BurmaNet News, August 11-13, 2007

[Editor]

August 11-13, 2007 Issue # 3266

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Hundreds displaced as Burmese troops push through Karen State
DVB: Man arrested for ILO claim released
Xinhua: Myanmar official media call for environment conservation
SHAN: Faction ridden ceasefire group reorganized

ON THE BORDER
DVB: KNU marks Martyr’s Day

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Burmese traders appeal for tax reduction on export to Thailand

HEALTH / AIDS
KNG: Pregnant women give birth in candle lit Myitkyina Hospital

REGIONAL
Xinhua News Agency: Myanmar media delegation visits China
Narinjara: NISC asks China to stop supporting the Burmese junta

OPINION / OTHER
New York Times: From a Burmese prison, a chronicle of pain in paint - Jane
Perlez
Asia Times Online: A lurch on Burma's road to democracy - Jessicah Curtis
Mizzima News: Burma mired in a Constitutional tangle? - Zin Linn

ANNOUNCEMENT
Project Maje: We built this city: Refugees from Burma at risk in Malaysia
Mizzima News: Mizimma is looking for in-house journalism trainers (volunteer)

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
Hundreds displaced as Burmese troops push through Karen State

More than 200 Karen civilians were forcibly relocated by the Burmese army
last month, bringing the number of civilians displaced by the latest
military campaign in Karen State to more than 30,000, according to the
Free Burma Rangers.

In a report released on the weekend, FBR said Burmese military campaigns
against civilians were forcing increasing numbers of Karen villagers to
flee for jungle hideouts or the safety of refugee camps along the
Thai-Burma border.

“The Burma Army has continued its violent campaign to force villagers into
hiding or relocation sites in northern Karen State . . . using continuous
attacks and patrols, a shoot-on-sight policy . . . and the severe
restriction of villager activity in areas under its control,” the latest
FBR report said.

“Those hiding are finding it more and more difficult to do so as a result
of the expanding network of roads and army camps throughout northern Karen
State.”

FBR also said a number of civilians were murdered by the Burmese military
last month and that large numbers of Karen villagers were living in
Burmese military relocation sites where their movements were severely
restricted.

The Burmese military’s latest offensive against the armed Karen National
Union rebel group started in February last year and has been described as
the most serious campaign in the area since 1997.

____________________________________

August 13, Democratic Voice Burma
Man arrested for ILO claim released

Thein Shwe Maung, who was arrested and detained in Rambree, Arakan State
after filing a forced labour claim with the International Labour
Organization last month, was given a conditional release last Friday.

Labour rights activist Su Su Nway, who is familiar with Thein Shwe Maung’s
case, told DVB that despite his release from detention it was possible the
military would decide against dropping the charges against him.

“His case has not been completely dropped and he was released on the
condition that his movements are restricted for 12 months. He has to
report to the local police station every week and sign an attendance
sheet,” Su Su Nway said.

Thein Shwe Maung was arrested in mid July after sending a forced labour
complaint to the ILO on behalf of himself and 25 Kanaung Chay villagers.
The complaint alleged that the villagers had worked on the construction of
a fish-breeding tank for a private company but were never paid.

After his arrest, the other villagers named in the complaint were
reportedly forced by Rambree officials to sign statements rejecting the
claims made in Thein Shwe Maung’s letter. As the ILO does not comment on
individual cases, it is unclear whether the claim has been accepted as a
forced labour issue.

____________________________________

August 13, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar official media call for environment conservation

Myanmar official press media Monday urged the country people to preserve
natural resources and already established protected public forests,
wildlife sanctuaries and forest plantations in the wake of emerging
environmental deterioration which many countries in the world are facing.

"The entire national people are to preserve protected public forests, rare
species of birds and flora and fauna. Only then, will the whole
environment flourish all the more," the New Light of Myanmar newspaper
said in its editorial.

The editorial outlined that Hukoung Valley, Khakaborazi and Alaungdaw
Kathapha National Parks, Shwesettaw, Inlay Lake and Moeyongyi Lake
Sanctuaries are the ones where various kinds of wildlife and bio-diversity
can be found in Myanmar.

Besides, nine species of bio-diversity out of 144 that are endangered
species in the world can also be found in the country, it said, adding
that being blessed with bio-diversity and wider in area, the Hukoung
valley is taking steps to increase the number of tigers.

The editorial warned of the impact on the perpetual existence of
bio-diversity due to excessive extraction of forest and use of forest
products and endangered species, slash and burn farming and pollution.

