BurmaNet News, November 24-28, 2005

[Editor]

November 24-28, 2005 Issue # 2852

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: A major fire breaks out in Rangoon
Irrawaddy: Extension of house arrest for Suu Kyi criticized
AFP: Suu Kyi detention sidelines democracy in Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Rangoon to combat rising crime
DVB: NLD members at Pyinmana interrogated by Burma agents
DVB: Burmese civil servants kept within barbed wires at new capital

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Burmese migrant survivors of tsunami remain invisible
Narinjara News: Bangladeshi army destroys three camps of Arakanese
guerrillas on border

DRUGS
Bangkok Post: Narco Politics

INTERNATIONAL
Japan Times: Myanmar ranks high on Bush's radar
AFP: UN disappointed after Myanmar extends Aung San Suu Kyi's detention

OPINION
South China Morning Post: Change in Myanmar will take time, but is inevitable
Bangkok Post: From Rangoon to Pyinmana

PRESS RELEASE
Amnesty International: Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi must be released

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 28, Democratic Voice of Burma
A major fire breaks out in Rangoon

A major fire broke out at Badar and Tan Lane near Myanmar Information and
Communication Technology (MICT) Park in Rangoon Hlaing Township, at about
noon local time, and it is reported to be still raging on and has not died
down.

According to eyewitnesses, victims of the fire including children and
students fled the scene in panic, crying and calling out their parents’
names.

The exact cause of the fire is not known, but fire engines were unable t o
reach the scene as the streets and lanes are said to be very narrow.

Although there is a police station nearby, the policemen did not help the
victims but packed up their own possessions and fled the station,
according to an eye witness.

The number of casualty is not known either and there has been no statement
from government offices concerned.

Around 1000 people have been left homeless and they are temporarily being
housed inside a football stadium.

____________________________________

November 28, Irrawaddy
Extension of house arrest for Suu Kyi criticized - Shah Paung

Burma’s National League for Democracy released a statement today
criticizing the ruling military government for further extending the house
arrest of party leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The statement said the extension had been applied, without trial, under
the 1975 State Protection Act. Although the NLD was unable to confirm the
length of the extension, it is believed the period is one year.

“This is not a court order but an administrative one,” NLD spokesman Nyan
Win told The Irrawaddy today. “Such an act would not happen in a
democracy.”

The 1975 State Protection Act originally allowed authorities to detain,
without charge, anyone deemed to be a destructive element to the State for
up to 180 days in any one-year period, for a maximum of three years. The
act was amended in 1991, however, allowing consecutive one-year detentions
for up to five years.

Suu Kyi’s latest one-year detention was due to end yesterday, but her
failure to appear today has led observers to believe a further one-year
extension has been applied.

Though the government has not made a formal announcement, a government
official visited Aung San Suu Kyi’s house yesterday and is understood to
have informed the Nobel laureate of the decision, mirroring the procedure
last year.

In 2004, 13 youth members of the NLD party had been allowed to act as Suu
Kyi’s personal security team, and were able to confirm the extended
detention. The government withdrew the NLD members late last year,
however, allowing only two household staff to remain. Currently no NLD
members have access to the leader.

 “It’s regrettable that democratic leaders are being oppressed while
struggling to achieve democracy,” said Cin Sian Thang, a lawyer and
member of the Rangoon-based Committee Representing the People’s
Parliament. “It damages the country’s reputation.”

Suu Kyi has been under intermittent house arrest since 1989. The latest
period started in 2003, following a clash in Depayin, Sagaing Division.

The Consular and International Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs has declined to comment.

____________________________________

November 28, Agence France Presse
Suu Kyi detention sidelines democracy in Myanmar: analysts - Griffin Shea

The extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest leaves her party
rudderless as the junta tries to transform the country's politics with a
new constitution and a new administrative capital, analysts said Monday.

Asda Juyanama, Thailand's former ambassador to the United Nations who also
served in Myanmar, said the junta couldn't afford to release her while it
tries to complete the new constitution, which the generals eventually want
to present in a referendum.

"They don't want to have her as a rallying point" against their plans,
Asda said.

"If they let her out, then she will attract crowds," he said. "They want
to do things their own way and keep her out of their way."

A home ministry official told AFP on Monday that her house arrest had been
extended by six months, which could fall around the time that the junta's
National Convention might complete its work on the constitution.

One of the clauses in the constitution would bar people who marry
foreigners from running for president, effectively banning Aung San Suu
Kyi, 60, who was married to a Briton.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory
in 1990, but it was never allowed to govern.

Since then, the Nobel peace laureate has spent more than 10 years in
detention, and her party has struggled to regain its footing without her
charismatic leadership.

Nyo Ohn Myint, a former aide of Aung San Suu Kyi who lives in exile in
Thailand, said the junta wanted to ensure that she remained silent as the
National Convention resumes its work on the constitution next week.

The military also wants to avoid any chance of public protests as it
shifts key ministries and the military headquarters to its new compound
outside the central town of Pyinmanar.

He compared the current economic situation in Myanmar to the explosive
conditions that led to the pro-democracy protests in 1988, which the
military brutally suppressed and which led to the creation of NLD.

