BurmaNet News, February 27, 2007

[Editor]

February 27, 2007 Issue # 3150


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: ILO-Burma reach 'understanding' on forced labor issue
Mizzima: Junta releases nine demonstrators
Mizzima: Court postpones defamation case for third time
Narinjara: Crude oil oozes in Manaung Island
Xinhua: 13 writers win U Ohn Pe manuscript awards in Myanmar

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Monks and activists march to Maesot

DRUGS
DVB: Burmese troops storm Shan drug factory

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Myanmar awards gas exploration deal to Daewoo
Kaladan: Burma to step up rubber cultivation in next fiscal

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: UN rights expert calls for access to threatened Karen
The Nation: 25-year-old Shan activist wins Norway's Student Peace Prize

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

February 27, Irrawaddy
ILO-Burma reach 'understanding' on forced labor issue - Khun Sam

Burma’s military junta has concluded an "understanding" with the
International Labour Organization to allow victims of forced labor to make
complaints to the international body.

A statement released on Monday by the ILO said it has concluded an
“understanding” with the Burmese government that allows “victims of forced
labor to have full freedom to submit complaints to the ILO liaison office”
in Rangoon with a guarantee that “no retaliatory action will be taken.”

“This is a very positive development,” said Richard Horsey, the ILO’s
representative in Rangoon.

“It gives the possibility for the first time for victims of forced labor
to have somewhere to complain to, and to have some confidence that they
will not face any retaliation. This is very significant,” Horsey told The
Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

Burma has been accused of violating ILO Convention 29 on forced or
compulsory labor. The convention was ratified by Burma in 1955.

In November last year, the ILO hardened its stance on the issue of forced
labor in Burma, warning the government that it might go to the
International Court of Justice because of the regime's refusal to abolish
the practice.

The junta's recent decision comes shortly before the ILO was due to decide
on whether to take Burma before the ICJ on March 8.

The ILO statement said the new mechanism will be implemented on a trial
basis over a 12-month period and may be extended by mutual agreement.

The ILO office in Rangoon will make a confidential preliminary assessment
as to whether a case involves forced labor. If so, the case would be
forwarded to Burmese authorities for investigation.

Horsey said as part of the agreement he will have freedom to travel around
the country to meet complainants.

The agreement was welcomed by Burmese labor activist and lawyer, Aye
Myint, who said that after recent ILO pressure, forced labor cases dropped
in major cities in Burma. However, he said the military junta continues to
force people to work without pay in rural areas on local development
projects as well as on offensive military operations against ethnic
insurgent groups, in which conscripts are used as porters.

“Armies seem to have a license to use forced labor," he said. "When they
enter villages, they demand labor and food directly or indirectly. In some
cases, if villagers can not provide labor, they have to pay money for
replacements,” Aye Myint said.

The Burmese Army forced more than 200 villagers from 12 villages to
provide trucks and move supplies from Mawchi camp to Busakee camp on
February 17 in the Bawgali Gyi area in Pegu Division, according to a
recently released report by the Free Burma Rangers, a relief group that
assists displaced Burmese people.

____________________________________

February 27, Mizzima News
Junta releases nine demonstrators

Nine demonstrators, who dared to protest against the military regime's
failure to check soaring inflation, were released today following long
hours of interrogation by security personnel in the Aung Tha Pyay
detention camp, according to one of those released.

Tun Tun who was released today along with eight others for staging a
demonstration against the military regime on February 22 in down town
Rangoon, revealed the manner in which they were interrogated by security
personnel in an exclusive interview to Mizzima.

A group of about 20 people raised slogans, held aloft placards and took to
the streets demanding that the authorities check widespread corruption,
act on skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and provide better
education and health care facilities in the country.

''Though they (investigators) didn't beat me up, questions were asked
continuously without allowing me to sleep. It started at midnight and
continued till 7 a.m. ''

The questions were endless and focused mainly on who masterminded the
demonstration? Who are supporting them financially? Did the protestors aim
to get asylum in the U.S embassy in Rangoon?

The 12 investigators seemed to be from the army but were in mufti and
asked Tun Tun questions one after another.

''You imagine, one person took seven or eight pages of notes and 12
persons interrogated me. They were working in rotation but I had to be
awake all the time,'' Tun Tun said.

