BurmaNet News, December 17-19, 2005

[Editor]

December 17-19, 2005 Issue # 2867

"This is only a first step, and the U.N. Security Council must show that
it is serious about follow up
The U.N. Security Council action could
represent a new dawn for change in Burma."
- Vaclav Havel in a statement released December 16, 2005, as quoted in LA
Times

INSIDE BURMA
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Myanmar's generals plan their next move
Xinhua: Myanmar needs to take steps to face media challenges: minister
Xinhua: Myanmar to step up combating wildlife trade, crimes
DVB: Shan leader Htun Oo allowed to meet wife, lawyer
DVB: Interview with NLD on ASEAN & UNSC’s latest actions on Burma

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Karen group campaigns against Hat Gyi Dam
Irrawaddy: Legal counseling clinic opened for migrant workers

ASEAN
AFP: Myanmar FM ready to welcome ASEAN envoy as 'guest': report

REGIONAL
Indo-Asian News Service: Indian MPs to campaign for Suu Kyi's release
Bangkok Post: Call for wave alerts in Burmese

INTERNATIONAL
LA Times: Myanmar back on U.N. agenda
Financial Times: Burma heading for humanitarian crisis, says UN

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 19, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Myanmar's generals plan their next move

Bangkok: Over the past year Myanmar's (Burma's) generals have shown little
inclination to hasten political reform and free detained opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi amid increased international pressure, even from the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"Political change in Burma is so slow it's like glue going up a hill," the
Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently remarked.

But there are significant changes developing behind the junta's apparent
inflexibility.

Myanmar's military junta has begun to prepare for a major transfer of
power from the current top generals to the next generation of military
leaders, while moving the seat of government into the hills some 400
kilometres north of Yangon (Rangoon).

The massive shake-up in the army and government is expected to include the
country's top military ruler General Than Shwe standing down.

The planned changes are intended to prepare the army for the next phase in
the country's move towards political reform and the introduction of a
civilian administration, after the National Convention, which reconvened
early December, finishes drawing up the principles of the new
constitution.

The country's top general is reportedly planning to give up at least one
of the three key posts he holds - chairman of the junta, supreme commander
of the army and defence minister.

"We expect Than Shwe to relinquish his position as defence minister in the
forthcoming reshuffle," said a senior Southeast Asian diplomat who has
regular contact with the Burmese regime.

There are increasing doubts about Than Shwe's health, which may have
prompted the senior general to take a back seat for the time being.

"Even if Than Shwe officially retires he will not give up his power.
Instead he'll remain the grey eminence behind the throne, along the lines
of the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in the years before his death," said
independent Burmese analyst Win Min, based in Chiang Mai.

General Thura Shwe Mann is tipped to replace General Maung Aye as the
army's commander-in-chief, according to many diplomats in Yangon.

"This is the new generation of military leaders who are being readied to
take over power," according to a senior Indian diplomat who deals with
Yangon. But, he warns, this group of generals lack the manners and
intelligence of their superiors.

"These men are uncouth, uneducated and only know how to bark orders," said
the Indian diplomat.

In the meantime, the regime insists it's following its roadmap to
democracy, announced by the former prime minister Khin Nyunt in August
2003. The first phase piggybacks on the National Convention - which has
been meeting intermittently for more than a decade, drawing up the
guidelines for the new constitution.

"The National Convention will have drawn up a new constitution in the near
future and it will be put to a referendum sometime in 2006," said a senior
Chinese diplomat. New elections are likely before the end of the following
year, sources say.

Most analysts and diplomats in Yangon believe the pro-democracy parties -
especially the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by the detained
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Shan Nationalities League for
Democracy (SNLD) which won almost all the seats in the 1990 elections -
would not be allowed to contest the elections.

"The Chinese have been advising the junta to adopt Pakistan's General
Musharaff's political model," according to a senior Asian diplomat in
Yangon. "This would mean the main political parties would be banned from
the election because they would threaten the country's stability."

