: Karen party delegation to hold cease-fire talks soon

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1430 gmt 12 Mar 04
Excerpt from report by Burmese opposition radio on 12 March

The SPDC State Peace and Development Council issued a statement today
claiming that members of the Karenni National Progressive Party, KNPP,
based at the Burma-Thailand border, ambushed a passenger bus killing one
person and seriously wounding four others. The SPDC said the KNPP
terrorists opened fire with rocket launchers at the passenger bus which
was en route from Loi-kaw to Bawla-khe. Since the incident occurred at a
time when the KNPP and the SPDC military government are preparing to hold
cease-fire talks, observers are concerned whether the talks will take off
the ground. DVB Democratic Voice of Burma correspondent Naw Nanda Chan
filed this report.

Naw Nanda Chan passage omitted That was a report by a medical staff at
Loi-kaw General Hospital. Meanwhile, KNPP Joint Secretary Khu Oo Reh
confirmed that the KNPP troops ambushed a passenger bus.

Khu Oo Reh When I asked about the incident they said it was true. I was
told that it was not a passenger bus and as the KNPP and the SPDC are
enemies, this kind of incident is not rare. Isn't it? Apart from this
ambush, there were about three or four skirmishes during the week and they
suffered heavy casualties.

Naw Nanda Chan Furthermore, it was discovered that the vehicle was a
civilian passenger bus. When asked why the KNPP ambushed a civilian bus,
Khu Oo Reh replied:

Khu Oo Reh They accused us of shooting at a civilian bus. Well, the fact
is, it was not a civilian bus. It was a car used by the people involved in
business activities with the government. I think our troops went and
ambushed that car.

Naw Nanda Chan That was a report by KNPP Joint Secretary Khu Oo Reh. A
KNPP delegation is going to Rangoon in the near future to hold cease-fire
talks with the Burmese military government. When DVB asked KNPP Foreign
Minister Abel Tweed, who will be leading the KNPP delegation, whether the
recent clashes in Kayah State would have any affect on the planned talks,
he replied:

Abel Tweed I think it will not have any affect because both sides can
discuss the matter and continue with the talks . But, I cannot say what is
going to happen when and whether it will be fruitful.

Naw Nanda Chan That was KNPP Foreign Minister Abel Tweed. It has been
learned that the KNPP delegation, which will be leaving for Rangoon soon
to hold cease-fire talks, will be led by Foreign Minister Abel Tweed and
comprises nine delegation members including Minister (?Yay Shi Yar), Home
Affairs Minister Shar Reh, Military Chief of Staff Major Be Htoo, and
Quartermaster Maj Eli Yar. end recording
________________________

March 12, Irrawaddy
Karenni Insurgent Attack Kills One - Kyaw Zwa Moe

Burma’s ethnic Karenni insurgent group attacked a passenger bus in Karenni
State on Monday, the military government-run newspaper reported today. The
report said the assault killed one woman and injured four.

"About five KNPP terrorists opened fire" on the bus near Bawlakhe, Karenni
(Kayah) State, reported the English-language New Light of Myanmar,
referring to members of the Karenni National Progressive Party, or KNPP.
Bawlakhe town is about 35 miles southeast of the state capital of Loikaw.

The newspaper said the guerillas fired upon the bus with a 40-mm grenade
launcher and other small arms at 8:00 pm, killing a 19-year-old female. It
added that the wounded are being treated at a hospital in Loikaw.

A Loikaw General Hospital staffer confirmed the death of the woman and
said the four wounded victims are currently receiving treatment at the
hospital. The four are not in serious condition, the staffer told The
Irrawaddy this afternoon, requesting anonymity.

The newspaper said the government troops are pursuing the attackers.

KNPP joint secretary, Khu Oo Reh, said the Karenni soldiers ambushed the
vehicle, but he denied that it was a passenger bus. He also said several
skirmishes between Karenni and Burmese forces have occurred this week.

The KNPP entered a ceasefire agreement with the junta in 1995, but resumed
fighting three months later.

Khu Oo Reh said the Karenni party plans to resume ceasefire talks with the
military junta. The talks may be held in Rangoon, he added. However, the
junta has yet to officially invite the KNPP for talks.
________________________

March 12, Agence France Presse
NLD members in Myanmar pray for vice-chairman's release on his 77th birthday

Dozens of Myanmar's embattled opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) members gathered to pray for the release of their vice-chairman, who
turned 77 Friday under house arrest, the party said.

About 50 people met at a private home here to honour Tin Oo, who like
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi remains confined at home, after being
detained in a violent clash between NLD supporters and a junta-backed mob
last May which precipitated a crackdown on the party.

"We are all praying and hoping that Tin Oo and the rest of our leadership
will be released soon," an NLD member told AFP.

Tin Oo's wife attended the function on behalf of her frail husband and
said he was holding up well.

"He is in good health and in high spirits," she told the gathering.

Tin Oo, who had been the last senior NLD figure jailed over the May clash,
had been languishing in Kale prison in remote northwestern Myanmar before
he was brought back to Yangon on February 14.

He is one of the chief lieutenants to Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi, whose party's main leaders remain under house arrest despite the
ruling junta's recent claims that the NLD could soon be allowed to operate
normally.

Aside from Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, top NLD officials still under
confinement include party chairman Aung Shwe and secretary U Lwin.