''I told them we didn't take any money from others for the demonstration.
We don't have plans to seek political asylum from the US embassy. The
authorities allowed demonstrations by the Ko Aye Lwin's group in front of
embassies and we believed we would be allowed too. We were demonstrating
to draw attention to people's suffering,'' Tun Tun revealed.

May Win (a)Khin May Win, Kyu Kyu San, Htin Kyaw, Hla Myint Aye, Myo Oo,
Hla Thein, Tin Win, Ohn Than, and Tun Tun were detained since February 22.

Most of them were arrested from their homes. The authorities pressured
them to sign on a paper saying they would be punished with life
imprisonment if they participated in demonstrations illegally and
organising it without permission.

However, Tun Tun said that ''I believe I will participate in political
actions later on.''

____________________________________

February 27, Mizzima News
Court postpones defamation case for third time

The Sanchaung Court today, once again postponed the trail relating to a
pro-democracy activist who has filed a defamation suit against 123 editors
and publishers of local journals for publishing articles linking her to a
pimp.

Naw Ohn Hla (45) a former member of the opposition party, the National
League for Democracy and a former political prisoner had filed the case on
January 26 but it was postponed for the third time by Judge Khin San
Myint. Now the court has set the date for March 9 to decide whether to
begin trail.

''Last time, the court postponed the trial to review the case. Now, she
has set the date again to order whether to start a trail,'' said Naw Ohn
Hla.

The articles linked Naw Ohn Hla to a known, now deceased pimp from an area
of Rangoon where she lives now.

She is an active supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi and visits the country's
famous Shwedagon pagoda every Tuesday to pray for the release of the Nobel
Peace Laureate.

The unexpected filing of the case by Naw Ohn Hla, in a country under
military stranglehold, has stopped harsh personal attacks against
well-known pro-democracy activists in local weeklies though pro-junta
commentaries continue to appear.

Journalists in Rangoon expressed their uneasiness on condition of
annonymity. They told Mizzima that the Information Ministry was
pressurizing them to publish undesirable articles as part of its
propaganda against the opposition.

_____________________________________

February 26, Narinjara News
Crude oil oozes in Manaung Island

A significant quantity of crude oil has been oozing out of the ground in
Arakan's Manaung Island since the beginning of November last year, said a
local eyewitness.

After word about the seeping crude oil spread among locals, many villagers
turned up on the spot to drill for oil using a traditional hand drilling
system, without notifying the local authorities.

"I think over 1,000 local people are now involved in drilling for crude
oil and there are about 300 to 500 hand-drilled oil wells. However, the
local people are drilling the oil secretly," he said.

The locals have been processing the crude oil themselves to convert it
into petroleum in the jungle, and then sending it to local markets in
Kyaukpru and Taungup.

The eye witness said the area is a little off the town of Manaung, and
takes an hour to reach by foot.  People know the area is in Ohn Phyr
Chaung near the villages of Ohn Kyunt and Si Byint Gri Village in Manaung
Township.

However, the authorities have now got wind of it and are preparing to
occupy the area after villagers who are drilling for oil are driven out,
the eye witness said.

It is learnt that during the last three months villagers earned a lot of
money from the oil selling it in local markets.  The crude oil is still
oozing and many locals are worried that the "oil field" will be forcibly
occupied by the Burmese military authorities soon.

____________________________________

February 27, Xinhua News Agency
13 writers win U Ohn Pe manuscript awards in Myanmar

A total of 13 local writers in Myanmar have won manuscript awards to be
presented by noted writer Pakokku U Ohn Pe, the official newspaper New
Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

The Pakokku U Ohn Pe manuscript awards 2006 to be presented through his
own fund cover those in collected poem genre, novel genre, collected short
stories genre, treatise genre and literature for knowledge genre, the
report said.

U Ohn Pe is the best known writer in Myanmar. He set up his own literary
fund to present such awards which are secondary to the literary awards at
national level.

To encourage preservation and promotion of literacy and cultural heritage,
the Myanmar government presents National Literacy Awards (NLA) to
successful writers every year and in December 2005, Myanmar presented 59
national-level literacy awards for the year 2004 to winners.

