BurmaNet News, July 26, 2007

[Editor]

July 26, 2007 Issue # 3254

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar human rights defender jailed
DVB: Family of bashed NLD member sued for intimidation
Kaladan News: Prisoners forced to work on road by Burmese Army
Mizzima News: Ban on smoking in Shwedagon pagoda
DVB: Activists condemn sentencing of human rights promoters
Irrawaddy: Ban on foreign ads follows Myanmar Times squib
SHAN: Wa holds council of war

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Burma’s private banks limit deposits to stay alive
Irrawaddy: Hundreds of gold miners arrested in Kachin state

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Deadly dengue fever hits Bago children
KNG: TB, HIV/AIDS infection among prisoners in Myitkyina

ASEAN
AP: Philippines asks Myanmar to release Suu Kyi by ASEAN anniversary

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: France aims for release of Suu Kyi

OPINION / OTHER
The Independent: Leading article: A regime we should not be doing business
with
The Independent: Burma: A plight we can ignore no longer - John Bercow, MP
The Independent: Forgotten and locked in the shadow of the past - Peter
Popham

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

July 26, Associated Press
Myanmar human rights defender jailed - Grant Peck

A Myanmar human rights defender beaten by a pro-government mob was
sentenced to eight years in prison for inciting unrest, activists said
Wednesday.

Myint Naing was sentenced Tuesday by Judge Aung Min Hein in the Henzeda
township court, 60 miles northwest of Yangon, said Bo Kyi, joint-secretary
of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners-Burma. He said information about the sentence came from the
trial's spectators and the defendant's lawyer. The judge or a court
spokesman could not be contacted.

The U.S. Campaign for Burma, which lobbies against Myanmar's military
government, says that five villagers who were with Myint Naing were also
sentenced to four years' imprisonment each. Burma is the old name for
Myanmar, and preferred by the military regime's opponents. Myint Naing —
also known as Myint Hlaing — and a fellow member of Human Rights Defenders
and Promoters Network, Maung Maung Lay, were attacked and seriously
wounded April 18 at Oakpon village in Henzeda, said the U.S. Campaign for
Burma and the New York-based Human Rights Watch. They were headed to
another village to continue to conduct human rights training.

Their attackers, the groups said, were 50-100 men with clubs and other
homemade weapons. The groups said the attack was organized and carried out
by members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association — USDA — a
government-backed group accused of assaulting and intimidating the junta's
opponents. "This brutal attack against grass-roots human rights defenders
is the latest in a series of assaults on peaceful political activities in
Burma," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The
government should order its thugs to stop harassing people for promoting
human rights."

The USDA was linked to attacks against opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
and her National League for Democracy supporters in the Yangon in 1997, as
well as a deadly attack on the party leader and her supporters in northern
Myanmar on May 30, 2003. The junta created the USDA in 1993, ostensibly as
a social welfare organization. It claims more than 20 million members,
more than one-third of the country's population. Public servants and local
officials especially come under heavy pressure to join.

The USDA is generally seen as political party in the making to support the
military's interest when electoral democracy is restored. Myanmar has been
under military rule since 1962, with the latest junta emerging after a
brutal 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests. The military has been
widely accused of atrocities against ethnic minorities and of suppressing
the democracy movement.

____________________________________

July 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
Family of bashed NLD member sued for intimidation

Four family members of National League for Democracy member U Than Lwin,
who was brutally bashed by a man wearing a knuckle duster, faced court on
Tuesday after being charged with threatening the Union Solidarity and
Development Association.

U Than Lwin’s family and five other Mandalay NLD members appeared at a
Mandalay court to defend themselves against a lawsuit filed by the Maddaya
USDA secretary U Kyaw Min who has accused the group of ‘intimidation’.

U Than Lwin, an elected member of parliament, was bashed in the street by
a man wearing a knuckle duster on June 15. While the attacker remains
unidentified, he was reportedly seen by a number of witnesses fleeing into
a Mandalay USDA office after the incident.