"They're preparing a defensive line in Pyinmanar," he said, where they can
remain in control in the event that spiralling inflation, especially in
fuel costs, sparks new unrest in Yangon.

"They do not want any dialogue process or any national reconciliation
process. This is too bad for the country and the region," he said.

A six-month extension, instead of the expected one year, would give the
military more flexibility to consider her case once it sees how far along
the National Convention gets in its next session, a western diplomat in
Yangon said.

"That gives them more maneuvring room to reconsider the question after the
convention," he said. "Her case could be reexamined."

But Sunai Phasuk, a Human Rights Watch consultant on Burma, said the
length of her latest extension made little difference when Aung San Suu
Kyi has already been held for more than 10 years.

"Detention is detention, and already Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a very
long time in detention on no grounds," he said in Bangkok.

"It is a shame for the world community that a Nobel peace prize recipient
has been put in detention for a very long time."

"And she's not the only victim of the political suppression in Burma. She
and others, altogether more than 1,000 have been jailed for their
political beliefs."

If the junta decides to go ahead with a referendum while Aung San Suu Kyi
is still under house arrest, Asda said the NLD would still be able to
campaign against it, but nothing could match Aung San Suu Kyi's charisma.

"I don't think she's indispensable, but it would be very nice to have
her," he said.

____________________________________

November 25, Irrawaddy
Rangoon to combat rising crime - Clive Parker and Louis Reh

Rangoon’s police force today confirmed it will dramatically increase its
presence on the streets of Burma’s capital to combat rising crime.

The Myanmar Police Force will launch a new initiative—Crime Free Week—on
December 1 in Latha Township, downtown Rangoon, before increasing the
program to cover three other townships in the center then introducing the
program across the rest of the city, a police official said today.

The initiative means Rangoon’s police will patrol parts of the capital 24
hours a day by bicycle, motorbike and car as well as deploying covert
armed personnel on foot.

The authorities will also dispatch seven officers to educate civilians on
crime prevention in Latha Township, Western District Second Police Officer
Aung Naing Thu told the weekly Yangon Times yesterday.

The crackdown was supposed to have started two months ago, as announced by
the head of the Myanmar Police Force, Brig-Gen Khin Yi, in The Myanmar
Times last month. Police officers today refused to explain the delay,
saying the program was still being discussed. They also denied it had
anything to do with the government’s move out of Rangoon to Pyinmana—The
Bureau of Special Investigation and the Myanmar Police Force both fall
under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs which moved to the
new administrative center on November 6.

Sources in Rangoon generally consider crime in the capital to be on the
increase, although no official statistics are available.

Three murders took place in the capital in late September, but most crimes
are thought to have resulted from economic hardship following the junta’s
recent decision to increase fuel prices nine fold, while overall inflation
has reduced spending power even further.

“Crime-free week is designed to crack down effectively on gambling,
robbery
and street violence,” a Rangoon police officer told The Irrawaddy
today.

He would not say whether crime is actually on the rise, suggesting instead
“we are [implementing] the program
because we want the people in our
community to live peacefully.”

Yesterday’s report in the Yangon Times, however, said the authorities
wanted to increase the presence of police on Rangoon’s streets in a bid to
“bring down the crime rate,” a statement that is rarely permitted in
Burma’s tightly-controlled press.

Another Burmese weekly—Crime News Journal—has also reported recent cases
of theft, fraud and murder, although it did not say whether such cases
were becoming more widespread. One report said the authorities attributed
80 percent of cases to negligence on the part of the victims which perhaps
explains plans to try to educate the public on crime.

Burma’s military government has said in the past that Rangoon is safer
than most capitals, a claim backed up analysts.

The US State Department says on a recently updated section of its website:
“Crime rates in Burma, especially toward foreigners, appear to be lower
than those of many other countries in the region.”

However, it also warns that “because of the difficult economic situation
in Burma, the potential exists for an increase in street crime.”
____________________________________

November 25, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD members at Pyinmana interrogated by Burma agents

New military intelligence agents who recently arrived at the new capital
at Pyinmana in central Burma, summoned and interrogated local National
League for Democracy (NLD) members and leaders on 24 November.

These agents are said to be members of No.2, Intelligence Force who were
attached to the Supreme Command at the Military HQs, and they interrogated
Poet Maung Thin Khine, Saya Zaw Win and 15 NLD youth members, according to
a local resident with close connection to the political circles.

The agents asked the NLD members the strength of their local branch, what
they have been doing and with whom they are having contacts with, and
other unsavoury questions, the resident added.

Moreover, on the following day, the agents repeated similar
interrogations, and local residents are concerned that the military
government is intensifying oppressive measures on local opposition
political activists.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 24, Mizzima News
Burmese migrant survivors of tsunami remain invisible - Marwaan Macan-Markar

His is a narrative of profound grief. He lost his 26-year-old sister and
three nephews in last December's tsunami. This tragedy, ironically,
entitles Maung Newe Win to an invitation to official events being planned
to mark the disaster.

But the 28-year-old Win fears that he will not find a place in the
commemorative ceremonies on December. 26, planned at many points along
Thailand's southern coastline that was ravaged by the powerful killer
Indian Ocean waves.

