BurmaNet News, December 6, 2006

[Editor]

December 6, 2006 Issue # 3100


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Opposition remains hopeful despite Bolton resignation

HEALTH / AIDS
South China Morning Post: Back from the dead: the Myanmese HIV victims
finding hope in India

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: S. Korean companies “exported arms technology to Burma”

ASEAN
Irrawaddy: Asean Summit to hear proposal on mediator role in Burma
AFP: ASEAN charter needs substance, not just words: analysts
AFP: Myanmar's prime minister to attend ASEAN summit

REGIONAL
AFP: Thailand buries last of its unknown tsunami dead

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: Burma: Thai diplomacy's biggest travesty - Kavi Chongkittavorn


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 6, Irrawaddy
Opposition remains hopeful despite Bolton resignation - Aung Lwin Oo

Burma’s main opposition party remained hopeful of Washington’s continued
pressure on the UN for reform in Burma following the announcement that US
Ambassador to the UN John Bolton will resign his post.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that President George W
Bush has accepted Bolton’s resignation. The announcement came during
Bolton’s campaign to adopt a UN Security Council resolution on Burma in
December before the council is to expand early next year. Prior to the
resignation, Bolton said on Friday that he was expecting to distribute
draft resolutions on Burma among the council members in the coming days.

“There will be concern over what will happen to the efforts that he has
been making,” said U Lwin, secretary of the National League for Democracy.
“But, we believe that even rival democrats will team up for the good of
our country, and Americans are capable of choosing the right person to
fill Bolton’s role.”

US State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack said on Monday that Bolton
has done “an extraordinary job” during his tenure at the UN. “You just
look at the issues, the range of issues, important, crucial issues with
which the Security Council has had to deal and it's really extraordinary;
from Iraq to Iran to Somalia to Burma to Sudan,” he said.

“If he was to remain in his post, I believe he would have aggressively
persuaded others on the Security Council, particularly China and Russia,”
said Chan Tun, a Rangoon-based former Burmese ambassador to China.

Bolton has been widely regarded as outspoken and controversial at the UN,
and critics say his aggressive lobbying led to divisions among members of
the world body.

At a press briefing in the Burmese capital Naypyidaw in late November,
Burma’s police chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi charged that the US-led attempt to
address the Burma issue at the UN Security Council would only damage
“peace and security” in the country and the region.

“Despite the fact that he has been described as a tough guy, and some have
disputed his accomplishments, it is clear that he has tried to improve the
UN, as well as Burma,” U Lwin said.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

December 6, South China Morning Post
Back from the dead: the Myanmese HIV victims finding hope in India

Woman's remarkable survival inspires fellow sufferers to sneak into India
for treatment, writes Shaikh Azizur Rahman

When 24-year-old Myanmese Mary Lun was carried across the border and into
the Aids hospice of Churachandpur in northeast India in March, she weighed
a mere 24kg and was all but dead.

Infected with HIV by one of her two former husbands or a boyfriend, Ms Lun
was also wracked with tubercu-losis and too weak to even cough. Few who
saw her thought she would come out of the hospice alive.
Yet, less than five months later, she astonished her friends by walking
out with a smile, her weight a healthy 60kg.

Her amazing recovery has highlighted the situation of Myanmar's HIV
patients, who are either sneaking across the border into India's Manipur
state to receive the life-saving treatments that are either inaccessible
or unaffordable in Myanmar. India-based NGOs are helping provide their
illicit treatment by supplying them with fake addresses - and even helping
some resettle in India permanently.

"She was nothing but a bundle of bones and skin when I saw her first in
our hospice bed," said Biakdiki Chhakchhuak, a doctor in charge of the
hospice run by the NGO Shalom.

Shalom director P. Vanlalmuana said Ms Lun's recovery was nothing short of
spectacular. "Now she weighs 60kg and her CD4 [blood cell] count has gone
up to 240 [from just 20]. She is quite healthy now. Her recov-ery is a
classic example of how antiretroviral therapy and other drugs can help a
dying Aids victim regain health and save one from the brink of an
immediate death," said Dr Vanlalmuana, describing her case at a seminar in
August.

