BurmaNet News, June 8, 2006

[Editor]

June 8, 2006 Issue # 2979


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar silences pro-democracy journalist
Mizzima: UK bank issues updated frozen asset list for military officials
Irrawaddy: Burma’s ‘Brokeback’ journalists
Kaladan: Nasaka and Natala villagers commit robbery

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: Why you shouldn't swim to Myanmar
Kantarawaddy: Kayans can apply for resettlement in third countries
Kantarawaddy: KNPLF hunts for village headman
Irrawaddy: Truck loaded with Burmese migrants crashes

BUSINESS / TRADE
Asia Times: Myanmar: Missing the wood for the trees
Xinhua: China, Myanmar sign one more loan agreement

HEALTH / AIDS
Asia Pulse: Bangladesh's Beximco launches bird flu drug in Myanmar

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Burma extradites more than 90 Chinese prisoners

INTERNATIONAL
BBC News: UN urges Burma to free activists

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 8, Agence France Presse
Myanmar silences pro-democracy journalist

Myanmar's military government has banned domestic publications from
printing articles by a veteran journalist who wrote that democracy in the
country was inevitable, industry sources said Thursday.

A source close to the military government confirmed the ban on Ludu Sein
Win, who helped found the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD)
with Aung San Suu Kyi, over a May 23 article in the International Herald
Tribune.

The article, published just days before the military extended the house
arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, urged the junta to hold talks with the NLD,
which won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take office.

"The authorities must understand that democracy is inevitable, and talks
are the only way for a decent and smooth regime change," he said. The
junta have ruled the country since 1962.

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) in Bangkok said that the
65-year-old was writing for a dozen publications in Myanmar.

He began his career as a reporter at the left-wing Ludu newspaper, but
former dictator General Ne Win shut down the publication in 1967.

Ludu Sein Win was sentenced to 13 years in prison and has been under
military surveillance since his release in 1980, SEAPA said.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called Myanmar a "paradise for
censors" in its latest annual report last month. The country is among the
world's most restrictive for press freedoms.

____________________________________

June 8, Mizzima News
UK bank issues updated frozen asset list for military officials - Mungpi

In accordance with the European Union's renewed sanctions against Burmese
military officials and their relatives, the Bank of England has extended
its freeze on their assets.

The Council of the European Union has published an updated list of
military members and their families to be effected by the freeze. This
list includes a variety of people promoted in recent military reshuffles.

“No funds or economic resources are to be made available, directly or
indirectly, to or for the benefit of the listed persons,” the Bank of
England said in a notice issued last week.

The amended list includes 24 more military officials and their family
members. Twenty three officials have also been dropped from the list,
including former prime minister Khin Nyunt.

People included on the list will also be prevented from obtaining loans or
credit.

“Financial institutions and other bodies and persons in the UK must check
whether they maintain any accounts or otherwise hold any funds for the
individuals and entities named and, if so, they should freeze the accounts
and report the accounts or other funds and amounts frozen to the Bank of
England,” the notice said.

The European Commission imposed its first financial sanctions on Burmese
officials and their relatives in May 2000. Sanctions were renewed and
revised in 2004 and 200

____________________________________

June 8, The Irrawaddy
Burma’s ‘Brokeback’ journalists - Aung Zaw

Burma’s information ministry has kindled a minor civil war among some
Burmese journalists. In late April, according to Rangoon-based
journalists, it formed a group of editors and publishers with a mission to
counter the democratic opposition, activists and Western critics.

But some in the Rangoon media and others see the group as also something
of a fifth column in their midst, and are pouring scorn on it.

“Many of us call them Brokeback journalists,” popular comedian
Zarganar—recently barred from performing— told The Irrawaddy. This is a
reference to a recent controversial Hollywood movie about the emotional
relationship between two gay cowboys. The label is rather obscure, but it
may refer to the fact that members of the group are known to be close to
media-savvy Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan.

