BurmaNet News, June 23-25, 2007

[Editor]

June 23-25, 2007 Issue # 3233

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Top regime official promises handover to civilian government
AFP: NLD seeks to meet Suu Kyi living under house arrest
Irrawaddy: Call for greater security for NLD members
DPA: "Militarization" of Karen State picks up pace, rights group warns
Irrawaddy: 27 killed in attacks on buses in Burma

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: Burmese authorities crack down on human trafficking

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Myanmar garment exports 'dire' because of US sanctions
Xinhua: Myanmar to privatize 11 state-owned enterprises
Irrawaddy: Old batteries big business on Burma-China border

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: HIV patients campaign for activists’ release
Mizzima News: Children most affected by fresh Dengue outbreak in Rangoon

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: India trains Burmese pilots in Kochi
AFP: Singapore FM sees Myanmar nuclear programme as unlikely

INTERNATIONAL
Mizzima News: UN children's envoy begins Burma visit today
VOA: US Senate condemns Burma for holding political prisoners

OPINION / OTHER
IPS: What to do with Burma? - Rosalia Sciortino

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 25, Irrawaddy
Top regime official promises handover to civilian government - Htet Aung

Burma’s military regime will hand over power to a civilian government
after an election to be held in line with the new constitution, the
regime’s Secretary-1, Lt-Gen Thein Sein, said o­n Sunday.

“Power will be handed over to a civilian government after electing Hluttaw
[the parliament] representatives as well as forming Hluttaw and [a]
cabinet,” said Thein Sein, who is also acting prime minister. He was
speaking at a meeting of the Myanmar [Burma] Police Force, according to
state-run The New Light of Myanmar.

Thein Sein said that the constitution would be approved after holding a
referendum, and an election would then be held in accordance with the
laws, the newspaper reported.

“In terms of the law, [a] referendum means taking the wish [of the
electorate], but only a parliament can approve a constitution,” said Nyan
Win, opposition National League for Democracy spokesman

The final session of the National Convention, which went into recess last
December, will resume on July 18, said Thein Sein earlier this month. The
NLD has so far received no invitation to the National Convention, Nyan Win
said.

“They never mention the 1990 election result,” he said. “If the election
result is ignored, a bad heritage will be left in history.” The NLD won
the election by landslide but the regime ignored the result.

Although Thein Sein said that the constitution would be drawn up on the
basis of basic, detailed principles, he gave no time frame. The drafting
of a constitution is the third step of the regime’s seven-point “road map”
and a referendum is the fourth. The “road map” was announced by the regime
in August 2003.

According to the new constitution, Burma will have a president as head of
state. There will be two vice-presidents, three parliaments and a cabinet,
Thein Sein said.

____________________________________

June 24, Agence France Presse
NLD seeks to meet Suu Kyi living under house arrest

Myanmar’s pro-democracy party has asked the military government for
permission to meet with its detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a spokesman
said yesterday.

No one from the National League for Democracy (NLD) has met with the Nobel
peace laureate since 2004.

Spokesman Nyan Win said the party leadership wanted to see her to discuss
legal options for appealing for her release from house arrest.

“Our chairman Mr. Aung Shwe sent a letter to the cabinet in Naypyidaw on
Thursday to ask permission to meet with Ms Aung San Suu Kyi,” Nyan Win
told AFP.

“We want to know what she thinks about a possible appeal to the
authorities regarding her detention,” he said.

Myanmar’s military government in May extended Aung San Suu Kyi’s house
arrest by another year, defying international demands for her immediate
release.

The 62-year-old has spent more than 11 of the last 18 years under house
arrest at her lakeside Yangon home and has little contact with the outside
world, apart from her live-in maid and visits from her doctor.

The last time the opposition leader – the world’s only Nobel peace
laureate in detention – left her house was in November 2006 when the junta
allowed her to meet visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari for one hour.

Some 52 people have been in custody since last month after they were
arrested for participating in a prayer vigil for Suu Kyi’s release.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The NLD won elections
in a landslide in 1990, but the military has not recognised the result.

____________________________________

June 25, Irrawaddy
Call for greater security for NLD members - Shah Paung

Members of Burma's National League for Democracy in Mandalay have called
on the party’s headquarters in Rangoon to take action to protect
opposition activists, following an attack there o­n an NLD official.

