BurmaNet News, September 8, 2006

[Editor]

September 8, 2006 Issue # 3041


INSIDE BURMA
AP: US seeking junta's overthrow through UN Security Council, Myanmar
state press says
Spiegel Online: Junta withdraws as Burma suffers
DVB: Burmese authorities limit religious vigils

ON THE BORDER
SHAN: Human security comes first: NGO worker
Irrawaddy: More IDPs flee to the Thai-Burma border

HEALTH / AIDS
Guardian: Report blames Burmese junta for high death rate of eastern tribes

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: India to hold SME exhibition in Myanmar in next January

ASEAN
Manila Standard: Myanmar faces expulsion

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: EU under fire as it prepares to win and dine the SPDC

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: The Junta’s educational mandate

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 8, Associated Press
US seeking junta's overthrow through UN Security Council, Myanmar state
press says

Yangon: A commentary in a state-run newspaper on Friday accused the United
States of seeking to put Myanmar on the agenda of the U.N. Security
Council in order to overthrow the country's ruling junta and install a
puppet regime.

The commentary in Myanma Ahlin noted that U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.,
John Bolton, sent a letter last Friday asking that Myanmar be put on the
council's agenda, citing its refugee crisis and detention of more than
1,100 political prisoners. Bolton said Myanmar posed a threat to
international peace and security.

Putting Myanmar on the agenda would allow its actions to be debated during
the council's term.
"The objective of the American government is to topple the present
government and to install a puppet government that they can manipulate,"
said the newspaper commentary.

Myanmar's military leaders do not make themselves accessible to the press,
and the commentaries in state-run newspapers are the main vehicle for
expressing official viewpoints.
The junta in turn frequently accuses Western powers of trying to interfere
in the country's affairs and alleges that Myanmar's pro-democracy movement
collaborates with them.

Washington has been one of the military regime's main antagonists, and it
has imposed political and economic embargoes against the government. Many
Western nations shun the junta because of its poor human rights records
and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Even U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for the junta to release
its political prisoners, including Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
who heads the opposition National League for Democracy. Her party won a
1990 general election but was not allowed by the military to take power.

"Demands by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton totally ignore the country's
develop-ment and are a politically motivated attempt aimed at bullying the
government," wrote the commentary's authors.

____________________________________

September 8, Spiegel Online
Junta withdraws as Burma suffers - Juergen Kremb

Rangoon: While Nobel Peace Prize laureate and democracy campaigner Aung
San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, Burma's ruling junta is
withdrawing to its new jungle capital and ravaging a country that should
by all rights be one of Asia's wealthiest.

There is absolutely no question that the stocky soldier who suddenly
emerges from the bushes is about to use his weapon. "Stop," he shouts at
the driver of a taxi that has turned onto a side road off Burma's "Highway
Number One." The soldier releases the safety catch on his Kalashnikov
rifle. The commotion drives five other soldiers out of the brush next to
the freshly paved road.

The side road the soldiers have blocked off is 15 kilometers (9 miles)
north of the city of Pyinmana in the central Burmese plains. The jungle
stretches for more than 400 kilometers (249 miles), like some vast, green
carpet, toward a line of jagged peaks on the distant horizon marking the
Golden Triangle bordering Laos and Thailand. The only destination worth
seeing in this rural stretch of Burma is its tropical rainforest research
institute.

But Burma's ruling generals recently declared the region a restricted
military zone, making the trip to the institute off-limits to outsiders.
The Junta is having its new capital built somewhere at the end of this
20-foot-wide highway. The central government's officials were already
required to move there last November.

The only foreigners who have been allowed cursory visits to the
construction site are the military attaches of friendly nations, which
include China, a protective ally, Russia, a supplier of weapons to the
junta, and Ukraine. For the majority of the diplomatic corps, which has
remained in the capital Rangoon, the government is now reachable only
through a single fax number. Two Burmese journalists who secretly
photographed the new city were promptly thrown into a labor camp.

