BurmaNet News, March 14, 2006

[Editor]

March 14, 2006 Issue # 2918

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Thousands of Karen flee to jungle
DVB: Christian arrested and detained for writing to Burma junta chief
Mizzima: Salween dams threaten thousands of Karenni: report

ON THE BORDER
Kaladan: Bangladesh bans livestock from Burma-Bangladesh border
Narinjara: UNHCR reduces refugee subsistence allowance

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Burmese still in the dark over bird flu scare
AFP: Myanmar calls for international help after first bird flu outbreak
AP: U.N. agriculture agency provides emergency bird flu assistance to Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: Rights experts call for release of Win Tin
AP: U.S. Secretary of State slams Myanmar's human rights record

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 14, Irrawaddy
Thousands of Karen flee to jungle - Shah Paung

Burmese army offensives in western Karen State have sent nearly 3,000
villagers fleeing into the jungle, according to a new report from relief
organization Free Burma Rangers.

The report, which will be officially released tomorrow, says that recent
attacks in Nyaunglebin district’s Mon and Ler Doh (aka Kyauk Gyi)
townships had forced more than 2,200 villagers from their homes. In
addition, the general secretary of resistance group the Karen National
Union, Mahn Shah, today confirmed the existence of up to 700 more
Internally Displaced People from Taungoo Township, Pegu division, bringing
the total number of new Karen IDPs to almost 3,000.

According to FBR, three Burmese army battalions (Light Infantry battalions
366, 368 and 364) launched attacks on the western Karen villages of Klaw
Kee and Saw Ka Der in Mon Township, on March 9. A 38-year-old Karen man,
Saw Maw Sae Kya, was killed during the attacks and paddy fields and rice
stocks were destroyed. Soldiers then continued to nearby Maw La Kee
village, where they burned down another seven houses.

“A total of 1140 people from Mon Township have now fled and are currently
hiding in the jungle,” the report says. “These people cannot return home
due to constant army patrols in the area.”

Meanwhile, Light Infantry battalions 362 and 363 marched into Kwey Der
village in Ler Doh Township, forcing more than 1,100 villagers into
hiding.

The FBR told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the group was already working
on getting aid to the new IDPs: “We have already sent one team with
medicine to help them and will be sending another team next week—after
that we will send another team together with some money to buy food.”

____________________________________

March 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Christian arrested and detained for writing to Burma junta chief

A member of Christian evangelical church who wrote a letter to Burma’s
military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) chairman
Gen Than Shwe urging him to end the persecution of his church, was
arrested and detained at a police station in Pa-an, Karen State.

Yeh Zaw was arrested on 25 February at a checkpoint in Pa-an and his
family was only notified on 9 March, his wife Naw Sa Eh told DVB.

“A police corporal informed me on the phone that he is being detained at a
the police station. His health is good but he is not feeling good about it
and the like,” said Saw Eh. “He is going to be tried on either 22 or 24
(March). Another corporal told me to bring money to hire lawyers and the
like. He is charged under (Acts) 420 and 406 he said.” Although Yeh Zaw
was accused of travelling without identity card, he was charged under Act
420 for lying.

Yeh Zaw was taken away by Pa-an based army personnel and interrogated on
10 March, added his wife but she didn’t know why.

Yeh Zaw resided in the compound of Rangoon Insein Kanphawt evangelical
church whose members were banned from worshipping recently by the local
authorities.

____________________________________

March 14, Mizzima News
Salween dams threaten thousands of Karenni: report - Ngunte

Thousands of people in Burma’s Karenni State will be forced off their land
if the planned construction of hydroelectric dams on the Salween River
goes ahead, according to a new report.

‘Dammed by Burma’s Generals’, released by the Karenni Development Research
Group today, said the construction of the proposed Weigyi dam in Karenni
State alone would inundate more than 640 square kilometers of land and
displace 30,000 ethnic Karenni.

“
An entire tribe – the Yintalai, who now number a mere 1,000 – will
permanently lose all their homelands,” KDRG said in a statement today.

The Burmese government has signed a memorandum of understanding with
authorities in Thailand over the construction of five hydroelectric dams
on the Salween River in Burma.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has agreed to help Burma
build the dams in return for the rights to buy some of the electricity
produced.

But environmentalists and rights groups have said they were concerned
about the deal, which could have a devastating effect on people and the
environment in the area.

