BurmaNet News, March 10-12, 2007

[Editor]

March 10-12, 2007 Issue # 3159


INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar military offensive leaves 14 dead, 300 ethnic Karen flee to
Thailand
Kachin Post: Russian exploring uranium in jade mine
AFP: Another activist arrested in Myanmar
DVB: Special police interrogate 88 generation students
AFP: Myanmar swipes at US over rights report
Mizzima: 88 generation launches 'White Sunday
DVB: Burma press scrutiny officials inspect computer training centre,
individual

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Burma Army and DKBA likely to launch fresh offensive

HEALTH / AIDS
AP: U.S. helps Myanmar in bird flu fight

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Thailand strikes more gas in Burma
Xinhua General News Service: Entrepreneurs gather to promote business in
Myanmar

REGIONAL
AFP: Myanmar worker beheaded in Thailand's Muslim south

INTERNATIONAL
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Indiana): Burmese rally for troubled country

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 10, Associated Press
Myanmar military offensive leaves 14 dead, 300 ethnic Karen flee to Thailand

Bangkok: Clashes between the Myanmar military and ethnic Karen rebels
killed 14 people and forced at least 300 civilians to flee into
neighboring Thailand, a rebel spokesman and a Thai military official said
Saturday.

The Myanmar military and the pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
launched attacks Thursday against the Karen National Union, said David
Thaw, a spokesman in Thailand for the KNU, the largest group representing
the Karen.

Thaw said 10 Myanmar troops and four rebel soldiers were killed in the
clashes. He said the military was "trying to pressure the KNU into
returning to the negotiating table."

Col. Phanu Wacharopas, a Thai military commander in charge of border
districts in Tak province, said 300 people had fled across the border into
Thailand.

Phanu said most of the refugees were staying in a Buddhist monastery in
Umphang district near the border. He said the fighting had stopped and the
refugees would probably return home soon.

A spokesman for the junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma, was not
immediately available for comment.
The KNU has been fighting for half a century for greater autonomy from
Myanmar's central government.

Cease-fire talks between the KNU and the government broke down in 2004,
and the Myanmar army launched a major offensive in Karen State in eastern
Myanmar in 2005. Since then, it has repeatedly tried to bring KNU members
to the bargaining table in an effort to split the group.

The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, the main aid agency caring for tens
of thousands of refugees along the Thai-Myanmar frontier, estimates that
in 2006 alone the violence forced 82,000 people to leave their homes.

____________________________________

March 12, The Kachin Post
Russian exploring uranium in jade mine

A Myanmar-Russian joint venture Victorious Glory International Ltd is
reportedly drilling for Uranium in northern Burma’s Jade mine, according
to the local sources.

The mining site is located Hawng Pa village of Hpa Kant Township in Kachin
State. The exact site location is between 25°29'43.04"N/96° 6'26.4"E and
25°29'35.2"N/96° 6'35.02"E, according to the document received by The
Kachin Post. The area is around 80 miles north west of Kachin State
capital Myitkyina.

Recently, about 20 company staffs, including Victorious Glory
International Ltd’s Chairman Mr. Krivoshey Pavel and managing director U
Tin Maung Aye, are physically present in that mining site. The rest of the
team includes Daw Soe Yu Wai (director), Mr. Anatoly Bulochnikov (chairman
of Myanmar-Russian Friendship Association) and other Russian engineers,
businessmen, surveyors and Myanmar interpreters.

The site has been equipped with drilling and heavy machinery vehicles,
according to pictures received by The Kachin Post. According to the
unconfirmed report say that, Uranium is being mined in Moehnyin Township
in Kachin State and Mokok in Mandalay division. The ore is then
transported to a refinery at Thabeikkyin on the Irrawaddy River.

Myanmar military government is accused of mining and refining Uranium and
then bartering to North Korea and reportedly to Iran. In return, Myanmar
receives missiles including surface to air missile (SAM) and also possibly
ballistic missiles, and technical assistance to its own nuclear weapons
program.

In early 2000, the regime purchased a Russian nuclear reactor and has
reportedly sent students and military officers to Russia for training in
nuclear science. Western analysts say that Russia has yet to deliver the
reactor.

____________________________________

March 12, Agence France Presse
Another activist arrested in Myanmar

Yangon: A pro-democracy activist has been arrested in military-ruled
Myanmar while he was at the airport preparing to leave for the United
States on a scholarship, fellow activists said Monday.

Thwin Lin Aung was arrested on March 5, but no reason has been given for
his detention, according to Min Ko Naing, a prominent former student
leader who helped lead an uprising against the military in 1988.

