BurmaNet News, October 2, 2007

[Editor]

October 2, 2007 Issue # 3309

INSIDE BURMA
New York Times: After delays, U.N. envoy is to meet Myanmar leader
Mizzima News: Gambari concludes Burma visit, meets Suu Kyi again
DPA: Talks, no progress in Burma
DVB: NLD representatives and party members arrested in protests
AFP: Myanmar holding 1,000 people at Yangon campus -- officials
Irrawaddy: Rangoon's journals are paralyzed
DVB: Detained monks could be sent to hard labour camps
The Nation: Burma's junta eases curfew

ON THE BORDER
DVB: KNU secretary offers welcome to SPDC defectors
AFP: China's southwest a safe haven for Myanmar's Muslims

BUSINESS / TRADE
New York Times: For Myanmar's neighbors, mutual needs trump qualms
AFP: Myanmar crackdown 'obstacle' to EU-ASEAN free trade pact

REGIONAL
Reuters: Japan to cut back on aid to Myanmar
Sydney Morning Herald: Singapore, a friend indeed to Burma
Mizzima News: Thousands rally in Northeast India in solidarity with monks
in Burma
AP: Over 1,500 Myanmar immigrants in Malaysia rally for Democracy
Mizzima News: BJP joins Congress in deploring Burma violence

INTERNATIONAL
The Nation” Burmese FM blames 'opportunists'
AP: Stallone and crew saw Myanmar aftermath
WP: China rejects attempt to link developments in Burma to Beijing Olympics
DPA: Human Rights Watch condemns business as usual in Myanmar
AP: EU urges UN rights council to condemn Myanmar in emergency session

OPINION / OTHER
Irrawaddy: Burma information blackout: the media war - Aung Zaw

STATEMENT
SAAPE: SAAPE condemn Burmese autocracy
October 2, Asian Human Rights Commission
Burma: Torture and inhuman treatment of detained protestors

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

October 2, New York Times
After delays, U.N. envoy is to meet Myanmar leader - Seth Mydans

A United Nations envoy met with the leader of Myamar's junta today,
according to a diplomat in Yangon, as authorities continued a crackdown
after crushing huge peaceful demonstrations last week.

The leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, had kept the envoy, Ibrahim Gambari,
waiting since his arrival in Myanmar on Saturday, although the envoy was
allowed to visit Sunday with the pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi, who has been held under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.

The meeting with Gen. Than Shwe was confirmed, without details, by the
diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing his embassy's
policy.

After more than a month of swelling protests, the streets of major cities
were quiet, but there were many unconfirmed reports of further arrests,
mass detentions and abuses, some directed at monks who formed the heart of
the peaceful uprising.

Barbed-wire barricades were being removed from the streets and an exile
Web site, Irrawaddy, reported that 70 people had been released from
detention as authorities sought to restore a sense of normalcy to the
battered country.

The junta has shut down access to the Internet in an effort to further
isolate the country and has placed troops in the streets to intimidate
people from renewing the protests that began Aug. 19 after a sharp
increase in the price of fuel.

The demonstrations swelled to as many as 100,000 in the country's main
city, Yangon, until troops began opening fire on Thursday and Friday.
Western governments said the death toll was certain to be much higher than
the 10 acknowledged by the junta, but specific numbers could not be
confirmed.

The Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition radio station based in
Norway, put the death toll at 138, based on a list compiled by the 88
Student Generation, a pro-democracy group operating in Myanmar.

Hundreds of monks were taken from their monasteries at the end of the
week, some violently, and diplomats said they did not know what had become
of them.

There were reports that the monks and others were being held in makeshift
prisons at old factories, university buildings and a racetrack.

The Democratic Voice of Burma said about 1,600 demonstrators, including at
least 1,400 monks, were being held, and other estimates put the number
even higher.

At the United Nations, U Nyan Win, Myanmar's foreign minister, accused
''neocolonialists'' and ''political opportunists'' of exploiting
''protests by a small group of Buddhist clergy'' to undermine his country.

In a speech to the General Assembly Monday evening, he said: ''Secondly,
they impose sanctions which hinder economic development. Economic
sanctions are counterproductive.''

He said security forces had used ''utmost restraint'' in calming the
demonstrators, who then ignored their warnings. ''They had to take action
to restore the situation,'' he said. ''Normalcy has now returned to
Myanmar.''

He concluded: ''The international community can best help Myanmar by
showing greater understanding. They can begin by refraining from measures
which would result in adding fuel to the fire.''

When the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, dispatched Mr.
Gambari on Wednesday, the Security Council issued a statement that ''urged
restraint'' by the government and ''underlined the importance that Mr.
Gambari be received by the authorities of Myanmar as soon as possible.''

Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbors also said it was urgent that the junta
receive Mr. Gambari as a representative of international concern.

As condemnation of the junta has continued, members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, known as Asean, have issued increasingly sharp
statements, moving away from what had proved a fruitless policy of
friendly persuasion.

''I would like to emphasize the importance which the Asean countries, and
indeed the whole international community, attach to Mr. Gambari's
mission,'' Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore wrote in a letter
to the generals dated Saturday but released to reporters on Monday.

''We are most disturbed by reports of the violent means that the
authorities in Myanmar have deployed against the demonstrators, which have
resulted in injuries and deaths,'' Mr. Lee wrote. Singapore currently
presides over Asean; Myanmar is one of the 10 members of the group.

Besides cutting off the Internet, the authorities have attempted to shut
down the flow of news by arresting and harassing local journalists.

News organizations reported that at least four Burmese journalists,
including Min Zaw of the Japanese daily newspaper Tokyo Shimbun, had been
arrested, and several others were presumed to have been arrested. About 10
Burmese reporters have been physically attacked or prevented from working,
including reporters for Reuters and Agence France-Presse, according to
Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association.

A Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, was shot and killed at the height of
the demonstrations last week, drawing protests from the Japanese
government. In Tokyo, the chief cabinet spokesman, Nobutaka Machbimura,
said Japan was considering sanctions to protest the junta's crackdown.

____________________________________

October 2, Mizzima News
Gambari concludes Burma visit, meets Suu Kyi again - Mungpi

UN special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, today rounded off his mission to Burma
after meeting the junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe. He had a second
round of talks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League
for Democracy, the UN office in Rangoon said.

The UN Secretary -General's Special Envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, today met Than
Shwe and other military leaders including Vice Snr Gen. Maung Aye, Gen
Thura Shwe Mann and the acting Prime Minister Thein Sein, at Burma's new
jungle capital - Naypyitaw for over an hour.

After meeting junta leaders, the Nigerian diplomat flew to Rangoon and met
detained Noble Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for a second round of
talks, an official at the UN office in Rangoon told Mizzima.

While, the details of both the meetings still remain unspecified, the UN
envoy is believed to have conveyed messages to both the groups.

Earlier on Sunday, Gambari met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for 90 minutes at the
government guest house in Rangoon, after meeting several low ranking junta
officials in Naypyitaw.

"The UN envoy left this evening," said the UN staff in Rangoon.

Gambari, who visited Burma amidst a bloody crackdown on peaceful
protesters by the junta's security forces, will now return to New York and
report to the UN Secretary- General, the UN statement said.

While Gambari was able to meet both the ruling junta as well as detained
Burmese democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, critics said the
effectiveness of his visit will depend upon the results thrown up.

____________________________________

October 2, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Talks, no progress in Burma

Rangoon - The leader of the Burmese military junta Senior General Than
Shwe, met Tuesday with visiting United Nations special envoy Ibrahim
Gambari in the regime's capital of Naypyidaw to discuss the regime's
recent crackdown on peaceful protests.

The outcome of the meeting was not made public, diplomats said. After the
meeting, Gambari flew to Rangoon, where he was scheduled to take a Myanmar
Airlines flight to Singapore.

Gambari arrived in Burma Saturday to assess the situation in the country
in the aftermath of the brutal crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests
last week that left at least 10 people dead, according to the government's
tally. The real death toll is feared to be much higher.

