BurmaNet News, March 1 - 3, 2008

[Editor]

March 1-3, 2008 Issue # 3414

INSIDE BURMA
DVB: Myanmar Nation staff charged with press violations
DVB: ILO says forced labour increasing in the military
DVB: Officials identify people opposed to referendum
Mizzima News: Will 'No' votes even be counted?
Irrawaddy: Three people arrested for comments on referendum
Irrawaddy: House arrest of deposed prime minister relaxed

ON THE BORDER
AP: Sri Lanka navy rescues 71 Myanmar, Bangladeshi nationals at sea

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Burmese and Indian traders to meet at international trade fair

HEALTH / AIDS
Xinhua: Myanmar calls for long-term precaution against bird flu
The Hindu: Meningitis claims 23 lives in Mizoram

DRUGS
VOA: US report faults anti-drug efforts of Venezuela, Burma

REGIONAL
Irrawaddy: Burmese migrants keen to vote in referendum
Xinhua: Myanmar to participate in cross-country friendship car rally

INTERNATIONAL
Jakarta Post: Singapore and Myanmar junta
Irrawaddy: Last chance for Gambari?
The Nation (Bangkok): The moon beyond Burma

OPINION / OTHER
The Daily O’Collegian: Children soldiers’ lives traumatized
The Morung Express: Remembering Burma: Overturning the bowl
Asian Tribune: Olympic games or Burma
Irrawaddy: Burma is burning

STATEMENT/PRESS RELEASE
UNPO: Burma – Monk organization Sasana Moli boycotts proposed elections
ALTSEAN: The Burmese Referendum that isn’t – Asean urged to reject
“outrageous farce”
Statement of Opinion Regarding the National Referendum

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

March 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
Myanmar Nation staff charged with press violations – Naw Say Phaw

The editor and manager of the Myanmar Nation news journal appeared in
court on Friday to face charges against them under the printing law.

Daw Khin Swe Myint, the wife of Myanmar Nation editor-in-chief U Thet Zin,
said her husband and the journal’s manager U Sein Win Maung appeared
before Thingangyun township court for their first hearing and had their
remand extended for another week.

Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung were arrested during a raid on the journal
offices in Thingangyun township on 15 February by authorities, who also
ordered the journal to suspend publication.

They were held at Thingangyun police station for 10 days before being
charged with illegal publishing and printing under section 17/20 of the
Printers and Publishers Registration Law and transferred to Insein prison.

Khin Swe Myint said government officials had informed her last Thursday
that the journal could now resume publication.

"They said the journal can now start publishing again from this week,"
said Khin Swe Myint.

"But we have not prepared any contents for the next edition as we have
been busy with my husband's case."

____________________________________

March 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
ILO says forced labour increasing in the military – Htet Aung Kyaw

The International Labour Organisation has extended its cooperation
agreement with the Burmese regime, but a senior ILO official said forced
labour remains a concern in the country.

Kari Tapiola, executive director of the ILO Standards and Fundamental
Principles and Rights at Work Sector, visited Naypyidaw with his team from
25 to 28 February to discuss further cooperation with the regime.

Tapiola confirmed to DVB that the bilateral memorandum of understanding
between the ILO and the Burmese junta had been extended for another year.

The agreement, which has been in force since February 2007, stipulates
that the government must not harass or arrest people who report forced
labour to the ILO or collect information on such practices.

But this was undermined by the charges made on 19 February against the
National League for Democracy chairperson in San Chaung township, U Thet
Wei, for possession of reports on forced labour to be submitted to the
ILO.

Tapiola said that the ILO had found out that Thet Wei had been arrested
shortly before the start of his mission, and called for his immediate
release.

“The government said that the charges [against Thet Wei] are not related
to forced labour but we have learned that he had information for the ILO
at the time of his arrest,” Tapiola said.

“That is why we have demanded in the strongest possible terms the
government seriously reconsider the matter and release that person as soon
as possible.”

The ILO team also urged the release of six young people who were arrested
after they attended May Day celebrations.

The team’s request for a meeting with the six activists in prison was denied.

Tapiola said that forced labour was continuing in the country, and in some
areas getting worse.

“I do not think the government can deny the existence of forced labour,
and we know many forced labour cases are taking place,” he said.

“Forced labour by civilian authorities might decline but the use of forced
labor by the military is getting worse,” he went on.

“We did not discuss this matter with the government; we focused our
discussions on what it could do and what we should be doing."

Tapiola said the ILO had received more than 70 complaints about forced
labour in the past year, and the ILO liaison officer in Rangoon had been
able to travel widely in the country despite some restrictions.

“Although it did not go as far as we would want it to, he accomplished
quite a lot,” he said.

“There is some progress but also many things to be concerned about.”

Tapiola is now in Bangkok preparing a report for the ILO governing
council, who will discuss the situation in Burma this month.

____________________________________

March 3, Democratic Voice of Burma
Officials identify people opposed to referendum – Htet Yazar

Residents of Irrawaddy division's Nyaung Don township were worried after
authorities made a list of people who disagreed with the national
referendum during recent opinion polls, locals said.

A Nyaung Don resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that
residents of the wards and villages in the township were summoned to their
local administration offices on 24 February and asked to give their
opinions on the upcoming national referendum.

"They demanded that one person per household should attend the meeting at
the local Peace and Development Council offices," said the resident.

"When we were all there at the office, the authorities told us that those
who disagree with the national referendum should go home but those who
support it could stay."

The resident said that a lot of people who began to leave the PDC office
were followed by officials who made a list of their personal details.

"They took down the names, addresses and occupations of the people who
left the office," he said.

A teashop owner in Nyaung Don said locals were worried and angry as they
saw this as a way of threatening the people who are against the national
referendum.

"We are seriously angry and irritated by this," the teashop owner said.

"It's like they are telling us they are going to make trouble for us if we
disagree with them."

____________________________________

March 3, Mizzima News
Will 'No' votes even be counted?

A regional human rights group has raised the question of whether the
junta's referendum law will even count abstentions and votes cast against
the draft constitution.

ALTSEAN-Burma, in a statement released Saturday, argues that only votes in
support of the junta's constitution, which has yet to be seen publicly,
are to be counted in May's referendum.

"The intentions of the SPDC to force this constitution on Burma's people
should now be abundantly clear to everyone - including those who wanted to
give the SPDC the benefit of the doubt over this referendum and its
so-called roadmap to democracy," Altsean-Burma Coordinator Debbie Stothard
prospers in the press release.

The precise language of the text in question, as printed in the New Light
of Myanmar on February 28 under Chapter IX subsection 23 of the referendum
law, reads: "The Commission shall, after holding the referendum, combine
the lists of advance ballot papers submitted by the State or Divisional
Sub-commissions under sub-section (d) of section 22 and lists of advance
ballot papers counted by the Commission under sub-section (e) of section
22, declare the number of eligible voters, number of voters in favour and
the comparison of them in percentage."

Section 22, referenced above, reads in part that the polling booth team
will "prepare separately the list of voters contained in voting roll,
votes in favour, votes against, cancelled votes, ballot papers received
and remaining ballot papers."

ALTSEAN-Burma also expressed outrage at the denial of voting rights to the
clergy, a right that has never been expressly granted to this sector of
Burmese society since the inception of the modern state.
____________________________________

March 3, Irrawaddy
Three people arrested for comments on referendum – Wai Moe

Three Rangoon men were arrested on Friday for casual comments they made
about the Burmese referendum and general election, according to sources.

A businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Irrawaddy on
Monday that three car brokers at the Rangoon car market were taken away by
Burmese special police after they made casual comments in support of the
main opposition National League for Democracy.

“Members of the USDA [Union Solidarity and Development Association, the
pro-junta mass organization] came and talked about the new constitution
and referendum at the car market on Friday,” said the source.

“Then the brokers told the USDA members in joking that they ‘should not
waste their time’ because in the final days people would vote as
recommended by the NLD [led by Aung San Suu Kyi]. Later the special police
came and arrested three of them.”

The Burmese military government has scheduled a referendum on a draft
constitution in May and a general election in 2010, as the fourth and
fifth step of its “road map to democracy” process.

Aung Thein, a lawyer in Rangoon, said the arrests may be the first such
cases since the junta passed a new decree on February 26 forbidding
negative comments about the referendum, which allows a sentence of up to
three years imprisonment.

“But we don’t know if the people arrested will be charged under that
decree,” he said.
He said that authorities have an option to charge people who speak out
against the constitutional process under emergency acts 3 and 4 under
decree 5/96 announced in 1996, barring negative comments. Anyone found
guilty under that decree could receive up to 20 years in prison.

Meanwhile, five people, mostly family members of 88 Generation Students
group members, were arrested last week.

They are Thanda Win, the wife of Mya Aye, a leader of the 88 Generation
Students group; Hla Moe, the husband of  88 group member Mie Mie;  Kanet,
the brother of Marky, an 88 group member; and Naing Htwe and May Mie Lwin.

No reasons for the arrests are known at this time among the Rangoon
activist community.

____________________________________

March 3, Irrawaddy
House arrest of deposed prime minister relaxed

Former Burmese Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt and his family members have
been allowed some limited freedom outside of their home where they have
been held under house arrest since 2004, according to Rangoon sources.

