BurmaNet News, December 21, 2004

[Editor]

December 21, 2004, Issue # 2624


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar market blast kills one, injures another: witnesses
Kao Wao News: Living standard improves in Monland
Narinjara News: SPDC Culture Minister's visit to ancient pagodas of Arakan
leaves local astrologers worried

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Trafficking on the Thai-Burma border
Irrawaddy: The sex-for-sale trap

REGIONAL
Reuters: Myanmar courted despite human rights record

INTERNATIONAL
European Voice: Commission under pressure over Total business in Burma
Japan Times: Detainees seeking asylum claim abuse by guards
Japan Economic Newswire: Myanmar woman, separated from children, released
from detention

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Political reforms needed

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 21, Agence France Presse
Myanmar market blast kills one, injures another: witnesses

Yangon: At least one person was killed and another injured Tuesday when an
explosion ripped through a restaurant inside a popular Yangon market,
witnesses said.

The explosion occurred in the Dawgyig House restaurant inside Bogyoke Aung
San market, said a vendor near the site of the blast.

"It happened about 2 o'clock (0730 GMT) and it sounded like a bomb," he
told AFP. "One man was killed and another injured."

An AFP reporter at the scene said hundreds of shoppers and vendors were
being moved out of the market by dozens of police who had put up a tight
security cordon around the restaurant.

"We are evacuating the market and making sure everyone is out," a security
official told AFP. He would not confirm if anyone had been killed or
injured by the blast.

The market was said to be busier than normal as it was commemorating its
anniversary.

_____________________________________

December 21, Kao Wao News
Living standard improves in Monland - Cham Toik

Central Mon State enjoys a better standard of living due to a thriving
economy and an increase in population in sharp contrast to other areas of
Burma.

Many villagers are promoted to towns and have become more populated.  The
streets are bustling with activity, new motorcycles and vehicles roar up
and down the streets, new houses are being built and old ones renovated
according to former residents of the area who recently visited there. 
Several karaoke bars are packed with young people, including Mon, Burmese
and Thai patrons.  All who travel frequently and conveniently to Rangoon,
Moulmein and other cities for shopping and dealing business enjoy freedom
of movement, a rare commodity in Burma.

A former resident, a Mon Canadian, said local civilians appear to be
content with their daily lives and show little interest in discussing
politics despite the Burmese government’s strict rules and suppression. 
Relatives working abroad support family businesses and activities.  Most
villages in Mon State have cell phones and use them to communicate with
their families and relatives working in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,
North America, Australia, and Europe.

Since thousands have left for economic reasons and human rights violations
committed by the military regime, communities face a shortage of farm
laborers.  Thousands of internal migrant workers from the delta region
(Myitwa Kyunbaw) and upper Burma (Ahnyar) flock to Mon State and work in
the rice fields and rubber plantations to fill in quotas.

Migrant workers told Kaowao, who just arrived in Thailand, that the daily
wages for a farm laborer is about 3,000 Kyat a day in villages in Thanbyu
Zayat Township while wages in Rangoon are half that and 500 Kyat in upper
Burma.  With such economic disparity as well as milder weather in Mon
State, many adults and young people from other areas flock down to work in
the fishing and agriculture industries.

“They work hard, save their money and then go back home like us (local Mon
people) who go to Thailand and bring back some money,” said Awin from
Durae in Ye.

 “When I came here, I expected to see only older people and women in the
village.  But I was really surprised to see many different kinds of
people in the markets.  Ten years ago there were no Burmese speaking
people in my village.  But now, I hear many people speaking Burmese, some
have married the local Mon people to settle here and buy some land,” said
Kloy Toi who works in Thailand’s Maharchai fishing factories on his
recent visit back home in Ye Township.

Many travelers and local people from Thanbyu Zayat and Ye Townships
confirm their lives are improving; they can easily travel to the city by
cars.  In the past, traveling was very difficult except for the
Ye-Moulmein railroad, which stretches for about 100 miles from Moulmein to
Ye.  Many people now own motorcycles and most monasteries have their own
cars for getting around.

“Before the cease-fire agreement, we had to flee from the Burma Army when
they came to our area.  Now there is no fighting and it is peaceful.  I
have not seen (Burmese) soldiers in years,” said Nai Kyaw Zin, a local
farmer from Andin.

