BurmaNet News, July 18-19, 2007

[Editor]

July 18-19, 2007 Issue # 3249

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Final constitutional convention begins in Myanmar without
pro-democracy leader
IPS: New constitution in two months – Junta
AP: Suu Kyi misses ceremony marking father's assassination
Irrawaddy: KIO to challenge regime’s National Convention appeal
Kaladan News: Burma Army- Nasaka clash over toll collection in Taungbro
Mizzima News: Burmese historical research department to sue Weekly Eleven

BUSINESS / TRADE
Xinhua: Myanmar earns less tax revenue from private sector in 2006-07
Mizzima News: GAIL pulls out of A7 block in Burma
KNG: Burmese tycoons invade jade mines, arable land in Kachin State

REGIONAL
The Nation: China's role in Burma's National Convention

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: UN chief urges Burma to be more open
AP: Myanmar minister says junta ready to cooperate with US
Irrawaddy: Empty chair for Suu Kyi at Mandela’s birthday party

PRESS RELEASE
The 88 Generation Students: The 88 Generation Students' message to the
60th anniversary of Martyrs' Day ceremony

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 18, Associated Press
Final constitutional convention begins in Myanmar without pro-democracy
leader – Aye Aye Win

Myanmar's military government opened Wednesday what it says will be the
final session of a national convention aimed at completing a process
launched 14 years ago to draw up guidelines for a new constitution.

Critics call the proceedings a sham because the junta hand-picked most of
the delegates and because pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi currently
under house arrest cannot attend.

The meeting aims to complete the first stage of what the junta has called
a seven-step "road map" to democracy that is supposed to culminate in free
elections, although no timetable has been announced.

In his opening speech, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, the acting prime minister,
called the convention the most important part of the road map, and urged
delegates not to try to amend points previously agreed to.

"Since this is the last session, delegates are asked to review the
principles ... without deviating from the already agreed guidelines," he
said.

Thein Sein, also the chairman of the National Convention Convening
Commission, said most of the population supports the convention, but that
a small "negative-looking group" opposes it.

He warned that legal action will be taken against anyone who tries to
derail the process.

The convention, meeting after a seven-month hiatus, could take about a
month and a half to complete, Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan
said.

More than 1,000 delegates from across the country gathered at the
Nyaung-Hna-Pin convention center, about 25 miles north of the commercial
capital Yangon, for the meeting.

Myanmar, formerly called Burma, has been without a constitution since
1988, when the current junta took power and suspended a 1974 charter.

The guidelines set by the national convention are to be used in writing a
new constitution, but the junta has not publicly said who will draft the
charter.

Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has boycotted the
convention to protest her continued detention and that of other NLD
leaders.

The final session is to adopt guidelines for the remaining seven of the
constitution's 15 chapters, and make some changes to previously approved
parts.

"The government did not make it clear what changes will be made, but we
view this as a positive move," Han Tha Myint, an NLD spokesman, told The
Associated Press on Tuesday, referring to the planned completion of the
first stage of the roadmap.

Han Tha said the party has asked the government to amend some of the
constitution's 104 basic principles and six objectives, one of which
guarantees a major role for the military in Myanmar's political future.

Some critics say the finished document is not likely to usher in promised
democratic reforms or protect the rights of minority groups. Other critics
say the whole process has been a stalling strategy to prolong the junta's
grip on power.

Ethnic minority groups have complained the adopted principles would give
the central government greater powers, even though their delegates have
demanded equal rights and greater administrative and judicial powers. Many
minorities have been seeking greater autonomy for decades.

In all, 17 armed ethnic minority rebel groups have reached cease-fire
agreements with the junta since 1989. Some surrendered their arms, but a
few kept their weapons to take care of their area's security.

Most of the groups had asked the government to allow them to keep their
armed units as a police or guard force, but the point has not yet been
addressed in the charter guidelines.

"We have to wait and see the outcome of the National Convention. We have
requested the government to make appropriate arrangements for our
soldiers, but the role of our armed group is not yet clear under the new
constitution," said Naing Tin Hla, a member of the New Mon State Party who
is attending the convention as an observer.

