BurmaNet News, January 5, 2007

[Editor]

THE BURMANET NEWS
A listserv covering Burma
www.burmanet.org

............................................................
January 5, 2007 Issue # 3115


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar junta leader's absence from official event raises health concerns
Irrawaddy: Controversial KNU delegation visits Rangoon
IRNA: Junta wants `discipline-flourishing democracy' in Myanmar
AFP: Two journalists freed in Myanmar, say rights groups
Mizzima: Police train security staff at Shwedagon

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar to designate six free trade zones under new economic zone law

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: Thirteen Nobel Peace Laureates apply for visas to visit Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHER
The Huffington Post: WITNESS what's happening in Burma – Peter Gabriel

PRESS RELEASE
Nobel Women’s Initiative: 13 Nobel Peace Prize Winners seek to visit Aung
San Suu Kyi of Burma

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 5, Associated Press
Myanmar junta leader's absence from official event raises health concerns

Yangon: The leader of Myanmar's military government did not attend an
official Independence Day dinner as he underwent a medical check in
Singapore, fueling concerns about the health of the 73-year-old general,
diplomats said Friday.

Than Shwe's absence from the Thursday evening dinner for military leaders,
officials and diplomats was briefly noted by state-run newspaper, the New
Light of Myanmar, which said the ruling council's No. 2 official, Sen.
Gen. Maung Aye, attended the gala event on Than Shwe's behalf.

It was the first time since Than Shwe took power in 1992 that he did not
host the annual dinner. This year marks the 59th anniversary of the
country's independence from Britain.

Than Shwe flew to Singapore Dec. 31 for a visit that the junta has refused
to discuss. Foreign Ministry officials have confirmed the trip but
described it as a private visit.

Diplomats have said they were told the visit was for a routine medical
checkup.

An Asian diplomat said Friday it was unusual for Than Shwe to skip such a
major event, adding that diplomats had not received any updates on the
general's health. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity citing
embassy policy and the sensitivity of the subject.

Than Shwe is believed to be in poor health, suffering from diabetes,
hypertension and other ailments.

Speculation spread in August 2005 that Than Shwe was ill and had sought
medical treatment in Singapore, but the junta dismissed the talk as
rumors.

____________________________________

January 5, Irrawaddy
Controversial KNU delegation visits Rangoon - Shah Paung

The commander of the Karen National Union’s 7th Brigade, Brig-Gen Htain
Maung, and an accompanying delegation was set to meet Maj-Gen Ye Myint of
Burma’s Military Affairs Security in Rangoon, KNU officials said on
Friday.

“During this trip, [officials] will talk about a ceasefire and ask the
regime to stop attacking the Karen people and withdraw their troops from
Karen State, the tactical commander of the KNU’s General Headquarters
battalions, Col Ner Dah Mya, told The Irrawaddy on Friday. He provided no
other details about the trip.

The 7th Brigade’s visit to Rangoon was not approved by the KNU’s Central
Committee, and other groups within the KNU have been quick to distance
themselves. The KNU sent letters to the Karen Youth Organization and the
Karen Women’s Organization saying it does not endorse the meeting in
Rangoon, according to one high-ranking KYO leader. The letters also
encouraged the two groups not to compromise their principles by supporting
the negotiations.

Brig-Gen Htain Maung and his group crossed into Myawaddy in Karen State on
Wednesday and traveled overland by car to Rangoon.

The accompanying delegation included Col Paw Doh, head of the KNU’s
Liberation Army Battalion 101, Maj Shwe Ro, second-in-command of Battalion
20, Htain Maung’s bodyguard, Mar Ner, and the former head of the First
Brigade District, Say Plow Poe.

The KNU reached a “gentleman’s agreement” with Burma’s ruling junta in
January 2004 during ceasefire talks in Rangoon, led by the late Karen
leader Gen Bo Mya, who died late last month.

The informal agreement was later revoked in late 2006 during a meeting
with Maj-Gen Ye Myint in Rangoon, which was attended by Col Paw Doh,
Lt-Col Jonny, Maj Yin Nu and Maj Shwe Ro.