Twin Lin Aung was also a member of the student movement, which has been
revitalised during the last year by the release of several key leaders who
had spent more than a decade in prison over the 1988 uprising and other
protests.

Min Ko Naing said that his fellow activists planned to urge his release by
wearing white on Sundays, in a show of solidarity with political
detainees, and would visit the families of the inmates.

"We will wear white clothes like the people in prison who have to wear
white uniforms. We also want to show our purity without bloody acts," he
said.

"We will also continue our asking for his release. We want to prevent more
possible arrests with the unity of our spirits," he added.

The so-called "White Sunday" campaign began last weekend, when about 70
activists visited the families of three political prisoners in Thingangyun
Township, in southeastern Yangon.

They were tailed by plainclothes police, but authorities did not interfere
with their movements, he said.

"Their families said they were encouraged," Min Ko Naing said, adding that
the activists plan to visit about three families every Sunday.

The United Nations estimates there are about 1,100 political prisoners in
Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962 and was formerly
known as Burma.

The most famous of them is Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has
spent more than a decade under house arrest. Her National League for
Democracy party won elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to take
office.

Seven people who joined a February 22 protest against the junta to demand
better living conditions -- including more jobs and 24-hour electricity --
have been in custody since March 6.

____________________________________

March 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Special police interrogate 88 generation students

Burma’s special police raided the homes of four members of the 88
Generation Students group on Saturday and interrogated them for several
hours, according to former student Ko Htun Myint Aung.

The special information unit raided the homes of Ko Htun Myint Aung, Ko
Pandit Htun, Ko Thein Lin Soe and Ko Aung That Zin before interrogating
them at an unknown second location.

While the reason for the interrogations was not clear, and all four men
have been released, Ko Htun Myint said he suspected their brief detention
resulted from their involvement in education programs at institutions such
as the American Centre.

“Now that I am back at home, they are asking my family to ring them on the
number they gave us. I notified them that I am at home. Now I am at home
waiting for them. As for me, I don’t do anything untoward,” Ko Htun Myint
said.

“I [study] for the good of the country, for the youths’ education. I am
doing for the good of the country and the future of the youth with
sincerity,” he said.

Ko Pandit Htun, who was initially not home when the special police arrived
to detain him, said he was questioned about his involvement in English
classes at the American Centre.

“There is a sense of loss of trust. My view is very clear in attending
classes in the American Center. I was attending English classes. They have
misunderstood this,” Ko Pandit Htun said.

____________________________________

March 10, Agence France Presse
Myanmar swipes at US over rights report

Yangon: Military-run Myanmar Saturday rejected a US human rights report
condemning the regime and accused Washington of fabricating allegations to
pressure and smear the image of the Southeast Asian country.

"As in the past, the report once again carried a litany of unfounded and
unsubstantial allegations of human rights violations in Myanmar," the
foreign ministry said in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

"The report is also a part of the US strategy to exert more pressure on
Myanmar in pursuit of its own political agenda," it said, calling the
report part of Washington's campaign to "smear and tarnish" the image of
Myanmar.

In its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2006, the US State
Department said Tuesday Myanmar's human rights record had "worsened"
during the year, with the regime continuing to commit serious rights
abuses including extrajudicial killings, rape and torture.

The US report came as the junta arrested seven people over last month's
protest demanding better living conditions, the first public demonstration
against the military regime in a decade.

The report also came less than two months after the US pushed a United
Nations resolution condemning the junta into the Security Council, where
it was vetoed by China, one of Myanmar's allies, and Russia.

The junta said Saturday the US would "use all multilateral avenues" to
pressure the country formerly known as Burma, "following its failed
attempt to pass a resolution on Myanmar at the UN Security Council."

The UN has estimated there are some 1,100 political prisoners in Myanmar,
a claim rejected by the junta, which has ruled the isolated country since
1962.

Myanmar, one of the world's poorest nations, is also subject to US and
European economic sanctions due to human rights abuses and the house
arrest of 61-year-old democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel peace laureate has been under house arrest in Yangon for most of
the past 17 years.

Apart from her live-in maid, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's
opposition National League for Democracy, is allowed no contact with the
outside world, except for monthly visits from her doctor.

____________________________________

March 12, Mizzima News
88 generation launches 'White Sunday' - Ko Dee

A new campaign called ' White Sunday' was launched by 88 generation
students yesterday to encourage family members of imprisoned political
prisoners.