The family members of Khin Nyunt and the former spy master himself have
been allowed to visit religious sites, including Shwedagon Pagoda, and
other locations, according to well-informed sources.

Gen Khin Nyunt and his family members have been allowed some limited
freedom, sources in Rangoon say.
Eyewitnesses recently confirmed that the disgraced prime minister, who is
said to have grown a beard and a moustache, has also visited a meditation
center which he helped to built at Thanlyin (Syriam) Township, believed to
be his birthplace, located on the southeast side of the Rangoon River.

Dr Khin Win Shwe, the wife of Khin Nyunt, was seen making merit at
Shwedagon Pagoda in late February. She was with a female companion, said a
source.

In October 2004, Khin Nyunt, now 69, was removed from power and placed
under house arrest on charges of insubordination and corruption.

He was convicted of all charges and given a 44-year suspended sentence in
2005. Since then, he and his family members have been under house arrest
with heavy surveillance and security guards around their home in a luxury
housing compound in Rangoon—a very lenient punishment, many observers
said.

A source speculated that the new, limited freedom enjoyed by Khin Nyunt
and his family is a sign the regime no longer sees him as a serious
threat.

In addition, the ruling generals in Naypyidaw reportedly offered Khin
Nyunt a role in the development of the “cyber-city” to be located near
Maymyo, also known as Pyin U Lwin. The new city’s official name is
“Yadanabon Naypyidaw.”

The former spy chief reportedly asked for the freedom of his close
supporters who were purged with him and are now serving prison sentences
in various parts of Burma.

“The deal did not go through because Khin Nyunt asked for all his men to
be freed," the source said.

In October 2004, the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence (OCMI)
was dismantled and several of its mid and high-ranking officials were
arrested and given long prison terms. Many prominent figures in the OCMI
department were purged. Only two former top-ranking OCMI officials—Maj-Gen
Kyaw Win and Brig-Gen Kyaw Thein—escaped the 2004 purge and continue to
live in Rangoon.

Maj-Gen Kyaw Win, 63, a former deputy chief of OCMI, is believed to be a
consultant with Burma’s Military Affairs Security (MAS)—renamed after the
purge in 2004.

MAS is headed by Lt-Gen Myint Swe, who is considered Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s
protégé. The MAS department is no longer viewed to be as powerful or as
feared, according to observers.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

March 3, Associated Press
Sri Lanka navy rescues 71 Myanmar, Bangladeshi nationals at sea

The Sri Lankan navy said Monday it rescued 71 Myanmar and Bangladeshi
nationals aboard a vessel found drifting in the Indian Ocean after an
engine failure.

Another 20 people died due to a lack of water and food, said navy
spokesman Cmdr. D.K.P. Dassanayake, citing survivor's accounts.

The vessel was drifting about 275 kilometers (170 miles) away from the
eastern coast when naval troops found it around 7:30 a.m. (0200 GMT) after
being tipped off by fishermen, Dassanayake said.

The survivors — 50 Myanmar nationals and 21 Bangladeshis — were treated by
navy medical teams and are out of danger, he said.

According to survivors' accounts, the 15-meter (50-foot) vessel left
Myanmar on Feb. 9 with 91 people and developed an engine defect on Feb. 20
before it started drifting, Dassanayake said.

Activists clash with the Japanese whaler Nisshin Maru3 NATO soldiers
wounded in Afghan attackPyongyang dashes hopes of warmer ties.

He said the navy suspects the vessel could be linked to a human smuggling
operation as initial investigations have revealed the passengers were
heading for Malaysia or Thailand seeking employment.

Sri Lanka navy conducts routine patrols off the country's eastern coast to
prevent separatist Tamil rebels from smuggling in weapons and explosives
to fight government forces.

The rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for
Sri Lanka's Tamil minority after decades of discrimination by the
Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the
conflict.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

March 3, Mizzima News
Burmese and Indian traders to meet at international trade fair – Solomon

Indian and Burmese traders will meet on March 7, to discuss future
cooperation in trade and business, organizers of the 15th International
Guwahati Trade Fair said today.

Rajeev Das, secretary of Industries and Trade Fair Association of Assam
(ITFAA), the main sponsor of the trade fair, said two Burmese jewelry
businesswomen have arrived in Guwahati, capital of India's northeastern
state of Assam.

Das said more delegates are expected to arrive before the bilateral
meeting between Indian and Burmese business delegation on March 7.

"We have received information that some more business delegates from
Myanmar [Burma] are coming to visit but we have not yet received
confirmation," Das said.

He added that the two Burmese delegates have begun showcasing jewelry from
Burma at the fair.

Over the past few years, delegates from Burma have become regular
participants at the trade fair along with other business delegates from
other countries including Bangladesh, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Sri Lanka and
Czechlovakia.

Das said the bilateral meeting, held before the fair closes, is the most
important part of the event that most business delegates look forward to.

Indian businessmen look forward to meeting Burmese delegates, as trade
between Burma and India is particularly beneficial for the northeastern
region of India, where India has its border with western Burma, Das said.

Last year, 31 Burmese business delegates attended the 14th International
Trade Fair and signed memorandum of understanding on trade and business
with Assam and Manipur states of India, Das said.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

March 3, Xinhua
Myanmar calls for long-term precaution against bird flu

The Myanmar livestock authorities Monday called on the country's people to
exercise a long-term precaution against the recurrence of deadly H5N1 bird
flu.

The call on livestock breeders, traders and consumers was made by the
Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Department in the wake of intermittent
occurrence of the avian influenza in some neighboring countries.

Despite absence of outbreak of the disease for already two months since
the last in December, precaution should continuously be made in
cooperation with the authorities for effective prevention, said a
notification of the department to the public carried in the local-language
state newspaper Myanmar Alin.

The notification outlined some precaution measures to be taken against the
probable re-strike of the H5N1 which cover stepping up of bio-security
measures during the bird-flu-sensitive season, change of livestock
breeding system, avoidance of illegal import, transport and trading of
chickens and its products, and prompt report of suspected bird flu case.

The notification recalled that the numerous outbreaks of the avian
influenza in Myanmar since February 2006 until the last in December 2007
happened in the country's 25 townships of six states and divisions.

All of the occurrences were attributed to the infection from abroad
especially that the virus was carried into the country by migratory birds
from the cold regions in the world infecting local birds, according to the
notification..

There occurred two bird flu cases in a latest series in Myanmar border
area near the end of last year. The prior was on Nov. 18 when H5N1 was
detected on some chickens and ducks of local species which died unusually
at a village farm in Kengtung, eastern Shan state.

The local authorities culled 14,889 chickens, ducks, geese and Muscovy
ducks within a week after such unusual deaths were found on the fowls
traded in the area.

The latter, which was a human-infected case, was detected in December in
the state's Mongphyat township following unusual deaths of domestic
chickens in the Yankham village. It was assessed that the Nov. 18 bird flu
had spread to the area, infecting a seven-year-old girl, Ma Nan Kham Tha,
who was later discharged from a local hospital in Kengtung on Dec. 12
after treatment.

The girl was infected with bird flu virus among four suspected of carrying
the virus during the November outbreak in Kengtung and she was kept in
quarantine and given a dosage of timiflu pills at a local People's
Hospital since Nov. 27 until her discharge.

However, there reported no infection on other people after monitoring the
close contact persons for 10 days.

Myanmar reported outbreak of bird flu in the country for the first time in
some poultry farms in Mandalay and Sagaing divisions in early 2006,
followed by those in Yangon division in early 2007, in Mon state's
Thanbyuzayat and western Bago division's Letpadan in July and in eastern
Bago division's Thanatpin and in Yangon division's Hmawby in October the
same year.

During 2006's first outbreak of bird flu cases in the two divisions of
Mandalay and Sagaing, altogether 342,000 chickens, 320,000 quails and
180,000 eggs as well as 1.3 tons of feedstuff were destroyed at 545
poultry farms, official statistics show.

During the early 2007 outbreak of the disease from Feb. 28 to March 31 at
seven poultry farms in Yangon's five townships -- Mayangon, Hlaingtharya,
North Okkalapa, Mingaladon and Hmawby, nearly 2,000 fowls died of the
virus with 65,812 poultry from the affected farms and those nearby culled.

In July 2007 occurrence of the H5N1, all chickens of the two farms in
Thanbyuzayat and about 4,000 broilers raising at a poultry farm in
Letpadan, totaling over 5,000 were culled for risk prevention under then
Early Detection and Containment Program.
In its fight against the disease, Myanmar has been cooperating with
experts from the Food and Agriculture Organization and USAID.

____________________________________

March 3, The Hindu
Meningitis claims 23 lives in Mizoram

At least 23 people, most of them children, have died of meningitis which
has spread in an epidemic-like proportions in a remote area of Mizoram's
Saiha district since November, state health department sources said here
on Monday.

Health department officials said a medical team has reached
Mizoram-Myanmar border Zawngling village where 13 children died during
November-December last year.

Meningitis affected Saiha, Tuipang, Niawhtlang and surrounding villages,
the officials said, adding the cause of so many deaths was mainly due to
ignorance of the villagers who failed to receive medical treatment at the
initial stage of infection.

