BurmaNet News, January 19, 2007

[Editor]

January 19, 2007 Issue # 3124


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Junta pushes KIO to condemn UNSC intervention
Irrawaddy: Junta forces rice sales to military in Burma at devalued prices
New York Times: Burmese daily at odds with democracy advocate

DRUGS
AP: Thailand's 1st judicially approved wiretap helps bust drug trafficking
network

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Offshore energy firm signs gas exploration deal with Myanmar
Kaladan News: India to begin border trade with Burma, Bhutan

REGIONAL
DVB: More Rohingyas arrested in Thailand

INTERNATIONAL
Thai Press Reports: Commission allocates 15,5 million in humanitarian aid
to vulnerable groups in Myanmar/Burma and Burmese refugees

OPINION / OTHER
Business Day: South Africa: Whose side is SA on, anyway? - Jonathan
Katzenellenbogen


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

January 18, Mizzima News
Junta pushes KIO to condemn UNSC intervention - Ko Dee

Following pressure from the Burmese military regime, the ceasefire group,
Kachin Independence Organisation, is set to release a statement regarding
its stand on the UN Security Council's intervention into Burma's affairs
on Friday.

The KIO has been pressurised by the Burmese military junta to condemn the
USA's attempts to push for democratic reforms in Burma at the UN Security
Council.

"They telephoned us asking about our stand on the issue. We haven't taken
a stand yet but we will start working on it this evening. And we will
discuss the issue tomorrow, "said KIO spokesperson Colonel Gum Maw to
Mizzima.

"The meeting is not just on this issue. There are many agendas at the
meeting," he added.

The draft resolution on Burma was endorsed by the US and put to vote at
the UN Security Council on January 12 but it was vetoed by China and
Russia . Pro-junta organisations in Burma, in statements condemned the US
and Britain for what they called "interference in the country's
sovereignty", the day after the resolution was put to vote.

"They did not pressurise us to release a statement but asked what our
opinion was. We are thinking of saying something now", said Gum Maw.

"They have been asking us for the last two days," he added.

In November 2006, the military junta pressurised the KIO to condemn US's
attempt to pass a resolution on Burma at the UNSC but KIO refused to toe
the ruling regime's line.

The KIO and the junta reached a cease-fire in 1993. The KIO participated
in the National Convention where the process of drafting the constitution
is being led by the military junta.

____________________________________

January 19, Irrawaddy
Junta forces rice sales to military in Burma at devalued prices - Shah Paung

Farmers in Kengtung Township, eastern Shan State and Pegu Division’s
Tharyawaddy Township have been forced to sell rice to a military logistics
group at below-market prices, according to farmers in the two townships.

Farmers in Kengtung say that a Burmese military official from the Golden
Triangle region of Northern Burma in November 2006 ordered farmers to sell
their products at prices established by the military. Anyone who refused
would face unspecified action by military authorities.

“The military leader did not explain what kind of action would be taken if
we refused, but farmers began selling their rice because of fear,” one
farmer, who refused to be identified by name, told The Irrawaddy on
Friday.

The farmer added that the market price for rice is 200 kyat per kg, while
the military demanded a price of 100 kyat per kg. In addition, military
purchasers complained about the quality of the rice and asked for greater
quantities at no additional charge.

Kengtung Township has 4,000 acres of farmland, according to farmer. Each
acre can produce 60 to 70 baskets (approximately 20 kg per basket). Local
farmers have been forced to sell the military three baskets per acre of
farmland that they work.

Farmers in Tharyawaddy Township said they have been forced to grow summer
paddy, despite the lack of water in the dry season and difficulties
maintaining their family’s income. The military authorities have also
destroyed local bean crops to make room for the planting of additional
rice crops.

Burmese farmers have endured forced price reductions before. In recent
years, the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders Association purchased rice for
the Burmese military at the devalued price of 100 to 150 kyat per kg.

Government authorities are also said to have tightened restrictions on the
transport of rice to Rangoon. Farmers must now have a letter of permission
from local authorities to transport rice and other goods, such as bran and
what is called “broken rice,” the farmer in Tharyawaddy Township said.

