BurmaNet News, February 22, 2007

[Editor]

February 22, 2007 Issue # 3147


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Anti-government protest in downtown Rangoon
Irrawaddy: Three people reportedly jailed for organizing literary event
Irrawaddy: More Karens join 'Peace Council' splinter group
Mizzima: Japanese news agency reporter detained by police in Burma
DVB: Rangoon hospitals ordered to shut down
DVB: Pegu man dies after night in police custody
DVB: NLD member’s prison term extended
Xinhua: Myanmar generates 30,000 jobs abroad for country people in past
few years

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Dozens of Burmese migrants arrested in Chiang Mai
Bangkok Post: 80,000 to 1 mln Burmese workers here

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima: Burmese legal system fails to deliver justice: AHRC

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 22, Irrawaddy
Anti-government protest in downtown Rangoon

About a dozen Burmese activists staged a demonstration in downtown Rangoon
on Thursday, calling on the government to do something to correct the
country’s economic and social crisis and eliminate corruption. Onlookers
joined in the protest. Riot police stepped in and arrested at least two
people.

The demonstrators, calling themselves the Myanmar Development Committee,
held up placards and distributed a statement calling for government
action.

The statement, addressed to the junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, said the
country is facing a deteriorating situation, with economic hardship and
social crisis, skyrocketing commodity prices and rampant corruption.

“Civil rights of the people are totally in the hand of the (ruling) State
Peace and Development Council,” the statement said. “On behalf of the
people of Burma, we would like to recommend you, the Senior General, with
all due respect to correct [that].”

“They were cheered by onlookers,” an eyewitness told The Irrawaddy.

The demonstrators marched around the Sule Pagoda in central Rangoon, and
were then challenged by the riot police, according to a demonstrator.

Anti-government rallies are rare in Burma. The authorities rapidly
suppress any show of public protest, fearing a wider outbreak of unrest. A
nationwide pro-democracy uprising took place in 1988, forcing the then
ruling dictator Gen Ne Win to step down.

In late January, pro-government demonstrations were held outside the US
and British embassies in Rangoon, denouncing the two countries’ efforts to
get a resolution condemning the military junta adopted by the UN Security
Council.

Similar demonstrations took place in Tokyo last week, where about 25
members called on the US and British governments not to interfere in
Burma’s “internal affairs.”

____________________________________

February 22, Irrawaddy
Three people reportedly jailed for organizing literary event

Three people have been jailed after organizing a traditional literary
event in western Pegu Division, according to local sources.

A local court reportedly sentenced the three to three months’ imprisonment
after convicting them of creating unrest. The charge arose from their
involvement in holding a so-called “Literati Day” ceremony in Paung Tale,
western Pegu Division. They are currently being held in Prome prison,
according to a source close to the convicted three.

“The charge is not very clear but it’s said that they were accused of
creating unrest,” the source told The Irrawaddy.

People in Burma traditionally hold annual “Sarsodaw-nei” (or “Literati
Day”) events, inviting well-known literary figures for talks and readings.
In Paung Tale, the event coincides with the birthday of a venerable monk.

“It appears that they did not have formal approval to hold the event,
regarding it as a casual celebration for the monk,” The Irrawaddy was told
by one speaker invited to the occasion.

Burmese authorities routinely refuse to issue permits for public
gatherings for some literary events, fearing that discussion will also
involve politics.

____________________________________

February 22, Irrawaddy
More Karens join 'Peace Council' splinter group - Shah Paung

More Karens have joined the new Karen National Union/Karen National
Liberation Army Peace Council that recently “joined hands” with the
Burmese regime.

The small group, led by Maj Yin Nu, the former quartermaster of the 7th
Brigade and a close colleague of Maj Gen Htain Maung, numbers about 20
people, including three soldiers, according to an officer with the Karen
National Liberation Army, who spoke to The Irrawaddy on Thursday. He said
Maj Yin Nu was an early supporter of Htain Maung.

However, sources on the Thai-Burmese border, said Yin Nu's group numbers
about 70 people, including about 30 soldiers. The group has reportedly
joined the KNU/KNLA Peace Council contingent that has made its
headquarters at Toh Kaw Koe Village in Kawkareik Township, Karen State.
Sources say there are others in the KNU who also support the peace council
group.

