BurmaNet News, July 13, 2007

[Editor]

July 13, 2007 Issue # 3246

INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: NLD wants junta to meet Suu Kyi for consent over legal action
DPA: Anti-inflationary protest planned in Myanmar
DVB: Families of jailed activists repeat calls for their release
Kantarawaddy Times: DKBA forces relocation of two Karen villages

ON THE BORDER
DVB: Number of ‘stateless’ Burmese children rises in Thailand
Kaladan News: NGO helps out refugees on Bangladesh-Burma border

BUSINESS / TRADE
DVB: Rice trading stalls in Rangoon
Narinjara News: Burmese authorities to set up CDMA lines in Arakan

ASEAN
DPA: Kofi Annan urges Asean to exert "pressure" on Burma

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burmese opposition questions Gambari’s view of “progress”
United Nations News Centre: UN envoy discusses Myanmar with India

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 13, Mizzima News
NLD wants junta to meet Suu Kyi for consent over legal action

In a new appeal, the National League for Democracy, Burma's largest
opposition political party, today requested the ruling military junta to
send a government representative to meet detained party leader Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and seek her consent about legally appealing against her
detention.

The NLD today sent the a fresh letter to the junta's cabinet requesting it
to meet Burmese pro-democracy leader, Suu Kyi, on their behalf and ask for
her consent over the party's plan to legally appeal regarding her
arbitrary detention. The letter was sent following the junta's failure to
respond to the party's earlier request to allow them a meeting with Suu
Kyi.

"Since the authorities did not respond to our request to meet Suu Kyi, we
are now asking the junta leaders to meet her and ask for her directive
over what she wants us to do legally about her detention and give us a
formal letter that will allow a representative to fight on her behalf
against her detention," said NLD spokesperson, Nyan Win, who is also a
lawyer by profession.

On June 23, the NLD submitted a letter requesting the junta to allow party
members a meeting with Suu Kyi to consult her and obtain directions on how
she wants to legally go about her arbitrary detention. However, the junta
did not respond to the NLD's request.

"We do not want to do anything without her [Suu Kyi] consent. That's why
we requested a meeting with her. And if the junta fails to respond this
time, it will clearly prove that the regime is intentionally stopping us
from legally appealing against her detention," said U Nyan Win.

The Nobel Peace Laureate has been in detention for over 11 of the past 18
years. Her latest arrest was in May 2003, following a bloody clashes
between her supporters and junta-backed mobs in Depayin, central Burma
during her political tour. Despite completing her house arrest terms, as
is announced by the junta annually, her detention period was further
extended to another year on May 27.

____________________________________

July 13, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Anti-inflationary protest planned in Myanmar

Myanmar's anti-inflation activists plan to hold a Buddhist ceremony over
the weekend to protest against the country's growing economic plight,
handouts said Friday.

Calling itself the 'Falling of Commodity Prices Group,' fliers handed out
in Yangon urged the people to turn up Sunday at the Tharthanagonye
Buddhist temple in Bahan district of Yangon to give robes to monks while
protesting rising inflation.

The group is led by Win Naing, a self-styled 'independent politician,' who
organized similar protests in February, this year, leading to several
arrests by authorities.

Win Naing has tried to highlight the government's economic failures via
passive protests, rather than concentrating on political issues such as
the ruling junta's refusal to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or
implement democratic reforms.

In February his anti-inflation activists marched in Yangon to protest
rising food prices, frequent electricity cuts, corruption and
mismanagement of the economy.

After their brief march downtown, the protesters were detained,
interrogated and made to promise they would not stage another
demonstration.

Inflation has been on the rise in Myanmar since April 2006, when the
military junta hiked government salaries by as much as 500 per cent.

One Yangon-based market researcher estimated that the price of
high-quality rice rose 100 per cent last year while the price of chillies
rose 200 per cent, pepper 300 per cent and onions 250 per cent.

Although the government estimated inflation at 10.7 per cent in 2006,
Western embassies said it was closer to 50 per cent.

Protests are rare in Myanmar, which has essentially been under martial law
since 1988. All public gatherings of more than five people banned unless
they have received official permission.

Crackdowns on all shows of dissent were intensified after the 1990 general
election, which was won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) Party
of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The regime has ignored that election result for the past 17 years, arguing
that a new constitution would be needed before an elected government could
take over. Another general election might be held by 2008 although no date
has been set.