Manipur-based Myanmese doctor and activist Aung Kyaw Oo believes there are
thousands of HIV/Aids pa-tients in Myanmar's Kachin and Chin states whose
only hope of receiving modern antiretroviral drugs lies in sneaking over
the border to India, where charities provide free treatment.

"Because of ever-increasing restrictions by the military junta [in
Myanmar], the chances of international medical aid agencies reaching those
infected people in frontier areas are getting dimmer," said Aung Kyaw Oo.
"But agencies from India can provide the key medical aid, including
antiretrovirals.

"With at least 7 per cent of the region's population being infected with
HIV and less than 0.5 per cent of the Aids victims having access to
antiretrovirals, the care and treatment situation is in fact grimmer than
in many African countries."

When news of Ms Lun's recovery reached friends also infected with HIV in
her home town of Khampat, some travelled across the border to see her in
the flesh and confirm her condition with their own eyes.
"Earlier this year she was so sick and bed-ridden that we thought she
would die within a few weeks. We have seen many young people dying in the
same situation in our area. It is a miracle to find her so healthy and
young today," said Lalramshami Ngente, 27.

"If the [health] activists did not bring her down to Manipur she would
have been inside a grave in Burma now. She is really lucky."

Sangpuii Ralte, a 29-year-old friend, said "99 per cent" of those infected
with HIV in her home district of Tamu were unable to afford "long life"
antiretroviral drugs in Myanmar, and neither the government nor NGOs there
could provide them free.

"Recently I fell sick with diarrhoea and I had to spend my life's savings
of 10 million kyat [HK$12,600] for my treatment at a private hospital in
Khampat. Since I was HIV-positive, government doctors in Khampat said they
had no infrastructure to treat me," said Ms Sangpuii.

Her 32-year-old husband Mawia, who is also HIV-positive, said: "If you are
not among that 5 per cent of the rich and if you get HIV, you will have to
die."

With Mawia losing weight fast, the couple decided after seeing Ms Lun that
they could not afford to delay joining her in India for illicit treatment.
They got in touch with a group of health workers, who agreed to help them
get the treatment they so desperately sought, even though they are
Myanmese.

"We sold our house in Burma and settled in India [in Churachandpur] two
months ago," said Ms Sangpuii. "The NGO helped us get a house to rent. It
even helped my husband open a small fish shop which he can manage without
much physical strain," said Ms Sangpuii who now weaves shawls to
supplement the family's income.

"Mawia had been getting weaker, and sometimes fell sick. He could not work
hard in the fields in Myanmar and our family income was declining. We had
no money for his medical treatment there. When we found that no money
would be needed for our treatment in India, we emigrated."

The high incidence of HIV among Manipur drug users means that the aid
agency Medecins Sans Frontieres and the government provide free
antiretroviral drug treatment for about 400 patients. Since October, Mawia
and Sangpuii Ralte have been among them.

A counsellor for the NGO which helped Mawia and Sangpuii said she and her
colleagues had helped 40 HIV-infected Myanmese enrol for free treatment in
India since May.

"Only about five HIV/Aids victims have settled here. Since we have not
been able to bring the remaining people here [permanently] they are now
shuttling between Sagaing and Manipur to collect their medicine every
month. Within a few months we hope to succeed to bring all of them here,"
said the counsellor, who did not want to identify the charity. "For
obvious reasons all of those individuals have been registered using fake
Indian addresses."

The deception is helping save lives, including Ms Lun's. "I have been
blessed with a second life. I never knew that medicine could be so
powerful - or that it came free of charge."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

December 6, Irrawaddy
S. Korean companies “exported arms technology to Burma” -  Yeni

Fourteen high-ranking officials from seven South Korean companies,
including Daewoo International President Lee Tae-yong, have been indicted
on charges of involvement in the construction of arms factories in Burma
and other related offences, the South Korean press reported on Wednesday.

