BurmaNet News, September 12, 2007

[Editor]

September 12, 2007 Issue # 3290

INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: Lone Myanmar protester jailed for four years
BBC Burmese Service: Dignatories are used to approach the monks
Irrawaddy: Junta orders monk curfew at some monasteries
IMNA: Residents barred from listening to Dhamma (Buddhist teaching) in
Mandalay
Mizzima News: Foreign correspondents phones under censorship blade
Irrawaddy: Families ask ICRC to locate detainees’ whereabouts
Mizzima News: Kachin youths forced to attend function supporting NC in
Naypyitaw

ANALYSIS
Mizzima News: Burma's economic protests turn political and now threaten to
erupt into a mass movement against the regime - Larry Jagan

ON THE BORDER
Kaowao News: Migrant workers in Maharchai arrested

BUSINESS / TRADE
FT: Burma junta refuses to bear share of pain
DVB: Ma-ubin monks go hungry as commodity crisis continues
Xinhua: Companies from four countries to invest in Myanmar cyber city project
Xinhua: Myanmar, Sri Lanka project four-fold increase of bilateral trade
this year

REGIONAL
AP: 6 Myanmar detainees, 1 Malaysian killed in Malaysia bus crash

INTERNATIONAL
Irrawaddy: ILO demands release of Burmese labor activists
AP: US: Provide access to detained Burmese - Michael Casey
WP: Burma protests draw harsh crackdown; Torture is reported as more than
150 are detained; U.N. to dispatch envoy

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 12, Reuters
Lone Myanmar protester jailed for four years - Aung Hla Tun

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced a man to four years jail
for a solo protest calling on Buddhist monks to turn their backs on junta
supremo Senior General Than Shwe, the opposition said on Wednesday.

The man, in his late 20s and identified as Soe Aung, was arrested in
Taunggok, 250 miles (400 km) northwest of Yangon, on Tuesday and tried and
sentenced at a closed hearing within a few hours, the local National
League for Democracy (NLD) said.

He also called for a reversal of last month's shock fuel price rises.

However, Soe Aung's waving of a placard urging the Buddhist equivalent of
excommunication of Than Shwe coincided with reports of some monasteries
demanding a public apology for a junta crackdown on monks last week.

The threat evoked memories of 1990 when monks refused to accept donations
of food from military officials or their families in protest at the
junta's refusal to accept their crushing defeat at the hands of the NLD in
that year's elections.

Such rejection by monks, who are not allowed to own material possessions
and depend on daily alms for food, is taken very seriously in the devoutly
Buddhist former Burma.

Donations are seen as a means of paying respect to ancestors, atoning for
bad deeds and storing up merit for rebirth.

"Legal action was taken, so immediately he did not have any right of
defence. It could be because of his slogan calling for the expulsion of
the Senior General," Khin Hla, the NLD's Taunggok chairman, told Reuters.

"We will do all we can to help this activist. We are now making necessary
inquiries and having discussions with legal experts," he added.

Two young protesters arrested in Taunggok last month were released five
days later when 1,000 people rallied in their defence.

At least 150 activists have been arrested in more than three weeks for
protests against shock increases in fuel prices and declining living
standards.

Thirteen leaders of the so-called "88 Generation Students Group" who
spearheaded a mass uprising against military rule in 1988 have been
arrested. Soe Aung appears to be the first dissident to receive an
official trial and sentence.

Families of the 13 still-influential student leaders have appealed to the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to try to find out where
they are being held and get access to them.

Official media have made no mention of the group since their arrest on
Aug. 21 and the United States demanded on Tuesday that humanitarian groups
be allowed to visit those detained following unconfirmed reports some
detainees had been beaten.

"The ICRC has promised to help," one family member said.

Myanmar has been under unbroken military rule for the last 45 years during
which time its economy has been transformed from one of Asia's brightest
economic prospects to one of the region's poorest countries.

____________________________________

September 12, BBC Burmese Service
Dignatories are used to approach the monks

New tactics of persuading the monks by the military authorities have
clearly be seen.

They have asked the respectable people like the Head Masters of the
schools, the doctors and some kind of people who are involving in the
religious activities, to approach the monks and persuade them not to
participate the boycott declared by the National Front of Monks.

The authorities' top officials in the central area around the city of
Mandalay donated cooking oil and other things to 102 monasteries, the New
Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on its front page, showing photos of
kneeling officials offering gifts to senior monks.

According to the sources close to the monastries, a few senior monks who
are in charge of the monastries have been offered mobile phones yesterday.

It seems to be an attempt to keep the monks away from joining weeks of
protests that began last month.

Traditional organisations which regularly offer alms to the monks have
been passing the message that their offerings are not permitted until
futher notice, one of the donors of the Ponnyakari team told the BBC.

___________________________________

September 12, Irrawaddy
Junta orders monk curfew at some monasteries - Shah Paung

The Burmese military government has limited alms rounds to one hour and
ordered a curfew at some monasteries across Burma, following increased
tension between the authorities and monks.

Authorities have also set up more security around several monasteries and
some areas in downtown Pegu about 80 km north of Rangoon, according to
residents.

Monks at Gandayone Monastery and Alodawpyi Monastery in Sittwe in western
Arakan State said they received a letter last week from the State Sangha
Mahanayaka Committee, the official council of monks in Rangoon, ordering
monks not to leave the monasteries from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m, following a
demonstration of about 200 monks on August 28.