Nevertheless, there are a few hidden vantage points from which one can
gain a glimpse of the junta's new inner sanctum, a glimpse that reveals
the blue and yellow metal roofs of opulent villas glinting in the sun in a
valley. Black SUVs shuttle between office buildings adorned with garish
columns, while a forest at the base of a mountain is being cleared for a
new golf course.

Burma's Junta Digs In

Burma's leadership apparently plans to barricade itself into its remote
new capital, from which it expects to control the country in the future.
The nearest major city, Mandalay, is a 250-kilometer (155-mile) journey
away on a deeply potholed road, and the trip to Rangoon takes about eight
hours. Naypyidaw, or "Royal Country," is the name Than Shwe, the junta's
73-year-old leader, has personally selected for his government's secretive
new headquarters. According to official instructions to be followed in the
event of a foreign attack, "Naypyidaw is our war bunker, where we will
wait, during an American attack, until the Chinese hurry to our aid."

The military regime, which calls itself the "State Peace and Development
Council" and renamed the country Myanmar in 1989, isn't particularly
concerned about its dismal reputation abroad. In April Rangoon, now called
Yangon, resumed diplomatic relations with North Korea, relations it had
broken off in the 1980s. Than Shwe also sent several hundred officer's
candidates to Moscow to study nuclear physics and missile construction.

Some politicians from the member states of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), which normally pursues a policy of mutual
non-intervention, have even called for ousting the junta from the
organization and have appealed to the United Nations Security Council to
debate the status of human rights in Burma.

Publisher Under Pressure

Ross Dunkley, an Australian who publishes the weekly Myanmar Times, says
he no longer has any illusions about Burma. Ironically Dunkley has long
been considered a poster child for the benefits -- both ideological and
financial -- of investing in the pariah state.

Six years ago Dunkley leased one floor of a run-down factory building on
Bo Aung Kyaw Street in Rangoon and converted it into a modern publishing
office where his 350 employees now put out the Myanmar Times. The paper,
which is published in English and Burmese, has a total weekly circulation
of about 500,000 copies. It is certainly no beacon of democracy and human
rights, because, like all printed materials in Burma, it is subject to
heavy censorship. Yet it remains light-heartedly colorful, which is
unusual in a place like Burma. But how much longer can this last?

Dunkley enjoys the protective patronages of former Prime Minister Khin
Nyunt. The ex-leader, whose resume also includes a stint as head of
country's feared Military Intelligence (MI), apparently realized that the
military regime could only survive by opening up the country. Beginning in
May 2002, Nyunt sought a dialogue with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
who at the time was not under the house arrest to which she has been
subject for two extended periods of time since 1989.

For a brief while it seemed almost as if the "Lady," as her supporters
call the daughter of national hero Aung San, would reach a compromise with
the generals. But on May 30, 2003, during a speech tour, the opposition
leader's motorcade was ambushed. A mob incited by a pro-government group
massacred up to 70 of Suu Kyi's supporters. If agents of MI chief Khin
Nyunt hadn't stopped the mob, the Lady would likely have joined the
victims. Did the deal Khin Nyunt seemed on the verge of striking with Suu
Kyi go too far for junta leader Than Shwe? Perhaps. There was a purge
within the intelligence agency in the ensuing months and Aung San Suu Kyi
was again placed under house arrest at her lakeside residence. With Khin
Nyunt apparently out of favor, more than a thousand of his agents ended up
in prison. Since then publisher Dunkley has been under pressure to sell
his paper to a favorite of the junta leader.

A Symbol of Past Wealth

It's barely a ten-minute drive from Dunkley's office to the Shwedagon
Pagoda, a Burmese national symbol. Rudyard Kipling (1865 to 1936), the
English writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, called the
98-meter (322-foot) structure, in which eight hairs of the Buddha are said
to be enshrined, a " beautiful winking wonder." The monument, adorned by
5,000 diamonds, more than 2,000 precious stones and 13,153 gold panels,
each about two inches square, stands in historic testimony to the
country's former riches.

