BurmaNet News, October 14, 2005

[Editor]

October 14, 2005 Issue # 2823


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Kachin environmental report banned
Irrawaddy: Ceasefire groups defiant

DRUGS
SHAN: With Beijing breathing down Wa necks

BUSINESS / FINANCE
Irrawaddy: Daewoo urged to quit Arakan gas field project
Xinhua: India seeks regional trade ties with Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: Burma humanitarian workers puzzled over Global Fund aid to Zimbabwe
Mizzima: Students living outside Burma get scholarships
AP: U.S. pushes again to get Myanmar on Security Council agenda despite
opposition from Russia, China
Mizzima: Burma's UN chances slim: Key players reported to have shot down
the issue
The Gulf Today: Conquering tyranny

PRESS RELEASE
Human Rights Watch: UN: Security Council should take up Burma's human
rights crisis

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 14, Irrawaddy
Kachin environmental report banned - Khun Sam

The Kachin Independence Organization has censored an environmental report
by a community development organization, effectively banning it. The
organization, the Pan Kachin Development Society, says the KIO was
concerned that the report affected its image and possibly its relations
with the Rangoon regime.

The report covers environmental destruction in Kachin State, particularly
through illegal logging. The KIO is one of Burma’s ethnic minority groups
which have a ceasefire agreement with the junta.

Bau Naw Ja, the PKDS’s executive director, told The Irrawaddy the KIO had
instructed that the report needed to be censored, because it should not
affect the regime, the KIO or relations between the two. The report was
originally intended for printing in early October. It had been submitted
for censorship to the KIO in early 2004, when the former insurgent group
had decreed its censorship powers.

Another member of the PKDS said he thought the KIO did not want its image
to be affected by any report of environmental destruction in the state.
“We in fact conducted this with as positive a view towards the KIO as
possible,” he said. “But it seems we can’t write anything here.” The PKDS
is based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, where it is operated by Kachin.

____________________________________

October 14, Irrawaddy
Ceasefire groups defiant - Shah Paung

Ethnic ceasefire groups in Burma will not surrender their arms to the
junta, despite the government’s stated claim that all such groups must
disarm, said officials from three ethnic ceasefire groups.

On October 11, Burmese officials told Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk
Seri Syed Hamid Albar that their first priority was to “unite the country”
and to do so would require the surrender of all weapons by ethnic armed
groups, in order to prevent the disunity and instability that can be seen
now in Iraq.

But ethnic groups such as the New Mon State Party, the Kachin Independence
Organization and the Karen Democratic Buddhist Army have refused to
surrender their arms.

Nai Han Tha, general-secretary of the NMSP, said the group will not disarm
without some assurance from the government that they will be safe from
persecution by government soldiers.

“We have agreed to stop fighting, but not to surrender. We need a
dialogue. Until now, they [Burmese military government] have never talked
with us,” said Nai Han Tha, adding that issues relating to Mon State have
generated only limited discussion at the National Convention, set to
resume in the next two months.

The NMSP brokered a ceasefire agreement with the Rangoon government on
June 29, 1995.

The KIO and DKBA have also stated that they will not surrender their arms
to the military government.

“The Burmese military government should know that we will not agree to
everything they ask,” said Major Chit Thu of DKBA battalion 999. The group
broke away from the Karen National Union in 1995 and negotiated a
ceasefire agreement with Rangoon.

“This is what they [the junta] want,” said an official from the KIO. “It
is clear that we have agreed to a ceasefire, not surrender, for the sake
of peace in the country.”

He added that the junta is planning to disrupt cooperation among armed
ethnic groups, but that the KIO should not be affected. The group—one of
Burma’s largest armed ethnic organizations—has maintained a ceasefire
agreement with the junta since October 1993.

____________________________________
DRUGS

October 13, Shan Herald Agency for News
With Beijing breathing down Wa necks

Despite the mishap last month when more than 400 kilograms of their heroin
consignment was seized by the Burma Army, the Wa on the Sino-Burma border
are doing their best to live up to their pledge of establishing a
drug-free zone, according to sources from Panghsang:

As vowed several years earlier, Wa chairman Bao Youxiang declared all
areas under his control along the Chinese border to be free of drugs
beginning 26 June, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit
Trafficking. Prior to that, he had also ordered all refineries and stocks
of output north of Panghsang to be transferred to the south by the end of
May and "sold out as quickly as possible," according to a written report
received by S.H.A.N.