Four unnamed members of the NLD leaders family along with Maddaya NLD
members U Nyo Gyi, Ko Kyaw Swe, Ko Thaung Naing, U Nyo Lay and Ko Nyi Nyi
were later accused by U Kyaw Min of threatening to attack the USDA offices
if the assailant was not handed over.

“Kyaw Min has accused them of threatening to beat up USDA members and burn
down the USDA office if they didn’t hand over the attacker,” U Than Lwin
told DVB yesterday.

“The court said they would drop charges against anyone who could prove
they were not involved or if they could give a reasonable explanation for
what happened. The court is now preparing to let them go on bail,” he
said.

U Than Lwin said that it was impossible for the group to have tried to
intimidate the USDA since their only contact with the pro-government
organisation over the incident had been in the presence of a number of
police officers.

The next hearing for the case is set to be held on August 1.

____________________________________

July 26, Kaladan News
Prisoners forced to work on road by Burmese Army

Akyab, Arakan State: Prisoners incarcerated in Sittwe Jail, Arakan State
are being forced into hard labor by the Burmese Army since July 22, said a
source close to the army in Kyaktaw.

The Military Operation Command (MOC) No.9 of Kyauktaw Township, Arakan
State , however, has been taking the responsibility of prisoners' food,
shelter and health while they work in the Kyauktaw-Mrauk U road, which has
been damaged by heavy rains and floods recently.

The prisoners working in Kyauktaw-Mrauk U road are those sentenced to long
terms in prison in Sittwe jail. They are among prisoners who have to serve
six months or less than 6-mmonth before being released from jail.

The army is making 80 prisoners work daily on the Kyauktaw-Mrauk U road
for repair work. They have to lay earth and pave stones on the road. The
prisoners live in a shed, which has been built by the army near MOC-9
headquarters.

Everyday, at about 6 a.m. the prisoners are sent to the work site in army
trucks and have to return at about 6 p.m. to the shed, said another aide
of army.

____________________________________

July 26, Mizzima News
Ban on smoking in Shwedagon pagoda

The Rangoon municipality has imposed a ban on smoking and chewing betel
leaves around the platform of the famous Shwedagon Pagoda as part of
hygiene. It is also an image building exercise.

The order, which will take effect from July 29, is the first of its kind
to maintain discipline and hygiene by the municipality in a place of
worship, Rangoon residents said.

"Smoking and chewing betel leaves in the pagoda is bad for it dirties the
sacred place where people go for worship. Banning such habits is good for
maintaining discipline in the pagoda," a Rangoon resident, who frequents
the pagoda for prayers, told Mizzima.

Welcoming the announcement he added that despite providing dustbins,
indisciplined smokers and those in the habit of chewing betel leaves
frequently litter the areas around the pagoda's platforms.

The order has earmarked the platform around the world famous Shwedagon
pagoda as tobacco and betel-free zone, and those flouting the ban will be
liable to pay a penalty of Kyat 10,700 (approximately US $ 8), the
resident added.

Earlier the Rangoon municipality had earmarked certain public places such
as bus terminus, railway stations, airports, hospitals and schools as
tobacco and betel-free zones, imposing a penalty of Kyat 10,700 (US $ 8)
in the event of violation.

____________________________________

July 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
Activists condemn sentencing of human rights promoters

The Human Rights Defenders and Promoters yesterday condemned the
sentencing of six Irrawaddy activists to between four and eight years in
prison after they were accused of inciting unrest.

Members of HRDP Ko Myint Naing, Ko Kyaw Lwin, U Hla Shein, U Myint, Ko
Myint Sein and an unidentified activist from Oak Pon were sentenced on
Tuesday by a Henzada court after an incident in April that saw Ko Myint
Naing and another member of the group Ko Maung Maung Lay savagely beaten
by local officials and Union Solidarity and Development Association
members.

U Myint Aye, the leader of HRDP said today that none of the jailed men
were guilty of a crime and that their persecution at the hands of the
military was completely unacceptable.

