BurmaNet News, August 3, 2005

[Editor]

August 3, 2005 Issue # 2774


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Rangoon cartoonist jailed

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: SPDC suspends phone services on Sino-Burma border

DRUGS
Xinhua: Myanmar expands cooperation with neighbors in fighting drugs

BUSINESS / FINANCE
AFP: Unocal setback for CNOOC will not deter overseas strategy: analysts

ASEAN
Inter Press Service: Asean searches for common political values

REGIONAL
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Myanmar, Vietnam seek to strengthen ties
Irrawaddy: Limbo land

INTERNATIONAL
CTK National News Wire: Havel promises to support fight for democracy in
Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima: Diplomatic Coup d'etat

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INSIDE BURMA

August 3, Irrawaddy
Rangoon cartoonist jailed

Chit Swe, cartoonist and vice chairman of the opposition National League
for Democracy in Thanlyin Township, Rangoon, was sentenced to one month’s
imprisonment on Wednesday for organizing an illegal party meeting at his
home, according to the NLD headquarters in Rangoon. Chit Swe, who is in
his 60s, was arrested on July 12 and charged with failing to obtain
permission to hold the meeting. Aung Thein, an NLD lawyer, said on the
phone from Rangoon that Chit Swe would be admitted to Rangoon’s Insein
Prison on Thursday. Cartoons by Chit Swe have been published in monthly
magazines such as Dhana and Myanma Dhana.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 2, Mizzima News
SPDC suspends phone services on Sino-Burma border - Myo Gyi


All public telephone booths in northern Shan State on the Sino-Burma
border were closed under orders from the Minister in-charge of the
Ministry of Communication Brig. Gen. Thein Zaw.

"We learnt that public phone booths operators were summoned and told to
suspend their services. This has adversely affected businessmen in these
areas.

A local from Muse told Mizzima, " it is very convenient and easy to
communicate between Burma and China for the local people. Just spell out
the number and the line is connected instantly.''

They charge only RMB 7 for five minutes. This service has been closed in
Muse over the last two days. The Laiza phone service in Kachin State
became operational today, an operator said. The Laiza phone service
provider said that, " the phones connected through the Muse exchange were
disconnected today, but the phones through Myitkyina exchange is still
operational."

Communication Minister Brig. Gen. Thein Zaw is currently on an official
tour of the Northern Shan State. It is still uncertain if the suspended
services will be restored when the Minister leaves, the local from Muse
added.

"We heard that they suspended these overseas call services because of loss
in revenue," he stated. Further Burmese businessmen incurred heavy losses
in border trade due to the recent appreciation of RMB. They seem to be
trying to curb the losses in this way.

The local from Muse also said that there is discontent and criticism of
the Communication Minister and the local authorities.

"The closure of overseas phone services is currently a hot issue among
local people. In this age of communication, the Chinese government is
giving out handsets and phone lines free of charge to their people. They
collect only the call charges," he added.

In the last few days, not only were the private landline phones
disconnected, but cell phone calls to Burma were suspended.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

August 3, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar expands cooperation with neighbors in fighting drugs

Yangon: Myanmar is expanding cooperation with its neighboring countries in
fighting drugs by opening more related liaison offices in the border areas
with Thailand and India, a local weekly reported in its latest issue.

The move is aimed at facilitating information exchange in the aspects
between Myanmar and the neighboring countries, the Flower News quoted the
Myanmar Police Force as saying.

According to the sources, such offices will be set up in Kawthoung and
more areas of Tachilek bordering Thailand, while the opening of similar
offices in the border areas with India will be sought at regional meetings
of these countries.

At present, border liaison offices are operational in Kachin state, Lewjei
and Chingshwehaw bordering China and in some areas of Tachilek and
Myawaddy bordering Thailand, the sources added.

