BurmaNet News, April 14, 2006

[Editor]

April 14, 2006 Issue # 2941

INSIDE BURMA
Xinhua: Myanmar charges 4 anti-gov't associations with terrifying country
DVB: Burmese junta chief visits Arakan state reportedly to ward off evil
DVB: Burmese students from Pegu College detained for writing poem released
DVB: Fire victims at Magwe Pwintbyu still homeless

ON THE BORDER
DVB: KIO urge Burma junta to consider NLD’s proposals
IMNA: Five armed men surrender to military

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Children die from cholera in Mandalay where bird flu occurred

BUSINESS / TRADE
socialfunds.com: Wal-Mart discloses equal employment opportunity data
The Standard (Hong Kong): Big Red hiding wood
____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 14, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar charges 4 anti-gov't associations with terrifying country

The Myanmar government has charged four outlawed anti-government
associations with committing terrorist acts and disrupting the peace and
stability of the country by planting bombs at many locations.

The member groups and individuals of the four associations, namely Sein
Win-led National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), Hla
Oo and Pyithit Nyunt Wai (alias) Maung Maung- led Federation of Trade
Union - Burma (FTUB), Than Khe-led All Burma Students' Democratic Front
(ABSDF) and Win Khet-led National League for Democracy-Liberated Area
(NLD-LA), were declared by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday night
as terrorists.

The ministry's announcement cited a lot of facts that proved their
respective acts committed in recent years as confessed by those arrested.

These incidents include two bomb explosions near the gate of the city park
in Yangon and near a state-run telephone office on March 27 Armed Forces
Day in 2003, which killed a security man and a worker respectively.

Another bomb blast was in front of a stadium in Kayin state on Dec. 24,
2004, which killed a selected footballer, the announcement said.

The announcement also charged the NCGUB, NCUB (National Council of the
Union of Burma) and FTUB with being financially behind a series of bomb
attacks against the Yangon Trade Center and two other shopping centers --
Junction-8 and Dagon, on May 7, 2005, which killed 23 people and injured
150.

The blast of two bombs in a bazaar and a teashop in Sagaing division's
Tamu township on Jan. 8 this year, which killed two people, was held
responsible with the ABSDF, the announcement added.

The announcement also cited some other bombing incidents that were
prevented before detonation.

The NCGUB, FTUB and ABSDF along with the Shan State Army-South (SSA-S),
led by Ywet Sit, had already been outlawed by the government since August
last year.

____________________________________

April 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese junta chief visits Arakan state reportedly to ward off evil

Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
chairman Gen Than Shwe, was reported to have arrived at Sittwe (Akyab) in
order to pay visit to the nearby ancient Arakan capital Mrauk-U (Myauk-U)
in the efforts to ward off evil before the onset of the Burmese new year
which falls on the beginning of next week.

A local resident said that Than Shwe, accompanied by his family members
and retinue, arrived at Sittwe Airport on 13 April and went to worship at
the revered the Dulamala Pyilonechantha (The Nation Enriching) Pagoda. He
added local people think that than Shwe came to Sittwe to ‘thread on
victorious land’ as a way of warding off evil during the Thingyan (Water
Festival) period before the New Year.

“At Mrauk-U, victorious land means all the palace ground of the (old)
city. Historically, during the time of General New Win (the late
dictator), he came do this kind of thing,” said the resident.

The local authorities tightened security measures to the extent that even
a local mad man was detained, but not before wounding a policeman with a
machete.

____________________________________

April 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese students from Pegu College detained for writing poem released

Students from Pegu College in lower central Burma who had been arrested
and detained by authorities for writing and distributing a poem titled
Daung Man (the might of the fighting peacock), were released on 10 April.

But it is not known why and how they were released.

Hnin Wint Wint Soe, May Su Su Win, Ne Linn Kyaw, (Kyaw) Thet Oo, Win Min
Htut, (M)aung (M)aung Oo, and Zeya Aung - were arrested on 29 March. Zeya
Aung, son of U Aung, the proprietor of King Star teashop in Pegu, was
detained in the border town Myawaddy in eastern Burma on 29 March with
copies of Daung Man poem. Aung Aung Oo, proprietor of A2O Desktop
Publishing Business in Pegu was also arrested for printing the poem.