''No one from our (Burmese migrant) community who lost relatives has been
invited,'' he said on a recent afternoon in a shop selling plastic flowers
in this village, that is home to a Thai fishing community. ''I really want
to be there, because I lost my sister.

''Win requires little probing to reveal why he fears he may not be called
to the memorial service and the tsunami memorial foundation stone laying
ceremony. ''It feels like the Thai government does not want Burmese
workers, who suffered in the tsunami, mixing with the other people,'' he
says, tugging at his baseball cap.

Win's tale of exclusion is one that other Burmese migrants in this village
share. And activists championing the rights of these workers estimate that
their numbers could run into hundreds, if not thousands, because of the
high death toll among this labour force in the province of Phang-nga.

Of the 4,224 people killed by the raging seawaters in Phang-nga, over
1,320 bodies could not be identified, prompting many rights activists to
conclude that they were largely the corpses of Burmese workers.

In Ban Nam Kem, a village of small houses that line the narrow streets, 30
fishing boats carrying at least 20 migrant workers each were destroyed
when the tsunami struck.

Thailand witnessed 8,345 deaths in the tsunami, placing it fourth in a
numbing list of deaths that began with Indonesia's northern province of
Aceh, where 1,63,795 people perished, followed by Sri Lanka, where 35,399
people died, and southern India, which saw 16,389 deaths.  In all, the
Indian Ocean's devastating tsunami, which flattened the coastlines of 11
countries, killed 2,24,495 people.

But the Thai government's plans to mark the disaster reveals a prejudiced
official attitude towards a community that suffered the same as thousands
of tourists and Thais did. No mention, for instance, is made of the
Burmese victims nor is there any provision to remember them on the
government's web page, detailing the plans to commemorate the first
anniversary of the tsunami.

Bangkok also has relatives of foreign tourists and Thais killed along the
coast very much in mind when it talks about the plans to invite 14,000
people to mark the event on its official web site. ''It is expected that
around 6,000 to 7,000 Thais and foreigners will accept the invitation to
attend the ceremonies,'' the web page adds.

The discrimination has further marginalized an already excluded community
of over 30,000 Burmese migrants working in Phang-Nga province and is in
keeping with a trend that has dominated Bangkok's policies towards the
labour force since the tsunami.

''The Thai government has made no effort to compensate the Burmese
affected by the tsunami in the same way help was offered to the affected
Thai communities,'' says Sutthiphong Khongkhaphon, southern coordinator
for the Migrant Action Programme (MAP), a Thai non-governmental group that
lobbies for migrants' rights.

It is not only an upsetting pattern but an ironic one, too, he explained
during an interview. After all, the Burmese migrants, in their capacity as
construction workers, have been pivotal in building the posh hotels that
dot Thailand's southern coast.What is more, he added, the Burmese who
survived the tsunami have played a significant part in the restoration and
rebuilding of the damaged hotels and buildings, including those in the
crown jewel of Thai tourism in this area, the resort island of Phuket.

The strip along Patong beach, the most famous of Phuket's coves, is a
testimony to this. The hotels and restaurants, massage parlours and
hostess bars, are currently alive with tourists back to have a good time.
The only reminder of the tsunami comes in the form of the photographs and
DVDs of the disaster sold by street vendors.

But a return to the good life means little to the migrant workers, since
the Burmese have been subject to increased harassment after the tsunami,
states the Tsunami Action Group (TAG), a coalition of human rights and
migrants' rights group.

''Migrants continue to face isolation and discrimination in these
difficult times,'' revealed a study by TAG, that was presented this week
during a U.N. conference on the impact of the tsunami on vulnerable
groups, held in Phuket.

''Many women have lost their husbands, husbands have lost their wives and
some families have lost their children.''

These uncertain times only worsen the conditions that Burmese migrant
workers have to put up with in other times and elsewhere across Thailand
where they are employed. They form close to 80 percent of the nearly 1.2
million migrant workers in Thailand. The others come from Laos and
Cambodia.

These Burmese, who fled the economic hardship and iron grip of their
military ruled country, work in jobs ranging from the garment industry,
the agriculture sector and domestic work, in addition to fisheries and
construction.

According to available records, the economic contribution the migrant
workers make towards the Thai economy runs into millions of dollars. And
it is a result of this that Bangkok took the lead in 2004 to offer a new
and more accommodating deal to help this migrant force.

But the aftermath of the tsunami has exposed the shallowness of such
goodwill, as Ban Nam Kem reveals. It is a community by the sea that has
two stories to tell-- that of the recovery after the tsunami and the
silent suffering of the Burmese in its midst, like Win.

To ensure that the Burmese tale also gets its due on December 26, Win and
other migrants have begun giving thought to remembering their dead with a
commemoration of their own.  ''We are planning to have a remembrance
programme in the village,'' he says.

____________________________________

November 23, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese civil servants kept within barbed wires at new capital

Burmese civil servants who were transferred from Rangoon to the new
capital at Kyappyay region near Pyinmana in central Burma, have been
surrounded with barbed wires and guarded by armed soldiers, it has
emerged.

