BurmaNet News, October 15-17, 2005

[Editor]

October 15-17 2005 Issue # 2824


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Burma USDA planning to take over charitable organisations?
AFP: Myanmar ex-premier still isolated, one year after purge
Narinjara: Arakanese inside Burma protested the Shwe Gas Project of Daewoo
and the Junta
SHAN: Junta launches new scorched earth campaign

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Myanmar pledges to step up action against Indian rebel bases

HEALTH / AIDS
AFP: Myanmar would not cover up bird flu outbreak, official says

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Almost 70 percent of gems sell at Myanmar auction: report


REGIONAL
Mizzima: Exiled Burma journalists face increasing pressure
Xinhua: Myanmar's Rohingyas link with Bangladeshi militant groups
SHAN; Portrait of a generation of Shan youth
Irrawaddy: Relatives of Burmese victims may not attend tsunami anniversary

INTERNATIONAL
DVB: Su Su Nway’s case put forward to the UNWGAD

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma USDA planning to take over charitable organisations?

The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) led by Burma’s
military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) minister Aung
Thaung, is reportedly planning to take over all successful charitable and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) throughout the country.

The organisation has been surreptitiously and secretly collecting lists of
the properties of all these charitable organisations through the local
authorities and it is planning to seize them by the early 2006, according
to someone close to the USDA HQs in Rangoon. These charitable
organisations are politically impartial and they are led and patronised by
famous religious figures, elders and artists such as renowned author Ludhu
Daw Amar and film director Thukka who are respected by all sides of the
political divides.

Because of their fair leadership and effective management, many people in
the country have been enthusiastically donating their money and labour to
the organisations as much as they could, according to a Rangoon resident
who volunteers for these organisations. Moreover, these ‘Nar-yay’
independent charitable organisations are trusted and relied on by the
majority of the population as they deliver what they are set out for,
unlike government-sponsored organisations which are known to be
ineffective and corrupt.

The Rangoon resident added that if these charitable organisations are in
the hands of thuggish USDA members, they are certainly likely to be
destroyed with corruption and mismanagement.

When DVB contacted some of the organisations, the people in charge said
that they haven’t heard of the secret plan to takeover their organisations
and insisted that the ruling military junta will not carry out this kind
of mean action.

____________________________________

October 16, Agence France Presse
Myanmar ex-premier still isolated, one year after purge - Khin Maung Thwin

One year after Myanmar's junta sacked the powerful premier and military
intelligence boss Khin Nyunt, he has been locked under house arrest as the
ruling generals hunt down anyone linked to him.

The man who once wielded broad power over the feared military intelligence
establishment and its myriad business links was purged on October 19,
removing the most senior general willing to hold discussions with detained
pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Now, like the Nobel peace laureate, Khin Nyunt and his family are under
house arrest, essentially cut off from the outside world and with little
information leaking out as to his welfare.

Khin Nyunt received the same disgrace as his mentor Ne Win, the founder of
the country's military dictatorship who ended his days under house arrest.

Although he helped crack down on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988, Khin
Nyunt eventually became the reformist-leaning face of Myanmar's military
leadership.

Analysts say Khin Nyunt, who received a 44-year suspended sentence on
corruption charges in July, and his military intelligence allies are
finished as a force within the military, which has ruled the impoverished
country since 1962.

"I don't think they will be used again in the military, especially Khin
Nyint and those who are very close to him," Thailand-based Myanmar
military researcher Win Min told AFP.

After Khin Nyunt was sacked, junta leader Senior General Than Shwe
reportedly said in October 2004 that he did not mind if even 1,000 of the
former premier's associates were arrested, as long as no supporters were
left, Win Min said.

Hundreds of military intelligence officers and people linked to their
businesses have already been arrested and detained in prisons around the
country, and the purge shows no signs of ending. Secret tribunals have
been handing them stiff sentences, mainly on corruption charges.

The junta has also weeded out Khin Nyunt's allies from top posts, with two
reshuffles earlier this year.

After spending time alongside inmates he helped send to the notorious
Insein prison, Khin Nyunt, 65, was on July 22 given a suspended jail
sentence after being convicted on eight charges including bribery and
corruption.

Since then he has been confined to his residence along with his wife, Khin
Win Swe, where both remain.

