BurmaNet News, September 14, 2006

[Editor]

September 14, 2006 Issue # 3045


INSIDE BURMA
AP via IHT: Myanmar government continues to recruit boy soldiers, rights
group says

ON THE BORDER
Indian Express: Border row India calls for a joint survey with Myanmar
Xinhua: Thailand, Myanmar to boost military cooperation along common border

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Thai officials see progress in Thai-Burmese economic zones
Mizzima: Mizoram takes a leaf out of Manipur book for trade with Burma

ASEAN
Sun Star: Myanmar issue hangs as AIPO closes

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: 'Fragile states' fertile ground for terrorism, crime: WBank
AP: U.S. criticizes China weapons sales
Hamilton Spectator: Refugees: 'It's all so grand' Burmese family tours the
city

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 14, The Associated Press via International Herald Tribune
Myanmar government continues to recruit boy soldiers, rights group says

Bangkok: Myanmar's military regime continues to recruit large numbers of
children into its army, sending boys as young as 12 to battle the
country's ethnic minorities despite a high-level committee set up to stop
the practice, human rights groups said Friday.

The boy soldiers invariably suffer extreme stress and sometimes commit
suicide as they are sent to the front lines, the Human Rights Education
Institute of Burma said in a report. Some are forced to participate in
atrocities, it said.

The exiled activist group, based in Thailand, said the plight of child
soldiers in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has remained essentially
unchanged over the past four years.

A senior Myanmar information ministry official denied the report. "These
allegations of child recruitment are based on information compiled by
anti-government groups and dissidents," said the official, who insisted on
anonymity because he has not been authorized to speak to the press.

"We are not doing it as a policy," said the official, adding the
government prosecutes those who unwittingly recruit underage children.

Following criticism by the international community, the ruling junta in
2004 set up a Committee to Prevent the Recruitment of Child Soldiers to
curb the practice, and Myanmar law prohibits recruitment of individuals
under 18 into the armed forces.

In both 2003 and 2005, the secretary-general of the United Nations
reported to the U.N. Security Council that the Myanmar government was in
violation of international laws prohibiting the recruitment and use of
children as soldiers.

"Unfortunately the Burmese government's high-level committee to end child
soldier recruitment has had no real impact on the problem," said Jo Becker
of Human Rights Watch, which sent out a press release announcing the
report.

"Until the government takes genuine steps to implement its laws, children
will continue to be snatched off the streets and forced into military
service."

Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based human rights group, in 2002 published an
extensive report that estimated 70,000 soldiers in an army of about
350,000 were under the age of 18.

The new report by the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, based on
interviews with 50 boy soldiers, said that recruiters frequently use
coercion and deception to fulfill recruitment quotas set by the
government.

"Join the military or go to jail," is a frequently voiced threat as the
youngsters are detained at army posts, police stations or recruiting
offices where they are forced to lie about their age, the report said.

"Children are routinely beaten if they make mistakes during training,"
said the report. "Child soldiers often cry themselves to sleep in quiet
humiliation, scared that any show of weakness could invite additional
reproach from fellow soldiers and officers."

After training they are sent to the front lines to fight ethnic minority
rebels or to serve as porters, cooks or servants for higher ranking
officers, the report said.

"As soldiers, children are forced to perpetrate violence and commit human
rights violations. They take part in destroying villages suspected of
supporting ethnic insurgent movements; they also participate in
extrajudicial killings," the report said.

Rebel groups such as the Karen National Union have also used child
soldiers, although the 2002 Human Rights Watch report found that child
recruitment among them was generally decreasing as their forces had shrunk
in size and resources.

The Myanmar military is currently pursuing a now monthslong campaign
against the Karen, more than 18,000 of whom have reportedly been displaced
from their homes. Refugees to Thailand describe villages being burned and
civilians killed by the troops.

Human Rights Watch says that since 2000, 108 governments worldwide have
ratified new international standards that prohibit all forced recruitment
of children under the age of 18 or their use in armed conflict.

"Burma's continued recruitment of child soldiers separates children from
their families, subjects them to abusive military training, and exposes
them to horrific violence," said Becker. "The vast majority of the world's
governments have rejected the use of children as soldiers. Burma should
too."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 14, Indian Express
Border row India calls for a joint survey with Myanmar

A joint survey to settle the border dispute will be carried out from next
month by India and Myanmar even as a range   of issues came up for
discussion today at the Home Secretary-level talks today. A meeting to
fine-tune the programme will be held around mid-October either at Moreh on
the Indian side (in Manipur) or Tamu in Myanmar. The dispute is only  
over nine boundary pillars spread over around 28 km at Chandel district in
Manipur out of a total of 1,643 km of the porous border in the Northeast.

