BurmaNet News, July 30 - August 1, 2005

[Editor]

July 30 - August 1,  2005 Issue # 2772


INSIDE BURMA
Bangkok Post: Top UN official due in Rangoon
DVB via BBC: Burma's Asean decision causing rift among junta generals
Narinjara News: Arakanese villagers forced to aid in construction of gas
pipeline
SHAN: Army shelling raises false alarm
Sunday Telegraph: Old bangers fetch a bundle in Burma
AP: Myanmar forest officials receive US prize for environmental and
wildlife conservation

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Asia Pulse: Iran, Myanmar stress closer investment, trade relations
Xinhua: Thailand proposes export market projects to boost trade with Myanmar

ASEAN
BusinessWorld: RP set to co-chair ASEAN

REGIONAL
Thai Press Reports: Thailand: Government submits answers to un questions
on human rights
New Straits Times (Malaysia): Refugees to be absorbed
Nation: Nobel nomination for Sulak

INTERNATIONAL
DVB: Bono and Norwegian PM call for more pressure on Burma junta

OPINION / OTHER
Australian: Burma takes the heat off bloc

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 1, Bangkok Post
Top UN official due in Rangoon - Larry Jagan

Annan visit may be discussed with junta

A top ranking United Nations official is due to start a five-day official
visit to Burma today in an effort to lift restrictions on UN activities
imposed by Rangoon and broach a possible visit by UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan to that country.

Jim Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), expects
to meet top members of the junta, amid growing signs that Burma's leaders
want to restrict the UN's activities in the country.

Top UN officials in New York are desperately seeking ways to revive the UN
role. The key initiative seems to be a possible visit to Rangoon by Mr
Annan.

The UN may be using the WFP chief's trip to courier a message to Burma's
top leaders, including the proposed visit by Mr Annan, according to
diplomats in New York. Mr Morris declined to reveal whether Mr Annan had
asked him to deliver a message. ``This is a private matter, unless the
secretary-general decides otherwise,'' he said in an exclusive interview.

Mr Morris is also expected to meet the opposition National League for
Democracy and representatives of the country's ethnic minorities. He will
be the most senior UN official to visit Burma since pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked by pro-government thugs while touring the
north of the country and placed under house arrest more than two years
ago.

His programme in Burma includes visits to the WFP's projects, especially
in northern Shan state where the UN has been feeding former poppy growers
who lost their main livelihood when opium production was banned over the
last two years. ``The purpose of my trip is to review WFP humanitarian
operations in Burma,'' Mr Morris said.

The trip comes at a sensitive time for the UN in Burma. Most UN agencies
and international non-government organisations (NGOs) working there have
had their activities severely restricted over the past six months. Many
aid workers have been prevented from visiting their projects, especially
in the ethnic border areas.

Regional military commanders have been told to make it difficult for
foreign workers, especially in the border areas. Even the Red Cross is
finding it increasingly hard to operate, especially in Shan state, say
western diplomats based in Rangoon.

About three months ago several government ministries, including legal and
financial departments, were ordered to prepare briefing papers on the
effect and implications of a pullout of the International Labour
Organisation.

``The restrictions on UN international NGOs will be one of the issues I
will be raising,'' Mr Morris said.

UN efforts to help broker political change in Burma are now in serious
danger of being completely derailed. Both Razali Ismail, the UN special
envoy for Burma, and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN special rapporteur on
human rights in Burma, have been refused access to Rangoon for well over
12 months. The Burmese foreign minister refused to meet Mr Razali in
Vientiane last week.

Many UN officials and diplomats in Rangoon remain uneasy about Mr Morris'
visit at this time. Many Top UN officials in Rangoon were taken by
surprise. The trip even had to be cleared by the secretary-general's
office before it could go ahead, according to a UN official in New York.

``There is nothing special about the timing of my visit,'' Mr Morris
insisted.

``With WFP operations and staff in more than 80 countries, I have an
obligation to visit them and see their work. After more than three years
in the job, I now have the opportunity to schedule a trip to Burma.''

The WFP is working with refugees and marginalised people in the remote
western regions. Two years ago, it started an important food assistance
programme for people living with HIV/Aids in the central part of the
country. Four hundred households with families suffering from the disease
receive a monthly ration of 65kg of rice. Over 10% of the population are
HIV positive in these areas.

