BurmaNet News, July 10-12, 2004

[Editor]

July 10-12, 2004, Issue # 2514

"We need a full court press on the junta, which must entail the
downgrading of diplomatic relations with the illegitimate State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) by placing its senior representative in
Washington on the next flight to Southeast Asia."
-US Senator Mitch McConnell, as quoted in AFP, July 10, 2004


INSIDE BURMA
Sunday Times: Burma's neglected Aids babies given new hope

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: New life in US Beckons—"But I don't want to leave home"
Health & Medicine Week: Karenni refugees living in Thai-Burmese border
camps experience trauma and poor mental health

BUSINESS
Xinhua: Myanmar to allow Thailand to transit goods to third countries
Xinhua: Myanmar gets large Thai loan for purchasing goods
AP: Airlines report jump in passengers traveling to Burma

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Thaksin pledges AIDS help for neighbors
Nation: Annan reiterates Burma stance
AFP: Indonesia suspects its Myanmar embassy bugged
Xinhua: Roundup: Access for All but not migrant workers
AFP: Malaysia to ask France to stop EU abandoning ASEM process: report

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US Senator calls for downgrade of diplomatic ties with Myanmar
Guardian: Lonely Planet


INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

July 11, Sunday Times (London)
Burma's neglected Aids babies given new hope - Michael Sheridan

Rangoon: The luckiest two-year-old in Burma must be Phyo Min Oo, who
should have been dead by now. He is one of the first toddlers in his
isolated country to be given life-saving drugs to combat the HIV raging in
his tiny frame.

One child's salvation is a symbol of the stark ethical and economic
choices facing doctors and scientists as they gather in Bangkok this
weekend for the world's 15th International Aids Conference.

For only 200 people in Burma are getting the same treatment as Min Oo
-even though at least 180,000 and perhaps as many as 450,000 others in the
country are infected.

Only one international aid group has started to give Burmese patients the
anti-retrovirals -the free drugs he is receiving -that can stop the
disease in its tracks.

The cost is $ 1 (53p) a day. That would be too expensive for most of the
victims and far beyond the finances of Burma's military rulers, who prefer
to spend a large proportion of their budget on Russian warplanes and
Chinese weapons.

Min Oo was dying when his mother, who is also carrying HIV, brought him to
a clinic run by the Dutch section of Medecins Sans Frontieres, the
charity.

"He began the treatment on June 8, when he had tuberculosis, oral
infections, malnutrition and diarrhoea," said a nurse, consulting his
file. "As you can see, he has done very well."

Mother and child squatted on the floor of the clinic, a collection of
bamboo huts perched above the monsoon mud in a shanty town called Hlaing
Thar Yar on the outskirts of Rangoon, the child gazing mutely around him
while his mother smiled and cooed in his ear.

Another little boy, Aung Thet Aung, 4, started the complex triple drug
therapy on March 1, when tuberculosis was ravaging his body. Now he
bounced around and wolfed his mid-morning snack under the watchful eye of
his mother, who is also receiving the free drugs.

"We have had some very hard decisions in choosing which patients get the
therapy," said Per Bjorkman, a Swedish specialist who treats them. "We
have been besieged. Some people have walked for four or five hours to
reach our clinics but the resources are limited."

It is only an hour by plane from the air-conditioned conference halls in
Bangkok in which 15,000 delegates will gather today, but Hlaing Thar Yar,
where sex is traded for survival amid the shanties, might as well be in
another world.

Children such as Khin Myat Noo, 7, orphaned by Aids and now fighting the
disease herself, are at the sharp end of the abstract debates about
priorities on the conference agenda.

She sat on her cousin's lap while Bjorkman used his stethoscope to detect
the treacherous traces of pneumonia remaining in her left lung. If she is
to survive to adulthood, she will have to take the anti-retrovirals until
researchers find a substitute drug or a cure.

Until recently, there was a consensus that money should go into education
and prevention to save untold millions from getting Aids, rather than on
trying to save those already fatally ill.

But the discovery of anti-retrovirals -whose cost and availability became
a global political issue at the Aids conference in Durban four years ago
-has changed the moral equation.

"Until we had the triple therapy there was little we could do to give
hope," explained Bjorkman. "Now we can give hope, there are a whole new
set of problems."

