BurmaNet News, May 31, 2006

[Editor]

May 31, 2006 Issue # 2973

INSIDE BURMA
IPS via Mizzima: Aung San Suu Kyi spurned military offer
AFP: UN Security Council may take action against Myanmar:
VOA: Burma's NLD vows legal appeal of Aung San Suu Kyi detention
AFP: Myanmar accuses west of backing ethnic rebels

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: EGAT stops Salween surveys after worker dies

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: China blocks timber imports from Burma

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: UN sists Burma’s AIDS/HIV challenges
DVB: The confession of a jail warder of Burma’s Tharawaddy Jail - 1

DRUGS
SHAN: Junta commander accused of drug involvement
SHAN: Off season poppies in the south
Kyodo via BBC Monitoring: Japan donates drug counselling centre to Burma

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Annan promises hard work to free Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHERS
Wall Street Journal: 'Do The Right Thing' - Jared Genser

PRESS RELEASE
KNU Statement on Extension of Detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
FTUK Statement regarding human rights violations by SPDC Military Junta on
the Karen civilians

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 31, Inter Press Service via Mizzima News
Aung San Suu Kyi spurned military offer - Marwaan Macan-Markar

When Burma’s military regime extended the house arrest of pro-democracy
leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on the weekend, the country’s political crisis
deepened.

But according to one source with intimate knowledge of Rangoon’s
procedures, the measures adopted by the junta to inform the Nobel peace
laureate of her continuing detention were a departure from previous
practice.

The meeting, on Friday evening, “was longer than usual”, the source said
on condition of anonymity. “Normally it takes a few minutes when the
police officers read a statement to Suu Kyi. But this time something more
was talked about.”

Since the weekend, other Burmese with connections inside Rangoon say they
have been able to piece together the message the junta delivered to Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy.

“Last Friday's discussion between Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC (State
Peace and Development Council) was to offer her partial freedom as a
condition of her release,” said Thaung Htun, the United Nations
representative of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

“The SPDC wants her to refrain from touring the country, from visiting the
NLD office and from getting back to active politics . . . The SPDC is not
certain about the new political wave that will be created after her
release. They are not ready to release her unconditionally,” he said.

But Daw Aung San Suu Kyi refused to accept the offer, according to Khin
Omar, head of the Network for Democracy and Development, a group of
Burmese political activists in exile.
“She did not accept the conditions because they were unreasonable given
her role. She made that judgement call,” Khin Omar said.

In the days leading to May 27, when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s period of
detention was due to expire, there was growing hope among sections of the
Burmese population that she would be released.

The expectations grew after she was allowed to meet UN under secretary
general for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari. It was the first contact
between the NLD leader and a foreigner in two years.

Close on the heels of her meeting with Gambari's was a personal request
from UN secretary general Kofi Annan to military leader senior general
Than Shwe for her release.

Yesterday marked three years since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi began her current
period of house arrest following the Depayin attack on her motorcade on
May 30, 2003. She is being held under a “preventive detention” law that
was introduced to the country in 1875 when Burma was a British colony.

Her continuing detention is expected to add new international pressure on
a regime deemed a pariah by the United States government and the European
Union.

But comments by Burma’s foreign minister Nyan Win on Monday showed the
military is not about the bow to outside pressure. He described Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi’s detention as a domestic and not an international issue.

Coupled with the military’s recent media campaign against the NLD, the
comments have led some pro-democracy activists to fear the NLD leader’s
life could be threatened if she was released.

“We are concerned about her safety,” says Khin Omar, the political
activist. “The SPDC will have a back up plan to clamp her down even after
freedom.”

____________________________________

May 31, Agence France Presse
UN Security Council may take action against Myanmar: US - P. Parameswaran

The United States said the UN Security Council could take action against
Myanmar's military regime following international anger over the junta's
failure to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and its crackdown on
ethnic minorities.

As Washington sought a second briefing on the situation in Myanmar at the
Security Council this week, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
the powerful global body might go beyond holding such a hearing and
prescribe some form of action.

"That certainly is a possibility," he told reporters as UN chief Kofi
Annan himself expressed deep disappointment Tuesday at Myanmar's weekend
decision to extend the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi by another year.

"I understand that there is going to be a briefing for the Security
Council, but I certainly wouldn't preclude the possibility that action by
the Security Council would end with just a briefing," McCormack said.

He did not elaborate.