A secret tribunal inside Insein also handed down stiff jail terms to two
of Khin Nyunt's sons, former businessman Ye Naing Win and soldier
Lieutenant Colonel Zaw Naing Oo.

Ye Naing Win received a 51-year suspended sentence, while the elder son
received a 68-year suspended sentence. Both are confined to their homes at
different locations in Yangon together with their spouses, sources close
to the family said.

Khin Nyunt's former mentor, the former general Tint Swe, looks after Khin
Nyunt's grandchildren including taking them to school, sources said.

Ye Naing Win's wife is a Singaporean citizen and former flight attendant
who once convinced Khin Nyunt to publicly disown his son. She apparently
was offered a chance to move to Singapore but declined, one source said.

Among his many businesses, Ye Naing Win owned one of Myanmar's two
Internet service providers, Bagan Cybertech.

The company was acquired by the state-owned Myanmar Post and
Telecommunications company and continues to operate under the name Myanmar
Teleport.

The military has shown leniency in recent weeks to some top-level officers
sacked from military intelligence, taking steps to return seized cars,
homes and other assets, sources close to their families said.

"Jailed military intelligence officers above the rank of colonels were
given back some of their property as well a lump sum each of 10 lakhs
(around 1,000 dollars)," a source close to one of the families told AFP.

The former officers have also been encouraged by the suspended sentences
given to Khin Nyunt and his sons and have filed their own appeals in
increasing numbers from inside prisons, a legal source said.

Intelligence officers who were sacked but not jailed find themselves still
unable to get jobs in the private sector, nor passports to emigrate.

Some have tried to start their own businesses, but that is proving
difficult given Myanmar's crumbling economy.

____________________________________

October 17, Narinjara News
Arakanese inside Burma protested the Shwe Gas Project of Daewoo and the Junta

Major cities in Arakan State in western Burma witnesses posters against
the Shwe Gas Project of the International Consortium led by Daewoo on 12
of October.

At Akyab, Rathidaung, Mrebone, Morm Bra and Kyauk Phu, an anonymous youth
group posted anti Shwe Project posters in public places.

In Akyab, these posters were posted at the jetty, Lokananda Pagoda, and
the central Market.

On the posters, the sale of the gas to foreign countries is condemned and
those who cooperate with the junta in the gas project are regarded as
traitors to the national cause. Furthermore, the removal of the Burmese
military forces from Arakan State is demanded by the group.

No group has claimed responsibility for these posters, but some students
who are known to have been involved in previous pro-democracy activities
are lying low, as the military authority is hunting down the responsible
activists.

Whether or not this poster campaign has any link with the international
movement against Daewoo's involvement in the Shwe Gas Project is not yet
known. However, it is clear that the sale of natural gas from Arakan to
India is not just opposed by exiled Burmese activists. This shows that the
Arakanese people inside Burma are also angry with this gas sale that will
only benefit the Burmese junta.

____________________________________

October 16, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta launches new scorched earth campaign

In a move highly reminiscent to the 1996-98 campaign that had displaced
300,000 people from their ancestral homes and fields, the Burma Army is
again launching a new drive that began last month to realign scattered
villages in southern Shan State in an effort to isolate the resistance
from the local populace, according to latest reports received by S.H.A.N.:

A couple who arrived on the Chiangmai border yesterday told S.H.A.N. two
of  the villages Wanzan (60 households) and Koonkieng (40 households)
where they came from were ordered by the Army on 4 October to move to the
tract seat of Wanpong, Laikha township. (Tract in Burma denotes a cluster
of villages)

"We lost our paddy fields and corn fields that were waiting ot be
harvested, as well as the sesame field that we have just sown," said
Yazing, 40, who brought his wife Nang Li, 30, and three children. "We
decided there and then and we had had enough of being pushed around and
that we should get out while we still have each other."

A year after the 1996-98 campaign the Burma Army had either forced or
allowed the people in the relocated sites to move back to their former
villages. "And now they want us to move again," he said.

Aid workers in Fang, 160 km north of Chiangmai, say similar reports have
been coming from Laikha's neighboring townships of Mongkerng, Kehsi and
Mongnawng. "We expect more refugees to arrive at the border beginning this
month," said one this morning.