Efforts were on to find a solution to the row for quite some time and the
Centre had  even come up with a roadmap, which was however not acceptable
to Manipur. The state government expressed its inability to accept the
boundary demarcation arrived at between the two sides in 2001. The
16-member Indian delegation, led by Home Secretary V.K. Duggal, stressed
the need to eliminate insurgent camps but Myanmar was not willing to
accept their presence. It was agreed that a process of verifying the camps
and necessary measures to flush them out would be taken after India handed
over a fresh list specifying their locations. At the last talks held in
Yangon last year, India  furnished evidence about the existence of 15
camps belonging to the NSCN(K), NSCN(IM), UNLF, PLA and ULFA. Sources said
  these were scattered along the entire stretch adjacent to Arunachal
Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. "The talks were productive.
Secu-rity, trade, border management, drug trafficking and release of
prisoners came up for discussion today," Duggal said after the meeting.
The 11-member Myanmar delegation was led by Deputy Home Minister   Phone
Swe. Among the proposals submitted by New Delhi today was an agreement on
the movement of border populations and opening up eight more trade marts
along the border. The release of 21 citizens from Manipur supposedly
arrested by the Myanmar Army was taken up even as India informed that it
was ready to release 142 fishermen who were apprehended in the   Bay of
Bengal in May last. The delegates later called on Home Minister Shivraj
Patil and invited him to visit Yangon.

____________________________________

September 14, Xinhua General News Service
Thailand, Myanmar to boost military cooperation along common border

Bangkok: The Thai and Myanmar militaries have agreed on strengthening
bilateral cooperation to address problems along the two countries' common
border, Commander-in- Chief of the Royal Thai Army Gen. Sonthi
Boonyaratkalin said.

Sonthi was quoted by the Thai News Agency on Thursday as saying that he
held talks with Myanmar top military leaders, who gave him a warm welcome,
and then reached the proactive agreement.

The bilateral cooperation includes joint efforts to prevent and crack down
drug trafficking, as well as all other cross-border crime and offenses, he
said.

The local-level joint border committee will directly coordinate on the
agreed tasks, according to the Thai army chief.

The two sides had also agreed to hold joint meetings of local military
chiefs more regularly, said Sonthi.

During the three-day official visit to Myanmar ending Wednesday, the Thai
army chief met Gen. Than Shwe, Chairman of Myanmar's State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), who is also the country's armed forces chief
and defense minister, and Gen. Maung  Aye, Vice Chairman of the ruling
council, as well as deputy armed  forces chief and army chief, to discuss
issues of mutual interest, aimed at strengthening military ties and
cooperation between the  two neighboring countries.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 14, Irrawaddy
Thai officials see progress in Thai-Burmese economic zones - Sai Silp

Thai officials in Tak province have stepped up their efforts to establish
special economic zones in three districts along the border with Burma.

The projected zones being considered—in Mae Ramad, Pob Phra and Mae
Sot—are currently under evaluation by scholars from Chiang Mai University,
who will determine which areas are most appropriate.

Ampon Chatchaiyakorn, the chairman of Tak province’s Chamber of Commerce,
told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the border project is progressing, and
after the political situation in Thailand stabilizes following elections
in October, the new cabinet will press forward more aggressively.

“This plan includes the Mae Sot Airport development, which will be a new
international airport, especially with flights to important cities in
Burma, and a logistics center for product transportation,” Ampon said.

He added that the project is intended to solve the problem of Burmese
migrant workers entering the country illegally by creating job
opportunities in the border area. The proposed economic zone is also
expected to improve foreign trade by increasing the production of Thai
export goods.

An official with the Provincial Office in Tak said that the government has
prepared about 100 rai (40 acres) of land for new government and trade
offices in Mae Sot district.

Development plans were started in 2004 as part of an agreement reached by
the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy, but
progress has slowed in recent months due to ongoing policy negotiations
between Thailand and Burma.

The project was jump-started recently after a meeting last month in
Rangoon between Thai civil and trade officials and Burmese authorities,
who acknowledged that the Burmese border town of Myawaddy would be
developed as a special trading zone together with Muse—on the Burmese
border with China.