On Sunday, Gambari was allowed to meet for an hour with the country's
democracy icon, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, in Rangoon,
the former capital and the largest city, but details of their talks have
yet to be disclosed.

On Tuesday, he was finally granted an audience with Than Shwe, 74, who
heads the State Peace and Development Council, as the junta styles itself.

Burma has been ruled by generals since 1962, and there is little
likelihood that the military clique currently running the country would
forfeit power to Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party,
which won a 1990 election but has been blocked from assuming office by the
junta.

There is skepticism about what Gambari's mission would accomplish. On his
last visit to Burma in May 2006, he was also allowed to meet with Suu Kyi,
who has been under house arrest since May 2003. A week after his
departure, the junta slapped another year on Suu Kyi's detention term.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon instructed Gambari in a recent telephone
conversation to deliver a message to the generals, UN spokeswoman Marie
Okabe said.

"The secretary general asked his envoy to call on the (Burmese)
authorities to cease the repression of peaceful protest, release the
detainees and move more credibly and inclusively in the direction of
democratic reform, human rights and national reconciliation," Okabe said
in New York.

In Rangoon, the site of the largest protests, demonstrators dispersed at
the weekend as the military and security forces were out in force on the
streets.

But Moe Aye, news editor for the Oslo-based opposition radio station
Democratic Voice of Burma said the broadcaster had received reports of
protests in Manaung and Kyaukphyq in Arakan, the coastal state on the Bay
of Bengal, and sources had informed it that the army continued to raid
Buddhist monasteries in Rangoon.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday that at least 30
pro-democracy protesters have been killed in the crackdown while the
Democratic Voice of Burma said scores were feared dead.

"It is very difficult to get details," Moe Aye said in a telephone
interview, adding that the station was trying to verify names with family
members and relatives.

Meanwhile, the outrage over the junta's reaction to the protests failed to
dissipate in capitals in the region.

In Malaysia, lawmakers from members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean) called for the expulsion of Burma from the 10-nation
organization.

Zaid Ibrahim - president of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus,
which is made up of members of parliament from Asean countries, said it
was time for Asean states to take "drastic" action against Burma.

He said Asean's policy of non-interference into members' domestic affairs
had to be put aside as the violence was affecting countries in the region.

Earlier, Foreign Minister George Yeo of Singapore, which now holds Asean's
chairmanship, said in a newspaper interview that Asean - which consists of
Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - had "no choice" but to deliver a tough
position on the violent repression of the demonstrations.

Its statement issued last week expressed revulsion over the beatings and
killings of monks and anti-regime protesters and called for a stop to the
violence.

Yeo told Singapore's Straits Times that the statement was delivered "with
a heavy heart," but if Asean hadn't, "We would feel ashamed when we looked
ourselves in the mirror."

Australia's Downer announced that earlier this year his country had
rejected Burma's nomination of an army general as the Southeast Asian
country's envoy to Canberra.

"We made it clear to the Burmese that under no circumstances were we going
to have somebody from their military regime as an ambassador, as a
representative, here in Australia," Downer said.

India, which has economic interests in Burma and has been criticized for
its silence on the protest crackdown, urged the military regime to launch
a probe into the crackdown and to quickly make progress toward national
reconciliation and political reform, India's foreign office said.

India, the world's largest democracy and Burmese neighbour, has come under
increasing criticism for failing to use its close relations with Burma's
military to press for political change in the country.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said companies doing business in Burma
should condemn the country's ruling junta and shut down their operations
there.

"Companies doing business in Burma argue their presence is constructive
and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have yet to condemn the
governments abuses against its own citizens," said Arvind Ganesan,
director of the Business and Human Rights Programme at the rights group.

Human Rights Watch's appeal was aimed primarily at the Chinese, Indian and
Thai companies, especially in the energy sector, that are arguably keeping
Burma's military regime afloat financially.

____________________________________

October 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD representatives and party members arrested in protests

More than ten National League for Democracy people’s parliament
representatives and at least 137 party members have so far been arrested
in connection with recent protests in Burma, said NLD spokesperson U Nyan
Win yesterday.

“The latest to be arrested are U Maung Maung Than and U Saw Lwin from
Mandalay, according to our records. U Saw Lwin is a member of [the
people's] parliament," said Nyan Win.

The family of one NLD party member who was arrested by authorities on
evening of 26 September said they were worried for his well-being as he
has been disabled for nearly six years and is dependent on medication.

U Myint Lwin, a member of the NLD party in Mandalay division's Myinchan
township, was arrested by police officers who promised he would be
released after questioning, said U Myint Lwin's wife Daw Kyin Thaung.

"But he didn't come back home until the next morning and so we went down
to the police station with some food and medicines for him. But they said
he wasn't there anymore and that he had been transferred to Mandalay,"
said Daw Kyin Thaung.

Another two NLD party members in Myinchan, U Paw Thein and U Bo Se, were
also arrested on the same night as U Myint Lwin. Their family members have
also said that their health is suffering already.

____________________________________

October 2, Agence France-Presse
Myanmar holding 1,000 people at Yangon campus -- officials

At least 1,000 people picked up when security forces in Myanmar cracked
down on mass protests have been detained at a campus in Yangon, UN and
regime officials told Agence France-Presse Tuesday.

A senior UN official said he was concerned about reports that the
detainees, including some 500 Buddhist monks who have reportedly stopped
eating, were being moved to another location, heightening fears for their
well-being.

A Myanmar official, talking on condition of anonymity as he is not allowed
to speak to reporters, said up to 1,700 people were detained in a
windowless building on the campus of the Government Technical Institute.

The group included about 200 women, and at least one Buddhist novice monk
believed to be 10 years old, he added.

They were being kept on the campus inside a warehouse, where the monks
have been disrobed and many of them were refusing to eat, he added.

Some have simply refused to accept food from the military, or rejected it
because the food arrives in the afternoon when monks are barred by
religious oath from eating, the official said.

Tony Banbury, Asia regional director for the UN World Food Program, said
the United Nations was concerned by reports that the detainees were being
moved to a new and unknown location.

He said in Bangkok that the United Nations in Myanmar had received
confirmation that about 1,000 people were detained at the institute, held
in what Banbury described as military barracks.

"There are reports now that those people -- numbering perhaps around
1,000, including monks, students, etc -- have been moved outside those
barracks to an undetermined location," he said.

"Of course there is some concern by UN agencies about what has happened to
these people, what is the condition they are now being held in -- do they
have access for instance by the Red Cross," he added.

"The United Nations inside Myanmar did receive reports that the conditions
in this Government Technical Institute were very difficult for the
detainees -- no sanitary facilities, etc.

"And so there are of course concerns about the conditions that the
detainees were being kept in," he added.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a
Thailand-based group which monitors Myanmar's prisons, said the military
wants to move about 1,000 people away from the institute as residents
living nearby could hear the monks chanting.

"While they are held there, they have been chanting, so residents can hear
their voices. They don't want the people to hear them," AAPP joint
secretary Bo Kyi said. "They want to move those people far outside the
town."

He said he feared the authorities might try to force the monks to eat.

For Buddhists, refusing to accept alms such as food is an act tantamount
to excommunication of the person offering the donation.

Bo Kyi said the monks' refusal to accept alms from soldiers has infuriated
many members of the military, and cautioned that "they will be tortured
until they eat."

AAPP now estimates 2,000 people were detained when security forces finally
put down a month of escalating anti-government protests last week, leaving
at least 13 people dead -- although many believe the casualties were far
higher.

David Mathieson, a Myanmar consultant for Human Rights Watch, called on UN
envoy Ibrahim Gambari to press the junta on the number of dead, wounded
and arrested.

"The international community must find out where these detainees are and
under what conditions, and that is what Mr Gambari is there to do,"
Mathieson said. "Anything less is unacceptable.

The protests first erupted in mid-August after a sudden and massive hike
in the price of fuel, but escalated two weeks ago when Buddhist monks
emerged to lead the movement and drew up to 100,000 people onto the
streets.