In a letter to the opposition party’s headquarters, the Mandalay NLD
members called for a written protest to be lodged with the authorities,
demanding an end to violence against pro-democracy activists.

The demand was sparked by an unprovoked assault o­n June 15 on NLD member
Than Lwin, as he returned home from a pagoda in Madaya Township, where he
had prayed for the release of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, under detention
at her home in Rangoon.

The attacker, believed to be a member of the junta-backed Union Solidarity
Development Association, broke Than Lwin’s nose. Than Lwin is a
vice-chairman of the NLD’s Mandalay Division and was a successful
candidate for Madaya Township in the 1990 election.

In its letter to NLD headquarters, the Mandalay members said the party
should urge the authorities concerned to “expose truly the case of Than
Lwin
and to find and practice ways to solve the difficulties that may
probably be encountered when the NLD practices non-violent means.”

Than Lwin, meanwhile, has filed a charge against his attacker with Madaya
police.

NLD lawyer Aung Thein told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the letter to
headquarters also urged support and security for threatened activists. NLD
spokesman Myint Thein said the party would seek legal means to protect its
members and obtain redress for assaults.

In late May, the USDA and another junta-back group, Swan Arr Shin,
assaulted pro-democracy activists as they prayed for the release of Aung
San Suu Kyi at a Rangoon pagoda. More than 40 activists have been arrested
since the start of the prayer campaign.

Threats have also been issued by the state-run press, with The New Light
of Myanmar warning that activists would receive “punishment” if they
persisted in their political activities.

____________________________________


June 25, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
"Militarization" of Karen State picks up pace, rights group warns

Myanmar's military regime has established 33 new army bases in the Karen
State, where an 18-month-old offensive has already displaced 27,000 Karen
villagers who now face the threat of starvation, the human rights group
Burma Issues (BI) revealed Monday.

According to BI, a non-profit-organization that monitors Myanmar's human
rights record, the "militarization" of the Karen State in eastern Myanmar
has intensified in recent months, with the regime setting up 33 new army
bases and building more helicopter landing pads to facilitate the supply
of food, weapons and ammunition to the war zone.

The group also claimed that the Myanmar military had last month forced
1,000 villagers to clear a road for the army in the area, which has been
the target of a military offensive since November,
2005.

"In May 2007 approximately 1,000 villagers from six communities were
forced to clear a new road between the Burmese army camp at Toe Daw and
camp at Yin O Sein, Nyaung Law Bin District," said a BI statement, timed
as an update to its latest publication, entitled Shoot on Sight, The
Ongoing SPDC Offensive Against Villagers in Northern Karen State.

Myanmar's junta, the self-styled State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), has been carrying out a large-scale offensive against the three
districts of Toungoo, Nyanung Lay Bin and Muthraw, in the Karen State, for
the past 18 months with no let-up.

The offensive has forced more than 27,000 Karens to flee their homes in
the three districts, with thousands seeking shelter in camps for
"displaced persons" along the Thai border, while thousands of others
continue to lead a precarious existence in their homeland.

The Karen National Union (KNU) and its military wing the Karen National
Liberation Army (KNLA) have been waging a guerrilla war for the autonomy
of the Karen State since 1949, a year after Myanmar was granted
independence from Great Britain.

The decades-old insurgency was weakened by the death last December of
General Bo Mya, who led the KNU for more than 30 years, and the surrender
in January, this year, of former commander of the KNLA 7th Brigade,
Brigadier General Htain Maung.

The three districts that the Myanmar military have targeted are deemed
"the heartland" of the remaining KNU resistance.

"The reasons behind the offensive do not detract from the fact that the
Burmese army is attacking the civilian Karen population without any form
of provocation," said the BI in its latest publication.

The human rights group noted that the Myanmar military offensive has
prevented villagers from growing crops for the past three years, leading
to "severe food insecurity" in the area that could quickly lead to
starvation of thousands of homeless people.

International aid agencies are prevented by the SPDC from providing
assistance to the Karen State unless it is sent through government
channels.

