BurmaNet News, May 2, 2006

[Editor]

May 2, 2006 Issue # 2953


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Junta claims more than 40 NLD members resign
Khonumthung: People pay for training of government employees
Xinhua: Myanmar population exceeds 55 million

ON THE BORDER
AP: More Karen refugees poised to enter Thailand in wake of Myanmar offensive
Mizzima: Women’s group slams military crimes in Karen State
SHAN: Unofficial Shan refugees hold first ordination in camp

HEALTH / AIDS
Thai Press Reports: Thailand readies for regional meeting on bird flu
Mizzima: High bacteria levels found in Rangoon food

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Going it alone? It depends - Fred Hiatt

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 2, Irrawaddy
Junta claims more than 40 NLD members resign - Shah Paung

The Burmese military government has claimed that more than 40 members of
the National League for Democracy have recently resigned from the party,
according to reports in the state-run media.

The New Light of Myanmar reported today that 12 NLD members, including the
chairman and vice chairman from Tangyan Township in Shan State sent
letters of resignation on April 30 to party headquarters in Lashio and to
the Township Multiparty Democracy General Election Sub-Commission.

Sai Hla Pe, a Central Executive Committee member of the Shan National
League for Democracy, also submitted a letter of resignation to the
Kyaukme Township Multiparty General Election Sub-Commission.

These recent resignations followed the previous announcement of more than
29 other NLD members from Kyaukse and Patheingyi townships in Mandalay
Division who have reportedly left the party.

“Our office [NLD headquarters] has received no information on their
resignations,” said NLD spokesperson Myint Thein. “We understand that they
might have resigned to avoid being pressured [by the government].”

Win Mya May, a senior NLD member and organizer in Mandalay, said that now
the junta has adopted a new way of exerting pressure on the group.

“Before, if people did not resign from the party, they threatened to
arrest them,” said Win Mya Mya. “But now, they give them money or other
valuables and ask them to resign.”

Maung Maung Win, a member of parliament, and Nyein Maung, an NLD organizer
from Mandalay Division, both of whom had previously refused to resign,
said that the government offered to give them as much as 100 million kyat,
farm land and mobile phones if they would agree to step down.

The reported resignations follow a speech by Burma’s Information Minister
Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan on April 27, in which he claimed that the NLD was
dedicated to a wrong commitment, through incorrect policy, and the people
do not support them.

____________________________________

May 2, Khonumthung News
People pay for training of government employees

With no let up on pressure from the military regime in Burma the people of
Chin state now have to pay for the training of government employees in
accordance with a directive from the higher authorities.

Government Middle and High School teachers have demanded the expenses
incurred for training from the Village Peace and Development Council
(VPDC). The order to bear the expenditure for the teachers training
reportedly comes from the central government.

Middle and High School Teachers Training scheduled to be held in the month
of April and May in Madalay, Burma generated tension as teachers selected
for the training demanded expenses for food and lodging from the VPDC.
According to the teachers their expenses stood at around Kyat 7000 per
trainee.

The teachers reportedly left for Madalay without getting any payment from
the VPDC. The VPDC is expected to pay the trainees once they return, said
sources.

Non-payment of the expenses led to the trainees not attending the
training. This has led to “fear of losing government funds for school
development and filling of vacant posts.”

The trainees were quoted as saying, “If the demand is not met by the
village authority, such a training opportunity will be missed.”

Once the teachers return, the VPDC will have to meet the expenses incurred
by the trainees. The VPDC members will collect the money from the people,
the sources said.

Such demands for meeting the expenditure for training for government
employees is common in Burma, according to sources. Block office clerks
training in the month of February witnessed such demands of trainees. The
asking rate was Kyat 5,000 per trainee.

____________________________________

May 2, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar population exceeds 55 million

Yangon: The population of Myanmar hit 55.4 million as of January this
year, an increase of 1.1 million from 2005, according to Tuesday's Voice
journal.

The population of the working-age people ranging from 15 to 59 stood 32.74
million, up 600,000 from the previous year, the Ministry of National
Planning and Economic Development was quoted as saying.

Since 1988, Myanmar's population has increased at a rate of 2. 02 percent
annually from then 39.3 million, it said.

