BurmaNet News, December 20, 2005

[Editor]

December 20, 2005 Issue # 2868


INSIDE BURMA
Bangkok Post: Burma says country unsafe for Chuan visit
Irrawaddy: Another international aid group pulls out
Irrawaddy: NLD calls on Asean to meet Suu Kyi
DVB: Death camp Burma: Another political prisoner dies in detention
DVB: Political prisoners: Shan leader Gen Hso Ten allowed to see family
Independent Mon News Agency: Military regime plans people’s referendum
Mizzima: Kanyamaw and reporters in Karenni state

BUSINESS / TRADE
SHAN: From Hongpang to Xinhong

REGIONAL
Nation: Democrats deny Chuan visa snub

OPINION / OTHER
Malaysiakini.com: Razali, an apologist for murderous regime - Dr. Andrew
Aeria
Nation: The Asean way vs the Burmese way – Kavi Chongkittavorn

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 19, Bangkok Post
Burma says country unsafe for Chuan visit

Military-run Burma has cited safety concerns for turning down a visa
application made by former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai to visit the
country, officials said today.

Thai Foreign Minister Kanthathi Suphamongkhon said officials at the
Burmese embassy in Bangkok had said they rejected Chuan's request for a
tourist visa because "the situation in Burma was not safe."

"I've asked Burma to elaborate on the reasons for the visa rejection and
to facilitate Chuan's visit if he tries again," said Kanthathi.

Chuan, former head of the Democrat Party who was prime minister between
1992 to 1995 and again between 1997 to 2001, had planned to visit Burma on
Monday but cancelled after his visa was rejected without explanation by
the Burmese embassy in Bangkok.

The rejection forced the Thai foreign ministry to seek an explanation from
the supposedly friendly regime.

During Chuan's premiership Thailand was at the forefront of regional
efforts to pressure Burma to improve its abysmal human rights record,
implement democratic reforms and free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Democrats are now the lead opposition party to the government of Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has fostered a foreign policy of
close political and business engagement with Myanmar's ruling regime.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations at its annual summit in Kuala
Lumpur last week secured the approval of Myanmar to allow a visit to the
country by the Malaysia's foreign minister to assess the political
situation in the country.

____________________________________

December 20, Irrawaddy
Another international aid group pulls out - Shah Paung

The French contingent of medical aid group Medecin Sans Frontieres is
preparing to withdraw from Burma, according to an official with the group.

“The last year has been very difficult to implement our program because of
restrictions imposed on our international staff regarding access to
villagers,” Dr Herve Isambet, the program manager for MSF in Burma, told
The Irrawaddy by phone today.

The decision to leave was reached at an annual MSF meeting in late
November, which brought together program staff from all MSF operations
throughout the world.

“It was very difficult to implement our program [in Burma] to provide
equal access to health care,” Isambet added. “So by virtue of the poor
performances of last year, we have decided to pull out.”

MSF informed Burma’s Health Ministry last week of their decision to leave,
though an exact date for their departure has yet to be announced.
Government officials are said to have expressed their regret at the
decision to leave.

According to Isambet, only MSF France will leave Burma, while programs
from Holland and Britain will continue their operations.

MSF France began work in Burma in 2001, with a program that focused on
implementing treatment for malaria in Mon and Karen states, as well as
other regions of the country.

The MSF France withdrawal follows a decision by the world’s largest
funding body, Global Fund, to pull their operations in Burma in August.
Prior to its departure, Global Fund had committed nearly US $100 million
to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Burma.

____________________________________

December 20, Irrawaddy
NLD calls on Asean to meet Suu Kyi - Khun Sam

Burma’s leading opposition party on Monday welcomed Asean’s decision to
send a special envoy to the country next year and demanded meetings be
held with democratic forces.

Following last week’s Asean leaders’ summit in Malaysia, the Southeast
Asian regional block has agreed to send Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed
Hamid Albar to assess the progress of democratic reforms promised by the
junta which, so far, have produced scant results.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy today, National League for Democracy
spokesperson Han Thar Myint insisted that the envoy should meet ethnic
groups, NLD representatives, and other democratic forces—including party
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest—in order “to
analyze Burma’s political circumstances.”

