BurmaNet News May 12, 2005

[Editor]

May 12, 2005 Issue # 2717


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Student leaders asked to cooperate in bombing investigation
Irrawaddy: Performance artists arrested in Rangoon
DVB via BBC: More Shan State Army members arrested in Burma

GUNS
Narinjara: 183 sophisticated weapons confiscated near the
Burma-Bangladeshi border

REGIONAL
Nation: United Nations posts: Supachai’s rise ‘hits Surakiart bid’

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US Senate mulls renewal of Myanmar sanctions
Chaser News (Aus.): Burmese have so much to teach us about human rights,
says Howard
New York Times: Forced labor said to bind 12.3 million people around the
world
Music Week: Damien Rice's new material

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: Sanctions, not aid: challenges and hopes for a future Burma

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 12, Irrawaddy
Student leaders asked to cooperate in bombing investigation - Ko Jay

Burma’s Police Chief met with former prominent student leaders to discuss
the recent bombings in Rangoon and to call for cooperation in discovering
the identities of those responsible, said one student leader who attended
the meeting last Sunday.

On May 8, one day after the bomb blasts in the capital, Police Chief
Brig-Gen Khin Yee summoned eight former student leaders—including Min Ko
Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, who led the previously banned All Burma Federation of
Student Unions during the 1988 uprising, according to Pyone Cho, who also
led a student union at that time.

“The blasts were not just a threat,” the Police Chief told the student
leaders, according to Pyone Cho. “The attacks were very terrible and
high-tech. They attacked soft targets.” He was referring to the targeting
of civilians.

The four nearly simultaneous explosions killed 11 civilians and injured
162, according to official figures. Witnesses in Rangoon, however, have
claimed that the casualties are much higher than the government figures.

The bombs exploded in the Dagon Center and Junction-8 shopping malls, and
the Yangon [Rangoon] Trade Center, where a Thai trade fair was being held.
Three Thais, four Malaysians and one Korean were injured in the blasts.

The police chief asked the former student leaders to cooperate in
disclosing who was behind the blasts.

“We do not know who was behind the attacks. We also condemn such attacks
on the public,” said Pyone Cho.

The junta blamed three ethnic rebel groups—the Karen National Union, the
Shan State Army (South) and the Karenni National Progressive Party—in
addition to the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
for the attacks. All three groups have denied this allegation.

______________________________________

May 12, Irrawaddy
Performance artists arrested in Rangoon - Yeni

Three Burmese performance artists were arrested on May 6 and went on to
spend four days in police custody after putting on a public show in the
capital, Rangoon.

According to sources, Chaw Ei Thein, one of Burma’s leading woman artists,
Htein Lin, an experimental artist regarded as a performance art pioneer
and a third unnamed artist were arrested on suspicion of their work being
politically motivated. Their performance is understood to have involved
setting up a stall and selling traditional medicines priced according an
obsolete monetary system.

Police authorities arrested the pair at their homes and held them for
investigation for four days, revealed a source speaking on condition of
anonymity. The source went on to confirm that the three were finally
released with a warning not to perform similar material again.

The contemporary art scene enjoys an awkward existence in Burma, receiving
virtually no support or assistance from the State despite its growing
international reputation. Exhibitions generally only take place in small,
private galleries and are often subject to draconian censorship measures
or closed down altogether.

Mainly concentrated in the two largest cities of Rangoon and Mandalay, the
modern Burmese art scene is notable not only for its almost unrivalled
creativity, but also its ability to confuse and unsettle traditionally
minded government departments.

"They have no idea about contemporary art," said a Burmese journalist in
reference to the authorities. "People here believe that modern forms of
art are attacked by the censorship board whether they understand it or
not."

Since the 1962, Burma has been subject to heavy censorship of all forms of
art such as music, painting and literature. The Press Scrutiny and
Registration Division, a branch of the Ministry of Information more
commonly known as ‘the censorship board’, is responsible for deciding what
can and can not be put in the public domain.

