BurmaNet News, October 11, 2006

[Editor]

October 11, 2006 Issue # 3063


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Surprise response to 'White Campaign'
Irrawaddy: SPDC fears undermine immunization in Burma
AP: Report: Flooding in Myanmar kills at least 10
DVB: Gentleman’s agreement is dead says Burma junta to KNU

ON THE BORDER
Khonumthung News: Foreigners will be registered: Mizoram CM

HEALTH / AIDS
AFP: Hopes in Myanmar for new fund to fight deadly diseases

BUSINESS / TRADE
Financial Times: IMF warns Burma on high inflation

INTERNATIONAL
Third Sector: Burma Campaign [UK] makes fruit point

OPINION / OTHER
South China Morning Post: China must reassess its position on Myanmar
Irrawaddy: Border-based insurgency: time for a reality check - Ashley South

INTERVIEW
The Straits Times (Singapore): The stuff of movies [Charm Tong]

PRESS RELEASE
Christian Solidarity Worldwide: CSW condemns Burma’s National Convention
as “farcical”

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 10, Mizzima News
Surprise response to 'White Campaign' - Mungpi

In a surprise response to the 'White Campaign' by Burma's 88 generation
students', many civilians in Rangoon and other parts of Burma were seen in
white clothes today.

The 88 generation students today launched the 'White Campaign', where they
urged people to wear white clothes for over a week till student leader Min
Ko Naing's 44th birthday on October 18.

The campaign, according to the students is a peaceful demonstration in
support of the demand for the release of student leaders and political
prisoners including Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and a call
for tripartite dialogue to begin the national reconciliation process.

Marke an 88 generation student activist told Mizzima, "Coincidentally, Su
Su Nwe is holding a commemoration offering for her parents in her village
and we, about 200 students, activists and politicians in white dresses
went to the place."

"We have also got reports that in central Burma especially in Mandalay a
lot of people were seen in white clothes," Marke added.

Nyan Win spokesperson of the National League for Democracy, Burma's main
opposition political group, said, "I have not been carefully observing the
difference between the way people dressed today and on previous days but
significantly I can see many people are in white dresses today."

The campaign, which was launched today while the Burmese junta is busy
re-convening its long-stalled National Convention, was seen by many as a
well planned action to boycott the junta's convention to draft the
constitution.

However, Marke dismissed such speculation saying it was a coincidence.

"We have not deliberately launched the campaign to time it with the
National Convention. This campaign supplements the campaign for collecting
signatures," Marke said.

With an appeal to the junta for the release of student leaders who were
recently arrested, and political prisoners and to kick-start national
reconciliation through tripartite dialogue, the 88 generation students
have been collecting signatures across Burma to be submitted to the
authorities on October 18, 2006.

Reports suggest that the number of signatures collected is over 120,000.
So far there has been no report of intimidation or restriction imposed by
the authorities over the two campaigns launched by the 88 generation
students.

____________________________________

October 10, Irrawaddy
SPDC fears undermine immunization in Burma - Clive Parker and Ko Latt

Government fears over deaths from adverse reactions to immunization are
undermining efforts to protect millions of Burmese children from
preventable diseases, sources in Rangoon have told The Irrawaddy.

A UN official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the Burmese
government is so fearful of the potential political fallout from deaths
caused by adverse reactions to immunization that it has suspended a
measles campaign previously scheduled for November.

The campaign aimed to vaccinate 13 million children against the disease.
The UN Children’s Fund—the main sponsor—has described the program as,
potentially, “the largest immunization effort ever undertaken” in Burma,
at a cost of US $11 million.

Other sources said that Burma has twice suspended immunization initiatives
in the past year after investigations were conducted into what are known
as Adverse Events Following Immunization, or AEFIs. Up to ten such
incidents have been recorded since November 2005, UNICEF says.

Although the organization says none were directly caused by the vaccines
themselves, and are therefore considered “coincidental,” the Burmese
government suspended immunization programs in November last year and again
between April and June this year—the latter thought to be for diphtheria,
whooping cough and tetanus, sources added.