____________________________________

April 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Fire victims at Magwe Pwintbyu still homeless

The victims who were left homeless by the recent major fire at Pwintbyu,
Magwe Division in central Burma, still have no proper home to take shelter
under during the searing Burmese summer, as the township authority
chairman hasn’t granted them the permission to build their homes.

A major fire broke out at Ashayphetpine (East Side) Ward on 16 March and
more than 40 homes were destroyed. Therefore, around 60 families have been
temporarily taking refuge in a nearby monastery. Some refugees told DVB
that some of their priced properties fell victim to looters and thieves
due to lack of protection and safety.

At the same time, the township authority secretary Soe Tint insisted that
the authorities are surveying the lands properly so as to avoid disputes
in the future and they will be handed over to the owners legally as soon
as possible after the Burmese New Year, 17 April. He added that the
victims are well provided with necessary materials from the state, private
donors, the UNICEF and the Red Cross.

But those affected said that they were only given a bag of rice and 10000
Kyat (around US$ 5) for each family so far and they do not know where all
other donations had gone as they never received them.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
KIO urge Burma junta to consider NLD’s proposals

One of the most powerful armed ethnic national groups which signed
ceasefire agreements with Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), urged the junta Wednesday to respond
positively to the proposals of the National League for Democracy (NLD)
included in its special statement issued on 12 February.

The Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) which has been holding
ceasefire agreements with the SPDC since 1993 and attending the
junta-sponsored National Convention, said as the offer of the NLD is a new
political step, the junta should consider it seriously.

The comment of was made by KIO vice-chairman Dr. Tu Ja during an interview
with DVB in connection with a three-day emergency meeting at its HQs in
Laiza, Kachin State near the Sino-Burmese border, in response to rumours
that the SPDC is preparing to seize its territory.

“We see it as a positive sign, but it is important to substantiate it
pragmatically. Only then would it be useful. In order to substantiate it
pragmatically the NLD leaders and government leaders must hold discussions
– I mean, reciprocally. It would be only possible when they discuss with
balanced ‘give and take’. If they can’t do that they won’t be able to
substantiate it – that’s how we see it. Therefore, when it comes to this
matter, on the part of the KIO, for the sake of the union, whoever leads,
we see it from the optimistic side that (there could be a result through
wringing out ideas?)”

At the same time, the emergency KIO meeting reportedly aims to evaluate
the current political state and to elect new central committee members, as
well as to lay down future policy.

But local residents said SPDC troops from light infantry battalions 141,
260 and 29, stationed in the area of N’jang Yang, near Laiza, have poured
into the region, fuelling the rumours of an aggressive campaign by the
junta to wrest control of the area—particularly Laiza, Maija Yang and N’ba
Pa as they are revenue generating cities to the KIO.

But Tu Ja dismissed the speculation, saying the group has been in healthy
relations with the local Burmese commander who assured them that the
government will maintain the peace accord with the KIO.

____________________________________

April 14, Independent Mon News Agency
Five armed men surrender to military

Five armed men from an unknown armed group surrendered to the military
government authorities in Three Pagoda Pass (TPP). They were brought to
the Military Southeast Region Commander for a meeting yesterday, a source
close to TPP authorities said.

U Zee Yin and Thang Chung led the men from an armed group to surrender to
military authorities four days ago. They are to be resettled in Three
Pagoda, the source claimed.

The group claimed they were from Mergui Tavoy United Front (MTUF). But
MTUF authorities said none of its members had surrendered.

Of the surrendered men two are from Ye town, Mon State, one from Yangoon
and two from Mandalay .

Local armed groups said the armed men were made to retire from an armed
group. They collected some arms and surrendered to the military government
for a chance of acquiring business. The five men surrendered with two
pistols.

The men are to be resettled on 30 acres of land in east south of Three
Pagoda Pass town. This is the second time that armed men have surrendered
to Three Pagoda Pass authorities. Seven men surrendered the first time.

According to the surrendered men after the water festival more people will
surrender.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Children die from cholera in Mandalay where bird flu occurred

Some young children have been dying from cholera at some places in central
Burma’s Mandalay where the deadly avian flu H5N1 occurred recently.