The mass exodus had actually started soon after the outbreak of
hostilities between the Burma Army and the Shan State Army-South's former
758th Brigade that had switched allegiance to a new group called Interim
Shan Government (ISG) that declared Independence on 17 April. To which
Rangoon promptly responded by designating it an 'unlawful association' and
launching a crackdown.

According to the ISG, Rangoon had dispatched 7 light Infantry battalions:
346, 372, 542, 544, 562, 563 and 566 from the western state of Arakan, in
addition to local units for its Four Cuts operation that consists of
cutting food, funds, intelligence and recruits by the villagers for the
resistance movements.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 17, Agence France Presse
Myanmar pledges to step up action against Indian rebel bases

Myanmar has pledged a crackdown on Indian rebel groups with bases in its
territory and offered to jointly interrogate suspected drug and arms
smugglers, an Indian official said Monday.

An Indian home ministry spokesman said Myanmar agreed to intensify action
and severely punish arms smugglers, after a five-day meeting in Yangon
between officials from both sides.

The Indian delegation was led by V.K. Duggal, India's home secretary,
while the Myanmar delegation was headed by Brigadier General Phone Swe,
who is the deputy minister for home affairs in military-ruled Myanmar.

"Both sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation in tackling the
activities of insurgents, arms smugglers, drug traffickers and other
hostile elements along the India-Myanmar border," the home ministry
spokesman said.

In June, Indian troops drove out nearly 200 Myanmarese militants belonging
to the Chin National Army from bases in India's northeastern Mizoram
state.

"The Myanmar side reiterated that it will not allow negative elements to
use its territory for carrying out hostile activities against India, and
both sides agreed to further strengthen" efforts against drug trafficking,
the Indian embassy in Yangon said in a statement.

Both countries also agreed that when infrastructure projects along the
border areas were finished, increased economic development and interaction
would result, the statement added.

Indian authorities say at least 12 of about 30 separatist groups operating
in India's northeast use Myanmar as a springboard to carry out guerrilla
strikes on federal soldiers.

More than 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the
northeast since India's independence in 1947.

On a visit to India last year, Myanmar's leader Than Shwe pledged his
government would not let rebels operate from the country.

In December Myanmar launched a crackdown on Indian rebels.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 17, Agence France Presse
Myanmar would not cover up bird flu outbreak, official says

Myanmar's military government would not try to hide a bird flu outbreak,
the semi-official weekly Myanmar Times reported on Monday, quoting an
official who insisted the country remained free of the deadly virus.

Aung Gyi, head of the Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department's
Animal Health and Development Division, told the newspaper that foreign
news agency reports of suspected H5N1 outbreaks in Myanmar were wrong.

"There would be no reason to hide any outbreak of bird flu," Aung Gyi was
quoted as saying, adding if an outbreak occurred, both the public and the
appropriate international organisations would be immediately informed.

News reports about outbreaks in Myanmar, which the military has ruled
since 1962, were "speculative" and occurred because the virus has been
detected in Myanmar's neighbours including Thailand, China and Laos, the
report said.

Since late 2003, veterinarians had inspected almost 10,000 farms in the
impoverished country and checked some 9.5 million birds and no bird flu
cases had been found, the Myanmar Times reported.

The livestock department has joined with other ministries to monitor
commercial farms and live poultry markets, and also domestic poultry
reared near areas visited by migratory birds, the official said.

The department's main laboratory in Yangon was assisted by various UN and
Japanese bodies and so could quickly detect different strains of bird flu,
the report said.

Myanmar's neighbours send their samples to World Health Organisation (WHO)
facilities in Hong Kong.

Experts from countries including China, Australia and Singapore had helped
train Myanmar's veterinarians about diagnosing and controlling the spread
of bird flu and inspected poultry farms, the report said.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / FINANCE

October 17, Agence France Presse
Almost 70 percent of gems sell at Myanmar auction: report

Myanmar sold almost 70 percent of pearls, gems and jade on offer at what
became the country's biggest precious stones auction, the state-run media
said on Monday.

Some 1,784 lots sold from more than 2,600 available, raising much needed
hard currency for the cash-strapped military government which had hoped it
would raise more than 43 million dollars.

No sales figures were published.

However, auction organisers said before the 10-day sale, which ended on
Saturday, 2,687 lots were available, worth 39.76 million euros (48.02
million dollars).