The 14 were charged with violating strategic goods regulations and
fabricating export documents, according to the English-language Seoul
newspaper The Korea Times. It is the first time Korean companies have been
named in legal action involving the unauthorized export of strategic goods
and technology that could be used to build arms factories overseas.

Quoting a source in the Seoul public prosecutor’s office, the newspaper
reported that the companies—including Daewoo International and Doosan
Infracore—had completed contracts with Burma to “export plant facilities,
machines and technology information which can be used to make various
cannon weapons.” Government agents had uncovered the contacts with Burma,
the newspaper said.

Ninety percent of the contracted weapons-producing factories had been
built and 90 percent of contract deposits had been paid, the report
disclosed. Daewoo International was identified as the core company
involved in the activity as it was in charge of planning the projects and
overseeing technology counseling. Doosan Infracore provided the equipment
to build the factories. No further details were given in the report.

Following increasing pressure and criticism, the South Korean government
tightened export controls over strategic goods, covering items such as
equipment, technologies, software and chemicals.

Officials from the public prosecutor's office searched Daewoo offices in
August.

The public prosecutor’s office said evidence had been uncovered indicating
detonating devices for artillery shells were to be exported. But
Daewoo—engaged in developing Burmese offshore gas fields in the Bay of
Bengal—claimed that the exported goods were lathes and press machines.

South Korea is a participant in the Wassenaar Arrangement—the first
multilateral institution designed to prevent the destabilizing
accumulation of arms and dual-use goods and technologies. The WA was
founded by 33 countries in July 1996.

____________________________________
ASEAN

December 6, Irrawaddy
Asean Summit to hear proposal on mediator role in Burma - Clive Parker

The head speaker of the Philippines House of Representatives, Jose
Claveria de Venecia, is expected to propose to the Asean Summit next week
that Asean act as mediator between the Burmese military and the opposition
National League for Democracy.

Venecia, the fourth most senior government official in Manila and a close
confidant of Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, will call for the move
after he was invited to speak as part of the official schedule of the
summit in Cebu, the Philippines, starting on Sunday. No other details of
the proposal are currently available.

The Irrawaddy understands that a potential role for Asean in Burma’s
political impasse has already been suggested to the regime in private.
Venecia’s forthcoming speech would be the first time it has been made
officially in the presence of all members of the regional bloc. The
proposal would also represent the most explicit public comment on Burma
yet at an Asean Summit, a forum that has traditionally seen such
discussion limited to the sidelines.

News that the Philippines plans to address Burma as the current Asean
president comes as the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus on
Wednesday ended a conference in Manila aimed at keeping the issue high on
the agenda of the forthcoming summit.

Members of Parliament from the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia
and the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma held
meetings with Venecia, the Philippines Foreign Minister Alberto Romulo and
other Philippine officials during the three-day event.

Sann Aung of the NCGUB said that Romulo expressed determination to
continue working on Burma and engaging with the regime to promote change.
Along with other NCGUB delegates present, Sann Aung warned Venecia that
all efforts to promote change in Burma had so far failed and that change
could “only happen with a UN Security Council resolution.”

Roshan Jason, a spokesperson for the AIPMC, said that overall, meetings
with the Philippines political establishment had been productive.

“It is encouraging that you have people close to the [Asean] leaders that
are keen on raising the [Burma] issue, solving the issue and highlighting
it,” he said. “But my fear is always in Asean summits—it being a very
diplomatic event—that the leaders will be cautious.”

Jason noted though that Asean momentum on the Burma issue “is at a point
that it was not at before”—in September, Cambodia became the sixth member
of the bloc to set up an inter-parliamentary caucus on Burma comprising
MPs from different political parties, despite threats from the Burmese
embassy in Phnom Penh that the move would damage relations between the two
countries. Excluding Burma, there are now twice as many countries within
Asean that have embraced the AIPMC than those that have not—Vietnam, Laos
and Brunei.

Meanwhile, the Philippines in a government statement on Wednesday
announced that the purpose-built US $10-million International Convention
Center in Cebu was ready to host the summit, just four days before
delegates are scheduled to arrive.