Little of that affluence remains in evidence today. "It's difficult to
ruin a state that only two generations ago was possibly the wealthiest in
Asia," says David Steinberg, an American expert on Burma. And yet the
generals are still managing to do so.

In the early 1960s, before General Ne Win staged his military takeover in
1962, Burma was Asia's most important lumber producer, its biggest rice
producer and boasted Southeast Asia's most well educated, English-speaking
elite. Today more than 40 percent of the population is forced to make ends
meet on less than one dollar a day. In a country where AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria are rampant, the generals spend half the national budget on
the military.

Aung San Suu Kyi gave her first speech in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
It was 1988, and she had just returned home from Great Britain to care for
her dying mother. Her call for an end to the spying and terror that
gripped the country has since become a model of nonviolent struggle for
human rights and democracy movements worldwide. As if its wrenching
poverty weren't enough, Burma is a tropical gulag. The junta's mouthpiece,
"The New Light of Myanmar," prints the same hackneyed government slogans
day in and day out. Members of Suu Kyi's party, the National League for
Democracy, are consistently disparaged as "terrorists" and "enemies of the
people." Those who speak with foreign journalists, criticize the junta or
so much as crack jokes about the generals promptly vanish into labor
camps.

That was the fate of two student leaders who were so concerned about their
safety that arranging a meeting with them in a remote residential complex
involved intricate, secret preparations. More than ten years ago, thugs
from the intelligence agency stormed their apartment, placed hoods over
their heads and dragged them away before the horrified eyes of their
parents. Without ever being sentenced by a court of law, the two spent the
next ten years in prison.

They report that prisoners are herded into tiny seven-by-ten-foot cells
and are repeatedly beaten to death in front of their fellow inmates. They
also say that it's customary for doctors to use a single syringe to
administer vaccinations to entire prison wards. "We had the impression,"
says one of the men, "that they were deliberately trying to infect us with
HIV." Many prisoners, he adds, died painful deaths in the camps.

International Pressure Mounts

The US government is now pushing for a debate in the UN Security Council
over human rights in Burma. But Win Naing, 69, says he has no high hopes
for its outcome. A frail man in gold-rimmed glasses, he once worked as an
announcer for the BBC and the Voice of America. He wears a pressed white
shirt and a blue longyi, the traditional sarong worn by Burmese men and
women. The opulent mansions of neighbors all but overpower his small house
in Bahan, an exclusive residential neighborhood of Rangoon. "The
military's favorites" are everywhere, says Win Naing.

The "National Movement" Win Naing founded is a private think tank, not a
political party, which likely explains why the generals allow him to
continue operating. Another reason he's been left alone could be that he
agreed to join the so-called "National Convention," a body the military
junta convened, supposedly in an effort to reestablish a multiparty
democracy in Burma.

The body is supposed to be developing a new constitution. The process has
been tremendously slow in the making, says Win Naing, who adds: "But we
must develop a trusting relationship with the generals. Anything else
would be madness. They still have plenty of bullets and, in China, a
powerful friend."

Translated from German by Christopher Sultan

____________________________________

September 7, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese authorities limit religious vigils

Burmese military authorities at Myingyan, Mandalay in central Burma have
limited the length of traditional annual religious festivals (vigils) from
more than 20 days to just only 7 days this year, according to local
residents.

Although it is not known why the restriction was imposed, Buddhist abbots
who are known to speak about political matters during their sermons were
also banned from taking part in the vigils.

“It is an act of control on religion. The religious vigils are very
popular in our town,” a resident told DVB. “In fact, we (our monks) preach
the truth and those who do injustice (the authorities) might think that
these (sermons) are referring to them. I think it must be it. The USDA
(Union Solidarity and Development Association have ordered the Sangha
Nayaka (Top Abbots) association through the district authority, I heard.”