The awards included one life-long National Literary Award (NLA), 10 NLAs,
27 Sarpay Beikman (literature house) Manuscript Awards  and 21 National
Motto Literary and Photo Awards.

The NLA, the highest of its kind in the country, cover those in novels,
short stories, poems, belles-letters, translation and literature.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

February 27, Democratic Voice of Burma
Monks and activists march to Maesot

A group of German Buddhist monks of Burmese origin and are set to reach
the Thai-Burma border town of Maesot on March 4 after walking from Bangkok
to rally support for national reconciliation.

The monks and several political activists led by Reverend U Thawpaka set
out from Bangkok on January 30.

“At the moment, I am about 10 kilometres away from Tak. There are seven
marchers,” said Reverend Thawpaka.

Thai special police officers are reported to have offered protection to
the group for the duration of their journey. But police in Maesot
yesterday arrested ten Burmese nationals who were staging a hunger strike
in a show of support for the monks, releasing them hours later.

“We believe that the demands and statements of the marchers who are
walking more than 700 kilometres from Bangkok are the same as the desires
of the (Burmese) people, and that’s why we staged the hunger strikes,” one
of the participants, Thant Zin told DVB.

The monks and activists are expected to conduct a peaceful march towards
the friendship bridge linking Thailand and Burma in Maesot the day after
arriving in the border town.

____________________________________
DRUGS

February 27, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese troops storm Shan drug factory

Muse anti-narcotics police and troops from the Burmese military’s Kutkai
command reportedly stormed a narcotics factory in Shan State’s Mong Ko
township last week.

The factory was run by a group of Chinese nationals who had entered Burma
illegally, according to a source close to the Kutkai military command who
spoke to DVB on condition of anonymity.

“[The factory] was in Mong Ko township’s police controlled area, to the
west of Namkeh village in a valley,” the source said.

“Chemical powders, drug-making equipment, raw materials and five illegal
Chinese workers were all seized . . . It was not a large factory as it was
one just for making recreational drugs.”

Muse anti-narcotics police refused to comment on the seizures yesterday
but sources close to the police said four Chinese nationals remained in
custody and were being interrogated in relation to the February-16 raid.

“The owner, who was reportedly from China was captured . . . but he was
told to run away after he was told to hand over some money,” DVB’s source
said.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

February 27, Agence France Presse
Myanmar awards gas exploration deal to Daewoo

Military-ruled Myanmar has awarded another contract to South Korean
conglomerate Daewoo International Corp to explore for natural gas in the
Gulf of Bengal, state media said Tuesday.

The new contract is to explore in a block of deep water off Myanmar's
Arakan coast, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The new exploration will take place in waters next to a block where Daewoo
has already found estimated reserves of 5.7 to 10 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas.

The official newspaper gave no other details of the deal, which follows a
raft of hotly contested contracts awarded to other international companies
over the last two months.

Myanmar's natural gas wealth has become an increasingly important source
of desperately needed foreign currency for impoverished country and its
military government.

According to 2006 official figures, 13 foreign oil companies are working
on 33 projects in Myanmar.

Neighbours like China, India and Thailand are all eager to tap Myanmar's
energy resources to feed their own growing economies.

Critics complain that the deals provide a lifeline to a regime that is
under US and European sanctions over alleged rights abuses and the
detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

_____________________________________

February 27, Kaladan News
Burma to step up rubber cultivation in next fiscal

Rangoon, Burma: Burma plans to double rubber cultivation to 400,000
hectares in
2007-08 fiscal beginning April, the state controlled official newspaper
New Light of Myanmar reported yesterday.

Of the rubber produced, Burma exports about 30,000 tons to China and
Singapore annually, with China being Burma's largest rubber export market,
the report said.

The country's rubber production for 2006-07 stood at 61,717 tons from
302,053 hectares, while the produce for 2005-06 was nearly 60,000 tons
from 226,171 hectares, according to official statistics.

Meanwhile, Burma has chalked out a five-year wise programme to grow rubber
with a projected cultivated area of 405,000 hectares and take production
to 146,700 tons by the year 2020 and 607, 500 hectares and 226,800 tons
respectively by 2030.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

February 27, Irrawaddy
UN rights expert calls for access to threatened Karen - Shah Paung

UN human rights expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has urged the Burmese
military government to grant aid groups immediate access to threatened
communities in Burma’s Karen State.

