BurmaNet News, February 1, 2005

[Editor]

February 1, 2005, Issue # 2647

"If they fight, we will fight back against them. If they say tomorrow
morning they would hold talks, we are ready for that."
- KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha as quoted in Associated Press, February
1, 2005

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: 'Destructionists' infiltrating Myanmar to sabotage convention: junta
AP: Myanmar junta says still in contact with Karen rebels
AP: Myanmar government says foreign aid benefited tsunami victims
Xinhua: Myanmar national convention to approve power sharing principles
Xinhua: Crime rate drops sharply in Myanmar in 2004: Police

ON THE BORDER
Narinjara News: 54 Burmese Muslims arrested while illegally entering
Bangladesh

DRUGS
Xinhua: Myanmar, UN begin joint opium survey

BUSINESS
Xinhua: Canadian company to explore diamond in Myanmar

REGIONAL
South China Morning Post: Eerie silence descends ahead of crackdown on
migrants

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy:Blair joins tourism boycott campaign
SHAN: Researcher to opposition: Provide ice-breaker before Convention

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Giant fish save Burma from tsunami

_____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 1, Agence France Presse
'Destructionists' infiltrating Myanmar to sabotage convention: junta

Yangon: Anti-government "destructionists" trained by Westerners are
infiltrating Myanmar to commit acts of terror and sabotage in the run-up
to a convention to draft a new constitution, the military junta said
Tuesday.

Authorities have heightened security after police reports on the
activities of saboteurs, including some aided by groups in the United
States, police Brigadier General Khin Yee said.

"These destructionists are being sent into Myanmar by anti-government
groups outside the country," Khin Yee told a press conference.

"Some are getting assistance from organisations based in the United
States," including the US Campaign for Burma and the Free Burma
Coalition," he said.

"A group led by Ye Thi Ha, alias San Naing of the Vigorous Burmese Student
Warriors, sent three saboteurs to Yangon via Myawaddy (near the Thai
border) with the aim of disrupting the national convention," the general
said.

He also said "pro-democracy citizens of some big nations are providing
training to expatriate destructionists to commit terrorist acts in
Myanmar."

The training included the use of explosives and mines, and in one case was
being conducted by a US citizen and a Briton at a camp near Myawaddy and
the Thai border town of Mae Sot, 220 kilometres (135 miles) east of
Yangon, Khin Yee said.

"We have heightened security here and we would like to request all people
to help us in uncovering these saboteurs," Khin Yee said.

The militant Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors claimed responsibility for
a December bombing in Yangon. It said more attacks would follow unless
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.

The junta said one small bomb exploded on January 6 in Kachin state, while
two more blew up in Dawei town in southern Myanmar. No casualties were
reported.

The national convention is the first of seven steps in Myanmar's
self-proclaimed road map to democracy. It resumes on February 17, seven
months after it was adjourned.

The convention was launched last May but was boycotted by the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD), whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi is
under house arrest, and by two other political parties.

Information Minister Kyaw San said the three parties would not be invited
back this time around.

"We have not invited them because they have not attended the previous
session," Kyaw San told the press briefing.

Western governments and the United Nations have derided the convention,
attended by more than 1,000 hand-picked delegates, as a sham.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The NLD won a landslide victory
in a 1990 election but was never allowed to take power.

_____________________________________

February 1, Associated Press
Myanmar junta says still in contact with Karen rebels

Yangon: Myanmar's ruling junta insisted Tuesday that it remains in touch
with Karen ethnic rebels who a day earlier questioned the government's
commitment to negotiating a peace deal.

Leaders of the rebel Karen National Union said Monday that continuing
attacks and other activities by Myanmar's military indicate that the
government does not want to reach a political settlement with ethnic rebel
groups and opposition political parties.

"If they fight, we will fight back against them. If they say tomorrow
morning they would hold talks, we are ready for that," KNU General
Secretary Mahn Sha said.