“We are having problems here. The township (authorities) only allowed
seven days, through the township Sangha Nayaka,” said Reverend Nyanna
Wuntha, a member of the association. “The religious festivals (used to)
last around one month. It seems that there is a problem regarding this.
Therefore, they only allowed 7 days. No politics was involved.”

Another monk who was banned from preaching in public also told DVB how he
was banned thus:

“At a Kahtein (Katina) religious festival, I said, ‘wibba kyamma,
mapyaytha’, General Khin Nyunt who persecuted and tortured the public is
gone. The remaining persons will follow his path, and they banned me. The
teachings/sermons of Phyoo abbot Reverend U Wanathiri are very biting. The
abbot is also living with the pledge by means of signature not to use
political terms during the State Sangha Maha Nayaka religious events.”

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 7, Shan Herald Agency for News
Human security comes first: NGO worker

In response to a statement made by a government official that national
security is the determining factor for all questions including the Shan
migrant workers' health issues, a Thai NGO official participating in the
one-day seminar held in Chiangmai yesterday, argued that human security
instead should be doing the arbitration.

"Laws are tools," said Karn Sermchaiyawong, senior protection coordinator
for International Rescue Committee (IRC) which is active in Maehongson, at
the seminar. "They are shaped in accordance with human needs, and not the
other way round."

He cited fairly recent government green signal to migrants to access
public health treatments and their children to attend schools.

A participant remarked to S.H.A.N. afterwards that human security and
national security are in fact two sides of the same coin and should
maintain an agreeable balance between each other. "If the stress is on law
and national security over everything else," he told S.H.A.N., "I'm afraid
not even native Thais will be able to live in this country. On the other
hand, if we just allow human security to take precedence over things, the
country will become so anarchic it won't be fit to live in."

The seminar had discussed the findings of the seven month long project
(February-August 2006) launched by The Social Research Institute of the
Chiangmai University. According to Dr Khwanchiwan Buadaeng, the head of
the research project:

*   There are 47, 386 registered migrant Shan workers in Chiangmai for the
year 2006

*   34.55 percent of them are engaged in construction projects, 30.59
percent in agriculture, 10.96 percent in housekeeping and 20.62 percent in
general labour, popularly categorized as 3-D's (Dirty, Dangerous, and
Difficult).

Four top maladies:

Headache and dizziness       27.17 percent
Muscle pains                       20.04 percent
Skin disease                       13.20 percent
Digestive disorders              12.14 percent

Among those surveyed (1,147 respondents from 14 districts and 1
sub-district), 46.58 percent, especially those from the construction
sector, believe meetings to educate them on health issues is the most
suitable method. Many who attended the seminar also say temples, as
centres of Shan social activities, could be used as venues for health
education.

The seminar was presided over by Dr Gothom Areeya. The next on the group's
agenda is a similar research programme on Mon migrant workers, according
to one of the Shan organizers.

_____________________________________

September 8, Irrawaddy
More IDPs flee to the Thai-Burma border - Shah Paung

Internally Displaced People from Pegu division continue to flee ongoing
military offensives by the Burma Army, say relief workers and ethnic
rebels.

More than 300 IDPs arrived at Ei Tu Hta refugee camp in the Papun district
of Karen State since early September, according to the Karen Office of
Relief and Development.

Gilbert Shu, the director of KORD, said at least 243 IDPs arrived at the
camp, located near the Salween River on the Burma side of the border, in
the first week of September. Some 74 others arrived in late August. The
new arrivals, said Shu, come mainly from Mone township in Nyaunglaybin
district. He added that most are children.

Relief workers have expressed concern about poor accommodation at the
camp, which currently houses nearly 1,500 refugees.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan dated May 31 this year, the
Karen Women’s Organization stated that of the 15,500 recently displaced
persons, more than 70 percent are women and children.

“Fighting is taking place on a daily basis,” said Mahn Sha, secretary of
the Karen National Union. He added that more than 100 clashes have
occurred in the last month and daily life in local villages has been
disrupted, leading to increasing numbers of villagers to abandon their
homes and flee to the Thai-Burmese border.