Burma’s Ministry of Health is understood to have failed to convince top
military leaders that the measles vaccination program was “politically
safe,” meaning it has now been delayed and will almost certainly be
drastically scaled down. No new date has been set.

Eleven million measles vaccines were purchased in August and have already
arrived in Burma, UNICEF says, at a cost of about $2 million. Although it
is not clear how these will now be used, UNICEF hopes that many of the
vaccines will still be administered in Burma—most likely next year—with
the excess redistributed outside the country.

Burma, with help from the UN, founded a surveillance committee to
investigate suspected AEFI cases in 2002. Since that time, there have not
been any instances in which deaths were found to be directly attributable
to vaccination, UNICEF says. Other sources in Rangoon suggest that such
cases have been found, but this could not be confirmed.

The junta’s increasing fears over immunization have lead to concern within
Burma’s humanitarian community that millions of children are being put at
risk for the sake of what experts say are extremely rare cases in which
vaccines cause an extreme reaction that leads to death.

“The majority of adverse events following immunization are actually not
due to the vaccine itself. Many are simply coincidences. Others are due to
human error in the vaccination process,” the World Health Organization
says. “It is important for healthcare providers as well as potential
vaccinees or their parents
to keep in mind that the benefits of protection
afforded by a vaccine always far exceed the small risk of a true
reaction.”

In Burma’s case, the worry is that a reduced immunization policy will
severely undermine efforts to reduce Burma’s high child mortality rate.
Some 10.7 percent of Burmese children currently die before their fifth
birthday.

Measles, considered a “preventable disease,” is one of the biggest killers
of children in Burma. WHO figures show that just 19 percent of Burmese
districts are covering 90 percent of their population with a first dose of
the measles vaccine. Medical experts say that two doses are required to
provide lifetime immunity from the disease.

A full course of immunization in Burma costs hundreds of US dollars.
Without free vaccines supplied by organizations such as UNICEF, most
parents in the country could not afford to immunize their children. The
Burmese government does not spend any money on vaccines, UN figures show.

____________________________________

October 11, Associated Press
Report: Flooding in Myanmar kills at least 10

Yangon: Flooding from torrential rains has killed at least 10 people in
Myanmar, washed away roads and damaged a 100-year-old bridge built during
the British colonial period, state-run media reported Wednesday.
The 10 victims were washed away while bathing in a river in the Mandalay
division of central Myanmar, one of the worst-hit areas where train
services were temporarily suspended due to the flooding, the Kyemon
newspaper reported. It did not specify the day of the deaths.

Heavy rains across central and eastern Myanmar in recent days have
inundated several cities in Shan State, Magway division, Sagaing division,
Mandalay and Yangon division, damaging roads and bridges.

Among them was the 100-year-old Goke Hteik viaduct, a popular tourist
attraction that links Lashio in Shan State and Mandalay. The structure was
built by American engineers in 1901 during Britain's colonial rule over
Burma, as Myanmar was previously called.

In Shan State, Magway division and Sagaing division, several rivers burst
their banks, submerging nearby villages and forcing residents to flee, the
paper reported.

____________________________________

October 9, Democratic Voice of Burma
Gentleman’s agreement is dead says Burma junta to KNU

Agreements reached between Burma’s military junta, the State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) and the Karen National Union (KNU) during the
time of the ousted prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt are to be abolished by
the junta, according to KNU spokesman Phado Mahn Sha.

Mahn Sha who is also the KNU General Secretary Mahn Sha said that the
junta officials told the KNU to forget about the old provisional ceasefire
between the two sides, known popularly as gentleman’s agreement, and start
a new round of talks.

A team of KNU representatives recently visited Burma for a week to hold
talks with Burmese army security officials headed by Gen Yeh Myint, and
returned to their HQs on 7 October.