____________________________________

October 2, Irrawaddy
Rangoon's journals are paralyzed - Violet Cho

Most of the weekly journals based in Rangoon have stopped publishing due
to a lack of news to attract readers, difficulties with acquiring news on
the streets and limited Internet access.

Several Rangoon-based journalists told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the
business will not survive much longer because “the readers are not
interested in the journals and periodicals here.”

Residents in Rangoon are “giving their attention and interest to the
protests, but we can not report the story and provide the information the
public wants, so we know that they won’t buy our news journals,” an editor
said.

Another problem is a lack of Internet access. Most of the publications in
Burma have relied on the Internet to track international news. The media
businesses in Burma can no longer search for photos and information on the
Internet as the military authorities cut access to it on September 28.

“News reporters cannot use the Internet, so they have been using satellite
television as their main source for international news,” explained another
editor.

In addition, photojournalists and reporters face danger while armed troops
are deployed on the streets. Sources said soldiers are searching whoever
they suspect of carrying a camera. If they find one, the soldiers
confiscate the camera and sometimes arrest the person carrying it.

Weekly Eleven News Journal told The Irrawaddy on Monday that one of their
reporters has been missing since September 27.

The editor said that they have checked for his name on the death list at
Rangoon General Hospital, but his name was not there. The reporter was
carrying a camera when the security forces opened fire on the
demonstrators.

During this past week only sports journals and a semi-official newspaper
The Myanmar Time have appeared on the market.

Ross Dunkley, former owner of Myanmar Time, boasted that the newspaper is
working to cover Burma's fresh news “on the frontline.” However, the
newspaper is only printing trivial articles.

Instead of providing people with information, the official mouthpiece The
New Light of Myanmar, published on Monday, show photos of 11 people
described as violent protesters, holding such weapons as knives, iron
rods, scissors, catapults and marbles, while confronting security forces
on a main road near the Sule Pagoda on Saturday. The 11 arrested by the
security forces include five university students, said the report.

According to a Rangoon resident, leading weekly news journals such as The
Voice, Flower News, Yangon Time and Weekly Eleven did not appear this
week.

According to The Flower and Yangon Time, the publishers are hoping to
print their next issue, but they still cannot be sure.

____________________________________

October 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
Detained monks could be sent to hard labour camps

Monks currently detained at the government technical college compound in
Insein township may be sent to a hard labour prison camp, according to a
source at the college compound.

Around 1,900 people, including monks, nuns, students and civilians, have
been detained in the college compound as part of the government crackdown
on recent mass demonstrations.

Among those detained are young monks aged between 16 and 18, and novices
as young as 5 to 10 years old. Nuns are also being held at the compound,
along with 140 other women. All monks and nuns have been disrobed and made
to wear civilian clothes.

According to a Swan Arr Shin member placed inside the compound,
authorities are planning to send the detained monks to a hard labour
prison camp in Sagaing township.

The compound is being guarded by troops from battalion 77, who took part
in the crackdowns. Swan Arr Shin members are also being paid 3,000 Kyat a
day (about USD 2) to keep a close watch on the detainees inside the
compound.

____________________________________

October 2, The Nation
Burma's junta eases curfew

Burma's military junta eased a curfew on the main city of Rangoon on
Tuesday, as the suffocating security presence was scaled back slightly
following the suppression of mass anti-government protests.

Loudspeakers mounted on trucks drove through downtown Yangon and
residential townships, announcing that the curfew would from now on run
from 10pm to 4am, two hours shorter than the 9pm to 5am period announced a
week ago.

The restrictions, which included the designation of Rangoon as a
'restricted area', were announced last Tuesday just before the government
launched a bloody crackdown on the protests, leaving at least 13 dead and
1,000 in detention.

People, cars and buses were returning to the streets of the former
capitalon Tuesday, as residents tried to get back to work, but the
atmosphere remained tense and key monasteries continued to be blockaded.

Although the security presence has dropped off since Monday, soldiers were
still stationed at the main rallying points.

Soldiers stood guard outside the Shwedagon Pagoda, while at a nearby
monastery, security forces could be seen within the compound.

In the northeastern township of South Okkalapa, one of the monasteries
raided there last week remained under heavy security with six military
trucks parked outside.

Meanwhile Swedish and Danish media reported that Burmese officials are
allegedly urging several Swedish and Danish news media outlets to withdraw
their correspondents from the country for their own safety, AHN online
reported Tuesday.

According to Swedish and Danish reporters, they have been contacted by a
man who introduced himself as Burmese's police authority representative.

They said that a man named Hay Chu, offered tabloid journalists a "safe
passage home." The man who identifies himself as Chu said, "Police can no
longer guarantee the safety of foreigners."

Meanwhile, Danish news media said they have been receiving calls of a
similar nature.

However, both Swedish and Danish news media have not confirmed if they
have journalists inside Myanmar. They claim their journalists reporting on
the recent massive anti-regime protests in the troubled country are all
stationed elsewhere, the online said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

October 2, Democratic Voice of Burma
KNU secretary offers welcome to SPDC defectors

Amid increasing army attacks on their armed wing, the Karen National Union
Secretary has said that any Burmese army troops who want to defect to the
KNU would be welcomed.

KNU Secretary Phado Mahn Shah, speaking in an interview with DVB
yesterday, said that although they consider SPDC leaders to be evil, the
group believes that low-ranking officers are as much victims of the SPDC
as civilians are.

“Low-ranking officers [of the SPDC] are no different from our civilians
.
This is a time for us to join hands together and bring down the
dictatorship that has been riding on our backs,” said Mahn Shah, urging
soldiers to turn their weapons on their commanding officers rather than
monks.

Mahn Shah claimed about 70 soldiers from the Burmese army have defected to
the KNU since March this year.

Mahn Shah spoke amid increasing attacks by Burma’s ruling State Peace and
Development Council troops on the Karen National Liberation Army, the
KNU’s armed wing.

The KNU said a fight broke out between the KNLA’s battalion 103, under the
command of brigade 6, and SPDC troops on Saturday leaving four dead from
the SPDC side; one captain, one lieutenant, one sergeant and one private.

Mahn Shah told DVB the fights between government troops and the KNLA have
been taking place up to four times a day in territories of KNLA brigades
1, 2, 3 and 5.

____________________________________

October 2, Agence France Presse
China's southwest a safe haven for Myanmar's Muslims - Benjamin Morgan

Myanmar democratic activist Sirajul Islam pulled out a pile of letters
that describe his plight as an 18-year refugee of his country's ruthless
military regime.

"Nobody has been able to help me," said Islam, now 51, as he sat under the
shade of the small jewellery store that colleagues at the Ruili gemstone
market in southwest China's Yunnan province have given him to tend.

He keeps copies of all the letters he has sent to political groups and aid
agencies, including the latest, mailed to the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees a month ago. Unanswered, like the others.

A member of Myanmar's minority Muslims that number upwards of five percent
of the nation's more than 50 million people, Islam's crime was to help
organise anti-government democracy protests in 1988.

Up to 3,000 people were believed killed in the movement that was brutally
crushed by the military junta, forcing Islam to flee into the mountains of
western Burma as the nation is also called.

"I don't even know where my friends are buried," Islam said, bursting into
sobs. "My mistake was being educated," said the zoologist.

After five months of clandestine living he joined the exodus of hundreds
of thousands fleeing the junta to neighbouring Bangladesh.

"I had to leave, the military was going from home to home looking for me,"
said Islam.

About 236,000 Myanmar Muslims, known as Rohingyas, have been forcibly
repatriated to Myanmar since the 1990s, but another 20,000 still live in
two United Nations refugee camps near the Bangladesh border with Myanmar.

For 16 years Islam lived as one of the 100,000 undocumented immigrants
from Myanmar in Bangladesh, joining a patriotic front that aimed to fight
the junta back home.

But the group folded, as did his small textile business, prompting him to
move to Ruili two years ago as unwelcoming Bangladeshi authorities closed
in on undocumented Myanmar citizens living in their country.


>From his new home, he has been forced to watch the Myanmar regime's harsh

response after up to 100,000 people took to the streets in successive days
in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, to protest the junta's rule.

