BurmaNet News, November 13, 2007

[Editor]

November 13, 2007 Issue # 3341

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Arrests continue despite Pinheiro’s visit
Mizzima News: Junta arrests prominent Abbot U Gambira
AP: Myanmar woman activist arrested after two months on the run
Mizzima News: Military presence swept under carpet before UN rights probe
Kaowao News: SPDC to register New Mon State party soldiers list

ON THE BORDER
IRIN via Irrawaddy: Thailand's unprotected, uninformed migrant workers
Reuters: Myanmar troops abduct Bangladesh fishermen

BUSINESS / TRADE
AFP: Thai energy giant to invest billion dollars in Myanmar gas project
AP: Foreigners flock to Myanmar gems auction despite calls for a boycott

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Daewoo officials, others on trial for exporting weapons to Burma
Channel News Asia: FM George Yeo in India to discuss situation in Myanmar
Xinhua: China to play constructive role on Myanmar issue
The Hindu: India asks Myanmar to begin reconciliation process
AFP: World must help protect vital Mekong river: activists

INTERNATIONAL
Bloomberg: Myanmar should agree on timetable for political change, UN Says
DPA: Human Rights Watch calls for total ban on Burmese gems, jade

OPINION / OTHER
Asian Times: India stands by Myanmar status quo - Bertil Lintner

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 13, Irrawaddy
Arrests continue despite Pinheiro’s visit - Wai Moe

Three Burmese dissidents, including civil rights champion Su Su Nway, were
arrested in Rangoon on Tuesday morning, according to reliable sources. Two
activist monks who took part in the September demonstrations were also
arrested by authorities earlier this month.

The two monks included U Gambira, leader of the Alliance of All Burma
Buddhist Monks, which played a significant role in the September
demonstrations. He had been in hiding since the demonstrations were
violently suppressed by the authorities. Members of his family were then
arrested for maintaining contact with him.

The second monk was identified as U Kaythara.

Their arrest was confirmed by the 88 Generation Students group, many of
whose members were also arrested during and after the demonstrations.

One group member, Soe Tun, said the two arrested monks were being held in
a special section of Insein jail called the “separated prison,” reserved
for political prisoners.

“We have learned that the monks were arrested early this month,” Soe Tun
told The Irrawaddy.

“We are hearing of a continuing crackdown and arrests rather than
reconciliation. If the ruling junta wants national reconciliation it must
end the crackdown and arrests.”

In a telephone interview with The Irrawaddy in October, U Gambira said:
“The crisis in Burma today is a conflict between justice and injustice.
When light comes to Burma, all [unjust acts] will be gone. We all must be
united.”

The other arrested activists, Su Su Nway and two companions, were seized
as they were pasting anti-regime posters on a billboard in downtown
Rangoon, sources close to Su Su Nway told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.

Su Su Nway had been in hiding since the protests against the junta’s
increased fuel prices in August, although she managed to continue
pro-democracy activities clandestinely.

The 36-year-old labor activist has been arrested twice before. She was
first arrested in 2004 when she tried to sue village authorities over
forced labor.
In 2006, Su Su Nway received the Humphrey Freedom Award from the
Canada-based Rights and Democracy group for her human rights work in
Burma.

The three were arrested as the UN special rapporteur on human rights in
Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, began his mission to inquire into the
September demonstrations and the plight of detainees.

He visited Insein prison and a Rangoon monastery on Tuesday, and then
traveled to the Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, for talks with government
officials.

Tate Naing of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said
arrests were continuing even as Pinheiro was trying to determine the fate
of detainees. Prisoners had been released before his arrival “just for
show,” while “important detainees” remained locked up, he said.

____________________________________

November 13, Mizzima News
Junta arrests prominent Abbot U Gambira - Mungpi

Sayadaw (abbot) U Gambira, a prominent Buddhist clergy, who took a leading
role in the August and September peoples' protest in Burma was arrested by
the authorities in Rangoon, after a month in hiding, a source told
Mizzima.

The police have been in hot pursuit of U Gambira, who took to the streets
and led several thousand fellow monks on the streets of Rangoon in
September. He has been accused of masterminding the anti-regime
demonstrations, which began over the peoples' agitation against the fuel
price hike in mid-August.

Despite being on the run, the Buddhist clergy spoke to the world of the
recent protests and the brutal crackdown by the ruling junta by writing an
article, which appeared as an editorial on the Washington Post.

U Gambira was arrested the same day his article appeared on the Washington
Post on November 4, the source said.

The source, who talked to the clergy over telephone, said, "He [U Gambira]
responded saying that he had been arrested and is now under detention.
Then, the line was disconnected."

While how his arrest came about is difficult to confirm, some activists in
exile believe it is related to his article, saying it might have given the
junta clues to where he was hiding.

Meanwhile, rumours are rife in Rangoon that prominent labour activist, Su
Su Nwe, and two men were arrested on Tuesday morning in Rangoon. However,
other sources said Su Su New was not among the arrested.

While the information cannot be independently confirmed, there is
increasing concern for the safety of activists, who are still hiding from
the junta's relentless search and arrest.

The arrest of U Gambira and the rumours about labour rights activist Su Su
New, sends a conflicting message to the international community, which
views the junta's acceptance of the visit and probe by UN rights expert
Pinheiro as positive.

Pinheiro, who is now in Burma, making trips to detention camps and
visiting places, is yet to comment over the arrest and his findings.

____________________________________

November 13, Associated Press
Myanmar woman activist arrested after two months on the run

Yangon, Myanmar: A prominent female activist who has been on the run from
Myanmar's military authorities for more than two months was arrested
Tuesday, an official said.