____________________________________

June 25, Irrawaddy
27 killed in attacks on buses in Burma - Khun Sam

Insurgent groups in Burma have attacked passenger buses in two separate
incidents that killed 27 people and injured 11, claiming the victims were
armed troops, according to the government newspaper.

A report on the attacks in state-run newspaper The New Light of Myanmar
said the victims were “innocent passengers,” killed by “terrorist
insurgents.”

In the first attack, on June 21, 10 people, including a monk, died and
three were injured when insurgents opened fire on a passenger bus
traveling from Kawkareik to Thingan Nyinaung, in Karen State.

Mahn Sha, general secretary of the Karen National Union, which maintains
an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, claimed the bus was
carrying soldiers of the breakaway Democratic Karen Buddhist Army from
Pa-an District to Myawaddy Township, opposite the Thai border town of Mae
Sot.

The second attack occurred the following day. Seventeen people were killed
and eight others wounded in the attack o­n a bus traveling from Mawchi to
the Karenni capital Loikaw, in eastern Burma.

An ethnic armed group, the Karenni National Progressive Party, which is
active in Karenni State, claimed responsibility for that attack and said
those killed were soldiers of the Karenni Nationalities People’s
Liberation Front. Five guns had been recovered in the attack, KNPP
spokesman Raymond Htoo told The Irrawaddy o­n Monday.

Raymond Htoo claimed the KNPLF had commandeered a civilian bus to
transport troops, a common tactic to avoid attack.

Clashes between rival ethnic armies and between armed ethnic groups and
Burmese government troops have increased in recent weeks. Last Saturday,
fighting broke out between the KNPP’s 1st Battalion and the junta’s Light
Infantry Battalion 135 in Karenni State, near the Shan State border.
According to Raymond Htoo, two Burmese army soldier had died and one was
wounded.

Raymond Htoo said government troops had captured four KNPP soldiers in
other action on June 20, near the Salween River in Karenni State.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 25, Irrawaddy
Burmese authorities crack down on human trafficking - Saw Yan Naing

A Burmese man was arrested for human trafficking on Sunday involving 200
Burmese migrant workers as part of the government’s anti-human trafficking
operation in Kawthaung in southern Burma opposite Thailand’s Ranong
Province.

The man was identified as Kyaw Win. No other details were available.

The crackdown, led by Brig-Gen Zaw Thein Myint of Military Operation
Command, began last weekend with the cooperation of local police, Maung
Tu, a resident in Kawthaung. told The Irrawaddy.

“The crackdown is still going on," he said. "The order came from Naypyitaw
[Burma’s new capital]. They cracked down on the local resort and hotel as
well.

“They [200 Burmese migrant workers] planned to leave from Kawthaung in
early morning, but they were arrested when troops raided the resorts and
hotels last night.” Maung Tu said that around 500 Burmese migrant workers
cross the border everyday from Kawthaung to Thailand’s Ranong Province.
Due to the crackdown, boat and ferry crossings have slowed, according to
local sources.

Another Ranong resident said, “The [Burmese] government has lunched
anti-trafficking campaigns yearly, but they're not really effective.”
However, he said, “If they continue their crackdowns like this in the
future, it would be effective. But we need to wait and see.”

The Burmese government has launched yearly anti-human trafficking
crackdowns in Kawthaung since 2005. More than 400 people involved in human
trafficking in Burma have been arrested, according to reports.

A US State Department report, “Trafficking in Persons," released on June
13 said the military government has not done enough to stop the flow of
human trafficking, particularly of women and children.

The report said an increasing number of ethnic Burmese girls and women
have been leaving Burma in hope of finding work. Children also have been
trafficked to neighboring countries for sexual exploitation, forced labor
and as indentured street beggars, according to the report.

In addition, Malaysian authorities on Sunday found two Burmese women in
the trunk of a car at a northern Malaysian border checkpoint. The driver
of the car, a Thai police officer, was arrested, the Bangkok Post, an
English language newspaper, reported on Monday.

The International Labor Organization's deputy regional director, Guy
Thijs, recently told The Nation newspaper in Bangkok that many child
workers are trapped in Thailand by human traffickers.

In December, Border patrol police in Tak found 41 Burmese men and women in
the tank of an oil transport trailer without fresh air as they were being
transported from Mae Sot to Bangkok.