"I'm not a businessman. I want to fight for my people, but there's nothing
I can do from here," he said.

Islam's real name is Sue Kway but like all from Rakhine, a predominantly
Islamic state in western Myanmar, he was forced to take a name that
identifies him as a member of the Muslim faith.

The Muslim Rohingya is one of seven ethnic minority states which were
formed under the Myanmar constitution of 1974, but human rights groups
including Amnesty International have documented a catalogue of abuses by
the junta.

An amendment to the citizenship laws in 1982 deprived the Rohingyas of
citizenship, suddenly making them illegal immigrants in their own home.

Amnesty said they were subjected "to various forms of extortion and
arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house
destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage."

"Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at
military camps," it added.

Nick Cheesman, a south Asia expert at the Asia Human Rights Commission in
Hong Kong, said: "They have not been given the same rights as other
minority citizens in Burma, and their situation is very bad."

In Ruili, a town that for years has boomed on the back of illicit trade in
drugs, timber and drugs, Islam lives in relative peace with a growing
community of about 10,000 Myanmar traders, most of them Muslims.

Myanmar traders have moved to this side of the border and China has
tolerated their presence as trade has flourished, even though the flow of
illicit goods, border guards said, was difficult to control.

Sitting at the mosque in Ruili that was built in 1993 to accommodate the
growing number of immigrants, one trader said living in China was much
safer.

"Things are really bad in Myanmar," he said.

"You don't know the half of it, the terrible things that were done in
Myanmar," added an ethnic Chinese woman from Myanmar.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

October 2, New York Times
For Myanmar's neighbors, mutual needs trump qualms - Thomas Fuller

For two decades, Myanmar's neighbors have grappled with how to respond to
the unrelenting repression of the country's people by its ruling generals.
In Thailand, the answer comes each time anyone pays an electric bill.

Natural gas from Myanmar, which generates 20 percent of all electricity in
Thailand, keeps the lights on in Bangkok. The gas, which this year will
cost about $2.8 billion, is the largest single export for Myanmar's
impoverished, cash-strapped economy.

Thailand's gas imports highlight the difficulty facing China, India,
Singapore and Malaysia, among other countries, as they vie for Myanmar's
hardwoods, minerals and gems -- and access to its market of 47 million
people.

At a time of rising energy prices, the prospect of extracting resources
appears to override the embarrassment and shame of dealing with a junta
that has attracted worldwide condemnation. For that reason, the countries
with the most leverage over Myanmar seem the most reluctant to use it,
analysts say.

For Myanmar's generals, the gas purchases by Thailand are only the
beginning of what promises to be a significant infusion of cash. Myanmar
will soon announce the winner of a concession in the Shwe gas fields off
the western coast. Companies from India, China and South Korea have bid
for those contracts.

In eastern Myanmar, Thai companies are building hydropower plants and have
contracts to pay the government billions of dollars for electricity from
them.

''For a country that's used to a hand-to-mouth existence there is suddenly
a bonanza of foreign exchange,'' said Sean Turnell, a specialist on the
Myanmar economy at Macquarie University in Australia. ''Burma is now
getting the wherewithal to tell the world to bug off.''

The cash has allowed the generals who run Myanmar to buy weapons from
China and helicopters from India, order a nuclear test reactor from Russia
and construct their new administrative capital north of Yangon.

''The natural gas drastically changed the military government's fiscal
position,'' said Toshihiro Kudo, director of the Southeast Asian Studies
Group at the Institute of Developing Economies, a research organization
run by the Japanese government.

Myanmar's gas reserves are small by global standards. BP, the oil company,
estimates the total at 538 billion cubic meters, or 19 trillion cubic
feet, far less than the reserves of nearby Malaysia or Indonesia. But the
billions of dollars those gas fields will produce is valuable to the
ruling generals, whose sources of financing are extremely limited because
of American sanctions.

Largely because of the gas deal, Thailand now accounts for more than 40
percent of Myanmar's total exports and has become its biggest trading
partner, not China, as is widely reported.

''Thailand and Myanmar are increasingly integrated, increasingly dependent
on each other,'' Mr. Kudo said. As a result, ''I don't think that Thailand
is applying any very serious pressure on the military government.''

At the United Nations last week, the Thai prime minister, Surayud
Chulanont, called the Myanmar crackdown unacceptable. Thai newspapers have
run scathing editorials about Myanmar's generals. And Thailand remains a
refuge for dissidents from Myanmar.

But the bottom line, Thai officials say, is that Thailand is competing for
the world's energy resources, and if it does not buy the gas, someone else
will.

Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the army chief who led Thailand's military coup
last year, said last week that Thailand should stay engaged with Myanmar.
''There are many friendly nations who help Myanmar like China and Korea
because Myanmar is a country with plenty of natural resources that the
powerful nations want to obtain,'' he said.

For China, the attraction of Myanmar is both economic and geostrategic. As
part of its bid for the gas fields off western Myanmar, China has proposed
building a pipeline from the Bay of Bengal through Myanmar and into Yunnan
Province. Another pipeline could carry crude oil delivered by ships from
the Middle East.

For Myanmar, the gas fields would mean more cash. Mr. Turnell estimated
that gas pumped from Shwe platforms would have a value of $2 billion a
year.

____________________________________

October 2, Agence France Presse
Myanmar crackdown 'obstacle' to EU-ASEAN free trade pact

Myanmar's deadly crackdown on mass protests poses a major obstacle to a
proposed free trade agreement between the European Union and Southeast
Asian nations, a European legislator said Tuesday.

Glyn Ford said in Singapore that the crackdown had made it impossible for
the EU to sign any free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) that included military-run Myanmar.

The junta's move to quell the protests, which were led by Buddhist monks,
killed at least 13 people and led to hundreds of arrests over the past
week.

"I think it is completely impossible now for the FTA to include Burma,"
Ford told reporters, referring to Myanmar by its former name.

He is one of seven members of the European Parliament visiting Singapore
and Vietnam to probe prospects for a free trade agreement (FTA) between
Europe and the 10-member ASEAN, which includes Myanmar.

The two sides agreed in May to launch the free trade talks, setting aside
differences over Myanmar.

ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong said at the time that the group
would deal with the EU as a bloc of 10, including Myanmar.

But Ford said leaving Myanmar out of a free trade agreement would not be
without precedent. He noted that South Korea signed one with ASEAN in May
but that disagreements led to Thailand's exclusion.

Asked how the situation in Myanmar would affect negotiations for an
EU-ASEAN free trade agreement, Ford said: "It depends on how things
proceed over the next weeks and months... It is certainly not the
intention of the EU at the moment to actually sign an FTA that includes
Burma."

An ASEAN-EU free trade zone would cover nearly one billion people and be
one of the world's largest. Two-way trade totalled 137 billion US dollars
in 2005.

Prior to the junta's crackdown, the US and European nations already had
tough economic sanctions in place, banning most investment and trade with
Myanmar.

After the crackdown began, the EU said it would reinforce those sanctions.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

October 2, Reuters
Japan to cut back on aid to Myanmar

Japan will cut aid to Myanmar following the brutal crackdown on
pro-democracy protests, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, although Foreign
Minister Masahiko Komura said a decision would not be made before the
return of an envoy from the country.

Envoy Mitoji Yabunaka went to Myanmar at the weekend to press for a full
inquiry after Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai was shot dead when the
military opened fire on crowds of protesters in Yangon last week.

Japan will review the assistance it provides to Myanmar and decide on
which aid it will end or temporarily suspend, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily
said, citing government sources.

Tokyo will also stop sending new humanitarian assistance, it said.

But Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said no decision would be made until
Yabunaka returns from Myanmar, where he has met with government officials
and is awaiting possible talks with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We will make a decision on how to proceed after Mr Yabunaka has returned
and reported to us on his trip," Komura told reporters. "At this point,
nothing has been decided."

He added that no clear reply had been received from the Myanmar government
to the request for a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi. Japan has withheld new
aid to impoverished Myanmar since Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in 2003,
but it still funds emergency health projects and provides some training
and technological transfers.