Su Su Nway was arrested as she was trying to place a leaflet on a building
near a hotel in Yangon where visiting U.N. human rights investigator Paolo
Sergio Pinheiro has been staying, said the official, who insisted on
anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. The contents
of the leaflet were not known.

In neighboring Thailand, dissident Stanley Aung from the group National
League for Democracy-Liberated Area confirmed her arrest.

Pinheiro arrived Sunday on a five-day visit to investigate human rights
conditions in the wake of September's violent crackdown by the ruling
junta on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations.

Su Su Nway was active in protests in Yangon in August against an oil price
hike. She dramatically escaped arrest when pro-government thugs broke up a
demonstration on Aug. 28, an event captured on video and shown on
television around the world.

The September demonstrations, which attracted as many as 100,000 people at
their height, grew out of the smaller August protests, which were attended
by a relative handful of political activists such as Su Su Nway.

The government acknowledged detaining almost 3,000 people in connection
with the protests, but says it has released most. Most of the prominent
political activists who were arrested remain in custody.

After the Aug. 28 confrontation, Su Su Nway, 35, said she had a heart
condition and was not fit to take part in street demonstrations, but with
other prominent activists in jail, she thought it was her duty to take
part.

Since then she has been in hiding, but there have been reports of her
occasionally surfacing for more protest activity. She had regular contact
with the media until her mobile phone was disconnected in early September.

The Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based radio station run by Myanmar
dissidents, reported that on Oct. 27 she laid flowers at the spot where
Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai was shot dead by government security
forces while covering the demonstrations in Yangon a month earlier.

Su Su Nway served nine months in prison in 2005-2006 for her labor
activism when she was convicted of defamation after she won a conviction
against four officials for using forced labor.

She is also a member of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy party.

____________________________________

November 13, Mizzima News
Military presence swept under carpet before UN rights probe - Mungpi

Troops of the Burma Army were conspicuous by their absence in Rangoon on
the eve of the arrival of the UN rights expert, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro. The
Burmese military junta took pains to see that there is no military
presence in the former capital, a source close to the military
establishment said.

Pinheiro, expected to travel to Burma's new jungle capital of Naypyitaw on
Sunday arrived in the country and kick-started his investigations into the
crackdown on protesters by visiting the notorious Insein prison in
Rangoon, two Buddhist monasteries and met several officials at a
government ministry office on Monday.

The Burmese authorities had swept under the carpet its military presence
in Rangoon prior to the arrival of the UN rights expert so as to show case
the situation in Rangoon as normal, said the source, who wished to remain
unidentified.

About 20 truck loads of soldiers were seen leaving Rangoon on Sunday
morning before the UN envoy's arrival in the former capital, the source
said.

"They [the trucks] headed to undisclosed locations, passed Pegu and was
expected to head to Naypyidaw or their bases," the source added.

Pinheiro, who arrived in Burma on Sunday to probe the government's use of
violence on protesters in September, is accompanied by Major Hla Soe
(retired), secretary of Rangoon division Peace and Development Council,
the source said.

The regime has adopted a new policy of letting civilian officials receive
state guests and many military officials including the Rangoon division
commander are maintaining a low profile during Pinheiro's visit, the
source added.

"All military [officials] are to be out of sight during the UN [envoy's]
visit. They [are] worried [that there might be] demonstrations during his
[Pinheiro's] visit," added the source.

However, the UN envoy is being closely watched by plainclothes police,
junta-backed civilian organization Swan Are Shin and USDA, and Township
chairmen, added the source.

Meanwhile, the UN Chief in New York on Monday expressed hope that the
process initiated by his special envoy to Burma , Ibrahim Gambari, will
lead to a meaningful dialogue within an agreed time-frame.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon issued a press statement on Monday, after he was briefed
by his envoy on telephone.

Mr. Gambari, who visited Burma twice following the September crackdown on
protesters in Rangoon, is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council on
his latest trip to the Southeast Asian country on Tuesday, according to
the Security Council report.

"The meeting will be a public debate that will include participation of
selected parties such as Myanmar and Singapore, as ASEAN chair, and will
be followed by closed consultations," the Council report said.

"A presidential statement to be adopted within next week is a probable
outcome," added the report.

Following Gambari's latest visit to Burma, from November 3 to 8, detained
Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet her
party – National League for Democracy – leaders for the first time in more
than three years.

The Noble Peace Laureate, who after meeting her party leaders and meeting
the government's Liaison Minister Aung Kyi twice, said she has decided to
cooperate with the ruling junta for a process of dialogue.

____________________________________

November 13, Kaowao News
SPDC to register New Mon State party soldiers list

The SPDC authorities today ordered the head of the New Mon State Party
(NMSP) to make a list of all NMSP soldiers, sources in the Township
Development and Peace Council (TPDC) said.

"In previous years the SPDC ordered us to record a list of soldiers but
they would never outlined timings and due dates. This time around they
have issued an exact deadline of

December 2007," Than Phyu Zar Pyup, a head of the TPDC said.

"They sent the order by formal mail. This time it is more serious than in
the past. The orders for the list were given to the NMSP after the monks
protested in Moulmein," he added.

New Mon State Party spokesperson, Nai Ong Magnae confirmed the TPDC
statement saying, "In the past the SPDC asked us for the list and
sometimes the TPDC and the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC)
would register the soldiers numbers in the village."

The SPDC has already ordered people to register in Ye, Koit Ka Rait, Bi Lu
Kyun and Than Phyu Zar Pyup Township.

In Ye Township, an NMSP headquarters spokesman said, "The TPDC ordered us
by mail to include soldiers' names, age, parents' names and
responsibilities."

"After the NMSP cease-fire with the SPDC, most businessmen, including
Htawai and Karen as well as Mon, would be in touch with the NMSP.  So, I
wonder if they are registerong the NMSP soldiers list and how seriously it
could affect our security and business," an anonymous source said.

