BurmaNet News, November 3, 2006

[Editor]

November 3, 2006 Issue # 3080


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Junta warns of action against student group
Japan Economic Newswire: Myanmar generals threaten action against
political activists
AFP: Myanmar activists urge UN to push for Suu Kyi's release
Mizzima: Mandalay NLD set to test junta's rule of law
Reuters: Lavish wedding video sparks outrage

REGIONAL
Mizzima: AICC urges PM to work for democracy in Burma
AP: Former UN envoy recounts diplomatic faux pas with Myanmar's Suu Kyi

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 3, Irrawaddy
Junta warns of action against student group - Shah Paung

Burma’s military government has warned the 88 Generation Students group of
action against its recent political activities, according to state-run The
New Light of Myanmar on Friday.

The report follows comments made by the director general of Burma’s
police, Brig-Gen Khin Yi, who said in a press briefing on Thursday that
authorities will monitor any campaigns by activists such as the 88
Generation that might jeopardize community peace and tranquility.

He added that authorities will act swiftly on those participating in
social or religious campaigns sponsored by the group if they receive
complaints about their activities.

Khin Yi said that member of the students group were forcing people to get
involved in their political campaigns to demand the imposition of
investment, trade, and export and tourism sanctions against the country
that would result in greater poverty for Burmese.

“It is clear that the persons who are singing out to free people from
poverty in reality are the ones dragging the people into poverty,” Khin Yi
said during Thursday’s briefing, referring to the 88 Generation.

The student group dismissed government criticisms of their actions and
motives. “We used the signature campaign because it was a way for all
people to participate in the national reconciliation process,” said Mya
Aye, a member of the group.

The 88 Generation Students started several public campaigns in recent
months. A signature drive that ran from October 2-23, and called for the
release of all of Burma’s political prisoners, collected more than a half
million names. The petitions will be submitted to the UN.

The group’s other actions included a White Expression campaign calling on
Burmese to show their support for five of the groups leaders, who had been
detained in late September, by wearing white shirts.

The most recent effort, called Multiple Religious Prayer, began on October
29 and will run until November 4. It calls on people of all faiths to pray
for peace and reconciliation in Burma.

“We hold prayer gatherings at Shwedagon Pagoda, and we don’t disturb
anyone. It is a peaceful and disciplined campaign,” said Mya Aye.

Khin Yi also addressed the detention of five prominent student leaders—Min
Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Min Zeya, Htay Kywe and Pyone Cho—who he claimed had
links to illegal organizations and terrorist groups.

He said the government now has evidence to charge the five activists but
have not yet done so as their investigation is still ongoing.

Burma’s Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan also addressed the
briefing on the forthcoming visit of UN Under Secretary-General Ibrahim
Gambari, scheduled for November 9-12.

Kyaw Hsan said that no information had yet been provided on the topics
Gambari wanted to discuss with government officials. He also responded to
a reporter’s question about whether Gambari would be allowed to hold a
press conference during his visit, saying that it would be up to Gambari.

The 88 Generation Students issued a statement on Friday calling on the
international community and the UN to monitor the political situation in
Burma to allow all Burmese to express their opinions openly and freely.

The statement said that Burma’s ruling military ignores the desires of the
Burmese people and threatens anyone who participates in public campaigns
by activist groups like the 88 Generation.

____________________________________

November 3, Japan Economic Newswire
Myanmar generals threaten action against political activists

Yangon: Myanmar Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan has warned the
junta will take action against pro-democracy activists campaigning for the
release of political prisoners.

Speaking at the press conference in Yangon on Thursday, Kyaw Hsan said the
activists, the "88 Generation Student Group," are trying to "incite public
unrest" in the military-ruled country by organizing series of nonviolent
campaigns to release political prisoners, including detained opposition
leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We will have to arrest and charge those who are trying to create public
unrest and instability and jeopardize the peace and stability of the
country," he warned.

A group of pro-democracy activists formed with former student leaders of
the 1988 popular uprising against military rule in Myanmar launched in
early October a signature campaign across the country urging the junta to
release all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi and five members of
their group -- Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Min Zayar, Htay Kyawe and Pyone
Cho.

