BurmaNet News, April 7, 2005

[Editor]

April 7, 2005 Issue # 2692


ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Burmese media in Thailand hard-hit by Thai camping decision
Mizzima: Business on Moreh border: a hard tale for the youth

DRUGS
Xinhua News Agency: Alleged Myanmar druglord in Thai custody

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhuna News Agency: Myanmar to hold international trade fair in May

ASEAN
Reuters: Myanmar ends silence on ASEAN leadership concern

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Sanctions stay but aid needed
Irrawaddy: British MPs call for UN action on Burma
 Washington Post: Burmese Diplomat seeks asylum in U.S.; request puts
State Dept. on the spot

OPINION / OTHER
Wall Street Journal: Making 2006 the year of freedom in Burma

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 7, Mizzima News
Burmese media in Thailand hard-hit by Thai camping decision - Suu Mya Mya Soe

Mungpi: Tension and fear grip the exiled Burmese journalists in Thailand
as the Thai government starts relocating Burmese nationals, who are
recognized as Persons of Concern (POC) by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to put in camps along the border with
Burma.

While some Burmese journalists, still living in the urban areas of
Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, run the risk of being arrested and
deported by the Thai authorities, some have given up their career to go to
the camps, said a Burmese journalist working for an Internet-based Burma
media organization in Chiang Mai.

They include those who have been interviewed for third country
resettlement by the US Embassy. Thai authorities have announced that no
POC will be allowed exit permit unless they are in the camps.

Some Burmese journalists see the Thai move to contain POCs as an effort to
crush Thailand-based Burmese media by stopping them from reporting.

However, differing with the view, the Chiang Mai- based Burmese journalist
said he did not think the move as being specifically aimed against the
Burmese media. But, it certainly affected the Thailand-based Burmese
media, he observed.

"Many of us are struggling to continue our profession by coping with this
problem in our own ways", he added.

According to a report in the April 1 edition of Bangkok Post, more than
830 POC have gone to the border camps, but more than 270 others have not
reported till the March 31 deadline, set by the Thai Government.

Those who refused to go to camps re virtually on the run by shifting homes
frequently to avoid detection by the Thai authorities.

However, so far there are no reports about any Burmese journalist being
arrested or deported back to Burma.

Some Burmese journalists, ho wanted to continue with their profession, had
reportedly sought permission from the UNHCR to allow them to stay outside
the camps, since it was not possible to carry on reporting from there. But
their requests were turned down and they were asked to report to avoid
arrest and deportation.

The Thai authorities have restricted the use of computers or mobile phones
inside the camps.

Several exiled Burmese journalists are at present working in Thailand.
While some of them are with Internet-based Burmese news organizations,
some others string for overseas Burmese radio stations such as BBC, VOA,
Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).

____________________________________

April 7, Mizzima
Business on Moreh border: a hard tale for the youth— Surajit Khaund

With the scarce number of Government jobs falling far short of the demand
for earning a livelihood, hundreds of Burmese youth have ventured into
business. Though for most of them the earnings are small keeping in view
the spiraling prices of essential commodities, they are happy with their
trades.

Suu Myat, 30, runs a departmental store at Tamu, the capital city of
Sagaing Division of the North Western Burma, bordering India. The range of
her stock is wide- from whisky to furniture everything that people need.

She was employed in a college with a monthly salary of 4,000 Kyats (nearly
Rs1000), but later she switched over to business to run her family. A
50-year-old woman, Laura Oo, too is running a shop at Namphalong in Burma,
just a few yards away from Moreh gate number two.

Of the four gates at Moreh, number two is where you find large amount of
goods being traded between the two countries.

Laura Oo, selling clothes at wholesale rates, earns a handsome amount to
be able to send her two grown-up sons to America for higher studies.
People, whom this correspondent met, said her monthly profit was around Rs
1 million.

The daily business transaction in this international market is estimated
at about Rs 10 million, without accounting for the massive smuggling of
drugs, precious stones, gold or guns.

