BurmaNet News, February 6, 2007

[Editor]

February 6, 2007 Issue # 3136


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Ten detained in alleged Kachin assassination plot
Mizzima: KIA denies masterminding assassination plot
Irrawaddy: Censorship board allows critical article in Rangoon journal
AFP: Myanmar PM warns judges against corruption
DVB: Burmese stars forced to give back land

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Karen journalists face threats, intimidation over KNU crisis
reports

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Myanmar stresses sustaining of leprosy control activities

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Over 10,000 motor vehicles converted into CNG-run in previous
Myanmar capital

REGIONAL
South China Morning Post: India's weapons for junta to fight Assam rebels
sow fear in Myanmar

ASEAN
VOA: Analysts: ASEAN unlikely to change to EU model in near future

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: First joint commitment by 58 countries to end use of child soldiers

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Let Thaksin talk - We no longer have to listen
Mail & Guardian: Look Aung San Suu Kyi in the eye

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 6, Irrawaddy
Ten detained in alleged Kachin assassination plot - Khun Sam

A newly-formed opposition splinter group in Kachin State has detained 10
of its members on suspicion of involvement in a plot to assassinate their
leader, Col Lasang Awng Wa.

Lasang Awng Wa, former military intelligence chief of the Kachin
Independence Organization, led a split from the KIO after he was accused
of planning a coup at KIO headquarters in early January 2004. His unnamed
splinter group of about 400 soldiers is based in the area of Gwi Htu Pa,
near the Kachin capital of Myitkyina, east of the Irrawaddy River.

According to sources close to the group, the alleged assassination plot
was discovered when one unnamed soldier told Lasang Awng Wa’s family about
it on Saturday.

The suspected plot was allegedly led by N’Hkai Gam Hpang, a high-ranking
military intelligence officer in Lasang Awng Wa’s splinter group, who
escaped detention and fled, along with six other suspects. The 10 detained
suspects were described as low-profile members of the group.

In a raid resulting in the detention of the 10 suspects, group members
seized seven mobile phones, firearms and an identity card.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy by phone from Laiza, near the China-Burma
border, KIO spokesman Col Sumlut Gun Maw denied any KIO involvement in the
raid and arrests. “This would be a complicated story within their own
group,” he said.  “There is no way the KIO would do this sort of thing.”

Nearly three years ago, on February 24, 2004, the vice chief of staff of
the Kachin Independence Army, Col Lazing Bawk, was assassinated by a bomb
at his home in Laiza. No arrests have yet been made in connection with his
death.

____________________________________

February 6, Mizzima News
KIA denies masterminding assassination plot - Ko Dee

The Kachin Independence Army has rubbished reports of masterminding an
unsuccessful assassination attempt on a former member turned rival, Lasang
Awng Wa.

Gam Hpang, the intelligence chief of KIA and a former trusted lieutenant
of Lasang Aung Wa, led the alleged assassination attempt in Lawa Yang
village, 20 miles east of Myitkyina in Kachin State on February 3.

Ten men carrying six guns and seven walkie-talkie sets were arrested while
Gam Hpang and five others made their escape. The arrest was made by the
Lasang Awng Wa group.

The Kachin News Group quoted the detainees and reported that Gam Hpang
spent over Kyat 10 million for the killer mission and gave Kyat 600,000
each to his followers to eliminate Lasang Awng Wa, who was KIA's earlier
intelligence chief.

It is widely believed that Gam Hpang was persuaded by the Kachin
Independence Army to kill Lasang Awng Wa because he was a personal
assistant of Vice Chief of Staff Col Lazing Bawk. Lazing Bawk was killed
in a bomb explosion in a bathroom of his house in Laiza February 2004.
There was speculation that Lasang Awng Wa may have been involved in his
assassination because he had allegadely attempted a coup in the KIA just a
month earlier.

"We don't have any doubts about Lasang Awng Wa and there will be no more
investigation against him. Though we had a problem (with him) in 2004 but
that was resolved later. We had a face-to-face discussion with him. We
don't have any plans to do something to him. It is a closed chapter," said
Guan Maw, spokesperson of the Kachin Independence Organization. KIA is the
armed wing of the KIO which signed a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese
military junta in 1994.

Nawdin, the editor of KNG said "I think it would have to be the KIA
because the weapons did not belong to Lasang Awng Wa's group although
assassins are members of Lasang Awng Wa. Moreover, it cannot be only Gam
Hpang's doing. This, according to the information we have".

