BurmaNet News, August 31, 2007

[Editor]

August 31, 2007 Issue # 3281

INSIDE BURMA
NY Times: Protests persist in Myanmar, despite arrests by junta
AP: Prominent Myanmar dissidents go into hiding; Bush urges junta not to
arrest activists
DPA: Delegates wrap Myanmar's constitution drafting process
Mizzima News: Burma concludes 14-year-old National Convention
AFP: Myanmar bars relatives from seeing detained protesters
Irrawaddy: Regime deprives a baby of her mother
DVB: Two men arrested after Taunggok protest
Irrawaddy: Rangoon reporters accused of conspiring with the protestors
DVB: Bassein solo protestor released

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Memo on fuel subsidies raises questions in Rangoon
IMNA: Electricity charges doubled despite using natural gas for power
Economic Times: OVL eyes more gas fields in Myanmar

HEALTH / AIDS
Irrawaddy: HIV/AIDS patients also hit by rising prices
Mizzima News: Indian officials on edge over Burma's HIV/AIDS information
black-hole

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: Bush condemns Myanmar junta for crackdown
Mizzima News: Europe-wide day of action on Burma
Irrawaddy: Ottawa Declaration: Convene multi-party talks on Burma
Mizzima News: Bush to raise issue of Burma at Asian summit

OPINION / OTHER
Mizzima News: Burma's alarming leadership crisis - Christopher Smith
Boston Globe: The UN's silence on Burma
Irrawaddy: The regime can’t kill the spirit of 1988 – Aung Zaw
Bangkok Post: Trip to Burma ill-considered
Is our Foreign Secretary Miliband or Millipede? - Ben Rogers

PRESS RELEASE
BCUK: 60 join protest at Portuguese embassy in London ­ 15 countries join
day of action

STATEMENT
The White House: President Bush condemns ongoing actions of the Burmese
regime
The Japanese Parliamentary Group Supporting Democratization in Myanmar: On
the actions taken by the Myanmar government against peaceful protests by
Myanmar citizens

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

August 31, New York Times
Protests persist in Myanmar, despite arrests by junta - Seth Mydans

Linking arms for mutual support, grim in the face of plainclothes
paramilitary gangs, small groups of protesters in Myanmar have staged
street demonstrations for nearly two weeks in the most sustained defiance
of the country’s ruling junta in a decade.

The protests have dwindled in size since they began on Aug. 19, but to the
surprise of outside analysts, they have continued to erupt in several
parts of the country. They do not appear to be centrally organized and
have continued despite the arrests of a number of antigovernment leaders.

“A week and a half ago, people were saying the protests didn’t have that
much future,” said Dave Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with Human Rights
Watch in Thailand. “But they are starting to spread, and they are
continuing in Rangoon.”

Rangoon, now known as Yangon, is the commercial capital of Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma.

The authorities are hunting down opposition figures, raiding their homes,
distributing photographs of them and reportedly telling hotels to notify
officials of their presence. The main opposition party told Reuters that
at least 100 people had been arrested in the past week.

In Washington, President Bush called on Myanmar to “stop its intimidation”
of demonstrators, saying, “I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the
Burmese regime in arresting, harassing and assaulting pro-democracy
activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations.” The
persistence of the demonstrations reflects deep unhappiness with economic
hardships and strong-arm government rule in one of the most repressive
nations in Asia, analysts said.

A sharp rise in prices for fuel and cooking gas on Aug. 15, without
warning or explanation, provided a focus for the protests. They have
continued even though the government has pressed bus operators to lower
prices.

Exiles and human rights groups in Thailand have received reports of a
number of other protests in recent days, including demonstrations in the
central town of Meikhtila and in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in
western Myanmar.

The unrest could complicate the government’s plans to complete a
constitutional convention and present a new charter to a popular vote. The
carefully stage-managed convention excludes members of the opposition
party of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, and has
been dismissed by analysts both inside and outside the country as no more
than a facade of a democratic process.

There have been unconfirmed reports that the convention will conclude
Monday. According to the junta’s “road map to democracy,” next comes a
“stable environment” in preparation for a referendum.

The protests may also be spreading because of transmissions through the
Internet of photographs and video that have slipped past government
controls. Some of the more arresting pictures show an outspoken critic of
the ruling generals named Su Su Nway, 34, at the heart of a tiny group of
demonstrators this week before she managed to slip away and evade arrest.

“I know they’ve been after me since our protest on Tuesday,” Ms. Su Su
Nway told Reuters by telephone. “I heard they have sent pictures of three
women activists, including me, to several of their offices.”

The visual images have given the small demonstrations a disproportionate
impact, both abroad and at home.

“That’s the big difference from 1988,” said Mr. Mathieson of Human Rights
Watch, referring to antigovernment demonstrations that swept the country
then. “The technology is completely different. Even though the military’s
power may be the same, the ability of the protesters to get their message
around the country has grown.”

The 1988 demonstrations were crushed by the military, bringing the current
junta to power. Thousands of people were killed.

In 1990, the junta held a parliamentary election and lost overwhelmingly
to the National League for Democracy. The junta annulled the result, clung
to power and began a fitful process of drawing up a constitution that it
says will lead to a new round of elections.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been under house
arrest for 11 of the past 17 years, and her release has been a primary
demand of critics abroad.

Myanmar is mostly closed to foreign reporters, and the only news media to
witness the demonstrations were local journalists for news agencies.

For now, the demonstrations are tiny compared with those of 1988, in part
because the government has gone to great lengths to prevent a new
uprising.

It has moved universities from major cities to disperse the students who
have historically formed the core of protest. In addition, the creation of
a new capital in a remote area has removed from Yangon the civil servants
who swelled the protests in 1988.

The government has also stockpiled food in warehouses as a buffer against
economic crises that could lead to unrest.

And it has created the civilian gangs that have beaten and arrested
demonstrators this month. Wielding brooms and hoes, they pose as members
of the public, chiding the demonstrators before beating and seizing them,
according to wire service reports.

Known as the Swan-ar Shin, or Masters of Force, they appear to have taken
the place of military intelligence enforcers in combating protests.

On Tuesday, according to the reports, they pushed their way through
onlookers to rough up about 15 demonstrators before driving them away in
trucks. On Wednesday, three trucks, each carrying about 20 young men,
waited at the side of the road at Hledan Junction in Yangon, the scene of
the biggest protests.

____________________________________

August 31, Associated Press Worldstream
Prominent Myanmar dissidents go into hiding; Bush urges junta not to
arrest activists

Prominent Myanmar dissidents said Friday they fled into hiding because of
the military government's crackdown on pro-democracy protests, while U.S.
President George W. Bush urged the junta to listen to activists, not
arrest them.

The government has detained scores of activists and employed menacing
gangs of civilian militiamen to patrol city streets to snuff out an
unusually persistent wave of protests that began Aug. 19 over higher fuel
and consumer goods prices.

In Washington, Bush condemned Myanmar's military-run government over the
arrests, saying that the activists' "concerns should be listened to by the
regime rather than silenced through force."

He said the generals "should heed the international calls to release these
activists immediately and stop its intimidation of those Burmese citizens
who are promoting democracy and human rights." Myanmar is also known as
Burma.

Prominent labor activist Su Su Nway said she has gone into hiding for fear
of being detained. She was earlier sentenced to 18 months in prison but
released after eight months, and has taken part in repeated protests.

"I know the conditions of the detention center because I have stayed there
myself," she said in a telephone interview. "I want to implore to
authorities to treat those people humanely."

Another protest leader, Nilar Thein, also went into hiding after her
husband, Kyaw Min Yu, was arrested Tuesday. She left their 4-month-old
baby with her husband's mother.

"We don't know where they are and how they have been," Ah Mar Nyunt Kyaw
Min Yu's mother said by telephone, adding that her house had been searched
several times.

Kyaw Min Yu is a prominent leader of the 88 Generation Students, the group
that has been most active in holding nonviolent anti-government protests.
Most of its top members were arrested on Aug. 21, two days after the
latest round of demonstrations began.

Near-daily protests that drew hundreds to the streets earlier this month
have dwindled to nearly nothing this week in Myanmar's biggest city,
Yangon, following the government crackdown.

