BurmaNet News, September 24-26, 2005

[Editor]

September 24-26, 2005 Issue # 2810


INSIDE BURMA
VOA News: Burmese ethnic rebels call for Security Council help
Burmese radio via BBC: Burmese pro-government organization's aims
explained to foreign envoys
Mizzima: Bagan Cybertech reported to be taken over by MPT in Burma
SHAN: A new gag in Rangoon
Xinhua: S.Korea-Myanmar diplomatic ties anniversary marked in Yangon

ON THE BORDER
DVB: NCUB welcomes call for action on Burma by Security Council

HEALTH / AIDS
BBC News: Aid in Burma: When it's time to give up

DRUGS
AFP: Myanmar slams US over drugs report

ASEAN
AP: ASEAN lawmakers want Myanmar suspended if Suu Kyi not freed in 12 months

REGIONAL
AP: Bangladesh, Myanmar agree to ease visas
Irrawaddy: More Burmese tsunami victims identified

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Asia aims for top UN post
Mizzima: British MP joins calls for UN talks on Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Boston Globe: Overdue in Burma
Korea Times: UNSC must act in Myanmar

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 25, VOA News
Burmese ethnic rebels call for Security Council help

Two Burmese ethnic rebel groups are supporting a call for the United
Nations Security Council to take up an urgent initiative to bring
political reforms to military-ruled Burma.

In separate press releases Sunday, the Karen National Union and the Shan
Democratic Union backed a report by former Czech President Vaclav Havel
and retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu calling for Security
Council intervention.

Mr. Havel and Archbishop Tutu issued a report Tuesday comparing the
situation in Burma to those in seven other countries in which the Security
Council had intervened.

The 70-page report said conditions are far worse in Burma than they were
in such countries as Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Haiti before UN
intervention.

____________________________________

September 24, Burmese radio via BBC
Burmese pro-government organization's aims explained to foreign envoys

Text of report by Burmese radio on 23 September

The ambassadors and charges d'affaires of the Russian Federation, the
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Israel, Nepal, the People's
Republic of Bangladesh, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of
France, the Republic of Italy, and the Republic of India called on U Htay
Oo [major-general, minister for agriculture and irrigation],
secretary-general of the Union Solidarity and Development Association
[USDA], in the conference hall of the USDA headquarters on University
Avenue in Bahan Township, Yangon [Rangoon] at 0900 this morning.

At the meeting, Secretary General U Htay Oo intimately and frankly
explained the aims and functions of the USDA and its role in the regional
development and five rural development tasks, the rural power supply
tasks, and social tasks. He then replied to the questions raised at the
meeting before it ended at 1030 in the meeting.

Later, the USDA secretary general and the foreign charges d'affaires and
ambassadors posed for some documentary photographs.

____________________________________

September 26, Mizzima News
Bagan Cybertech reported to be taken over by MPT in Burma -  Alison Hunter

Burma's sole internet provider, Bagan Cybertech, has been nationalised and
is under the control of the Ministry of Telecommunication, Post and
Telegraphs according to sources in Rangoon.

The company was reportedly controlled by the Directorate of Defense
Services Signal Corp until early last week when it was handed over to
sub-division Myanma Post and Telecommunications.

A spokeswoman for Bagan Cybertech refused to confirm or deny the takeover
but said the company, in consultation with the military government would
release a statement soon.

"Nothing has been announced officially yet," the spokeswoman said.

Sources in Rangoon also say massive price increases are expected to result
from the change in management. Some say Myanma Post and Telecommunications
plan to charge FEC 265 monthly for an individual connection.

Bagan Cybertech charges FEC 60 for the same account - still one of the
highest prices for a single internet connection in the region.

The company has struggled since late last year when its former owner and
son of deposed prime minister Khin Nyunt, Ye Naing Win, was jailed on
charges on corruption leaving the government in control.

Since his arrest, internet connection and set-up prices have almost
doubled and new connections have not been available since early this year.

The company is reported to be worth about US $200 million.