Local businessmen informed that extortion of money from traders and those
facing arrest or other penalties was a common practice for military
personnel. On the other hand, the intelligence personnel, who are supposed
to keep a tab on all sections of people, also get money to keep quite.

Hundreds of people are engaged in smuggling items into Namphalong from
China, Japan, and Thailand. As the military personnel have increased their
commission, prices have been hiked by 10 to 40 per cent for all the
commodities.

Mr. A.K. Reddy is a businessman, who remains seated in his empty small
wooden shop at Moreh. Talking to Mizzima news he said since the time of
his grandfather the family had been doing business, once flourishing, in
Burma.

After their business was taken over in a nationalization drive by the
communist rulers in 1964, his family moved to Moreh, to start a business,
which was doing well. But after the Namphalong market came up just across
the border, his business has been on a down slide, like that of all other
Indian businessmen at Moreh.

Now Mr. Reddy and others hope that if the pro-democracy opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi comes to power, business may be reverted to the earlier
system and the Indian businessmen may start earning more.

Though more and more youths are getting involved in business with India on
the other side of the border, they are also facing a tough time to carry
on because of the prevailing unrest in Burma. What they want is a peaceful
atmosphere in the greater interest of the people.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

April 7, Xinhua News Agency
Alleged Myanmar druglord in Thai custody

Maha Sang, alleged drug lord of Myanmar's Wa ethnic group, has been under
custody of the Thai authorities, newspaper Nation reported on Thursday.

Maha Sang, who's also head of the anti-government Wa National
Organization, was now in custody of Thai police in the northern province
of Chiang Mai, some 700 kilometers north of Bangkok and bordering Myanmar
to the north.

One local police officer said Maha Sang turned himself in, while the other
officers said he was actually cornered by the police around his home in
Chiang Mai.

The 60-year-old Maha Sang was alleged to have close ties with the Myanmar
drug kingpin Wei Hsueh-kang, who was wanted by the US government under a
reward of 2 million US dollars.

Maha Sang was also accused of involving with various drug dealings,
including a recent exchange of 5.7 million methamphetamine tablets for 40
off-road trucks from Thailand.

The Thai authorities issued a warrant for Maha Sang in February and
confiscated his property in Chiang Mai, which was reportedly worth as much
as 50 million baht (around 1.25 million dollars).

Maha Sang, however, denied doing business with Wei and involvement in
other drug dealings. He said he's under tremendous pressure since February
and ready to fight the allegation in court.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / MONEY

April 7, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar to hold international trade fair in May

Myanmar will hold an international trade fair in May to display
standardized export goods produced domestically, a local weekly journal
reported Thursday.

The five-day Yangon International Trade Fair 2005, sponsored by the
Ministry of Commerce, will take place at the Convention Center here from
May 25 to 29 and be participated by member countries of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other neighboring countries, the 7-Day
weekly said.

The trade fair will be grandly held taking the example of a five-nation
trade fair last held at the same venue in December 2004 involving
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam (CLMTV), the report added.

That CLMTV-ECS (Economic Cooperation Strategy) trade fair, the first of
its kind, was aimed at promoting trade, gaining market access for
exportable products, enhancing investment opportunities and strengthening
relations within the ECS countries.

Myanmar has negligible trade volume with Cambodia and Laos but Thailand
and Vietnam. Thailand represents one of Myanmar's major trading partners.

Regionally speaking, Myanmar's foreign normal trade with the 10 ASEAN
members, mainly Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the
Philippines, amounted to over 2 billion US dollars in the fiscal year
2003-04, accounting for 51 percent of its total foreign trade, according
to official statistics.

Of the 1.2 billion dollars' Myanmar-Thailand bilateral trade during the
year, Myanmar's export to Thailand amounted to 1.09 billion, while its
import from Thailand represented 110 million. Vietnam had a bilateral
trade volume of 50 million US dollars with Myanmar in the 2003-04 fiscal.