Meanwhile, Myanmar is implementing a five-year forest conservation project
(2004-05 to 2008-09) for greening of Bago Yoma (mountain range) where teak
and other hardwood grow in abundance and more teak plantations and
watershed plantations are being established.

There are nearly 60,000 square-miles (155,340 square-kilometers) of
reserve forests and protected public forests in Myanmar with over 130,000
acres (52,650 hectares) of forest plantations, statistics show.

With forests accounting for over 50 percent of its total land area,
Myanmar's timber stands as the country's third largest export goods after
mineral and agricultural products.

Myanmar signed the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in
1997 after the World Environment Program was formulated in 1992 for
continued development on the issue.

As for the Hukoung Tiger Reserve which lies in Myanmar's northernmost
Kachin state and covers an area of about 22,000 square kilometers, was
established in 2004 and is claimed the largest of its kind in the world.

In the wake of tiger extinction threat, Myanmar wildlife police and forest
rangers have stepped up combating wildlife trade and crimes in the tiger
reserve and special training programs have been introduced jointly by the
Myanmar forest ministry and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation
Society (WCS).

As disclosed by the Myanmar authorities, there remains only about 150 live
tigers in Myanmar's tiger reserve.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities have also warned traditional medicine
practitioners in the country to avoid using tiger bones in producing their
medicinal products to help conserve endangered animal species.

Myanmar was estimated to have over 3,000 Bengal and Indochina tigers by
1980, the second in Asia after India, according to experts.

____________________________________

August 11, Shan Herald Agency for News
Faction ridden ceasefire group reorganized

The faction ridden Shan State Nationalities People's Liberation
Organization (SNPLO) has been reorganized, according to a senior officer.
Over the last two months, deep fissures had surfaced in the SNPLO.

The 600-strong remnant group held a meeting at its Nawnghtao base in
Hsihseng township, 59 miles south of the state capital Taunggyi, to elect
the 11-member central committee led by the ageing Takley on July 19, he
said.

The faction led by Vice Chairman Khun Ti Hsawng returned to armed struggle
on June 10. This was followed by the surrender to the Burma Army on July 8
by its Chairman Khun Chit Maung.

The group has been reiterating its demand for greater autonomy for the
non-Burman states in the military-organized National Convention. On the
negative side, it has earned notoriety because of the involvement of its
prominent members in the drug trade.

It is however not represented in the current session of the Convention.

The list of the 11-member Central Committee provided by the source are
Takley (Chairman),  Khun Sein Shwe (Vice Chairman-1), Khun Saw Hpa Mu
(Vice Chairman-2), Soe Aung Lwin (General Secretary), Col Hsai Fa ( Chief
of Staff), Lt-Col Myo Hset aka Ta Keow (Deputy Chief of Staff), Lt-Col
Hsang Aw (Chief Administrator), Phra Tan Khun Hti (Deputy Chief
Administrator), Lt-Col Sein Win Naung (Chief Liaison Officer), Lt-Col Aung
Shwe Latt (Deputy Chief Liaison Officer) and Lt-Col Chit Tun (Chief
Financial Officer).

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

August 13, Democratic Voice of Burma
KNU marks Martyr’s Day

The Karen National Union marked the 57th Karen Martyr’s Day yesterday with
a warning to the military government that fighting would not stop until
the 58-year Karen revolution had been won.

During celebrations at the Karen National Liberation Army’s brigade
seven’s battalion 202 area, which were attended by more than 600 guests,
KNU spokesman Padoh Mahn Shar said a number of lessons could be learned
from the lives of the Karen martyrs.

“August 12 marks to day our leader Saw Ba U Gyi was killed in 1950 during
the KNU’s withdrawal from Insein. Today we remember them,” Padoh Mahn Shar
said.

The commander of the KNLA’s brigade seven, Saw Johny, told reporters at
the event that Karen people needed to be wary of Burmese military attempts
to foster divisions among the community.

“I would like to remind every Karen to continue their duty to fight this
unfinished Karen revolution. We must carry on until we win and peace is
established,” Saw Johny said.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 13, Mizzima News
Burmese traders appeal for tax reduction on export to Thailand - Than
Htike Oo

An ardent appeal has been made to Thai authorities by Burmese traders in
the border town of Myawaddy, opposite Thailand's Mae Sot town to reduce
import taxes on their goods. The Burmese traders at a meeting with Thai
traders on August 10, in Myawaddy Town, voiced their appeal, which is to
be communicated to the Thai authorities by the Thai traders.