____________________________________

February 6, Irrawaddy
Censorship board allows critical article in Rangoon journal

A Rangoon-based journal has openly criticized official censorship
regulations, a significant break with the normal reluctance of the junta’s
Press Scrutiny and Registration Board to allow publication of articles
critical of government policy.

The criticism appeared in the current issue of the weekly Burmese-language
journal The Voice, which said that although literary freedom can be
increasingly enjoyed, restrictions on news stories are still being
imposed. The Q&A style article appeared in the journal’s Perspective
section on Monday.

The article, headed A discussion between ‘Street-Smart and Editor,’ said
that censorship of news reporting had become stricter since the military
government imposed new regulations in September 2004.

Under the new regulations, publications and their reporters require
agreement or permission from responsible organizations, including the
government’s ministries or departments and business companies. The Voice
said that without this permission, no one can publish news stories.

The article in The Voice also said that in the past, the censorship board
categorized only two types of news reporting: news affecting the country’s
peace and stability, and news that doesn’t. This is interpreted as meaning
that news that doesn’t affect peace and stability can be reported. The
requirement for prior permission to be obtained had made it more difficult
for reporters to work, said The Voice.

Media sources in Rangoon said that publication of the critical article was
allowed only after it was vetted by the censorship board.

____________________________________

February 6, Agence France Presse
Myanmar PM warns judges against corruption

Myanmar's prime minister has issued a warning to the nation's judges
against corruption, amid a crack-down on graft that has already gutted the
customs department, state media said Tuesday.

"There are complaints about weakness and failure and corruption of judges
and law officers regarding the administration of justice," Prime Minister
Soe Win said in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

"Doing any bad deeds must be avoided," he told a meeting of judges and law
officers in Myanmar's administrative capital Naypyidaw.

"Deterrent punishment must be given to those who commit crimes that harm
the state and the people," he said, according to the paper.

The warning came as Myanmar's military government has been purging the
customs department, with 500 people sacked and held in prison since
November. Most have been released, but about 100 remain in prison awaiting
trial.

The former head of the department has already been sentenced to 66 years
in prison on graft charges.

Myanmar is rated as one of the world's most graft-ridden countries by
watchdog Transparency International, along with Haiti, Iraq and Guinea.

____________________________________

February 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese stars forced to give back land

The Burmese government has started seizing plots of land in New Dagon
township that were given to members of the entertainment industry in
exchange for participating in propaganda projects.

According to sources among Burma’s film and arts elite, the confiscation
of the plots of land belonging to several high-profile artists came after
the chairman of the film association refused to denounce the US-led effort
to have a United Nations Security Council resolution passed on Burma.

“What we heard initially was that the film association chairman’s refusal
to sign and the confiscation of the land coincided with each other. That
is what people are saying,” a movie director said on condition of
anonymity.

The plots of low-value land were reportedly dished out to members of the
film, music and entertainment associations ten years ago. But the
state-run New Light of Myanmar said last month the land had been
designated for government projects.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 6, Irrawaddy
Karen journalists face threats, intimidation over KNU crisis reports -
Shah Paung

Media groups based along the Thai-Burmese border claim that threats
against them have hindered their ability to cover news about conflicts
among leaders of the Karen National Union.

Reporters with the Mae Sot-based Karen Information Center and an
international broadcaster with the BBC Burmese Service say they have
received threats after publishing news reports on the growing strife
within the ethnic political opposition group.

One international BBC broadcaster who requested anonymity said that Pastor
Timothy, the leader of a break-away faction of the KNU conducting talks
with the Burmese junta, threatened his life over the telephone after a
news report in June 2005. The BBC has since filed its coverage of the
Burmese border from London instead of from local staffers.

A reporter with the KIC, who wished to remain unnamed for security
reasons, said that the group’s office in Mae Sot received threatening
letters following its coverage of the KNU in recent months.

According to the reporter, the group has received two threats since August
of last year after the KIC published a letter that criticized KNU leaders
such as Col Ner Dah Mya, the son of the late Gen Bo Mya, Pastor Timothy
and others.

The threats were conveyed first through a letter left at a shop near the
KIC office and later in person by an unknown individual. The reporter
declined to provide details of the person’s identity.