The information regarding the epidemic-like situation was received late by
the health department as the area is remote and almost inaccessible, the
officials added.

____________________________________
DRUGS

March 1, Voice of America
US report faults anti-drug efforts of Venezuela, Burma – David Gollust

A U.S. State Department report Friday said Colombia and Afghanistan remain
the world's biggest producers of illicit cocaine and opium. The annual
report faults Venezuela and Burma for inadequate efforts over the past
year to try to tackle the drug problem. VOA's David Gollust has details
from the State Department.

The massive two-volume report, mandated by Congress, identifies 20
countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa as major illicit
drug-producing or drug-transit countries.

A Burmese soldier walks in between two poppy flowers during a narcotics
crop destruction in Lwe San Sone Range in Shan State (file photo)
But it praises several of them for efforts to combat the problem, notably
Colombia and Afghanistan. It says only Venezuela and Burma have "failed
demonstrably" to fulfill international commitments to fight the drug
trade.

Introducing the report, Assistant Secretary of State for Narcotics and Law
Enforcement David Johnson said while Colombia is the source of 90 per cent
of the cocaine reaching the United States, the Bogota government is making
"notable progress" against narco-terrorists who only recently threatened
the country's stability.

Similarly, Johnson praised the Mexican government of President Felipe
Calderon for what he termed "decisive actions" to combat increasingly
violent Mexican drug gangs operating on both side of the U.S.-Mexican
border.

"We have a partner that has made clear that it wants to work with the
United States," said Johnson. "President Calderon has made some real steps
that were tough for him to make in order to confront organized crime
within his country. And we want to work with the government of Mexico
because we think we can make significantly more progress by working
together, and we actually think we face a common threat here."

Johnson said nearly all the cocaine that reaches the United States from
South America passes through Mexico and Central America.

In a relatively new trend, he said cocaine moving through Venezuela is
reaching European markets via west African transit points - notably
according to the report, Guinea-Bissau.

Johnson declined to accuse the Venezuelan government of President Hugo
Chavez of complicity with traffickers but said that government is
providing "no real cooperation" with the United States.

"When we observe the trafficking from Venezuela both north into North
America - the United States and Canada - as well as to Europe, we don't
see significant measures, or any real measures, taken to counter that,"
said Johnson. "And that's obviously of great concern to us. It's of great
concern to the countries in the Caribbean, which are the intermediate
stops for significant parts of this transit, and we're troubled by that."

The report's listing of Venezuela and Burma as failures in the drug fight
would mandate a cut-off of U.S. aid to those countries. But in the case of
Venezuela, President Bush has issued a waiver allowing continued U.S.
funding for programs supporting civil society, and what are termed
"beleaguered democratic institutions" there.

There is no direct U.S. aid to Burma, said to be Asia's largest source of
methamphetamine pills. The report says Burma's record against illegal drug
producers and traffickers is inconsistent.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

March 3, Irrawaddy
Burmese migrants keen to vote in referendum – Violet Cho

Although Burma’s military government has not made any provisions to
include non-resident Burmese citizens in next May’s national referendum,
many migrants say they plan to vote “no” to the junta’s recently completed
constitution if they are given the chance.

Early last month, the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
announced plans to hold a referendum on a constitution which critics say
is intended to enshrine military control over the country’s political
destiny.

In the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot, the Yaung Chi Oo migrant
workers’ association is conducting a program to educate Burmese migrants
in Thailand about the constitution, which it says is unfair and doesn’t
represent the will of the people.

“We have been explaining and asking people to vote against the military
referendum if they are allowed to vote,” said Moe Swe, an executive member
of Yaung Chi Oo.

He added that even if migrants are denied an opportunity to vote, they can
still pass on what they learn to relatives and friends inside Burma, where
there is less access to information about the SPDC’s efforts to win mass
support for the constitution.

The referendum and an election slated to take place in 2010—part of the
junta’s seven-step “road map to democracy”—are expected to be carefully
stage-managed to ensure that the regime does not face another humiliating
electoral defeat like the one it experienced in 1990, when the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) won national elections by a landslide.

There are millions of Burmese living outside of the country, but the
Burmese regime has yet to indicate whether they will be permitted to take
part in the referendum.

More than one million Burmese live in Thailand, where many seem determined
to find a way to have their say in their country’s first vote in 18 years.

“I am a Burmese citizen, so it is important for me to vote in the
referendum,” said Aung Naing Htun, a Burmese migrant working in Mae Sot.
“I’ve heard that the government will not allow us [migrants] to vote, but
I will try to find a way to vote ‘no’ to the military’s constitution.”

Myint Myat, another Burmese migrant, said that she and her friends have
decided to return to their hometown to vote in the referendum. “If the
government gives permission for migrants to take part, there are many
people who will go back to Burma to vote,” she added.

For some, however, the possible denial of official permission is not the
only obstacle. Many are too preoccupied with their day-to-day survival to
worry about taking part in the regime’s deliberately opaque political
process.

Mae Sot factory worker Mi Nge says that she doesn’t plan to vote, because
she doesn’t understand the government-written constitution, and she is too
busy trying to make a living to find the time to figure it out.

Burmese living further afield face additional difficulties in exercising
their rights. Even those working in parts of Thailand not near the border,
such as in the cities of Bangkok and Chiang Mai, say that the cost of
returning to Burma to vote would be prohibitive.

There are also sizeable Burmese communities in other parts of Asia,
including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Burmese embassies in
these countries say they do not have any clear plan for their citizens who
cannot go back to Burma to vote.

Staff at the Burmese embassy in Singapore told The Irrawaddy that they
have not been informed of any policy regarding Burmese nationals who want
to vote, but who are unable to return to the country.

Burmese embassy staff in Seoul confirmed that there were no plans to
enable Burmese living in South Korea to vote, but added that if the right
to vote is extended to expatriates, it will only include those who possess
legal work permits.

There are large numbers of illegal migrants from Burma living in South
Korea and Japan, including many political exiles who are strongly opposed
to the junta’s referendum.

One Burmese migrant working legally in a Seoul said he had no interest in
the referendum, but said that he would vote “no” if he is forced to cast a
ballot by the embassy.

In Singapore, many young Burmese have begun organizing a petition against
the military’s constitution. According to an organizer of the campaign,
which also calls for elections, about 700 Burmese migrants in the
city-state have signed the petition.

All of the signatures will be sent to the Singaporean Parliament and the
United Nations Security Council, as well as to other Burmese organizations
lobbying against the referendum.

___________________________________

March 3, Xinhua
Myanmar to participate in cross-country friendship car rally

Myanmar along with three neighboring countries will take part in
four-nation cross-country friendship car rally in April, local media
reported on Monday.

Eighteen cars from Myanmar, China, Bangladesh and India will take part in
the rally, including three cars from each country and six support
vehicles, the Myanmar Times quoted an official of the Union of Myanmar
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) as saying.

The aim of the 10-day car rally will be developing relations among these
countries, including the promotion of trade and tourism, it said, adding
that the exact dates of the event are still under discussion.

The 2,500 kilometers rally will start from Kunming, China, and end in
Kolkata, India, and the cars will enter Myanmar through the Ruili-Muse
China-Myanmar border crossing and exit through the Tamu-Morei
Myanmar-India crossing, it said.

The rally will pass through Muse, Kutkai, Hseni, Lashio, Hsipaw, Kyaukme,
Nawnghkio, Pyin Oo Lwin, Mandalay, Monywa, Kalewa, Kalemyo and Tamu in
Myanmar, covering a total of 962 kilometers in the country.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

March 3, Jakarta Post
Singapore and Myanmar junta – Djoko Susilo

President George W. Bush recently issued an executive order, banning
Americans from doing business with companies controlled by persons or
institutions related to the Myanmar junta.

Many of the companies blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department are
listed and operating in Singapore. On top of the list is Asia World Ltd.,
which is controlled by Steven Law and his father Lo Hsing Han. Both of
them are good friends of Gen. Than Shwe.
Early last month, the U.S. government also issued an executive order
banning Americans doing business with Htoo Trading Company Ltd., a Myanmar
group of companies owned by Tay Za, who also operates Air Bagan, a private
airline company. Air Bagan regularly flies between Yangon and Singapore,
and flights are reportedly often full of passengers connected to the junta
and its cronies.

It seems that they enjoy spending their money in Singapore. They don't
think about the poverty in their country and that most of their fellow
Myanmar citizens live extremely difficult lives.

Take the lifestyle of Htet Tay Za, 19-year-old son of Tay Za, for example.
He attends an exclusive and expensive international school in Singapore.
He is said to be a big spender who always throws parties and is constantly
surrounded by beautiful women.

Other senior leaders, such as Gen. Than Shwe or the late prime minister
Soen Wein, were frequent visitors to Singapore's hospitals. The juntas'
wives, when their husbands are in hospital beds, are happy to go shopping
on Orchard Road.

Singapore is not only a major recipient of Myanmar money, it is also one
of Myanmar's biggest Southeast Asian investors. Temasek Holdings, for
example, is estimated to have invested more than US$3 billion in Myanmar.
Other Singapore companies are also busy doing business with the junta.

