BurmaNet News, April 21, 2006

[Editor]

April 21, 2006 Issue # 2946


INSIDE BURMA
DVB: NLD issues follow-up statement to special statement
AP: Myanmar junta blames terrorists for blasts in Yangon
Newsweek Online: Techno revolution?
Mizzima: Burmese military raids KIA outposts
DVB: Seven years for soldiers who quit and blasts in Rangoon
DVB: Bad omen: 18 die from extreme heat after Burma’s Army Day parade

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: New wave of Wa settlers reach border
DVB: Pro-junta MP of Burma absconds to Thailand

ASEAN
AFP: ASEAN 'frustrated, disillusioned' with Myanmar: Malaysian FM
AFP: Thailand "disappointed" ASEAN envoy did not meet Suu Kyi

REGIONAL
AFP: Disgruntled Myanmar diplomat dies in arson attack on embassy

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: EU shares ASEAN frustration over Myanmar: foreign policy chief

OPINION / OTHER
blog.limkitsiang.com: First ASEAN MPs campaign - suspend Myanmar from
ASEAN – Lim Kit Siang

PRESS RELEASE
National League for Democracy Central Executive Committee: Special Statement

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD issues follow-up statement to special statement

Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD)
today issued another special statement, urging the ruling military junta,
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to urgently discuss with
political parties on the acceptance of humanitarian and international
helps.

The latest statement acts as the follow-up to the special statement issued
on 12 February which is still not responded to by the junta officially
despite the unthreatening deadline of 17 April. The latest statement again
asks the ruling generals to respond to it by 27 May, the day the NLD won a
landslide victory in 1990 election but never allowed to rule.

Both statements included the point of recognising the junta as a de jure
government if it allows the elected representatives of the 1990 election
to form a parliament. The former statement included various political
demands but the latest 11-points statement emphasises on the emergence of
pragmatic cooperations between the junta and the opposition to solve the
problems faced by the people of Burma.

The statement says that in order to solve the existing economic and social
problems faced by the people of Burma, international aid must be obtained,
and that in order to obtain the helps, Burma must have a legal government
that is recognised by the international community. It also offers to
recognise the SPDC as a legal interim government as it is a case of
emergency.

What is also extraordinary about this statement is, although no prior
consultation with the Committee Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP)
was carried out with the previous statement, the latest was issued during
a CRPP meeting which was held today.

____________________________________

April 21, Associated Press
Myanmar junta blames terrorists for blasts in Yangon

Yangon: Myanmar's military government blamed "terrorist insurgents" for a
series of small explosions that rattled the downtown area of Myanmar's
largest city, state media reported Friday.

Five explosions occurred in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday across Yangon,
causing minor damage but no injuries. The blasts took place near the main
train station, the general post office and three electricity transformers.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the government blamed "terrorist
insurgents for committing destructive acts to undermine peace and
stability and to harm lives and properties of the people."

The junta did not identify any group or organization, and no one has
claimed responsibility.

In the past the government has claimed that either ethnic minority
guerrillas or opposition exile groups were behind bombings in Yangon and
other parts of the country.

____________________________________

April 20, Newsweek Online
Techno revolution? - Joe Cochrane

Burma is known around the world for its authoritarian regime, but our
columnist discovered unexpected frivolity in the small country ruled by
iron fists

It could’ve been mistaken for a Bo Derek look-alike contest. Dozens of
young women sporting cornrow hair and revealing outfits strut around under
laser lights and pumping music. The guests at this popular dance club, the
Pioneer, could be forgiven for their outdated ‘80s and ‘90s fashions, for
this wasn’t the Hollywood Strip or New York, but Burma, one of Asia’s
prominent pariah states.

The country, called Myanmar by its military rulers, isn’t associated
internationally with dance clubs or, well, fun of any kind. People with a
rudimentary understanding of the place think it’s only authoritarian rule,
forced labor and gross human rights abuses around the clock. But that’s
only one side of the story. Despite its endless woes, Burma is also a
pretty happening place, as I learned last week.

Mid-April ushers in Buddhist New Year, and the Burmese Water Festival is
arguably the biggest party of any Buddhist country in Indochina.
Traditionally, people gathered to splash holy water on monks to
symbolically welcome the New Year. In Rangoon these days, it comprises
hundreds of thousands of people in cars, on foot, or on erected stages
dancing, drinking and spraying each other with high-pressure water hoses
and squirt guns. Western hip-hop and techno music blares from loudspeakers
at almost unbearable volumes, and live rock bands crank out ear-splitting
cords. It goes on for four days. It’s impossible to escape without getting
completely soaking wet—but then again, that’s the entire point.