The KIC was accused by anonymous individuals of encouraging disunity
within the KNU and threatened that, as they were soldiers, they could
easily shoot the reporters.

“We know that we always have to be careful about our reporting of the news
(about the KNU conflicts) and have to be careful when we go out, as we
don’t know when or where we could face problems,” the reporter said.

Who is responsible for the threats and the extent of intimidation of local
journalists remains unconfirmed, but some speculate that the threats may
have come from within KNU, its military wing, the Karen National
Liberation Army, or a new break-away faction called the KNU/KNLA Peace
Council.

Sources in Bangkok and Mae Sot say that reporters in the area are now
handling recent news about the KNU cautiously. They cite the absence of
stories on the BBC and the Democratic Voice of Burma about Bo Mya’s wife
denying the KNU vice chairperson a role on the newly created break-away
Peace Council as an indication of how the threats have led to
self-censorship among border-based media groups.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

February 6, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar stresses sustaining of leprosy control activities

The Myanmar health authorities have stressed the need to sustain leprosy
control activities in the light of continued declination of prevalence
rate of the disease in the country, an official newspaper reported
Tuesday.

The prevalence rate of leprosy in Myanmar continued to drop to 0.47
patient per 10,000 population at the end of 2006, the New Light of Myanmar
reported, quoting the Ministry of Health.

The call for sustaining the disease control activities came four years
after Myanmar reached its leprosy elimination goal in January 2003, two
years ahead of the global target set for 2005.

The ministry attributed the achievement to the application of the outcome
and result of research and study conducted in cooperation with the
Netherlands Leprosy Relief and International Medical Center of Japan for
more practical and scientific implementation of the control activities,
the report said.

The prevalent rate has declined from 0.6 per 10,000 population in 2003, to
2.9 percent in 1997, 53.4 percent in 1987 and 86.2 percent in 1977,
according to official figures.

The drop was also attributed to decades' efforts in leprosy eradication,
especially to some measures taken by the government after the Third
Meeting of Global Alliance for Elimination of Leprosy in 2003, at-tended
by ministers of the World Health Organization (WHO) member countries.

Myanmar has implemented anti-leprosy campaign since 1952, introducing
Multi Drug Therapy (MDT) in 1986 for treatment recommended by the WHO and
paving way for the eradication of leprosy with integrated services
expanding to more areas in the country.

Myanmar was once regarded as one of the countries where leprosy prevalence
was traditionally high.

Despite being free from leprosy, the health authorities outlined future
activities for the disease control including sustainability of current
leprosy elimination status, rehabilitation programs for persons affected
by leprosy, as well as monitoring for missed patients who remained out of
cover by the activities in areas inaccessible or hidden out of social
stigma and fear.

Official figures also showed that over 260,000 cases were treated and
cured between 1988 and 2005, indicating there will be no more transmission
from these people. However, disability due to nerve destruction in leprosy
tolls 30 to 35 percent of persons affected by leprosy, the statistics
revealed.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 6, Xinhua General News Service
Over 10,000 motor vehicles converted into CNG-run in previous Myanmar capital

A total of 10,900 petrol- or diesel- run motor vehicles have been
converted into compressed-natural-gas (CNG)-operated ones in the previous
Myanmar capital of Yangon as part of the country's efforts to save fuel
and reduce import of crude oil, a local weekly reported Tuesday.

Of the converted motor vehicles, passengers buses accounted for the
majority with 5,274, followed by school buses with 1,099 and taxis with
2,902. Others went to trucks, departmental cars and private ones, said the
Weekly Eleven News.

As the existing 20 CNG filling stations cannot meet the  increased number
of CNG-converted vehicles, long queues of cars  awaiting for gas filling
have created shortage of cars running on the roads with passengers
outnumbering the buses  thus causing  delay in transport, said passengers
relying on buses for their  work attendance.

The authorities are striving to introduce another 20 CNG filling stations
during this year to facilitate gas filling, the report said.

Myanmar has worked to ultimately change all motor vehicles in the country
to CNG-operated ones starting from bus and truck down to private-owned
saloon car under a plan to modify all vehicles gradually in the country in
terms of fuel operation.

To facilitate the conversion, Myanmar has allowed some dozen private
industries to carry out the undertakings on buses, trucks, taxis and
saloons in addition to the Ministry of Energy and some banks have also
been designated to loan for the change since over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is encouraging import of CNG-run cars rather than
petrol- or diesel-consumed ones.

