BurmaNet News, April 27, 2006

[Editor]

April 27, 2006 Issue # 2950

“I think that we have to explode
You can’t just despair, my sons
(children). You have to do something. We have to find a way by public
(movement) means to do things needed to be done. If you don’t do that
nothing will happen.”
- Ludhu Daw Ama, 91-year old renowned Burmese public intellectual and
writer, as quoted on DVB radio from her home in Mandalay on April 26, 2006

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: NLD under new threat
AP: Major Myanmar offensive uproots 11,000 civilians, atrocities reported
Mizzima: Burmese military tells Karens they will shoot to kill
DVB: Do or die: People power should be used if Burma junta doesn’t respond
to NLD call for action – respected Burmese author Ama
SHAN: War: Fighting resumes

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: High oil prices force closure of fuel stations in border areas
IMNA: Authorities order relocation of private homes in Burmese border town

BUSINESS / TRADE
The Myanmar Times via BBC: Burma's central bank moving to new capital
Mizzima: India to tackle gem smuggling from Burma - Syed Ali Mujtaba

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: Border health conference begins in Ratchburi

DRUGS
AP: Myanmar junta hosts bonfire of narcotics for foreign diplomats

REGIONAL
AFP: Myanmar migrants stranded in Indonesia refuse to return home

PRESS RELEASE
Conservative Party (UK): William Hague speech to the Conservative Human
Rights Commission
Canadian Friends of Burma: Ivanhoe undermines civil rights movements in
Mongolia; Protest brought a spotlight on Ivanhoe operations in Burma

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 27, Irrawaddy
NLD under new threat - Yeni

The Burmese military regime has delivered a new attack on the leading
National League for Democracy party, saying it could be viewed as an
unlawful association.

During a news briefing at a narcotics-burning event in Shan State on
Wednesday, Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan said that the regime
has enough evidence to declare the NLD an unlawful association because of
its links with terrorist groups and exiled dissident organizations.

The party of detained Noble Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has
repeatedly denied such charges by the junta. After this latest one, NLD
spokesman, lawyer Nyan Win, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the
regime’s allegation is not strong enough for any legal action on the
party’s status.

“Instead of beating around the bush like this, they should find a way we
can work together for the transitional period,” he added.

Myint Thein, another spokesman for the NLD, also explained his party’s
current position is not about power sharing with the ruling generals, if
that was worrying them. “Our latest policy is focusing on how to solve the
country’s humanitarian crisis through dialogue and compromise,” he said.

According to the NLD’s “special statement,” released last week, the
country is suffering rampant inflation, lack of food security, increasing
poverty, inadequate domestic energy sources and an inability to prevent
and control epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and avian
flu.

The NLD also called on the military regime on February 12 to accept its
proposal to convene a “people’s parliament.” Under this, the NLD would
recognize the current regime as a “de jure” government, in return for
letting winners of the unrecognized 1990 general election form a
parliament.

However, Kyaw Hsan rejected the party’s proposal at Wednesday’s briefing,
saying the NLD now had only 87 remaining elected representatives, because
some members had been arrested for “violating laws,” while others had gone
through “resignation and passing away.” He also said military government
will not hold any dialogue with the NLD outside the national
constitution-drafting convention, which the NLD has boycotted as
undemocratic.

In the 1990 general election, the NLD won in 392 of 485 constituencies.
But the party then claimed that many elected members had been forced to
resign under various types of pressure by the regime.

Kyaw Hsan accused the opposition party of dancing to the tune of foreign
masters, and if it was truly concerned about the country’s development,
“they should demand its foreign masters to revoke sanctions against
Myanmar [Burma].” This was a reference to sanctions clamped on Burma by
the US and EU.

____________________________________

April 27, Associated Press
Major Myanmar offensive uproots 11,000 civilians, atrocities reported

U.S. lawmakers condemned a brutal offensive by Myanmar's army against
ethnic minority civilians, calling on the U.N. Security Council to take
urgent action against the country's ruling junta, statements received
Thursday said.