Experts said the Council was unlikely to impose any sanctions on the junta
but could seek "non-punitive" action, such as adopting a resolution asking
Annan to report to the council on developments in the Southeast Asian
nation on a monthly basis.

The council could also demand the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and call for
a stop to an ongoing bloody offensive by the junta against ethnic Karen
rebels, they said. The United States put the international spotlight on
Myanmar in December when it successfully pushed the Security Council to
hold a briefing on human rights and other problems there for the first
time.

"I'm disappointed that when the government reviewed her detention, it did
not decide to release her," Annan told reporters in New York, referring to
the junta's decision at the weekend to extend an arrest order on Aung San
Suu Kyi. Hopes had risen that she might be released when her detention
came up for review on Saturday, after the junta unexpectedly allowed her
to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari a week earlier.

The meeting was her first contact with an outsider in more than two years.

Annan vowed to "work with our partners in the region," including the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) to "bring pressure to bear."

"We'll work very hard," he said.

Noting that the United Nations Security Council last discussed Myanmar's
case in December, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said separately that
"Asian and European governments are urging the Burmese Government to
change its cruel and misguided policies."

Burma is the previous name of Myanmar.

Rice said "America is committed to advancing effective international
action to help the people of Burma" and called "for the immediate and
unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, including Aung San
Suu Kyi."

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been detained since May 2003 inside
her lakeside home in central Yangon without a telephone, has spent 10 of
the past 17 years in detention.

May 30 marks the third anniversary of an attack against a convoy in which
she was traveling with other members of her opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) party in northern Myanmar, which led to her latest house
arrest.

The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the military
government never recognized the result. John Bolton, the US ambassador to
the United Nations, had said he expected Gambari to provide a formal
briefing to the 15-nation Security Council, possibly this week.

"Lines of communication have now been opened with Yangon following Mr.
Gambari's visit, and we hope to exploit those lines to move the process
forward," Annan's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.

But Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma group said Annan should
press ahead with his mid-2006 deadline for Myanmar military rulers to
release all political prisoners and reopen all NLD offices. "None of these
requests have been met," Woodrum noted. "The Secretary-General should not
lower the bar now by getting excited over a line of communication."

____________________________________

May 29, Voice of America
Burma's NLD vows legal appeal of Aung San Suu Kyi detention

The political party of Burma's pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi
says it plans to appeal the recent extension of her house arrest.

National League for Democracy officials say they will file a legal appeal
within days directly to General Soe Win, Burma's Prime Minister.

The military government announced a one-year extension of Aung San Suu
Kyi's house arrest on Saturday, the day her previous term had been due to
expire.

Her party says the extension has no legal basis and hurts efforts for
national reconciliation.

Foreign nations have expressed disappointment over her continuing
detention, including Burma's neighbors Malaysia and Thailand. The United
States condemned the decision, calling it another sign of the Burmese
military regime's brutal repression.

Aung San Suu Kyi -- a Nobel Peace Prize Winner -- has been in detention
for 10 of the past 16 years.

She was most recently taken into custody in May 2003, after her motorcade
was attacked by a pro-junta mob as she was making a political tour of
northern Burma.

____________________________________

May 31, Agence France Presse
Myanmar accuses west of backing ethnic rebels

Myanmar's military government Wednesday accused western nations of backing
ethnic Karen rebels who have been the target of a bloody four-month
offensive.

"It is very disheartening to see the master hands from the West trying to
control the political situation in Myanmar by using the KNUs and
supporting, as always, whatever the latter do," the official New Light of
Myanmar newspaper said.

The Karen National Union is fighting one of the world's longest-running
insurgencies in eastern Myanmar, near the Thai border.

But they have suffered a series of setbacks in recent years, and an
offensive that began in February has forced some 11,000 people from their
homes, according to rights groups.

About 2,000 of them have fled into Thailand to join the 140,000 refugees
from Myanmar who already live in camps along the border, according to the
UN refugee agency.

"The Western masterminds always stand by the KNUs. They do so not for the
sake of Myanmar and (Karen) nationals and for democracy and human rights
but for their own interests -- politically and militarily," the official
paper said, accusing the KNU of "ethnic cleansing".

The military has reached ceasefires with 17 other ethnic armed groups, but
talks with the KNU fell apart two years ago and have yet to resume.

The two sides had reached a "gentlemen's agreement" to stop fighting until
a ceasefire was hammered out.

Both sides insist they remain open to talks, even as the military presses
ahead with its offensive.

