BurmaNet News, August 19, 2005

[Editor]

August 19, 2005 Issue # 2786


INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: Global AIDS fund quits Myanmar, cites restrictions
AFP: UN envoy to meet with Myanmar's junta leader
The Times: Rebel comics risk jail to poke fun at military rulers
Irrawaddy: The 58th anniversary of Mon Revolution Day held

REGIONAL
AP: SE Asia seeks cooperation with China, Japan, South Korea on
environmental protection

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Should Annan visit Rangoon?

PRESS RELEASE
Global Fund: The Global Fund terminates grants to Myanmar

ANNOUNCEMENT
Bank Information Center releases "Multilateral Development Banks and
Burma" resource book

This Resource Book developed by the Bank Information Center is designed to
help Burmese speakers working toward democracy in Burma learn about
multilateral development banks (MDBs), so that as the MDBs start to
operate fully in Burma, they can work to ensure that sustainable
development and good governance are incorporated into MDB operations.

The Resource Book, available in both Burmese and in English, can be
downloaded at http://www.bicusa.org/bicusa/issues/misc_resources/1629.php.


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 19, Reuters
Global AIDS fund quits Myanmar, cites restrictions - Darren Schuettler

Bangkok: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has
pulled its funding for programmes in army-ruled Myanmar, blaming travel
and other restrictions imposed by the junta, the Fund said on Friday.

The Fund, which agreed in August 2004 to spend nearly $100 million over 5
years fighting all three diseases in Myanmar, said its decision was
regrettable given the serious epidemics threatening the impoverished
Southeast Asian nation.

The former Burma, ruled by the military since 1962 and receiving little
Western aid after decades of sanctions, has up to 610,000 people living
with HIV/AIDS and one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world.

But new travel curbs imposed in July on U.N. staff overseeing
Fund-financed programmes and bureaucratic hurdles to procuring medical
supplies had violated Yangon's agreement with the Fund, said spokesman Jon
Liden.

"Obviously we are extremely sorry and concerned that we have to do this,"
Liden told Reuters. "But you cannot work at this scale effectively if you
can't even travel around to watch what you are doing".

Foreign aid workers in Myanmar criticised the move.

"Global Fund or not, the world should be providing assistance to this
country. To abandon this country and its people, I can't see how it is
justified," said a worker at one NGO that was due to receive $2.5 million
from the Fund.

Liden said anyway that funding had not reached the point where it was
supporting drug treatments for HIV/AIDS patients, meaning no one would be
cut off.

The Fund said it had already disbursed $11.8 million in Myanmar.

POLITICAL PRESSURE?

The Fund -- an independent organisation of governments, business and
private groups first proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2002
-- has so far committed $3.5 billion to more than 300 programmes in 127
countries.

In recent weeks other international NGOs and U.N. agencies have complained
of restrictions on their staff and humanitarian activities in Myanmar.

The head of the U.N. World Food Programme, James Morris, flew to Yangon
earlier this month to press for the free movement of aid workers and a
lifting of barriers to delivering food aid.

It is the first time the Global Fund has withdrawn from a country in which
it was working, and the move is likely to stir controversy within the NGO
community.

Critics have accused the United States, a major contributor to the Fund
and a staunch critic of the junta, of seeking to limit its activities in a
country labelled an "outpost of tyranny" by U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice.

They say the Fund's safeguards, aimed at ensuring monies go to affected
people and not the government, are too restrictive and politicised the
delivery of humanitarian aid.

But Liden said the system has worked well in 45 so-called "fragile"
countries so far.

"They are not draconian. If you can't watch your own programme activities
unhindered, that's not an unreasonable safeguard," he said.

____________________________________

August 19, Agence France Presse
UN envoy to meet with Myanmar's junta leader

Yangon: The reclusive leader of Myanmar's military government was to hold
a rare meeting Friday with a UN envoy named two years ago to press for the
freedom of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Myanmar official said.

Senior General Than Shwe was to meet former Indonesian foreign minister
Ali Alatas at a military guest house, said the official, speaking on
condition of anonymity.

Alatas is the first UN envoy admitted into the military-run country since
March 2004, when Malaysian Razali Ismail visited.

On arriving Thursday, Alatas said he carried a message from UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan for the nation's military rulers, but declined to give
details.

Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said it
had not had any contact with Alatas but hoped to meet him during his
three-day visit.

Alatas had dinner Thursday with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win and
discussed United Nations reforms due to be debated at the UN headquarters
in New York next month, the world body said in a statement.

Nyan Win snubbed Razali last month when he declined to meet him on the
sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in Laos.

At that meeting the junta agreed to skip its turn at ASEAN's rotating
chairmanship amid intense international pressure for Aung San Suu Kyi's
release from house arrest which began in May 2003.

During his Myanmar visit, the envoy was also due to meet organizers of a
national convention charged with drafting a new constitution as part of
the junta's "road map" to democracy, and with government-backed social
groups, the UN said.

The European Union, the United States, the United Nations and human rights
groups consider the national convention a sham because it has been
boycotted by the NLD.