"The 2005 Mid-Year Myanmar Gems Emporium has sold more jade, gems and
pearl lots than those in previous years, and a greater number of gems
merchants from abroad attended it," the New Light of Myanmar newspaper
said.

A total of 205 pearl lots, 45 gems lots and 1,534 jade lots sold during
the sale through a competitive bidding and tender system, the newspaper
said.

More than 2,000 gems merchants from Myanmar and 13 other countries
attended the sale, it added.

Myanmar earned about 23.8 million dollars from the October 2004 gems
auction, and most auction customers are from neighbouring China and
Thailand.

Myanmar is one of the poorest and most isolated countries in Asia, but has
vast natural wealth -- including minerals and highly prized teak wood --
that often disappears into black markets.

The junta began the gems auctions in a bid to curb the smuggling of
precious stones out of Myanmar, which deprives the government of
desperately needed foreign currency.

Myanmar is under stiff EU and US sanctions imposed for human rights abuses
and failure to implement promised democratic reforms.

But neighboring giants China and India have increasingly sought to boost
trade relations, especially to satiate their ever-growing energy needs
with Myanmar's natural gas fields.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 14, Mizzima News
Exiled Burma journalists face increasing pressure - Sein Win

Exiled Burmese journalists in Bangladesh are concerned for their personal
security after the United Nation Human Rights Commission advised one
journalist that the exiled media should cease their involvement in media
related work.

Myat Kyaw, the editor-in-chief of Dakha based Narainjar News, was advised
by a UNHCR official in Bangladesh to cease the organisation's activities
or face action from Bangladeshi authorities.

"An official told me a week ago that anytime I could face strong action
from Bangladesh authorities if our media work continues," Myat Kyaw told
Mizzima.

The warning followed a visit to Bangladesh last month by Burma's third
most powerful leader Gen. Thura Shwe Mann.

High-level discussions between the two countries in recent years have
seemed to focus on the activities of exiled Burmese in Bangladesh fuelling
speculations the country would yield to pressure from Rangoon to
intervene.

Another exiled Burmese media group, Kaladan News was also advised to keep
a low-profile.
A series of bomb blasts occurred in Bangladesh's capital city Dhaka on
August 17, killing four people and wounding at least 115. More than 400
people, mostly members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, the outlaw Islamic
militant group, were arrested over the incident.
Some Burmese think Bangladesh is increasingly trying to monitor the
activities of foreigners in the country, who they suspect were involved in
the terrorist acts, in an attempt to beef up security.

Meanwhile, the Burmese military junta has increased its rhetoric regarding
exiled journalists calling them "destructive elements in disguise".

An article in Burmese state propaganda paper The New Light of Myanmar
today attacked Washington-based Radio Free Asia's Burmese service stringer
Ko Jay accusing him of 'slandering' the nation.

According to a report by BBC's Burmese service, two Burmese writers were
also arrested in Rangoon recently for attending an environmental meeting
held by an NGO in Bangkok, Thailand.

Writer Khin Mya Zin and photographer Kyawt Maung Maung Nyunt were
reportedly interrogated for two days and forced to sign at a document
agreeing they would not discuss their detention.

_____________________________________

October 16, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar's Rohingyas link with Bangladeshi militant groups

Bangladeshi police has found that the 25 suspected Rohingya militants of
Myanmar arrested in the southern Chittagong port on Friday have close
links with some local Islamic militant groups, including the Jamaatul
Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

The Detective Branch (DB) of police in its report for the remand of the 25
mentioned that the detainees have long been involved in subversive
activities in collusion with their Bangladeshi allies like JMB, The Daily
Star reported Sunday.

The DB report placed before a Chittagong court also said the 25 had
supplied bombs and explosives to the outfits held responsible for bomb
attacks in different parts of the country including the " 8.17"
countrywide bomb blasts in which three people were killed and over 150
others injured.

Police arrested more than 400 suspects after the "8.17" bomb blasts, most
of them are members of the banned JMB.

The DB police placed charges against the 25 Rohingyas of staying illegally
in Bangladesh, plotting against the interest of the country and
maintaining links to the banned JMB.

A DB police team on Friday evening raided the office of the Chittagong
Research and Cultural Society (CRCS) in the port city and made the arrest.
CRCS reportedly is an organization of the Rohingya community.

After the arrest, they all were detained at DB office and interrogated by
the intelligence personnel.