However, 20 people staged a march Thursday in Kyaukpadaung, about 460
kilometers (285 miles) northwest of Yangon, activists said. The protesters
were jeered by a pro-junta mob, and their leaders were ushered into a
meeting with the township chairman, who advised them of a ban on
gatherings of more than five people before letting them go.

A U.N. official, who spoke on condition of an anonymity because of the
sensitive nature of the issue, said the persistence of the protests very
rare in Myanmar is a sign of frustration with the country's rulers.

"The fact that the protests are lasting so long, despite active
implementation of a hard-line approach to opposition, show how much
frustration there is," the official said.

"Many people are sympathetic but not participating because they still
remember the brutal suppression in 1988."

In 1988, public protests over rising rice prices were a prelude to a burst
of major demonstrations that were violently subdued by the army. The
current protests are nowhere near their scale. The junta held general
elections in 1990, but refused to honor the results when the party led by
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi won.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has been under extended house arrest.

____________________________________

August 31, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Delegates wrap Myanmar's constitution drafting process

National Convention delegates finalized and endorsed Myanmar's draft
constitution on Friday and were prepared to wrap up the 15-year,
charter-writing process next week, delegates said.

The 1,000 or so delegates attending the convention are scheduled go to
NyaungHanPin camp, Hmawby township, Yangon Division, on Sunday for a
special session and on Monday will hold a ceremony hosted by National
Convention chairman Lieutenant General Thein Sein.

All will leave NyaungHnaPin on Tuesday, delegates told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur, dpa.

The current and final session of the constitution drafting process began
on July 18 with 1,058 military-appointed delegates in attendance.

Finalizing the draft constitution, which must then be approved by a
referendum, comes at a time of growing signs of discontent with Myanmar's
military rulers, especially for mishandling the economy.

A decision to double fuel prices on August 15 has sparked angry
demonstrations in Yangon, the former capital, and led to crackdowns and
over 100 arrests over the past 10 days.

It is likely that Myanmar's ruling junta will use the conclusion of the
national convention to calm discontent with the promise of an eventual
election in the country which has been under military rule since 1962.

The National Convention - dubbed a "sham" by many Western observers and
Myanmar's chief opposition party the National League for Democracy (NLD) -
was launched on October 2, 1992, to draft a new charter for the country
which had by then been under military rule for the past 30 years.

The military argued that a new constitution was necessary before it could
hand over power to a civilian government, a manoeuvre that was quickly
seen as a ploy to hang on to power in the aftermath of the 1990 general
election which the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, had already won by a
landslide.

The convention process, stalled in 1996 by an NLD walkout, was resurrected
in 2004 as the first step in the junta's so-called roadmap to democracy.

There have been five sessions since 2004, at which most of the crucial
articles on the constitution, such as providing a dominant role for the
military in the next government and how to handle power-sharing among
Myanmar's myriad minority groups, have been settled.

At the final session the role of political parties, declaration of state
of emergency, creation of the national flag, national emblem, national
anthem and amendments were discussed.

____________________________________

August 31, Mizzima News
Burma concludes 14-year-old National Convention

The tortuous 14-year Constitution drafting Convention of the Burmese
military junta has finally been wound up today, sources in Rangoon said.

The junta on Friday concluded the first step of its so-called 'seven-point
roadmap to democracy,' and in a gesture of benevolence, awarded its senior
delegates, attending the convention since its inception, permits to import
vehicles, the source said.

The junta only gifted permits to those delegates attending the convention
since 1993. But delegates attending the convention from 2003 were not
similarly treated, the source said.

Under the strictly controlled import regulations, a permit to import cars
is highly lucrative.

There was widespread resentment and discontent among the convention
delegates since they were not treated equally, the source added.

However, the junta is yet to officially announce the conclusion of the
National Convention, held at Nyaunghnapin camp in Hmawbe, about 25 miles
north of Rangoon. However, sources said that the convention will be
officially declared closed on Monday.

Critics say the proceedings of the national convention were a sham as most
of its delegates were handpicked and Burma's main opposition party – the
National League for Democracy – stuck to its boycott.

While the NLD and pro-democracy allies such as the Shan National League
for Democracy have boycotted the junta's convention, the 88 generation
students group has appealed the people of Burma to vote against the draft
constitution of the convention at the referendum proposed.

The National Convention Convening Commission, Chairman, Lt-Gen Thein Sein
had announced in June that the constitutional talks will be followed by a
referendum and a general election.

While analysts believe the junta will conduct a referendum in the early
half of 2008 and general elections in the later half, the Burmese regime
has not given any time-frame.

The 88 generation student leaders, prior to their recent arrest on August
21, had warned the junta that they could trigger another uprising similar
to 1988, if it enforces its one-sided constitution.

Ko Ko Gyi, an 88 generation student leader told Mizzima, "a referendum is
not only to give consent but it could also be a platform for rejection. We
will campaign among the people to make use of this opportunity to express
their true desire."

However, the state-run new Light of Myanmar reported that the 13 student
leaders, arrested on August 21, have been held on charges of disrupting
the convention, and could face up to 20 years in prison.

The military junta has arrested and detained over 100 activists during the
recent spate of protests that began on August 19 over the sudden hike in
fuel prices. The junta is deploying hired gangs to keep watch in Rangoon
and other parts of Burma to snuff out any sign of protest.

____________________________________


August 31, Agence France Presse
Myanmar bars relatives from seeing detained protesters

Myanmar's junta has barred the relatives of detained pro-democracy
supporters from contacting their loved ones, some of whom are said to be
on hunger strike, the families said Friday.

Several of the detained protesters had launched a hunger strike on
Thursday, activists said, to demand medical treatment for a colleague
whose leg was broken when he was arrested after a protest on August 28.

At least 100 people have been detained following a rare series of peaceful
rallies against Myanmar's military regime which began on August 19 in
protest at massive fuel price hikes, according to activists.

Many of the protesters are thought to be in an improvised detention centre
at the city's Kyaikkasan sports grounds, the activists added.

"We haven't received any more details about the hunger strikes at the
Kyaikkasan detention centre," one activist said.

"No family members have been allowed to meet with them," the activist added.

Myanmar's military regime, which for 45 years has ruled the impoverished
nation with an iron fist, deals harshly with even the slightest show of
dissent.

But the protests have continued to occur in the commercial capital Yangon
and in key provincial towns, despite an enormous security deployment of
plainclothes police and pro-junta militia.

Activists inside Myanmar and exiled dissidents have expressed concern
about the treatment of the detainees. The government has clamped down on
any information about the protests or the detainees.

"I also worry for my mother. She's very old and not in good health," said
Khin Khin Kyaw, 36.

Her mother, 62-year-old housewife San San Myint, was arrested after a
protest on August 24 but authorities have given no information on her
condition or her whereabouts, the activist said.

"I wonder if she's also on hunger strike. I have not been able to contact
her, although I have tried many times," Khin Khin Kyaw said.

"She was protesting on behalf of suffering housewives because of the
rising commodity prices," she added.

US President George W. Bush on Thursday strongly condemned the junta's
crackdown and called for the release of those who have been jailed in the
country.

He said the activists were merely voicing concerns about recent dramatic
increases in the price of fuel "and their concerns should be listened to
by the regime rather than silenced through force."

____________________________________

August 31, Irrawaddy
Regime deprives a baby of her mother - Shah Paung

Nay Chi knows nothing of the mood of protest now gripping Burma. How can
she? She’s just five months old—but she is as much a victim of regime
repression as the protesters now in jail or in hiding.

Her father is among the detained activists. Her mother is in hiding. Nay
Chi’s grandmother is now looking after her.

“It’s very difficult to keep her in a safe place,” said a family friend
who arranged security for Nay Chi’s mother, Nilar Thein. “The authorities
are also hunting for her,” she told The Irrawaddy on Friday.

Nilar Thein is a member of the 88 Generation Students group. She escaped
when the authorities and pro-regime thugs broke up a Rangoon demonstration
in which she was participating. The demonstrators also included the
prominent woman activist Mi Mi, who is also member of 88 Generation
Students group, and National League for Democracy members Naw Ohn Hla and
Phyu Phyu Thin.