The group of eight editors and publishers have apparently been told by the
ministry to attack the regime’s critics, including Western embassies and
the main opposition National League for Democracy party.

Rangoon-based reporters allege the group comprises Myat Khaing, Hein Latt,
Tin Tun Oo, Than Htut Aung, Ko Ko, Aung Khaing, Zan Zan and Yin Kyaw.

Surprisingly, they are all well-known publishers and writers in Burma.

Myat Khaing, chief editor of The Mahar Journal and several other
publications, bitterly denies the existence of such a group.

“I am surprised to learn of [the allegation],” he told The Irrawaddy by
phone.  “I know who are behind this smear campaign against us—but it is
completely unfounded.”

He also said that he was surprised to learn that Than Htut Aung, chief
executive officer of the weekly Eleven Journal, was in the alleged group.

“He is not in the group,” Myat Khaing added, a slip of the tongue if he
denies the group exists.

Whether the group exists or not, it seems yet another internecine war has
started among Rangoon journalists. Myat Khaing has started to write a
series of articles attacking his “enemies,” saying they are making false
accusations.

In one article, he boosts his credentials by recalling his past experience
as a victim of the regime’s press censorship board and its “powerful
military intelligence service.”

Myat Khin claimed that he was often barred from writing, and that the
authorities did not allow him to use his name. He added wistfully that no
radio station had been interested in his work, and he had never received a
golden pen award.

But he praised minister Kyaw Hsan and his media policy. Some weekly
journals have also recently been featuring Kyaw Hsan’s friendly relations
with Myat Khaing.

Such accusations against Myat Khaing and some other editors are nothing
new, however. He was once known to be close to Minister of Rail
Transportation Win Sein, to the extent that his magazine became known as
“train magazine,” because of the amount of material it used on Win Sein
and his rail transportation policies.

Another alleged member of the group, Hein Latt, a well-known writer also
known to use different pseudonyms, has criticized media trainings sessions
organized at the American Centre and British Council in Rangoon.

Critics also claim that Myat Khaing, Hein Latt and some other journalists
have been noted as asking “positive,” or “polite” questions at official
press conferences. One journalist told The Irrawaddy he thought these
journalists had been primed at government press conference to ask “leading
questions,” and sometimes they were given questions in advance.

Kyaw Hsan is known to lead the regime’s “media campaign” to attack the
Western press and domestic opposition. This includes inviting local
reporters and editors to press conferences previously only attended by
those working for foreign news wires.

Myat Khaing’s weekly journal Good News  reported in a recent issue that
Kyaw Hsan who is believed to have written  articles in the state-run
papers and journals would hold a media training program to counter media
training projects held by the US and British embassies.

While Myat Khaing and regime sympathizers continue to attack government
critics, independent editors and reporters are keeping their heads down.
They are well aware that one veteran journalist, Sein Win, has been
punished by the regime by banning him from writing since his article
appeared recently in the International Herald Tribune.

So, for the moment the “brokeback journalists” call the shots.

____________________________________

June 8, Kaladan News
Nasaka and Natala villagers commit robbery

Maungdaw, Burma: Nasaka, Burma’s border security force along with Natala
(model) villagers robbed a Rohingya villager of “Maung Nama” village in
Maungdaw Township, reports our correspondent.

On May 25, at midnight, two Nasaka personnel accompanied by five Natala
villagers in civilian dress, armed with lethal weapons went the house of
Mohamed Salay (35) son of Mohamed Yakub, hailing from Maung Nama village
in Maungdaw Township.

The Nasaka called Salay out of the house and tried to arrest him. His
mother came out with a chopper hearing the shouts of her son while he was
resisting the Nasaka.

Salay’s mother, Halema Khatoon (55), was wounded in her neck and hand by
Nasaka and Natala villagers while she was trying to take away her son from
the robbers.

The victim’s wife also came out of the home with a dagger creating an
uproar and stabbed one Nasaka personnel in the hand. Meanwhile, hearing
the hue and cry, villagers nearby rushed to the spot. On seeing the
villagers coming towards them, the Nasaka and the Natala villagers ran
away leaving a military hat and a pair of handcuffs.