_____________________________________
ASEAN

April 7, Reuters
Myanmar ends silence on ASEAN leadership concern

Hanoi: Myanmar broke a silence on Thursday about concern that its human
rights record would tarnish its leadership of ASEAN next year, forecasting
a solution would be found in time to satisfy all.

On a visit to Vietnam, Prime Minister Soe Win gave no assurances about the
release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other human rights reforms.

But he sent out an optimistic signal that an issue that has the potential
to lead to a boycott of next year's ASEAN summit by the United States and
the European Union could be overcome.

"It will be all OK," Soe Win said in answer to a question about growing
concerns in Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) members
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines about damage to the
group's international reputation from Myanmar's leadership of the block
from mid-2006 under the group's system of an alphabetically rotating
chairmanship.

Europe and the United States have shunned the former Burma and slapped
sanctions on Yangon since the military government's latest detention of
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi in May 2003.

ASEAN has preferred a more conciliatory stance of "constructive
engagement" to foster democratic reform.

Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung said Hanoi's attitude on the
Myanmar leadership issue would be decided on ASEAN's principles of
"consensus and non-interference in each other's internal affairs."

"Vietnam always follows and supports efforts of national reconciliation by
the Myanmar people," he added after Soe Win met Vietnamese Prime Minister
Phan Van Khai.

Despite the junta's assurances that it is locked into a seven-step
"roadmap to democracy," there have been no concrete signs of change and
Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo remain under house arrest.

On Wednesday, the Philippines said there could be opposition to Myanmar's
chairmanship at a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers next week if it does
not show its commitment to pushing ahead with democratic reforms.

Diplomats said they believed Soe Win's visits this week to Laos, Vietnam
and Cambodia would include taking the temperature on its chairmanship
ahead of the foreign ministers meeting.

The ASEAN foreign ministers will gather on Mactan island in the central
Philippines on Sunday to prepare for the 38th ministerial meeting in Laos
in July and a December summit in Malaysia.
"The key issue is for Myanmar to follow the (democracy) roadmap,"
Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo told reporters.

Romulo said Myanmar's chairmanship would be discussed next week and that
Myanmar's junta must make a firm commitment to stick to the roadmap for
democracy.

Yangon has promised to bring the country back to democracy through a
series of reforms, such as freeing political dissidents and drafting a new
constitution.

The seven-stage roadmap was laid out in 2003 by former prime minister Khin
Nyunt, who was purged last October.

ASEAN drew Myanmar out from isolation in 1997, taking a more conciliatory
approach of "constructive engagement" with Yangon's reclusive generals.

The Philippine Senate is set to approve a resolution urging the government
to block Myanmar's chairmanship if Suu Kyi is not released.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 7, Irrawaddy
Sanctions stay but aid needed—Shada Islam

The EU on Tuesday rejected suggestions it was softening its stance on
dealing with the military junta in Burma, but said the bloc’s governments
were determined to come to the aid of the country’s long-suffering
population.

With poverty and deprivation rising throughout the country, international
donors had no choice but to engage in some form of policy discussion with
the Burmese government, European officials told a meeting of international
aid experts convened by the European Commission.

Officials said it was necessary to hold a dialogue with Rangoon if donors
wanted to improve the lives of ordinary Burmese. They added that
coordination and information sharing among donors was essential to achieve
the goal of alleviating poverty in Burma.
As human rights activists and Burmese opposition groups protested outside
the meeting, described as “Burma Day 2005,” ­ European officials denied
charges there was any change in the EU’s long-standing policy of sanctions
against the military regime.

They insisted that the meeting, with its focus on getting aid to the
Burmese people, was a follow-up to a decision by EU governments last
October to toughen sanctions against Rangoon. But it was also to back up
the stricter line by promising more assistance to the country’s
population.

The EU’s so-called “common position” on Burma says that while
non-humanitarian and development programs are suspended, exceptions will
be made for projects which are designed to improve human rights and good
governance, upgrade education and health facilities and provide the “basic
needs and livelihoods for the poorest and most vulnerable populations.”