Myanmar began the move amid sustained rise of crude oil prices in the
world and the plan was introduced due partly to the abundance of natural
gas in the country.

Myanmar has been using natural gas limitedly to run cars safely after
tests on CNG were carried out in 1986. Such gas brings benefits of saving
of fuel, effective use of locally produced gas, prevention of air
pollution, speedy flow of passengers and commodities and catching up with
modern technology.

With a total of over 980,000 motor vehicles moving in the country now, of
which over half are motor-cycles, Myanmar's petrol consumption has at
least doubled in the past decade as registered, consuming about 100
million gallons (420,000 tons) of petrol and about 340 million gallons
(1.4 million tons) of diesel annually in most recent years.

Although Myanmar produced about 6 million barrels (798,000 tons) of crude
oil annually at home, yet it could not meet the demand and had to import
about 130 million US dollars' worth of the oil per year.

With three main large offshore oil and gas fields and  19  onshore ones,
Myanmar has proven recoverable reserve of 18.012  trillion cubic-feet
(TCF) or 510 billion cubic-meters (BCM) out of 89.722 TCF or 2.54 trillion
cubic-meters (TCM)'s estimated reserve of offshore and onshore gas,
experts said.

The country is also estimated to have 3.2 billion barrels of recoverable
crude oil reserve, official statistics indicate.

The Myanmar figures also show that in the fiscal year 2005-06, the country
produced 7.962 million barrels of crude oil and 11.45 BCM of gas. Gas
export during the year went to 9.138 BCM, earning over 1 billion US
dollars.

Available statistics reveal that foreign investment in Myanmar' s oil and
gas sector had reached 2.635 billion dollars as of May  2006, since the
country opened to foreign investment in late 1988, dominating the
country's foreign investment sectorally.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 6, South China Morning Post
India's weapons for junta to fight Assam rebels sow fear in Myanmar -
Shaikh Azizur Rahman

New Delhi is supplying arms in a fight against rebels on its border - a
move analysts say is intended to counter China's expanding influence.

As India steps up its supply of military aid to Myanmar, pro-democracy
activists fear the hardline junta will use the equipment to suppress
opposition and slow the process of democratisation in the military-ruled
nation.

Although New Delhi says the Indian arms are meant for use by the Myanmese
army only against the northeast Indian rebels who have bases in jungles on
Myanmar's side of the border, Myanmese democracy activists say ethnic
minorities and pro-democracy activists will be the targets. But according
to analysts, the co-operation goes beyond targeting insurgents. India is
courting Myanmar to counter China's expanding influence in the region.

On a visit to India in December, General Thura Shwe Mann, the
third-highest ranking member of the junta, asked New Delhi for a range of
military equipment. Last week, India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee,
told the junta's vice-chairman, General Maung Aye, that a "favourable
response" would be granted.

Although no specifics about the arms were disclosed, media reports said
Myanmar sought field guns, helicopters, submarines, mortars,
submarine-detecting sonar equipment, surveillance aircraft, and spares for
MiG fighter planes.

India had already been supplying Myanmar with a host of military hardware
including field guns and howitzers, Indian army vice-chief
Lieutenant-General S. Pattabhiraman revealed in October. And the Indian
navy last year gave Myanmar two BN-2 "Defender" Islander maritime
surveillance aircraft, deck-based air-defence guns and surveillance
equipment.

Myanmese democracy activists say that India started supplying arms to
Myanmar in 2003, with 139 truckloads of apparent military consignments
entering the country through the northeast Indian border town of Moreh.

While the US and European Union are seeking to isolate the junta through
an arms embargo and wider sanctions, India has taken the opposite tack in
the hope of getting Myanmar's rulers to crack down on north-east
insurgents, especially in oil- and tea-rich Assam.

For years about a dozen Indian secessionist rebel groups have maintained
bases in Myanmar's jungles. Last month, one such group, the United
Liberation Front of Assam, killed 70 migrant labourers from Bihar in a
campaign against non-Assamese people in Assam.

"Our crackdown on the groups was never successful in the past - every time
the guerillas fled across the border. It is impossible to crush these
secessionist forces unless we take Myanmar's help and target them inside
the forest there [in Myanmar]," Mr Mukherjee said on his return.

