BurmaNet News, March 30, 2004

[Editor]

March 30, 2004 Issue # 2446

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar to launch "democracy road map" with national convention in May
AFP: Myanmar agrees to review death sentences against ILO-linked three
Shan: Shans deny detaining missing Thai lawyer
Xinhua: Myanmar top leader stresses border areas development

DRUGS
Shan: Opium output down, credit goes to bad weather

REGIONAL
AFP: Thailand to host international meeting on Myanmar reforms next month
Xinhua: Thai FM: Myanmar agrees to join 2nd meeting on national
reconciliation

INTERNATIONAL
WP: Annan Fires Top Security Adviser Over Iraq Bombing

OPINION / OTHER
Korea Herald: Reconnecting South Asia
Toronto Star: Sanctions on Burma should continue
Irrawaddy: Burma Getting Attention in US
Irrawaddy: Protecting Burma’s Biodiversity in the Long-term



INSIDE BURMA
___________________________________

May 30, Agence France Presse
Myanmar to launch "democracy road map" with national convention in May

Myanmar's military government announced Tuesday it would convene a
national convention to draft a new constitution on May 17, in the first
step of its so-called "road map to democracy".

"The temporarily suspended national convention will be reconvened on
Monday May 17, 2004, in Yangon. Invitations will be sent to those
attending the national convention very soon," it said in an announcement
on national radio.

The brief statement was authorised by Lieutenant General Thein Sein,
secretary two in the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) who
is the chairman of the national convention convening committee.

The convention was originally launched in 1993 but collapsed in 1995 when
the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) withdrew on the grounds
it was unrepresentative.

Myanmar's junta, which is under intense international pressure to
introduce democratic reforms, revived the forum in its seven-point road
map unveiled last August by newly appointed Prime Minister General Khin
Nyunt.

The ruling generals have since been working to boost the credibility of
the convention by persuading the nation's many ethnic minority groups to
take part.

It has also said the NLD will be invited but the party has said it will
not make a decision on whether to attend until its leader Aung San Suu Kyi
is freed from house arrest, after being taken into detention in May last
year.

Analysts have speculated that to maximise the public relations benefit
from the convention, the regime will release Aung San Suu Kyi before it
begins.

_______________________

March 30, Agence France Presse
Myanmar agrees to review death sentences against ILO-linked three

Myanmar has agreed to review death sentences handed to three men over
contacts with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), saying the
court's decision was flawed, the ILO said Tuesday.

The UN agency's governing body called last week for the release of the
three who were convicted of high treason in November, saying the incident
cast doubt on the credibility of the regime's cooperation with the ILO.

But in a report provided to AFP it said that in a March 17 meeting, Labour
Minister Tin Win told the ILO's Yangon representative that having contacts
with the organisation was not illegal.

The minister said that even if the three were convicted of providing false
information, they should only have faced a maximum penalty of six months'
imprisonment.

"In his view, therefore, it was clear that the judge had made mistakes and
the case would have to be reviewed," said the organisation which has
battled for years to end the practice of forced labour in Myanmar.

On March 19 ILO representatives were allowed to see two of the prisoners,
Min Kyi and Aye Myint, who reported that they were beaten and deprived of
food, water and sleep during an interrogation that lasted several days.

On the basis of information given by the pair and documents from the
trial, the investigators found the case "was not investigated or
prosecuted in a systematic or credible way," it said.

Forced labour -- a type of slavery -- in Myanmar has long been a focus of
the ILO and the issue topped the agenda at the organisation's annual
general assembly last year.

However, relations between the junta and the UN body have improved
recently and earlier this month the ruling generals agreed to allow an
independent mediator to assist victims of forced labour in Myanmar.

Myanmar is widely condemned by the international community for its use of
forced labour, typically by the military which is accused of forcing
villagers to abandon their homes and farms and labour in harsh conditions
for no wages.

A landmark 1998 ILO inquiry found the practice was "widespread and
systematic" and targeted ethnic minorities living in border regions.

The ILO did not specify the alleged links between the organisation and the
three convicted men but the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions said one defendant was found in possession of an ILO report on
Myanmar.