The Burmese junta’s recent offensives in northern Karen State and Pegu
Division has led to the displacement of more than 20,000 and sent
thousands more to seek refuge in camps along the Thailand-Burma border.

____________________________________

January 5, IRNA
Junta wants `discipline-flourishing democracy' in Myanmar

New Delhi: Democracy-Myanmar Myanmar's ruling junta is seeking to create a
`discipline-flourishing democracy', the military announced Thursday at a
ceremony commemorating the national Independence Day.

"We are working for the emergence of discipline-flourishing democracy
through National Convention process," announced Myanmar's junta chief
Senior General Than Shwe in a written message to the 59th Independence Day
celebration held for the first time in Nay Phi Taw, the country's new
capital situated about 300 km north of Yangon.

Nay Phi Taw Commander Brigadier-General Wai Lwin read out Than Shwe's
message during the flag hoisting ceremony at the capital's City Hall
Square, IANS-DPA reports said.

Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) --
as Myanmar's ruling junta styles itself -- since 1992, was absent from the
ceremony, observers said.

The 73-year-old general is reportedly receiving medical treatment in
Singapore for an unspecified illness.

Myanmar, which won its independence from its former colonial master
Britain in 1948, has been under near continual military rule since 1962.

Former strongman General Ne Win overthrew the post-independence elected
government of prime minister U Nu in 1962 and remained in power until
1988, when nationwide anti-military demonstrations forced his resignation
from all political posts.

After a brief period of semi-civilian rule in 1988, a new junta seized
power and launched a bloody crackdown on demonstrators that left an
estimated 3,000 people dead.

Despite a general election in 1990 that was won by the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar has remained
under military rule since the putsch of 1988.

The SPDC claims it will turn over political power to an elected government
after the completion of the National Convention process, which is drafting
a new constitution.

The convention process has been broadly criticized as a 'sham', designed
to perpetuate military rule in Myanmar, or what the junta has now termed
'discipline-flourishing democracy'.

"It is high time to discard the sham National Convention and all its
effluent waste which the military group is trying to use to justify their
wrongs and prolong their evil misrule," said the National Council of the
Union of Burma (NCUB), an umbrella group for various pro-democracy and
ethnic minority groups in Myanmar.

____________________________________

January 5, Agence France Presse
Two journalists freed in Myanmar, say rights groups

Yangon: Two journalists who languished for years in Myanmar prisons have
been freed as part of an amnesty granted to some 2,800 inmates, press
rights groups said Friday.

Journalists Than Win Hlaing and Thaung Tun were freed after an amnesty
announced Wednesday by the military government, Reporters Without Borders
and the Burma Media Association said in a statement.

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said about 50 political
detainees were among those freed from prisons around the country.

"The release of prisoners of conscience is always good news, even if the
junta kept the ailing Thaung Tun and Than Win Hlaing in prison for nearly
seven years just for writing articles and books it did not like," the two
press rights groups said.

"We reiterate our appeal to the military government to free all imprisoned
journalists immediately," they said.

Five other journalists are still being held in Myanmar, they added.

Than Win Hlaing, 48, was arrested in June 2000 and sentenced to seven
years in prison for writing about the NLD's detained leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and her father, independence hero General Aung San.

He was denied treatment for diabetes and kidney problems while held at
Tharrawady prison, north of Yangon, the groups said.

Thaung Tun, who is known by his pen name Nyein Thit, was also released. He
was arrested in October 1999 and interrogated and tortured for more than
three weeks before being sentenced to eight years in prison, they said.

He was jailed under Myanmar's sweeping Emergency Act, which is often used
to target political dissidents, for compiling information about rights
abuses and sending his findings overseas. He also worked for a magazine in
Yangon and produced video reports.

Conditions in Myanmar's prisons are notoriously grim. The government has
refused to allow the Red Cross to visit them for more than a year.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest for
more than 10 of the past 17 years. Her NLD party won a landslide victory
in 1990 elections but has never been allowed to take office.

The military has ruled Myanmar, formerly Burma, since 1962.

