BurmaNet News, September 13, 2006

[Editor]

September 13, 2006 Issue # 3044


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: ‘Third Force’ negotiators unpopular in Rangoon
Irrawaddy: One million Burmese missing primary school, says report
Mizzima: Trial of custom head starts at Insein court


ON THE BORDER
AFP: India, Myanmar to discuss how to halt arms reaching rebels

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Rolling the bones

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: US ready to push on Burma at UN
Anti-weapons group says Myanmar most active government in world in using
land mines
Mizzima: Finn officials seek smoother stay for foreigners
Irrawaddy: Daewoo accused of exporting military hardware to Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Japan Economic Newswire: The future for ASEM: are words no longer enough?

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 2006, Irrawaddy
‘Third Force’ negotiators unpopular in Rangoon

Burmese intellectuals and pro-democracy activists in Rangoon have
expressed annoyance at the suggestion that a “third force” is needed to
end the political stalemate between the regime and opposition forces. The
suggestion surfaced in Rangoon prior to and following the recent
International Burma Studies conference in Singapore in mid-July. Since
that time, rumors have spread in Rangoon that some conference participants
and organizers have approached scholars, writers, artists and former
student leaders in Burma to form such a “third force” group. These
organizers are thought to include Dr Kyaw Yin Hlaing, one of the
coordinators of the IBS conference in Singapore, academic Robert Taylor,
Dr Zarni, formerly of the Free Burma Coalition, and Dr Nay Win Maung,
policy director of the Burmese language journal Living Color. Some writers
and former student leaders recently approached by the “third force”
organizers refused to be involved because members of the group allegedly
have close relations with Burma’s military government and some of them are
said to be apologists for the regime. Many of those approached also say
they don’t trust the organizers because there seems to be no transparency
in their proposed group, and close relations with the ruling generals does
not guarantee their ability to negotiate on behalf of pro-democracy
forces.

____________________________________

September 13, Irrawaddy
One million Burmese missing primary school, says report



London-based Save the Children has said in a report released on Tuesday
that nearly one million Burmese primary age children remain outside the
country’s educational system. The report lists Burma as the tenth worst
performer in terms of numbers of children—968,000—missing primary
education. Official Burmese statistics, published recently in the
state-run press, claim that 97.58 percent of primary-age children are
enrolled in school. It is not known how many Burmese children there are in
this category in total because Burma has not conducted a recent
countrywide census.

Save the Children released the report to coincide with a new campaign that
aims to increase the provision of education to the world’s most troubled
regions. Over the next five years, Save the Children plans to place three
million out-of-school children in conflict-affected countries into
education and improve the quality of education for five million more.
“These children live in the hardest to reach countries, in the harshest
conditions—the mandate for where aid efforts must be focused,” said
Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children’s executive. “Yet, those with the
power, knowledge and resources are failing to intervene because they won’t
address the difficulties preventing them from delivering aid to the
children who need it.” International supporters of the initiative include
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who last year backed a report
providing information on Burma designed to prompt the UN Security Council
to pass a resolution on the country.

____________________________________

September 12, Mizzima News
Trial of custom head starts at Insein court

The Burmese military junta produced the former director general of the
Custom Department along with seven high-ranking officials at the Insein
prison court on Tuesday.

The Director-General colonel Khin Maung Lin and about 40 high-ranking
officials were arrested and detained in Insein jail, in the outskirts of
Rangoon on June 23, 2006 for their alleged involvement in corruption after
the Customs Department was raided by the Bureau of Special Investigation.

The surprise clean up of the Customs Department in the corruption ridden
country caused border trade to come to a halt for a month and prices of
imported goods soared. Several businessmen fled to neighbouring countries
such as India, China and Thailand.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 13, Agence France Presse
India, Myanmar to discuss how to halt arms reaching rebels

New Delhi: India and Myanmar will discuss how to stop arms and supplies
reaching Indian rebels who have bases in Myanmar, an Indian official said
Wednesday.