The DB police in the charges brought against the arrestees said they all
have come from different Rohingya refugee camps in the south eastern Cox's
Bazar and Teknaf and belong to Myanmar-based insurgent groups.

The Rohingyas, who are Muslims and speak the same language as the people
in Chittagong area, are not regarded by the government of Myanmar as an
indigenous race.

Hundreds of thousands of them fled across the border to Bangladesh in 1978
and 1991-1992, and militant groups soon emerged among the refugees.

The United Nations eventually intervened and most of the Rohingyas were
repatriated to Myanmar. However, more than 20,000 remained in United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) supervised camps in Cox's
Bazar. But quite a few Rohingyas live outside the UNHCR's camps, and it is
among these destitute and stateless people that various Islamist militant
groups have found fertile ground for recruitment.

_____________________________________

October 17, Shan Herald Agency for News
Portrait of a generation of Shan youth - Wan Bin

In a dimly lit corner of a bar in Chiang Mai’s red light district, Hseng
Hawm greets the approaching customers, “Sawasdee kha”. She guides them to
a table and sits with them as another girl takes the guests’ orders.

Her sweet and demure smile grabs the attention of the guests, from the
karaoke music played in the bar ---to her presence.

Her fair skin looked smooth. But make up didn’t cover all of the little
scars on her face.  Her black blouse and skirt fitted well with her
youthful body. Hseng Hawm is only 20. The dark color of the bar’s red
light on her clothes made her look older and aloof.

According to her, she is a waitress in the bar. As she sits and talks with
the customers, she knew she was doing more. “I am only doing this as part
of my job,” she told one of the guests who speaks her native language.

She spoke with confidence. With her head up and a smile flashing her white
teeth, she looked at ease with what she was doing.

But this didn’t hide her anxiety. She asked to be excused after an hour of
conversation. She explained that she and the other waitresses have to hide
from the police, who are inspecting the employees of another bar nearby.

She hurried to an exit door trying not to lose her poise. In an instant,
she was gone.

Noom Hseng, 24, who comes at the bar “from time to time” said like Hseng
Hawm, he also has to run away from police inspectors. After passing
through the border from Burma, Noom Hseng Sow said his “papers” allow him
only to work in the factory and in construction sites.

He works at a Shan organization based in Chiang Mai. He said it has been
difficult for him and the likes of Hseng Hawm to freely live the way they
want to. Everyday, they have to deal with some realities like fearing the
possibility that the police might arrest them. Their movement is limited.

But Noom Hseng said his difficulty in Chiang Mai is already heaven to
those who are left in his hometown.

“I only realized many things about freedom here, there are so many good
things about life that I did not know about back there,” he said.

For 29-year old Awn Tai, Noom Hseng’s friend, running away from the police
has already become part of who they are as a people. They are not only
fleeing from the Thai police. They also have fled from their homeland. He
said they are a generation who runs away to be free.

Awn Tai is a translator of Shan literature into Thai. Having been in
Thailand for the last 10 years, his Thai is fluent. Also, he holds a Thai
ID card, unlike Noom Hseng and Hseng Hawm. But he is very much a Shan in
his ways. He said, he longs to go back to Shan State, someday.

“Life here is difficult, but we want to be free from poverty and fear,
that’s why we are here,” he said.

According to estimates from the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) and
the Shan Women Action Network (SWAN) there are at least 150,000 Shan
refugees in Thailand since 1996 up to 2002.
Most of them came from forced relocation sites in Central Shan State.

In a 2003 study by the SHRF, it was shown that there is a direct relation
between the abuses committed by the Burmese government in the forced
relocation sites to the number of refugees moving out from those areas.

Hseng Hawm’s family, now in Chiang Mai, came from Kunghing, an area where
most of the refugees came from. But she doesn’t want to talk about what
was left behind there. While she missed her hometown, she said, she will
not go back there until the situation will improve.

Her 21 year old friend, Mawn, another waitress, said if she has a choice
she would not be in the bar.

“Every night I shed tears of fear, of uncertainty,” she said. Mawn, who
sat with Hseng Hawm at the table before the police came, said she looks
forward to another day for hope.

Unlike Hseng Hawm, who wants to be a tourist guide, Merng has her eyes on
an ambition.

“I wanted to be a teacher. Since I was a kid and even up to now I still
wanted to be a teacher. I will be a teacher,” she said.