Asked to comment on these remarks, Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw
Hsan told a news conference in Yangon Tuesday: "We have not lost contact
with the KNU." He did not elaborate.

The Karen, whose separatist struggle in Myanmar is one of the world's
longest-running insurgencies, began cease-fire talks with the government
in late 2003, and the two sides declared a provisional truce a year ago.

Talks on formalizing the cease-fire have been suspended since Oct. 19,
when Gen. Khin Nyunt - the architect of truces with more than a dozen
other ethnic rebel groups - was forced to step down as Myanmar's prime
minister.

The rebels say government troops have continued to carry out military
operations against them despite the informal truce. Myanmar's ruling junta
never comments on military operations.

In December, KNU spokesman David Htaw said that even though cease-fire
talks were suspended and Khin Nyunt had been removed the two sides
remained in contact.

The Karen have been seeking autonomy from Myanmar's central government for
more than half a century. They are the only major rebel group not to have
concluded a cease-fire with the junta.

_____________________________________

February 1, Associated Press
Myanmar government says foreign aid benefited tsunami victims

Yangon: Myanmar's government said Tuesday that international aid has
helped its citizens recover from the effects of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

More than US$1.36 million ([euro]1.04 million) worth of cash and goods
donated by U.N. agencies and foreign private relief organizations has been
distributed directly to the victims in coordination with local
authorities, Deputy Transport Minister Pe Than said at a news conference
in Yangon.

Myanmar sustained relatively little damage and few casualties from the
Dec. 26 tsunami, which took at least 157,000 lives in 11 countries around
the Indian Ocean.

Pe Than said the disaster killed 61 people, injured 42 and destroyed 29
villages in Myanmar's coastal regions. A further 2,592 people lost their
homes.

Independent assessments made by international relief agencies gave similar
figures, adding that 10,000-15,000 people had needed recovery assistance,
5,000-7,000 of them on an urgent basis.

Myanmar did not request any aid for its tsunami victims, but accepted
voluntary contributions and donations, Pe Than said. The medicine, food
and emergency relief items from many countries, U.N. agencies and
international aid organizations had helped return the tsunami victims'
lives to normal, he said.

It is unclear why the tsunami did not cause more damage in Myanmar. The
epicenter of the earthquake that set off the tsunami - off the northern
tip of Indonesia - is relatively close to Myanmar's coasts.

Pe Than said most deaths in Myanmar occurred in the vast Ayeyarwady River
delta but the country was spared major damage and disaster due to
"geographical conditions, unspoiled mangroves and coral islands, and
having uninhabited islands." Scientists have suggested that natural
barriers such as mangrove swamps served as buffers protecting the
shorelines.

_____________________________________

February 1, Xinhua News Agency.
Myanmar national convention to approve power sharing principles

Yangon: Myanmar's constitutional national convention will approve detailed
principles for sharing the legislative power already discussed in the
previous phase before its adjournment, Information Minister
Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan said at a press conference Tuesday.

The latest session of the national convention, which is the first step of
the government's seven-point roadmap to democracy, has been in recess
since July 9 last year.

The next session has been announced by the government to resume on Feb. 17.

Kyaw Hsan, who is also chairman of the government's Information Committee,
disclosed that the resuming convention will go on discussing the
principles for sharing administrative and judicial powers to be included
in drawing up the constitution.

He said that all the 1,086 delegates present at the previous phase have
all been invited to the resuming session except those from three political
parties -- the National League for Democracy (NLD), Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy and Shan State Kokang Democratic Party. The three
parties boycotted the convention when it was first resumed on May 17 last
year.

The 1,086 delegates are from eight categories of delegate groups mainly
including political parties, representatives-elect ( in the 1990 general
election), state service personnel (including armymen) and invited
individuals (including turned-in former anti- government ethnic armed
groups).