Nearly 45 villagers were also uprooted in Ler Pah Doh village in
Tenasserim division, following a clash between KNU Brigade 4 and Burmese
troops, said Dah Kyaw, head of Brigade 4.

Mahn Sha said that IDPs face a severe shortage of food as well as numerous
health problems, while Karen relief workers attempt to provide whatever
assistance they can.

The recent Burmese military offenses began in February this year,
producing thousands of displaced Karen villagers who have sought refuge
near the border with Thailand. Relief sources say that some 20,000
villagers have been displaced so far this year.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

September 8, The Guardian
Report blames Burmese junta for high death rate of eastern tribes - John
Aglionby

The tribes of eastern Burma have some of the worst health conditions in
the world as a result of persecution by the junta, a report published
yesterday reveals.

Evictions, forced labour, destruction of crops and constant fear of death
mean the 500,000 members of the Karen, Karenni and Mon tribes are probably
more likely to die than people in Congo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan,
according to Chronic Emergency: Health and Human Rights in Eastern Burma,
by the Back Pack Health Worker Team, a Burma-based community group.

Infant mortality is five times higher than in neighbouring Thailand, and
the number of children dying aged under five, 22%, is 10 times higher.
Around 12% of the population has the most dangerous form of incurable
malaria at any one time and 15% of children have malnutrition. One in 12
mothers is likely to die giving birth, claims the report, which is based
on interviews with 2,000 families in an area populated by 150,000 people.

The vast majority of these people could easily survive with a modicum of
basic healthcare, according to Cynthia Maung, who led the investigation.
"Most people are dying from diseases like malaria, respiratory ailments
and diarrhea," she told the Guardian. "It would not take much to improve
the situation but the government has no interest in doing so."

Current conditions are probably worse than the report states, Dr Maung
believes, because in the past six months the junta has begun a huge
offensive in the region. "The stories we are hearing mean our statistics
are almost certainly understating the severity of the situation," she
said.
The military has been trying for years to wipe out ethnic minorities'
resistance to its rule in eastern Burma, but the Karen National Liberation
Army and other armed groups continue to wage a determined, if rearguard,
campaign. The only way aid reaches the displaced people is from across the
Thai border because the army has blocked other routes.

Burma campaigners say the international community should intensify efforts
to reach the displaced people. "The situation is as bad as in the poorest
countries in Africa but these people are only getting a tiny fraction of
the aid," said Mark Farmaner of the Burma Campaign UK. "The UN and the
international aid world need to be more creative in finding ways to reach
these people."

Pressure is slowly mounting. Burma's south-east Asian neighbours have for
the first time publicly distanced themselves from the junta, saying they
will not defend its policies when the country is discussed at the UN
Security Council for the first time, probably later this month.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 8, Xinhua General News Service
India to hold SME exhibition in Myanmar in next January

Yangon: India is coordinating with Myanmar  to hold a small and medium
entrepreneurs exhibition here in the  last week of January next year,
aimed at boosting bilateral trade  and cooperation in investment and
banking sectors, official  newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Friday.

The plan of sponsoring the 2007 SME Exhibition India was discussed
be-tween visiting business delegation of the Indo-Myanmar Chambers of
Commerce and Industry and its Myanmar counterpart on Thursday, the report
said, without disclosing the details of the  planned exhibition.

The exhibition will be another Indian event in Yangon after the
Confederation of Indian Industry held a "Made in India" industrial show in
February 2004, in which iron and steel products,  construction materials,
medicine and medical equipment, cosmetics, garment, handicraft, leather
ware, farming equipment, electronic  products and kitchen ware were
displayed.

Relations between Myanmar and India have been growing during the past few
years with cooperation in all sectors, particularly in those of trade and
economy, setting a target for their bilateral trade to attain 1 billion
U.S. dollars by 2006.