Since then, a 250-men strong HQ security unit was transformed into an
anti-narcotics force and, under the watchful eyes of Chinese officials who
are in Panghsang to monitor the campaign, are being dispatched in small
teams to each township to see that Chairman Bao's solemn word is being
honored by his people.

Bao, 56, had sworn that if a single poppy plant were still found in his
bailiwick after 26 June, he would have his head chopped off.

"Fields found in the Wa-controlled areas are being razed to the ground by
his troops," said a Shan businessman in Panghsang. "Offenders are either
being jailed or fined."

He admitted that the later push by Panghsang, also known by its new name
Pangkham, has been tough on the people. "They have saved some from last
year's harvest," he said. "But I don't know how they are going to fare in
the long run."

By contrast, poppy fields are in full bloom in areas under the control of
the Burma Army units, such as Manghseng and Mawfah, along the Salween.

A source who recently returned to the border confirmed the fact saying the
season's poppy areas are more in the west than in the eastern part of the
Wa region.

The Transnational Institute (TNI), an international network of
activists-scholars based in Amsterdam, had warned on 25 June that an
estimated 350,000 households, about 2 million people, stood to suffer from
the opium bans.

In the case of the neighboring Kokang, where the ban was implemented in
2003, a number of people are reportedly trying to survive by eating tree
bark, selling off daughters, withdrawing children from school, selling off
homes and land and moving off to other regions when the opium ban is yet
to be implemented.

The World Food Program that has been running food assistance operations in
Shan State since 2003 has targeted 100,000 people in the Wa region for
this year's project which ends in May 2006.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

October 14, Irrawaddy
Daewoo urged to quit Arakan gas field project - Louis Reh

Demonstrations were being held around the world Friday protesting against
the involvement of South Korea’s Daewoo International in the proposed Shwe
project to exploit sources of natural gas off Burma’s Arakan coast.

Daewoo International signed a production sharing deal with the state-owned
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise in August 2000. The Shwe gas field was
discovered in December 2003, and the deal guarantees the South Korean
company a share of the income from sales of its natural gas.

Daewoo International, the Korea Gas Corporation, two Indian state-run
developers, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gas Authority India
Limited, are the major foreign investors in the project.

Daewoo International is expected to earn at least US $100 million annually
from Shwe gas revenues, according to Initiatives for International
Dialogue, one of the organizations involved in Friday’s protest
demonstrations. The demonstrations were being held outside Daewoo
International premises and South Korean embassies in the US, Britain, the
Netherlands, South Korea, Japan, India, Thailand and Bangladesh, under the
auspices of Korea House International Solidarity and Earth Rights
International.

Protestors, who include parliamentarians and NGO workers, say the project
threatens Burma’s environment and involves forced labor and other human
rights abuses. Arakanese villagers are being displaced by work on the
pipeline, and some are fleeing to neighboring Thailand and Bangladesh, it
is claimed.

The coordinator of Shwe Gas Pipeline Campaign Committee (India), Muam Kim
says: “Arakaness people are suffering the confiscation of their land and
restrictions on their fishing activities.”

Carol Ransley, an assistant team leader with Earth Rights International,
says the project works against “the interests of democracy, human rights,
and environmental protection for the oppressed people of Burma.”

She called for Daewoo International and other investors to pull out of the
project before the situation deteriorated any further.

The regional coordinator of Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition and convener
of the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines, Gus Miclat, said in a press
release that “like any other business inside Burma, this gas project will
just result in more human rights abuses in Burma, including forced labor
and forced relocation of communities.

“We hope that these investors realize that it is immoral to do business
with a military regime that doesn’t respect human rights [and that] they
only become party to the exploitation of the people of Burma.”

____________________________________

October 14, Xinhua News Agency
India seeks regional trade ties with Myanmar

A large trade delegation from India 's Ukhrul region is due to come to
Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay early next month to seek
business opportunities, a local news journal reported Friday.