The WFP food assistance to former poppy growers in the northern border
region includes school feeding schemes and food-for-work projects.

Burmese opposition groups and ethnic organisations along the Thai-Burma
border are concerned the WFP's programmes, presence and projects are
helping prop up the junta and may involve forced labour.

``WFP programme is directly assessed, implemented and monitored through
its NGO partners, mostly international. Neither government authorities nor
military personnel are involved in its programme,'' Mr Morris said.

____________________________________

August 1, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC
Burma's Asean decision causing rift among junta generals

[Newsreader] It has been learned that the people are keeping a wait and
see attitude on the prevailing political situation in the country as news
emerged in Rangoon and most regions about a rift among the top generals in
the military junta over the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council]
government's relinquishment of the ASEAN chairmanship.

As the local radio and TV stations do not carry the news, it has been
learned that the people had to rely on foreign radio stations and the sale
of radio and batteries have shot up. DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma]
correspondent Ko Maung Too filed this report.

[Maung Too] After the junta's relinquishment of the ASEAN chairmanship, a
Rangoon resident explained to DVB about the condition of the people's
concern.

[Rangoon resident] The situation is not stable in Rangoon. The activities
of the generals do not seem to be the same anymore. This happened once
when Rangoon was rocked by the bombings [in May] and again now with this
ASEAN affair. It seems like there is a sense of a rift among the generals
and the people are keeping a wait and see attitude wondering whether there
might be another coup in the offing. They are hoarding rice and oil which
led to a sudden rise is the price of commodities. The price of gold has
risen to an unprecedented level of kyat [Burmese currency unit] 270,000 to
a tical [about 16.4 gm]. The people are keeping their ears and eyes open
and listening to the news. By the generals relinquishing the ASEAN chair,
it seems the other parties have gained the upper hand.

[Maung Too] As the Burmese people are hungry about knowing the political
situation they would wait and tuned in to foreign radio stations that
provide genuine news. A resident from Aunglan explained that the news have
roused interest even to people from the villages in Magwe Division.

[Aunglan resident] The villagers are all hooked to the news and even a
small hut in the middle of a field will have a radio. This goes to show
how powerful the media is and they are all aware of that.

[Maung Too] In a similar manner, the Rangoon resident also said people
from Rangoon are buying radio and batteries to catch up with the latest
news.

[Rangoon resident] In order to get the genuine news the people tune in to
the BBC, VOA, DVB, and RFA [Radio Free Asia]. They also listen to these
radio stations with great expectation to hear some news which might change
the political landscape of the country. The radios are selling like hot
cakes and without regular electricity the sale of batteries has also
increased considerably. The people feel that something is bound to happen
that might change the situation.

____________________________________

August 1, Narinjara News
Arakanese villagers forced to aid in construction of gas pipeline

Arakanese villagers, 500 in total, from the northern parts of Arakan
state, have been forced to work on clearing a path for the construction of
a gas pipeline between Burma and India.

The villages being forced to partake in the labor are from the northern
regions of Kyauk Taw Township and the southern regions of Palatwa,
according to local sources.

Over 30 villages in the Kyauk Taw Township fell victims to the
Construction of the Gas Pipeline. Those included are Shwe Pray Tha, Tha
See Roa, Kyauk Guu Zuu, Thone Soang Zuu, Myauk Taung, A Laee Kyan, Kyauk
Tan, Watt Mine, Tha Htae Khaung, Paut Taw, Minn Tha Taung, Shwe Hlaing
Roa, Sein Chrong, Late Ma, Kroan Ma, Kha Maung, Mala Thit, Sinn Owaoo
Khaung, Yarla Roa, Sai Aung Roa, Sonn Kaing, Pada Chait, Paut Taw Phalong,
Mahamuni, Thara Tapon, Kyaukta Lone, Thein Tan, Shwe Ta Hlay, Roa Ma Prin,
Sien Kraone, Late Ma Roa and War Ma Kya.

The villages have to clear the forests on the path of the future pipeline,
level the path by cutting the hills and filling the earth with hand tools
and to build temporary bridges to cross creeks, says a villager from the
region who was forced to participate in construction.