____________________________________

July 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Families of jailed activists repeat calls for their release

The families of prayer campaigners still under detention in Burma again
called for their release today, saying that it was time that they were
informed about the reasons behind their loved ones’ detentions.

Ko Aye Naing, Ko Thant Zin Myo, Ko Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min, Ko Phyo Wai Lynn
remain in detention after being arrested by the Burmese authorities on May
15 for taking part in a prayer campaign calling for the release of all
political prisoners in the country.

Father of Ko Aye Naing, U Khin Nyo, said that if prayer was a crime in
Burma, then everyone in the country would be liable for prosecution.

“We want him to be given a punishment under the law if he is guilty of a
crime. Put him on court and sentence him. But if you cannot prove that he
is guilty of anything, I want him to be released immediately,” U Khin Nyo.

The men are reportedly being held at the police brigade three in Rangoon’s
Hmawbi township. Family members of the detained men also said that they
were preparing to send letters of complaint to senior general and junta
leader Than Shwe.

Ma Hla Hla Maw, Ko Thant Zin Myo's wife and a member of the opposition
National League for Democracy said that while she was detained at the same
time as her husband, she was released after 45 days.

“We haven't heard anything about my husband . . . He has heart problem and
we worry for him because there was no proper medical assistance in
detention places. The food and living conditions there are bad, too,” Ma
Hla Hla Maw said.

____________________________________

July 13, Kantarawaddy Times
DKBA forces relocation of two Karen villages

Two villages - Bar Htar and Bar Balu Khohki have been forced to relocate
by DKBA's brigade 907 on July 9. The two villages are located in Kawkarit
Township, Karen State.

Major Saw Hla Ngwe, KNU's spokesperson, who is in KNU's information
department said, "They have forced them to relocate after the last fire
fight with KNU. They are nursing a grudge after a number of causalities in
the last battle. Relatives of some KNU members were living in those
villages. Hence, they accused the villagers of supporting KNU, and passing
on information."

There was no reason for the forced relocation of villagers, he added.

Given the forced relocation, villagers are unable to work in their
slash-burn rice field. With the onset of the monsoon some villagers have
become ill and are finding it difficult to procure food. Families with
children and lots of baggage are in a spot following the relocation.

"We would like to help them but the villages are under areas controlled by
DKBA and SPDC," said Maj Saw Hla Ngwe.

There are over 30 houses in Bar Htar village. The village was forced to
relocate to Mae Kanel village. Only a monk remained in Bar Htar village.
Some villagers moved to Mae Kanel village but some villagers have been
hiding in the jungle.

Bar Balu Khohki village is yet to relocate because villagers do not know
about the relocation site.

The Democratic Voice of Burma interviewed Maj Zee Gwet, a commander of
DKBA's brigade 907, who said "we are not forcing the villages to relocate.
We are clearing the area of robbers and thieves. We are working for local
development around brigade 907 area. That's why we are tackling
saboteurs."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

July 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Number of ‘stateless’ Burmese children rises in Thailand

The number of stateless, unregistered children among the Burmese community
in Thailand is rising steadily in Mae Sot, according to high-profile
doctor and rights campaigner Dr Cynthia Maung.

“A [United Nations office of the High Commissioner for Refugees] program
provides birth certificates for children born to illegal migrant workers
or those in Thailand’s refugees camps,” Dr Cynthia Maung said.

“But there still needs to be work done to provide certificates to the
children of internally displaced people and those with no documents. There
is still no real solution for these stateless children,” she said.

A nurse at the Mae Tao clinic, which is run by Dr Cynthia Maung, in Mae
Sot said that the number of children being born stateless was increasing
each year and that more needed to be done to ensure the children were
legally recognised.

“We have between 150 and 170 stateless child births every month. In 2006,
we had a total of more than 1700 [stateless] births. There are also still
a large number of deliveries that are done at homes with local
birth-assistants,” Nurse Sophia said.

____________________________________

July 13, Kaladan News
NGO helps out refugees on Bangladesh-Burma border

Teknaf, Bangladesh: A NGO are finding ways to help people on the
Bangladesh- Burma border including undocumented Rohingyas refugees in the
Dum Dum Meah makeshift camp.

Staff members of a NGO, Solinfo, distributed clothes to the refugees on
July 4 evening following heavy rain in the morning, said Mr. Taranova,
President of Solinfo.