Meanwhile, an organization called "the alliance of all Burmese Buddhist
monks" has called on monks to refuse alms offered by members of the
military regime unless an apology is issued for the violence used against
monks in recent days.

If an apology is not received by September 17, monks should stage a "patam
nikkujjana kamma,” or boycott of alms, effectively denying the granting of
merit.

A monk from Bawdi Mandine Monastery in Pakokku in Magwe Division told The
Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Brig-Gen Thura Myint Maung, who heads the
Ministry of Religious Affairs, visited monks in Pakokku on Monday.

“He did not come to offer an apology, but to talk about the recent tension
and to donate some Buddhist robes,” the monk said.

The minister met with about 20 senior monks from Bawdi Mandine Monastery,
Maha Visutarama Monastery, Maha Vijayarama Monastery (known as Ah Shei
Taik) and Mandalay Monastery (known as Ah Nauk Taik).

Elsewhere, residents in Pegu said that in recent days a letter from an
unknown source has been distributed to monasteries claiming that the
authorities used no violence against monks in Pakokku, but that monks used
violence against authorities.

On September 5, up to 500 monks in Pakokku marched in a peaceful
demonstration against high commodity and fuel prices. Burmese officials,
soldiers and junta-supported groups confronted the monks, injuring at
least three monks who were beaten.

A day after the demonstration 13 high ranking Burmese officials and
military officers paid a visit to Maha Visutarama Monastery and were
detained for more than six hours by angry monks. Several cars driven by
officials were burned.

Elsewhere, police officials in Naypyidaw, Burma’s new capital, have
announced that since September 6 a "state of emergency" has been declared
in all police divisions.

Police have been ordered to report all incidents of demonstrations and
anti-government actions to their superiors.

____________________________________

September 12, Independent Mon News Agency
Residents barred from listening to Dhamma (Buddhist teaching) in Mandalay
- Chan Mon

Alarmed over a statement by an underground association of monks that they
would stage a demonstration, authorities in Mandalay the second largest
city of Burma (Myanmar) stopped people from listening to the Dhamma
(Buddhist teaching).

Traditionally residents in the city observe 'Buddha day' in the town
quarter in rotation during the three months of Buddhist lent.Sayardaw
Ashin U Kawthala, the famous monk in Mandalay was to speak on Buddha's
teachings.

 "Yesterday we were not allowed to attend the teachings to honour Buddha.
People in the town are terribly upset and unhappy because they were not
permitted to listen to Buddha's teachings," a resident said.

The authorities restricted to people's movement to monasteries yesterday
due to a statement by an underground monk association, Sangha Thanmaggi
that they will protest.

However there was no protest by monks yesterday. But some monks traveled
around the city in cars at about 10 p.m. last night, eyewitness said.

A rumour spread that the monks would stage a protest on September 17 if
the government does not apologize to the monks for its actions on them in
Pakokku.

____________________________________

September 12, Mizzima News
Foreign correspondents phones under censorship blade

In continuing actions by the junta aimed at a news black-out, foreign
correspondents in Burma are now the latest victims.

Since last night, the phone lines of some foreign correspondents have been
cut off.

The impetus surrounding the junta's latest decision to stem the flow of
information is unclear. However, correspondents in Rangoon believe the
junta's actions were not driven with the aim of cutting off foreign media,
but rather made in attempt to temporarily filter the contacts of political
activists.

Sources told Mizzima that an emergency meeting of the foreign
correspondents club may be held this afternoon on the issue of
disconnected phone lines.

As the biggest demonstrations in a decade continue throughout the
notoriously censored country, measures taken to terminate the flow of
information have been increased, including the banning of websites and
blogs in addition to the disconnecting of phone lines belonging to
politicians and activists.

____________________________________

September 12, Irrawaddy
Families ask ICRC to locate detainees’ whereabouts - Saw Yan Naing

Members of the families of activists detained in recent demonstrations
have appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help them
discover where the detainees are being held after an inconclusive visit to
Insein prison on Tuesday.

Win Maung, father of Pyone Cho, one of the arrested 88 Generation Students
group activists, said prison authorities had told him and other relatives
they didn’t know where the detainees were being held. The authorities had
advised them to contact those who had originally arrested the activists.

Win Maung told The Irrawaddy by phone on Wednesday: “We are worried about
their health. We heard that some of them are hospitalized. If they are not
getting sufficient medication their health will only worsen.”

Win Maung said family members were still waiting for a response from the
ICRC to their appeal for help in finding out where the detainees were
being held.

The ICRC representative in Rangoon, Thierry Ribaux, deputy head of the
organization’s delegation there, declined to comment when contacted by The
Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

Last November, Burma’s military regime ordered the ICRC to close its five
offices in Mandalay, Moulmein, Pa-an, Taunggyi and Kengtung.

The regime also told the ICRC it could no longer visit prisoners and
applied other restrictions on the organization’s work. Until then, the
ICRC was the only organization allowed access to political prisoners.

Leading members of the 88 Generation Students group who were arrested in
late August for demonstrating against skyrocketing price rises include Min
Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho and Mya Aye.

The US state department also called on Burma on Tuesday to give
international humanitarian organizations access to the detained activists

____________________________________

September 12, Mizzima News
Kachin youths forced to attend function supporting NC in Naypyitaw

Kachin youths are being engaged by officials of the Kachin cultural museum
in Myitkyina to participate at a function supporting the National
Convention in Burma's new jungle capital, Naypyitaw, sources said.