The isolated and impoverished nation was visited earlier this month by
United Nations envoy Razali Ismail, who met both Prime Minister General
Khin Nyunt and Aung San Suu Kyi as the country pursues a "roadmap" to
democracy it announced last August.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to
rule.
________________________

March 15, Xinhua
Over 4,700 Myanmar villages benefited from water supply project

A total of 4,783 water-scare villages in Myanmar's three tropical
divisions have been benefited during the first four years of a 10-year
rural water supply project, getting potable water, according to government
sources.

With 1,169 tube wells, these villages, which have been supplied with clean
and safe drinking water, represented 60 percent of the 8,042 registered as
being badly in need of such potable water in the arid regions of Mandalay,
Sagaing and Magway divisions, said the Ministry of Progress of Border
Areas and National Races and Development Affairs in a press release.

Under the project which runs from the 2000-2001 fiscal year, 91 tube wells
have also been dug in the country's northern Shan state in cooperation
with the Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA), which is the
Japanese government's overseas aid agency, the sources said.

In addition, similar tube wells have also been sunk in the arid zone with
the help of another Japanese organization, the Bridge Asia Japan.

Moreover, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has also joined in the water
supply project, it added.

Meanwhile, the JICA has also proposed a major project to improve the water
supply system in the capital city of Yangon which has a population of 5.5
million.
________________________

March 15, National Public Radio
Biggest-Ever Tiger Reserve in Myanmar

[For the full radio interview please visit:
http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2004/mar/tigers/ - Ed]

Officials for the government of Myanmar, once known as Burma, will soon
announce the creation of the largest tiger reserve in the world -- an
entire valley nearly the size of Vermont. Even though relations between
Myanmar and the Western world are strained, the driving force behind this
is an American.

Alan Rabinowitz, director of science and exploration for the Wildlife
Conservation Society, has dedicated the past 10 years to field work and
conservation projects in the northern forests of Myanmar.

Most recently, he has been working with the Myanmar Forest Department to
triple the size of the 2,500-square-mile Hukawang Valley Wildlife
Sanctuary, where probably fewer than 100 tigers remain..

The size of the reserve is crucial -- Rabinowitz says the key to
maintaining a viable, flourishing tiger population isn't the heavily
guarded wildlife sanctuaries typical of other tiger reserves. Rather, he
advocates a porous environment, where tigers can roam naturally over long
distances to hunt and mate.

"Animals like tigers and elephants -- the largest carnivores and mammals
on Earth -- are not going to survive if their future is just in isolated
pockets of very hard-core protected areas," Rabinowitz tells NPR's Renee
Montagne.

"We've got to find a way where we can create landscapes of both
core-protected areas and places where people live -- and both elements of
that equation can be balanced. This tiger reserve will be a model for
that."

The Hukawng Valley is mostly inhospitable to humans, with its rugged
mountains, thick forests, floods and malaria. But tigers thrive here -- as
do elephants, clouded leopards and a host of other wild species quickly
becoming endangered in the rest of Asia.

When Rabinowitz first surveyed the tigers in the Hukawng Valley back in
1999, all he could hear were sounds of wild creatures. But when the
government cleared an old, overgrown highway, it set off a gold rush. Tens
of thousands of miners seeking gold poured into the valley. In places
where Rabinowitz once saw only tiger tracks, he now saw trucks and mining
camps.

Rabinowitz entered into talks with a rebel group that controls the valley,
Kachin Independent Army, or KIA. He tells Montagne that both the KIA and
the Myanmar government -- most often described in the press as a
repressive military junta -- were exceptionally receptive to the idea of
creating the tiger reserve. Rabinowitz credits the nation's pride in its
wildlife and heritage.

Rabinowitz will soon travel back to Myanmar to begin what he calls "the
really hard work" -- sitting down with government officials to talk about
funding, wildlife management strategies and how the Wildlife Conservation
Society will work together with Myanmar's forestry department to make what
will be the world's largest tiger reserve a reality.


ON THE BORDER
_____________________________________

March 12, Irrawaddy
Migrants Flee Arrest, Go Home - by Aung Su Shin/Mae Sot

Local headmen in the Thai border town of Mae Sot posted Burmese-vernacular
posters across the district on Thursday, warning illegal migrant workers
that they must leave Thailand and return to Burma before March 15.

"The statement said those who do not have work permits have to serve a
jail term," said Ohn Myint as she retreated across the Moei River to
Myawaddy, Burma, with her children. "I am afraid. I have many children."

We do not know who they [illegal Burmese workers] are or where they are
from. If they want to work in Thailand they must register for a work
permit.  - Nai Danrong, small farmer in Mae Sot

But some illegal workers are staying put.

"What to do?" asked 20 year-old Kyaw Myo rhetorically. "I have to stay
here. There are no jobs in Burma. If the operation starts, I will stay in
a hideout."

In February the Thai government announced that in April it will
significantly increase the number of work permits available to low-wage
foreign workers in border provinces. One hundred thousand-odd Burmese
nationals work in Mae Sot district, according to local officials, the vast
majority illegally.

Thai Ministry of Labor officials in Tak Province, where Mae Sot district
is located, told The Irrawaddy that, to date, there had only been about
35,000 work permit applications for the whole province. The illegal worker
campaign is seen as a tactic to boost applications.

"I would like to have a work permit," said Kyaw Myo. "But the cost [4,450
baht, or about US $110] is high for me because my income is small. If the
permit fee was 2,000 baht a year I would do it."

"If they reduced the fee by half, they would get the full amount of money
from migrant workers," concurred Tin Maung, aged 35, who works in a Mae
Sot market.

 If they reduced the fee by half, they would get the full amount of money
from migrant workers. - Tin Maung, day wage laborer

Thais interviewed in Mae Sot were broadly in favor of the illegal worker
clampdown, citing security issues as their main concern.

