BurmaNet News, November 22, 2006

[Editor]

November 22, 2006 Issue # 3092

Note to readers: BurmaNet will resume next on Monday November 27th.

INSIDE BURMA
Khonumthung News: Junta orders closure and destruction of orphan school

ON THE BORDER
Jane's Intelligence Review: Interview: Mahn Sha, General secretary, Karen
National Union (KNU)

DRUGS
Bangkok Post: Burmese heroin smugglers drop the ball

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima: India-Burma trade hub at a standstill

REGIONAL
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Thai premier to bring change to Myanmar relations

OPINION / OTHER
The Guardian (London): Rivals in partnership: China and India
New York Times: Gaining power, losing values - Pankaj Mishra

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 22, Khonumthung News
Junta orders closure and destruction of orphan school

Thirty orphans are out on the streets after Myanmar authorities ordered
the closure of a school for orphans – the Church of Jesus Christ in new
block Hakha, Chin state.

"Tin Hlah, Commander of Tactical Command told us that if we don't close
the school we are likely to face arrest. That's why we closed it," said a
Christian pastor.

It is learnt that Colonel Tin Hla, SPDC chairman and Chin state Commander
of Tactical (1) had ordered the school’s closure before October 2006. The
locals closed and destroyed the school.

A local said that Tin Hla ordered the closure of another school for
orphans run by Mr. Hawi Cung Tum in new block, Hakha. There are over 100
students in this school.

The school authorities did not want to shut down the school but are
mortally afraid of the authorities. So they closed down the school and
kept silent.

With the authorities closing and destroying the schools many orphans are
in no position to continue their education.

The orphans are from Hakha, Falam and ThanTlang Townships . The school was
established in April 2006 and permitted by the SPDC and Taxation
Department. The building had two floors including a ground floor.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

December 1, Jane's Intelligence Review
Interview: Mahn Sha, General secretary, Karen National Union (KNU)
The ethnic insurgent Karen National Union (KNU) has "no intention of
surrendering", according to its general secretary, Mahn Sha. Similarly, he
said that Myanmar's ruling junta does not "want to talk politics, they
persistently refuse to engage in substantive political dialogue with the
opposition".
The general secretary's remarks are unsurprising given the current
hostilities between the KNU and the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC). A January 2004 'gentleman's agreement' between the SPDC and the
KNU promised to halt military operations, but the terms of this were
unclear, and according to Mahn Sha the SPDC violated the spirit of the
agreement from the beginning.
Beginning in September 2005, the SPDC launched small attacks in eastern 
Myanmar against the KNU's military wing, the Karen National Liberation
Army (KNLA). By March these offensives intensified into the largest army
offensive in a decade, involving personnel from seven army divisions and
three regional commands spread over large portions of eastern Bago
division and northern Kayin (Karen) State. Mahn Sha stated that the
current offensive is probably intended to secure areas around the
country's new capital Naypyidaw, although he believes its ultimate
objective is to eliminate the KNU. The offensives may also allow the army
to better exploit natural resources and carry out planned dam
construction.
However, Mahn Sha rejected recent media reports that the heightened SPDC
offensives would resolutely quash the Karen revolution. He claimed,
perhaps optimistically: "The KNLA now has over 10,000 soldiers and morale
is high." The KNLA's mobile and guerrilla warfare tactics and its
abandonment of fixed positional warfare in 1995 have apparently resulted
in higher enemy casualties while reducing Karen losses. According to KNLA
battle statistics for the first half of 2006, the KNLA lost 12 soldiers
compared to the Myanmar army's loss of 185 soldiers and suffered 14
casualties while inflicting 448 casualties on the army.
Scorched earth tactics
These figures may be unrepresentative of the KNLA's strength, which is not
thought to be greater than several thousand. However, the ferocity of the
current SPDC offensive is clear. According to Mahn Sha: "The army is
destroying everything. Their policy is to destroy, to kill, and to burn
down everything."
According to recent reports by the Karen Human Rights Group, Myanmar army
troops have repeatedly shelled Karen villages in an effort to depopulate
them. Undefended villages have been destroyed, food supplies destroyed and
agricultural fields mined. The continuation of offensives through the
rainy season hindered planting, and the army's entrenchment will prevent
many crops from being harvested. There are estimated to be more than
110,000 internally displaced people in eastern Bago Division and Kayin
State, including as many as 27,000 displaced by fighting in the past year.
Mahn Sha stated the SPDC has also attempted to establish new settlements
in Karen areas by relocating poor Burmans, perhaps to exacerbate ethnic
conflict between Burmans and Karens.
Ceasefire negotiations
In co-ordination with this military offensive, the SPDC has been putting
political pressure on the KNU to ensure the co-option of one of the
country's largest ethnic insurgencies. Such a deal would be another major
step in the government's long-running policy to assimilate all remaining
ethnic insurgent groups.
Since 1989, the military government has concluded settlements with some 17
insurgent forces and through these agreements solidified its rule
economically and militarily. The KNU is one of the few remaining
non-ceasefire insurgencies. It is also a key member of the major
oppositional alliances such as the Democratic Alliance of Burma, and the
National Council of the Union of Burma. Members of these alliances express
concern about their ability to operate effectively should the KNU conclude
a peace agreement with the SPDC.
In the past few months, the SPDC has tried to engineer a ceasefire
agreement with the KNU through a variety of tactics. One failed attempt
involved an intricate plot to spirit the ageing former KNU president
General Bo Mya to Yangon, under the pretence of providing him with medical
care.
Although co-ordinated between some Karen, the SPDC, Thai officials and
businessmen, the effort ultimately failed when Gen Bo Mya realised what
was being done and refused to co-operate. According to Mahn Sha, SPDC Army
Colonel Myat Tun Oo also attempted to bypass the KNU and negotiate
directly with the KNLA but his efforts were spurned.
The general secretary also stated that during the KNU Central Standing
Committee meeting in August, the SPDC had telephoned repeatedly, urgently
requesting them to send a delegate for ceasefire negotiations. However,
Mahn Sha said he regarded these gestures as "a political game". He added:
"They wanted to show that they are engaging the KNU before [UN Under
Secretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim] Gambali arrived. They are
not sincere."
Opposing surrender
Mahn Sha claims that the KNU and KNLA leadership remain resolute against
the possibility of surrender, stating that Karen inside Myanmar repeatedly
counsel the KNU not to follow the path of other insurgencies by making
peace with the SPDC in order to engage in development projects.
Nonetheless, he stated that the KNU's Central Standing Committee had
resolved in its annual meeting to continue ceasefire negotiations, which
he said are the first step toward a comprehensive political settlement.
As such, the dilemma for the KNU and Mahn Sha is clear, despite his
confident rhetoric. Although determined not to surrender, sustained
military offensives are taking a heavy toll not only on KNLA cadres, but
also on civilian populations in Kayin State. Continued attacks against
civilian populations, internal displacement, worsening food shortages and
attendant health problems may create a sense of moral imperative for the
KNU to conclude a ceasefire with the SPDC.