The Junta detained the five in late September, saying the action was
"necessary to prevent unrest."

Many of the members of the group, which supports Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy, have al-ready served prison terms ranging from 10 to 15
years following a crackdown on their movement in the early 1990s.

More than 530,000 signatures seeking release of the political prisoners
were gathered during a two-week campaign, the group said.

The group also organized a "White expression campaign" last month, calling
on people to wear white shirts as a sign of support for the group and
their goals.

Last week, they organized a weeklong "prayer campaign" from Sunday,
calling on the populace to hold mass prayer vigils for the release of
political prisoners.

But junta minister Kyaw Hsan claimed the group is backed by "dissident
organizations outside the country" and was trying to attract attention
while Myanmar's abysmal human rights situation is on U.N. Security Council
agenda.

He claimed the junta confiscated, in December last year, letters and money
from sent from a dissident in Thailand to the now detained Ko Ko Gyi and
that junta had closely monitored the group's activities since then.

Kyaw Hsan also accused Western embassies in Yangon of supporting the group.

The U.S. and British embassies in Yangon helped the group's members obtain
about $50,000 from organizations outside the country, Kyaw Hsan claimed.

"It is obvious the group is acting as a domestic arm for antigovernment
dissident organizations outside the country," Kyaw Hsan charged.

____________________________________

November 3, Agence France Presse
Myanmar activists urge UN to push for Suu Kyi's release

Yangon: Pro-democracy activists in Myanmar on Friday urged the United
Nations to consider their petition seeking the release of political
prisoners, including Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The activists say they have collected 530,000 signatures on their petition
in a rare show of political dissent in the military-ruled nation.

The petition asks the military government to agree to talk to Aung San Suu
Kyi's political opposition, and to free her and the 1,100 other prisoners
of conscience that are believed to be locked away here.

The campaign was organized by a group that calls itself the '88 Generation
Students, led by former students who staged a pro-democracy uprising in
1988 that was brutally crushed by the military.

"Our government ignores the true desire of the people. It's important to
reveal their desires to people around the world and the United Nations.
That's why we urge the UN to think about what the people want," said Kyaw
Min Yu, better by known by his nickname Jimmy.

"Although the '88 Generation Student group proceeded with the signature
campaign despite difficulties, the government tried to hide the true
desire of the people and also coerced the people," he said.

Kyaw Min Yu said that the group wants the United Nations to help create a
meaningful dialogue between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Her party won 1990 elections in a landslide victory, but the government
didn't recognized the result of 1990 election. Aung San Suu Kyi has spent
most of the last 17 years under house arrest.

The government has accused the group of faking signatures on the petition,
and says the group's leaders want to incite unrest. Five leaders of the
group were arrested in late September, prompting activists to launch the
petition campaign.

A senior UN official, Ibrahim Gambari, is due to visit Myanmar next week.
Officials here said he would meet with junta leader Than Shwe, but have
not said if he would be allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi as he did
during his last visit in May.

____________________________________

November 3, Mizzima News
Mandalay NLD set to test junta's rule of law - Mungpi

To test the Burmese military junta's purported rule of law, members of
Burma's main political opposition party, the National League for
Democracy, Mandalay branch, will file a complaint regarding the alleged
spraying of paint on a party signboard. The branch office was shut down by
the junta a few years ago.

On October 31 the night, the signboard of the NLD Mandalay branch, which
is one of NLD’s branch offices across Burma, was sprayed with black paint.

Win Mya Mya, a NLD divisional organiser in Mandalay told Mizzima that some
of the words on the signboard, which reads: ‘National League for
Democracy, Mandalay branch’, was smeared with paint.

"We are preparing to file a complaint to the authorities on Monday
[November 6] and we want to see substantial action taken because this is a
deliberate ploy to insult the party," said Win Mya Mya.

Meanwhile, Burma's state-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar, today
reported that the NLD Mandalay division has denounced the prayer campaign
led by '88 generation students as "meaningless and shameful.'

However, she rejected the report saying that the Mandalay NLD supports the
prayer campaign as it is only fair to pray for the welfare of the country.