"What the Burmese traders want to know is why taxes on cane and bamboo
were raised to 30 percent? We agreed to take this appeal to the Mae Sot
mayor and request if tax exemption is possible. The other point is, the
reason for the five percent tax levy on fish and prawn, which were
initially tax free goods," Ampho Chatcai Yalerk, chairman of the Mae Sot
Chamber of Commerce, told Mizzima.

Reduced taxation will boost border trader as it will enable Burmese
traders to import more goods to Thailand at cheaper rates and in return
Thai traders could export Thai goods to Burma, he added.

However, the Chairman of Myawaddy traders union, Daw Thin Thin Myat
declined to comment over the recent meeting between the two countries'
traders and their appeals to the Thai authorities through Thai traders.

While there are at least three border Thai-Burmese border points, the Mae
Sot-Myawaddy border point generates the largest volume of border trade.
However, though Thailand's export to Burma in the last fiscal year
accounts for nearly 23,000 million Baht, Burmese export to Thailand for
the same fiscal year accounts
for only half the volume of Thai export, according to Thailand's chamber
of Commerce.

Burmese trader's export mainly seafood to Mae Sot while Thai traders in
Mae Sot export mainly furniture, dry prawn and dry fish to Burma.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 13, Kachin News Group
Pregnant women give birth in candle lit Myitkyina Hospital

Pregnant women have been giving birth to babies in the Myitkyina
Government Hospital in Kachin state, northern Burma in candle light. The
hospital has been without electricity for over a month, said a hospital
source.

The hospital's Delivery Room is lit with candles and sometimes torchlight
is used during delivery and surgery, the sources added.

Currently power is available to the hospital for only two hours from 7
p.m. to 9 p.m. local time. Pregnant women are expected to carry candles
and a torches, a hospital worker told KNG today.

Although, the hospital has a private electric generator it can operate for
only one hour from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. for  the X-Ray machine every day,
according to hospital sources.

If some patients need surgery, they have to Kyat 7,500 (US $ 6) per hour
for the cost of electricity specially generated for the hospital's
Operating Room by the hospital-owned generator, the sources added.

On the other hand, the near absence of electricity in the hospital also
creates problems in treating children who crowd the Children-Patient Room
and are suffering from typhoid, pneumonia and malaria-related diseases,
according to hospital personnel.

In order to procure much needed medicines, medical apparatus and
electricity for the hospital, the authorities collect money from every
patient who leaves the hospital, local sources added.

In Myitkyina, shortage of electricity started when the government's
Chyinghkrang River Hydroelectric Power plant was destroyed in last year's
Myitkyina's May flooding.

Power supply was resumed when the Kachin Independence Organization
(KIO)-built Mali River (not Irrawaddy River) Hydroelectric Power commenced
operations from July 10, last year.  However there are often technical
problems in the plant, said KIO officials.
____________________________________
REGIONAL

August 13, Xinhua News Agency
Myanmar media delegation visits China

A Myanmar media delegation made up of official and private media personnel
left Yangon Sunday afternoon for Beijing to start a week-long visit to
China, aimed at strengthening the exchange and cooperation between the two
countries in the sector of information.

The eight-member Myanmar media delegation, led by U Maung Maung Aye, Chief
Editor of the state-run English-language Daily New Light of Myanmmar, also
includes those representing the Myanmar News Agency, the Printing and
Publishing Enterprise, private news journals of Yangon Times, Kumudra,
Popular and Snap Shot.

Meeting with the leaving Myanmar media delegation on Saturday, Charge
d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar Wang Zongying noted that the
exchange of information between China and Myanmar constitutes an important
part of the cultural change between the two countries, adding that the
enhancement of information exchange helps boost the two countries'
cooperation in the sector and deepen the understanding and friendship of
the two peoples.

The delegation is scheduled to visit Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming at the
invitation of China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.

____________________________________

August 12, Narinjara
NISC asks China to stop supporting the Burmese junta

The Naga International Support Center (NISC), a human rights organization
has called upon the Chinese government to withdraw its support from the
Burmese junta. The Amsterdam based rights body has also appealed Beijing
to stop supplying weapons to the junta.

In press statement, issued on August 11 (2007), the NISC argued that the
military junta of Burma was using the weapons against its own people like
the indigenous Nagas.

"After the resurrection in 1988 and the general election in 1990 the
Burmese junta could maintain its control over the nation, because China
helped the junta going on. China continues to support the Burmese military
rulers with weapons and funds," said in the statement.

Chinese interest in Burma is guided by primarily three reasons. If the
mentality of imperialism by China is first reason, preventing India's
influences in Burma remains another important concern for Beijing.
Moreover, China finds Burma as a cheap source of natural resources.