Museum officials, under the junta's Ministry of Information and publicity
have been ordered to gather at least 40 youths below the age of 30, to
take part in the function, where other ethnic delegates will also attend.

A member of the Kachin Literature and Cultural Committee, who requested
anonymity, said, "They are called to support the National Convention. Most
youths don't want to go. They will be made to approve the outcome of the
convention. But this time it does not include the KIO's (Kachin
Independence Organization) stand. They have called only members of the
public."

A Museum official, among the delegates, told Mizzima that the group will
leave on October 4 and will return on October 28. While the government
will pay all the fares and take care of food and lodging, the delegates
will have to abide by the instructions given to them.

"We will not be allowed to go anywhere or even come back until it is over.
And we have to raise our hands in support of what ever they say," she
added.

Another woman participant also told Mizzima, "We have to represent our
tribes. We are told that the function is a nation-wide cultural exchange,
where other ethnic groups are also participating. From Kachin there are
four persons each from the six tribes and from Shan State it's the same
for all the five tribes. We don't know what is planned there"

Meanwhile, the northern military commander Ohn Myint has ordered a mass
meeting to support the recently concluded national convention in Myitkyina
on September 15, where one person from each household has to compulsorily
participate. Those failing to attend will be severely punished, the order
states.

____________________________________
ANALYSIS

September 12, Mizzima News
Burma's economic protests turn political and now threaten to erupt into a
mass movement against the regime - Larry Jagan

Ironically the Burmese junta's recent efforts to introduce a measure of
Western-inspired economic liberalization, by withdrawing fuel subsidies,
seems to have back-fired and brought people out onto the streets in a
series of rare public protests emanding that fuel and food prices be
reduced.

It would seem that the country's top military leaders did not foresee the
possible onsequences of their policies. Much now depends on their reaction
to the protests, and whether or not public anger over the sudden and
unexplained price increases snowballs into a mass movement that could
eventually threaten their grasp on power.

Sporadic, irregular public protests against the country's soaring
inflation have rocked the mese regime since the government's sudden
increase in fuel prices. Small, peaceful, protest marches have continued
in many parts of Burma's main commercial city, Rangoon. In the past few
weeks these demonstrations, demanding lower fuel and food prices have
spread to several other parts of the country. In the worst incident a
hundred monks took to the streets of the small town of Pakhokku in
northern Burma not far from Mandalay, the second largest city of Burma,
and were fired on by the security forces.

These protests are very rare in Burma as the military regime keeps a tight
grip on the population. But the numbers joining these marches have grown
since more than a hundred people joined the first demonstration demanding
that the government immediately lower fuel and food prices more than four
weeks ago.

"The government has raised fuel prices without giving any prior notice,
and due to this hike all the people are suffering. Therefore, we, the 88
generation students, NLD members, university students, high school
students and civilians are protesting and demanding an immediate roll back
in the prices of fuel," said one of the protesters at the first march on
Sunday the 19th of August.

Bus fares and taxi charges doubled immediately in Rangoon, Mandalay and
Moulmein. Traffic in the cities is generally substantially reduced as a
result of the astronomic rise in the cost of black market petrol, which
many Rangoon residents depend on to fuel their cars.

The increase in bus fares has severely affected the poor. Manual workers
and day-laborers in the country's main cities, who earn less than 2,000
kyat ($2) a day, now have to pay more than half their wage in travel
costs, he said. In some cases it may even be as much as three-quarters of
their daily income.

Many workers who live in the poor areas on the outskirts of Rangoon –
after the government razed the slums and moved the homeless out there in
1988 - are now choosing to walk to work. "Many workers are taking more
than an hour and a half to walk to work," said a Burmese economist based
in Rangoon. "Some even spend up to three hours walking to their
factories."

There are many more people living rough on the streets of Rangoon, workers
who have day jobs and cannot afford to go home, a Japanese businessman and
regular visitor to Rangoon recently observed.

Already in Rangoon food prices have risen steeply. Rice has risen by
nearly 10%, edible oils by 20%, meat (pork and mutton) by around 15%,
garlic and eggs both by 50%, according to aid workers in Rangoon who
monitor the local market. An unofficial Consumer Price Index, maintained
by a leading Burmese journal in Rangoon and based on a basket of essential
commodities, showed a 35% increase after the fuel price increase.

"These price rises are crippling for most residents in Rangoon," a Burmese
economist told Mizzima. "They could hardly afford food before, now their
weekly budget for essential foodstuffs is going to buy even less - their
purchasing power has been reduced by more than 20% virtually overnight."

"These price increases are likely to be the result of speculation and
anticipation, rather than a real increase in costs," the top UN official
in Rangoon, Charles Petrie told Mizzima.

But there is no doubt that the price increases are hitting everyone hard,
even the middle classes. "When we went shopping on the weekend we bought
mainly vegetables at the market as meat was too expensive now, and anyway
they are more nutritious," wrote a young student in her home-work essay, a
week after the fuel prices rose.

More than ninety percent of the population spends most of the family
income on food -- at least sixty percent and in the poorest border areas
over eighty percent -- according to UN surveys conducted throughout the
country. These studies were carried out before the last two spurts in
prices, as a result of the government increasing fuel prices – in 2005 and
now. "I estimate that now the vast majority of Burmese people are spending
over eighty percent of their monthly salary on food," a leading UN
economist based in Rangoon told Mizzima, but declined to be identified.