Here in the fetid shanties of Rangoon, those problems pose an acute
dilemma for Bjorkman and his colleagues. How open-ended is their
commitment to Min Oo, the two-year-old with the luminous eyes, and the
rest of the lucky few?

"Okay, there is a debate about prevention doing more good than treatment,"
acknowledged Frank Smithuis, a bluff Dutchman who heads Medecins Sans
Frontieres in Burma. "But if you're not careful you find it has paralysed
you to the extent you do nothing."

Smithuis negotiated hard with the Burmese regime -which until recently
refused to admit that the country had an Aids crisis -and won approval for
the trial, which aims to treat 500 people by next year.

After three years, he hopes to hand over their care to the government
system. By then Burma should be reaping the benefits of a massive new
United Nations programme that should transform the children's prospects.

Britain, the programme's principal provider of funds, has set aside its
aversion to the military junta to commit £10m; and the BBC World Service
is broadcasting a weekly soap opera to Burma in which rural doctors fight
superstition and ignorance about HIV.

Such intervention is still politically sensitive for the regime.
Large-scale UN programmes also raise questions about the bureaucracy of
Aids, which some doctors in the field believe has spread as remorselessly
as the virus itself.

The organisers of the Bangkok conference are not afraid of controversies:
free condoms will be handed out to delegates and there are plans for a
go-go dancing show by professional sex workers.

But the event itself has attracted criticism. It will cost more than
Pounds 7.7m to stage -a breathtaking figure when contrasted to the 53p a
day needed to keep these Burmese children alive.


ON THE BORDER
______________________________________

July 12, Irrawaddy
New life in US Beckons—"But I don't want to leave home" - Ye Ni

For Aung Naing Oo, diagnosed with HIV, the reasons for taking
antiretroviral, or ARV, treatment are obvious: he wants to prolong his
life.

However, "I haven’t taken the medication yet," he says. Like many other
Burmese people living with HIV, he suffers from a lack of access to the
drugs.

This lack comes at a time when the XV International AIDS conference -
whose motto is "Access for all"- will be held in Bangkok from July 11 to
16, focusing on improved access to AIDS prevention, treatment and
resources.

The 37-year-old Burmese man has lived for years in the crowded market area
of Mae Sot, a city in Thailand near the border with Burma. Mae Sot,
sometimes known as “Little Burma,” serves as a hub for Burmese who flee
their home country for political and economic reasons.

It is often busy and noisy in the Mae Sot market. Burmese migrant workers
sip Burmese teas and sing karaoke songs. Sitting with his friends in a tea
shop, Aung Naing Oo, a small, thin man, seems relaxed. He cracks jokes
about his health situation: "Oh, I have three-word and two-word diseases."
In the language of the streets, “four-word” means AIDS, “three-word” HIV,
and “two-word” TB.

Before coming to the Thai-Burma border, Aung Naing Oo worked as an office
assistant in the government telecommunication head office in Rangoon. His
life changed in 1988, the year a nation-wide democracy uprising, followed
by a bloody army coup, rocked Burma. Having joined the pro-democracy
agitators, he fled to the border.

In 1991, Aung Naing Oo came to Bangkok. He was recognized as "a person of
concern" by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR.

Living with friends in Bangkok, Aung Naing Oo began to inject drugs
available on the streets. "At first, I wanted to know the feeling of it.
But then I wanted to shoot again and again," he said.

His friends, who died of AIDS several years ago, never stopped using drugs
even though they were infected with HIV. "When we got heroin, we all
shared the same needle and syringe."

After realizing he had HIV, Aung Naing Oo got counseling from the UNHCR
and stopped using drugs. However, although he was treated for TB, he never
received treatment for HIV.

He is not alone.

Dr. Cynthia Maung is a renowned Karen doctor who runs a clinic along the
Thai-Burma border, providing free treatment to Burmese migrant workers and
refugees. Although her clinic treats a host of diseases and injuries -
from land-mine and gunshot wounds, to malaria, to psychological trauma –
it is unable to start any treatment for the increasing number of HIV
patients it receives. "If we start antiretroviral treatment, we have to
work hard. For instance, we need to build up our skills and we need
community participation," she said.

Unfortunately, the community’s knowledge about HIV prevention and
treatment is scant. "They don't know about antiretroviral treatment. They
don’t even think they need a condom, if they get it," said Maw Maw Zaw, a
field education officer with Migrant Assistant Program, or MAP, in Chiang
Mai, Thailand.