In Moulmein and Rangoon, people wear red sarongs (Mon traditional dress)
and bargain for goods in the market.  Various Mon publications have
increased compared to a decade ago.  Several publications in Mon language,
including journals, magazines, textbooks and a range of music in CDs and
tapes are easily found in the cities and villages.  Nai Een said he had to
steer clear of many hawkers approaching him to sell their products.  “Of
course, there is a scrutiny board and censorship but there are many more
publications compared to 8 years ago,” he commented.

Nonetheless, there are good and bad aspects, two sides to the story. 
While some have grown complacent from their living standard and cultural
rights, other villagers in Mon State, especially in southern Ye, are
subjected to corruption and human rights violations committed by the local
authorities.

Several political communities and the Mon Buddhist Sangha concluded that
the SPDC government is unsympathetic to their needs and exercises complete
control over Monland by expanding its army.  The ceasefire agreement
between the NMSP and the junta has led to no political solution and the
people have gained little.

The Burma Army and militia groups (PyiThuSit) march in to confiscate
thousands of acres in Mon State.  The land is stolen from the people
outright, with no compensation.  Civilians are told to leave or they face
arrest and torture. Once productive Monland is turned into military
battalions or the BA keeps the farm business for themselves.

“During these past years the Burma Army has confiscated over 8,000 acres
of land and built military bases, many outsiders flock to Mon state and
work here replacing the local work force that fled, the population
transfer is a new challenge here,” said a senior member of the New Mon
State Party.  Soldiers, militias and counter insurgency forces have
increased in Mon State.  Over ten military regiments are expanded over
into Ye and Thanbyu Zayat areas after 1995, the year the ceasefire
agreement came into being.

_____________________________________

December 21, Narinjara News
SPDC Culture Minister's visit to ancient pagodas of Arakan leaves local
astrologers worried

Akyab, Dec 21: Maj- Gen Kyi Aung, the Culture Minister of the military
government recently made an astonishing visit to Arakan State, where he
inspected a number of renovated ancient pagodas built by Arakanese kings
in several of Arakan's past dynasties.

It was a rare occurance for a Burmese minister to visit so many sites of
the Arakanese ancient pagodas.

"The recent visit of the Culture Minister was really astonishing for the
Arakan people because he went to a number of ancient pagodas. Previously,
no Burmese ministers have ever been there," said a local monk.

On December 12 and 13 he visited the Kaung- Hmudaw Pagoda, built by King
Minbar in Ponnagyun Township and the excavation site of the ancient city
of Danyawady, which is near the Mah Muni Buddha Image, that existed
between BC 3325 and AD 325, in the Kyauk Taw Township.

He also visited the Laungkyettaung Mawshwekyetpha Pagoda, Koethaung Stupa,
Phayaoak Pagoda and Mingaung Shwetu Pagoda, Cheinkaik Tri-Pitaka Chamber,
Andaw Ordination Hall and Laymyethna Pagoda in Mrauk Oo Township, the last
city of the Arakan dynasty.

Lastly, he also visited the renovation of Mould Nos 1, 2 and 5 of the
ancient city of Vesali, and the ancient heritage sites in Vesali and
Pauktaw villages under the Mrauk Oo Township.

On December 14, the Minister inspected the Cultural Museum of the
Department of Cultural Institute and the Buddhology Museum of the
Department of Archaeology in Akyab, or Sittway.

"The Minister's visit to Arakan may indicate that the SPDC military
government has a plan to soon renovate Arakanese ancient pagodas and it is
not seen to be just talk, as in previous times," said a local monk.

Arakanese astrologers worry, however, about the renovation of these
ancient pagodas because in the past the SPDC has substituted Burmese
architecture into the ancient Arakanese style pagodas and stupas.

The monk said that "All Arakanese were angered when the SPDC's renovation
of Shithound Pagoda, or Ran Aungzaya, one of largest pagodas in Arakan,
modernized it to look like a Burmese style pagoda with the Semen. Inside
the pagodas there had been 80,000 old Buddha images. The pagoda was built
by King Mibar in the 15th century after the conquer of Dhaka, under the
Muslim king."

He said, "Burmese and Arakanese architecture is very different. They
should renovate the pagodas by Arakanese architectural standards."

He compared Buddha's image in Burmese culture where the Buddha statue's
ear touch his shoulder, where as an Arakanese made Buddha statue's ears do
not touch. There are many cultural differences between the Arakanese and
Burmese styles because Arakan State was a sovereign Asian country before
1874.