"A joint operation is not workable in this situation. So we have decided
to offer Myanmar whatever help is required - including arms supplies and
development of infrastructure - in taking action against the insurgents.
And the authorities there have promised full co-operation [in tackling the
insurgents]."

Shrugging off questions about the "denial of democracy" in Myanmar, the
minister said that it was that country's "internal matter".

But longtime Myanmar-watchers doubt that India's plan to get the junta to
crack down on Indian insurgents will work.

"In 1995, Myanmar took part in India's Operation Golden Bird, promising to
flush out the Indian insurgents from Myanmar's territory. But most of the
insurgents still roam freely in western Myanmar. Some of them are
sometimes arrested by the Myanmese authorities, only to be released a few
days later," said Soe Minn, a Delhi-based Myanmese journalist.

In the remote northwest of Myanmar, many army commanders enjoy free rein.
Former rebel sources say many local army commanders regularly get a cut
from the Indian insurgents who moonlight as smugglers.

Neneo Haokip, a former rebel of Manipur's Kuki National Army that has a
guerilla training base in Myanmar, said: "The insurgents who fund
themselves by smuggling arms and narcotics are in fact sheltered by
corrupt military officers, and these rogue army commanders would never
want the anti-India rebels to be driven away from the Burmese territory."

A Manipur-based Myanmese pro-democracy activist, who did not want to be
named, said: "Burmese commandos stormed our offices last year in Manipur
in the company of Manipuri rebels. Last year, during a gunfight, the
Indian army found Manipuri rebels were using Burmese ammunition, which is
used only by the army there.

"There are hundreds of instances of intimacy between anti-India insurgents
and Burmese military officers. We strongly believe the Indian arms and
ammunitions are going to be used to crush ethnic minorities, like the
Karens, and pro-democracy activists."

India is also helping to build military and civil infrastructure projects
in Myanmar. Analysts believe India has been courting Myanmar to counter
China's expanding influence in the region, and not merely to target the
insurgents.

After the military crackdown on Myanmar's pro-democracy movement in 1988,
India became a vocal supporter of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But
in 1993, India performed a U-turn, becoming equivocal in its support of Ms
Suu Kyi and her movement. It began mending fences with the generals and
sought better economic and military ties.

New Delhi-based security expert Rahul Bedi said: "China is modernising at
least six naval bases in Myanmar. The Indian navy fears this could support
Chinese submarine operations in the region as part of Beijing's 'string of
pearls' strategy of clinching regional defence and security agreements to
secure its mounting fuel requirements and enhance its military profile in
the Indian Ocean region."

Beijing has also reportedly established an intelligence facility on
Myanmar's Coco islands, only 30km from India's Andaman Islands territory.
Some security analysts believe China is trying to secure a military
corridor to the Indian Ocean from the South China Sea, via Myanmar.

"China has raised the naval facilities to back up the option of
containment should India's rivalry become intolerable to the Chinese,"
said Graham Lees, a Bangkok-based Myanmar observer.

But India faces an uphill task in neutralising China's influence in
Myanmar. "Circumstances have forced India into a competition of influence
in Myanmar now. But in the race of military and economic influence in
Myanmar, China is decades ahead of India," Indian analyst Shyamal Sarkar
said.

Pro-democracy activists also argue it is not in the junta's interests to
either act against the anti-India rebels or distance itself from China.

"With Myanmar forcing India and China into a regional cold war and both
powerful neighbours striving hard to keep the military regime pleased,
hopes of democratisation of Myanmar are getting grimmer," said Tint Swe of
Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

_____________________________________
ASEAN

February 6, VOA News
Analysts: ASEAN unlikely to change to EU model in near future - Claudia Blume

Many leaders in Asia see a European model of integration as the way
forward for Southeast Asia. But while the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations has taken steps toward greater regional economic integration,
experts doubt whether the organization will be able to follow the European
Union's example any time soon.

Forty years after the founding of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, there is a growing acknowledgment that the organization needs to
reinvent itself to remain relevant. Many believe that the way to go for
ASEAN is to push for European Union-like integration.

Benito Lim is a political scientist at Ateneo de Manila University in the
Philippines. He says ASEAN's goal is to become a unified market similar to
the EU.

"That is the eventual aspiration of all member nations, that once we are
integrated we will be able to act as a bloc, especially for negotiating
with other countries on the selling of our products, on tariffs and all
other issues pertaining to economic and trade relations," said Lim.