The drastic action of Burma's military junta, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) came after some home-sick civil servants fled
from the area which is said to be infested with malaria carrying
mosquitoes. The civil servants are carrying out their official duties in
an area which looks more like a police-controlled hard labour camp
(gulag), rather than a site designated as the new capital of Burma, a
civil servant from Hotel and Tourism Ministry who doesn’t want to be
named, told DVB.

Many civil servants who fled Kyappyay have returned to Rangoon and many
more are ordered to go there. Those who refuse to obey the order are
threatened with prosecutions under the Emergency Provision Act - 5J for
treason and insubordination.

“Some people from the Interior Ministry returned with malaria, I was told.
According to him, water is also scarce,” a woman civil servant told DVB.
“Women are among the third and fourth batches. There were none in the
first and second batches. They are in the list of those who have to go
there. They only know that they will have to go, but they do not know the
exact date. They are in trouble. I have a small child who is attending a
kindergarten. The younger girl is only two months old.”

Pregnant women, mothers with young babies and female civil servants with
poor health are said to be refusing to go. Relocated civil servants were
also forced to take part in a bizarre action similar to that of a warding
off evil ceremony, the woman added.

“When they reached Pyinmana, at 6 o’clock and 37 minute, all the civil
servants have to shout, ‘We have gone! We have gone!’ I don’t know why. I
wonder of they are warding off evil.”

____________________________________

November 26, Narinjara News
Bangladeshi army destroys three camps of Arakanese guerrillas on border

The Bangladeshi army destroyed three Arakanese guerrillas camps in a
special operation on the Bangladesh-Burma border on November 24, said
several newspaper's reports yesterday.

According to sources, 7 riffles, different parts of firearms and some
documents from the camps were seized by the Bangladeshi army. However,
there were not any exchanges of fire between the Bangladeshi army and
Arakan guerrillas.

The Bangladeshi army launched the operation with 900 troops on November 8
to crack down the Arakanese guerrilla groups that are illegally residing
in Bangladeshi territory.

The destroyed camps were located near the upper reaches of the Sangu River
close to Burma,183 kilometers south of the Bandaban District town in
Bangladesh.

According to the Daily Star report on 25 November, three Arakanese rebels
groups are active in deep forests along the border and are from the
Democratic Party of Arakan (DPA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Arakan
Liberation Party.

Arakanese guerrilla groups used to set up temporary tents for gathering
heavy arms and explosives there, the report said.

However, the Arakanese guerrilla groups have not gathered modern arms for
their army in the border area since the Arakan army commander, General
Khaing Raza, and other six leaders were assassinated in cold blood by the
Indian army on Andaman Island of India in 1998, local sources said.

The Bangladeshi army claimed that there is no possibility of the existence
of any foreign guerrilla groups in Bangladesh after the frequent
operations of the security forces, said a newspaper report.

According to sources, the operation of the Bangladeshi army on the
Burma-Bangladesh border will only last 20 days and will end next week.

____________________________________
DRUGS

November 27, Bangkok Post
Narco Politics – Maxmilian Wechsler

Suspects arrested with raw opium are seen here at a police station in
Laiza, the headquarters of the Kachin Independence Organisation, in May
this year.

Surveys and reports published by concerned governments and the United
Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have concluded that the
production of illicit opium in Bur ma has steadily declined for the past
five years.

But what should be good news is mired in controversy because although
opium production may be falling, seizures of its derivative, heroin, have
been climbing sharply. And even one of the region's most important and
most optimistic fighters against drugs warns that the drug mafias are
finding other ways to make their black profits.

According to statistics published by the government of Burma, authorities
seized 158.9kg of heroin in 2000, 96.7kg in 2001, 333.8kg in 2002,
568.08kg in 2003 and 973.5kg in 2004. The total amount for 2005, including
the 496kg seized so far, should be high as well.

According to the Myanmar Opium Survey 2004, published by the UNODC, the
poppy planting area in Burma declined by 29% from 2003, with a fall of 28%
for cultivation in the Shan State, where 90% of nationwide planting took
place.

The 2005 survey released early this month showed a further decline by 26%
in poppy growing i n Burma compared with the same period in 2004, with the
figure down 25% in the Shan State, which is the source of 94% of Burmese
opium.

These are quite interesting figures that contrast with an "impressive"
592kg seizure of heroin in the Mon State on July 9, 2004, described by
Burmese authorities as the biggest-ever capture in the country's history.
This was almost matched by a 496kg seizure in the eastern Shan State on
Sept 10, 2005.

A Thai anti-narcotics officer said it was hard to estimate the amount of
heroin that is actually smuggled out of Burma each year, but that the
volume of heroin that reached markets abroad was certainly higher than
what the Burmese manage to seize annually.

Heroin is, however, only part of an ugly story. The ever-increasing
production of synthetic drugs or amphetamine-type stimulants (AT S) in
Burma worries many Asian anti-drug forces, especially those in Thailand.
Millions of so-called yaa baa (crazy drug) pills are smuggled across the
border every year.

Thailand's concern is shared by Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who is the UNODC
representative in Burma.