Myanmar's export goods arrived Ukhrul via Moreh, a border town of Myanmar
with India, and there exists potential of greater trade transactions,
Indian business circle said.

The Ukhrul entrepreneurs will have discussions with their Myanmar
counterparts on trade and make market research in the city, the report
quoted the Indian Consulate-General in Mandalay as saying.

India's trade, including the border trade, with Myanmar amounted to over
447.23 million US dollars in 2004 with India standing as Myanmar's fourth
largest trading partner after Thailand, China and Singapore during the
year. India is also Myanmar's second largest export market after Thailand,
absorbing 25 percent of its total exports, statistics indicate.

Of the total bilateral trade volume in 2004, Myanmar's exports to India
took 331.9 million, while its imports from India stood 115.33 million,
figures show. The two countries plan to increase their bilateral trade to
1 billion dollars by 2006.

Myanmar and India signed a border trade agreement in 1994 to enhance
bilateral trade.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 14, Mizzima News
Burma humanitarian workers puzzled over Global Fund aid to Zimbabwe -
Alison Hunter

Global Fund approved a US $105 million grant to Zimbabwe last week leaving
humanitarian workers in Rangoon puzzled as to why the fund cut ties with
Burma in August.

Global Fund had cited increased government restrictions on aid projects as
the reason for withdrawing US $98.4-million-worth of HIV/AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis funding.

But in a statement made to South African reporters last week, Global
Fund's head of communications, Jon Liden, said a country's internal
politics had never affected a Global Fund decision.

While humanitarian workers in Burma said they were glad to see the fund
had decided to send aid to the people of Zimbabwe, they questioned claims
that the fund separated a country's internal political situation from its
aid needs.

"There's no doubt that such assistance is desperately needed in Zimbabwe,
so it's a good decision for Zimbabwe's people. At the same time, I'm at a
bit of a loss to understand the discernable line in the sand the Global
Fund draws between Zimbabwe and Burma," one aid worker in Rangoon told
Mizzima.

"Both countries suffer from inhumane leadership, rife corruption and a
severe lack of transparency. Humanitarian funds are, regrettably, misused
in both countries. Burma's people are also suffering from AIDS. Why are
they too not deserving of assistance that would save so many lives?"

Zimbabwe has a human rights record almost equal to that of Burma with no
free elections or free press and ongoing human rights abuses perpetrated
by the government. Aid workers in the country have been calling for Global
Fund help for some time and say the organisation has delayed a decision
because of the country's political situation.

Liden was not available for comment today but he denied Global Fund's foot
dragging on Zimbabwe aid had anything to so with President Mugabe's land
reform program, which has seen hundreds of thousand of people in the
country's capital forced from their homes.

"Last year the Fund rejected Zimbabwe's request for US $218 million over
five years for technical reasons but, with the assistance of UNAIDS, the
UN Development Programme . . . Zimbabwe was able to submit a truly high-
quality proposal," Liden told PlusNews in Johannesburg.

Both UNAIDS and the UN Development Fund work on HIV/AIDS in Burma.

_____________________________________

October 14, Mizzima News
Students living outside Burma get scholarships - Nem Davies

New Delhi:  Burmese students living outside Burma are recipients of
scholarship grants from two international organizations that help gifted
and needy students, many of them refugees.

The World University Service (WSU) supported by Open Society Institute
(OSI), a George Soros foundation, and Prospect Burma have been running
scholarship programs to help Burmese refugee students.

Dr. Kar Kar, coordinator of Asia Pacific World University Service based in
New Delhi, said that Burmese students should be supported if they are
serious and interested in a particular field of study while living in
India.

"I have a heart-felt sympathy for Burmese people
. because education is in
the mainstream of development," he said.

Since 2000, the WSU's supplementary grant program helped 50 students who
have graduated from different universities, mostly in social science
courses. For this academic year, 115 students, including 50 new grantees,
were given scholarships out of over 600 applicants. The grant is limited
and competitive.

The WSU gets its funds from OSI, which is a private organization that
supports democratic governance, human rights, economic, legal and social
reform.

Some recipients of scholarship are studying in Singapore , Malaysia ,
Bangladesh, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand.