The four-day talks in New Delhi will also cover "effective management of
our borders, steps needed to curb smuggling of arms and ammunition, and
the trafficking of drugs," said the home ministry official.

India and Myanmar share a 1,640-kilometer (1,000-mile) border, parts of
which are unfenced.

"On the Myanmar side, there's no security presence for about 30 to 40
kilometres (18-24 miles) of the border. So, in effect, it's an open border
and easy for Indian militants to cross into Myanmar from the northeast,"
said the official who asked not to be named.

"From the point of view of drugs smuggling also, this area is crucial," he
added, referring to Myanmar which makes up part of the infamous Golden
Triangle, known for its production and trade of heroin and opium.

The Indian side in the talks, which conclude on Saturday, are to be led by
Home Secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal and the Myanmarese team by Deputy
Minister for Home Affairs Brigadier General Phone Swe.

The last meeting between Duggal and his counterpart took place in Yangon
in October when "it was agreed there would joint interrogation of people
arrested for smuggling drugs and for insurgency-related activities," the
official said.

Ties between India and Myanmar have been friendly with India's president
Abdul Kalam visiting Yangon in March. India has been pursuing closer
relations with Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, despite domestic
criticism of its military junta.

Yangon has sent its troops to dismantle bases and training camps in
Myanmar of separatist rebels active in India's restive northeastern states
of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur.

Myanmar's latest crackdown on Indian rebel camps was in February. Yangon
lost 10 soldiers in the operation which took place in the jungles of
northern Sagaing Division.

Indian intelligence officials say there are about 30 insurgent groups
active in India's northeast of which at least 12 operate out of Myanmar's
northern regions including Kachin province.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 2006, Irrawaddy
Rolling the bones

It is a well-known fact that the superstitious first couple of Burma’s
ruling junta, Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his wife Kyaing Kyaing, regularly seek
advice from famous Burmese astrologers. Some Thai politicians are no
different. Before making any major political decisions, they seek advice
from astrologers and hold merit-making ceremonies.

Even Thailand’s embattled caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has
admitted consulting with astrologers, presumably for advice on confounding
his many critics and remaining in power. Persistent rumors in Bangkok hold
that Thaksin and other government officials also regularly seek advice
from a famous Burmese astrologer—ET, who lives in Thingangyun, a suburb of
Rangoon—to ward off political foes and general misfortune in Thailand.

ET, short for E Thi, is a disabled Burmese woman whose speech impediment
makes her virtually incomprehensible. Her sister translates ET’s blurry
prognostications for those seeking her council.

Well-known Thai scholar Chai-Anan Samudavanija wrote in early August in
the Thai-language newspaper Manager that many of the country’s top
politicians consult ET, who regularly travels to Bangkok and who claims to
have telepathic powers and the ability to foretell the future.

Thais may still harbor resentment towards Burma for its sacking of
then-capital Ayutthaya in 1767, but they cannot resist the temptation to
dabble in Burmese astrology and black magic.

Before overthrowing former prime minister Chatichai Choonhaven in February
1991, Thailand’s conspiring generals are rumored to have made a secret
trip to Rangoon, where—at the suggestion of an astrologer—they made
offerings at a temple in order to ensure a successful coup and to maintain
“energy” from the temple. They returned to Thailand without touching the
earth, as instructed—always walking on red carpets, traveling by car and
aircraft, and then to the business of seizing control of the government in
Bangkok.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 13, Irrawaddy
US ready to push on Burma at UN - Clive Parker

A senior US State Department official said on Tuesday that Washington was
preparing to push further to address Burma at the UN, as the world body
begins its 61st session.

Kristen Silverberg, assistant secretary of state for international
organization affairs, said the US was “disappointed” with the new Human
Rights Council’s failure to deal with cases including Burma, adding that
the US would be “discussing this actively in New York during the General
Assembly,” which began its new session on Tuesday.

“There is a real opportunity to work in the General Assembly
 to call
attention to some of the key critical human rights crises in the world,
and so we’re going to do that as an important priority,” she said. “Then
we think the [Security] Council will need to take action [on Burma] later
this fall.”