____________________________________

January 19, The New York Times
Burmese daily at odds with democracy advocate - Seth Mydans

Singapore: A state-run newspaper in Myanmar on Thursday accused the
pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of tax evasion for spending the
money she won for the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and other foreign awards
outside the country.

The newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, said the government was ''very
considerate'' to keep her under house arrest rather than to jail her for
life for what it said were many offenses.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 61, has not left the country since 1988 and has
been under house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years, including the year
she won the peace prize.

The accusation by the paper is the latest, and one of the more
imaginative, of periodic verbal assaults against her by the military
government of Myanmar, formerly Burma.

''She avoided paying taxes to the state by asking her family members
abroad to spend all her cash awards provided by international
organizations and honorariums presented for her works she had created
abroad instead of spending the money in the country,'' said the newspaper,
which is published in English.

''It was very considerate of the government to put only restrictions on
her, instead of punishing her in accordance with law for the acts she had
committed,'' the newspaper said. ''If she is sentenced to prison terms for
all the offenses she has committed, she will never get out of the jail in
her life.''

The government regularly accuses her of collaborating with foreign
governments and of undermining national unity.

Thursday's attack on her followed the defeat last week in the United
Nations Security Council of a resolution sponsored by the United States
that condemned Myanmar as a threat to international peace and security.

''On one level, it sounds ridiculous,'' said Debbie Stothard, coordinator
of Altsean-Burma, a human rights group, referring to the accusation of tax
evasion. ''But on another level it could actually hint at another
onslaught against Aung San Suu Kyi.''

''The woman has been under such strict conditions of detention,'' she
added, ''it's not as though she was free to go on a shopping spree.''

In 1992 Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi said she would use the $1.3 million she won
for the Nobel prize to establish a health and education trust for the
people of Myanmar.

The junta came to power in 1988 when the military crushed pro-democracy
protests. It refused to step down when Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's party won
an election in 1990.

On Wednesday, the newspaper set forth its theory for the United States'
opposition to the junta and its support for Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi.

''It is quite clear,'' the newspaper said. ''It aims to set up its
military bases, help its businessmen gain a foothold and monopolize the
domestic business world, and enable its spies to meddle in the internal
affairs of Myanmar to make a mess of things in the region.''

____________________________________
DRUGS

January 19, Associated Press
Thailand's 1st judicially approved wiretap helps bust drug trafficking
network - Larry Neumeister

New York: An international heroin trafficking organization that processed
drugs from Pakistan and Afghanistan through a storefront in Thailand has
been busted with help from wiretap recordings authorized by Thailand
judicial authorities, prosecutors said.

Two of three men from Thailand extradited to the United States to face
drug charges made initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Manhattan,
where they were ordered held without bail Thursday in a case authorities
said processed more than $30 million (euro23.2 million) in drug money.

The extraditions resulted from Operation Ivory Triangle, an investigation
of drug networks in Bangkok, Lagos, Nigeria, and New York.

Prosecutors said the networks distributed heroin received from Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and northern Thailand throughout the
world, including the United States, Europe, Hong Kong, China, Japan,
Malaysia and Indonesia.

The U.S. government has tried over the past decade to broaden the number
of countries through which it can investigate problems like drugs and
terrorism in cooperation with foreign governments.

An indictment in the case said government evidence against the men
included recordings captured by a wiretap authorized by the Supreme Court
of Thailand. U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia credited the Royal Thai Police
law enforcement officers as playing a key role in the probe.

Garcia's spokeswoman, Rebekah Carmichael, said prosecutors could not
comment on the extent of help from Thailand authorities in the probe and
whether the cooperation was enhanced or harmed by a military coup in
September that ousted Thailand's prime minister.

In an indictment, prosecutors said that a heroin business operating out of
a Thai storefront provided packages of drugs that human couriers swallowed
or hid inside secret compartments in suitcases as they carried them
through complex distribution routes.

To get to New York, the drugs sometimes went through Pakistan, Europe,
Cuba, Mexico and Miami, prosecutors said.

The route was expensive: Heroin bought for $3,500 (euro2,709) to $6,000
(euro4,643) per kilogram in
Thailand eventually was resold in the United States for as much as
$100,000 (euro77,387) per kilogram, the U.S. government said.