Japan has provided a total of about 3 billion yen ($26 million) in aid
annually in recent years, compared with 10 billion in 2001.

The Yomiuri said the latest move could affect long-term assistance
programmes such as a human resources development plan, for which 400
million yen is earmarked for the year to next March.

But analysts doubt whether sanctions would have much effect.

"Because Japan has narrowed down its aid from 1988, even if it
discontinues the aid, the junta won't feel much impact," said Myanmar
expert Toshihiro Kudo.

Myanmar's junta says 10 people, including Nagai, were killed in last
week's crackdown.

Tokyo says the small video camera he was clutching as he died near the
Sule Pagoda was missing from personal items returned by Myanmar officials.

Footage smuggled out of the country appeared to show a soldier shooting
Nagai at point-blank range, but Myanmar officials told the Japanese envoy
on Monday that he was shot accidentally.

____________________________________

October 1, Sydney Morning Herald
Singapore, a friend indeed to Burma

Security forces on the streets of Rangoon.

The island-state may have much to lose if Burma's generals don't retain
control, writes Eric Ellis.

Singapore is not just skilled at mandatory executions of drug traffickers,
running an excellent airport and selling cameras on Orchard Road. It also
does a very useful trade keeping Burma's military rulers and their cronies
afloat.

Much attention is focused on China and its hosting of the Olympic Games
next year as a diplomatic trigger point for placing pressure on Burma's
junta. But there is a group of government businessmen-technocrats in
Singapore who will also be closely - and perhaps nervously - monitoring
the brutality in Rangoon. Were they so inclined, their influence could go
a long way to limiting the misery being inflicted on Burma's 54 million
people.

Collectively known as Singapore Inc, they gather around the $150 billion
state-owned investment house Temasek Holdings, controlled by Singapore's
long-ruling Lee family. With an estimated $3 billion invested in Burma
(and more than $20 billion in Australia), Singapore Inc companies have
been some of the biggest investors in and supporters of Burma's military
junta - this while its Government, on the rare times it is asked, gently
suggests a softly-softly diplomatic approach toward the junta.

When it comes to Burma, Singapore pockets the high morals it likes to wave
at the West.

Singapore's one-time head of foreign trade said, as his country was
building links with Burma in the mid-1990s: "While the other countries are
ignoring it, it's a good time for us to go in. You get better deals, and
you're more appreciated. Singapore's position is not to judge them and
take a judgmental moral high ground."

But by providing Burma's pariah junta with crucial material and equipment
mostly denied by Western sanctions Singapore has helped keep the military
government and its cronies afloat for 20 years, indeed since the last time
the generals killed the citizens they are supposed to protect with
industrial efficiency and brutality, as now.

Without the support from Singapore, Burma's junta would be greatly
weakened and perhaps even fail. But after two decades of profitable
business with the generals and their cronies, that is about the last thing
Singapore Inc is likely to do. There's too much money to be made.


>From hotels, airlines, military equipment and training, crowd control

equipment and sophisticated telecommunications monitoring devices,
Singapore is a crucial manager and supplier to the junta, and Burma's
economy.

It is impossible to spend any meaningful time in Burma and not make the
junta richer, via contracts with Singapore suppliers to the tourism
industry. Singapore's hospitals also keep its leaders alive - the
74-year-old strongman Than Shwe has been receiving treatment for
intestinal cancer in a government hospital in Singapore, in a ward heavily
protected by Singapore security.

____________________________________

October 2, Mizzima News
Thousands rally in Northeast India in solidarity with monks in Burma - Mungpi

Thousands of Indians in the northeastern state of Mizoram today hit the
streets in a show of solidarity for the Burmese people's struggle for
change and freedom from bondage under the military dictatorship. They
urged India to intervene in the current imbroglio.

Nearly 2,000 people including leaders of political parties on Tuesday
marched on the streets of Aizawl, capital of Mizoram and urged the Indian
government to immediately intervene in the ongoing crisis and pressure the
ruling junta to work towards peace and democracy in the country.

The procession in Mizoram, bordering Burma, which hosts over 60,000
Burmese refugees and migrants, is the largest brought out so far by
activists and campaigners to express solidarity with the Burmese people,
who have been under military yoke for nearly half a century.

"We are demanding restoration of democracy and freedom for people in
Burma," Muanpuia, a leading activist, told Mizzima.

The protest, joined by leaders of local political party units, including
the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mizoram Congress Party and Zoram National
Party, comes amidst mounting international outcry over the Burmese junta's
heavy handed crackdown on Buddhist monk-led protests in Burma.

"We want the Indian government to do more for Burma," added Muanpuia.

Burmese soldiers and security forces last week, in a bid to weaken the
monk-led protests that posed a direct challenge to 45 years of military
rule in the country, began midnight raids in key monasteries and arrested
over 200 monks.

The Burmese Army on Wednesday began opening fire on protesters in Rangoon
in what is a near repetition of the brutal suppression of the 1988 student
led pro-democracy uprising in the country.

According to the Burmese junta's state-run media 10 people were killed
during the crackdown. But activists said the death toll is much higher. It
could be several hundreds and the figures are being suppressed.

Meanwhile, 53 Burmese monks, who have come to India for studies, today
staged a similar protest in New Delhi condemning the junta for its brutal
treatment of monks, who are highly revered and seen as moral guardians in
the pre-dominantly Buddhist country.

The protest in New Delhi was joined by several other Burmese activists as
well as monks from India, Tibet , Bangladesh and Mongolia.

____________________________________

October 2, Associated Press
Over 1,500 Myanmar immigrants in Malaysia rally for Democracy

More than 1,500 immigrants from Myanmar's various ethnic groups rallied in
Malaysia's biggest city Tuesday in a rare show of solidarity, urging
protesters back home to not give up fighting for democracy.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has eight major ethnic groups and more
than 100 subtribes.

The immigrants demonstrated outside their country's embassy in Kuala
Lumpur before marching to the Chinese and Russian diplomatic missions to
hand over protest notes calling on Myanmar's military junta to cease its
crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Dissident groups say up to 200
protesters have been slain, compared to the regime's report of 10 deaths,
and 6,000 detained.

Wearing red T-shirts symbolizing bloodshed in Myanmar, they shouted "We
want democracy" and carried posters that read "Stop killing" and "Don't
want evil junta." Scores of riot police stood by to ensure the
demonstrators dispersed peacefully.

"All (ethnic groups) are combined today and we demand for one purpose.
That is, we want a free Burma today," said Steven Ral Eng, 29, a member of
Myanmar's Chin ethnic minority who left his country nearly four years ago
to escape military persecution.

It was the second rally involving Myanmar's immigrant community in
Malaysia since last week. The U.N. refugee agency has registered 31,000
people from Myanmar living in Malaysia, though some groups estimate there
are at least twice that figure.

Public anger in Myanmar ignited Aug. 19 after the government hiked fuel
prices, and the outrage turned into mass protests after Buddhist monks
joined in. Police brutally quelled the protests last week.

Naw Seng Labang, an ethnic Kachin who has been in Malaysia for a year,
said he believed the pro-democracy efforts in Myanmar "can still succeed."

"We need to continue to demonstrate. We need to stand for the truth," Naw
said.

____________________________________

October 2, Mizzima News
BJP joins Congress in deploring Burma violence - Syed Ali Mujtaba

After the Congress, India's main opposition party the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has deplored the military junta's repressive action in Burma.
The BJP has urged the United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) government at the
Centre to support the pro-democracy forces in the neighbouring country.

"The BJP demands that New Delhi persuade the junta in Burma to hold talks
with the Buddhist monks staging street protests for the last two weeks,"
said BJP leader V K Malhotra in New Delhi on Monday.

"It is a different issue what our relationship with Burma is. Having a
healthy relationship with Burma does not mean we cannot seek to stop the
bloodshed of innocent people in Burma," Malhotra said.

Meanwhile, the Congress party had earlier deplored the violence unleashed
on innocent monks and civilians in Burma.