Whether this means getting Burma on the council’s formal agenda or going
further to press for a resolution is not yet clear, but US Ambassador to
the UN John Bolton has already made a formal request for a discussion on
Burma. For this to take place, nine of the 15 members would need to be in
support—backing that Bolton says he already has.

“It’s our judgment at this point that we’ve got a sufficient majority on
the council that have committed that we are prepared to go forward,”
Bolton said on September 1, the same day he made a formal request for a
Burma discussion to new council president Greece.

Any of the five permanent members of the council—the US, UK, France,
Russia and China—have the power to veto a resolution but not a vote to put
an issue on the body’s formal agenda.

The US ambassador described the Burma issue as “sufficiently ripe” to push
to the next stage, which he said might also include a third briefing by UN
Under Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari. Another visit to Burma by
Gambari, following his first in May, is also being considered by the UN
Secretariat.

Despite the US engaging in a “substantial amount of diplomatic activity,”
as ever, China and Russia will be the main opponents to efforts to address
Burma at the Council. This month, a New York Times Magazine article cited
China’s ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, saying he had been given
“firm” instructions from Beijing to block a US resolution.

Asked why China was opposed to the move, Wang said Beijing does not view
Burma as a regional security threat, dismissing the US argument that
HIV/AIDS, drugs and human rights problems necessitated council
intervention. The Chinese diplomat has reportedly reasoned that these are
all issues that the US is itself also currently facing.

____________________________________

September 13, Associated Press
Anti-weapons group says Myanmar most active government in world in using
land mines - Grant Peck

Bangkok: Myanmar's military regime makes more extensive use of land mines
than any other government in the world, a group that lobbies against the
weapons said Wednesday.

In a global survey published annually, the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines said that only three governments in the world use land mines:
Nepal, Russia and Myanmar.

Guerrilla groups both allied to and opposed to Myanmar's government also
use the explosives, the group said in its annual Landmine Monitor Report.

At least 231 people were killed or injured by land mines in Myanmar in
2005, it said.

The report noted that Myanmar's ruling junta is not a party to the
international Mine Ban Treaty drafted in 1997, and expressed concern about
reports of civilians being forced to act as human minesweepers.

Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but the
report cited what it said was an October 2005 statement by the junta, in
which it defended its use of the weapons as a matter of national security.

The statement, made to the United Nations, said Myanmar is "in principle,
in favor of banning the export, transfer and indiscriminate use of
anti-personnel mines."

It added, however, that "Myanmar believes that all states have the right
to self-defense ... as no State would compromise its national security and
sovereign interests under any circumstances."

The report said that requests to Myanmar's government for information
relevant to the statement went unanswered.

According to the report, Myanmar's army is using an increasing number of
United States M-14 land mines obtained from an unknown source, and late
last year "reportedly began recruiting technicians for the production of
the next generation of mines and other munitions."

The group said that the United Wa State Army, an ethnic minority guerrilla
group loosely allied with the government, allegedly also produces its own
anti-personnel mines.

It said other armed groups that use land mines included the Karen National
Liberation Army, the Karenni Army, the Shan State Army (South), the Chin
National Army, the United Wa State Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army. Some of the groups are allied with the junta and other opposed to
it.

____________________________________

September 12, Mizzima
Finn officials seek smoother stay for foreigners - Louis Reh

Finnish officials held a five-hour meeting on Monday evening with the
Burmese in exile and other migrants from Russia, Africa, and Afghanistan
to put an end to the conflict with native Finnish people, said an official
of Finnish Kotka, Finland.

Window panes of four Burmese homes were shattered by a group of Finnish
youth with sticks and stones on August 23 in the eastern border of
Finland. Small street violence occurs, but rarely between natives and
foreigners around the country.

"Police personnel and town officials are now seeking ways to ensure
security for foreigners and natives," said Marja-Liisa Grönvall, the head
official of Social Organization and Tax Department in Kotka.

She said at the meeting that mostly young people are creating problems.
Grönvall said that the main cause of the problem is language inconvenience
and unemployment.