Of the country's population, the female account for over 50 percent.

Myanmar stands as a country with agriculture as the mainstay of its
economy. The agricultural output value takes over 40 percent of the gross
domestic product and the export represents about 20 percent of the total.

The country has a cultivable land of 18.23 million hectares, of which
10.12 million are under crops, according to official figures.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 2, Associated Press
More Karen refugees poised to enter Thailand in wake of Myanmar offensive
- Denis D. Gray

Bangkok: Hundreds of Karen refugees were poised to enter Thailand, joining
others who have fled an ongoing offensive against the ethnic minority by
Myanmar's army, a Thai official said Tuesday.

The campaign began last November and has driven at least 11,000 Karen
villagers from their eastern Myanmar homes as troops hunt for
autonomy-seeking Karen guerrillas, according to an aid group operating in
the military-ruled country.

More than 1,800 have fled into neighboring Thailand and were living under
plastic sheets at a temporary camp near the border, waiting for the U.N.
High Commissioner for Refugees to clarify their status, said Jaroon
Jinakan, chief of the Mae Lama Luang refugee camp, in a telephone
interview.

He said 600 more were hiding in Myanmar jungles, prepared to cross into
Thailand's Mae Hong Son province.

"These Karen families claim that they escaped from being forced into slave
labor by Myanmar troops," the camp chief said.

He said the Karen say their suffering has worsened after the ruling junta
recently set up the country's new capital, Pyinmana.

The military has burned villages, destroyed rice fields and killed
civilians in northern and western areas of Karen State as it tries to
suppress Karen National Union guerrillas, who have been fighting the
central government for decades, according to reports from the Free Burma
Rangers a group of Westerners and ethnic minority volunteers who help
displaced people in the country formerly known as Burma.

A senior KNU commander, Col. Ner Dah Mya, said Tuesday that the frontier
area was quiet but that fighting was reported deeper inside Myanmar.

The government says it is taking security measures against terrorists, but
denies that an offensive is underway, and that its troops have violated
human rights.

On Tuesday, state-run media said land mines planted by "terrorist
insurgents" wounded three people northeast of the former capital, Yangon,
in two separate incidents on April 25 and 26.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said "terrorist insurgents are
committing destructive acts using various means with the intention of
undermining the stability of the state."

It did not identify any group, but the junta often accuses minority rebel
groups or opposition exile groups of bomb attacks.

U.S. lawmakers last week urged the U.N. Security Council to take urgent
action against the junta in response to the offensive. The U.S. State
Department condemned the recent attacks, which Thai and foreign aid
officials fear will add to Thailand's refugee burden.

More than 140,000 Karen and other ethnic minority refugees live in a
string of camps along the border, including 13,000 at the Mae Lama Luang
camp.

Analysts say the scale of the recent attacks is the largest since a 1997
anti-Karen offensive, and the KNU fears it may continue through this
year's rainy season, which begins around May.

Observers and the KNU speculate that the drive may be an effort to secure
the hinterland east of new capital Pyinmana.

Myanmar's military regimes, which first came to power in 1962, had battled
many minority 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 and "resulted in increasing
hostility directed at ethnic minority groups," U.S.-based Human Rights
Watch said in its 2006 report.

The KNU is the largest rebel organization still battling the
500,000-member military.

The violence of recent years largely ignored by the international
community has spawned an estimated 1 million internal refugees and
accelerated an exodus to neighboring countries.

____________________________________

May 2, Mizzima News
Women’s group slams military crimes in Karen State - Nga Ngai

Thousands of ethnic Karen have been forcibly relocated and women have been
raped by Burmese troops during military attacks in Karen State, the
Thai-based Karen Women’s Organisation said today.

In a statement released today the KWO said the military had stepped up
operations in Toungoo, Nyaunglaybin and Papon districts in Karen State
since September last year.

The group said Burmese troops involved in the operations had committed a
variety of crimes including the rape of a villager in Papun district’s
Dweh-loe township in February and the murder of an 80-year-old woman in
March.