Myanmar's military leaders are apprehensive about any change for fear that
it may loosen their grip on power.

As part of their grand strategy to centralize the government the junta
decided to abandon Yangon, the capital since 1948, for Pyinmana. A
100-kilometre square complex is being built and even though it is far from
complete, thousands of civil servants have been forced to move there since
the beginning of November.

"The main reason to move the capital is to avoid the situation that took
place in 1988," said a political activist in Yangon, U Win Naing,
referring to the months of mass demonstrations that brought an end to the
former regime of Ne Win and led to the military coup that brought this
group of generals to power.

In the meantime, the opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner, Aung
San Suu Kyi, who recently had her house arrest extended for a further six
months, seems certain to remain in detention for the foreseeable future.

"She is unlikely to be released before the referendum on the new
constitution takes place, and is more likely to remain locked up until
after any future elections," said a western diplomat in Yangon who is
closely associated with the national reconciliation process.

____________________________________

December 18, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar needs to take steps to face media challenges: minister

Yangon: Myanmar Information Minister Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan has
stressed the need to take steps to face media challenges in the wake of
penetration by some big nations using information and communications
technology (ICT) and multi-media.

"Big nations with advancement in ICT are penetrating small nations.
Myanmar is also witnessing the penetration. They are jeopardizing peace
and stability in the nation with the use of ICT and multi-media," Kyaw
Hsan charged at a meeting of the Myanmar Printers and Publishers
Association on Saturday, state-operated newspaper the New Light of Myanmar
reported Sunday.

He also emphasized systematic measures for the development of literary and
printing world, warning that there have been destructive acts in the
sector and calling for stamping out these hideous acts.

"Safeguarding of cultural heritage and national character is of utmost
importance and patriotism will lose in the absence of culture," he also
warned.

He urged for indispensable cooperation between the press scrutiny and
registration department and literary circle to serve the national interest
and their own.

Myanmar has readjusted its press scrutiny and registration policy by
lifting some restrictions previously imposed upon news writing by journals
and magazines with the aim of enhancing the development of press society.

According to the ministry, which took over the duties of the press
scrutiny and registration from the Ministry of Home Affairs in February
this year, the publication and distribution of journals and magazines are
being granted as long as they conform to the prescribed policy.

According to official figures, there were 144 journals and 234 monthly
magazines in circulation in Myanmar as of last year, up from 6 and 35 in
1988 respectively when the present government assumed office. The
authorities had granted publication of over 30 new journals and magazines
as of August this year after the new press policy was introduced.

Meanwhile, according to other official statistics, there were a total of
over 5,000 printing houses and 759 publishers in Myanmar as of last year.

____________________________________

December 19, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to step up combating wildlife trade, crimes

Yangon: Myanmar wildlife police and forest rangers will step up combating
wildlife trade and crimes in a vast tiger reserve in the country's
northern Kachin State in the wake of tiger extinction threat, a local
weekly reported Monday.

The Hukuang Tiger Reserve, established in 2004, is claimed as the world's
largest covering about 22,000 square km where an estimated 25,000 people
also live.

To help carry out the move, special training programs have been introduced
jointly by the Myanmar forest department and the New York-based Wildlife
Conservation Society, the Myanmar Times said.

The authorities have called for creating a balance between the needs of
local communities and the wildlife, which constitutes one of the major
challenges for them.

Tigers are facing extinction all over the world due mainly to the
international trade in body parts destined for the Asian traditional
medicine market, wildlife biologists said.

There remains an estimated 150 live Bengal tigers in the Myanmar tiger
reserve, according to the forest department.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities have warned traditional medicine
practitioners in the country to avoid using tiger bones in producing their
medicinal products to help conserve endangered animal species.

As the tiger has been prescribed as "completely protected" under the
Protection of Wildlife and Conservation of Natural Areas Law since 1994,
the Forestry Department urged the practitioners to keep away from such
practice or tigers would vanish in the country.