Arakan is a land rich in it's heritage, where there are over 5 million
ancient images of Buddha and pagodas, most of which have been damaged and
deteriorating for a long time, without any renovations or restorations.

A local resident of Mrauk Oo said in the past, the SPDC was not willing to
renovate ancient Arakanese pagodas but now their mind is changing and
their attention has turned to the ancient Arakanese pagodas, similar to
what they did with Pagan.

He did not remark on the reasons behind the SPDC's willingness to renovate
the Arakan pagodas.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 21, Irrawaddy
Trafficking on the Thai-Burma border - Colin Baynes

Tachileik and Mae Sai: Informal Burmese networks supply teenaged girls to
customers of Thailand’s commercial sex industry.

Michael, a Burmese man, spoke with little remorse. As he gazed at the
brothel, behind dark sunglasses, from the backseat of a tuk-tuk his voice
barely wavered from its matter-of-fact tone.

A girl was loitering in front of the compound, before a wall decorated
with Chinese graffiti. Pointing to her, he uttered: “Two weeks ago for
2,000 baht I took a girl like that across the border to give to foreign
customers.”

Michael lives in the Burmese border town of Tachilek, which abuts Mae Sai,
Thailand. He vows to have ended his career as a child trafficking agent,
having seen his partner in crime sentenced to 16 years in prison. Michael
now sells cigarettes and serves as a freelance tour guide to foreigners.

Human trafficking can be especially lucrative for agents, he says, as they
get paid for both bringing the girl first to Tachilek and then across the
border. According to Michael, agents also get a cut of the trafficked
girls’ earnings once they enter prostitution.

“Half of the money goes to the brothel owner
 some comes to the agents and
more to the girl’s family
 the girl is left with nothing but diseases and
she cannot go back home.”

“Most of [the trafficked girls] that become prostitutes come through Mae
Sai,” says Aye Aye Maw of Social Action for Women, or SAW. “This is
because many girls from Shan State come to Thailand to flee the civil war.
Thais and foreigners think they are more beautiful also—if you make them
look good, people will think that they are real Thai.”

Along with brothel owners, customers looking for sex place a high value on
virginity.

“The typical age for a trafficked girl to become a prostitute is 15 or 16
because the customers like virgins that are young,” claims Aye Aye Maw.
“The brothel owner and the trafficking agents like that more too because
young girls are easier to fool—they can pay them less or extort them
more.”

Somporn Kempetch, coordinator of the Child Protection and Rights Center,
or CPRC, in Mae Sai, highlights the connection between child smuggling and
the difficulties faced by marginalized ethnic minorities from Burma and
Thailand.

“In the Lahu, Shan and Akha villages where the trafficked girls come from,
large families live in only one room and have a hard time finding enough
food to eat,” he says.  “Because of this, many families sell their
daughters to trafficking agents.”

“Once a girl is trafficked into a brothel she is immediately indebted,”
says Somporn Kempetch.  “If the agent pays her family 60,000 baht for her
she will have to work until she makes 120,000 baht until she is out of
debt to the agent.” Once the debt is paid, work remains.

“The girl must pay the brothel half of her earnings and keep half to both
send to her family and keep for herself,” reports Aye Aye Maw.

Many of the minority girls from Burma and northern Thailand speak Thai
poorly, if at all, and are incapable of reading the language making them
more vulnerable to being cheated by brothel owners, agents or customers.

“I don’t think the girls I brought over ever got money,” says Michael.
“This was their first time in Thailand
 they were scared 
 they couldn’t
talk to anyone. I brought them to the karaoke and the foreigners paid the
owner in advance. Usually they don’t get money for the first time because
the owner has to pay me.” The trade, at least overland to Thailand,
appears dominated by small-scale operators.

Recent reports by the International Labor Organization and the United
Nations Development Program suggest that anti-trafficking policies that
target criminal networks are not effective. Rather, they point out that
most girls leaving their villages destined to become sex workers are
trafficked informally though household networks, with the consent of
communities and their families, all of whom profit from the trade.

“People are getting spoiled by globalization,” says Kham Chuen, founder
and director of Opportunities for Poor Children, an organization that
gives education and promotes the rights of vulnerable youth on the
Thai-Burma border. “Many families have gone beyond selling their daughters
to make ends meet and do it because they want to live in comfort. They are
poor when they come to Thailand, but soon they start to want cell phones,
motorbikes and nicer housing.”