According to the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, Myanmar signed
bilateral agreements on drug control with India in 1994, with China and
Thailand in 2001.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

August 3, Agence France Presse
Unocal setback for CNOOC will not deter overseas strategy: analysts -
Benjamin Morgan

Beijing: State-owned CNOOC's failure to properly assess the political
risks it faced in trying to acquire US oil major Unocal is a setback but
it will not deter China's drive for overseas energy assets to feed its
voracious economy, analysts said Wednesday.

After weeks of uncertainty it came as little surprise that China National
Offshore Oil Co. aborted its bid for America's ninth largest energy
company in the face of mounting opposition in Washington.

"We thought all the way that it would not get through the bid process in
the US," said Belle Liang, energy analyst at Core Pacific Yamaichi.

CNOOC took markets by surprise in late June when it launched an 18.5
billion dollars cash bid for Unocal, trumping a 16.5 billion dollar offer
from US rival Chevron.

Although Chevron hit back in July with an improved offer in cash and stock
that valued Unocal at about 17.1 billion dollars, the politics of a
commmunist country taking over US assets proved far too controversial for
Capitol Hill.

"It came to signify the general struggle between the US and China," said
Kurt Barrow, a senior partner at energy consulting firm Purvin and Gertz
in Singapore.

"It was an easy target to gain points with the US electorate," added
Barrow, who said other factors such as the high price of oil as well as
ongoing trade frictions over textiles and the yuan all combined to derail
the takeover.

Chinese oil companies have struggled in the past to compete against
larger, more powerful American and European concerns, lacking their deep
pockets and political clout.

But with China's ever more urgent need for access to energy resources to
power its booming economy, CNOOC's failure, which would have been the
biggest ever overseas deal by a Chinese company, will only be a momentary
reversal of fortune, analysts said.

"CNOOC learned a very good lesson from this -- that it should better
assess the political risks, especially with such a sizeable deal," said
Liang of Core Pacific.

CNOOC will need as much as 80-100 million tons of gas annually by 2015 to
supply its terminals and so far it has secured only five million tonnes,
said David Hurd, oil analyst with Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong.

"That it will continue to look for other merger and acquisition
opportunities is very clear from the company's strategy."

Earlier this year Chinese oil companies proved just how determinied they
are to secure resources, battling through initial setbacks to win a
financing deal to get access to the main asset of state-owned Russian oil
giant Yukos.

Beijing also gained access to a trans-Siberian oil pipeline it has
furiously competed for with energy-thirsty rival Japan.

While Chinese energy groups may not be as seasoned as their larger
competitors they have the full backing from Beijing, a government more
than willing to do business with pariah states or those with questionable
human rights records.

"Chinese companies have shown a willingness to participate in countries
that are off limits or shunned by other major oil companies," said Barrow
of Purvin and Gertz.

Countries with largely unexplored resources that China is cozying up to
include ally Myanmar as well as African and Middle Eastern nations such as
Sudan and Iran.

In the immediate future, potential acquisitions for CNOOC could include
stakes in Woodside Petroleum or Santos of Australia or even whole
companies such as BG Group or US-based Marathon, analysts said.

"CNOOC may have lost the battle but it will not give up the war," said
Barrow, adding that smaller US oil groups were likely to be targets too.

_____________________________________



_____________________________________
ASEAN

August 3, Inter Press Service (IPS)
Asean searches for common political values - Marwaan Macan-Markar

Bangkok: As the 10-member Asean regional bloc embarks on a journey to make
itself more cohesive, it faces the daunting challenge of finding common
ground on democratic values with which politically disparate members can
identify.

So far, the 38-year-old Asean has found it healthier to treat politics
lightly while concentrating on concerns over economics, trade and
development in the region.

Asean's success as a regional bloc is largely due to the open and
accommodating stance the group's founding members had towards differing
political cultures. Strongmen and authoritarian leaders, like Indonesia's
former president Suharto or Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan
Yew, fit in. Founding members Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore
and Thailand were joined later by Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos and
Vietnam, adding vastly to the political diversity.