Myanmar troops have uprooted more than 11,000 Karen civilians in their
biggest offensive in almost a decade a campaign punctuated by torture and
killings, according to reports from inside the country and Thailand.

Troops in eastern Myanmar have torched Karen villages and sent inhabitants
fleeing into jungles in a campaign to suppress a decades-old insurgency,
say reports from Free Burma Rangers, a group of Westerners and ethnic
volunteers who provide aid to displaced people in the country, formerly
known as Burma.

Tom Lantos, the top Democrat on the U.S. House International Relations
Committee, said the attacks were a "deadly escalation of what is already
one of the world's most serious humanitarian disasters."

"The Burmese military junta must call off its campaign against innocent
civilians," he said

He called on the U.N. Security Council to follow up on its debate last
December on Myanmar with a binding resolution aimed at stopping the
violence. "The longer the Security Council waits, the more villages will
be destroyed and more people will die," he said.

Some 11,000 people have fled their homes due to the onslaught, which began
last November and has recently intensified, the Free Burma Rangers said.
About 1,500 refugees have fled across the border to Thailand, and aid
officials fear others will follow in coming months to swell the more than
140,000 already in Thai refugee camps.

Another congressman, Republican Joe Pitts, said the latest reports suggest
the junta was actively hunting down more than 2,000 of the displaced.

"The thugs of Rangoon are on a violent rampage," he said, referring to
Yangon, the country's former capital.

A leading British human rights advocate and House of Lords member,
Baroness Caroline Cox, described the offensive as "the latest atrocities
in a long litany of crimes against humanity" by the junta.

The military-run government has denied any human rights violations against
ethnic minority groups, including the Karen, which it blames for a spate
of recent bombings in the country.

"There is no offensive against the Karen National Union but security
measures have been taken and cleaning-up operations are being conducted in
some areas where (KNU) terrorists are believed to be hiding," Information
Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan told reporters in Yangon earlier this month,
referring to the main Karen rebel group.

But observers say the scale of the attacks is the largest since a major
offensive against the Karen in 1997, and suggest that the military is
trying to secure the hinterland east of the country's newly established
capital of Pyinmana.

"They don't want the KNU near their new capital," said KNU
General-Secretary Mahnshar Laphan.

Myanmar's military regimes, which first came to power in 1962, waged war
against numerous ethnic insurgent groups seeking autonomy until a former
junta member, Gen. Khin Nyunt, negotiated cease-fires with 17 of them.

But his ouster in 2004 reinforced hard-liners within the ruling junta and
"resulted in increasing hostility directed at ethnic minority groups,"
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in its 2006 report.

The KNU are the largest of the rebel groups still facing off against the
regime's 500,000-strong military.

The violence of recent years has spawned an estimated one million internal
refugees and accelerated an exodus to neighboring countries.

A recent report by Free Burma Rangers said the Myanmar army destroys any
Karen homes it comes across. "If civilians are encountered on the way,
they shoot at them," it said.

In one incident described in the report, Myanmar soldiers killed Saw Maw
Keh as he was carrying his 80-year-old mother up a steep hill in western
Karen State this month. The two were gunned down at point-blank range by
soldiers near their village, which was being abandoned in face of an
attack.

Nearby, a still unidentified villager was found with an eye gouged out and
his nose cut off, one of the incidents of torture the group has documented
with graphic photographs and video.

____________________________________

April 27, Mizzima News
Burmese military tells Karens they will shoot to kill - Jessicah Curtis

Reports have emerged from Karen State that the Burmese military has told
civilians they had until last Tuesday to leave their homes or face being
shot on sight.

According to the Free Burma Rangers, Major Aung Yan Tun of the military’s
Light Infantry Battalion 168 told villagers from Ye Lo, Ta Pa Kee and Plo
Baw Der in Toungoo district last Saturday if they had not relocated to
Play Htsa Lo by April 25, they would be killed.

More than 11,000 Karens have fled their homes in the past three months as
the military launched attacks against civilians, burning villages, looting
stocks and shooting villagers at random.