Although the KNU once controlled a vast stretch of Karen state, the
Myanmar military has made steady gains in recent years, leaving the rebels
with little more than a string of bases mainly along the Thai border.

Myanmar has faced mounting pressure to halt its offensive, with rights
groups denouncing its tactics.

The KNU has battled the regime for 57 years to fight for autonomy for
their people. More than a dozen other ethnic minorities have waged similar
campaigns.

Rights groups have long accused the military of a litany of abuses,
including rape, use of child soldiers, forced labor, and forced
relocations.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 31, Mizzima News
EGAT stops Salween surveys after worker dies - Jessicah Curtis

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has cut short the
surveying phase of the Salween dam project after one of its workers died
from injuries sustained in a landmine accident in Burma.

Surveyor Chana Mongplee lost a leg on May 3 after stepping on a landmine
near where EGAT and Burmese authorities plan to build the Hat Gyi dam in
Karen State. He died as a result of his injuries on May 9.

EGAT staff working on the Salween project told Mizzima today they had
stopped their surveys of the area short of completion after Chana Mongplee
died.

“We didn’t feel very secure and the surveying was almost complete anyway,”
a spokesman said.

But the project to construct the dams will continue without the completed
surveys and Chana Maung, the director of EarthRights International’s
Southeast Asia office, told Mizzima that while EGAT had not been
forthcoming on details of the dam project so far, the lack of completed
survey information would compound the problem.

“If they do not finish the surveys they cannot answer to civil society,”
Chana Maung said.

He said there was a danger that if the surveys were not completed the only
authorities with accurate information on the impact on the environment and
the villages surrounding the dam projects would be Burmese military
officials, who are notorious for their secrecy.

“A lot of people have to suffer from relocation. If they don’t finish the
surveys they will say they will leave it to the [State Peace and
Development Council],” he said.

The Salween dam project has been widely criticised by rights groups who
say it will cause serious environmental degradation and will mean forced
relocation and a loss of livelihood for a variety of Burma’s ethnic
groups.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 31, Irrawaddy
China blocks timber imports from Burma - Shah Paung

China has closed its borders to timber imports from Burma, according to a
London-based rights group.

A press statement issued by Global Witness on Tuesday said the Chinese
government has ordered its workers to leave Burma. The move comes after a
decade of rapacious logging by Chinese companies in Burma’s northern
forests.

The press release said that the more than 1.5 million cubic meters of
Burmese timber imported by China in 2005—worth an estimated US $350
million—was mostly the product of illegal logging.

Checkpoints along the China-Burma border have been closed to logging
trucks from Burma since early May, according to the press release, but
some timber still crosses the border via back roads. Thousands of Chinese
timber workers have also been pulled from the border region.

“This represents a major breakthrough for all those working to halt the
predatory exploitation of Burma’s forest,” Mike Davis of Global Witness
said in press release. “The Chinese government is showing the way forward
by owning up to the problem and shutting the door on log imports,” he
said.

According to one resident along the China border who requested anonymity,
timber trucks still manage to cross the border late at night when it is
more difficult for border guards to spot them. “Usually the Chinese troops
are withdrawn early in the evening,” the resident said.

“When they catch traders, they release them after charging a fine of 5,000
to 6,000 RMB ($623 to $748) per vehicle,” the resident added. “One vehicle
carries about five to six tons. Nearly 1,000 tons [of timber] still enter
China every day.

An official announcement of the new timber policy was issued by Chinese
authorities in mid-May. “The [announcement] stated that authorities would
arrest anyone importing timber or doing logging and confiscate timber and
vehicles, but they have not started following the order yet,” the resident
said.

Davis of Global Witness said that Burmese and Chinese authorities must
both make a public commitment to close the border to timber trade until
Burma’s forests are managed in a way that is both legal and sustainable.

“Reaching that point will require not only open debate between the two
governments but also the inclusion of all key stakeholders, notably civil
society, political parties and the armed opposition groups.”

A senior leader from the Kachin Independence Organization said that the
closing of the border timber trade will impact local villagers, as logging
is their principal means of income.