“Ko Myint Naing worked on human rights issues and he didn’t break any laws
. . . Our members have committed no crimes,” U Myint Aye said. “But they
were given harsh and unfair punishments such as the eight-year jail term.
This is unacceptable.”

Aung Myo Min, director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma,
said that the incident showed that human rights abuses were worsening in
the country and that the six men had been trying to help people when they
were targeted for prosecution.

He said that not only did the military refuse to respect the rights of its
citizens, but that they also harassed people who tried to spread rights
awareness.

“The imprisonment of the HRDP members is a violation of international
human rights laws. We strongly condemn this act,” Aung Myo Min said.

____________________________________

July 26, Irrawaddy
Ban on foreign ads follows Myanmar Times squib - Khun Sam

Burmese government censors have reportedly banned international
advertising in the country’s media following the appearance in the
semi-official weekly The Myanmar Times of an ad containing hidden
anti-regime messages.

Media sources in Rangoon say the junta’s Press Scrutiny and Registration
Board has also ordered more restrictions o­n domestic advertising.

“We are no longer allowed to carry advertising from abroad,” the editor of
a Rangoon-based journal told The Irrawaddy on Thursday. The first
advertisement to fall victim to the ban was for a school in Singapore.

The Press Scrutiny and Registration Board’s chief, Maj Tin Swe, and three
other officials have also been questioned by military intelligence, who
reportedly demanded an explanation for the embarrassing lapse.

The censors acted after a Danish group specializing in political satire
slipped an ad into The Myanmar Times contained the nonsense word
“Ewhsnahtrellik” which, read backwards, spells out “Killer Than Shwe.” The
lines of a poem included in the ad had initial letters adding up to the
message “Freedom.” The PSRB let the squib pass unnoticed.

Sales of the English version of The Myanmar Times are modest, and mostly
confined to international agencies and embassies in Rangoon, but when news
of the bogus ad spread through the city copies of the paper disappeared
rapidly. Copies of the newspaper changed hands for three times its normal
cover price, while photocopies of the advertisement also passed into
circulation.

A Rangoon-based journalist told The Irrawaddy copies of the offending
advertisement were spreading rapidly. “People are really amused by it,” he
said.

The Myanmar Times was founded in 2000 under the supervision of Australian
journalist Ross Dunkley. Critics say it has close links to the government.

____________________________________

July 26, Shan Herald Agency for News
Wa holds council of war

The United Wa State Army (UWSA), despite pressure by the Burma Army to
vacate their mountain bases on the Thai-Burma border, has resolved to hang
tough, according to sources who were informed of the recent biannual
meeting held in Panghsang, 19-22 July.

Four major decisions were reportedly taken at the meeting presided over by
Xiao Minliang, the group's Vice Chairman:

•         To ignore Burma Army's order to pull out from their key bases
(Only 4 small bases at Loi Kiu Hu Lom, between  Mongjawd and Hwe Aw were
withdrawn on 22 July, according to Thai and Shan sources)

•         To resume the relocation of Wa civilians from the north to the
Thai-Burma border (opposite Wiang Haeng, Pai and Pang  Mapha districts)
after the monsoons (According to Unsettling Moves, a report by Lahu
National Development Organization, more than 120,000 had been forcibly
relocated along the border areas between 1999-2001)

•         Approved the release of Col Wei Hsaitang (known as one of the
Wa's best fighting commanders) who was imprisoned in    2002 for a number
of offenses including manufacture of counterfeit currencies

•         To replenish the UWSA's stocks of weapons and ammunition by
special purchase from the neighboring country

According to Radio Free Asia, the Wa dispatched a delegation to Kengtung,
headquarters of the Burma Army's Triangle Command, to parley. No further
details on the mission have been received so far.