One of the recipients is Ngai Za Naing who passed the exams for Bachelor
of Commerce, a correspondence course, in Delhi University this year. She
intends to enroll in Masters of Business Administration by the end of this
month. She got a scholarship grant for a five-year continuing program

The WSU-OSI scholarship fund, while a big help for students, is quite
modest. Ngai Za Naing said she tries to manage well the amount she
receives, at US$700 a year, but her expenses are growing.

"The grant is not sufficient to cover all my expenses even if I get
support both from OSI and Prospect Burma scholarships. I purchased some
books from abroad and sometimes I pay 500 Rupees for a book which is not
available in our library," said Myint Hlaing Tun, a student in Delhi's
Zakir Hussain University, now in his final year in Bachelor of Arts
(honours course) in Political Science.

According to its website, Prospect Burma gives scholarships to gifted and
needy students outside Burma , many of whom are refugees.

This year over 400 Burmese students in India applied for the scholarship,
but only 64 students qualified. Of the grantees, 14 students took
preparatory courses in some universities the previous year, said Apar
Kyaw, an information assistant at the Student Information Center in New
Delhi.

The criteria for getting the Prospect Burma scholarship grant are the same
as OSI's. The applicant should come from Burma and is admitted in any
university under the Union Grant Commission or any government-approved
affiliated university in India.

For this year, 132 Burmese students were awarded scholarships -- 50 were
in India , 57 in Thailand, and 25 are in Europe and other South East Asian
countries.

The Prospect Burma scholarship program was started in 1992 to help Burmese
refugee students whose college education was disrupted as a result of
their participation in the pro-democracy protests in 1988. The military
regime closed all schools and while some schools were later opened, they
remain subject to arbitrary closure, and have been closed more often than
open ever since. The Burmese military regime has maintained control over
the schools.

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Laureate in 1991, has donated part of her
prize money to Prospect Burma. In her endorsement of the scholarship
project, she said: "The future of my country lies in the hands of the
younger generation. Under the present military government the whole
educational system is neglected and higher education is virtually
non-existent, with frequent closure and repressive control of the
universities."

_____________________________________

October 13, Associated Press
U.S. pushes again to get Myanmar on Security Council agenda despite
opposition from Russia, China - Nick Wadhams

The United States is making a new push for the U.N. Security Council to
confront human rights abuses by the ruling military government in Myanmar,
despite strong opposition from a few members, a U.S. official said
Thursday.

American diplomats have gone to several key capitals around the world to
try to convince other governments that the 15-nation council, the most
powerful U.N. decision-making body, should discuss Myanmar, U.S.
Ambassador Anne Patterson said.

"The U.S. would very much like to bring this to the council if we can get
sufficient support," Patterson said. "We think it belongs in the council."

Procedural rules prohibit the Council from discussing issues not on its
agenda, allowing nations to block discussions they'd rather not have. In
June, when the United States sought to raise the plight of Myanmar's
detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 1,300 other political
prisoners, Russia and China blocked it.

Patterson would not name the countries involved, but a U.S. official said
the same countries were opposed this time around as in June. Japan and the
Philippines may also be reluctant to discuss it.

China has long opposed discussing Myanmar, also known as Burma, because of
its ties to the country, while Russia is believed to object because it's
worried such talks could backfire and lead to discussion of its breakaway
Chechnya province.

Myanmar's current military junta took power in 1988 after brutally
crushing a pro-democracy movement. In 1990, it refused to hand over power
when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in general elections.

Myanmar was thrust into the international spotlight again last month when
former Czech President Vaclav Havel and retired South African archbishop
Desmond Tutu released a report detailing abuses in the country and urging
the Security Council take action.

Also Thursday, the rights watchdog Human Rights Watch released a letter in
which it urged the council to take up Myanmar.

_____________________________________

October 13, Mizzima News
Burma's UN chances slim: Key players reported to have shot down the issue
- Alison Hunter

While Burma watchers, activists and politicians wait anxiously to see if
the latest bid to have Burma included on the Security Council will be
successful, reports are emerging that several key countries have already
snubbed the effort.

Burmese officials and NGO workers in New York have told Mizzima Romania
informally raised the issue of Burma's inclusion on the Security Council
with other council members on October 6.