This means that the recent fuel and food price increases have made it
virtually impossible for most Burmese families to survive. "Malnutrition
will increase as a result," said a UN official.

"People will no longer be able to afford to go to the doctor when they are
sick, and certainly cannot afford the medicines they are prescribed. While
people will not starve, there will be a slow increase in deaths from
diseases which should not be terminal – it will especially affect children
and the elderly," he predicted.

"It is difficult to fathom why the government has increased fuel prices,
and why they have done it at this time," said a Western diplomat based in
Rangoon. "It can only mean the government is strapped for cash."

The Burmese government is reportedly finding it difficult to find the
funds to finance the massive expenditure on the new capital Naypyidaw -
some four hundred kilometers north of Rangoon. Now they are also heavily
committed to the construction of a new Internet and communications
technology center - along the lines of the US's Silicon Valley - known as
Yadanapon Cyber City - near the new capital. In fact many key ministries
are to move there later this year.

"I have long suspected that the cost of building Naypyidaw was bleeding
the government's coffers dry," a specialist on the Burma economy, Sean
Turnell of Macquarie University in Australia, told Mizzima.

"The government is acutely short of revenue. The cost of Napyidaw is
itself absorbing more than the increase in income from gas revenues. On
top that, there is the dramatic pay rises in government salaries of last
year, as well as now the potentially large expenditure needed for the
planned nuclear reactor," he said.

But many senior financial and business analysts in Rangoon believe the
increase in fuel price, because of the withdrawal of government subsidies,
is part of the government's economic liberalization policies recommended
by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Over the past year the government has been trying to introduce a measure
of financial regularity into government economic policy. The main aim has
been to reduce government expenditure and increase government revenue.

The IMF and World Bank also warned the regime this time last year that if
they did not reduce their extraordinarily high budget deficits - which
they traditionally covered by literally printing money - economic
development would suffer. They predicted an increase in inflation and a
further erosion of living standards.

"Living standards are low, and inflation is increasing. The prospects for
sustained growth in real incomes are constrained by inflation, structural
rigidities, weak economic policies and low investment," the IMF team
warned after a mission to the country last year.

There is no doubt that the country's economic tsar, the number two in the
military regime, Gen Maung Aye, has tried to implement some of the IMF's
recommendations over the past two years or so. There has been an
aggressive campaign to collect taxes, especially from small businesses.
Earlier this year, the authorities mounted a major investigation into
businesses suspected of tax evasion.

Some of Rangoon's biggest companies, including Max Myanmar, AA Pharmacy,
the Peace Myanmar Group and International Beverage Trading, were targeted
by the investigation. Several leading Burmese businessmen were arrested.
But companies close to senior members of the military regime escaped
scrutiny, according to business sources in Rangoon.

Last year, the IMF reported that Burma's revenue collection had risen
slightly, and the budget deficit had dropped to around 4% of the gross
domestic product or national income. "The tax revenue increases are real,
but they're from such a low base they're more a 'promise' of a better
fiscal future than one now," said Mr Turnell.

What is more critical, according to Burmese economists, is for the junta
to reduce government expenditure. But the regime cannot contemplate
cutting back on military spending, the building of Naypyidaw and the new
Cyber City, or the construction of bridges, dams and the nuclear reactor,
so reducing government subsidies is the only option left.

The IMF also strongly advised the Burmese regime to reduce government
subsidies, especially on fuel. It is one of the international financial
body's main tenets - the liberalization of the energy market. Curiously
the increase in fuel prices came just ahead of this year's IMF/World Bank
annual mission to Burma. They arrived in Rangoon in the middle of last
week and it may be no coincidence the government acted when it did.

The burden of maintaining the subsidies on fuel was also beginning to
tell. The government has long been committed to keeping diesel prices
artificially low. In fact even with the recent increases in diesel, gas
and petrol prices, they remain the lowest in the region - and well below
the market prices for these fuels in Thailand.

But with the growing prosperity of the emerging middle class and senior
military officers through corruption and kickbacks, the demand for diesel
has increased over the years - hence the need to shell out ever increasing
amounts of money in subsidies at a time when the cost of importing diesel,
petrol and gas is also increasing. This is putting increased pressure on
the government's budget which cannot be paid from the revenue of existing
gas and petroleum exports.

Some analysts in Rangoon also believe that the move was a necessary part
of the government's plans to privatize the country's fuel distribution
system - as advocated by the IMF. Under the scheme, retail outlets for
diesel, petrol and gas would be sold to major private companies, which
would buy the fuel products from the government at a wholesale price and
sell it onto the public through this retail network.

This could only be a profitable venture for the prospective investor if
the retail prices were higher than they are now. "The previous margin -
between the government wholesale price and the retail price was too small
because the price was unrealistically low due to the government's
subsidies," a Burmese economist told Mizzima on condition of anonymity. So
this move may be part of the government's privatization plans - and to
help attract increased investment.

"The government did the right thing but the way it did it seems
irrational," said a leading local financial expert who wanted to remain
anonymous. "Thegovernment must stop all subsidies, but not without prior
warning," he added. Consumers and the private sector in particular need
time to adjust to the increased costs, he insisted.

While the increase in fuel prices over three weeks ago is bound to
increase the hardship and suffering of the country's people, particularly
the poor peasants, it reflects a commitment to introducing more sound
economic policies.

"In the past, the Burmese government regularly just printed money when
funds were needed, but over the last year or so there has been a greater
effort to introduce fiscal responsibility into government economic
policy," Mr Turnell told Mizzima.