Last year, about 740000 migrant workers from Burma registered with
the Department of Employment in Thailand. Many more Burmese migrants are
working illegally. About 70,000 Laotian and Cambodian migrant workers in
Thailand are now registered with Thai authorities. An estimated 1 million
Burmese migrant workers are working in Thailand.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 24, Agence France Presse
Myanmar garment exports 'dire' because of US sanctions - Hla Hla Htay

Myanmar's garment exports declined again last year under the weight of US
sanctions, an industry group said, amid questions about whether the
measures will persuade the military regime to reform.

"Our garment exports are still going down because of the US sanctions.
There's been no recovery yet, even though we have tried to turn things
around," an official of the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association told
AFP.

"The situation is dire. We've made no improvement at all," he said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk
to the media.

Myanmar exported 280 million dollars worth of garments in 2006, down more
than 12 percent from the previous year's exports of 320 million dollars,
he said.

Garment exports reached a high of 850 million dollars in 2001 but exports
plunged after the United States toughened sanctions against the military
government in 2003, in protest at the junta's detention of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Nobel peace laureate was arrested after a pro-government mob ambushed
her convoy in May 2003, in an attack that her National League for
Democracy party says left nearly 100 dead.

The military then put her under house arrest for the third time. She has
spent a total of nearly 12 years in detention since her first arrest in
1989.

Sanctions were first imposed in the mid-1990s, when Aung San Suu Kyi urged
the world to put pressure on the junta to respect results of 1990
elections won by her party.

The United States now has a total ban on Myanmar exports, while the
European Union maintains targeted measures including a travel ban on the
junta, an arms embargo, and a ban on investment in state companies.

But US sanctions dealt an especially severe blow to the country's textile
industry, costing some 80,000 jobs as factories closed their doors with
the loss of their largest market, according to officials and analysts.

The official with the industry group said Myanmar continues to export
textiles to Japan, South Africa and Latin America.

"We have to continue to work in the garment sector anyway, although our
exports aren't much." he said.

A US senator last week asked the Congress to renew sanctions for another
year, saying the regime was getting more reckless and the humanitarian
situation in the country was worsening.

Within Southeast Asia, where there is growing frustration at Myanmar's
failure to reform, there are also questions about the effectiveness of
sanctions, which after a decade have failed to produce any tangible
political change.

The secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations said
earlier in June that the economic penalties weren't working.

"They (the junta) are happy being isolated because they are left alone to
do whatever they want to do," Ong Keng Yong told reporters at a meeting in
Malaysia.

"What we are saying is perhaps we should look at some other ways of doing
it instead of just (keeping) on applying sanctions," he said.

With Myanmar's neighbours China, India and Thailand more than happy to do
business with the regime, some analysts argue that the penalties have been
too blunted to work.

"Economic sanctions are not effective in terms of achieving desirable
results, such as democratisation and an end to human rights abuses," said
Aung Naing Oo, a Thailand-based Myanmar analyst.

"If China and India joined international sanctions against Burma, then we
could see effective results," he said, using the country's former name.

"But as long as Burma has friendly relations with China and India, this
won't happen."

____________________________________

June 23, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to privatize 11 state-owned enterprises

Eleven Myanmar's state-owned foodstuff factories, rice mills and bran oil
mills will be privatized, said the government's Privatization Commission
Saturday.

Three foodstuff factories of the Myanmar Foodstuff Enterprise under the
Ministry of Industry-1 and five rice mills and three bran oil mills of the
Myanmar Agricultural Produce Trading under the Ministry of Commerce will
be privatized through competitive bidding system, the commission said.

Invitations of application for the auction are being extended to
individuals and organizations with the date set for July 25 alone, it
added.

A total of 215 state-owned enterprises (SOE) out of 288 proposed from 10
ministries have been 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 in April.

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.

____________________________________

June 25, Irrawaddy
Old batteries big business on Burma-China border - Shah Paung

Burmese traders near the Chinese border are getting top dollar for old
storage batteries, according to local business traders.

A businessman in Bhamo, Kachin State, told The Irrawaddy that China has
become a principal market in the trade of used storage batteries because
traders get better prices selling across the border than they do in Burma.