The Philippines began construction in April after learning at short notice
that it would take over the rotating presidency of Asean in place of
Burma, which forfeited its turn due to international pressure over its
human rights record.

____________________________________

December 6, Agence France Presse
ASEAN charter needs substance, not just words: analysts - Karl Wilson

Cebu: If the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is to stay relevant in
the future, its proposed charter will need to contain substance rather
than just flowery words, analysts say.

The charter must also be binding on all member countries if further ASEAN
integration is to be achieved, they say.

ASEAN, which was formed 39 years ago and operates by consensus, is a
disparate group of 10 nations whose politics and economics vary
enormously.

"ASEAN needs to find real relevance beyond being just a loose
association," Raul Pangalangan, dean of the law school at the University
of the Philippines, told AFP.

He said a legally binding charter would be one step in that direction but
that "it will need to have a framework with real teeth not just nice words
to mask unpleasant truths.

"Unless independent bodies are created to monitor human rights, for
instance, that framework will merely carry forward the same old ASEAN way
rather than supplant it," he said.

The so-called eminent persons group, chosen at last year's ASEAN summit in
Malaysia, has drawn up a blueprint for what it sees as the way forward.

The draft, which will be presented to the ASEAN leaders meeting on the
central Philippines island of Cebu on Sunday, says the charter should "pay
particular reference to the enhancement of peace, security, stability,
democracy, good governance and promote human rights."

In a copy obtained by AFP, it said ASEAN should look at the grouping as a
single market and production base where there is "free movement of goods,
services, skilled labor and investments, equitable economic development,
reduced poverty and a narrowing of the socio-economic development gap."

The blueprint also calls for a charter that "cares for its people and
shares its human, natural and cultural resources for sustainable
development in order to make the organization relevant and
people-centered."

Hadi Soesastro, executive director of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies in Jakarta, said recently: "ASEAN lacks a central
authority to speak on its behalf, conclude agreements and conduct
relations with other organizations and states."

He said a charter would establish ASEAN as a "juridical personality and
legal entity." But it will need to "clearly define its objectives" and
"enshrine the values adhered to by its members," he wrote in a recent
paper.

There are many groups within the region which fear the charter will
marginalize the poor, migrant and unskilled workers, and minority groups
in favour of big business.

Soesastro said the charter needs to be "people-centric rather than
state-centric."

"There is a danger that in the process of drafting, the objective of
having a charter will be greatly compromised and watered down.

"If that happens, its purpose will be defeated and ASEAN will end up
losing its effectiveness, relevance and credibility," he said.

Human rights groups in particular do not have high expectations of any
ASEAN charter, which would be signed by member states Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand
and Vietnam.

"Can you see the generals in Burma (Myanmar) signing anything that opens
the door to human rights? I don't think so," one foreign human rights
worker who did not want to be named told AFP.

"I can't see many ASEAN leaders signing a document that attempts to
introduce universally accepted human-rights standards."

Activists fear that once the ASEAN charter is ready, it will be presented
as a fait accompli.

"We want the ASEAN charter to include the promotion and protection of
human rights, as the core value to be embraced by ASEAN states," Yap Swee
Seng, executive director of the Malaysian human rights group Suaram, said
recently.

____________________________________

December 6, Agence France Presse
Myanmar's prime minister to attend ASEAN summit

Yangon: Military-run Myanmar's prime minister will lead a delegation to
the Philippines for an upcoming summit of Southeast Asian leaders, state
media reported Wednesday.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said General Soe Win would attend the
summit, which begins Sunday, "at the invitation of Her Excellency Mrs
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, President of the Republic of the Philippines."

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, is a member of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but the organisation has been criticized
for not pressuring the junta over its dismal human rights record and slow
pace of democratic reform.

The newspaper said the Myanmar delegation would attend the 12th ASEAN
summit and meetings on the sidelines, including an ASEAN-China summit and
an ASEAN-Japan summit.

It did not specify dates for the visit, saying only that it would take
place "in the near future".