They think it is a good time to do business with Myanmar while other
countries are choosing not to. Singapore is only concerned with money.
Singaporean cronies would do business with vicious dictators and perhaps
even the devil as long as they got their money.

By providing investments, important materials and equipment not easily
available from the West, Singapore has helped the Myanmar junta perpetuate
its brutal rule over the Myanmar people. Unforgivable crimes against
humanity, such as killings, rape, torture and detaining people without
trial, have occurred under the junta, but the Singapore government
continues to support the regime blindly.

We rarely hear strong condemnation and criticism against the junta. Within
ASEAN, Singapore is seen as an obstacle in pushing Myanmar forward in
improving their human rights conditions. As a wealthy nation, Singapore is
more interested in making money than improving human rights.

Without financial and technical support from Singapore, the junta would be
greatly weakened and might seek peaceful political solutions with the
National League for Democracy. Thus, the continued support from Singapore
means prolonging the suffering of Myanmar's people, destroying hope that
the crisis will be over soon. Perhaps the distance between the two
countries is great enough for Singapore to turn a blind eye to all the
crimes committed by the junta. There is too much money to be made.

Ironically, the Singapore government, which is known for hanging drug
dealers, is happy to have a 'love affair' with the Myanmar regime, which
is strongly associated with drug barons. We believe that Singapore's
authorities know all about the Myanmar drug dealers who use their
legitimate businesses in Singapore as a guise for their black business.

Take Lo Hsing Han, for example. The owner of Asia World Pty. Ltd. has been
blacklisted and branded as 'the godfather of the drug Mafia' in Southeast
Asia, yet he has companies based in Singapore. He and his son, Steven Law,
live happily on the island.

According to some reports, the Singapore government has also helped the
junta build a cyber-warfare center in Yangon. The junta's intelligence
officers may intercept all telecommunication traffic into Myanmar from
more than 20 countries. Singapore has also been known as a military
procurement center for the regime. It is known to have supplies of mortar,
grenade launchers and other deadly weapons from Singapore. In short,
Singapore has armed the regime.

In addition to their military connection, there are more and more
Singapore companies doing business in Myanmar. They are, among others, DBS
Group Holdings Ltd., Golden Aaron Pty. Ltd., Shangri-La Hotels, OCBC Bank,
United Overseas Bank Group, Kuok Group and more.

It is time for the Singapore government and businessmen to use their
conscience and moral obligation to stop aiding the junta. Act now or more
people will be killed, raped and tortured by the junta which is assisted
and kept in power by all the investments and financial facilities provided
by Singapore.

The writer is chairman of AIPMC (ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus).
____________________________________

March 3, Irrawaddy
Last chance for Gambari? – Lalit K Jha

A lot is at stake for the United Nations and its Special Envoy for Burma,
Ibrahim Gambari, who travels to Rangoon and Naypyidaw this week to hold
another round of talks with ruling military junta officials and
pro-democracy leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

During his three-day trip to Burma, which could possibly be extended by
two more days, Gambari is expected to press the junta to make the
democratic process inclusive and transparent, besides seeking the release
of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18
years.

However, given the results of his last two trips to the country—in
September and November 2007—after the popular uprising was brutally
crushed by the military junta, very little is expected from this visit.

Earlier, he was seen as an “Angel of Hope” for the millions of
peace-loving Burmese, pro-democracy and human rights activists worldwide
and the international community, but chances are that after this trip
Gambari will be remembered in history books as another UN envoy to Burma
who failed in his mission, outfoxed by the wily generals.

The key goals of his mandate—the release of all political prisoners,
including Suu Kyi, and making the democratic restoration process all
inclusive and transparent—are yet to be achieved, despite Gambari’s
painstaking globetrotting efforts over the past six months.

Indeed, Gambari’s input has yielded just the opposite result. The junta
has not only consolidated its position, but is seen to be stronger than
ever. It has gone ahead, in fact, and accelerated its plan to impose a
constitution drafted by its cronies on the country and it has refused to
release Suu Kyi from house arrest or other political leaders from prison.

Gambari has also tried but failed to get Burma’s two key supporters—China
and India—to exhort pressure on the regime for democratic reforms.
Instead, the two countries have defied world opinion and entered into
multi-billion deals with the junta, as well as continuing to sell arms to
the military regime.

Burma observers at the UN headquarters believe Gambari’s actions over the
past six months have in effect given the junta more time to consolidate
its power. He has not even been successful in getting the new head of the
UN mission inside Burma, after the previous one, Charles Petrie, was asked
to leave in November.

Gambari was appointed by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, as UN
Special Envoy for Burma on May 22, 2007. At the time, many believed the
Nigerian diplomat had the necessary expertise to handle the Burmese
generals.

Gambari had served as foreign minister of Nigeria after the military coup
in 1983, and he represented his country as its permanent representative at
the United Nations for nine years, defending the authoritarian rule of Gen
Sani Abacha, who is considered one of the most brutal military dictators
in Africa.

It was expected that his experience would come in handy when entering
talks with the Burmese junta. It was also believed Gambari’s closeness
with the Chinese Communist regime would help him to persuade China to
withdraw its support for the generals.

Gambari had already made an official visit to China as Nigeria’s foreign
minister, and he became the first African to be conferred with the title
of Honorary Professor of Chugsan University.

Gambari arrives in Rangoon later this week. If he does not deliver on the
goals reflected in the October presidential statement of the Security
Council, he not only puts the credibility of the UN at stake, but also his
reputation as a diplomat; he will be viewed as another diplomat who tried,
but who could not help to protect the interests of the Burmese people.

____________________________________

March 2, The Nation (Bangkok)
The moon beyond Burma

A Shan princess reaches deep into the past to shed light on the present in
a fascinating memoir full of travels, triumphs, history and
heartbreakPublished on March 2, 2008

Sao Nang Mya Sanda has, at the wonderful age of 80, graced us with a
remarkable memoir that rides on history's elephantine back out of Burma's
northern hills and across the world, ultimately to return to her homeland
and contemplate the broad sweep of all it has encompassed.

The moving family portrait that is at the heart of "The Moon Princess"
serves as the colourful basis for an edifying account of the Shan people,
their history and their venerated but beleaguered rulers, for a
fascinating glimpse of Bangkok as it used to be, for a dalliance with
Cambridge higher learning, for a lesson in Lao politics and, of course,
for an important personal assessment of Burmese treachery.

Sanda's father, Sao Shwe Thaike - who she called Sao U Hpa - was the last
saohpa of Yawnghwe, the last "lord of the sky" of the Shan States'
prominent southern territory that huddled against Inle Lake. He was at one
time the elected president of the Union of Burma - how strange those words
sound now.

A fearsome but deeply loved husband and father, he was the epitome of
Asian nobility and commanded respect from everyone who would seek
influence among the Shan, and that, of course, included the British and
Japanese imperial armies.

Sao U Hpa wielded considerable national power as Speaker of the House of
Nationalities, by which Burma's ethnic minorities forged the Panglong
Agreement that was to guarantee them autonomy at the end of British rule,
and was at the forefront of negotiations with every important figure to
come along with promises, both local and foreign. He knew Aung San well,
and U Nu and Ne Win too, received their assurances and suffered their
dismissals.

Sanda had by then been removed from the fray. As the president's daughter
she attended the wedding of Britain's Princess Elizabeth in 1947, and it
was decided that she would stay on and enrol at Cambridge. She didn't go
home for another six years, but when she returned again a second time in
1956 she did so in adventurous style - overland by Range Rover - with her
British husband Peter Simms, a Buddhist scholar.

In 1953 Simms had been recruited from Cambridge to teach at Prasarnmitr
College in Bangkok, and Sanda, after some trepidation, decided to join him
here and become his wife. She too began teaching in Bangkok, at Trium Udon
School for Girls.

Simms launched a magazine called Thought and Word for his students'
benefit and MR Kukrit Pramoj made him a Thai-culture columnist on his Siam
Rath newspaper. The couple were friends with Prince Svasti as well, so
they were feeling quite welcome.

"I don't suppose anyone could have adequately described to me what I might
find in the Bangkok of the 1950s," Sanda writes. "It was a charming and
romantic city with its splendid Buddhist temples, fine palaces, museums
and extensive parks 
 There were far less motorcars then and, despite the
numerous motorised samlor, there was little pollution and hardly any
traffic jams."

Home was a rented old house perched on piles on the Chao Phya River that
was everything she dreamed off - until the resident ghost began
complaining.

The nightly sound of the safe in the study being opened and the door
slamming shut again, and the keys of Simms' typewriter rattling, made them
believers. Then a maid saw a prince upstairs, so they brought in a monk
who advised them to extract the prince's belongings from cupboards under
the eves. When his gear was moved out, the prince did too.

There is much more in the book about Bangkok, complete with Jim Thompson
himself, but Sanda and Peter had many more travels and career moves ahead
before their gaze returned once again to Burma.

They were journalists in Vientiane in 1962 when Ne Win staged the coup
that buried Burma in its bottomless dictatorship. The Simmses were allowed
back into the country briefly but harassed constantly, and could do
nothing for Sao U Hpa, who was rewarded for his espousal of Shan autonomy
by being allowed to die a few months hence in Insein Prison.