____________________________________
DRUGS

November 22, Bangkok Post
Burmese heroin smugglers drop the ball

Rangoon police have seized more than a kilogramme of heroin stuffed inside
46 golf balls destined for Taiwan, a Burmese newspaper reported on
Wednesday.

The Pyi Myanmar weekly newspaper said workers at a courier office in
Rangoon became suspicious when a young woman dropped off a parcel for
delivery to Taipei, but left before filling out the necessary paperwork.

When police arrived, they discovered the balls were fake and each
contained a small bag of around 25 grammes (0.9 ounces) of heroin.

Burma is the world's second producer of opium, although far behind
Afghanistan. Most of the Burmese poppy fields are in the mountainous
region of the eastern Shan state, near the borders with Laos and Thailand
-- where they form the so-called Golden Triangle.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 22, Mizzima News
India-Burma trade hub at a standstill - Subhaschandra M

Border trade in Moreh, the only trade hub between Burma and India in the
northeast, has been severely hit by an indefinite blockade. It is cut off
from the rest of the Indian cities The blockade imposed by various
pressure groups over the past seven days has led to transporters refusing
to ply on the Manipur sector of National Highway 39 (the Indo-Burma
route).

The unapproved primary teachers' association imposed the indefinite Bandh
on the 100-km Imphal-Moreh sector of the National Highway 39 which
connects the main cities of the two neighbouring countries. They are
protesting against the Manipur government's failure to regularize services
of primary teachers under the Chandel District Autonomous council since
November 16 midnight.

To make matters worse the All Tribal Students Union Manipur and Action
Committee against the Tipaimukh project has sponsored a separate economic
blockade on the two National Highways 39 and 53 -- the life lines of
Manipur and Indo-Myanmar border areas. This has disrupted normal
activities of traders and transporters especially those of businessmen.

The All Tribal Students Union’s economic blockade on the two national
highways till November 26 is likely to make things more difficult for
transporters and traders. The tribal students are demanding a reservation
policy for tribal students. "With the blockade on, we're unable to ply
vehicles on these routes as agitators are attacking us," Lukhoi, a
Manipuri truck driver said.