Nilar Thein’s husband, and Nay Chi’s father, is Kyaw Min Yu, also known as
Jimmy, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group. He was arrested on
August 21, along with 12 other activists, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko
Gyi, Htay Win Aung, Min Zeya and Mya Aye, after leading a demonstration
against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities.

Several other leading activists now in hiding from the authorities include
Su Su Nway, Mi Mi, Phyu Phyu Thin and Htay Kywe. The Irrawaddy managed to
contact Su Su Nway on Friday, and she commented: “It's shameful. Those
people ruling the country are cruelly cracking down on peaceful
protesters, including women. The regime has no sympathy for us.”

While Nilar Thein remains in hiding, friends try to help Nay Chi’s
grandmother care for the baby—but even they are victims of regime
intimidation. one man who wanted to deliver a gift of milk powder
confessed he had decided to call off his visit for fear of alerting the
attention of the authorities.

“We are very sad for the child, with her mother on the run and her father
detained by in an unknown location,” he said.

____________________________________

August 31, Democratic Voice of Burma
Two men arrested after Taunggok protest

Two men from the Arakan town of Taunggok were arrested this morning after
staging a protest over high fuel prices, eyewitnesses told DVB.

Ko Sithu and Ko Than Lwin reportedly protested on Taunggok’s market
junction for an hour, holding up placards saying ‘Fix the petrol and
commodity price hikes’, ‘Fix unemployment’ and ‘People are starving’.

“The protest started at about 6am this morning at the market junction . .
. the township police including their chief, Union Solidarity and
Development Association members and special police were seen taking photos
and footage,” National League for Democracy member Ko Min Aung, who
watched the protest, said.

The men then started walking through town and waving posters. They were
quickly intercepted by special police led by officer Aung Naing and one
soldier and beaten, Ko Min Aung said.

“They stopped the protestors and a soldier started to punch Ko Sithu in
the face . . . They made a big scene. We have caught it all on video
camera,” Ko Min Aung said.

“The protestors resisted arrest . . . and the soldier responded by saying
‘do whatever you want’ and walked off . . . The two men were later
arrested by the township peace and development council members, police and
USDA,” he said.

Taunggok police refused to comment on the arrests this afternoon when
contacted by DVB.

____________________________________

August 31, Irrawaddy
Rangoon reporters accused of conspiring with the protestors - Htet Aung

A Rangoon pro-junta journal has accused reporters working for foreign news
agencies of conspiring with protestors to create instability in the
country by taking advantage of a recent hike in fuel prices.

“It is clearly a conspiracy of the protestors and local reporters to
incite unrests [in the country] because the reporters reached the protest
area in advance,” said May Nine, the article's author.

The article, titled “People Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill by Taking
Advantage of Fuel-price Hikes,” appeared in The Love Journal on Monday.

A Rangoon-based journalist working for a foreign news agency told The
Irrawaddy by telephone on Friday: “No conspiracy. We, as journalists,
report what is happening [in Rangoon] ethnically and responsibly.”

“This is our duty. We will do it now and continue to do it when our
country becomes a democracy.”

He added that in the past he had faced threats by soldiers and police when
protests occurred in Rangoon, but this time, the threats came from members
of an unknown plainclothes mob.

The Love Journal is published by MK Media, one of the largest media groups
in Bruma. Local reporters denounced the article and the journal's editor,
Myat Khaing, who reportedly has a cozy relationship with Information
Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw San.

“The author of the article is Myat Khaing himself, and May Nine is one of
his pseudonyms,” said a local reporter who requested anonymity,

 “It is very irresponsible [for a journalist] to write such an article,”
said Sein Hla Oo, a former veteran editor and a parliament-elect member
of the National League for Democracy in the 1990 election, told The
Irrawaddy on Friday.

“It is shameful for a Burmese citizen to write such an article leading to
disunity when the young student leaders, regardless of their life and
imprisonment, have tried to bring about national reconciliation and
democracy in the country,” he said.

Myat Khaing is also chief editor of The Mahar Journal and several other
publications. Local journalists say he is among a handful of journalists
who are carrying out the regime’s counter attacks to the international
press which has criticized the junta's human rights violations.

____________________________________

August 31, Democratic Voice of Burma
Bassein solo protestor released

Solo protestor U Aye Win, who was arrested after staging a demonstration
on August 24 in the Irrawaddy town of Bassein, was released by township
officials late last night.

U Aye Win told DVB in an interview today that he had been held and
questioned at the township peace and development council office by local
authorities and the special police.

News of U Aye Win’s detention spread through the city immediately after
his protest as the police who arrested him took him to the council office
on a motorbike, giving him the opportunity to wave a poster saying ‘High
petrol price make life difficult for the people’, at everyone he passed.

“If it is beneficial and right for the people, I will not hesitate to
protest. The people and justice are on our side,” U Aye Win said.

“Those who were arrested in similar ways to me should be released.”

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

August 31, Irrawaddy
Memo on fuel subsidies raises questions in Rangoon

The appearance of a 17-month-old memo by business and industry leaders in
Burma suggesting an end to government fuel subsidies is being interpreted
in some circles as an attempt by the regime to redirect anger over recent
sharp price increases.

According to the internal memo, obtained by The Irrawaddy, the advisory
group of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and
Industry has suggested that, along with taxation, increasing the price of
oil and electricity could boost government income.

A paper dated April 4, 2006—soon after the Burmese government announced a
ten-fold increase of its workers’ salaries—is signed by Sein Win Hlaing,
general secretary of UMFCCI.

The confidential memo suggests that fuel subsidies could be ended and
prices increased to their real market level. “If the price of oil
increases to the market price, it could not hurt the stability of the
market," the memo says.

Skeptics are asking why the memo has appeared at this time. one
commentator, Sein Htay, a Burmese economist living in exile, told the
BBC’s Burmese service: "The military leaders know that people are angry
and fuming. With the distribution of this paper, they hope to change the
direction of people’s anger."

____________________________________

August 31, Independent Mon News Agency
Electricity charges doubled despite using natural gas for power - Mi Kyae Goe

Despite converting to gas instead of oil to operate generators for power,
thus saving on costs, the military administration has doubled the cost of
electricity charged to the people in Mon state, Burma. And even after that
supply of electricity is irregular.

The 'Weekly Eleven' journal recently reported that Moulmein and Thaton
electric power stations and other factories in Mon State are operating on
natural gas to halve expenses.

The current charge for electricity is 50 Kyat a unit. Earlier it was 25
Kyat per unit. The maintenance cost is 500 Kyat a month over the last
three months. But the authorities collect half the amount from its
employees.

The electricity supply is irregular to residents. Power is distributed
alternatively about a day a week.

"Today is the day we should get electricity. But it has still not been
supplied. It will come when we fall asleep," a resident said. Even the
government departments and administrative offices do not receive enough
power, though the regime announced that if consumers did not get enough
power they should report it.

 "The electricity does not come on days we need it. That's why we operate
a generator to get electricity," a school administrator said.

The military junta had increased electric charges from 2.5 Kyat to 25 Kyat
per unit in 2006. Although it collects maintenance costs, they also take
money again and again for repairing transformers or transmission lines.

"The authorities collected 5,000 Kyat per house in our quarter and other
quarters paid 10,000 Kyat per house to repair a transformer which broke
down in the town and to buy a larger transformer," Mudon resident said.

In Mon State the military government promised to connect the
Kanbauk-Myaingkalay gas pipeline in 2000 and assured enough electricity to
people after the connection.

____________________________________

August 31, Economic Times
OVL eyes more gas fields in Myanmar - Rajeev Jayaswal

Indian has another opportunity of bagging three deepwater hydrocarbon
blocks in eastern neighbourhood, Myanmar. ONGC Videsh (OVL) is considering
to pick up stakes in three Rakhine offshore deepwater blocks: AD-2, AD-3
and AD-9. OVL, along with Gail, already has 30% interest in two gas
producing blocks A1 and A3 in Myanmar.

There has been discovery of large natural gas reserves the two offshore
blocks, which has put the region in the global hydrocarbon map.

Interests in some of the AD-series blocks have been already acquired by
international firms. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has
interests in the AD-1, AD-6 and AD-8 deepwater blocks which it won in
January 2007. Another block AD-7 was bagged by Daewoo.

