BurmaNet News, April 4, 2007

[Editor]

April 4, 2007 Issue # 3176


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Solo protest staged by HIV patient in Rangoon
Xinhua: Myanmar leader meets Singapore FM
Kaladan: National identity cards for Rohingyas
DVB: Thayat prisoners used for cheap labour

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: New bird flu outbreak in Rangoon caused by not clearing up properly -
vet
Narinjara: Daewoo donates equipment worth $15,000 to Akyab

BUSINESS / TRADE
SinoCast: Yunnan signs 7 projects with Burma
Xinhua: Over 200 state-owned enterprises privatized in Myanmar

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: More Rohingya boat people detained in Thai waters
International Herald Tribune: Citizens of nowhere

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 4, The Irrawaddy
Solo protest staged by HIV patient in Rangoon

Tin Ko, a 33-year-old Burmese HIV patient, staged a solo protest on
Wednesday in Rangoon, calling for better health care for people who suffer
from the disease, a source told The Irrawaddy.

Tin Ko, from Magwe Division in central Burma, traveled to the former
capital of Rangoon to stage his protest, according to an eyewitness.

“He staged a protest at Myaynigon junction [Sanchaung Township] by
distributing leaflets urging the government to treat HIV patients like
him,” said the witness. Tin Ko, who is seeking anti-retroviral treatment,
held a placard describing the purpose of his protest.

ARV treatment is offered in Rangoon by the AZG clinic of the Dutch branch
of the French-based Médecins sans Frontières and the Rangoon Infectious
Diseases Hospital, Wai Bar Gi, in North Okkalapa Township.

The World Health Organization reported last December that Burma has
339,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers. Japan pledged last November to donate US $2.65
million to UNICEF to help fight HIV/AIDS and malaria in Burma, while the
Norwegian government has pledged $819,948 to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria.

Following his brief protest, security officials took Tin Ko into custody.

In late February, several protesters staged a demonstration calling on the
military government to address the current social and economic crisis.
Most of the protesters were put into custody but later released.

____________________________________

April 4, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar leader meets Singapore FM

Yangon: The first secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development
Council, Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, met with visiting Singapore
Foreign Minister George Yeo in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw Tuesday, the
state-run Myanmar Radio and Television reported in a night broadcast.

Both sides did not disclose the details about their meeting.

Yeo, who arrived here on Monday on a three-day visit to Myanmar, had met
with his Myanmar counterpart U Nyan Win and discussions  were held on
promotion of the two countries' trade cooperation and matters related to
cultural affairs, official sources said earlier.

Yeo's Myanmar trip came two years after Singapore Prime  Minister Lee
Hsien Loong visited the country in March 2005, during which Myanmar and
Singapore agreed to strengthen their bilateral  cooperation in sectors
including tourism, airlink, improvement of  business environment and
increase of foreign investment in Myanmar as well as technical
cooperation.

Economic cooperation between Myanmar and Singapore has been developing
rapidly since 1995 when cooperation programs for the  sectors of tourism,
agriculture, livestock and fisheries, maritime transport and human
resources development were initiated.

Meanwhile, Singapore has injected over 1.5 billion U.S. dollars into the
country since Myanmar opened to foreign investment in  late 1988,
according to Myanmar official statistics. The investment was mainly put
into hotels and tourism at the early  stage and later expanded to oil and
natural gas exploration.

The Myanmar figures also show that Singapore's bilateral trade with
Myanmar amounted to 822.90 million dollars in the fiscal year 2005-06. Of
the total, Singapore's exports to Myanmar was valued at 558.65 million
dollars, while its imports from Myanmar stood at 264.25 million.

Meanwhile, businessmen of Myanmar and Singapore have agreed to enhance
cooperation in the field of education, initiating a memorandum of
understanding, the first of its kind, between the Union of Myanmar
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( UMFCCI) and the
Singapore Business Federation to step up  cooperation in the sector by
opening schools.

According to the Singapore Embassy, Singapore has trained more than 5,000
Myanmar government officials since the Singapore Cooperation Program (SCP)
was launched in 1992.