According to a senior KNU officer, Htain Maung still lives in his home at
KNU 7th Brigade headquarters near the Thai-Burmese border in Paan
District.

Htain Maung was dismissed as commander of the KNU 7th Brigade after his
splinter group reached a peace agreement on January 16 without KNU Central
Committee approval. He and his supporters formed the KNU/KNLA Peace
Council on January 31 and “joined hands” with Burmese military officers on
February 11 during a ceremony in Toh Kaw Koe Village.

____________________________________

February 22, Mizzima News
Japanese news agency reporter detained by police in Burma

A Burmese reporter of a Japanese news agency was arrested by the security
police in Rangoon.

Myat Thura (34) attached to the Kyodo News Agency in Japan was arrested
while he was interviewing demonstrators protesting against the military
junta this afternoon in downtown Rangoon.

He was taken to an unknown location by the police.

"He may be temporarily detained and may be released tonight but we are not
sure yet", a foreign correspondent in Rangoon told Mizzima.

About 20 demonstrators were agitating against the junta blaming it for
soaring inflation, sky rocketing prices of essential commodities,
increasing unemployment and corruption at the Rangoon City Hall at 3:15
p.m. The regime is known to severely punish people demonstrating against
the junta while permitting pro-junta groups to demonstrate against the
United States and the United Kingdom.

Along with the reporter, some protesters were also reportedly detained but
Mizzima is still following up on more information on the arrests.

____________________________________

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Rangoon hospitals ordered to shut down

The Burmese government has ordered the Kandawgyi and Kantharyar hospitals
in Rangoon’s Tamwe township to shut down by the end of the month,
according to doctors.

The hospitals, which employ more than 80 staff, were reportedly not told
the reason for the closure when it was announced by the government’s
hospital administrator Than Win.

“He asked us to continue our duties until February 28 but that after that
he would not be our superior and we would no longer be his employees. We
have been asked to move out of the hospital by that day,” a female doctor
from one of the hospitals told DVB.

Both hospitals were owned by the government’s Joint-Venture 7 under the
ministry of health. The hospitals were also home to more than 20 staff
members.

Another doctor said many staff had no idea how they would earn a living
after the closure.

“They don’t know what to do. Since the day the order came some of them
have been crying and going hysterical,” the doctor said on condition of
anonymity.

The hospitals’ water supply has already been cut.

____________________________________

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
Pegu man dies after night in police custody

An 18-year-old man from Pha-do district in Pegu Division has disappeared
after being arrested by local police, according to his family.

On February 8, Lin Lin Naing from Okepo village was arrested by police
while visiting Pha-do. It is unclear what he was arrested for.

The next day, the police reportedly told local hospital staff that Lin Lin
Naing had committed suicide while in custody. Three days later, when his
family confronted the police, they were told his body had been buried
immediately since no one came to claim it.

“We don’t even know where his is buried if we want to hold a memorial
service for him,” U Hla Maung Aye, Lin Lin Naing’s father, said.

While it remains unclear how he died, Lin Lin Naing’s parents said they
were convinced he had been murdered by the police.

“They murdered my son. They will die bad, horrible death like my son,” his
mother, Daw Aye Win said.

Staff at the Pha-do district police station were not available for comment
yesterday while officers at the Kyauktaga township police station refused
to discuss the issue.

Lin Lin Naing’s parents told DVB they planned to lodge a formal complaint
over their son’s death with the State Peace and Development Council.

____________________________________

February 22, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD member’s prison term extended

Jailed National League for Democracy Member of Parliament Daw May Win
Myint has had her 10-year prison sentence extended by 12 months, her
husband U Win Myint said yesterday.

Daw May Win Myint, 57, was initially sentenced to seven years in prison in
1997 for arranging a meeting between detained NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi and a group of young people from Mayangone township.

While her sentence expired in 2004, she continues to be detained and is
suffering from high blood pressure, according to her husband.

“Previously, she could go out for medical check-ups. Now, treatment is
given inside by Insein doctors . . . I have expected her to be released so
many times,” U Win Myint said.

The authorities failed to notify U Win Myint of the extension of his
wife’s detention, leaving him to find out when he visited her in prison
last week.