The political roadmap was outlined as undergoing a national referendum on
draft of the constitution through the national convention, holding a
general election to produce parliament representatives and forming a new
democratic government.

_____________________________________

February 1, Xinhua News Agency.
Crime rate drops sharply in Myanmar in 2004: Police

Yangon: Myanmar's crime rate dropped 50 percent in 2004 as compared with
2003, police chief Khin Yi told a press conference here Tuesday.

However, specific figures about the drop were not disclosed.

At the press conference, Khin Yi condemned internal and external elements
for creating disturbance in the country.

He called for crushing all obstacles and destructive elements in view of
implementing the seven-point roadmap to democracy step by step and
successfully holding the constitutional national convention, which he said
are needed as a basis for establishing a peaceful, modern, developed and
discipline-flourishing democratic nation.

While the government is taking preventive measures for safeguarding the
state's infrastructures as well as lives and properties of the people, the
public on their part are to be vigilant for exposing and preventing
destructive and terrorist acts in cooperation with the government security
forces, he stressed.

Myanmar's national convention, which will be resumed on Feb. 17,
constitutes the first step of the roadmap, which is outlined as undergoing
a national referendum on draft of the constitution through the national
convention, holding a general election to produce parliament
representatives and forming a new democratic government.


_____________________________________

February 1, Narinjara News
54 Burmese Muslims arrested while illegally entering Bangladesh

Cox’s Bazar: 54 Burmese Muslims were arrested by the Bangladesh Rifle
(BDR) in a border town of Bangladesh on Tuesday, said a report in Cox's
Bazaar Base’s Bangle
newspaper, The Daily Ajker Desh Bidesh, on 27 January.

According to local sources, BDR arrested the 54 while they were trying to
cross a border pass near the Marit Tha BDR outpost, under the Okia
Township of
the Cox's Bazaar District, to enter Bangladesh.

The group came from Arakan State, Burma but their names and addresses were
not
disclosed in the paper.

The Bangladesh border security force is in high alert position throughout the
Burma-Bangladesh border in order to prevent Burmese Muslims from entering
Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Communication Minister, Salah Uddin Ahmed, ordered the concerned
authority to prevent the entry of Burmese Muslims at a meeting of the Cox's
Baazar District Law and Order Committee that was held last week.

Bangladeshi authorities has received information that many in the Muslim
community are preparing to leave for Bangladesh since a religious riot that
recently broke out in Arakan State, said an official from Cox's Bazaar.

There was not confirmation as to whether the arrestees were entering
Bangladesh for business purposes or because of the religious riot.

It is possible that the Muslims came to Banagladesh for fear of the riot that
recently broke out in the Kyauk Pru Township in Arakan state, said a
religious
teacher from Cox's Bazaar.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

February 1, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar, UN begin joint opium survey

Yangon: Myanmar and the United Nations have begun joint opium survey to
assess opium production in Myanmar this year, the local Myanmar Times
reported in this week's issue.

The three-month survey, which is the 5th since 2001 and conducted by the
Myanmar Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) and the UN Office
on Drug and Crime (UNODC), covers 49 townships in Shan state with more
than 100 officials being mobilized for the move, the CCDAC was quoted as
saying.

The UN side offers technical and financial assistance, using satellite
image, the sources said.

The last Myanmar-UNODC joint opium survey was carried out in 2004,
according to which Myanmar's opium production dropped 54 percent to 370
tons in 2004 from 810 tons in 2003.

Meanwhile, according to other survey report of Myanmar and the United
States' Criminal Narcotics Center (CNC), there was 39 percent decrease in
opium production in Myanmar during 2004 compared with 2003.

In its drug law enforcement efforts, the Myanmar authorities, in 2004,
exposed over 2,800 drug-related cases with nearly 4,000 drug offenders
punished, official statistics show. The figures also indicate that the
authorities destroyed over 3,000 hectares of illegal poppy plantations
during the year.