The statement from Global Witness also urged western donors to fund
grassroots environmental initiatives in Burma to halt illegal logging and
other environmentally destructive activities.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 31, Irrawaddy
UN lists Burma’s AIDS/HIV challenges

A new UN report on HIV/AIDS says Burma faces major challenges in its fight
to combat the disease. The report, titled “2006 Report on the global AIDS
epidemic,” lists insufficient financial and manpower resources,
communication difficulties in the rural areas, and weakness in assessing
home-based care needs and social support for HIV/AIDS patients and
orphans. Burma also needs to expand targeted intervention programs such as
prevention of mother-to-child transmission, condom use and ARV treatment,
the report says. It estimates that some 360,000 people in Burma are HIV
positive, or 1.3 percent of the population. In the last year under review,
2004, the government spent 78.05 million kyat (US $61,944) to fight the
disease. The 630-page UNAIDS report, released on Tuesday, will be
distributed at the 2006 “High Level Meeting” on AIDS in New York’s UN
building this week.

____________________________________

May 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
The confession of a jail warder of Burma’s Tharawaddy Jail - 1

A prison warder from Tharawaddy Jail in lower central Burma told DVB what
really happened during the cholera outbreak in 2005 in which nearly 20
prisoners died unnecessarily.

“That was the time of prison governor U Myint Swe. The swine which was
bred for the benefit of outside prison staff died. We don’t know with
which disease this pig died of. So we had a discussion on what to do with
the dead pig. The prisoner governor said, these prisoners, they don’t know
what is happening. Just sell it (the dead pig) to these starving
creatures/animals. If you sell it to the outside, nobody will buy it. Your
dead pig is only dead meat therefore just sell it inside. Prison governor
U Myint Swe, deputy-governor U Myint Soe, the chief warder U Myo Win, the
chief prison supervisor U Win Myunt were all in it. They are of the same
gang. The main thing is every thing is done if the governor says done. So
his order was followed. We distributed (the meat of the pig) with profit.
We told them (prisoners to pay when their relatives come to see them and
we sold (the meat) 500 Kyat a viss and we were also able to eat (make
profit) a little bit. Not long after that, a day after the
cooking/consumption of the pork, the cholera outbreak started. I think
about 17 people died.”

When asked how the prison authorities dealt with the deaths of prisoners,
the staff said:

“As it happened inside the prison and the ICRC (International Committee of
the Red Cross) didn’t enter (was not allowed to check) the prison, as we
were with our respective superiors, we hade to make up a story that said
that the cholera started when a prisoner brought in ‘stomach-softening’
food from outside. As we are civil servants, I will tell you honestly. If
you cremate a human being and a dog uncovers it, you will blame the dog.
(Always blame the underdogs when things go wrong?) The situation is like
this.”

When asked about the reports about the use of prisoner labour to make joss
sticks for companies such as Lotayat, he gave the details as follows:

“Yes, it is true. As for this joss-stick business, there were pig breeding
businesses. There, they gave vet two stars (promoted to the deputy
position). When they gave this person two stars, he became the deputy
prison governor. Someone under his supervision, a man named U Htay Win, he
now lives in Tharawaddy New Town. This person’s relatives in Kyoppinkauk
are in joss-stick business. As he is the deputy-governor and familiar with
the joss-stick business and he learnt how to exploit the unpaid labour of
prisoners, from then on, the joss-stick making business thrived at
Tharawaddy Jail. What Lotayat claims is their joss sticks are blessed as
they are made by people who practice vegetarianism and wear clean
(unadorned) clothes. Inside the prison, we can’t afford to eat meat. So
all are vegetarians and on top of that, they wear clean clothes (unadorned
convict uniforms). So its claim seems to be true. But I don’t know how
(the joss sticks) are blessed. The joss sticks come out the prison in the
rough form and when they reach them (companies), they spray scents on them
and distribute them to the market.”

____________________________________
DRUGS

May 31, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta commander accused of drug involvement

A deputy regional commander in Shan State has been charged of involvement
in the drug trade by a former militia commander who has been on the run
since 2 May.

Lt-Col Maung Hla aka Sai Ya, who was interviewed by phone, told S.H.A.N.
Brig-Gen Win Myint, deputy commander of the Taunggyi-based Eastern Region
Command, was the patron of his refinery in Wan Yerng, Laikha township, 29
miles east of Taunggyi.

"And now it is him who had ordered our capture when things threaten to
blow up in his face," said Maung Hla. "He's only trying to cover his ass."

The raid on 2 May netted 380 kg of #3 heroin ($1.5 million), 300 million
kyat ($230,000), 4 of Maung Hla's colleagues including Agga and their
wives, among others. The BBC that interviewed him on 27 May also reported
seizure of 50 motor vehicles.