In her epilogue Sanda joins the rest of the world watching the monks'
insurrection in Rangoon last September. "Much may ultimately depend on how
much the generals value world opinion," she concludes with optimism
belying her experience.

Sanda's story would have benefited from a good-shepherd editor, but this
is a marvellous memoir whose reach extends far from the Shan mountains to
touch on matters of great historical and social importance - and matters
of the swelling heart as well.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

March 3, The Daily O’Collegian
Children soldiers’ lives traumatized – Monica Cruz

A section leader in the Burma’s National Army ordered Knin Muang Than and
six other soldiers to cover and open fire. Muang Than was so afraid to
look, that he put his face in the ground and shot his gun at the sky. He
was afraid the enemy bullets would hit his head. He fired two magazines,
about 40 rounds. He was afraid that if he didn’t fire, the section leader
would punish him later. Muang Than is 11 years old.

Muang Than is one of 300,000 children serving as soldiers for both rebel
groups and government forces in current conflicts, Human Rights Watch
reported.

In countries like Burma, army units arrive in the poorest villages to
recruit people regardless of age or sex.

Those who couldn’t pay 3000 kyats (around $500) had to join the army,
15-year-old Burmese ex-army soldier Zaw Tun said to the BBC.

Children often undergo a brutal initiation where they are constantly
threatened of being tortured or shot dead if they don’t follow orders.
Sometimes they would have to kill other children who try to escape or are
disobedient as part of the training, according to a BBC report.

Angela, who joined the insurgent Colombian group FARC at age 12, said to
HRW she had to shoot her best friend and then bury her.

“The commander said that it didn’t matter that she was my friend. She had
committed an error and had to be killed,” Angela said. “I closed my eyes
and fired the gun, but I didn’t hit her. So I shot again. The commander
said, ‘You did very well. You’ll have to do this again many more times,
and you’ll have to learn not to cry.’”

Some army leaders make children believe everything is a game. In the
Kamajors, a group of mercenaries from Sierra Leone who serve both rebel
and government forces, children are initiated into “secret societies.” The
leader tells them they will gain magical powers if they follow the rules
of the society. Children eventually believe “juju” (magic) will protect
them from enemy bullets.

Children are not only used in combat. Armed forces in Uganda, Sierra Leone
and Liberia use children as spies, sex slaves and human shields or
propaganda to prevent enemies from attacking by inspiring sympathy.

In the Dutch documentary “Women See Lot of Things”, three female ex-child
combatants who participated in the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars of
the 1990s gave shocking testimonies about sexual abuse in rebel armed
groups.

“[For the rebels], 10-years-old is a ‘good woman’,” one of women said.

The interviewed said all the women kidnapped by armed forces are raped and
most of them get pregnant. Some of them have no choice but to kill their
own babies the minute they are born, as their children would become new
soldiers for the group.

Thanks to peace agreements and UN intervention, some children have been
freed from their army slavery. However, their recovery is not an easy
process. Eunice Apio, a Ugandan human rights activist, said in her report
about children’s outcome of being born in army groups in Uganda that
children have difficulties adjusting to their new lives.

“In the reception centers which received the returning mothers, the
children [appear] emotionally cut-off and regressed, others were
preoccupied with violence in their recreational activities and play,” Apio
said.

Human rights and humanitarian organizations formed The Coalition to Stop
the Use of Child Soldiers in May 1998. A main goal of CSUCS is for
governmental and non-governmental armed groups to enforce the Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits
military recruitment and use in hostilities of any person younger than 18.

Although the protocol has been recognized by most countries around the
world, the CSUCS reports that in Angola, Burma, Burundi, Colombia, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Liberia, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Sri
Lanka, Sudan and Uganda, children are still recruited as soldiers.

____________________________________

March 2, The Morung Express
Remembering Burma: Overturning the bowl – May Ng

General Ne Win, the founder of military authoritarianism in Burma, was
secretly trained during World War II by the fascist-allied military regime
of Japan. Four decades later, during the 1988 popular uprising in Burma,
the general warned that when Burma’s army shoots, it shoots to kill. That
year, thousands of protesters were killed on the streets of Burma. Little
has changed in the country during the intervening two decades. As such, it
was not particularly surprising this past September when, during the
massive public uprising that has since been dubbed the ‘Saffron
Revolution’, Burmese soldiers shot and killed over 100 citizens. That
number included members of the country’s venerated clergy.

Although public demonstrations had been ramping up for weeks, the Saffron
Revolution can be thought of as beginning on 5 September 2007, when thugs
thought to be connected to the junta government attacked a group of monks
in Pakokku. Doing so was in direct violation of Buddhist teachings,
something of which the military had long been cognisant, largely due to
the massive public support that the clergy holds in Burma.

Urging the military leaders to reflect on their action, Burma’s Sangha,
the national council representing the country’s Buddhist monks, demanded
an apology from the military within 12 days. When the junta refused to do
so, the clerical leaders began a religious boycott, dubbed the
“overturning of the alms bowls”. This was an act of severe moral rebuke,
in which monks refused to accept alms from military families, thereby
denying them important religious merit. This had only happened a few times
before –when the Burmese people rebelled against British colonialism and,
more recently, following the country’s nullified 1990 elections.

Six month after the Saffron Revolution began, the All-Burma Monks Alliance
(ABMA) continues to boycott Burma’s military families, all the while
urging the Burmese people to continue resistance against military
domination. This resistance has taken several forms. On 17 January, 200
demonstrators in Taungkok, including a handful of monks, attempted to
gather near a local market, where they were met with a large number of
armed personnel and forced to disperse. At that time, one resident of
Taungkok warned that local people continued to “boil with anger”, and that
the next time they would not be stopped.

Since the September uprising, student unions, activist groups, bloggers
and youth wings belonging to the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) have continued spreading underground pamphlets and posters. In late
December, the NLD’s detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, told followers to
“prepare for the worst while hoping for the best”. In a particularly
creative form of protest, the poet Saw Wai wrote a short poem that
included a series of hidden letters spelling out the words for ‘power
hungry Than Shwe’, referring to the junta’s senior leader. The poem was
published in a government-backed publication and, following his arrest on
22 January, Saw Wai’s poem became an instant sensation.

Meanwhile, the sustained international interest since the 2007 uprisings
have also allowed for the monks’ calls to be heard with greater strength
around the world. Over the past couple of months, the Sasana Moli, the
International Burmese Monks Organisation, has opened 14 new international
branches, including in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as well as several
countries in the West and throughout Southeast Asia. In January, the Thai
branch of the International Burmese Monks Organisation in Thailand
declared that the crimes committed against Burma’s clergy, in particular,
had laid bare the junta’s “false piety”, and warned of “far-reaching
consequences”.

Tatmadaw’s stranglehold

According to military scholar Mary P Callahan, immediately following
independence from Britain, World War II-era politics made violence the
“currency of power” in Burma. The country’s postcolonial operational
failure included army mutiny, ethnic rebellion, communist insurgency,
warlordism and economic chaos. This near-anarchy subsequently paved the
way for the creation of the Myanmar Tatmadaw, an army modelled after the
1950s Yugoslav and Israeli militaries. Callahan has written that the
Tatmadaw came to use violence – “the once despised coercive tools of
colonials” – not only to pacify but also to mould the Burmese citizenry
into dependable defenders of the army state. It is this ‘dependability’ on
which the junta regime has attempted to balance for the past half century,
and which has led the military leaders to attempt frantically to eliminate
any perceived crack in the façade.

The military moved quickly to establish pre-eminence in the Burmese state.
In 1956, the army’s Directorate of Psychological Warfare presented the
first draft of what eventually became the official ideology of the
post-1962 socialist government, as well as the present-day military
regime. Entitled “Some Reflections on Our Constitution”, the paper
recommended a review of constitutional flaws and the adoption of a
draconian Anti-Subversion Ordinance, which essentially allowed the
government and army to treat all critics of the regime as enemies of the
state.

Callahan writes that, by 1958, the Burmese Union’s Constitution was no
longer considered sacrosanct, as the army circulated a critique of the
document’s fundamental tenets. With this, the Tatmadaw successfully
created a chokehold on political power in Burma. Under such conditions,
citizens came to be seen as ‘barriers’ to the military’s consolidation of
power. It was in this context that an onerous British law, a section of
the Public Order Preservation Act, was resurrected and used to arrest as
many as 400 government critics. During 1958, the Press Registration Act of
1876 was also amended, and the ‘Psywar’ Directorate shut down a half-dozen
newspapers, imprisoning numerous editors and publishers in the process.
Today, 50 years later, nearly the exact same scenes are again being
repeated in Burma.

After more than 45 years of army rule, political power in Burma remains in
the hands of what Callahan has termed “specialists in violence”. This
catchphrase actually includes members of the Tatmadaw, anti-government
armed forces, criminal gangs and paramilitaries, though the first of these
maintains by far the most significant hold over power. “More menacing than
the records of murderous militaries in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala,
Indonesia, and the Philippines,” Callahan has noted, “is the comparative
‘durability’ of the Tatmadaw’s command relationship with its society.”
Since the 1962 military coup, the Tatmadaw have come to dominate all
levels of government, civil administration and commerce in Burma.