"It is good for Thai people [that illegal workers are forced to leave]
because we have to worry all the time," said Nai Danrong, a Thai farmer
with a small holding in Mae Sot district. "We do not know who they are or
where they are from. If they want to work in Thailand they must register
for a work permit. The important thing is if they commit a crime, our
officials can trace them."

However, some businessmen and farmers worry that a foreign worker
crackdown might cause a labor shortage.

"I used to have five or six [Burmese] workers at my shop," said Samli
Saengsawang, a Thai shopkeeper in Mae Sot. "I used to get work permits for
all of them, but the problem was that they do not stay long-term."

"After about three or five months they want to go back home. So I would
lose the work permit and the fee," she said. "When they left I had to
employ new staff without work permits. The authorities should offer
three-month permits."


DRUGS
_____________________________________

March 14, BBC Monitor
Burmese authorities find heroin, opium during drug raids in January, February

Source: TV Myanmar, Rangoon, in Burmese 1330 gmt 12 Mar 04
Text of report by Burmese TV on 12 March

Acting on information, personnel from the local intelligence unit, the
Myanmar Burma Police Force, and Special Anti-Drug Squad searched the
residence of U Lu Yan Shin in Nawng Santkon village, Namhkam Township, on
25 February. During the search, the personnel uncovered 30 blocks of
heroin, weighing 10.5 kilograms, belonging to Kyaw Tun, alias U Lu Phon
Chang, who is the son of U Lu Yan Shin. The heroin was hidden among the
mustard greens planted in the garden.

The local police station concerned has seized the drugs and has filed
charges against the offender under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Law.

Meanwhile, members of the No 2 Company of Railways Police Force
(Ywahtaung) who were on security duty on the northward bound
Mandalay-Myitkyina train searched a suspicious-looking passenger Law Hsan,
alias Maung Myo, on arrival at Ywahtaung Station on 14 January. The search
uncovered 4.081 kilograms of raw opium hidden inside two cardboard boxes
belonging to the passenger.

Similarly, on 22 January, acting on a tip-off, a combined team comprising
personnel from the local intelligence unit, the Kawthaung Special
Anti-Drug Squad, the Bureau of Special Investigation, the Criminal
Investigation Department, the Special Investigation Department, and the
local police station, raided the house of Daw Shu Kyi of Shwe Natha
Street, Myothit Ward 6, South Mergui. The search party found in the
bedroom 14 packets of speciosa weighing 0.9 kilo.

Police stations concerned have filed charges against the offenders under
the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law.


BUSINESS / MONEY
_____________________________________

March 14, Agence France Presse
Myammar grants Thai firm exclusive fisheries deal: report

Myanmar has granted a Thai company rights to fish in its economic zone
under a deal expected to earn the military-run state more than 260 million
dollars over the next five years, a report said.

In its edition due out Monday, the Myanmar Times quoted livestock and
fisheries department director general Kyaw Lwin as saying the deal with
the Thai fisheries department and Bangkok-based Siam Jonathan company was
signed on February 19.

The semi-official weekly said the agreement would allow 500 Thai fishing
boats to operate in the Exclusive Economic Zone which covers the area
beyond Myanmar's territorial waters.

It said Siam Jonathan was the first foreign company to be granted
exclusive rights to fish in Myanmar waters since 1994.

"The deal will be mutually beneficial," Kyaw Lwin said. "The Thai boats
will have fish and we will get revenue from an area in which few of our
fishing vessels operate."

The first year of the five-year agreement would be a trial period, after
which both parties would review issues including productivity and
compliance with the terms of the deal, he said.

As well as more than 250 million dollars expected to be earned in fishing
rights, Myanmar also expected to receive 8.4 million dollars in import tax
on the diesel used by the boats, he said.
__________________________

March 14, Agence France Presse
Myanmar puts millions in gems, jade and pearls up for sale

Some 25 million euros' (30.5 million dollars') worth of gems, jade and
pearls will go on sale this week at Myanmar's official biannual sale,
state media said Sunday.

"The emphasis this year is on quality jade and pearls which we have
managed to offer in increased quantities," deputy mines minister Myint
Thein said at a press briefing Saturday, state media reported.

Hundreds of dealers from dozens of countries are expected to attend, with
the majority of buyers hailing from Hong Kong and Thailand.

Last November's sale netted 17.6 million dollars for the state and its
mining partners, down on the previous event due to a weaker international
market and the SARS outbreak which affected China -- jade's main market.

Through the event, which is being held from March 16-21 this year, the
government attempts to control sales of the country's precious stones,
although many are smuggled out of the country.

Myanmar has been trying to establish an international gem market of its
own but is still unable to compete with Thailand and Hong Kong, where the
bulk of the smuggled wares end up.
__________________________

March 13, Statesman
North-east looks for more official trade with neighbours

Statesman News Service GUWAHATI, March 13. From the hairpin to hi-tech
appliances, Chinese made goods have made deep inroads into North East
households particularly in the states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur
although there is hardly any official trade channel with China via
North-east.

China which has as many as 24 border trade points with Myanmar, has
captured the market in North East India through unofficial trade channel
via Myanmar and Bangladesh. In the process Chinese entrepreneurs and
traders are reaping the benefit at the expense of their Indian
counterparts. This lopsided trade through unofficial channel, especially
through Moreh in Manipur and another trade point in Mizoram, have made
entrepreneurs and traders in North-east to raise demand for opening up the
border with Myanmar and Bangladesh for improving bilateral trade to reduce
the monopoly of Chinese goods in the markets North -East India, Myanmar
and Bangladesh.