Announcing the trip, which has been given an initial go-ahead by the
Burmese generals, Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said Syed
Hamid may visit Burma as early as next January. The minister also said
that Asean has demanded that the special envoy be allowed to meet Suu Kyi.
Whether the Burmese generals will allow such a meeting remains unclear.

“When the Asean delegation visits,” Han Thar Myint said, “Suu Kyi is the
one who should be met, because she is the one who can bring national
reconciliation and who can fulfill the aspirations of the people of
Burma.”

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for a total of more than 10 years
since the pro-democracy uprising of 1988. The latest term started in May
2003, when a pro-government mob attacked her and her entourage as she
toured northern Burma.

Some exiled opposition groups and Burma critics, including UN Special
Envoy to Burma Razali Ismail, have expressed doubt that the visit will go
any way to improving democratic rights in the country.

Burma joined Asean in 1997, since when the international community has
frequently criticized the regional bloc for defending military-ruled
Burma, despite its repeated failure to fulfill promises to improve
democratic reform and human rights.

____________________________________

December 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Death camp Burma: Another political prisoner dies in detention

Another Burmese political prisoner, Aung Zaw Latt who had been serving a
lengthy jail term at Pegu Prison, died on the morning of 16 December.

30-year old Aung Zaw Latt was arrested in September 1999 for his
involvement in the failed 9999 uprising, and sentenced to 8 years in
prison with the notorious Act – 5J & Act – 17/1.

Before his death, he had been suffering from a severe form of tuberculosis
due to lack of proper medical cares in prison.

He was buried on the following day during a summarised funeral service
which was attended by political circles in Pegu and a handful of prison
authority members.

The death of Aung Zaw Latt came not along after London-based Amnesty
International issued a report which claims the human rights situation in
Burma deteriorated during 2005 and some prisoners had been dying in
suspicious circumstances.

The report, “Myanmar: Travesties of Justice – Continued Misuse of the
legal system”, details human rights abuses carried out by Burma’s ruling
military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and
pinpoints the way with which it has been carrying them out.

A spokesperson of AI told DVB that people are even being prosecuted for
reporting human rights violations and talking to journalists, and lengthy
prison sentences are handed down to political figures for engaging in
political discussion.

_____________________________________

December 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
Political prisoners: Shan leader Gen Hso Ten allowed to see family

Shan State National Council (SSNC) chairman Gen Hso Ten who is serving a
106 year jail term at remote Khamtee (Hkamti) Prison in northern Burma,
was at long last allowed to see family members and a representative of the
National League for Democracy (NLD) lawyer Aung Thein.

The representative, a female junior lawyer was also able to obtain a power
of the attorney from/for the defendant, authorising the NLD legal support
team to lodge appeals on his behalf.

Aung Thein also insisted that it is not right to imprison an aged man like
Hso Ten who is around 70 years old, at a remote location away from home,
with extreme weather condition. Three respected NLD lawyers; Aung Thein,
Kyi Win and Nyan Win are taking on the responsibility of lodging appeals
for nine Shan leaders sentenced to lengthy jail terms on 13 October. They
were arrested in February with several charges against them.

So far, the lawyers have been able to obtain a power of the attorney for
Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) chairman Khun Htun Oo, SNLD
Secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin, Sai Hla Aung and Gen Hso Ten. They are also
contacting family members of the remaining Shan leaders so that they could
help them appeal their cases. Nevertheless, it is still not known where
Sai Myo Win Tun and Sa Tha Oo are being detained at.

Meanwhile, a renowned surgeon in Rangoon, who doesn’t want to be
identified, told DVB that the international health organisations and human
rights groups should take effective actions for Mandalay Amarapura MP, Dr.
Zaw Myint Maung who has been detained for 15 years at Myikyina Prison in
northern Burma. His wife Dr. Daw Yut Yut May told DVB that her husband has
been suffering from both high and low blood pressures alternatively.

Family members of Chaung U Township NLD Secretary Kyaw Swe and a private
tuition teacher Nyunt Aung from nearby Monywa in central Burma, also
expressed their worries for their loved ones who were recently transferred
to remote Kalemyo Prison in northwest Burma near India, where prisoners
are suffering from every kind of diseases and forced to buy clean water
for drinking and washing.