Local residents told DVB that they are very concerned by the deaths of the
children although the Burmese military government insisted that the flu
outbreak is under firm control. Health staff also told DVB that there has
been an increase in the cases of cholera in recent days.

As the cholera outbreak is occurring out of season, staff from divisional
health department have been carrying out field works and tests and telling
people to spray disinfectants around the areas affected.

A nurse who doesn’t want to be identified said that most patients are
young children severe diarrhoea from poor wards in Kanthaya or Pyigyitagun
where the hygiene is particularly poor due to acute poverty. But another
nurse from Mandalay general hospital said that although she heard the
reports, no patient has been turning up at the hospital.

The reports of deaths came after more than 400,000 birds including
chickens and quails were culled recently in Mandalay as the deadly disease
were found in some of them. But some poor people reportedly cooked and
consumed chickens which should have been destroyed.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 14, socialfunds.com
Wal-Mart discloses equal employment opportunity data - Bill Baue

The company joined six others in the S&P 100 that publicly disclose their
EEO-1 report, but Wal-Mart still faces shareowner action on union-busting
and selling gems mined in Burma.

SocialFunds.com -- Earlier this week, Wal-Mart (ticker: WMT) broke new
ground by posting on its website its entire EEO-1 report, a confidential
document on worker diversity filed annually by companies with the US Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The move came in response to a
shareowner resolution filed by members of the Interfaith Center on
Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of 275 faith-based
institutional investors, which withdrew the resolution in recognition of
Wal-Mart taking this leadership step.

Free SRI Mutual Funds Kit"This move sets a new standard in corporate
transparency not only for retailers but for all Fortune 500 companies,"
said Barbara Aires, coordinator of corporate responsibility for the
Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, New Jersey, the lead filer of the
resolution since 2002. "As the largest publicly traded company in the U.S.
with the nation's largest workforce, Wal-Mart raised the bar for all
companies, both privately and publicly held."

"In publicly disclosing how women and people of color advance within the
company and what opportunities they have, the impetus for continued
progress in this area becomes more tangible," Sr. Aires added. "Our work
does not end with this report, however--we will continue our dialogue with
management on shaping human resources policies that set new standards for
openness and opportunity."

Wal-Mart joins only six other companies in the US S&P100 index that
publicly disclose their entire EEO-1 report, according to a survey by the
Social Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN). These companies
include Citigroup (C), Coca-Cola (KO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel
(INTC), International Business Machines (IBM), and Merck (MRK). Another 21
companies provide full EEO-1 disclosure on request from analysts, and
another six beyond that provide partial public disclosure.

"It took Wal-Mart a while to get to this point, but they are to be
commended for doing exactly what shareholders have been calling upon
companies to do," said Heidi Soumerai, director of social research at
Walden Asset Management, a socially responsible investing (SRI) firm that
co-filed the resolution. Ms. Soumerai also spearheaded the SIRAN survey
and "Call to Action" urging companies to disclose their EEO-1 reports.
"The first thing I did after hearing about Wal-Mart was alert Home Depot,
where we are filing a shareholder resolution requesting more comprehensive
EEO statistics--it's very important for them to see that if a company like
Wal-Mart can do it, they can too."

Home Depot (HD) used to make its EEO-1 survey available to analysts, but
it no longer does so, according to Ms. Soumerai.

"I also think it's interesting that Wal-Mart is doing this while in the
midst of a sexual discrimination lawsuit," Ms. Soumerai told
SocialFunds.com. "Many companies say that they have concerns that this
type of disclosure is the impetus for lawsuits."

"We believe that disclosure and accountability may actually help companies
avoid lawsuits," she added.

Wal-Mart publishes its own EEO-1 statistics alongside national and
industry statistics to provide easy comparison, a decision Ms. Soumerai
praises. Walden typically analyzes the top four categories--officials and
managers, professionals, technicians, and sales workers.

"It's clear to see where their numbers lag the industry--for example for
women in the officials and managers category--but you can also see that
they are ahead of the country as a whole on the other important
categories, such as professionals, technicians, and sales workers, which
are feeder groups for the official and manager category," said Ms.
Soumerai. "As for African-American officials and managers, they have 10.7
percent versus the industry's 8.3 percent, and in the rest of the
categories we look, they are better than the industry."