News of her sentence extension comes just days after reports confirmed NLD
deputy leader U Tin Oo, who has been detained since 2003, will also spend
a further year under house arrest.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 22, Mizzima News
Dozens of Burmese migrants arrested in Chiang Mai - Than Htike Oo

Dozens of Burmese migrant workers were rounded up during a raid over two
days by the police in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand.

Twenty policemen came to a place in Chiang Mai where Burmese migrants go
to get daily-wage jobs and arrested 29 illegal migrants. About 40 Burmese
migrants were arrested at the same place yesterday.

The first batch of detainees was deported back to the Burma border
yesterday following a short detention at the immigration camp.

Thai security sources said apparently it was the increasing number of
Burmese workers in Chiang Mai that had led to the police raid.

Myint Wai from the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)
said that raid was related "to make Burmese workers stay legally with work
permits and also from the security point of view of the government."

"Moreover, it is also to implement the deal between the Thailand and
Burmese governments to issue passports to Burmese migrant workers," he
said.

An immigration officer on condition of anonymity said "Burmese migrant
workers violate regulations such as working outside their respective
territory, working in construction sites though they hold work permit
cards for house maids among other jobs."

____________________________________

February 22, Bangkok Post
80,000 to 1 mln Burmese workers here

Rangoon: The Burmese government believes that there are 300,000 Burmese
labourers working in Thailand, but only 80,000 hold official labour
permits issued by the Thai Labour Ministry.

State run media reported the numbers on Thursday. But in Thailand, the
actual number of Burmese nationals working - most of them illegally - is
believed to be closer to one million.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece for the ruling military
junta, acknowleded in an editorial published Thursday that the majority of
workers in Thailand "are living in the country without having legal
documents."

The daily blamed "human traffickers" for the massive trade in illegal
Burmese labourers into Thailand and the mistreatment they often endured in
the neighbouring country.

On its part, the Burmese government claimed to have done its duty by
issuing licences to 70 agencies to find job opportunities for Burmese
people abroad and for agreeing to issue "temporary passports for Myanmar
(Burmese) workers who in the past worked illegally in Thailand so that
they will become legal guest workers" as of Nov 6, last year.

Lack of proper Burmese identity papers is often sited as one of the main
reasons that Burmese labourers fail to qualify for Thai labour permits,
which are also issued to labourers from neighbouring Cambodia and Laos.

The New Light of Myanmar made no mention of the main reason hundreds of
thousands of their citizens are forced to work illegally in Thailand - the
decline of the economy over the past two decades that is widely blamed on
the military's refusal to allow political and economic reforms.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

February 22, Agence France Presse
Asia's rivers being choked by detritus of breakneck development - Sarah
Stewart

Kuala Lumpur: From the mighty Mekong, Yangtze and Ganges to countless
smaller waterways, Asia's rivers sustain the lives of billions of people
but breakneck development has put them under unbearable pressure.

Choked by sewage, silt and industrial waste, and made unrecognisable by
dams and diversions, many have become biological "dead zones" and others
like China's iconic Yellow River often no longer even trickle to the sea.

"Looking at development in the region, it's going to get worse before it
gets better," said
International Rivers Network campaign director Aviva Imhof.

"The situation in China is probably one of the most dire in the region in
terms of both river pollution and the massive changes to the river
ecosystems as a result of dams and diversions," she told AFP.

Charges of water-stealing and infrastructure schemes that parch downstream
nations are traded back and forth. And many of the allegations, like the
rivers themselves, go upstream to China.

CHINA

Flowing from the Tibetan Plateau, China's main rivers include the Yangtze
and Yellow, the Yarlung Tsangpo which becomes the Brahmaputra, the
Langcang which turns into the Mekong, and the Salween and the Irrawaddy
which flow through Myanmar.

The Yangtze and the Yellow become heavily polluted as they flow through
greater China, and populations downstream of the other rivers complain
that hydroelectric dams arrest their flow after they leave the country.

India and Bangladesh are concerned about a plan to dam the Yarlung Tsangpo
and use the electricity to pump river water vast distances over Tibet to
the head waters of the Yellow river.
The plan, which would cost billions of dollars, is part of China's ongoing
plan to bring southern waters to the dry north, including the capital
Beijing.

Already, the litany of damage to China's rivers is daunting. The country
is in the grips of an acute water shortage with around 300 million people
reportedly lacking access to safe drinking water.
More than 70 percent of rivers and lakes are polluted, while underground
water supplies in 90 percent of Chinese cities are contaminated.