The Wa, since 17 July, one day before the opening of the final session of
the Burma Army-organized constitutional convention, where its delegates
also attended, has been under pressure to withdraw from their bases along
the Thai-Burma border.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

July 26, Irrawaddy
Burma’s private banks limit deposits to stay alive - Shah Paung

Burma’s private banks, struggling to survive in Burma’s ailing economy,
are placing limits on the amount of money deposited weekly by their
customers.

The new limits, which came into force at the end of June, are reportedly
intended to stem the rise in non-productive capital holdings resulting
from a fall in loans.

Burma’s 15 private banks pay an interest rate of 12 percent on deposit
accounts and charge 17 percent annually on loans, leaving a five percent
operating margin. A drop in loan payments has cut deeply into this
profitable margin.

In order to close the widening gap between deposit account holdings and
loan payouts, the new regulations limit the amount of money customers can
deposit to 3 million kyat (US $2,340) weekly.

Government banks face similar problems. “We are losing money because
deposits are going to sleep in the bank,” said a senior staffer at the
Myanma Economic Bank in Rangoon’s North Okkalapa Township. “It’s very hard
to make a profit [under these conditions].”

The current interest rates for private banks were established by the
Central Bank of Myanmar [Burma] in July 2006. New regulations have also
increased the proportion of paid-up capital to be held by private banks,
from seven times the amount of money locked in deposit accounts to 10
times.

Private banks came into being in Burma after the downfall of late Gen Ne
Win and his socialist regime in 1988. Government control of Burma’s
private banks increased after a crisis hit the sector in 2003.

A Yoma Bank official told The Irrawaddy that since the 2003 crisis the
bank’s functions “are so stagnant that we find it ever harder to run
operations,”

Banks which failed to follow government and Central Bank regulations faced
cancellation of their operating licenses, said an official of the Kanbawza
Bank.

In 2005, the government closed down two private banks, Asia Wealth Bank
and the Myanmar Mayflower Bank, which had been accused by the US State
Department of being involved in money laundering and having links to
Southeast Asian drug trafficking groups.

____________________________________

July 26, Irrawaddy
Hundreds of gold miners arrested in Kachin state - Khun Sam

Burmese authorities arrested hundreds of gold miners and mine operators
near Indawgyi Lake, one of the Southeast Asia’s biggest and oldest lakes,
in Kachin State early this month for conducting unauthorized operations,
according to local sources.

The arrest of more than 300 staff, operators and local mining authorities
followed complaints by local farmers that mining had devastated their
lands.

Authorities from Burma’s Northern Command in coordination with a special
investigation team from the capital Naypyidaw made the arrests in early
July.

“[The miners] had no legal permission to operate gold mines in the area,
and troops from Northern Command arrested them,” Than Thin Aung, an
official from the Hopin Township Police Station, told The Irrawaddy on
Thursday.

“In Mai Naung, businessmen and miners were called to a meeting, but
authorities later arrested them and took them in trucks to Mohnyin and
Hopin,” said a local resident who lives near Indawgyi Lake and who
witnessed the trucks removing the prisoners.

“Many people have been arrested, so we are detaining them in prisons in
Mohnyin and Hopin,” the police official said.

The illegal miners were operating in upstream areas above local farms
around Indawgyi Lake. Farmers complained that the streams had been blocked
or diverted by mud produced from the gold mines.

Environmentalists insist that Indawgyi Lake faces threats from pollution,
unsustainable fishing methods, and the hunting of water birds and large
mammals and the increasing number of mines close to the lake.

“Sand from the mines that was carried downstream was destroying
farmlands,” said another area resident. “Farmers now face water shortages
from the stream diversion, and paddy fields are drying out.”

Farmers had previously complained to local authorities, who made no effort
to intervene. Subsequent appeals made directly to authorities in Naypyidaw
ultimately led to the arrests.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

July 26, Democratic Voice of Burma
Deadly dengue fever hits Bago children

The number of children suffering from deadly hemorrhagic dengue fever in
Bago division’s Min Hla township has escalated dramatically in the past
few weeks, according to residents.