NISC appeals the Chinese government to show a humane face so that the
indigenous people of Burma, including the Nagas, could set free and pursue
their destiny.

It may be mentioned that Naga people living both in Burma and India are
pursuing for a greater Nagalim. Nagas are divided in various tribes and
they even use different dialects. But for a greater homeland for Nagas,
they have erased all their differences and arrived in a conscious notion
in respect of the Nagalim.

In fact, driven by the growing need for energy, both China and India are
spending money for the development projects in Burma. India is also
appeared determined to enhance its strategic ties with the Burmese junta
to avoid conceding ground to China. On the other hand, the junta known as
the State Peace and Development Council have found a lucrative game:
playing India off against China and winning projects from both.

"China, without having its own seaports for access to the Indian Ocean,
would dearly love to get Indian Ocean access via Burma's rivers and
seaports. The fact that both of the two regional powers, India and China,
want exactly the same thing from Burma puts them in a position very
vulnerable to be exploited by Burma's streetwise generals," said an exiled
Burmese journalist.

India too, though facing criticism from international communities for
maintaining relationship with the present regime of Burma is not convinced
to snap ties primarily for three reasons. First, Burma can play an
important role in realizing India's Look East policy, where New Delhi
proposes land connectivity with various South East Asian countries like
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (through Burma) for trades.

Secondly, the government of India is very much concerned with the presence
of Northeast based insurgents in northern Burma. It believes that many
armed outfits namely NSCN (both K and IM factions), ULFA, PLA, PREPAK,
UNLF, KYKL, KCP etc run their training camps inside Burma and also use the
neighbouring country as their safe hide outs. Thirdly, New Delhi also
remains equally concerned with more and more Chinese presence in Burma.

With an aim to prevent China's involvement in that country, New Delhi
wants to involve the military rulers in the greater economic cooperation.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 13, New York Times

>From a Burmese prison, a chronicle of pain in paint - Jane Perlez


A color photograph of the Burmese artist Htein Lin on the day of his
release from prison shows him stooped and wan, looking easily 20 years
older than his real age. His face is scrawny, and in one of his thin hands
he holds a white plastic bag filled with the remnants of more than six
years in a cell. He stands next to a uniformed military man who ran the
jail.

On his face is a jubilant grin.

Behind the smile was a well kept, high-wire secret.

Mr. Htein Lin, a political prisoner accused of planning opposition
activities, had managed to smuggle out from prison more than 300 paintings
and 1,000 illustrations on paper. Now, three years later, his artworks are
offering a rare vision of prison life in Myanmar, formerly Burma, one of
the world's most authoritarian and closed nations.

The most grisly of Mr. Htein Lin's works, titled ''Six Fingers,'' shows a
line of thin men with missing fingers and toes. These were the men whose
families were too poor to provide the $50 to $100 bribes that could stop
prisoners from being sent to hard labor camps in malarial swamps and stone
quarries.

''The only way for the poorer prisoners to escape the camps was to have an
'accident,' '' said Mr. Htein Lin, now 41 and a resident of London. This
usually involved asking another prisoner to use a hoe or a spade from the
prison garden to cut off two or three fingers and then show the injuries
to the doctors.

Other works, many on the white sarongs that serve as prison uniforms in
Myanmar, show gruesome depictions of hunger and sickness. The artworks are
on display for the first time at Asia House, a cultural center in central
London.

That Mr. Htein Lin's work is on public display here pinpoints the long
connection between the former Burma and Britain, the colonial power there
from the 1880s until just after World War II. Mr. Htein Lin does not
specifically mention Orwell in his show, but the legacy of Orwell, the
British writer who worked as a colonial policeman in Burma and used his
experiences there to fashion his themes on the rottenness of Big Brother
rule, underlies much of the artist's work.

For Mr. Htein Lin, a stint of seven months on death row, where he was sent
for punishment for giving a political speech to inmates, turned out to be
some of the most productive time.

''It was a good chance to paint because the prison officers didn't come
very often, they were too scared,'' he said. The death row prisoners,
though tough and not the least bit aware of art, wanted to help him.
''They wanted to participate in something. They felt, 'Before our death,
we can help this artist.' '' So the men on death row willingly gave him
their sarongs that were their only form of dress and served as Mr. Htein
Lin's staple canvas.

The prisoners would then be left naked because sarongs were only issued
every six months. ''They would sit there naked, but they were very
difficult to punish,'' Mr. Htein Lin said. So the prison guards would give
in and issue new sarongs, ensuring a future supply for the clandestine
artist.