Somporn agrees: “What we are finding is that many girls do not want to end
their lives as prostitutes. [But] once they eventually start making money,
they don’t want to give up wearing the nice clothes, the mobile phone and
life in the city.”

_____________________________________

December 21, Irrawaddy
The sex-for-sale trap – Yeni

Ranong: Why Burmese migrant women risk all to work in Thailand’s brothels.

Thirty-year-old Ma Lay (not her real name) seems an unlikely commercial
sex worker. Soberly dressed and well spoken, she talks with serious
concern about her efforts to educate other women in the sex trade about
the risks of contracting AIDS.

She is well qualified to lead an awareness campaign in the southern Thai
town of Ranong, on the Burmese border. She has sold sex there for several
years, sending money home to her family in Burma. She knows the scene
well. And she is HIV-positive.

Ma Lay migrated to Thailand eight years ago from her home in Tavoy,
southern Burma, where she had grown up in a debt-laden family of eight
sisters and a widowed mother. She crossed illegally by boat, and settled
in a community of mostly Burmese living a segregated existence beside a
fishing pier in Ranong.

Ranong’s docks district Saphan Plah is home to one of Thailand’s largest
migrant populations. Sixty thousand foreigners were legally registered as
working in Ranong Province in June 2004 (many more work illegally). The
majority are Burmese from Tenasserim Division.

May Lay found employment with a fishing company when she first came to
Ranong. But the lure of earning much better money through prostitution was
too great. “I know prostitution is not good,” she admits. “But I do it to
make easy.”

The sex industry in Ranong really got going around 1990. There was a
police crackdown in 1993, but trade continued in restaurants, massage
parlors and karaoke bars of Saphan Plah.

Victoria Point (Kawthaung), the Burmese port opposite Ranong, is the
conduit for most migrants heading for this region of Thailand. A 25-year
old woman said that she had flown there from Rangoon, together with seven
others, and all of them found work in a restaurant.

But after one year their employer stopped their wages, claiming they owed
him for their travel expenses and living costs. A local “broker” promised
her a job in Ranong—and she landed in a Saphan Plah brothel.

A disillusioned 35-year old prostitute from Rangoon lamented: “We live
like slaves.”

Ma Lay claims that the sexual exploitation began in Victoria Point, where
she had to clear “national security” screening by reporting daily to the
local authority. “The officials want free sex. If you complain they
threaten you with arrest”.

The exploitation suffered by migrant women such as Ma Lay is at the heart
of a report by the US-based group Physicians for Human Rights, entitled “
No status: Migration, trafficking & exploitation of women in Thailand.”

“Burmese communities in sex work, whether trafficked or not, are subject
to extortion, sexual exploitation, and/or sexual assault by police and
immigration authorities,” the report declares.

At government level, Burma has pledged to crack down on human trafficking,
and the official statistics indicate that at least something is being
done—335 convicted human traffickers were imprisoned by Burmese courts
between July 2002 and June 2004.

A measure of co-operation with Thailand is already in place, and in August
a group of 20 young Burmese women were repatriated from Mae Sai in what
officials described as “part of the program to prevent human trafficking.”

Yet some NGOs working to relieve the plight of migrant sex workers remain
skeptical. “The government-to-government project has never worked,” says
Liz Hilton of Empower, a Thai-based NGO that assists sex workers.

One problem is that most migrant women are reluctant to disclose personal
data for fear of repercussions and possible criminal prosecution if they
return home. “Many of them who are repatriated then suffer social
discrimination and stigma,” says Hilton.

Women who comply with Thai interior ministry registration requirements and
who receive identity cards could still end up stateless if they are
repatriated and the Burmese authorities then refuse to recognize them as
citizens of Burma, Hilton points out.

Despite the handicaps, the harassment and the victimization, and for all
the efforts of the Thai authorities to control the flow of Burmese
migrants, the number of Burmese sex workers in Ranong is on the rise.

About 40 percent of them are HIV-positive, claims Dr Aung Naing, of the
NGO World Vision, in Ranong. Ma Lay says eight of fifteen young women in
the karaoke bar where she works are HIV-positive. Five of the others
declined to have blood tests.

Efforts by Aung Naing’s organization and by the NGO Population Service
International to carry their AIDS awareness programs over the border, to
Victoria Point, are frustrated by local opposition. “Employers don’t like
NGO workers promoting our awareness programs,” says Aung Naing.