____________________________________

December 16, Democratic Voice of Burma
Shan leader Htun Oo allowed to meet wife, lawyer

The chairman of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) Khun Htun
Oo, who is being detained in remote northern Burma’s Puta-O Prison, was
permitted to meet his family members and his lawyer for 30 minutes.

On 10 December, Htun Oo, who was sentenced to 93 years in prison for
‘discrediting’ the country’s military government, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) and 'criticizing' the junta’s
constitution-drafting ‘National Convention’, was allowed to see his family
members and lawyer Aung Thein, who said he had obtained a power of
attorney to appeal the case.

Aung Thein said the permission did not come easily as they had to wait for
about 7 days and apply to different levels of authorities before it was
granted.

“We arrived in Putao by air on 4 December. The following day, we proceeded
to Puta-O Prison to apply for a family visit and a meeting to obtain the
power of attorney from Khun Htun Oo. We were able to send in a parcel (of
food and medicines etc) on that day, however, we were told that they need
to apply to the director-general of the Corrections Department in Rangoon
for the family visit and the power of attorney,” Aung Thein told DVB. “We
waited until 8 December but there was no news. As a lawyer, I could not
stay that long, so I prepared two copies of affidavit as a lawyer,
together with Khun Htun Oo's wife Daw Wai Wai Lwin, and took an oath
before the court in Puta-O. The judge reported the matter to the district
authorities on 9 December, and around noon or 1300 (local time) on the
same day, we were informed that the application for a family visit and the
meeting to obtain the power of attorney had been approved.”

On 10 December, the lawyer and the wife were allowed to meet Htun Oo
separately, and Aung Thein explains about how he obtained the power of
attorney and the health situation of Htun Oo.

“With regard to his health situation, he said he suffered when he was
first moved to Puta-O Prison. I understand he has high blood sugar levels
and other diseases,” said Aung Thein. “But, he seemed to be fit when I met
him. What is troubling, however, is the inclement weather in Puta-O. It's
quite cold in the winter, very hot in the summer, and lots of rain during
monsoon. Personally, I feel that he, as a 65-year-old man, will not be
able to withstand these weather conditions for long.”

Aung Thein also explained that when Htun Oo was first arrested, he asked
for a meeting with his family members and the right to hire a lawyer, but
was told that the lawyer he asked for was away on a trip, or in a
hospital, or could not be located. The authorities gave him different
reasons for not allowing him to hire the lawyer of his choice. “But, since
he was charged under high treason, the state appointed a lawyer for him
and he had to go along with the state-appointed lawyer,” Aung Thein said.

Htun Oo also insisted that he was not guilty of the charges against him,
as the authorities might dislike him and suspect him of something but
there was no reason for him to be seditious or to be discrediting the
government. “As a chairman of a political party, he said, he had worked
well with the government for 14 to 15 years without any trouble. He said
he was quite surprised that he had been accused of committing such
crimes,” Aung Thein recounted his meeting with Htun Oo.

Htun Oo wanted his people to continue working in the party even though he
was in prison because his political party, the SNLD, was a legally
registered.

Altogether 10 Shan leaders, including Htun Oo, were arrested on 9 February
and were imprisoned for over 100 years on 3 May. They were then
transferred to remote prisons. Family members and their lawyers have
frantically been trying to reach them in order to appeal their cases on
time.

According to information in hand, Htun Oo is serving 93 years in Putao
Prison and SNLD Secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin, 85 years in Kale Prison and
Lawyer Aung Thein has been able to meet them.

Gen Hso Ten, patron of the Shan State Army – North (SSA-N) is serving 106
years in Khamtee Prison (in NW Burma near India) and he was allowed to
meet another lawyer on 13 December. Sai Hla Aung who is serving 75 years
in Kyaukpyu Prison (Burma’s western Arakan State near Bangladesh) has also
been permitted to meet a lawyer.