The following day, on May 26 early morning, the Village Peace and
Development Council (VPDC) Chairman and some other villagers went to the
concerned Nasaka Camp and complained about the incident and handed over
the military hat and handcuffs.

Seeing the hat and handcuffs a captain form the Nasaka camp said, “It is
proof that the Nasaka committed the crime. But they went there secretly
without permission of the concerned authorities. Then he requested the
villagers not to inform other departments, and added that “if you do that
I will be in trouble and also be shamed.”

The captain further said that he wanted to solve the problem between
Nasaka and the villagers. He gave Kyat 350,000 to the family members of
Salay as a compensation for injury. He also appointed a doctor to treat
the injured. He also made an agreement between Nasaka and the villagers
that if Salay’s injured mother of dies, the Nasaka will give Kyat 600,000
as compensation, according to official sources.

A village elder, said, “The Nasaka and army extort money by arresting and
torturing us in various methods on false allegations. But, we do not get
justice. They take away our vegetables and cattle forcibly from our farms.
By doing these frequently, they are not satisfied. So, as an extension,
they want to rob rich Rohingya families in the guise of robbers
accompanied by Natala villagers.”

Natala villagers are Buddhist new comers in Arakan who were brought to
Arakan State by the military regime from upper Burma to depopulate and
harass the Rohingya community. They are mostly long-term jailbirds,
criminals and others. They are notorious, said another villager.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 7, Reuters
Why you shouldn't swim to Myanmar - Ed Cropley

The Salween river, Myanmar - Driven by a boyish urge to swim across an
international border, I left my clothes on a rock in Thailand before
plunging into the murky waters of the Salween River and striking out for
Myanmar.

There can be few places in the world where such a prank is possible, but I
was convinced this secluded stretch of tropical river -- invitingly warm,
only 60 meters (yards) across and devoid of annoyances like border guards
or crocodiles -- was one of them.

After a day interviewing locals about Myanmar and Thai plans to dam the
Salween, a majestic river snaking 1,350 miles from the Himalayas to the
Andaman Sea, the reporter inside was saying at least I would be able to
describe it as "swimmable".

It didn't take many strokes of flailing crawl to realize it probably wasn't.

As the current wrapped itself around my legs, I had visions of being
fished out deep inside the former Burma by soldiers of the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), as the ruling military junta calls itself.

But what really made me turn back was the potential embarrassment of
having to be rescued while attempting, on a whim, a crossing that
countless others have made in the opposite direction out of desperation
and fear.

TOURISTS IN TRAGEDY

The feeling of being a tourist in the tragedies of others, a common-enough
emotion among foreign correspondents, hit home the next day when we
crossed to the Myanmar side in a long-tail boat.

Passports and visas are irrelevant as the area is controlled by the Karen
National Liberation Army (KNLA), a rag-tag ethnic militia with the dubious
honor of involvement in possibly the world's longest-running conflict.

After 58 years of guerrilla war, the Karen dream of an independent
homeland in eastern Myanmar appears as remote as ever. Evidence of their
suffering is not.

Sheltering from the midday sun in the shade of a large rock sat a
43-year-old man in a Newcastle United soccer team shirt. But Saw Da Pulo
will never be able to enjoy kicking a football.

Protruding from his shorts where his right leg should have been was a
heavily scarred stump, the result of a land mine blast four years ago.

For 10 days he had scrambled on a pair of heavy wooden crutches through
malaria-infested jungle to escape SPDC troops who raided his village.
Fearful he would be a burden to his parents and four children, he had
decided to flee alone.

Now, he could only sit and wait in the hope his family would make it one
day to the safety of the Salween and the rebel-controlled areas along the
Thai border.

FORGOTTEN FATE

More than 120,000 refugees, most of them minorities such as the Karen,
Shan, Karenni or Mon, live in camps in northern Thailand, having crossed
the Salween by any means possible.

