BurmaNet News, April 10, 2008

[Editor]

April 10, 2008 Issue # 3441


INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: Myanmar crackdown on "no" campaign begins: opposition
DVB: NLD slams late release of draft constitution
Mizzima News: Junta gives little time to comprehend draft constitution:
opposition
Mizzima News: New group emerges for mass movement
Irrawaddy: Irrawaddy Division surveyed about referendum
The Economist: Spring postponed

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: Fifty-four Myanmar migrants suffocate in container
Reuters: Myanmar migrant recalls container horror
SHAN: No way for voters in Tachilek to "express his wish secretly"

BUSINESS / TRADE
Bangkok Post: Malfeasance charges filed against Thaksin

ASEAN
AFP: US envoy to ASEAN vows to push for reforms in Myanmar

REGIONAL
DVB: Malaysia continues crackdown on Burmese migrants

INTERNATIONAL
Salon: Torching the Olympics
ABC7News: Monks march through Golden Gate
Irrawaddy: Security Council presidential statement on Burma ‘not easy’

OPINION / OTHER
The Nation (Thailand): Deaths of Burmese brings shame on us
Wall Street Journal: Burmese squeeze


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

April 10, Reuters
Myanmar crackdown on "no" campaign begins: opposition – Aung Hla Tun

Myanmar's main opposition party called on Monday for international
observers of the May 10 constitutional referendum, saying its "No"
campaigners are being assaulted and their materials seized in the runup to
the vote.

"Local authorities are committing acts of suppression by trying to seize
documents of the NLD and detain or interrogate township organizers," the
National League for Democracy (NLD) said a day after the junta-drafted
charter was made public.

NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Reuters least three NLD were attacked by
unknown assailants as they campaigned against the constitution in Yangon,
the former Burma's biggest city.

"For this reason, it is now obvious that the forthcoming referendum cannot
be free and fair," the party's executive committee said in a statement
demanding foreign observers, including from the United Nations.

Myanmar Information Minister Kyaw Hsaw promised last month the vote would
be "free and fair", but he bluntly rejected offers of U.N. technical
assistance and monitors.

The charter, dismissed by Western critics as a ploy to entrench 46 years
of army rule, grants the military an automatic 25 percent of seats in
parliament.

It also gives the commander-in-chief the right to suspend the constitution
at will.

The regime, which tightly controls the media in the former Burma, has
urged the country's 53 million people to back the charter, a key step in
the junta's seven-point "roadmap to democracy" meant to culminate in
multi-party elections in 2010.

The official New Light of Myanmar newspaper accused unnamed foreign
governments of aiding the opposition to "destabilize the country" ahead of
the referendum.

It said some foreign diplomats in Yangon had visited NLD headquarters to
"give directives to harm the interests of the nation and the people".

It did not name the embassies, but said their activities violated
international law and should stop.

On the streets of Yangon, Buddhist monks were among those who snapped up
copies of the 194-page charter selling for a $1 at private stalls and
government bookstores.

"Fifty copies sold like hot cakes in less than an hour," a roadside
bookstall owner told Reuters. "I never thought our people would be so keen
on the constitution".

The junta, which sparked international outrage last September when troops
crushed anti-junta protests, has ordered civil servants to vote "yes" next
month and to persuade their family members to do so too.

"We have been told we will have to vote in our offices," a government
employee said. The regime has not publicly explained how the referendum
will be run.

The NLD's Nyan Win said many people would not have enough time to study
the constitution.

"Most people in Yangon will get their copies only today. What about those
in provinces?," he said.

____________________________________

April 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD slams late release of draft constitution – Htet Aung Kyaw

The National League for Democracy has criticised the Burmese regime for
releasing the draft constitution only one month before the national
referendum is to be held.

NLD spokesperson U Nyan Win said the late release of the full text does
not give people enough time to study it and make an informed decision.

"Coinciding with Referendum Commission chairman U Aung Toe's announcement
on the dates of the referendum, the text of the draft constitution is now
available for the public to buy starting from today," he said.

"So there is only a little time for the people to study it before they
vote on whether to approve it.”

According to U Aung Toe’s announcement, the referendum on the draft
constitution will be held on 10 May.

The draft constitution was completed on 19 February, but it was not made
available to the public.

Nyan Win said the party will continue with its “Vote No” campaign to
encourage people to vote against the constitution.

"If people from the government side have a right to campaign for 'Yes'
votes, we also should have the right to campaign for 'No' votes," Nyan Win
said.

"It's only fair that we get to call for 'No' votes when they get to call
for their 'Yes' votes,” he said.

“We are not violating the law by urging people to vote 'No'. We will carry
on with our campaign."

Under the government’s referendum law introduced in February, campaigning
against the referendum can be punishable by up to three years in prison.

____________________________________

April 10, Mizzima News
Junta gives little time to comprehend draft constitution: opposition –
Solomon & Mungpi

People in Burma have 'too little time' to comprehend the contents of the
draft constitution, which the ruling military junta seeks to approve in a
referendum in May, opposition groups said on Thursday.

The Burmese junta's official publishing house 'Sapay Beikman' on Wednesday
began distributing the draft constitution for sale to retail book stalls,
sources in Rangoon said.

"Since yesterday we have begun distributing copies of the draft
constitution to retailers," a salesperson of the Sapay Beikman told
Mizzima.

The salesperson added that copies of the new constitution are being sold
to members of the public by retailers at a price of 1000 Kyat (USD1).

While the draft constitution is being made public a month before the
referendum, opposition groups pointed out that it provides too little time
to the people to understand the contents of the constitution, on which
they will be voting.

"It is impossible for the people to understand the constitution and it
cannot reach all the people," Nyan Win, spokesperson of Burma's main
opposition party – the National League for Democracy said.

Nyan Win, who is a lawyer by profession, warned that approving the
constitution would only cement and perpetuate military rule in Burma, and
therefore the people need to thoroughly understand the contents of the
constitution before voting on it.

Meanwhile, shopkeepers in Rangoon said copies of the draft constitution
are being sold out fast.

"About 30 copies of the constitution are already sold out from our shop,"
a shopkeeper said. He added that retailers have been supplied with 50
copies of the draft constitution to be sold to the public.

But it is still not clear how many copies have been printed and whether it
is being distributed in rural areas.

Thakin Chan Tun, a veteran Burmese politician, who has been waiting for
the regime to release copies of the draft constitution, said he could not
get hold of a copy despite rushing off to get one immediately after
learning that it has been made available.
"I asked my people to get a copy of the draft immediately after I came to
know that it has been published, but the shopkeepers said it had been sold
out," Thakin Chan Tun told Mizzima.

However, the shopkeeper, who spoke to Mizzima on condition of anonymity,
said he had not read the draft constitution as he was too busy with his
daily work.

"I have bought one for myself but I still could not read it because I am
too engaged in my work," he added.

Aye Thar Aung, a veteran politician in Rangoon and Secretary of the
Committee Representing Peoples' Parliament, a group formed with
parliamentarians elected in the 1990 election, said the junta is
deliberately giving too little time to the people.

"The junta is giving too little time so that people will not guage the
constitution fully," Aye Thar Aung said.

The junta's draft constitution, a copy of which is with Mizzima, reserves
25 percent of parliamentary seats for the military, and allows the army to
declare a state of emergency anytime it deems fit.

In a bid to prevent any future amendments, the military has made the
constitution amendment process rigid. The constitution states that any
amendment to the constitution must be proposed by 75 percent of the
legislative body and approved by all eligible voters in a referendum.

____________________________________

April 10, Mizzima News
New group emerges for mass movement – Myint Maung

An attempt to overthrow the military regime by way of a people's movement
will be made by a newly founded underground umbrella group called the "New
Generation Movement for Justice" founded on April 3, the founders said.