_____________________________________

December 20, Independent Mon News Agency
Military regime plans people’s referendum

The military regime in Burma is planning to hold a people’s referendum for
its draft constitution following the conclusion of the National
Convention.

Accordingly the Mudon Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) has
ordered local Villages Peace and Development Council (VPDC) to compile a
list of organizations in its villages, according to a village VPDC member.

“The order, outlined the government’s plans to hold a referendum for its
new constitution in the coming year. We have to send a list of senior
leaders of organizations and the villages to the TPDC soon," said the VPDC
member.

The referendum will be held in the beginning of the coming year. It is
related to the military government’s National Convention, the VPDC member
added.

The order states that the VPDC needs to list, one person from labour
organizations, two persons from the Union of Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA), two persons from village leader’s group, two persons
from the Women’s Affair Association and two persons from the Maternal and
Child Welfare Association. The lists have to be sent by December 22 to
Mudon TPDC. Each village has to keep 100 chairs ready the order said.

According to the Burmese military government’s seven-point road map to
democracy, following the conclusion of the National Convention (NC), the
military regime plans to hold a people’s referendum for its draft
constitution.

Although ethnic cease-fire groups do not agree with the military
government’s draft constitution, the regime is going to finish the NC and
then go for the referendum, on the basis of handpicked NC representatives.

_____________________________________

December 20, Mizzima News
Kanyamaw and reporters in Karenni state

Fighting between Karenni rebels and Burma's military junta reached its
fourth this week with the Karenni National Progressive Party's armed wing
the Karenni Army attacking government forces.

Gun-fire rang out on Monday as the KNPP attacked junta troops under the
command of Maj. Myo Min Aung and pro-junta group the Karenni Nationalities
Peoples' Liberation Front in Maw Chi township, Karenni State.

There are no reported casualties yet in the fighting, which Karenni rebels
say is the fight for their autonomy.

State Peace and Development Council and pro-military forces have accused
villagers in areas controlled by the KNPP of supporting the group. Junta
forces are known to have committed human rights violations in the area,
have forcibly removed villagers from their homes and stolen property.

Villagers told Mizzima on December 16, three battalions of SPDC troops
under the command of Col. Tun Tun Win, accompanied by the KNPLF, looted a
village called Pah Poe.

The next day junta troops, joined by pro-junta Karenni faction the Karenni
National Solidarity Organisation, surrounded the Pahaw Koe village in
Pasaung and arrested 10 villagers, including women.

The villagers were beaten by the army and women were used as walking
land-mine detectors when their captors moved on to the next village.

As gun fire broke out between the military and the KNPP, more than 200
villagers from three villages were forced to run for their lives to escape
bullets aimed at them.

One SPDC soldier is reported to have been killed by rebels in Pha Poe
village by on December 18.

There are an estimated 90,000 internally displaced person or IDPs in
Karenni State as people flee the fighting director of Karenni Social
Welfare Committee Khu Hteh Pu said.

"Most of the IDPs are in the free fire zone in the area near Maw Chi,
District-2 of Karenni State, and they are moving from place to place.
Although some of them can come to refugee camps in Thailand but they
choose not to as they don't want to abandon their place forever or they
don't have any relation in this side," Khu Hteh Pu said.

The SPDC and KNPP signed a cease-fire agreement in 1995, which lasted only
three months after Burmese troops arrested some of the group's members,
violating the agreement.

The KNPLF signed a cease-fire agreement with the SPDC in 1994 and KNSO
surrendered to the SPDC in 2000.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

December 19, Shan Herald Agency for News

>From Hongpang to Xinhong


The beleaguered Wa business firm has changed its label from Hongpang
(Great State) to Xinhong (Thriving Greatness), said a source close to the
Wa this morning.

The Wa office at the northern entrance of Tachilek in Hawngleuk Quarter,
near the Yawng Ni Oo gas station had recently put up a new signboard
bearing the new name. "The Wa chief representative can be located there,"
he said.

The latest development took place almost three months after the massive
haul of heroin when 496 kg was seized in a joint three-nation operation on
September 10 in Mongpiang, 250 km northwest of Tachilek.