The Brussels-based ICFTU accused the regime of "blatant hypocrisy" by
pledging to work with the ILO to stamp out forced labour while prosecuting
individuals for making contact with the organisation.

It said in a letter to Myanmar authorities that "the prosecution of
individuals for making contact with the ILO is a violation of fundamental
human rights" and demanded the treason charges be dropped.

_______________________

March 30, Shan
Shans deny detaining missing Thai lawyer

Officers from the Shan State Army of Col Yawdserk have been kept busy
since yesterday answering inquiries from both the media and security
officials over allegations that a Thai Muslim lawyer who disappeared on 12
March had been held up at their headquarters opposite Maehongson, said
Shan sources.

Somchai Nilaphaijit, a human rights lawyer representing southern terrorist
suspects, has been missing for almost three weeks now. He was last seen in
Bangkok on 12 March.

"We are really frustrated by this unexpected scapegoating," bemoaned Maj
Sua Gawngjerng, the SSA's liaison officer and son of the late resistance
leader Gen Gawnjerng (1926-1991). "There is absolutely nothing for us to
gain from keeping him here with us. We know what's good for us. And we
have already given our word to Prime Minister Thaksin he would have no
cause to worry about us creating trouble for the kingdom."

He also rejected reports that a wealthy Thai from the south, Ko Yong, who
vanished in the north last month was taken by the SSA. "Why should we
Shans be made fall guys for these unsolved crimes?" he asked.

Other SSA leaders, including Yawdserk, were unreachable.

As to possible opening of peace talks with Rangoon, similar to the ongoing
negotiations between its ally, the Karen National Union and Rangoon's
authorities, Maj Tin Ngwe, chief of Tachilek-based Military Intelligence
Unit #24, was quoted by Thai security officials recently as saying, "I
have yet to receive any new directives concerning the SURA (Shan United
Revolutionary Army, Rangoon's label for the SSA "South" of Yawdserk).

So far, the junta's standing policy for Yawdserk is that he should surrender.

_______________________

March 30, Xinhua
Myanmar top leader stresses border areas development

Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe has stressed the need for
continued efforts to improve the socio-economic life of local people in
the country's border areas and alleviate poverty there.

Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, made the
remarks while addressing a meeting here on Monday of the Central Committee
for Development of Border Areas and National Races (CCDBANR), state-run
newspaper the New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

Than Shwe, who is also the committee's chairman, said border areas
development tasks will be implemented with more success as progress has
been made in the economic, transport, production, industrial and electric
sectors.

According to the committee, better transport has been brought about in the
border areas with a total of 7,865 kilometers of roads including earth,
gravel and tar ones, as well as 763 big and small bridges having been
built there since 1989.

In the education and health sectors, 767 primary, middle and high schools
have been constructed and 54 hospitals, 32 rural health care centers, 53
such branches and 81 dispensaries have opened.

Achievements have also been made in other sectors such as agriculture,
energy, communications and mining.

Besides, special achievement were made in the border areas' drug control
sector, the committee quoted the International Narcotics Control Board as
saying that the poppy cultivation in Myanmar for 2003 stood at 47,130
hectares, a two-third drop compared with 163,000 hectares in 1996.

The senior-general emphasized the need for continued endeavors for more
progress in the areas year after year.

Myanmar formed the CCDBANR in May 1989 and set up the Ministry of Progress
of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs in 1992 to
promote the development of the areas.

Moreover, a 13-year master plan from 1993 to 2006 has been worked out for
the country's border areas development.

Politically, former anti-government ethnic armed groups were once based in
Myanmar's border areas. So far, a total of 17 of such groups have returned
to the legal fold since the government adopted a national reconciliation
policy in 1989, contributing to peace and development of the areas.


DRUGS
_____________________________________

March 29, Shan
Opium output down, credit goes to bad weather

The 2003-2004 season's harvest has fallen sharply from last year's due to
the elements, according to several independent sources.