The United Nations has declared the estuaries of the Yangtze and the
Yellow to be "dead zones" due to high amounts of pollutants which feed
algal blooms that choke the water of oxygen.
And worsening pollution in China's longest river, the Yangtze, is
reportedly putting at risk the drinking water supply to millions of people
in dozens of major cities.

THAILAND and MYANMAR

After leaving China, the Mekong, one of Asia's most evocative rivers,
flows through Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia before reaching the South China
Sea via Vietnam's Mekong Delta.
The 4,000-kilometre (2,400-mile) river is one of the most biodiverse in
the world, and the lifeblood for tens of millions of people living along
its banks, providing fish, irrigation and a vital trading corridor.

But Beijing's determination to turn southern Yunnan province into a
hydroelectric power hub, which has already seen two dams built on the
Mekong, threatens to have devastating social and environmental impacts.

"The unstable water level has already affected hundreds of fishermen along
the Mekong river by reducing fish numbers," said Sumatr Phulaiyao,
Thailand coordinator of Southeast Asia Rivers Network.

The blasting of rocks and rapids in the upper reaches of the Mekong to
create a navigation channel for huge ships is also causing concern.

"The Mekong is one of the last major great rivers in the region that is
still in a pretty viable state ecologically and in how people are able to
depend on the river's resources for livelihood," said Imhof.

"But it's a river that is make or break in the next 10 years as to whether
it's going to be able to survive because of all the development planned."

For many impoverished nations, signing deals with energy-hungry wealthier
neighbours is proving a reliable way to boost their economies.

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, last year forged an agreement
with Chinese and Thai companies to dam the Salween River, Southeast Asia's
longest undammed waterway which is home to 80 rare or endangered animals
and fish.

INDIA

India's most famous river, the 2,510-kilometre (1,556-mile) Ganges which
rises in the Himalayas, is so polluted by industrial and human waste that
even those who revere its waters now fear it.
India's Central Pollution Control Board found that the number of coliform
organisms -- an indicator of the presence of fecal matter -- at one site
at the start of a major bathing festival was 16 times that acceptable for
swimming.

"The pilgrims come here to wash away their sins but after a dip here, they
may carry skin diseases with them," said Hari Chaitanya Brahmachari, a
Hindu priest who runs a monastery in Varanasi, a city on the Ganges.

Meanwhile in the capital New Delhi, each day some 3,296 million litres
(725 million gallons) of mostly un-treated sewage is pumped into another
holy river, the Yamuna.

"The Yamuna has been killed in the last decade," said noted Indian
ecologist Vandana Shiva. "There wasn't this level of dumping of industrial
or urban waste before. But the city has exploded in the last decade."

With water poorly managed and increasingly scarce in India -- the World
Bank has predicted a severe crisis by 2050 -- the nation is keeping an eye
on what its neighbours are planning for the rivers that it relies on.

Climate change, large populations and the increase in water-guzzling heavy
industries in India and China are likely to exacerbate tensions over
shared rivers between the two Asian nations, said Shiva.

India too is planning an ambitious network of dams as part of a
river-linking project, which would divert water from the Ganges and its
stretch of the Brahmaputra, causing many in Bangladesh to worry that their
rivers will run dry.

"Add to all of this the fact that in the peak summer season the water in
these rivers comes from glaciers and the glaciers are melting because of
climate change," said Shiva.

"Some scientists are saying 20 years time is what we have, after which
these perennial mighty rivers will become seasonal."

BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh, at least a fifth of which floods each year, the effects of
the 230 rivers which cross-cross the low-lying country are particularly
acute.

Despite an excess of water during the monsoon, there are severe shortages
at other times, with heavy economic, social and environmental impacts
including a forced migration to the overcrowded capital Dhaka.

Bangladesh blames the shortage of water on its power-hungry neighbour
India which it says has used dams and barrages to divert water upstream
from shared rivers for irrigation projects -- a charge India rejects.

Experts say the lack of water is causing sea water to encroach, raising
salinity levels, killing fish and leaving land unfit for cultivation --
major implications in a country where many people fish or farm for a
living.

"Fresh water flow is decreasing day by day due to upland diversion of
water and there is a serious impact on agriculture due to
desertification," said Quamrul Islam, former chairman of the Global Water
Partnership, South Asia.