"As for the ATS, I am not very optimistic. The Wa are getting 'clean' of
opium but not of synthetic drugs. The ATS is the alternative for criminals
but not for farmers. The problem will continue if we can't [also] address
the issue of curbing the demand and production of ATS," he told
Perspective. (See full interview in the sidebar.)

Not everyone has access to the raw intelligence gathered by Mr Lemahieu's
team, so ordinary people who rely on mass media will be confused when they
hear that opium production is going down, then the next day they hear of
another gigantic heroin bust.

"The obvious answer from the defending side would be the 'logical' one,
that the seizures are big because the polic e are doing a better job,"
said Shan-born Khuensai Jaiyen, who is director of the Shan Herald Agency
for News and author of a book titled Show Business - Rangoon's 'War on
Drugs' in Shan State, which is an investigative report of the ongoing drug
issues in the state.

"People from every walk of life have the right to ask questions about the
status of narcotic business in Burma because many of them, and governments
around the world, have to bear the consequences," said Mr Khuensai, who
followed up with some questions of his own:

"Is it true that the cultivation of opium will stop in the Wa State? What
is the situation in Kachin, Chin and Kayah states and in the Sagaing
Division? What is the extent of opium production in [ethnic minority]
Pa-O, Palaung, Lahu areas and other places inside the Shan State? Has the
planting stopped in the Kokang and Mongla special regions? Why is the
production of synthetic drugs going up? And how will the former opium
farmers survive?"

PROGRESS COULD BE UNDONE

This concern was also expressed by the executive director of the UNODC,
Antonio Mario Costa, who in a statement issued this month welcomed the
decline in opium cultivation but warned that the rapid progress made in
eradicating poppy fields seen in the past decade could be undone if the
growing problem of poverty and under-nourishment among farmers is not
addressed. "Some of the poorest are being affected by loss of income from
drugs as cultivation declines," he said.

These remarks can be seen as "warning bells" from the UNODC chief who -
like most experts - doesn't expect the impressive looking 'decline' in
opium cultivation to be something that will continue indefinitely, said Mr
Khuensai.

He and some other experts doubt whether the statistics published in the
Myanmar Opium Survey 2005, accompanied by colourful charts and tables, are
accurate - to put it mildly - as it originates in investigations conduc
ted by the government-controlled Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control.
The agency's name and emblem appear on the cover of the Myanmar Opium
Survey 2005 close to those of the UNODC.

This raises many questions over the credibility of the findings, as all
governments want to protect their interests and report only good news.
"The report is too good to be true," Mr Khuensai said.

The Thai anti-narcotics officer also raised some doubts: "Why are certain
Wa individuals of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) always named as the main
culprits while other suspects are omitted? And what is the role of rebel
groups such as the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) in the drug business?" he
asked.

About this sensitive subject, the US Department of State (USDS) wrote in
its report of March, 2005: "A growing amount of methamphetamine is
reportedly produced in labs co-located with heroin refineries in areas
controlled by the UWSA, the ethnic Chinese Kokang and the SSA-S. Heroin
and methamphetamines produced by these groups are trafficked overland."

The SSA-S commander Colonel Yawd Serk always vehemently denies any
involvement in drug-related business and has stressed in a number of
interviews and statements that his group is opposed to drugs and, in fact,
fights against them on all fronts.

The USDS said in the same report: "Burma is the world's second largest
producer of illicit opium, but produces only a small fraction of the opium
now produced in Afghanistan." But it also referred to Burma as "a primary
source of ATS produced in Asia."

CULTIVATION 'IN FULL SWING'

While the Wa leadership claims that there has been no opium poppy planting
for the 2005-2006 season, there have been reports that poppy cultivation
is still in full swing near to the Thai border, especially in Mongton
township.

Rumours of a renewed increase in the cultivation of opium in the Kachin
State were recognised and carefully noted by the UN ODC in the Myanmar
Opium Survey 2005.

"A rapid assessment conducted in a randomly selected area in Kachin State
showed that opium poppy cultivation in this state remains a concern," the
report says. One drug expert said that as the Wa leadership pressured
their farmers to give up opium cultivation, the gangs were transferring to
other places, with the Kachin State a principal target. He also predicted
that the cultivation would increase.

These concerns aren't shared by Colonel James Lum Dau, Deputy Chief of
Foreign Affairs of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO), who made a
ceasefire with the Burmese government in 1994.

Under the agreement, the KIO administrates approximately 30% of the Kachin
State.

"The area where the opium is grown now is only a fraction of what it was
not so long ago," claimed the colonel.

"The KIO military and police have been suppressing the drug trade
vigorously for many years and continue to do so. We are destroying opium
farms. We are arresting drug dealers and putting them in the jail and we
are apprehending addicts and sending them for rehabilitation. We are now
short of medicine that can stop the habit."

He also disclosed that the KIO was cooperating with Burma's governing
State Peace and Development Council in drug suppression in a few places
and working by itself in others.

According to Col James, the best way to eliminate the drug problem - among
many other measures - is to have law and order in the country. This, he
believes, will be achieved by the new constitution currently being drafted
by the government. And secondly, by having new roads and infrastructure,
so farmers can easily transport their legitimate products to markets to
sell.