NGMJ, comprising teachers, students, workers and farmers among others is
reorganizing small groups forced to scatter after the September uprising
led by Buddhist monks which was crushed by the junta following a bloody
crackdown.

"The aim is to organize weak groups to join hands to became a strong
group, to build trust and prepare for a mass people's movement," said Nwe
Lay Wai, a member of the new group.

As a first step the group, in coordination with 88 Generation Students
Group, All Burma Students' Federation Union, New Generation Wave, is
secretly mobilising people from various towns and villages to vote 'No' in
the ensuing referendum.

However, she did not elaborate as to how to implement the people's
movement in order to ensure that the draft constitution is not adopted.

The military regime announced that the referendum will be held on May 10,
2008 throughout the country to seek approval for the draft constitution to
be adopted.

Opposition groups and political analysts have been critical of the
constitution drafted at the 14-year long National Convention, attended by
people who were not representatives of the people and aimed to legalise
military dictatorship. They are organizing people to go to the polling
stations and vote 'No' and reject the draft constitution.

"We use the word "Justice: because we will fight to get justice whatever
system they come up with; we need justice and we will albeit die for it,"
said Nwe Lay Wai.

She blamed fear as the factor which has prolonged military rule for over
four decades.

"We, students are afraid of losing an academic year; workers, farmers and
shopkeepers are worried about not being to sell their wares for a day. To
overcome these fears we must muster courage," she said.

____________________________________

April 10, Irrawaddy
Irrawaddy Division surveyed about referendum

One month ahead of the Burmese constitutional referendum due to be held on
May 10, The Irrawaddy has conducted an opinion poll in Irrawaddy Division,
which is the country’s rice bowl and one of the most populated areas in
Burma.

The Irrawaddy made 50 cold calls to local people, including farmers,
businessmen, civil servants, students, business owners, doctors and
lawyers in several major townships, including Bassein, Hinthada and
Bogalay. None of the interviewees were politicians or activists.

We asked them if they would vote “Yes” or “No” in the upcoming referendum
on supporting the draft constitution. Then we asked why.

In our opinion poll, 40 of the 50 respondents said “No” while 10 of them
said they didn’t want to answer or that they didn’t know. No one said
“Yes” to the question.

None of the respondents had read the draft constitution—it was only made
public on Wednesday, going on sale at government bookstores for 1,000 kyat
a copy.

A few defining factors emerged from our telephone survey—for example, most
civil servants didn’t dare to say “Yes” or “No.”

One civil servant from Dedaye Township said she had not yet decided which
way to vote. However, she said that the media should understand her answer
as she was a civil servant and couldn’t say anything about the
constitutional referendum. Burmese civil servants are notoriously
tightlipped and fearful of repercussions.

A doctor form Bassein General Hospital said he would vote “No” if the
authorities offered a free and fair environment. He added that if the
authorities threatened him, he would vote “Yes.”

A grocer from Bogalay responded: “If the government doesn’t punish its
civil servants for being against the draft constitution, they are likely
to vote ‘No.’ I personally will vote ‘No.’”

“I am sure that the most people from Bassein will vote ‘No,’” said a
businessman in Bassein Township. “The people from the villages will vote
against the government in retaliation for the violence during last
September's demonstrations,” he said.

“Even my brother, a policeman, will vote ‘No’” he added. “Unless they
prevent him for doing so.”

A retired person from Bassein said that open debate on the referendum is
not happening. “The military government has not allowed critical political
debate in our country,” he said. “I am not interested in what they wrote
into the constitution—I will vote ‘No’ anyway.”

Other respondents were unsure. A businessman from Lemyethna Township told
The Irrawaddy on Wednesday: “I don’t know what they wrote in the
constitution. I didn’t even read about it in Myanmar Alin (a state-run
newspaper). I don’t have any idea which way to vote.”

Myo Zaw, a young man from Bogalay Township, said that he was not ready to
cast a vote in the forthcoming referendum. “I haven’t made up my mind,” he
said. “I don’t understand what the constitution is for.

“I am not even sure if I will go to the polling station,” he added.

A doctor from Hinthada Township said that he would give vote “No” in the
constitutional referendum, but he wouldn’t say why.

“I can’t say anything about the constitutional referendum,” said another
doctor from the same town, before hanging up.

“This is a business! Don’t call me again!” said the owner of a Chinese
restaurant in Hinthada Township before hanging up the phone abruptly.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for democracy (NLD) and other
pro-democracy groups are calling for a "No" vote, but have little time to
campaign effectively.

Despite the calls from the NLD and other political dissidents to reject
the constitution, Burma’s ruling junta announced that the referendum would
go ahead on May 10.

* The Irrawaddy will report its findings from a continuing series of
surveys on the referendum.

____________________________________

April 10, The Economist
Spring postponed

AS DUSK shrouds the Sule pagoda in central Yangon, the dazzling neon
haloes behind many of the Buddhas' heads flash brighter. Before them the
devout, kneeling in their sarongs, murmur prayers, light joss-sticks and
touch their foreheads to the marble floor. Outside, traffic roars on the
city's busiest roundabout. The shrine, housing a hair from the Buddha's
head, is one of Myanmar's holiest and some 2,000 years old. But Burmese
temples are all works in progress. This one gleams with fresh white paint
and gold leaf. In contrast, over the road, the dirty-yellow façade of City
Hall is a study in crumbling neglect.

Even in the commercial heart of its largest city, religion remains central
to life in Myanmar. Many Burmese felt the country's thuggish junta crossed
a line last September, when its soldiers opened fire on monks leading
protests against its rule—including some beside the Sule pagoda. It seemed
proof that a regime fond of numerology and superstition ruled neither by
divine right nor by popular acquiescence, but by force. Nobody knows how
many were killed as the protests were quashed; much of Myanmar remains an
information chasm. A United Nations rapporteur has said at least 31 died.
In Yangon many believe, probably wrongly, that hundreds or thousands did.
Suppressing the truth lets all sorts of rumours flourish.

As in 1988, when thousands did die as an anti-government uprising was put
down, there was international outrage, followed by fresh sanctions last
autumn. A United Nations envoy, Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria, was sent to
Myanmar to convey concern, and thousands joined protest marches round the
world. But a few months on, the generals appear as immovable as ever.
Indeed, diplomats who have visited them in the remote mountain fastness of
their new capital, Naypyidaw, say they are even more confident. A squall
has been weathered, and they can return to what they do best: wrecking
their country and making a good living out of it.

Over a pricey cappuccino in Mr Brown's, a café just behind City Hall, in a
dingy first-floor lounge favoured by courting couples, a young man
discusses the protests. He took part in the previous round with a scarf
covering his face. But the time, he says, is not right to take to the
streets again. He cannot afford to. Many others say the same. He works as
a house-painter, earning about $30 a month, and lives in a Yangon suburb
with his parents, landless farmers who make about $20 a month each. During
the protests he went five days without work or pay. Like almost all his
contemporaries, his ambition is to find a job abroad. He could get one in
Singapore but would need to pay $3,000 for the privilege, an unimaginable
fortune.

Yet, quietly, low-level protests continue. In late March many monks
boycotted annual state-run examinations in Buddhist literature. Soldiers
have been, in effect, excommunicated. Monks refuse to accept alms from
them, denying them karma-enhancing “merit”. And such is the thirst for
revenge of many in Yangon that renewed protests are possible at any time.
Cloistered in Naypyidaw, the junta may be caught unawares again. “They
live in a bubble when they're out,” says one diplomat, “and a bunker when
they're not.”