"Most Thai phone owners in Mon State will relate with a head of the NMSP
and they will also use this person's name in order to help their business
run smoothly. Similarly, vehicle owners and unlicensed motorbike owners
often use NMSP's name to travel around and conduct their business. The
fact that this time the SPDC is really serious about registering the NMSP
soldiers list is not a good sign for us," a car owner in the Three Pagodas
Pass said.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 13, Integrated Regional Information Networks via Irrawaddy
Thailand's unprotected, uninformed migrant workers

Seven years ago, in her small Burmese hometown, Tha Zin, 30, a garment
factory worker, watched as one of her closest friends—a girl just a few
years younger—sickened and finally died of an AIDS-related illness.

As her condition worsened, most people in the community stayed away but
Tha Zin, much to the chagrin of her parents, continued to visit her dying
friend, comforting her as best she could, despite her own uncertainty over
whether she could be at risk.

Tha Zin, then 22, didn't really know what caused the condition, though the
rumors in the neighborhood were that it had to do with her friend's
relationship with a certain "sugar daddy." "At that time, I didn't know
much about this disease and how it could be transmitted, but I thought
that I had a pure heart so I should be okay," she said.

Today, she has a far better grasp of HIV transmission. In the Thai border
town of Mae Sot, where she arrived 3 years ago in search of work, she has
attended several AIDS awareness sessions organized by the charity, World
Vision, as part of a US $12 million, 5-year project to help foreign
migrant workers in Thailand reduce their risk of contracting the virus.

Tha Zin is now an informal peer educator in the factory where she works,
sharing her newly acquired knowledge with other workers, mainly younger
Burmese women who have come to Thailand alone.

Talking about HIV to these young women is a tough task. "It's very
difficult to share awareness and knowledge," she told IRIN/PlusNews. "When
I explain, some people look down on me. They think, 'she knows everything
about this disease, so she must have been a prostitute'. In their
experience, they think the disease is only from sex workers and drugs.
They don't know you can get it from needles and bleeding."

Low levels of knowledge and awareness

Thailand is thought to have nearly 2 million foreign migrant workers,
mainly toiling in low-paying jobs in factories, on farms, construction
sites, and fishing boats—the so-called "three Ds", for "dirty, dangerous
or degrading"—jobs many Thai's are unwilling to do.

Most foreign workers live in highly concentrated areas like Mae Sot, a
town on the Burmese border that has become a centre of the Thai garment
industry, and Samut Sakhon, 28km southwest of Bangkok and a hub of the
labour-intensive seafood processing industry.

While precise figures on the number of migrant workers in Thailand are not
available, the overwhelming majority—an estimated 90 percent—are from
neighboring Burma. In Burma, the highly conservative military junta
publicly recognized HIV/AIDS as a threat to its population only about six
years ago, after years of insisting that the country had no such problem.

The regime still tightly controls efforts to raise awareness about the
disease: non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have complained of limits
on the number of people who can attend HIV workshops, and prohibitions on
their operating in many parts of the country, particularly sensitive
ethnic minority areas.

This means most Burmese workers arrive in Thailand with little
understanding of HIV/AIDS or how to protect themselves when they move away
from their families and find themselves at greater risk of HIV. Similarly,
migrants from Cambodia and Laos, coming from the poorest regions of their
countries, often also have a poor understanding of the virus.

HIV prevalence statistics for migrant workers are not available, as the
Thai government does not survey migrants separately, but sample reports,
primarily among foreign fishermen and sex workers in border towns, showed
high but fluctuating prevalence rates between 2002 and 2004, according to
the Prevention of HIV/AIDS Among Migrant Workers Project (PHAMIT) in 20 of
Thailand's provinces.

For example, in 2004, HIV prevalence among fishermen, who are mainly
Burmese, was 9.6 percent in Chumpon Province, and 5.6 percent in Phuket
Province; among the mainly Burmese sex workers in Ranong—a major port in
Ranong Province, which borders southern Burma—HIV infection rates stood at
28 percent; and among the mainly Cambodian sex workers in the province of
Trad, bordering Cambodia, it reached 38 percent, the health ministry said.

PHAMIT, funded by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria, consists of NGOs and works with the Ministry of Health to
increase foreign labourers' knowledge about HIV/AIDS.

As part of the project, the Global Fund has financed the development of
information, education and behaviour-change communication material in
Burmese, Cambodian and several ethnic minority Burmese languages to help
migrants understand issues like HIV, reproductive health and family
planning, and how to access Thai health care.

Reaching out to migrants

Yet, even with the support of the Thai health ministry, efforts to reach
out to foreign workers have been beset with difficulties, mostly stemming
from their precarious position, given their illegal status, constant risk
of deportation and often grueling work schedule.

Although Thailand depends heavily on foreign workers, around half of them
are unregistered and, technically, illegal, leaving them vulnerable to
police harassment as well as serious exploitation by their employers,
according to labour rights organizations.

In Mae Sot, where World Vision and other humanitarian groups have sought
to train women in every garment factory to serve as informal peer
counselors, many of the women, who are in Thailand illegally, are forced
to work six days a week and late into each night, with some getting only a
single day off each month, which gives them little or no free time to
attend training sessions on health or other issues.

To conduct all-day in-depth trainings, charities have to appeal directly
to factory owners to release some of their workers for a day. Many are
reluctant to do so, or agree, only to change their minds on the day of the
planned training.

"It's up to the employer," said Mie Mie, a Burmese HIV/AIDS coordinator
with World Vision. "Sometimes they say, 'Yes, you can come and do
counseling,' but on the day we come, they say, 'we have so many orders'."
The charities also have to pay the women for the wages lost during
training time.