In the eastern part of the Pawn valley where each acre used to yield 5-8
viss (1 viss=1.6 kg) in the past, it had dropped to 1-1.5 viss, prompting
a distinct rise in opium prices. "Last year, it sold at 160,000 - 200,000
kyat per viss," reports Karenni Information Network Group (KING), quoting
its sources. "But in February, it went up to 240,000 kyat. Now farmers are
just waiting for prices to climb further."

Both sources across the border in Mongton township, opposite Chiangmai,
and refugees coming from across the Salween in Loilem district agreed. "We
had more people engaging in the cultivation," said a source from Panglong,
53 miles east of Taunggyi. "Even Burmans were joining the fray. Only
Heaven and Rain have not been kind to us."

In the Wa areas east of the Salween, where poppy farmers from the west
bank, where cultivation has been prohibited since the 2001-2002 season,
reportedly flocked in to grow poppies, the results were the same. "This
year's harvest is a little down," an anonymous opponent to Wa leader Bao
Youxiang told Max Wechsler (Bangkok Post, 21 March), "but this is not due
to the Wa leaders or the United Nations. It is simply because of the bad
weather."

In Ban Ngek and Ban Hsen of Taping Tract, Kengtung township, the price is
350,000-400,000 kyat, while Mizzima reported on 25 March, the price is
between 300,000-400,000 kyat.

Meanwhile, UN annual estimates continue to fall from 828 tons in 2002 to
810 tons in 2003. As for Rangoon, its last contention with the UN figures
was in 1998, when it argued that according to its survey, the total output
could not have exceeded 665.28 tons. Since then, it has, without
explanation, chosen to adopt the UN's calculations that continue to show
in Rangoon's favor that Burma's opium output has been on the decline.


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

March 30, Agence France Presse
Thailand to host international meeting on Myanmar reforms next month

Thailand said Tuesday it will hold a second round of international talks
on prospects for democratic reforms in Myanmar next month, amid
speculation the junta could soon free Aung San Suu Kyi.

Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said the so-called "Bangkok
Process" talks would take place on April 29-30, but that there was no
guarantee the opposition leader would be released from house arrest by
then.

Surakiart said his Myanmar counterpart Win Aung had agreed to the talks
and that he expected them to yield more information on the junta's "road
map to democracy" which is due to start this year with a national
convention.

"I believe that this meeting will put pressure on Myanmar to announce the
date for the national convention so that attending countries can view it
as making progress," he said.

The minister sidestepped speculation that Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed
ahead of May 30 which will be the first anniversary of political violence
that triggered her detention and a crackdown on her party.

"Releasing Aung San Suu Kyi would be considered a positive development but
that is a matter for Myanmar to decide. I hope it will happen soon," he
said.

Twelve nations attended the first Bangkok Process meeting last December,
and this time they will be joined by Bangladesh, Laos, Malaysia, Norway
and Switzerland.

As well as key Asian nations China and India, there will be
representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as
the United Nations' envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail who has been central to
the push for reforms.

A Western diplomat in Yangon said Win Aung could use the meeting to
announce a date for the national convention to write a new constitution,
the first step in the seven-point democracy road map.

"It would seem normal that this second meeting would be the opportunity
for Yangon to give a few positive signals," he told AFP.

"There has to be some novelty, some interesting announcement. You cannot
ask people to return to the table after a few months if you have nothing
new to tell them."

However, the diplomat said it was not certain that Aung San Suu Kyi would
be freed before the meeting, despite the flak the junta will face if she
remains confined to her Yangon residence.

"She could be freed before but it's not necessarily automatic," he said.

Surakiart said last week that the junta was likely to release Aung San Suu
Kyi and begin the national convention before the end of June.

_________________________

March 30, Xinhua
Thai FM: Myanmar agrees to join 2nd meeting on national reconciliation

The Myanmar government had agreed to take part in the second meeting for
its national reconciliation to be held in Bangkok late April, Thai Foreign
Minister Surakiat Sathirathai said Tuesday.

Surakiat told reporters that his Myanmar counterpart U Win Aung said in a
written response that he agreed with the Thai government 's proposal of
holding the second meeting in Bangkok and he himself would take part in
the meeting.