Not bad for a pariah state. Then again, Burma is no North Korea. The
country is not hermetically sealed from the outside world despite attempts
by its ruling generals, who in the past have banned foreign journalists,
the Internet, mobile phones and satellite dishes. They are as inept as
they are cruel. Mobile phones are everywhere, the World Wide Web is
available to those who know where to find it, and satellite dishes dot the
skyline in Rangoon, where the teenage children of the country’s elite and
urban middle class kids can watch CNN and MTV. “There is a scene starting
up, music-wise,” says Immanuel Skinner, a Bangkok-based DJ who played at
the Pioneer club on New Year’s Eve. “There are outside influences coming
in. Music shouldn’t be labeled as a threat.”

Indeed, techno music today in Rangoon isn’t going to be what the Warsaw
shipping docks were to Poland in the 1980s. Nonetheless, Western music is
symbolic of the changes that are slowly but surely afoot within Burmese
society. Younger people are being exposed to outside ideas and
events—Western and Asian—via television and the Internet, as well as
interacting with the 250,000-plus tourists who visit Burma annually. These
are positive experiences. And these experiences occur because Burma’s
Asian neighbors have not followed the lead of the United States and
European Union to further isolate the country with economic and travel
sanctions. Cultural and diplomatic contacts continue, airplanes fly in
daily, foreigners interact with locals. Is it prudent to stop that?

In some ways, President George W. Bush’s decision in 2003 to ban Burmese
exports was morally correct because it showed America’s displeasure with
the junta’s behavior. (The ban occurred weeks after pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi was thrown in jail again). But as is often the case, the
sanctions only hurt the little people. Tens of thousands of young Burmese
women were immediately laid off from garment factories around Rangoon that
lost orders from America, and many went back to their rural villages
empty-handed. Some became freelance prostitutes in the capital.

Burma-watchers also endlessly debate the wisdom of a tourism boycott
called by Suu Kyi in 1995, when the junta launched its “Visit Myanmar
Year” for 1996. It seemed appropriate at that time because tourism dollars
were going straight into the junta’s pocket. But 10 years on, the boycott
is as misguided as it is harmful to the Burmese people. These days, most
hotels, travel agents and tour operators in Burma are privately owned, and
tourists are no longer required to buy government coupons redeemable only
at military-affiliated establishments.

Tourism is growing steadily in Burma. In 1995, the country had 117,000
international visitor arrivals. That number grew to 232,000 by 2005, and
is expected to exceed 260,000 this year. “Our position is that people
should continue to travel to Myanmar,” says Ken Scott, director of
communications of the Pacific Asia Travel Association. “We see travel as
an industry that brings benefits to people on the ground.”

Don’t believe him? Listen to Burmese comedian Lu Maw, a member of The
Moustache Brothers comedy troupe in the northern city of Mandalay. Two of
group’s members spent seven years in a labor camp for poking fun at the
generals—which they continue to do in their nightly English-language shows
for tourists. “We want witnesses—tourists are our Trojan Horse,” he told
NEWSWEEK during a recent interview. “Our job is to entertain and educate
them on what’s going on here.” In any event, Burma’s tourism industry
doesn’t even make it into the top five of the country’s gross domestic
product, so it’s hard to argue that it’s propping up the regime.

Cliché as it might sound, Burma’s 18-30 year olds will likely decide which
direction the country goes in the coming decades—continued
authoritarianism and corruption, or democracy and economic development.
For better for worse, the urbanites and more specifically, the children of
the elite in Rangoon, will be calling the shots. Exposure to the outside
world and its political, social and economic institutions will be far more
constructive than isolation and exclusion. The Pioneer club is at least a
start, with the country’s trendy future leaders gyrating to techno music
laden with special sound effects including echoes and even whinnying
horses. Bo Derek likes horses. In fact, she wrote a book about them. I
think she would like Burma too.

____________________________________

April 21, Mizzima News
Burmese military raids KIA outposts - Myo Gyi

Burmese troops under the Lashio-based Northeast Command seized four Kachin
Independence Army fourth brigade outposts near Mongko in northern Shan
State yesterday, residents in the area told Mizzima.