Repression continues, too. Many monks are still in their villages, where
they were sent after the unrest. At a monastery in Pakokku, where the
beating of monks last September played a big part in fanning the flames of
protest, more than a third have yet to return. Some of those locked up
during the protests are still detained—perhaps 1,000, alongside 1,100
long-term political prisoners. Others are still being arrested. On March
29th six young people were detained for staging a peaceful rally against
the draft constitution the junta wants to foist on Myanmar. Another
protester, Ohn Than, who was arrested last August while staging a silent
sit-in to protest against fuel-price rises, was sentenced this month to
life imprisonment. Some protest leaders are still in hiding, planning the
next round. Others have fled to Thailand.

The official press remains laughably propagandist. (“Commander, Minister
view thriving mung, sunflower plantations” was one recent front-page story
in the New Light of Myanmar, the junta's English-language daily.) Access
to foreign news is limited. But a threat this year to ban satellite dishes
by imposing extortionate licence fees was not carried out. Perhaps the
generals feared that losing the right to watch English football—a tea-shop
passion—would have been the final straw.

Internet connections are at best patchy, and almost non-existent at times
of tension, such as during last month's visit to Yangon by Mr Gambari.
Foreign journalists are not allowed into the country, unless they pretend
to be tourists. A number do. After a purge of the intelligence services in
2004, the immigration authorities appear to have mislaid their files.

A vote the army cannot lose
Tension will mount again next month. In its one gesture to political
reform, the junta has said it will hold a referendum on the new
constitution. This week it announced the date—May 10th—and published the
draft, putting copies of the 194-page document on sale. If the vote goes
ahead, and the draft is approved by 50% of voters, the junta says
multiparty elections would follow in 2010. On “Armed Forces Day”, March
27th, Than Shwe, the senior general in the junta, promised he would then
hand over power to a civilian government. The regime is waging a
propaganda campaign to promote a “yes” vote. In big letters, as if
speaking slowly to a classroom of dim children, the New Light pointed out
that, if the draft is not approved by 2010, elections will be delayed. “If
so, it will take longer for the nation to exercise democracy.”

Not, of course, that democracy is really on offer. “Guidelines” agreed
after 14 years of aimless rumination by a committee appointed to take the
generals' dictation appeared last September. They made clear that some of
the main features of military dictatorship would persist. The army chief
would have the power to intervene in politics at will and several
ministries would be reserved for army officers, as would 25% of seats in
both houses of parliament. Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained opposition
leader, would be excluded from politics, as the widow of a foreigner. The
generals seem to have retreated, however, from a provision in an earlier
version of the draft in which any amendment of the constitution would need
75% of the votes in parliament. Instead, it would have to be approved by
50% of the popular vote.

“The issue”, says Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador in Yangon, “is not
Clause A, B or C. It's the whole superstructure of intimidation that hangs
over it.” There is no dialogue with the opposition, whose most important
members are locked up. And, under the law, criticising the convention that
drafted the constitution is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

Miss Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, has called for a
“no” vote. Exiled activists and monks advocate a boycott. Many critics of
the regime who used to think any change was better than none have changed
their minds since last September's violence. However, a resounding “yes”
vote seems inevitable. The junta surely will not repeat the mistake it
made in 1990, when it held an election and was astonished to be routed.
Miss Suu Kyi was already in detention. Yet the League won more than 60% of
the votes and 80% of the seats, even doing well in areas dominated by
soldiers.

The League fears that, before or after the referendum, it might be banned.
Already its organisation has been whittled down to little more than a head
office in Yangon. The parliament that emerges in 2010 may include a
handful of token opposition politicians. But it will probably be dominated
by soldiers, by the junta's cronies—urban businessmen and rural
landowners—and by members of a new political party the junta is planning
to form. Its nucleus would be the “Union Solidarity and Development
Association” (USDA), a pro-junta group formed in 1993. USDA is one of a
number of ill-defined “mass social organisations” that claim over 20m
members—presumably by pressganging students, civil servants and others to
join up. It is best known for a hard core of white-shirted thugs, used for
pro-junta rallies.

The parliament would also include representatives of the “ceasefire
groups”, the dozen or so ethnic insurgencies on Myanmar's borders with
which the junta has reached truces. Some groups, such as the Karen
National Union, fight on. These wars have dragged on since independence in
1948. In his book on Myanmar, “The River of Lost Footsteps”, Thant Myint-u
argues that the West tends to see the country as the seat of a thwarted
Eastern European-style people-power revolution. But it is in fact a
war-torn disaster area, like Afghanistan or Cambodia. The constitution, he
says, would at least formalise a sort of peace with some of its
insurgents.

It would be wildly optimistic to hope that creating a parliamentary system
of the sort the junta seems to envisage might, over time, bring pluralism.
But the process does at least imply some change in Myanmar's predicament.
And, as Miss Suu Kyi used to say, Myanmar is like a frozen river: it looks
still, but who knows what turbulence is roiling the waters under the ice?

Jatrophied
For most Burmese, the predicament is economic as well as political.
Freedoms have been trampled on for decades. And making a living is
actually getting harder. Last year, as in 1988, it was an economic
grievance—an increase in the fuel price as subsidies were slashed—that
sparked political unrest. It is not that the economy is on the point of
collapse. It collapsed long ago. Those eking out a living in the rubble
are still vulnerable to aftershocks.

Collapse is not immediately evident in Yangon. There are ugly shanty towns
and slums. But busy streets, a few swanky hotels and shops,
advertisement-filled business journals and some palatial mansions in the
leafy hills testify to a thin but not insignificant layer of middle-class
comfort—and a rare splash of grotesque wealth. Until the 1990s, Yangon
seemed frozen in its colonial past. Almost the only cars on its broad
avenues were ancient, patched-up sedans. Ne Win, the dictator who led the
army into power in 1962, pursued a “Burmese Road to Socialism” of autarky,
isolation and utter stagnation. After the 1988 uprising the generals
allowed a partial opening up, and a minority has prospered.

Unbidden, a taxi-driver takes a detour to drive past the high gates of a
palace he says belongs to Tay Za, the regime's most prominent business
crony. Beyond the reinforced grille half-a-dozen shiny new sports cars can
be glimpsed. “Dirty money,” snarls the driver, alleging it comes from
Myanmar's big drugs trade (mainly, these days, methamphetamines rather
than heroin). But when it tightened sanctions on Mr Za in February,
America's Treasury called him just an “arms dealer and financial henchman”
of the junta.

A confident Than Shwe on Armed Forces DayUnderpinning the wealth of the
elite is more than drugs and guns. Its biggest legal export is of natural
gas to Thailand. India and China are also hungrily eyeing other oil and
gas reserves, and already the generals can relish the prospect of a
windfall from a planned pipeline to China. The Thai sales earned an
estimated $2.7 billion last year, 45% of total exports. But this neither
trickles down nor creates many jobs. The junta spends the money on itself,
its arsenal and its absurd new capital. By contrast, a small
garment-export industry has been destroyed by Western government sanctions
and consumer boycotts, putting an estimated 100,000 people out of work.

So, beyond agriculture, there are few jobs. And in the countryside life is
ever grimmer. A survey late last year by the government and the United
Nations Development Programme found that of a population of about 53m, 30%
lived below the poverty line. Infant mortality rates were high, at 76 per
1,000 live births. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says that 32% of
children under five are malnourished. Of children enrolled in primary
school, 57% drop out.