In Karen State’s Muthraw district light infantry battalion 366 shot and
killed 17-year-old Saw Has Rae Sae as he worked in his rice field near Paw
Mu Der village on April 20. His friend, Saw Kyay Nu Wah was also shot an
injured, according to FBR.

“The SPDC uses force to clear areas they would like to occupy, driving
civilian villagers from their land and fields. It is very difficult for
them to survive . . .” a Karen FBR relief team leader said in a statement.

“All of their possessions have been taken or destroyed by the SPDC . . .
Their life in hiding sites is so difficult that many are now trying to
cross the border to the refugee camps in Thailand. Others, despite their
difficulties, choose to stay in the jungle and not leave their country.”

The scale of the Burmese military’s recent attacks in Karen State has been
compared to the 1997 offensive that almost wiped out the armed resistance
group the Karen National Union.

In the past military offensives in Karen State were limited to the dry
season but the KNU told Mizzima this week they were concerned the attacks
would continue during the monsoon.

____________________________________

April 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
Do or die: People power should be used if Burma junta doesn’t respond to
NLD call for action – respected Burmese author Ama

If Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
doesn’t respond to the National League for Democracy (NLD) call for urgent
actions to help the country, public movements must be carried out, the
renowned Burmese author Ludhu Daw Ama said.

91-year old veteran journalist and author Ludhu Daw Ama stated that the
SPDC government’s failure to respond to the call for the formation of a
people parliament in order to solve the existing political problem of
Burma shows that the junta is unable to find a way out of the political
stalemate.

“The NLD is calling for a way out (of the political stalemate). Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi is calling for a way out. Nothing happened. They (the ruling
generals) are not taking a way out. Whatever way out you show them they
won’t take it. Nothing happened at their Nyaung-Hnapin (National
Convention). If you stay on like this, nothing will happen,” said Ama.

By looking at the way the SPDC government repeatedly ignore the calls of
the NLD, a solution could only be found with a public uprising, Ama added.

“Our country tends to explode from unexpected places. Only then would the
camp be dismantled. That’s what I think. I think that we have to explode,”
said Ama from her home in central Burma’s Mandalay. “You can’t just
despair, my sons (children). You have to do something. We have to find a
way by public (movement) means to do things needed to be done. If you
don’t do that nothing will happen. They will go on like that.”
____________________________________

April 27, Shan Herald Agency for News
War: Fighting resumes

Shan State Army positions held since the clash on 21 April were stormed by
joint Burma Army-Wa-militia troops this morning, according to Shan and
Thai sources on the border.

The assault followed mortar shellings by the Army at 10:15 (Bangkok time).
According to Lt-Col Gawnzuen, SSA commander at Loi Kawwan, between Burma's
Monghsat township and Thailand's Chiangrai province, the attacking force
is composed of 250 Wa, 200 militia and 100 Burma Army men, while the
number of the defenders at present are less than 200, according to a Thai
source.

The fight began when the SSA patrol, lying in ambush for what it maintains
a heroin convoy on 21 April, ran across a joint Burma Army-militia column
near Maejok, a village in Mongkarn tract, Monghsat township, across the
border from Hmong Pat Lang village, Therdthai tract, Mae Faluang district.
No drugs were captured by the SSA fighters however although they found 4
dead militiamen at the killing ground.

The following is the chronology of events:

21 April: The SSA moves to positions south of the killing ground and the
Burma Army to the north as darkness falls.

22 April: Jalaw Bo, a deputy of Wei Hsuehkang, arrives at Maejok to confer
with Burmese authorities. He later dispatches elements from the United Wa
State Army's 814th and 101st battalions.

23 - 26 April: Sporadic fighting as each side tries to probe the other

26 April: Junta authorities hold drug bonfire in Kengtung, 102 miles north
of Maesai

27 April: Fierce fighting resumes as of 10:15

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 27, Irrawaddy
High oil prices force closure of fuel stations in border areas - Sai Silp

Vehicle fuel is proving harder to obtain in north Thai-Burmese border
areas following the closure of around 100 retail stations in recent
months.