Myanmar is also among the top recipient countries under the SCP and the
technical assistance has largely been rendered to the  sectors of
agro-business, tourism, trade and export development,  civil aviation,
port management, shipping and telecommunication,  the embassy said.

To help Myanmar develop human resources, Singapore set up a  training
center in Yangon in 2002 as part of its program to assist the four
less-developed members of the Association of Southeast  Asian Nations
(ASEAN) under a fund of 30-million-U.S.-dollar  Initiative for ASEAN
Integration, it added.

____________________________________

April 4, Kaladan News
National identity cards for Rohingyas

Buthidaung, Arakan: The immigration department of Buthidaung and Maungdaw
townships with the cooperation of UNHCR/UNOPS and Nasaka has been giving
Identity (ID) cards  to Rohingya people as of March 16, this year, said an
official source.

These IDs are temporary white cards for Rohingyas. In actual terms these
are not ID Cards and those who have got red ID cards are the natives of
the land. The national ID card is very important to the Rohingya people,
as without it, they do not have permission to move to any place, said a
former village Chairman on condition of anonymity.

The immigration department has been giving ID cards to those who have
damaged their previous ones, or who are 10-years old and have not got NRC
cards for some reason till now. The concerned authorities will be
completing the exercise in two and-a- half months.

The authorities are collecting Kyat 300 for the form and Kyat 100 as
filling-in charges of this form from each one. There are three kinds of
forms --- for those who have damaged the old ones, for those who are
10-years old , and for those who have not got ID cards yet.

Formerly, Rohingyas had to go to the immigration offices of Buthidaung
town and Maungdaw town to get their ID cards from rural areas. But, they
had to stay there a long time, and were maltreated by the concerned
authorities and had to spend a large amount of money.  In Buthidaung town,
a Rohingya has to spend at least Kyat 7,000 to 10,000 to get one ID card
but in Maungdaw Town , a Rohingya has to spend Kyat 25,000 to 40,000, a
Rohingya in Buthidaung town told Kaladan Press.

On seeing such discrimination and difficulties faced by Rohingyas, some
officers of the UNHCR and UNOPS requested the Burmese authorities to
accept some help from them on proceeding with ID cards to the Rohingyas.
They will bear all expenses in giving ID cards to Rohingyas in Aarakan
State . They had permission from their higher authorities, said source
close to UNHCR.

Three days before March 16, 2007, or before immigration processing for ID
cards started, the UNHCR, UNOPS officers went to the villages of Rohingyas
and announced that they should not travel far, call back family member or
members who had travelled far-off immediately and not to pay any money to
anyone. If anyone demands money, they should be informed. Moreover, they
asked the villagers to have their photographs taken by the officers. If
they do not take photographs, it should be informed to the UNHCR or UNOPS.
They announced this for three days in each village, the source added.

____________________________________

April 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Thayat prisoners used for cheap labour

Inmates from Magwe Division’s Thayat prison are being forced by prison
officials to work in local factories for meager salaries, sources close to
several prisoners told DVB.

Inmates are reportedly being forced to work at a soy bean juice factory in
the Thayat area. While the prisoners are supposed to receive half of the
money they earn, they are only receiving 20 percent with the other 80
percent going to prison officials, according to local sources.

“Inmates were being ordered to deliver and squeeze the juice from the soy
beans in factories in the area. This has been going on for some time but
before the prisoners were paid half of their wages. Now they are only
given 20 percent,” a source close to the prison said.

Inmates from the prison are also reportedly being forced to work as wood
cutters for 1000 kyat a day. But sources close to the prison said
officials are only declaring 500 kyat of their wages.

“They are asking for bribes of 15,000 kyat from every inmate who does not
want to work in the labour camps,” a local source told DVB.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

April 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
New bird flu outbreak in Rangoon caused by not clearing up properly - vet

A Burmese vet who doesn’t want to be identified told DVB that the latest
bird flu outbreak in Rangoon was caused by not properly 'clearing up'
chicken and duck farms around the affected area during the previous
outbreak.