______________________________________

May 10, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
More Shan State Army members arrested in Burma

[Presenter] It has been learned that a SPDC [State Peace and Development
Council] military unit has arrested some members of the Shan State Army,
or SSA, in Tangyan Township, Shan State South. Local Tactical Operations
Commander Col Khin Maung Myint himself arrested U San Pauk, official of
the SSA, and six other members in (?Mong Pat) village on 2 May. Persons
arrested are U San Pauk, U Kaw Lain, Sai Nyunt Lu, U Khun Leik, San Kan,
Aik Pi, and Saw Ya. The authorities also searched their house and
confiscated SSA uniforms, walkie-talkies, and official documents.

According to those close of the military, it has been learned that the SSA
members have been arrested reportedly for extortion in the region. It is
still unknown where U San Pauk and party have been detained.

Similarly, another local SPDC unit led by Col San Shwe Tha, tactical
operations commander who is close to Northeast Command Commander Maj Gen
Myint Hlaing, searched the houses of Cap Laung Hein, an SSA management
official, and Sergeant U Sai Hlaing in Namhkam on 4 May.

Based on these incidents, news reports from the border say the SPDC can
force SSA to exchange their weapons for peace by exerting more pressure.

______________________________________
GUNS

May 12, Narinjara News
183 sophisticated weapons confiscated near the Burma-Bangladeshi border
during 2004

Dhaka: The Bangladesh military authority confiscated 183 sophisticated
weapons and 24,144 rounds of ammunition from areas near the Burma border
during last year.

According to a local newspaper source on 10 May, 2005, seized weapons
included auto matic assault rifles such as AK-47 rifles and M-16 rifles as
well as a large amount of ammunition and other explosive devices. The
seizure also included some heavy weapons such as a six rocket launcher and
two 60 mm mortar.

During February of last year, a team of American arms experts visited the
regions to inspect seized arms, which included a large number of
American-made weapons. However, the American experts did not make any
comments on the possible origins or on how these weapons arrived in
Bangladesh, said the report.

These weapons were apprehended in eastern hill tracks regions where
Burmese insurgent groups have been active.

Most of these weapons were recovered during operations against the
Arakanese insurgent groups. During one of the operations, a few senior
members of the Arakan Army were detained in Baisary, Naikhongchhari
Township, in south-eastern Bangladesh. The Arakan Army was forced to
surrender most of their weapons to the Bangladeshi authority as a
condition of their leaders’ release.

The Arakan Army is a renegade group of the National United Party of Arakan.

Since the Bangladeshi Army has managed to seize such a large number of
weapons from the Burma-Bangladesh border, many of the Arakanese armed
insurgent groups are facing a decline in their strength and their
activities against the Rangoon regime, said a member of an insurgent group
based in the border area.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 13, Nation
United Nations posts: Supachai’s rise ‘hits Surakiart bid’

The government has been urged to reconsider its lobbying campaign for
Surakiart Sathirathai to be the next UN secretary-general following
confirmation on Wednesday that Supachai Panitchpakdi would head a key UN
administrative body.

Immediately after the UN General Assembly confirmed Supachai’s nomination
as UNCTAD chief, political pundits and Bangkok-based diplomats said his
elevation would seriously hurt Surakiart’s chances of securing the top
United Nations post.

They said the UN would not appoint people from the same country to two top
posts at the same time.

But Deputy Foreign Ministry spokes-man Kiartikhun Chatiprasert claimed
Supachai’s new job would have no impact on the ongoing lobbying campaign
to win the top UN post in 2007.

“The selection processes of these two positions are different,” he said.

Democrat Party deputy leader Surin Pitsuwan said Supachai’s appointment to
the UN position would not automatically affect Surakiart’s chances.

“It depends on the campaign capabilities and movements of the Thai
candidate,” said Surin, the former foreign minister who helped Supachai
secure the top job at the World Trade Organisation.