"Instead of simply printing money they have also tried to reduce
expenditure on subsidies (on goods and fuel) and improve revenue
collection."

While food and transport prices have already soared, most observers in
Rangoon believe it will only be a matter of time before the government
also increases electricity rates. Burma's business community is clamoring
for the government to consider increasing fuel imports from other sources,
especially diesel from China.

So far the fuel crisis is confined to Rangoon and Mandalay, and is not
dramatically affecting the rural population as they are dependent on the
black market for their fuel supplies, according to observers in Rangoon.
But they expect the black-market rates to be affected in the near future
and that will really hurt the country's farming community.

In the meantime the street protests are continuing despite the junta's
crackdown. Since the protests erupted nearly a month ago, the authorities
have arrested hundreds of people for organizing and participating in the
small demonstrations that have taken place all over Burma. The junta has
also used pro-government thugs to violently disperse demonstrators.

The vigilantes are part of the pro-government community group, the Union
Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), which the regime frequently
uses to give it a veneer of public popularity. These thugs are the same
ones who launched the violent assassination attack on Aung San Suu Kyi in
May 2003 when she was touring in the north of the country.

More ominous now is the USDA's special security force, the Swan Arrshin.
"The members of this group have been specially trained in crowd control
and the violent suppression of protests," a Western diplomat in Rangoon
told Mizzima. "We have had reports of its foundation, to act as a security
and intelligence wing, since the beginning of the year," she added.

Many of its members are recently released criminals, straight from
Rangoon's notorious Insein prison. At least 600 criminals were released
from Rangoon's Insein jail over the last few months and recruited as
vigilantes, according to diplomatic sources. The pro-democracy opposition
in Rangoon put the figure at closer to 2,000.

"The current protests are still economic for sure," a leading Burmese
activist based in Thailand with close links to the organizers of the
protests, Khin Ohmar, told Mizzima. "But everyone recognizes that the root
cause of inflation is the junta's economic mismanagement."

While she believes that nothing dramatic is likely to happen in the near
future – this is certainly the beginning of the end for the junta. "Burma
is a social volcano ready to erupt," according to a leading Burmese
businessman. "These price increases may just be the spark that ignites
it."

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 12, Kaowao News
Migrant workers in Maharchai arrested

Hundreds of migrant workers have been arrested in Samut Sakhorn west of
Bangkok, Thailand, according to eye witnesses.

Nai Htow Ong, a Mon community leader from southern Ye who works at the
Maharchai fishing industry, said about 600 migrant workers were arrested
this week but most of them were later released at the police station after
paying a fine.

"They were not deported to the border (Thai-Burma) this time but most of
them had to pay about 2,000 to 3,000 Baht to the local police," he added.

A young Mon, Nay Lin who just arrived in Maharchai from northern Ye, said
it is difficult to get a job without Identity Cards or Worker Registration
Permit nowadays.

Some brokers in close contact with the local police sell ID cards for
undocumented workers, allowing migrant workers to apply for jobs without
fear of arrest.  It has not been confirmed if these IDs are duplicated
from registered workers or completely fabricated.  The IDs that include
the workers name, photograph, address and expiry date are sold for 500
Baht.

A Mon social worker in Bangkok said the local Thai community is not well
informed about migrant workers as the Thai media normally releases
negative news stories that paint a bad picture of immigrants and are
biased in favour of Thai employers.  He added that the Maharchai area is
infamous for lawlessness, where local mafia gangs cooperate with Thai
employees and many workers are abused.

It has been estimated that 200,000 migrant workers from Burma live in
Samut Sahorn and Samut Somkhram (Maharchai and Meklong) provinces.

According to the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)
based in Bangkok, the migrant population in Maharchai is predominantly of
Mon or Burman ethnic origin. Over half of these workers are women and
young girls. Many workers come to Thailand so that they are in a better
position to be able to assist their families and friends they have brought
with them to Thailand or those who remain back home in Burma.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

September 12, Financial Times
Burma junta refuses to bear share of pain - Amy Kazmin

Burma’s military rulers, conditioned by years of fighting ethnic minority
insurgents, always consider surprise a tactical advantage. And Burma's 52m
people were indeed shocked when they awoke last month to increases of up
to 500 per cent in rationed fuel prices and jumps in bus and taxi fares
and other prices.

Furious at the unexpected blow to citizens’ already pinched wallets,
democracy activists, Buddhist monks and other angry citizens took to the
streets in a wave of small protests – rare acts of civil disobedience
against a regime that tolerates little dissent and killed thousands of
people to suppress a 1988 public uprising.

Fearing another explosion of pent-up anti-government rage, the regime has
responded harshly. More than 150 people have been arrested, dissidents
have been hunted down, critics’ phone lines cut and police posted at
Buddhist monasteries. The junta has also accused democracy activists of
terrorism, which could bring long prison terms.

But while the crackdown seems to have quelled open displays of dissent,
the abrupt fuel price rise reflects the rocky times ahead for Burma’s
people, as the junta’s coffers are strained by mismanagement, corruption
and vanity projects.

“Further reforms such as this – half-hearted and most damaging to the
general populace – are still in store, not least because the underlying
reasons requiring them won’t go away,” says Sean Turnell, a Macquarie
University professor and editor of Burma Economics Watch.

For years, Burma’s military junta has spent more money than it has
collected and covered yawning budget deficits by printing money.