Mr. Htein Lin ended up in prison after a colleague in an opposition group,
unbeknownst to the artist, sent a letter in 1998 to another colleague
mentioning him as a possible recruit. The secret police intercepted the
letter. They came to his house in the capital, Yangon, formerly Rangoon,
and hauled him off blindfolded. A military tribunal sentenced him to seven
years in prison. He was released slightly early as part of a general
amnesty in 2004.

The artist had been a supporter of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy
leader who has not left the country since 1988 and has been under house
arrest for 11 of the past 17 years. The United States demands the release
of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi as a condition for dropping severe economic
sanctions.

''The main problem when I was arrested was that I answered their
questions,'' he said. ''I said, Aung San Suu Kyi loves the country like
you.''

Once in jail, life became a perpetual game of finding materials and
befriending prison guards who would safely deliver his works to friends
outside.

He became close to a medical orderly, who was a poet and happy to supply
him with the syringes that became his substitute paint brushes.

With the little bit of money that his family brought him on visits, he
bribed friendly prison guards to bring him oil paint. Sometimes they would
buy him acrylic paint, sometimes house paint.

One of his more ingenious methods was to use the plasticized white back of
a photo of Buddha he was allowed to keep in his cell as a print plate. He
would draw on the white coated surface and then put a cloth on top to
transfer the image.

Sometimes, there were near scrapes. After a prisoner tattled on Mr. Htein
Lin, guards came marching into his cell hunting for his art.

He had a painting on a sarong drying on his cell wall, he said, and held
his breath as the guards lifted a corner of the sarong to peer behind, and
then put it back in place. They had no idea the wet cloth was what they
were looking for.

A fellow artist, Chaw Ei Thein, 38, is visiting for the three months of
Mr. Htein Lin's show from her art studio in Yangon. She has created
performance art in Japan and Taiwan, and her paintings have been shown in
Thailand.

The two met in law school in Yangon in 1990s, dropped plans to be lawyers
and together created performance art that pushed the junta's limits on
freedom of expression. They devised a performance in which they went into
one of Yangon's busy outdoor markets, and sold small items -- candy,
ribbons -- for tiny amounts of money. The performance was, of course, a
commentary on the inflated prices under the current government.

Unexpectedly, they were arrested. But other more serious offenders
suspected of planting bombs in the capital were being held at the same
police station.

The police confessed, Ms. Chaw Ei Thein said, that they could not cope
with two cases at once.

So the police told Mr. Htein Lin and Ms. Chaw Ei Thein to go free, but not
before asking the two artists, in one of the Orwellian gestures that seem
to permeate Burmese life, to help draw sketches of the bomb suspects.

____________________________________

August 10, Asia Times Online
A lurch on Burma's road to democracy - Jessicah Curtis

After nearly 14 years in the drafting, Burma's ruling generals have
announced that next month they will finalize a new constitution that,
after a national referendum, will pave the way for a political transition
from military to civilian rule.

For much of the past decade, Burma's slow-moving constitution-drafting
National Convention has been paid short shrift by the political
opposition, which has openly chided the junta's so-called "roadmap for
democracy".

The announcement by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
that the convention will reconvene for its final session on July 18 has
sent shock waves through the pro-democracy movement, led by the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD).

The final draft of the long-awaited constitution is nearly complete, and
for the first time the SPDC appears ready to take significant steps toward
some sort of political transition where the military will maintain
political control through civilian proxies. In that direction, reports
have recently emerged that the SPDC has commenced construction on a big
new parliamentary building in the reclusive new capital city, Naypyidaw.

Yet rather than moving toward genuine political reconciliation, as the
United States, the European Union and the United Nations have all
encouraged, news that the constitution is near completion has stirred
concern rather than confidence among pro-democracy groups, which fear that
they will be even further marginalized in the political transition.

Since its launch in 1993, the National Convention has been widely viewed
as a convenient excuse by the SPDC not to hand power over to the NLD,
which won a landslide election victory over military-backed candidates in
1990. The military later annulled the results and has since ruled the
country with an iron fist.

Originally designed to lay down the "basic principles" for a new
constitution, the convention was later repackaged as the first step on the
junta's "roadmap for democracy", which was launched in August 2003 by
then-prime minister Khin Nyunt. At the time, the SPDC claimed the roadmap
would lead to a new constitution, free and fair elections, and a
multiparty democratic political system.

Toward that end, the National Convention was reconvened in 2004 after an
eight-year break instigated by the NLD's unwillingness to participate in a
process that it has continuously characterized as a sham. The
international community has responded with similar skepticism and has
called for a more transparent, inclusive process.