The two-day meeting would help facilitate and accelerate not only the
national reconciliation process in Myanmar to a certain extent but also
national reforms, the Thai foreign minister was quoted by the state-run
Thai News Agency as saying.

Details of the meeting's agenda have yet been available.

Surakiat also said that participants of the meeting would include the
United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail and representatives
from 16 countries.

The 16 countries include the United States and some European countries
that were part of 11 countries having sent representatives to the
first-round meeting last December in Bangkok.

During the first meeting, the Myanmar government said it would work on a
"road map" to realize national reconciliation.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

March 30, Washington Post
Annan Fires Top Security Adviser Over Iraq Bombing - Colum Lynch,
Washington Post Staff Writer

Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday ousted his top security adviser and
punished several other U.N. employees for failing to provide adequate
security at the United Nations' Baghdad headquarters before the Aug. 19
attack that killed 22 people there.

The U.N. chief's action marked the largest shake-up of senior staff
members in over a decade. It followed the completion of a confidential
150-page report by a panel headed by a retired U.N. official, Gerald
Walzer, into personal accountability for the security breakdown before the
terrorist attack, which killed the United Nations' top envoy, Sergio
Vieira de Mello of Brazil.

The move was aimed at putting to rest months of criticism of the United
Nations' failure to anticipate the worst terrorist attack against the
organization in its history despite mounting evidence that it was a
potential terror target. Instead, it sparked fresh criticism from some
within the organization who noted that Annan and some other senior
officials who hastily led the United Nations back into Iraq in May went
unpunished.

According to a summary of the report prepared by the U.N. secretary
general's office, the United Nations -- facing mounting international
pressure to address Iraq's humanitarian needs -- recklessly rushed back
into the country without conducting a proper assessment of the worsening
security conditions.

After the U.N. return, senior U.N. officials in New York and Baghdad,
including Vieira de Mello, routinely dismissed reports from U.N.
intelligence officials indicating "a very real danger to the safety of UN
staff" from an increasingly violent insurgency, the summary said.

"They ignored the warning signs which were becoming more obvious each
day," the summary noted. "They failed to respond effectively to the
recommendations and advice which were coming from their own security
advisors."

The panel leveled its most serious charge against Tun Myat of Myanmar, the
United Nations' security coordinator, who was described as "oblivious" to
the worsening security situation in Baghdad in the weeks leading up to the
attack. Myat, a veteran U.N. official with little prior security
experience, resigned Monday.

The summary concluded that Myat and the top U.N. security officials in
Iraq "appeared to be blinded by the conviction that U.N. personnel and
installations would not become a target of attack, despite the clear
warnings to the contrary."

"I am the security coordinator. I cannot shirk responsibility for what has
happened," Myat said by telephone. "I think it is only correct that I
tender my resignation."

Annan also demoted Ramiro Lopes da Silva of Portugal, a highly regarded
humanitarian relief expert, who served as the United Nations' top
humanitarian coordinator in Iraq. Lopes da Silva, who will return to his
former job at the U.N. World Food Program, was charged with putting
"forward a flawed concept of operation" for the organization's return to
Iraq after the U.S.-led war that included "no prior security assessment."

Lopes da Silva and a U.N. security official, Robert Adolph, who was also
ordered reassigned to a new job, will be barred from taking on new
assignments with responsibilities for the security of U.N. staff members.

Lopes da Silva's security plan was later approved by a senior U.N.
advisory panel, the Steering Group on Iraq, and endorsed by Annan. The
panel cleared Annan of personal responsibility, saying that he "had acted
in a proper manner" because he was acting on the recommendation of his top
advisers.

Annan charged two mid-level officials -- Paul Aghadjanian of Jordan, chief
of the U.N. Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, and Gambia's
Pa Momodou Sinyan, the U.N. agency's building manager -- with misconduct
and initiated disciplinary proceedings against them.

The two officials were sharply criticized in the report for acting too
slowly to respond to requests to install anti-blast film, a move that
"would in all probability have saved lives."