But, the situation remains unclear for Myint Than from the Shan New
Generation group who is serving 75 years in Sandoway Prison, and for Ba
Thin, Sai Nyi Moe, Sai Myo Win Tun, and Sa Tha Oo, all of whom are serving
time at Buthidaung (Arakan State), Pakokku (central Burma), and other
prisons, as well as Veteran Shan leader U Shwe Ohn who is under house
arrest in Shan State capital Taunggyi.

____________________________________

December 16, Democratic Voice of Burma
Interview with NLD on ASEAN & UNSC’s latest actions on Burma

Interview with Burma’s main opposition party, National League for
Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win in connection with the planned visit to
Burma by the Malaysian foreign minister and the Burma briefing at the UN
Security Council.

DVB: What if the Malaysian foreign minister only met SPDC military
government officials and was not given the opportunity to meet Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, and the ethnic political
parties during his visit to Burma, how would you view the visit?

Nyan Win: If that were the situation then we would view it as a visit that
failed.

DVB: How does the NLD feel about the visit of the Malaysian foreign
minister and his delegation and about ASEAN's serious involvement in
Burma?

Nyan Win: Our belief... our thinking is that there are a host of reasons
for ASEAN to be deeply involved in Burma's affairs. This is because
affairs concerning Burma have a direct or indirect impact on neighbouring
countries, and therefore, these countries want to see stability and
democracy in Burma. That is why we are convinced that ASEAN is serious
about its involvement in Burma.

DVB: Have the staff members of the Malaysian embassy changed their posture
or have they come to meet the NLD and ethnic political parties since after
the recent ASEAN meeting?

Nyan Win: We have not seen that happening yet.

DVB: I see. Some are saying that the planned visit to Burma by the
Malaysian foreign minister and the Burma briefing at the UN Security
Council are happening at the same time and that it was the result of ASEAN
trying to lessen the impact of the UN Security Council action. How do you
respond to that?

Nyan Win: No, we do not see it that way. What is happening in the UN
Security Council - like the briefing today - is the result of what has
been going on for months. At the same time, we have also been seeing a
change in the comments and behaviour towards Burma by Malaysia and other
ASEAN countries. We do not believe that they are trying to undermine what
is going on at the UN Security Council.

DVB: If that is true, would you say ASEAN is synchronizing the
intensification of pressure with the ongoing process at the UN Security
Council?

Nyan Win: I do not see them as intensifying the pressure but only as
strengthening the efforts being undertaken through the UN Security Council
process.

DVB: Some are also criticizing or commenting that the forces inside the
country, including the NLD and the ethnic political parties, should come
up with a political strategy while the United Nations and ASEAN are
exerting pressure or while the pressure by the international community is
on the rise. How would the NLD respond to those comments or criticisms?

Nyan Win: We agree with that assessment. But, if you ask me what we are
doing now, I will have to say that under the prevailing circumstances
here, we cannot reveal what we have been doing. Our NLD is doing what
needs to be done and we will reveal it when the time is right.

DVB: I see. But, what if some say the NLD always says the same thing about
revealing matters when the time is right without revealing anything. How
would you respond to those people?

Nyan Win: From our experience, about 90 per cent of those people who make
such criticisms are people from the opposite side.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 19, Irrawaddy
Karen Group Campaigns against Hat Gyi Dam - Shah Paung

An Ethnic Karen community group today began a campaign to educate local
villagers about the impact of the proposed Hat Gyi dam in Karen State,
said a representative of the group.

“We are campaigning to let Karen villagers living in the dam area, and in
neighboring regions, know what to expect and how they should protect
themselves,” said Paw Gay, a member of Karen River Watch.

The two-day campaign will include activities such as human rights and
environmental workshops, and a dramatic performance that illustrates some
of the challenges facing local residents if the dam project should
proceed.

KRW—established in June 2003—comprises six Karen community organizations
specializing on issues related to women, children and community
development. The group assesses the potential social, political and
economic impact of a series of proposed dam projects to be built on rivers
throughout Karen State.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand signed a memorandum of
understanding with the Burmese military government on December 9 to
construct a series of hydropower dams in Burma.