“Some people remain in the jungle, and some [crossing the border] are in
Mae Hong Son staying temporarily at refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese
border. And some are still on the way and some are staying by groups at
somewhere in the jungle,” said KWO general secretary Naw Ziporah Sein.

Staff at the Thai ministry of foreign affairs today confirmed a large
group of Karen refugees had arrived in the country after fleeing the
fighting in their native state.

“They have fled skirmishes with the Burmese Tatmadaw and the Karen
rebels,” a spokesperson for the Thai foreign ministry told Mizzima.

While the foreign ministry said they were still waiting for confirmation
on the exact number of refugees, the Thai press quoted caretaker foreign
minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon as saying an estimated 1000 Karens had
made it across the border.

Naw Ziporah Sein said more than 70 percent were women and children under
the age of 16 and while many groups were providing temporary relief to the
refugees, more support was needed for children, the elderly and pregnant
women.

____________________________________

May 2, Shan Herald Agency for News
Unofficial Shan refugees hold first ordination in camp - Tawngtai

Unofficial Shan refugees, living along the border of Thailand and the Shan
township of Mongton, held their first ordination on Sunday, April 30, for
forty boys.  Many of them are orphans and all have no official status in
Thailand, precluding travel outside the village.

The camp houses over 600 refugees who had fled fighting in 2002.  The
picturesque views of the surrounding mist-enshrouded hills and the orderly
rows of tea and lychee trees rustling in the wind belie the fact that this
was once fiercely contested territory.  Once held by a Shan resistance
army, a series of fierce battles in 2002 routed the Shans.  The Burmese
army and their Wa allies then seized the three main villages of Hwe Yao,
Pang Kam Kaw, and Pang Maisoong.

“At first, we did not want to flee,” said Sai Hsu, a middle-aged Shan man
now resident in the camp.  “When the fighting started, the women and
children left first.  The men wanted to stay and move some of our
belongings.  But then the Burmese and Wa came.  They took our belongings,
our pigs and rice.  They accused us of helping the SSA [Shan State Army]. 
Several men were taken to jail and beaten; the soldiers killed some of the
villagers and cut up the bodies.  There was nothing we could do.”

The Shan villages were then burned to the ground by Burmese troops. 
Unable to survive any longer, the remaining villagers fled, residing as
unofficial refugees in the camp, just inside Thai territory.  They rebuilt
what they could of the village, the orderly rows of bamboo houses with
neatly-cut hedges a testament to the organizational skills of the
villagers.  They then eked out a living as best they could, as
undocumented migrants in Thailand.

Despite these hardships, this was a long-awaited day of celebration and
excitement, their many worries temporarily forgotten, as 40 novices were
ordained, bringing great merit to themselves and their families.  The day
prior, the villagers had beseeched the guardian spirits of the village to
bless the ceremony, keeping the candles and incense burning all night. 
They appeared to have heard.  The remnants of Cyclone Mala had moved into
northern Thailand from Burma on Saturday, bringing severe thunderstorms. 
However, just prior to the start of the celebration, the rain ceased and
the clouds instead provided a comfortable shade from the otherwise
scorching April sun.

Sai Hseng, a 10 year-old boy ordained in the ceremony, was one of the
lucky ones: he was able to escape with both his parents from their village
of Hwe Yao.  The whole family now lives in this camp.
“At my village, there were often fighting and so my parents took me and
fled to Thailand," the beaming novice-to-be said.  "I am so happy to
become a novice today.”

However, some changes to the traditional Shan ordination ceremony had to
be made, an adaptation to the circumstances facing the villagers.  For
example, rather than wearing the costly colorful garments and ornaments
mimicking the dress of the Buddha before his ordination, the novices-to-be
wore simple white cotton shirts and pants.  The robes, alms bowls, and
offerings were all donated and were of varying sizes and shades of
saffron.  And, unlike in other Shan towns, this ordination was
deliberately kept small to control costs.

Loong Pang, whose son was amongst the boys ordained, said that it would be
impossible for him to support a traditional Shan ordination here
otherwise, his job as a laborer outside the camp only earning 70-80 baht a
day.