It adds that while such schemes would be implemented by UN agencies and
non-governmental organizations, the bloc would also “engage with the
government of Burma” over its development responsibilities. Consultations
with civil society and all democratic groups, including the leading
opposition National League for Democracy, are also envisaged.

While the EU focus on aid is not under dispute, critics are angry at some
of the suggestions included in a report commissioned by the EC for the
meeting written for the meeting by Burma scholars Robert Taylor and Morten
Pederson. Critics say the two are well-known Burmese regime sympathizers.
The report says Brussels should call the country Myanmar instead of Burma,
resume regular high-level visits to Rangoon and revise its strategic
objectives in the country.

“The military will remain in power into the indefinite future and any
transition, including important governance and economic reforms, will have
to be negotiated and implemented in cooperation with the officer corps,”
the report says.

“Whether we like it or not, the military regime in Myanmar is part of the
solution as well as the problem and the failure to effectively understand
and work with the government undermines the EU’s strategic and
humanitarian objectives,” it adds.

British European Parliament member Glenys Kinnock denounced the report‘s
“crass and unacceptable proposals to engage with the military junta.” She
said she was especially dismayed that “a small and unrepresentative band
of anti-sanctions lobbyists have been given free reign,” while
pro-democracy groups and the Burmese community were excluded from the
meeting.

Harn Yawnghwe, director of the Brussels-based Euro-Burma office said he
received a “belated” invitation to attend the meeting, adding that the
study had done little more than repeat old arguments against sanctions.
The EU policy of sanctions must be continued and developed to support the
process of change in Burma, he said.

The EC argued that since the focus was on aid to the people of Burma,
invitations had been extended to individuals and agencies which had direct
in-the-field experience of working in the country.

Officials also denied allegations that the authors of the report were
apologists for the Burmese military regime.  But they did say that while
the study was a good basis for discussion, it did not reflect EU policy.

_____________________________________

April 7, Irrawaddy
British MPs call for UN action on Burma - Yeni

Several British members of parliament issued a statement on Wednesday
calling on the British government to put Burma on the agenda of the UN
Security Council and to support detained Burmese opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

“It is time the Burmese government understood what concern British
parliamentarians have about the ill treatment they mete out to their
citizens,” said Vera Baird, Labour MP for Redcar and joint chairperson of
the group, in the statement.

John Bercow, Conservative MP for Buckingham, added: “British MPs want the
UN Security Council to stop ducking the issue of Burmese tyranny and to
start confronting the regime with explicit demands for democratic change
and the timetable for that change to be delivered.” He added: “It reflects
too the hostility of freedom lovers to the brutal military dictatorship in
Burma which has a record of bestial oppression of its own people.”

The group of 289 British MPs from all parties, including several former
ministers and high profile MPs,  began their move while Southeast Asian
lawmakers are urging their government leaders to bring pressure to bear on
the Burmese regime to free Suu Kyi and show its commitment to democratic
reform.

The Asean parliamentarians want to see the Rangoon generals start
democratic reforms before taking the chairmanship of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations in 2006. Asean foreign ministers are set to meet
informally next week in Cebu in the central Philippines, with the Burma
chairmanship issue on the agenda.

Asked by newsmen about the growing concern among some of Burma’s Asean
partners about the chairmanship issue, visiting Burmese Prime Minister
Lt-Gen Soe Win’s simple reply in Hanoi on Thursday was: “It will be okay.”
But he wouldn’t commit himself on any plan to release Suu Kyi.

Burma has not yet been a formal agenda item at the UN Security Council.
Unlike the US and EU, the UN has not clamped sanctions on Burma, though UN
special envoy to Burma Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail has publicly
expressed his frustration over being prevented from visiting the country
since early 2004.