____________________________________

September 25, Shan Herald Agency for News
A new gag in Rangoon - Chai Sayam

There is a popular teashop in Rangoon's Yekyaw quarters called "Maung
Aye". One of the tea brands put to good use by the shop includes "Soe
Win", made by a company on Theinbyu Street. Also, as it is, one of the
condensed milk brands happens to be "Shwe Mann", another local product.

All three of them are, of course, namesakes of three of the most powerful
men in Burma: Vice Senior General Maung Aye, Prime Minister Soe Win and
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Shwe Mann.

The combination inevitably becomes the source of the following joke making
the rounds:
"How can Maung Aye be good, when (he's) using Soe Win and Shwe Mann?"

Somebody told S.H.A.N. the popular comedian Zagana is already behind bars
for daring to poke fun at the country's unwanted leaders. But S.H.A.N. is
as yet unable to obtain confirmation.

____________________________________

September 24, Xinhua General News Service
S.Korea-Myanmar diplomatic ties anniversary marked in Yangon

Yangon: South Korean stars staged a special concert at the National
Theater here Saturday evening to commemorate the 30th anniversary of South
Korea-Myanmar diplomatic relationship.

The Korea Star Myanmar Tour is also part of their ASEAN ( Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) tour to mark the 15th anniversary of South
Korea-ASEAN dialogue partnership.

Opening the concert with an audience of about 1,500, Myanmar Information
Minister Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan gave welcome remarks, saying that the
concert was an opportunity for Myanmar audiences to have direct access to
South Korean artists, thus creating better understanding between the
peoples of the two countries and enhancing bilateral friendship.

Myanmar and South Korea share common experience in nurturing a distinctive
culture on the basis of tradition and creative adoption and digestion of
foreign cultural influences, he said.

Three South Korean singing stars groups -- the Cross, Baby Vox and Wawa --
gave performances, joined by three popular Myanmar singers -- Sai Sai Khan
Hlaing, Phyu Phyu Kyaw Thein and Sone Thin Pah. The South Korea-Myanmar
joint performance won waves of applause from the audience.

On the occasion, noted South Korean movie star Kim Jae Won was present and
introduced to the Myanmar audience. Kim has been popular in Myanmar for
his role played in a number of video feature series telecast by TV
Myanmar.

The concert ended with the singing of a group song "We are the World."

Meanwhile, in last July, a week-long Myanmar-South Korean contemporary art
show also took place at the National Museum here to mark the 30th
anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Myanmar
and South Korea. The art show displayed classical and modern works of
artists of the two countries with different views based on Eastern
culture.

Myanmar and South Korea forged diplomatic links in 1975 and the two
countries have maintained continued cooperative relations in various areas
including cultural, economic, technical cooperation.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 24, Democratic Voice of Burma
NCUB welcomes call for action on Burma by Security Council

Exiled National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), in statement issued
on 25 September, welcomed the call for an urgent, new, and multilateral
diplomatic initiative at the UN Security Council to bring change to Burma.

The call was made by Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic,
and Desmond M. Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of
Cape Town in a groundbreaking 70-page report, which was prepared by global
law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary and issued on 20 September.

The NCUB statement said that it is time the Security Council take up the
situation in Burma as the situation in the country fits in with all the
five criteria necessary for the council to intervene.

The report compares the situation in Burma to seven other countries in
which the Security Council has previously intervened in internal conflicts
because of the trans-national issues implicated, including Sierra Leone,
Afghanistan and Haiti, and determines that many of the factors which
trigger Security Council intervention are far worse in Burma than in other
countries where the Council had previously decided to act.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

September 25, BBC News
Aid in Burma: When it's time to give up - Kate McGeown

When the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided to
stop funding projects in Burma last month, it claimed that aid workers
were unable to do their jobs properly.

"Because our funds were not being put to expedient use... it is very
unlikely they would have achieved what they set out to do," the fund's
spokeswoman Rosie Vanek told the BBC.

There is little doubt that in countries like Burma - which is run by a
military junta and is frequently criticised for its lack of transparency
and democratic rights - charities and other non-governmental organisations
face an uphill task.

Aid workers there speak of lengthy delays in getting the required
documentation to visit sites outside the capital. Some areas are often
completely off-limits due to local skirmishes, and NGOs are finding it
increasingly difficult to obtain visas for foreign staff.