The Myanmar government has already expressed its desire to improve
bilateral trade with India and relax restrictions on cross-border
movements of people.

The Prime Minister of Myanmar, General Khin Nyunt, recently told a
high-level trade delegation from the North East that his government would
welcome active participation of Indian enterprises in setting up units in
that country.

Meanwhile, there is a strong NGO-level initiative going on to improve
volume of official trade between India and Bangladesh. International
Finance Corporation (IFC) funded South Asia Enterprise Development
Facility (SEDF) has made an effort in this regard.

Under the aegis of the SEDF, an NGO level Indo-Bangla core committee is
now closely monitoring the trend of bilateral trade between both the
countries through land routes in North -East India.

The committee comprises representatives of the Dhaka Chambers of Commerce,
Chittagong Chambers of Commerce, North East Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (NECCI), ICICI Bank and the Sonali Bank of Bangladesh.
__________________________

March 15, Business Standard
Myanmar not to get Indian diesel

Myanmar not to get Indian diesel
Finance ministry rejects proposal for sale of automobile fuel from
Numaligarh refinery

Pradeep Puri in New Delhi
Published : March 15, 2004

The finance ministry has turned down the Myanmar government’s proposal to
buy diesel from the Numaligarh refinery in rupee terms.

The ministry rejected the proposal on the grounds that the level of trade
between India and Myanmar is too low.

Proposed deal:

Myanmar had proposed to import 125,000 tonnes of diesel from the
Numaligarh refinery during the next financial year

The diesel was proposed to be transported from the refinery in Assam to
Myanmar by road

The export of diesel was discussed between officials of the two countries
in January when Myanmar’s Energy Minister Lun Thi visited New Delhi

However, the ministry has said the situation can be reviewed in case India
starts importing natural gas from the country.

Myanmar had proposed to import 125,000 tonnes of diesel from the
Numaligarh refinery during the next financial year. It was also proposed
that the diesel would be transported from the refinery to Myanmar by road.

The Numaligarh refinery, which has a capacity of 60,000 barrels a day, is
a subsidiary of the state-run Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. It
sells one-third of its output in Assam and the rest to other states.

The export of diesel from the Numaligarh refinery to Myanmar was discussed
between officials of the two countries in January when Myanmar’s Energy
Minister Lun Thi visited New Delhi. This was followed by a petroleum
ministry delegation’s visit to Myanmar.

So far, Myanmar has been importing most of its diesel from Thailand.

Myanmar is also looking at India as a market for its gas reserves. GAIL
(India) Limited is studying the feasibility of building a pipeline to
bring gas from Myanmar to India.

GAIL, along with ONGC Videsh Limited, is a partner of South Korea’s Daewoo
International Corporation and Kogas in the A-1 gas field off Myanmar’s
northwest coast, which can produce up to 18 trillion cubic feet of gas.


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

March 13, International Herald Tribune
Case stirs other asylum seekers

A government decision to grant residency last week to a Burmese activist
and his family facing imminent deportation has triggered a spate of legal
activity in similar cases

On Friday, lawyers for a Kurdish asylum seeker from Turkey, his Filipina
wife and their 3-year-old daughter filed suit with the Tokyo District
Court to overturn a Justice Ministry deportation order

The 28-year-old man, identified only as Taskin, came to Japan in 1991 to
evade mandatory military service, which he feared would pit him against
his own people

After three rejections for refugee status, the man and his 37-year-old
wife, Beltran, were told Jan. 28 they would be deported to their
respective countries, and the daughter, Zilan, sent with the mother

It is extremely unusual for immigration authorities to detain both parents
and separate them from the child,'' Takeshi Ohashi, a lawyer representing
the family, told a news conference, adding the act violated human rights
conventions

Zilan, who is now living with her mother's sister, attended the news
conference

She cries frantically at night, and keeps asking when she can be with her
parents,'' the sister told reporters

They claim the Kurdish man could face not only persecution if he were
deported to Turkey, but also that the family would be separated in the
process

Citing humanitarian considerations, Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa
announced last week he would grant special residency status to Burmese
asylum seeker Khin Maung Latt, his Filipina wife, Maria Hope, and two
Japan-born daughters, Demi, 10, and Michelle, 6. Meanwhile, their lawyer,
Shogo Watanabe, said he hoped to focus public awareness'' on similar cases
to pressure immigration authorities to adopt a transparent standard for
granting special residency to undocumented foreigners

Another Turkish Kurd-Filipina couple with two children born in Japan are
also fighting in court to reverse a ministry decision not to grant the
family refugee status, Watanabe said

The 31-year-old Turkish man came to Japan in 1993 under circumstances
similar to Taskin's. He applied for refugee status in 1997, but was turned
down in 1999

In 2000, he married a Philippine national. After a second application for
refugee status was rejected in 2001, the man filed suit with the district
court


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

March 15, Scoop
UN & Myanmar Strike Deal Possible Refugee Returns

UN Refugee Arm And Myanmar Strike Deal To Build Conditions For Possible
Returns
The United Nations refugee agency has reached an agreement with Myanmar's
Government to begin measures to create the necessary conditions in the
country's east to allow the large-scale return of refugees from
neighbouring Thailand.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond
told reporters today at the body's headquarters in Geneva that up to
130,000 people are waiting in Thai refugee camps to return to Myanmar. An
estimated 600,000 others are internally displaced within Myanmar.