About 60 students allied with HIV activists and individual activists Suu
Suu Nwe, Naw Ohn Hla and visited some family members of political
prisoners on Sunday.

"Firstly, we were supposed to encourage the families. Unintentionally, all
of us were wearing white dresses. That's why we simply used the name
'White Sunday Movement', said Pyone Cho, the leader of the group.

Unlike the previous 'Open Heart campaign', the campaigners have not fixed
a closing date for the new campaign. However, they claimed that the
limited situation allowed them to visit only families in Rangoon and its
surroundings.

"Now the situation is difficult for us to go towards the urban areas. We
have to keep in mind the reality and the relationship with the families.
Moreover, family members of recently arrested activists are still shocked.
So we need to talk to them on a priority basis," said another leader Min
Ko Naing.

"However, it doesn't mean that we are not going to urban areas," he added.

Activists visited homes of Thein Zan. They also visited the homes of long
terms detainees like Aye Aung and San Zaw Htwe's. Thein Zan was recently
interrogated by the police for his satire on state run newspapers
regarding spiraling prices of essential commodities.

"People in the neighbourhood expressed their interest and support, "Pyone
Cho said.

____________________________________

March 11, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma press scrutiny officials inspect computer training centre, individual

It has been learned that computer users have expressed their anxiety over
the press scrutiny office officials' inspection and questioning of a
computer training centre and an individual's residence in Rangoon.

The inspection occurred in the afternoon of 9 March at the 10-computer
training centre run by U Myint Swe and [his wife] Nge Ma Ma Than [cousin
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] and the house of one of the '88 generation
student leaders, Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw.

When DVB [Democratic Voice of Burma] contacted U Myint Swe's computer
training centre he confirmed the news and said he is still negotiating
with the authorities to continue operating the computer training centre.

When DVB contacted '88 generation student leader Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw, he
answered as follows:
[Begin Ant Bwe Kyaw recording] Yes, three persons who said they were from
the Press Scrutiny Office visited me at 1830. They were Assistant Director
U Than Aung, Assistant Press Scrutiny Officer U Kyaw Htay, and U Hla Maung
who was wearing a badge of the Ministry of Information. They told me to
show them my laptop because they have received a report that my laptop is
being used for political activities. When I asked them what for, they said
they wanted to examine my laptop. So I asked them whether they have any
warrant because there weren't any ward peace and development council
members present and I told them that I could not give them my laptop. They
said that they are more powerful than the police and could even seal the
house but they are not planning to go that far. If you feel insecure you
can come along with the laptop. If you cannot come and could not give the
laptop then please sign a statement. I eventually signed the statement and
they left about 1900. [End recording]

That was Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw explaining how Press Scrutiny Office officials
came to his house and threatened to confiscate his laptop.

When DVB asked how the Press Scrutiny Office is connected to computer
users and whether there are any separate rules or laws for computer users,
Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw replied as follows:

[Begin Ant Bwe Kyaw recording] They said they can take action against
using computers and making print outs according to Rule 62 of the Press
Scrutiny Law. I said if you think you can then go ahead because majority
of the people in the city have a computer nowadays. If you think computers
should be registered then say so. Even the computer showrooms have no
directives to register computers. If you have to arrest a person for
having a computer then I think many people in Rangoon who own computers
would be arrested. [End recording]

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 12, Mizzima News
Burma Army and DKBA likely to launch fresh offensive - Than Htike Oo

The joint forces of the Burma Army and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army
are gearing up to lunch a fresh offensive on the Karen National Union,
according to KNU officials.

Posts under battalion 201 of the Karen National Liberation Army, located
30 kilometres from Myawaddy, near the Thai-Burma border might be the
target of the combined units of the military junta and cease-fire group,
the DKBA, said KNU secretary Man Shar.

"I heard they will attack 201. They may want to control the territory," he
said.

The BBC Burmese service quoted a Thai security official as saying two
camps in Myawaddy-Watlaykhi and Maekyan would be attacked any time.

Local sources said Thai security forces are concerned about the possible
attack and monitoring the situation closely.

On March 8 and 9, DKBA forces backed by the government troops attacked a
KNU post. At least 10 people from both sides have been killed.

Almost 200 Karen refugees who escaped the fighting have been given shelter
in a monastery on the Thai-Burma border.

Watlaykhi is situated 80 kilometres south of Maesot in Thailand and
Maekyan is 120 kilometres away.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

March 12, Associated Press
U.S. helps Myanmar in bird flu fight - Aye Aye Win

Yangon: The U.S. has provided Myanmar with $600,000 worth of equipment for
bird flu prevention after fresh outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 virus were
discovered on poultry farms, state media said Sunday.