They say representatives from China, Russia and Philippines said they
would reject the move. Conflicting reports have also surfaced that either
France or Japan responded negatively.

The reports are likely to further dampen hopes for UN Security Council
talks on Burma.

Many Burma watchers have been extremely skeptical about the chances of
getting Burma onto the Security Council agenda. The last time efforts were
made to have Burma included on the agenda was in June this year. The
attempt failed after China and Russia, permanent members of the council
and Algeria, vetoed the move.

In the past three months, calls for Security Council talks on Burma have
come from a variety of countries and organisations including the widely
publicized report commissioned by former President of Czech Republic
Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu.

The US and the UK announced their intention of supporting Burma's
inclusion on the Security Council agenda some months ago.

Several activists and analysts have told Mizzima the US and UK were not
serious about getting the Burma on the agenda and were just 'going through
the motions' to satisfy pressure groups.

Aung Naing Oo, a well-known exiled Burmese political analyst, said he
believed the US was simply paying 'lip service' to the Burma issue.

"I'm not sure about the commitment of the US government. The usual
protocol is if something the US government considers important and urgent,
then it is usually the secretary of state who picks it up and takes it to
the UN and they also do a bit of . . . lobbying. I haven't seen any
evidence of that," Aung Naing Oo said.

He said US officials knew there was little chance of getting Burma onto
the agenda.

"What I am saying is I haven't seen any strong convincing efforts on the
part of the US government. If they don't think it is going to work, they
won't try."

But a US official in New York told Mizzima that serious attempts were
being made to have Security Council talks on Burma.

"We are discussing with our counterparts a way to highlight this among
Security Council members," the official said.
Nicola Stanton, a spokeswoman for the British Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, said the UK was doing everything it could to ensure Burma's human
rights record was addressed in a UN setting.

"We have always been open to debating the situation in Burma at the UN
Security Council if this can help promote democratisation and national
reconciliation in Burma," Stanton said.

Many activists say Burma will not make it onto the Security Council table
because no dialogue is being held between countries for the move and those
against. Most significantly they say, China and Russia who both have
important economic ties to Burma, need to be approached so a universally
acceptable resolution on Burma can be developed.

Representative of the Asian Inter-Parliamentarian Caucus on Democracy in
Myanmar and Malaysian Member of Parliament, Zaid Ibrahim told a press
conference at UN headquarters on Tuesday that there was no consensus
between council members on the best way to deal with Burma's generals.

"Europe has a common position among themselves and that position must, to
be successful, must be something that ASEAN or China . . . must be able to
live with," Ibrahim said at a press conference at UN headquarters in New
York today.

"Then you have support, but at the moment the way we see it is that
everybody has their own expectations, has their own resolution, has their
own inner process - you don't get that common, minimum compliance that you
would expect," he said.

Countries against having Burma on the Security Council are also likely to
claim the Security Council mandate states the council is designed only to
discuss threats to international peace and security. Burma, they say, is
not.

After vetoing June's attempt to include Burma on the agenda, Russia's UN
envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, told reporters, "We don't see any ground for
including it on the agenda (because) the Security Council is seized with
matters of international peace and security."

A US official also told Mizzima this technicality would likely be cited by
several countries as a reason to vote against Burma's inclusion.

The President of the Security Council this month is Romania, who reports
say raised the issue with members last week.

Also on the council are rotating members Argentina, Benin, Brazil,
Denmark, Greece, Japan, Philippines, Romania, Tanzania and Algeria and
permanent members China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.

For Burma to be included on the Security Council agenda, nine members need
to support the move. If any of the five permanent members of the council
cast a negative vote, it will automatically be excluded.

A decision on Burma's inclusion on the agenda is expected by the end of
this month.

Meanwhile support is gathering for Security Council debate on Burma with
increasing numbers of organisations backing the move.

Yesterday Burma supporters in Canada joined calls for UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan to have Burma included on the council's agenda this month.