____________________________________

January 3, Mizzima News
Police train security staff at Shwedagon

Burmese riot control police are training security and fire fighting staff
of the historic Shwedagon Pagoda of Rangoon in riot control techniques.

A Pagoda trustee told Mizzima," This is for ensuring better security for
pilgrims."

In recent times, security has been increased at Shwedagon Pagoda, which is
a major religious and cultural centre, attracting large numbers of
Buddhist visitors and pilrgims within Burma and from abroad.

Left parcels, bags and docuements are checked thoroughly by assigned staff
to prevent mishaps. The movement of visitors too, is under constant
scrutiny.

However, the increased security is not just intended to prevent sabotage
attempts. It comes in the wake of pro-democracy activists" programmes,
particularly after their multiple religious prayer campaign last November.
Here, participants prayed for the resoultion of the various social and
political problems prevailing in Burma. Clearly, the police want to take
no chances for political reasons.

The famed Pagoda occupies a critical place in Burmese history. It was here
that the first ever students" demonstration in British-ruled Burma was
held, on Dec 3, 1920,during a nation-wide boycott campaign, at a spot just
East of the Pagoda.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 5, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to designate six free trade zones under new economic zone law

Yangon: Myanmar will designate six main commercial cities as free trade
zones under a new special economic zone law to be enacted in the near
future, the local weekly Myanmar Times quoted the Forestry Ministry
sources as reporting Friday.

The six free trade zones will be Thilawa Port in Yangon, Mawlamyine in Mon
state, Myawaddy and Hpa-an in Kayin state, Kyaukphyu in Rakhine state and
Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay division,  the sources disclosed.

Foreign investors making direct investment in the free trade zones will be
categorically exempted from taxation ranging from a minimum of one year to
a maximum of eight years, it said, adding that five prospective sectors,
outlined by the government, are  production; high-tech; agriculture,
livestock breeding and  forestry; transport and communications; and
banking services.

Specifically, income derived from such investment in the production and
communication sectors for the first five years will be totally exempted
from taxation, while that in the sector of high-tech for the first eight
years, in the sector of agriculture, livestock breeding and forestry for
the first two years, and in  the sector of banking services for the first
one year will also be so handled, the sources said.

Once the new special economic zone law is promulgated, it is expected that
200,000 job opportunities will be created, it also predicted.

According to the sources, some Malaysian companies are proposing to
establish wood-based industrial zones in Myanmar when the law comes out.

The new special economic zone law has reportedly been completely drafted
for enactment, aiming to absorb inflow of more foreign investment into the
country to promote its economic development.

According to the latest official statistics, contracted foreign investment
in Myanmar has reached 13.917 billion U.S. dollars and 402 projects since
the country opened to such investment in late 1988.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 5, Mizzima News
Thirteen Nobel Peace Laureates apply for visas to visit Suu Kyi - Mungpi

In an attempt to visit detained Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi, 13 Nobel Peace Prize winners across the world are submitting visa
applications to Burmese embassies in nine countries on Friday.

Nobel Peace Laureates worldwide are applying for Burmese visas in a new
initiative to protest against the continued detention of the world's only
imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate -Aung San Suu Kyi - and to call on the UN
Security Council to adopt a resolution on Burma.

"We hope to visit our sister, who today is spending her 4088th day in
detention," Shirin Ebadi, who received the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her
efforts to restore human rights in Iran, said in a press statement posted
on the website of Nobel Women's Initiative.

Jody Williams, the 1997 Laureate and one of the founders of the Nobel
Women's Initiative (NWI), who initiated today's action said, "We welcome
the recent proposal of a Security Council resolution on Burma, and urge
all members to support it immediately."

Both Jody and Shirin will meet Burmese embassy officials in Washington on
Friday and submit visa applications to visit Burma.

While other Laureates are applying for Burmese visas in their respective
countries, the Burmese embassy in Seoul today rejected the visa
application of former South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize winner,
Kim Dae-Jung.

According to 'The Korea Times', Burmese embassy officials rejected Kim's
visa application saying that the move was interpreted as an intervention
in the domestic affairs of another country.