Feeding itself should be the least of Myanmar's problems. Burma, as it was
until the junta renamed it in 1989, was once the ricebowl of Asia. Even
today, and with rice in shorter supply across the continent, it produces a
national rice surplus. Yet many of its 14 states or divisions have
deficits. In northern Rakhine food shortages are perennial and
malnutrition rife. There are also deficits in the “Central Dry Zone” and
in Shan state, where the eradication of opium-poppy fields has
impoverished farmers. Rice distribution is disrupted by pigheaded
divisional commanders clinging on to their surpluses, and by army
restrictions on internal traffic. So, in what one development worker calls
a “heresy”, the WFP is helping feed Myanmar.

Alarmingly, despite agricultural plenty, Myanmar has the classic
conditions for a famine: acute poverty, poor or non-existent flows of
information and crazy policies. In one cackhanded intervention in
agriculture, the junta in 2006 ordered every farmer with an acre (0.4
hectares) of land to plant “physic nuts” (jatropha) around the edge of his
plot. It was so keen on the crop that it also set up special plantations.
The idea was to make biofuels to meet Myanmar's energy shortage—even much
of Yangon spends most evenings in darkness. But Myanmar lacks the
refineries to turn the plants into fuel. The policy has been cited by many
refugees pitching up at the Thai border as one reason for their flight:
typically, the junta has been dragooning farmers into working for no pay
in its jatropha plantations, so it becomes even harder to make a living.

Where Myanmar boils over
Burma was a crossroads of Asia. Myanmar's isolation is a new phenomenon,
and its borders still provide a safety valve of sorts. That is especially
true of Thailand, which has absorbed perhaps as many as 2m Burmese
immigrants. Some analysts suggest that a sharp downturn in the Thai
economy, closing that valve, might cause an explosion in Myanmar.

Even if economic hardship provokes another outburst of popular unrest,
however, there is little reason to think the junta cannot handle it. It
has about 500,000 soldiers, twice the number in 1988, despite the
subsequent ceasefires in many of the insurgencies it was fighting. And the
army has so far proved willing to shoot civilians—even monks—if ordered
to.

Before the purge in 2004 of Khin Nyunt, the intelligence chief who was
then prime minister, it was possible to perceive policy rifts in the
junta's ranks. Some seemed to favour a cautious opening to the West, even
if it meant talking to Miss Suu Kyi. Some analysts believe the junta is
still divided: over the succession to Than Shwe, said to be ill, though he
looked hale in March; over the alleged rivalry with his number two, Maung
Aye; and over the transition to “civilian rule”. This seems plausible. But
to hope for a mutiny, or self-destruction by the army, is wishful
thinking. Its generals are probably too afraid of hanging separately not
to hang together.

Some of the students who fled to the Thai border in 1988 expected to
return, like Aung San, Miss Suu Kyi's father and Burma's liberation hero,
as part of a conquering foreign army. One theory to explain the junta's
bizarre move to Naypyidaw in 2005 is that, after the war in Iraq, it too
feared invasion.

Now, veterans of the exile movement have almost given up hope of concerted
diplomatic pressure, let alone military action, against the regime. People
power, says one, is the only hope. At present that suggests only failure
and bloodshed. And the outside world is certainly in disarray. The West
favours sanctions and punishment; but Myanmar's fellow members of the
Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as India and,
above all, China, hope their continued engagement with the junta will win
them influence. China did indeed seem to persuade the generals to receive
Mr Gambari and institute a dialogue with Miss Suu Kyi.

Than Shwe, however, would not even meet Mr Gambari on his most recent
visit, last month. The West, meanwhile, has few levers of influence left.
In part this is a result of having followed Miss Suu Kyi's own wishes. In
the late 1990s, when the conditions of her detention were briefly eased
and she could talk to the world, she favoured using sanctions and
boycotts, including even of tourism, to put pressure on the junta. It is
assumed she still does.

The Nobel peace-prize-winner's undoubted moral authority and courageous
perseverance give her stance considerable weight. So does her huge
electoral mandate. It may be old, but no one has a better one. Some
Western policymakers now see Miss Suu Kyi as part of the problem. But that
is daft. Without her, the opposition would lose not just a figurehead, but
perhaps the last flicker of hope in Myanmar's political darkness.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

April 10, Reuters
Fifty-four Myanmar migrants suffocate in container – Vithoon Amorn

Fifty-four illegal Myanmar migrants, most of them women, suffocated as
they were smuggled into Thailand in a cramped seafood container, police
said on Thursday.

Another 67 were rescued from the 20-ft container truck, with over 20 being
treated in hospital, a police officer in the western coastal Thai province
of Ranong told Reuters.

"They were kept inside the sealed truck for hours without air because the
air-conditioning system failed. Many of them pounded the sides of the
truck for help," Sergeant Phuvanai Wattanasamai said.

Police were hunting for the driver who abandoned the truck on a road near
the Andaman Sea coastline, let the survivors out and fled the scene late
on Wednesday night.

One survivor said the driver told them the container's air conditioning
system was broken.

"It was very crowded inside with standing room only," the 40-year-old
migrant told reporters at a Ranong hospital.

"It was hot when the truck started moving, so we asked the driver to turn
the air-conditioner on, but he said it was broken.

"The heat made me pass out and the next thing I knew I was in hospital,"
he said.

More than one million people from neighboring army-ruled Myanmar are
estimated to work in Thailand, most of them illegally in factories,
restaurants, at petrol pumps, and as domestic helpers or crew on fishing
trawlers.

They are usually hidden under goods such as vegetable or fruit in small or
big overloaded trucks, leading to tragic road accidents.

Last year a pickup truck with 40 passengers crashed near the northern Thai
border, killing 11 Myanmar workers.

Ranong Police Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai told Reuters the illegal
migrants were jammed in the locked container for at least two hours before
the driver stopped the truck to let them out.

The truck appeared to be heading for resort towns in the southern
provinces of Phang-nga and Phuket, police said.

"We believe this must be part of a smuggling racket which has to be
tracked down. The large number of illegals represents a very brazen act,"
he said.

Thirty-seven of the dead were women. Forty-six survivors were detained for
illegal entry and would be deported, police said.

Sompong Sakaew, President of the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN),
called on Thailand to show compassion for the survivors by allowing them
to work in the country.

"They should be treated as victims of a tragedy and viewed as hard-pressed
people risking their lives for a better future. The Thai government should
acknowledge their plight and provide them the welfare that they deserve,"
he said.

"Ignoring welfare protection for these illegal immigrants will not help
Thailand's image in the eyes of the world".

(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Nopporn Wong-Anan;
Editing by Darren Schuettler and Jerry Norton)

____________________________________

April 10, Reuters
Myanmar migrant recalls container horror – Nopporn Wong-Anan Suksamran

It was meant to be a short trip across the border for a job and better
life in Thailand.  Instead, Win feels lucky to be alive after escaping the
hot, cramped container truck where 54 other Myanmar migrant workers
suffocated on Wednesday night.

"If I had known I would have ended up like this, I would not have come
back," said the 30-year-old who survived by peeling a rubber seal off a
container door to let air inside after the refrigeration system broke
down.

 "If I had not peeled off the rubber seal, more people would have died,"
he told Reuters from a police cell where 63 survivors waited to appear in
court on Friday for illegal entry.

Win, who was returning to a construction job on the southern resort island
of Phuket after seeing his family in Myanmar, said the 120 migrants stood
"shoulder to shoulder" in the 2.5 metre by a 20-foot (6 metres) freezer
container for several hours.

After the 10-wheeled truck left the Thai border town of Ranong at 8 p.m.
on Wednesday, the workers used mobile phones to talk to the driver, asking
him to adjust the air conditioning.

Forty five minutes later, the refrigeration unit broke down. Then they
lost the mobile phone signal as the truck drove through narrow hills and
into valleys.

"If there had been air-con, people would not have died," he said of the
victims, which included a nine-year-old girl.

Police said 37 of the dead were women.