A spokesman for the Chiang Rai oil trader group, Kowit Suppamongkol, told
The Irrawaddy that 50 percent of gas stations in the province had closed
because the tenants could not afford the higher bulk purchase price
imposed by the oil companies.

Rising fuel prices, caused by spiralling global crude oil rates, are also
pushing up food prices in the border region, a survey by The Irrawaddy
found.

Higher fuel prices within Thailand, where state subsidies were recently
removed, have also stopped Burmese crossing the border to buy Thai fuel.
Instead, Thai officials have begun checking to prevent cheaper Burmese
fuel being smuggled into Thailand for resale.

Montri Barompichaichartkul, manager of a fuel station in Mae Sai, said
cafe food prices there have gone up from 15-20 baht a dish to 30 baht in
the last few months and sales of fuel had dropped.

But an official from Department of Internal Trade in Chiang Rai said food
prices in local markets were being monitored and any attempt to profiteer
from the oil price hike would be dealt with severely.

“If traders break the law they will face double the fine for taking
advantage of consumers during a difficult time,” the official said.

Fuel prices in Chiang Rai are reportedly higher than elsewhere in Thailand
because petrol and diesel have to be trucked in over long distances.

____________________________________

April 27, Independent Mon News for Agency
Authorities order relocation of private homes in Burmese border town -
Banyol Kin

People in parts of Three Pagoda Pass town are being displaced for
implementation of town development projects. Dozens of private houses were
destroyed and people relocated by local military authorities in a
Thai-Burmese border town recently.

More than 70 private house owners, near the police station in Three Pagoda
Pass town have been ordered to move to Thaung Wine, northeast of town. The
relocation programme was decided by local authorities at a meeting
yesterday, an official said.

“I think it is positive and good for us because we will own 40/60 feet
wide land,” said Mi Mu Zaw, a member of a relocated family.

One local official, who asked not to be named, told IMNA that at the
meeting authorities also agreed to provide compensation for 47 families
who have house registration documents.

With their old houses destroyed, the people cannot move to a new place
because they don't know where to live as authorities did not measure the
land for them, according to an eyewitness.

Some are living in temporary shelters at their old place and some are
staying in friends' homes, he said.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 10, The Myanmar Times via BBC
Burma's central bank moving to new capital - May Thandar Win

The Central Bank of Myanmar is moving to the new administrative centre
Naypyidaw City near Pyinmana in a move that follows a shift government
ministries started in November. The Central Bank will operate "as usual"
with online reporting at its Naypyidaw office, vice president of the
Myanmar Banks Association U Thein Htun said. When the move will take place
has not yet been announced.

____________________________________

April 27, Mizzima News
India to tackle gem smuggling from Burma - Syed Ali Mujtaba

India plans to train young men from Mizoram State to authenticate gems in
an attempt to curb the smuggling of precious stones from Burma, according
to the Indian Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

Ruban Hobday, the regional director of GJEPC in Chennai, told Mizzima the
decision to launch the training was made after repeated calls from the
group to stop smugglers.

Hobday said India’s ministry of commerce had finally agreed to fund the
training in Mizoram in partnership with GJEPC.

“Under this program training would be given to the boys to judge the
quality and the purity of the gems so that they are able to distinguish
the real from the fake gems,” Hobday said.

Rubies, yellow diamonds and jade are often smuggled from Burma into
India’s northeastern states. Many Indian dealers who are unable to
distinguish real gems from fakes are duped by smugglers.

“Such a program would help a great deal to tackle the smugglers who are
pushing in fake gems from Burma into India
and would also benefit the
[Indian] gem industry in a big way, as it would be able to get the right
kind of precious stones that it requires from Burma,” Hobday said.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 27, Irrawaddy
Border health conference begins in Ratchburi - Sai Silp

More than 150 border health workers attended a conference today that
focused on disease surveillance and the development of treatment systems
among migrant workers and refugees along the Thai-Burmese border.