In addition, there is confusion about using the drugs in places where they
are available. "Some people told me that they could buy daily
antiretroviral treatment for 70,000kyats (2,800bahts or 70USD) in Burma,”
said Maw Maw Zaw, describing how people can procure ARV drugs
over-the-counter without proper prescriptions. In these cases, the
patients do not necessarily know the appropriate dosages to use and may
inadvertently harm themselves.

Finally, Maw Maw Zaw is concerned with tracking the health of HIV patients
who return to Burma.

Despite the difficulties in treating the virus, the Burmese community in
Mae Sot has taken a more accepting attitude towards people living with
HIV.

Aung Naing Oo is thankful to his friends at the market place. Without
their support, he says, he would not have lived long. "Everyone knows I
have HIV 
 I feel that people here treat me nicely."

However, due to the lack of ARV drugs in Mae Sot, he has decided to leave
Thailand, having recently been accepted into a U.S. resettlement program.
During his interview at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok, officials promised
him that he would be provided with regular treatment once he leaves
Thailand.

He will dearly miss Mae Sot and the friends who treated him warmly.

"I don't want to go. I want to live here. But I have no choice."

______________________________________

July 12, Health & Medicine Week
Karenni refugees living in Thai-Burmese border camps experience trauma and
poor mental health.

"In June 2001, we assessed mental health problems among Karenni refugees
residing in camps in Mae Hong Son, Thailand, to determine the prevalence
of mental illness, identify risk factors, and develop a culturally
appropriate intervention program. A systematic random sample was used with
stratification for the three camps; 495 people aged 15 years or older from
317 households participated. We constructed a questionnaire that included
demographic characteristics, culture-specific symptoms of mental illness,
the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, and
selected questions from the SF-36 Health Survey," scientists in the United
States report.

"Mental health outcome scores indicated elevated levels of depression and
anxiety symptoms; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scores were
comparable to scores in other communities affected by war and
persecution," said Barbara Lopes Cardozo and collaborators at the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the International Rescue
Committee in Thailand. "Psychosocial risk factors for poorer mental health
and social functioning outcomes were insufficient food, higher number of
trauma events, previous mental illness, and landmine injuries."

The researchers concluded, "Modifications in refugee policy may improve
social functioning, and innovative mental health and psychosocial programs
need to be implemented, monitored, and evaluated for efficacy."

Cardozo and her coauthors published their study in Social Science and
Medicine (Karenni refugees living in Thai-Burmese border camps: traumatic
experiences, mental health outcomes, and social functioning. Soc Sci Med,
2004;58(12):2637-2644).

For additional information, contact Barbara Lopes Cardozo, National Center
for Environmental Health, International Emergency and Refugee Health
Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway,
NE, Mailstop F-48, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA. E-mail: bhc8 at cdc.gov.


BUSINESS
______________________________________

July 12, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar to allow Thailand to transit goods to third countries

Yangon: Myanmar will soon allow export goods of Thailand to transit
through the country in the latter's trade with third countries such as
China, India and Bangladesh, a local news journal reported Monday.

Quoting the Ministry of Commerce, the Myanmar News Gazette said Myanmar
will become a transit trade center providing trade access for Thailand to
the three third countries, all of which stand as Myanmar's immediate
neighbors with direct border links.

Meanwhile, commerce officials of Myanmar and Thailand discussed in late
last month the relaxation of tariff on Myanmar's exports to Thailand,
aimed at boosting bilateral border trade, said the report.

Latest official statistics show that in the fiscal year 2003-04 ended in
March, Myanmar's foreign trade volume amounted to 4.4 billion US dollars,
of which its bilateral trade with the four neighbors accounted for 2.02
billion or 46 percent with Thailand topping with 1.16 billion, India 463
million, China 362.81 million and Bangladesh 42.21 million.

However, in Myanmar's 531.34 million dollars border trade with the four
neighbors during the fiscal year, China led with 340.98 million dollars,
followed by Thailand with 99.25 million, India with 83.46 million and
Bangladesh 7.65 million.

Myanmar has so far opened a total of 13 border trade points with its four
neighbors, of which five with China, four with Thailand, two each with
India and Bangladesh, holding a good position to provide transit trade for
third countries.