But whatever the obstacles, the local people still need help. And in
Burma, as in several other countries around the world, charities face an
extremely difficult dilemma: when does the situation become so bad that it
is no longer worth staying?

For the Global Fund - an independent financing organisation set up by the
UN, with stringent rules about its donations - the final straw was Burma's
decision to institute new travel restrictions in July.

In a statement announcing its decision to pull out, it said these measures
would "prevent the implementation of performance-based and time-bound
programmes in the country, breach the government's commitment to provide
unencumbered access, and frustrate the ability of the [recipient of the
aid money] to carry out its obligations."

Access denied

So far, other organisations have decided to stay put - although they admit
that they, too, have problems.

Stephan Jooris, the Swiss co-ordinator of the medical charity Medicins
Sans Frontieres, said one hurdle was obtaining travel permits for
non-Burmese staff.

"Long term access rights are an issue, because right now they're
completely frozen," he said. "At the moment it's fine, but there may be
problems in the future when we need more staff."

Mr Jooris also said that in order to visit certain sites outside Rangoon,
aid workers had to ask permission from the government at least three weeks
in advance.

"But we can still do things," he insisted. "Recently we've been given
authorisation to open an HIV clinic in the south, and we've also extended
our work in the north."

UNAids is another organisation with a presence in Burma - a nation where
an estimated 600,000 people have HIV or Aids.

The group's country co-ordinator Brian Williams insists that while the
"operating environment is a challenging one", it is still possible to
produce results.

"In the area of Aids programmes, we have seen significant changes. We've
increased condom use - in fact it has tripled in the last three years," he
said.

"Sometimes in difficult countries, progress is slower than people might
expect, but this is a lot better than doing nothing at all," he said.

"It still means a world of difference to the people you can help."

Interfering

According to Karin Christiansen, an expert on aid to fragile states at the
Overseas Development Institute in London, an organisation's decision on
whether to stay or go will ultimately depend on its donors.

"If the money is there, it will stay - and even if not, another
organisation will always come in to fill the gap. Aid is a business - it's
important not to forget that," she said.

By far the most important donors are national governments, and therefore
government policy is very influential in a charity's decision on whether
to continue working in an area.

Ms Christiansen said that in each situation, decision-makers will look at
both a nation's willingness to engage with the external world, and the
capacity it has to implement change.

In the fledgling nation of East Timor, for example, the new government
might have little capacity on its own to bring about change, but it makes
up for this by its willingness to co-operate.

But Burma's willingness "is on the other side of the scale," according to
Ms Christiansen - and this is where the problem lies for aid workers in
Rangoon.

Burmese historian Aung Kin said that the nation's ruling junta had a
fundamental problem with foreign organisations working inside the country.

"They don't see NGOs as positive, constructive organisations," he said.
"They think they are trying to interfere."

As long as this remains the case, outside groups can only have limited
impact, Ms Christiansen said.

"If the problem is that a country is weak or unresponsive to change, that
is really the problem that needs to be addressed," she said.

____________________________________
DRUGS

September 24, Agence France Presse
Myanmar slams US over drugs report

Yangon: Myanmar Saturday denounced a US government report that accused the
military-ruled country of failing to meet its obligations in the fight
against drugs.

"Myanmar's relentless efforts on narcotic drug elimination have once again
been ignored by the United States," it said in a statement printed in the
state-run New Light of Myanmar.

Myanmar is the world's second-largest opium producer after Afghanistan,
and a major producer of amphetamine-type stimulants, although it has
successfully cut opium production in the last two years.

"Myanmar believes that it alone cannot combat the drug menace and needs
international support and cooperation," the statement said, adding that
Myanmar cooperated with UN agencies and other nations in its fight against
drugs.

"However slanderous the negative and unconstructive campaign against
Myanmar, and even if no assistance is forthcoming, our struggle to
eliminate narcotic drugs, which threatens humankind, will continue with
our own available resources," it said.

Official statistics released in June said opium production dropped from
828 tonnes in 2002 to 370 tonnes last year, with cooperation from the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime.