The investments made by OVL-Gail combine in A1 and A3 blocks are also
yielding good results. It is stated that Indian companies would make an
investment of $540 million in the two gas assets to get a return of around
$2.5 billion. The estimated recoverable reserve in these two blocks are
about 4.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf). While Gail holds 10% participating
interest in each blocks, 20% interests in each are held by OVL. Investment
and recovery periods are estimated to be around 20 years.

Gail had also taken a 30% participating interest in off-shore block A-7 in
Myanmar with Silver Wave Energy, which had balance interest of 70% in the
block. In July 2007, Gail decided to exit from the project after having
studied its prospect. “Studies indicated that the prospect of A-7 was not
very good,” an official said. Gail had signed the production sharing
contract (PSC) with Silver Wave in December 2006.

The PSC was signed with the condition that the relevant date would be
analysed and a final decision for continuing in this block would be taken
in six months. “The block date was arranged by Silver wave in April 2007
and thereafter, analysed by Gail team. Gail had also taken a third party
opinion on the data. Considering poor prospects in the block Gail decided
to exit from this block,” the official said.

India has a bitter experience with Myanmar as the neighbour preferred
China over India while selling gas from A1 and A3 blocks, even as it had
committed in 2004 that Gail would be the preferential buyer of the gas. It
is said that Myanmar’s decision of selling gas to China through a pipeline
is beyond commercial consideration and has been politically motivated.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

August 31, Irrawaddy
HIV/AIDS patients also hit by rising prices - Violet Cho

The steep increases in the price of fuel and basic commodities are also
causing hardship for Burma’s HIV/AIDS patients.

HIV/AIDS activist Phyu Phyu Thin, in hiding from the authorities, told The
Irrawaddy in a phone interview: “Patients’ lives are under threat.”


The cost of a month’s course of antiretroviral drugs had increased from
30,000 kyat to 37,000 kyat, and patients living outside Rangoon found it
ever more difficult to afford to travel to the city for treatment, said
Phyu Phyu Thin.

Before her escape into hiding, Phyu Phyu Thin ran a group of youth members
of the National League for Democracy offering round-the-clock care and
counseling for about 200 HIV/AIDS patients. The group provides
accommodation for patients coming to Rangoon from outside the city.

Despite the HIV/AIDS crisis, the number of patients seeking help had
dropped from about 10 a day to just a couple, Phyu Phyu Thin said.
Patients were being told to alert the authorities if they encountered her,
she told The Irrawaddy. Troops are actively searching for her and three
other women activists.

____________________________________

August 31, Mizzima News
Indian officials on edge over Burma's HIV/AIDS information black-hole -
Subhaschandra M

The Burmese military junta's secrecy over HIV/AIDS infection in the
country has Indian officials tearing their hair. With the junta's
administration concealing facts on the disease programmes to control the
spread of the endemic is being seriously jeopardized.

The District Chairman and other senior officials based in Tamu, a western
Burma border township have flatly denied the existence of drug users and
sex workers on their soil when Indian officials sought cooperation to
fight cross-border HIV/AIDS.

"When we approached them regarding the steps taken by their government to
contain the disease, they (Burmese officials) said they did not have any
intravenous drug users (IDUs) or commercial sex workers (CSWs)," said Dr T
R Kom, project the Director of Manipur State AIDS control Society.

Burmese officials are hiding facts and figures regarding people affected
and infected by HIV/AIDS, he added.

A day long seminar "Role of media intervention in preventing HIV/AIDS and
promoting awareness" was held on Thursday in the northeastern Indian
border state Manipur. It was sponsored by the American Center, Kolkata.

"Hearing such responses is very disappointing when we want to focus more
on prevention and other HIV/AIDS intervention programmes across the
border," Dr T R Kom said.

India's Non-Governmental Organizations have been distributing syringes,
condoms and medicines 'free of cost' to many IDUs and CSWs from Burma
coming to Moreh, opposite Tamu on the Indo-Burma border.

More than 38 million people are living with HIV/AIDS around the world and
the UN estimates that without preventive measures, 45 million new cases
could occur by 2010.

The visiting American Director Douglas referred to a congressional report
which predicts that by 2011; more than 25 million children could be
orphaned because of the HIV virus.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

August 31, Agence France Presse
Bush condemns Myanmar junta for crackdown

US President George W. Bush on Thursday strongly condemned the Myanmar
military junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protestors and called for the
release of those who have been jailed.

"I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the Burmese regime in
arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for
organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations," Bush said in a
statement.

He said the activists were merely voicing concerns about recent dramatic
increases in the price of fuel "and their concerns should be listened to
by the regime rather than silenced through force."

The US leader, who has personally met with pro-democracy activists from
Myanmar -- previously known as Burma -- at the White House in the past,
urged the military rulers to heed international calls to release the
jailed protestors immediately.

The junta should also "stop its intimidation of those Burmese citizens who
are promoting democracy and human rights" and "release all political
prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and ... lift restrictions on
humanitarian organizations that seek to help the people of Burma," he
said.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy overwhelmingly won elections in 1990, but were never
allowed to take office, and she has now spent more than a decade under
house arrest.

Bush's statement came after protestors launched a hunger strike in Yangon
Thursday demanding the authorities provide medical treatment for a
colleague who suffered a broken leg when police and pro-government militia
violently broke up a demonstration on Tuesday.

At least 100 people have been arrested since a rare string of
anti-government rallies began on August 19 over a massive hike in fuel
prices, according to activists.

Dennis Wilder, a Bush aide specializing in East Asian Affairs, said
Thursday that the Myanmar crackdown would be "a major topic of discussion"
at a summit meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum
in Sydney next week, which the US leader is due to attend.

The US State Department separately expressed concern over the fate of
political prisoners in Myanmar following reports of a hunger strike by an
unknown number protesters held at an improvised detention center.

Department spokesman Tom Casey said conditions of Myanmar's prisons were
not good, citing the department's annual human rights reports. One report
accused the military junta of holding prisoners in "harsh and life
threatening" conditions.

"But again, the main point is these people shouldn't be in jail in the
first place," Casey said.

Myanmar's military regime of 45 years has long dealt harshly with even the
slightest show of dissent. But protestors in recent weeks have defied the
threat of arrest and beatings to stage new rallies.

US lawmakers on Wednesday called on Bush to demand an urgent UN Security
Council meeting on the crackdown.

Casey said Washington would continue to raise the issue at the Security
Council but did not give any specific schedule.

Last January, China and Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution urging
Myanmar's rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence
by the military.

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

____________________________________

August 31, Mizzima News
Europe-wide day of action on Burma

Today has been declared a "Europe-wide Day of Action on Burma" in an
effort to further raise the profile of events taking place in Burma and
looking to force the European Union into adopting a more active and
forceful stance regarding the military regime in Burma.

Directed at Portugal, current holders of the European Union presidency,
the European Burma Network is organizing a series of embassy protests, in
addition to letter and email writing campaigns, to raise awareness of
events taking place in Burma.

"The day of action is in response to the failure of the European Union to
take any concrete action in response to the Burmese military regime's
crackdown on peaceful protestors in Burma," reads a statement from Burma
Campaign UK released yesterday.

"As EU President, Portugal has a responsibility to ensure a strong
response from the EU. The EU must strengthen the Common Position on Burma,
and give its support to Burma being addressed by the United Nations
Security Council," added Myo Thein, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign
UK.

The current posture of the European Union regarding recent events in Burma
is described as one of "the lowest common denominator, and a weak and
ineffective response that has had no impact on the regime."

The European Union is decried for having, to date, only released a
"statement of concern" on the situation in Burma, and having waited four
days to do so in the first place.

Governments of France, Germany, Austria, Spain and Poland are accused of
currently supporting policies seeking to lessen pressure on the Burmese
junta.

Placement of Burma on the agenda of the European Union Foreign Ministers
meeting on the 7th and 8th of September is also sought by the European
Burma Network.

Activities for the "Europe-wide Day of Action on Burma" are so far to be
held in eleven countries, including the United Kingdom, France and
Germany.

____________________________________

August 31, Irrawaddy
Ottawa Declaration: Convene multi-party talks on Burma - Lali K Jha

A call to convene multi-party talks on Burma along the lines of the
six-party talks on North Korea to facilitate reforms and transition in
Burma marked the end of the two-day conference of eminent Burmese
political thinkers in exile.