Military sovereignty

After some modest growth during the mid-1990s, Burma is once again facing
dramatic economic problems. The early rush of foreign investment – mostly
in tourism and small-scale manufacturing – has by now almost completely
dried up, largely as a result of poor economic management by the regime,
though coupled with the after-effects of the Asian financial crisis.
Regardless, however, the junta looks set to survive, at least in the near
term. As the Central Statistical Organisation in Burma has reported, the
country’s foreign direct investments during fiscal year 2006 totalled
nearly USD 753 million, due to investments from China, South Korea,
Russia, Singapore and Britain, most of them in the lucrative oil and gas
sector.

Indeed, contrary to the spike in public interest in Burma, a recent New
York Times editorial suggested that, just a few months after the Saffron
Revolution, many governments appear to have started losing much of their
short-lived enthusiasm for challenging the junta. This has been put down
to the fact that they are either eager for contracts with Burma for
resources such as oil and gems, or fear creating instability in the
region. While observers have long noted that the governments of China,
India and the Southeast Asian countries are particularly crucial in
applying pressure on Rangoon, it is impossible not to notice that Europe
and the US continue to maintain commercial interests in Burma.China’s
economic and military support for the junta has attracted particular
attention from pro-democracy activists. One school of thought believes
that small, poverty-stricken Burma will inevitably succumb to the
pressures of its much larger neighbour, effectively becoming a pawn within
China’s geopolitical orbit. It is also believed that China’s position on
the UN Security Council is seen by the Rangoon regime as an ultimate
guarantee against action by the UN. A massive military machine, after all,
has long been believed by Beijing policymakers to be necessary for the
Burmese regime to protect foreign investments and encourage economic
growth in the country. This would, of course, include the protection of
China’s current and future investments, including the planned gas
pipelines into Yunnan province. As such, Chinese and Burmese officials
have in common the view that Burma’s internal stability is vital to the
survival of Burma’s independence – and the Myanmar Army’s sovereignty.

But the Saffron Revolution, and the renewed international interest that
came with it, does seem to have altered the geopolitical situation with
regards to Burma, at least in the short term. Beijing, for instance, took
on a significantly more active, albeit behind-the-scenes, role during the
uprising, reportedly adopting an unusually stern line with the junta out
of the public’s glare. Just how far the Chinese are willing to take this
pressure, however, remains uncertain.

For its part, India had briefly supported the Burmese democracy movement
in 1988. But by the early 1990s, New Delhi had begun actively courting the
Rangoon junta, a move that many put down as an attempt to balance
Beijing’s influence in Burma. Recently, however, Indian policymakers have
been coming under stepped-up pressure to re-examine the official line.
Following longstanding calls by rights groups, India recently agreed to
halt arms supplies to the Rangoon regime (though, according to Indian
officials, only temporarily). Likewise, in early February New Delhi
officials promised United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari that they
would increase official backing for UN interventions in Burma, though
India remains adamant that it will not support any further imposition of
sanctions. Indeed, Gambari seemed buoyed by his Delhi visit. Looking ahead
to a planned trip to Rangoon in April, he noted, “Last time, China
facilitated my trip to Myanmar. This time, I believe it will be India.”

Even the generals themselves seem to have felt the need to capitulate more
than usual to international pressure. In mid-February, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged action by the UN Security Council
against Rangoon for the use of child soldiers. As a consequence, the
Burmese leadership agreed to bring charges against 43 of its officials for
child recruitment. But while this swift action in response to UN diktat is
notable, the practice of forcing children into the army is almost
certainly continuing, particularly in the country’s more remote areas.

This type of dynamic has been seen before, as the junta, when pressured,
pretends a willingness to cooperate. After pacifying the Security Council
with a few meetings between junta liaisons and Suu Kyi in 2007, by 2008
the generals no longer seem to be showing much interest in genuine
political reform. This includes the surprise announcement, on 9 February,
of plans to hold a referendum, to be held this coming May, on the
country’s new Constitution, as well as a general election in 2010. The
news has been received with skepticism from the political opposition and
the West, however, with only the government of Singapore welcoming the
news (see box).

A rotten system

The junta’s stranglehold over Burma notwithstanding, the Myanmar Army may
not be nearly as strong as is generally believed. General Shwe Mann, the
army’s third-highest official, reported manpower losses of nearly 9500
during just a four-month period leading up to September 2006. Much of this
was due to desertions, which had risen by eight percent even over the
previous year alone. Indeed, the Burmese military is not only chronically
plagued by desertion, but its troops suffer from particularly high rates
of HIV and Hepatitis B, and morale is said to have clearly plummeted.

A hint as to why this is so can be found in a late-2007 report by Jane’s
Defense Weekly, the US-based military journal, that the army’s battalions
have become poorly managed and resourced. Much of this can be put down to
the fact that corruption has reached unprecedented levels, even by the
junta’s standards, causing a significant drain on the government’s budget.
According to Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perceptions
Index, Burma was ranked dead last on a list of 180 countries, tied only
with Somalia, which has not had a functioning central government in a
decade and a half. The fact that the junta has further isolated the armed
forces from the rest of the population has essentially led to the creation
of a state within a state, where the members of the Tatmadaw, along with
their relatives and supporters, have become a privileged caste within
Burmese society.

The longstanding disconnect in Burma constitutes a constant worry for the
authoritarian regime: that the junta will be weakened by its alienation
from the civilian population, and will continue to face the threat of
armed opposition. Meanwhile, the NLD’s landslide victory in the 1990
general elections included an overwhelming vote by military personnel,
strongly suggesting that dissatisfaction and even active dissent within
the military was well entrenched nearly two decades ago.

It can be said that today the will of the people is much stronger than
nearly ever before in modern-day Burma. One of the most important elements
to come out of the Saffron Revolution has been the quiet transformation of
the power behind the moral influence in Burma. First and foremost, the
uprising has largely succeeded in uniting the vast number of Burmese
citizens behind a common cause. Second, public will has, to a great
extent, re-focused international concern onto Burma – a process that has
proceeded more slowly and unevenly than many hoped, but one that is
nonetheless continuing. As one student leader, nicknamed Phoenix, said in
the aftermath of the September uprisings, “While international pressure is
necessary, the ultimate answer to Burma’s future lies with the people
inside the country, including the military leaders who disagree with the
killing of the monks.”
____________________________________

March 2, Asian Tribune
Olympic games or Burma – Prof. Kanbawza Win

It was a present surprised when the news flashed that China has urged an
activist group in Burma to have a "correct understanding" of Beijing's
policy towards Burma with no explanation, whatsoever. Why did China
suddenly turn to the Burmese pro democracy movement when Burma is not of
life-and-death interest to Beijing, nor to the West, but just a little
strife torn, obscure hell in the remote backwaters? It is not realistic to
think that Beijing will listen to any voice from Burma, much less from the
rank of the opposition, as it even view the Burmese Junta as rude, crude,
rustic pipsqueak of little consequence, when every body knows that the
dragon men are very pragmatic and happy with the status quo in Burma and
elsewhere. The Chinese elites in Beijing do not nowadays want to change
the world, but only their silk socks and satin jocks daily wrote the late
Chao Tzang Yawnghwe.

Last, week Pro-democracy activists in Burma called for the world to
boycott the Beijing Olympics for China's continuing support of Burmese
military dictatorship and seem to poke the side the Chinese. The entire
people of Burma have joined Olympic boycott over complaints ranging from
Beijing's human rights record to its failure to more actively press Sudan
in the Darfur region that has killed at least 200,000 people. Currently
Burma's military regime has burned down or otherwise destroyed 3,200
ethnic minority villages, forcing 1.5 million refugees to flee their
homes, while the Chinese slyly encouraged it by letting its arms and
ammunition to continue to flow in. Beijing has closed its eyes as Burma
recruited more child soldiers than any other country in the world. Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient,
is locked up in prison along with 2,000 other political dissidents.

Despite its huge influence on the Burmese Junta, China refuses to call for
her release. But the most important aspect is that the United Nations has
been completely paralyzed, unable to take any action to prevent genocide
in Burma, only because China has used its veto at the UN Security Council
to block any meaningful actions on Burma, as a result, the UN is making
the same mistakes it made on Darfur and Rwanda. In short China is partly
responsibility for what is happening in Burma.

China not only graciously funds the dictator but also is the diplomatic
protector for Burma's military regime. Adding insult to injury, the
Olympics are scheduled to begin on August 8, 2008 -- the anniversary of a
major massacre in Burma. On the same date in 1988, thousands of peaceful
protesters were massacred by the regime during Burma's largest democracy
uprising. Each year, thousands of people around the world commemorate this
slaughter and honor those who spoke out for human rights and justice.

What a mockery for the world to witness that the most populated country of
the world to celebrate the Olympics on that day. Like the Berlin Olympics
in 1936 that wrongly brought world acclaim to Adolf Hitler, the Beijing
Olympics in 2008 are becoming a monument of suffering. We recollect how
the English soccer team, in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, giving a Nazi salute
of Hail Hitler the picture of impressionable footballers obeying orders
from mutton-headed apparatchiks went round the world and became a lasting
source of shame as even now Britain kow tow to the Chinese demand
forbidding any of it athlete from making any political comment about
countries staging the Olympic Games. The US President George W. Bush said
he would go to China for the Olympics but would not talk publicly there
about Beijing's policies. Because the two arsenals of democracy has bowed
down to the men in the Dragon throne Beijing seems to construe that we
Burmese activist should also do likewise?