Dr Ei Ei Khin, a Burmese physician and technical advisor to World Vision's
migrant worker projects in Thailand, said even when workers understood how
to protect themselves from HIV, their more immediate fear was the risk
that they would be arrested and held in immigration detention centers
before being either freed or deported, thus losing many days of work and
wages.

This often deters garment workers in Mae Sot from leaving their factory
compounds, where they normally live, and restricts access to condoms
unless charitable groups supply them to directly to the workers quarters
in the compound. "If there is no NGO working for that factory, it's very
difficult for the workers to get access to condoms," Khin said.

In recent years, the authorities' attitudes towards the migrants,
especially in some provinces, have been hardening, with new restrictions
being introduced to curtail the mobility of migrant workers. In several
provinces, local authorities have prohibited migrants from using mobile
phones, riding motorbikes, being out after 8 p.m., or gathering in groups
of more than five.

Despite these hurdles, Khin believes the message is slowly reaching
Thailand's foreign labourers. "Behavior is changing," she said. "It's not
enough, but it's changing."

[The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) is a news service
that forms part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA). But this report does not necessarily reflect the views of
the United Nations]

____________________________________

November 13, Reuters
Myanmar troops abduct Bangladesh fishermen

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh  - Fourteen Bangladeshi fishermen aboard two
fishing boats were abducted in the Bay of Bengal by Myanmar border
security forces, officials said on Tuesday.

"The fishermen were captured late on Monday while they were fishing in
Bangladesh waters ... near the Saint Martin's Island," an official of the
Bangladesh Rifles border force said.

Saint Martin's is an offshore Bangladesh island, 550 km (344 miles)
southeast of the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh and Myanmar share a 320-km (200-mile) border and generally have
good neighbourly relations, but sometimes quarrel over allegations that
fishermen stray out of their territorial waters.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

November 13, Agence France Presse
Thai energy giant to invest billion dollars in Myanmar gas project

Thailand's largest oil exploration firm, PTT Exploration and Production,
said Tuesday it would invest at least one billion dollars over the next
five years to develop its offshore gas project in Myanmar.

PTTEP this year began exploration of the M-9 block in the southwestern
Gulf of Martaban by working with Myanmar's top state-run oil enterprise,
Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

The company plans to drill a more exploration wells this year and start
installing production equipment in 2008, said PTTEP spokesman Sitthichai
Jayant.

"Our activities in the M-9 project so far have confirmed that the gas
reserve of this block is promising," Sitthichai told AFP.

"PTTEP has already laid down a development plan for M-9 which calls for an
investment of at least one billion dollars starting next year onward. It
usually takes five years for developing a gas project until it starts
production."

The M-9 project is not included in PTTEP's five-year investment plans for
2007-2011, which require 281 billion baht (8.3 billion dollars),
Sitthichai said.

The block has been the focus of PTTEP's ongoing offshore gas projects in
Myanmar's Martaban Gulf.

Hungry for energy, Thailand imports about 20 percent of its gas from
military-ruled Myanmar, which is under US and European sanctions, and is
vying for a bigger share of its impoverished neighbour's vast natural
resources.

State media in Myanmar previously estimated the M-9 block contained 8.0
trillion cubic feet of gas.

Sitthichai said the company aimed to start initial production by 2011 for
both local use and export.

PTTEP wholly owns the M-9 block but Sitthichai said it was looking for
potential investment partners.

"We have been in talks with a state-owned oil company from Oman which are
interested to co-invest in the project. We are likely to give them a
minority stake of less than 10 percent," Sitthichai said.

Myanmar, one of the world's poorest nations, is under a series of US and
European economic sanctions imposed over the junta's human rights abuses
and its recent crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

But the impact of the sanctions has been weakened as energy-hungry
neighbours such as China, India and Thailand spend billions of dollars for
a share of Myanmar's vast energy resources to solve power problems at
home.

According to 2006 official figures, 13 foreign oil companies are working
on 33 projects in Myanmar.

____________________________________

November 13, Associated Press
Foreigners flock to Myanmar gems auction despite calls for a boycott

More than 1,500 people from over 20 countries have registered for a major
gems auction in Myanmar opening Wednesday, despite calls from human rights
groups to block the purchase of precious stones from the military ruled
country.

Myanmar is one of the biggest jade and gem-producing countries in the
world, and international auctions are a major revenue earner for the
regime.

Myanmar has held gem emporiums since 1964. The sale that runs from
Wednesday through Nov. 26 is the first since the junta's bloody September
crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that sparked international outcry.

"The trade in these stones supports human rights abuses," Human Rights
Watch said in a statement. "The sale of these gems gives Burma's military
rulers quick cash to stay in power." Myanmar is also called Burma.

The state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise said it generated sales of nearly
US$300 million (euro206 million) in fiscal year 2006-2007, Human Rights
Watch said.

Merchants from China and Hong Kong usually constitute the largest
contingent of buyers at the auctions.

This auction includes 5,140 lots of jade, 274 lots of gems and 259 lots of
pearls that will be sold both by the government and private dealers, said
the Myanmar Gems Enterprise, which has organized the event.

So far, 1,500 merchants from more than 20 countries have registered for
the sale, but more than 3,000 people were expected to attend overall, the
state-run body said.

Due to U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in July 2003, which
froze all U.S. dollar remittances into the country, international business
transactions are done in euros.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 13, Irrawaddy
Daewoo officials, others on trial for exporting weapons to Burma - Violet Cho

Fourteen officials from seven Korean corporations, including a former
president of Deawoo International, will be tried on Thursday in Seoul on
charges of conspiring to illegally export weapons to the Burmese military
regime.