______________________________________

July 11, Xinhua News Service
Myanmar gets large Thai loan for purchasing goods

Yangon: Myanmar has got 4 billion-baht (100 million US dollars) loan from
Thailand for purchasing Thai goods and services for use in road and
infrastructural improvement, a local news journal reported Sunday.

The preferential export financing loan was provided by the Export Import
Bank of Thailand under an agreement reached with the Myanmar Foreign Trade
Bank late last month, the Thai bank was quoted by the Myanmar Times as
saying.

The 12-year Thai loan agreement followed talks of leaders between Thailand
and Myanmar at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in Bali last October, the sources disclosed.

The loan package constitutes part of the 250 million dollars' loan for
Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia pledged by Thailand under an economic
cooperation strategy agreed at a summit of the four countries in Myanmar's
Bagan last November.

In recent years, Myanmar-Thailand bilateral trade has witnessed a growth,
amounting to 1.5 billion dollars in 2003, the highest among Myanmar's
bilateral trade with other ASEAN members.

Meanwhile, Thailand's investment in Myanmar reached 1.31 billion dollars
as of the end of 2003, ranking the third after Singapore and Britain.

______________________________________

July 12, Associated Press
Airlines report jump in passengers traveling to Burma

Rangoon: Visitor numbers to Burma have surged in recent months as interest
in Asian destinations among tourists continues to grow, a semi-official
newspaper reported Monday.

Myanmar Airways International or MAI and other airlines, including Silk
Air, Thai Airways and Malaysian Airlines have reported growth of 10 to 90
percent in passengers traveling to and from Burma between April and June
from a year earlier, The Myanmar Times reported.

The newspaper didn't provide figures on passenger numbers, but last week
it reported that more than 200,000 visitors visited Burma in 2003 through
the capital Rangoon and airports in the northern cities of Mandalay and
Bagan. Some 59 percent were from Asia, 28 percent from Western Europe and
the rest from elsewhere.

Nearly 400,000 people, including day-return visitors, entered through Thai
and Chinese border checkpoints, it said.

A sales representative for Thai Airways, Tin Tun Oo, said the increase of
passengers was in line with "a global trend which included greater
interest in Asian destinations" among foreign tourists.

Burma hopes to attract up to one million tourists annually, but received
just over 480,000 foreign travelers in 2002 who spent US$100 million.

Many foreign tourists shun Burma because of its military government's poor
human rights record including the ongoing detention of pro-democracy
leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.


REGIONAL
______________________________________

July 12, Agence France Presse
Indonesia suspects its Myanmar embassy bugged

Jakarta: Indonesia suspects that telephone lines at its embassy in
military-ruled Myanmar may have been bugged, a official said Monday. An
investigation in June by a security team from Jakarta found that the
electronic frequency of lines in the ambassador's and the security
attache's rooms was lower than normal, said a foreign ministry spokesman,
Yuri Thamrin.

"There's a strong indication (of bugging) but we have to look into this
further. If it's proven it's regrettable and we will lodge a protest,"
Tharin told AFP.

He said Myanmar's ambassador in Jakarta would be summoned to clarify the
matter.

But Thamrin denied an allegation made by a legislator that the wall of the
ambassador's office had been fitted with listening devices.

"There was no listening device or bugging receiver fitted to the wall," he
said.

Djoko Susilo, a member of a parliamentary commission on foreign affairs,
called the alleged bugging a "stab in the back" and suggested that
Indonesia reduce its representation from ambassador to charge d'affaires.

He said Indonesia had always stood by the Myanmar junta against
international criticism and economic sanctions imposed for detaining
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Susilo said Myanmar intelligence services apparently wanted to know the
real position of Indonesia and the Association of the Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) on the issue of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Indonesia relinquished the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN after the annual
meeting on June 30 of the group's foreign ministers.

Political developments in Myanmar, which takes over the chairmanship in
2006 under the alphabetical rotation, were a major topic with some
countries seeking a tougher line against the junta.

The ministers called in a communique for a smooth transition to democracy
but made no mention of Aung San Suu Kyi. The European Union criticised the
statement, saying it failed to call for concrete actions.

______________________________________

July 12, The Nation
Annan reiterates Burma stance - Rungrawee C Pinyorat

Visiting United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday reiterated
that he would like to see progress in the national reconciliation and
democratisation process in military-ruled Burma.