But Kobsak Chutikul, a former MP and foreign policy expert, told The
Nation that the Foreign Ministry should “reconsider its position very
carefully as to whether or not it will be worth the time, effort and
resources, and if the trade-off we will have to make with other countries
is worth it”.

Kobsak, who quit the Foreign Ministry five years ago to become a
politician, said the ministry mistakenly believed that two people of the
same nationality can hold high-level UN administrative posts at the same
time.

“They often cite examples of South Korea and Japan including cases of
specialised agencies, not administrative of principal UN organs,” he said,
adding that UNCTAD is a principal UN organ and the position of UN
Secretary-General was the top UN post.

“In UN practice, two top administrative posts do not go to nationals of
the same countries,” he said.

Three diplomats, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of
the issue, told The Nation they shared Kobsak’s assessment. One of them
said confirmation of Supachai’s job was “a big blow” to Surakiart’s
campaign because it would be impossible to have two Thais at the top
serving each other.

“He is in a difficult position. He is facing a huge dilemma,” one said.

In Washington, Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said yesterday that
Surakiart still had a “good chance” of obtaining the support needed to be
the next chief of the world body.

He also downplayed the suggestion that two people from the same country
could not hold top jobs at the same time, saying there were no written
rules on geographical location.

It’s been estimated that an 18-month campaign to back Surakiart for the
prestigious post would cost Thai taxpayers over Bt100 million, but the
ministry has been tight-lipped about the possible cost.

The ministry recently tried to pay a US company US$40,000 (Bt1.57 million)
a month to lobby for Surakiart’s position. But Kasit Piromya, Thai
Ambassador to the US, refused to sign the controversial contract because
he felt it was a waste of money.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 12, Agence France Presse
US Senate mulls renewal of Myanmar sanctions

Washington: A bill has been introduced in the US Senate seeking renewal of
sanctions on Myanmar, with a senator urging UN chief Kofi Annan Wednesday
to take firm action against the military-ruled state.

"While I welcome UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s personal comments in
support of freedom in Burma, the time for talk is over," said Senator
Mitch McConnell, using Myanmar's old name.

The second-ranking Republican in the Senate made the remarks after
introducing together with five other senators a bill to renew sanctions
against Myanmar, including an import ban and visa restrictions on
officials from the military junta and affiliated groups.

"The UN must act on Burma -- in New York. It is past time for the UN to
discuss and debate the myriad threats Burma poses to the region. What are
they waiting for?" said McConnell, a longtime critic of the military
regime.

The bill, proposed Tuesday, would renew a complete ban on all imports from
Myanmar until President George W. Bush determines and certifies to
Congress that it has made substantial and measurable progress on a number
of democracy and human rights issues.

The United States halted new investments to Myanmar in 1997 and imposed
bans on financial transactions and imports in 2003.

But the law requires annual renewal only for the import ban.

The junta has not taken any meaningful steps toward restoring democracy
and releasing Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition National League for
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic
senator from California.

"In the face of human rights abuses and terror, approximately 300,000
Burmese citizens have already defied the military junta and signed their
names on a petition calling for true democratic change in Burma," she
said. "We must back their courage."

Just last month, the European Union renewed sanctions against the military
junta restricting the regime members and their families from entering the
EU region, and banning EU companies from doing business in Myanmar.

"While I applaud this action, I call upon the EU and other multilateral
organizations, including the United Nations, to do more in support of
freedom in Burma," McConnell said.

The US Campaign for Burma, a group of activists around the world seeking
an end to the military dictatorship in the impoverished nation, said the
US sanctions were taking a heavy toll on the military junta.

_____________________________________

May 7, The Chaser News
Burmese have so much to teach us about human rights, says Howard

Canberra: Shadow Foreign Affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said that
Australia must cancel its human rights training program with Burma’s
military rulers after the Australian ambassador noted no change in the
Burmese Government’s attitude to its opponents.

Australia had been running courses on human rights and international law
for Burmese government officials.