Participants issued an “Ottawa Declaration” on Thursday and called on
Burma's neighbors—Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand—to cooperate
with the United Nations to bring about democratic change in Burma.

Perhaps the most significant outcome of the conference, hosted by the
Canadian Friends of Burma, was the decision to approach China to use its
influence with the military junta to make political reforms.

The declaration noted that a statement by Wang Gyangya, China’s ambassador
to the UN, in the Security Council on January 12, 2007, said: “China
sincerely hopes and expects that the Myanmar government will listen to the
call of its own people, learn from the good practices of others and speed
up the process of dialogue and reform so as to achieve prosperity for its
nation, bring benefits to its people and contribute to peace, stability
and development of South East Asia.”

Considering this as a significant indication of change in Chinese policy
towards Burma, conference participants formed a 16-member Working Group on
China—expanded to 17 on Thursday—to draft a pro-democracy China policy.

“We want to open a channel of communication with China," Tin Maung Htoo,
the executive director of the Canadian Friends of Burma told The
Irrawaddy. "Once the Working Group submits its report, we plan to send a
delegation to Beijing to meet Chinese leadership.”

A significant portion of the conference revolved around China, but the
declaration also noted the positive role Burma’s neighbors could play in
resolving the crisis.

“Burmese participants call on Burma’s neighbors—Bangladesh, India, China,
Laos and Thailand—to cooperate with the UN to bring about the much needed
change in Burma,” the declaration said.

It also called on Canada, Asean, the European Union, the US, Russia and
Burma’s neighbors to convene multi-party talks similar to the six-party
talks on North Korea, to facilitate reforms and a transition.

“The Ottawa consultation believes that if appropriate policies were to be
adopted in Burma, it could alleviate the suffering of the people and Burma
could become the gateway for both China’s southwest and India’s northeast
to world markets,” it said.

Earlier, addressing the first-of-its-kind conference of Burmese leaders in
exile, the Canadian deputy leader of Government House, Scott Reid,
reiterated the government's demand for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and
the inclusion of Burmese ethnic minorities in a meaningful dialogue
leading to genuine national reconciliation and the establishment of
democracy.

“These are easily achievable steps that most in the international
community agree the junta should take," Reid said in his key note address.
"They will not lead to the establishment of democracy overnight, but we
want to see a credible and transparent political process underway that
allows all sectors of society to freely express their views.”

Reid said Canadian sanctions against the military regime would continue
until significant progress on political transition to a genuine democracy
and respect for human rights is demonstrated.

Paul Devar, the vice-chair of Parliamentary Friends of Burma, in his
address acknowledged the influential role China can play in bringing
reform to Burma. He said Canada would continue work to put the Burma issue
before the UN Security Council.

Among other prominent speakers were Harn Yawnghwe, the director of the
Euro-Burma Office; Nyo Ohn Myint, the director of the Foreign Affairs
Department of the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area); Than
Khe, the chair of the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front; and Zaw Oo, an
economist at American University.

Referring to the Chinese veto of the UN Security Council resolution on
Burma early this year, Harn Yawnghwe emphasized that there was a silver
lining, noting that for the first time China publicly told the regime it
should listen to the people of Burma.

He said China was now working behind the scenes and was holding a series
of consultations with various Burmese pro-democracy groups. However, he
said China would never condemn the present regime and is not attempting to
promote democracy per se or work towards protection of human rights in
Burma.

“For China, the present Burmese regime is a burden on them, but they do
not have an alternative,” he said.

Nyo Ohn Myint, one of the few pro-democracy Burmese leaders who have
publicly acknowledged consulting with the Chinese government, said China
primarily wants stability in Burma for its “national interest,” and they
consider the Burmese government a failed state.

____________________________________

August 31, Mizzima News
Bush to raise issue of Burma at Asian summit

Ahead of next week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in
Sydney, Australia, a United States official says that President Bush plans
to take advantage of the opportunity to discuss recent events in Burma
with Asian Heads of State in attendance.

National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs, Dennis
Wilder, speaking at the White House yesterday, said that Burma is
definitely on the President's agenda for bilateral talks with Australian
Prime Minister John Howard and Chinese President Hu Jintao, on Wednesday
and Thursday of next week, respectively.

"I am sure this [Burma] will be a major topic of discussion at the APEC
leaders' meeting," Wilder said during his press briefing.

The President is also said to be interested in hearing the views of ASEAN
and the region's other governments while attending next week's summit.

President Bush will be leaving Washington for the APEC summit on Monday.

Also yesterday, a statement from the White House summed up the president's
views on the most recent abuses of power by government agents and proxies:
"I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the Burmese regime in
arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for
organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations."

The statement goes on to appeal to the Burmese junta to heed international
calls for the release of political prisoners and acceptance of democratic
and human rights norms.

The decision by the junta to use physical force in confronting the
demonstrators, as opposed to listening and responding to the demands of
the protestors, is described as an attempt to take advantage of the
current atmosphere of unrest to crackdown on suspected political
opponents.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

August 31, Mizzima News
Burma's alarming leadership crisis - Christopher Smith

The military junta has proven incapable of efficiently and effectively
governing Burma, this is a given. But from where can it be expected that
ground-level leadership will arise at critical junctures ahead? The recent
waves of small-scale protests across Burma point to a crisis in
leadership, not only with respect to the military, but in relation to all
the primary voices and parties in opposition.

Capacity status of high-profile opposition

The upper echelon of NLD leadership is under arrest. The organization
itself, inside Burma, operates with government imposed shackles. The
office in Kengtung, to give one example, looks as if it belongs to a ghost
town, with its signboard hanging at a distinct lilt, windows shuttered and
a wide beam nailed across the front door.

The reality of the greatly impaired operational capacity and capabilities
of the NLD came to the fore a few days ago with the aired comments of NLD
Secretary U Lwin on Radio Free Asia, which resulted in widespread
frustration of the NLD's perceived lagging leadership. However the
situation is not one of second-tier leaders forced to carry the flag in
the absence of top NLD leadership. Rather, the situation is that in the
NLD's current form and in the given political context, there is little
room for NLD leadership.

U Lwin was right in raising questions regarding such issues as the size of
protests. For domestically based opposition, if they are to be gifted a
position of leadership, the dynamics on the ground must be drastically
altered. One measure of this can be taken from the size of protests. The
Catch-22, however, is that the general public needs strong and
comprehensive leadership to be coaxed onto the streets in sufficient
numbers; precisely what the NLD is not in a position to provide.

The 88 Generation student group has, for good reason, received much
acclaim in recent months. Leadership of this organization, as the name
implies, is comprised mainly of persons now in their late thirties and
forties. In short, the present leadership of 88 Generation is a matured
group of students from their earlier university days. There is,
understandably, no more elderly coterie of members to whom to turn.

However, recent arrests have decimated the leadership of 88 Generation,
and it is unclear for how long the leadership's detention will continue,
though reports have speculated that prison sentences could extend from as
long as 20 years to life. A few of those not detained have fled to
Thailand. While there is a role for 88 Generation leaders to play in
exile, it is not the same as the one they could play inside Burma, while
those remaining incarcerated will be completely muted.

Nay Tin Myint, one leader of the 88 Generation who has recently sought
refuge across the border, says that the junta is not concerned with what
is said outside Burma, it is only internal voices that can strike fear.
This succinctly encapsulates the dilemma currently facing 88 Generation,
as the internal leadership is behind bars or on the run and the external
leadership has, at least to some degree, been marginalized.

The recently reincarnated All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU)
is a student group with significantly more historical depth. Maybe for
this reason, they were able to release a statement on August 23rd urging
pro-junta civilian groups to join them in their opposition to government
policies. In a conflict almost singularly characterized by virulent and
unrelenting name-calling and finger-pointing, by all sides, it was a rare
and welcomed attempt to reach out and bridge gaps.

Alternative sources of leadership


>From where then might new leadership arise? As unlikely or disturbing as

it may sound, two established domestic institutions provide possibilities:
the sangha and the tatmadaw.

Historical involvement of monks on the political landscape is well
documented. And in just the past couple days monks in the northwestern
town of Sittwe have succeeded in organizing and leading what are some, if
not the, largest post-fuel hike demonstrations to date.