Party spokesperson M. Veerappa Moily on Saturday said the violence by the
junta has saddened all those who have faith in peace, democracy and human
rights.

"The evolving situation in Burma is a cause for deep concern. It is
important that an 'inclusive approach' is followed by the authorities for
negotiating all issues. Unilateral resort to violent means is wrong and
must be avoided," he said.

When asked if the Congress led UPA government has the same stand on the
issue, he said these are the views of the Congress party, which always
believed in human rights and democracy. "The stand of the government is
left to the wisdom of the UPA," he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

October 2, The Nation
Burmese FM blames 'opportunists' - Supalak G Khundee

New York -- Burma blamed "political opportunists" and "neo-colonialists"
for exploiting protests by small groups to turn the situation into a
political showdown.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, Burma's foreign
minister Nyan Win said such political opportunists aided by some powerful
countries also took advantage of protest staged by a small group of
Buddhist clergy demanding apology for maltreatment of fellow monks by
local authorities.

Click the picture to watch U Nyan Win deliver his speech  (Need to install
Real Player first)

The junta's security forces had exercised utmost restraint and they did
not intervene for nearly a month, he said. They declared curfew when the
mob become unruly and provocative.

"Subsequently, when protest ignored their warning, they had to take action
to restore situation. Normalcy has now return to Myanmar (Burma)," Nyan
Win to the UN assembly.

The Burmese junta earlier admitted that its troops killed nine people,
including a Japanese journalist, but outsiders and dissidents said the
number of casualty was higher than that.

The bloodshed in Rangoon and other major cities of the military-ruled
country called international outrage. The United States imposed more
sanction to the leader of the junta. The Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (Asean) issued a strong statement demanding the junta to stop the
crackdown and resume process of political reconciliation. The UN
dispatched its special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to talk with all concern
parties in the country to end the conflict.

Situation in Burma dominated many rounds of discussions in the United
Nations.

Foreign Minister Niyta Pibulsonggram and advisor of Hillary Clinton for
election campaign Richard Holbrook also talked about situation in Burma
over their meeting on the sideline of UN assembly on Monday.

"The key to get the Burmese generals behave better is to put international
pressure on them and that require Asean, India, China, United States and
Russia," said Holbrook who is also Perseus and one of Nitya's close
associates. Holbrook praised actions taken by the Asean.

Nitya would also meet US Undersecretary Nicholas Burn to discuss about
Burma and Thai role in helping fix up the problems in neighboring country.

However, Nyan Win told the UN assembly that his country was under the
threat of what he called "neo-colonialist" which used media campaign,
sanction and even provide political influence, financial and material
supports to create unrest in the country.

"The current events clearly show that such course of action can only
result in conflict and untold suffering for the people of the country," he
said.

The junta was fully aware of its responsibility to steer country to
disciplined democracy, he said. They country has laid down the roadmap and
worked continuously to achieve the goal but outside elements tried to
derail the process, he said.

____________________________________

October 2, Associated Press
Stallone and crew saw Myanmar aftermath - Jeff Wilson

Sylvester Stallone says he and his "Rambo" sequel movie crew recently
witnessed the human toll of unspeakable atrocities while filming along the
Myanmar border.

"I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of 
land-mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off," Stallone
told  The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday. "We hear about
Vietnam and  Cambodia and this was more horrific."

The 61-year-old actor-director returned to the U.S. eight days ago from 
shooting "John Rambo," the fourth movie in the action series, on the
Salween  River separating Thailand and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Stallone said he was in Thailand for six months, most of it along or on
the  river.

"This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams," Stallone said. "All the 
trails are mined. The only way into Burma is up the river."

This was before the crackdown last week against the largest pro-democracy
protests in Myanmar in two decades. After the government increased fuel
prices in August, public anger turned to mass protest against 45 years of
military dictatorship. Last week, soldiers responded by opening fire with
automatic weapons on unarmed demonstrators.

For decades, Myanmar's army has waged a brutal war against ethnic groups
in which soldiers have razed villages, raped women and killed innocent
civilians.

The "Rambo" script, written long before the present Myanmar uprising,
features boatman John Rambo - the Vietnam War-era Green Beret who
specializes in violent rescues and revenge - taking a group of mercenaries
up the Salween River in search of missing Christian aid workers in
Myanmar. The character "realizes man is just a few paces away from
savagery when pushed."

"I called Soldier of Fortune magazine and they said Burma was the foremost
area of human abuse on the planet," Stallone said.

Shots were fired over the film crew's head, he said. "We were told we
could get seriously hurt if we went on."

"I was being accused, once again, of using the Third World as a 'Rambo'
victim. The Burmese are beautiful people. It's the military I am
portraying as cruel," he said.

Stallone is now editing "John Rambo," which will be released in January.
He wants the Motion Picture Association of America will give the film an
"r" rating.

____________________________________

October 2, Washington Post
China rejects attempt to link developments in Burma to Beijing Olympics -
Glenn Kessler

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said yesterday that his government is
working hard to stem the violence in Burma and argued against efforts by
activists to link participation in the Beijing-based 2008 Summer Olympics
to China's handling of Burma.

Linking the two is "totally irresponsible," Wang Baodong, spokesman for
the Chinese Embassy, said at a hastily called news conference. He said
that the Olympicmovement is based on "non-politicalization," and that
China's "consistent stance is that irrelevant issues should not be linked
to the Beijing Olympic games."

China proved sensitive to an earlier attempt by activists in the fight
against genocide in Sudan's Darfur region to organize a campaign to
boycott the Olympics. It responded by appointing a special envoy on Darfur
and became more actively involved in seeking a settlement between the
government and rebels.

China's sensitivity about similar calls to link developments in Burma to
the Olympics was reflected by the embassy's decision to hold the news
conference on a Chinese national holiday. Beijing has deep trade and
business ties with the military junta that controls Burma, also known as
Myanmar, and earlier this year joined Russia in vetoing a U.N. Security
Council resolution that would have pushed Burma to ease repression and
release political prisoners.

China, when it vetoed the U.N. resolution, pointed to the generally
neutral stance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which
Burma is a member. But the association has turned against Burma, declaring
last week its "revulsion" over the bloody government crackdown on
demonstrators.

Wang said China helped to get a special U.N. envoy into Burma, and he
described meetings on the crisis involving Chinese officials last week. He
insisted that "in the last couple of days, the situation there appears to
have some signs of relaxation."

[The U.N. envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, met today with Burma's senior general,
Than Shwe, to discuss the crackdown, the Associated Press reported, citing
a foreign diplomat who requested anonymity.]

In response to a question about whether China wanted Burma to reach out to
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Wang said: "We encourage the
national reconciliation among the various parties of the country through
peaceful means, and, of course, dialogue included."

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday, Burmese Foreign
Minister Nyan Win said his government is the victim of an international
neocolonial effort to derail Burma's goal of establishing a "disciplined
democracy."

"When protesters ignored their warnings," he said, government forces "had
to take action to restore the situation. Normalcy has now returned to
Myanmar."

Staff writer Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.

____________________________________

October 2, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Human Rights Watch condemns business as usual in Myanmar

Companies doing business in Myanmar should condemn the country's ruling
junta and shut down their operations in the wake of a brutal crackdown on
peaceful protests, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

"Companies doing business in Burma argue their presence is constructive
and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have yet to condemn the
governments abuses against its own citizens," said Arvind Ganesan,
director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch.

While governments around the world have roundly condemned Myanmar's
military regime for its brutal crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests
last week that left at least ten people dead, the corporate world has kept
quiet.

"Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and
jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement," Ganesan added in a
statement made available in Bangkok.

HRW's appeal was aimed primarily at the Chinese, Indian and Thai
companies, especially in the energy sector, that are arguably keeping
Myanmar's military regime afloat financially.

The US government has prohibited US companies from doing business in
Myanmar since 1990, as part of their sanctions against the brutal regime.
Although the European Union has not applied a similar sanctions on their
companies, few Western multinationals have dared to invest in Myanmar over
the past two decades for fear of condemnation and boycotts in their home
markets.