Hla Hla Win, a member of the Ranong branch of the Burmese Women’s Union,
blames Rangoon’s political and economic policies for the flow of migrant
workers into Thailand and the consequent rise in the numbers of young
Burmese women taking up prostitution. Only the return of democracy to
Burma will solve the problem, she claims.

Meanwhile, Hla Hla Win helps where she can, giving advice and offering
solidarity to her countrywomen in Ranong.

“I tell them not to forget that we all are from Burma. We should care for
these women like our own sisters,” she says.

For Ma Lay, democracy in her homeland wouldn’t solve her immediate
problem—the prospect of living with AIDS. “How can I survive without
medication?” she asks. “In Burma, how can poor people like me afford it?
I’m sure I’d die soon after returning home.”

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 17, Reuters
Myanmar courted despite human rights record - Darren Schuettler

Bangkok: Hailed by activists as a triumph for human rights, Unocal Corp's
decision to settle lawsuits alleging abuses in Myanmar may only be a
pyrrhic victory in the wider campaign to force foreign firms out, analysts
say. Activists are promising to pile more pressure on Western firms doing
business in the military-ruled nation shunned for its human rights record
and suppression of political opponents.

But they have little sway over Asian companies jockeying for a bigger
share of Myanmar's natural wealth in oil and gas, timber, gems and
minerals, analysts say.

"It's a pyrrhic victory," economist Wylie Bradford said of the impact from
Unocal's decision to settle two lawsuits filed by 15 villagers who accused
it of turning a blind eye to rights abuses by soldiers while a pipeline
was being built in Myanmar.

Unocal, one of a handful of U.S. firms with investments in the former
Burma, denied any responsibility. But the dispute became a publicity
nightmare, sparking protests outside shareholder meetings and opposition
from investors -- an unlikely scenario for Asian firms linked to Myanmar.

"It's a new risk factor for Western firms where this type of legal action
can be brought, but in Asia the possibility of an action based on human
rights is zip," said Bradford of the University of Macquarie and co-author
of Burma Economic Watch.

Pressure on Western companies tied to Myanmar intensified after democracy
icon Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in May last year and the United States
and European Union tightened or imposed new sanctions on the military
government, which has ruled the former Burma in various guises since 1962.

The Burma Campaign UK says 30 Western firms have abandoned the former
British colony since the group's "dirty list" campaign began two-and-half
years ago. Another 95 remain on its list.

ASIA FILLS THE VOID

In some cases, Asian firms have filled the void left by their Western rivals.

British American Tobacco sold its stake in a Yangon tobacco firm to a
Singapore company last year. Months earlier, Premier Oil, a longtime
target of campaigners, shifted its stake in a gas field to Malaysia's
Petronas.

"The Unocal case does show that ordinary people can take on a huge
corporation and hold it to account," said Burma Campaign spokesman Mark
Farmaner, whose group plans a global campaign against Unocal's partner in
the Myanmar pipeline, French oil giant Total, next year.

European Union sanctions are too soft on EU firms doing business in
Myanmar, he said, a view echoed by Suu Kyi's opposition party which said
in October an EU visa ban on senior junta officials was pointless.

Farmaner says pressing firms in Southeast Asia, China and India -- where
governments oppose Western efforts to isolate Yangon -- is a huge, but not
impossible, challenge.

"It is more difficult to influence them, but as they look more globally
they have to be aware of reputational risk," he said, noting that Chinese
firms expanding or listing abroad could be targeted by activists in the
future.

China is one of Yangon's biggest aid donors and a major source of loans
for the cash-starved authorities.

Chinese companies are also major players in logging, mining and energy and
Myanmar's huge natural gas reserves also draw firms from India, Singapore,
Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand.

The latest deal on Wednesday saw a Sino-Singaporean consortium sign two
contracts with Myanmar's state oil firm to explore for oil and gas in two
huge offshore blocks.

It was the second deal in as many months for the group, which includes
China's dominant offshore oil firm, China National Offshore Oil Co.

INDIA EDGES IN

India, worried about China's influence, is seeking closer ties with Yangon
and has proposed building a $1 billion pipeline through Bangladesh to
bring natural gas from Myanmar. A final decision could come in January.

The oil and gas sector has soaked up $2.4 billion of the $7.6 billion in
foreign direct investment in Myanmar since Yangon lifted restrictions in
1988. While the energy sector hums along, foreign investment in other
areas of the economy has remained sluggish since the 1997-98 Asian
economic crisis -- due more to bad policies than placard-waving
protesters.