Border traders sell used batteries at about 1,700 (US $1.36) per viss,
equal to 1.6 kg. A single used 12-volt storage battery can cost as much as
25,000 to 30,000 kyat ($20 to $24), while 24-volt batteries cost more than
45,000 kyat ($35).

Used batteries fetch lower prices in Rangoon, according to o­ne local
battery shop owner, who said he charges about 10,000 to 20,000 kyat ($8 to
$15) for o­ne 12-volt battery.

The price of new batteries in Rangoon can get as high as 60,000 kyat ($47)
for one 12-volt battery and 120,000 ($110) for a 24-volt battery.

An increasing number of Burma’s used storage batteries end up in Muse,
across the China border.

“The Chinese are buying all kinds of things from Burma, including scrap
iron and old storage batteries,” the Bhamo businessman said.

Some storage batteries can be reconditioned, but according to a June
report in the Rangoon-based monthly magazine Living Color, they serve more
unusual purposes in China, where the lead is extracted and used to make
gold and silver decorative paper or shipped to factories as raw materials.

Living Color also noted that the batteries are often sold by the
truckload, fetching prices of up to 30 million kyat ($23,800).

New battery production in Burma has decreased in recent years due to a
lack of raw production materials and an inability to produce the batteries
in sufficient quantities for export to neighboring countries, according to
the magazine.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 25, Irrawaddy
HIV patients campaign for activists’ release - Aye Lae

Hundreds of HIV/AIDS patients in Rangoon have called for the release of 11
HIV activists, including Phyu Phyu Thin, currently being held in police
custody at an unknown location, according to sources in the former
capital.

“We sent a letter signed by hundreds of patients to authorities at the
Ministry of Home Affairs,” Tin Ko, an HIV patient, told The Irrawaddy by
phone o­n Monday. “She [Phyu Phyu Thin] is essential.”

Phyu Phyu Thin, a National League for Democracy youth member and a leader
in the group's HIV/AIDS section, was arrested o­n May 21 during a prayer
campaign for the release of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Phyu Phyu Thin had been working to help HIV/AIDS patients through
education, counseling, housing and arranging for medical care.

Family members of Phyu Phyu Thin also confirmed to The Irrawaddy that the
detained activists have initiated a hunger strike.

"Today is the seventh day of [Phyu Phyu Thin’s] hunger strike," Sabae
Thin, a sister of Phyu Phyu Thin, said. "We received the information on
Saturday through sources where she was kept. But the authorities have
refused to give any information about where she is detained. We are
concerned very much about her health."

Phyu Phyu Thin and other detained activists were believed to be detained
at facilities in the Kyaikkasan stadium in Rangoon, where another Suu Kyi
supporter, Su Su Nway, was previously detained under close watch by female
police officers, according to activist sources. She was released on June
7.

News of the detained HIV activists has generated little response outside
of Burma, according to the moderator of an Internet blog site, known as
HIM, that compiles news about HIV/AIDS in Burma.

“When an HIV activist goes missing in China, all hell breaks loose,” the
moderator said. “The major mass media, blogs, email lists and powerful
movers and shakers get involved. When Phyu Phyu Thin disappears in Myanmar
[Burma], the international response is almost nothing.”
____________________________________

June 25, Mizzima News
Children most affected by fresh Dengue outbreak in Rangoon - Nem Davies

A fresh outbreak of Dengue in Burma's former capital Rangoon has raised
new fears among residents with at least three to four people being
admitted to hospital daily. There have been a number of deaths from the
fever.

While the fever, which is a recurring problem in Burma come monsoon, has
spread across the city, the hardest hit according to Dr. Daw Tin Aye
Myint, head of Insein Township general hospital, are Insein, Ahlone, Kyi
Myin Dine and Shwe Pyi Thar townships.

"I cannot tell you the exact number of patients. There are about three to
four and sometimes about five to six patients being admitted daily. And
there are a number of children as well," Dr. Myint told Mizzima.

While avoiding terming it as 'serious', she confirmed that there has been
a few deaths caused by the fever.

"Its more like recurring and there is nothing to be alarmed about
 The
child patients become more serious and there are already a few children
who have died because of the fever. But I cannot tell you the numbers,"
Dr. Myint added.