The zones will focus on industry and trade, and will benefit from being
close to Burma—a source of raw materials and agricultural products. They
will also have greater access to low-wage labor, which will benefit
labor-concentrated garment and gem factories, according to the Tak
Provincial Office.

____________________________________

September 14, Mizzima News
Mizoram takes a leaf out of Manipur book for trade with Burma -
Subhaschandra M

A Mizoram government team is on a fact finding mission in Manipur for
opening up a trade point with neighbouring Burma similar to that of Moreh,
Manipur.

Recently an official team from India's northeastern state Mizoram visited
contiguous Manipur state to learn ways in which the Manipur government
handles international trade with Burma through Moreh town using different
techniques. The trade point, Mizoram is looking at is Zokhawthar, a border
village along the 722 kilometre stretch of the Burma-Mizoram international
border. Mizoram is planning to export mainly raw materials.

However the infrastructure of the proposed trade point site, road
connectivity in particular, is yet to be developed, though the Union
Ministry of Commerce has sanctioned Rs. 44.2 million for the construction
of the customs office.

"Presently the Border Road organization (BRO) is taking up the project and
I hope it will complete it by the end of December this year" said J
Lalthangtlinga, an official of Mizoram's Trade and Commerce department.

Besides a sum of Rs 2,120 million of a total of Rs 7,450 million meant for
a multi million transport project will be given to Burma to assist in the
construction of connecting roads with the trade point village, he adds.

The trade volume between Burma and India is around US$ 470 million as per
2003-04 official estimates and the target to fullfill the bilateral trade
volume stands at US 1 billion in 2006 and the idea is to double this
volume within three years.

Thus opening of an international trade point with Burma is in the priority
list of the Memorandum of Settlement signed between Mizo rebels and the
government of India 20 years ago.

Mizoram being sandwiched between Burma and Bangladesh, the Mizo community
in the state are free to travel and trade with the neighbouring countries.

____________________________________
ASEAN

September 14, Sun Star (Philippines)
Myanmar issue hangs as AIPO closes - Linette C. Ramos

Last-ditch efforts to make an official stand calling for reconciliation
and democracy in Myanmar failed during the closing of the Asean
Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) assembly yesterday in Cebu City.

But legislators assured it will be tackled in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (Asean) summit in December.

A member of the Indonesian Parliament brought up during the plenary
session yesterday the earlier rejection of his proposal to tackle the
situation in Myanmar.

But like what the AIPO committee on political matters agreed on last
Tuesday, the proposal was only noted for possible inclusion in the agenda
for the 28th AIPO assembly in Malaysia in August.

Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., chairman of the committee on political matters,
delivered his committee report during the plenary session at the closing
of the assembly, but he did not mention his com-mittee’s discussions on
the Myanmar issue.

No voice

Indonesian lawmaker Marzuki Darusman then briefed the close to 200
delegates of his proposal to approve a resolution on Myanmar.

“Mr. Chairman, we are aware that Myanmar at present doesn’t like to
discuss the matter. But who will speak for Burma?
Never in the recent history of this organization have such a great people
going through such fateful plight been denied of a voice, as what has been
happening in the last three days of this assembly,” Darusman said.

He then proposed to create an ad hoc committee composed of AIPO members to
be sent on a mission to Myanmar to assess the situation there.

Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south), who presided over the plenary,
noted Darusman’s proposal and said it will be submitted to the AIPO
Executive Committee for consideration in the next assembly.

“We do not like the issue of Myanmar discussed here because the AIPO is
not the proper venue to take up the issue.
Anyway, it will be taken up in the Asean summit, which is the proper venue
because this is a matter that is better left to the executive department
of Asean countries,” Cuenco said during the press conference after the
plenary session.

Legitimate

But Darusman disagreed, saying AIPO should also tackle the matter and make
an official stand on the issues “that have been affecting the peace,
security and stability of the region.”

“There are at present 14 elected Burmese parliamentarians languishing in
prisons. This is a legitimate issue that AIPO should take up,” he said in
the same press conference.

The political matters committee decided not to touch the proposed
resolution to seek the democratization of Myanmar, since it was not
included in the agenda approved by the executive committee.

But while the delegates were deliberating on the resolutions approved by
the AIPO committees during the plenary, some legislators were also busy
soliciting the signatures of their fellow delegates on two documents that
were being circulated.