Worried that runaway inflation could spark political unrest, the generals
have taken a few halting steps to tackle budget deficits.

They now also seem to be toying with unifying Burma’s multiple exchange
rates, a move long advocated by the International Monetary Fund.
Economists say this will in effect raise customs duties on imports – now
at below-market exchange rates. That will add to the upward pressure on
consumer prices.

While few economists doubt that Burma needs to get its financial house in
order, critics accuse the generals of inflicting pain on the population
while making few sacrifices themselves.

“All these items are just tinkering around the edges, while ignoring the
elephant in the room – which is the state’s excessive claim on resources,”
says Mr Turnell.

Even as it asks common people to bear higher fuel prices, the junta is
building extravagant showpieces such as a new capital city. The generals
also plan to acquire a nuclear research reactor from Russia.

Many believe fiscal austerity would best begin with the junta itself. “The
pattern, composition and quality of expenditures can be substantially
improved,” said U Myint, a prominent economist. “There are considerable
opportunities to switch, or redirect, public spending to address problems
that [most] people are facing ... Such measures are non-inflationary. They
will not hurt the people.”

Talk of phasing out Burma’s fuel subsidies began early last year, when the
junta raised salaries for 1.5m civil servants, tripling its wage bill.
Slashing fuel subsidies was apparently proposed to offset the cost.

Since the price rise, a document has circulated in Rangoon, trying to pin
blame for the unpopular move on a group of independent, retired economists
recruited for an “advisory panel” of the local chamber of commerce. But U
Myint, a panel member, said he and others warned business leaders against
an abrupt fuel price rise. The top generals ignored the advice – if they
ever received it.

“Academics like us play no role and are completely out of the picture in
the decision-making process regarding issues that are of major concern to
the people,” U Myint wrote in a public letter. If the junta had heeded
local economists’ “modest proposals”, Burma would not be “such a rich
country with such poor people”.

____________________________________

September 12, Democratic Voice of Burma
Ma-ubin monks go hungry as commodity crisis continues

Monks from Irrawaddy division’s Ma-ubin township said today that high
commodity prices have forced them to start skipping meals as the impact of
the recent fuel hikes deepens.

Nearly 400 monks from the Mahabawdi monastery said that they were unable
to buy enough food to feed themselves and that the number of alms being
donated by the public was steadily decreasing.

“We are skipping breakfast now since we don’t have enough money for rice
for all of us. The people here are also struggling and they can’t donate
much to us,” U Paneinda, the abbot of the monastery, told DVB.

“We are no longer able to cook for ourselves as we don’t have enough food
supplies,” he said.

Monks are highly revered in Burma and news of the food crisis facing the
monastery has sent a shockwave through the community. The reports have
come just days after monks from different areas around the country took to
the streets to protest the government’s recent decision to drastically
increase fuel prices.

According to state-run newspapers, the State Peace and Development Council
has donated large sums of money to several high-profile monasteries around
the country since the start of the month.

But U Paneinda said that the government had not given out donations in
Ma-ubin.

“We have read about the donations in the newspaper. But it never happened
here in Ma-ubin," he said.

____________________________________

September 12, Xinhua General News Service
Companies from four countries to invest in Myanmar cyber city project

Some companies from Thailand, China, Malaysia and Russia will invest in
Myanmar's first prospective cyber city of Yadanabon in the early phase of
its development, local media reported Wednesday.

These companies are Shin Satellite (Thailand), ZTE and Alcatel Shanghai
Bell (ASB) ( China), IP Tel Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia) and CBOSS (Russia), the
local 7-Day News quoted an official responsible for the construction of
the cyber city as saying.

The Yadanabon Cyber City, Myanmar's new emerging largest information and
communication technology (ICT) park, is nearing completion and two phases
have been set for the opening of the cyber city.

The factories from these foreign companies will be cornerstoned together
with the soft opening of the cyber city in the end of this month as the
first phase, while the full inauguration will follow in next January as
the second phase along with the introduction of an ICT Week activities and
the opening of a National Land Mark near the cyber city.

The 10,000-acre (4,050-hectare) Yadanabon cyber city project, located in
hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 kilometers east of the second
largest city of Mandalay in the north, has been under hasty construction
since last year after jungle areas there were cleared.

To attract foreign investment in the cyber city project, Myanmar has
offered to grant both foreign and local entrepreneurs to be engaged in ICT
business in the project to develop the silicon mountain town.

On completion of the cyber city project, investors will be allowed to
directly export their computer accessories produced in the cyber city and
one stop service center, which renders customs and banking services, will
be established for the purpose, according to the media.

It was disclosed that green light has been opened to domestic national
entrepreneurs to buy land for business engagement, while foreign investors
are limited to lease land only for the purpose.

To enable prompt use of internet in the cyber city, various systems
including ADSL, CATV, Triple Play and Wi Max are being installed, experts
said, adding that the present stage before the soft opening deals with
fiber cable installation.

According to the experts, the Yadanabon cyber city stands at a point where
new internet lines linking China, Thailand and India meet.

An airport has been built at the cyber city which is 40-minute- drive from
Mandalay.

____________________________________

September 12, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar, Sri Lanka project four-fold increase of bilateral trade this year

Myanmar and Sri Lanka have projected to increase their bilateral volume by
four fold this year to reach 25 million U.S. dollars from over 6 million
dollars in the previous years, the local Pyi Myanmar reported Wednesday.