The United States gives virtually no direct assistance to Myanmar's
military government because of its disapproval of the junta's poor record
on human rights and democracy, as well as its failure to suppress the drug
trade.

The assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development is being
channeled through the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, which on
Saturday signed an agreement with the government's Livestock Breeding and
Veterinary Department to provide the aid, the New Light of Myanmar
newspaper reported.

The report did not specify what equipment would be provided.

Myanmar livestock officials in the past two weeks told the World
Organization for Animal Health about two H5N1 outbreaks among poultry at
two farms on the outskirts of Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, which killed
a total of 79 birds.

More than 1,400 other birds were killed in an effort to stop the spread of
the disease.

"We are actively cooperating with international agencies and we need
assistance from international communities for prevention and control of
bird flu," Dr. Than Hla, director of the Livestock Research Department,
told The Associated Press.

Until the recent cases, Myanmar last reported an H5N1 outbreak among
poultry in March 2006.

The H5N1 virus has killed least 168 people worldwide since it began
ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the World Health
Organization. Myanmar has reported no human H5N1 cases, though neighboring
Thailand has reported 25 human infections, including 17 deaths, and Laos,
another neighbor, recently reported its first human case and fatality.

Bird flu remains hard for humans to catch. But health experts fear it may
mutate into a form that could spread easily between people and potentially
kill millions around the world.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 12, Irrawaddy
Thailand strikes more gas in Burma - William Boot

Bangkok: More gas has been discovered in Burmese waters, further enhancing
Burma’s position as one of the richest countries in southeast Asia for
hydrocarbons.

The latest find was made by Thailand’s PTTEP, the exploration arm of the
Thai state-controlled oil and gas company PTT, in the Gulf of Martaban
about 300 km south of Rangoon.

PTTEP has a sole concession with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise to
develop Block M-9 in the gulf. The latest discovery follows a find in the
same block in January.

PTTEP President Maroot Mrigadat said: “The company is confident that M9
Block has high potential and is preparing to drill one [more] exploration
well and four or five appraisal wells to confirm the petroleum reserves.”

Thailand has declined to say how big they believe their finds in M-9 are,
but MOGE has said the site holds at least 70 billion cubic meters of gas,
making it one of the largest in Burmese offshore waters.

Maroot said PTTEP hoped to be able to begin production in 2011 or 2012
“for local use and for export to Thailand.”

Virtually all Burma’s gas is currently being sold abroad, and Thailand is
the biggest customer. It operates several other productive offshore
concessions in the Yadana and Yetagun offshore fields in the Gulf of
Martaban and has been drawing gas from these fields for nearly ten years.
Annual sales to Thailand currently total around US $1 billion.

A recent report by the Asian Development Bank said gas was now Burma’s
biggest export and had become so large that any sudden global downturn in
demand or prices would seriously disrupt the economy.

The M-9 strike is the first from among at least six new offshore drilling
concessions awarded to foreign companies by the Burmese junta in the last
six months.

It’s the biggest flurry of gas and oil exploration for many years,
involving companies from China, Russia, Australia, India and South Korea,
as well as Thailand.

Only last week the military government awarded another new exploration
contract to South Korean industrial giant Daewoo.

“Burma is being increasingly seen as a hydrocarbons-rich country,” said
Bangkok commodities analyst Collin Reynolds. “There is enormous potential
to enrich the country. All these concessionaries are paying some money up
front now, but of course it is going to be some years before the real
income will come in.”

The biggest discoveries so far have been in the Shwe fields of the Bay of
Bengal, where upwards of 200 billion cubic meters of recoverable gas is
sitting. But analysts have been bemused at the slow progress made by the
junta in selling this huge stock. The generals seem to have been reluctant
to decide on bids by India, China, South Korea and Thailand for the Shwe
gas.

Analysts say it looks increasingly likely that Naypyidaw will opt for
Daewoo-led proposals, with Japan, to build a liquid natural gas (LNG)
processing terminal in the port of Sittwe. They say this would give the
junta much more flexibility in selling the Shwe gas than agreeing to
Indian and Chinese requests to buy the gas and build pipelines across
Burma.

The recent exploration concessions in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal
have gone to single-country applicants—always in partnership with
MOGE—such as PTTEP and the M-9 Block. Industry observers say selling the
Shwe finds, in blocks A-1 and A-3, have been complicated by the multiple
South Korean-Indian partnership developing them.