The Hat Gyi dam will be the first in the series, and it will be located in
eastern Karen State on the Salween River. Four additional dams have been
proposed, though no formal agreement to start construction on any other
dams has yet been reached.

According to Paw Gay, part of the KRW campaign involves simply explaining
the details of the proposed dam to local villagers, most of whom are not
even aware of the government’s plan.

The Hat Gyi dam proposal has evoked strong protests from several
non-governmental organizations concerned—as KRW is—with the potential
social and environmental impact of the dam.

“We have the right to protect ourselves, and we have to stand [up] for our
people and our land,” said Paw Gay. “We want our people to know their
rights and to protect themselves.”

____________________________________

December 19, Irrawaddy
Legal counseling clinic opened for migrant workers - Sai Silp

A “counseling clinic” to assist migrant Burmese workers officially opened
yesterday in the Thai-Burmese border town Mae Sot in Thailand’s Tak
province.

The clinic has been operating since August this year, handling about 50
cases a month, most of them concerning unfair wages, bad working
conditions and harassment.

“Our main job is coordinating between workers, employers, lawyers and
related organizations because the workers are scared to talk with their
employers and authorities when they are in conflict with them,” said
coordinator Saranut Soithong. She told The Irrawaddy that the clinic
worked closely with the Lawyer Council of Thailand, referring many cases
to the organization’s lawyers.

More than 60,000 Burmese migrants work in and around Mae Sot, mostly in
garment factories.

Somchai Homla-or, secretary of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and
Development Foundation, told The Irrawaddy the Foundation planned to
introduce Thai language courses for Burmese migrant workers and Burmese
language classes for its own staff, to improve the exchange of
information. The Foundation also planned to establish a Burmese-language
community radio service which would explain Thai labor law to its migrant
listeners.

Yesterday’s ceremony opening the clinic was presided over by the
Foundation’s president, Khotom Areeya.

____________________________________
ASEAN

December 18, Agence France Presse
Myanmar FM ready to welcome ASEAN envoy as 'guest': report

Yangon: Military-ruled Myanmar is ready to welcome an envoy from the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a "guest" as early as January
and explain its democratisation process, Foreign Minister Nyan Win said in
a report.

"We are ready to accept an envoy and we'll willingly describe to him our
actual situation," Nyan Win told the semi-official Myanmar Times in the
weekly edition to be published on Monday.

"Some foreign countries cannot understand our direction despite the
explanations we have given them," he said, adding the envoy would be
invited to watch talks aimed at drafting a new constitution.

"I will receive any of my ASEAN counterparts as my personal guest," Nyan
Win was quoted by the newspaper as saying on December 14 at the end of an
ASEAN summit in Malaysia.

The newspaper said the visit would "most likely to take place next month"
but Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who will carry out the
mission on behalf of the 10-nation bloc, said on Friday no date had been
set.

ASEAN nations announced on December 12 they would send an envoy to Myanmar
to look for signs the junta was taking steps towards democracy and the
release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Syed Hamid said Myanmar had to cooperate for his trip, announced amid
intense international pressure for the grouping to tackle the slow pace of
democratic reform in fellow member Myanmar, to ensure it was "credible".

While specific details of the visit have not been finalised, Nyan Win said
Syed Hamid would be allowed to watch the latest round of constitutional
talks the military has said would move the country toward "disciplined
democracy."

Members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy have boycotted
the talks involving some 1,000 handpicked delegates at an isolated
military compound north of Yangon.

The NLD's absence -- in protest over the continued detention of its
leadership -- has prompted the United States, the United Nations and the
European Union to dismiss the proceedings as a sham.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 19, Indo-Asian News Service
Indian MPs to campaign for Suu Kyi's release

New Delhi: A forum of Indian MPs has decided to campaign for the
restoration of democracy in Myanmar and to press for the release of leader
Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

"We have created this forum for people to address the principal issues of
the early release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and
the restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma (the former name of
Myanmar)," said Nirmala Deshpandey, an MP and veteran Gandhian leader.