The villages located on the path of the Pipeline have been ordered to
relocate by the military personals by the end of this raining season. Sein
Krone, Late Ma Roa and Paut Taw will have to be relocated. There will be
no compensation or any assistance for the relocation, says a villager.

Battalions of the Burmese army, the light infantry battalions (374), (375)
and (376) involved in forcing the villagers to work on the construction of
the pipeline are based in the Kyauk Taw Township.

It was learned that the forced labor is conducted under the direction of
the Commander of the Western Command of the Burmese junta, and foreign
tourists are not allowed to come near the area.
____________________________________

August 1, Shan Herald Agency for News
Army shelling raises false alarm

The Shan State Army's besieged stronghold opposite Maehongson's Pang Mapha
district went on red alert following the shelling of one of its positions
by the Burma Army on Friday, 29 July, according to Shan resistance
sources.

Five mortar shells hit an SSA outpost north of its base Loi Taileng that
has been under siege by the joint Burma Army United Wa State Army force
since March. The attack ended as sudden as it started and the occupants of
the encircled Shan base that includes some 2,000 refugees and their
children went back to their normal daily activities.

"The shelling came from the Burma Army base in Nawngleng," said the
source, a high ranking SSA officer. "But in the three Wa bases facing our
positions, we found no preparations for an imminent attack. In fact, each
of their bases has been manned by no more than 50 Wa fighters since their
last assault (on 26 April)."

All sources including the SSA's spokeswoman Khurhsen Heng-awn and Thai
security officers in Maehongson dismissed recent reports that all Wa
positions surrounding Loi Taileng had been taken over by the Burma Army
after the UWSA failed to mount new attacks.

"It is unlikely that the Wa will resume its offensive unless the promised
2,500 fresh troops from Panghsang (the Wa capital on the Sino-Burma border
in the north) arrive," said an informed source from Mongton, opposite
Chiangmai province.

The latest fighting that lasted more than a month, 22 March - 26 April,
took a toll of some 700 casualties on the Wa side, including 337 killed,
and 65 casualties on the SSA side, including 12 killed. (The number of Wa
fatalities were confirmed by the UWSA.)

According to Shan Human Rights Foundation, villagers of Hwe Aw, Mongton
Township, were rounded up on the night of 20 April, during the height of
the fighting, to dig graves for 68 dead Wa soldiers.

____________________________________

July 31, Sunday Telegraph (London)
Old bangers fetch a bundle in Burma - Sebastien Berger

Rangoon: In Britain, it probably wouldn't be worth paying to have them
towed to the scrap yard. But in Burma old bangers like the Ford Cortina
and Toyota Corolla are coveted status symbols.

Demand is driven by the latest diktats of one of the world's most
repressive military regimes. Thanks to a new clampdown on unlicensed
vehicle imports by Burma's military junta, the price of even a second-hand
jalopy is beyond the reach of all but the richest people.

A 1981 Ford Cortina can sell for pounds 2,500 - several times what it was
worth when new. A 20-year-old Nissan with half its dashboard missing will
go for pounds 5,000, while a humble 1985 Toyota Corolla will fetch up to
pounds 10,000.

Until recently, motorists imported cars illegally from Thailand to avoid
the sky-high customs duties and the cost of obtaining an import permit.
Now, however, unlicensed vehicles are being confiscated, which has sent
the value of officially-registered cars rocketing. In a country where the
average income is less than 75 pence a day, even a rusty import with smoke
belching from its engine is a luxury.

Burma already has numerous distortions in its economy because of trade
sanctions imposed by Europe and America, which last week President George
W Bush voted to extend by a year.

But the sudden hike in car prices is a direct result of the dictatorship's
own bizarre economic management, which in the past has also included
hiring astrologers as advisers and issuing currency in multiples of nine.

Most business legislation also tends to line the pockets of the ruling
elite. One beneficiary of the car import restrictions is said to be a
son-in-law of Than Shwe, the junta's leader, who reportedly controls one
of the biggest second-hand car firms.

At the same time the regime is also rumoured to be rewarding cronies and
paying off opponents with import permits, worth up to pounds 50,000 on the
open market.