"No matter who started it, prayers in any religion is good and moreover
praying for our country at this juncture is very much necessary,"

According to the report, the Mandalay NLD said the three points of the
prayers were inconsistent with the prevailing situation in Burma. The
report said the first point of the prayer - for peace to prevail in Burma
- is inconsistent as there is no demonstration or civil war going on in
the country.

And for the second – to escape from danger and hardship – the government
is taking all necessary steps to prevent the country from dreadful
diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and Tuberculosis.
According to the report, the third point – freedom of the people – is the
worst, as there is no country without law and order.

Win Mya Mya said, "The report is a plan to create a misunderstanding
between the '88 students and the NLD because we [the NLD] had never
denounced the prayer campaign instead our members are joining it."

"We are filing our case to the authorities to see if there is any rule of
law, as claimed by the authorities," she added.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 3, Mizzima News
AICC urges PM to work for democracy in Burma - Muana

For the first time, the All India Christian Council sent an open letter to
the Prime Minister of India urging him to review the country’s policy
towards Burma and support democratization of the military-ruled country.

The AICC, at the conclusion of a conference held in Hyderabad in south
India on October 28, sent an open letter to the Prime Minister, Dr. Man
Mohan Singh, urging him to temporarily put on hold all business deals and
to work in the capacity of a neighbouring country to promote democracy and
human rights in
Burma.

The AICC, a group comprising Christian denominations, ministries, missions
and organizations, in their open letter said that Burma's political
problems are no longer an internal affair and has an impact on India
across its borders, especially the northeastern states of India.

"The consequences of such misgovernance that hurts the people of Burma are
also affecting the people of this country. Burma's State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) has perpetuated conditions conducive to the
increase in the production and trafficking of illicit drugs including
heroin and amphetamine – type stimulants (ATS), and the rampant spread of
HIV/AIDS. This has resulted in a scourge in Northeast India and threaten
the human security of our nation," the letter stated.

Apart from urging India to support a non-punitive UN Security Council
resolution on Burma, the group also urged India to review and delay
financial commitments in connection with the Shwe Gas project. Going ahead
with the project would provide a financial lifeline to the brutal regime.

Attended by over 300 delegates including church leaders, pastors, youth
leaders and activists, the conference also held a special prayer for Burma
on the last day.

A Burmese woman activist, who attended the conference, expressed surprise
over the amount of support that Burma received during the conference.

Speaking to Mizzima over telephone, Cheery Zahau said, "There were many
people working and praying for the restoration of democracy in Burma. A
woman and a man from U.K. and Kerala state, India has been praying for
Burma for 14 to 15 years. I never expected such support."

The open letter will be submitted to the Prime Minister's office, while
copies would be sent to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, U.K. and Dalit
Freedom Network, United States of America.

Meanwhile, Burmese activists inside and outside the country are engaging
in an ongoing prayer campaign to free the country's political prisoners
including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and for national
reconciliation.

____________________________________

November 3, Associated Press
Former UN envoy recounts diplomatic faux pas with Myanmar's Suu Kyi - Sean
Yoong

Kuala Lumpur: Meeting Myanmar's long-detained pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi for the first time can be a memorable experience especially if
you blurt out that you consider her very attractive.

Razali Ismail, a former U.N. special envoy who is one of the few
foreigners to have repeatedly met Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi in
recent years, revealed in a book released Friday that Suu Kyi made an
un-expected impression when they first met on a hot, humid day in June
2000 at her lakeside home, where she has often been under house arrest.

"She emerged, cool and composed, in a traditional blue blouse and sarong,
with (a jasmine flower) in her hair," Razali wrote in "Number One Wisma
Putra," a compilation of original anecdotes by Malaysian diplomats,
published by Malaysia's Foreign Ministry.

"There was no question about it she looked very attractive, what with the
smell of the (jasmine) in the air at close quarters," Razali added.

"At an early part of my conversation with her, I said, 'You are not only
very courageous but also attractive.' It was obviously an unthinkable faux
pas," wrote Razali, who resigned his U.N. job in January because Myanmar's
military junta had not let him visit the country since March 2004.
Suu Kyi has been detained for 11 of the past 17 years, continuously since
May 2003, by Myanmar's cur-rent junta that seized power after suppressing
mass pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988. Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize for her nonviolent work to promote democracy in her Southeast
Asian home-land.