If convicted as leaders of the drug organization, which was headquartered
in Bangkok, the men each could face at least 10 years in prison and up to
life in prison.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

January 19, Agence France Presse
Offshore energy firm signs gas exploration deal with Myanmar

Yangon: MPRL, an offshore energy company, has signed a deal with
military-run Myanmar for the rights to explore for oil and gas in a
potentially-rich block in the Gulf of Bengal, the company said Friday.

MPRL E Pte, an offshore company run by Myanmar nationals, signed the deal
for joint exploration of block A6 off the western Rakhine coast with
Myanma Oil and Gas enterprise in the administrative capital Naypyidaw on
Thursday.

The A6 block awarded to MPRL is located south of the fields operated by
South Korea's Daewoo, and has estimated reserves of 5.7 to 10 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas.

The block covers an area of about 9,830 square kilometres (3,795 square
miles), and MPRL hopes that the natural gas deposits will extend all along
Myanmar's coast on the Gulf of Bengal.

"I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we will honour and
fully commit ourselves to the terms and conditions of the Production
Sharing Contract," Moe Myinet, CEO of MPRL, said at the signing ceremony.

MPRL, formally known as Myanmar Petroleum Resources Limited, is registered
in the British Virgin Islands and has its regional office in Singapore.

It currently runs an onshore oil drilling operation in Myanmar.

The deal came after China National Petroleum Corp, the nation's top energy
company, was earlier this week awarded three hotly contested blocks also
located near blocks operated by Daewoo.

China has been considering building a pipeline across Myanmar to feed the
gas to its southwestern Yunnan province.

The regional giant is one of Myanmar's most important trading partners,
and has aggressively moved to tap the country's natural resources to feed
its own growing economy.

China, along with Russia, also shielded Myanmar from a US-backed
resolution at the UN Security Council last Friday, which would have
pressed the repressive military regime to make democratic reforms.

____________________________________

January 19, Kaladan News
India to begin border trade with Burma, Bhutan

India will begin border trade with Bhutan and Burma through Arunachal
Pradesh within a year, India ’s junior minister for Commerce Mr Jairam
Ramesh told PTI, India .

Bleting in Tawang district will be a trading point with Bhutan and
Pangsupass with Burma . The border trade centers will be developed on the
pattern of the centres opened in Moreh in Manipur recently, Mr Ramesh said
on January 16.

Bumla, also in Tawang district, and Gelling in Upper Siang district in
Arunachal would be the proposed centers for border trade with China , he
added.

Public sector energy undertakings would invest in Arunachal Pradesh over
the next five to seven years, which would harness the vast hydro-electric
potential and increase employment opportunities.

Mr Ramesh also laid the foundation stone for the proposed Bamboo
Technology Park in the Niglok industrial growth centre, 35 kilometers from
Pasighat on January 15.

The park, to be developed under the National Bamboo Mission, is to impart
training to people for commercial application of bamboo, which is
abundantly available in the Northeast.

Chief Minister Gegong Apang said development of infrastructure in the
state would lead to economic growth of not only the state but also of the
whole nation.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

January 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
More Rohingyas arrested in Thailand

Thirty seven more Rohingyas from Burma have been arrested on the coast of
Thailand, trying to enter the country illegally by boat.

The group, the latest in a significant stream of Rohingya arrivals in the
past two months, approached the coast off Kuraburi on midday Tuesday where
they were intercepted by Thailand’s coast guard. All are reported to be
from Maungdaw township in Burma’s western Arakan State.

Yutaka Sagara, from the Thai-based NGO Grassroots Human Rights Education,
which is providing medical supplies, food and clothing to the latest
Rohingya group, told DVB today the 37 men and women were being held in the
Phanga Immigration Detention Centre.

“They seem to be in pretty good condition (health wise) . . . It appears
that there is a broker involved and it seems that somebody has organised
the trip,” Sagara said.

“We didn’t see the boat but we heard it was small and that it had an extra
engine . . . Their journey took about five days.”

Staff at the Phanga Immigration Office refused to comment.

According to GHRE, the Rohingyas are among almost 2000 others who have
arrived in Thailand since November 2006 in small, cramped boats. Most have
been arrested by Thai authorities in the southern provinces before being
sent to Bangkok and then to Mae Sot.