“At Nyaung Hnapin, there are three farms; Kaung Thukkha, a duck farm and
another farm nearby. As Kaung Thukkha was affected, they didn’t clear the
nearby farms and when it was certain that the farms were affected the
number (of chickens) were reduced as they just sold the birds off in
advance,” explained the vet.

He added that had the authorities compensated the farm owners at half the
price of the going rate, they would not have sold on the chickens
illegally.

“Now that they have done thus, the disease has spread to the market place
and other meats,” he said.

The comment of the vet came after the state-run newspaper the New Light of
Myanmar reported 2 April a new outbreak of bird flu in Rangoon’s
Htaukkyant township, where more than 900 chickens were suspected to have
died from the H5N1 virus on 28 and 30 March.

____________________________________

April 4, Narinjara News
Daewoo donates equipment worth $15,000 to Akyab

Medical equipment worth about US $ 15,000 was donated by Korea's Daewoo
International to the Akyab general hospital yesterday. The equipment is to
be set up in a special VIP treatment room at the hospital, said a doctor
on condition of anonymity.

The equipment was handed over at 10 a.m. yesterday by an official
in-charge of the Shwe Gas drilling field off the Arakan coast to Dr. Aung
Thein, in-charge of the Akyab general hospital.

The donated equipment includes a patient monitor, air set, ECG machine,
pulse oxygen meter, suction machine, and blood pressure cuff, altogether
worth $15,000.

It is however, intended for use only in the VIP treatment room in the
hospital in the event of any official of Daewoo being hospitalized or is
injured during work in the gas field.


Earlier there were two accidents involving Daewoo officials during
drilling in the gas fields off the Arakan coast, but the officials were
sent to Mingladon military hospital in Rangoon for treatment, as
facilities at the Akyab hospital were inadequate.

After the two accidents, the Daewoo officials donated important equipment
to the Akyab hospital for the special VIP treatment room.

Daewoo is a Korean company which is a partner of the Burmese military
government, having invested in 60 percent of the stake in the Arakan gas
fields of A-1 and A-3 block.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 4, SinoCast
Yunnan signs 7 projects with Burma

Yangon: At the recent Yunnan-Burma Trade Investment Fair held in Yangon,
the two sides signed 7 cooperation projects, involving a total investment
of up to USD 53.695 million, according to news from the Department of
Commerce of Yunnan Province.

These 7 projects are respectively: China-Burma Agricultural Integrated
Demonstrative Park, cooperative exploration and exploitation of iron ore,
metal mine cooperation, multi-mineral cooperation, cross-border animal
epidemic disease prevention, 20,000-ton steels export and 60,000-ton
fertilizer export.
In recent years, the cooperation on economy, trade, tourism and
infrastructure between the two sides have made noticeable progress.

In 2006, the bilateral trade between Yunnan and Burma amounted to USD 691
million, jumping 9.6% year on year. Cross-border small-amount trade was
USD 562 million, increasing 5.6%.

Currently, Burma has become the largest and most important trade partner
of Yunnan.

____________________________________

April 4, Xinhua General News Service
Over 200 state-owned enterprises privatized in Myanmar

Yangon: A total of 215 state-owned enterprises (SOE) out of 288 proposed
from 10 ministries were privatized in Myanmar as of January this year
since the country began implementation of a plan of privatization in 1995,
sources with the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development
said on Wednesday.

Of the enterprises auctioned to private entrepreneurs, 124 were previously
owned by the Ministry of Information, standing as the majority of the SOE
privatized as far as ministry is concerned, the sources said.

Other privatized SOE include 25 from the Ministry of Commerce and lesser
number from the Ministries of Industry-1, Cooperatives, Hotels and Tourism
and Forestry.

Besides, eight other SOEs were leased to the private sector in another
form of privatization, said the sources, adding that 65  more SOE from
these ministries remain to be privatized in the  future.

According to earlier official reports, in June last year, the Myanmar
government proposed 11 other factories under the Ministry  of Industry-1
to run with the private sector on the basis of joint venture as a form of
privatization.