The group was formerly part of the 275th Brigade of the Shan State
National Army (SSNA), a ceasefire group until last year, when it returned
to the armed struggle following the Burma Army's efforts to have it
disarmed. In 1996, the 275th decided to become a pro-Rangoon militia
force. It later split further into two factions: Mongyawn, Mongkerng
township, led by Kanna and his son Sai Kyaw, and Wan Yerng, Laikha
township, led by Maung Hla and Agga.

____________________________________

May 31, Shan Herald Agency for News
Off season poppies in the south

Migrant workers returning home to visit their families during the region's
hottest month of April were surprised to find poppy fields along the
slopes of their mountainous villages in southern Shan State, reports
Hawkeye aka U Sein Kyi:

The colorful flowers of the fields were visible from Panglong, the
historic town where the treaty that united Burma with Shan, Kachin and
Chin states was signed in 1947. The fields were watered mainly by mountain
dew, but showers in March and April greatly contributed to their survival
and growth. "We have started to grow poppies all year round now," a source
was told by her relative. "There's no such thing as the annual poppy
season anymore."

Most fields come under the sponsorship of financiers who also see to it
that there are no official action taken against the farmers by local
authorities. To the delight of the poor local populace, the fields also
bring employment for them. During the hoeing, weeding and harvesting
periods, labor is much in demand, 2,000 kyat ($1.5) per day with meals.
"When community prices are going khuen-fah khuen-mawk (sky-high and
cloud-high), it certainly is a welcoming break to all," she said.

In Panglong, the normal daily wage is 500-1,000 kyat ($0.40-0.75). In
contrast, food is 700-1,000 ($0.50-0.75) per meal; fried rice, 700 kyat
($0.5) per plate; noodles, 1,000 kyat ($0.75) per bowl; and pork 7,500
kyat ($5.75) per viss. (1.6 kg)

Her friend from Mongpawn, 28 miles from Taunggyi, confirmed he also
witnessed off-season poppy fields on the hillsides near his hometown. "In
Mongpawn and Panglong, hot season poppies have just begun," he added. "But
in Hopong and Hsihseng (further west), they have been doing it for years."

Opium production, according to sources, has declined in the Wa-controlled
areas during the 2005-2006 season, but the drop there was more than made
up by outputs elsewhere in Shan State.

____________________________________

May 31, Kyodo News via BBC Monitoring
Japan donates drug counselling centre to Burma

Yangon: The Japanese Embassy in Yangon [Rangoon] has handed over a newly
built drug counselling and training centre to the Myanmar [Burma]
Anti-Narcotic Association in Yangon.

The two-story building, which cost 66,000 dollars to build, is located in
the compound of Drug Elimination Museum in Yangon.

Japanese Ambassador Nobutake Odano on Tuesday [30 May] handed over the
documents of the building to association president U San Thein at the
ceremony, which was also attended by Home Minister Maj-Gen Maung Bo,
chairman of the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, and Lt-Gen Myint
Swe of the Defence Ministry.

Speaking at the ceremony, Bo said, "While the international community is
fighting the danger of the narcotics, which poses a threat to the entire
mankind, social organizations in Myanmar are also participating in
combating the danger."

MANA is a nongovernmental organization formed in June 1994.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 31, Irrawaddy
Annan promises hard work to free Suu Kyi - Yeni

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has vowed to continue working for the
release of Burma’s detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all
other political prisoners.

According to a statement issued by his spokesman, Annan said he “will
continue to make every effort to secure” the release of political
detainees in Burma, including Suu Kyi. He added the Burmese regime “has
missed a significant opportunity” for democracy and national
reconciliation by extending Suu Kyi’s house arrest for another year.

The renewal of Suu Kyi’s detention on Saturday came just days after
Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs,
visited Rangoon, where he met Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Suu Kyi. Gambari said
the ruling junta appeared “ready to turn a new page.”

“Despite this setback, the international community cannot abandon the
search for improvements in the difficult situation in Myanmar [Burma],”
Annan said. He also urged Burma’s ruling junta to take other steps to
improve “safety and access for humanitarian assistance and restraint in
military operations that have affected civilians.”

In a videotaped statement yesterday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice called on the Burmese junta to end its attacks on civilians and
reciprocate opposition calls for national reconciliation talks.

Rice’s statement was made to commemorate the anniversary of Burma’s 1990
election—in which the main opposition party National League for Democracy
won a landslide victory but was never allowed to assume power.