Although China is not the only country engaged in Burma and did not carry
sole responsibility for the emerging crisis, it is a member of the UN
Security Council and thereby indirectly accountable for any actions that
are, or are not, taken. In view of a regime that unscrupulously mistreats
its citizens and spurns with impunity all standards of civility, Beijing
clearly lacks a sense of urgency.

Faced with the current crisis, however, China has reverted to its
traditional stance of non-interference in another country's internal
affairs. In doing so, Beijing is not only arguably damaging its
international image, but also squandering a unique opportunity to take an
active and moral role in influencing Burma's leadership. Globally, it
could enhance its image considerably by acting as a responsible
stakeholder. It could also distinguish itself from regional rival India,
which so far has similarly preferred to deal with Burma’s crisis by
looking the other way.

China's policymakers understand that the effectiveness of US-led sanctions
has been undermined by Beijing's willingness to economically engage the
regime. In the current situation, change can only come from within the
military and China could use its channels, contacts and influence to
convince the regime that now is the time to change.

However, China has in reality been interfering in Burma's internal affairs
for at least half a century. During much of the Cold War, Beijing overtly
supported the Communist Party of Burma, which fought against
government-led forces. China has invested heavily in Burma's
infrastructure, business and natural resources and has tacitly supported
the waves of migration of Chinese citizens into that country. This kind of
interference is no different from Western approaches to maintaining
influence in their former colonies, and without a change in policy, China
will continue to be subjected to accusations of neo-colonialism.

The latest round of protests in Rangoon has highlighted the futility of
previous international democracy campaigns and non violent struggle. Some
human-rights advocates have turned their eyes to China -- to see if it
would force reform in Burma, but China just made a feeble attempt to call
on the Burmese regime to "show restraint." Obviously it was more concerned
about stability than democracy. Thus, human-rights activists and pundits
are now urging Washington to threaten a boycott August Olympic Games.
Washington Post columnist Fred Hiatt recently said: "Tell China that, it
can have its Olympic Games or Burma (which also stands for Darfur and
Rawanda) It can't have both. If a threat to those Games ... could help tip
the balance, then let the Games not begin. Some things matter more," The
message is loud and clear, either stops using your veto on the UN Security
Council or do something to make this regime understand this can't go on
any longer or we will boycott the Olympics.

As a country that is determined to achieve its "peaceful evolution" or
"peaceful development, it is crucial to take the non-military option at
all point, in order to consolidate its soft power. Therefore, earning the
world's positive affection and attention are crucial to China's
resurrection as a responsible power in the eyes of global public opinion.
US actress Mia Farrow has apparently understood this point very well, and
threatened to have the Beijing Olympics in 2008 potentially classified as
a "genocide game," if China does not try to use its seeming influence on
Sudan to put an end to the humanitarian tragedy in Burma and Darfur. By
threatening to expose the Beijing Olympics in a negative light, Mia has
got the leaders' attention. In the same vein, with the Olympics literally
months away, China cannot afford the world to believe that it supports the
brutal crackdown of the monks in Burma too. Isn’t the Olympic a non
military weapon to force China to see to reason?

Last week, the American Hollywood director Steven Speilberg withdrew from
his role as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of
the Summer Games, accusing China of not doing enough to press for peace in
the troubled areas of the world. The Chinese state-run media and the
public responded with a groundswell of criticism. In newspaper
commentaries and lively Internet forums, they have expressed outrage,
scorn and bewilderment that China's Olympics have come under international
criticism from Spielberg and others. A biting front-page editorial
Wednesday in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the Communist
Party's official newspaper, blasted Spielberg for his decision. "A certain
Western director was very naive and made an unreasonable move toward the
issue of the Beijing Olympics. This is perhaps because of his unique
Hollywood characteristics," An editorial in the China Youth Daily was
equally scathing. "This renowned film director is famous for his science
fiction. But now it seems he lives in a world of science fiction and he
can't distinguish a dream from reality," All these clearly revealed of how
the Chinese were not informed of the uttermost tragedies of Burma, Dafur
and Rawanda and could not comprehend the civilized norms of the world and
the international bodies.

Without a doubt, the Beijing Olympics are important to China. Steven
Spielberg, who is one of the artistic directors of the games, has even
written to President Hu to hold China to better standards in governance.
Such pressures, in drips and drabs, can see China being more sensitive to
security and environmental issues in the months to come. Obviously Rights
groups on Wednesday praised Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's decision
to shun involvement with the Beijing Olympics simply China was not doing
enough to help end the crisis in Darfur and Burma. Spielberg's move marked
a high-profile setback for Beijing and its efforts to keep at bay a
months-long campaign by activists to spotlight the authoritarian communist
regime's human rights record. Spielberg, who won an Oscar for his 1993
Holocaust film "Schindler's List," said that while China's representatives
have conveyed that they are working to end the terrible tragedy in Darfur
and Burma, the grim realities of the suffering continue unabated.

China have influence over the Islamic regime because it buys two-thirds of
the country's oil exports while selling it weapons and defending it in the
United Nations. China is blaming activists with "ulterior motives" for
linking the Beijing Olympics to the nation's involvement in Sudan Burma
and Rawanda. "Spielberg decision to quit regretful," said the Shanghai
Daily. It was startling news for the people of China because it came
totally out of the blue. “I have never heard of this before," said a young
university graduate who would only give her family name, Zhou. "I know
Burma and Sudan but I had not heard there was any connection to the
Olympics." The Mandarin-language Global Times said Chinese people were
"disgusted" by talk of an Olympic boycott, but admitted they were also
expressing "bafflement" at the link between Burma-Darfur and the Beijing
Games. The China Daily, the government's English-language mouthpiece,
interview Renmin University professor Jin Canrong "Whoever uses this
humanitarian issue to criticize China and put pressure on China gains
something of a halo," Jin said.

For months and years, pressure groups have been trying to use China's
fixation on the success of the Olympics as leverage to force Beijing to
act on pressing human rights issues inside China and on Darfur, but the
results have been negligible. China's highly effective Internet firewall
prevents the people of China to know these Olympics-linked efforts are
underway. That makes it easier for Beijing to keep ignoring its critics.
Nobody apart from the International Olympic Committee seems to believe the
Chinese government will make significant human rights concession before
the Games start. Every time a journalist or blogger is released, another
goes into prison, China's dissidents will probably be having a hard time
this summer.

"Yes, the Olympics are going to be a huge success and will demonstrate to
the world that China is a modern, developed nation." Deviations from that
line are not always received well and sometimes elicit outright hostility.
PRC ideology and the minds of the Chinese people "the West" seek to
undermine China's development to satisfy their own selfish strategic
goals, and finally, barely smoldering resentment born out of a history of
foreign imperialism in China.

Educated Chinese who speak out against their own government in the foreign
media are pilloried on electronic bulletin boards as hanjian, traitors to
their race, an epithet to which Chinese nationals working for foreign
media organizations are also frequently subjected. The Chinese media is
also fond of parroting government officials who label the US and West as
human rights hypocrites, citing the usual suspects (slavery, imperialism,
policy toward indigenous peoples) as well as tossing out a few new ones
(weatherboarding, the invasion of Iraq). Whether one feels this is a valid
defense or not, the salient point is that many in China accept the
government line as unequivocal proof that foreign critics cannot be
trusted

In this case with Olympics sponsors, there is no such contradiction --
these multinational corporations have no corporate credo about not doing
evil, promoting free speech, or any other idealistic principle about
furthering the human community. Instead, their own credo is maximum
profits and maximum returns for their shareholders. Therefore, we are not
surprised at all to hear that apparently, the vast majority of them
consider activist protests against their participation in the Chinese
Olympics as a mere public relations nuisance. Corporate sponsors,
governments and National Olympic Committees should urge Beijing to improve
human rights is very dear to our hearts. If so why did we award China, the
Olympics with this record of human rights abuses, when the Chinese
administration is evil and dangerous? Perhaps we are taking risk hoping
against hope that China would see to reason in Burma and elsewhere, in the
world without knowing that the sleeping dragon sleeps with its eyes wide
open

On the other hand, with the power of the Internet and its ability to
facilitate communication and coordination of activism, these corporations
may be in for a rude awakening if calls for boycotts and other actions
against them reach a critical mass, due to their implicit support of
Chinese repression. Public revolts against oppression -- and those
implicitly supporting oppression -- are real and in many cases, are
effective. The Burmese people inside and outside he country should make
every available effort to highlight the situation as this is one of the
best way to compel China to see to reason.

Prof. Kanbawza Win is former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Prime
Minister of Burma has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the
Menno Simons College of University of Winnipeg and later as a Senior
Research Fellow at the European Institute of Asian Studies, Brussels is
now the incumbent Dean of the Students of the AEIOU Programme, Chiangmai
University Thailand and an Adjunct Professor of the School of
International Studies, Simon Fraser University, of British Columbia,
Canada.