According to the United Nations, they are one of Asia's "major" refugee
crises, but theirs is a largely forgotten fate among the immediate
emergencies elsewhere in the world.

Those who have made the crossing to Thailand, where they have limited
access to aid and assistance, are the lucky ones.

Deeper inside Myanmar, in a steep valley overlooked by bored KNLA youths
with AK-47s slung over their shoulders, we came across 800 Karen men,
women and children in a collection of bamboo huts that were not there six
weeks earlier.

Hungry, sick and disheveled, the latest arrivals told of friends and
neighbors murdered and villages burned to the ground. Some of them used
the word "myo dong". In Karen, it means genocide.

One woman had given birth in the jungle before having to carry her
two-week-old son across a heavily mined road.

By contrast, the next evening, I would be back in Bangkok, creeping into
my one-year-old daughter's air conditioned room to watch her asleep in the
comfort and safety of her crib.

Before leaving the camp to head back to Thailand, I emptied out my
rucksack and gave what I had to the refugees. For the return trip, I would
be making the crossing by boat, but my clothes I would leave in Myanmar.

____________________________________

June 8, Kantarawaddy Times
Kayans can apply for resettlement in third countries - Sharreh

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has permitted Burma’s
‘long-neck’ Kayan people in Thailand to apply for resettlement in third
countries.

Though UNHCR has since early this year allowed Karenni refugees to apply
for resettlement without any restraint but there were restrictions on
brass coil wearing Kayan people who had fled Burma like other refugees.
These restrictions have now been lifted, giving them the right to apply
for resettlement like others, said a source from the Thailand-based UNHCR
office.

“Earlier, they were not included for interviews but now it is their turn
in terms of priority. [Kayans from] Three villages have been given equal
rights as others,” the UNHCR officer said.

The UNHCR has early this week interviewed brass coil wearing families from
three villages in Mae Hong Son. Two families from Huay Sua Tao village,
one from Huay Pu Kay village and seven from Kayan Tharyar village were
interviewed.

The headman of an interviewed family from Kayan Tharyar village said, “We
had been waiting [for this opportunity] for a long time. We couldn’t wait
any longer, so we wrote to UNHCR. Many others from the village also sent
letters to UNHCR. I think that’s why they [UNHCR] gave us this
opportunity.”

When asked regarding the tradition of wearing brass rings, his wife said
she wanted to take the tradition to a third country if there is no
restriction. “We were interviewed but are not sure if we will be given the
opportunity to go to a third country. We really want to go,” the man said.

Kayan families interviewed by UNHCR compromise 61 people. Last February,
six families from Kayan Tharyar village received letters of approval from
UNHCR for resettlement in Finland.

Each day, at least 10 letters by refugees from Karenni refugee camps
arrive in the UNHCR office, making enquiries about resettlement. There are
over 10 families that were approved for resettlement but are still waiting
to depart to third countries, according to the refugee committee.

The UNHCR office in August 2005 started accepting applications and
collecting names of refugees for resettlement programmes in third
countries.

____________________________________

June 8, Kantarawaddy Times
KNPLF hunts for village headman

An armed group from Karenni Nationalities People's Liberation Front
(KNPLF), which agreed to a ceasefire with the Burmese military junta,
entered Huay Pu Kay village, Mae Hong Son province, Thailand to look for
the village headman.

The group compromised two men armed with small weapons and was led by a
major named ‘Yuang’ from KNPLF based in Huay Pu Luang area, on the
Thai-Burma border. The group entered the village yesterday around 3:10
p.m. and searched for the village headman Maung Htan for about two hours.

“The leader had a recorder and his two followers had pistols under their
clothes,” said a Huay Pu Kay villager who saw the group looking for the
village headman.

However, realizing that the group was armed, Maung Htan ran away.