The Thamanya Sayadaw, having now left this life almost four years
previously, commanded great respect across political divides, being a
frequent destination of both military and NLD leaders, and drew support
and recognition across a wide swath of Burmese society.

The question of the rightful role of monks in society, and especially
politics, is a hotly contested subject – and not just in Burma. Popularly
referred to as 'Engaged Buddhism', the immersion of representatives of the
sangha into political life is a lively component within Sri Lankan
society, where monks have even stood for election to public office.

Though true that the statements and objectives of some monks in Sri Lanka
are often accused of merely further enflaming the Sri Lankan body politic,
there are other persons and organizations, such as the Sarvodaya movement,
which are held in high regard for its leadership in reconciliation and
nation-building.

With respect to the institution of the army as a breeding ground for
leadership, one of the best examples as to how light may shine forth from
the darkest recesses may be NLD number two Tin Oo; and Tin Oo's political
history is by no means unique.

Tin Oo spent much of his career as a trusted army man and was complicit in
the overthrow of U Nu's democratic government in 1962, which ushered in
the era of military dictatorship that continues to the day. However
disillusionment with the policies of the army and country under Ne Win led
to his eventual break with his former comrade.

In an army of some 400,000 troops, it is not a question of if there are
components within the army amenable to seeing the course of Burmese
history radically altered, but rather a question of how many, and who,
they are.

Importantly, leadership from within the army could maintain and control
the military. The thought of hundreds of thousands of soldiers joining the
ranks of the unemployed, a state with no existing or alternative security
apparatus and an enormous number of available weapons all of a sudden
affording opportunity for immediate power and wealth; well, that is a
sobering thought for anyone concerned over Burma's future.

In the late nineties in Afghanistan, the Taliban paid hired foot soldiers
approximately four dollars per day. It is reported that junta-backed
civilian thugs can expect a little less than two-and-a-half dollars per
diem. The United States raged against the injustices of the Taliban, as
they do against Burma's generals.

Today a massive attempt at institution and nation building is slowly being
undertaken in Afghanistan. Vast numbers of those who once paid allegiance
to the Taliban are now, or were, on the payroll of the United States and
allied forces. Hamid Karzai, heralded as a savior by Washington, was
originally a Taliban supporter.

Leaders and leadership, even if capable, need not be ideologically or
morally pure. Identities are exchangeable. And while history may not be
changed, it can be used in better addressing the present.

Which war? What era?

In some ways Burma is one of the lasting battlegrounds of World War II.
Civil wars that sprang up before all the War's dead had even been buried
continue to this day or simmer just below the surface. Most of the
problems and issues confronting the newly independent state of Burma from
the late forties to the early sixties have yet to be resolved.

The mammoth question of satisfying the rights and demands of ethnically
based groups and communities too often returns to a single word: Panglong.
Panglong, 60 years ago, was debated, created and agreed to in a vastly
different era. A simple revisiting of Panglong will not suffice in
addressing these issues today. And of course there is no definitive
evidence it would have been enough to hold the country together to begin
with.

The true extent of the leadership crisis facing the NLD at this time can
be summed up as follows: the party itself has been largely neutralized
over recent years and, owing partly to that, it continues to fight a
battle as if time has stood still for some 15 to 20 years, while the fight
it fought 15 to 20 years ago was inexorably linked to a much more distant
era, that of post-independence and post-World War II Burma.

Tellingly, the ABFSU was born out of the ashes of the struggles against
colonialism, World War II and pre-independence Burma. In reaching out to
members of the junta-backed civilian organizations they returned to a time
before the events of 1988, they engaged with their roots as an
organization seeking to first unite across society.

Paradoxically, the military junta suffers from an historical infatuation
opposite to that of many opposition groups, in that it interprets the
present context with an overemphasis on events surrounding the colonial
era and independence (and even further in the past), while to its own
peril significantly neglecting more recent history.

Unfortunately, Burma looks poised to repeat the crisis in leadership of
its early years in the decades ahead. Barring a sudden implosion by the
armed forces, which could allow for veteran figures in Burma to take the
reigns, when fundamental change does come to the country Burma's
leadership will likely be drawn from a pool of relatively young and
inexperienced, albeit committed, politicians; while experienced
administrators will be few and far between.

This is precisely the scenario that played itself out in the creation of
Burma in the modern era. With the British gone, and with many of the
Indians that constituted much of the experienced government and
administrative staff to soon follow, the political scene was left to a
short list of potential candidates and a prospectus largely void of
experience. U Nu, Burma's post-independence democratically elected leader,
was a man of barely 40 years in age when he assumed office, and he was one
of the elder statesmen.

It is 2007. Any Burmese leadership must fight not only the battles that
arose nearly 20 years previously, but also the battles left unresolved
dating back to the end of colonialism and World War II. And these battles
must be fought today, in 2007.

The Burmese government is reporting record tourism numbers over the course
of the last four months. The interests of China, India and Southeast Asian
countries in Burma are expanding exponentially, and they are primarily
expanding with regard to their own economic needs and interests. The
security situation inside Burma and with respect to its position on the
international stage has also drastically changed not just since the end of
World War II, but also since 1988.

Myopia in an impoverished land

The NLD does maintain some continuity with the origins of the modern
Burmese state, most explicitly through the genetic bridge linking Aung San
with Aung San Suu Kyi, but the group has been hijacked, abetted by an
extensive international component, by voices and history that hearken back
a mere twenty years.

Generation 88 can draw on finite leadership, while the organization as a
whole has little historical depth. The current situation vis-à-vis
Generation 88 leadership points to the prospect of a diminishing voice as
leaders languish in prison or are forced to assume the dais on the
opposite side of international boundaries.

These organizations, and others like them, need to come together and
design a coordinated and comprehensive policy for today and with respect
to the long and tangled course of Burmese history. And to do this, they
must succeed in creating space, within Burmese civil society, in which
they can constructively take up positions of leadership. It is for this
last reason, at least in the short-run, that the sangha and tatmadaw must
be considered.

This commentary is neither asking the people of Burma to embrace the
tatmadaw or join en masse their nearest monastery, nor is it saying that
the head of state need be a former soldier or monk. The sangha and
tatmadaw are simply two institutions that do more or less function and
maintain at least some space in which people can operate (and lead) – and
this, sadly, is more than can be said for most of institutionally starved
Burma.

____________________________________

August 31, Boston Globe
The UN's silence on Burma

Pro-democracy activists, students, Buddhist monks, and citizens who are
simply fed up with the ruling military junta in Burma have been staging
impromptu protests since Aug. 19, when the cancellation of fuel subsidies
sent prices soaring. The burden is unbearable for many of the 90 percent
of Burma's population living at or below the poverty line. The regime has
responded to the demonstrations with violent repression. Plainclothes
security agents and gangs of young thugs working for the junta beat up the
protesters and throw them into flatbed trucks. Among those arrested are
members of the 1988 democracy movement who have already survived long
prison sentences and torture. These followers of Nobel Peace Prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi are expressing resistance to the dictatorship even at the
risk of losing their freedom once again.

Their resoluteness should not be surprising. And there is nothing novel
about the regime's response. But the resounding silence of the United
Nations is hard to fathom.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special envoy for Burma, Ibrahim
Gambari, have had two months to reflect on a June warning about Burma
sounded by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Not since it
denounced the Rwanda genocide of 1994 has the Red Cross issued such a
public condemnation of a government's behavior.

The junta has destroyed more villages in areas inhabited by ethnic
minorities than have been razed in Darfur. Its partnership in the
narcotics trade has helped spread addiction and HIV/AIDS infection to
Burma's neighbors. The army's brutal conscription of forced labor has
drawn sanctions from the International Labor Organization. Yet when the
Red Cross asked to deliver humanitarian assistance to the victims, or even
to engage in dialogue with the military rulers about such assistance, the
junta rebuffed its requests.

Because of the United Nations' shameful refusal to act during the Rwandan
genocide, its leaders ought to feel a moral obligation not to repeat that
tragic lapse of solidarity with victims of state-sponsored violence. Ban
Ki-moon should call for a Security Council meeting to address the new wave
of repression in Burma.