According to official statistics, Myanmar-India bilateral trade, including
the border trade, amounted to 557.68 million dollars in  the fiscal year
2005-06 which ended in March, up 24 percent from  2004-05. Of the total,
the border trade accounted for 15.76 million dollars. The Myanmar-India
border trade for the first quarter of 2006-07 (April-June) amounted to
2.91 million dollars.

Myanmar-India border trade started in 1994 and so far there are two
bor-der trade points set up on the Myanmar side -- Tamu ( opposite to
India's Moreh) and Reedkhandhar ( linking India's  Zokhawthar).

It is expected that a border trade zone in Tamu will be established in the
future as part of Myanmar's plan of setting up such zones with neighboring
countries in the process of transformation of its border trade system at
all trade points into normal one following the emergence of such zones in
Muse with China in April this year and Myawaddy with Thailand being
established.

India stands as Myanmar's 4th largest trading partner after Thailand,
China and Singapore, and also Myanmar's second largest export market after
Thailand, absorbing 25 percent of its total exports.

Figures also show that India's investment in Myanmar had reached 35.08
million dollars in three projects as of January this year out of Myanmar's
total foreign investment of 7.985 billion dollars since late 1988.

India's latest and main involvement in Myanmar includes the  building of
the 133-million-U.S.-dollar Reed-Falam road, optic  fiber link project
between India's Moreh and Myanmar's Mandalay,  and natural gas exploration
and produc-tion at block A-1 and A-3 in Myanmar's Rakhine offshore areas
being carried out under a  consortium led by South Korea's Daewoo
International Corporation,  in which the ONGC Videsh Ltd of India holds 20
percent of stake  and the Gas Au-thority of India Ltd (GAIL) 10 percent.

India has been seeking to buy gas produced from the two Myanmar blocks and
ways of laying the pipelines from Myanmar to India are also being sought.

____________________________________
ASEAN

September 8, Manila Standard
Myanmar faces expulsion

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations remains open to the possibility
of expelling Myanmar if it fails to heed  persistent calls for it to adopt
democratic reforms, an official said yesterday.

"Some of the [Eminent Persons Group] members believe that if you don't
live up to any obligations, you should not be a member. There are some
discussions going on," Asean Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said when
asked if the Asean Standing Committee or the Eminent Persons Group wanted
sanctions imposed on Myanmar.

The standing committee held its first meeting in Manila yesterday to draft
the agenda for Asean's next summit in Cebu City in December. The Eminent
Persons Group is composed of the representatives of each of the 10 member
states who are tasked to come up with a blueprint on the proposed Asean
Charter, which the body hopes to approve by December.

The Philippines is represented in the Group by former President Fidel Ramos.

Yong said he was not familiar with the discussions of the Group, but he
confirmed that Asean was concerned about its members' obligations to the
association--Myanmar in particular.

"That is considered in the context of the obligation of members. If you
are a member of Asean and you don't live up to the expected required level
of obligation, what can happen?" Yong said.
"Right now, Asean does not have a set of rules on this. I believe the
Group's members are looking in this direction."

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo told reporters he had extended
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's invitation to General Than Shwe, the
military head of Myanmar, to attend the 12th Asean Leaders' Summit in
Cebu, but he declined to confirm if Shwe had confirmed his attendance.

Romulo visited Myanmar on Aug. 10, but he failed to get a commitment from
its leaders to free detained Nationalist Party leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi and
institute democratic reforms. Ferdinand Fabella

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 8, Irrawaddy
EU under fire as it prepares to win and dine the SPDC