That clearly hasn't been the case, with nine political parties and a
number of key ceasefire and rebel outfits either uninvited or refusing to
attend the National Convention. Many other political and civilian groups,
including some that have participated in the constitution-drafting
process, have said they are unhappy with the final draft charter now being
circulated.

Exclusive liberties
That's because the new charter includes various anti-democratic provisions
and predictably is designed to secure a role for the military in Burma's
future "civilian" parliament. It also ensures that popular opposition
politicians, including detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, will be
legally excluded from prominent decision-making roles in the to-be-elected
government.

For instance, the draft allots 25% of the seats in a future parliament to
the military and prevents anyone with a criminal or prison record from
taking on a legitimate political role. Since many of Burma's pro-democracy
candidates, including several leading members of the NLD, have spent time
in jail, they will be barred from running for political office.

It also prescribes that the future president must have "political,
administrative, military and economic experience", and have lived in Burma
for at least 20 years, and his or her spouses and children's spouses must
not be citizens of a foreign country. This provision has been clearly
designed to rule out the possibility of Aung San Suu Kyi campaigning for
the premiership.

Several other cabinet positions, including those of the ministers of
defense, border affairs and homeland security, will by law be held by
members of the military, and according to provisions in the current draft,
the military can legally seize power at any time merely by declaring a
state of emergency. The constitution also gives the army the right to full
independence from parliamentary and public oversight.

Importantly, the final session of the National Convention next month will
also finalize the guidelines for constitutional-amendment procedures - a
provision that NLD members contend will be the key to the new charter's
eventual success or failure. "We are interested in this stage. If it can
be possible to change [the constitution], then it will not be so bad for
Burma," NLD spokesperson U Myint Thein said.

In previous drafts, the military has demanded that any constitutional
amendments be tabled as parliamentary bills that must carry 75% support of
the legislature, which the military will likely dominate through both its
appointed and elected proxies. If passed, the amendments must then garner
more than 50% of eligible voters in a national referendum.

If the draft constitution is finalized next month, the National Convention
finally comes to a close and a national referendum is quickly held to
ratify the new charter, where will it leave major opposition groups, such
as the NLD and the armed insurgent groups that have been excluded from the
drafting process? The short answer: in a tight political spot.

Sources along the Thailand-Burma border say that the military has recently
taken steps to disarm a number of ceasefire groups with which the SPDC had
brokered loose autonomy deals in recent years, including the Shan State
Nationalities People's Liberation Organization and the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army. It appears that those ceasefire groups that did send
delegates to the National Convention did not expect the
constitution-drafting process to end so abruptly - nor were they prepared
for the military's recent moves to disarm their members.

Excluded from the constitution-drafting process, Burma's various
opposition groups likewise seem unprepared for the fresh political
challenges posed by the new constitution and a military-led democratic
transition that appears to be winning over significant international
support. While the constitution still needs to be finalized, the move
toward a limited form of democracy now seems inevitable and, according to
one Rangoon-based journalist, "caught the opposition with their pants
down".

"If the constitution goes to a referendum, then the next step will be a
[general] election," a source close to the military told Asia Times Online
in a telephone interview. "How can the NLD run for election based on a
constitution they didn't ratify and when they still insist that the 1990
election results are right? They will have to choose between the 1990
election result and being a part of Myanmar's political future."

At the least, the charter's completion and its promise of new general
elections will provide a fresh challenge to the legitimacy of past
political landmarks, including the annulled 1990 election results.

"You can go against something because it is unfair and unjust, but then it
becomes a political reality, and what do you do?" asked Thailand-based
Burmese political analyst Aung Naing Oo. "What the military is preparing
to say is that whatever happened in the past, it will be invalidated if
the new constitution is ratified."

Some analysts believe the military's decision abruptly to wind down the
National Convention and finalize the constitution was brought on by
pressure from China. Some analysts note that the announcement came hard on
the heels of Prime Minister Thein Sein's recent China visit. More
concretely, Beijing has recently become impatient with the military's
foot-dragging over a process that, once completed, would help to ease
Burma's political and economic isolation.

The UN , which helped broker secret national-reconciliation talks between
the SPDC and the NLD in 2003 and has consistently pushed the junta to move
toward more democracy, could be throwing its hat in with the SPDC's plan.
The United Nations Population Fund in Burma is helping the military
government prepare for the country's first national census in more than 20
years ahead of a national referendum. If that referendum leads to
democratic elections, more international concessions could be in the
offing.