Annan expressed concerned over the situation in Burma and said he would
like Thailand and Asean to encourage Burma to proceed with national
reconciliation, "which should be all inclusive", Foreign Ministry
spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said.

Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai held 30 minutes of talks with Annan
at a hotel in Bangkok. Annan is here to attend the 15th International Aids
Conference.

Sihasak said that Annan would like Bangkok to consider the possibility of
organising a second round of the "Bangkok Process", the forum to discuss
how the international community can assist Burma achieve national
reconciliation and democratisation.

The forum was originally planned for April but abruptly cancelled after
the Burmese government decided not to take part, saying they were "busy
with the National Convention".

Sihasak said that Thailand had yet to bring up the issue of reorganising
the forum to their Burmese counterparts.

On Iraq, Surakiart said that Thailand would work with the UN in the effort
to reconstruct the war-torn country.

Annan stressed the need for the international community to come together
to stabilise the situation in Iraq and the various roles of the UN in that
task during his talk with Surakiart.

Annan also thanked Thailand for sending troops to help with peacekeeping
operations in East Timor during the transition period of nation building.
He also asked Thailand to encourage more enterprises to do business in
East Timor to help the country to develop.

______________________________________

July 11, Xinhua News Service
Roundup: Access for All but not migrant workers - Ma Guihua

Bangkok: While "Access for All", the theme for the on-going international
AIDS Conference, is flashed along the streets of Bangkok these days,
insiders observe disbelievingly the fact that migrant workers have been
denied access to the meeting.

Irene Fernadez, Malaysian lawyer and activist in safeguarding migrant
workers' rights, on Monday called for a protest against the Thai
government for barring migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to
participate in the biennial gathering.

If they cross provinces and travel to Bangkok, they might be arrested, she
complained at a satellite session on empowering migrant workers and
reducing HIV/AIDS vulnerability, which was organized by Raks Thai
Foundation, which is CARE in Thailand.

She referred this to one of the challenges in the course of empowering
migrants, adding it not only happens in Thailand, but in many other
receiving countries of migrant workers.

Rapid economic development in some Asian countries has lured many people,
mostly young, to leave their homeland in search of the greener pasture.
While some move from rural areas to cities, others cross their national
border. Malaysia has become the biggest receiving country for migrants in
Asia, with a total of 3 million foreign migrants.

There is strong link between various kinds of mobility and heightened risk
of HIV. However, while there is a widespread prejudice that migrants
'bring AIDS with them', the fact is that many migrants move from low HIV
prevalence areas to those with higher prevalence, increasing their own
risk of being exposed to the virus, says the 2004 Report on the Global
AIDS Epidemic issued by UNAIDS.

HIV-related risk often depends on the reason for mobility. The report
cites a recent study in India, which found 16 percent of truck drivers
working a route in the south were HIV/ positive, compared with adult
national HIV prevalence of below 1 percent. In Sri Lanka, housemaids who
have returned from working in the Middle East account for about half of
reported HIV cases.

Armed conflicts can increase HIV risk in a very short time as thousands
are forced to flee their homes and communities, it adds.

Women who migrate specially to sell sex in large cities where demand is
high are at the highest risk. In India, according to " AIDS in Asia: Face
the Facts" a book compiled by Monitoring the AIDS Pandemic Network (MAP),
one-quarter of sex workers said they had sold sex in more than one area,
and one-third said they sometimes traveled to other towns to sell sex.

The fact that most migrant workers don't have legal documents or work
permits have left them in an unfavorable condition further in terms of HIV
prevention.

Take Thailand for instance, said Promboon Panitchpakdi, executive director
of the Raks Thai Foundation, there are an estimated 2.5 million migrants
from neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, but only 288,780 are registered.
All unregistered workers including their dependents and children are
excluded from the health benefits granted through registration.

"Language barriers, a negative public perception due to their status as
illegal immigrants have left them marginalized without access to
information or public services," he added.

What's more, the government has no programs for the migrant population
because it has no "political interest" in them, which leaves the whole job
to non-government organizations.

Situation in Malaysia is no different. As Fernadez told the audience,
migrant workers are not in the national agenda for HIV prevention. There
isn't enough focus given to them. In current programs designed for
migrants, individual intervention is highlighted whereas the policy and
structural element is ignored.

"But every time UNAIDS issues a global report, we can see an increase in
infection (for this population)."