The event was organized by Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health and the
World Health Organization Thailand to evaluate healthcare conditions in
ten provinces along the border, where local authorities and aid agencies
are working to prevent disease and improve medical services.

One coordinator of the event told The Irrawaddy that the conference is an
attempt to strengthen collaboration among concerned NGOs and local health
authorities.

“We will create the border health master plan and other operation plans
for health issues such as avian flu, Tuberculosis and malaria, as any
outbreak would make the border region a high risk area.”

The coordinator added that one obstacle to improved healthcare is the
mobility of many border residents.

“Some patients need extended treatment for illnesses such as TB, which
requires a six-month course of treatment. The mobility of migrant workers
often adversely affects treatment programs. So we plan to create a more
effective way of insuring that they get their full course of treatment.”

Dr Jaruwaree Snidwonghe Na Ayuddhaya, assistant manager of the World
Vision Foundation of Thailand’ Advocacy and Special Projects division,
said the conference is a good sign because it shows that the government
has a greater awareness of the importance of border health issues,
particularly among migrant workers.

“We [NGOs] still need support from the government because we cannot work
in the area permanently, and some local residents and government officials
don’t understand our work,” said Dr Jaruwaree. “I noticed that in this
meeting, officials from various departments are participating in a way
that shows that they may be better coordinated in the future.”

Dr Jaruwaree said the conference’s opening address included information
that shows some 33 percent of TB patients, and 95 percent suffering from
malaria, are in the border region.

In remote areas where people have little access to public medical
services, aid agencies play a vital role in providing health information
and treatment, transferring patients to hospitals and reporting emergency
situations.

The two-day conference, which concludes on Friday in Ratchburi, began with
visits to Tham Hin refugee camp and a migrant worker community in Samut
Sakorn province.

____________________________________

April 27, Agence France Presse
Myanmar to resume chicken sales after bird flu outbreak

Myanmar plans to resume sales of chicken within days in the central city
of Mandalay, after banning poultry sales in a bid to control a bird flu
outbreak, the state media said Thursday.

"The disease was under control in the restricted zones and the committees
will lift the ban before the end of April and are making arrangements for
regular flow of commodities," the ministry of livestock and fisheries said
in a statement in official media.

The ministry also said that the bird flu outbreak has been under control
since April 6, with no new cases detected.

The deadly H5N1 virus was confirmed in 13 townships around the central
Myanmar city of Mandalay in March, and the poultry sales have been banned
since then.

"The bird flu control committee will take measures on transport of fresh
fowl and eggs and their products," the statement said.

So far, 650,000 chickens, ducks and quails and 180,000 eggs have been
destroyed, it said.

Myanmar said it had received millions of dollars in donations of
laboratory and medical equipment, from UN agencies, Thailand, China and
Japan to fight the disease.

UN officials have expressed grave concern over the bird flu situation in
Myanmar, because of the country's poor economic situation and its
crumbling health care system.

The H5N1 strain has killed more than 100 people in nine countries since
2003. Scientists fear a global pandemic if the virus mutates and becomes
easily transmissible between humans.

There have been no reported human cases in Myanmar.

____________________________________
DRUGS

April 27, Associated Press
Myanmar junta hosts bonfire of narcotics for foreign diplomats

Myanmar's military junta incinerated US$1.4 billion (euro1.1 billion)
worth of heroin and other drugs in a giant bonfire organized for foreign
diplomats to show the country's commitment to cleaning up its image as a
drug haven.

Diplomats from Thailand, China, the Philippines and Japan, among other
Asian countries, attended the ceremony Wednesday in northeastern Myanmar
where drug enforcement officials torched a massive cocktail of narcotics
confiscated since the beginning of the year.

It included about 55 kilograms (120 pounds) of heroin, over 1,000
kilograms (2,200 pounds) of opium, thousands of stimulant tablets and
thousands of liters of chemicals used to make narcotics.

Police Maj. Gen. Khin Yi said the drugs, burned in the northeastern town
of Keng Tung, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) from the Thai border, were
seized in cooperation with Thai and Chinese authorities.