“They think I have contacts with the organization here [Karenni National
Progressive Party]. They used to send some people to call me but I didn’t
dare to go. I’m sure they’ll do something to me,” said Maung Htan who is
in hiding.

Together with the group looking for the village headman, there was also a
Thai, according to eye-witnesses.

The KNPLF based in Huay Pu Luang area had since last year sent letters and
persons again and again asking the village headman to come and meet them.
Following his refusal to go, the group entered the village to look for
him.

However, letters asking him to meet the group did not give any firm
reasons as to why they were calling him, said Muang Htan.

Before, Huay Pu Luang area was a Thai-Karenni border trade zone. To reopen
the business zone, the KNPLF has since last year relocated about a hundred
households from inside Karenni State to settle in the area.

Huay Pu Luang area is only about two kilometers from Huay Pu Kay village.
Therefore, it is an area where KNPLF’s groups can easily and freely travel
or enter the border.

As the group entered the village for him, Muang Htan told Kantarawaddy
Times, “It’s difficult to stay here any longer. It’s dangerous.”

The KNPLF wants brass coil wearing ‘long-neck’ Kayan people who are
staying in villages in Thailand to come to settle in Huay Pu Luang area.
The group is also trying to open a border road for tourists to be able to
enter the area.

____________________________________

June 8, The Irrawaddy
Truck loaded with Burmese migrants crashes

A truck apparently carrying Burmese illegal immigrants crashed in
Thailand’s Kanchaburi province early on Tuesday, killing one woman and
injuring 14 others.

The truck, registered in neighboring Ratchaburi province, crashed into a
fence on the Thongphaphum-Sangkla Buri road and spun off the road. The
driver fled the scene. Six of the injured are still in Kanchanaburi’s
Phahol Polpayu hospital, in Muang district. Another eight were arrested
for illegally entering the country, and face deportation. Police Lt-Col
Sutin Promsri said none had identification documents, but police had found
from similar incidents that the immigrants were Burmese and ethnic Mon and
Karen. The body of the 35-year-old woman was due to be cremated at
Thongphaphum temple on Thursday.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 9, Asia Times
Myanmar: Missing the wood for the trees - Samuel Blythe

"The law in Burma [Myanmar] is like an old dog," said a veteran
ethnic-Kachin politician along Myanmar's rugged northern border with
China. "It barks if you kick it, otherwise it stays silent." Global
Witness, a London-based environmental watchdog, has inadvertently set the
old dog howling in northern Myanmar.

The commotion started with a Global Witness press release issued last
week, which reported that China and Myanmar were actually working to halt
rather than accelerate logging in northern Myanmar by closing their common
border to the timber trade. China's announcement in March of the logging
ban follows several years of lobbying by Global Witness to halt the
rapacious timber trade in northern Myanmar's ethnic-Kachin areas, which
the advocacy group has characterized as "illicit".

Indigenous environmental groups based in Kachin state have since expressed
their concerns about the alleged ban and discomfort with Global Witness's
advocacy approach. A spokesman for the Kachin Environmental Organization
said the new ban on cross-border log trading is really intended to provide
the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) with the legal power
to arrest small businessmen involved in the trade. He stated his belief
that businessmen associated with the military junta were unlikely to be
affected.

He also noted that Ohn Myint, the SPDC's army commander in Kachin state,
issued a directive last week prohibiting the Kachin Independence
Organization (KIO), an ethnic rebel group, from trading gold, jade or logs
through its main trading gate with China in the border town of Laiza. The
army commander reportedly asked the Chinese government to assist in
enforcing this ban.

The KIO has been under increasing pressure to surrender its arms to the
military government, and Kachin leaders see the latest ban as another
tactic toward achieving that end. A Kachin working for a second
environmental non-governmental organization (NGO), who recently returned
from the China border, expressed concern that a ban on the logging trade
would be selectively applied, enabling the SPDC to further monopolize the
logging trade, weaken the KIO, and cause more economic hardship for
already impoverished local communities.