____________________________________

August 19, The Times
Rebel comics risk jail to poke fun at military rulers - Nick Meo

They entertain tourists with jokes about life in Burma, but the secret
police could come calling at any time, writes Nick Meo.

Like stand-up comics anywhere, the Moustache Brothers love to mock their
political masters.

In Burma, however, such jokes are dangerous and Mandalay's only dissident
comedy troupe live with the constant threat of a visit from the secret
police. Two of the three men have already spent nearly five years chained
together, breaking rocks in the company of drug addicts and hardened
criminals in the mountains of Kachin state. Their crime: making the
audience laugh at the military regime.

Undeterred, they still perform for tourists. "We're illicit, blacklisted,"
Lu Maw screeched at an audience of backpackers and package tourists
squeezed into plastic chairs in his front room.

"That means you're illegal, too, and the secret police are coming to
arrest you," he said before reassuring a worried Italian woman: "That was
just a joke."

They display banned photos of the stifled democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi, and offer almost the only public manifestation of political dissent
left in Burma.

Tour guides, rickshaw cyclists and English-speaking students in teashops
whisper their hatred of their rulers when they are confident no spies are
eavesdropping.

Even that risks an open-ended prison sentence. But the moustachioed
brothers Par Par Lay and Lu Maw, with their cousin Lu Zaw, say what others
only dare to think.

"Men from the Government quite often come and tell us to stop it, but we
won't," Lu Maw said. "We don't care. We won't let them stop us. It's the
tourists who are keeping us alive, and the military only care about
dollars. They don't want to upset the foreign visitors by arresting us."
It is unclear exactly why the comedians have been tolerated by rulers.
Anyone who attempts to stage a demonstration, or even hand out a banned
newspaper, can expect almost instant arrest.

The Moustache Brothers believe that they enjoy some protection thanks to
their status on the backpacker circuit. They are even listed in the Lonely
Planet guide book.

The three men, now in their fifties, grew up as traditional A-Nyeint
performers - itinerant entertainers. They started with political jokes
about the terrible roads, hospitals, and unemployment in Burma, and in
1996 decided to stage a comic rebellion in a performance before Daw Suu
Kyi.

Before it began the two brothers drew straws to see which of them would be
jailed.

Par Par Lay got the short straw and told this joke: "You used to call a
thief a thief; now you call him a government servant."

Three days later he was arrested. One newspaper, controlled by the
Government, said: "Together they satirised and mischievously attacked the
Government, disparaging its dignity and making it a laughing stock." They
now display that press cutting with pride.

The three are banned from performing before Burmese audiences and are
confined to their home. Unlike Western human rights campaigners, they
strongly believe that tourists should come to Burma.

Lu Maw said: "Tourists are our Trojan Horses. Through tourists the rest of
the world can learn of our plight.

"At the moment protest is impossible. Demonstrators would be arrested
immediately.

But one day we will see change in our country. I haven't given up hope."

____________________________________

August 19, Irrawaddy
The 58th anniversary of Mon Revolution Day held

Burmese ethnic ceasefire group The New Mon State Party today celebrated
the 58th anniversary of Mon Revolution Day near Three Pagoda Pass on the
Thai-Burma border and stated that the party will continue on the road to
peace unless relations between the NMSP and the Burmese junta deteriorate.

Nai Thein Win, the foreign affairs officer of NMSP, said that about 200
ethnic Mon comprising party leaders and bystanders attended the ceremony,
while several other ceremonies to mark the day were taking place within
Mon State in Burma.

A statement released on August 19 said that the NMSP expects a meaningful
dialogue during ceasefire negotiations with the Burmese junta, and they
will continue the struggle to achieve their goals with other alliance
forces.

_____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 19, Associated Press
SE Asia seeks cooperation with China, Japan, South Korea on environmental
protection

Kuala Lumpur: Southeast Asian countries will work with China, Japan and
South Korea to combat ecological problems like the forest fire-generated
smoke haze that recently hit Indonesia and Malaysia, officials said
Friday.

Senior environmental officials from the 10-country Association of
Southeast Asian Nations agreed to pursue deeper cooperation, including the
use of technology, during a one-day meeting in Malaysia's northern Penang
state with their counterparts from Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul.

The effort involves sharing our experiences and discussing how technology
can reduce environmental problems like the haze," said Huzaimah Yusoff, a
division undersecretary in Malaysia's Ministry of Natural Resources and
the Environment.

But she said ASEAN had made no immediate request for other countries' help
in fighting forest fires that have raged out of control for weeks on
Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Details for future cooperation - which could also cover issues such as
climate change and safeguarding biological diversity - were "not explored
in depth" at the meeting, Huzaimah added.

ASEAN officials who met ahead of Friday's expanded talks have established
a panel of experts who will meet next month in Jakarta to decide how the
region can mobilize its resources more efficiently to put out large fires
and deal with any resulting haze, Huzaimah said.

The Sumatra blazes, mostly started by farmers and plantation owners to
clear land, obscured skies and pushed pollution up to hazardous levels in
parts of neighboring Malaysia last week, before weekend downpours and
shifting winds cleared the air.

During the area's mid-year season the smoke blows from Sumatra into
Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. This year's haze in Malaysia was the
worst since 1997.