The Burmese military reportedly stormed the outposts as part of operations
against the KIA’s second and eight brigades that ended today.

Eyewitness said it was not clear if the KIA resisted the attack but some
members were taken by the military to Tamonye in army trucks.

A source close to the Burmese military said the operation was led by
Kutkai-based Strategic Command Commander colonel San Shwe Thar. Infantry
battalions 45 and 291 and light infantry battalion 326 took part in the
attack, sources said.

____________________________________

April 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Seven years for soldiers who quit and blasts in Rangoon

The army HQs in Rangoon recently issued an edict which says rank and file
soldiers, currently on duty at its HQs in the new capital Kyappyay near
Pyinmana in central Burma, will be charged with insubordination and
sentenced to seven years in prison if they apply for resignation from the
army.

At the moment, some low and high-ranking officers from the Air Force and
Navy who are carrying out their duties at their HQs in the new capital,
wish to be transferred to their old HQs in Rangoon due to unbearable heat
and malaria attacks at the new location. But only a few high-ranking
officers who could afford to bribe their higher officers were allowed to
be transferred to Rangoon, according to an army officer who doesn’t want
to be named.

As they are not allowed to apply for transfer to Rangoon, the majority
officers are in a position to apply for resignation from the army. But
they are thwarted by the latest edict from the HQs, making them feel
aggrieved by it. A series of bomb blasts in Rangoon today could be related
to the latest order from the military HQs, sources close to the military
told DVB.

____________________________________

April 20, Democratic Voice of Burma
Bad omen: 18 die from extreme heat after Burma’s Army Day parade

18 security personnel including soldiers died from extreme heat after the
taking part in the Armed Forces Day parade at Burma’s new capital near
Pyinmana in the central of the country, according to sources close to the
Burmese military HQs.

The majority of those who died were said to be members of fire brigades
and the Navy. They died from extreme heat and exhaustion, having taken
part in the rehearsals for the parade which was held on 27 March in the
middle of an arid plain.

The family members of the ruling junta, the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) chairman Gen Than Shwe, had to cancel their plan to
celebrate the Burmese New Year at the new capital because of the deaths
for fear of contracting evil influence, a soldier in charge of the
security of the capital told DVB on condition of anonymity.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 21, Shan Herald Agency for News
New wave of Wa settlers reach border

At least 2,000 new Wa civilians arrived in Mongton township, opposite
Chiangmai province, on Monday, 17 April, according to Thai and Shan
sources.

One source in Nakawngmu, quoting a Wa officer, says there were 39 trucks
bringing people from Panghsang, the Wa capital:

15 Ten-wheelers
12 Six-wheelers
12 Four-wheelers

The new arrivals were distributed to the following villages: Wanmai
Hsonkwi, Teuzan, Kiuzan, Kunghsa, Mongjawd and Monghta. "Vice Chairman Bo
Lakham (of the Wa) had secured agreement from Rangoon to resume the
relocations while he was there to attend the National Convention (5
December - 31 January)," he was reported as saying.

The three-year program that was launched in 1999 had brought more than
125,000 settlers from the Sino-Burma border in the north to the Thai-Burma
border in the south, according to Unsettling Moves, a report by Lahu
National Development Organization. The United Wa State Army however has
given much smaller figures: 40,000 - 50,000. The target figure, according
to it, is 100,000.

____________________________________

April 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Pro-junta MP of Burma absconds to Thailand

One of the elected representatives (MPs) of the National Union Party
(NUP), a pro-military junta, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) party, had fled Burma and held a news conference on the Thai-Burma
border today.

At the news conference organised by the Members of Parliament Union (MPU),
65-year old MP from Karenni (Kayah) State’s Pasaung Township, Saw Tarutu
said that he will continue to fight on for the emergence of democracy in
Burma.

Tarutu explained that he was a member of the now dissolved Burma Socialist
Programme Party and got elected as a candidate of the NUP hoping that he
would be able to help his people. But he became disillusioned with the
SPDC and subsequently joined the Medicine Sans Frontiers (MSF).

He was vilified for trying to help people living in remote areas and
accused of having contacts with the Karenni National Progressive Party
(KNPP) which is fighting against the junta. He fled Burma before the
military authorities had a chance to arrest and imprison him.

MPU welcomed his defection as the union claims that it will welcome and
work with anyone from any side who works for the good of the people.
Tarutu is the first pro-junta MP to join the pro-democracy opposition.