Since the Yangon government and the Kachin Independence Organization
concluded a tentative ceasefire in 1994, mining and logging in northern
Myanmar have intensified. Local communities are concerned about the
long-term ecological impact of breakneck resource extraction and are
increasingly disturbed that for the past decade the lion's share of the
profits has gone to military officials, their collaborators in the KIO and
a handful of local and Chinese businessmen.

Many Kachin civilians are also dependent, formally or informally, on
extractive industries. Some earn their livelihood by selling goods and
services to the loggers. In the absence of government-initiated
development projects, the KIO has used a modest amount of its logging
income to support the development of desperately needed hospitals, schools
and roads.

Enter Global Witness, a leading advocate of applying international law to
regulate underground trade in timber, diamonds and oil. Global Witness's
mandate is to highlight the link between the exploitation of natural
resources and human-rights abuses, particularly in cases where the
resources fund and perpetuate conflict and corruption.

The outfit undoubtedly has a strong track record. Global Witness applied
advocacy pressure that played a key role in the closing of the
Thai-Cambodian border to illicit logging, thereby choking off the Khmer
Rouge's income and prompting its peace with the Cambodian government. It
also carefully chronicled the blood-diamond trade in some of Africa's
conflicts and played a role in the United Nations sanctions that were
eventually passed against Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.

Global Witness has recently focused its considerable energies and
resources on the illicit logging trade in northern Myanmar, in what
appeared to it a similar war-torn situation where extractive industries
perpetuate the conflict.

In an October 2005 report titled "A Choice for China: Ending the
Destruction of Burma's Northern Forests", the advocacy group chronicled
and identified some of the main culprits behind the destruction of one of
Southeast Asia's last great stands of hardwood forest.

However, Global Witness's conceptual approach and legalistic advocacy
policies are problematic when applied to Myanmar and have evoked concerns
among local environmentalists who are arguably more familiar with the
political, economic and social complexities behind the trade.

Contrary to Global Witness's stated mandate, the conflict in Kachin state
is not driven primarily by the resource trade. Rather, the Kachin
insurgency has been motivated by a deep historical sense of resentment and
is primarily a nationalistic struggle for an ethnic homeland. A 1994
ceasefire agreement between the government and the Kachin Independence
Organization has not resolved the underlying political issues and ethnic
Burman - Kachin tensions still run high.

The SPDC's decision to grant lucrative concessions to exploit natural
resources to former top-ranking Kachin rebels has in effect bought the
compliance of those who would lead the charge back to war. To borrow a
phrase, the logging trade has turned former battlefields into an
ecologically destructive marketplace.

Global Witness's advocacy approach, which is focused on halting the
"illicit" cross-border logging trade, is hence problematic. For starters,
its characterization of the trade as "illicit" is dubious.
Global Witness classifies 98% of Myanmar's logging trade as illegal
because it is not recorded in the country's official trade statistics and
is therefore assumed to have not passed through official customs
checkpoints in Myanmar.

In reality, much of what Global Witness defines as "illicit" logging trade
has occurred with the explicit or tacit permission of both governments for
more than a decade. Although much of the timber trade indeed bypasses
customs officials, heads of state of China and Myanmar personally
concluded many of the deals to exploit northern Myanmar's forests and
export the raw product to China.

In other cases, logging and exports occur with the explicit permission of
the SPDC's regional commander in Kachin state, the highest-ranking member
of the government at the divisional level. Moreover, the Myanmar Timber
Enterprise, the commercial arm of the SPDC's Ministry of Forestry, is
permitted to export timber across the border. Although aspects of the
logging trade may violate Myanmar's legal procedures, legal compliance,
especially by high-ranking military officials, is generally weak.

Indeed, it is commonly estimated that the SPDC's official trade data
records less than 20% of all exports that crossed into China in the past
decade. In other words, by Global Witness's definition, nearly all of
Myanmar's trade with China is illicit. This is true for a variety of
reasons: trade through unofficial gates, customs officials undervaluing of
goods in return for bribes and the central government's manipulation of
publicly reported statistics to understate trade flows and disguise
balance-of-payment deficits.