All Moreh bound goods laden trucks are stranded as they are compelled to
await the arrival of security escorts at the Manipur-Nagaland and
Assam-Nagaland border. As a result scarcity of essential commodities,
especially petroleum products and food grains in this land-locked state is
on the rise.

Similarly the 36-hour general strike from November 20 morning by the
Manipuri Students Federation's has only complicated matters. This student
body is demanding immediate and unconditional release of five of its
student leaders arrested and detained during a teachers strike. They were
demanding resumption of suspended classes a few weeks ago. The government
is yet to fulfill their demands.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 22, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Thai premier to bring change to Myanmar relations

Bangkok: Military-appointed Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont does not
plan to follow in the footsteps of his business-minded predecessor when he
visits Myanmar (Burma) Thursday, Foreign Affairs Ministry officials said.

Surayud would bring "transparency" to Thai-Myanmar relations and a change
in style from the cozy commercial relations with the regime followed by
his predecessor, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai Foreign Minister
Nitya Pibulsonggram told reporters Wednesday.

Surayud, Nitya and other Thai cabinet ministers are to fly to Myanmar's
new capital of Naypyidaw, 300 kilometres north of the former capital of
Yangon (Rangoon), for the one-day official visit.

Thaksin, a billionaire businessman turned politician who was toppled in a
September 19 military coup on charges of corruption and sewing divisions
within the Thai nation, was criticized for cultivating close economic and
business ties with Myanmar's military regime, a pariah government among
Western democracies, during his two-term premiership from 2001 to 2006.

Surayud's visit would put an end to speculation that he would avoid
visiting the Myanmar altogether, which would have been deemed a breach of
diplomatic etiquette among the 10-nation Association of South-East Asian
Nations (ASEAN).

It is a diplomatic tradition within ASEAN, of which Myanmar has been a
member state since 1997, for new leaders to visit all members of the
organization before travelling farther afield.

Surayud, who was appointed prime minister on October 1, has thus far
visited every ASEAN member save Myanmar.

The two countries now share some similarities.

Both government have been established by military coups. Surayud, a former
army commander-in-chief, was appointed premier by the military junta that
overthrew Thaksin.

But unlike Myanmar's rulers, Thailand's junta has promised to hold a
general election within a year to restore power to the people.

"For Thailand, we have a time line to draft a new constitution and move on
to the path of democracy, but for the Burmese, we don't see any indication
of a time line yet," Surayud said recently when comparing the two regimes.

It was unclear whether Surayud would discuss politics or economic policies
with his neighbours.

"It's an open agenda," said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Kitti
Wasrinond. "They can discuss anything under the sun."

He added that while Thai-Myanmar relations might undergo a style change,
the substance of the relations would remain the same.

Thailand is highly dependent on Myanmar for the supply of national gas to
its national power grid while Myanmar is highly dependent on Thailand for
its earnings off gas sales.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 22, The Guardian (London)
Rivals in partnership: China and India

Tony Blair flies to Afghanistan, Gordon Brown to Iraq; David Cameron is in
Darfur, George Bush has just left Indonesia. Some of the recent flurry of
international jettings matter a lot. Others much less so. One that
indisputably belongs in the first category is the visit by China's
president Hu Jintao to India this week. The summit with India's prime
minister Manmohan Singh - only the second of its kind - brings together
the leaders of more than a third of humanity and of the two countries
whose growth is the starting-point for all serious discussion of the
global economy in the 21st century. Few bilateral relationships are more
important than this. This one matters to us all.

The current tendency of European leaders to speak of the two nations in
one globalising breath can be misleading. China and India are neither
economic equals nor political allies. On most indicators, India lags
considerably behind, while the visit reminds the world that China's
military defeat of India in 1962 still shapes relations and attitudes.
Attempts to solve their border disputes have continued for long years
without breakthrough; last week, on the eve of Mr Hu's trip, China
provocatively reiterated its territorial claims. Indian fears that China
may try to divert the Brahmaputra river and ongoing Chinese anger about
the presence in India of the Dalai Lama and 120,000 Tibetan refugees also
ensured that the summit had to skirt around some intractable differences.
Agreements were limited further by China's long relationship with
Pakistan, where Mr Hu goes tomorrow. There he will sign nuclear-power and
naval arms deals worth billions of pounds more than anything to which he
put his name in Delhi. Though there have been plenty of mutual compliments
during the visit, India and China remain wary of each other, acting out a
cold-war style rivalry in which an advantage for one is perceived by the
other as a threat. None of that has changed this week.