____________________________________
ASEAN

April 21, Agence France Presse
ASEAN 'frustrated, disillusioned' with Myanmar: Malaysian FM

Kuala Lumpur: Southeast Asian foreign ministers are frustrated and
disillusioned with Myanmar after failing to find common ground at their
meeting this week, Malaysia's Syed Hamid Albar reportedly said.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers gathering in Bali
had hoped to emerge with a strategy for dealing with the military-run
country which has become a major embarrassment to the region.

"I could sense the frustration and disillusionment among ASEAN foreign
ministers," Syed Hamid was quoted as telling Malaysian journalists by the
official Bernama news agency.

"I think we recognised that the Myanmar issue has crept in to disunite
ASEAN because there are different views held but we cannot project that to
the world," he said as he departed Indonesia late Thursday.

Syed Hamid has repeatedly complained that ASEAN cannot defend Myanmar as a
fellow member as long as it fails to provide proof that it is introducing
democratic reforms to end four decades of military rule.

"We told Myanmar 'you talked about us helping you but how can we when you
don't give us any ammunition'," he said.

Syed Hamid, who last month made an unsuccessful visit to Myanmar as ASEAN
envoy where he was denied access to detained opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, suggested he was giving up on the military regime.

"ASEAN has always been the initiator of change, but we recognise the fact
that we can only do so much. Maybe Myanmar will change if we leave them
alone," he said according to the Star daily.

"If the country is not willing, then it is difficult."

The foreign minister said Myanmar asked him whether he would like to visit
again, and that he replied he would have to be allowed to see Aung San Suu
Kyi and regime leader Senior General Than Shwe.

"I told Myanmar I don't mind continuing to do it but there must be
something worthwhile for me to go. It's okay if on the first trip we don't
achieve everything but if it is going to be worthwhile for me to go again,
I must be allowed to interact with the relevant people," he told Bernama.

____________________________________

April 21, Agence France Presse
Thailand "disappointed" ASEAN envoy did not meet Suu Kyi

Bangkok: Thailand's Foreign Minister said Friday he and his regional
counterparts were "disappointed" their envoy was forbidden from meeting
Myanmar's detained opposition leader on a visit to the country.

Kantathi Suphamongkhon said that Myanmar needed to show "tangible results"
in its democratic reforms, after returning from a one-day retreat to
Indonesia with foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).

"I was disappointed that (Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar) was
not able to meet Aung San Suu Kyi," Kantathi said in Bangkok, adding that
many of his colleagues shared that view.

"There is a general feeling that the visit by the ASEAN representative to
Myanmar should be seen as a part of the process of ASEAN involvement in
the process of national reconciliation in Myanmar," he said.

Syed Hamid said that if he were to return to Myanmar then he would have to
be allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi and regime leader Senior General Than
Shwe, the official news agency Bernama reported

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 21, Agence France Presse
Disgruntled Myanmar diplomat dies in arson attack on embassy

Kuala Lumpur: A former Myanmar diplomat was killed Friday when he torched
his embassy in an attack that completely gutted the building in Malaysia's
capital, officials said.

A senior Malaysian foreign ministry official told AFP that the disgruntled
man had entered the two-storey mission and then set it on fire.

"The fire was done by a former staff who had returned to the mission to
demand his salary. He then burnt the upstairs of the building. He died in
the fire," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official Bernama news agency also quoted police as saying that the
diplomat was believed to have set himself ablaze on the ground floor and
then run upstairs where most of the embassy's documents were stored.

Fire authorities said that 80 percent of the building was burned in the
afternoon attack on the mission in a leafy eastern suburb of Kuala Lumpur
where many other embassies and diplomatic residences are located.

The cream concrete building was devastated by the blaze, which shattered
windows and left the interiors covered in black smoke, shards of glass and
the twisted remains of furnishings and office equipment.

Water gushed out of the embassy compound as fire hoses drained away, while
people stood outside the smoke-stained walls trying to establish if their
visa applications and documents had been destroyed.

American citizens Steve Lauden and McKensie Jameson, both residents of
Malaysia, said they had left their passports at the embassy after applying
for visas to travel to Myanmar next week.

"They said to pick it up in two business days but when I got here, the
street was shut off and there were emergency services every where," said
Lauden as embassy officials milled around inside the compound.

"One guy said the passports might be okay and to check with them later,"
he said.