The junta first convened the convention in 1993, but aborted it in 1996
after NLD delegates walked out saying it was undemocratic and that the
military was manipulating the proceedings. The process was resurrected in
2004.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been in prison or under house
arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

____________________________________

July 19, Inter Press Service
Burma: New constitution in two months – Junta - Marwaan Macan-Markar

Burma’s military rulers had a surprise in store for the over 1,000
delegates who had gathered for the latest session to draft the country’s
new constitution.

It should finish in two months, the South-east Asian nation’s information
minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan said in remarks to the media ahead of the
formal discussions getting underway, according to Burmese journalists IPS
spoke with.

The sense of finality at Wednesday’s announcement was rare considering
that the process has come to be known as one of the world’s longest
constitution-drafting exercises -- now extending over 14 years and six
months.

It comes a month after the country’s acting Prime Minister Thein Sein
broke with tradition to declare that the constitutional talks beginning in
mid-July will be the final session of the National Convention (NC), the
body tasked by the junta to draft Burma’s third constitution.

But this sudden change of tune does not mean that the march to create a
democratic culture with free and fair elections is about to end, said
Burma watchers based in neighbouring Thailand in interviews with IPS. Nor,
they add, does it give hope that the political reforms to reduce the
junta’s iron grip on power in the country are in the offing.

‘’This timeline may be new, but there is no timeline given for the other
six steps that the junta said had to be followed as part of its roadmap to
democracy,’’ says Zin Linn, a spokesman for the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the country’s
democratically-elected government forced into exile. ‘’It is all part of
the sham; this is a fake constitution. They could finish at anytime they
want.’’

Others, like Aung Zaw, contend that the latest development had little to
do with a change of heart within the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), the official name of the military regime. ‘’China has had a role
to play in pushing the SPDC in this direction,’’ says the editor of ‘The
Irrawaddy’, a current affairs magazine produced by Burmese journalists
living in northern Thailand. ‘’It is worried that further delay will cause
instability, which China does not want, due to its interests in Burma.’’

Human rights groups have warned that the outcome of the NC would trigger
instability along the country’s borders, home to many of Burma’s ethnic
communities that have suffered under military repression. It follows from
the new constitution confirming the regime’s greater hold on power at the
expense of ethnic groups who participated in the NC to secure peace and
more political autonomy for their regions.

It would ‘’intensify the root causes of the ethnic-based conflicts
perpetuated by Burma’s successive military regimes,’’ noted the
Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN), a South-east Asian human
rights lobby in a statement released on the eve of the current session of
the NC. Ethnic groups have ‘’consistently proposed steps to salvage the NC
and transform it into a venue for dialogue; however these recommendations
have been rejected.’’

Over the weekend, leaders of some ethnic communities made a similar
argument at a press conference along the Thai-Burma border. ‘’The only
outcome for Burma will be increased militarisation, armed conflict and
chaos,’’ warned Khun Mar Ko Ban, a member of parliament and former
delegate at the NC representing the Democratic Organisation for Kayan
National Unity.

The Burmese regime, which has renamed the country as Myanmar, initiated
the NC shortly after the political party representing it was
comprehensively trounced at the 1990 parliamentary elections by the
opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Yet, the junta refused to
recognise the results, nor give way to the NCGUB, the name of the
democratically-elected government. By then, it had also detained the Nobel
Peace laureate and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has spent more than 12
of the past 18 years under house arrest.

The NC soon came to be known as a charade by the junta to prolong its
hold. Its first session began in 1993 and continued till 1996 when the NLD
walked out in protest. It was revived in 2004, for which most of the over
1,000 delegates were chosen by the SPDC. The participants also included
representatives from the 17 ethnic groups that had signed peace deals with
the junta, ending years of separatist conflict.

When the NC resumed in 2004, the junta billed it as one of a seven-point
political reform process which would include a referendum to approve the
new constitution as the second step. But the gap between what it assured
the world and the ground reality was visible during the talks that year,
with harsh warnings against open discussions of the charter.