____________________________________

March 1, Irrawaddy
Burma is burning – Yeni

Burma is on fire. Literally. This is not just a metaphor to describe the
political situation in the country—reflecting the increased pressure on
Burmese people to vote in the junta’s referendum in May and the consequent
“flames” of dissent. Instead, the talk of the town today is about the
element of fire itself.

A disastrous blaze swept through a crowded area of Hlaing Thar Yar
Township in the outskirts of Rangoon.
A disastrous blaze swept through a crowded area of Hlaing Thar Yar
Township in the outskirts of Rangoon on Monday, destroying around 200
homes and leaving some 3,000 people homeless. The same day, a second major
fire destroyed Mandalay's popular Skywalk Shopping Mall, and in the
process, more than 1,300 businesses, including an IT center. A third blaze
on Monday, in Palaw, Tenasserim Division, destroyed about 200 houses.

The following day, two more fires broke out in Mandalay—a small one at Pyi
Kyaw Market and one at a privately owned residential compound for students
early that morning.

So, it is not surprising to read the alert that followed in the
government-owned newspapers, warning people that the dry season has come
and the country needs to take precautions to prevent fires.

Up to that point, I think we can all agree.

But then, in an editorial of Kyemon (“The Mirror”), it was pointed out
that the fires were mostly caused by carelessness. Among the causes of the
blazes were cases of persons fuelling generators near candlelight,
forgetting to turn off generators and falling asleep by candlelight.

A fire breaks out at Skywalk Shopping Mall in central Mandalay.
In fact, the editorial exposed that the frequent fires in Burma are
largely due to the poor quality of life that people in the country endure.
Most people live in traditional houses usually made of old wood, bamboo
and straw, which are defenseless to heat.

The public complain that blackouts are daily occurrences and various
backup systems are used to power hotels, companies, factories, residences
and shops. The widespread use of generators also creates a massive fire
hazard due to unattended generators overheating. The recent fire at the
Sky Walk mall was caused by faulty electrical wiring, according to
officials at the fire department.

The inability of firemen to control the fires indicates clearly that fire
departments in Burma are deprived of effective equipment. There is no
modern fire protection such as extending ladders and fireproof uniforms
for firefighters, and few buildings are equipped with fire alarms or
sprinkler systems.

In the Mandalay market fire, 11 firemen were injured trying to extinguish
the blaze. Ten other people, including four monks, were also hurt.
Firefighters were even unable to enter the smoldering remains of the
burnt-out market building.

The sad but overriding fact is that there is no will or policy at the
decision-making level to improve public utilities in Burma. According to
fire department officials, no sustainable budget exists for training or
the maintenance of property and equipment. In total, there are 217 fire
stations and 328 auxiliary fire stations in the entire country. But the
number of auxiliary fire brigade members and stations are traditionally
relying on donations from within their communities.

And, as for those “donations”—I have heard many accusations that “if you
want the firemen to put out the fire, you have to give them money.”

At the end of the day, the causes of the recent fires were not only down
to careless persons, but also to careless authorities.

Burma is burning. Who’s going to put out the fire?

____________________________________
STATEMENT/PRESS RELEASE

March 3, UNPO
Burma: Monk organization Sasana Moli boycotts proposed elections

The International Burmese Monk Organization (Sasana Moli) visited the UNPO
Secretariat and explained why it is that they have no faith in the
announced elections in Burma.

Sasana Moli, also known as the International Burmese Monks Organization,
founded on 27 October 2007 in Los Angeles, United States of America, aims
to unite the Burmese people and strive for the preservation of their
culture by calling for more human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as
freedom of religion. Interviewed during a meeting at UNPO, Sasana Moli
General Secretary the Venerable Uttara and Mr. Maung Chan and Mr. Chit
Khime Soe, both Members of Sasana Moli, declared that they have no faith
in the elections that have been announced by the Burmese government.

When asked about the general sentiment amongst people in Burma after the
September 2007 demonstration, the answer was very clear: “There is a
general sentiment of fear”. After the demonstration, the estimates are
that over 2000 Buddhists disappeared. “There have been calls to release
the political prisoners and the Buddhist monks”, but the government of
Burma does not seem to respond to these demands. According to Sasana Moli
there is nothing left to do but present the Burmese government with a
deadline: Buddhist New Year in mid-April 2008. If the government does not
respond to the call for release, another declaration will be issued,
calling upon all peoples to vote against the new proposed constitution
during the referendum planned for May 2008.

But holding a referendum on the new constitution and announcing elections
to be held in 2010 are signs of a more democratic Burma, are they not? On
the contrary, Venerable Uttara explains: “The elections are just a façade,
San Suu Kyi is not allowed to take part in the elections and therefore
these so-called negotiations are nothing more then just talks taking place
to uphold the show”. Sasana Moli therefore calls upon everyone, both
within Burma, as well as the international community, to boycott the 2010
elections if no significant improvement within Burma is made.

2010 is still far away – as for short term plans, Sasana Moli also has a
strategy: “We wish to take away the weapons used against innocent victims
of the government in Burma - the only way we can do this is by pressing
for an arms embargo”. Calling upon the international community to impose
an arms embargo to prevent weapons being imported from, in particular,
China and Russia, would already decrease the number of fatalities within
Burma, according to Sasana Moli. In an attempt to get an arms embargo
imposed, the organization will travel extensively and meet various
government officials throughout the spring and summer of 2008.

____________________________________

March 1, ALTSEAN
The Burmese Referendum that isn’t – Asean urged to reject “outrageous farce”

A Southeast Asian human rights group has condemned the Burmese military
regime's planned referendum as an outrageous farce and called on ASEAN to
engage in some straight-talk to push for actual reforms in Burma.

Rules for the conduct of the constitutional referendum published in the
New Light of Myanmar on 28 February indicate that the regime known as the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) will ignore abstentions and
"no" votes. This adds to disgust over provisions that dictate jail terms
for those who speak out against the referendum and bar the Buddhist clergy
from voting.

The rules state that the constitution will be adopted by announcing the
number of votes cast in favor of the constitution as compared to the total
number of eligible voters. Simply put, abstentions and "no" votes are
meaningless in determining the outcome of the referendum.

Altsean-Burma Coordinator Debbie Stothard said, "The intentions of the
SPDC to force this constitution on Burma's people should now be abundantly
clear to everyone - including those who wanted to give the SPDC the
benefit of the doubt over this referendum and its so-called roadmap to
democracy"

"The SPDC anticipated the possibility of a majority of Burma's people
rejecting the proposed constitution and has made a mockery the voting
process. What can we expect for their intended election in 2010? Ballot
papers that only offer the choice of voting for Than Shwe, Than Shwe, and
only Than Shwe?" asked Ms. Stothard, referring to junta head Senior
General Than Shwe.

Ms. Stothard urged ASEAN leaders to reject the SPDC's referendum and
engage in some straight-talking to pressure the regime to engage in
genuine reforms: "The SPDC is assuming that ASEAN will stick to diplomatic
murmurings and allow it to continue with this unacceptable farce. An
outright rejection by ASEAN will force it to make actual changes. If ASEAN
fails to take a strong line on this, it risks being the laughingstock of
the international community."

ASEAN must push for UN Special Advisor on Burma Ibrahim Gambari to return
to Burma and insist that the National League for Democracy and ethnic
groups be allowed to negotiate a review and redraft of the proposed
constitution and any subsequent political process.

On 29 February, the Burma Partnership, an alliance that includes
Altsean-Burma, urged ASEAN to reject the SPDC's proposed constitution.

____________________________________

February 28, Statement of Opinion Regarding the National Referendum

The main problem of the Union of Burma is a political problem. We totally
reject Announcements No 1/2008 and 2/2008 and Declaration No 3/2008
unilaterally released by the SPDC Government since they do not contribute
to national reconciliation or national unity and are merely aimed at
perpetuating a military dictatorship. We hereby declare the following as
our firm position:

1. Since the SPDC's state constitution does not reflect the will of the
political parties which contested in the 1990 elections, or that of the
ethnic leaders, or the people, it is illegitimate and we, the undersigned,
totally reject it.

2. We strongly urge the people to join hands to courageously and
determinedly oppose the referendum since it is a result of a unilateral
action which ignores the results of the 1990 general elections, the role
of the legitimate political parties and other political forces as well as
the opinion of the international community.

3. Furthermore, we the undersigned reiterate our firm decision to commit
ourselves to work together with the people in strongly opposing the SPDC's
state constitution as well as all the phases of its "roadmap" which are
attempts to ratify its state constitution.

4. Should the SPDC continues to ignore the wishes of the people and the
international community and unilaterally holds its national referendum, we
urge the people to clearly express their will by casting "Nay" votes to
overwhelmingly reject the SPDC's state constitution.

(1) National Council of the Union of Burma
(2) National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
(3) Ethnic Nationalities Council (Union of Burma)
(4) Women's League of Burma
(5) Forum for Democracy in Burma
(6) Students and Youths Congress of Burma
(7) Nationalities Youth Forum

Contacts:
U Maung Maung (087) 979-0794
Dr. Salai Lian H. Sakhong (081) 029-6100
Dr. Sann Aung (089) 768-5853
Nang Hseng Noung (081) 884-4963