While the lack of historical data prevents shareowners from benchmarking
against past performance, this dataset sets a baseline for benchmarking
going forward.

"As long-term shareholders, one of the things we do with this information
is look at trends over time--that's one of the most important
apples-to-apples comparison we try to make, and now we have the ability to
do that," said Ms. Soumerai. "We would hope and expect to see progress
over a three- or five-year period in areas where we haven't seen progress
up until this point."

The move also raises the question of how Wal-Mart will handle other
shareowner negotiations. For example, a group of 10 SRI firms and
faith-based institutional investors sent a letter late last month to
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott asking the company to address its history of
union-busting activity. The company has not responded to the letter,
according to lead signatory Conrad MacKerron, director of the corporate
social responsibility program at the As You Sow Foundation. Company
spokesperson Marty Heires did not respond to SocialFunds.com's requests
for commentary.

Wal-Mart also faces investor concern over its sale of jewelry with gems
mined in Burma (or Myanmar), a country with a documented history of human
rights abuses. SRI firm Boston Common Asset Management sent a letter in
late March praising the company for not selling clothing made in Burma
since 1992, and asking the company to follow suit by not selling gems
mined there, just as Tiffany's (TIF) has done.

"I received a phone call from the company and they are willing to discuss
this further in dialogue," said Lauren Compere, chief administrative
officer of Boston Common. "I was told that they are examining the issue of
Burma sourced gems along with their overall sustainability efforts related
to jewelry, and this will become part of a larger policy addressing gold
and diamonds."

____________________________________

April 8, The Standard (Hong Kong)
Big Red hiding wood - Vaudine England

Urged on by Western demand for its products, China feels free to ravage
Burmese forests for its own greedy manufacturing industries which
manipulate country-of-origin loopholes, writes Vaudine England

S ince China announced a domestic logging ban to save its countryside from
precisely the destruction described above, Chinese wood and furniture
exporters hungry for supply have found it in their neighbors' backyards.
The starkest examples of the plunder that now feeds China's saw mills,
floor manufacturers and furniture showrooms are just across the border in
Burma.

A neat nexus between the corrupt military junta in Burma (or Myanmar), the
still-warring local armies of Kachin, Wa and Shan states in northern
Burma, and Chinese businessmen greedy for wood and profit is spurring a
booming industry.

It has also - as a new rack of reports by several environmentalist groups
show - led to the near total destruction of forests in border areas,
forcing Chinese loggers further inland into Burma. Eye-witness reports as
well as solid academic studies all point to the irrefutable conclusion
that the vast majority of wood used in Chinese export industries is
illegally logged, thereby breaking China's own laws and contravening
international rules too.

The trade has become so large and lucrative in less than a decade that
detailing its spread now keeps an army of researchers busy full time. Two
reports from the Global Witness group - most recently "A Choice for China"
from late last
year - focus on the Burma trade.

A succession of studies is also coming from the Washington-based Forest
Trends group which has worked with the Beijing-based Center for Chinese
Agricultural Policy and the Indonesian-based Center for International
Forestry Research. These organizations are part of a concerted effort
funded by the British Department for International Development and the
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

Forest Trends latest report, a culmination of five years of research,
shows that the United States, Japan and the European Union are the main
markets for wood products from China, most of which are derived from
illegal wood drawn from areas marked for their corruption and human rights
abuses. The report, "China and the Global Market for Forest Products:
Transforming Trade to Benefit Forests and Livelihoods," also details ways
in which China could allow for more sustainable logging industries, to the
greater of benefit of local peoples.

Separately, the British-based Environmental Investigation Agency, with the
Indonesian Telapak environmental research group, has produced
groundbreaking work naming individuals and companies involved in illegal
logging in Indonesia's Kalimantan and Papua provinces. Greenpeace joined
the fray with its "Sharing the Blame" report issued from Beijing on March
28.

"A significant part of China's timber imports comes from illegal or
destructive logging," says Sze Pang Cheung, a Greenpeace researcher.
"Developed countries' demand for Chinese products is fueling the global
forest crisis."

Differences in style between all these researchers exist, as do levels of
daring in the actual investigations - often involving going under cover in
inhospitable terrain and withstanding military and other harassment.