The documents, which will be sent to the new AIPO president and the United
Nations Security Council, call for the immediate release of Nobel Laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi and an end to the alleged human rights violations in
Myanmar.

Polite

Representatives of Akbayan party-list, who authored the two statements,
have so far gathered some 50 signatures from the delegates of Indonesia,
Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia, Rep. Loretta Rosales said.

In a phone interview last night, Rosales said they are optimistic that
more AIPO members will sign the manifesto.

“The parliamentarians were very responsive, but they want to be polite and
said they will just sign after the assembly. They didn’t want to embarrass
anyone,” she said.

The document is a statement of support of the individual members of
congresses and parliaments that joined the assembly. It will not be
considered an official AIPO document.

Among other things, the signatories asked for the release of all political
prisoners and for Myanmar’s military rulers to give way to national
reconciliation and democracy in the country.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 14, Agence France Presse
'Fragile states' fertile ground for terrorism, crime: WBank - Martin Abbugao

Singapore: The World Bank Thursday called for more effective assistance to
countries in danger of collapse due to conflict and poverty, which it said
make fertile ground for terrorism, crime and disease.

The number of such "fragile" states has risen sharply to 26 this year from
17 in 2003 with some 500 million people.

Failure to find more effective ways to help them will foment global
instability, the World Bank's independent evaluation unit said in a report
released ahead of the bank's annual meeting in Singapore next week.

Donors' enthusiasm is often short-lived and these countries are left on
their own without credible government institutions, the report said.

"Neglecting the fragile states -- home to 500 million people, half of whom
are living in extreme poverty -- risks worsening their misery, in turn
feeding regional and global instability," said Vinod Thomas, head of the
unit.

"The donor community and the (World) Bank must make better use of
resources to work with them in the difficult and lengthy transition from
volatility and conflict to stability and peace."

Thomas warned the challenges in these nations, among them Angola,
Afghanistan, Haiti, the Central African Republic and Tajikistan, "must be
managed before they spin out of control, destabilising these countries and
leading to wider security crises."
Fragile states are those embroiled in complex internal conflicts or
struggling through post-conflict transitions.

In East Asia and the Pacific, these states include Cambodia, Myanmar,
Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Laos, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The list is dominated by African countries like Burundi, Chad, Ivory
Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Nigeria and Sudan, among others.

"Often their instability provides a safe haven for terrorism, drug
production and weapon smuggling. These states face widespread lack of
security, significant corruption, breakdown in the rule of law and limited
government resources for development," the report said.

Ajay Chhibber, a director at the evaluation unit, said that instability
can easily spread due to globalisation.

World Bank research shows that having a fragile state as a neighbour on
average results in economic losses equivalent to 1.6 percent of annual
gross domestic product.

"Coordinated and sustained multilateral action with a unified vision to
reduce the imminent threat coming from fragile countries is more important
than ever. Nation-building on the cheap does not work," Chhibber said.

The report said while the World Bank has provided about 4.1 billion
dollars in lending to these countries over the past two years, "too often
early engagement was not followed-up with a clear and relevant reform
agenda."

In the Central African Republic and Haiti the initial "good results" of
the Bank's help "are now in danger of being diminished," it said.

It cited the Bank's "inadequate attention" to the budget crisis in the
Central African Republic and the worsening security situation in Haiti.

The report said there was a need for donors and non-government groups to
join forces in providing initial humanitarian and social services in the
aftermath of a conflict but this must be complemented rapidly by
in-creased investment to build local capacity for the long-term.

Soniya Carvalho, the report's lead author, said that in many cases,
"donors may have pulled out too quickly without sufficiently dealing with
the country's pressing capacity needs" such as in East Timor, now wracked
by internal strife.

Donors should also do away with "overly ambitious" reform agendas as in
Afghanistan, where planned reforms have left a tangle of pending
legislation.

____________________________________

September 14, Associated Press
U.S. criticizes China weapons sales - Foster Klug

Washington: Top U.S. officials on Thursday criticized what they called
China's indiscriminate sale of weapons to rogue countries, suggesting that
Beijing's policies had made the world a more dangerous place.

Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for international security,
urged China to reevaluate its relationship with Iran and North Korea, two
countries with which the United States is locked in standoffs over nuclear
weapons development.

"China's actions seem to us dangerously shortsighted," Rodman told the
U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, an advisory panel
created by Congress. "China's proliferation behavior, past and present,
can come back to haunt it, even placing its own political interests in
jeopardy."