However, leaders of ASEAN -- which groups Myanmar, the Philippines,
Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and
Vietnam -- are due to hold a three-day summit in the central island
province of Cebu beginning December 10.

The United States has been pushing for more punitive action on Myanmar by
the United Nations, arguing that drug trafficking, refugees, rights abuses
and a growing AIDS problem represent a threat to international peace and
security.

ASEAN leaders favour a more diplomatic approach, but some of the 10
members accuse Myanmar of damaging the regional bloc's credibility because
of its slow progress in carrying out democratic reforms.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 6, Agence France Presse
Thailand buries last of its unknown tsunami dead

Bangkok: Thailand on Wednesday began burying the last of its unknown
victims from the devastating December 2004 tsunami, in a quiet ceremony
attended by a handful of officials and Buddhist monks.

Few people were there to see the last group of the 410 unidentified bodies
go into the ground at Bang Maruan cemetery in the hardest-hit province of
Phang Nga, just north of the resort island of Phuket.
Multi-faith ceremonies were held for victims, most of whom are believed to
be migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar.

"Wednesday started with Buddhist, Christian and Islamic religious
ceremonies and the actual burial started shortly afterwards," said police
Colonel Khemmarin Hassiri, the head of the Thai Tsunami Victim
Identification unit.

About 20 people, mostly police officers and representatives from the
faiths, attended the burial.

Three hundred of the unidentified bodies were buried in October and
November. Fifty people will be buried Wednesday. The remaining 60 will go
into the ground before Friday.

After the low-key ceremony, the bodies were transferred to stainless steel
coffins and lowered into a mass grave, with just plain concrete slabs
separating the resting place of each victim.

The bodies of 103 victims who have been identified but whose families have
yet to collect them will remain in storage, Khemmarin said.

"We will keep them in temperature-controlled containers waiting for their
relatives to collect them," he told AFP.

They include 72 Myanmar nationals, 28 Thais, one Filipino, one Turk and
one Nepalese.

Most of the 410 unidentified bodies are believed to be migrants from
Myanmar, whose families are either unable to leave Myanmar or are in
Thailand illegally and afraid to come forward for fear or deportation.

"Australia, the US, they have ambassadors to claim the body and relatives
to come," said Uraiwan Kanjan, a field coordinator in Phang Nga for the
International Organisation for Migration.

"(Migrants) have no relatives here, and no officials papers," she told AFP
last week.

Experts have collected DNA samples from all the victims, so if any new
evidence arises, the bodies can be exhumed to complete the identification
process.

The bodies have until now been kept in a morgue awaiting identification,
but the decision was made to bury them because of concerns that the
containers were not designed for prolonged use and could begin to
deteriorate.

Some 5,400 people were killed in Thailand on December 26, 2004, when the
tsunami tore across the Indian Ocean and killed 220,000 people in a dozen
countries.

Roughly half of the victims in Thailand were foreign holidaymakers.
Tourism was badly hit by the disaster, but it is now almost back to
pre-tsunami levels.

Thai and US officials on Friday sent off a ship carrying a tsunami warning
device designed to protect millions of people around the Indian Ocean. It
is hoped this will also reassure tourists.

Few events are planned for the second anniversary of the tragedy. A Thai
tourism ministry spokesman told AFP that they did not have the budget for
any memorial service.

However, a number of private ceremonies will be held, with Phuket's
Japanese Association planning to hold a memorial attended by Japan's
ambassador to Thailand and about 200 guests.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 6, The Nation
Burma: Thai diplomacy's biggest travesty - Kavi Chongkittavorn

The Thai government's current position regarding Burma is humiliating. It
is hard to believe that the so-called new "ethical diplomacy" (khunna
dharma), which was pronounced by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanond, will
include helping Burma to withstand increasing international condemnation
and the upcoming debates at the United Nations Security Council.