"It hurts a bit to have to do an ordination ceremony different from home. 
There [in Shan State] even though we had no money, we were happy.  Here,
everything requires money," he wistfully added.  However, he was proud
that his son is amongst the new novices and plans to keep him in the
temple for a while, which will help reduce some of the family’s expenses.

Another difference was also evident as the novices lined up in their
procession to the temple, a simple structure made of woven bamboo strips
topped by a thatch roof.  The youngest was only seven years old; the
eldest, at 19 year of age, towered over him.  Several others were also
well in their teens.  In Shan culture, almost all boys ordained are
between eight and eleven years old.  This was yet another reminder that,
where this rite of passage could be held annually elsewhere, there were
many barriers precluding this here.

However, these differences were put aside amidst the laughter and smiles
of proud friends, family, and invited guests.  The crowd spilled out of
the temple, and many had to peek in between gaps in the bamboo strips to
see the ceremony going on inside.  Most were dressed in their best Shan
outfits, sated by the seemingly endless trays of food carried from the
kitchen.  Several Palaung women were also in attendance, wearing elaborate
headdresses bedecked with colorful beads.  They too had fled from Shan
State when the Burmese Army and their Wa allies took control.

At mid-day, the new novices finally emerged from the temple.  They shifted
nervously in their new saffron robes, lining up under the tutelage of
their new mentors, squinting as the sun finally beamed in silent
benediction from behind the clouds.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 2, Mizzima News
High bacteria levels found in Rangoon food - Ngunte

Burma’s Department of Medical Research said in a new report that the
bacteria responsible for the hepatitis virus, dysentery and diarrhea had
been found in food sold in Rangoon.

According to the report, high levels of coliform and fecal coliform
bacteria had been found in bread, noodles and biscuits.

Dr Mar Mar Nyein from the department told Mizzima the report was based on
the findings of surveys conducted in six Rangoon townships between 2001
and 2004.

“We presented the report to the higher authority. After reading the
report, we educate the people on hygienic foodstuff,” Dr Mar Mar Nyein
said.

She said funding was needed for more detailed studies of food hygiene
standards in Rangoon.

According to the report, 80 percent of drinking water tested contained
coliform and 50 percent contained fecal coliform. Coliform is known to
cause hepatitis, gastroenteritis and dysentery.

“Personal hygiene is the most important thing. The water provided by water
treatment plants such as 'Gyophyu' and 'Hlawgar' reservoirs is clean and
hygienic. Then when the water was kept in different containers, it became
dirty and unhygienic due to improper handling and dirty containers,” Dr
Mar Mar Nyein said.

____________________________________

May 2, Thai Press Reports
Thailand readies for regional meeting on bird flu

Thailand will host a Southeast Asian international conference on avian
influenza early next month to cooperate with neighbouring countries in
containing the disease and in demonstrating its readiness to be the key
regional training centre for those working against the virus.

Ministers and senior officials of three Thai government
ministries--Foreign Affairs, Public Health, and Agriculture and
Cooperatives--met Friday to prepare for hosting a conference of senior
officers of member states of the mainland Southeast Asia's Ayeyawady-Chao
Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy organisation (ACMECS)
scheduled for May 8 in Bangkok.

The acronym stands for three major rivers of mainland Southeast Asia and
the grouping is comprised of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and
Vietnam.

ACMECS "Senior Officials Meeting on Avian Influenza Pandemic Preparedness"
will focus on the practical implementation of Thailand's strategic role in
assisting its neighbours to respond to bird flu outbreaks. The meeting is
an urgent response to continuing viral outbreaks in the region.

Myanmar is the latest country where bird flu infections have been found,
according to caretaker Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon.

In November ACMECS leaders agreed on collective measures to jointly
respond to regional outbreaks of avian flu--including establishment of a
network of public health agencies to promote information sharing and
cooperation to contain trans-border diseases.
Thailand pledged Bt100 million (US$2.5 million) to a regional fund to
combat avian flu, Mr. Kanthati said.

In addition to the five member states of ACMECS, the May 8 Bangkok meeting
will also be attended by representatives of international organisations
including the World Health Organisation (WHO), World Organisation for
Animal Health (OIE), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Food and
Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and Asian Development
Bank (ADB), the foreign minister said.

Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan said
Thailand had developed a comprehensive prevention and preparedness plan of
action until it largely succeeded in containing the H5N1 virus, and noted
there had been no bird flu outbreak in Thailand for 200 days.

International agencies accordingly assigned Thailand as the regional
centre to provide training on bird flu prevention and containment for its
neighbours.

Khunying Sudarat said Thailand intended contain the number of bird flu
outbreaks to not more than 25 locations nationwide this year and make the
country completely free of bird flu by next year.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 1, Washington Post
Going it alone? It depends - Fred Hiatt

It is often said that President Bush, learning from the failed
unilateralism of his first-term foreign policy, has adopted a more
multilateral approach in the second. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
has cooperated with allies in ways that administration hard-liners blocked
her predecessor, Colin Powell, from pursuing. On the biggest global
challenges, she has forged coalitions and sought to work through
international organizations.

So what results has this "multilateralism" delivered so far? If by results
you mean actual, positive accomplishments -- as opposed to meetings held,
demarches delivered and the like -- you'd have to say: in Iran, none; in
North Korea, none; in Burma, none; in Darfur, none.

As its multilateralist critics urged, the second-term administration gave
full backing to the "E.U. Three" -- Britain, France and Germany -- in
their negotiations with Iran. Results? Iran is not only roaring ahead with
its nuclear program but also openly promising to proliferate the nuclear
technology it develops to other dangerous regimes.

On North Korea, the administration joined with new vigor in the "six-party
talks" -- the six being China, Japan, Russia, the two Koreas and the
United States. North Korea's nuclear weapons program is also, as far as
anyone knows, roaring ahead.

In Burma, the administration has urged the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations and others to press for reform.
Results? In just the past two months an accelerated ethnic cleansing
campaign has displaced 11,000 more civilians. And in Darfur, the United
States has actively supported diplomacy and African Union peacekeepers.
The genocide continues.

Of course, these are midterm reports, not final grades; in some of these
cases, the multilateral approach may yet bear fruit. Further, the
disappointing results in part reflect the administration's earlier
haughtiness and disdain for allies; damage from such policies isn't
quickly forgotten or repaired.

Yet, given the frequency with which phrases such as "rebuilding alliances"
are likely to pop up in coming political campaigns, it might be useful to
examine the frustrations of recent allied efforts.

The predicate for the multilateral approach often is that other nations,
with a bit of persuasion and a touch of prodding, will see how their
interests converge with ours. Surely, U.S. officials say again and again,
Russia cannot want the mad mullahs to its south to have the bomb! Surely
China would be nervous to have nukes in the hands of the incorrigible Kim
Jong Il. Surely France must be uneasy to have thousands of Darfur's
civilians raped and killed so near its military bases in Chad.

Yet France turns out to be not all that perturbed -- not enough to act, in
any case. China seems more comfortable with a Stalinist nuclear-armed
neighbor than with the risks of whatever the alternative might be. Both
China and Russia may care more about their access to Iranian oil and
commerce than about stopping a weapons program they figure will not, in
any case, be aimed at them. (We may see, this week, when the Security
Council meets.)

Moreover, European governments are weak and focused inward; authoritarian
regimes in Russia and China do not share U.S. priorities. And even when
interests converge, nations will be reluctant to sacrifice short-term
advantage for nebulous or uncertain long-term gain. Economic sanctions
would cause immediate pain to some number of people and companies in every
country now trading with Iran; the pain of a nuclear-armed Iran is more
theoretical and more diffused.

So without U.S. leadership in a place such as Darfur, the likeliest
outcome is that nothing happens. That may explain why many of those who
criticized the administration for insufficient support of European
diplomacy with Iran now criticize the administration for not talking
directly with the Iranian regime. Unilaterally, as it were.

So multilateralism is hardly a panacea. Yet in some cases (Afghanistan,
for example), it works; in many cases, there is no alternative. In Darfur,
just to take one of the most distressing, multilateralism is failing; but
unilateral U.S. intervention could be disastrous.

And in the not unlikely event that multilateralism fails to prevent North
Korea or Iran from becoming nuclear states in the medium term, it will be
all the more essential in the long term to contain the danger they will
pose.