Suu Kyi, one of only 12 women to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize, was
awarded the Prize in 1991 for leading a non-violent struggle for democracy
in Burma.

Despite a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections, the junta
refuses to hand over power to her party - the National League for
Democracy - and has placed Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy activists,
under house arrest.

Suu Kyi, who is currently under detention, has spent nearly 11 of the past
17 years in solitary confinement.

While 13 Nobel Laureates have applied for visas to Burma from nine
countries, His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Elie Wiesel of US, South
Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu and American Friends Service Committee,
who were unable to apply for visas today, have expressed solidarity and
support for the initiative.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 5, The Huffington Post
WITNESS what's happening in Burma – Peter Gabriel

London: Last month I was in New York to support a group which we founded
15 years ago called WITNESS. WITNESS uses video technology to document
human rights abuses around the world. I was there to co-host our annual
benefit, this year highlighting the ongoing humanitarian crisis inside the
Southeast Asian nation of Burma.

Not many people talk about Burma - but we should be. Burma, also known as
Mynamar, is a country of 50 million people who are being systematically
brutalized by their own government, a military regime known ironically as
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The SPDC's army has
destroyed over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma over the last 10 years,
creating over 1 million refugees and over 500,000 people trapped inside
the country. These displaced people are unable to live in their own
villages, their crops are destroyed, landmines are laid in their fields
and they are pressed into modern-day slavery by the army. Additionally,
the democratically-elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is the only Nobel
Peace Prize winner who is under house arrest, where she has been for over
10 years.

A representative from our partners at Burma Issues was at our benefit to
tell people about his own experiences running from the Burmese military as
a child and how he survived in a refugee camp in Thailand for nearly 10
years before becoming a human rights activist. This brave man, whose
identity I cannot reveal here for security reasons, was accompanied by
Gael García Bernal, my co-host for the evening, and Tim Robbins, Angélique
Kidjo and Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider of the B52s, Nile Rodgers and
Suzanne Vega and hundreds of guests in his call to action - urging the UN
Security Council to take action against Burma before the end of the year.

And the struggle continues. Today in Washington DC our friends at the US
Campaign for Burma are organizing a demonstration in front of the Burmese
Embassy- to protest the beginning of Suu Kyi's 11th year of house arrest.
Nobel Prize recipients Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi will lead the call
aimed at the Burmese government to release Suu Kyi, all other political
prisoners and again, to urge for UN Security Council action.

So my interest in human rights issues began in the mid 1980s when I toured
for Amnesty International, first in the USA with U2, Lou Reed, Bryan Adams
and Sting, and 1988 with Bruce Springsteen, Youssou N'Dour, Tracey Chapman
and Sting again, on the Human Rights Now! Tour, which traveled around the
world. It was the first time I met people who had survived overwhelming
and horrific atrocities and who wanted to share their stories. It was
clear to me, that many people would be moved as I had been, if they could
see and hear these stories told by people who experienced them first hand.
I was shocked that people could suffer in this way and then have their
story denied, buried and forgotten. This didn't happen when there was
video film or pictures as evidence. This was how WITNESS was born.

WITNESS began as a small organization with just a couple of people working
to get cameras out to dozens of groups around the world. In the last
nearly 15 years, we've trained and supported thousands of human rights
activists in over 70 countries to use video as an advocacy tool. Videos
are screened for decision makers, policy makers, opinion leaders, general
audiences and grassroots activists, and are distributed via film
festivals, strategic distribution, online and mainstream media outlets in
a strategic effort to right wrongs and to ensure that voices of the
oppressed are heard.

We now have an extraordinary and exciting opportunity as a result of two
technological revolutions. The first, the presence of mobile phones with
cameras all over the world, and the second, the ability to upload video
easily to a central site. Both of these innovations have made the dream of
enabling anyone who suffers human rights abuses to have their story seen
and heard by the world, a very practical and tangible goal.

YouTube has shown the world the potential for uploaded video and our video
hub could definitely do the same job for human rights. The site will be
able to connect it to activists and those who can influence and bring
about change. Read more about this new project here. And check out the
Pilot project for the Hub at www.globalvoicesonline.org/witness.