_____________________________________

October 13, The Gulf Today
Conquering tyranny - Muhammad Yusuf

A Burmese student leader is honoured for his steadfast fight against
injustice. Muhammad Yusuf has the details

Min Ko Naing (“Conquerer of Kings”) is the nom de guerre of Burmese
student leader Paw Oo Htun. He has been central to the Burmese democracy
movement and has been described as second in importance only to Nobel
Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Naing has just been awarded the 2005 Civil Courage Prize (CCP) by the
Northcote Parkinson Fund, New York. The award, worth $50,000 and awarded
annually since 2000, honours steadfast resistance to evil at great
personal risk. What did Naing do to deserve the prize? Therein hangs a
tale of bravery and sacrifice.

Naing is a leader of the 1988 non-violent popular uprising against Burma’s
brutal dictatorship. He was imprisoned for 15 years, suffering torture and
solitary confinement. He was released from prison in 2004.
While a student at the University of Rangoon in the 1980s, Naing secretly
organised a nationwide student union, the All Burma Federation of Student
Unions (ABFSU) to oppose military rule. In 1988, it coordinated a
nationwide non-violent uprising. Millions marched throughout Burma
demanding democracy and an end to decades-long military rule, including
monks, teachers, students, and even members of the military.
Anti-government leaflets and revolutionary poems signed by Naing appeared
throughout Rangoon and then in all of Burma.
The military regime responded to the uprising with brutal force, gunning
down thousands in cold blood. Naing was forced to go underground, where he
continued his organising work, moving from house to house every night to
avoid arrest. Before his arrest some of his fellow student leaders tried
to convince him to seek sanctuary on the Thai border with the armed
resistance, but Naing refused, saying that he would rather continue his
work inside the country, sharing dangers with his countrymen.

After months of evading the Burmese Military Intelligence he was arrested
with many other student activists on March 23, 1989. He was sentenced to a
20-year prison term, which was later commuted to 10 years under a general
amnesty. He was severely tortured and ill-treated during the early stages
of his detention, reportedly forced to stand in water for two weeks until
he collapsed.

For most of his imprisonment he was held in complete solitary confinement
as the military tried repeatedly to break his spirit. Throughout his
confinement he refused to turn his back on the democracy movement. Suu Kyi
made these comments about Naing: “He has stood firm against all pressure
from the authorities
he represents many others who are suffering from the
injustices of the present military regime.” Naing was kept in prison a
full five years further after his 10-year sentence had been completed.

On November 20, 2004 he was unexpectedly released. He is currently
recovering with his elderly parents and siblings in Rangoon. In a recent
interview with Radio Free Asia he said: "During this long journey to
democracy, we have nightmares. Sometimes the dawn seems to be coming
closer ... After I was released from prison, I read the faces of the
people. These faces think that the dawn is getting nearer. So, I am hoping
that we will be able to achieve the expectations of the people."

Megan Clymer, then a graduate student student at the Johns Hopkins
University for Policy Studies, Baltimore, USA, who has since gone on to
assume more responsible positions at the university, has written a
monograph on Naing. While a student, she lived with the Burmese community
on the Thai-Burma border for two months in 2000.
Says Clymer: “Much as Aung San Suu Kyi has come to symbolise democratic
reform in Burma, Min Ko Naing has become a symbol of the student movement.
In the Burmese community outside Burma, Min Ko Naing is held in high
regard. His name has taken on an almost legendary status. Whether the
stories about him are embellished or true, they reflect the way in which
he is remembered.”

Naing’s interest in politics began at Rangoon University in the mid-1980s
where he studied Zoology. Student unions at that time, as now, were
illegal. However, he and other students formed secret study groups in
anticipation of protests against worsening economic conditions.

According to people who know him, Naing was a member of a performance
troupe which took part in the traditional Than Gyat competition during the
annual Water Festival (Thingyan). His group was called “Goat-Mouth and
Spirit-Eye” and apparently performed satirical plays and sketches about
Burma’s government and the lack of democracy and freedom. Sys Clymer: “The
troupe proved highly popular, winning several awards during the
competition, and, not surprisingly, caught the attention of the Military
Intelligence who followed Naing and his friends home.”

At that time his name was still Paw Oo Htun. He started addressing student
meets in the heart of the campus. In his first public speech, when he
addressed students sitting on a friend’s shoulders, he spoke about the
students’ historically important role in Burmese politics. He requested
they speak out against the government’s mistreatment of students.
He began to gain stature and was elected chairman of ABFSU because of his
charisma. He was a man for crises. Remembers a student who is quoted by
Clymer: “He was good at giving speeches, really good. He was very moving,
touching. He would face soldiers and speak to them, and sometimes walk
down and talk to them. He was daring and able to reach out to the soldiers
in a way others could not. Some members of the army were even persuaded to
leave their ranks and join the protestors after he spoke.”