Burma’s Muslim Rohingyas say they are a distinct ethnic group, which has
inhabited areas of Arakan state since the seventh century. But many
political groups do not accept their claims and believe the Rohingya are
the descendents of South Asian immigrants who arrived in the area much
later.

The Rohingya population inside Burma suffers severe mistreatment at the
hands of the Burmese military. Many are refused Burmese citizenship,
identification cards and marriage licenses and are prevented from
travelling to neighbouring areas.

Khaing Mrat Kyaw of the Arakan-focused Narinjara News said Rohingyas who
flee Burma for Bangladesh also face harsh conditions in refugee camps. He
said many Rohingyas were being forced out of Bangladesh since the security
situation in the country tightened due to political unrest.

“Everywhere are the police the media and the army. There are big
operations in Bangladesh in the border area. So Rohingya people are not
having much chance to stay in Bangladesh,” he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

January 19, Thai Press Reports
Commission allocates 15,5 million in humanitarian aid to vulnerable groups
in Myanmar/Burma and Burmese refugees

The European Commission has allocated 15.5 million in humanitarian aid for
vulnerable groups in Burma/Myanmar and to Burmese refugees along the
Myanmar-Thai border. The decision will help address some of the basic
humanitarian needs of around one million needy people in Myanmar. Aid will
be provided in the health, food aid, nutrition, and water and sanitation
sectors, as well as for the protection of certain threatened groups. It
will also  upport humanitarian assistance to over 150,000 Burmese refugees
along the Myanmar-Thai border who are almost entirely  dependent on
international aid. The funding is managed by the Commission's Humanitarian
Aid department (ECHO), under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis
Michel.

Louis Michel stressed that some regions of Burma/Myanmar are the scenarios
of silent humanitarian crises, with many groups living in extremely
vulnerable conditions. The Commission is firmly committed to providing
humanitarian support to this forgotten crisis.

The funding provided by the Commission through its Humanitarian Aid
department (ECHO), will support the following activities: Health: Basic
health care is almost non-existent in many remote areas of the country,
notably Northern Rakhine and Shan States. Therefore, the services that
will be provided by ECHO's humanitarian partner organisations will
constitute basic, but often life saving, support for people who have often
never seen a doctor in their lives. The   programmes implemented will
focus on early detection, followed by effective treatment with mobile
clinics to reach remote villages and those who do not have access to local
health facilities.

Food aid and nutrition: Emergency food assistance and livelihood support
will be provided in Eastern Shan State. In North Rakhine State, mobile
Supplementary Feeding Centre teams will provide treatment to malnourished
children, and pregnant and lactating women. For the children suffering
from acute malnutrition, Therapeutic Feeding Centres will offer treatment
and follow up treatment.

Water and sanitation: Water and sanitation programmes will be carried out
in remote areas of Shan, Mon and Kayin States as well as in Thanintharyi,
Magwe and Yangon Districts. These will be implemented through the
rehabilitation and   installation of basic infrastructure, and working
towards behavioural changes to reduce mortality and morbidity that are
caused by water-borne diseases.

Protection: The funding will help support the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) in ensuring that vulnerable groups are respected and
protected by the authorities and armed opposition groups in line with
international   humanitarian law. It will also continue to support UNHCR
protection-monitoring activities on the Myanmar-Bangladesh  border
(Northern Rakhine State) and on the Thai/Myanmar border.

Burma/Myanmar has been ruled by a military regime since 1962. An On-going
armed conflict between government forces and ethnic minority groups has
led to an influx of over 150,000 refugees into Thailand, and an estimated
500,000 internally displaced people. The humanitarian aid provided by ECHO
goes impartially to those who need it most, irrespective of their
nationality, ethnic origin, gender or religion.

Inside Burma/Myanmar the health situation is particularly worrying, with
an under-five child mortality rate of 108 per 1000 live births, the triple
of neighbouring Thailand. The main causes of premature death are malaria,
HIV/AIDS, acute respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases. Water and
sanitation problems are also of particular concern:  water-borne illnesses
account for 50% of morbidity among young children, and, according to
UNICEF, diarrhoea is the second most common cause of mortality among
children under five.