"Myanmar will continue to do its utmost with or without external
assistance to overcome the threat posed by drugs to the country and the
international community at large," he said.

Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium and its
derivative, heroin, after Afghanistan. The Southeast Asian nation has set
a goal of being opium-free by 2014.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 27, Agence France Presse
Myanmar migrants stranded in Indonesia refuse to return home

A group of 77 Myanmar Muslims who became stranded on an Indonesian island
have vowed to continue their journey to seek work overseas, an Indonesian
navy commander said Thursday.

Colonel Aswoto Saranang, the navy chief on Sabang island, said the
government was considering returning the 77 men to international waters
while Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta wanted them to be turned back to their
country.

But Saranang said the boatpeople had told officials they did not want to
go back to Myanmar because they could not find decent jobs there.

"They'd rather die in Sabang than return to Myanmar. They are determined
to go to Malaysia, or Thailand," Saranang told AFP.

Saranang said local officials were consulting with the immigration
department and foreign ministry in Jakarta on what to do with the
Myanmarese.

"One option is to return them to international waters. But let them
recover their health first and besides, the weather is not good this
week," he said.

Officials at the Myanmar embassy could not be reached for comment.

The men, who landed on Rondo island off northern Sumatra last Saturday
after their boat ran out of fuel, have been sheltered at the navy base on
nearby Sabang.

All are men and ethnic Muslim Rohingyas from Myanmar's Arakan state, aged
between 20 to 35, officials have said.

Navy chief Saranang had earlier said they told officers that they had left
Myanmar to seek better livelihoods in the Malaysian state of Penang and
were not fleeing persecution.

In 1992, more than 200,000 Rohingyas, about a third of their population,
fled over Myanmar's border into Bangladesh, accusing the Yangon military
regime of persecution.

About 20,000 remain in two refugee camps while others are living illegally
in the surrounding area.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

April 25, Conservative Party Press Release
William Hague speech to the Conservative Human Rights Commission

Speaking at Conservative Human Rights Commission event on Tuesday 25th
April (at 6:00pm), Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague will highlight
the plight of Human Rights workers in Burma. Charm Tong will speak to the
Commission about her experiences as a human rights activist in Burma.

Prior to the event Charm Tong said:

"I appreciate the fact that the Conservative Human Rights Commission has
chosen Burma as the subject for its first hearing.  This will help
highlight the deteriorating situation and abuses in Burma, such as the
systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, extra-judicial killings and the
continuing use of forced labour which forces hundreds of thousands of
people from their homes.

"The UK must increase pressure on the regime by banning new investments in
Burma, taking Burma back to the UN Security Council and providing more
support for refuges internally displaced people and pro-democracy groups."

Full text of William Hague's speech:

"In a few minutes, we will hear from a heroine in the fight for freedom: A
young woman who has seen, day after day, the suffering of her own people
at the hands of one of the world's most brutal regimes and who has bravely
chosen to speak out.

Four years ago and while only 20, Charm Tong set up a unique school in
northern Thailand to train a new generation of human rights activists. She
is also a founding member of the widely respected Shan Women's Action
Network (SWAN), whose meticulous reports have documented atrocities
perpetrated against women by Burmese soldiers

Today, I want to say to Charm Tong, that the Conservative Party stands
with her. We have much to learn from her experience and are grateful that
she is with us today.

Human rights abuses in the 21st century cannot be tolerated. Yet across
the world unjust imprisonment, detention without trial, and torture
continue to be seen. In countries as varied as North Korea, Turkmenistan,
Eritrea, the Sudan and Belarus, serious human rights abuses are occurring.
Recently I was in Darfur, where I saw for myself the tragic consequences
of ethnic cleansing which continues almost unchecked before the eyes of
the international community.

Human rights do not apply solely to the Western world, nor do they reflect
standards from which particular cultures or religions can choose to opt
out. They exist to protect people everywhere against political, legal, and
social abuses.

It is in accordance with this basic principle that we have established the
Conservative Party Human Rights Commission. In doing so, we hope to convey
several fundamental messages:

To dissidents, activists and brave people around the world who continue to
struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights in their own countries,
we want to say: we are on your side.