"From 8:45 p.m., people started passing out. All of us who were still
conscious banged on the driver's cabin very hard to get him to stop, but
he didn't," said Win, who has a 15-month-old daughter in Myanmar.

When the driver stopped the truck at around 10 p.m., the survivors managed
to kick open the back door and run for help.

"We saw a brightly-lit house and ran toward it, shouting "help, help!,"
Win said.

Police were still searching for driver who fled the scene.

More than one million people from neighbouring army-ruled Myanmar are
estimated to work in Thailand, most of them illegally in factories,
restaurants, at petrol pumps, and as domestic helpers or crew on fishing
trawlers.

They are usually hidden under goods such as vegetable or fruit in small or
big overloaded trucks, leading to tragic road accidents.

Win said he paid a broker 5,000 baht (81 pounds) to take him from the
Myanmar border town of Kawthaung to Phuket, a 400 km journey.

Win said he crossed at the Thai border town of Ranong using a pass which
allows locals from both countries to visit for one week, but they must
stay within a 15-km radius.

Win said his life as a welder at construction sites in Phuket was better
than many other migrant workers.

He earned at least 250 baht a day, twice what he could make in Myanmar's
crumbling economy after 46 years of military rule, and saved 50,000 baht
from working in Phuket.

"With a wife and a child, we would not have enough to eat if I worked at
home," said Win, who now faces deportation with the rest of the truck
survivors.

(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Bill Tarrant)

____________________________________

April 10, Shan Herald Agency for News
No way for voters in Tachilek to "express his wish secretly" –
Hawkeye/Lieng Lern

On 6 April, officials providing referendum training people in Kengtung,
Mongyawng, Mongphyak and Tachilek, taught them only to tick in favor of
the junta-drafted charter, according to local sources.

Officials from District Peace and Development Council (DPDC) and Township
Peace and Development Council (TPDC) explained the draft constitution and
how to vote at the city hall in Tachilek on the Thai-Burma border.  The
time for voting the draft constitutional referendum would be between 8:00
to 16:00.

There were about 200 headmen from different village tracts and villages
who attended this workshop.

According to the workshop, each polling booth team of ten will be led by a
headman, with the rest divided into 3 sub-teams of 3 each, one to check ID
cards and issue ballots; another to oversee the voters marking their
ballots and the last for security.

After the polling booth is closed, local authorities will count the
ballots in front of the public without letting the public to stay near
them. “That is not transparency," said the source.

The headmen from every township in eastern of Shan State were also
selected to attend trainings at Naypyidaw, the new capital of Burma.

"People who went to attend workshops at Naypyidaw were each paid Kyat10,
000 ($8) by the junta and given a car with a driver for use during their
free time," said a participant returning from Naypyidaw workshop.

"During the training some headmen made phone calls to their assistants
back home and instructed them to train the villagers only to tick. They
said putting symbols other than the tick would only make the military
remain in their power," he added.

In other townships like Muse and Namkham, there will be one polling booth
to accommodate 1,000 voters. But in Tachilek township, there will be one
polling booth for every 3,000 voters, according to sources.

In Kengtung, authorities had already provided 3 training workshops in March.

According to the Referendum Law, announced on 26 February, "a person
eligible to vote shall obtain the ballot paper from Polling Booth Officer
or person assigned by Polling Booth Officer, express his wish secretly at
the stipulated place in the polling booth and put it into the ballot box."

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

April 10, Bangkok Post
Malfeasance charges filed against Thaksin

Malfeasance charges lodged by Assets Scrutiny Committee against former
prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra involving a Bt4 billion (about US$127
million) bank loan for Burma were submitted to the Office of the Attorney
General Thursday.

The spokesman for the Office of Attorney General, Thanapit Mulpreuk, said
the agency would handle the 1,300-page case in a less time-consuming
fashion because Mr Thaksin is the only defendant of the case, in which he
has been alleged to have damaged state interests and abusing his powers
only to streamline the Export-Import Bank of Thailand's loan for Burma to
buy telecom merchandise from his Shin Satellite Company.

The Attorney General's spokesman did not say how soon his agency would get
through the deliberation process over the malfeasance charges against Mr
Thaksin so that it may be forwarded to the court,

However, the Assets Scrutiny Committee might act on its own by directly
filing a lawsuit in court, should the Office of Attorney General decide to
drop it, he said. (TNA)

____________________________________
ASEAN

April 10, Agence-France Press
US envoy to ASEAN vows to push for reforms in Myanmar

The prospective first US envoy to the ASEAN said Wednesday that his key
priority was prodding the Southeast Asian group to press Myanmar's
military junta to embrace democratic reforms.

Scot Marciel, ambassador designate for Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) affairs, said at his confirmation hearing in the Senate
that he planned to "travel extensively throughout the region" to improve
ties.

"One of my highest priorities, if confirmed, will be to work with ASEAN
and its member nations ... to convince Burma's rulers to end their brutal
repression and begin a genuine dialogue leading to a democratic
transition," he said. Burma is Myanmar's previous name.

Myanmar faces mounting pressure for democratic reform after its crackdown
on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks last September triggered
widespread international outrage and tighter Western sanctions.

The United Nations says at least 31 people were killed during the
suppression, and 74 remain missing.

"The problem of Burma represents one of ASEAN's biggest challenges, but
also an opportunity," said Marciel, who will continue to hold his current
post as deputy assistant secretary of state on confirmation as US envoy to
ASEAN.

He said that if the United States and ASEAN as well as others in the
international community reversed Myanmar's "dangerous downward spiral," it
would be of "enormous benefit" to the people in that country and the
entire region.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Marciel said that his new position was created in recognition of the
growing importance of ASEAN as an institution and belief that the United
States should increase its engagement and cooperation with the region.

ASEAN nations have a combined population of nearly 600 million, and
together constitute the fourth largest export market for the United
States.

ASEAN members include two US treaty allies -- the Philippines and Thailand
-- and the world's third-largest democracy and the most populous Muslim
nation, Indonesia.

Marciel also urged ASEAN to provide the necessary clout to a human rights
mechanism it had decided to set up as part of its charter.

"As the structure and functions of that body take shape, we will urge
ASEAN to give it the means to promote and protect fundamental human rights
throughout the region," he said.

Marciel said nearly half of his two decade stint in the foreign service
had been devoted to working in or on the ASEAN region, including
assignments in the Philippines and Vietnam.


____________________________________
REGIONAL

April 10, Democratic Voice of Burma
Malaysia continues crackdown on Burmese migrants

Malaysian authorities have raided the offices of exiled Burmese
organisations and arrested activists, including those with official
papers, in their ongoing crackdown on Burmese migrants.

U Kyaw Kyaw, chairman of the Malaysia branch of the National League for
Democracy (Liberated Area), said ethnic organisations were among those
targeted.

"They are now arresting everyone regardless of whether they are holding
legal documents or not. Burmese exile organisations’ offices are getting
raided as well," U Kyaw Kyaw said.

"A lot of ethnic organisations including Zomi, Kachin and Chin groups have
had their offices raided and their property seized. A number of activists
in those offices were also arrested."

U Kyaw Kyaw said authorities were holding some migrants until their
employers came to collect them.

"They are also arresting passport holders and they only let them go when
their work agents or employers come and collect them at police stations
where they are being detained,” he said.

“If no one comes to collect them, then they are not freed."

DVB reported on Tuesday that the Malaysian authorities had stepped up
action against Burmese migrants, forcing many to go into hiding in jungle
areas.

Migrants were being rounded up by groups of volunteers and handed over to
immigration officials in return for a reward of 80 ringgit [US $25] each.