This desire for military control was evident during the May 2004 round of
the NC. Delegates were told to ‘’put on suitable clothes, avoid having a
bath at an unreasonable time and (refrain from) eating junk food,’’
reported the ‘New Light of Myanmar, an English-language government
mouthpiece.

Burma’s backers on the global stage cannot ignore the regime’s agenda
that, over the past 14 years, has worsened. ‘’India, China and Russia have
looked the other way as Burma’s military government tries to hide its
repressive rule behind a façade of constitutional rule,’’ says Brad Adams,
Asia director at Human Rights Watch, a global rights lobby, in a statement
released Wednesday.

‘’The generals who run Burma have trumpeted the convention as a vehicle
for a return to civilian rule and the rule of law,’’ he adds. ‘’But they
have engineered the outcome to ensure the military remains in control and
exclude the people of Burma from the process.’’

____________________________________

July 19, Associated Press
Suu Kyi misses ceremony marking father's assassination

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was absent for the fifth
consecutive year from a ceremony Thursday to mark the death of her father,
Burma's independence hero, as the military junta beefed up security for
the event.

Suu Kyi's father, Gen Aung San, led the struggle against British
colonialists and later the occupying Japanese forces during World War II
before eventually negotiating the country's split from Britain.

But on July 19, 1947, six months before Burma was to gain its formal
independence, he was gunned down along with six Cabinet ministers and two
officials. A jealous political rival, former Prime Minister U Saw, was
tried and hanged for arranging their assassination.

The anniversary of his death is marked each year as Martyr's Day at a
mausoleum near the famous Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon.

Culture Minister Maj-Gen Khin Aung Myint led the official ceremony,
placing wreaths at the mausoleum, followed by relatives of the slain
leaders.

Suu Kyi used to lay three baskets of flowers at her father's tomb every
year but she has been absent since her detention in May 2003.

Suu Kyi's estranged elder brother, US citizen Aung San Oo, and his wife
laid a wreath at the father's tomb on her behalf.

In 2005, the government announced that Suu Kyi had been invited to lay a
wreath at her father's tomb but that she told them she did not want to
attend the ceremony.

In an apparent effort to pre-empt enthusiastic supporters from going to
Suu Kyi's house where she remains in detention, the junta expanded a
roadblock across the road.

Security was also beefed up in the city.

Armed policemen at road junctions and hundreds of pro-junta plainclothes
security officials were stationed near the headquarters of Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy where the party held a private ceremony to
commemorate Martyr's Day.

At the ceremony, party members called for the release of Suu Kyi as well
as other political prisoners and urged the junta to reopen party offices
that have been closed since 2003.

About 350 people including party members, diplomats and representatives
from the United Nations attended the ceremony as security officials
watched and videotaped the event from across the street.

Unlike last year, authorities allowed NLD members to visit the mausoleum
to pay tribute to Gen Aung San.

The NLD members are allowed to go there in groups of 10 or 12 and were
permitted to wear T-shirts bearing photos of Suu Kyi or Gen Aung San.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent almost 12 of the past 18 years in
confinement. She was last detained by the government o­n May 30, 2003,
after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob in northern Burma. She
has been held at her Rangoon residence and is not allowed visitors or
telephone contact with the outside world.

Martyr's Day was an important event in Burma's calendar for years, but has
been gradually downgraded since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, which was
crushed by the junta.

Since 1996, official newspapers have abandoned an earlier tradition of
publishing commemorative Martyr's Day biographical sketches of Aung San
along with photos of slain leaders and articles extolling them.

However, private local news journal carried articles and special features
about those killed.

____________________________________

July 19, Irrawaddy
KIO to challenge regime’s National Convention appeal - Khun Sam and Htet Aung

Despite an official appeal for no more proposed changes to constitutional
guidelines set by Burma’s National Convention, one ethnic ceasefire group,
the Kachin Independence Organization, says it will submit a list of
suggested amendments to a draft constitution.

The KIO position follows a speech at the opening day of the convention’s
final session on Wednesday by the chairman of its convening committee,
Lt-Gen Thein Sein, who called on delegates not to seek amendments to
constitutional guidelines agreed on at previous meetings.