“They (KNU representatives) asked them (Burmese officers) about their
position on the agreement reached with Gen Khin Nyunt,” said Mahn Sha.
“Another thing, they told them to stop the offensives against us and as
for those who are fleeing the attacks, to stop these people – to let them
live peacefully and not to solve problems by fighting but through
dialogues.”

But the generals arrogantly told to forget about the agreements with
General Khin Nyunt and to start from zero, Mahn Sha added.

“They said that from their part, the gentleman’s agreement is a matter of
the past. They don’t want to start from the past. They insinuated that
they want to start with new steps. As for other matters we must discuss
them when we have dialogues, they said.”

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 11, Khonumthung News
Foreigners will be registered: Mizoram CM

The Chief Minister of Mizoram has said the government will register all
illegally settled foreigners from Bangladesh and Burma in the state.

In discussions with local people he urged the administration of Mizoram to
take necessary steps to prevent problems caused mainly by illegally
settled foreigners in the state.

According to a local newspaper, Chief Minister Zoramthanga made a case for
the registration of illegally settled foreigners of both countries in
order to protect and secure the people of Mizoram from further chaos in
the state.

All the reports submitted by the Sub- Committee on Preparation and
Maintenance of Block Register will be discussed to maintain systematically
registration of foreigners in Mizoram.

The registration of foreigners will clearly show the number of permanent
and temporary settlers in the state.

Therefore, in some blocks of Mizoram house owners have started to give
local authorities feedback about foreigners who have come from Burma .

"We cannot give permission for the new comer of Burmese foreigners to stay
in our block. Now we have to begin giving the list of those who are
staying already," said a local woman in Saron block.

_____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

October 11, Agence France Presse
Hopes in Myanmar for new fund to fight deadly diseases - Charlotte
McDonald-Gibson

Yangon: A new fund to fight deadly diseases in Myanmar has raised hopes of
successfully treating the country's 50 million people without any money
being funnelled to the repressive military government.

The 100-million-dollar Three Diseases fund officially begins its work
Thursday in place of the United Nations-created Global Fund, which pulled
out of Myanmar last year claiming interference from the junta hampered its
work.

Those behind the new 3D fund insist that a flexible structure channeling
money to local authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
rather than the junta will allow the project to succeed where the Global
Fund failed.

"Because the 3D fund is designed specifically for Myanmar, it will be able
to avoid the problem of having a global rigid system blindly applied to a
particularly challenging context," said a UN worker who asked not to be
named.

The Global Fund and the 3D fund have the same aim -- to fight AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria in Myanmar, one of the world's lowest recipients
of foreign aid despite being one of its poorest nations.

Tuberculosis kills 12,000 people a year in this military-ruled nation,
while government figures show that some 600,000 people contract malaria.

Exact HIV/AIDS rates are unknown, with Myanmar's government putting the
figure of people living with HIV at 330,000. However some aid workers say
the figure could be double.

The 3D fund -- financed by Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden, and the European Commission -- begins its five-year plan at the
end of this year after a memorandum of understanding is signed Thursday
between Myanmar's government and UNOPS, the UN agency tasked with managing
the fund.

It faces enormous expectations after the collapse of the Global Fund,
which began operating in 2004 with a similar budget and timescale but
pulled out last year blaming the junta's restrictions on movements of aid
workers.

Frank Smithuis, country manager for Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) in Myanmar, said pressure from influential lobby groups
in the United States also contributed to the fund's implosion.

"Some small groups they stick very much to 'do not invest in Myanmar in
any sense' and I think they have the main power in the United States,"
Smithuis told AFP.

Most foreign governments have scaled down aid to Myanmar in protest
against the ongoing detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
the suppression of opposition.

The United States and Europe also introduced economic sanctions, but many
foreign diplomats and aid workers say it is the people, not the
government, that suffers under such penalties.

"There are 50 million Burmese people, and the government does nothing for
them, so what do we do? We also do nothing for them," said one aid worker
who asked not to be named.

World Bank figures from 2004 show that Myanmar received just two dollars
of foreign aid per capita, compared to 35 dollars in Cambodia and 47
dollars in Laos, so much hope is riding on the success of the 3D Fund.