Many former subsidiary firms have also been "liberated" from Hongpang:
Thawda Swe, Shwe Pauk Kan Orange, Wai Family Agriculture, Wai Family
Electrical Production and Supplies, Kwanlong Transportation, Shwe Taung
Shwe Myay Tea and Plantations, Sophia Kilo, Mekong River Hotel, Ne Wun Ni
gas station and Mya Shwe Yi Rubber Plantations.

Countrywide, it has been dissected into 32 separate companies, according
to an unconfirmed report.

Hongpang is the second Wa conglomerate to have been deactivated since the
Wa concluded a ceasefire pact with Rangoon in 1989, according to the
source. The first was the Myanmar Kyone Yeom Group that was closed in
1998. "But the generals have always allowed them to return in a different
guise," he said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 20, The Nation
Democrats deny Chuan visa snub - Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Foreign Ministry seems to have jumped the gun in its bid to censure
the Burmese military junta over reports former prime minister Chuan
Leekpai was denied a visa to visit the pariah state, the opposition
claimed yesterday.

The ministry summoned Burmese Ambassador Ye Win to Bangkok to explain
reports that Chuan was denied entry and Foreign Minister Kantathi
Suphamongkhon raised the issue with his Burmese counterpart, Nyan Win,
during a regional meeting in Bangladesh on Monday.

However, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva poured cold water on the
ministry's apparent attempt to defend Chuan's dignity by explaining that
his diplomatic passport guaranteed him entry and that he had cancelled his
trip in any case.

"Chuan decided to cancel the trip because he wanted to visit
flood-affected people in the southern provinces," Abhisit said.

Ong-art Klampaiboon, the party spokesman, said the Democrats were
suspicious about why the ministry raised the issue. He said the ministry
should have known that Chuan holds a diplomatic passport.

Buranaj Smutharaks, a Bangkok MP close to Chuan, said the former premier
intended to visit Burma this week for Buddhist worship as he does every
year.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 19, Malaysiakini.com
Razali, an apologist for murderous regime - Dr. Andrew Aeria

It is indeed a scandal that the UN special envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail,
behaves more as an apologist for the unelected and illegitimate Burmese
regime than someone who represents the high ideals of the UN Charter.

How else does one interpret Razali's disagreement with Minister in the
Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz about doing business in
Burma. After all, has not the ICFTU alleged that Razali's company, Iris
Technologies, has done business with the Burmese junta? And despite Iris
Technologies' denials, the fact that Iris Technologies even ventured into
Burma while Razali was UN Envoy compromised his position. Had Razali read
his Shakespeare, he would have realised that Caesar's wife has to be
beyond suspicion.

Thus, today, the impression to the public is that instead of acting as the
UN special envoy that doggedly promotes freedom, human rights and respect
for the rule of law, Razali's statements reflect that of any overseas
Burmese diplomat who encourages and promotes business and investment in
Burma in complete disregard to the fact that this military regime
shamelessly continues to imprison the rightful government of Burma and
torture and even kills its own citizens.

As for Razali's glib statement that sanctions could hurt "wrong and
innocent people", well, for his information, the military junta is already
hurting "wrong and innocent people" - thousands on them in fact- and has
been doing so for decades.

Indeed, anyone familiar with Amnesty International's and Human Rights
Watch's reports would realise this. For Razali to thus suggest that
sanctions could hurt "wrong and innocent people" is to promote a perverse
kind of logic as mainstream discourse.

As I have said before in Malaysiakini, Razali is clueless about how best
to handle this Burmese junta. And clueless envoys make bad guides when
road maps to democracy are required.

Instead, Razali would do well to resign his UN commission in light of his
previous conflict of interest in Burma. That way, the world does not
snigger at him and at Malaysia whenever this UN special envoy to Burma
expresses his "happiness and delight" at supposed progress within ASEAN in
democratising Burma.

Resigning his commission would also then free up his company, Iris
Technologies, to trade freely in Burma as per Razali's convictions.

_____________________________________

December 19, The Nation
The Asean way vs the Burmese way - Kavi Chongkittavorn

“Help us, help you” has become the dictum that epitomises the painful
relations between Asean and its pariah member, Burma. After many hours of
discussions, senior Asean officials agreed at their summit this month in
Kuala Lumpur to increase the pressure on Burma. It was the first time that
Asean had been so assertive towards one of its members.