They are charged with violating strategic goods regulations and
fabricating export documents. The charges, filed in December 2006, also
include involvement in the construction of an arms factory in Burma and
other related offences.

Arrest warrants were issued for former Daewoo Heavy Industries president
Yang Jae-Shin, who presently lives in the US, and a man identified as Koh,
who was charged as a principal adviser on the illegal exports. All 14 are
currently on bail.

This is the first time a Korean company has been named on charges of
exporting strategic goods and technology that could be used to build arms
factories overseas.

According to the Korean prosecutor, Daewoo International Corp and Doosan
Infracore allegedly struck a deal in 2002 with the Burmese government to
manufacture at least six types of artillery shells. Other Korean companies
are alleged to have agreed to provide technology and equipment for
components of the shells. The contract allegedly covered a weapons plant
and related equipment worth US $133 million.

Daewoo International is the largest stakeholder in the Shwe Gas project in
Arankan State in western Burma.

____________________________________

November 13, Channel NewsAsia
FM George Yeo in India to discuss situation in Myanmar

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo has met the Indian
Minister of External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, in New Delhi.
The ministers reaffirmed the strong and growing relations between
Singapore and India, and discussed ways to forge closer cooperation
between the two countries.

During the meeting, they also reviewed the situation in Myanmar, including
UN envoy Dr Ibrahim Gambari's recent visit there.

They noted the progress made so far and affirmed the need for a genuine
dialogue between Myanmar's military government, opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as other
groups in the country.

Mr Yeo said: "I think all of us in the region share a common interest in
there being a peaceful transition to democracy in Myanmar one which
involves genuine national reconciliation, which means the involvement of
Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD and the various ethnic groups in the country,
and the recognition that the military must be a part of the solution."

The Singapore foreign minister also emphasised the important role of
ASEAN, together with China, Japan and India, in helping the people of
Myanmar achieve national reconciliation.

Mr Yeo said: "If we, within the family, can arrive at a common position
supporting Myanmar in this process of national reconciliation, working
with Gambari, and involving all parties in the country, then when the
leaders meet with the leaders of China, Japan and India at the East Asia
Summit on 21 November, there will be an important alignment. This will be
very helpful to Myanmar and to the stability of the region."

____________________________________

November 13, Xinhua News
China to play constructive role on Myanmar issue

China had played and would continue to play a constructive role on the
Myanmar issue, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on
Tuesday.

Liu made the remarks at a regular press conference Tuesday afternoon.

China always supported the mediation efforts by the UN secretary general
and his special envoy and would sincerely like to see a peaceful, stable,
democratic and developing Myanmar, Liu said.

Liu said it should be clearly understood that the Myanmar issue was very
complicated and could not be thoroughly resolved through one or two rounds
of mediation.

On the upcoming 11th meeting among leaders from the ASEAN (the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations), China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Liu said
China would respect the views of related countries on whether to discuss
the Myanmar issue at the meeting, stressing that the issue was essentially
the internal affairs of Myanmar itself.

Myanmar's peace, stability, democracy, development and progress was in
accord with the interests of China, the region at large, and in
particular, those of the ASEAN countries, Liu said.

"China has no self-interest on the issue", Liu said.

____________________________________

November 13, The Hindu
India asks Myanmar to begin reconciliation process - Sandeep Dikshit

India has again asked Myanmar to initiate inclusive political reforms. It
also called upon Myanmar to release political prisoners “as far as is
possible” and probe violence against unarmed civilians.

“We want political reforms and the process of reconciliation to start
immediately and it has to be inclusive,” External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee told newspersons on the sidelines of a conference on Asian
economic integration here on Monday.

“As far as possible, important political prisoners should be released.
There should be some sort of inquiry into the excesses which were resorted
to, as it is being alleged by the media and other sources.”

India’s reiteration of its position came on the day U.N. official Paulo
Sergio Pinheiro met officials in Myanmar to assess the human rights
situation. He is on his first visit, four years after he was barred from
entering the country following a tiff with the ruling regime on human
rights issues.

While other countries, notably from the West, have been urging India to
take a strident line on the suppression of political freedom and human
rights in Myanmar, New Delhi has refrained from being seen as frequently
castigating the junta because of its own unique national interest
including a 1,400-km boundary between Myanmar and four sensitive
northeastern States. With Bangladesh unresponsive to giving access to the
northeast, India is framing an agreement to allow use of Myanmar territory
as a transit route.

Myanmar would also be crucial for a surface route to Thailand and other
countries as part of India’s efforts to integrate its Look East policy
with development of the northeastern States.

____________________________________

November 13, Agence France Presse
World must help protect vital Mekong river: activists

International donors must use their influence and push Southeast Asia's
Mekong River Commission to speak out against six potentially devastating
dams on the vital waterway, environmental groups said Tuesday.

The planned hydropower dams on the Mekong in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia
could displace tens of thousands of people and endanger up to 1,300
aquatic species including the rare Mekong giant catfish and the Irrawaddy
dolphin, activists said.

"We urge all the donors of the Mekong River Commission to review
immediately their support to the MRC," Premrudee Daoroung, co-director of
Thailand-based ecological group TERRA, told reporters in Bangkok.

"The existence of the MRC now, if they are not doing their job, they are
blocking the way of other more transparent mechanisms" to do the job.

She said the MRC -- which comprises Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
-- had failed since its creation in 1995 to carry out adequate
environmental impact assessments or consult people affected by the dams.

The group's donors, which include the World Bank, the United States,
Japan, Australia and many European governments, are due to meet in the
Cambodian town of Siem Reap on Thursday.

Activists urged the donors to pressure the MRC to carry out an
investigation into the region-wide social and ecological impact of each
dam, and to make sure people were compensated for any loss of livelihood.