By the end of the 38th Asean ministerial meeting last week in Vientiane,
Laos, the foreign ministers were ready for even more accommodation.
Reflective of the political make over, the planned Asean Charter aims to
promote democracy, democratic institutions, human rights, transparency and
good governance.

To get the charter off the ground, an “Eminent Persons Group, comprising
highly distinguished and well-respected citizens from Asean Member
Countries [will be given a] mandate to examine and provide practical
recommendations on the directions and nature of the Asean Charter,''
according to a draft declaration of the new charter.

''This is the most ambitious political project Asean is undertaking since
it was founded in 1967,'' Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior editor and
columnist on regional affairs at Thailand's english language daily The
Nation, told IPS. ''It is an attempt to make Asean a relevant body in the
wake of change taking place around it.''

The charter will take the form of an Asean constitution, he added, since
it is a document aimed at setting common standards of political behavior
and one which all members are legally bound to uphold.

''Indonesia has been a key mover behind this idea,'' said Kavi. ''It has
argued that Asean needs a binding constitution for the region to be seen
as a cohesive force.''

The Vientiane meeting also offered insight into political behavior that
will not be tolerated among its members. The group succeeded in compelling
the military government of Burma to give up its turn at chairing the group
in 2006 because of its oppressive political record.

''Asean displayed its political spine at last in Laos,'' Debbie Stothard
of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma, a regional human rights
watchdog, said in an interview. ''If they can make such an impact on such
a military regime as Burma's, then what more can they achieve?''

The prospect on Burma assuming the chair of Asean next year had become a
political time bomb with key economic partners of the region, the US and
the European Union, threatening to boycott Asean with Burma as its leader.

While Burma's lack of democracy and human rights may have offered Asean a
yardstick to assert what it considers politically unacceptable, it faces
the embarrassing reality of deciding what can be politically acceptable.

To begin with, the region has an excess of one-party states, where
democracy has been twisted—or is in the process of being given such
treatment—by powerful ruling political parties. Malaysia and Singapore,
where opponents live in fear, where the media is controlled and where
national security laws are used to suppress challenges to the political
establishment, are glaring examples.

Vietnam and Laos, on the other hand, are ruled by communist parties that
show little respect for the political and civil liberties that Burma's
military government has been accused of suppressing.

Thailand and Cambodia, which are developing democracies, are under a cloud
of suspicion due to the domineering attitude of the single political
parties that govern each of these countries.

Brunei is an Islamic sultanate, ruled by a monarchy, where the only free
elections occurred in 1962.

Presently, the only two exceptions to this dominant culture of
authoritarianism—albeit in various shades—are Indonesia, which is just
coming out of more than 30 years of dictatorship, and the Philippines,
with its deep democratic roots.

''The new charter they have in mind will have to address this political
reality,'' said Stothard. ''Asean has never been successful in coming up
with a common political model because of the lack of standards for good
governance and the law.''

''Asean's leaders are making a change, but the question remains: Are they
prepared to swim forward or just tread water?'' Stothard said. ''They will
not be taken seriously if there is no shift in the group's internal
operating culture.”

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 3, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar, Vietnam seek to strengthen ties

Hanoi: Communist Vietnam and pariah state Myanmar (Burma) wish to enhance
their already close relationship, Vietnamese officials said Wednesday
after an official visit to Yangon (Rangoon).

During the visit Monday and Tuesday, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Le
Cong Phung met with Myanmar Prime Minister So Win and the ministers of
commerce, energy and foreign affairs, said Ngo Thi Hoa, deputy head of the
Asian affairs department in Vietnam's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

"The visit will help to strongly speed up the fine traditional friendship
between Myanmar and Vietnam," Hoa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1975, and this trip
was the first of their "political consultative" meetings, the official
said.