Since 1992 the European Commission has provided over 106 million in
humanitarian assistance inside Myanmar and along   the Myanmar-Thai
border.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

January 18, Business Day
South Africa: Whose side is SA on, anyway? - Jonathan Katzenellenbogen

Johannesburg: Last week, in its maiden vote on the United Nations (UN)
Security Council, SA came out against a resolution calling on the military
government in Burma to ease repression. Voting this way, SA emerged
looking comfortable with one of the world's most brutal military regimes.
It broke ranks with other African nations represented on the council and
seemed to put its apparent disdain for US foreign policy before
considerations of human rights. In casting this vote, SA was the only
country to side with China and Russia, who prevented passage with a joint
veto under the pretence that it was not a matter that should come before
the council.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad insisted yesterday that SA was "deeply
concerned" about human rights in Burma, but wanted to send a message that
the resolution "did not fit" with the mandate of the UN Security Council,
but was a matter for the UN Human Rights Commission.

SA's judgment was at odds with most of the countries on the council. After
all, gross violations of human rights are ultimately threats to
international peace and security, with armed resistance and refugees often
the consequences. Would the African National Congress in exile have made
the same argument about a resolution on apartheid SA?

Voting for the resolution were the US -- the country that proposed the
resolution -- and the other permanent members of the council, France and
the UK, as well as nonpermanent members Belgium, Ghana, Italy, Panama,
Peru and Slovakia. The Republic of Congo, Qatar and Indonesia abstained.

What stands out about the voting line-up is that Africa was split three
ways, with Ghana voting for the resolution to condemn Burma, Congo
abstaining and SA against.

What SA's vote screams out is an apparent hostility to anything that may
be perceived as intervention in the internal affairs of other countries
and against any criticism of countries for rights abuses -- which is the
Chinese and Russian position.

The justification for SA's vote was somewhat lame. SA's ambassador to the
UN, Dumisani Khumalo, said the resolution would "compromise the good
offices of the (UN) secretary-general".

It took years for such a resolution to be proposed and it is likely that
UN staff involved with Burma did not think it would compromise their
efforts.
Passage of the resolution would have shown a unified seriousness of
purpose by the international community on Burma.

Khumalo also argued that this was not "a proper subject of a security
council resolution". He said that at its summit, the Association of South
East Asian Nations (Asean) had not called Burma a threat. Yet there was a
tough message from the body, insisting that Burma speed up reform. The
only Asean member on the council, Indonesia, differed with SA by
abstaining on the resolution. Through an abstention, the message of deep
concern over the situation would have been conveyed.

The Burma resolution did not call for any punitive measures, such as
sanctions, but for the military, which has ruled the country for 40 years,
to end rights abuses and release all political prisoners. The elections in
1990 were won by

Aung San Suu Kyi's party but the military disregarded the results and she
remains under house arrest.

An independent report commissioned by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former
Czech president Vaclav Havel found Burma's military rulers to be a threat
to peace.

Yvette Mahon, director of the Burma Campaign in the UK, which aims to
bring about change and democratic government in Burma, said that the vote
had not been simply about Burma, but had been about "China and Russia
wanting to give the US a slap in the face".

The stance of China and Russia on nonintervention clearly helps protect
them from possible resolutions on human rights and international
embarrassment.
But why did SA side with these countries?

The best reason may be that, like Russia and China, SA wants to stand up
against the US in a push for a multipolar world.

It is unlikely that SA will be bound by any pressures for consistency on
nonintervention. Wait for another resolution -- perhaps one condemning
Israel for its "apartheid" wall and the suffering it causes Palestinians.

It hardly matters that the Burma resolution did not pass, as it was
expected that either China or Russia would exercise their vetoes. What
matters is that most countries on the council voted for the resolution. It
is almost as though the

US, which proposed the resolution, called the bluff of SA, Russia and China.

The real reasons behind the UN's ineffectiveness in preventing horrors are
delays, and votes against greater intervention -- as in Darfur, as in
Burma, and as in Rwanda.

Did SA make the UN more responsive and effective through its vote? The
answer is no.

Through its vote, SA is on course to earn a reputation among human rights
groups as a "friend of torture" that refuses to criticise others for
rights abuses.

The real tragedy is that -- as Tutu has said -- the vote is so
"inconsistent with our history".

Katzenellenbogen is international affairs editor.