These factories include textile, beer, cigarette, soft drink  and ice,
cosmetic, glass, paint, sewing and bicycle factories  scattered in the
areas of Yangon, Mandalay and Kyaukse  respectively.

Myanmar has since January 1995 been implementing the privatization plan
for its SOE including those nationalized in the 1960s in a bid to
systematically turn them into more effective  enterprises.

The plan, which has been implemented by the government-formed
Privatization Commission, is carried out by auctioning and leasing or
establishing joint ventures with local and foreign investors.  These
enterprises include textile factories, saw mills, oil mills, cinemas,
hotels.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is also planning to privatize its largest state-run
gold mine in Kawlin, northwestern Sagaing division, for more effective
operation, disclosed the state-run Myanmar Mining Enterprise-2.

The 2.66-square-kilometer Kyaukpahtoe Gold Mine currently operating under
the enterprise of the Ministry of Mines will be the first of its kind to
be transferred to the local private sector, the sources said.

There are over 55,000 factories in Myanmar, of which over 53, 000 are
private-run. In Yangon, more than 5,500 factories are under operation in
10 industrial zones out of 19 across the country.

Official statistics indicate that Myanmar's industrial sector contributed
17.5 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation in the
fiscal year of 2005-06.

Private sector's contribution to the industrial sector stood 92. 36
percent during the year, statistics also show.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 4, Irrawaddy
More Rohingya boat people detained in Thai waters - Khun Sam

Two more boats carrying more than 150 Rohingya men from Burma, who said
they left their homes because of political persecution by Burmese
authorities, were detained on Tuesday off the western coast of South
Thailand by marine police.

A boat carrying 93 men was detained around 1 p.m. and a boat carrying 68
men was detained a few hours later by the coast guard as the two boats
approached Phang Nga Province in South Thailand, according to Grassroots
Human Rights Education, which is providing the Rohingyas with food,
clothing, and medicine and also helping Thai police with translation.

The Rohingyas were all men between age 15 to 42, the latest in a series of
similar groups arrested in southern waters in the past six months.

Htoo Chit, the director of the GHRE who met with the Rohingyas, told The
Irrawaddy the men were from Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships in Arakan
State, Burma. They each gave 10,000 to 15,000 kyat (US $8 -12) for the
trip which took about 15 days. They went without food for five days, Htoo
Chit said.

Htoo Chit said the men told him they left Burma because of the
difficulties of survival due to discrimination and human rights
violations, such as land confiscation and forced labor at the hands of
Burmese authorities in their hometowns.

“They told us they knew they would be arrested in Thailand, but they came
here because they wanted to escape from there,” Htoo Chit said. "I think
the Burmese government has a responsibility to address this problem."

If the Burmese junta doesn't stop its abuse and solve the country’s
political problems, the refugee and migration problems will continue, he
said.

Htoo Chit said 161 Rohingyas are now living in an Immigration Center in
Phang Nga Province, and they will most likely be deported to Burma after
their cases are completed.

On Monday, a group of UN human rights experts, including special human
rights rapporteur for Burma Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, called on the Burmese
junta to stop discrimination against members of the Rohingyas, a Muslim
minority concentrated in Arakan State.

A joint statement issued by six independent human rights experts said
Burma’s 1982 Citizenship Law denied citizenship to the Muslim minority and
“has seriously curtailed the full exercise of their civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights and has led to various discriminatory
practices,” the experts said. “As a consequence, thousands have fled to
neighboring countries, in turn creating complex humanitarian situations in
the region.”

The Rohingyas mostly reside in northern Arakan State which borders
Bangladesh. About 40 boats carrying an estimated 2,000 Rohingyas have
attempted to land on Thailand’s southern border since October 2006,
according to the GHRE. The last boat, carrying 92 people, arrived in early
February.

In previous cases, Thai authorities have deported Rohingyas to the Burmese
border town of Myawaddy, where some of them re-enter Thailand to live
illegally while others attempt to enter Malaysia illegally.