Myanmar has been implementing a 15-year drug elimination plan (1999-2000
to 2013-2014) to totally wipe out drugs and the second five-year plan
beginning 2004-05 is underway.

With the successful establishment drug-free zone in Shan state' s Mongla
region in 1997 and the Kokang region in 2003, the Wa region in the same
state is targeted to follow suit by 2005.

_____________________________________


_____________________________________
BUSINESS

February 1, Xinhua News Agency.
Canadian company to explore diamond in Myanmar

Yangon: A Canadian company, the Leeward Capital Corporation, will conduct
exploration on diamond in Myanmar as another engagement after that on
gold, a local press reported Tuesday.

The exploration operation on diamond, which will start later this year,
will last for over five years, the Flower News quoted the Canadian company
as saying.

Myanmar stands good position geologically in diamond exploration,
especially in the areas of Momeik, Mongshu and Theinni in Shan state,
Canadian experts said, however adding that although the country is not in
a status to exploit diamond commercially, there finds unexploited diamond
in Sagaing and Momeik regions with possible deposits of diamond in Shan
state and Tanintharyi division.

The Canadian company has been carrying out gold exploration in northern
Shan state's Mabein, Indawgyi and Shwegu areas in partnership with the
Myanmar Ministry of Mines, according to the report.

Diamond is among the nine kinds of gems which Myanmar possesses. The
others eight are ruby, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral
and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

There are six mining areas in Myanmar under gem and jade exploration
operation, namely Mogok, Mongshu, Lonkin/Phakant, Khamhti, Moenyin and
Namyar. Of a total of 4,851 plots in these areas under exploration, 57.6
percent lie in Lonkin/Phakant in northernmost Kachin state.

Myanmar claimed that it has owned the world's biggest ruby weighing 21,450
carats, the largest star sapphire weighing 63,000 carts, the biggest
peridot weighing 329 carats and the largest jade stone of about 3,000
tons.

Myanmar enacted the New Gemstone Law in 1995, allowing local entrepreneurs
to mine, produce, transport and sell finished gemstone and manufactured
jewelry at home and abroad.

Since 2000, the government has started mining of gems and jade in joint
venture with 10 private companies under profit sharing basis.

Meanwhile, Myanmar holds gems emporiums annually beginning 1964 to put on
sale its precious gems, jade, pearl and jewelry mainly through competitive
bidding and tender system.

Official statistics show that foreign contracted investment in Myanmar's
mining sector has so far amounted to about 528 million dollars since the
country opened to such investment in late 1988, standing as the 5th
largest sectorally.

Other foreign firms engaged in mineral exploration in Myanmar include
those from Australia, China, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand
and the United States.

_____________________________________


_____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 1, South China Morning Post
Eerie silence descends ahead of crackdown on migrants - Baradan Kuppusamy

Kuala Lumpur: Sections of Kuala Lumpur usually bustling with foreign
workers are now eerily quiet, as an amnesty for illegal immigrants ends
and a crackdown gets under way.

Sidewalk food stalls, backyard factories, low-cost flats and squatter
settlements outside the city where migrant workers are usually found were
relatively quiet yesterday.

"They started to leave last week ... I don't know where they went," said
mechanic Ronny Lim, 47, who owns a car repair shop in Sungei Besi, an
industrial suburb about 12km southwest of the city. "You can see the
difference here - there are far fewer people."

There were also few foreigners in Pudu Raya, the transport hub of the city.

"Many foreigners have returned home while others have fled to rural areas
to hide in farms and oil palm plantations," said a labour activist. "All
the publicity has frightened them."

On Sunday, Indonesian ship KMM Umsini took 5,800 Indonesian workers from
Port Klang, about 30km from the capital. The ship returned yesterday to
pick up another 1,900 workers.

"This is the final batch to leave voluntarily before the operation
starts," said an Indonesian embassy official.