Finnish officials from the township level around the country will hold a
day meeting on September 13 in Kotka to discuss enhanced security for the
foreigners in the country.

"I think it is racist situation between foreigners and Finnish people,"
said Say Reh, whose house was damaged on August 23.

He arrived in Kotka, Finland in Apirl 2006. He said that the conflict
could be a big obstacle for the children's future if the situation was not
checked now.

The Burmese in exile in Kotka have requested officials to allow them to
move to another city in Finland to avoid the violence.

Say Reh said that he wanted to move to another town for a safer home.

Juha Junkari, the chief of police Kotka said "we are now trying to end the
problem." He added that the police will punish those who created trouble
or do so in the future.

The police and town official together are still investigating the incident
of violence and Junkari said "we are going about it systematically to
prevent it from happening again."

According to a report of a Kotka daily newspaper Kymen Sanomat on Tuesday,
the Finland government granted 1,860,000 Euro for housing, education,
health and insurance for permanent settlement of foreigners in Finland in
2005.

Every foreigner seeking permanent asylum gets allowances of about 600 Euro
above the age of 18 and about 400 Euro for those under the age of 18. The
Finnish government can take care of them for a period of three years or it
could be longer given the person's educational background and personal
motivation. This would entail more support from the government.

Foreigners from Burma, Russia, Afghanistan and Africa number about 350 and
now living legally, waiting to become Finnish citizens in Kotka.

Finland receives about 3,000 asylum seekers applications annually, in
addition to well over 10,000 applications for work and residence permits.
Each year, between 2,000 and 3,000 people receive Finnish citizenship.
Russians and Africans are known to enter illegally and over stay their
visa to Finland and wait to be granted visa from the government.

Grönvall said "we should be thinking of unity and be optimistic in order
to live peacefully together."

____________________________________

September 12, Irrawaddy
Daewoo accused of exporting military hardware to Burma - Yeni

Burmese exiles in South Korea have demonstrated outside the headquarters
of Daewoo International Corp in the capital Seoul in protest against the
company’s alleged sale of military equipment to Burma.

The demonstration on Monday followed reports in the South Korean media
that government agents had searched Daewoo offices and those of an unnamed
defense industry company on August 31.

The public prosecutor's office in Seoul is reported to have accused Daewoo
of acting as an export agent for the defense company by sending military
hardware to Burma against South Korean law.

Daewoo is engaged in developing Burmese offshore gas fields in the Bay of
Bengal and claimed in an interview with a company spokesman on a South
Korean news website, Pressian, exported goods were lathes and press
machines. The public prosecutor’s office was quoted as describing the
goods as detonating devices for artillery shells.

A representative of the National League for Democracy branch in South
Korea, Yan Naing Htun, said:  “It’s unlawful trade. We strongly demand
Daewoo stop for its support Burmese regime.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 13, Japan Economic Newswire
The future for ASEM: are words no longer enough?

Helsinki: When the Asia-Europe Meeting was officially launched 10 years
ago in Bangkok, it was publicized as having a very clear purpose: that of
acting as an "intergovernmental, state-to-state forum."

Where, formerly, Asian and European countries had struggled to communicate
on an equally understandable level, ASEM filled the void, providing a
unique platform for cross-continental dialogue on a wide-range of topical
political, economic and cultural issues.

However, a decade and six summit meetings on, analysts on Asia-Europe
relations have been left questioning the usefulness of ASEM, whether it
has achieved anything more than large-scale banter on a biannual basis,
and most importantly, what the future is for the forum.

Speaking at the start of the Helsinki summit, Hanna Lehtinen, head of the
ASEM summit secretariat, said the role of the international forum was
"policy shaping, not policymaking."

It was certainly a catchy sound bite, but it also had the impression of
being a disclaimer, preparing the assembled international media, and their
global audience, for the inevitability of the summit not reaching any
concrete conclusions or producing any substantive action plans.
It was a fair premonition.