But Mr. Redmond said the situation along the Myanmar-Thailand border is
not yet conducive to refugee returns pending an "acceptable settlement"
emerging from ongoing talks between the Government and rebels.

Under the agreement announced today, the agency will start providing
assistance in health, education and community services, as well as local
infrastructure. Initially the agency will operate from its office in the
Myanmar capital Yangon and use locally active non-governmental
organizations (NGOs).

"Years of conflict and insurgency have had a serious impact on basic
facilities and infrastructure in the area and communities are not in a
position to absorb possible large numbers of returnees without
international assistance," Mr. Redmond said.


OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

March 12, Kao Wao
In Times Like This – Kanbawza Win

The Junta has successfully divided the ethnic groups and the pro-democracy
group. In the coming elections it is already guaranteed one solid vote, at
least from one of the ethnic groups i.e. the Rohingyas. It has promised
full Burmese citizenship provided they voted for him. Like it or not the
Junta’s strategy backed by the powerful neighbouring countries has worked
miraculously and the pro democracy forces are clearly on the defensive.
How do we react in times like this?

It is no use pointing fingers or trying to discredit or finding a
scapegoat but will have to be painfully realised our mistakes, study it
meticulously and tries to remedy it and start all over again. “The hotter
the furnace the purer the gold” goes a saying. Those who remain true and
loyal to our noble national cause, whether they are ethnic nationalities
or Burman will be considered as real patriots and nationalist that will be
in a position to liberate the country from the boots of the military
Junta.

Admittedly one of the biggest lessons is that the NLD both inside and
outside the country have realized their folly and practically did not know
how to approach to the ethnic nationalities in our crusade to the national
cause, whereas the Junta knew exactly what these disgruntled nationalities
want and give them the bait which they hungrily devoured. So, instead of
blaming, cursing each other especially the Burman and non-Burman it is
high time that they set down, sort out and thrash out our differences. The
more friendlier we became to each other the more understanding we will
have and with due respect to each other’s values and obsession will be
laying the very foundation of genuine Federal Pyidaungsu. But the basic
principle is that we must love each other without which it will hold no
water, what in Burmese we say Thè Hte Ye Thun (literally translated means
pouring water in the sand). Once that goal is achieved, we cannot fall
into the tricks of the crafty Junta who all along has harbour an ulterior
motive.  But as of now it is really lamentable to witness that the Burman
and the ethnic nationalities in Diaspora are not cooperating, not to
mention studying each other aspirations.

So, how do we react considering the critical situation as of now?
Personally, I see it that there are only two groups or rather two
categories. The ones that have decided to attend the National Convention
and the other who chose to appose it. The latter can use different means;
those inside the countries can use various methods of educating the people
to stay away from the convention. Obviously the entire people hate this
military clique and would not be much of a task as the 1990 election had
indicated. Those in Diaspora can exert pressure on the governments of the
country they chose to reside. Most of the countries where the Burmese
expatriates chose to reside are democratic countries like America, Canada,
Australia and the European countries. So it won’t be mush of a problem for
them to exert pressure. The only aspect is that they will have to
coordinate and cooperated it among them and finds dynamic leaders to work
in unity. They are also in a position to explain to the government and
NGOs, that this Junta, the liar is holding the National Convention just to
perpetuate its rule and obtain legitimacy from the international
community. The various Burmese media has already being doing this and has
to be heightened up.

The former, who have chosen to attend the National Convention, must also
try their level best within the clutches of the unlawful and bias military
laws. They must be encouraged to speak up even though The Sword of
Damocles like torture, going to long prison terms, and even death awaited
them. They must be encouraged that the fate of the entire people are in
their hands and that they must be enlightened to do the right thing no
matter what the consequences. They have every opportunity to be a martyr
in implementing the right thing for the coward dies many times before they
are really death while the brave never taste their death but once. If they
don’t stand up to this bully within its own laws not only the whole nation
and our race will be lost but will go down as traitors in into the annals
of history.

The think tank people from the FBC, together with faring psycho pants or
rather the intellectual prostitutes such David Steinberg, Robert Taylor,
member of the ICG etc can possibly be invited as honourable observers in
the National Convention. If that is the case they should be coaxed to
instill a sense of justice at least for the suffering people of Burma and
not much on the marauding generals.

The prominent Burmese institutions or organization like the NCUB, NCGUB,
ENSCC, JHB etc will have to find more cohesion among them and must be in a
position to pressure the UN and its representatives as an alternate voice.

We must always bear in mind that the Junta is capable of lying the very
concept of truth and put it in such a way to charm the ASEAN countries who
are always cocked eye to the economic potential of the country ready to
exploit its natural and human resources. As such the cease- fire and the
non cease-fire groups including much smaller groups that are by passed by
the Junta must be broad- minded and cooperate with each other.

Last but not the least, is the resistance gurus like the Shan brothers,
some TAN members, those from Singapore and intelligentsia both from the
Burman and non Burman group including foreign Burma scholars like Josef
Silverstein etc should monitor the situation to see to it that the whole
process is going in the right direction. Each political actor will do what
it thinks is right or the correct strategy. The philosophy differences
cannot be removed or resolved easily. But those who shared the common goal
should try their level best to understand each other. Constructive
criticism is the way to do it, not public finger-pointing or mutual
bashing.