To the victims of state-sponsored violence in its many forms again we say:
we are on your side.

To regimes that terrorize their own people, we must say: your behaviour is
unacceptable and we will do all we possibly can to stop it.

To the international community, including our own Government, we say: when
you act to stop these crimes against humanity, we will support you. But
when you drag your feet or look away, we will not stay silent.

And to the people of our own country, we must say: these issues matter. 
Slavery, murder, rape and torture are wrong, and we have a moral
obligation to speak out and act.

Speaking as Shadow Foreign Secretary, I believe that we must conduct our
foreign policy in a way that does not deviate from our values; central to
which is a deeply-held belief in the primacy and inviolability of
individual human rights.

Our foreign policy must be pro-active in supporting democracy and those
who bravely champion freedom in their own countries. It must put economic
and political pressure on brutal regimes, and it must seek to hold them to
account.

The abuses and violence that have taken place in Zimbabwe in the context
of land occupations; the profound human rights and humanitarian crisis
endured by Burma's ethnic minority communities, and further repression in
Belarus, cannot be ignored.

Not only is it right to champion freedom, justice and human rights, it is
also in our national interests to do so. It has become increasingly clear
in recent years that dictators do not make good partners - politically,
commercially or strategically. They sow instability, reek of corruption,
and threaten their own people.

The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission will work to inform the
policy debate, and its members will also be the grassroots activists and
campaigners within our party. About 30 Conservatives took part in a
demonstration outside the Belarusian embassy in protest against the highly
flawed conduct of the recent elections there.  And we hope there will be
more such action to come - protests, candlelit vigils, demonstrations,
petitions - initiated and led by Conservatives.

Today, the Commission has held the first of its hearings - on Burma. I can
think of no better country to start our work with than Burma - a nation
ruled by one of the world's worst regimes, an illegal military junta. A
nation where the legitimate elected representatives of the people are
locked up, where the Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house
arrest, where a million people are internally displaced, thousands of
villages destroyed, where women are raped at gunpoint, and thousands used
for forced labor. A nation with the highest number of forcibly conscripted
child soldiers in the world.

Last year, the former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and the former
Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, commissioned a law firm to examine
the case for bringing the issue of Burma to the agenda of the UN Security
Council. The report, Threat to the Peace, was published. Its conclusions
were damning. Of all the major criteria for bringing a country to the
Security Council, Burma is the only country in recent years that without a
doubt meets them all. While a preliminary discussion took place before
Christmas, the Security Council has still not formally considered the
issue of Burma, or debated a resolution against the regime. Soon after
Threat to the Peace was published, the Conservative Party backed its
recommendations and urged the British Government to support it. I am
pleased to say the United Kingdom did, in the end, support the initiative
and I will continue to urge the government to maintain this momentum and
to work with our allies to get the issue of Burma raised at the Security
Council, and a resolution passed.

Over the coming months, the Commission will hold a series of hearings on
different countries and themes. It will gather evidence, produce reports,
ask questions in Parliament and begin to develop ideas for how a future
Conservative Government can put the promotion of democracy, freedom and
human rights at the heart of its foreign policy. It will look, for
example, at the role of our diplomatic service; and it will publish an
Annual Report, highlighting violations around the world, holding our
Government to account for what it has done to address these concerns.

In the words of William Wilberforce, that great Parliamentarian who almost
single-handedly brought about the end of the slave trade in Britain, we
must say about human rights abuses what he said about slavery: "We can no
longer plead ignorance. We cannot turn aside."