"There is nothing more to say about the resources and potential, but there
is a lot of room for economic reforms and liberalisation," said a
Singaporean businessman in Yangon.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 16, European Voice
Commission under pressure over Total business in Burma

The European Commission is being pressed to explain whether loopholes in
revamped EU sanctions on Burma have been designed to allow the French
energy giant Total to continue working with the country's oil and gas
monopoly.

In late October EU foreign ministers decided to tighten their political
and economic sanctions on the military regime in Rangoon, to step up
pressure for the release of pro-democracy leader Aung Saan Suu Kyi. But
the new measures have led human rights activists to conclude that European
companies with investments in Burma will in no way be affected.

Socialist MEP Glenys Kinnock has urged the Commission to state why some of
the most lucrative state-owned monopolies in Burma are excluded from the
list of enterprises targeted by the sanctions. Among those omitted are the
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), Myanmar Timber (MTE) and Myanmar
Post and Telecommunications (MPT).

Kinnock is still awaiting a response to a Parliamentary question which she
has put forward on the sanctions. She complained that commercial
activities by Total and logistics company DHL in Burma would be "safe"
because of the exemptions conferred on them. Total has been developing the
Yadana gas field in conjunction with MOGE since 1992, while Deutsche Post
subsidiary DHL has been in a joint venture with MPT since 1997.

"Burma is one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world,"
Kinnock added. "It has more child soldiers than any other country in the
world in proportion to its population. We cannot allow investment in such
a country."

Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK estimates that 80% of the Burmese
economy is outside the scope of the sanctions. Gas is the biggest source
of revenue for the regime, with exports worth ¤737 million in 2003-04.

"The interests of one French oil company are dictating the entire policy
of the EU with regard to Burma," he alleged.

A spokeswoman for Total - one of the main foreign investors in Burma -
said that the company "could not comment on governmental decisions".

French diplomats deny that their government is keener to protect Total
than to defend human rights in Burma. One said that Paris supported the
EU's sanctions policy and complied fully with it.

_____________________________________

December 21, The Japan Times
Detainees seeking asylum claim abuse by guards - Masami Ito

Lawyers working on behalf of people seeking asylum in Japan filed a
criminal accusation Monday against the head of the Higashi-Nihon
Immigration Center and its guards, alleging they assaulted and injured
detainees.

More than 50 detainees, mostly Myanmarese and Kurdish, at the center in
Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, went on a one-day hunger strike calling for
better treatment earlier this month and some were injured when guards
violently suppressed them, the lawyers said.

The accusation was filed with the Mito District Public Prosecutor's Office.

The Justice Ministry said it was "unthinkable" that guards would abuse the
detainees, although it declined comment on this specific case.

"Many of the participants of the hunger strike were long-term detainees
seeking asylum," said Shogo Watanabe, the head lawyer.

Some have been held at the center for more than two years, and their
frustration over the lengthy detention was behind the hunger strike, he
added.

The strike took place Dec. 10 - International Human Rights Day. According
to Amnesty International, which had received a written statement by the
detainees, they were demanding better treatment - including the use of hot
water on weekends for bathing.

According to Yuzuru Enomoto, a member of a support group for the center's
charges, when they refused to go back to their quarters and asked to speak
to an official of the facility, roughly 20 guards in riot gear showed up
and used violence to force them to return to their rooms.

Enomoto said he visited the center a few hours after the strike began but
was denied a meeting with the detainees for "safety reasons." He said that
when he and the lawyers were allowed to meet the detainees several days
later, they found the inmates bruised.

An official at the ministry's Immigration Bureau declined comment on the
accusation, except to say, like the ministry, that generally speaking it
is unthinkable for guards to inflict violence on detainees. But when
detainees commit acts that disrupt order inside the facility, the guards
are authorized to take reasonable action to suppress them, he added.

_____________________________________

December 21, Japan Economic Newswire
Myanmar woman, separated from children, released from detention

Tokyo: A Myanmar woman, detained for illegal entry and separated from her
young children, has been released on bail Tuesday from a Tokyo immigration
center, according to her supporters.

The Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau gave the go-ahead to release the
25-year-old woman on condition that she post bond. Her 39-year-old
husband, also detailed for illegal entry, remains in custody.

Last Friday, the couple from Myanmar filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo
District Court seeking suspension and cancellation of the government's
order to detain them.