____________________________________

August 11, Mizzima News
Burma mired in a constitutional tangle? - Zin Linn

Burma is being bogged down in a constitutional quagmire rooted in the
question of equality for all nationalities or democratic rights for
citizens of the nation. The ethnic nationalities in the country have a
strong political aspiration to establish a genuine federal union as agreed
by 1947 Panglong conference. But, that burning aspiration was disregarded
by successive Burmese military regimes. As a result, civil war has been
going on because of the failed promise guaranteed in the Panglong
Agreement. Contrary to the Panglong spirit, Burma's 1947 Constitution
which was completed in September failed to meet equal rights of ethnic
nationalities had lasted for only 14 years. Similarly, the 1974
Constitution, which also failed to meet establishing a Federal Union based
on the principle of self-determination, had also lasted for merely 14
years.

Now, as a consequence of the failed 1947 and 1974 constitutions, Burma has
been still struggling with a constitutional dilemma. Burma's military
junta has continued holding the last session of its controversial national
convention on 18 July this year. While the final session of 14-year-old
junta's National Convention is underway, the two strongest ethnic
ceasefire groups - the KIO and United Wa State Army (UWSA) are threatened
militarily and economically by the ruling junta. Recently KIO officials
warned that they have no reason to surrender weapons if the junta keeps
denying autonomy for Kachin State which it has repeatedly demanded of
successive ruling juntas. Relations between KIO and UWSA are strong and
they seem to have alerted their military units in order to resist
inevitable military threats by the ruling junta.

Meanwhile, the Mon ethnic nationalities cease-fired group New Mon State
Party stands decisively to uphold its four principles; not to dissolve the
party, not to disband its military wing, Mon National Liberation Army
(MNLA), not to separate the party from its army, and not to give up the 14
territorial positions that were agreed during the cease-fire deal in 1995.

Under the menace of the military junta (SPDC), brushing aside the majority
of people's representatives-elect and with military hand-picked delegates,
how could it be a free and autonomous convention to make any
social-contract. While the contentious national convention is underway,
the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association, together
with members of the local authorities and police, brazenly assaulted human
rights defenders in Burma.

All the delegates in the National Convention are forced to agree to the
SPDC's ready made chapters and basic principles, which grant the
military's Commander-in-Chief the supreme power. The general population is
threatened not to raise its voice about the future of their country with
the SPDC's decree No. 5/96, designed to punish through lengthy
imprisonment to those who criticize the national convention.

The junta's pledges of democratic and economic reforms are merely
rhetorical propaganda. Moreover, respect for the rule of law and human
rights continue to be empty speechifying. It is, in fact, a magic show
appeasing the ASEAN and China that the Burmese junta is working to perform
a mufti-clad regime.

The United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on
18 July 2007, in which he urged the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC) of Myanmar/Burma to seize the current opportunity to ensure that
this and subsequent steps in Myanmar's political road map are as
inclusive, participatory and transparent as possible, with a view to
allowing all the relevant parties to Myanmar's national reconciliation
process to fully contribute to defining their country's future.

More than 50 British MPs have strongly called for the release of detained
Burmese Parliamentarians who have been imprisoned under the military
dictatorship. The British Parliamentarians are demanding that the UN
Special Envoy to Burma and the British government step up efforts to
release those parliamentarians, and all political prisoners in Burma.

In the meantime, on August 1, 2007, 92 Burmese MPs elected in 1990
elections submitted a letter to Mr. Ban Ki-moon. In the letter, they
expressed that they all are relentlessly working for political dialogue.
And declared they will not accept any solution made unilaterally by the
SPDC with use of force, threat, pressure and manipulation.

Looking back in time, it's easy to perceive the real culprit holding up
national reconciliation and democratization in Burma. The people of Burma
still have vivid memories of the August massacre in 1988. It took place 19
years ago, on 8th August of 1988, when the people of Burma from all walks
of life including soldiers and police force marched through the streets of
the country demanding political and economic changes and an end to the
one-party or totalitarian rule.

The military opened fire on the protesters and it is estimated that in the
five days from August 8 to 12, more than 3,000 demonstrators were shot
down in cold blood throughout the country by the armed forces. But the
people continued to carry on the street demonstrations with their demands
for restoration of democracy and human rights in the nation. When the then
totalitarian socialist government could not afford to halt the swelling
people's protests, the military dictators re-entered the power game on
18th September 1988 with the bloody coup.

Three totalitarian presidents had to step down from power due to massive
pressure of the people's demonstrations all over the country. Nonetheless,
the 8888 people's protests paved way for the 1990 elections; these were
however invalidated by the military. The National League for Democracy
(NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi and its ethnic allies won over 82 percent of
parliamentary seats in a 1990 general election.