But Alexander Downer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs says that more time
is needed for the results to be visible.

“The Burmese officials are still having trouble grasping a few of the
concepts we‚ve been teaching them,” he explained. “For example, they still
insist on killing their indigenous populations in broad daylight, as
opposed to just imprisoning them for a long time. We have tried to show
them that under the right circumstances, indigenous people can be made to
kill themselves. But attitudes to difficult areas like human rights won’t
change overnight.”

Prime Minister John Howard has, however, undermined his own Foreign
Minister, agreeing with the ALP that the classes should be scrapped.

“Given the Ambassador‚s report, I don‚t think it‚s appropriate that we try
to teach the Burmese about human rights,” he said. “Instead, it is the
Burmese that should be teaching us. Look at their approach to mandatory
sentencing - it’s not this wussy ‘Three strikes and you’re in’. They’ll
lock you up after just one anti-government demonstration.”

A spokesman for Burma's ruling junta, the SLORC, said that Australia was
on the right track. “Those new laws you've got where the army can attack
peaceful protesters on just the PM’s say-so. That could have been one of
our laws,” he said.

The Burmese spokesman has identified the main task for the Australian
government as oppressing its Opposition.

“The Labor Party have not been tortured enough, even by Kim Beazley's
leadership.” He insists that the Government, like his own regime, would
enjoy broad popular support for such measures. As he asked the press
conference “Who wouldn’t like to see Mark Latham experience excruciating
pain?”

_____________________________________

May 12, The New York Times
Forced labor said to bind 12.3 million people around the world - Steven
Greenhouse

At least 12.3 million people worldwide work as slaves or in other forms of
forced labor, the International Labor Organization, the labor arm of the
United Nations, said in a report issued yesterday.

In the first estimates of overall forced labor ever made by an
international organization, the report said that 2.5 million people were
in forced labor as a result of cross-border trafficking, with 1.2 million
of them in the sex trade.

The report, ''A Global Alliance Against Forced Labor,'' estimated that
profits from trafficked forced labor totaled $32 billion a year, or
$13,000 per trafficked worker. Profits from forced commercial sexual
exploitation totaled $27.8 billion annually, or $23,000 per worker.

''Forced labor represents the underside of globalization and denies people
their basic rights and dignity,'' said Juan Somavia, the director general
of the International Labor Organization.

Lee Swepston, one of the report's authors, said it was hard to determine
whether the overall use of forced labor was increasing or decreasing since
this was the agency's first estimate of the overall numbers.

But he said that trafficking of workers was definitely on the upswing
because international travel had grown easier, borders had been eased in
many countries, especially in Europe, and many women were migrating, with
traffickers preying on them in particular.

''The 12.3 million figure is a minimum,'' Mr. Swepston also said. ''It's a
low figure intentionally. We think it's probably higher. This is what we
can be confident of.''

According to the report, 9.5 million of the forced laborers are in Asia,
most of them forced into bonded labor because of debts, especially in
Pakistan and India. About two-thirds of forced labor in Asia is imposed by
private parties -- families, farmers or companies. About one-tenth of
Asia's forced labor is commercial sexual exploitation and one-fifth is
imposed by the state in a few countries, most notably China and Myanmar,
formerly Burma.

People can be forced into such labor in many ways -- because of debts,
through physical violence, by the confiscation of identity papers, by
threatening to turn illegal immigrants over to the authorities.

''The victims are drawn from lower castes in parts of Asia, indigenous
peoples in Latin America, the descendants of slaves or forest-dwellers in
Africa,'' the report says. ''New forms of coercion often linked to
indebtedness are being detected in a range of sectors and industries, such
as brick making, mining, rice mills and domestic work.''

The report estimated that there were 360,000 forced laborers in
industrialized nations and 210,000 in the former Communist countries of
Europe. In the industrialized countries, the report said, three-quarters
of the forced laborers are in the sex trade, while the others are in work
like apparel sweatshops.