When elections were declared, Naing actively worked for Suu Kyi’s party.
But fearing for his personal safety, he went underground to organise and
campaign. After a speech, he used to change clothes to escape attention of
the army. In hiding and always on the move, Naing and his supporters faced
many obstacles.

“People came to the places where we were, especially to see and listen to
Min Ko Naing. People openly encouraged us by daring to gather at these
places, clapping their hands, chanting the slogans, and protecting us from
the military,” says Aung Din of the US Campaign for Burma, who worked with
Naing on at least twenty campaigns in Rangoon and Pegu. “We spoke during
the days and went into hiding at nights. After the speaking events,
thousands of people surrounded us so that we could disappear safely even
in the presence of the military intelligence.”

The cat and mouse game with the military was not to last. Some thing had
to give. Naing was arrested. In a dramatic balcony speech even as he was
being taken to prison, Naing shouted to the crowd below: “I am not sure
how many years they will imprison me. They might kill us. But that is not
important. If Min Ko Naing physically dies, another Min Ko Naing will
appear to take his place. Whether or not I die is not important. What is
important is that we achieve our goal.”

Naing was imprisoned and subject to torture and beatings. In one account,
says Clymer, he was forced to stand in water for two weeks until he
collapsed and lost all feeling in his left foot. He suffered from a
gastric ulcer and his mental health suffered after long periods of
solitary confinement.

After he was released from prison he recalled in an interview to the news
channel Democratic Voice of Burma: “As for the heart, it is slightly
bigger than the original size. The doctor assumes that it is to do with my
living condition and eating habit inside the prison.” He could not sleep,
pacing around his house. “As for my eyes, when I watch TV at night, I see
double pictures. Then, I cannot watch it for more than five minutes. My
eyes ache. My eyes become hot. Hot tears stream down.” He said that to
keep sane in prison, he wrote poems and songs in his mind. “As I had no
musical instrument for support, I slapped my thigh for rhythm.”

Even after release from prison, he is under close surveillance. His
friends, acquaintances, relatives and those who talk to him are
interrogated. Intelligence agents in plain clothing and police informers
follow him. So much so he is unable to leave Burma to collect the CCP
award. Incidentally, Naing has declined his portion of the prize money. He
has asked it be donated to a worthy not-for-profit organisation.

CCP honours civil courage rather than military valour. The acts that the
prize recognises should have taken place deliberately, over time. It may
also be awarded posthumously. Says the Trustees of the Northcote Parkinson
Fund who award the prize: “By increasing awareness of civil courage, the
Fund’s Trustees hope to encourage that virtue.”

Naing was awarded the John Humphrey Freedom Award by the International
Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Canada, in 1999. In
2000 he was awarded the Czech Homo Homini Award by the People in Need
Foundation, Czech Republic. In 2001, he was granted the Norwegian Student
Peace Prize.

_____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

October 14, Human Rights Watch
UN: Security Council should take up Burma's human rights crisis

China, Russia, Philippines, others must not block discussion

The United Nations Security Council should urgently consider the human
rights and political situation in Burma in order to address widespread and
systematic abuse of human rights by the military government, Human Rights
Watch said today.

Human rights groups have long urged the Security Council to take up Burma
as a critical international problem. The possibility of putting Burma on
the Security Council agenda has been boosted by a recent report, "Threat
to Peace - A Call to the UN Security Council to Act in Burma." The report
was commissioned by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Vaclav Havel, former
president of the Czech Republic, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South
Africa. It calls for "an urgent, new and multilateral diplomatic
initiative" on Burma and for Security Council action. Havel and Tutu say
they took up the cause of Burma in part because of the continued
mistreatment and house arrest of fellow Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi, the only Nobel winner persecuted for peaceful political dissent.