Asian countries and companies have suffered fewer qualms about doing
business in the pariah state, especially in the petroleum sector. "Gas
exports accounted for fully half of the country's exports in 2006," said
HRW. "Burma's gas business brought in revenue of 2.16 billion dollars in
2006 from sales to its main buyer, Thailand," it claimed.

Thailand is the main buyer of Myanmar's natural gas fields in the Gulf of
Martaban owned by Total of France, US-based Chevron and PTTEP of Thailand.

Myanmar's natural gas exports account for almost 30 per cent of Thailand's
gas usage, industry sources said. Sources familiar with Myanmar's oil
industry estimate the junta's earnings off gas sales was closer to 1
billion dollars last year, but this would still make gas revenues its
highest source of income.

Current investors in Myanmar's oil and gas industry include companies from
Australia, the British Virgin Islands, China, France, India, Japan,
Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, and the United States
(providing they got in before 1990).

Besides Thailand, China and India are the main potential markets for
Myanmar's gas.

Last week, while anti-government protests rocked the streets of Yangon,
India's minister for oil, Murli Deora, travelled to the Burmese capital
last week to sign the agreement on petroleum exploration for a
partly-owned Indian petroleum company, noted HRW.

Chinese oil companies are studying plans to invest billions of dollars in
a pipeline from Sittwe, in western Myanmar, to Yunnan province, China, to
deliver natural gas from Myanmar's Shwe gas field.

The huge field has the potential to generate about 12 to 15 billions
dollars for Myanmar's generals.

The two Chinese companies that have shown strong interest in the proposed
new Myanmar-China pipeline projects are Sinopec and China National
Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

HRW noted that both firms are major sponsors of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"The junta's largest trading partners should insist that Burma's rulers
stop stuffing their own pockets and instead use these immense revenues to
improve the lives of ordinary Burmese," said Ganesan.

____________________________________

October 2, Associated Press
EU urges UN rights council to condemn Myanmar in emergency session -
Alexander G. Higgins

The top U.N. human rights official on Tuesday told an emergency session of
the world body that the government of Myanmar must be held to account for
its "shocking response" to peaceful opposition protests.

"The Myanmar authorities should no longer expect that their self-imposed
isolation will shield them from accountability," said Louise Arbour, U.N.
high commissioner for human rights.

Modern communications have given the world an unprecedented view of what
has been happening on the streets of Yangon, Arbour told the 47-nation
U.N. Human Rights Council.

"The peaceful protests that we have witnessed in recent weeks and the
shocking response by the authorities are only the most recent
manifestations of the repression of fundamental rights and freedoms that
have taken place for almost 20 years in Myanmar," she said.

Even as the council convened, Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy to
Myanmar, met with the leader of the regime, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and
other top generals in the junta's remote new capital, Naypyitaw, diplomats
said.

Diplomats said Gambari then flew to Yangon to see opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has come to symbolize the
yearning for democracy in Myanmar and has been under house arrest for
years.

The EU spearheaded the move for the special session by the Geneva-based
rights watchdog following discussion in the Security Council and the
General Assembly in New York.

In the Security Council even China, which has been reluctant to criticize
Myanmar, joined the 14 other council nations in expressing concern at the
violence, urging the country's military rulers to exercise restraint and
to allow Gambari into the country.

Arbour opened the emergency session convened at the request of 18 European
and other member states and 37 observers, including the United States,
after demonstrations in which the government said 10 people were killed.
Dissident groups said up to 200 people were slain.

"The government must give full account for its action during and after the
protest, including precise and verifiable information on the number of
people killed and injured as well as on the whereabouts and condition of
those who have been arrested," said Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme
Court justice.

Dissidents say 6,000 people have been detained in the crackdown on
opposition marches led by Buddhist monks.

Since the crackdown, Arbour said, "a deafening silence resonates from the
streets that the demonstrators have not voluntarily abandoned."

"As the protesters are becoming invisible, our concern only increases for
the safety and well-being of the monks, presumably confined to their
monasteries if not worse, and for the hundreds of people arrested in the
course of the demonstrations and for those wounded and removed from the
streets to unknown locations," Arbour said.

She said the world must try to reach those in need of international
protection.

"There can be no doubt about the need for action in this council now,"
Arbour said.

The EU urged the council to "strongly condemn" the Myanmar government's
violent repression of peaceful demonstrators.

"Urgent situations require urgent reactions," said Ambassador Francisco
Xavier Esteves of Portugal, speaking for the 27-nation bloc.

"The Human Rights Council cannot remain silent in the face of shocking
events such as those taking place in Burma/Myanmar."

Nyunt Swe, a diplomat representing Myanmar, told the council that his
country was "under heavy political pressure from some Western countries"
and that the protests aimed to escalate into a mass rally that could
justify outside intervention.

"The government has firm evidence that these protests were being helped
both financially and materially by internal and external anti-government
elements," Swe said. "The protests are the long-awaited chance for some
Western countries to initiate an action to intervene in the country."

A resolution proposed by the EU would put the council on record as saying
it "strongly condemns the continued violent repression of peaceful
demonstrations in Myanmar, including through beatings, killings and
arbitrary detentions and urges the government of Myanmar to exercise
utmost restraint and desist from further violence against peaceful
protesters."

It is the council's first emergency meeting since December, when the
politically divided body examined the situation in Sudan's region of
Darfur.

The EU proposal, expected to be voted on late Tuesday, urges the
government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, "to ensure full respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms" and to "bring to justice
perpetrators of human rights violations, including for the recent
violations of the rights of peaceful protesters."

It also urges the government to release detainees, including Suu Kyi,
immediately.

The council, which lacks enforcement powers, is limited to focusing global
attention on human rights offenders.

Associated Press writer Bradley S. Klapper contributed to this report.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

October 2, Irrawaddy
Burma information blackout: the media war - Aung Zaw

There was sharp contrast in The Irrawaddy newsroom between last week and
this week.

Last week, reporters were busy, phone lines were jam-packed, we received
endless phone calls from around the world and editors were hit by a
tsunami of interview requests. Lunch was ordered in to the newsroom, and
everyone continued to work.

As we chased news and reports of Buddhist monks and activists marching in
Burma followed by indiscriminate gunfire and violent crackdowns, we also
watched video images from BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.

News traveled very fast, images arrived at our desks in seconds, and we
were able to tell the world what was happening inside the country.

The images and still photographs were stunning, and the amount of airtime
devoted to Burma by Al Jazeera, CNN and BBC was startling. My colleagues
in Rangoon told me they loved watching Al Jazeera, claiming its Burma
coverage was the best.

“I am installing a satellite dish to receive the Democratic Voice of Burma
and Al Jazeera,” a former Burmese diplomat in Rangoon told me by
telephone.

As soldiers opened fire on crowds on the street, the regime also fought an
information war—to prevent the flow of news and images to the outside
world. On Friday afternoon, as the crackdown intensified, military leaders
cut the main Internet line and cell phone connections. The landline was
still working.

I thought of the military’s successful four cuts operation against ethnic
insurgents in the 1970s. They cut their food chain, their intelligence,
their recruitment and their ammunition. The military succeeded in doing
it, and the insurgents were defeated.

Now Rangoon was under siege, and the regime cut lines of information,
recognizing they were vital to the pro-democracy movement and journalists
who covered the events. People with cameras were singled out and chased
down by soldiers and clubbed.

This week, the incoming news has slowed down, and images are in short
supply, yet the violent crackdown continues. Burma news has slipped back,
replaced by the Ukraine election, the South Korean president’s visit to
the north and events in Iraq.

The regime also successfully kept a lid on information about the UN
envoy’s visit as Ibrahim Gambari spent much of his time in Naypyidaw, the
dusty new capital where the regime’s propaganda war machine churns out its
bizarre version of events.

But the news we received from Rangoon was appalling. Pre-dawn raids on
monasteries did not stop. My colleague in Rangoon told me, “Monks were
hunted down by soldiers, and they are now in hiding,” some monasteries
were deserted and civilians protected monks by providing them hideouts.
Notorious Insein Prison and temporary detention centers were filled with
monks and civilians.