Police, fire officials with sniffer dogs and forensic experts were seen
inspecting the damage as electrical authorities cut off the supplies to
the building, which is surrounded by high concrete walls topped with razor
wire.

Fire and Rescue Department assistant operations director Ali Ismail said
they were alerted within minutes of the fire being spotted by that
emergency crews were misdirected to the nearby Egyptian embassy.

"By the time our firefighters reached the Myanmar Embassy, the building
was already engulfed by the fire," he told Bernama.

In April 2004, three Myanmar refugees firebombed the ground floor of the
embassy and attacked a senior diplomat with an axe, seriously injuring him
on the head and hands.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar expressed his regret over the
latest incident.

"It is important that the sanctity of any embassy in the country is
protected. I am saddened by the fire and express our condolence," he told
AFP.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 21, Agence France Presse
EU shares ASEAN frustration over Myanmar: foreign policy chief

Jakarta: The European Union is just as frustrated as Southeast Asian
countries over the situation in military-ruled Myanmar, its foreign policy
chief Javier Solana said Friday.

"We share the same frustration and we think that together we have to see
how we can get Myanmar to evolve in the direction that it is supposed to
evolve in," Solana said.

As a member state of ASEAN, Myanmar "should be a country that has the same
rules and the same behaviour" as other member states have, Solana told a
press briefing after talks with Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan
Wirayuda.

"For us, the evolution (of Myanmar) is a must," added Solana.

The EU and the United States have imposed sanctions on the nation, which
has held Nobel Peace Prize-winner and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
in detention for most of the last 16 years.

Her party won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to govern.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers met this week
hoping to emerge from their meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali with
a strategy for dealing with the nation which has become a major
embarrassment to the region.

But Malaysia's Syed Hamid Albar said afterwards that the ministers had
become frustrated and disillusioned with Myanmar after failing to agree on
a common strategy to deal with its generals.

"I think we recognised that the Myanmar issue has crept in to disunite
ASEAN because there are different views held but we cannot project that to
the world," he said according to the official Bernama news agency.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 21, blog.limkitsiang.com
First ASEAN MPs campaign - suspend Myanmar from ASEAN – Lim Kit Siang,
Malaysian MP

The ASEAN Foreign Ministers Retreat in Bali in the past two days had been
a total failure. Never before had such high hopes been vested in an ASEAN
Foreign Ministers Retreat and never again is it likely to become such an
utter flop.

Before the Bali Retreat, several ASEAN Foreign Ministers had been quite
frank and outspoken about the ASEAN crisis posed by Myanmar’s intransigent
policies.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said ASEAN must be firm with
Myanmar whose military junta is holding ASEAN hostage hampering progress
and bringing the region into disrepute.

But this was what the ASEAN Foreign Ministers had allowed the Myanmar
military junta to do in Bali, not only overshadowing all other topics at
the Retreat, but binding the ASEAN hostage tighter it its embrace in
exposing the impotence of regional organization.

When Syed Hamid conceded yesterday that the ASEAN Foreign Ministers had
decided to “throw in the towel” as there is nothing more they could do,
and “their only hope now is that Myanmar’s military junta will come to
their senses”, it marked the lowest point of ASEAN credibility in its
39-year history.

This is because the Myanmar military junta had been rewarded instead of
reprimanded for its intransigence and contempt for the Kuala Lumpur ASEAN
Summit decision last December when it showed so little respect to the
special ASEAN envoy dispatched to Myanmar. Syed Hamid, the special ASEAN
Summit envoy, was denied a meeting with top junta leader Senior General
Than Shwe and Burmese Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi and had even to
cut short his visit by one day, after his trip was repeatedly put off by
the military junta.

The concerns and disappointments expressed before the Bali Retreat by
ASEAN leaders including its Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong, Indonesian
Foreign Minister Hassan Sirayuda, Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi
Suphamongkhon, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo, Philippine Foreign
Minister Alberto Romula, at the lack of movement in Myanmar towards
democratization and national reconciliation had come to nought and in fact
counted for nothing.

The acquiescence of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers to the repeated violation
of the pledges by the Myanmar military junta on democratization and
national reconciliation, including the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, is a
most adverse reflection on them and a blot for ASEAN.

It is most shocking that the ASEAN Foreign Ministers could timidly accept
the latest outrage of the Myanmar military junta – its continued
stone-walling of democratization and national reconciliation with its
latest time-table of requiring another two years before the first of its
“Seven-step Roadmap to Democracy” could be completed.