Their inability to secure a place in the receiving countries and sometimes
even within their own countries, leaves them even more vulnerable to HIV
infection and related health problems. Those who do become infected often
find themselves caught in- between, unable to access treatment and care
where they are, or return and reintegrate into their home communities.

In her view, HIV/AIDS is no more a health concern than it's a development
issue. "Unless we have a rights-based approach, and recognize migrant
workers' rights, which must become part of the policy advocacy, we cannot
talk about their empowerment," she noted.

The key issue in the HIV debate is the mandatory testing. The question is
that if a migrant worker is tested, he or she is deported, and the access
to treatment is completely denied.

The Malaysian called for joint actions among countries in the region to
challenge institutions that deny migrant workers' rights. "Such
discrimination has denied them access to program, information, care and
treatment," she said.

Promboon, who has been directing a five-year program aimed at
intervention, appealed for scaling up NGO programs, strengthening public
health system and creating a sense of community for migrants.

"Only so doing, we can influence the policy makers," he said.

Since migration may create vulnerability to HIV exposure at both ends of
the trail, prevention at the receiving end can also benefit the source
countries. But all this takes strong political will.

______________________________________

July 10, Agence France Presse
Malaysia to ask France to stop EU abandoning ASEM process: report

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia will ask France to try to prevent the European
Union from abandoning the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) scheduled for Vietnam
in October, a report said Saturday.

"The process must be allowed to continue. We hope the summit will still go
on," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was quoted as saying by the Star
newspaper.

Syed Hamid said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would
convey the message to French President Jacques Chirac when the two leaders
meet in Paris later this month.

The process had proved to be mutually beneficial to both parties, he said,
adding that he believed it would be unfortunate if the meeting were
cancelled.

Some EU nations are opposed to military-ruled Myanmar's ASEM membership on
the basis that it should lift restrictions on opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi as a condition of being in the group.

The EU is one of the fiercest critics of Myanmar's military, which has
ruled the country since 1962 and continues to keep democracy leader and
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

In contrast, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations has
taken a much lower-profile stance in dealing with Myanmar, leading to
accusations the group is soft on the issue.

An ASEM finance ministers' gathering in Brussels in July and a September
meeting of the group's economy ministers in Rotterdam have been cancelled,
casting doubt over the October summit.

UN envoy Razali Ismail warned Tuesday that trade between ASEAN and the
European Union was being affected by a continued political deadlock over
Myanmar.

______________________________________

July 12, Irrawaddy
Thaksin pledges AIDS help for neighbors - Naw Seng

Bangkok: Thailand pledged to assist neighboring countries fight AIDS in a
keynote address Sunday to the largest international conference ever held
on the disease.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told the opening session of the XV
International AIDS Conference in Bangkok his country was increasing the
production of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs and would be able to supply
sufferers in Burma, Cambodia and Laos.

Speaking to nearly 20,000 delegates from around the world, Thaksin also
announced that his government would donate one million U.S. dollars
annually for the next five years to a United Nations-launched fund to
combat AIDS, and he called on other governments to take similar steps.

''We are now in the process of offering support to our neighboring
countries for ARV treatment,'' the prime minister told policy makers,
health officials, activists and the media. ''We can provide ARV to all".

ARV treatment, which can extend the life expectancy of people with the HIV
virus, costs about 1,300 baht (US$32.50) per month in Thailand. The drug
has the potential of dramatically slowing the escalating worldwide death
rate from AIDS, which has so far killed an estimated 20 million people.

In a departure from his government's policy, Thaksin also promised to
recognize drug users in Thailand as people who need care and treatment.
The Thai AIDS prevention policy up to now has focused on providing condoms
to sex workers, although statistics show that more than half of
intravenous drug users are HIV infected.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, another keynote speaker, highlighted the
impact of HIV/AIDS on women, who now make up nearly 50 percent of adults
who contract the disease. He said the world needed to pay more attention
to women and children living with AIDS.

Annan urged the international community to do more to stem the rise of the
epidemic, which has profoundly affected Africa and now poses a serious
threat to Asia.

More than seven million people in Asia are living with HIV/AIDS, the
second worst affected region in the world after Africa. About 500,000 died
of AIDS last year in Asia and 1.1 million contracted HIV.