_____________________________________

April 7, The Washington Post
Burmese Diplomat seeks asylum in U.S.; request puts State Dept. on the spot

A senior Burmese diplomat is seeking political asylum in the United
States, saying that if he returns he might be killed because of an ongoing
purge of associates of the ousted prime minister, Khin Nyunt.

"I love my country," Aung Lynn Htut, the deputy chief of mission, wrote
March 27 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But he said that if he
returns home, he "will certainly be arrested, possibly tortured and
possibly even killed."

The request poses a dilemma for the Bush administration. Aung Lynn Htut
might be a valuable source of intelligence on the Burmese government,
which Rice has labeled one of six "outposts of tyranny."

But the retired army major was complicit in assisting the brutal
military-led government, while many Burmese refugees who have fled the
country because of their human rights activities have been unable to leave
camps on the border with Burma and win entry into the United States.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, has faced a total ban on exports in the
United States since 2003 after authorities placed under house arrest Aung
San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was prevented by the Burmese
military from taking office after her party overwhelmingly won elections
15 years ago. She has been in detention for nine of the past 15 years, and
her most recent confinement began after a bloody crackdown by
government-sponsored gangs on her and her supporters in May 2003.

In October, Gen. Khin Nyunt was removed from his post after a power
struggle with more hard-line officials in the military junta. Suu Kyi's
house arrest was extended another year in November.

State Department and Homeland Security Department officials said they
could not discuss pending asylum requests as a matter of law. Aung Lynn
Htut requested asylum for himself, his wife, a son, two daughters and a
sister.

Aung Lynn Htut, who was Burma's second-ranking diplomat in the United
States, did not respond to messages left at his home in Glen Echo or sent
to his e-mail address. His wife, Tin Lay Nwe, said in a brief phone
conversation that they had not received a response to their request. "The
only way I can live is to get asylum," she said. "We can't go back to our
country."

Burma's state-run media reported Aung Lynn Htut's attempt to defect over
the weekend, calling it "an act of betrayal to the state."

Aung Din, policy director and co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma,
said Aung Lynn Htut was a close subordinate of Khin Nyunt in the
directorate of intelligence, which was involved in the arrest and torture
of political dissidents. His main responsibility at the embassy here was
to monitor the activities of Burmese exiles in the United States, Aung Din
said.

Aung Din said Aung Lynn Htut's wife is a sister of Win Win Nu, a prominent
businesswoman who fled Burma after a conflict with the government over her
managing of a holding company that included Mandalay Brewing Co. Win Win
Nu continued to run a number of businesses in Burma under her sister's
name, however, through the protection of Khin Nyunt. But that protection
was withdrawn after Khin Nyunt's ouster. A Burmese court recently accused
Aung Lynn Htut's wife of misconduct, and she faces imprisonment if she
returns.

The court order was issued just a few days before Aung Lynn Htut was
ordered to return to Burma, Aung Din said.

Aung Din, who served four years in Burmese prisons because of his efforts
to promote democracy, said the questionnaire for seeking political asylum
in the United States asks whether the asylum-seeker has ever been in a
position to harm or cause the suffering of another person.

Given Aung Lynn Htut's history, he said, "on this question, I don't know
how he will answer."

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 7, Wall Street Journal
Making 2006 the year of freedom in Burma— Senator Mcconnell

Next year promises to be the year of freedom in Burma. In July 2006, the
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is slated to assume the
chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Burma's
behalf.

This misnamed body, which is neither peaceful nor committed to the
political, economic or social development of that nation, is clearly in no
position to represent Burma at such an important regional forum. The
SPDC's injustices are legion and include: torture, arbitrary arrest and
detention of reform activists, manufacturing and trafficking of illicit
narcotics, forced and child labor, and the use of rape as a weapon of war.
These crimes have been long documented by the U.S. State Department, the
United Nations and reputable human rights and nongovernmental
organizations.