“Irreversible environmental damage will be caused by inundation of forests
internationally recognised for their outstanding biodiversity,” the
group’s statement said.

A researcher for the KDRG, Aung Ngeh, told Mizzima the proposed dams would
only benefit Burma’s military regime.

“In the case of the Lawpita hydropower project, the military junta, citing
security as a reason, would plant landmines all around the dam site and
innocent civilians and even cattle and animals became victims of the
mines,” said Aung Ngeh.

 Aung Ngeh said little of the electricity produced by the dams would reach
people going without in Burma.

Construction of the dams is slated to begin in 2007.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 14, Kaladan News
Bangladesh bans livestock from Burma-Bangladesh border

Worried Bangladesh authorities banned entry of livestock (poultry birds
and products) from the Burma-Bangladesh border yesterday.

The ordered was issued after the reported outbreak of bird flu in Burma’s
central region.

Burma reported that it found strains of H5N1 virus in dead poultry around
its central city in Mandalay. Veterinarians said the flu had killed at
least 112 birds around the city.

Laboratory tests confirmed the outbreak of bird flu in central Burma after
112 chickens died, said Laurence Gleeson, a senior official at the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization, citing a report from the Burma government.

"All district and Upazila livestock officials have been asked to remain
alert against entry of poultry birds and products from Burma into the
country," said Dr Salehuddin Mahmud, director general of the Livestock
Services.

He also said though Bangladesh does not import any poultry birds or
products from Burma, the frontier vigilance has been intensified as an
extra-precaution against entry of birds by chance.

The government prohibited imports of chicks from several countries,
including Thailand, India and Malaysia, as part of its vigilance against
bird flu to save Bangladesh's growing poultry industry.

____________________________________

March 12, Narinjara News
UNHCR reduces refugee subsistence allowance

The UNHCR in Dhaka has reduced the monthly subsistence allowance, or SA,
by 50 percent for urban Burmese refugees in Bangladesh, said a notice from
the Bangladesh UNHCR office.

According to the UNHCR notice, those refugees who are elderly, are single
females, physically challenged or otherwise vulnerable, will get the
normal rate for an extended period from January to June 2006 out of
special consideration.

A refugee who is a head of a family will receive 45 Taka and a dependent
will receive 22.50 Taka per day. Earlier, refugees received 90 Taka per
day as SA.

However, the UNHCR has determined only five Arakanese refugees to be
eligible for the SA, with one among them a dependent.

About 100 other Arakanese refugees are unable to get any assistance from
the UNHCR, except for the normal education fees for children and health
related costs.

The UNHCR Bangladesh had allowed 90 Taka per day, per refugee since 1990,
but after 1998 it began to withdraw the monthly SA for urban refugees.
Since 1998, they have started funding refugee "self-sufficiency"
programmes with lump sum payment.

According to refugee sources, the urban refugees are unhappy with the
reduction of the monthly SA, as the amount is inadequate for their daily
survival.

An Arakanese refugee said that he could not believe the UNHCR's decision
to reduce the monthly SA for refugees because it has come at such a bad
time; the UNHCR should take into consideration the present costs of
essential commodities in the country.

In Bangladesh, the prices of essential commodities prices have sky
rocketed recently. In 1990, a kilogram of sugar cost only 15 Taka, but now
it is 60 Taka, while a kilo of rice that once cost 7 Taka now costs 20
Taka. The US dollar exchange rate was previously 1 dollar to 30 Taka, but
is now 1 Dollar to 70 Taka.

It seems as if the UNHCR Bangladesh has never considered the increasing
cost of essential commodities or the decrease of the value of the Taka
against the Us Dollar while taking decisions regarding the subsistence
allowance, the refugee said.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

March 14, Irrawaddy
Burmese still in the dark over bird flu scare - Clive Parker

Burma’s population of more than 50 million people had by Tuesday
afternoon still not received official word of a bird flu scare in
Mandalay, as samples
taken from dead birds arrived in Bangkok for further testing.

Six days after junta officials first began to investigate the deaths of
112 chickens in Mandalay and three days after the Ministry of Livestock
and Fisheries itself confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of
the virus, Burma’s state-run press was silent on the issue. Today’s New
Light of Myanmar instead devoted its front and back pages to a story on
top government officials—including vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye and Prime
Minister Gen Soe Win—attending a Buddhist alms ceremony in Rangoon. The
only mention of bird flu was in a report on new cases discovered in
Poland.