____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 10, Salon
Torching the Olympics – Katharine Mieszkowski

Under the bright noon sun, Nyunt Than, 46, gathered with 100 Burma
supporters along the San Francisco Bay waterfront, and waited anxiously
for a designated runner carrying the Olympic torch to pass before them.
San Francisco is the only U.S. stop in on the torch's world tour in 2008.

Festooned in maroon robes, in honor of the Buddhist monks silenced in
Burma, the excited and angry activists wore yellow banners pinned to their
robes that read "China's policy = Burma's misery," and chanted, "Boycott
the Olympics" and "Free, free, free Burma." "China sells billions of
dollars of arms to Burma, while people struggle to live even hand to mouth
daily," Than said. Protesting in front of the Olympic flame was his chance
to bring Burma's plight to the televised world.

Wearing a robe around his neck like a cape, the charismatic Than caucused
with the pro-Burma leaders, plotting how to evade the cops lining the
route in front of them when the torch passed. At 1:30 p.m., after the time
the torch was scheduled to leave AT&T Park, protesters surged into the
street, past the police barricades, marching and chanting, euphoric that
they'd evaded the cops, and blocked the torch's route.

Than leapt to the head of the pack, brandishing a toilet plunger, encased
in aluminum foil -- a mock torch -- as he pranced with his knees held
high, like a cartoon of a runner carrying a torch down the street, with
the "Free Burma" throng surging behind him. Quickly, the march dissolved
into a teeming mass of flags and signs, with no one going in any
particular direction. Soon, the text-messaged word on the street was that
the city had changed the route, that the torch and the runners had been
put in a bus and driven across town. Thousands of protestors were
frustrated and confused, as were the once ebullient China supporters and
Olympic fans alike. They came to see the torch; instead they got burned by
the Olympics and the city of San Francisco.

"We felt it was in everyone's best interest that we augment the route,"
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I
believe people were afforded the right to protest and support the torch.
You saw that in the streets. They were not denied the ability to protest."

Hours before the torch was scheduled to appear, activists had lined the
publicized route. Outside of San Francisco's historic Ferry Building, one
banner proclaimed: "San Francisco Supports Tibet, Reject China's
Propaganda Torch!" Huge Chinese flags furled above a pageantry of tai chi
and dragon dance performances. "Another Organic Chef for a Free Tibet"
read one protester's sign. San Francisco's Chinese-Americans make up a
fifth of the city's population, and they turned out in force, but rumor
had it their numbers were bolstered by Chinese-Americans bused in from
other parts of the state, such as Sacramento, by the Chinese consulate. A
trio of naked men, one wearing only a cock ring, mingled with a mother in
sunglasses with a 11-month-old in a stroller all in the support of the
same political cause: Tibet.

Than, a green-card-holding computer scientist, who lives in the San
Francisco Bay Area town of Albany, with his wife and three children, ages
4, 9 and 12, can smile at San Francisco's famously jocund side of
activism. But to him, the China protests are serious. A native of Burma --
ruled by a military dictatorship that buys arms from China -- Than
explained that he was a student during the 1988 protests in Burma when
hundreds of thousands of civilians rallied for democracy, and thousands of
students and Buddhist monks were killed. Than fled the country in 1992
after completing his education in math and computer science. To escape, he
had to lie to government officials about his education to get a passport.
"If you are a graduate, you are valuable to the country, and you will be
shielding the dictatorship," said Than, who still has family back in
Burma.

Now, Than is president of the Burmese American Democratic Alliance. He
said he would face arrest, torture and imprisonment by the military
dictatorship, if he tried to return to his country. His beef with China is
the country's ongoing support for the repressive Burmese regime.

"People in Burma have lived under military dictatorship for 46 years, and
the dictatorship is getting stronger and thriving because of Chinese
support," he said. While the United States has economic sanctions against
Burma, also known as Myanmar, China gives the country economic, military
and diplomatic support. "While people have nothing to eat, and much of the
country is in darkness, the gas is going to the neighboring countries,
bringing millions of dollars to purchase arms from China," said Than.

At the Ferry Building, small groups formed to chant against the pro-China
demonstrators: "China, China, hear our cry, no more people have to die"
and "Shame! Shame! China! Shame!" Among the pro-China demonostrators was
Wei Zhou, 33, a Chinese biologist, currently living in Menlo Park, Calif.,
carrying an American flag and a Chinese flag. She thought that the
protesters shouldn't politicize the Olympics: "It's not China's games.
It's the world's games," she said, adding, "The Burmese people have to
solve their own problems."

Zhou said she was initially suspicious of the money that China had to
spend to put on the games, but when she heard her family back in China
supported the Olympics, she became a fan, too. "At least it brings a lot
of issues to the surface that the government has to pay attention to, like
the environment," she said.

As the afternoon wore on, the game among the crowd was: Where's the torch?
Where should the protesters go next? No one knew exactly where it was, but
they did know that the throngs of people who had turned out to see the
torch, protest it, and celebrate it were all missing the show. What if you
ran a torch and there was no one there to watch it burn? "It kind of
defeats the purpose," said Allyn Brooks-LaSure, spokesperson for Save
Darfur, which had more than a thousand demonstrators on the streets. "Why
do it if you've got to hide in a suitcase disguised as some granny's
luggage?"

Around 2:30, the pro-Burma group amassed downtown, taking over an
intersection with their signs, bodies and megaphones, debating their next
move. "It's like trying to catch a wind," reflected Than. "It's supposed
to come here, but we're not counting on it." He was dismayed by San
Francisco's attempts to restrict his right to speak out against China
hosting the Olympics.

As he explained, his group, the Burmese American Democratic Alliance, had
planned to fly a prop plane over the torch run trailing a banner that said
"Free Burma," but the Federal Aviation Administration imposed airspace
restrictions forbidding commercial flights over the route for the duration
of the event. San Francisco initially planned to limit protests to
oxymoronically named "Free Speech Zones," but facing criticism relented to
allow protesters to appear along the torch route, as well as in the zones.
Then the city simply changed the torch route. "The city is behaving like a
police state rather than a free speech friendly one," Than said.

Finally, the Burmese group decided to go to Justin Herman Plaza, where the
torch had been scheduled to end up, and a massive TV screen to broadcast
its arrival still stood. Crowding into the space with tens of thousands of
other protesters and demonstrators and fans, the pro-Burma group never got
to see the torch. On the giant screen, they saw only some heroic images of
Olympics past, and the regrettable performance of a cheesy cover band,
wearing goofy outfits and wigs, singing "Ice Ice Baby."

Waiting in vain for the torch, Than was disgusted with Mayor Newsom. As
Than spoke, the sheepish torch was making its way out of San Francisco
toward the airport, where a closing ceremony would send it on to Buenos
Aires, Argentina. "The mayor is running the torch without dignity, because
he is not telling the people where the torch is going," he said. "If
you're not going to let the people see the torch, what is the point of
running it?" He saw it as a failure for China. "China's purpose is to
celebrate in front of the world. They lost that purpose today."

____________________________________

April 10, ABC7News
Monks march through Golden Gate – Alan Wang

A more conventional protest group conducted a peace march across the
Golden Gate Bridge Wednesday. They blame China for propping up the
military regime of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

"Long live Aung San Suu Kyi , long live Aung San Suu Kyi ," the crowd
chanted.
About 500 people marched on the Golden Gate Bridge, shouting the praises
of Nobel Peace Prize Laurette, Aung San Suu Kyi , who is under house
arrest, put there by Burma's military regime.

"Military regime took over the power September 1988, then we escaped from
Burma to cross the border and formed all Burma Student Democratic Front,"
said Koko Lay, an exiled Burmese student.

"We'll fight for democracy," said a marcher. Rather than try and follow
the unpredictable path of the Olympic torch, the Burmese contingent,
waving maroon flags, headed for the Embarcadero.