Evidence of Burma's lack of governance spills over its borders daily,
whether amphetamine-type stimulants that destroy the future of the
region's youth, traumatized refugees who are increasingly unwelcome in
neighboring Thailand, or an ignored and unchecked HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The simple fact is that the SPDC's misrule in Burma poses an immediate
danger to itself and the region. That is why democratic nations, from the
United States to India and Thailand, must speak with one voice in opposing
the untenable prospect of this illegitimate body being allowed to chair
Asean next year.

It is conventional wisdom that the key to national reconciliation in Burma
rests with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for
Democracy (NLD) and ethnic nationalities. Despite attempts at
marginalization -- and worse -- by the junta, these players require a seat
at the table for the Burma problem to be resolved. SPDC attempts at
reconciliation absent the participation of Suu Kyi and the NLD, including
the most recent constitutional convention charade, have resoundingly
failed. Fortunately, the world has not forgotten the NLD's landslide
victory in 1990 parliamentary polls.

However, today Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders remain imprisoned following
an assassination attempt by SPDC-affiliated thugs in May 2003. Ethnic
women and girls continue to be brutally raped by the Burmese military. 
And an internal putsch last year allowed the hardest line elements of the
junta to gain firm control of the SPDC.

To counter this and push Burma toward freedom there are a number of steps
the international community can take.  First, the U.S. Congress should
renew the import ban on goods from Burma, and the State Department should
refuse the credentials of the senior SPDC representative to the United
States. Diplomatic representation should be downgraded -- as America does
not have an ambassador in Rangoon, the SPDC should not have one in
Washington. U.S.

President George W. Bush is to be commended for his leadership on Burma,
and his continued involvement is essential to bring about democratic
change.  Second, the European Union must increase pressure on the junta.
Recent reports of a possible easing of sanctions in Brussels are alarming,
and, should they prove accurate, will only be interpreted as a betrayal of
Suu Kyi and the democratic principles she and other courageous Burmese
champion. As the United Nations and regional neighbors discovered,
"constructive dialogue" with the SPDC is wishful thinking.

Fewer carrots and more sticks are necessary to further freedom in Burma.
At a minimum, the EU should adopt targeted sanctions against the regime
and make clear that it will have no dialogue with the junta unless and
until Suu Kyi and all other prisoners of conscience are immediately and
unconditionally released. The EU must match its tough talk about freedom
in Burma with concrete actions.

Third, the United Nations should discuss and debate the myriad threats
Burma poses to the region. This matter deserves the personal attention of
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who would be wise to acknowledge the failure
of Special Envoy Tan Razali Ismail to achieve any progress on
reconciliation efforts. U.N. member states must accept that a political
problem in Burma requires a political solution. Addressing underlying
symptoms -- such as poverty and poor education and health care -- without
tackling the fundamental political problem only serves to prolong the
suffering of the Burmese people.

Finally, at their meeting in the Philippines that begins on Saturday,
Asean foreign ministers should consider the consequences of Burma's
chairmanship in 2006. Straying from the impractical and outdated policy of
noninterference lawmakers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia,
and the Philippines have formed the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on
Democracy in Myanmar to demand the release of Suu Kyi and condition the
SPDC's chairmanship of Asean on the initiation of democratic reforms.
Other regional parliamentarians and government officials should join the
chorus.

The United States, the EU and Japan should follow the lead of the caucus
by stating that that they will boycott all Asean meetings and events
should the SPDC take the regional body's helm. Their participation in any
discussions involving the military junta should be conditioned on the
release of all political prisoners, the unfettered access of the NLD to
its supporters throughout the country, and a ceasing of ethnic cleansing
in Burma.

Asean members are beginning to recognize that Burma's chairmanship makes a
mockery of its stated objective (in its Declaration) to promote peace and
stability through respect for justice and the rule of law. Since its
admission into Asean in 1997, Burma has consistently demonstrated a
complete disregard for the region and beyond.

The world has a unique opportunity to help Suu Kyi and the Burmese people
make 2006 the year of freedom. We should not forfeit this opportunity lest
we betray the aspirations for freedom of the Burmese people -- and
ourselves.