An international medical worker in Rangoon who did not want to give his
name said today that the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries had sent a
statement on the situation to The New Light of Myanmar, but editors
declined to run it and instead demanded a second opinion. A spokesperson
for the state-run publication said that all editors were unavailable for
comment today.

The ministry also sent out copies of the statement to private publications
today, some of which are attempting to publish the story, but still await
permission from Burma’s chief censor, the Press Scrutiny and Registration
Division. Usually, when a major incident occurs in Burma, the government
does not allow the private media to report the story until it has first
appeared in state-run media.

A representative of Burma’s Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department
said yesterday an announcement to the people would be made “as soon as
possible.”

“There has been nothing on the radio, nothing on the television, nothing
in the state-run media, so this is a bit strange,” a Rangoon resident said
today. “If they don’t come out [with the news] by, let’s say in a day or
two, then this is not good.”

But while many people in the capital are at least thought to be aware that
suspected bird flu cases have been discovered in Burma, there appears to
be little knowledge of the situation in outer-lying regions. Residents of
Tachilek in Shan State—which borders Thailand—and Myitkyina, the capital
of Kachin State, told The Irrawaddy today they knew nothing of any
suspected cases of bird flu in Burma.

The international medical worker also said that even many people in
Mandalay are probably unaware of what is happening in the absence of any
coverage in the local media.

Laurence Gleeson, an official of the Food and Agriculture Organization in
Bangkok, said that ultimately non-disclosure to the public could work
against efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

“Ideally it is good for the surveillance system that people are aware, so
that new cases are quickly reported,” Gleeson said, referring to the
situation in Europe where isolated cases have been quickly reported
because of high public awareness.

Gleeson said that Burma might expect to discover more cases given that the
source had not yet been discovered, whether it be in or outside the
country. No new cases have been reported so far and there have been no
confirmed instances of human infections.

Meanwhile, the first samples of the suspected virus arrived in Bangkok
today for further testing. Another FAO official who requested anonymity
said there could still be a long wait before confirmation as to whether
Burma has suffered its first case of avian flu.

“If there is no problem, we should be able to get the result in two days.
But if there is any difficulty in separating the virus from the samples it
may take up to seven or eight days,” the official said.

Results from Bangkok are expected before those from another sample which
is currently waiting to be sent to Geelong, Australia for testing later
this week, the official added.

____________________________________

March 14, Agence France Presse
Myanmar calls for international help after first bird flu outbreak

Myanmar on Tuesday called for international help to tackle bird flu after
the country confirmed its first case of the deadly H5N1 virus in poultry.

"We are still trying to control it. We need help not only with the
technical procedures, but also with equipment," the nation's top
veterinary official Than Hla told AFP.

On Monday, Myanmar's notoriously secretive military rulers informed the
UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that they had detected bird
flu after 112 birds died mysteriously on March 8 near the central town of
Mandalay.

"We have already asked for help from the FAO and other international
organizations. Assistance will arrive soon," Than Hla said.

Myanmar's state-run media still kept quiet about the outbreak, but
residents and hospital officials in Mandalay said they were well aware of
it.

"The chicken sellers were not allowed to go inside the market this
morning. The authorities told them at the entrance to the market that they
cannot enter," one resident said, adding he heard the news from people at
the market.

"Even the egg vendors are not allowed to go inside."

An official at the Mandalay General Hospital said Tuesday it had received
no suspected bird flu patients. After news of the outbreak, the hospital
quickly set up a special quarantine room in preparation for any bird flu
patients.

Senior FAO official Laurence Glesson said the junta, which has ruled
Myanmar since 1962, was following international guidelines in tackling
bird flu and trying to prevent the movement of any chickens.

"They have also undertaken some intensive searching for any other signs of
bird flu," he said in Bangkok, adding the government had already
slaughtered 780 birds and quarantined at least four farms.

"Given the level of their resources, they have handled according to proper
procedures... They are following what we regard as proper practices here,"
Glesson said.

Patrick Deboyser, an expert on bird flu at the European Union mission in
Bangkok, said Myanmar was unlikely to see human cases.

"The risk of human bird flu being spread in Myanmar is rather low because
the hot season is starting," Deboyser said. Avian influenza normally
spreads during cooler winter months.

Despite Myanmar's lack of financial resources, he said the country's
veterinary service was relatively capable.