"There is ample precedent for the Security Council to take up the human
rights and political situation in a country with as horrific a record as
Burma - especially when suffering spills across borders," said Brad Adams,
Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "After years of inaction while the
military government has decimated the political opposition in Rangoon and
targeted ethnic groups in border areas, there is no longer any excuse for
the Security Council to duck this problem."

Human Rights Watch also said that it was time for a U.N. Commission of
Inquiry to be established to investigate the longstanding dire human
rights situation in Burma and the possibility that war crimes and crimes
against humanity have been committed.

Burma remains one of the most repressive countries in Asia, despite
promises for political reform and national reconciliation by its
authoritarian military government, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC).

The SPDC restricts the basic rights and freedoms of all Burmese. It
continues to attack and harass the winner of the 1990 elections, the
National League of Democracy, and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains
under house arrest. It also continues to commit systematic, widespread,
and well-documented abuses in ongoing conflicts with ethnic minority rebel
groups, including extrajudicial executions, rape, torture, forced
relocation of entire villages, and forced labor. As of late 2004, an
estimated 650,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Burma alone,
and at least 240 villages have been destroyed, relocated or abandoned
since 2002. Some 2 million Burmese have moved to Thailand, including
145,000 refugees living in camps.

"The Security Council has taken up urgent human rights and political
problems in more than 20 countries this year," said Adams. "If China moves
to block this effort they should explain to Aung San Suu Kyi and average
Burmese people why their concerns are less important."

The United States has announced that it will support the move. The United
Kingdom, France, and Romania are also expected to agree. However, China
and Russia have made it clear in private that they oppose putting Burma on
the agenda. China has deep political, military, and economic ties to the
military junta in Rangoon, while Russia opposes such discussions because
of its record in Chechnya.

"China is trying to portray itself as an emerging and responsible global
power," said Adams. "But continuing to offer unconditional support to one
of the world's most odious regimes makes it impossible to take such claims
seriously. Now is the time for China to set a new course for itself in its
foreign policy."

There are concerns that other Security Council members, such as the
Philippines, may also oppose the move. Human Rights Watch called on
democracies on the Council to put aside diplomatic and other interests and
urgently take up the plight of the Burmese people.

Human Rights Watch endorsed the call of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus for the Security
Council to act. As the caucus said: "The deteriorating situation in
Myanmar is affecting not only those within the country but people outside
its borders as well. Quite apart from its truly disgraceful human rights
record, Myanmar's troubles ranging from ethnic conflicts and refugee
outflows to drugs and the unchecked spread of HIV/AIDS have become a
serious cause for concern for ASEAN and the international community."

"Democracies like the Philippines should be ashamed if they try to block
discussion of Burma at the Security Council," said Adams. "Burma has
embarrassed ASEAN over and over again. Instead of offering political cover
for the junta, elected leaders of other countries should be standing side
by side with Aung San Suu Kyi and others in Burma fighting for their
rights."

Because of continued political support and trade with China, India,
Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, the military government in
Rangoon has remained largely impervious to sanctions by the United States
and European Union. The U.N. Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Rizali
Ismail, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, have failed to persuade the government to
open up the political process or improve the human rights situation.
Rizali, a Malaysian with close ties to the Malaysian government, has not
been allowed back into Burma since March 2004. Pinheiro, a Brazilian
lawyer, has not been allowed into Burma since November 2003, when he cut
short a visit after discovering a listening device in what was supposed to
be a private interviewing room in Burma's notorious Insein prison.

For the Security Council to discuss a country situation, nine members must
agree to put it on the agenda. Unlike with resolutions, permanent Security
Council members cannot exercise a veto over this process. As the Asian
Center for Human Rights has pointed out, "in 2005, the Security Council,
among others, discussed the following country situations: Middle East
situation, including the Palestinian question, Sudan, Burundi, Iraq,
Liberia, Afghanistan, Eritrea-Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire, Burundi, Timor-Leste, Guinea-Bissau, Georgia,
Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Somalia, Bougainville, Cyprus, Haiti,
Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro), Western Sahara, Iraq-Kuwait, Middle
East-Lebanon."

"The Burmese people shouldn't have to wait another generation for the
killing to end and democracy to begin," said Adams. "The generals have
ignored all other demands to end the abuse. It is time for the collective
voice of the Security Council to be heard in Rangoon."