Razali was appointed a special envoy of the U.N. Secretary General in
April 2000. He helped success-fully helped mediate a dialogue between
Myanmar's junta and Suu Kyi in October 2000, but hopes for democratic
change evaporated as relations between the junta and Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy party deteriorated.

Despite Razali's apparently accidental compliment to Suu Kyi, he said he
got along very well with her throughout more than 20 meetings spanning
nearly four years, despite warnings "that she was glacial."

Razali praised Suu Kyi's political prowess, saying that "her basic
instincts (on the Association of South-east Asian Nations, or ASEAN) can
be said to have been proven right."

"I once told her that if she ever became prime minister, she could give
the other ASEAN prime ministers a run for their money debating democracy
and development," Razali wrote.

Myanmar, also called Burma, has become an embarrassment to ASEAN because
of its failure to restore democracy and release political prisoners.
ASEAN's pressure on the junta has so far been fruitless.

Razali, who visited Myanmar 14 times in 2000-04, wrote that he does "not
see any prospects of change (for Myanmar), as there are no internal
dynamics operating there."

____________________________________

November 2, Reuters
Lavish wedding video sparks outrage - Ed Cropley

Bangkok: A leaked video of the lavish wedding laid on by Myanmar junta
supremo Than Shwe for his daughter has sparked outrage among ordinary
people in the military-ruled and deeply impoverished nation.

In a 10-minute clip posted on the Internet, bride Thandar Shwe is seen
decked out in layers of pearls and sparkling stones that appear to be
diamonds, and standing beside her husband as he pours champagne over a
cascade of wine glasses.

After a reception for hundreds of guests at which a five-tiered wedding
cake is cut, the happy couple are seen posing before an ornate gold-braid
bridal suite bed, complete with red canopy stretching up to the ceiling.

Even before the video surfaced, the July wedding was the talk of the town
in Yangon, the former Burma's leafy, colonial-era capital, amid reports of
gifts including luxury cars and houses worth $50 million -- nearly three
times the 2005 health budget for a population of 53 million.

"I've never seen so many diamonds -- although they were a bit yellow,"
said one Yangon resident, noting an apparent lack of taste compared to the
annual parties thrown by previous dictator Ne Win for his favorite
daughter.

After seeing the cherry-sized rocks around her neck, Yangon wags are
dubbing the bride Thandar "Sein," which means diamond in Burmese. Her
husband is Zaw Phyo Win, an army major and a deputy director at the
Commerce Ministry.

"OUTRAGEOUS"

"It's outrageous, just outrageous, especially when you consider that most
Burmese live in extreme poverty," said Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy, a
Thailand-based magazine covering Myanmar, one of Asia's poorest countries
after four decades of economic mismanagement by a succession of military
rulers.

"Than Shwe was the one who accused other top leaders of corruption
whenever he wanted to remove them," he said. "It's the pot calling the
kettle black."

The emergence of what is apparently the official wedding video might even
be an attempt to discredit Than Shwe, the 73-year-old "Senior General" who
has tried to portray himself in official media as a man of modest means,
he added.

"Weddings have mystery politics behind them, so I'm curious to find out
why this video was released," Aung Zaw said.

In the video of the ceremony, held at a state reception hall in Yangon,
Than Shwe walks stiffly at his daughter's side in starched white shirt and
a traditional orange wrap called a longgyi.

A rare glimpse of the reclusive strongman out of military uniform, the
footage has also provided unprecedented tea leaves for analysts eager to
read the inner workings of the junta, one of the world's most closed
regimes.

"In the seating arrangement, Than Shwe and his deputy were on one table
and all the other junta members were on a very distant table. That tells
you a lot about the hierarchy," said Soe Aung of the Bangkok-based
National Council for the Union of Burma.

Speculation has been rife among Myanmar exiles that Than Shwe is planning
on taking a step back from power in favor of a more ceremonial "President
for Life" role.

The video can be seen at www.irrawaddy.org/bur/thandar_shwe.html.