But the annual US drugs report, released September 15, said
methamphetamine production in Myanmar was one of the most serious problems
facing Southeast Asia. Much of it is produced in rebel-held areas along
the borders with China and Thailand, a region where drug gangs operate
freely, it said.

Washington also criticised Myanmar for failing to act on US indictments
handed down in January against eight drug lords in the United Wa State
Army, a rebel group allied with the junta.

The report also cited weak efforts by Myanmar to crack down on money
laundering, saying private banks often had links with narco-traffickers.

The United States so-called certification process requires the president
to weigh country performances on issues including fighting illicit
cultivation, promoting interdiction, extraditing drug traffickers, as well
as cutting drug exports.

Venezuela was the only other country to be "de-certified" this year.

____________________________________
ASEAN

September 26, Associated Press
ASEAN lawmakers want Myanmar suspended if Suu Kyi not freed in 12 months

Kuala Lumpur: Southeast Asian lawmakers said Monday they will push their
governments to suspend Myanmar from the ASEAN regional bloc if it fails to
release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners
within a year.

Legislators from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand want their governments to set a September 2006 deadline for
Myanmar, also known as Burma, to release Suu Kyi from house arrest, said
Teresa Kok, secretary of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Caucus on Democracy
in Myanmar.

"This is the minimum requirement we want from Myanmar," Kok said. The
decision was reached at a meeting of members of Parliament from the five
countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Bangkok last
week.

The lawmakers believe ASEAN should strengthen efforts to push Myanmar
toward democracy because there has been "no sign of concrete steps toward
national reconciliation" since Myanmar announced in July it will forgo the
2006 chair of ASEAN, Kok said.

Myanmar said the decision would allow it to focus on political reform and
reconciliation with Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy. But observers
believe the move was designed to save ASEAN embarrassment and a punishing
boycott of its meetings by the United States and Europe, the region's
close trading partners.

The lawmakers' coalition had been one of several groups lobbying for
Myanmar to forgo its turn as chair of ASEAN.

They also plan to meet with officials from the EU and the U.N. over the
next few months to step up international pressure on Myanmar ahead of the
grouping's annual leadership summit in Kuala Lumpur in December, Kok said.

The 10 ASEAN nations typically follow a policy of noninterference in each
other's domestic affairs and resistance to foreign pressure. But Myanmar's
neighbors have voiced hopes that the junta, which seized power in 1988,
will allow an elected government to take over.

ASEAN's other members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Suu Kyi has spent more than half of the past 16 years in detention, and
her current time under house arrest began in May 2003. More than 1,000
political prisoners are also believed to be jailed in Myanmar.

The junta says it is drafting a new constitution leading to democratic
elections. It last held elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power
when Suu Kyi's party won.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 25, Associated Press
Bangladesh, Myanmar agree to ease visas - Parveen Ahmed

Dhaka: Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to ease visa procedures for each
other's business people, and to increase sea shipments to boost trade
between the two neighbor countries, an official said Sunday.

Both sides agreed in principal to give business people longer visas and
make it easier to process the travel documents, said Bangladeshi Commerce
Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury.

"An accord in this regard is likely to come soon," Chowdhury told
reporters in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, after a meeting with his Myanmar
counterpart, Brig. Gen. Tin Naing Thein. He did not specify any dates for
the agreement.

Myanmar now issues three-day visas for Bangladeshi business people.
Bangladesh offers those from Myanmar 15-day visas.

The meeting also resulted in an agreement to amend an existing shipping
arrangement in a bid to make it easier and cheaper for ships to travel
between the two countries, Chowdhury said.

The amendment "will reduce carrying time and cost as well," Chowdhury said.

It wasn't clear when the amendment to the shipping agreement will take
effect.

Bangladesh imported goods worth US$32.66 million (euro26.95 million) from
Myanmar in 2004-05, while its exports amounted to only US$4.18 million
(euro3.45 million).

Tin Naing Thein arrived Saturday on a three-day visit to Bangladesh as
part of a 31-member delegation, led by military-ruled Myanmar's Chief of
General Staff Gen. Thura Shwe Mann.

The visit was aimed at improving relations between the two countries.

Myanmar is also known as Burma.