Medical experts said Dengue which is caused by mosquito bites, are common
in Burma during the monsoon, which sets in by May and continues till
August. Children and elders are among the most vulnerable group.

The emergency ward of the Rangoon general hospital has been filled by
children suffering from Dengue. However, the hospital officials declined
to say the number of patients that are there.

Burma's Ministry of Health in an effort to combat the outbreak has
reportedly conducted a clean drive in Rangoon and surrounding townships
and begun a Dengue fever awareness campaign.

Statistics reported by a local newspaper, suggest an average of over
10,000 children suffer from Dengue every year with 300 to 400 deaths.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 25, Mizzima News
India trains Burmese pilots in Kochi - Syed Ali Mujtaba

In another shot in the arm to the Burmese military junta, India has begun
to train officers of Burma's Tatmadaw Lay [Myanmar Air Force] at the naval
base in Kochi (Kerala). The Burmese pilots are being taught to handle
sophisticated aircraft.

"India has agreed to transfer three British made Islander aircraft to
Myanmar [Burma] and train its pilots on how to handle them," sources in
the Defence Ministry said.

"The cooperation in the defence sector is in keeping with the Prime
Minister's desire to improve relations with Myanmar [Burma]," said a
senior officer in the Defence Ministry.

"Both sides are discussing the transfer of more Islander planes after
firming up maintenance and servicing issues," he added.

The transfer of three BN-2 'Defender' Islander maritime surveillance
aircraft to Burma was finalized during Indian Naval Chief, Admiral Sureesh
Mehta's visit to the Southeast Asian country in May. This is in addition
to two similar aircrafts supplied to the military junta in August 2006.

The Indian Navy now has around 13 Islanders it acquired from UK around
1976. It is planning to replace most of these planes with new Dornier
aircraft.

"The possibility of more such aircrafts being transferred to Myanmar in
the near future cannot be ruled out," said a retired naval officer, an
expert on maritime issues.

"The UK-built Islanders would be stripped of all armaments and deployed
exclusively for relief and humanitarian missions in Myanmar [Burma]," he
added.

However India's move to gift the aircraft is viewed by some human right
groups as an attempt to bolster the military government of Burma.

____________________________________

June 24, Agence France Presse
Singapore FM sees Myanmar nuclear programme as unlikely

Myanmar is unlikely to develop a nuclear programme as the military-run
country already has enough domestic problems to overcome, Singapore's
Foreign Minister George Yeo said Sunday.

"I can't believe that a nuclear programme is high up on their list of
priorities... They have enough problems of their own," Yeo said in
response to a question at the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

Russia announced in May that it had agreed to help build a nuclear
research centre in Myanmar.

Washington denounced the plan, saying such a facility would be a
singularly bad idea given Myanmar's abysmal rights record and non-existent
nuclear oversight structure.

Myanmar is under US and European economic sanctions imposed in response to
rights abuses and the house arrest of 62-year-old democracy icon and Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Washington has accused the Myanmar regime of torturing, raping and
executing its own people as well as waging war on minorities and looking
the other way while drug and human trafficking grows.

The impact of the sanctions has been muted as China, India, Russia and
Thailand have spent billions of dollars to gain a share of Myanmar's vast
energy resources.

Myanmar is one of 10 members in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), which includes Singapore, but it has embarrassed the regional
bloc by refusing to introduce democratic reforms.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later
rejected the results of national elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy.

ASEAN is pursuing a policy of "constructive engagement" to encourage
Myanmar to democratise. But this has led to friction with the United
States and the European Union.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 25, Mizzima News
UN children's envoy begins Burma visit today - Mungpi

The United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict,
Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, embarked on a five day visit to Burma today,
according to UN officials in Rangoon.

Ms. Coomaraswamy's trip to military-ruled Burma is to set-up a monitoring
and reporting mechanism on grave violations committed against children in
keeping with the UN Security Council resolution in 2005, according to the
press release from the UN information Centre in Rangoon.

There are at least 70,000 child soldiers in Burma's military camps
including in camps of ethnic rebels, fighting against the Burmese regime,
according to Human Rights Watch.