Although Burma was admitted in 1997, it has never voluntarily shared
meaningful information concerning its domestic developments with other
Asean members. Normally Asean members brief each other on important
developments in their countries at their leisure as a confidence-building
measure.

Burma has failed to reciprocate the consistent assistance and support that
Asean has extended to the country. Such resistance runs counter to the
cooperative relations between other Asean countries. When Burma needed
support, the junta leaders came to Asean for protection.

After that they ignored Asean as if the grouping didn’t exist. This
pattern of behaviour has upset some Asean leaders. At the summit Asean
leaders, especially those from the core Asean members, concluded that they
could no longer tolerate the military junta’s complacency.

So they quite readily agreed that they needed to know more about Burma if
Asean was to be in a position to help Burma to cope with its many
challenges. They complained they had not been informed beforehand of the
junta’s moving the Burmese capital from Rangoon to Pyinmana. They said it
was shame that as a member of the Asean family Burma had not informed
anyone about such an important event. Some of members of the Burmese
delegation later told Asean officials in private that even they had been
kept in the dark.

Even Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the staunchest supporter of Burma
among Asean members, expressed his dissatisfaction with the country’s
secretiveness when speaking to Thai reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

“They did not inform me about the move to the new capital,” he said,
adding that he would not be speaking out to defend Burma as frequently as
he had. Thaksin used to brag about how he had been given advance knowledge
of Burma’s domestic developments. Thaksin met Prime Minister Soe Win at a
summit meeting in Bangkok in early November, three days before the new
capital was announced. The Burmese guest did not divulge a word.

It took a battle of wits and will before Asean leaders finally got Burma
to agree to the establishment of an Asean fact-finding team to go to
Burma. Before they agreed on this option - it will be headed by the Asean
chair, Malaysia - two other options were discussed and discarded. The
first one was to have all Asean foreign ministers visit Rangoon to gather
first-hand information.

That was ruled out as it probably would have created a logistical
nightmare. The other idea was to dispatch to Rangoon a troika comprising
the past, current and future chairpersons of Asean. Politically, the idea
was dangerous: a similar proposal from Thailand had been shot down by
Burma in 2000. In 2001 Vietnam, as the Asean chair, also rejected the
idea. The Asean leaders finally agreed on the Malaysia-led delegation.
After some initial recalcitrance, Soe Win welcomed the idea. The visit is
tentatively scheduled for January 4, which marks the 57th anniversary of
Burma’s independence.

The plan to send a fact-finding team to Burma comes at a time when the
grouping has been hard pressed by a deeper sense of guilt and
hopelessness.

Two domestic developments have brought on this urgency: the six-month
extension of the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the
opposition party, has made the grouping look really bad in the eyes of the
international community. Last year, former Burmese foreign minister Win
Aung informed Asean that Suu Kyi would be released in April. This, of
course, didn’t happen.

Worse, Burma’s creditability dipped further when the implementation of the
seven-point road map to democracy was delayed. The planned completion of
constitutional drafting, national referendum and electoral process has
dragged on and now has been extended beyond 2006.

Asean expects Burma to produce concrete results on the issue of national
reconciliation next year. Otherwise it will be difficult for Burma to
assume chairmanship of Asean.

Asean has said that when Burma is ready, it can take up the chair, but in
light of Burma’s recalcitrance, this will be hard, and Asean has yet to
establish criteria for determining when Burma can be deemed “ready”. This
leaves room for Asean to reject Burma’s superficial democratisation. This
will give further ammunition to the Eminent Persons Group, which has been
asked to complete the Asean Charter by the end of next year.

During their deliberations, if there proves to be no tangible progress in
Burma, the drafters will be forced to consider more stringent rules and
principles that member countries will be expected to abide by.

If Burma continues to show stubbornness, the charter can be written with
guidelines on how to suspend or expel an unruly Asean member. Issues
regarding reasonable responsibilities for members, in line with elements
from the UN charter and relevant international instruments and bills of
rights, would be given due consideration in drafting the Asean charter.

Whether they like it or not, the progress in Burma or the lack thereof
will serve as a most critical issue for the drafters of the charter and
will set the tone of their consultation. The future of Asean and the
substance of its charter are inevitably tied to Burma’s domestic
development.