The report said there were 1.3 million forced laborers in Latin America
and the Caribbean, 660,000 in sub-Saharan Africa and 260,000 in the Middle
East and North Africa.

Ninety-eight percent of forced laborers working in sexual activities are
women and girls, the report said, while women and girls account for 56
percent of nonsexual forced labor.

To reduce trafficking, the report calls for stepped-up law enforcement in
both sending and destination countries. It also urges agencies that seek
to reduce poverty, like the World Bank, to make a priority of intervening
in practices that foster bonded labor. The report also says countries may
have to rethink labor, land, tenancy and migration policies that have
produced forced labor.

_____________________________________

May 14, Music Week
Damien Rice's new material

A single designed to raise money for Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi will be Damien Rice's first new material since 2002's triple-
platinum-selling album O. Rice has teamed up with previous collaborator
Lisa Hannigan to write and record a track called Unplayed Piano, which
will be released through 14th Floor Records/DRM on June 20. It will
support the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign, a global
initiative to free the imprisoned political activist. All profits from the
song will go to the US Campaign For Burma and Burma Campaign UK. Rice
says, "When someone has been thrown into a hole and they ask you to throw
down a rope, I am happy to look for a rope - especially for a woman of
such grace."

"They have led to a financial squeeze, with military generals having very
little money to buy off those opposing them and even to pay the salaries
of soldiers in outlying areas," said the group's founder Jeremy Woodrum.

"In the late 1990s, trade was booming and the military regime had doubled
the troop level to 400,000 but now they have so little money to purchase
arms or even to maintain its tiny fleet of Russian MiG fighter jets," he
said.

But Woodrum said Annan should put the Myanmar issue before the UN Security
Council as the junta's alleged involvement in the drug trade and other
illicit activities posed a security threat to neighboring Southeast Asian
nations.

"There needs to be concerted international effort," he said.

______________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 12, Mizzima
Sanctions, not aid: challenges and hopes for a future Burma - May Ng

While Burma lobbyists Professor Robert Taylor and Mr. Morten Pederson were
worried about getting more European aid, a real fear for the junta was the
spread of uncensored news and information about them in Burma. That was
the reason why they cracked down ruthlessly on anyone suspected of
possessing even minute information about them inside the country.
Therefore according to some of the writers and historians, it is important
to examine the origin of the current junta and form a true perspective of
the present situation. The critics maintain that the influence of the
wartime experience and training under the Japanese (for Ne Win) was what
gave the BSPP (junta) rule its distinctly national socialist (some say
fascist) ting, as what author Martin Smith said.

Moreover, Bertil Lintner wrote in 'Burma In  Revolt' that Democratic
influence in the army was minimal in March 1957, when Ne Win was in
undisputed control of the military and the transformation of the army from
being the defender of the government to an autonomous force with its own
agenda had been completed. After having successfully entered business, the
army by that time had begun to show a more direct interest in politics and
running of the country. In an attempt to explain the military takeover, Ne
Win claimed that considering the increased activities of rebels and
collapse of the political system, Parliament had given him the mandate to
restore law and order and create an atmosphere, conducive to holding free
and fair elections as early as possible.

In David Steinberg's 'Burma: The State of Myanmar', the author wrote  that
the ostensible rationale for the 1962 coup was the potential breakup of
the Union of Burma through a meeting of minority leaders held in Rangoon.
At that time it was a convenient excuse, for it led to the easy arrest and
imprisonment of the leaders. By eliminating the chances of any dissenting
expression, the military had ostensibly exterminated its opposition. It
prevented organised dissent but created the frustration that became more
intense because there were no legal means of expression; thus any spark
could set off a conflagration. By concentrating the power at the center,
it increased frustration among the minority sections as well, thus
encouraging the revolts that it had attempted to dispel through political
uniformity. This frustration was exacerbated by dire economic conditions.
Thus the 1988 revolution was a generalised and widespread mass movement
against a military that had become out of touch with the people.