It was so proposed when officials of the Union of Myanmar Federation of
Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce met
in Colombo late last month.

Sri Lanka mainly imports from Myanmar various beans and pulses, hardwood,
cane product, rubber and wood log, while exporting to Myanmar coffee,
cocoa, dye, flavoring and packing paper.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan businessmen would like to import from Myanmar
local-made Western medicine also , while their Myanmar counterparts are
interested in buying in from Sri Lanka fertilizer and consumers goods, the
report said.

In July this year, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama visited
Nay Pyi Taw, during which the two countries' Joint Commission for
Bilateral Cooperation met for the first time since established in 1996.

In the near-end of August, Myanmar Acting Prime Minister
Lieutenant-General Thein Sein toured Colombo, during which the two
countries' leaders stressed the need to promote bilateral cooperation
mainly in trade, tourism, agriculture, forestry, religious and cultural
sectors.

On that occasion, two memorandums of understanding and one agreement were
signed between the two countries respectively on cooperation in
intelligence exchange, Buddhist literature studies and cultural exchange.

Sri Lanka has so far injected 1 million dollars' investment in Myanmar
since 1988, Myanmar statistics show.

In November last year, Myanmar agreed with Sri Lanka to establish direct
air and sea links to effectively boost bilateral trade ties between the
two countries as proposed by Sri Lanka.

Currently, trade between Myanmar and Sri Lanka is transacted through
Singapore.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 12, Associated Press
6 Myanmar detainees, 1 Malaysian killed in Malaysia bus crash

A bus carrying dozens of detained illegal immigrants from Myanmar crashed
into a ravine in northern Malaysia, killing six of them and a Malaysian,
police said Wednesday.

An immigration officer, the driver and 42 other illegal immigrants were
injured 10 of them seriously in Tuesday's crash in the northern state of
Kedah, said local police chief Mat Daud Mat Hasan.

The dead Malaysian was the driver's assistant, he said.

Local newspapers published pictures of the wreckage, showing the front
portion of the bus mangled and its roof ripped off reminiscent of a crash
last month that killed 22 people in what was described as the country's
worst bus crash ever.

Tuesday's tragedy happened when the bus skidded and landed in a ravine 70
kilometers (44 miles) after leaving a detention camp. The illegal
immigrants were being moved from that camp to another one near the Thai
border for deportation, Mat Daud said.

Tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar are estimated to live in
Malaysia, which is not a signatory to a United Nations convention on
refugees and classifies them as illegal immigrants who can be detained,
caned and deported.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which is allowed to operate in
the country, currently recognizes some 36,000 refugees, most of them from
Myanmar, but thousands more seek refugee status.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 12, Irrawaddy
ILO demands release of Burmese labor activists - Htet Aung

The International Labour Organization called on Wednesday for the
immediate release of six Burmese labor activists who were sentenced to
life imprisonment last week on charges of bringing the regime in contempt.

The sentences mean that the accused will have to serve at least 20 years.

“These kinds of sentences are not only entirely unwarranted, [but] they
can also harm the few processes of engagement that exist, such as the
activities against forced labor,” said Kari Tapiola, executive director of
the Geneva-based ILO in the statement.

The six labor activists—Thurein Aung, Wai Lin, Myo Min, Kyaw Win, Nyi Nyi
Zaw and Kyaw Kyaw—were sentenced by a court in Rangoon’s Insein prison, on
charges covered by section 124/A (contempt of the regime) and two other
sections of the criminal code.

They had planned to hold a May Day ceremony at the US Embassy’s American
Center in Rangoon, but were arrested before carrying out their plans.

Rangoon lawyer Aung Thein, who is advising the families of the condemned
men, said one provision under which they had been charged, section 124/A,
“can only be exercised by a constitutional government. That implies the
current government can’t use the section because it is not formed
according to a constitution.”

The other two sections under which the six were charged are 17/A, banning
any “connection to unlawful association,” and one covering violations of
the immigration law.

Aung Thein told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday he was helping the families of
the imprisoned men to prepare an appeal to a higher court.

The ILO statement pointed out that Burma had ratified the Freedom of
Association Convention No 87 and had an international legal obligation to
respect its citizens’ right to associate freely.

____________________________________

September 12, Associated Press
US: Provide access to detained Burmese - Michael Casey

The United States has demanded that Myanmar provide access to scores of
activists who were detained following the worst protests against the
military government in a decade, citing reports that many of them have
been beaten in custody.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement late Tuesday
that the American government was concerned about the "well-being" of more
than 150 citizens jailed since the Aug. 19 demonstrations began.

"Multiple reports indicate that many of these protesters have been
brutally beaten and interrogated," McCormack said in a statement. "We call
upon the Burmese regime to allow access to prisoners by international
humanitarian organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red
Cross, and renew our call for the immediate release of all political
prisoners in Burma."

Myanmar's government is facing worldwide condemnation for its hard-line
handling of the demonstrations, prompted by the governments snap decision
to increase fuel prices by as much as 500 percent in the impoverished
country.

The government and its supporters have detained scores of pro-democracy
activists and launched a campaign to round up those still in hiding. It
also has cut off cellular phone access to dissidents and harassed their
families.

Authorities also have stepped up surveillance of monasteries after monks
angry at being beaten up for protesting temporarily took officials hostage
and later smashed a shop and a house belonging to junta supporters.