The government has mobilised about 500,000 police and uniformed civilian
volunteers to hunt down the migrants who will be either deported
immediately or jailed and whipped.

About 400,000 workers who had left voluntarily are eligible to apply and
return to their former jobs but with valid work permits.

A coalition of 40 NGOs says widespread human rights abuse is inevitable
when civilians are given weapons and "let loose" to search for the
migrants. They also oppose the decision to pay uniformed civilian
volunteers M$ 80 ($ 164) for each migrant worker arrested.

"This operation is a form of vigilantism and causes racism and violence,"
said Irene Fernandez, director of Tenaganita, an NGO.

The government said the volunteers were trained and forbidden to use
force, except in self-defence.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is worried the crackdown could sweep
up genuine refugees and has deployed mobile teams to monitor and help
refugees, mainly from Aceh and Myanmar.

"Malaysia has many jobs, many mosques to pray and food is cheap," one
migrant worker from Indonesia said. "They need us and we will be back."

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 1, Irrawaddy
Blair joins tourism boycott campaign - Aung Lwin Oo

Britain’s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the two leaders of the British
parliamentary opposition and 70 public figures have added their weight to
a campaign asking people not to travel on holiday to Burma.

The campaign, organized by the London-based Burma Campaign UK under the
slogan “I’m Not Going,” was being launched in Britain on Tuesday.

Referring to Burma’s “appalling human rights violations” in a message to
the Burma Campaign UK, Prime Minister Blair said: “I would urge anyone who
may be thinking of visiting Burma on holiday to consider carefully whether
by their actions they are helping to support the regime and prolong such
dreadful abuses.”

Conservative Party leader Michael Howard and the leader of the Liberal
Democrats, Charles Kennedy, added their names to a list of more than 70
British politicians and celebrities urging people not to holiday in Burma.

“I’ll visit beautiful Burma when Aung San Suu Kyi says so,” declared
television personality Joanne Lumley. The Burmese Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, who is under house arrest, has repeatedly urged tourists not to
visit Burma.

Conservative Party leader Howard pledged not to visit Burma on holiday
“until it is a democracy.”

“In Burma, tourism doesn’t help most ordinary people,” said Yvette Mahon,
Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “Instead, it finances the regime that
keeps them poor and oppressed.

“Every tourist that visits Burma puts money into the hands of the regime.
That is why Burma’s democracy movement has asked tourists to stay away.
Please respect their wishes, don’t go.”

Mark Farmaner, Media and Campaigns Manager for the Burma Campaign UK, said
the organization’s latest action was directed not only at the British
public but was intended to address people throughout Europe. A special
campaign website had been set up: www.imnotgoing.com.

Farmaner maintained that his organization’s campaigns had resulted in a
drop in the numbers of British tourists visiting Burma, and he challenged
official Rangoon government figures showing a rise in foreign tourist
arrivals.

“They (the government) are including Chinese and Thai people just going
shopping for a day across the border,” says Farmaner.

“They are not the kind of tourist that’s going to be staying in expensive
hotels and flying to Rangoon.”

In other activities, the Burma Campaign UK has enlisted the support of 247
British MPs in an initiative to put the Burma question on the United
Nations Security Council agenda.

In August 2004, the organization released a “Dirty List”, with the names
of about 100 British and foreign companies with a presence in Britain that
maintain business ties with the regime or Burmese-domiciled companies.

_____________________________________

February 1, Shan Herald Agency for News
Researcher to opposition: Provide ice-breaker before Convention

Activist turned academic Aung Naing Oo today dropped what could possibly
be a bombshell by urging the Opposition, particularly the democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and the United
Nationalities Alliance, to break the current deadlock with the military
government ahead of the National Convention that will resume on 17
February.

Instead of rejecting the junta's Six Political Objectives and 104
Constitutional Principles off-hand and coming up with counter proposals,
Aung Naing Oo, who was launching his 288-page booklet, "Compromising with
the Generals," counselled them to seriously take up Rangoon's "6/104
proposal" and declare which are acceptable and which are not. "As for the
6th Objective of the generals", he said, "you could say it is welcome as
long as there is a time limit to it."