"The second political consultative meeting is scheduled to take place in
Vietnam next year," Hoa said. Last week in Laos, Myanmar passed on taking
up the chairmanship of the regional grouping, the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), which the much criticized military-run state had
been due to take up in 2006.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos are seen by some observers as Myanmar's closest
allies within ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

The prospect of Myanmar taking the chair led to the United States and
European Union to threaten to boycott ASEAN meetings.

Washington and Brussels have long called for Myanmar to take steps to
improve its dismal human rights record and release democracy campaigner
Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

ASEAN has a policy of non-interference in its members' internal affairs,
but pressure from other ASEAN countries was believed to have played a part
in the pariah state's recent decision to step aside.

_____________________________________

July 2005, Irrawaddy
Limbo land - Aung Lwin Oo

Thailand’s new refugee rules leave thousands in fear and suspense

When Sandar Win, a former activist in Burma’s opposition National League
for Democracy, fled to neighboring Thailand in January she hoped to
continue her political struggle there. But she hadn’t kept up with events
in Thailand and had certainly not read Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s
refugee policy statement, made in June 2003: “Thailand will not allow any
groups to use our territory for political activities against neighboring
countries.”

Instead of finding asylum as a political refugee under the protection of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sandar Win stepped into
limbo. Thaksin had followed up his foreboding message by introducing new
regulations curtailing the UNHCR’s power to grant refugee status to new
arrivals from Burma. Sandar Win is one of about 9,000 who now have no
UNHCR protection and are technically illegal immigrants.

So far, Thailand has clearly lacked the political will to protect asylum
seekers

Before the new regulations took force on August 31, 2003, Burmese arrivals
in Thailand were able to apply for UNHCR refugee status on the grounds of
a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home country. While their
applications were being processed they were allowed to earn up to 2,000
baht (US $48) a month and in most cases also received support from NGOs
close to the UNHCR. Middle men exploited the situation, charging refugees
exorbitant fees for helping them get UNHCR status and NGO assistance.

It was little wonder, then, that UNHCR officials were faced with the
daunting task of determining genuine political refugees from people
seeking better living conditions in Thailand. Adding to their difficulties
was the inability of often poorly educated refugees from remote conflict
areas to present their applications correctly or coherently.

Yae Ko Ko, a former interpreter and translator at the UNHCR’s Bangkok
office, saw his share of asylum seekers who were clearly not political
refugees. Before he himself fled to Thailand, Yae Ko Ko was a member of
the All Burma Students Democratic Front and heard many applicants for
UNHCR status claim falsely to have belonged to the movement.

One presented a letter of recommendation from the ABSDF signed by an
official who was no longer in office. Others handed in forged prison
release documents. Some posed for photographs at demonstrations outside
the Burmese embassy in Bangkok. Many had no knowledge at all of the 1988
student uprising in Rangoon.

Such abuses apparently had little to do with the Thai government’s revised
stand on admitting refugees, however. Apart from suspending the UNHCR’s
“refugee status determination” procedure, Bangkok ordered all registered
asylum-seekers to enter government-run camps at locations near the
Thai-Burma border. Failure to do so would result in arrest and
deportation, the authorities warned.

Refugees entering Thailand after August 31, 2003, are required to undergo
screening by government-run Provisional Administration Boards, which have
the power to order deportation. Sunai Phasuk, Thai representative of the
international movement Human Rights Watch, says the UNHCR, NGOs and rights
groups are not happy about the arrangement. “So far, Thailand has clearly
lacked the political will to protect asylum seekers,” he says.

Although it has had a long and untroubled relationship with the UNHCR,
Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967
protocol, the main international guarantees of refugee rights. The UNHCR
began operations in Thailand in 1975 and nine years later was presented
with its first flood of refugees from Burma, 10,000 ethnic Karen who
sought asylum in Thailand in 1984.

Shifts since then in Thai government sensibilities, particularly its
domestic security concerns, have contributed to changes in the way
refugees are officially viewed. One widely-expressed fear is that the
Provisional Administration Boards, reacting to the Thai government’s
security worries, could judge asylum applications on grounds unrelated to
humanitarian considerations.