“Humanitarian assistance should not be made hostage of politics,” said
Pinheiro, the UN’s special human rights rapporteur, in a statement
released on Monday.  It “must only be guided by the affected communities,”
he added.

Pinheiro made his appeal after hearing testimony from villagers who had
fled fighting in Taungoo District and eastern Pegu Division. They told him
they had been driven from their homes and also testified about human right
violations and the lack of humanitarian assistance in conflict areas.

Pinheiro appealed to the regime to allow access to the areas by UN and
other aid workers and to guarantee their safety and freedom of movement.
He said it would be a “terrible mistake” to wait for a “normalization” in
Burma before helping “the affected communities and their representatives.”

The latest military offensive against civilian communities in Karen State
and Pegu Division began early last year. More than 70 civilians, including
women and children, had so far died and 25,000 displaced, according to the
Free Burma Rangers. More than 5,000 uprooted people had sought refuge
along the Thai-Burmese border.

The US mission to the UN was due to hold a panel discussion on Tuesday on
“State-Sanctioned Mass Rape in Burma and Sudan”.

Meanwhile, the European Commission in Brussels on Monday announced the
allocation of 135 million euros (US $178 million) for food aid for an
estimated 12.5 million people living in Africa and Asia.

The funds will be channeled through the European Commission's Humanitarian
Aid department for people facing food shortages due to natural
catastrophes, economic and political crises, or armed conflicts.

“Today, there are still almost 820 million undernourished people. This is
unacceptable,” said Commissioner Louis Michel, announcing the aid. “In too
many countries, entire populations cannot feed themselves and depend
entirely on international aid for survival.”

Following a detailed assessment of global nutritional needs, the EU‘s
executive arm drew up a list of 19 priority locations including Sudan,
Chad, Ethiopia, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania,
Uganda, the Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire, Niger,
Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Liberia, the Caucasus, East Timor, Burma
and Nepal.

____________________________________

February 24, The Nation (Thailand)
25-year-old Shan activist wins Norway's Student Peace Prize - Subhatra
Bhumiprabhas

Charm Tong, an exiled Shan woman, has been named the winner of the 2007
Student Peace Prize at the International Student Festival in Trondheim
(ISFiT) in Norway.

About 500 students from around the world gathered yesterday at ISFiT, the
world's largest student festival with a thematic focus, to attend the
ceremony held in honour of Charm Tong, a young Shan activist whom they
praised as a role model for students working for human rights, student
rights, democracy and peace.

For almost a decade Charm Tong, now 25, has been working for peace and
human rights and educational opportunities for exiled children who have
fled from the ongoing civil war in Burma.

Charm Tong was born in the Shan State, in northeastern Burma, where civil
war and oppression by the Burmese military regime has continued for over
half a century.

She grew up in a refugee community on the Thai-Burmese border, where her
parents sent her to live with orphans from Shan State when she was
six-year-old.

She began working on human rights and on behalf of Shan refugees when she
was at 16. Knowing how difficult it was for exiled Shan children like
herself to get an education as they were not allowed to live in a regular
refugee camp, Charm Tong helped establish a school for them in 2001,
mostly supported by private donations.

The school, which can accommodate only 24 students a year, has to be
operated in secret and is located on the border in a northern province of
Thailand.

However, Charm Tong has been in the spotlight ever since she joined the
Shan Women's Action Network (Swan) to produce a report called "Licence to
Rape", revealing the Burmese military regime's use of sexual violence in
the ongoing war in Shan State.

The report was released in 2002 and brought the world's attention to the
plight of women in Shan State.

"Charm Tong really deserves this award. She is a role model for young
people. Even though she has had little formal education herself, she has
been working tirelessly to provide education for other young refugees from
Shan State and to speak out internationally, not only for Shan women but
for the whole movement, on the need for political change in Burma," said
Nang Hseng Moon of Swan.

The Student Peace Prize was inaugurated by ISFiT in 1999.

In 2001 the All Burma Federation of Student Unions with their leader Min
Ko Naing received the prize, awarded on behalf of all students in Norway.