Gambari, who visited Asia and Europe recently and spoke airily of dialogue
and reconciliation in Burma, ought to be sent to meet with the junta
leader, General Than Shwe. He should bring a clear message from the UN
Security Council: that all prisoners of conscience in Burma must be
released - including Suu Kyi and her fellow members of the National League
for Democracy, which won 80 percent of seats in a 1990 parliamentary
election the generals refused to honor.

The UN failed to react while another vicious regime was hacking its
citizens to death in Rwanda. The world body cannot afford another display
of moral blindness.

____________________________________

August 31, Irrawaddy
The regime can’t kill the spirit of 1988 - Aung Zaw

The suppression of the current protests in Burma offer a vivid flashback
to 1988 for those of us who witnessed the nationwide uprising that
resulted in the present regime taking power.

Although there have been no shooting in the streets and no deaths, the
mindless brutality employed by the regime-backed thugs in breaking up
peaceful demonstrations reminded many Burmese of the indiscriminate use of
force by the military to quell the uprising in 1988.

The bloody events of August 1988 were foreshadowed in March and June when
riot police armed with M-16 rifles, tear gas and clubs were sent out to
patrol the streets.

When university students at Rangoon Institute of Technology then came out
in demonstrations against Ne Win’s government, riot police opened fire on
the protestors on the campus, triggering larger protests that quickly
spread to campuses in Rangoon and beyond.

Subsequently, the riot police were reinforced by sullen soldiers who were
called back from frontline duty to deal with street demonstrators.
Together, police and army responded to the protests with fierce force.
Students were clubbed to death and an army truck rammed into the crowd,
killing several civilians.

In one incident, we were given five minute to disperse as we walked
towards the RIT campus to join fellow students, who were locked in a
dormitory. Riot police aimed their guns at us as they took up positions on
Pyay Road.

An officer approached and told us: “Kids, you have five minutes. If you
refuse to leave, we have been ordered to shoot you all.”

He struck the pistol at his side as he spoke. Behind him, we could see a
line of riot police ready to fire.

Thousands of onlookers gathered and cheered us. We withdrew peacefully and
luckily no blood was shed that day.

Win Maw Oo, a high school student, was shot dead in a mass demonstration a
day after the military coup in September, 1988

On March 15, students again massed on the campus and called for a student
strike.

That same month, about a dozen police vans collected university and
college students and drove us to Insein prison, through angry crowds. We
sang student union songs, chanted slogans, threw notes with our names on
to the crowds and appealed to them to help.

The following day, news reached us in prison that angry crowds in Insein
Township had stopped a prison van and attacked the driver. But we also
heard the tragic news that 42 arrested protestors had suffocated in a van
on their way to prison. Ne Win was forced to set up a committee to
investigate the deaths.

That same night, we heard machine gun fire at the prison gate. A group of
civilians had tried to break into the prison to free the jailed student,
but they withdrew after fire was opened on them.

At midnight, on March 18, we witnessed insanity and brutality inside the
prison walls. A group of young people as young as 14, most of them of
Indian origin, were delivered to the prison, where they were severely
beaten by drunken prison wardens and riot police.


>From our cell, we watched the appalling scene, lit up by several powerful

spotlights fixed high up on the prison fence. The beatings didn’t stop
even when the victims lay on the ground and couldn’t walk.

Later, I saw young kids dragged into the torture chamber where I had once
spent two hours with five interrogators. I had had to crawl back to my
cell after the ordeal.

Outside the prison, the random shootings and killings continued. Soldiers
roamed the streets, shooting indiscriminately, but their brutality didn’t
stop the demonstrators. on the contrary, it only encouraged more to join
in.

Once, I returned from hiding outside Rangoon to find a neighbor missing. I
asked my mother what had happened to him, and she said he had been killed
by a sniper. Why? He had made an “improper gesture” to a group of soldiers
stationed near his house.

In June, I saw the dead body of a young student, aged about 15, in his
blood-soaked school uniform. He had been shot in the chest and his body
was being paraded by his schoolmates on a pickup truck as they marched
through Rangoon, their fists raised in the air and chanting “down with
military dictatorship.”

His mother followed, weeping. The public mood on that day was very angry
indeed, and sympathy for the students’ cause grew mightily.

Two months later, on August 10, Burmese army troops turned Rangoon into a
killing field. Downtown, soldiers in armored vehicles drove directly up to
the demonstrators and onlookers, opening fire on them. Not even doctors
and nurses treating the wounded and attempting to take them Rangoon
General Hospital were spared

Enraged by the army’s brutality, civilians fearlessly clashed with the
soldiers, wielding knives, slingshots and any other weapons they could get
their hands on.

The uprising and the fighting were not confined to Rangoon. In Sagaing,
near Mandalay, angry civilians besieged a police station on August 9. More
than 200 of them were killed, mown down by machine gun and assault rifle
fire.

Nobody wants a repeat of that bloodshed. The trauma and the memories of
those terrible times linger on. Understandably, the fear hasn’t faded—but
nor has the desire of the Burmese people for change.

By taking to the streets this month, they simply wanted junta leader
Snr-Gen Than Shwe and other military leaders to listen to them. Their
peaceful demands don’t merit the violence unleashed by a repressive,
fearful regime.

The demonstrations might be small when compared to the numbers who rose up
against a similarly repressive regime in 1988, but the participants are no
less courageous. They speak for the vast majority of Burmese people who
yearn for a better life than the existence now being imposed on them
through the power that comes from the barrel of a gun.

____________________________________

August 31, Bangkok Post
Trip to Burma ill-considered

Outgoing Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin's recent trip
to Burma to meet with top-level military figures in the ruling junta there
was misguided at best, and wholly inappropriate at worst.

Although Gen Sonthi retires from the military at the end of next month,
there was no real need for him to go and "assure" the Burmese junta that
Thailand's policies towards Burma would continue unchanged in his absence.

Such high-level policy decisions are for the government to make, not an
outgoing commander-in-chief of the Army.

Gen Sonthi met with the chairman of Burma's State Peace and Development
Council, Senior General Than Shwe and Burmese army chief General Maung Aye
in the new administrative capital of Naypyidaw during his two-day visit
that began last Monday. It was one of a number of trips to neighbouring
countries over recent weeks - including Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore
- that seem to have gone under the radar of the local press.

But Gen Sonthi was not in Burma only as commander-in-chief of the Royal
Thai Army; he was also representing Thailand as the chairman of the
Council for National Security and architect of the current political
set-up in Thailand. As such, Gen Sonthi's visit and cosy reception by the
Burmese junta could send wrong signals to Asean and the rest of the
international community.

What outsiders will see are two military dictators of sorts shaking hands
and smiling, while the people in their respective nations are struggling
for freedom and democracy. That is not the image that we as a nation
should be sending.

Despite recent political events at home and the Sept 19, 2006 coup,
Thailand is not on a par with Burma in terms of repression and lack of
democracy. But Gen Sonthi's pandering to the Burmese junta, particularly
if he manages to get himself into politics next year, sends out an
entirely wrong message not only to the world, but to the people of Burma
as well.

The visit was also extremely inappropriate and damaging, considering
recent developments in Burma where protests have erupted in various places
around the country following shock price hikes for fuel. Burmese citizens
last week, at great risk to their lives and liberty, tried to stand up to
their repressive leadership by protesting against the price hikes that
they say will make life even more impossible in the secretive state. Bus
fares immediately doubled following the price hikes and from there, basic
produce and other goods will also surely rise in tandem with the increased
costs for state-controlled oil and gas.

Our neighbouring citizens risked their lives in a rare show of dissent
against the military junta in Burma and many were "arrested" or attacked
by state-sanctioned thugs in a country where law and order has all but
disappeared. And did they get support or encouragement from their
neighbours? No. All they saw was the de facto leader of one of their
nearest neighbours getting along swimmingly with their repressive
dictator.

Gen Sonthi's smiling pictures taken with the Senior Gen Than Shwe and
other top figures in the Burmese junta will do nothing to end the
repression that our Burmese neighbours have been struggling under for
decades. Constructive dialogue and mutual engagement are clearly not
working in Burma.