Prices for brand new cars, meanwhile, are now stratospheric. A new Toyota
Land Cruiser can cost up to pounds 200,000. So rare is the sight of a new
car that their appearance automatically signals the presence of a
high-ranking VIP.

"A brigadier-general at least," said one Burmese, who declined to be
named, as a large Korean saloon drove down the road. "An ordinary Burmese
will never drive a new car. But if you are an army officer, OK."

____________________________________

July 30, Associated Press
Myanmar forest officials receive US prize for environmental and wildlife
conservation

Yangon: A U.S. environmental group has honored two Myanmar forest
officials for their outstanding efforts to protect the environment and
wildlife, state-run media reported Saturday.

The Alexander Abraham Foundation gave the Environmental and Wildlife
Conservation awards to retired director Saw Han and director Khin Maung
Zaw of the forestry department, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society
presented the awards at a ceremony in Yangon this week, the paper said.

Myanmar's forest department works closely with international wildlife
conservation groups such as the Wildlife Conservation Society and
U.S.-based Smithsonian National Zoological park.

Environmental groups have said that Myanmar is suffering the fastest
deforestation in Southeast Asia. Myanmar's military government has
acknowledged that illegal logging goes on in its forests but denies claims
by some environmental groups that they are in danger of disappearing due
to extensive tree cutting.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

August 1, Asia Pulse
Iran, Myanmar stress closer investment, trade relations

Tehran: Myanmar Deputy Head of Chambers of Commerce referred on Saturday
to the strategic location of Iran as a gateway to the Central Asian
markets and stressed his government's interest in using the transit route.

Deputy Head of Myanmar Union of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ovin Own,
in a meeting with the Iranian Envoy to Thailand, called for an increased
trade exchange between the two nations.

He further said that his country places a special significance in its
relations with Tehran and added the two states' private sectors should
increase their activities."

Pakayeen also referred to Iran as most the economical, closest and most
secure route with access to the Central Asian market.

Pakayeen said that the two states have potentials for cooperation in oil,
agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and industrial sectors.

He said Iran is ready to take strident steps to raise the level of
bilateral ties with Myanmar.

Pakayeen, on Friday submitted his credentials to Chairman of State Peace
and Development Council Senior General Than Shwe. During the meeting,
Pakayeen expressed hope friendly relations and cooperation between Iran
and Myanmar would receive further boost.

He conveyed President Mohammad Khatami's greatest wish for the Burmese
government and nation and said the presence of Iranian nationals in
Myanmar plays an important role in the expansion of bilateral ties.

He stressed that Iran's foreign policy is based on the establishment of
peace in the world and positive cooperation with different states, which
will be continued in the future.

Shwe, for his part, wished success for the Iranian government and nation
and said historical ties between Iran and Myanmar created consolidated
bilateral bonds.

Tehran and Yangon should prove their authentic position in Asia and the
world through expansion of bilateral and regional cooperation on the basis
of common interests, he said. Shwe expressed his country's readiness to
promote ties with Iran in all fields.

____________________________________

August 1, Xinhua General News Service
Thailand proposes export market projects to boost trade with Myanmar

Yangon: Thailand has proposed the introduction of wholesale export markets
in some big cities and border trading towns in Myanmar to increase the
bilateral trade by 20 percent in 2005, a local weekly reported Monday.

The wholesale markets are so designed that merchants from both countries
find convenience to present their export products there and facilitate
trade transactions, the Thai Embassy was quoted by the Myanmar Times as
saying.

According to official statistics, of the 1.96 billion dollars'
Myanmar-Thai bilateral trade in 2004, Thailand's imports from Myanmar
amounted to 1.34 billion US dollars, up 40 percent from 2003, while its
exports to Myanmar reached 624 million dollars, also up 33 percent.

With the border trade accounting for 1.7 billion dollars or 70 percent,
Myanmar gained a 715 million dollars' trade surplus during 2004.

As part of the beneficial ASEAN Integration System of Preference (AISP),
Myanmar is also expanding trade with Thailand which has offered tariff
exemption and relaxation on Myanmar's export goods, giving Myanmar
opportunities to win increased trade surplus in the coming years.

Under the AISP, Thailand has made such move on a total of 460 items of
Myanmar export goods starting 2004.

Thailand, which is Myanmar's biggest trading partner, represented 38
percent of the country's total foreign trade volume of 4.9 billion dollars
in 2004-05 which ended in March.