____________________________________

April 4, International Herald Tribune
Citizens of nowhere – Seth Mydans

Mae Ai, Thailand: Hidden in the back corners of the world is a scattered
population of millions of nobodies, citizens of nowhere, forgotten or
neglected by governments, ignored by census takers.
Many of these stateless people are among the world's poorest; all are the
most disenfranchised. Without citizenship, they often have no right to
schooling, health care or property ownership. Nor may they vote, or travel
outside their countries - even, in some cases, the towns - where they
live.

They are stateless for many reasons - migration, refugee flight, racial or
ethnic exclusion, the quirks of history - but taken together, these
noncitizens, according to one report, "are among the most vulnerable
segments of humanity."

Without the rights conferred by citizenship, they have few avenues for
redressing abuses, and little access to resources that could help them
build better lives. They have few advocates, because human rights groups
tend to focus on the types of abuses they suffer - trafficking,
exploitation, discrimination - rather than the root of their problems,
their statelessness.

In their variety, they share the lack of a basic human need: a place to
call home.

About two million of them are in Thailand, mostly members of ethnic
minority groups and hill tribes, perhaps the largest stateless population
in the world.

Many were born in remote areas along the border with Myanmar, out of touch
with the government, and lack documents that could prove that they, or one
of their parents, were born in Thailand.

"Everything is affected, all my rights," said Saidaeng Kaewtham, 38, who
works as a gardener. "I can't travel, go to the hospital, do business or
get an education. You can't choose your job, only labor."

"Why can others do these basic things and I can't?" he asked. "If I had
been a citizen I might have finished my education. I might have earned a
master's degree already. Some of my friends have master's degrees."

The number of people like Saidaeng is rising today with the shifting
populations of a globalized world, experts say. The emergence of new
democracies is also a factor, particularly in Africa, where the granting
or removal of citizenship is used as a political weapon.

"The very fact that democracy makes people count makes citizenship a more
important social and political fact, and that has given an incentive to
some political leaders to use citizenship as a tool to disenfranchise
opponents," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society
Justice Initiative.

By the most common count, there are 15 million stateless people in the
world, but by its nature, this is a number nobody can know for certain.

"Statelessness is a global phenomenon, but each of the stories is
different," said Philippe LeClerc, an expert on the issue with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva.

The stateless include some 200,000 Urdu-speaking Bihari in scores of
refugee settlements in Bangladesh, where they are barred from many
government services and subject to harassment and discrimination.

Formerly a prosperous, land-owning community, they were stranded in
Bangladesh when it separated from Urdu-speaking Pakistan in 1971. Although
Pakistan at first offered refuge to fleeing Bihari, neither nation offers
citizenship today to those who stayed behind.

The stateless also include members of the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic
minority from western Myanmar, where they have been stripped of
citizenship and denied civil rights and face exploitation, forced labor
and religious persecution. More than 100,000 Rohingya have fled in recent
decades to Bangladesh, where they live in camps or on the streets.

They also include tens of thousands of Filipino and Indonesian children in
the Malaysian state of Sabah, victims of discriminatory laws that, in
effect, deny them birth certificates and often separate them from their
families.

Repression at home and the demand for cheap labor drew hundreds of
thousands of Filipinos and Indonesians to Sabah over the past three
decades. There are now 750,000 of them, nearly one-third of the local
population, and the authorities are forcing many to leave.

Because their children often lack documentation, an estimated 10,000 to
30,000 have been left behind to fend for themselves.

In Thailand, the government has embarked on an unusual and ambitious
program to determine its stateless people's rights to citizenship,
checking documents and interviewing witnesses and local elders.

"You have hundreds of nationality decisions taking place every month in
these provinces," said LeClerc. "It's going in slow motion, but it
demonstrates a consciousness on the part of Thailand that they have to
address the issue."

The only documentation Boon Phonma, 43, could offer was a birth date
scribbled on a palm leaf by her mother. She said she was turned away by
officials who said, "No, you're not Thai."

Like some others without papers, she then presented officials with the
results of a DNA test that she said was accepted as proof of her right to
Thai citizenship.

"I found out I have a whole big family here, 335 people," said Boon, who
now works to help other stateless people. "I am a Thai confirmed, a Thai
since birth."