As a waitress, Merng earns 2, 000 Bt ($50) every month with free food and
bed space. She said she is going to try her best to earn more money so she
could go back to school.

But Mawn, went up to primary school only way back in Kehsi, a township in
Central Shan State. She knew she would have a hard time going back to
school. But she said what else she would look up to but her dreams.

Like Mawn, Charm Tong is also a young Shan woman. But at 24, Charm Tong is
probably one of the most prominent Shan personalities. Her father was a
leader of a resistance group fighting the Burmese military until his
death.

Charm Tong is popular because her effort to help young migrant Shan people
like her to get education and her contribution in exposing Rangoon’s human
rights violations had been recognized by international award giving
bodies.

She now travels to other countries to share about the Shan people’s
struggle for freedom. She has become an inspiration to both young and old
Shan people in Thailand.

But Charm Tong came to Thailand when she was 6 inside a basket with her
younger sister on a horse back.  She has to climb up with difficulties in
growing up just like the other young Shan youth. She attended the school
of a Shan teacher in a village along the Thai-Burma border.

Now a woman of strength and influence, Charm Tong flaunts only humility
and sincerity. She said growing in a conflict zone has greatly influenced
who she is today.

Like Charm Tong, Hsai Lao, 24, also saw a turbulent Burma in his life. But
unlike Mawn, he has graduated from High School. His English is good,
thanks to years of education in an American school in Rangoon.

He is in Thailand to scout for a school that could offer him a
scholarship. While still out of school, Hsai Lao helps a Shan organization
for its English language works.

As he drove a motorcycle he borrowed from a friend, Hsai Lao talked about
his determination to study no matter what it takes. “But it has to be in
Thailand so that I could work for Shan organizations at the same time,” he
said.

“I still do not know if I can reach my goal, but I will do anything to get
it,” he said.

Hsai Lao, in one of his reflections in coming out of Burma, once wrote
that he is not like other young people who go out to other countries to
become rich and never come back.

“I will be back, yes, but I have to have education from outside. I can
help my country more if I am educated,” he said.

Hsai Lao, Hseng Hawm, Noom Hseng, Awn Tai, Mawn and Charm Tong, six
different young men and women. They are six images of the Shan youth in
Thailand having different pains and different joys. They have their own
story to tell.

But they all are the same: the youth of a displaced people -- running away
from a repressive country.  They have the same language, history and
homeland.

And they all look up to something, for one thing, --- a brighter future
for themselves and their country.

_____________________________________

October 17, Irrawaddy
Relatives of Burmese victims may not attend tsunami anniversary

The Thai government has not yet confirmed whether they will invite
relatives of Burmese victims who died in last year’s devastating tsunami
to attend an event on December 26 marking the one-year anniversary of the
disaster, said the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma today.

According to the Bangkok-based English daily The Nation, Thai Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said during a weekly radio broadcast on
October 14 that about 5,000 foreigners are expected to attend the December
anniversary event. Before any invitation can be offered to relatives of
Burmese victims, Rangoon must first certify their identities, said Myint
Wai of TACDB. He added that requests by Thai authorities for this
certification have as yet received no response from Rangoon.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 17, Democratic Voice of Burma
Su Su Nway’s case put forward to the UNWGAD

Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), on
17 October, put forward the case of Htan Manaing villager Su Su Nway who
was wrongfully imprisoned recently in Burma, to the UN Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention (WGAD).

AAPP also urged the UNWGAD to prioritise her case due to her worrying
health condition. Teit Naing, the secretary of AAPP told DVB that the
imprisonment of Su Su Nway goes against the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and agreements on political activist rights.

When asked about the likely outcome of his organisation’s report to the
UNWGAD, Teit Naing said that the decision will be taken after considering
the facts available whether Su Su Nway was detained unlawfully or not.

35-year-old Su Su Nway, an orphan and a heart disease sufferer,
successfully sued her local authorities at Kawmoo Township court in
Rangoon Division over forced labour practices in 2004. But she was
subsequently counter-sued and sentenced to 20 months in prison on 13
October for allegedly hurling abuses at the authorities and using
threatening words. Su Su Nway and eyewitnesses denied the authorities’
accusation.

When she won the case against the authorities, Su Su Nway predicted that
she will be sent to prison on day by the authorities, by hook or by crook.