The overall pattern is clear however. Despite laws to the contrary in
China, where a relatively enlightened legal framework exists compared to
that in Burma, millions of tonnes of rare hard and softwoods are being
logged out of countries lacking their own safeguards and enforcement
regimes.

Sometimes the logging is done entirely by and for Chinese firms, through
Chinese middlemen, on roads built by Chinese, as in northern Burma. In
other places, such as Indonesia's Papua, the logging is carried out by
Malaysian firms (who deny it) under military or local militia guard.

What remains in common at source is that the local people see little
benefit from the trade.

Instead, factories in southern China and ports such as Shanghai are
heaving with the business.Tens of thousands of Chinese are converting the
rare woods into the chairs, tables, floor tiles, door and window frames
demanded by cost- conscious consumers in the United States and Europe.

One loophole which activists want changed is in the definition of "country
of origin."

"Once the timber has been `substantially transformed' - for instance in
the production of wooden furniture from logs or processed timber - its
designated country of origin becomes the country where the timber was
processed, not where it was logged," notes the "Choice for China" report.

Thus the country of origin rules are a way to launder illegal wood. And
Chinese customs papers sometimes cite the wood from Burma as being from
"the southwest," as if Chinese suzerainty over northern Burma had already
been formalized, Global Witness reports.

That's what Greenpeace means by "Sharing the Blame" - it is consumers in
the West, who have well- established laws against the illegal wood and its
products and who should know better, who are fueling the factories driving
the demand for the logs from areas such as Burma's unhappy Kachin State.

On the China-Burma border, for example, logs are taken out to China at
dozens of border points instead of the one legal exit-entry point at Muse.
Any export of teak is illegal, but it continues. Every deal involves
corruption and payoffs, usually to armed men. Timber cutting permits
issued by the Burmese junta allow logging for local purposes only, but the
logs are trucked straight to China.

The overwhelming weight of evidence conjures up images of middlemen
hacking through tough jungles, risking lives in difficult political and
geographical surroundings and setting drills and saws in motion to force
roads through mountain passes for truck drivers high on amphetamines and
last night's whoring in a Yunnan border town. And all to bring logs to
Chinese factories and so to the world.

Where once the industrious Chinese were famed for their endurance at the
world's gold rush sites, now they are leading a timber rush on a scale not
seen before. In only seven years, China's timber product exports have
tripled in volume and increased fourfold in value.

China is hardly the first country to have cast a greedy eye over Burma's
rich heritage of forests and areas of unparalleled biodiversity.

Interest in the teak forests of Tennaserim was instrumental in the British
decision to annex parts of Burma back in 1824, and victory in the Second
Anglo-Burmese War gave Britain control over the teak-rich forests of the
Pegu Yomas. Inequitable exploitation of natural resources has been a
primary cause of the ethnic insurgency ever since.

Susanne Kempel, a Global Witness investigator, smiled wryly as she pointed
out in Bangkok recently that the rape of Burma's forests was going on just
as China is promising a "Green Olympics," planting trees in Beijing to
make the city appealing in time for the 2008 show. Kachin villagers
interviewed by Global Witness believe the wood for the Olympic Village is
coming from Burma, claims which Global Witness is still checking with
Beijing officials.

The impact of Chinese incursions into northern Burmese forests is not just
environmentally devastating, but intensely political.

"Revenue generated from the cross- border timber trade with China has
funded conflict in Kachin State, led to human rights abuse and to
increased poverty," says the "Choice for China" report. "The trade has led
to increased factionalism, corruption and cronyism. It has also
intensified ethnic tensions between Kachin sub-groups, entrenched power
structures and created conditions in which local warlords have thrived."

All research done in these remote and complex areas points to a rise in
HIV/ Aids from the loose border controls, and a complicated relationship
to opium- growing rates. In some areas, opium cultivation has been
replaced by logging as a source of local income. In others, logs are
hollowed out to transport opium further afield. Drug traffickers have also
invested heavily in logging businesses as a means of money laundering.

Detailed studies show that floods are worsening in areas bordering logging
zones as denuded hillsides send fast- flowing water, sludge and raw logs
to wreak even more destruction on towns and rare natural habitats.