In a six-page proposal paper the KIO said it would submit to the
convention’s final session, and launched on its semi-official Web site,
the ceasefire group complained that basic principles adopted for drafting
the new constitution overlooked basic ethnic minority rights and the
emergence of a genuine Burma union.

The paper contains 19 articles suggesting several amendments in the draft
constitution, including proposed changes relating to the state structure,
the head of state and an increase in legislative power allotted to the
states.

KIO spokesman Sumlut Gun Maw told The Irrawaddy on Thursday: “No matter
whether they [the government] discuss them or not, these 19 articles are
our proposal for this session, describing what we like and dislike,”

Sumlut Gun Maw said the proposals were being made at this time “because
the Kachin people think we don’t demand the rights of our people at the
convention. Now it’s up to the junta.”

The KIO paper also says that since the agreed constitutional objectives
clearly stated that the country would be built on a union system,
“principles that affirm a union system will need to be adopted.”

According to the guideline principles, the paper adds, executive power is
centralized in the hands of the president, immensely restricting the
legislative power of the component states and resulting not in a union but
in a o­ne-state country.

The paper also proposes a definable role for the armed forces of the
ceasefire groups— “The armed forces of the ethnic ceasefire groups should
be the states’ security forces which will be under the command of the
union army.”

The KIO stand won support from two other ethnic groups. “It is very good
that the KIO submitted such a proposal, which is essential to all ethnic
rights,” said New Mon State Party spokesman Nai ong Ma’Nge.

“We fully support their proposal,” he told The Irrawaddy.

Aye Thar Aung, chairman of the Arakan League for Democracy and secretary
of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament, said: “In the union
system structure, the constitution gives autonomy region status to
minority ethnic areas in the states. But in essence, there will be no
independent rights in [the areas of] legislative, executive and judicial
powers. This is because of the sixth objective of the convention, which
states the military’s national political leadership role of the future
state.”

The current final session of the National Convention marks the completion
of the first stage of the seven-step road map laid down by the regime in
2003. Though the regime has said a referendum and elections will follow
“quickly,” the road map’s second step lacks any clear indication of what
the regime will do next.

The regime promises only “after the successful holding of the National
Convention, step- by-step implementation of the process necessary for the
emergence of a genuine and disciplined democratic system.”

The online Burmese version of the KIO proposal paper is available at
www.kachinnet.com.

____________________________________

July 19, Kaladan News
Burma Army- Nasaka clash over toll collection in Taungbro

Maungdaw, Arakan: Even in a totalitarian state like Burma , the law
enforcing agencies clash over booty. Nasaka , Burma 's border security
force and the Burma Army have been clashing over collecting toll from exit
and entry gates in the same area in Taungbro.

The Nasaka gate was set up in 2005 in keeping with a border trade
programme and it was operated by Nasaka section no. 3 from Taungbro, a
trader from Taunbro who uses the Nasaka gate said.

The army's exit and entry gate was set up in June, 2007 to raise funds for
the army cantonment of the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 551, based
in Taung Bazaar, he added.

The Nasaka gate has been collecting Kyat 1,000 as toll from a person
crossing the border ever since the gate was opened. It also controls goods
according to the border trade list and collects tax for the camp, said a
school boy who crosses the border regularly.

But, when the LIB 551 opened its gate, the army began collecting Kyat 500
a person for crossing the border for a day but the person had to return by
evening. The army provides the facility to people and they can take any
goods including drugs, if they pay toll to the army, he added.

"I cross the army gate as the charge is less and there are more facilities
for us," he said.

Therefore of the people crossing the border through Taungbro, most prefer
the army gate.

The Nasaka gate as such has been registering a lower income. The (Nasaka)
tried to discus this with the army, but the army refused to pay heed.

After the failed discussion, the Nasaka and Army started to clash for
collecting the maximum amount of toll from the gates.

"The officers of the Nasaka camp from Taungbro complained to the Military
Operation Command (MOC) in Buthidaung, but the MOC didn't take any action
against LIB 551 for setting up the gate in Taungbro," a source close to
Nasaka said.