A second problem with Global Witness's approach is that it deflects
attention from the real issue - environmental justice. Much of Myanmar's
"legal" bilateral trade in wood products was harvested in an unsustainable
manner, and notably in violation of Myanmar's own domestic laws and
international treaty obligations. Environmental oversight is extremely
weak, and forestry, police, customs and army officials are all known to be
heavily involved in extorting money in the name of law enforcement.

Similarly, legality and justice are almost always worlds apart in Myanmar.
The SPDC is a council of generals who promulgate and arbitrarily enforce
laws, unconstrained by a constitution, parliament or judicial oversight.
The institutions governing the logging trade are similarly dominated by
the military. The post of minister of forestry is a highly coveted and
lucrative one, always occupied by a high-ranking army official.

Official permission to log is given on the basis of patronage and bribes,
rather than internationally acceptable impartial bidding procedures. Nor
are the wishes of local communities ever taken into account. Global
Witness's focus on legal technicalities at the border draws attention away
and partially validates the pervasive abuse of the law in Myanmar.

For those reasons, Global Witness's advocacy approach is likely to fail.
The logging trade is too important to both Myanmar's and China's
governments for it to be stopped on mere legal technicalities - as Global
Witness apparently hopes.

Exports to China account for 20-30% of Myanmar's total annual logging
revenue and have accounted roughly for more than half a billion dollars in
revenue over the past five years. China is similarly dependent on Myanmar
for hard wood imports, much of which it re-exports in a booming furniture
trade to the US and European countries.

Ominously, Global Witness's approach may actually enable the military to
tighten its monopoly grip and streamline its operations over the logging
trade. If China makes a serious effort to block the illicit trade, loggers
in Myanmar will likely divert the trade through the SPDC's official trade
gates, or its ports in Yangon.

This would enable the SPDC to reap even greater profits to the detriment
of the small-scale loggers who are not associated with the military.
Although allegations of corruption have tarnished the KIO's reputation, it
remains an important balance to the SPDC.

No one doubts that Global Witness has the right intentions. But by
focusing their considerable energies on the "illicit" nature of the
cross-border logging trade, their approach does not ensure the equitable
or sustainable environmental policies it aims to achieve. Worse, it may
exacerbate an already abysmal environmental situation.

A more holistic, and considerably more difficult, approach would be to
focus on securing a total ban on the logging trade, similar to what was
accomplished in Thailand, in a manner that does not advantage the military
government at the expense of the Kachin public.

Global Witness would be well placed to lobby both the United States and
European Union into expanding their trade sanctions to include the imports
of Chinese furniture made of Myanmar teak and other tropical hardwoods.
Until then, Myanmar's destructive timber trade will continue unabated,
providing hard-currency earnings that prop up and perpetuate one of the
world's most abusive regimes.

Samuel Blythe is a Thailand-based journalist.

____________________________________

June 8, Xinhua Economic News Service
China, Myanmar sign one more loan agreement

China and Myanmar signed one more general loan agreement on utilization of
the preferential buyer's credit loan of 200 million U.S. dollars here on
June 8.

The signing ceremony between the Export and Import Bank of China and the
Central Bank (CB) of Myanmar was witnessed by Chargede Affaires of the
Chinese Embassy Yu Boren and Governor of the CBof Myanmar U Kyaw Kyaw
Maung.

It was another loan of its kind with the same amount extended by China
since August 2003.

The present loan agreement, initiated during Myanmar Prime Minister
General Soe Win's visit to China in February this year, will be used in
implementing projects of five Myanmar ministries in different sectors.

The 2003 Chinese loan was used for importing heavy machinery under
Myanmar's 790-megawatt Yeywa hydropower project.