While it is unclear how many have been killed in the area by the disease,
local doctors told DVB that more than 10 children suffering severe fevers
were being admitted to hospital every day.

“My clinic receives about 10 children with hemorrhagic dengue fever every
day,” a doctor from a private clinic in Min Hla said.

“But there are a lot of clinics like mine in town so it’s difficult to
tell how many children have been suffering with the fever. Children from
the villages suffer from the disease more than children in the cities
because of the higher numbers of mosquitoes,” the doctor said.

Residents said that many children admitted to the Min Hla hospital were
being transferred to better equipped facilities in Tharawaddy and Rangoon
as their conditions were considered life-threatening.

In a recent statement, Burma’s Ministry of Health said that 30 of the
estimated 3000 children who suffered from hemorrhagic dengue fever in the
first half of this year died. If correct, the estimates show that death
rates from the disease are higher than in 2006.

____________________________________

July 26, Kachin News Group
TB, HIV/AIDS infection among prisoners in Myitkyina

Prisoners in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State in northern Burma have
largely been discovered to have TB and HIV/AIDS infection, local sources
said.

There are over 1,400 prisoners in Lekone prison, the biggest prison at
Lekone Quarter in Myitkyina Township.  About 90 percent have been found to
be infected with HIV/AIDS, sources close to the prison said.

The prisoners are put together without partitions in the prison and all of
them seem to have been infected. It is either minor lung related diseases,
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) or pneumonia sources said.

Most prisoners in Lekone are drug addicts and have been sentenced for
seven to 10 years in prison.  They are now taking anti-TB drugs and most
of them caught the infection in prison, sources added.

The prisoners are banned from using mosquito nets, listening to radio and
handling pieces of paper in the prison by the authorities, the sources
added.

Some incurable AIDS infected prisoners have been sent to Myitkyina
government hospital and were found to have TB as well. They are suffering
from weakness, weight loss and chronic diarrhea, according to hospital
sources.

In Kachin State, HIV is mainly transmitted by intravenous drug users
(IDUS), unprotected sexual relations and lack of knowledge among the local
population, said local and international NGOs' sources in Myitkyina.

____________________________________
ASEAN

July 26, Associated Press
Philippines asks Myanmar to release Suu Kyi by ASEAN anniversary - Jim Gomez

The Philippines appealed Thursday for Myanmar to release pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi by November, when the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations marks its founding anniversary.

"That's a very important milestone," Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said.

Romulo said he would convey his appeal to his Myanmar counterpart, Nyan
Win, who is to join an annual meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers Monday.

Myanmar's spotty human rights record has been raised at every major ASEAN
meeting, but Romulo said there was no other option but to be patient.

"It's not easy to be waiting all the time, but we must keep our hopes and
optimism," he told a news conference. "We should never get weary."

Myanmar ignored international calls not to extend the house arrest of Suu
Kyi earlier this year, provoking new criticism, including from ASEAN.

ASEAN's 10 foreign ministers are to discuss Myanmar's efforts to
democratize, according to a draft joint ministerial statement, which
reserved a paragraph for the situation in the military-ruled nation.

Southeast Asian countries were hoping Myanmar would also complete a
constitution it has been drafting for years by the time ASEAN leaders hold
their annual summit in Singapore in November.

Myanmar's junta has said that drafting a constitution is the first of
seven steps in a so-called roadmap to democracy that will culminate in
free elections.

Critics say the process is a sham because it does not involve democracy
activists such as Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under
house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Although bound by an ASEAN edict not to interfere in each other's affairs,
some members, like Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, have become
more blunt in their criticism, urging Myanmar to show tangible progress
toward democratization.

Authoritarian members, like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, have refused to
engage in stinging criticism of Myanmar.

Myanmar's ruling generals took power in 1988. They called elections in
1990, but refused to recognize the results when Suu Kyi's party won a
resounding victory.