Brian Williams, country coordinator for UNAIDS in Myanmar, said a similar
fund, the Fund for HIV/AIDS in Myanmar, had been operating successfully in
Myanmar since 2003.

MSF's Smithuis warned that the 3D fund would not succeed unless the money
is monitored right down to the person taking the medication, with random
checks ensuring people get the right drugs for the right price.
"I'm very happy this Three Diseases initiative is taken, now we have to
see how it is being implemented," he said.

"If you monitor it, it can give great benefit to the people of Myanmar.
But if you don't monitor it, it could become a disaster."

Smithuis said if groups and donors ignored the problem of diseases in
Mynamar, it would be a death sentence for thousands.

"A lot of people die of malaria, TB and HIV in this country," he said.
"You can do two things, you can try to address it or you cannot. If you do
not address it, many people die."

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 10, Financial Times
IMF warns Burma on high inflation - Amy Kazmin

Rangoon: Burma’s economic growth is accelerating with rising natural gas
exports to neighbouring Thailand, but its longer-term prospects are
constrained by high inflation and unpredictable policies, an International
Monetary Fund report has found. These factors are discouraging new
investment outside the energy sector.

In the report obtained by the Financial Times, the IMF estimates that
Burma’s economy will grow by about 7 per cent in the fiscal year ending
April 2007, boosted by rising exports from the offshore Yadana and Yetagun
gas fields operated by France’s Total and Malaysia’s Petronas
respectively.

The IMF warned growth in the military-ruled country would soon slow to
less than 5 per cent a year without economic reforms to curb inflation,
strengthen the weak banking sector and liberalise agriculture.

“Growth has picked up and the balance of payments has improved from gas
exports,” the report said. “However, living standards are low, and
inflation is increasing
Prospects for sustained growth in real income are
constrained by inflation, structural rigidities, weak economic policies
and low investment.”

Burma’s ruling junta claims that the economy has expanded 11 to 13 per
cent annually for the past five years in spite of such setbacks as a
banking crisis in 2003 and a near simultaneous US ban on all Burmese
imports. But the IMF estimates recent growth at about 4.5 to 5.5 per cent
a year, except in 2003, when the fund puts it at zero.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 11, Third Sector
Burma Campaign makes fruit point

The Burma Campaign UK is shunning the traditional methods of lobbying in
favour of getting supporters to send Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett a
pineapple through the post.

It wants to highlight what it calls 'joke' sanctions by the EU against
Myanmar, formerly Burma. In 2004 the EU barred European companies from
investing in a pineapple juice factory, but the campaigning group says no
action has yet been taken to prevent western investment in the country's
oil, gas or timber industries, from which the military regime earns most
of its revenue.

The campaign wants the UK to ban new investment in all kinds of industries.

'We must no longer allow UK territories and UK companies to be involved in
investing in Burma,' said Yvette Mahon, director of the charity. 'Burmese
people are being tortured and killed as a direct result of this kind of
investment.'

The campaign has contacted 7,000 of its supporters around the world and
feels confident people will get involved, despite the complicated
logistics of posting a pineapple.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 11, South China Morning Post
China must reassess its position on Myanmar

Myanmar's military leaders do not threaten Asia like their North Korean
counterparts; they are not known to have ambitions to acquire nuclear
weapons, nor do they have soldiers lining the border of a neighbouring
country as the North does with South Korea. But this is no benign regime
that should be ignored, as the poor state of the nation and the atrocities
committed against its people attest.

Just as with North Korea, the world needs to pressure the regime to change
and ensure China, India and Russia, the nations propping up the junta
through economic and military help, see the error of their ways. The three
have not joined western and Southeast Asian nations in expressing concern
about the junta. They have shunned imposing sanctions and used engagement
for strategic benefit - a process which, given Myanmar's stagnation, is
having no effect.