Laos, which has ambitions to become the region's key electricity supplier,
has four Mekong dams under consideration, while Thailand and Cambodia each
have one.

"The lower Mekong is the largest production fishery area, any change on
the eco-system would create a vital impact," said Pianporn Deetes, a
coordinator with Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN).

"The change in water levels would create inevitable impacts on fish
migration," she added.

Activists said that because of the lack of transparent impact assessments
for the dams, it was hard to say how many people would be forced from
their homes, but estimates ranged between 17,300 and 75,000.

Surichai Wun'gaeo, head of Chulalongkorn University's social research
institute, said a balance had to be reached between Asia's rocketing
energy demands and the lives of rural people who still depend on the land.

"(The MRC) should prove its usefulness in the eyes of the public ... not
only its usefulness in terms of certain businesses and interests," he
said.

The 4,800-kilometre (2,980-mile) Mekong begins its life on the Tibetan
plateau and flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia before
reaching the South China Sea via Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

The river, one of the most bio-diverse in the world, is the lifeblood for
tens of millions of people living along its banks, providing fish,
irrigation and a vital trading corridor.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 13, Bloomberg
Myanmar should agree on timetable for political change, UN Says - Michael
Heath

Myanmar's military rulers should agree on a timetable for political
change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, after his envoy
returned from meetings with government and opposition leaders in the
Southeast Asian nation.

``A process has been launched that will hopefully lead to a meaningful and
substantive dialogue with concrete outcomes within an agreed timeframe,''
Ban said yesterday, according to the UN Web site. Ibrahim Gambari arrived
in New York after a week in Myanmar, his second visit to the country in
two months.

Ban spoke as UN human rights envoy Sergio Pinheiro was in Myanmar's former
capital, Yangon, to investigate the junta's suppression in September of
the biggest anti-government demonstrations in almost 20 years.

The crackdown, which resulted in the deaths of as many as 110 people,
prompted global condemnation of the military that has ruled the country
formerly known as Burma for the past 45 years.

Pinheiro yesterday visited Insein prison, where opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi was held after being detained in 2003. Journalist Win Tin, an
adviser to Suu Kyi, and Min Ko Naing, who led pro-democracy protests in
1988 and was arrested in August, are held there, Agence France-Presse
reported.

Pinheiro ``is expecting to interview detainees before the end of his
mission,'' the UN said in a statement.

The envoy also traveled to monasteries yesterday to talk with Buddhist
monks who led the anti-government demonstrations. The protests were
sparked in mid-August by the doubling of some fuel prices in the country.

Electronic Device
Pinheiro, who was barred from Myanmar in 2003 after he accused the regime
of eavesdropping on an interview with a detainee, visits the capital,
Naypyidaw, today.

The military has been under international sanctions since it rejected the
results of elections in 1990 won by Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy party. Suu Kyi, 62, has spent 12 years detention since then.

International demands for the junta to start talks with the opposition
after September's crackdown resulted in Labor Minister U Aung Kyi being
put in charge of discussions. He met with Suu Kyi last month.

Gambari, who had talks with Suu Kyi last week, said after leaving Myanmar
that the opposition leader will work with the junta to seek a path toward
political reconciliation. She remains under house arrest at her home in
Yangon.

``In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to cooperate with the
government in order to make this process of dialogue a success,'' Suu Kyi
said in a statement read by Gambari in Singapore on Nov. 9.

In the message read by Gambari, Suu Kyi said the Oct. 25 meeting with the
labor minister was ``constructive.''

Gem Trade
China, Thailand, the U.S. and other countries should block the purchase of
gems from Myanmar because their sale helps finance abuses in the country,
Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The New York-based group called for sanctions on Myanmar's gem trade
before an auction in Yangon this week. More than 90 percent of the world's
rubies originate in Myanmar, it said.

``Burma's rubies and jade are prized for their beauty but the ugly truth
is that the trade in these stones supports human rights abuses,'' said
Arvind Ganesan, director of the group's Business and Human Rights Program.
``The sale of these gems gives Burma's military rulers quick cash to stay
in power.''

The junta controls most mining activity in the country, according to the
group. The gem auction is the first since the junta crushed the protests.

``It was twice postponed, purportedly due to weather conditions,'' Human
Rights Watch said in the statement. ``Ongoing unrest and strong
international condemnation of the regime may have raised fears that few
traders would attend.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at
mheath1 at bloomberg.net

____________________________________

November 13, Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Human Rights Watch calls for total ban on Burmese gems, jade

New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on China and Thailand
to join the European Union and US in banning imports of gems and jade from
Burma, where the state-run trade is allegedly financing military rule and
human rights abuses.

"The sale of these gems gives Burma's military rulers quick cash to stay
in power," said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights
Program at Human Rights Watch in a statement made available in Bangkok.

The call for a complete ban on Burmese gems and jade has coincided with
the opening Tuesday of a government-run auction of precious stones in
Rangoon, where more than 2,000 buyers have flocked for the bi-annual
event.

Burma, the world's largest supplier of rubies and jade, earned an
estimated 300 million dollars last year from its gem auctions.

Working conditions at government-controlled gem and jade mines in Burma
are notorious for using forced labour and allowing atrocious health
conditions, with HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis running rampant among the
labourers.

Burma's ruling junta is already under international censure for cracking
down on protests led by Buddhist monks last September.

"It is simply unconscionable for traders to help Burma's generals sell off
the country's natural resources for their own benefit while average people
are victimized and harassed," said Ganesan.

"Trading in Burmese gems bolsters the country's military rulers at a time
when they are committing serious human rights abuses, driving their people
into further poverty, and rejecting calls for political reconciliation."