Thailand should stand with the other major forces in Asean and start
placing stronger demands on Burma to move closer towards democracy - not
give the junta tacit approval for gross human rights abuses and continued
oppression of its people.However, under Thailand's present leadership, any
such calls would only be seen as hypocritical. Therefore, the best thing
for the current leadership to do is remain quiet and wait for a
democratically-elected government to make any promises to Burma if it so
wishes. Until then, Gen Sonthi should put his passport away and stay at
home and concentrate on other matters, such as the insurgency in the deep
South, and leave the international politicking to others.

____________________________________

Is our Foreign Secretary Miliband or Millipede? - Ben Rogers

My dictionary defines a millipede as a "small crawling creature with many
legs". That describes British foreign policy, and the civil servants who
implement it, perfectly. Crawling, because it inches along slower than the
Number 52 bus in rush hour. And with "many legs" because Britain has all
sorts of opportunities – but it doesn't use them. It is one of the few
countries which holds key positions in almost all major multilateral
organisations – the UN, the EU, NATO, the G8 and the Commonwealth. Yet
still our diplomats sleep. And over them David Miliband presides – and on
one issue remains silent.

Over the past two weeks, the largest protests in a decade have been taking
place in Burma. They have spread throughout the country, beyond Rangoon.
Hundreds of people have been marching in protest at fuel price hikes. I
wrote about it on this site last week.

In response, the illegal military regime which rules Burma has launched a
brutal crackdown. Over 150 people have been arrested, including almost all
the key pro-democracy leaders. Min Ko Naing, who has already spent 16
years in jail subjected to horrific torture, is in detention again, along
with Ko Ko Gyi, who has spent 15 years in prison. Both men led the 1988
pro-democracy uprising, which resulted in a massacre of thousands by the
Burma Army.

Unarmed, peaceful civilian protestors have been savagely beaten up by the
regime's thugs and then dragged away to the torture chambers. The regime
has reportedly released hundreds of ordinary criminals from jail, and used
them to create a new proxy militia, the Swan Ah Shin (Capable Powerful
People). Reports claim these thugs have been used to attack civilians,
sometimes with iron rods covered in plastic to cause severe internal
injury without much external evidence. Some of the attacks have been
filmed and smuggled out – such as this one on the female activist Su Su
Nway, who was knocked unconscious and is now in hospital.

And in the face of such savagery? The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
wheel out a statement from Meg Munn. Who? Yes, exactly. A junior minister.
And that was 10 days ago. Not a word from the Foreign Secretary. Silence
from the Prime Minister – despite the fact that he claims Burma's
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as one of his heroes in his book
Courage: Eight Portraits. President Bush put out a statement. So did
William Hague. Stephen Crabb, Chairman of the Conservative Party Human
Rights Commission, has issued a press release, and subsequently written to
David Miliband. Yet from Downing Street and King Charles Street a
deafening silence.

And the UN? The Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon just about managed to issue
a statement - but it was so equivocal it made the Liberal Democrats look
principled. He "encourages all parties to avoid any provocative action".
Excuse me? Who is it that is beating people up, Mr Ban? And who is it that
for 45 years has been systematically raping women, using forced labour,
forcibly conscripting child soldiers, destroying villages and displacing,
imprisoning, torturing and killing its people? Mr Ban, you cannot be
neutral on crimes against humanity and genocide.

The Secretary-General has a special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari. But the
placards at a demonstration at the Foreign Office earlier this week said
it all: "Has anyone seen Gambari?" He has stayed silent.

The EU managed to squeeze out a statement – belatedly. But there has been
little more. There are hopes that the Burma crisis may be raised when EU
Foreign Ministers meet next week – but only if we keep the pressure up.
Portugal has the EU Presidency, and so a protest will be held today at the
Portuguese Embassy at 11 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8PP (nearest tube:
Hyde Park) from 12-1pm. Come and join us.

So what can you do? Write to David Miliband, and ask him to do the following:

To personally make a statement
To take the lead in calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security
Council
To push for a UN Security Council resolution on Burma
To hold urgent discussions with China, India and the Association of South
East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to urge them to use their influence with the
regime
To take the lead in bringing Burma to the agenda of the EU Foreign
Ministers next week
Write to your MP too and ask him or her to raise these issues with the
Foreign Secretary.
You can also join in a global day of fasting on Tuesday 4 September and,
whatever your religious beliefs, a day of prayer on Sunday 9 September –
see here for more details and to sign up. These are important gestures of
solidarity which will encourage the people inside Burma.

The people of Burma have shown absolutely extraordinary courage. To defy
the crackdown and continue to demonstrate, and to show such dignity and
restraint, is remarkable. To continue to risk attack, arrest,
imprisonment, torture and death is inspiring. Surely we – who have the
privilege of freedom – owe it to these people to show them our them our
support.

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist specialising in South Asia. He
works for the human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide and
serves as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights
Commission. He has visited Burma and its border areas 18 times, and is the
author of A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen
People.

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

August 31, Burma Campaign UK
60 join protest at Portuguese embassy in London ­ 15 Countries Join Day of
Action

Campaign actions calling on the EU Presidency to increase pressure on
Burma¹s dictatorship took place in at least 14 countries across Europe
today, including UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Czech Republic,
Ireland, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Norway, Italy, Netherlands
and Romania.

The day of action is in response to the failure of the European Union to
take any concrete action in response to the Burmese military regime¹s
crackdown on peaceful protestors in Burma. To date the only step taken by
the EU has been to issue a statement of concern. Portugal currently holds
the EU Presidency, and so has been the focus of the day of action.

³Today we have shown that across Europe people are appalled at the failure
of the EU to take action,² said Myo Thein, Campaigns Officer at Burma
Campaign UK. ³How can they stand by and do nothing while people are being
arrested everyday just for demanding the kind of freedoms that the
European Union claims to support?²

EU Foreign Ministers meet in Portugal on 7th and 8th of September.
European Campaign groups are calling for ministers to put Burma on the
agenda and discuss strengthening the Common Position.

For more information contact Myo Thein on 07877882386, or Mark Farmaner on
07941239640.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

August 30, The White House
President Bush condemns ongoing actions of the Burmese regime

I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the Burmese regime in arresting,
harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or
participating in peaceful demonstrations. These activists were voicing
concerns about recent dramatic increases in the price of fuel, and their
concerns should be listened to by the regime rather than silenced through
force.

The Burmese regime should heed the international calls to release these
activists immediately and stop its intimidation of those Burmese citizens
who are promoting democracy and human rights. I also call on the regime to
release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to lift
restrictions on humanitarian organizations that seek to help the people of
Burma.

_____________________________________

August 29, The Japanese Parliamentary Group Supporting Democratization in
Myanmar
On the actions taken by the Myanmar government against peaceful protests
by Myanmar citizens

The Japanese Parliamentary Group Supporting Democratization in Myanmar
expresses a serious concern over the latest actions taken by the Myanmar
government, which has been suppressing, arbitrarily arresting and
detaining peaceful demonstrators furious over the sudden hike of funnel
prices.

1.The arbitrary arrest of the peaceful demonstrators totally contradicts
our ideal way of democratization in Myanmar.  We demand the Myanmar
government to immediately release all the detained demonstrators.

2.From the perspective of peace and prosperity for all Asia, Japan,
cooperating with other Asian people, has been contributing to the
democratization of the region.  We, the Japanese Parliamentary Group
Supporting Democratization in Myanmar, regarding the latest action taken
by the Myanmar government, plead the Japanese government to pressure the
Myanmar government to immediately release all the detained and to
ameliorate the whole condition.

In order to put an end to the undemocratic rule by the Myanmar government
as soon as possible, in May 2007, the international conference in Tokyo,
we confirmed that it is necessary for us to cooperate with The ASEAN
Inter- Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC).

We believe that the Myanmar government should not suppress the justifiable
demand from the citizens, who peacefully protested over the quandary of
daily lives caused by the economic policy of the government.

We declare this statement, cooperating with all the citizens and MPs of
the world working for the democratization of Myanmar.

Tadamori OSHIMA
President of the Japanese Parliamentary Group Supporting Democratization
in Myanmar

Yoshinori SUEMATSU
Secretary General of the Japanese Parliamentary Group Supporting
Democratization in Myanmar
Office: 2-1-2-713, Nagatacho, Chiyodaku, Tokyo, JAPAN, 100-8982