____________________________________

July 19, Mizzima News
Burmese historical research department to sue Weekly Eleven - Nem Davies

The Burmese Ministry of Culture's historical research department will sue
a Rangoon based Burmese journal Weekly Eleven for a report it published,
which ironically has been scrutinized and passed by the censorship board.

The report, published in December 2006, criticized tour agencies for
serving dinner on the ruins of the temples of Pagan, one of Burma's major
tourism spots, to attract tourists.

Despite the Burmese censorship board, which is infamous for censoring any
writing against the government, passing the report, the Burmese Cultural
Ministry's historical research department is taking the journal to court.

A court in Tarmyaw Township has summoned the journal's editor to appear
before the court on July 30.

However, the charges against the journal remain undisclosed and will only
be revealed in court, sources close to the journal said.

A senior editor of a Rangoon based magazine told Mizzima that the journal
cannot be faulted for publishing the report as it was thoroughly checked
and passed by the Burmese censorship board.

"In literary society, everything goes to the censorship board for review
and only with their permission can anything be published. We all do the
same thing. We have to send everything to the censorship board. So, it's
not the fault of the journal. The censorship board is there to filter it,"
he said.

"We all have to go through the steps the censorship board has laid down
and only after that can we publish. So, we are not at fault. But it would
be different if we publish without permission. It is difficult to
understand why the journal is being sued as it has published the write up
only after the board permitted it," he added.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 19, Mizzima News
GAIL pulls out of A7 block in Burma - Syed Ali Mujtaba

The honeymoon between the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and its
Burmese partner is over. GAIL has informed the Petroleum Ministry and its
Burmese partner-Silver Wave Energy of its decision to withdraw from the A7
offshore exploration block on the Rakhaine coast in Burma.

"Our experts have examined in detail the available geological data and we
are of the opinion that the Block A-7 does not fit into GAIL's E&P
portfolio. Therefore, we do not wish to participate in the contract, that
is Block A-7, Rakhine Offshore. Accordingly we have decided to withdraw
our participation interest from A-7 Block with immediate effect," GAIL
said in a recent letter to the Petroleum Ministry.

GAIL had signed an agreement with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) in
December last year to pick up a 30 percent stake in this exploration
block.

Notwithstanding the official reasons cited by GAIL for the withdrawal from
the A-7 block, the actual fact is, the Indian PSU was peeved about the
recent decision of the Burmese government to sell gas from other offshore
blocks (A1 and A3) to China that has no equity stakes in these blocks.
Whereas the two national oil and gas companies from India have 30 percent
stake in both these blocks, GAIL sources said.

Despite GAIL offering a price of US $4.41 per Million BTU, the Burmese
government decided to export the gas to China at US $ 4.279 per MBTU.

The Burmese government is stated to have accepted GAIL's withdrawal from
this block.

____________________________________

July 18, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar earns less tax revenue from private sector in 2006-07

Myanmar earned less tax revenue from the private sector in the fiscal year
2006-07 which ended in March, accounting for only 42 percent compared with
that from the state sector and others which stood 57 percent, local media
reported Wednesday.

Quoting the Ministry of Finance and Revenue, the Yangon Times said Myanmar
collected only about 68 billion Kyats (56.6 million U. S. dollars) of
revenue from tax for running businesses in the fiscal year against the
target of 128 billion Kyats (106.6 million dollars).

The authorities blamed the private sector for not paying tax correctly or
evading tax, especially the brewery enterprises.

The authorities have warned business companies in the country to duly pay
income tax to the state and not to commit tax evasion.

Other local reports also quoted the ministry as warning that companies
failing to do so will be dealt with a fine which is 50 percent of the tax
amount or be jailed for a term of 3 to 10 years.

There are more than 20,000 private companies in Myanmar, of which 60
percent are being found to evade paying tax, according to reports.

Companies registered with the Ministry of National Planning and Economic
Development are categorized as local-national-owned, foreigners-owned,
Myanmar-foreign joint venture, foreign branch companies and import-export
companies.

The authorities also blamed some of the companies for delaying their tax
payment for years or total tax evasion.