While, both the government and ethnic rebels deny the allegations, Burma
watchers and analysts said the figures are under-estimated saying several
children in the Burmese Army camps have not been counted due to several
difficulties and the junta's systematic cover up

"Ms. Coomaraswamy will pay particular attention to the issues of children
associated with armed groups and humanitarian access," said the press
release.

Besides meeting top military leaders of the Southeast Asian nation, the UN
representative will also meet the UN country team, members of the civil
society and children affected by conflict, in an effort to ensure greater
protection for children.

According to the UNSC resolution in 2005, the Security Council Working
Group on Children and Armed Conflict will examine the Secretary General's
report on the situation of children in Burma in November 2007.

Ms. Coomaraswamy, a lawyer by training and Chairperson of the Sri Lanka
Human Rights Commission, is an internationally known human rights advocate
who has done outstanding work as Special Rapporteur on Violence against
Women.

Ms.Coomaraswamy was appointed the Special Representative for Children and
Armed Conflict by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2006.

____________________________________

June 23, Voice of America
US Senate condemns Burma for holding political prisoners

The U.S. Senate has condemned Burma's government for its continued
detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners.

Senators demanded in a non-binding resolution Friday that Burma's military
government immediately release the Nobel laureate.

The resolution's sponsor and the leader of the Republican minority,
Senator Mitch McConnell, said the passage of the resolution reflects the
Senate's grave concern about the deteriorating situation in Burma.

He said senators are committed to keeping the pressure on what he
described as Burma's "dictatorial regime," and continuing to promote
democracy and reconciliation in Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 17 years under detention or
house arrest.

Her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in
1990 elections. But Burma's military government has refused to recognize
the results and has prevented the party from taking office.

The United Nations estimates there are 1,100 political prisoners in Burma.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

June 25, Inter Press Service - Asia Pacific
What to do with Burma? - Rosalia Sciortino

Asian Development Bank denied providing direct financial backing to
developmental efforts in Burma under the Greater Mekong Sub-region
cooperation framework, according to Mizzima news agency based in India.

Responding to inquiries by the human rights group EarthRights
International, the ADB stressed that no direct loans have been provided to
Burma since 1986. The article quoted the ADB's e-mail reply thus: "There
is no connection of the ADB, either bilaterally or through GMS, with any
government project the Government of Myanmar may be implementing,
including the Tasang dam and the East-West Corridor highway in Myanmar.”
The ADB's financial support to Burma as a GMS member consists of "rather
nominal" amounts in technical assistance, it added.

On May 10, the People’s Daily o­nline of China presented additional
insights o­n the construction and financing of the Burmese section of the
East-West Corridor. It reported that work has started o­n the Thingan
Nyainaung - Kawkareik section, in between the just-completed segment from
Myawaddy and the to-be constructed final section to the Mawlamyne deep-sea
port o­n the Bay of Bengal, thanks to aid from Thailand.

When finished, this long-awaited road would link the Indian and the
Pacific oceans, greatly facilitating intraregional transportation and
trade. It would bring a step closer to realization the vision of the Asian
Highways, a pan-Asian network of roads stretching from Europe to the Far
East.

The hesitance by the ADB and the contrasting willingness by neighboring
governments to provide financial support to Burma under the same GMS
scheme are emblematic of the regional bloc’s unresolved position toward
its most “controversial” member state.

The military regime of Burma (called the State Peace and Development
Council, or SPDC) is widely condemned for its repressive rules and
economic mismanagement. International pressure is mounting o­n the SPDC to
set a democratic process in motion through political reform and national
reconciliation.

The US maintains extensive sanctions, including visa restrictions, an arms
embargo, and bans o­n aid, investments and imports. The EU has
restrictions o­n selected Burmese state-run enterprises and has
recommended that its member states vote against international financial
aid to Burma. Development assistance by UN agencies and other
international bodies is justified o­nly for “humanitarian reasons.”

Gradually, even Burma’s neighbors in Southeast Asia are becoming more
concerned about its internal situation. In 2004, the Asean
Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus was established to foster political
change in Burma. In 2005, Asean issued a declaration asking for reforms
and for the release of political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi. In 2006, Burma was compelled to renounce its turn to chair
Asean, and there are now calls to suspend its membership. Still, no o­ne
country in the region has so far implemented economic sanctions against
Burma. Corporate investment and development aid continue unabated and have
even been increasing o­n the part of some countries.