Thirty years after the junta rule, people finally took to the street with
their democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and demanded political freedom
from the military. The army, by then, was overconfident that years of
domination could not be swept away by the people's resent, whose hopes
were mercilessly crushed, and decided to hold the elections. When they
suffered a massive defeat in the polls, they arrested the opponents and
ruthlessly suppressed their challengers once more. This was the simplest
history of Burma under the military junta, for if you change the dates and
time, the same scenario will just repeat itself over and over.

As it seems that democratic changes cannot take place without tremendous
sacrifice of lives, many in the free world would like to avoid
confrontation and, instead, find reasons to justify the junta rule. They
hope that the country will eventually change over the time with the right
kind of encouragement. In reality, constructive engagement and non
interference are just the names for doing nothing. And to treat the junta
with cordiality should not be seen as an effort for change only because it
has a name. Non interference too is no more spectacular than the actual
physical boundaries between countries. For instance, ASEAN thought it is
right not to just leave the Burmese junta to its diabolic, but also to
bring it in the ASEAN fold. It will be questionable, to say the least, to
have Burma as ASEAN chief in 2006 while the junta regime can hardly boast
of anything other than misery, poverty, drugs, HIV and political
instability.

While trying to understand the reasons for the lack of progress toward
democracy, Taylor and Pederson suggested giving more cooperation and aid
to Burma. However when the junta behaved the same way as in the past,
thereby defeating any attempts to democratise the country, the blame was
then placed on the opposition democracy movement.  It was impossible to
defend the indefensible acts by the junta and find rational reasons for
its stay in power.

Additionally, Professor Robert Taylor and Mr. Morten Pedersen, in their
eagerness to coddle the tyrants, recommended using the name of Myanmar
rather than Burma. Since the name of Burma represents all the
nationalities in Burma, whereas Myanmar is blatantly suggestive only of
the dominant Burman race, their recommendation would put a shine on the
military brass while  reducing  even more the glow from the democracy
movement and ethnic harmony in the country.

Unlike conflicts in the fundamental Muslim world, the only real ethnic
conflict in Burma has been between the junta and the ethnic rebels.
Burma's ethnic groups never had real and intense conflicts with one
another, including those belonging to the majority Burmans. There were
definite ethnic differences and separate political goals, but the recent
ethnic hatred or conflicts were only inflamed and caused by the army
junta. A serious territorial dispute between Wa and Shan ethnic groups was
caused by the Junta's forced relocations. The alarming prospect of
conflicts and turmoil involving one million illegal Chinese, recently
allowed in Burma by this junta, and the flow of UNHR refugees from every
corner of Burma into the neighboring nations is not likely to diminish
even with the end of this junta's rule.

Thus the challenge for the next leadership is beyond the replacement of
the dictatorship. Future leaders will have a much more formidable task of
healing the wounds and building a modern Burma without being pulled down
by the ethnic and territorial conflicts. Most importantly, they need to
begin creating an alliance now with the section of the Burmese army that
follows Bo Gyoke Aung San's vision to help end the ambition of the
military junta, charged up by General Ne Win and paid for by China.

According to Bertil Lintner, by 1957, an entirely new Burmese Army was
emerging: a financially strong and ideologically motivated military
machine over which the civilian government had virtually no control. Since
then the army became the sole business and government of Burma. Therefore
sanctions and boycotts not only affect the dictators by hurting their
businesses but also create bad publicity for the junta government as well.
Although economic sanctions reflect only a political outcry, any type of
defeat in international diplomacy could dislodge this junta from the
ideological siege it has held over Burma.

Therefore, a non violent pressure on the military is the only hope for a
peaceful end to the political seizure by the army. For now, more sanctions
and less aid will discourage the junta and highlight the plight of the
oppressed people in Burma.

As was pleaded by Aung San Suu Kyi, please use your liberty to promote our
freedom in Burma.

(May Ng is a human rights activist and a member of Justice for Human
Rights in Burma).