____________________________________

September 26, Irrawaddy
More Burmese tsunami victims identified - Shah Paung

A total of 44 bodies of Burmese victims of the tsunami which hit southern
Thailand last December were identified in September, according to the Thai
Action Committee for Democracy in Burma.

Myint Wai, a member of the TACDB, told The Irrawaddy that the Lawyers
Council of Thailand first identified 15 bodies on September 7, followed by
29 on September 13. The LCT has been working with the Thai Tsunami Victim
Identification Center to identify missing victims.

The issue of relatives’ Thai works permits, and also the fact that
compensation requires an authorization letter from the Burmese military
government has complicated identifying Burmese victims.

Myint Wai said the main problem is the Burmese government does not
recognize Burmese migrant workers in Thailand as its citizens. Burmese
migrant workers, he said, also did not recognize the regime as their
government. So it is difficult to start proceedings once a Burmese victim
has been identified.

The December 26 tsunami devastated parts of southern Thailand, killing
thousands including Burmese migrant workers. The Human Rights Education
Institute of Burma estimates the death toll among Burmese migrant workers
at between 700-1,000. About 30,000 Burmese migrant workers were registered
with the Thai government in tsunami-affected areas.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 26, Agence France Presse
Asia aims for top UN post - P. Parameswaran

United Nations: The race to fill the shoes of UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan is gaining pace amid growing consensus that an Asian should take
over when the Ghana native stands down at the end of next year.

Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Sri Lanka's
ex-UN disarmament expert Jayantha Dhanapala have formally declared their
candidacies and several others from Asia may run, including South Korea's
Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, diplomats said.

The region is facing early resistance from eastern and central European
nations, with outgoing Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski indicating
his interest for the job.

"Eastern Europe has never been represented in the post. Our region has
undergone significant changes and should not be overlooked," said
Kwasniewski, who has not made a formal decision yet to stand for the post.

Russia, which has already pledged support for the Asian bid, may oppose
such a nomination, one diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Aside from Russia, the Asian bid has the backing of another permanent UN
Security Council member China.

Permanent council members, which also include the United States, France
and Britain, can block candidates with their veto-wielding powers.

With the African group having also agreed to back Asia, diplomats said a
substantial portion of the 191-member United Nations wants to maintain an
informal rotation system among regions for the top UN job.

The late U Thant of Myanmar was the only Asian who has served in the
prestigious post, from 1961-1971.

But prospects of Asia putting up a single candidate to the Security
Council seem slim.

"Asians must ensure they unite behind a competent and respected
candidate," said Ramesh Thakur, senior vice rector of the UN University in
Tokyo.

He said that uniting behind a "second- or third-best person", simply for
the sake of group relations, would cost Asians "their" turn and the
respect of the rest of the world.

"Failure to unite behind a good candidate because parochial or partisan
considerations trump enlightened collective vision will also cost them
their turn," Thakur said in an opinion piece in The Japan Times.

But Dhanapala said it was only fair that the international community be
offered a slate of Asian candidates as "it will be very arrogant of the
Asian group to try to present one candidate for the rest of the world."

Dhanapala is highlighting his 10-year stint at the United Nations,
including five years as an undersecretary dealing with disarmament issues,
to gain support.

"An experience in the UN is obviously necessary because not only do we
need reforms but they must be implemented by somebody who has the
knowledge and experience to push them through by working with the staff
and through consensus," he said.

Dhanapala is now a senior adviser to Sri Lankan President Chandrika
Kumaratunga and the coordinator of negotiations aimed at ending the ethnic
conflict in Sri Lanka.

The most high profile candidate is Thailand's Surakiart, who is globe
trotting to gain support and pledging to make UN operations more
transparent.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra formally introduced him to US
President George W Bush when they met at the White House last week.

The United States has not made a decision yet on who to support.

Surakiart has received the backing of more than 70 countries, including
the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), according to Thai foreign minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon.

An international law expert, the 47-year old Surakiart is the youngest
deputy prime minister in Thailand and had served as finance and foreign
minister before taking up his current post in early 2004.

An ASEAN diplomat said the grouping would lobby for Surakiart to be the
Asian flagbearer for the top UN post even though it might be an uphill
task.