"The veterinary service is one of the few satisfactory services in
Myanmar. It is a pleasant surprise considering the rest of the
administration," Deboyser said.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned that Myanmar's
dismal health care system, after years of US and European sanctions, was
ill-equipped to cope with possible human bird flu cases.

"In terms of personnel, they are very capable. But in terms of supply,
equipment and facility, they need support. In the future if there is a
human case, they need upgraded medical facilities," said a WHO official in
Yangon, who declined to be named.

EU's Deboyser said the fact the junta had swiftly reported the bird flu
case was an encouraging sign.

"This is the first case and they are reporting it. That's good. They are
cooperating with international organizations. It shows they are playing by
rules," he said.

So far humans have only contracted bird flu through contact with infected
birds but experts fear it may mutate into a form easily transmissible
between humans, sparking a deadly pandemic.

Three human bird flu deaths reported in Azerbaijan on Tuesday will bring
the World Health Organization's global toll to 101 since 2003 when
officially logged.

____________________________________

March 14, Associated Press
U.N. agriculture agency provides emergency bird flu assistance to Myanmar

The U.N. agriculture agency has provided emergency assistance to Myanmar
after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was detected for the first time in
the impoverished Southeast Asian country, an official said Tuesday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization provided US$40,000 (euro33,000)
worth of assistance, including protective gear and laboratory facilities,
said Tang Zhengping, resident representative of the FAO.

"The government needs support from U.N. agencies and the international
community, and we will seek more donors for the funding," Tang said.

FAO and government officials on Monday said the H5N1 outbreak was found
after 112 chickens died outside of Myanmar's second largest city,
Mandalay.

Nearly 800 chickens have been slaughtered as a precaution, and experts
were inspecting farms within a 3-kilometer (2-mile) radius of where the
infected birds were found, said Than Tun, director of the country's
livestock breeding and veterinary department. He pledged that authorities
would deal with any outbreak in a "transparent manner."

Myanmar's military government, which tightly controls information and the
state-owned mass media, has said it would deal openly with any outbreaks
of bird flu.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of
millions of poultry across Asia since 2003, and has recently spread to
Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The virus has spread to humans most of
whom have had direct contact with infected chickens killing at least 98
people worldwide, two-thirds of them in Indonesia and Vietnam.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 13, Mizzima News
Rights experts call for release of Win Tin - Nem Davies

A group of human rights experts, including United Nations special rights
rapporteur to Burma Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, sent a letter to the Burmese
military on Saturday urging the release of political prisoner and
journalist Win Tin.

The appeal called on the military to release all political prisoners in
Burma but focused on Win Tin, who marked his 76th birthday yesterday as
the country’s longest serving political prisoner.

“In spite of strong expectation that he would be released last year, he
remains in captivity,” the letter said.

Tate Naing, secretary of the Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners based in Thailand said he welcomed the statement.

“Paulo Sergio Pinheiro and human rights statements [such as this] form a
kind of international call that can do something to change the present
situation. But the immediate release of U Win Tin is not possible,” he
said.

The former editor of the Hanthawaddy newspaper and vice chairman of
Burma’s Writer’s Union, Win Tin was first arrested in July 1984.

A UNESCO World Press Freedom Award laureate, he is one of more than 1000
political prisoners languishing in Burma’s notorious prisons.

____________________________________

March 14, Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State slams Myanmar's human rights record

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice slammed Myanmar's human rights
record on Tuesday, and said democratic nations needed to stand up for
those living under oppression.

She made her comments ahead of a meeting with Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, who recently visited Myanmar and called on its ruling
generals to follow through with promises of reform.

It was a rare step by a member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, which generally advocates engaging the junta rather than
confronting it.

"Great democracies like Indonesia and the United States cannot turn a
blind eye to those who still live under oppression," Rice told reporters
during a two-day visit to Indonesia.

She said the United States was grateful for Yudhoyono's efforts to
convince "the junta in Burma (Myanmar) that it is time to join the
international community and to respect human rights."

Myanmar has attained pariah status in the West since 1990, when its
military leaders refused to hand over power after Aung San Suu Kyi's party
won elections by a landslide.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is among some 1,100 documented
political prisoners in Myanmar, and the United States has repeatedly
called for their release.

Myanmar's rulers claim to be drafting a constitution as a first step to
free elections, but the United States and Europe have dismissed its
so-called democracy road map as a sham.