The United States, Rodman said, sees "in China a general willingness to
transfer a wide variety of technologies to customers around the world."

He mentioned Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Venezuela, and also
linked China to North Korea's July missile test launch of seven missiles
and to Hezbollah's use of Chinese-designed cruise missiles on an Israeli
naval vessel, also in July.

Rodman said the United States worries that Chinese companies have helped
Iran as it tries to establish a self-sufficient ballistic missile
production program. China wants to build relations with Iran, Rodman said,
to secure access to oil and gas and, potentially, to find ways to control
China's restive Muslim population.

China says it opposes the spread of weapons technology and materials and
that it forbids Chinese companies from transferring such material. And
Rodman said that Beijing has strengthened its nonproliferation efforts by
promoting export control laws and its oversight of those laws, but hasn't
done enough.

____________________________________

September 14, The Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)
Refugees: 'It's all so grand' Burmese family tours the city - Sharon Boase

His own life has been so fraught with difficulty and strife that Ler Moo
Hsa never let an opportunity go by that might improve the fortunes of his
wife and four youngsters.

An orphan from the age of four, Hsa (pronounced "Saw") had to flee his
native Burmese village as a young man when a major offensive was launched
by the Burmese army, driving thousands of ethnic minority Karen people to
refugee camps over the Thai border.

A nursing student before winding up in the camp in 1995, Hsa landed a
paying job as a nurse with a German aid agency working in the camp. He
even took short-term training in addictions therapy and mental-health
nursing when the opportunities arose.

"I want my children to reach a higher position than me," Hsa, 34, said
yesterday through an interpreter.

Added Wah Lu, his wife, also 34, "Most of all, I want my children to grow
up with a good education, to meet the level of the people here."

The family includes daughters K'prue Lwe ("kuh-PROO loo-WAY"), 11, K'tray
Say ("kuh-TRAY SAY"), 9, K'tray Soe ("SEW"), 6, and K'prue Soe, 4.

They are the first of 100 Burmese refugees bound for Hamilton between now
and next year. They're part of a group of 810 minority ethnic Karen people
destined for points throughout Canada under a streamlined refugee
relocation plan.

The Karen, a mainly Christian minority in Buddhist Burma, were forced out
of their homeland by the rul-ing military junta. Relocated to the refugee
camp, they live on meagre rations and struggle to dodge infection by
tuberculosis and malaria.
Suicide is common.

Although the camp had schools for the children, classes would be suspended
any time there was trouble along the border, halting school for days or
weeks at a time.

Sporting a tiny maple leaf pin on his T-shirt, Hsa recalled how his mother
died giving birth to his younger brother. Not long after, his father was
taken from their village by rebel soldiers. Years later, he would learn
from a doctor at the refugee camp that his father died of heart failure
not long after.

Paid employment is even more scarce in refugee camps than the rations. Hsa
earned the equivalent of $9 a month. In the latter years, his salary rose
to $42 per month. It was never enough to properly feed his family, but
that didn't stop him from buying tea, milk and sugar for some of the
patients he treated in hospital as well as meat for the camp's elderly and
infirm.

After a breakfast yesterday at Tim Hortons, the Hsa family was taken to
Settlement and Integration Ser-vices Organization (SISO) to complete some
paperwork, then shown around the downtown core by SISO counsellor Gordon
Ajak.

For the Hsas, tour highlights included practising pushing elevator buttons
at the Arrival Inn, where they are staying, and mastering the difference
between the "walk" and "don't walk" symbols on the street outside.

It took K'prue Soe three tries but, clutching the plush tiger cat he was
given when his family arrived in Steeltown, he eventually jumped the gap
from the elevator to the main floor lobby.
"Everything we've seen -- the buildings, the roads, the streets -- it's
all so grand," said Wah Lu who had never seen a city before flying out of
Bangkok this week.

"But the most pleasurable has been to meet people here who are very
generous and polite and helpful."

sboase at thespec.com 905-526-2452

The long journey to Hamilton

* By road: The Burmese refugees travelled from a refugee camp near Mae
Hong Son city in northern Thailand to Bangkok by vehicle, a journey of 14
hours.
* By air: They travelled from Bangkok to Hong Kong, a three-hour flight.
* By air: They travelled from Hong Kong to Toronto, a 15-hour flight
* By road: They travelled from Toronto to Hamilton by bus, arriving at 1
a.m. yesterday.