Reports suggest that monks in detention centers continue to hold to the
alms boycott, refusing to accept alms or food from regime supporters. Some
reports say that monks went on a hunger strike.

We also learned this week about the tremendous hardships faced by average
people and reporters in Rangoon.

One reporter told me by telephone, “We were constantly monitored
 our
e-mails did not go anywhere
 I still have so many pictures to send, and
there are many untold stories on the ground.” He added, “But thanks for
not cutting off this land line,” chuckled, and hung up the phone. I
understood the "who" he thanked on the telephone.

Others are now afraid to speak via telephone. A colleague of mine
immediately hung up when she heard my voice. She usually spoke to me
whenever I called.

We often joked on the phone and teased “the wall is listening” because we
felt her phone was heavily monitored. In some cases, our previous
conversations were filled with codes and dry jokes, but I knew she was
intimidated and threatened. But she was brave and courageous enough to
speak.

Last week, the voices of the reporters and people whom we spoke to in
Rangoon were filled with happiness as thousands marched in the streets.
Then, suddenly, their voices were filled with anger and cries as troops
fired into crowds. Reporters in my office were listening to the shooting
from their telephones as our colleagues described the indiscriminate
killings in Rangoon. They kept their recorders rolling, but I could see
tears in their eyes and weeping.

But some brave Burmese in the country thought the week-long uprising was
worth it.

In 1988, about 3,000 demonstrators were killed between March and
September. Millions of Burmese took to the streets. But the international
community, citizens around the world, and the media had only a dim idea
where Burma was. In those days, people with a camera would be caught
immediately, since they were suspected of being spies.

This time, Burma received the full attention of the international media,
world leaders and people around the world. The media, the Internet,
digital cameras, blogs, cell phones and e-mail invigorated the
demonstrators who knew the world was watching, listening and reading about
what they did and said.

Now, Burma is blacked out. How long can the regime afford to shut the
country down?

But I think the fight continues between the Burmese journalists and
citizen-reporters who want to remain connected to the world, and the
generals who cut the line of communication to isolate Burma.

____________________________________
STATEMENT

October 2, South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE)
SAAPE condemn Burmese autocracy

South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) strongly condemns the
brutal act of the autocratic rulers of Burma against the peacefully
marching monks and ordinary people for the quest of democracy, peace and
prosperity. Government is to serve the people; if it does not serve them
then it must be thrown away. The Military dictatorship of Burma must
respect the wishes of the people and immediately quit the government. The
culprits must be booked and tried under law.

We salute the bravery of Burmese people and the monks and extend our
solidarity to you. We also request all democracy and peace loving people
of the world and their respective organizations and international
community to support the struggles of Burmese people and the monks. We
warn the junta to immediately stop its heinous act against the peaceful
protestors.

In solidarity,
Prajeena
On behalf of SAAPE Secretariat
c/o Rural Reconstruction Nepal
PO Box: 8130
Lazimpath, Kathmandu
Nepal
Tel: 977-1-4415418 / 4422153
Fax: 977 - 1- 4418296
Web: www.rrn.org.np
email:prajeena at rrn.org.np

____________________________________

October 2, Asian Human Rights Commission
Burma: Torture and inhuman treatment of detained protestors

The numbers of persons and Buddhist monks and nuns who have been taken
into custody in Burma during recent days remains unknown. This is largely
because none of them have been taken in accordance with any law. There has
not even been the pretence of law as normally exists in Burma.

Hundreds have been rounded up from in and around protest sites, and in
virtually every township of Rangoon there are reports of persons having
left their homes in the morning who have not come back at night. But many
more have been taken directly from their houses and offices around the
country, especially members of the National League for Democracy, lawyers
and human rights defenders. Those taking people away have included
soldiers, police, local council officials, members of the quasi-government
Union Solidarity and Development Association and government-organised
Swan-arshin gangs, and others. For the most part, where they are being
detained and what is likely to happen to them also remains unknown: thus
the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has said that these persons
should be treated as forcibly disappeared until shown otherwise, and their
removal be treated as abduction rather than arrest.

There are already reports emerging of torture and inhuman treatment of
these detainees. At least one witness at the Government Technological
Institute, where hundreds of monks are reportedly being held, having been
disrobed, said that he saw a soldier whipping a monk with a belt. At least
three persons and one monk who were receiving emergency treatment at the
Rangoon General Hospital were reportedly removed while still getting
medical attention and taken to undisclosed locations. Four detainees taken
to Insein Prison after the protests in August were said to have been
transferred to the jail
hospital where they were kept isolated from other inmates, also having
been seriously tortured.

In November 2004 the Thailand-based Association for the Assistance of
Political Prisoners (Burma) released a report on the jailing and torture
of hundreds of monks after the 1988 protests and the last mass-boycott of
the military regime was declared in 1990, and again after a boycott in
Kyaukse, upper Burma, during 2003.

Descriptions by monks in that report give a clear indication of what their
counterparts will be going through today. According to U Kumuda, who was
imprisoned for five years from 1989,

"They forced me to stand on the toes of one foot and to stretch out my
arms. They placed very sharp needles in the arch of the foot I stood on.
Sometimes, my hands were tied behind my back and I was then kicked and
beaten from both in front and behind while being veiled with a plastic
bag. They shouted at me, 'Why didn't you live peacefully and luxuriously
as a monk? Why did you participate in political movements? That's none of
your business.'"

U Kumuda was sent to a forced labour camp in the north of the country
where, he alleges, the work on a hydro-electric power plant was under
supervision of Japanese engineers. "They noticed us working with iron
shackles but they did not ask anything," he said. Throughout his time
working at that site, he and the other prisoners were also routinely
beaten. Subsequently, he was transferred to work as a porter in civil war
area near to Thailand, from where he escaped. "I had not known I would be
imprisoned and sent to work as a porter until my death for organising and
standing on the side of the people," he concluded.

It is safe to assume that the monks and persons alike who have been taken
into detention by illegal methods in Burma during recent days will be
subjected to torture and cruel and inhuman treatment. This is incidental
to the lack of medical treatment, nutritious and adequate food, hygienic
conditions and other aspects of prison life in Burma that have caused
former inmates to describe the country's jails system as a living hell,
and leave most who survive with permanent physical and psychological
damage.

The Asian Human Rights Commission thus reiterates its calls for the
international community--and in particular the UN Human Rights Council
through its special session on Burma this week--to demand that the
government of Burma immediately:

1. Reveal in full the whereabouts and physical circumstances of all
detained persons and the remains of all those who have died;

2. Enable the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), concerned
United Nations agencies and other relevant agencies to establish centres
where incidents of disappearance, torture and extrajudicial killing can be
reported, documented and investigated.

3. Show evidence of under what laws and legal procedures all
recently-detained persons have been arrested and are being held;

4. Bring all detained persons before courts of law within 24 hours as
required by section 61 of the Criminal Procedure Code, and guarantee their
personal integrity at all times;

5. Provide detainees with unrestricted access to family members, lawyers
and the ICRC;

6. Conduct judicial inquests into the deaths of all persons fired upon or
assaulted by security forces, or otherwise killed under unnatural
circumstances;

7. Permit access to the country by key United Nations experts, including
the Special Rapporteurs on Myanmar, torture, and extrajudicial killings,
and members of the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced
disappearances; and,

8. Agree to the establishing of a UN observer mission to be dispatched to
the country within the shortest possible time, under the auspices of the
Secretary General, to prevent further incidents of torture, arbitrary
detention, forced disappearance and killing.

In the event that the authorities in Burma fail to comply with these
requests--which amount to no more than calls for adherence to domestic
standards and little more than the minimum requirements of international
law--the AHRC calls for the United Nations and all concerned international
and bilateral agencies to review immediately their operations in Burma
with a view to withdrawing all non-essential activities until such a time
as the government there indicates its willingness to cooperate.

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues
in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.