The generals who run Myanmar would like to have us think that they have
the welfare of the 50 million people they rule at heart. Their reconvening
of a constitutional convention yesterday was aimed at discussing the role
of political parties and elections under a seven-stage plan to restore the
democracy lost when the military seized power in 1962. They have agreed to
let UN deputy secretary-general Ibrahim Gambari return next month.

These would seem to be moves in the right direction, but there is good
reason to be sceptical about them. The junta has no wish to give up power,
and experience has shown that it cannot be trusted.

The opposition National League for Democracy knows this only too well,
which is why it has refused to take part in the 13-year-old
constitution-drafting process. Denied the right to form a government
despite winning elections in 1990, its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains
under house arrest. As the UN Security Council took up the issue of
Myanmar for the first time last month, a fresh crackdown was launched on
critics, more than 1,000 of whom are already jailed.

Myanmar has rich natural resources, yet is Southeast Asia's second-poorest
nation. Bad nutrition levels, high disease rates and inadequate health
facilities mean average life expectancy is just over 60 years. A quarter
of the population lives in poverty. China's bid to have a higher
international profile and to play more of a role in world affairs will be
undermined if it continues to be protective of such a regime.

Beijing claims the generals pose no threat, and therefore objected to
discussion of Myanmar at the Security Council. Yet it is precisely such
governments that need to be talked about at the highest possible level
because while they may not bother other nations, their own people are
unnecessarily suffering.

For Myanmar's sake, China and its allies must set aside narrow economic
and strategic interests and work with the rest of the world.

_____________________________________

October 11, Irrawaddy
Border-based insurgency: time for a reality check - Ashley South

The days of Burma’s border-based insurgency may be drawing to a close. As
elements of the Karen nationalist community barter for an unofficial
ceasefire with the junta, armed rebel groups on the border are growing
increasingly marginalized.

In the early 1990s the Karen National Union and opposition alliance
headquarters at Mannerplaw was an alternative axis of power to Rangoon.
Today, the situation along the Thailand-Burma border has become marginal
to the “big picture” of Burmese politics—although the plight of hundreds
of thousands of conflict-affected civilians remains a grave concern.

This shift in the balance of power is illustrated by recent attempts to
mediate an unofficial ceasefire between a faction of the Karen National
Liberation Army, the KNU’s military wing, and the Burmese military
government. Not so long ago, such plotting would have been headline news.
However, the decline of the border-based insurgencies means that these
alarums today constitute little more than a footnote to history.

Since 2005, a small group of Karen leaders from inside Burma have been
attempting to persuade ex-KNU Chairman and Defense Minister, General Bo
Mya. and his old colleague-in-arms, the KNLA Seventh Brigade Commander,
Brig-Gen Htain Maung, to resume discussion of a ceasefire with the State
Peace and Development Council.

The other driving force behind this scheme is Pastor Timothy Laklem—an old
friend of the Bo Mya family—assisted by the General’s son, Colonel Ner Dah
Mya. Both men have seen their influence decline, with the failing health
of the latter’s father. Having been unable to secure positions on the KNU
Central Committee at last year’s Thirteenth Congress, they seem to have
undertaken this gambit in order to secure a power base.

One of the saddest aspects of this story is the way in which Gen Bo Mya
has been manipulated by some of those closest to him. Whatever one thinks
of the old warlord’s record, he has surely earned the right to a dignified
retirement after half a century on the front lines of the Karen
revolution. Thus far, Bo Mya has been adamant that he will not return to
Rangoon—although an unofficial KNLA delegation has recently visited the
old capital, for secretive talks with the SPDC.

These intrigues represent a “win-win” situation for the generals at
Naypyidaw, as the return of a faction of the KNU to “the legal fold” would
constitute a minor political victory for the SPDC.  With Burma now on the
UN Security Council agenda, and UN Under Secretary-General Gambari
expected to return to the country in November, the SPDC might find it
useful to present the international community with a KNU ceasefire, while
presenting any remaining KNU rebels on the border as illegitimate
remnants.

If such a plan falls through, then the most significant insurgent group in
the country has been kept busy with internal squabbling, while the
generals get on with their business—a classic example of “divide-and-rule”
strategy.