Rice said the US stands in solidarity with the democratic aspirations of
the people of Burma. "Your dream of democracy is not forgotten, nor is it
yours to bear alone."

The US is seeking a second briefing on Burma at the Security Council this
week to prescribe some form of action, according to State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack.

"I understand that there is going to be a briefing for the Security
Council, but I certainly wouldn't preclude the possibility that action by
the Security Council would end with just a briefing," he told AFP news
agency.

McCormack did not specify what action the council might recommend, but
experts have suggested that it could seek "non-punitive" action, such as
adopting a resolution asking the UN secretary-general to report to the
council on developments of Burma, and could also demand the release of Suu
Kyi and the halting of military offensives against ethnic Karen, the AFP
reported.

During a council meeting last year, China, Japan, Russia and Algeria
argued that the issue of Burma exceeded the council's mandate of
international peace and security.

In response to mounting international criticism over Suu Kyi’s extended
term of house arrest, Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win insisted that the
matter was a domestic issue in comments made during a two-day ministerial
meeting of the Nonaligned Movement in Malaysia.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHERS

May 31, Wall Street Journal
'Do The Right Thing' - Jared Genser

How much worse does the situation in Burma need to get before the U.N.
Security Council decides to act?

On Saturday, the military junta again extended the house arrest of
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for a year. The decree came only a day
after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan made a rare appeal for her
release. He was, perhaps, hopeful that his deputy's recent trip to Burma
-- where the generals expressed a desire to "turn a new page" in its
relations with the international community -- was a sign of genuine
goodwill. Apparently not.

The junta's unequivocal rejection of the U.N.'s outstretched hand should
come as no surprise. The generals in Rangoon have a long history of
hinting at democratic reforms at critical moments so as to avert further
action against them. That's why it's now time for the Security Council to
demand actions rather than words from the junta.

Last September, former Czech Republic President Václav Havel and Bishop
Desmond M. Tutu commissioned my law firm to produce an action plan. Titled
"Threat to the Peace: A Call for the U.N. Security Council to Act in
Burma," the report argued that the junta is not just a threat to its own
people, but that it could also destabilize Southeast Asia.

Both predictions are based in gruesome historical precedents. Since 1996,
the junta has destroyed more than 2,700 villages, forced massive
relocations, condoned systematic rape of ethnic minorities, employed
forced labor, and used more than 70,000 child soldiers. These terrible
conditions have resulted in more than 700,000 refugees pouring into
Thailand and other neighboring countries. There is also a massive outflow
of drugs from the country, bringing with it new strains of the HIV virus
strains, thanks to needle sharing.

Late last year, the Security Council finally took up the situation in
Burma for the first time, with Sec. Annan's deputy, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari,
offering an unvarnished view of these problems and the intransigence of
the junta. But since that Dec. 16 briefing, the situation has
deteriorated. In recent months, the Burmese military has mounted a major
offensive in eastern Burma, perpetrating numerous human-rights atrocities
against the ethnic minority Karen people and displacing more than 13,000
people.

Since its refusal to honor the results of the 1990 elections, the Burmese
junta has ignored 15 resolutions of the U.N. General Assembly, 13
resolutions of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and denied access to
various U.N.-appointed envoys. This outright defiance of the U.N. cannot
be tolerated if the organization wants to remain relevant, especially
given the recent commitment by the Security Council to act if a state
fails in its "responsibility to protect" its citizens from the most
egregious human-rights violations.

The time has come for the U.N. Security Council to take decisive action on
Burma. By adopting a binding resolution requiring the junta to engage with
the international community, the Security Council can put pressure on the
generals to return to the negotiating table, allow U.N. agencies access to
provide humanitarian relief and press for the release of Ms. Suu Kyi and
other prisoners of conscience.

It is simply not enough for the Security Council to hold another private
briefing along the lines of last December's session. This time, the issue
of Burma needs to be placed on the agenda of a formal meeting in the full
glare of international publicity. Serious leadership by the Security
Council is the only way to put an end to the tragedy that has befallen the
Burmese people.

Mr. Genser is an attorney in Washington, D.C., with DLA Piper Rudnick Gray
Cary LLP.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 30, Karen National Union, Office of the Supreme Headquarters
KNU Statement on Extension of Detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

•	We, the KNU, regard extending detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel
Peace laureate and leader of the NLD which was elected by the people in
the 1990 elections, as an insult to desire of the Burmese people at home
and abroad for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and resolution of the
country's political problems justly.