The “Seven-step Roadmap” includes reconvening of the NationalConvention to
draft a new constitution, adoption of the constitution by referendum,
holding of free and fair election, convening of Hluttaws (Parliament), the
election of state leaders and formation of government and other central
organs that would lead the nation in the future.

The military junta had been writing a new Constitution for the country for
the past 13 years when a national convention was first convened in 1993.
At this pace of progress, it may take another eight years before the new
constitution is drafted – as at present, nine chapters of the constitution
had been completed with six more left.

ASEAN foreign ministers, leaders and governments must make it clear to the
Myanmar military junta that such unco-operative attitude and intransigence
is completely unacceptable and antithetical to the ASEAN community spirit.

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) in its meeting in
Bangkok last September had resolved to launch a campaign seeking the
suspension of Myanmar from ASEAN if there is no material progress in
democratization and national reconciliation in the next 12 months.

This 12-month period is coming up, and I call on ASEAN MPs, regardless of
nation, political ideology or gender to unite for the first time in ASEAN
history to launch a campaign for Myanmar’s suspension from ASEAN if no
meaningful progress in democratization and national reconciliation,
including release of Aung San Suu Kyi, is achieved in the next three
months.

The 39th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 26-28,
2006 would be the most appropriate occasion for the launch of the AIPMC
initiative among ASEAN Parliamentarians for the suspension of Myanmar from
ASEAN to restore the international image and credibility of ASEAN and
ASEAN MPs .

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

April 20, National League for Democracy Central Executive Committee
Special Statement

The National League for Democracy
(97/B) West Shwegondaing Street
Bahan Township, Rangoon


1. 	The National League for Democracy on the Union Day (12th February,
2006), which is one of the auspicious days of the history of the country,
with the frank and honest intention and stressing for the benefit of the
country and the people, issued a special statement calling for the
formation of a People's Parliament to proclaim the State Peace and
Development Council as a legitimate ruling council. The People's
Parliament is the one and only authority to proclaim as such. Only after
becoming a legitimate body, the State Peace and Development Council could
more effectively solve the general crises in the country.

2.         	The undeniable actual situations occurring in the country are:

(1) Excessive high prices,
(2) Rampant inflation,
(3) Difficulties for food, clothing and shelter faced daily by the general
public,
(4) Deepening wealth gap between haves and haves-not and the dwindling
middle class,
(5) Increasing poverty,
(6)Transportation difficulties,
(7) Inadequate domestic energy sources,
(8) Deterioration of environment and the depletion of natural resources,
(9) Failure to prevent cultivation, production, transportation, selling,
and distribution of narcotic drugs,
(10) Inability to prohibit trafficking persons,
(11) Inability to prevent and control off pandemics such as HIV/AIDS,
malaria, tuberculosis and avian flu.

3. 	Because of the insufficiency of financial resources in the country to
solve the above problems, the situation is reached whereby the
humanitarian assistance from the international organizations including the
United Nations is urgently required. Plans should be made such that the
humanitarian assistance reaches the affected persons. This will mean that
compassion is shown towards those people.

4. 	The State Peace and Development Council requires to be a legitimate
ruling council to solve the above general calamities and pandemics
suffered by the people. Only the legitimate governance could effectively
and urgently solve the above overall problems including the acceptance of
the humanitarian assistance. As a first step the State Peace and
Development Council and the National League for Democracy are urgently
required to discuss justifiable practical issues for the benefit of the
people. Discussion with the representatives of the multi ethnic
nationalities is to be followed as the next step. To prevent the looming
dangers such as pandemics the proposals of the National League for
Democracy should be considered seriously by the State Peace and
Development Council. All the internal and external problems are always
solved through dialogue in any county. There are many evidences both in
internal and international affairs that prove that no problem could be
settled constructively for the country and the people without dialogue.

5.         	Hence focusing on the interests of the country and the people,
the National League for Democracy is frequently attempting to fulfill the
needs through dialogue according to the democratic practice and the
principles off rule of law. Therefore, if the State Peace and Development
Council could respond by the 27th May 2006, which is the Anniversary of
the Multi Party Democracy General Election during which the electorates,
hoping for the relief from their sufferings and fulfillment of their
interests, elected their representatives and the mandate was given, then
only the aspiration of the people who are wishing for a progressive change
will he revitalized.

By the resolution of the meeting of the Central Executive Committee held
on 19-4-06

Central Executive Committee
National League for Democracy