In the wake of the September crackdown, the European Union has imposed new
sanctions to block the import of Burmese precious and semiprecious stones,
and US Congress is considering legislation that would ban the purchase of
Burma-mined gemstones, closing a loophole in existing US sanctions that
allows gems from Burma to be sold in the US if they have been processed in
a third country.

Thailand is the largest importer/processer of Burma gemstones while China
is the main importer of Burmese jade.

"Burmese jade, which is popular in China, reportedly is increasingly
sought after for use in products commemorating the 2008 Beijing Olympics,"
said Human Rights Watch.

India is another major importer of Burmese gemstones, which are cut and
polished and exported.

"The governments and companies that have stopped buying Burmese gems
deserve credit for not supporting human rights abusers," said Ganesan.
"The rest have the blood of Burmese on their hands."

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 13, Asian Times
India stands by Myanmar status quo - Bertil Lintner

Myanmar's principal foreign ally China has shown in the wake of the
military junta's recent armed crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators
that Beijing is more interested in maintaining stability than pushing for
democratic regime change. So then could India, Myanmar's other key
regional ally, be persuaded to use its influence to facilitate political
change?

The United States, the European Union and even Myanmar exiles in New
Delhi, who have recently demonstrated outside the Indian Parliament, have
all appealed to what Indian politicians proudly proclaim is the world's
largest democracy to live up to those ideals and push for change in
Myanmar.

India and Myanmar share a complicated and delicate history, one marked as
much by mistrust as amity. In recent years India has shifted its
diplomatic support from Myanmar's hamstrung pro-democracy movement towards
the ruling military junta, driven by realpolitik imperatives including
greater access to Myanmar's untapped energy resources and its support in
putting down ethnic insurgent groups active in remote border territories.

India's still delicate rapprochement with Myanmar means that New Delhi
will no time soon answer the West's call to take a more assertive policy
position with regard to the military junta. Indeed, India's foreign policy
has never been guided by promoting democracy in other countries.

On the contrary, "democratic" India was the Soviet Union's main ally in
Asia during the Cold War, because it suited the regional security
interests of both countries. India has not even pushed for democracy in
one of its closest neighbors and allies, the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan,
one of the world's last remaining absolute monarchies.

India's relations with Myanmar are even more troubled and delicate than
China's. During the British colonial era, Myanmar, then known as Burma,
was made into a province of British India, which it remained until 1937
when it became a separate colony. During that time, large numbers of
Indians migrated or were brought in by the British as laborers. The
railways, post and telegraph, the police and the civil service were also
staffed with people of Indian origin.

Just before World War II, the Indians numbered over 1 million of a total
population of about 16 million at the time and 45% of the former capital
Yangon's population was of South Asian origin - Hindu, Muslim and Sikh.
Their numbers were reduced when the Japanese invaded in 1941 and many of
them fled to India. But many also remained until the war was over, and
even after independence in 1948.

The role Indians played as intermediaries between the colonial British and
the native population gave rise to sometimes fierce anti-Indian
sentiments. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, the Myanmar nationalist
movement had strong undertones of communal tension. Even today, people of
South Asian origin are often looked down on in Myanmar, popularly referred
to as kala a Burmese language pejorative meaning "foreigner" or "Indian".
Curiously, Caucasians are still called kala pyu, which translates from the
Burmese to "white Indians".

Still, Myanmar's relations with India were in the main cordial after
independence. Myanmar's first prime minister, U Nu, was known to be a
close friend to his Indian counterpart Jawaharlal Nehru and both leaders
were prominent figures in the Cold War-inspired Non-Aligned Movement.
Indeed, India helped Myanmar survive its first difficult years as an
independent state, including crucially when various political and ethnic
insurgent groups threatened to break the new country apart. Without
India's massive military and economic aid, U Nu's government would most
probably have collapsed.

Xenophobic backlash
However, Indo-Myanmar relations chilled after General Ne Win's military
coup and seizure of power in March 1962. After a few years in power, his
revolutionary council moved to nationalize privately owned businesses and
factories, of which an estimated 60% were owned by people of Indian
origin. Thousands lost their property and livelihood and during the
four-year period spanning 1964-68 some 150,000 Indo-Burmese left the
country.

Many leaders of the formerly democratic Myanmar also fled, among them U
Nu, who went into exile in India. The Indian government put him up in a
stately residence in Bhopal, where he remained for well over a decade
before returning to Myanmar under a general amnesty in 1980. Bilateral
relations between India and Myanmar remained more or less stagnant until
Myanmar's 1988 uprising for democracy, which was brutally crushed by the
military.

In an official statement issued in the wake of the violence, India
expressed its support for the "undaunted resolve of the Burmese [Myanmar]
people to achieve their democracy". The Burmese language service of the
state-sponsored radio station All-India Radio (AIR) became even more
outspoken in its criticism of Myanmar's military government, which made it
immensely popular with the population at large.

In response, Myanmar's state-run Working People's Daily newspaper began
publishing outright racist articles and cartoons against AIR and ethnic
Indians in general, attempting to revive the anti-kala xenophobia of the
1930s. But even then it was clear that India's hard diplomatic stand was
not driven by illusions of serving as a regional guardian or promoter of
democracy.

India shares a 1,371-kilometer frontier with Myanmar and ethnic insurgents
fighting against New Delhi have long used under-administered territories
in Myanmar as sanctuaries to conduct cross-border raids into India's
sensitive northeastern areas. Myanmar's only reaction to this situation
had been to mount half-hearted and essentially futile military operations
against the insurgents, mainly ethnic Nagas.