>From the Golden Gate Bridge, the Free Burma protesters mixed in with a

mass of other flag waving protestors, including pro-China demonstrators.

Many of them complained that few reporters were covering their
perspective, and they say the overall media coverage has been biased.

"This information I can guarantee is not true here. If you want to know
the truth you should go to China," said Yong Qun Qu, a China supporter.

The Burmese protestors got scattered amongst the different demonstrators,
but they later regrouped.

"Free, Free, Free Burma! Free, Free, Free Burma!" shouted the crowd.

And in the turmoil of shouting, clanging, and swirling crowds they believe
Wednesday's effort was a success.

"Finally it all comes down to the fact that China needs to act more
responsibly. If that is the message that everybody is going to hear
regardless of what these colored flags are. The message in the madness.
The message in the madness, but there is a method to this madness," said
Kenneth Wong, a Free Burma supporter.

____________________________________

April 10, Irrawaddy
Security Council presidential statement on Burma ‘not easy’ – Lalit K Jha

The French Ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said
Wednesday that France, Britain and the US would continue to work toward
achieving a Security Council presidential statement on Burma, despite
objections by the other two permanent members, Russia and China.

“We are working on it. [But] it is not easy,” Ripert told reporters
outside the UN headquarters in New York. “There are some differences of
views among member states in the Security Council.”

The US, France and Britain earlier this week circulated a draft of the
proposed Security Council presidential statement on Burma calling for a
transition from military to democratic rule and urging the military junta
to make its upcoming referendum on the draft constitution participative
and inclusive.

China and Russia, the two other permanent members with Security Council
veto powers, have opposed these two sections of the draft presidential
statement. During its only meeting on the issue, officials of China and
Russia are believed to have rejected the draft outrightly, prompting the
French ambassador to comment.

“We still—France with a lot of other colleagues—think that we need to send
a signal to the Burmese authorities that we have noticed a commitment and
their declarations in principle favouring free and fair elections, a
referendum and a stepping down of the military that would give the power
back to civilian institutions,” said Ripert.

“We want to trust [the Burmese junta],” he added. “We want to take them by
their words. We would like to send a signal by saying: OK, there are
conditions which should be fulfilled so that the result of this process
and of the elections can be validated by the international community.”

Observing that this was a very useful dialogue between the international
community and the Burmese authorities, Ripert said this was exactly what
they were requesting: less pressure and more dialogue.

“We want to engage this dialogue. We think that a new [presidential
statement] could be part of this dialogue,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Security Council president for April, the South African
ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, refused to give a timeframe when the
presidential statement could be ready.

Shielding behind the high technicalities and bureaucratic structure of the
Security Council, Kumalo said the draft has not been tabled yet. Under the
UN Security Council a draft is first discussed at an unofficial level and
is tabled only when all members agree on it. While the expert committee
level discussions on presidential statements very often takes days, the
official transaction of business often takes a few minutes; as everything
is discussed and agreed upon before it is officially tabled.

“I do not know; they have not circulated the statement on Myanmar [Burma]
yet. I understand that it is the US which is still consulting on it, but
they have not circulated it yet,” Kumalo said.

Meanwhile, US President George W Bush on Wednesday expressed his deep
disappointment over the progress made by the military junta towards
restoration of democracy in Burma.

“I am disappointed with the progress made to date there,” Bush told
reporters at a joint press conference with visiting Singaporean Senior
Minister Goh Chok Tong at the White House.

The statement came within hours of the Burmese military junta announcing
that the referendum on the draft constitution would be held on May 10.
Bush, however, made no direct reference to this announcement.

Both leaders discussed the current situation in Burma and the way forward
during their meeting. “We spent time on Burma and the need for the
military regime there to understand that they shouldn't fear the voices of
the people,” said the US president.

Bush urged the military leadership to open up and respond to the will of
the people.

Goh Chok Tong told President Bush that the military junta, though a
problem in itself, needs to be taken into account on any solution for this
troublesome country.

“I told the President that while the army is the problem, the army has to
be part of the solution,” Goh said. “Without the army playing a part in
solving problems in Myanmar [Burma], there will be no solution,”

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 10, The Nation (Thailand)
Deaths of Burmese brings shame on us

Let's play a game. We should all stand in a circle, as in a game of
musical chairs, raise our arms, and point to the next person. But there
will be enough chairs for everyone. And the music will never end. It is
called the Thai blame game.  The deaths of 54 Burmese migrant workers,
most of them women, who suffocated in a container on a truck has once
again placed Thailand in an unwanted spotlight.

The victims, along with 47 survivors, were crammed tightly into a 2.2
metre by 6 metre container. They were about two hours into their trip late
on Wednesday from Ranong province near Burma to Phuket when some of them
succumbed. Of the dead, 37 were women and 17 were men.

The senior investigating police officer blamed the truck driver for
failing to turn on the air conditioning in the back of the truck, which
normally was used to transport seafood. Perhaps the driver was concerned
about the current energy conservation thing; perhaps he didn't even think
that Burmese people can feel pain and discomfort.

Tragic incidents involving Burmese workers in Thailand are nothing new.
Some reach international attention, but none seems to matter to the people
and government of Thailand as long as we have an ample supply of cheap
labour to build our high-rises, peel our shrimps or mop up our floors.

This tragedy is about much more than a broken air-conditioner. For too
long, we have turned a blind eye to human trafficking. One of the reasons
is because everybody gets their cut - from the border officials and the
traffickers to the employers and the consumers.

Burmese workers, like Cambodians and Laotians, take up jobs that are
shunned by most Thais, mainly because Thai employers hate to pay more than
the legal minimum wage. The London-based human rights group Amnesty
International found in a 2005 report that workers from Burma who take jobs
that Thais consider too dirty, dangerous or demeaning, "are routinely paid
well below the Thai minimum wage, work long hours in unhealthy conditions
and are at risk of arbitrary arrest and deportation."

We hire these workers because they are not demanding. We don't want to
hear their sad stories - how much they had to pay the police, border
officials and traffickers so they could work in Thailand.

We just don't want to hear whatever grievances they have back home - how
oppressive the Burmese military government is; the lack of social mobility
in Laos and Cambodia, and so on.

Our lack of appreciation towards foreign workers has moral, social and
ethnical consequences. This is much more than an issue of fairness. How we
treat others says something about us as a country, as a society. And after
the tragic death of the 54 Burmese, can we really look at ourselves in the
mirror and not feel any guilt?

Let's hope this tragedy is a wake up call for the Thai government. We need
to think outside the box. Because we are unable to properly address the
problem of trafficking, perhaps we should permit the labour market to let
the law of supply and demand determine how many foreign workers are
permitted to enter the country and their salaries. It may be chaotic at
first, but eventually the labour market will find its equilibrium.

At the least, this would put an end to the corrupt practices of the
authorities. No one would have to hide in containers or under bundles of
produce. Corrupt officials would no longer benefit from smuggling and the
government could tax foreign workers the same way it taxes all of us.

____________________________________

April 10, Wall Street Journal
Burmese squeeze – Tarun Khanna

Orange-robed, serene Buddhist monks recently engaged in the unserene
business of unseating the junta in Burma. And the stoic Aung Sang Suu Kyi
is engaged in an awkward, and very public, pirouette with the generals.
But a quieter battle has been underway for two decades in Burma, entirely
undramatic, but profoundly consequential. Its quiet nature should not
obscure the fact that it is a slugfest. In one corner, China. In the
other, India. Sino-Indian competition for influence in the common
hinterland of the two countries is heating up, and will get a lot hotter.