Wishing everyone around the world a very peaceful and joyful New Year!

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

January 5, Nobel Women’s Initiative
13 Nobel Peace Prize Winners seek to visit Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma -
"She Should Be Immediately Released"

Contact:
Liz Bernstein: +1 613.262.1969
Jeremy Woodrum: +1 202.246.7924

also:
Colin Archer IPB Secretariat: +41-22-731-6429

Geneva:  Laureates worldwide - from Seoul to Washington- will seek visas
today to visit sister Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the only imprisoned Nobel
Peace Laureate. The day after Burmese Independence Day, thirteen Peace
Prize Laureates will submit visa applications in 9 countries in a
collective effort to visit Suu Kyi. "We hope to visit our sister, who
today is spending her 4088th day in detention,” said Shirin Ebadi. “We
want to personally tell her that the world has not forgotten her and the
people of Burma, and we want to tell her that we support her movement’s
call for a UN Security Council resolution on Burma.”

“We welcome the recent proposal of a Security Council resolution on Burma,
and urge all members to support it immediately,” said Jody Williams, 1997
Laureate and one of the founders of the Nobel Women’s Initiative (NWI),
who initiated today’s action. “As the elected leader of the Burmese
people, we have to ensure Suu Kyi’s voice reaches beyond the walls that
confine her. When I visited her in 2003 she asked that we use our liberty
to promote hers and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Williams added.

Suu Kyi, one of only twelve women to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize, was
awarded the Prize in 1991 in recognition of her work in the non- violent
struggle for democracy in Burma. She has spent most of the last sixteen
years in detention. Her political party, the National League for
Democracy, won the 1990 general election in a landslide victory. The
military junta refused to recognize the election results and placed Suu
Kyi, along with other pro-democracy activists, under house arrest.  Since
1996, the Burmese Army has destroyed over 3,000 villages in the eastern
part of the country and forcibly recruited an estimated 70,000 children as
soldiers.

In December 2006 a draft resolution on Burma was circulated in the
Security Council, calling on the Burmese military dictatorship to end
attacks against civilians and immediately release Suu Kyi and more than
1,100 other political prisoners in Burma. The resolution also calls on the
military junta to “desist immediately from the use of systematic rape of
women and girls as an instrument of armed conflict." The junta is known to
use systematic rape as a weapon of war and force women and girls into
sexual slavery and other forms of forced labor.

The following Laureates or representatives of Laureate organizations will
apply for visas to visit Suu Kyi in nine countries today:

Wangari Maathai (Kenya, 2005) will apply in South Africa; Shirin Ebadi
(Iran, 2003) will apply in the US; President Kim Dae-jung (South Korea,
2000) will apply in South Korea; Jody Williams (US, 1997) will apply in
the US; Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (UK, 1995),
represented by Sally Milne who will apply in the UK; Rigoberta Menchu Tum
(Guatemala, 1992) will apply in the US; International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (US, 1985), represented by Ron McCoy who will
apply in Malaysia, Mary-Wynne Ashford who will apply in Canada, Gunnar
Westberg who will apply in Switzerland and Ime John who will apply in
Germany; Lech Walesa (Poland, 1983) will apply in Germany; Adolfo Perez
Esquivel (Argentina, 1980) will apply in the US; Betty Williams (UK, 1976)
will apply in the UK; Mairead Corrigan Maguire (UK, 1976) will apply in
the UK; on behalf of Albert Schweitzer (France, 1952) David Ives will
apply in the US; International Peace Bureau (Switzerland, 1910),
represented by Arielle Denis who will apply in France.

The following Laureates are unable to apply for visas today but have
expressed support for this action:

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Tibet, 1989), Elie Wiesel (US, 1986),
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa, 1984) and American Friends Service
Committee (US, 1947).

For additional information see www.nobelwomensinitiative.org or contact
media at nobelwomensinitiative.org.

The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006 by sister Nobel Peace
Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú
Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire to help strengthen work
being done in support of women's rights around the world.