"Forty million people live in the southwest region of Bangladesh where 22
rivers are dead during the dry season. Fisheries in that region are in
danger."

MALAYSIA

The dire state of rivers in Malaysia, where authorities admit that two
thirds are contaminated with sewage and won't be clean for at least 30
years, provides a troubling case study of how difficult it is to transform
waterways.

In the 1980s the Sungai Juru in the northern state of Penang was declared
the dirtiest river in Southeast Asia by the World Health Organisation,
which said no living thing could survive in it. For two decades it has
remained in an abject state.

"The first time the fish began dying in great numbers was in 1968," said
Salleh bin Hussin, a 74-year-old who can still reel off the names of the
different species that once lived in the Juru.

"By the early 1980s none of us were fishermen any more," he told AFP in
the riverside village where children still develop rashes if they disobey
instructions to stay away from the fetid green waters.

The culprit was an industrial estate which local activists say continues
to spew effluent into the Juru, dodging government inspectors who don't
have the resources to keep a 24-hour watch -- a common tale in Asian
nations.

Salleh said that during a hungry year with no fish or money in the
village, he made a stream of com-plaints which yielded no response, before
demanding a meeting with the state's chief minister.

"I was told that pollution was everywhere, all over the world, and that's
why I got upset" he said. "I lost my temper and slammed the table."

THE FUTURE

Imhof said that despite the dire situation, Asia's polluted rivers are
still salvageable, like the Pasig in Manila which a decade ago was "dead,
black, stinking and biologically dead" and which is now in a much improved
state.

"It doesn't take as long as you would think to restore a river. There have
been a lot of dam removal projects in the US and the river has returned to
life in a very short space of time, sometimes as short as 5-10 years," she
said.

"Rivers are incredibly robust. In China, one of the worst states for
rivers in the region, the government is talking about investing in river
restoration in some parts of the country, or at least there's rhetoric
going out there.

"But I think it's going to take a long time because the enforcement
capacity is very weak and there's still a lot of industrial effluent going
into the rivers, and massive dam plans for rivers all over the country."

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 22, Mizzima News
Burmese legal system fails to deliver justice: AHRC - Mungpi

Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission today condemned the Burmese
judicial system for failing to hold fair trials and deliver justice to
victims of human rights violations in the country in keeping with court
procedures.

The AHRC said that Burmese courts not only deny basic principles of human
rights and principles of the rule of law to its citizens but also approve
the authorities illegally imprisoning citizens who are defending their
basic rights.

On Monday, a district court in southern Rangoon postponed a court hearing
session summon on an appeal made by Khin Win of Kawhmu Township of Rangoon
Division, when the prosecutors failed to turn up at the court.

In November 2006, Daw Khin Win filed a complaint with the South Rangoon
District Peace and Development Council about the corrupt activities of the
Nyaungpinthar Village Tract Peace and Development Council officials,
headed by chairman U Win Shein.

Following her complaint, authorities lodged a counter complaint against
her for making false allegations against the authorities and sentenced her
to a year in prison in December 2006.

"We see a great many problems relating to how the justice system is
operating [in Burma]," said a spokesperson of the AHRC adding that, "In
her [Daw Khin Win] case she didn't obtain any kind of opportunity to have
[her] complaint heard."

Daw Khin Win, who is currently detained in Insein prison, however,
appealed to the Court, which then ordered a court hearing on February 19,
2007. But with the prosecutors failing to appear on Monday, the court
postponed the hearing to February 27.

"It is a common tactic to delay the court proceedings... the court delays
are major obstacles to obtain justice. Now it remains to be seen what
happens next," the AHRC spokesperson said.

The AHRC said the judge should respond in accordance with the court
proceedings if the prosecutors continue to use dilatory tactics.

In military-ruled Burma, Daw Khin Win is not the first to have faced
counter complaints and be prosecuted and jailed. Su Su Nwe of Htan Manaing
village in Kawhmu Township of Rangoon Division was sentenced to 18 months
in prison in October 2005 on charges of abusing and intimidating local
officials.

The counter charge and sentence followed when she had successfully sued
village authorities in Kawmhu Township for imposing forced labour.

However, following mounting international pressure, authorities freed Su
Su Nwe, who suffers from a heart condition, after she served nine months
of her prison term, in June 2006.