The contest would be intense if South Korea's foreign minister Ban decides
to enter the race.

A high level South Korean government panel agreed this month that Ban was
"qualified" for the post "in all aspects," reports said.

A career diplomat, Ban served as the nations chief envoy to the world body
from 2001 to 2003 and also acted as the chief secretary to former UN
General Assembly president Han Seung-soo.

____________________________________

September 26, Mizzima News
British MP joins calls for UN talks on Burma - Alison Hunter

British Shadow Foreign Secretary Liam Fox has called on Prime Minister
Tony Blair to support United States calls for Burma to be placed on the
United Nations Security Council agenda next month.

In a letter to Blair last Friday, Fox criticised the Burmese junta for
their poor human rights record and said it was high time the country faced
Security Council scrutiny.

The letter followed statements issued by US House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific members calling on the inclusion of
Burma in Security Council talks. Fox told Blair in the letter that UN
action on Burma was warranted.

"From analysis of previous situations, it is clear that there are five
criteria for bringing a country to the Security Council agenda: the
overthrow of a democratic government, conflict among factions, human
rights and humanitarian violations, refugee outflows and other
transnational issues such as drug trafficking and HIV/AIDS," Fox wrote.

The calls for UN talks on Burma are likely to further the embarrassment of
the country's military rulers after they were the targets of heavy
criticism during the 2005 UN Summit this month.

In the past few weeks Burma's generals have been slammed over their
failure to curb drug and human trafficking across their borders and
continuing delays to democratic reforms.

But few political analysts believe Burma will make it onto the Security
Council agenda as a similar attempt for talks was blocked by China and
Russia in June.

Representatives from the Chinese and Russian Permanent Missions to the UN
have been unavailable for comment on whether the countries' veto powers
would again be used to stop the move.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 24, Boston Globe
Overdue in Burma

The former Czech president Vaclav Havel and retired archbishop Desmond
Tutu of South Africa on Tuesday hailed a report they had commissioned on
the ways in which Burma's military junta threatens peace and security
beyond its borders. The painstakingly factual report, ''Threat to Peace --
A Call for the UN Security Council to Act on Burma," makes a persuasive
case that Burma under the military regime is as much in need of UN
Security Council intervention as were Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Haiti,
Rwanda, and Cambodia, where the council acted to resolve internal
conflicts and preserve peace.

This is a call for action that will test the relevance of the United
Nations as a defender of peace and democracy. If ever there was a place
where a peace-seeking, healing UN mission is justified, it is Burma under
the generals.

The report, compiled by the international law firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray
Carey, asks not for sanctions but for engagement by the Security Council
and the UN secretary general. It proposes not the use of force but
dialogue. The course of action would be multilateral, not unilateral.

Examining threats to peace and stability that spurred UN intervention in
other countries, the Havel-Tutu report concludes that Burma alone suffers
from every one of the factors that have caused the Security Council to
exercise the mandate given it by the UN Charter to intervene in a country
to ''safeguard peace and security." These factors include the overthrow of
an elected government, armed conflicts with ethnic minorities, widespread
internal human rights abuses, substantial outflows of refugees (more than
700,000), and the export of enormous quantities of methamphetamine and
heroin as well as the related spread of HIV/AIDS among needle users along
the drug routes.

The Security Council resolution proposed in the report would ask the
secretary general to work vigorously with the junta to implement a plan
for national reconciliation and restoration of the government that was
elected in 1990 with 82 percent of the seats in Parliament -- the
government of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her
party, the National League for Democracy. Her unconditional release and
the release of all prisoners of conscience in Burma would be demanded in
such a resolution.

Despite the risk to their members inside Burma, Suu Kyi's party has called
on the UN to pass the resolution proposed in the Havel-Tutu report. After
years of fruitless UN efforts to cajole the junta into opening a dialogue
with Suu Kyi and her party, the Security Council will appear frivolous if
it does not undertake a sustained, serious campaign to rescue Burma and
its neighbors from one of the world's vilest dictatorships.