According to Mr. Taranova, the NGO, which is working for educating poor
children especially orphans, had organized some companies to help people
living in border areas by collecting different types of clothes like
shirts, skirts, T-shirts, warm clothes, short pants and trousers. These
were brought to the order and distributed.

"The first time when I visited the Rohingya refugee camp in Tal, Teknaf, I
said that the refugees are poor and their living standard is also very
low, so I decided to help them people involving some companies. Now, we
have distributed some clothes to those shifted to the Dum Dum Meah camp.
But it is not sufficient, so we need to do more. The condition of the camp
is very bad and people need help on humanitarian ground," Mr. Taranova
said.

"But now the health situation in the camp is better than during my first
visit as the Medicins Sense Frontieres (MSF) has been working for the
refugees," he added.

Solinfo is a NGOs from France , which is working on education like
computer training and basic education for the children of the poor and
orphans. Now it has 14 computer centers and three school buildings in
Bangladesh .

The refugee camp is located between mountains and the bank of Naf River
near Teknaf-Cox's Bazaar Highway .

"The condition of camps is very terrible and the living condition is also
very bad. If tides from the river come we can't sleep in our huts and if
there is heavy rain mountain water seeps into the camp and the refugee are
not able to stay in their huts," said Majees of the camp.

"It was very essential because the place is wet and dam. The houses get
flooded when the tide comes," said Claudia Stephan, the project
coordinator of MSF. "Most of the houses are made of polythene sheets and
sacks. It is not sufficient to protect against rain so cold-related
diseases are very common."

"I have visited many refugee camps across the world, and was most recently
in Darfur , Sudan . But the situation here (Dum Dum Meah) is worst than
that," said Jaap Broersma, the MSF Head of Mission.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Rice trading stalls in Rangoon

Trading at the Bayintnaung rice market in Rangoon ground to a halt earlier
this month after the Burmese authorities imposed restrictions on the sale
price of the staple food, locals told DVB.

As rice prices had increased dramatically in the past eight weeks, the
State Peace and Development Council reportedly ordered that the sale
prices of the vital commodity be frozen, leaving many sellers struggling
to stay in business.

“The old crop of special variety of monsoon rice costs 19,500 kyats per
sack while the price of the special summer variety is 18,500 kyats,” one
trader said.

“Rice that comes in from the districts is bought by the [Myanmar Rice
Traders Association] and they pay only 18,00 kyats . . . Because of that,
no one wants to bring rice to Rangoon and none of the brokerage houses are
trading. You can say that the business has come to a standstill,“ the
trader said on condition of anonymity.

“They say that they are doing so that they can sell the rice on to the
public and keep prices low, but it is too late to try to control the
prices.”

____________________________________

July 13, Narinjara News
Burmese authorities to set up CDMA lines in Arakan

The Myanmar Post and Telecommunication has decided to provide CDMA, or
Code Division Multiple Access phone lines in Arakan State along with other
coastal areas in Burma.

Nearly 55,000 CDMA phone lines will be installed in four coastal areas -
Arakan and Mon States, and Tanintharyi and Irrawaddy Divisions, MPT
authorities confirmed.

It intends to set up better communication links with other parts of Burma,
particularly to improve the flow of information regarding weather
conditions to help prepare for natural disasters.

According to the MPT, about 30,000 CDMA phones have been installed in
Rangoon, Mandalay, and Mogok.

Meanwhile, Burma also has plans to introduce 140,000 GSM phones - double
the present number - to facilitate communication links in the country. The
project is slated for completion in the years ahead.

The installation of GSM phones will cover more than 10 areas, including
Myityina, Pakkokku, Shwebo, Taungoo, Kawthoung, Myawaddy, and Pha-an, with
the project extending to include more areas in Yangon, Mandalay, and Pyin
Oo Lwin.

In Rangoon alone 81,000 GSM phones are to be provided in the near future.
This figure amounts to about one phone for 40 people, as compared to the
current figure of one GSM phone for 74 people.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 13, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Kofi Annan urges Asean to exert "pressure" on Burma

Nobel laureate and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan on Friday urged
Southeast Asian governments to exert more pressure on Burma's military
government to speed up democratic reforms.

Annan also suggested that a non-interference policy among member nations
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) ought to be revised,
warning that domestic problems within a country often affected
neighbouring countries in the same region.