____________________________________
ASEAN

August 1, BusinessWorld
RP set to co-chair ASEAN - Bernardette S. Sto. Domingo

 The Philippine and Malaysian governments will co-chair the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this November in preparation for the
Philippines' chairmanship in 2006.

The Philippines is set to assume leadership of the 10-member bloc next
year after military-led Myanmar decided to forego its turn amid pressures
from the United States and Europe.

"Malaysia will chair ASEAN with us as co-chair for 2005-2006. We will be
closely involved in the substantive and even some of the administrative
preparations for Malaysia's hosting of ASEAN meetings to ensure our own
successful hosting of meetings when we assume the chair next year,"
Foreign Affairs Sec. Alberto G. Romulo said.

The ASEAN chairmanship is normally assumed on the basis of alphabetical
rotation and the Philippines is next on the list.

ASEAN members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 1, Thai Press Reports
Thailand: Government submits answers to un questions on human rights

The government has completed the process of gathering information on 26
human-rights queries and is ready to give answers to the UN human-rights
commission, the director of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department
said, The Nation reports.

Charnchao Chaiyanukij, said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had
listed 26 issues to be clarified after Thailand submitted an initial
report on civil and political rights.

The committee requested additional information about violence in the
South, the war on drugs, a missing human-rights lawyer and human-rights
violations against refugees and migrant workers from Burma.

"The issues that the committee is concerned about are not new. They were
already published in newspapers, and we have prepared all kinds of answers
for them. After the answers are sent, the committee will send the report
back to Thailand and ask for further clarification if necessary," he said.

PM's Office Vice Minister Sorajak Kasemsuwan and Justice Ministry Deputy
Permanent Secretary Tongthong Chandransu will lead Thailand's
representatives to Geneva, he said. They will be accompanied by
representatives from the police, the army and the Southern Border
Provinces Peace-Building Command.

Charnchao said information on the Tak Bai incident would include forensic
reports and details of court hearings.

In the case of missing lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, the government will
clarify the prosecution of the alleged kidnapper.

He said the representatives would explain the facts and accept any flaws
that might have caused the incidents, though he was sure the information
would prove that the flaws were not prompted by government policy.

The government will try to resolve the situation, he said, and the Justice
Ministry is considering revising the law so as to deal with officials who
committed offences in the course of their duties.

____________________________________

August 1, New Straits Times (Malaysia)
Refugees to be absorbed - Deborah Loh

Putrajaya:  A government committee will decide on procedures to absorb
asylum seekers into the labour force.

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid said the committee would hold its
first meeting in August to discuss issues related to the 60,000 refugees
waiting to be recognised as workers.

Most of them are Rohingyas and Chins from Myanmar, Acehnese from
Indonesia, and Moro from the Philippines.

"The Government has agreed in principle to absorb them into the work
force, but we have not decided how to regulate this."

He said several issues needed to be ironed out, including classification
and documentation of asylum seekers, and how to control their
participation in the labour force.

Some trade groups have expressed unhappiness over the Government's move to
accept asylum seekers as workers, for fear of depriving locals of jobs.

Azmi said it had not been decided if the United Nations High Commission
for Refu- gees would be invited to sit on the committee.

The Government had announced in early July that it would allow asylum
seekers to work here legally to overcome the shortage of foreign workers
in some sectors.

_____________________________________

July 30, The Nation
Nobel nomination for Sulak

Social critic and Buddhist scholar Sulak Sivaraksa has been nominated for
this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

This is the third time Sulak's name has been put forward for the
prestigious award, which recognises outstanding contributions to world
peace.

The committee should make a decision within two months.

One letter to the Nobel Committee in Oslo supporting Sulak's nomination,
written by Prof Meridel Rubenstein from Smith College, Massachusetts,
praised Sulak as a founding leader of engaged Buddhists, ecologists and
peace activists in the United States and beyond.

"Sulak is a thorn in the side of the Thai government because he
continually reminds those in power of the Buddhist Principles of good
leadership.

"In the absence of good governance, he has demonstrated by his actions and
writings for over three decades what a true leader can be. He has worked
tirelessly with grassroot communities, including the Assembly of the Poor,
indigenous peoples and Buddhist groups.