Meanwhile, the end-game in the civil war is well underway. The KNU has
lost control of its once extensive “liberated zones,” and the Burma Army
is now engaged in a protracted and brutal mopping-up campaign, while
Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his colleagues pursue their self-serving “roadmap to
democracy,” and consolidate military control from their new capital.

During more than fifty years of (mostly) low-intensity armed conflict in
Burma, insurgency has become a way if life for long-suffering villagers,
for combatants on all sides and for the networks of traders, loggers,
spies and aid workers that grew out of the war. Many of these groups have
vested interests in maintaining conflict along the border. For better or
worse, the old insurgent paradigm is drawing to an end.

The refugee situation illustrates the changing times. Since the early
1980s, refugee camps in Thailand have provided sanctuary to the victims of
civil war and associated human rights abuses in Burma, and served as
unofficial base areas for armed opposition groups. Since the mid-1990s, as
the number of refugees has grown (to 150,000 in 2006), so has the number
of international aid agencies supplying their needs.

The existence of the refugees—and of some two million other internally and
externally displaced Burmese—provides testimony to the abuses of the
Burmese military regime. At the same time, the KNU’s loose control over
this civilian population bestows legitimacy on the Karen insurgency.

However, the humanitarian and human rights industry that has grown up
along the border may be coming to an end. The next few months will see
substantial numbers of Karen and Karenni refugees achieving the durable
solution of resettlement to third countries. Many of those registered for
resettlement are teachers, medics, administrators, and others from elite
sectors of the refugee community.

Although probably fewer than 10,000 will depart by the end of next year,
Ellen Sauerbrey, US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees
and Migration was quoted at the end of August as saying that "there will
be no cap (for the resettlement of Karen refugees)". These words should
alarm the KNU leadership.

There is a warning here from history. As long as there were Lao Hmong
refugee camps in Thailand, the Hmong ethnic insurgency in Laos could
continue, using the camps as fall-back bases. However, in the 1990s, with
the closure of the last Lao-origin refugee camps along the northern
border, the Hmong insurgency has been reduced to a few rag-tag guerilla
bands that pose no threat to the Lao government, but perhaps serve as a
pretext for the continued militarization of remote, ethnic
minority-populated areas. Such a dire future is something the KNU should
ponder.

Given the decline of the old insurgent paradigm, the options for the KNU
and its allies remain limited. The purge of former prime minister and
intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt in October 2004 effectively put an end
to the old-style ceasefires. The SPDC of 2006 sees little reason to
negotiate with what it considers a vanquished enemy. Many Karen
politicians today recall with misgiving the squandered opportunities to
negotiate a ceasefire in 1994 (before the fall of Mannerplaw) or 1996
(before the 1997 Burma Army offensives).

Fifteen years ago it was possible to believe that the then State Law and
Order Restoration Council was on its last legs. One final push and the
military regime would fall. Today, such assessments may be good for
morale, but they serve as poor bases for devising strategy. The days of
the free-wheeling border are all but over. It is time for the revolution
to move on, and to re-examine basic strategy, while there is still time.

_____________________________________
INTERVIEW

October 8, The Straits Times (Singapore)
The stuff of movies - Wong Kim Hoh

Charm Tong's parents put her on a donkey and sent her from Burma's
war-torn Shan state to an orphanage in Thailand. She's now a human rights
activist for her people

Chiang Mai: The car leaves the town of Chiangmai behind, slowly snaking
its way past verdant hills up Piang Luang, a tribal village just a stone's
throw away from the Myanmar border.

In the backseat sits Nang Charm Tong, calmly narrating the atrocities that
the Myanmar military has allegedly inflicted upon the country's ethnic
minorities, particularly the denizens of Shan state.

Shan state - which is about 64,000 sq km in size - was once an autonomous
region in Myanmar.

When Burma gained independence from the British in 1948, the Shans were
promised the right to secede after 10 years. (The country was renamed
Myanmar in 1989.)