Dr. Chao Tzang comments that it is a good strategy for some parts of the
movement to oppose the National Convention and to campaign
internationally. People in the governments and diplomats might ask if the
movement is split or why are we not united. The answer we can give is that
there is a need for pressure as well as dialogue and national
reconciliation, and that one does not precludes or contradicts the other.
We have to be very clear on this. Although people in govt. and diplomatic
circles are pretty sophisticated in many things and ways, they can be
quite naïve in politics, and more so in the conceptualization or
understanding of unity. Although our movement is a democratic one, they
want to see us “united” in a monolithic and regimented way – and they know
very well that this kind of unity can be imposed only by a very popular
and strong dictator, and only by force and violence.

When dialogue and National Reconciliation is the declared goal then it is
clear that the aim is not to overthrow it by armed intervention or
forceful means. This became more vivid when the world community for
example the United Nations supports this strategy, and all pressures are
oriented to getting the regime to come to the dialogue table. If the
opposition leader who is also world-recognized and domestically popular as
Daw Suu comes up with a dialogue initiative she will be at the center of
the dialogue issue and the initiative will be supported and pushed forward
by world leaders and various governments who want to see a peaceful
settlement of the conflict. The regime will most likely be pressed in many
ways to engage with the opposition. Likewise, if the regime puts a
specific initiative on the table as of now, some governments will support
the initiative, and the opposition, or parts of it will have to engage in
the proposed process that enjoys the support of a segment of the world
community. So if some cease-fire group support the national convention
what? Neither the opposition nor the regime cannot totally ignore any
talks, of any kind, that the world community or regional actors supports
and this is more so, when neighboring leaders and governments stand behind
the dialogue initiative (ours or other camp), it is obvious that no one
camp can ignore or reject it. The camp that ignores a talk initiative –
bogus or not, insincere or not -- that is supported by
regional/neighboring governments stands to be pushed to the far margin and
will be severely disadvantaged, even reduced to being a voice in the
wilderness which no one hears or likes to listen to. The point is that we
must adopt a dynamic response mode, a counter-move that is many pronged
and coordinated, instead of squabbling or coercing others.

Even though the autocratic regime do not want to ever dialogue with the
opposition and will avoid it as much as it can, the paradox is that its
initiative will be taken up by fellow government, and thus making the
regime’s initiative a thing which the opposition cannot ignore, one that
it has to deal with one way or the other, and usually at a disadvantaged
position.  If we are well prepared, dialogue will not only create a level
playing field, but tilt the field in favor of the opposition, and to the
disadvantage of the regime. This is so because the opposition’s dialogue
initiative aims at bringing more and more societal and other political
forces into the dialogue arena. As more and more actors enter the arena
e.g. Norway coming in a peaceful and orderly way the regime will be
outflanked and made irrelevant, all the more so if the opposition can
internationalize the dialogue-transition

The ethnic nationalities admired and trust Daw Suu (just like her father)
and on her part she trusts the ethnic nationalities. It seems that there
is no problem on that score and at that level. But at other levels, it
seems that the ethnic nationalities are looked upon as a younger brother
that must follow meekly. This kind of attitude poses a substantial
problem. Now as it seems our movement has been very much in piecemeal
approach and pick and choose (or just react to what the Junta does). We
must coordinated and make a holistic approach at the strategic level.
After years of struggle both the ethnic nationalities and democratic
forces have reached a level of political maturity. We need to move on as
experience in all ethnic groups and democratic groups that the struggle in
Burma is not Myanmar versus non- Myanmar, but rather Oppressors versus
Oppressed. Of course, the rhetoric of the dictators using ethnic issues as
reasons for their coup and couching into political power still exists.

We need to be holistic in terms of issues-strategy and holistic in terms
of actors to turn the tide of roadmap and national convention with very
renewed synergy among all the struggling groups. Otherwise, another two
score years will pass by easily unless other miraculous disturbances
happen. Burma's politics will be a well tested historical case where
politicians can be construed as worthless since they cannot engage in
political battle (then in post-independence era and now during ongoing
democracy struggle) by getting along well enough to work with each other
among themselves.  Otherwise, we may have to interpret Burma's history in
future such that the dictators in Burma are proven smart and brutal that
they regard all citizens in Burma as what, U Tun Myint describe as
"lett-khoat-taeh-ka-yay" literally translated as water in the hand meaning
rats in a hole.

In times like this, when we are pressed against the wall, let us be more
cohesive and united as this can be our last chance. Everybody eat rice and
when the cooked rice is pressed the rice grain began to stick to one
another and if keep on pressing began a lump, so also let us copy this
simple sample.

(The views expressed here are solely the opinion of the author. Kao-Wao
Editor)

Posted by: Kao Wao News Group
_________________________

March 14, The Independant
Point of no return – Andrew Marshall

One by one, rebel groups fighting Burma's junta have been destroyed or
forced into peace pacts. The Shan, despite the slaughter of their people,
fight on. Now, however, they are surrounded with nowhere to flee. Andrew
Marshall reports

The dense jungle mist swirls and parts to reveal one man, then 10, then an
 entire platoon of guerrilla soldiers, all armed and battle-hardened, many
wearing beneath their muddy fatigues magical tattoos believed to ward off
cold and deflect enemy bullets. This apparition is part of the Shan State
Army (SSA), one of a handful of rebel outfits still fighting Burma's
military government. The SSA's goal - an independent homeland for the
Shan, Burma's second-largest ethnic group - is nearly impossible to
achieve. But this is still rebel country, with steep, jungle-clad
mountains and plunging ravines, where for years the SSA has used
hit-and-run tactics to deter - but never defeat - the ill-equipped and
dispirited Burmese army.