The panel faulted the 15-member steering group, which was headed by U.N.
Deputy Secretary General Louise Frechette of Canada, for failing to
exercise "due care or diligence" in weighing the security situation in
Baghdad before the U.N. return.

Annan declined Frechette's offer to resign, noting that the entire
steering group shared responsibility. Annan also chastised the heads of
several U.N. agencies, including the U.N. Children's Fund and the U.N.
Development Program, for ignoring restrictions designed to limit the
number of U.N. relief experts stationed in Baghdad before the Aug. 19
attack.

The summary did not address the controversial question of whether Annan
himself had acted responsibly by urging U.N. staff to remain in Iraq after
the attack despite nearly unanimous calls from his top security and
political advisers to pull out.

The U.N. headquarters staff union said Annan was letting his own inner
circle off too easily. "The punishment for most doesn't fit the crime,"
said Guy Candusso, the vice president of the U.N. Staff Union. "We have 22
people dead, and the U.N. Secretary General lets most senior officials
keep their jobs and their pensions."


OPINION / OTHER
_____________________________________

March 30, The Korea Herald
Reconnecting South Asia

Salman Haidar The Statesman (India)/Asia News Network

The close links that once existed across South Asia have progressively
deteriorated ever since partition divided the region into separate
sovereign entities. Movement from one country to the other is today a
difficult and chancy business. The road and rail systems designed to serve
the region as a whole now stop short at national frontiers, cutting off
the commerce and human movement they were intended to facilitate.

In the early days after 1947, political division did not make too much of
a difference. The established connections continued to function as they
had always done. Before long, however, nascent industries in the new
nations demanded, and received, protection from rival suppliers on the
other side of the divide. Thus Pakistan's film industry felt it could only
hold its own against Bombay if the latter's products were kept away, and
there were dozens of other similar demands in each country throughout the
sub-continent.

Yet, even as goods became less and less free to move, people continued to
come and go without too much difficulty. Indeed, it was not uncommon for
enterprising South Asians to catch a train, maybe from the remotest part
of what was then East Pakistan, across the subcontinent to Iran en route
to a new life in Europe.

It took war between India and Pakistan to put an end to that, and both
sides have kept tightening the screw, so that there is an ever thicker
curtain dividing the people of the sub-continent. Today a bus journey to
Lahore or Dhaka, once a commonplace everyday event, is hailed as if it
were some sort of breakthrough.

To complicate matters, India and Pakistan have chosen to take a tight view
of their transit obligations toward adjacent landlocked countries. They
are among a handful at the United Nations who do not regard transit as an
inherent right of the landlocked. It is not that India and Pakistan fail
to provide facilities: indeed, they can both claim to be generous in what
they offer.

But they affirm their own sovereign rights above those of anyone else. It
is a somewhat theoretical argument without much practical significance.
Yet problems can, and do, arise. In the case of Pakistan, the transit
facilities to Afghanistan have been affected from time to time. In India's
case, it is Nepal that chafes at what it regards as unsatisfactory
arrangements for transit. Bhutan, equally dependent on India, has had less
to complain about, though it has its own difficulties.

India may loom large as a hindrance to neighbors seeking freer access to
each other and to the sea, but it is also at the receiving end of others'
restrictive arrangements.

For many years now Pakistan has denied it land access to countries on the
far side - Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia - thereby using its strategic
location across routes to the west and north to create an effective
barrier to Indian commerce.

Lack of access has limited the scope for the growth of India's
well-established trade with Afghanistan and has placed a brake on its
trade with Central Asia. While frustrating India, Pakistan has not itself
gained anything much.

However, as Pakistan has now become an advocate of the proposed natural
gas pipeline from Iran to India across its territory, which it earlier
opposed, one can hope that it may adopt a less restrictive approach in the
future. India also has problems on its other flank, where it is compelled
to send goods a long way around Bangladesh to the northeast, adding
substantially to the cost, because the direct route across the neighbor's
territory is not available. Why this should be so is not clear, for both
can benefit from expanded transit arrangements.