Two days of discussions among the 25 European Union member states, the 10
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Japan, China
and South Korea, past with not a great deal of outpouring.

Primarily what was established was that many of the 39 ASEM members are
concerned, among other things, with the human rights situation in Myanmar,
with the nuclear aspirations of North Korea and with the effects of
climate change on the globe.

The degree of convergence between Europe and Asia on the listed
controversial topics was perhaps of note, but beyond this superficial
agreement, it was hard not to think that other global bodies and policies,
specifically the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency
and the Kyoto Protocol, might be more apt to deal with the issues raised
than the ambiguous ASEM.

As Liz Mills, Asia analyst at London-based think tank Global Insight, told
Kyodo News, "ASEM is a bit, dare I say it, airy-fairy. It doesn't have
anything defined, no particular raison d'etre, it's just a kind of talking
shop that comes up every couple of years."

Her prognosis for the future of the multilateral forum is equally dismal.

"I can't really see how it can ever be an effective bloc, not least
because there are so many others that are more effective, even if they are
not perfect themselves," Mills said, citing ASEAN and the increasingly
significant East Asia summit.

"The other key issue is that we've seen so many bilateral agreements and
trading agreements come up, it's almost like the multilateral sphere is
breaking down into something more bilateral and I think countries prefer
to deal with smaller blocs," she added.

Ironically, just as countries are being observed as favoring negotiations
on a one-to-one basis, ASEM is expanding, adding India, Pakistan and
Mongolia, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat -- and, subject to their
accession to the European Union in 2007 or 2008, Bulgaria and Romania --
to the club, following agreement between the Asian and European sides in
Finland.

"The more members you have, the less effective these things tend to be,"
Mills said, expressing worry that with so many members there is more room
for disagreement, less room to achieve anything on a consensual basis, and
simply more issues to attempt to cover in a two-day blast.

But the rapidly growing body, now boasting 45 members and encompassing
well over a quarter of the world's countries, 40 percent of the earth's
population, 50 percent of global gross domestic product and 60 percent of
world trade, appears to disagree.

The Helsinki Declaration on the Future of ASEM published at the end of the
summit Monday read, "We emphasize that ASEM's expansion provides greater
dynamism, enhances dialogue and cooperation, and makes the Asia-Europe
partnership better equipped to tackle present and future global
challenges."

However, an in-house report titled "Looking Back, Looking Forward"
commissioned by the Japanese and Finnish foreign ministries, tends to
agree more with Mills and many of her analyst peers, exposing numerous
gaps in the workings of ASEM, a large one being the superficiality of
discussion brought about by the need to cover so many interests of so many
members.

"The dialogue while broad has not been deep. The dialogue process has
stayed at information-sharing level and has not moved into substantive
cooperation," the report says.

Reasons for the stated lack of depth are not hard to find.

Recent internal problems within the European Union, including the bloc's
struggle to increase its financial might and its failure to establish an
accepted constitution in 2005, have seen the European body focusing more
on its own dilemmas than forging trade and political ties with Asia.

And with so many personal problems and nationally divisive issues placed
on the table at each summit by member countries, it is understandably hard
for items to be covered in little more than cursory detail without
completely overshadowing the agenda proposed by the host nation.

In fact, for ASEM -- having to contend with frequent clashes of opinion
between Europe and Asia, particularly over the contentious issue of
Myanmar -- the struggle for the conference to not be knocked off balance
by one big issue, is, it seems, doubly difficult.

In this context, and taking the many diversities of the member states into
account, the role that ASEM plays, or attempts to play at least, should
perhaps be commended, rather than picked apart by critics who can see
positives only in tangible results.

It is all too easy to judge the forum for its failure to achieve
definitive conclusions, actions and results, but it is worth noting that
ASEM was never designed to, and never even claimed to, be able to act as
well as talk and listen.

As Markus Lyra, undersecretary of state for the Finnish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, outlined at the start of the Helsinki summit, "First and
foremost, the ASEM process is one of frank discussions with a high level
of confidentiality." Not many world forums can claim the same.