The group's main base, Loi Tai Laeng, straddles the Thai-Burma border; a
collection of rough bamboo structures tumbling down a hillside. An
enormous flag featuring the crossed sword and rifle of the SSA hangs over
a parade ground of packed mud. This is a forgotten frontline in the war
against the Burmese military, which seized power in 1962 and still rules
the nation with unrelenting brutality. The SSA has between 500 and 2,000
troops - no one knows for sure. (Ask a rebel spokesman how many, and he
tersely
replies: "Enough.") They are vastly outnumbered by the 400,000-strong
Burmese armed forces. In the remote Shan hills, poppies are still grown
and opium is still traded, along with millions of methamphetamine pills
called ya ba, or crazy medicine. But the SSA's plain-spoken commander,
Colonel Yawdserk, vehemently denies any current involvement in the drugs
trade. The penalty for an SSA soldier caught dealing is execution, and a
senior rebel source * claims credibly that the SSA now collaborates with
Thai border authorities on some drug busts.

More than 3,000 wretched civilians live near the five SSA camps along the
Thailand-Burma border. These are victims of a slow-motion genocide. 
One-tenth of them are orphans aged between five and 16 and, when asked
what they want to be when they grow up, each dutifully answers: "A rebel."
Other civilians sheltering here are too dazed and traumatised to talk, or
are missing limbs from landmines. They are among hundreds of thousands of
Shan and other hilltribe people who have been driven at gunpoint by
Burmese troops from ances- tral lands since 1996 in a savage but
seldom-reported operation to cut off popular support for the SSA. It is a
campaign of terror against an unarmed population - an orgy of loot- ing,
burning, torture and massacres. Shan villages have been razed and precious
live- stock butchered, with the depopulated areas designated "free-fire
zones".  Here, rampaging Burmese troops shoot anything that moves,
including famished villagers returning to salvage what's left of their
crops. On one occasion, 26 villagers were caught foraging for food and
decapitated, their headless corpses left at the roadside as a warning to
others.  Thousands of families fester in military concentration camps,
where they are forced to construct barracks and grow food for Burmese
soldiers. Many Shan men - and women - are shanghaied as porters, carrying
their own bodyweight in ammunition along jungle paths littered with
landmines. As a former porter attests, it is unimaginably gruelling and
often fatal work: a landmine claimed his arm and eye.

Human-rights monitors have also documented how Burmese soldiers
systematically rape hundreds of women and girls, some as young as five. 
Rape is institutionalised in the Burmese army, and women have been
violated on suspicion of providing food for the Shan rebels. Interviews
with defecting Burmese soldiers - many of them young, illiterate and
themselves brutalised by their training - suggest they were encouraged to
regard the forced impregnation of Shan women as a racial duty. "Your blood
must be left in the village," they were told. Within years of the
campaign's * launch, over 300,000 people had been moved from an area
covering 7,000 square miles - a "conservative estimate", reckons Amnesty
International.  This is like evacuating a city the size of Belfast, or
depopulating an area almost as large as Wales. Meanwhile, there has been a
similarly ferocious assault on Shan culture. The Burmese government has
razed historic Shan buildings, destroyed signs bearing village names in
Shan, and outlawed books and school lessons in the Shan language. The
upshot of all this is that many young Shan do not understand their mother
tongue.

And yet the Shan have always been a proud and independent-minded people,
their rugged homeland run for centuries by dozens of feuding chieftains. 
After 1886, when all Burma came under British control, the chieftains -
known as saopha, or "lords of the skies" - were granted semi-autonomy. The
wealthier ones took many wives, sent their children to English schools,
and ruled with an opulence which recalled the maharajas of India. For
years this uncharted territory was administered by a diminutive Scotsman
called Sir George Scott, who spoke Shan and many other languages, and had
the
distinction of first introducing football to what is today a soccer-mad
nation. But if the British Empire could be compared to a rambling old
house, as one colonial judge once wrote, then these Shan principalities
were, "the imperial attic... Not one Englishman in 10,000 has ever heard
of them." The same could be said today.

Burma won its independence in 1948. The Burmese military launched a coup
14 years later, and Burma - then a fledgling democracy tipped to become
one of Asia's richest nations - began its descent into poverty and fear.
The Shan rebels have been fighting a losing battle against the Burmese
junta ever since. When not launching guerrilla attacks behind enemy lines,
the SSA sticks close to the relative security of the border with Thailand.
The Thais are ethnic cousins of the Shan - the word itself is a corruption
of
"Siam", the old name for Thailand - but the two have an uneasy relationship.

Unlike other ethnic groups fleeing persecution in Burma, the Shan who
cross the border are not granted refugee status, and easily fall prey to
disease and human traffickers. To appease Burma's generals - who would
probably swap their star-spangled epaulettes for a rebel-free Shan state -
the Thai government recently ordered its army to expel the SSA from its
Loi Tai Laeng HQ. That hasn't happened and, despite public pronouncements
to the contrary, probably won't. Operating deep inside Burma, the SSA
shares vital intelligence with the Thais on the movements of Burmese
troops and Thailand's true foes, drug-smugglers, alike.

With another anti-government rebel group, the Karen National Union,
currently in historic ceasefire talks with the Burmese regime, pressure on
the SSA to sit round the negotiating table with their sworn Burmese
enemies is increasing. But the rebels, who are staunch supporters of
Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, have so far shown little
interest in a ceasefire. Until it does, the SSA will lurk in the mist, a
ghostly army for a haunted people.