She was speaking at the launch of the first Indian Parliamentarians Forum
for Democracy in Burma here Sunday. Deshpandey is chief patron of the
forum, which has 12 members from various political parties.

Deshpandey also said the MPs might go to Myanmar to meet Suu Kyi and other
top jailed leaders and press for their early release.

Robert Kharshiing, a member of Rajya Sabha, is convener of the forum that
has members from the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajawadi Party
and Communist Party of India-Marxist.

"We are no longer a weak country and we can convince politicians in other
countries to take up this noble cause," said Kharshiing. "I think we can
manage something because in world affairs today, nothing is impossible."

India's recent policy towards Myanamar has been marked by a policy of
pragmatic engagement with the country's ruling military junta to keep a
vigil on anti-Indian insurgents operating in border areas of Myanmar.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had talks with his Myanamarese counterpart
Soe Win on the sidelines of the East Asia summit in Kuala Lumpur last week
during which he stressed the need for starting a national reconciliation
movement towards restoring democracy in Myanmar.

Manmohan Singh also conveyed New Delhi's desire that Suu Kyi should be freed.

____________________________________

December 17, Bangkok Post
Call for wave alerts in Burmese - Penchan Chaloensuthipan

An international labour organization has called on the Thai authorities to
also broadcast tsunami warnings in the Burmese language as hundreds of
Burmese immigrants are employed in the areas hit by last year's giant
tidal waves. Nisachol Buppa, a coordinator of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) in Phangnga, said her earlier call for
the inclusion of Burmese-language broadcasts during the July tsunami
evacuation drill had fallen on deaf ears. Evacuation warnings were
broadcast in only five languages - English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and
Thai.

She said the authorities should not treat Burmese immigrants as if they
were not human and stop ignoring the safety of those working in the
tsunami-hit areas. The immigrant workers have played, and will continue to
play, an important role in the region's economy, she said.

When local residents and foreign tourists ran for higher ground on
Thursday after tsunami sirens were activated by mistake, only Burmese
workers stayed put as they did not know why other people were fleeing,
said Mrs Nisachol.

"They just sat still. They were not aware of anything and did not know
what was going on. Only a small number of Burmese workers ran after being
told by their Thai neighbours and friends that the sirens were warning
everyone that a tsunami was on its way. If a tsunami had really occurred,
the Burmese workers would not have survived the waves," said the IOM
coordinator.

Labour advocacy groups working in a Nam Khem village in Phangnga's Takua
Pa district have organized an International Migrants' Day on 18 December
at Wat Bang Muang temple. Activities will include events to provide mental
rehabilitation for alien workers and a deeper knowledge of Thai culture,
said Mrs Nisachol.

On the bodies of alien workers killed by the tsunami, she said many
relatives of dead workers have so far been unable to claim them for
funeral rites as they were unable to meet the legal requirements set by
the Thai authorities.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 17, Los Angeles Times
Myanmar back on U.N. agenda - Maggie Farley

The Security Council discusses problems in the military-run Southeast
Asian country after being prodded by the U.S. and Britain.

United Nations: The Security Council held a discussion of human rights and
drug trafficking problems in Myanmar on Friday after months of pushing by
the United States and Britain.

Some members of the council, especially China, had opposed talking about
the reclusive Southeast Asian country, saying its problems did not pose a
threat to international peace and security.

But diplomats said the United States and Britain argued in the closed-door
meeting that conditions within the country destabilized the region, as
refugees, drugs and slave labor flowed across its borders.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said that despite disagreement about
whether those problems constitute an international threat, the meeting was
an important first step.

"What everybody acknowledges is that there are a massive number of
problems in today's Myanmar, and the international community should do
more to help address those problems," he said.

Myanmar, formerly Burma, has become increasingly repressive and isolated
under the current military regime. In 1990, the junta allowed democratic
elections. But when the opposition National League for Democracy won more
than 80% of the vote, the military refused to honor the result.