At last month's ASEAN summit in the Philippine city of Cebu, the
organization moved a step closer toward regional integration. Leaders of
the 10 member countries agreed to create a free-trade zone by 2015. They
approved a blueprint for the group's first charter, which would make ASEAN
a more legally defined organization and allow it to impose sanctions on
members who do not follow its rules. Currently, ASEAN resolutions are not
binding on the members.

But there are many stumbling blocks that make it difficult for ASEAN to
integrate as fully as the EU.

Masahiro Kawai is dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo.
He says the disparities among ASEAN member countries are enormous - unlike
the European Union.

"The development gaps among countries are huge - Singapore versus Laos or
Cambodia," he said. "The income disparities are huge, institutional
differences are big, of course political regimes are different across
countries, whereas in the case of Europe even 50 years ago there was a lot
of homogeneity among core countries in Europe."

While the average per capita gross domestic product in Singapore, one of
the richest countries in the world, was more than $26,000 last year, the
per capita GDP in Burma, the poorest ASEAN member, was less than $200.
Laos and Cambodia are not far above Burma.

Malcolm Cook, program director of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney
international policy institute, says another major problem in Southeast
Asia that makes integration difficult is that the region's economies
compete against each other. Most have similar exports, such as textiles
and natural resources, which are exported to similar markets.

"Almost all the economies of Southeast Asia minus Singapore are competing
economies," said Cook. "They are not particularly complimentary, which is
different than Europe, especially when Spain, Greece and Portugal joined.
So the economies don't trade much amongst each other and compete against
each other on world markets - that makes integration both less beneficial
and more difficult to achieve."

Lack of economic freedom is another weakness of several ASEAN member
countries. This year's "Index of Economic Freedom" - released by the U.S.
policy research center the Heritage Foundation in January - ranked
Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam as "mostly unfree"
economies.

Vietnam, for example, was only placed 138 on an index of 157 countries
surveyed for their level of economic freedom because of the government's
tight controls of most assets and the financial sector. Laos and Burma's
economies ranked as "repressed".

Development in the region is hampered by widespread corruption, which
scares away investors and can restrict economic growth. According to a
2006 Index released by the corruption watchdog Transparency International,
six of the 10 ASEAN countries were among the 50 most corrupt countries in
the world: Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia and Burma.

Political integration in the region is made difficult by the large
differences among government systems, ranging from multi-party democracies
such as Indonesia to communist regimes in Vietnam and Laos. Benito Lim
says because of this, the proposed introduction of majority voting,
replacing ASEAN's customary decision-making by consensus, is a thorny
issue.

"It is controversial because one of the principles they are committed to
would be commitment to democracy, human rights - and you know most of the
ASEAN states are not real democracies so that would be a big problem,"
added Lim.

Traditionally, ASEAN members have stuck to the principle of not
intervening in their neighbors' affairs. The organization has been accused
of not taking a strong enough stance against human rights abuses,
particularly by Burma.

Masahiro Kawai says, however, that the grouping has started to become more
vocal.

"They had [an] implicit agreement not to interfere with each others'
domestic affairs. But in order to make further progress for integration of
course you have to talk about countries' businesses economic issues, and
to some extent political issues," said Kawai. "So things are moving in the
right direction."

Kawai thinks that to strengthen integration, considerable economic,
institutional and political convergence has to take place, and that will
take time.

Kawai and other experts say that the introduction of a single Asian
currency, similar to the euro, is even further away on the horizon.

Talk about an Asian currency unit, aimed at bolstering monetary stability,
spurring economic growth and evening out disparities, has gone on for
years. It particularly gained momentum during the Asian financial crisis
in the late 1990's. But ASEAN has pushed the topic off the table for now.
Malcolm Cook says the organization is focusing first on less ambitious
goals such as Asian bond markets and on encouraging countries in the
region to borrow regional currencies instead of relying on dollar loans.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 6, Agence France Presse
First joint commitment by 58 countries to end use of child soldiers -
Carole Landry

Fifty-eight countries agreed on Tuesday to take action to protect children
from being recruited as soldiers in wars, joining for the first time an
effort that had been largely confined to NGOs.

The 58 countries that signed up to the so-called Paris commitments at the
end of a two-day conference included 10 of the 12 nations where an
estimated 250,000 children bear arms.