Both sides agreed that the loan will contribute to the improvement of
Myanmar's infrastructure and socio-economic development.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 8, Asia Pulse
Bangladesh's Beximco launches bird flu drug in Myanmar

Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited has launched bird flu drug, Oseflu, in
Myanmar for the prevention and treatment of human cases of Avian
influenza.

"We'll be exporting 2,000 doses of the drug to Myanmar very soon," chief
executive officer of Beximco Pharma Nazmul Hassan said at the launch,
adding that the company was in the process of registering the drug in many
other countries.

The drug was registered with the Myanmar Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) under the Health Ministry of the country on May 24, said a corporate
release Wednesday.

Avian influenza has been detected on a large scale in Myanmar.

Oseflu, the only Oseltamivir Brand from Bangladesh to get registration in
any overseas market, was launched in Myanmar in the first week of this
month.

Around 500 front-line physicians of Myanmar and distinguished guests from
Ministry of Health of Myanmar, WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, CARE, Myanmar Medical
Association (MMA) and high officials of Bangladesh Embassy in Myanmar were
present at the launch ceremony in Yangon on Sunday.

"It's a great relief for us," a leading physician of Myanmar, Professor
Dr. Soe Lwin Nyein said, as Myanmar physicians were anxious about getting
adequate amount of Oseltamivir at a reasonable price on the first outbreak
of the virus.

Besides the launch ceremony, a scientific symposium on Avian Influenza was
also held on the occasion.

Earlier, in March this year, when the first case of bird flu was reported
in Myanmar, Beximco Pharma, as a gesture of goodwill, donated 100 doses of
Oseflu to the Health Ministry of Myanmar.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 8, Mizzima News
Burma extradites more than 90 Chinese prisoners - Myo Gyi

Burmese authorities handed more than 90 Chinese inmates from prisons in
Mandalay, Monywa and Myintkyina to authorities in Jie Gao at an
extradition ceremony on Wednesday.

Sources told Mizzima officials from both Burma and China attended the
ceremony. Most of the prisoners had been charged with illegal entry into
Burma and other criminal offenses.

“Most of them were charged with illegal entry into Burma, and forestry
acts. Many others who are charged with criminal cases and drug cases are
still in Burmese prisons,” the source told Mizzima on condition of
anonymity.

More than 70 Burmese are being held by Chinese authorities for similar
crimes and plans for their return to Burma are underway.

Last month more than 20 Chinese prisoners were sent from Bamo prison to
China after Burmese and Chinese authorities signed an extradition treaty.

But analysts estimate there are still thousands of Chinese inmates in
Burmese prisons.

Chinese officials told Mizzima the third secretary of the Chinese embassy
and a consul from the Mandalay Chinese Consulate visited Myitkyina, Bamo
and Lashio prisons in May.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 8, BBC News
UN urges Burma to free activists

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged the military government in Burma
to release all political activists who are being held in custody.

Mr Annan was speaking after the authorities released a labour rights
activist from prison on Tuesday.

Mr Annan's comments echo remarks from the UN envoy to Burma who said the
release of Su Su Nway was not enough and all activists should be released.

Su Su Nway was jailed after reporting cases of forced labour to the UN.

Ms Nway - who is a member of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party
National League for Democracy (NLD) - reported the cases to the UN's
International Labour Organization.

She successfully won a conviction against local officials over the practice.

However, she was arrested in October 2005 and jailed for 18 months at
Rangoon's Insein Prison for swearing at and threatening officials.

She said she did not know why she had been released early but said her
activism would not stop.

"I will continue to stand for the truth and fight for the elimination of
forced labour in the country," she told the Associated Press news agency.

Criticism

Following the release of Ms Nway, the United Nations human right envoy to
Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, called for all prisoners of conscience to be
freed.

"This will be critical in facilitating national reconciliation and
democratic transition, to which the Myanmar leadership has committed
itself," he said.

Burma's military authorities have come under strong criticism for their
treatment of democracy activists.

Last month, they extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest for another year.

Ms Suu Kyi has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest. Her
party, the NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the military
refused to hand over power.