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

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 19, Irrawaddy
Should Annan visit Rangoon? - Aung Lwin Oo

Burma is full of surprises. The latest one may be an impending visit to
Rangoon by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Speculation about such a trip
has increased recently on the heels of visits to Burma by high profile UN
diplomats in the last several weeks.

James Morris, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, made a
four-day visit earlier this month. Now Ali Alatas, a special envoy of Kofi
Annan, is in Rangoon for three days with an official mandate to address
reforms within the world governing body that will have an impact on the
way the UN operates within Burma.

Although both Morris and Alatas maintain their visits have nothing to do
with the political situation in Burma, many suspect that their missions
might involve political reform in the country. Others wonder if these
trips might have been undertaken to convey a message from Annan in
response to an invitation to visit Burma from the junta’s supremo Snr-Gen
Than Shwe, made during the Africa-Asia Summit in Bandung, Indonesia, in
April.

If Annan does visit Burma, some observers suggest that the UN chief will
be allowed into the country ahead of the UN General Assembly in September.
The junta’s frail relationship with the UN has deteriorated recently with
the UN labor agency’s latest move to take stronger measures against the
regime. The International Labour Organization’s recent suggestions drew an
outraged response from Rangoon’s War Veterans Organization, which called
on the junta to withdraw from the ILO. The ILO’s high-level team cut short
a four-day mission last February after a planned meeting with Than Shwe
did not take place.

Razali Ismail, the UN special envoy to Burma, made his last visit to Burma
in March 2004, while the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro has been repeatedly denied access to the country since November
2003. Proposed visits by both diplomats have met with total silence from
Rangoon. Recently, Pinheiro pointed out the importance of dialogue in
solving Burma’s trouble. “I believe in communication,” he said in Bangkok
in mid-June of this year.

Communication is desperately needed for Burma’s reconciliation process.
Burma’s opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest
for more than two years, and the opposition’s dialogue with the junta has
been stalled for about five years. Despite the junta’s claim that it is
committed to political reform—with its self-formulated seven-point
roadmap—Annan has stressed that “the only way to ensure that the roadmap
process is productive and credible, and proceeds in a stable and orderly
fashion, is for it to involve all political parties, national leaders,
ethnic nationalities and strata of society, from the beginning.” He is
said to have reiterated this point to Than Shwe during the Bandung summit.

Early this year, Annan’s office reportedly gathered scholars and diplomats
within and outside the UN to discuss solving Burma’s political stalemate.
Annan has shown that he is willing to communicate with the junta. It
remains to be seen if he will be given an opportunity.

Annan, who once stated that democracy should be restored to Burma by 2006,
needs to commit to a firm strategy for dealing with the regime. That
strategy should include visiting the country, but many are cautious with
the generals in Rangoon, who would naturally attempt to exploit such a
visit and paint themselves as having won over the good opinion of a global
body.

Annan, therefore, should have assurances that he will be able to
communicate with all parties involved in the country’s reconciliation
process, including the detained opposition leader Suu Kyi.

_____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 19, Global Fund
The Global Fund terminates grants to Myanmar

New Government Restrictions Make Grant Implementation Impossible

Geneva - Given new restrictions recently imposed by the government of
Myanmar, the Global Fund has concluded that its grants to the country
cannot be managed in a way that ensures effective program implementation.
As a result the Global Fund yesterday terminated its grant agreements to
Myanmar.

The decision means that three grants, one each for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria, with a total value of US$ 35.7 million over two years, will
be phased out by the end of the year. The decision has been taken after
consultations with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which
is the Principal Recipient of Global Fund grants in Myanmar. The Principal
Recipient is responsible for grant implementation in the country.

"Both the Global Fund and UNDP are very concerned about the tremendous
need to provide humanitarian assistance, and to prevent further spread of
the three diseases in Myanmar," said Richard Feachem, the Executive
Director of the Global Fund. "It is therefore with considerable regret
that the Global Fund, after consultations with UNDP and other
international partners, has had to terminate its grants to Myanmar."

In July of this year, the government of Myanmar instituted new travel
clearance procedures, which will have the effect of restricting access to
grant implementation areas by the Principal Recipient, staff of
implementing partners and Global Fund staff. In addition, the government
imposed new procedures for the review of procurement of medical and other
supplies, which are a vital aspect of Global Fund project implementation.
The Global Fund has concluded that these measures would prevent the
implementation of performance-based and time-bound programs in the
country, breach the government’s written commitment to provide
unencumbered access, and frustrate the ability of the Principal Recipient
to carry out its obligations.

The travel restrictions appear to be the most recent manifestation of a
gradual change in the government’s attitude towards international and
national humanitarian efforts in Myanmar over the past few weeks.

The Global Fund will work with UNDP to gradually terminate activities,
sub-recipient contracts, and all other contracts. All unspent assets will
be returned to the Global Fund. The UN family will now work with other
development partners to explore appropriate alternative ways of responding
to these three epidemics in Myanmar.

To download an extensive cancellation fact sheet, please visit:
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/media_center/press/pr_050819_factsheet.pdf