"We commit ourselves to spare no effort to end the unlawful recruitment
and use of children by armed forces or groups in all regions of the
world," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said at the end of
the gathering held in Paris.

The document put the onus on governments to prosecute recruiters or
commanders of child soldiers and to seek the unconditional release of all
children enrolled in armies or armed groups.

Ten years after childrens' rights campaigner Graca Machel unveiled the
Cape Town principles that would guide non-governmental organisations, the
Paris commitments were hailed as a key step that would inject new momentum
to international efforts to end the use of children in combat.

"For the first time countries are solemnly committing to apply and respect
these principles to combat the recruitment and use of children in armed
conflicts," a foreign ministry official said.

Among the signatories were Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Ivory Coast, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Nepal, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Uganda,
which are on a UN black list of countries that recruit child soldiers.

Two others on the UN list -- Myanmar and the Philippines -- did not take
part in the conference, which was organised by the UN children's agency
UNICEF and the French foreign ministry.

UNICEF and French officials stressed that the list of countries adhering
to the Paris commitments was not final, hoping to build on the effort
launched during the conference.

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers fighting in 12 countries
worldwide, mainly in Africa and Asia, according to the United Nations.

The Paris commitments singled out the plight of girls often abducted to
work as domestic slaves for fighting forces and who are vulnerable to
rape.

The document urged governments to grant them special attention to ensure
that girls are no longer "in-visible in programming and diplomatic
initiatives" to protect children from the frontlines.

It also placed responsibility on governments to take action against rebel
groups on their territory who recruit or use children under the age of 18
in hostilities.

The conference opened on Monday with an appeal from a former child soldier
from Sierra Leone for concrete action to end the nightmare of tens of
thousands of children who have been forced into combat worldwide.

"There are no excuses. If you don't do it with these children now, you are
going to have bigger problems later on," said Ishmael Beah, now 26.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

February 6, Irrawaddy
Let Thaksin talk - We no longer have to listen - Thepchai Yong

Should we jump every time Thaksin Shinawatra gives an interview? Is the
political maneuvering of the former prime minister consuming too much of
our energy?

It's probably about time that we deny Thaksin the fun that he has been
having with all the attention given to his global criss-crossing and
interviews. After all, what is so enlightening or earth-shaking about all
the things he has said to the international media anyway?

The fact that Thaksin has been featured on the cover of the Asian edition
of Time magazine and in an interview on CNN (by the way, both belong to
the Time Warner group) does not in any way mean that the former leader has
suddenly become a darling of the international media, much less a signal
that he is on the verge of a political comeback as his opponents may fear.

And the generals in the Council for National Security (CNS) should stop
fooling themselves or the media here that there is a conspiracy out there
to keep Thaksin in the spotlight. The international media talk to Thaksin
simply because he is still an interesting interview subject. The Thai
media would have wanted to sit down and talk to him too, had they been
given a chance.

But Thaksin somehow finds the international media easier to manipulate.
Being a journalist with Time or CNN doesn't mean being able to pose better
questions than Thai reporters could. If those journalists didn't ask
probing questions or chose to skirt around issues crucial to Thais, it was
either because they have to cater to an international audience or simply
because they are ignorant.

And because Thaksin has an international forum doesn't mean that he can
count on it to cast himself in a better light. Don't forget that Thaksin
was not the only deposed political strongman in the region to be featured
on the cover of Time. Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Suharto of
Indonesia made the cover long before him, after they too were chased out
of power. So there is no special treatment being given to Thaksin, as some
in the CNS suspect.

What has irked the CNS generals and the Surayud government has more to do
with what Thaksin said than the fact that he was being given prominent
coverage. But it would be foolish to expect Thaksin to suddenly turn over
a new leaf and start being nice to the generals who overthrew him and the
new government led by someone whom he had seen as a potential threat to
his political longevity all along.

The best way to deal with Thaksin is to stop worrying about what he has to
say. The American lobbying firm that he hired may be able to get some of
the international media interested in him for a while. But it's only a
matter of time before Thaksin fades from media attention. After all, he is
nowhere near being a political icon or a deposed leader known for taking a
stand on democratic principles, which would have kept the media interested
in his every move.

General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the CNS chairman and leader of the September
19 coup, couldn't hide his paranoia when he confided to the Thai media
that he suspected Thaksin's interview with CNN two weeks ago was part of
the conspiracy he has orchestrated against the junta. But just because he
was asked some sensitive questions doesn't mean that his interviewer had a
hidden agenda.