A spectacular case in 2000 involving a Nagaland, India separatist activist
drew wide attention to Thailand’s shifting position. The activist,
Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the National Socialist Council of
Nagaland (the Isak-Muivah faction), which is pressing for an independent
Nagaland, was arrested at Bangkok airport, accused of traveling on a fake
passport. Muivah was passing through Bangkok on his way to the Netherlands
for peace talks in the Hague with Indian officials.

He sought asylum with the UNHCR in Bangkok, but was rejected on the
grounds that he had been involved in “war crimes and non-political
offenses.” After widespread protests and demands for his release, he was
allowed to continue his journey and is now back in Nagaland, continuing to
lead his movement’s struggle.

For Sandar Win, once a member of the NLD women’s wing in Burma’s Magwe
Division, the democracy struggle has come to a dead end in a twilight
world where she faces arrest as an illegal immigrant and deportation to a
country where she really would have a “well-founded fear of persecution.”

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 2, CTK National News Wire
Havel promises to support fight for democracy in Burma

Prague: International solidarity and open political pressure play a
crucial role in the fight for democracy in Burma, former Czech president
Vaclav Havel and U.N. envoy for human rights Paulo Sergio Pinheiro agreed
in Prague today.

"We have agreed on that we will be in touch, and if something needs to be
done, we will consult it," Havel told reporters after the meeting.

Havel also said that "various ways of involvement in Burma must be
combined." He added that in his opinion the most important is to exert
"distinctive public political pressure and express solidarity with Burmese
citizens suffering under the military regime," which seized power in 1962.

Havel is one of the members of The Shared Concern Initiative (SCI) who
sent an open letter to the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Burmese opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in which they protested against her imprisonment.

The initiative associating world intellectuals and former statesmen was
launched by the Dalai Lama, Havel, former South African president Frederik
Willem de Klerk and Jordanian Prince Hassan.

Pinheiro said that he considers the pressure exerted by the international
community and the activities of such personalities as Havel, for instance,
the most efficient tool in the efforts to improve human rights observance
in Burma.

Havel, 67, former dissident and playwright, occupied the post of
Czechoslovak president after the collapse of Communism, from December 1989
to 1992, and after Czechoslovakia's split in 1993 he became Czech
president (in office January 1993-February 2003).

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 3, Mizzima
Diplomatic Coup d'etat - Myint Thein

Burmese democracy activists are so used to defeat that they were stunned
by the diplomatic coup d'etat that came in the way of Than Shwe's dreams
of ASEAN Chairmanship. Than Shwe lost face and this diplomatic disaster
can precipitate significant political change in Burma.

The Chinese Foreign Minister is a very experienced diplomat. His style is
very similar to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew. He was China's Ambassador to the
United Nations when Madeleine Albright was America's UN Ambassador. Later
he served as China's Ambassador to America in Washington DC.

The Chinese Foreign Minister lived for about ten years in America and has
a deep understanding of American politics. The 97-1 vote in the US Senate
(for sanctions) and the 423-2 vote in the US House of Representatives
illustrates America's deep commitment for the restoration of freedom and
democracy in Burma. This is the type of Congressional Mandate that gives
the American President the green light to use all means necessary to
confront the Burmese generals.

ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) of which China is a member called for the
release of ASSK and cited lack of democratic progress in Burma, which is
really a vote of no-confidence against SPDC. ARF's Final Communiqué stated
that "the group's 25 ministers" expressed this concern. China is part of
this group, and this may be why the Chinese Foreign Minister made his
surprise one-day visit to Rangoon last week.

The ASEAN meeting in Laos was a total disaster for Than Shwe. Without the
Chinese veto, a Cambodian type political settlement can now be imposed by
the UN Security Council.

Myint Thein - Senior Advisor to the Burmese Resistance