Steve Vickers, who is the president and CEO of International Risk and a
former head of the Royal Hong Kong Police's Criminal Intelligence Bureau
said:

"There is no doubt that commendable efforts have been made by the UNODC
and by other international organisations and law enforcement bodies;
indeed these organisations have had some measure of success - this
frequently under difficult circumstances. However, the hard fact remains
that Burma is a growing not declining problem as it relates to the
narcotics trade.

"The real danger of overly optimistic assessments as to progress (if
indeed they are overly optimistic), is that foreign policy decisions,
currently being made by the US and the other major powers as to the future
of Burma, will not adequately factor in the spectre of the country
evolving further into a fully fledged narco-state, one very similar to
that which prevailed under the Taliban in Afghanistan but without the same
level of control.

"Future Burmese regimes may well buckle, withdraw further, or deflate to
some extent, under foreign pressure, and may ultimately degenerate or
evolve into significantly worse yet weaker forms than the current,
unsavoury regime.

"Decision s as to the future must take into consideration the danger of a
completely fragmented Burma - one which no party, including the National
League for Democracy, could hold together.

"A cold and impartial evaluation of the actual narcotics situation is
therefore required - one completely devoid of all internal organisational
politics - if wider strategic mistakes are to be avoided."

____________________________________

November 24, Japan Times
Myanmar ranks high on Bush's radar – Harvey Stockwin

One significant though insufficiently noticed aspect of U.S. President
George W. Bush's weeklong visit to Asia was his consistent effort to focus
attention on Myanmar, and to pressure Asian allies, notably Japan, to be
more forthright in their criticisms of the military junta's shortcomings.

In the keynote speech for his Asian tour, in Kyoto on Nov. 16, it went
largely unreported that Bush took the opportunity to place the Myanmarese
tragedy more clearly on the international agenda in one passionate
paragraph:

"We see that lack of freedom in Myanmar -- a nation that should be one of
the most prosperous and successful in Asia but is instead one of the
region's poorest. Fifteen years ago, the Myanmarese people cast their
ballots -- and they chose democracy. The government responded by jailing
the leader of the prodemocracy majority. The result is that a country rich
in human talent and natural resources is a place where millions struggle
simply to stay alive.

"Abuses by the Myanmarese military are widespread, and include rape, and
torture, and execution, and forced relocation. Forced labor, trafficking
in persons, and use of child soldiers, and religious discrimination are
all too common. The people of Myanmar live in the darkness of tyranny --
but the light of freedom shines in their hearts. They want their liberty
-- and one day, they will have it."

This was no isolated outburst. At roughly the same time as Bush spoke in
Kyoto, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at an APEC foreign
ministers meeting in Pusan, South Korea, was describing the Myanmarese
military junta as "one of the worst regimes in the world. . . . I don't
think we get the kind of international condemnation of what's going on in
Myanmar that we really need."

Rice expressed understanding of those nations that felt the need to engage
Myanmar, but she hoped that such engagement "also takes the form of being
serious about the really quite appalling human-rights situation in
Myanmar. And not just for prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We are talking about systematic efforts to silence any critics of the
regime and to put human rights organizations completely out of business.
Myanmar is a very bad case. . . . too often it kind of falls off the radar
screen of people who don't concern themselves every day with human rights
and democracy issues."

Bush returned to his Myanmarese theme when he met Malaysian Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi in Pusan on Nov. 17, and when, together with Rice, he met
the seven ASEAN heads of government attending the APEC summit the next
day. Evidently Bush stressed Myanmar's failure to implement promised
reforms, while one ASEAN reaction was to reiterate their continuing
commitment to engagement with Myanmar.

The Bush-Rice duet on Myanmar is significant for several reasons:

* First, it suggests that the Myanmarese tragedy is at least firmly fixed
on the radar screens of at least the uppermost levels of the Bush
administration. On Oct. 31, Bush gave nearly an hour of his time to Ms.
Charm Tong, a Myanmarese activist who lives in Thailand, and who is
particularly concerned with the ways in which the Myanmarese military have
used rape systematically as a weapon of war, especially among her own Shan
people and Myanmar's other persecuted ethnic minorities. "The military
wants our people to feel shamed and demoralized," she told Bush, "when, in
fact, it is the troops who should be ashamed."

* Second, the list of Myanmarese injustices contained in Bush's Kyoto
speech strongly suggest that if not Bush himself, then certainly whoever
wrote the speech had carefully read the report issued Sept. 20,
commissioned by former Czech President Vaclav Havel and South African
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, detailing the ways in which Myanmar
today represents a threat to the region's peace and calling upon the U.N.
Security Council to intervene.

One devastating argument deployed by that report was to show that the
Security Council had intervened in seven nations in the last decade over
threats to the peace -- that the various conditions that brought about
those interventions aree all present, and indeed much worse, in the case
of Myanmar.

Clearly, the Bush-Rice duet suggests that the Havel-Tutu report is having
an impact on U.S. foreign policy and that, despite Washington's many
preoccupations, Myanmar is belatedly becoming one of the administration's
priority concerns.