As a sub-regional bloc, the GMS has shown even less inclination than Asean
to use political and economic sanctions to “reform” Burma.

GMS states are committed to working together for socio-economic
development through “solidarity” and “mutual respect” and adhere to the
principle of non-intervention in o­ne another’s national matters. There is
agreement among them that the GMS is an economic and not a political
arrangement. Therefore, it is argued that it is not the GMS’s role to put
pressure o­n Burma, and that Asean is the appropriate locus for this
thorny issue.

As far as GMS countries are concerned, Burma ought to have the same rights
and obligations as other member states. To exclude Burma would imply
giving up the entire vision of the riparian Mekong countries as
constituting a unique sub-region, thus undermining the very fundamentals
of the GMS program.

The economic and geo-political interests of individual GMS countries, and
their corporate sectors, favor market-based rather than human rights
considerations. Burma is rich in much-needed energy resources and has a
role to play in Asia-wide military and trade strategies, thanks to its
access to the Indian Ocean and its closeness to India. Burma’s main
investors are from Asia. Of the four largest, two—China and Thailand—are
GMS countries (the other two being Singapore and Japan).

This cooperative stance is not well received by the growing movement of
civil society groups in the region and abroad that wish Burma's neighbors
would finally bring pressure to bear o­n the SPDC.

In their view, the implementation of GMS programs in Burma’s repressive
environment, even if well intentioned, will inevitably lead to rights
violations, including forced labor and relocations, and widespread
violence against women, ethnic minorities and other vulnerable groups.

What is more, the promised economic benefits of regional development do
not reach the intended beneficiaries, such as the people of Burma, but
instead help maintain and enrich the military regime that oppresses them.

The ADB and other financial backers of the GMS cooperation program have
started to take into account these arguments, being sensitive to negative
publicity and having to respond to activist constituencies in the West.
Besides the withholding of direct loans to Burma, the sponsoring of
sub-regional meetings in the country has been reduced. The headquarters of
GMS-funded projects are preferably located in other GMS countries.

However, the member states have not followed suit, as is apparent from the
Ayeyawady-Chao Praya-Mekong Economic Strategy, a complementary economic
agreement involving all GMS countries except China. Spearheaded by Thai
aid and without a prominent role for the ADB, the strategy was launched in
2003 in Pagan and upheld recently in Mandalay—both these cities are in
Burma, as if to stress this country’s vital place in the coalition.

To expect GMS governments with authoritarian inclinations to be moved by
rights arguments may seem somewhat unrealistic. The timid reaction of
Thailand and the lack of comments from other GMS countries about the
SPDC's decision to extend the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi for another
year does not bode well for those aspiring to see a clear
pro-democratization stand from the bloc. Nonetheless, GMS countries are
ever more part of a global community that puts pressure o­n them to
pressure Burma.

And, if not political convictions, then maybe pragmatism will be the
critical factor in this situation. The same process of regional
integration that compels GMS countries to include Burma in developmental
plans is confronting them with the transnational impacts of such
inclusion.

Poor national governance of Burma's macroeconomics, resulting in the
exacerbation of poverty and other social ills, slows down regional growth
and causes wider sub-regional disparities. Conflict and ethnic tensions,
compounded by poverty, are leading to unsafe migration and trafficking to
neighboring countries. The cover-up and insufficient control of epidemics
poses a threat to the health of the people in the GMS as a whole. The
boycott of tourism to Burma impacts on regional plans to promote the
sub-region as a unique travel destination.

It is not unthinkable that if the situation deteriorates further, and
structural legal and financial adjustments fail to be undertaken, even GMS
corporations will lose some of their enthusiasm for investing in
development projects and for-profit ventures in Burma, endangering market
integration as a driver for sub-regional development.

Paradoxically, the sub-regional development agenda may be jeopardized by
the same governance issue that GMS countries have been so careful to avoid
in order to formulate and implement their joint plans. Burma’s
unquestioned inclusion in the GMS may eventually be challenged by the
spill-over impacts of well meant, but ill-governed, cooperative efforts.

Rosalia Sciortino is an associate professor at the Institute for
Population and Social Research at Mahidol University.