The couple had been living in Tokyo with their 1-year-old son and
3-year-old daughter when they were taken into custody by immigration
authorities.

They say their detention is inhumane because they have been separated from
their children, who have been placed in a facility for children in Tokyo.

According to the couple's petition, they belong to an ethnic minority
group in Myanmar and took part in an antigovernment movement. They said
they fled to Japan to escape persecution, entering the country on fake
passports at around 1999.

The two married in Japan and took on janitorial and other jobs.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 21, Irrawaddy
Political reforms needed - Bo Hla Tint

Burma’s government needs to act swiftly.

Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC, is keeping
the effects of last month’s purge secret but the damage has been quite
extensive and the generals are trying their best to tackle the problem.
The crisis may be the most serious that the Defense Services have faced
since the 1988 nationwide uprising.

Ethnic ceasefire leaders and business people are seriously affected by the
fallout from the purge, since they all had personal relationships with
intelligence officers, particularly former prime minister Khin Nyunt.

The SPDC is assuring ethnic leaders and entrepreneurs that all is well,
however, and are denying that Khin Nyunt’s removal will affect them. They
are also embarking on a denigration campaign, seeking to show that Khin
Nyunt had to leave ignominiously. Their objective is to end Khin Nyunt’s
remaining influence in the military and over the business community and
ethnic cease-fire groups.

When Khin Nyunt’s dismissal was announced it was unconvincing enough, but
subsequent charges of bribery and corruption against him threw the light
of ridicule on the Burma Army, where corruption is rampant and a way of
life.

Even the announcement that 9,000 prisoners were to be released was taken
as an opportunity to malign Khin Nyunt, with a statement saying his
National Intelligence Bureau, or NIB, had wrongfully jailed these people.

In making the case against Khin Nyunt, the commanders today are employing
the same excuses they used in the 1988 coup.

Gen Saw Maung, head of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (later
renamed the SPDC) told the nation at that time: “Conditions became
uncontrollable. It was a moment of great danger for the entire nation. It
was with misgivings that the Tatmadaw [armed froces] was forced to take
this course of action.”

Today, Gen Thura Shwe Mann says the purge was needed because Khin Nyunt’s
policies were “not only leading to the disintegration of the Tatmadaw but
also posed a serious threat to the nation
the action we had to take was
unavoidable”.

The question in everyone’s mind is: now that the combat wing officers have
removed Khin Nyunt, will they behave simply like “career officers” who
want to do good for the country or will they prove to be the expected
“hard-liners”? So far, the generals have not shown any indication that
they will be more accommodating than when Khin Nyunt was around.

The generals believe they are the only institution able to hold the
country together, even though past factional struggles prove that belief
to be false. In fact, the military in the form of an illegitimate
government is the weakest link in maintaining Burma as a viable state.

Yet, by virtue of their avowed duty to defend the country and “to prevent
the nation from disintegrating”, the generals commonly believe that they
also need to hold the reins of government.

Hence, the “road map” will most likely continue because it is the only
process that may legitimize military rule.

If the National Convention is reconvened in its present form, however,
without the participation of the National League for Democracy, or NLD,
and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, or SNLD, legitimacy again
becomes an issue.

For legitimacy’s sake alone, the generals will continue to seek the
support of the ethnic cease-fire groups. They have already pledged to
honor all the past conditions agreed with military intelligence.

The smaller and weaker ethnic ceasefire forces need security assurances
from the generals, and they will most likely cooperate with the new
leaders and continue their participation in the National Convention. Some
of the stronger ethnic forces, however, have made it known that their
participation is only tentative.

Individually, every ethnic group is bound to lose some of the advantages
gained if it goes against the military. But the situation also provides a
unique opportunity for these groups to bargain collectively.

Another important factor that can sway the minds of the generals is the
country’s economy.

The Burmese economy has never truly stabilized since the banking crisis of
February 2003, and the SPDC’s floundering response to that crisis and
subsequent policy decisions also contributed to the lack of public
confidence in the monetary system.

The economy is truly on the verge of a free fall, and without political
reforms the future of the regime and the country is more uncertain than
ever.

Bo Hla Tint is a member of Burma’s government-in-exile, the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, or NCGUB. He was elected to
the Burmese parliament as a representative of the National League for
Democracy, or NLD, in the 1990 election, but was prevented from taking his
rightful seat in the assembly. He is now based in Washington DC.