Brief biographical details for Charm Tong:

Charm Tong, a 24 year-old woman from the Shan ethnic nationality, is one
of the most prominent Burmese dissidents. At the age of 17 she testified
at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, and founded the Shan
Women's Action Network (SWAN), an organization dedicated to stopping the
exploitation of and violence against women and children. She was one of
the lead authors of Licence to Rape, a major report on sexual violence
committed by the Burma Army, which resulted in a US State Department
investigation which subsequently confirmed the report's findings.  In
2002, Charm Tong founded the School for Shan State Nationalities Youth,
which works to empower students to become community leaders, providing
classes in English language, computer training, democracy and human
rights.

www.conservativehumanrights.com

____________________________________

April 27, Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
Ivanhoe undermines civil rights movements in Mongolia; Protest brought a
spotlight on Ivanhoe operations in Burma

Media Advisory: April 27, 2006 – 14h00 (Eastern Time)

Ottawa: Ivanhoe Mines Ltd (TSX: IVN), which operates a 50/50 joint venture
with the military junta in Burma lashed out at an environmental activist
for his role in a recent protest against Ivanhoe’s operations in Mongolia.

In a statement circulated last week in the Mongolian language by the
company’s local subsidiary, Ivanhoe Mongolia Mines Ltd, said “Journalists,
editors and street protesters in Ulaanbaatar have been tricked by a
foreign agitator into spreading lies about the Monywa Copper Project in
Myanmar.”

“[S]treet protesters were continuing to spread his lies, and showed his
fraudulent and repugnant photographs,” it was added in the statement. Mr.
Roger Walsh, a vice-president of Ivanhoe in his interview with Eagle TV
Mongolia also said, “The allegations that he [Mr. Martin Klein] made are
total lies, without any foundation of truth.”

Mr. Martin Klein was reported to have worked with protest leaders in
Mongolia and is quoted as saying in The UB Post, the capital English
newspaper, “I would encourage the people of Mongolia to clearly understand
what type of company Ivanhoe Mines is. Skin, respiratory and other types
of diseases and sicknesses are common among local people who live near the
copper-site that Ivanhoe Mines owns [in Burma].”

CFOB regards this statement as a reflection of what is happening in
Ivanhoe’s operations in Burma and understands the underlying personal
safety reason for him to keep his real identity in Mongolia. In the
meantime, CFOB questions Ivanhoe’s insulting statement on the protest,
“[T]he protesters are basing their fights on something that was completely
fabricated.” It is indeed a smear campaign to undermine issues raised by
protestors.

“In order to scatter public pressure, Ivanhoe looked out for a scapegoat.
That is an effective technique to undermine the legitimate concerns of
protestors in Mongolia,” said Tin Maung Htoo, coordinator of CFOB. It has
been calling on Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. to pull out of Burma,
for its presence in Burma not only legitimizes an illegitimate regime, but
also sustains a repressive rule in Burma.

Moreover, CFOB has been collaborating with Washington-based Earth Rights
International, Friends of the Earth Canada and Mining Watch Canada on the
work of collecting evidence from various sources from Burma that implies
Ivanhoe’s operations cause forced labor, forced relocation and
environmental degradation in Burma.

Even though similar conditions have not surfaced yet in the operation in
Mongolia, CFOB observes that Mongolia protestors are very much concerned
with damages already meted out in Burma. "If we can't [force Ivanhoe out
of Mongolia], we will become the next Burma," S.Ganbaatar, the popular
leader of the protests from the Resolute Reform Civil Movement in
Mongolia, wrote in his letter to the Mongolian Prime Minister.

A two week-long protest that ended last Sunday with concessions from the
government was organized by several civil movements and political parties.
The government, which has cozy relationships with Ivanhoe Mines
executives, was accused of breaking the country’s constitution by easily
selling off the mineral wealth and having no transparent policy towards
the percentage of shares that the country should retain in its
strategically important mineral deposits. Protesters at least want
Mongolia to retain 51 percent ownership of the mine, instead of the full
ownership Ivanhoe currently has.

It is very clear that Ivanhoe tried to use various means and way to
undermine the legitimate voice and the noble cause of Mongolia people and
civil rights movements there. On the other hand, the case of Burma brought
up by an environmental activist in the name of “Martin Keith” is nothing
new but widely known fact among Burmese democrats and Burma supporters
across the world.


Further contact: Tin Maung Htoo at (519) 860-4745 or Jameel Madhany at
(613) 884-8015