By following the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' recommendations at this
juncture, the Surayud government is approaching Burma as if it has been
kept in a time warp. Since the coup, the ministry has urged the government
to stick to the past policy on Burma to maintain continuity and the
country's creditability in Asean and the international community. The
ministry's die-hard supporters believe that this policy will eventually
allow Thailand to rejuvenate the Bangkok Process, which began in earnest
in 2003, as a way to engage Burma, with Thailand as a facilitator. But the
process has flopped, as many regional players find the host has conflicts
of interest and is not an honest broker.

During the interim period of the Surayud government, it seems that
Thailand will assist Burma to weather the storm in the UN Security Council
by derailing the debates. The world body's assertive attitude toward Burma
since the middle of last year has been attributed in part to the lack of
solidarity among Asean members. And so it might seem the Foreign Ministry
could try and push Asean members into once again uniting behind the pariah
state.

In other words, the Foreign Ministry would like to turn back the clock to
pre-December 1997, when Asean leaders acted and talked as if they were a
pack of wolves in response to Western criticism of Burma's planned
admission as an Asean member.

Asean was forced to take sides by backing Burma without reservation.
Asean's solidarity was pitched against the West. Failure to admit Burma at
that crucial time would have been construed as weakness - the triumph of
Western values over the Asean way. To resort to the same strategy now
smacks of wishful thinking.

Almost 10 years have elapsed and the ministry wants to restore this
position and forge a common Asean stand on Burma - to fight the Security
Council, in other words, which means essentially taking a stand against
the West. The Bush administration has succeeded in pushing the Burma issue
onto the Security Council's agenda, with the assistance of the majority of
the Council's members. Since last December there have been three briefings
by Ibrahim Gambari, the UN under-secretary for political affairs. In the
future, the US is expected to submit a resolution on Burmese drug
trafficking and internal displaced persons. This would reduce the threat
caused by Burma to international peace and security. But there was nothing
about sanctions, although that kind of punishment might certainly come in
the near future.

Last week the General Assembly Committee of the UN passed a resolution
criticising Burma's worsening human rights record. The resolution
specifically said that the junta refused to investigate widespread abuses
such as summary executions, torture, forced labour, sexual violence and
the recruitment of child soldiers. Burma has recruited an estimated 50,000
child soldiers, one of the biggest armies of children in the world.
Ludicrously, as the isolation of Burma at the UN increases, Thailand, with
its own post-coup problems, has the audacity to come out on behalf of
Burma. Worse still, this comes at a time when most Asean members have
shunned the country.

Over the past two years Asean politicians and coalition groups on Burma
have been active in pushing the Burma issue on to national agendas. Former
Asean supporters of Burma's membership in 1997 such as Malaysia, Singapore
and Indonesia have now become very critical of Rangoon's intransigence.

The current Thai policy on Burma must be its last hurrah if it remains
unchanged. Government House and the Foreign Ministry have said very little
about what transpired during the one-day trip to Burma made last week by
Prime Minister Surayud. If the above recommendations were raised and
pledged to Burma, it will have disastrous consequences on Thailand's
diplomatic reputation.

During the past five years, the Thaksin government was the biggest
supporter of the Burmese regime. Asean's growing intolerance of Burma's
stubbornness forced Burma to relinquish its role of host to the 2005 Asean
ministerial meeting. The Thaksin government then hardened its policy
towards Burma - from an earlier reluctance to back the UN Council's debate
to a willingness to abstain from the debate and resolution. The latter was
due to the ministry's lobbying effort for the UN secretary-general's job,
which was eventually won by South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. Now
it seems Thailand is returning to square one on its Burmese policy again.

It is hard to understand why the ministry is so adamant in defending Burma
at all costs, even though it is now under the Surayud government. The
reasons why the ministry has walked its cats backwards could be unfinished
business deals or other concessions which involve Thai authorities and
businessmen (from the previous government). These people do not want to
abandon the pro-Burmese policy and their concessions. The other reason
could be that the new Foreign Ministry team are trying to maintain the
status quo. It will be a huge failure if the ministry treats the one year
it has in office to re-affirm the old rotten policies towards Burma rather
than address new challenges at the UN.