____________________________________

March 10, Xinhua General News Service
Entrepreneurs gather to promote business in Myanmar

Yangon: Big local entrepreneurs and traders in Myanmar gathered here
Saturday to exchange experiences and information for promotion of their
business this year.

At the 16th Annual General Meeting of the Union of Myanmar Federation of
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), attended by all members in the
whole country, Myanmar Minister of Commerce Brigadier-General Tin Naing
Thein urged them to make efforts to promote the country's economic
development and foreign trade.

Up to now, the foreign trade volume of Myanmar has reached 7.4 billion
U.S. dollars in the fiscal year 2006-07 which ends at the end of March, he
said.

Before the annual meeting, the inauguration ceremony of the 12- story new
building of the UMFCCI and products show 2007 were held, attended by
Lieutenant-General Myint Swe of the Ministry of  Defense, Commander of
Yangon Command Brigadier-General Hla Htay  Win, Yangon Mayor
Brigadier-General Aung Thein Lin and Minister of Commerce
Brigadier-General Tin Naing Thein.

The UMFCCI, reformed in 1989 when Myanmar began to move to the
market-oriented economy, consists of 55 associations with over 16, 000
members.

Myanmar's foreign trade hit 5.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2005-06,
registering a record high in 17 years.

With the total trade volume in 2005-06 going up by over 12 percent from
the 2004-05's 4.9 billion dollars, the export reached 3.554 billion
dollars, up from 2.9 billion dollars, while the import was valued at 1.9
billion dollars.

During 2005-06 fiscal year, a trade surplus of 1.6 billion dollars was
gained with an increase of more than 60 percent over 2004-05's 954 million
dollars.

The Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development attributed the
trade surplus mainly to the sale of natural gas, followed by that of
agricultural, mineral and marine products.

Myanmar has enjoyed trade surplus in the past four consecutive years since
2002-03, before which it had suffered a trade deficit for many years.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 12, Agence France Presse
Myanmar worker beheaded in Thailand's Muslim south

Pattani: Suspected Islamic militants shot dead three workers from Myanmar
and beheaded one of them during an attack on a construction site in
Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said Monday.

Four others were seriously injured in the attack by six suspected
insurgents late Sunday in Pattani, one of three insurgency-plagued
provinces along the Malaysian border.

Fifteen workers were living at the site, police said. The three victims
were all in their 30s.

In neighbouring Yala province, nine people were injured, three of them
critically, early Monday after a five-kilo (11-pound) bomb exploded at a
morning market.

Some 2,000 people have been killed in Thailand's restive south in the past
three years. There has been a recent upsurge in violence despite a raft of
peace-building measures proposed by Thailand's military-backed government.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 12, Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Indiana)
Burmese rally for troubled country - Abby Slutsky

Pray for release of eatery worker jailed and at risk of deportation

Members of Fort Wayne's Burmese community prayed for their country and a
fellow countryman Sunday at the First Baptist Church on Fairfield Avenue.

"We do this every year to remember our people in Burma," said Fort Wayne
resident Lydia Win. "We try to keep this day apart and pray for our
country."

Fort Wayne is home to about 3,000 Burmese who fled their country, now
known as Myanmar, making up one of the largest Burmese populations in the
U.S.

Standing in a circle in front of the church, about 30 people joined in
prayer for their homeland, the Burmese tribes, the spread of the Gospel to
Burmese people around the world and even for the current government of
Myanmar.

But this year's day of prayer held special meaning for the local Burmese
community.

Phyo "Danny" Maung Than, who works in a local restaurant, has been held in
custody in Chicago by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for more
than a month and faces possible extradition to Myanmar. Than had sought
asylum in the United States but was denied, said Pastor Jim Keller of New
Life Lutheran Church, who led the prayers.

Further information about Than's situation was not available Sunday.

Jayne Numbers, a friend of Than, said she attended the prayer service
because she's concerned about Than's situation and wanted to know how she
could help keep him in the U.S.

In Myanmar, Win said, "People are still suffering from the regime
government. Human rights are not being recognized in Burma."

Win stressed the importance for those who escaped the country not to
forget those still in Myanmar.

Rights activists accuse Myanmar of tolerating widespread abuses including
summary executions, torture, forced labor, sexual violence and recruitment
of child soldiers. The U.S. has imposed sanctions and has urged the ruling
junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has long been
under house arrest.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The current junta was
installed in 1988 after authorities put down mass pro-democracy
demonstrations. A general election was held in 1990, but the military
refused to hand over power after Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory.
The government tolerates little dissent.