The present roundabout way also reduces the scope for further land or rail
access from the northeast to Myanmar. During World War II, there was quite
a bit of road traffic eastward, three roads having been put into operation
to support the allied war effort; these roads are now in decay. Here, as
elsewhere in South Asia, it is a tale of reduced access, breaking of
links, regression. All the countries of the region, in differing degree,
pay a price for the inward-looking policies they have adopted. The region
lags behind regional groups like ASEAN, which has given an example of what
can be done. Nobody in South Asia fails to recognize the value of more
open policies, and there are grandiose plans for major projects, such as
the Asian Railway and the Asian Highway. But nothing has come of it. We
remain boxed in our separate coops while the rest of the world is lowering
barriers, finding advantage and profit in closer association and freer
movement. Yet all of a sudden, hopes of radical change have begun to rise.
The biggest stumbling block to greater regional integration is
Indo-Pakistani hostility, and now that this hostility is in remission, it
is possible to have a comprehensive rethink about all regional issues. A
new South Asian architecture to bring countries closer, one that is proof
against occasional spats and quarrels, can be envisaged today.

National authorities can perhaps be persuaded to let people and goods move
freely, as once they did, and to remove the barriers erected in enmity and
ill will. Memories of a more close-knit era lie not far below the surface
and can readily be revived. As political relations improve, reconnecting
South Asia can become a realistic goal of great practical benefit. Salman
Haidar is a former foreign secretary of India. - Ed.

_______________________

March 30, Toronto Star
Sanctions on Burma should continue

The brutal criminality of the military junta ruling Burma has unified
disparate elements along the American political spectrum. In hearings on
Burma held by subcommittees of the House International Relations Committee
last week, a rare solidarity among both Democrats and Republicans was on
display.

The current regime in Rangoon is complicit in narcotics trafficking,
ethnic cleansing, abuse of ethnic minorities, and the violent suppression
of free speech and political opposition.

In response to a deliberate massacre of fellow democrats travelling last
May with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the Bush
administration last July signed into law tough sanctions that ban imports
from Burma. The House hearings were in preparation for renewal of those
sanctions.

Lorne Craner, the State Department's assistant secretary for human rights,
told the lawmakers that notwithstanding hints about democratization
dropped by the junta's chairman, Than Shwe, the outlaw regime in Rangoon
has not taken steps that would justify the lifting of sanctions.

The junta has intimated it might release Suu Kyi from house arrest in
April. This would be a gesture the people of Burma would welcome.

As much as her compatriots long for the release of Suu Kyi, however, that
will not by itself be enough to justify the lifting of U.S. sanctions on
the junta. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won 80 per cent
of the seats in parliament in a 1990 election - a popular verdict the
military regime still refuses to accept. Until Than Shwe and the other
uniformed thugs on the junta complete what Craner called "an irreversible
transition to democracy," sanctions should remain in place.

Suu Kyi's fellow Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu has written: "As in
South Africa, the people and legitimate leaders of Burma have called for
sanctions ... To dismantle apartheid took not only commitment, faith and
hard work, but also intense international pressure and sanctions."

Tutu's wisdom should be heeded not only by Washington but also by the
European Union, which is considering targeted sanctions on timber and
gems, direct sources of junta revenue.

This is an edited version of an editorial that appeared in the Boston Globe.

_______________________

March 30, Irrawaddy
Burma Getting Attention in US - Tim Shorrock

For a country barred by law from doing business with American companies,
Burma is receiving a lot of attention in the US these days.

The US Supreme Court is scheduled today to hear arguments in a landmark
case in which Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development
Council, or SPDC, plays a central role. The court will hear a business
challenge to an obscure federal law that human rights groups have used to
sue Unocal, the California oil company, for building a pipeline in Burma
that allegedly used slave labor provided by the SPDC.

Unocal, one of the defendants in the Supreme Court case on Burma and an
opponent of US sanctions, has a seat on the board of directors of the
National Bureau, which sponsored the sanctions study, Re-examining US
Relations with Burma.

On March 25, the Bush administration, joined by lawmakers from both the
Democratic and Republican parties, took advantage of a rare congressional
hearing on Burma to sharply criticize the junta for its human rights
record and to demand the renewal of economic sanctions imposed after
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in May.