The charismatic party leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been in detention on
and off for 10 of the last 16 years, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for her
resistance. The government just extended her house arrest for another six
months.

Additional pressure to address Myanmar came from a September report
commissioned by Desmond Tutu, another Nobel peace laureate, and former
Czech President Vaclav Havel.

The report alleges human rights violations including the rape of ethnic
minority women and the spread of HIV by soldiers; widespread forced labor;
destruction of more than 2,700 villages; massive forced relocations; and
the torture and killing of political prisoners.

As many as 70,000 children have been forced to become soldiers, and more
than 700,000 refugees have fled across the border into Thailand and other
countries, it said. Myanmar also is a leading producer of opium and
amphetamine, and its heroin trade has made it a primary contributor to the
spread of AIDS in Southeast Asia, the report charges.

More than 75% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to
the report.

"This is only a first step, and the U.N. Security Council must show that
it is serious about follow up," Havel said in a statement Friday. "The
U.N. Security Council action could represent a new dawn for change in
Burma."

Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s chief of political affairs, told the Security
Council that the U.N.'s special envoy for the country had been refused
entry for more than a year and a half.

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Asian
leaders for action during a recent trip to an economic summit in South
Korea.

This week, the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations authorized Malaysia's
foreign minister to visit Myanmar to push for "tangible results" in the
country's democratic reforms.

Myanmar has produced a seven-stage road map toward free elections and held
a constitutional convention earlier this month, but without Suu Kyi's
opposition party.

One of the conditions imposed by China and like-minded countries was that
the Security Council discussion of Myanmar be a one-time event.

Discussions regarding politically sensitive situations in Sudan and
Zimbabwe faced similar resistance by China and Russia, which generally
object to interference in a country's internal affairs, as well as African
countries.

But Britain and the U.S. slipped them onto the agenda, and now problems in
both African countries are being addressed by the council.

____________________________________

December 19, Financial Times
Burma heading for humanitarian crisis, says UN - Amy Kazmin

Bangkok: Military-ruled Burma is heading towards a humanitarian crisis,
while its authoritarian rulers jail political dissidents and deny its
citizens basic human rights, a top United Nations official told the
Security Council in its first briefing on conditions in the south-east
Asian country.

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN political chief, told Security Council members on
Friday that Burma, which the junta calls Myanmar, had made no significant
progress towards political reforms over the last decade. "The peopleof
Myanmar continue to have many of their essential rights and calls for
democratic reform denied," he said.

"In the longer term,deep-rooted chronic and accelerating poverty, growing
insecurity and increasing political tension appear to be moving Myanmar
towards a humanitarian crisis," he warned.

The informal closed-door discussion - held by consensus of the 15 Security
Council members at Washington's urging - reflects growing international
concern about Burma, where the National League for Democracy, led by the
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won a sweeping election victory in 1990
but was never allowed to take power. Ms Suu Kyi is currently under house
arrest, as she has been for 10 of the last 16 years.

"We felt that the continued deterioration of conditions in Burma warranted
action in the Security Council, which is why we proceeded as we did," John
Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, told journalists.

Mr Gambari said the political situation appears to have deteriorated after
the October 2004 purge of the prime minister Khin Nyunt, the former
military intelligence chief, who was seen as a pragmatist within the
regime.

Since his ousting, the junta, led by Senior General Than Shwe, has severed
political contacts with the UN and has barred the UN special envoy and UN
human rights investigator from visiting, the security council was told.

But Burmese political analysts inside and outside the country say they do
not expect any imminent or binding action by the UN Security Council,
which still remains divided on the extent to which Burma's military regime
represents a threat to international peace and security.

While many pro-democracy activists hope the unprecedented discussion on
Burma will mark the start of a process that may eventually result in
Council action, other analysts warn that the Council's failure to take
decisive action, even after discussing conditions in Burma, could simply
reinforce the junta's confidence.