The basis of his thinking, he claimed, was that both the junta and the
Opposition need each other. "Without the Opposition's participation, the
military government may not be able to do anything about improving the
country's economic, social and political conditions," said Aung Naing Oo,
a Harvard master graduate. "On the other hand, without the cooperation of
the military government, the opposition forces may not be able to run the
country."

He also warned the generals in Rangoon they also need to make major
concessions in order to avoid fates identical to Pinochet and Ne Win
themselves.

He did not wish the Opposition to become "pragmatic' by forsaking their
commitment either, he declared. "But it's all too clear we cannot just
rely on the good will of the rest of the world to achieve our ends," said
he. "We have to make do with what we have."

Nonetheless, he reminded those present at the press conference in
Chiangmai how Poland's freedom began with the country's Communist
government tentatively giving up only 35% of their legislative seats.

However, the time period to put his ideas into practice, he admitted, was
short. "If the NLD and the UNA can accept the ideas proposed here," he
said, "the time to apply them is now. I'm reasonably sure the rest of the
Opposition will follow suit, if they do. But certainly not after the
National Convention, when the generals would say, 'The carnival is over'."

Aung Naing Oo had, from 1992-99 served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Department of the All Burma Students Democratic Front. He is currently a
research officer of the Washington-based Burma Fund.

The Opposition has so far been demanding that there be a tripartite
dialogue before the National Convention. The last round of the
constitutional gathering held near Rangoon, 17 May -9 July 2004, was
boycotted by both the NLD and the UNA.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 31, Irrawaddy
Giant fish save Burma from tsunami

Humor is one of the few things that make life in Burma bearable for those
who have suffered under the military dictatorship.

Now Burmese find irony in a tale spawned by the recent tsunami
catastrophe. The country suffered only light damage compared to neighbors
Thailand and Indonesia.

“Stop! We’ve already destroyed the place ourselves.”

Many Burmese in Rangoon believe they know why.

The miraculous tale of how the country escaped from the deadly tidal waves
goes like this: when the first waves were about to hit the shores of the
Irrawaddy delta, three giant fish suddenly rose from the waters.

The three fish—Nga Shwe, Nga Htwe and Nga Mann—stopped the waves and
ordered them to turn back.

The tidal waves were surprised by the abrupt appearance of the three huge
fish but insisted on striking the shore anyway.

Again, the fish commanded the waves to turn back immediately.

The tidal waves asked why. One fish answered: “This is enough. We have
already destroyed the country.”

Sympathizing with the people of Burma, the colossal waves receded. Burma
was saved the tsunami’s full fury.

This political satire is wildly popular among Burmese in Rangoon these
days. The three fish are none other than the country’s top leaders,
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, Dep Snr-Gen Maung Aye, and Gen Thura Shwe Mann. The
destruction the fish refer to, of course, is the destruction the military
junta has inflicted on the nation.

In Burma, humor seems to be one of the things the regime fears most.

Political jokes are banned, and comedians who dare to take a stab at the
generals and the country’s situation are put behind bars.

Nevertheless Burmese still enjoy sharing jokes and poking fun at the
generals. Major national and international events provide ample fodder for
mocking the country’s military leadership and momentarily relieving the
people’s suffering.

While Burma almost escaped the tsunami, the tsunami did not escape the
Burmese wit. According to a report released by foreign aid agencies,
compared to neighboring countries, the force of the tsunami was very much
reduced when it reached the coast of Burma.

Consequently, the death toll in Burma was surprisingly low, only 59
according to government figures, while UN agencies and international NGOs
put it between 60 and 80.

“The particular topography of the southern and delta coastlines, as well
as the rocky nature of the islands, provided physical protection for the
population,” the report said.