"Asean can use peer pressure to steer things right in Myanmar," Annan told
a media conference in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur.

More political and economic groupings in the world such as the African
Union and the EU have come to realise that crisis does not remain within
geographical borders, but "tends to spread," he said.

Burma is a member of the 10-nation Asean, along with Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam.

Annan said Asean "should be able to do more" to urge Burma's ruling junta
to speed up action on its promises of democratic reform.

He also commented on the role of the United States in the UN, saying it
"should work together with the UN" and not make decisions on its own,
referring to Washington's move to begin the war in Iraq.

"No country can act on its own, no matter how powerful," said Annan.

However, he noted that the US government was beginning to become "more
multilateral" in its policies.

"I sense a shift in Washington, even by this administration. It is
becoming more multilateral than it was 2 years ago, more multilateral than
it was in 2003 before the war in Iraq," he said. "And I suspect the next
administration will continue this trend."

Annan arrived in Malaysia Thursday to deliver a speech on how the country
could contribute to global peace and development.

He emphasized the role of Muslim nations, particularly multi-ethnic
Malaysia, in mediating peace in the Middle East.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 13, Irrawaddy
Burmese opposition questions Gambari’s view of “progress” - Htet Aung

Leading Burmese opposition figures took issue o­n Friday with a call by
the UN Secretary-General’s special adviser on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, for
“progress” to be recognized as a way of encouraging movement by the
Burmese regime towards democracy.

Gambari made the appeal in an interview with Reuters news agency during a
stop in India on his three-nation Asian tour to sound out governments o­n
the Burma issue. “The best approach is
to combine, to recognize progress
where it has been made and encourage them to move further along the lines
of democratization and respect for human rights,” Gambari said.

“I want to ask what progress [made by the regime] means,” was the reaction
on Friday from Myint Thein, spokesman for Burma’s main opposition party,
the National League for Democracy. “I have to say there is no progress
politically.”

Myint Thein said India, as the world’s largest democracy “as well as our
neighbor,” should “encourage democratization in Burma, rather than
building a good relationship between the two countries.”

Cin Sian Thang, chairman of the Zomi National Congress, also took issue
with Gambari’s statement. “I see no progress toward democracy at all,” he
said in a phone interview with The Irrawaddy o­n Friday. “The military
operations and human rights violations in ethnic minority areas and
pro-democracy activists arbitrarily arrested by unknown people, not the
authorities, backed by the regime are not progress.”

Asked whether the completion of the National Convention could be seen as
“progress,” Cin Sian Thang said: “It will be progress for them [the
regime], not for the people.”

During his India visit, Gambari had a “candid discussion” with Indian
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, said UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe.

First stop o­n his tour was China, where he met Chinese Vice Foreign
Minister Dai Bingguo and Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai.

“China believes the situation in Myanmar [Burma] does not pose a threat to
regional and international peace and stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Qin Gang told reporters after the meeting. “What happens in
Myanmar should be solved independently by the people in Myanmar itself.”

Gambari was in Japan on Friday, and was scheduled to meet senior foreign
ministry officials before returning to New York.

Gambari’s former boss, ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, urged Asean
during a visit to Malaysia on Friday to be “politically courageous” in
promoting good governance in the region.

“All other regional organizations which started the same way of
non-interference now realize that crises do not remain internal or
geographically limited for long.”

____________________________________

July 13, United Nations News Centre
UN envoy discusses Myanmar with India

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser on Myanmar, Ibrahim
Gambari, today wrapped up his meetings in New Delhi with Indian officials,
part of his current round of consultations in major Asian capitals, a
spokesperson for the world body said.

Mr. Gambari had a "candid discussion" with the Indian Foreign Secretary
Shivshankar Menon, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York.

The two found agreement on the need to "recognize positive steps made by
Myanmar, while at the same time encouraging it to make further progress
towards democratization and human rights," she added.

Speaking to reporters in the Indian capital, Mr. Gambari reiterated that
he intends to visit Myanmar soon, although specific dates have not yet
been determined.

New Delhi is the second stop on Mr. Gambari's current trip to discuss
Myanmar with some of the key countries in the region. He met with Chinese
Government counterparts in Beijing on Monday and will be meeting senior
Japanese officials on Friday in Tokyo before returning to New York.

Since being appointed Special Adviser in May, Mr. Gambari has consulted
broadly on the situation in Myanmar, including a visit to Washington two
weeks ago.