Myanmar should have held ASEAN's rotating chairmanship and hosted the
regional summit last year, but it gave up the chance amid protests by
Western governments. The chairmanship, rotated alphabetically, was
abruptly passed on to the Philippines.

Singapore takes over the chairmanship next week.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

July 26, Irrawaddy
France aims for release of Suu Kyi - Htet Aung

France has set its sights on negotiating the release of Burmese
pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, according to French Deputy Minister
of Human Rights Rama Yade.

The push to free Suu Kyi follows the successful negotiation with Libya by
French First Lady Cecilia Sarkozy for the release of five Bulgarian nurses
and a Palestinian doctor, held captive by Libya for the last eight years.

Yade told LCI television that the French government was now setting its
sights on liberating the Nobel Peace laureate and democracy advocate
detained for years by the Burmese government, according to The Associated
Press.

“We welcome the French government’s interest in mediating for the release
of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Myint Thein, a spokesperson for the National
League for Democracy told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

“A warm relationship developed between the pro-democracy forces and the
French embassy in Rangoon following Nicholas Sarkozy’s presidential
election victory last month. The French ambassador also recently attended
the 60th anniversary of Burma’s Martyr’s Day,” he added.

The French ambassador earlier invited members of the NLD, the 88
Generation Students and other pro-democracy activists to the embassy’s
Bastille Day celebration on July 14, according to an activist who attended
the event.

Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for her fifth consecutive year
since 2003, was not allowed to attend Martyr’s Day celebrations, which
fell o­n July 19. The day commemorates the assassination of Gen Aung San,
Suu Kyi’s father, and eight other national leaders in 1947.

Aung San Suu Kyi was made an honorary citizen of Paris by the French
capital’s city council in December 2004 for her selfless and non-violent
actions on behalf of the people of Burma.

In his victory speech, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: “France will
be on the side of the oppressed of the world. This is France’s message, it
is France’s identity, it is France’s history.”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

July 26, The Independent
A regime we should not be doing business with

The latest report from the House of Commons International Development
Committee calls Burma the "forgotten crisis". There is some justice in
this description. Compared with other humanitarian catastrophes, the
plight of Burma receives shamefully little attention from the outside
world. The brutality of the Burmese military towards its own population
rivals in horror anything seen in Darfur, Zimbabwe or North Korea. Yet
beyond periodic pleas for the release from house arrest of Burma's
democratically elected leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the rulers of this
south-east Asian state seem to provoke considerably less indignation from
the world's capitals than other flagrant human rights abusers.

The development committee is calling for a substantial increase in British
assistance to the hundreds of thousands who have been internally displaced
by the Burmese army. It adds some moral impetus, by pointing out that
Burma presently receives less aid per head than any of the world's poorest
countries. There is certainly a powerful case for the Government stepping
up its delivery of life-saving aid. A danger exists that the corrupt
military junta that has controlled the country since 1988 will try to
block such deliveries (especially to those ethnic groups, such as the
Karen, that have taken up arms against the regime). But the committee
makes a convincing argument that assistance can be increased safely
through cross-border aid projects that bypass the military. With World
Health Organisation research showing that more than 11 per cent of Burmese
males fail to make it to age five, due to a combination of disease and
conflict, a failure to heed this call would surely constitute a terrible
betrayal.

However, full economic engagement, which some have put forward as a way of
opening up Burma, should remain off the agenda. There are already too many
foreign interests trying to make money out of Burma at the expense of its
people. Despite two decades of EU and US sanctions against Rangoon,
commercial links between Burma and the outside world have been increasing.
India is selling military helicopters to the junta, which are likely to be
used for internal repression. Russia has agreed to build a nuclear reactor
there. Burma is paying for such things with its abundant natural
resources. China is a prime customer for Burmese timber. Some furniture
products made from its forests have even been put on sale by British
retailers. Meanwhile, the French oil giant Total has a wretched history of
doing business with the ruling clique of generals.