There are five categories of tax collected by the government, namely
commercial and service tax, income tax, profit tax, tax for sale of state
lottery and stamps.

Collecting through these five categories of tax, the country obtained
revenues in total ranging from 104 billion Kyats to 265 billion Kyats in
the past three years, according to the finance ministry's figures.

The figures also show that the country gained a total of 447. 964 billion
Kyats in revenue in 2005-06, a significant increase over the previous
years but much lower than targeted, other local media said.

The ministry attributed the lower figures to tax evasion, blaming some
companies and individuals for presenting false data about their income for
taxation assessment as well as the government's ineffective measures in
collecting tax from companies, service providers, restaurants,
supermarkets or individuals for 18 years.

However, the finance authorities held that the recent amendments to income
and commercial tax laws would not affect the tax rate levied by the
government but would ensure that tax collection policy will be more
effective and widespread.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities are introducing a new measure soon
aimed at preventing private companies doing business in the country from
tax evasion.

The biennial renewal of business licenses of companies will be granted
only on full settlement of their profit tax levied on them annually,
according to the authorities.

____________________________________

July 19, Kachin News Group
Burmese tycoons invade jade mines, arable land in Kachin State

Rangoon based young Burmese tycoons have literally invaded jade mining
areas and arable land in Kachin State in northern Burma, said local
business sources.

U Zaw Zaw, managing director and founder of Max Myanmar Company recently
occupied about 500 acres of jade mining blocks in Lonkin, Phakant, said a
local jade businessman.

The occupied land includes paddy fields, agricultural fields and jade
mining areas which were owned by local Kachin residents and business
blocks, according to Lonkin residents.

U Zaw Zaw is the son-in-law of Thein Tun and was the person who brought
Pepsi to Burma.  He owns a three-star hotel in Chaung Tha, a popular
resort town and is also chairman of the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF)
and Myanmar Tennis Federation.

Tycoon Zaw Zaw has followed to Phakant, the biggest jade mining area in
Burma, in the footsteps of U Tay Za, president and managing director of
the Htoo Trading Company which started jade mining activities in the
occupied areas of Kawng San-Tawng Kaw mines in Phakant, last year, local
businessmen said.

At the moment, Tay Za is gradually taking control of the popular jade
mines in Phakant area a step at a time with the help of the local Burmese
military and Burma Army Kachin State Commander Maj-Gen Ohn Myint.  Tay Za
works together with Myanmar Dagaung Co. Ltd. derived from former United Wa
State Army (UWSA)'s Hong Pang Group of companies owned by Wei Shao Kang,
local jade dealers said.

The Rangoon based Yuzana Company chaired by U Htay Myint bought over two
hundred thousand acres of land in the world's largest tiger reserve in
Hukawng Valley in Kachin State from the ruling junta, last year.

The Yuzana Company has forcibly relocated local Kachin and Shan residents
and destroyed their livestock and homes with the help of the Burmese
military based in the area, residents told KNG.

The company grows mainly sugar canes and cassava plants with over five
hundreds workers from lower Burma in the occupied areas which had
originally been owned by local landlords, residents added.

The Yuzana Company has made forays into agricultural and fishery ventures
in southern Burma and owns Yuza Supermarket and the three-star 198-room
Yuzana Hotel in Rangoon .  The Chairman U Htay Myint was close to former
Burma's Prime Minister Khin Nyunt.

Rangoon based pro-junta Burmese tycoons has been occupying teak logging,
jade mining and mass agricultural fields in Kachin State since last year,
local businessmen added.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

July 18, The Nation
China's role in Burma's National Convention - Htet Aung Kyaw

This is the first time the junta has confirmed that it would put an end to
the marathon convention. Moreover, just before a state visit to China,
National Convention chairman Lt-General Thein Sein promised to review
previous chapters and make amendments as necessary to their flaws and
weaknesses during this session.

Many parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
(NLD), are now looking for a chance to participate in the final
discussions. "We are very interested in that. This is because we have the
desire to cooperate within the National Convention," said U Thein Nyunt, a
spokesperson for NLD National Convention affairs.