The differences matter but, in both political and economic terms, they are
only part of the picture. From Europe's perspective, the rivalry between
China and India in places like Burma or Sudan matters less than the fact
that both are investing heavily there, frustrating western efforts to
isolate the regimes in Rangoon and Khartoum. And with yesterday's
confirmation that bilateral trade, worth only £ 1bn as recently as 1998,
will reach £ 30bn by 2010, the two Asian giants are increasingly shaping
the global economy too. The rise of China and India is no longer some
far-distant prospect. It is the here and now of the 21st-century world.

____________________________________

November 22, The New York Times
Gaining power, losing values - Pankaj Mishra

London: President Hu Jintao of China, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday
to consolidate ties between the world's two fastest rising economic
powers, can feel comfortable that at least one protester won't be
troubling him.

When China's prime minister at the time, Zhu Rongji, visited Mumbai in
January 2002, Tenzin Tsundue, a young Tibetan, scaled 14 floors of
scaffolding to unfurl ''Free Tibet'' banners outside his five-star hotel.
Last year in Bangalore, Mr. Tsundue appeared on the roof of a 200-foot
tower just above the building where Wen Jiabao, Mr. Zhu's successor as
prime minister, was meeting Indian scientists. From there he threw
pamphlets at bystanders, shouting, ''Wen Jiabao, you cannot silence us.''

This year, however, Mr. Tsundue has been silenced, although not by Chinese
leaders. Invoking a penal code established by India's colonial rulers, the
Indian police have imposed a travel ban on Mr. Tsundue. He is not allowed
outside Dharamsala, the Himalayan town where the Dalai Lama and many of
India's nearly 100,000 Tibetan refugees live. This week he is under
constant surveillance by armed police officers.

Pre-emptive arrests of and even police assaults on Tibetan protesters are
not new in India. But the government's gagging of a well-known writer and
activist like Mr. Tsundue raises questions about the moral values that
India and China, the emerging superpowers of the new century, are likely
to embody.

Both countries have mollycoddled Myanmar's extraordinarily repressive
military rulers, which hints that neither is likely to let the human
rights of the Burmese get in the way of trade. China's growing
relationship with Sudan suggests that even genocide may not interfere with
the supply of raw materials to China's perennially needy manufacturers.

Upholding business interests above all in its foreign policy, as in its
domestic policy, China at least appears to be internally consistent. The
gap between image and reality is greater in the case of India, which
claims to be the world's largest democracy, with an educated middle class
and a free news media.

And yet fundamental rights to clean water, food and work remain empty
abstractions to hundreds of millions of Indians, whose plight rarely
impinges on the news media's obsession with celebrity and consumption. The
country's culture of greed partly explains why a woman is killed by her
husband or in-laws every 77 minutes for failing to bring sufficient dowry.

Pundits in India deplore, often gleefully, American excesses in Guantanamo
Bay and Abu Ghraib, and the inadequacies of the American news media in the
run-up to the war in Iraq. But the Indian news media has yet to carry a
single detailed report on the torture and extrajudicial killing of
hundreds of civilians in Kashmir over the last decade.

Chinese nationalism is a tamed beast, occasionally unleashed by the
Communist leadership to stir up mass protests against Japan and America.
But in India, religious nationalists have run wild in the last 10 years,
conducting nuclear tests, menacing minorities and threatening Pakistan
with all-out war. In 2002, members of a Hindu nationalist government in
the state of Gujarat, in western India, instigated and often organized the
killing of as many as 1,600 Muslims.

Free markets and regular elections alone do not make a civil society.
There remains the task of creating and strengthening institutions --
universities, news media, human rights groups -- that can focus public
attention on the fate of the powerless and oppressed and spread ideas of
human dignity, compassion and generosity.

This task is never perfectly realized. But at least in the United States,
many liberal institutions have vigorously pursued such goals, even as
successive governments have made their pacts with various devils around
the world.

For Western nations to criticize Chinese investments in Africa or Indian
overtures to Myanmar may seem hypocritical in light of the West's history
of ruthlessly exploiting Africa while appeasing its brutal dictators. But,
as La Rochefoucauld pointed out, hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to
virtue.

However tainted in practice, the idea of virtue cannot be discarded in
policymaking. By treating it with contempt, the ruling elites of India and
China may soon make the world nostalgic for the days when America claimed,
deeply hypocritically, its moral leadership.

Pankaj Mishra is the author of ''Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern
in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond.''