The EU received further criticism from campaign groups on Friday as it
prepared to welcome Burma’s chief delegate, Foreign Minister Nyan Win,
with a retreat dinner along with the other 38 heads of state at the
Finnish Presidential Palace in Helsinki on Sunday night. Nyan Win—along
with the other leading members of Burma’s military government—is
officially banned from entering the European Union, although Brussels this
year “reinterpreted” its rules to allow officials to multilateral events,
providing a discussion on human rights takes place. Campaign groups again
criticized the EU’s handling of the situation: “It is shameful that the EU
is allowing Burma’s foreign minister to visit Europe and rub shoulders
with European leaders,” said Mark Farmaner, of Burma Campaign UK. “This is
a regime whose soldiers rape and shoot children, the EU should not be
giving them the red carpet treatment.” Nyan Nyan is reportedly scheduled
to arrive in Helsinki on Sunday and the same evening will dine with Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao along
with EU leaders including British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The event will include a photo opportunity with all the representatives,
according to the ASEM schedule. As foreign minister, Nyan Win will be the
lowest-ranking of the 39 government heads at the event, which forms part
of the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting ending on Monday. Farmaner said that
civil society groups meeting earlier in the week were generally
disappointed with the approach the EU, and Finland as host, had taken
towards the Burma issue. “The Burmese people that were there certainly
feel that the EU is letting them down,” he said, referring to delegates
including the Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union
of Burma and Burmese exiles based in Europe. Burma Campaign UK said that
some European governments, including Austria, France, Germany, and Italy,
had taken a “softer approach” on Burma, with the UK, Ireland and the
Netherlands remaining the strongest critics of the regime.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 8, Irrawaddy
The Junta’s educational mandate - Edward Blair

A retired university professor in Rangoon gave me his opinion on the state
of education in Burma during a visit to the former capital some months
back. “We do not have the necessary institutions to achieve or maintain
democracy,” he told me as we sat in an empty café near the just-as-empty
campus of Rangoon University. “We have lost 50 years in servitude when we
could have been preparing ourselves, like our neighbors.”

For more than a week, the pages of state-run The New Light of Myanmar have
featured extended commentary on Burma’s national educational initiatives,
linking them to UN-sponsored literacy programs—particularly Education For
All, part of the Millennium Development Goals—as well as to broader
national development objectives.

This sustained effort to articulate the nation’s education agenda occurred
in advance of the International Literacy Day, commemorated each year under
the aegis of Unesco on September 8. A piece in today’s edition attempted
to show how the ruling junta has been in lock-step with international
efforts.

The world is gravely concerned by low literacy rates and their effect on
national development, poverty eradication and increased awareness of the
threat of HIV/AIDS, the article contends.

And so are the generals. “Education has become the priority of every
nation in this knowledge age,” said another article earlier in the week.

This priority, however, is linked to the junta’s broader national agenda.
Improved educational standards proceed from citizens who are “equipped
with Union Spirit,” and only those so endowed can achieve the goal of
“building a peaceful modern and developed nation.”

Put another way, only those who accept the assumptions of Burma’s
self-appointed national architects—the unelected generals—have any say in
educational matters. This point was made explicitly clear in the pages of
the national daily, with the startling admission that: “They [teachers]
should nurture children to develop their mind, vision and living styles in
accord with the wishes of the State.”

Well, at least they’re honest. To be educated, by this logic, is to be
obedient. This might explain why so many students and educators are being
“invited” to join the ranks of the Union Solidarity and Development
Association.

While Burma’s official press continues to chronicle the alleged
resignations of National League for Democracy members throughout the
country, it also tallies the number of new students and educators who have
applied—with or without their knowledge—for membership to the USDA.

The group is called a non-governmental organization by state media,
despite the fact that it was created by Snr-Gen Than Shwe in 1993 and its
leadership is a Who’s Who of the State Peace and Development Council.

Add to this widespread reports that the USDA aspires to become a national
political party, and the persistent rumors that its members were behind
the 2003 attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy in Depayin, which killed
dozens of NLD supporters, and the true character of the organization
becomes clear.

Burma’s much-touted educational initiatives mask a more sinister objective
on the country’s Sisyphean path towards democracy: a flag-waving
consensus, or what British author George Orwell called “the gramophone
mind,” one that is incapable of thinking beyond the boundaries imposed by
the State.

Perhaps Burma does lack the institutions—political and
educational—necessary for democracy. But then, if democracy means whatever
the State says it means, the point is moot.