Andrew Marshall is the author of a book about football in Burma called
'The Trouser People', published by Penguin, priced $12
________________________

March 12, Irrawaddy
War of Attrition - Aung Naing Oo

Ceasefires are intended to end armed conflict and set in motion the
processes that bring lasting peace and democratization. For Burma’s armed
ethnic groups, however, ceasefires have initiated a war of attrition, and
for this, they have nobody but themselves to blame.

For more than a decade and a half, truces between Burma’s military junta
and ethnic insurgent groups have not progressed in any direction. The
junta has shut all avenues for political discussions, except for the
National Convention, but this is yet to get off the ground. Outstanding
political and ethnic issues remain unresolved. The much-vaunted border
areas development plans have produced little financial and social gain for
rank-and-file commoners.

The war of attrition on ethnic groups begins with a tenuous truce that
leads to splits within ethnic armies. The Mon have suffered two major
splits since the beginning of their truce in 1995. The Kachin have endured
one key breakup following their ceasefire, not to mention their current
internal struggles. Even the Karen, who have yet to forge a truce with the
Burmese regime, have been swept away by the ceasefire current, with costly
infighting and the loss of several leaders over the years.

The war of attrition on ethnic groups begins with a tenuous truce that
leads to splits within ethnic armies.

Such a divide-and-conquer policy clearly works for the junta. The tactics
have enabled the junta to expand its control of ethnic areas without the
loss of any resources or manpower. It gradually encroaches into areas
designated as ceasefire territory and establishes new army bases.
According to the November 20, 2003 edition of the Kachin Post, there are
now more than 50 Burma Army battalions in northern Kachin State
alone—three times the number of bases before the ceasefire agreement a
decade ago.

Ceasefire agreements affect non-ceasefire ethnic groups as well. The
Karen, since losing most of their military strongholds eight years ago,
have been intruded upon by the establishment of new Burma Army bases in
areas once controlled by Karen troops.

Not surprisingly, many of the new Burmese bases are close to ethnic army
strongholds, serving a perpetual reminder of the immediate presence of
enemy forces and giving the junta’s troops the edge in case the fighting
resumes.

And the expansion of the Burma Army into ethnic areas slowly chokes the
flow of new recruits to the resistance movements, particularly in the
absence of fighting. In fact, the junta has a rigorous policy to draft
ethnic youths into the national armed forces.

Meanwhile, those who join resistance armies are often not motivated by
ideology but by the thirst for revenge or personal connections to a given
movement. They fight when there is fighting, but when it stops, they turn
their backs on the fight.

Ethnic groups whose ceasefires have held for several years have seen their
numbers of soldiers dwindle. Unlike the Burmese armed forces, no ethnic
group can use legal threats against deserters, which makes it easier for
any ethnic fighter to abscond or to simply leave the movement after a long
absence of action.

 And the expansion of the Burma Army into ethnic areas slowly chokes the
flow of new recruits to the resistance movements, particularly in the
absence of fighting. In fact, the junta has a rigorous policy to draft
ethnic youths into the national armed forces.

And with ceasefires come other perks for Burmese soldiers, who now control
more areas rich in mineral and natural resources than when the ceasefires
began fifteen years ago. They are free to exploit these resources as they
wish.

Through ceasefires and the establishment of new army bases, the Army has
taken away the main sources of income for ethnic groups. The Kachin
Independence Organization, or KIO, lost control of the lucrative Hpa Kant
jade mine after the ceasefire in 1994. The Kachin Post also reported in
November last year that a new Burmese army outpost was established along
the route to the KIO’s Third Brigade from the Chinese border, effectively
stopping the Kachin’s taxation of border trade.

In Mon area also, Burmese troops have taken over roles once held by Mon
rebels, thanks to the ceasefire agreement. According to a Mon leader, the
Burma Army now has a monopoly on the trade and taxation of seasonal fruits
and local products that are in demand elsewhere in the country and that
once helped fund the Mon insurgency against Rangoon.

Ceasefires are not entirely negative, however. Ceasefire groups are still
given limited business concessions. Top officials are allowed to travel
inside the country, but for others the greater number of Army checkpoints
means their movements are restricted—so too is their ability to make a
living.

The best result of the ceasefires has been the cessation of the
large-scale loss of life and destruction of properties. Unfortunately,
however, human rights abuses continue despite the end of outright
fighting. Forced labor is still very much in practice in ethnic areas.

There are also other areas where ethnic groups are losing out due to
ceasefire agreements. Hundreds of thousands of refugees languish in
makeshift camps along the borders, leaving their futures in limbo. The
young and able-bodied leave for greener pastures, especially in
neighboring countries. If they stay at home, there is no future for them
either.

Not only are environmental conditions being degraded and resources
dwindling, but more important, their cultures and languages are being
destroyed through the junta’s discouragement of teaching local knowledge
in schools.

Though these tenuous ceasefires have cast a pall over ethnic groups and
their futures, the ethnic groups themselves are to blame. "We are losing
out because of our warlord mentality," said Hkun Okker, the
joint-secretary of the National Democratic Front ethnic alliance. "We
promote our own interests rather than looking at the bigger picture," he
added. Hkun Okker speaks from experience: the Pa-O leader’s mother
organization, the Pa-O National Organization, irreparably broke up under
the weight of various ethnic ceasefires in 1991.

Ethnic groups can heap the blame on the junta. But the overall losses will
mount simply because Rangoon does not care. Unless they mend their own
ways, ethnic groups will continue to let the junta dictate their fates.
The war of attrition against ethnic groups will continue, and without a
firefight.

Aung Naing Oo is a Burmese political analyst living in exile.
_________________________