All this has helped prop up the junta and contributed to the oppression of
the Burmese people. Trade, on the whole, is empowering for the population
of poor countries. But in Burma, raw materials are harvested through slave
labour. Villages are forcibly cleared for logging. Trade, therefore,
becomes another weapon in the hands of the generals. The same is true of
tourism, which some have tried to promote as a way of helping directly the
local population. The evidence suggests that any foreign exchange brought
into the country tends to end up in the hands of the military elite, not
those who need it.

The Burmese leadership is often characterised as "isolated". In fact, the
regime has grown worryingly less isolated in recent years. As well as
increasing aid, our government must apply greater pressure for all
countries and business involved in any form of economic relations with the
junta to desist. A good place to start would be the meeting of the
Association for South East Asian Nations which meets next week. Unless we
combine aid with tougher sanctions, we are simply giving to the Burmese
people with one hand and taking away with the other.

____________________________________

July 26, The Independent
Burma: A plight we can ignore no longer - John Bercow, MP

The people of Burma endure human rights abuses on an unimaginable scale.
Rape, torture and forced labour are facts of their lives. So why does the
world refuse to act? A cross-party group of MPs has returned shocked by
what they discovered there.

Burma suffers a political, human rights and humanitarian situation as grim
as any in the world today. The country is run by an utterly illegitimate
government that spends 50 per cent of its budget on the military and less
than a $1 (50p) per head on the health and education of its own citizens.

The thugs and impostors who rule the roost practise some of the most
egregious human rights abuses known to mankind. Rape as a weapon of war,
extra-judicial killings, water torture, mass displacement, compulsory
relocation, forced labour, incarceration of political prisoners, religious
and ethnic persecution, and the daily destruction of rural villages are
all part of the story of savagery that has disfigured Burma.

People lack access to food, water, sanitation and the most basic health
and education provision. Twice over the past three years, I have met just
a handful of the 500,000 internally displaced people in eastern Burma and
the 100,000 living in refugee camps in Thailand, victims of the wanton
savagery of the Burmese Army.

Harrowing accounts of children dying from malnutrition, women perishing in
childbirth and people succumbing to HIV, malaria and tuberculosis will
remain indelibly imprinted upon my mind if I live to be 100. Most shocking
of all was the experience of meeting children who told me they had seen
their parents shot dead and parents who were forced to watch their
children's summary execution.

Infectious diseases are approaching epidemic levels and 71 per cent of the
population are at risk of malaria. A 2006 estimate of the child mortality
rate in eastern Burma was 221 per 1000, compared to 205 in the DRC. Health
spending is the lowest in the world (0.5 per cent of GDP) and 60 per cent
of households have no education at all.

Yet Burma receives the lowest aid of all Least Developed Countries. The
DfID's current budget of £8.8m is paltry compared to countries with
similar poverty levels and human rights records. It amounts to just a
quarter of the budget for Zimbabwe.

DfID has long prioritised working in-country, despite the draconian access
restrictions imposed by the regime. By contrast, it has spurned the
opportunity to support cross-border assistance which alone is capable of
meeting the needs of some of the most vulnerable and destitute. It was
only after concerted pressure earlier this year that DfID even allowed its
funds to be spent on cross-border work. Yet this belated shift of policy
was itself an empty gesture as it offered not a penny extra for the
purpose.
Our Committee visited refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border and was
astonished to hear DfID visits them so infrequently. We were deeply
dismayed that DfID plans to relocate all its staff to Rangoon, despite the
importance of working with exile groups on the Thai border and the
limitations of working with the regime in Rangoon.

DfID policy needs to change at once. First, it should quadruple its budget
for Burma by 2013.

Secondly, its programme must include complementary in-country and
cross-border approaches to ensure even coverage of the most vulnerable
people across the country.

Thirdly, it should begin appropriate funding for exile groups, such as
trade unions and women's organisations, to support them in raising
awareness, giving assistance to IDPs and building capacity to prepare for
transition to democracy.