Historically, monks in Myanmar, also known as Burma, have been at the
forefront of protests first against British colonialism and later military
dictatorship. They also played a prominent part in the failed 1988
pro-democracy rebellion that sought an end to military rule, imposed since
1962. The uprising was brutally crushed by the military.

Myanmar's junta, meanwhile, has pleaded with its citizens to stop
protesting and to instead express their views through a promised
referendum on a new constitution.

Earlier this month, the government wrapped up a 14-year national
convention to draw up guidelines for a new constitution, the first stage
of its seven-step "road map to democracy" that it promised would lead to
elections.

Critics have called the entire process a sham, saying the guidelines
ensure the military a prominent role in politics and bar Nobel laureate
Suu Kyi from holding elected office.

The junta held general elections in 1990, but refused to honor the results
when Suu Kyi's NLD party won. Suu Kyi has been detained under house for
more than 11 of the past 18 years.

____________________________________

September 12, Washington Post
Burma protests draw harsh crackdown; Torture is reported as more than 150
are detained; U.N. to dispatch envoy - Nora Boustany

Recent protests in Burma by democracy activists, defiant monks and other
citizens objecting to an unprecedented spike in fuel prices have sparked a
brutal crackdown by the country's ruling military junta and cast a new
spotlight on the gravity of conditions in the resource-rich country.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced Monday that he was
dispatching his special adviser on Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to hold talks
with the military rulers. The announcement came after the United Nations'
independent expert on human rights in Burma, Geneva-based Paulo S?rgio
Pinheiro, disclosed that he had received reports of severe beatings and
torture of detainees from this latest sweep of arrests. Amnesty
International said more than 150 people have been detained since Aug. 19.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday in a statement
that the United States was concerned about the fate of those detainees.
"Multiple reports indicate that many of these protesters have been
brutally beaten and interrogated," McCormack said. He called on the junta
to allow access to them by human rights groups and the International Red
Cross and to release all political prisoners.

The rare demonstrations and unrest across the closed country, also known
as Myanmar, were sparked by an overnight increase Aug. 19 of up to 500
percent in fuel prices, which left public transportation and basic
consumer goods unaffordable to much of the impoverished population.

Monks joined the protests late last week, which brought monasteries and
temples under scrutiny by soldiers searching for evidence of incitement.
Angry at being beaten with bamboo poles, some monks took 13 officials
hostage in the central city of Pakokku as 500 of the clergymen in orange
robes marched peacefully. Government troops and hired gunmen blocked the
protesters, Radio Free Asia reported from Bangkok. One monk told the radio
service that attackers rounded up fleeing monks with lassos and beat them
with truncheons and rifle butts.

Similar incidents involving monks elsewhere in the country seemed to add
popular legitimacy to the uprising.

Monks go out daily with bowls to beg for food from the population, which
supports them. Over the weekend, they reportedly formed a group called the
National Front of Monks and demanded that the junta express regrets over
the violence, reduce fuel prices, which previously were subsidized, and
begin negotiations with the opposition National League for Democracy and
the 88 Generation Students movement. An uprising in 1988 was brutally
crushed by the military, and some veterans of that protest formed the 88
Generation Students group.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have decried the
heavy-handed tactics against political prisoners and citizens and called
on Burma's leadership to heed international calls to free democracy
activists. First lady Laura Bush also weighed in last week, urging the
world community to do something to alleviate the suffering of the Burmese
and to gain the release Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has
spent 12 years under detention or house arrest.

Like Sudan's troubled Darfur region, Burma has become a cause for
celebrities and activists, who are calling attention to the junta's
excesses through such means as the video-sharing YouTube Web site and
global letter-writing campaigns. Last Thursday, 25 Hollywood stars,
including actors Jim Carrey and Dustin Hoffman, called on the United
Nations to put more pressure on the junta to release Suu Kyi, whose party
won 1990 elections but was blocked from taking power by the military. Owen
Wilson, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Aniston were among those joining the
petition.

Analysts agree that the United States and Western powers can do little to
persuade Burmese military leaders to lessen their hold over the
population, saying the main pressure would have to come from countries
such as China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
While the United States has an embassy in Rangoon, no U.S. official is
allowed to engage military or top political leaders there.

Priscilla Clapp, the former attache at the U.S. Embassy in Burma, said the
recent riots were significant, though still not as widespread as the 1988
student protests. In an interview yesterday, she said she sensed strain
within the Burmese leadership and found the precipitous withdrawal of fuel
subsidies "extremely suspicious."

Clapp said country's rulers, in their new capital Naypyidaw, which
translates as "abode of kings," had lost touch with citizens. "Sitting in
this golden bunker, in their little palaces," the generals "don't
comprehend or fully appreciate the economic distress the population is
under," she said.

Five of Burma's top generals are said to be sick, and for popular protests
to continue after the arrests means that "people sense the regime is
creaky," Clapp said. "I think the current regime is shaky. Corruption is
massive."

Burma's prospects as a regional energy supplier appeared to brighten
recently, with neighbors India and China vying for its natural gas
reserves, some of which are offshore in the Bay of Bengal. China recently
struck two deals with the Burmese government, one for a pipeline from a
port that would receive oil tankers from the Middle East to service
China's oil-starved southwestern regions, and another for natural gas.

Clapp said a combination of Chinese pressure and internal decay may be the
only way to bring about change in Burma.

"I am sure the Chinese know that the U.S. is looking their way to talk to
the Burmese," she said. "Long-term transition has to come from inside. We
can't affect what is going on right now except rhetorically, and we
should."