The promise for secession was not kept. Instead, the Shans, who number at
least eight million, have been persecuted by the Myanmar militia which
want to preserve rule over them.

Adversity, it has been said, breeds greatness.

It has certainly given Charm Tong, a Shan native, a wisdom and
self-assuredness far beyond her 24 years.

Face devoid of make-up and clad in blue polo T-shirt and blue jeans, she
looks like any ordinary young woman.

But looks lie. At 16, she started working for a human rights group,
interviewing Shans who had been raped, tortured or forced to become
illegal migrants or sex workers.

At 17, she addressed a few hundred people at the United Nations Commission
on Human Rights in Geneva, condemning the Myanmar military's campaign
against her people.

Last year, she urged United States president George W. Bush to step up
action against Myanmar's military government.

Her life is the stuff of movies.

'I grew up in Central Shan state where there was constant fighting,' says
the gutsy woman, the fifth of seven children of a Shan State Army
commander and his wife.

When she was six, her parents put her put her on a donkey and sent her
from Burma's war-torn Shan state.

She ended up in an orphanage run by Sister Mary Phoehan, who has devoted
her life to looking after and educating orphaned Shan children.

Now 69, Sister Mary is a sprightly and compassionate Shan woman who left
her husband in Shan state 30 years ago after he took another wife.

At the orphanage, Charm Tong and nearly 30 other children woke up daily at
the break of dawn to attend English lessons conducted by Sister Mary.

'I also went to a local Thai school from 8am to 4pm, and then in the
evening, to another school to learn Chinese,' she recalls.

'I would see my parents once or twice a year. I didn't understand why we
had to be separated then. It was all very sad.'

At 16, she began working for a Shan human rights group after chancing upon
one of its newsletters.

She started out interviewing Shan refugees, many of whom were forced to
work as illegal workers or prostitutes because the Shans do not have
refugee status in Thailand.

She went to construction sites, brothels and refugee camps, recording
horror stories of rape, torture and pillage.

'I saw, heard and learnt a lot,' she says.

One year later, she got an internship with the Alternative Asean Network
on Burma (Altsean-Burma), a network of activists, NGOs, academics and
politicians who support human rights, democracy and peace in Myanmar.

'I learnt how to campaign and do lobby work,' she says.

She proved such a quick and intelligent learner that she was tasked to
give an address at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva in 1999.

She remembers her voice shaking as she gave an impassioned speech about
the persecutions against her people.

'It was very emotional, I had to stop several times, but after I finished
my speech, many people came up to hug me,' she says.

She has since made many international presentations and taken part in many
conferences the world over, including the Winnipeg Conference on
War-Affected Children in 2000.

In 1999, she and 39 other Shan women activists came together to form Swan
(Shan Women's Action Network) to promote the role of women from Myanmar in
the struggle for democracy and human rights in their country.

The group currently runs more than a dozen schools and many programmes,
including women's empowerment and crisis support.

One of their most impactful projects - for which Charm Tong was spokesman
- was a report, Licensed To Rape, which was released in 2002.

It documented the reported rape of more than 600 women - including girls
as young as four - by the Myanmar military.

'We need to build awareness and solidarity - not just among our people,
but also among the international community so that we can put a stop to
all this,' says the feisty young woman who also trains young Shans in
human rights advocacy.

Her remarkable passion and tenacity has won her a string of international
accolades, including the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2000 and the Marie
Claire Women of the World award in 2004.

Last October, she was invited to the White House, where she had a
50-minute meeting with Mr Bush.

'The conversation was casual, but he seemed to know what was going on and
he asked a lot of questions. I told him about our human rights situation
and told him the US has to help,' she says.

Not suprisingly, she is held up as a role model by the Shan community.

Mr Sai Leng, the head of a Shan refugee camp in Kuang Kyaw in Piang Luang,
says: 'We have pictures of her in our classes. She has done so much for
the Shan people. I want children to be inspired by her. We are so proud of
her.'

However, her high profile has made her a public enemy of the Myanmar
military.