Good work is undoubtedly done in Burma by dedicated international public
servants and experienced NGOs. Yet the blunt truth is that we are failing
the people of Burma. Co-ordination is abysmal, communication with border
groups and exile organisations is pitiful and the policy response to the
continuing humanitarian crisis is frankly dysfunctional.

Douglas Alexander is nobody's fool and he clearly relishes his new job. I
urge him to see the weakness of current policy and to heed the
International Development Select Committee's advice to change it
decisively for the benefit of millions of people in Burma who have
suffered too much for too long with too little done to alleviate their
plight.

MPs who went to Burma

Malcolm Bruce, Chairman, Gordon Liberal Democrats; John Battle, Leeds
West, Labour; Hugh Bayley, City of York Labour; Mr John Bercow,
Buckingham, Conservative; Richard Burden, Birmingham, Northfield Labour;
Mr Quentin Davies, Grantham and Stamford, Labour; James Duddridge,
Rochford and Southend East, Conservative; Ann McKechin, Glasgow North,
Labour; Joan Ruddock, Lewisham, Deptford, Labour; Mr Marsha Singh,
Bradford West, Labour; Sir Robert Smith, Aberdeenshire West and
Kincardine, Liberal Democrat

____________________________________

July 26, The Independent
Forgotten and locked in the shadow of the past - Peter Popham

Nearly 20 years ago, Burma, the hermit of south-east Asia, and under
military rule since 1962, almost experienced a revolution.

The student uprising of August 1988 vented the fury and frustration of a
people whose future, so promising at the time of independence from
Britain, had turned into a nightmare of tyranny, stagnation and whimsical
socialism dictated by the military dictator Ne Win.

One year before the far more celebrated act of Chinese popular defiance at
Tiananmen Square, Burma's "8/8/88" uprising was violently suppressed with
the loss of thousands of lives.

But despite the brutality of the army's assaults - aided by the fact that,
unlike China, Burma was essentially off the map for the West, and most of
the killings went unrecorded by the foreign media - the Burmese people
emerged victorious.

Ne Win went into retirement. A new set of generals took his place, calling
themselves SLROC, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, but in
acknowledgment of the justice of the people's demands they conceded
general elections.

That was one triumph. The other was that, in the cauldron of the uprising,
Burma had found a leader. Aung San Suu Kyi, the only daughter of the hero
of Burma's struggles against Japanese and British colonialism, was in
Rangoon by chance in the summer of 1988. She lived with her family in
Oxford, but had returned to the parental home to look after her seriously
ill mother.

Living abroad throughout her adult life, Suu Kyi's involvement in Burmese
affairs had until that point been very limited. But caught up in the drama
of the uprising, she grasped the need of the moment and became the
figurehead of the regime's opponents. And yet she was far more than a
figurehead: bringing her knowledge and experience of democracy, from India
to Britain, she gave the rebels a degree of political maturity that they
would have lacked without her.

The fruit of the uprising was the general election, held in 1990.
Astonishingly it was relatively free and fair, and Suu Kyi's party, the
National League for Democracy won a landslide victory. But despite that
mandate and the momentum for radical change that it represented, the
process was already curdling, the generals were busy hauling down the
shutters. Suu Kyi, her potency as a leader recognised by the generals, was
locked up in her home before the nation went to the polls. She remained
there in the glow of victory - and then the junta refused to recognise the
result.

That was 17 years ago, and Burma has been living in the deep shadow of
those events ever since. The ruling junta have consolidated their power:
by keeping Suu Kyi locked away (she has been given her freedom several
times since, but every time she proves to be as popular as ever, she is
isolated again); by handing out ferocious jail sentences to her supporters
and anyone else who defies the regime; and by conducting unending, brutal
wars against the ethnic minorities on the country's borders. Burma's
wealth of resources have encouraged companies such as Total, the French
oil giant, to do deals with the regime.

Suu Kyi remains locked in her home, more isolated than ever. And the
spasmodic, mostly symobolic pressure from the West has yet to precipitate
anything in the way of democratic reform.