It was widely believed in New Delhi in the late 1980s and early 1990s that
a new democratic government in Myanmar would likely take a more tactful
approach. India's sympathy for Myanmar's pro-democracy movement was
further strengthened by the fact that until December 1989 its prime
minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was a personal friend of pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

Their acquaintance dated to the early 1960s, when her mother, Daw Khin
Kyi, served as Myanmar's ambassador to India. Suu Kyi's father, national
independence hero Aung San, had also known Rajiv's grandfather, Nehru
personally. But at the time it was also clear that India's support for
Myanmar's pro-democracy forces was also guided by an Indian desire to
counter its main regional rival China's growing influence with Myanmar's
internationally isolated generals.

About 1993 India began to re-evaluate its strategy due to concerns that
its policies had achieved little except to push Myanmar closer to Beijing.
The result was a dramatic policy shift aimed at improving relations with
Myanmar's generals, as it was also becoming clear that the pro-democracy
movement would not achieve power within the foreseeable future.

At that time, Myanmar's military government had effectively cowed Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy party into submission and the exile
community seemed to have little to no impact on political developments
inside the country - even as some of them actually stayed in the personal
residence in New Delhi of senior Indian politician George Fernandes, who
served as defense minister from 1988 through 2004.

By January 2000, Indian army chief General Ved Prakash Malik paid a
two-day visit to Myanmar, which was followed with a reciprocal visit by
his Myanmar counterpart, General Maung Aye, to the northeast Indian city
of Shillong. The unusual nature of this visit, by a foreign leader to a
provincial capital, was accentuated by the arrival of a group of senior
Indian officials from the Trade, Energy, Defense, Home and Foreign Affairs
ministries to hold talks with the Myanmar general.

In the aftermath of those meetings, India began to provide non-lethal
military support to Myanmar troops along their common border. Most of the
Myanmar troops' uniforms and some other combat gear now originate from
India, as do the leased helicopters Myanmar uses to combat the ethnic
insurgents who operate from sanctuaries along the two sides' common
border. In November 2000, the Indian government felt confident enough
about the improvement in bilateral relations to invite Maung Aye to New
Delhi, where he headed a delegation that included several other
high-ranking junta members and cabinet ministers.

In 2004, junta chief General Than Shwe also visited India, followed in
December 2006 by the third-highest ranking officer in Myanmar's military
hierarchy, General Thura Shwe Mann, who toured the National Defense
Academy in Khadakvasla, India's premier officer-training school, as well
as the Tata Motors plant in Pune, which manufactures vehicles for the
Indian military.

Leveraged cultural heritage
About the mid-1990s, AIR's Burmese language service conspicuously ceased
broadcasting its anti-junta rhetoric; it is still on air today, but
programming consists almost exclusively of Myanmar pop music. A strange
kind of "cultural diplomacy" followed.

In the early 2000s, the Indian right-wing Hindu organization, Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) , renewed its presence in Myanmar. The RSS first
came to Myanmar in the 1940s to provide social and religious services to
the country's ethnic Indian minority, but it lay dormant after the
military took over in 1962 and commenced nationalizing Indian private
companies.

The renewed effort to build up the RSS's Yangon branch was made apparently
with the blessings of Maung Aye, a staunch Myanmar nationalist who has
been reported to frown on the country's recent economic and military
reliance on China. The RSS, which in Myanmar is referred to as the Sanatan
Dharma Swayamsevak Sangh, appears to have convinced some of the Myanmar
generals that Hinduism and Buddhism are "branches of the same tree" - and
that "the best guard against China is culture", to quote a Kolkata-based
RSS official.

Although the RSS is the parent organization of the Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party, which in alliance with several other parties led
the Indian coalition government from between 1998 and 2004. It is not
certain that the Hindu fundamentalists' new mission in Myanmar had the
blessings of the Indian government, but cultural ties between the two
countries have definitely strengthened in recent years.

So, too, has cross-border trade. Before 1988 there was scant commercial
activity along the two countries' shared border, apart from smuggling
activities. In February, Sanjay Budhia, vice president of the Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said in a speech in Kolkata that India
and Myanmar "have set a US$1 billion trade target in 2006-07, up from $557
million in 2004-05".

He noted that principal exports from Myanmar to India include "rice,
maize, pulses, beans, sesame seeds, fish and prawns, timber, plywood and
raw rubber, base metals and castor seeds". In return, India exports
machinery and industrial equipment, dairy products, textiles,
pharmaceutical products and consumer goods. India-Myanmar trade now rivals
that of the booming cross-border trade with China, which has been brisk
for almost two decades.

India has also shown a competitive interest in purchasing natural gas from
Myanmar and to build a 1,200 megawatt hydroelectric power station on the
Chindwin River across from India's underdeveloped northeastern region. New
Delhi is also actively involved in several infrastructure projects inside
Myanmar, including major road construction projects. Myanmar is viewed
from India's perspective as a "land bridge" to Southeast Asia and as such
a vital link in its new business-driven "Look East" policy.

In January, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee became the first
senior leader from a major democracy to visit Myanmar's new capital
Naypyitaw, where the junta moved its administrative offices in November
2005. Even in the midst of the recent tumultuous anti-government
demonstrations in Myanmar, where soldiers fired on protesters, senior
officials from the Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, led
by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora, flew to Naypyitaw to
sign an agreement to explore for gas in three new blocks in the Bay of
Bengal off Myanmar's southwestern Arakan coast.

To be sure, India has successfully weaned Myanmar away from its near-total
dependence on China for economic and military support. And the strong
position the US, the European Union and Myanmar dissidents are now calling
on New Delhi to take would risk - to China's benefit - the precious
foothold it has achieved in Myanmar over the past decade.

Like China, India is unlikely to go beyond statements of tacit support for
the United Nations' latest - and likely futile - mission to push the
military junta towards national reconciliation with the pro-democracy
opposition. In essence, New Delhi's interests are also in the preservation
of Myanmar's political status quo.

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review. He is currently a writer with Asia-Pacific Media Services.