Nearly 12 percent of the world's 38 million people living with HIV/AIDS,
or 4.6 million, are in India. Only South Africa has more victims. In
China, where the virus has spread to all 31 provinces, 10 million people
may be infected by HIV by 2010 unless effective action is taken, according
to the agency UNAIDS.

Dr Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, said: ''This conference must be a wake-up
call to Asian leaders.'' He hoped that the conference would provide a
boost for leaders—whether government officials, scientists or community
leaders—to take action.

One global leader in AIDS research, the United States, came under fire at
the Bangkok session for sending a downsized delegation of only 50
delegates, a fraction of the 236 who attended the last conference in
Barcelona, Spain, in 2002.

Dr Joep Lange, co-chairman of the conference and president of the
International AIDS Society (IAS), described Washington's decision to cut
the size of its delegation as political "strategy" and called it
counterproductive.

The United States countered that it just wanted to cut costs. It spent
US$3.6 million dollars on the Barcelona conference. The bill this time is
US$500,000.


INTERNATIONAL
______________________________________

July 10, Agence France Presse
US Senator calls for downgrade of diplomatic ties with Myanmar - P.
Parameswaran

Washington: A senior US senator who spearheaded a campaign for Washington
to impose trade sanctions against Myanmar for human rights abuses is now
calling for the downgrading of diplomatic relations with the
military-ruled state.

Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican lawmaker and the Senate's majority
whip, said Myanmar's ambassador in Washington should be expelled because
the junta had refused to heed international calls for the release of the
country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

"We need a full court press on the junta, which must entail the
downgrading of diplomatic relations with the illegitimate State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) by placing its senior representative in
Washington on the next flight to Southeast Asia," he said in a tough
statement.

The SPDC is the official name of the junta, which has never allowed Aung
San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) to rule even though it
scored a landslide victory in what the international community considered
free and fair elections in 1990.

Aung San Suu Kyi is currently more than a year into her third period of
house arrest.

Since 1990, the United States has not appointed an ambassador to Myanmar
and kept its diplomatic representation in Yangon at the charge d'affairs
level.

"We do not have a US Ambassador in Rangoon (Yangon's previous name); the
junta should not have one here," said McConnell, whose resolution to renew
import sanctions against Myanmar was overwhelmingly approved by the
Senate.

President George W. Bush signed the law earlier this week renewing the
sanctions for a further period of 12 months.

McConnell said the quick action of both Congress and the president on the
matter underscored America's commitment to freedom and justice in Myanmar,
formerly Burma.

He said he ran into Myanmar's ambassador in Washington, Linn Myaing, at a
US national day celebration at the State Department on July 4 and that he
had told him to free Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I find it incredible that someone from such an odious regime would be
invited to celebrate the independence of the freest country in the world,"
he said.

"Someone is clearly asleep at the wheel over in Foggy Bottom," he said,
referring to the State Department which is located there.

McConnell, the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate, also said
he was pleased that some US allies in the European Union (EU) took a
"principled stand" by rejecting Myanmar's participation in the Asia-Europe
Meeting (ASEM).

Some EU nations are opposed to Myanmar's entry unless it lifts
restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi.

An ASEM finance ministers' meeting scheduled this month and a September
gathering of the group's economy ministers has already been cancelled over
the dispute, which had threatened to cast a near-permanent shadow over
diplomatic ties between ASEAN and Europe.

In 2006, Myanmar is expected to assume the chairmanship of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"There could be no greater loss of face to ASEAN or the region," McConnell
said.

______________________________________

July 12, The Guardian
Lonely Planet

Why? Producing a travel guide to Burma

The junta that rules Burma, in defiance of an election result against it,
is a particularly nasty one. According to Burma Campaign UK, tourism is an
important source of income to the regime, while many of the country's
tourist facilities were developed using forced labour. By producing a
guide to Burma, says the campaign, Lonely Planet encourages visitors,
thereby contributing to the dictatorship. Burma Campaign advises that
people should not buy Lonely Planet guides, opting instead for publishers
such as Rough Guides, which do not cover Burma.

Andy Riddle, sales and marketing director for Lonely Planet Publications
Europe, says: "Lonely Planet supports the aims of Burma Campaign UK. This
is a disagreement about tactics, not objectives. We provide objective
information to travellers so they can make informed decisions about the
complex issue of whether to travel to Burma, including explicit
condemnation of the abominable regime. We show people who decide to visit
the country how they can travel responsibly."