* Third, Americans have indicated that they want Myanmar placed on the
Security Council agenda but have refrained from moving overtly on this
while U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan conducts a high-level U.N. review
of Myanmar and tries to arrange a visit there to see the top generals and
Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest. Annan's two special envoys to
Myanmar have both been denied visas to visit Myanmar for the last two
years.

That Annan can persuade the generals to let him see Suu Kyi is doubtful.
Their refusal should clear the way for a Security Council debate.

* Fourth, the Bush administration is restrained by its uncertainty of
securing the nine of 15 votes required to place an item on the Security
Council agenda. It is thought to be only sure of eight.

Amazingly, numerous reports from the United Nations in New York have
indicated that assumed close allies of the U.S., Japan and the
Philippines, would both vote with China and Russia in opposing any U.S.
resolution to place Myanmar on the Security Council agenda.

How two democracies could vote with the authoritarian states to prevent
anything being done about Myanmar is unconscionable. The joint
Koizumi-Bush press conference in Kyoto was remarkable for the insistent
way in which Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi emphasized the
desirability of an ever closer U.S.-Japan alliance as a bedrock of
international relations. Given his stress on Myanmar, Bush presumably
insisted to Koizumi in private where, relative to Myanmar, such closeness
must lead.

Harvey Stockwin has covered Asia for 50 years.

____________________________________

November 28, Agence France Presse
UN disappointed after Myanmar extends Aung San Suu Kyi's detention

The UN's special envoy for Myanmar, Razali Ismail, said Monday the world
body was disappointed with Myanmar after it extended pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest by six months.

"The UN is disappointed. So will be the international community. All the
efforts of the UN will have appeared to be unsuccessful," Razali said.

"And so would be the appeal of the foreign ministers from the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the immediate release (of Aung San
Suu Kyi) when they met last year in the presence of Myanmar."

Officials confirmed Monday that Myanmar's junta had extended by six months
the house arrest order for the Nobel peace laureate, who has been confined
for 10 of the past 16 years.

The decision came as the generals prepared for the resumption of talks
next week on a constitution that would cement their place in national
politics.

Razali said the UN was convinced that democratic changes could only come
about in Myanmar by the participation of all parties and individuals
including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).

"The UN will call again for the release of all political detainees
including Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.

The UN envoy said it was incumbent on regional leaders meeting at the
ASEAN summit in Malaysia next month to remind Myanmar of its commitment to
a "roadmap" for democracy.

"The UN will once again appeal to ASEAN leaders at the summit in Kuala
Lumpur to press for Aung San Suu Kyi's release," he added.

____________________________________
OPINION

November 28, South China Morning Post
Change in Myanmar will take time, but is inevitable

Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was probably the least
surprised when the military government told her yesterday she would remain
under house arrest for at least another year. She has, after all, been
confined to her Yangon home since May 30, 2003, and spent more than 10 of
the past 16 years either there or in prison.

With the ruling generals as much in charge as when they seized power in
1962 - and equally as unwilling to give it up - there was little hope Ms
Suu Kyi would be freed anytime soon. Internal dissent is simply not
tolerated and international pressure is vastly weakened by the
friendliness of neighbouring countries.

That does not mean the cause of the world's best-known political prisoner
is lost, but while the generals remain firmly in control, change will come
on their terms and at a timetable to which they agree.

Such was the situation for South Africa's Nelson Mandela, who spent 27
years behind bars, East Timor's Xanana Gusmao, jailed by Indonesia for six
years, and countless other freedom fighters of eras past. Their struggles
were long and often grim, but spirit and the righteousness of their cause
eventually won through.

Historical precedence is no justification for Myanmar's brutal regime,
however. The excesses of its soldiers and police are well documented -
torture, rape and forced labour abound. Ms Suu Kyi is only the best-known
of more than 1,000 political prisoners. Little attention is being paid,
meanwhile, to other problems in the country: some of the world's worst
rates of HIV/Aids and malaria, and the smuggling of great quantities of
opium onto international markets.

To appease critics, the generals have bought time with a seven-stage "road
map for democracy", the first step of which nears its conclusion next
Monday when the final session of a national convention to draw up a new
constitution is held. Ms Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy
party are not participating, despite their overwhelming, but disallowed,
general election win in 1990. That alone makes the process a sham.

Sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union have had no
effect on Myanmar, economically wedded to strategic rivals China and
India. The "constructive engagement" approach of fellow members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations is making uncertain progress. Even
the demands of top-level human rights activists Desmond Tutu and Vaclav
Havel that the United Nations' Security Council take up the cause are not
guaranteed to succeed.

This does not amount to a reason for despair; pressure is slowly building
on the military. The longer it holds Ms Suu Kyi, the more her plight and
cause will gain attention and momentum. Eventually, the generals will have
no choice but to enter a proper dialogue with the people they so
ruthlessly rule.