"He has lived in exile, imprisoned, and is now on bail for highlighting
the injustices of life for many Thais."

Sulak is on bail on a 1998 charge of obstructing the Thai-Burmese gas
pipeline being built through the jungle in Kanchana-buri. He is also a
staunch supporter for democracy in Burma and Tibet, he initially supported
Thaksin Shinawatra's term as Prime Minister, but become disillusioned
later.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 28, Democratic Voice of Burma
Bono and Norwegian PM call for more pressure on Burma junta

The Irish band U2 leader Bono and Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne
Bondevik urged the international community to put more pressure on Burma’s
military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) for democratic
reforms. Bono was in the Norwegian capital Oslo to perform a sell-out
concert and the call was made during a press conference after he met with
Bondevik on the evening of 27 July. “We discussed the situation on Aung
San Suu Kyi,” Bondevik told DVB at the press conference. “I think she is
in rather good health, but we are concerned and disappointed of her
situation of being in house arrest for so many years, and we agreed upon
trying to encourage more countries--- democratic leaders to increase the
pressure.” He added that the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) plays a significant and ideal role to persuade the junta to reform
and that the EU must increase pressure during its meetings with ASEAN.
When DVB asked Bono what he has to comment on Aung San Suu Kyi, he said:
“I very much think she meant a great deal to the world, because while the
oppression in Burma is allowed to continue, the whole concept of freedom
is under threat,” he said. He added that this graceful woman can be under
house arrest in the year of her 60th birthday is unacceptable to the
people of the world. He also pledged to work harder for her release.
Bondevik insisted that if famous people like Bono and world leaders,
especially those from democratic countries push the junta together, Aung
San Suu Kyi will be free soon.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 30, The Australian
Burma takes the heat off bloc - ASEAN

Burma’s ruling junta bowed to international pressure this week, forgoing
the 2006 chairmanship of a key Asian regional forum but still failing to
win over critics who renewed calls for democratic reforms.

Malaysia's New Straits Times  said Burma's decision not to take the
chairmanship of the Association of South-East Asian Nations next year had
averted a "potential diplomatic embarrassment for the 10-member regional
grouping".

Vijay Joshi in Hong Kong's The Standard said the move had followed
pressure from the US and the European Union, which have demanded that
Burma "either move towards democracy and release pro-democracy campaigner
Aung San Suu Kyi or forfeit its turn at the rotating chairmanship".

He said Burma's decision had saved the bloc "from an embarrassing standoff
with the West".

"Failure to do so would have resulted in an estrangement between the West
and ASEAN, impacting on trade ties, something ASEAN countries can ill
afford," he wrote.

But in an editorial headlined "No cure for ASEAN", The Jakarta Post warned
the outcome merely provided "an opiate to temporarily ease a passing
pain".

It said the problem with ASEAN was that "it believes it can continuously
overlook problems by simply refusing to deal with them", while Burma's
problem was "it believes coercion and force to be a sovereign right". "A
combination of the two brings about a corrosive predicament that reduces
one of the most dynamic regional groupings to a state of lethargy,
typified by persistent grogginess," the paper said.

But the International Herald Tribune's Seth Mydans said Burma's decision
had been taken "with obvious reluctance" and praised ASEAN for "a display
of decisiveness within the divided and usually cautious regional
association".

He said for Burma "it was a particularly painful rebuke, coming not from
Burma's usual critics in the West but from neighbouring countries that had
welcomed it into their group eight years ago".

The US State Department welcomed the move but accused Burma of resisting
democratic reforms and renewed calls for the release of Suu Kyi, Agence
France-Presse reported.

The Financial Times' Amy Kazmin said the junta's decision "temporarily
takes the heat off ASEAN, which has seen its own reputation battered by
the generals' economic mismanagement and refusal to relax their grip after
four decades of military rule". But she warned, Burma would "remain a drag
on ASEAN's international credibility as long as the junta detains Nobel
Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi". AFP reported warnings from analysts
that the successful campaign by the US and Europe to persuade Burma to
forgo the chair "could result in the military bloc becoming more
repressive and isolationist". These analysts, it said, believed the
backdown "marks an illusionary victory and won't serve the cause of
democratisation".