"We have stated that the six basic principles, which the National
Convention had set as its objectives, should be considered as issues for
deliberation when drafting the constitution and we said the same thing for
the 104 detailed basic principles also," he added.

But Htang Ko Htam, an ethnic elected MP and a member of the Committee
Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP), which was founded by the NLD
and ethnic parties, gave a different view. "This is just a plot by the
SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] to lie again and again," he
said. "Thein Sein's reviewing means that he will just change the new
capital from Yangon [Rangoon] to Naypyidaw. There is no hope for political
review anyway."

Nai Aung Mange, a spokesperson for the Thai-Burma border based cease-fire
group New Mon State Party (NMSP) expressed a similar view: "We want to
know clearly what the National Convention chairman's words mean before
entering the National Convention compound. Otherwise, we have no chance to
send proper representatives." NMSP sent only three observers during the
last session after authorities refused some of their proposals.

However, Colonel Tu Jar, deputy-chairman of the China-Burma border based
cease-fire group Kachin Independent Army (KIA) felt otherwise. "We
understand that the National Convention chairman will be reviewing all
chapters since 1993. We also have to raise some issues for ethnic affairs,
especially in ethnic-army controlled areas which they refused during the
last session," he said.

But observers say the KIA and many cease-fire groups along the China-Burma
border have hidden agendas. "My understanding is that the KIA, the UWSA
[United Wa Sate Army], the SSAN [Shan State Army-North] and the Kokant
army are now training recruits. Military strong-minded leaders took back
top posts in recent meetings," says Aung Kyaw Zaw, a defence analyst and a
former top official of Burma's Communist Party, which once controlled the
four-ethnic armies.

"China might play a key role in the coming National Convention," he
claimed. This is because not only was a rare meeting between US senior
officials and Burmese ministers held recently on China's soil "but some
top leaders of those four ethnic armies are now in Kunming [to talk to
Chinese officials]", he explained. Chinese officials will discuss the
National Convention with them as well as future stability along the
border, he said.

Neither Colonel Tu Jar, nor any other official from the four armies
mentioned would comment on this information. Many observers however
believe that China has been playing a key role in Burmese politics since
the country used its veto to stop a United Nations Security Council
resolution on Burma last year. Meanwhile, rumours in Rangoon have begun to
circulate that China has asked the Burmese generals to talk with the NLD
before the National Convention kicks off.

"We have not yet reached any agreement on an official meeting," replied U
Thein Nyunt. "But we are trying to solve our situation as best we can. We
also hope China might understand our situation."

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 19, Irrawaddy
UN chief urges Burma to be more open - Lalit K Jha

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday urged the Burmese junta to
make its national reconciliation process “transparent and participatory”
involving all sections of the society.

The statement comes as Burma’s National Convention began its final session
to draw up guidelines for a new constitution.

Expected to last about two months, the convention is the first step in a
"seven-step road map to democracy" proposed by the military junta.
Pro-democracy advocates have not been included in the process, because
their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest.

A statement issued by the UN said the secretary-general is closely
following the constitution drafting process.

“The secretary-general takes note of the resumption today of Myanmar’s
[Burma's] National Convention for its final session, as announced by the
Government of Myanmar, and is closely following developments,” said the
statement.

Ban Ki-moon said the Burmese government should seize this opportunity to
ensure that the subsequent steps in Burma’s political roadmap are as
inclusive, participatory and transparent as possible.

He said the process should allow all political parties and ethnic groups
to fully contribute to defining the country’s future.

Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to be briefed this week by his special adviser on
Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.

Gambari has just returned from a tour of China, India and Japan where he
held discussions o­n the issue of Burma.

“Gambari had detailed and open discussions o­n how best the United Nations
and the countries he visited can continue to work together to support
Myanmar's efforts in implementing relevant General Assembly resolutions,”
a UN spokesperson told The Irrawaddy.

The UN is expected to announce a date for Gambari's next visit to Burma
soon after the submission of his report.

____________________________________

July 18, Associated Press
Myanmar minister says junta ready to cooperate with US

Myanmar's military government is ready to cooperate with any country
including its strongest critic the United States in the interest of
bilateral and international relations, a senior official said Wednesday.