____________________________________

November 26, Bangkok Post

>From Rangoon to Pyinmana


Much speculation has been generated by outsiders on the shift of Myanmar's
(Burma) capital from Rangoon to Pyinmana. It has been attributed to
soothsayers, a fear of US invasion, general paranoia, an atavistic return
to the Burmese monarchy and plain stupidity. When it comes to Burma, it
seems the vaunted free presses of the world have uncharacteristically
stooped to being subtly disingenuous, blatantly biased, or flippantly
superficial. Perhaps it is about time the English-reading public is given
a perspective that is not simply a dissident agenda or a regurgitation of
the US State Department's non-policy on Burma, which, like its non-policy
on Cuba, has become rather personal, the Bangkok Post reports.

This recent shift of the capital to Pyinmana on the southern edge of the
Dry Zone is not surprising at all.

Indeed, back in 1993, I said as much in an article ( I will not be
surprised if the capital of Burma eventually returns to the dry zone.'')
The reasons for moving the capital to the interior, the Dry Zone of Upper
Burma are historical, cultural and strategic. It has been, for over 2,000
years, the heartland of the country. This is where the country's
Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and urban cultures were located.

It is where the capital of the first classical state'' of Burma, Pagan,
and where all subsequent capitals of its dynasties (except one) have been
centred.

It is the heart of the country's best literary and artistic traditions,
where their present custodians live, and have lived for generations. It
was the nucleus of the most extensively irrigated region of the country
whose wet-rice production sustained the state and the bulk of its
population, administration, culture and religion for centuries. And it is
where nearly all of the Buddha-prophesied cities and the most sacred
temples holding the majority of the most sacred relics of the Buddha and
Buddhism are located.

The Dry Zone of Upper Burma, in other words, is the ancestral home of the
Burmese people, and it is very much part of their psyche.

In contrast, although the present capital was a small port town known
during ancient times as Dagon, Rangoon itself was a colonial city (in
name, as well as function), it looks like one and was designed primarily
to serve Britain's colonial export economy.

It was imposed as capital by and for outside economic and political
interests. It had no autochthonous religious, historical, or cultural
basis for being anointed the centre of Burma's culture, and has been a
constant reminder of the country's colonial experience. Fittingly, it has
lasted only 57 years.

In one respect, then, this is a return to Burma's historical, religious,
cultural (and therefore, psychological) roots, which had been rudely
interrupted by colonial Britain and is only now correcting itself.

But it also reveals current concerns, a strategic move, as the Government
spokesperson said, with close and easy access to all the important towns,
cities and sub-regions of the Dry Zone. It has direct access to the passes
in the Shan hills on the east, to those in the Arakan Yomas at Prome on
the west (thence to Arakan and the Bay of Bengal), while Pyinmana itself
sits on the main highway to Mandalay, a most important hub, currently and
historically.

The Dry Zone is also much closer to all the most important mineral
deposits and other natural resources whose future development will be
increasing, not decreasing. In short, it is mainly for cultural and
historical reasons, but also for more current strategic ones, that the
colonial capital of Rangoon is being dumped. It has nothing to do with
soothsayers, paranoia, or fear of US attack. It's not about the US or the
international community''! Believe it or not, most nations in the world
make internal decisions that have absolutely nothing to do with us,
uncomfortable as that may be to our sensitive narcissism.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

November 25, Amnesty International
Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi must be released

The Burmese authorities must not extend the house arrest of Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi beyond the expiry of the current detention order this Sunday,
Amnesty International said today.

Following media reports that the authorities may be planning to extend Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest for another year, Amnesty International
called for her immediate and unconditional release, along with other
political leaders imprisoned for their peaceful political activities.

"The detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political leaders
wrongfully imprisoned in Myanmar is a travesty of justice," said Catherine
Baber, Deputy Asia Director at Amnesty International. "The Burmese
authorities should take this opportunity to release all peaceful critics,
and advance measures to allow political dialogue to take place without
fear of recrimination."

The authorities in Myanmar are currently preparing to reconvene the
National Convention to draft a constitution on 5 December 2005. They plan
to adopt provisions on legislative powers and sharing administrative and
judicial powers. The authorities have reportedly hinted in the past that
they may release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at an unspecified date when the
National Convention is finished.

“It is unacceptable that authorities are holding individuals hostage to
the political process and are grossly abusing judicial procedures to do
so. The continued detention of legitimate delegates to the National
Convention removes government critics from the important process of
drafting provisions for the country’s political future. It weakens the
credibility of both this process and its outcome and is a significant
obstacle to resolving Myanmar’s longstanding human rights crisis,“ said
Catherine Baber

"Instead of keeping key political figures under lock and key, the
authorities should be advancing measures to allow peaceful political
dialogue without fear of recrimination. They must release all prisoners of
conscience, and repeal laws and practises which have for too long been
used to penalize peaceful dissent."

Background
Opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is currently under house arrest and
her detention order expires on Sunday 27 November. She has been detained
for more than ten of the last sixteen years. She has never been charged or
tried. Arrests of political leaders have increased in the last year, and
at least five MPs were given lengthy prison terms, including U Khun Htun
Oo and U Kyaw Min. Other political leaders are also serving lengthy prison
sentences solely for their peaceful opposition to the authorities. MPs Dr
Than Nyein, 67, Daw May Win Myint, 55, and U Shwe Ohn, 82, are amongst
those being held without charge or trial.