'I worry for her security. She has no bodyguards, she does everything
alone,' says Mr Sai Leng.

Charm Tong - who sneaks across once or twice a year to see her mother (her
father died two years ago) and siblings - is not intimidated.

'You can't live in fear. What we're doing is the right thing, and we are
speaking the truth.'

When not talking work, she displays a cheery side. She likes to banter and
laughs often, lighting up when I taught her the phrase 'eat like a horse'.

'I'm hungry. Are you hungry? Let's all eat like a horse,' she says, as we
head for dinner.

She laughs again when asked what she does in her free time.

'Free time? Haha... I tell people what we do. But seriously, I enjoy doing
this. I really do.'

Log on to www.shanwomen.org for more information on the Shan Women's
Action Network.

New Asian Heroes is sponsored by DBS Bank. It is a six-part series on
Asians who lead inspiring lives.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

October 11, Christian Solidarity Worldwide
CSW condemns Burma’s National Convention as “farcical”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) today condemns the National
Convention in Burma, which reconvened yesterday, as a “blatant effort by
the brutal military regime to rubber-stamp its rule and crush the
opposition”. CSW calls on the United Nations Security Council to pass a
binding resolution, requiring Burma’s junta to engage in dialogue with
pro-democracy and ethnic nationality groups, and to release all political
prisoners.

Burma’s ruling junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC),
first convened the National Convention in 1993 to draft a constitution,
and the process has been suspended several times since then. Yesterday,
the final session began, with 1,088 delegates, mostly handpicked by the
military.

The National Convention excludes main representatives of most ethnic
nationality groups and the National League for Democracy (NLD), whose
leader, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, marked 4,000 days in house arrest
on 9 October.

During a CSW visit to Burma last month, none of the people interviewed
expressed any confidence that the National Convention will lead to federal
democracy or respect for human rights. SPDC Order 5/96 warns that anyone
criticising the National Convention could be jailed for up to 20 years.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma, Paolo
Sergio Pinheiro, described the National Convention as “surrealistic” and
“meaningless and undemocratic”, adding: “it will not work on the moon,
[it] will not work on Mars!” The UN General Assembly has called for a
“genuinely inclusive” constitution-drafting process.

CSW’s National Director, Stuart Windsor, says: “The world should know that
Burma’s regime is engaged in a farcical attempt to legitimise its
authority and put a civilian face on a brutal military. It is a blatant
effort by the regime to rubber-stamp its rule and crush the opposition. A
rigged constitution will be followed by a rigged referendum and rigged
elections, in which the military will have a third of the parliamentary
seats already reserved for them. This is a regime guilty of crimes against
humanity, attempted genocide and suppression of religious freedom. The UN
should investigate these crimes and bring the junta to justice. The UN
Security Council must now pass a binding resolution, requiring the SPDC to
engage in tripartite dialogue with pro-democracy and ethnic nationality
groups, and move towards a genuine transition to federal democracy. We
will go on campaigning for this until it is achieved.”

For more information, and interviews please contact Penny Hollings,
Campaigns and Media Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8329
0045, email pennyhollings at csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.

CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom,
works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and
promotes religious liberty for all.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1.	Elections held in 1990 were overwhelmingly won by the NLD, but the
regime refused to accept the results and has imprisoned most of the
victors.
2.	The SPDC has been expanding the Union Solidarity Development
Association (USDA), a civilian front for the military, to contest future
elections.  In 2003 the USDA attacked Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy in
Depayin, almost killing her. They beat 100 of her supporters to death.
3.	In the last month, the Burma Army has increased the number of troops
involved in the offensive against the Karen people. There are now between
60 and 70 battalions involved in the attacks on Karen villages and the
hiding places of displaced people. Four more people have also been killed
by the Burma Army, including a 75 year old man in Ler Kla Der village, two
villagers in See Pwe Go village and a 48 year old man in They Baw Der
village. One man was shot in Ger Wah Ko village, but it is not known
whether he survived the attack.