However, the crooked junta has played the game of national convention for
buying time. The junta first promised in its 1/90 declaration that the
task of the convention was to draft a constitution and all of the elected
representatives must participate in the process. But, when the 11/92
Declaration of the junta came out, it allowed only 99 Members of
Parliament out of 485 or 15.24 percent of elected representatives only. In
the current session, there are merely 12 representatives-elect but only
advocates of militarization.

Not surprisingly, the military regime is yelling for military guidance to
democracy, it has debarred nearly 200 Members of Parliament who disagreed
with the No.6 objective – for the Tatmadaw (Army) to be able to
participate in the national political leadership role of the state.) –
laid down by the junta and 13 representatives-elect continue languishing
in various prisons together with 1200 political prisoners.

If the SPDC continues to put into practice its seven-step road map without
cooperating with the representatives-elect and without listening to the
real aspiration of the people and repeated requests from the international
community, including the UN, the SPDC's orchestrated constitution would be
definitely challenged by the people (including ethnic nationalities) of
Myanmar (Burma).

It has been indisputable that Burma's constitutional crisis becomes one
serious case on the global stage. For instance, global diplomatic tour of
Ibrahim Gambari, the special adviser of the UN secretary-general is
noticeable to Burma-watchers. He started a four-nation tour in Singapore,
Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia after his trip to China, India, Japan,
Russia and some European countries to consult the issue of Burma, before a
final leg to the region's problem child.

However, Burmese and non-Burmese people are worries whether Mr. Gambari
himself understands the root of the question or not. Gambari should not
hope for good results from the junta's orchestrated constitution drafting
assembly or the sham national convention. The convention on the draft
constitution appears to be a democratic option, but it is being carried
out under an indisputably undemocratic and unfair political environment.

The main factor for Burma's key players to consider is the question of
equality for all nationalities and fundamental rights for all citizens of
the nation. The 60-year-long civil war that stems from a constitutional
crisis of the country may not simply cease, if this current national
convention fails to provide self-determination for every nationality.

____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

August 10, Project Maje
We built this city: Refugees from Burma at risk in Malaysia

A new report, "We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in
Malaysia" has been released by Project Maje. The report reveals the plight
of refugees from Burma who have worked on Malaysia's massive
infrastructure projects but gained no gratitude for their labor. "We Built
this City" highlights the persecution currently being inflicted  on the
refugees by a highly controversial government-sanctioned anti-immigrant
vigilante force called Rela, which has been hunting down, beating, robbing
and imprisoning foreigners in Malaysia. "We Built this City" includes
background on the refugees in Malaysia, interviews with refugee
construction workers from Burma's Chin State,  and links to articles on
the Rela raids, as well as a letter writing action campaign.

"We Built this City: Refugees from Burma at Risk in Malaysia" can be found
at www.projectmaje.org

Project Maje is an independent information project which has  distributed
information on Burma's human rights and environmental issues since 1986.

____________________________________

August 13, Mizzima News
Mizimma is looking for in-house journalism trainers (volunteer)

Job Title: Journalism Trainer (Volunteer)
Employer: Mizzima News
Start Date: September 1, 2007
End Date: March 31, 2008
Contact Person: Soe Myint, Editor In-Chief, Mizzima News
Contact Email: editor at mizzima.com, mizzima at hotmail.com
Location: New Delhi (India) and Chiang Mai (Thailand)

Mizzima News is looking for experienced journalism trainers for its
In-House Journalism Training (part-time) for its reporters and staff in
Mizzima Offices in New Delhi (India) and Chiang Mai (Thailand).

The trainers will need to provide the Mizzima journalists with training on
journalism and multi-media (including print journalism, broadcasting
journalism, photography, and IT).

Experience and Criteria Required

1. Should be an experienced journalism trainer who wants to spare a few
hours a day for the in-house training (teaching and working together with
Mizzima journalists in Office)

2. Should posses the knowledge about Burma/Myanmar and its current affairs
and about the situation of Burmese journalists (inside and outside Burma)

3. Willing to take this job as a support and solidarity to the Burmese
journalists working under very difficult situation

4. Prefer those who are experienced with multi-media

Salary and Benefits: Negotiable
Applicants should send a cover letter explaining why they are interested
in the position, a CV, and two references to editor at mizzima.com or
mizzima at hotmail.com.

The last date for sending in the application is: 25 August 2007
Only selected applicants will be interviewed.