____________________________________

September 26, The Korea Times
UNSC must act in Myanmar - Philip Dorsey Iglauer

Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, and Bishop Desmond
Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, have weighed in on
how the international community should deal with the military thugs in
Burma (officially Myanmar), commissioning a report on the country’s
security and human rights situation.

The result was a damning 80-page report released this month called
``Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in
Burma.’’

It was co-authored by Jared Genser, an attorney with the international law
firm DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. In it, Genser outlines exactly how the
coterie of army strongmen there are a threat to the peace and security of
the Southeast Asian region and why the U.N. Security Council must
intervene in Burma.

The junta in Rangoon, the country’s capital, has been running the country
with increasingly bloody ferocity and has refused to recognize elections
it organized, as the National League for Democracy (NLD) won more than 80
percent of the vote in 1990. For the last 15 years, these hoodlums have
systematically oppressed their own people and committed countless
atrocities.

Now is the time for U.N. action in Burma.

The U.N. must act to maintain peace and security in Southeast Asia. The
Security Council possesses the authority to uphold the U.N.’s three main
commitments, namely, to prevent war, defend human rights and promote
international political stability. Only a decision to intervene in Burma
will force the military back to the negotiating table and make it fulfill
its pledge to restore democracy there.

The Security Council has upheld its ideals in Asia before. In 1990, the
U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to intervene in Cambodia on
account of destabilizing violent conflicts among factions in the country
and the threat that posed to international peace and security.

In 1996, it intervened in Afghanistan because of internal conflicts among
factions, massive human rights violations, a refugee crisis and drug
trafficking.

It is now again time to act in Asia. The regime in Rangoon is causing
threats to peace and security similar to the ones mentioned above, as well
as having overthrown Burma’s legitimate government and creating an
additional HIV/AIDS crisis.

Indeed, for 15 years, Burma has been increasingly threatening the peace
and security of the region and has brazenly ignored repeated
recommendations by the U.N., and those made directly by the
Secretary-General’s office.

The Rangoon regime flouted the urgings of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reform as well. ASEAN admitted Burma as its 10th
member as a way to cajole and nudge the generals in charge to follow the
``road map’’ toward the restoration of legitimate rule, a restoration
promised to the United Nations.

But frustrated over the lack of progress, ASEAN members, such as Indonesia
and Malaysia, themselves moving toward democratic governance and more
openness, and the Philippines and Singapore, succeeded in pressuring the
Rangoon junta, to relinquish its scheduled 2006 ASEAN chairmanship.

By adopting a binding resolution requiring action, the Security Council
can force the generals back to the negotiating table, ensure U.N. agencies
access to provide humanitarian relief, secure the release of Aung San Suu
Kyi, and bring an end to a reckless regime that increasingly threatens the
peace and security of the region.

Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter permits the Security Council to intervene
in the domestic jurisdiction of a state if it deems a ``threat to the
peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression’’ is occurring. So,
does the situation in Burma meet the criteria of ``a threat to peace’’?

The report sets down six arguments for intervention. Here are just three:

The junta in Burma has committed systematic and expansive human rights
abuses against its people, including the destruction of more than 2,500
towns since 1996, massive forced relocations, rape of ethnic minorities,
widespread forced labor and the use of more than 70,000 child soldiers by
the regime.

Burma is one of the world’s main producers of heroin. The heroine trails
follow the flows of over 700,000 refugees into neighboring countries,
causing human crises of global proportions.

Burma’s status as the heroin supplier in the region is fueling the spread
of HIV/AIDS from there to neighboring countries. The government’s
recalcitrance has also meant an unwillingness to cooperate with the
international community-led fight against the disease, leading to funding
to Burma being stopped.

It is high time for Korea to direct its growing international clout and
influence as a vibrant Asian democracy to pressuring other Asian countries
sitting on the 2005-2006 Security Council, such as the Philippines, Japan
and China to act with regard to Burma.

In the case of China, persuading it not to veto a majority decision to
intervene is both possible and, considering China’s history with regard to
the use of the veto on the Security Council, entirely likely.

If the current five European and two Latin American members join with the
two current Asian Security Council members, proponents of security and
peace in Southeast Asia will have the majority nine votes necessary for
action in Burma.

Korea’s political leaders must make democracy in Burma a priority.