And a few days before the hearing, the Bush presidential campaign admitted
that its principal merchandiser had illegally sold clothing made in Burma,
and promised not to repeat the mistake. The story was embarrassing because
President George W Bush himself signed the bill banning Burmese imports in
August, citing the continued repression in Burma.

The administration remains committed to the sanctions, Lorne Craner, the
US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor,
told the House International Relations Committee.

"The junta suppresses political dissent through persecution, censorship,
imprisonment, beatings and disappearances," he said.

"Security forces continue to commit extra judicial killings and rape. They
also sharply curtail religious freedom, and security forces systematically
monitor citizens’ movements and communications."

In the midst of these controversies, a group of scholars and researchers
held a forum in Washington the day of the congressional hearing to
challenge US sanctions policy and promote engagement with the Burmese
government.

The forum on "Re-examining US Relations with Burma" was sponsored by the
Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, the National Bureau of Asian Research and
the School of Advanced International Studies, or SAIS, of Johns Hopkins
University.

All of the speakers had contributed to a new study, published by the
National Bureau, which concludes that US policy "is not achieving its
worthy objective—progress toward constitutional change and democratization
in Burma—and may be harming other US strategic interests in Southeast
Asia."

The thrust of the seminar was that sanctions are driving Burma into an
alliance with China and hurting innocent Burmese citizens, particularly
women. Speakers said the junta was making significant progress by signing
ceasefires with rebel groups and drawing a seven-point "road map" for
democracy.

If you have a political agenda, don’t hide it in academic garb. —Kyi May
Kaung, research associate with the Burma Fund

"Burma is in danger of being drawn into China’s sphere of influence," said
Robert H Taylor, who was introduced as a retired professor from the
University of London. A Burma allied with China, he said, would be "bad
for US interests" and damaging as well to the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations and India, both of which he said have opened constructive
dialogues with Burma’s military rulers.

Taylor also accused US officials of generating "misinformation" about
Burma "for political purposes," including spreading rumors that Burma may
be developing a military alliance with North Korea—a charge that was made
by the State Department during the House hearing. Taylor said these
charges are false.

Overall, he said, the US media and the government present a distorted
picture of the reality of Burma. "It’s a much more open society than the
impression you get from the outside," he said.

Taylor may have a reason for his optimism, however. He is a consultant to
Britain’s Premier Oil Co, which until recently had more than 200 million
dollars invested in Burma. The organizers of the seminar did not disclose
that information, however. They also failed to mention that Unocal, one of
the defendants in the Supreme Court case on Burma and an opponent of
sanctions, has a seat on the board of directors of the National Bureau,
which sponsored the sanctions study.

According to the National Bureau’s website, Thomas E Fisher, Unocal’s
senior vice president of commercial affairs, is a member of the
organization’s 19-member board of directors. Fisher’s responsibilities
"include commercial counseling and services for Unocal’s oil, gas, and
electric activities worldwide," the website states.

His involvement with the National Bureau may have accounted for the
presence at the seminar of J William Ichord, the vice president of
Unocal’s Washington office.

Frederick Z Brown, a SAIS professor who moderated the discussion, said he
was unaware of the corporate affiliations. "Maybe it should have been
disclosed," he said, when asked if the ties to Unocal and Premier Oil
should have been made clear by the organizers.

In any case, he said, the intent of the seminar was to "expose the problem
and have a discussion."

Taylor admitted he was a consultant to Premier, which was once the largest
British investor in Burma and was deeply involved in a project to pipe gas
to Thailand from Burma’s Yetagun offshore oil fields. He would not say why
he did not disclose the connection.

During the seminar, David Steinberg, a Georgetown University professor who
once worked in Rangoon for the US Agency for International Development,
said the real intent of US sanctions policy is regime change.

"What we are asking for is in fact unconditional surrender," he said.
"We’re trying to isolate a government that should be opened up to the
world." He urged US officials not to work solely with Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We need to be more circumspect," he said. "Her tactical goals may be
different than US strategic goals."