•	The most important issues of the country today are the unconditional
release of all political prisoners and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, cessation of
military campaigns against the ethnic nationalities, freedom of the
political parties and resolution of political problems of the country,
justly. We have to note that instead of starting to address these issues
with wisdom and by the action contradictory to rationality, the SPDC shows
that it is holding fast to the policy of total annihilation rather than
resolving problems peacefully.

•	By the continued detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the SPDC
dictatorship means to keep the country further under its repressive
military rule. For that reason, the people made up of various indigenous
ethnic nationalities, and the patriotic political parties and
organizations must valiantly struggle out of unjust domination by the
military dictators. We must move forward and fight courageously for our
own birth rights. Only then, we will be able to decide our own destiny and
be liberated from all kinds of oppression and slavery.

•	Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has a personality of forthrightness and honesty, a
firm political stand, determination, and the support and trust of the
people. For that reason, the people of all the nationalities must support
Daw Aung Sam Suu Kyi and make the effort for her freedom. They must
further strive for the emergence a democratic federal union.

•	In conclusion, we solemnly call upon the SPDC to immediately and
unconditionally free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all the political prisoners,
to cease its military campaigns and oppression against the KNU and other
ethnic races and hold tripartite dialogue without delay.

____________________________________

May 29, Federation of Trade Unions Kawthoolei
FTUK Statement regarding human rights violations by SPDC Military Junta on
the Karen civilians

Over 23 killed and 14,000 Karen civilians displaced in Toungoo and Nyaung
Lay Bin Districts by recent SPDC Military Offensives

	Since the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) moved its
capital to Pyimana in the early 2006, the SPDC has been increasing its
military operations against the entire region of Pegu division as well as
Northern Karen area such as Toungoo and Nyaung Lay Bin districts in order
to gain security of the Capital.
	The SPDC has deployed units under Light-Infantry Division (LID)
66, Local Military Operation Command (LMOC) 16, LMOC 21, LMOC 10 and LID
101 to conduct military offensives. There are a total of 60 battalions
including battalions under the Southern Command.
	Currently, the SPDC troops have been committing various forms of
human rights violations on the Karen people such as forced relocation of
the villagers, forced labor on road construction, army camps, setting
fires on the villages, farms huts and rice barns. The troops have also
repeatedly looted properties of the villagers including a number of highly
valued Karen ancient bronze drums (known as Pah-Hsi) and domestic animals.
They have arbitrarily tortured and killed any person suspicious of
associating with Karen National Union (KNU).  During the month of March to
May of this year, 23 villagers have been confirmed shot to death by the
SPDC soldiers, 151 houses and 107 farm huts have been burned down, and 24
rice barns have been destroyed.  Within the last four months,
approximately 14,000 Karen civilians have become Internally Displaced
Persons (IDPs) as they have had to abandon their villages, and hide in the
jungle for survival. More than a thousand IDPs have reached the border
area to seek refuge in Thailand. Since it is a rainy season, there is an
urgent need to provide them shelter and food.  The rest of the IDPs are
facing severe shortages of food, medicines and shelters in the jungle.
	In the SPDC military operation areas of Toungoo and Nyaung Lay
Bin districts, those who have been displaced include FTUK members working
in the community as members of Education Workers Union (356 members),
Health Workers Union (150 members) and Agricultural Workers Union (1431
members). It is highly likely that all the 126 schools, mostly primary
schools, in the two districts will have to be shut down, 271 teachers will
become jobless and 3,659 students will lose their rights for education.
	We, the FTUK, strongly condemn the SPDC's intensified military
offensives against the Karen people and the continued use of forced labor.
Thus, we, the FTUK, call upon and urge the international communities,
including Human Rights Watch, the International Labor Organizations (ILO),
the United States, EU, to pressure the SPDC to immediately stop its
current military operations and withdraw its troops deployed in the
civilian areas.

FTUK was founded on October 7, 1998 during the Karen Labor Conference held
in liberated area of Kawthoolei (Karen Land) in Burma.  Maintaining close
relationships with Federation of Trade Union of Burma (FTUB), AFL-CIO,
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), FTUK has been
advocating workers rights, promoting vocational knowledge and assisting
the Karen people's struggle for democracy, human rights and ethnic rights.


Ed, BurmaNet News