The influence is being leveraged for economic reasons -- to sell
cellphones, two-wheelers and sundry merchandise, and to source energy and
natural resources -- and for geopolitical reasons, for China to secure a
route for energy that is an alternative to the vulnerable Malacca straits.
Burma is now heavily dependent on China and India. In 2006, almost a fifth
of its exports and 40% of its imports were to or from these two countries,
each of these numbers rising from 3% a couple of decades ago.

For a long time, it might have seemed obvious that India would take the
lead in competition for Burmese "hearts and minds" -- and energy
contracts. The historical and cultural ties between the two countries are
long and deep. Burmese schoolchildren are taught that their country
started when an Indian prince established a kingdom at Taguang, north of
Mandalay, several thousand years ago. Much later, the British exiled
Burmese King Thibaw to India and the last Mughal Emperor of India, Bahadur
Shah Zafar, to Burma. And cosmopolitan Rangoon -- more immigrant than
immigrant New York of the time -- had a population that was more than half
Indian in the time of the British empire. Strong Indo-Burmese ties, thanks
to warm personal relations between leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and U Nu,
survived the demise of the British empire.

But more recent events have given China a chance to wedge its way into
Burmese officials' affections, and Beijing has seized the opportunity.
While India actively supported the 1988 pro-democracy movement, China
thumbed its nose at world opinion, cozying up to the generals in return
for timber, raw materials and sea lane access. China runs interference for
the generals in international forums, and Burma has been a recipient of
Beijing's arms largesse, in a "middle rung" of recipient countries,
primarily behind Pakistan and Iran.

The result of all this within Burma is clearly visible in Mandalay, a
major city that lies almost exactly between China and India on the map. In
short, there is no residual Indian influence in Mandalay. More than a
fifth of the population is Chinese. Mandarin pop tunes can be heard on the
street. The more austere India-inspired Buddhist pagodas have given way to
gaudier Chinese ones. Indian merchants, once the lifeblood of the Burmese
economy, have long vanished.

Nor is this purely a phenomenon in urban, if that is the word, Burma.
Jaspal Kaur Singh, a third-generation Burmese of Indian origin, now a
professor in the United States, remembers a large number of Indian Sikh
temples, or gurudwaras, in remote northern Taunggyi during her childhood.
Over the last two decades, northern Burma has been Yunnanized, Yunnan
being the southwestern Chinese province bordering Burma. Illegal
immigration from China has been widespread since the late 1990s, following
an earlier opening to tourism of the Old Burma Road connecting Burma and
China, and the later expansion of drug trafficking and arms shipments. A
million-odd Chinese have crossed into Burma. Lashio, a Burmese city on the
Old Burma road, now has a population more than half Chinese.

It would be shortsighted to view such changes as inevitable, or
necessarily permanent. After all, a dominant Indian presence was summarily
reversed some decades ago. Relations with the government could change
especially easily if and when the junta falls. But neither China nor India
is laying the groundwork for a positive relationship with a post-junta
democratic regime.

China's longstanding support for the junta would be an obvious hurdle to
friendly ties with a democratic government. But India is not being
proactive either. New Delhi's response to its fading influence has been to
throw its support of Burmese democracy to the winds, and to try to match
China in embracing the generals. Alas, that is a losing battle. India is
congenitally incapable of deploying hard power. Too many competing power
centers in the government and bureaucracy work at cross-purposes to each
other, checking and balancing each other into paralysis. Compared to a
top-down approach from the relatively monolithic one-party Chinese state,
there is no contest.

India's true strength lies in projecting soft power. Unstinting support of
democracy, for example, is far likelier to work in the longer run as the
junta runs out of steam. India should not squander an opportunity to lay
useful groundwork in this regard. Even other tools of soft power will
likely work better. Bollywood, for example, has a large following in
Burma, and the over hundred thousand Burmese refugees in India will likely
embrace India over China. Trying to play China's game against China is
folly, not to mention unprincipled. It will no more work than if China
tries to project only soft power against India's tactics.

There are other theaters where a version of this Sino-Indian movie is
playing out. As China and India compete, for example, for Iran's
affections, will the West's posture remain effective? Is the competitive
amorality of the sort in Burma inevitable? It is not, if India reaffirms
its principles. And a principled approach by India might even help Burma's
monks. Burma is a movie trailer for what the 21st century will be like
when it is rejiggered by Chinese and Indian power. That is because Burma
is the first place where China and India are the primary actors, and where
their different styles collide.

Mr. Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School
and author of "Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are
Reshaping Their Futures and Yours" (Harvard Business School Press, 2008).

____________________________________

April 10, Mountain Mail Newspaper
For the Olympics, don't forget Burma – Caitlin Katsiaficas

With the Beijing Olympics quickly approaching, many people have expressed
concern about the human rights record in China.

The media has drawn attention to the long list of abuses in the country
such as the crackdown on dissidents including Shi Tao who was arrested for
e-mailing in support of democracy. Most people are aware of China's
morally questionable role in Darfur. Yet Chinese involvement with the
oppressive military regime of Burma has largely been swept under the rug.

Last fall, Burma experienced the largest public protests since the
pro-democratic uprising in 1988. As in 1988, peaceful demonstrations were
met with brutal force by the military. Led by monks, thousands of Burmese
risked their safety to protest rising fuel costs and continuing despotic
rule.

The military responded with rubber bullets, tear gas and live ammunition.
Hundreds were beaten and arrested and several were killed.

Amnesty International reported as of late January, 700 prisoners arrested
because of the protests were still imprisoned. An additional 1,150
political prisoners are also thought to be detained. The regime in Burma
is not only stifling dissent, but is murdering its own citizens.

After protests became a headline story on CNN, international pressure on
the junta increased. Many people hoped long-awaited reforms would finally
take place.

Unfortunately, such reforms have not happened. Talks between the military
junta and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house
arrest, have gone nowhere, sometimes halting altogether. Although Burma's
government went ahead with its constitutional convention, it has been
widely denounced as further cementing military rule.

U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Giambari left Burma in March after another
unsuccessful attempt to encourage the regime to engage in real democratic
reform. But just days before Giambari's visit, Burmese troops attacked two
ethnic minority villages in Eastern Burma. More than 3,200 such villages
have been destroyed since 1996, displacing at least 1.5 million civilians.

Giambari was once again unable to see the leader of the military
government, Than Shwe, meeting instead with the information minister.
Parties at the meeting were inconsequential anyway, because all of
Giambaris recommendations were rejected.

These results aren't unique. In the past 15 years, U.N. envoys have
visited Burma 35 times. It is painfully apparent the words of U.N. envoys
alone do not have the power to end the crisis.

But who has the ability to make a difference in Burma? China. As Burma's
closest ally, China enjoys significant influence. It's one of the
country's largest investors, its largest supplier of arms and the source
of billions of dollars from trade, aid and investment.

Yet despite China's close cooperation with Burma's junta, the human rights
issue hasn't come up among the international community's human rights
concerns in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics. This is ironic
considering the games begin Aug. 8, the 20th anniversary of the 1988
pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma that resulted in a military
crackdown and massacre which killed as many as 10,000 civilians.

China, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, can promote or
prevent meaningful U.N. action on Burma. However, China has instead been
using its influence to block adoption of an arms embargo for which Burmese
monks, Amnesty International, the U.S. Campaign for Burma and others have
called.

China told the Olympic Committee hosting the Olympics would help improve
its human rights record. If China is really committed to respecting human
dignity, the country must support an arms embargo against the junta in
Burma. It's time that Burma is put on the agenda for a Beijing Olympics
that promotes freedom from persecution.

Gaitlin Kaisiaficas is a member of Amnesty International and the U.S.
Campaign for Burma. Column distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.