Kyaw Yin Hlaing, a Burmese citizen who works for the National University
of Singapore, described research he had recently conducted in Burma. Over
the past five months, he said he had visited Burma "six or seven times" to
study the effect of the sanctions.

>From his interviews with young women, he concluded that US sanctions are
forcing many workers out of the textile industry and into prostitution.

"We need to take account of the spillover from the sanctions." The forum
did not have any speakers from the Burmese opposition or anyone who
approved of the sanctions policy.

This drew an objection from Kyi May Kaung, a research associate with the
Burma Fund, a Washington-based group that promotes democratic change in
Burma and supports sanctions as a way to pressure the military government.
Kyi May Kaung, who was in the audience, said the real aim of the seminar
was to influence public opinion ahead of that day’s hearings. "If you have
a political agenda, don’t hide it in academic garb," she said.

John Badgley, a retired professor who edited the National Bureau’s report
on Burma and introduced the panel, did not argue with Kaung. "In a sense,
there’s a truth to that," he said. "We think the timing is right to modify
our policy." The relationship of Unocal and Premier Oil to the seminar was
not discussed during the open forum.

According to the National Bureau’s study of Burma, 70 percent of its 50
million people are engaged in subsistence farming, while industry accounts
for about 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.

Win Min, a Burmese researcher on civil-military affairs in the audience,
said those numbers show that the sanctions have limited affects. "Most
factory owners are military cronies," said Win Min. He said the Burmese
military rulers "don’t like the sanctions because its hurting their
cronies."

_______________________

March 30, Irrawaddy
Protecting Burma’s Biodiversity in the Long-term - Tint Lwin Thaung

The Burmese government’s recent announcement that it has expanded the
Hukaung Valley reserve in Kachin State into the world’s largest tiger
sanctuary has been lauded by the conservation press as a major
achievement. This is part of a larger policy, approved in 1994, to set
aside at least five percent of the country’s land area as protected
reserves by 2010.

There are 33 other gazetted sanctuaries in addition to the huge Kachin
State reserve. The expansion of Hukaung has pushed reserved areas to total
more than five percent of Burma’s land area. This is a good development.
However, to set aside land for conservation purposes is a relatively easy
task compared with the sustained effort required to police, manage and
protect that territory.

The agency responsible for overseeing protected areas is the Nature &
Wildlife Conservation Division of the Forestry Ministry. The division has
1,727 staff and faces many financial, technical and political obstacles in
its work.

To set aside land for conservation purposes is a relatively easy task
compared with the sustained effort required to police, manage and protect
that territory.

Its annual budget is only 60 million kyat (about US $70,000 at the current
exchange rate). That puts annual spending at only a little over US $3 per
square kilometer, far below the spending levels of other developing
countries.

Not all the 34 protected areas even have permanent staff to oversee them.
Few of the wardens have relevant advanced degrees. The Institute of
Forestry is the only professional forestry academy in Burma. It lacks
qualified professional teachers—particularly in the fields of conservation
biology and restoration ecology.

The most important and most difficult issue to address is the political
will of decision-makers. The planning and managing of protected areas is a
weak exercise in Burma. With this mind, it is important to remember that
the objectives of biodiversity conservation in Burma can not be achieved
without addressing the needs of the local people that have traditionally
lived, hunted and foraged in areas that have since become officially
protected.

The government needs to allocate more financial resources to the Nature &
Wildlife Conservation Division, particularly to the training of staff. To
this end, it will attract more international donor assistance if it is
seen to be making progress with political reform. The government should
encourage the emergence of indigenous NGOs that work for nature
conservation and rural development. For international conservation
agencies that want to help Burma protect its ecological heritage,
assistance should include training packages.

Regardless of the political situation, conservation assistance in Burma is
equally as important as humanitarian needs. This is not to support
undemocratic principles, but to help the people of Burma who deserve to
manage their environment through the country’s democratization process. We
all have a stake in maintaining Burma’s biodiversity.

Tint Lwin Thaung, PhD, is a freelance consultant in Australia about forest
restoration and protected areas development.