What marks out the Burma trade from China's sourcing of timber from other
countries is the extent to which Chinese operate in Burma with virtual
extra-territoriality.

An earlier Forest Trends report, "Navigating the Border: An Analysis of
the China-Myanmar Timber Trade," was done by three Yunnan-based
researchers, Fredrich Kahrl, Horst Weyerhaeuser and Su Yufang. It
concluded: "The majority of the logging that supports Yunnan's timber
product imports from Myanmar is done by Chinese companies with Chinese
equipment and Chinese workers, often supported with basic supplies from
China. Logging roads and frequently even major roads are built by Chinese
logging companies. At all levels, Chinese involvement is ubiquitous."

While there are hundreds of small- scale sawmills in border towns that
carry out minimal processing to reduce transit costs, in some cases, logs
are directly shipped to Kunming and Guangdong.

"Processing arrangements take several forms and it is at this link that
international influence begins to be more conspicuous. Malaysian and
Taiwanese companies, in particular, are active in providing finance and
corporate structure. In most cases, buyers come from outside of Yunnan ...
a plurality from Guangdong province," reported Kahrl and his colleagues.

Recent work by Global Witness shows that Chinese companies are plunging
further inland into north Burma's Kachin State. As the border areas have
become depleted - in less than a decade of frantic extraction - the
relatively untouched area between Burma's Mali Hka and N'Mai Hka rivers is
now being opened up. The headwaters region of the N'Mai Hka is one of the
hottest bio-diversity areas in the world.

"It is no surprise that a large proportion of the Chinese side of the
Gaoligongshan Mountains is protected by two national nature reserves. On
the western slopes of the mountains in Burma, however, there is a combined
logging and mining operation, the N'Mai Hku Project," notes "Choice for
China."

The project was started in 1997, but logging did not begin until 2002. It
is now going at full steam, largely unregulated, along a network of roads
built by Chinese firms. Among 10 Chinese firms identified so far, the
Kunming- based Huaxin Company has a 15-year contract to extract all it can
from the special area. Global Witness reports that Huaxin is an alliance
of six companies from Kunming, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and the
Chinese Ministry of Railways.

A similar picture of extensive Chinese financing, management, extraction
and transport of logs applies further south in the Wa State of northern
Burma.

Earlier this year, Global Witness investigator Kempel hoped to report that
logging out of Kachin State had dropped significantly. But after a lull of
four months, the transport of logs had started up again, with eye-witness
reports citing more than 100 trucks churning into southern China every
night.

Experts on governance in China note that the State Forest Administration
(SFA) is far weaker than the foreign and commerce ministries which hold
sway over trade and over the diplomacy which permits Chinese companies
such closeness to the pariah regime of Burma.

"The SFA only has authority over forests inside China, it has no authority
across borders. In general they have good intentions and want to regulate
some of it but how often are they able to enforce that?" Kempel says.

One academic studying China's environmental footprint beyond its borders
reckons the welter of reports from well-meaning non-government
organizations may even hinder progress.

"When you use a finger pointing strategy with China that doesn't really
get you anywhere," the researcher says, pleading anonymity for the sake of
his ongoing work.

"Most of these external agencies don't understand the internal structure
within China very well. So when they're trying to exert change or alter
behavior, it's difficult. The ministry of commerce and ministry of foreign
affairs are at the same rank and those ministries are at the same rank as
a province, so within the authority structure in China, one cannot demand
something of the other.

"Your ability to progress within the Chinese bureaucracy and Chinese
administrative system is based on economics. You need to be able to
demonstrate that you've improved the economic situation. For these things
to happen you have to have the highest levels of central leadership to
intervene. But even that is not enough because you have to have agreement
among a number of central leaders within the Chinese bureaucracy. So even
if the premier is pushing this himself, he as an individual will have
difficulty exerting his influence as he needs agreement within the central
levels," the researcher explains.

While all that is going on, villagers in north Burma are seeing hillsides
collapse, their ways of life destroyed and the profits of the illegal
trade sucked away.

"We would very much like to see the Chinese government take more concrete
steps to stop the trade. We know there have been talks, but this area of
Burma doesn't have much time left," Kempel says.