Responding for the first time to questions about a rare meeting between
Myanmar ministers and a U.S. official in Beijing in June, Information
Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan said: "We are always ready to cooperate with
any country in the interest of the two countries ... including the United
States. It is better to meet than not meeting at all."

He did not indicate if specific moves were afoot to foster better
relations, however. The United States, like many Western nations,
ostracizes the junta because of its poor human rights record and failure
to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Eric John, a deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state, met in Beijing with
Myanmar ministers in June to urge the release of pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 11 of the past 18 years in detention.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey called the unusual meeting "a very
frank discussion of our concerns about the regime, about its behavior."

The United States has an embassy in Myanmar, but top U.S. officials refuse
to travel to the country unless the junta allows access to Suu Kyi, who is
currently under house arrest.

Washington has also imposed sanctions against Myanmar.

The military took power in 1988 after crushing democracy demonstrations.
When Suu Kyi's party won a general election by a landslide in 1990, junta
leaders refused to hand over control.

____________________________________

July 19, Irrawaddy
Empty chair for Suu Kyi at Mandela’s birthday party - Violet Cho

A chair stood empty on the stage for Burma’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Su Kyi when other Nobel laureates, politicians and international
personalities in a newly-created Council of Elders joined celebrations in
Johannesburg, South Africa, o­n Wednesday to mark the 89th birthday of
fellow democracy icon Nelson Mandela.

Aung San Su Kyi was invited to join the Council of Elders, although she is
confined to her home in a recently-extended term of house arrest. She has
spent 11 of the past 18 years under house arrest, isolated from the
outside world.

The Council of Elders, a new humanitarian movement, was inaugurated at
Wednesday’s birthday celebrations. It was established by the British
entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose birthday also fell o­n Wednesday, and
musician Peter Gabriel. Other founder members include Mandela, South
African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
ex-US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and Indian women’s rights
campaigner Ela Bhatt.

The Council is dedicated to finding new ways to foster peace and resolve
global crises, and to support the next generation of world leaders.

“I am confident that The Elders can become real role models,” Mandela
said, according to an Associated Press report. “They will support courage
where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire
hope where there is despair."

“This initiative cannot have come at a more appropriate time. It brings
together an extraordinary collection of people with skills and diversity
to undertake what we know is an enormous task.”

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

July 19, The 88 Generation Students
The 88 Generation Students' message to the 60th anniversary of Martyrs'
Day ceremony

The Martyrs' Day is the result of political violence. Killing and
brutalizing the opposition politicians with violence and weapons, instead
of solving political differences by a dialogue, should be named as a
terrorist act.

Then, General Aung San and his comrades, who had been assassinated, were
national leaders, trusted and admired by the people of Burma. Therefore,
they were recorded in history as "Martyrs". Those who killed the Martyrs
entered into the history as "national traitors."

We would like to emphasize some good examples of General Aung San and his
comrades, which we should obtain and treasure from remembering and
honoring the Martyrs' Day.

General Aung San never used the strength of the military, which he
commanded, when contesting for political leadership role in Burma. He
disrobed his military uniform, entered to civilian life, represented the
political organization as U Aung San, and contested fairly to get the
leading role in politic, with belief in the peoples' voting power.

Because of his ethical conducts and sincerity, he had been highly honored
by the people as the "National Leader". National leader U Aung San and his
comrades patiently and seriously discussed with leaders of various ethnic
nationalities for national unity, without using force, threat and
pressure.

These are good examples or precedence, which we should inherit and
practice every time in every civilization as conducts of national
politics.

We would like to clearly express that we will not accept any solution made
by use of force, threat, pressure and one-sided act, which are opposite
against the good examples mentioned above and we will not bow in it.

Finally, we declare our oath to the Martyrs' Day that violence, threat and
assassination against the Peoples' Representatives, who are elected to
practice the good examples inherited from our Martyrs, should be totally
ended.

The 88 Generation Students
Rangoon, Burma
88generation at gmail.com
Ref: 14/2007 (88)