The generals should learn to educate themselves on how the international
media work so that they will not have to cry out every time they read or
hear Thaksin's comments. The only way they can silence Thaksin or render
his arguments irrelevant is to make sure that the investigations into the
former leader's misdeeds produce results as soon as possible.

Thaksin may have all the money in the world to pay for an American
lobbying firm to make noises on his behalf, but his wealth cannot change
the fact that he is politically finished and his chances of a comeback are
almost nil.

That Thaksin is extending an invitation to the Thai media to interview him
after having ignored them for months is only a sign that he is becoming
desperate. And he knows too well that all the publicity he has been
creating outside Thailand is not helping him in any way here.

Thepchai Yong is Group Editor of Bangkok’s English-language daily
newspaper The Nation. This commentary is reproduced here with permission.

_____________________________________

February 4, Mail & Guardian
Look Aung San Suu Kyi in the eye - Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams

On January 5 of this year, 13 Nobel Peace Prize laureates in eight
countries attempted to apply for visas to visit our sister laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi in Burma, where she remains under house arrest -- this time
since May of 2003. When we arrived at the Burmese consulate in Washington
DC, the open gate was immediately closed and locked. After we rang the
embassy’s front doorbell, we were told to leave or the police would be
called. Meanwhile, in South Korea, Nobel laureate and former President Kim
Dae Jung was rejected immediately.

This political action, called for by the Nobel Women’s Initiative,
coincided with movement on Burma in the United Nations Security Council,
and we hoped it might add fuel to the discussion. After years of work by
supporters of democracy in Burma, the Security Council was finally taking
up the issue with a resolution that would have pressed the military
government to speed up democratic reforms in the country. With unusual
speed, on January 12, just one week after our visa action, the UN Security
Council rejected the resolution with a vote of 9-3 and three abstentions.
Our colleagues inside Burma report that since this vote the regime is
jubilant, broadcasting it in the country on state-run channels continually
as international vindication of their rule and policies.

It was not surprising that the resolution failed, given the consistent
resistance of members of the Security Council to take up the issue. What
was appalling was that South Africa joined China and Russia in voting
against the resolution, with all three arguing that Burma’s internal
problems did not fall within the Security Council’s mandate. The council
is only to take up issues that are a threat to international peace and
security.

What has happened to South Africa’s moral compass? When the people of
South Africa were suffering under the apartheid regime, those who rule the
country today were only too happy to have the Security Council pass a
resolution condemning apartheid. Why was the domestic apartheid government
of South Africa more worthy of Security Council action than the Burmese
military government, in Pretoria’s estimation? Why, for that matter, has
South Africa also consistently voted against or abstained from other
Burma-related resolutions in the General Assembly?

The Burmese military has destroyed almost 3 000 villages over the past 10
years, resulting in a million refugees and an additional 600 000
internally displaced. Forced labour, systematic rape, child soldiers and
human mine sweepers are also features of the mili­tary government, which
is also one of only two governments that regularly uses landmines and
still produces them. The military regime might be a domestic nightmare,
but its policies most definitely have a destabilising effect far beyond
its borders.

In February 2003, Jody Williams and Elizabeth Bernstein, now director of
the Nobel Women’s Initiative, obtained a Burmese visa and met there with
Suu Kyi. The message she asked us to give to the world was clear and
unambiguous: Please isolate the military regime to help force it to begin
meaningful dialogue and a transition to democracy -- which it had stolen
from her and her National League for Democracy when they won 80% of the
vote in democratic elections in 1990. For those who might doubt the
efficacy of isolation, she gave the example of South Africa.

Suu Kyi asked the international community to remember that it was
international isolation and near-universal condemnation that helped bring
down the apartheid government. She asked for the same support for the
people of Burma. She also said that a democratic Burma would have a lot to
learn from the experience of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission.

When Suu Kyi and her people are finally free, we cannot help but wonder
how members of the South African government will be able to look them in
the eye and explain their vote against the call for democracy in Burma. If
the government of South Africa does not have the moral courage to stand up
for the Burmese, then the people of South Africa should follow the example
of their own Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has worked
tirelessly on behalf of Suu Kyi and the people of Burma, and force their
government to change its indefensible position.

Shirin Ebadi (2003) and Jody Williams (1997) are recipients of the Nobel
Peace Prize